Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 245
June 2, 2015
God from above vs. God from below
I’ve started working through the Christian Year of Grace by Johann Spangenberg, a contemporary of Luther who, as a pastor and educator, wanted to provide laypeople a guide to help with the devotional reading of the newly-available Scriptures. He took the appointed Scripture readings for each Sunday, then–as a classical educator trained in dialectic–offered questions [Read More...]
Patriot Act expires
In a victory for Sen. Rand Paul, Congress was unable to renew the Patriot Act, which expired Sunday at midnight. Congress is now trying to pass an alternative measure which will keep some of the anti-terrorism capabilities of the old law without the mass collection of Americans’ phone records and other civil liberty controversies. From [Read More...]
Crime Wave
The decades-long decline in crime rates may be over. Murders are up 180% in Milwaukee. Other cities are showing double digit increases in violent crime. Some are blaming the “Ferguson effect,” claiming that as a result of the controversy over police who killed an unarmed suspect–a pattern replicated elsewhere–citizens no longer respect police officers, sometimes [Read More...]
A hawk runs for president
A ninth candidate has entered the Republican race for the presidential nomination, South Carolina Senator. Lindsey Graham. His cause is national defense and a tough American foreign policy. He defends the Iraq war and wants “boots on the ground” to battle ISIS and other threats. Do you think an unreconstructed war hawk has a chance [Read More...]
Flannery O’Connor gets a stamp
The ferocious Christian author Flannery O’Connor will appear on a postage stamp. It will be a “forever” stamp. From Flannery O’Connor to appear on new U.S. postage stamp – LA Times: Writer Flannery O’Connor will appear on a new postage stamp, the U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday. On the stamp, O’Connor is flanked by [Read More...]
June 1, 2015
Asserting vs. Explaining
On Trinity Sunday yesterday, I worshipped at the church of my son-in-law, the Rev. Ned Moerbe, who made a useful distinction between “asserting” and “explaining.” The Athanasian Creed, he observed, asserts the doctrine of the Trinity. It does not explain it. Confessions of faith, doctrinal formulations, and Scripture itself have that same revelatory quality. They [Read More...]
More gun control by executive order
The Justice Department is moving ahead with a new round of gun control regulations implemented by the President’s executive order, to be enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). These include forbidding anyone convicted of a misdemeanor domestic violence offense from possessing a firearm. Also anyone who has been found to [Read More...]
Martin O’Malley enters the Democratic race
The rock guitar-playing former governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley, announced that he is running for president as a Democratic alternative to Hillary Clinton. He is running to the left of Mrs. Clinton, whom he accuses of supporting wealthy special interests. Democrats, would you rather have Mr. O’Malley than Mrs. Clinton, who is supposedly more conservative [Read More...]
May 29, 2015
So should we baptize machines?
The hype about artificial intelligence has some speculating that at some point a computer might have what we might call a soul. So some theologians are wondering if machines advance to that point, should they be evangelized? Should they be baptized? Thomas D. Williams writes about this line of reasoning and why it is unlikely [Read More...]
Between first sleep and second sleep
About two years ago, we posted First Sleep, Second Sleep, which became the 12th most-read post on this blog, with people to this day clicking on it. It had to do with what historians have discovered about sleep patterns in the days before artificial lighting, from ancient and Biblical days through the 17th century. People [Read More...]
