Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 281

He will build you a House

We are on the road for Christmas, and we worshipped on the last Sunday of Advent at the church where my son-in-law is the pastor.  (As of now, our Advent Christmas embargo is over.)   Rev. Ned Moerbe preached on the Old Testament text for the day, 2 Samuel 7, in which David had the idea [Read More...]

Christmas Songs

Cheryl Magness offers Twelve Of The Best Christmas Songs You May Not Have Heard.  She includes YouTube videos of the performances, and listening to them is a Christmas meditation in itself. What are your favorite Christmas songs?  Give them, along your criteria for what makes them so good. HT:  Mary Moerbe  

Two cops murdered as protest

The protests against the killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, and Eric Garner in New York City have led to what a New Jersey police union official  describes as a “fever pitch of anti-police sentiment.”  Across the country, routine police actions have become fraught with tension and the rhetoric of the protesters is sometimes [Read More...]

#8 most popular Cranach blog post of the year

On April 3, 2014, we put up a post about Spanish scholars who are claiming to have identified the cup that Jesus used in the Last Supper.  This ostensibly scientific quest lacked the panache of quest undertaken by the Knights of the Round Table.  And by those older standards, the grail must not have been [Read More...]

Christianity Today’s 2015 Book Awards

Christianity Today has announced its 2015 Book Awards.   Two titles are recognized in the categories of Apologetics/Evangelism, Biblical Studies, Christianity & Culture, Christian Living, The Church/Pastoral Leadership, Fiction, History & Biography, Missions/Global Affairs, Spirituality, Theology/Ethics, Her.Meneutics.  See the list and a little about each title here. In my experience, this is usually a very good [Read More...]

Consequences of normalized relations with Cuba

The fallout from President Obama’s decision to extend diplomatic relations to Castro’s Cuba is mixed.  As some worry about another cave-in to tyranny, others are excited about the commercial prospects: Major League Baseball is salivating over bringing in Cuban talent. Smokers are salivating over getting Cuban cigars. Travellers are enthusiastic about a hot new tourist [Read More...]

Pope did NOT say animals are going to heaven

We linked to the story that the Pope, in comforting a child, said that his dog would go to Heaven.  But he never said that, there was no child, and the attribution was actually to a misunderstanding of something said by Pope Paul VI!  The story, put out by the New York Times, no less, [Read More...]

#9 most popular Cranach blog post of the year

Number 9 is from March 4, 2014, on the occasion of Ash Wednesday: Fasting for 40 days before Easter I think the meditation works that other Lent; namely, Advent.Fasting for 40 days before Easter Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.  There are those who claim that these too have pagan origins, which [Read More...]

Top 10 blog posts countdown

There are 10 blogging days until New Year’s, so as part of our year-end, look-back observances, we will count down the year’s most popular blog posts (by pageviews) here at Cranach.  The reason some posts get far more views than others is that they get picked up by Reddit or the equivalent, get linked to [Read More...]

#10 most popular Cranach post of the year

From September 3, 2014, the tenth most popular post on this blog for the year 2014: How scholars proved that the “wife of Jesus” text is a forgery  Read the post after the jump. I’m a little late on this, but I just learned the details.  You will remember a few years ago when a [Read More...]