Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 241
June 18, 2015
My daughter’s new book: Teaching kids about church
Do you have little kids who squirm and whine and have no idea what is going on in church? Then you need the new book by my daughter, Deaconness Mary Moerbe, entitled Whisper, Whisper: Learning About Church. It’s a children’s book, with wonderful illustrations by Martha Aviles and a charming rhyming text. But it also [Read More...]
The Kingdom of God is like a seed
With all of the stories about the alleged decline of Christianity, it was encouraging to hear our pastor, preaching on Mark 4:26-34, remind us about how the Kingdom of God grows. From Rev. James Douthwaite, St. Athanasius Lutheran Church: Pentecost 3 Sermon: I don’t think it a stretch to say that every one of us [Read More...]
Paying for sex makes it not adultery?
A Japanese court, ruling against a wronged wife, has ruled that if a husband pays for sex with a woman he is not married to, that is a business transaction and so cannot be considered adultery. From Extramarital sex involving payment not adultery, Tokyo court says – UPI.com: Sexual relationships that involve the exchange of [Read More...]
The Cardinals’ hacking scandal
The St. Louis Cardinals are being accused of hacking into the Houston Astro’s data system. Some are saying that, if true, this has the makings of one of the biggest scandals in baseball history, with the Cardinals facing huge penalties, people getting banned from baseball, and individuals going to jail. Jeff Luhnow was an important [Read More...]
June 17, 2015
Reviews of “Where Christ Is Present”
More shameless promotion of the new book I edited with John Warwick Montgomery, Where Christ Is Present. (I am uncomfortable with promoting myself and my work, and you have to admit I don’t do it very often. But I really like the essays in our collection and want people to read them. Tell you what. [Read More...]
Recovering Friendship
The decline in the size of families–from 3.5 to 2 children in 50 years–has also meant fewer cousins, fewer children in neighborhoods, and fewer relationships in general. That means, according to Ted C. Fishman, that we need to recover friendships, which are also in decline, even though having friends is important on all kinds of [Read More...]
Airport insecurity
In a recent test of airport security measures, 70 attempts were made to smuggle weapons and explosives past TSA checkpoints. 67 got through, a failure rate of 96%. Apparently, the details from the classified report are worse than that. Freshman Senator Ben Sasse (R-Neb)–the only politician I know personally–is taking up the cause. He wrote [Read More...]
Now Donald Trump is running for president
Now Donald Trump has announced that he too is running for the Republican presidential nomination. That makes 12 candidates so far. Question: Would any of you vote for him over the other contenders? If so, I’d like to hear from you. UPDATE: He has announced who he wants for his Vice Presidential running mate: Oprah [Read More...]
June 16, 2015
What’s in our new book?
The book I put together with John Warwick Montgomery, Where Christ Is Present, consists of some brilliant essays on different aspects of Lutheran teaching and practice. As the Amazon reviews are saying of particular essays, each one is worth the price of the book. And they aren’t just rehashing of old arguments and stale polemics. [Read More...]
ABC’s predictions for June, 2015
We often make predictions here at the Cranach blog, but we also do what often does not happen elsewhere: we check them. So it’s fitting to consider the predictions of some ABC programming seven years ago, projecting what June, 2015 would be like. Gas was supposed to be over $9 a gallon. Milk cost $13. [Read More...]
