Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 335

It’s still Easter!

G.C. McLoughlin G.C. McLoughlin G.C. McLoughlinG. It’s still Easter, and it will be for 40 days, corresponding to the 40 days that the risen Jesus was with his disciples until His Assumption into Heaven.  So we should still revel in this season, and I’m going to be putting up more Easter posts. G. C. McLoughlin [Read More...]

Smoking to the Glory of God?

Have you heard about this book?  The Christian Gentleman’s Smoking Companion: A Celebration of Smoking to the Glory of God.  Jonathan Binnie, who told me about it, says that his brother attends a church that has a “men’s cigar outreach ministry.”  It’s called “El Lector,” after the practice in Cuba of having somebody reading a [Read More...]

The world’s most Christian nation. . .

. . .is soon to be China, according to scholars who project that in ten years the still-Communist country will have 160 million Protestants (the USA has 159 million) and in 15 years 247 million Christians in all, more than any other nation. From China on course to become ‘world’s most Christian nation’ within 15 [Read More...]

Moralistic consumerism

Methodist minister Morgan Guyton has written a post entitled “Six Ways that Capitalism Fails the Church.”  His main point has to do not so much with free market economics as with the way the marketing and consumer mentality is distorting how churches operate.  I don’t agree with a great deal of what he says, but [Read More...]

Western states want all that federal land

Western states are organizing in an effort to take over all of that federal land within their borders, which often constitutes most of their territory.  (See the map after the jump.)  I can see why the states would have a better claim than the federal government.  But why not just privatize it?  (If anyone knows [Read More...]

19th century super-novels

My post about Les Miserables provoked some good discussion–including teaching me another telling internet abbreviation (“TL;DR,” meaning “Too Long; Didn’t Read”)–including this exchange: Amsdorf:  I’m glad to hear you too have taken up the book. I have been reading it slowly, on and off, for nearly a year. It is a text to luxuriate with. [Read More...]

British Lutherans get a Coat of Arms

A story that you may have to be British, an Anglophile, or Canadian (or possibly Australian) to fully appreciate.  There is a small but sturdy Lutheran church in Great Britain, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of England (ELCE), with which the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is in fellowship.  Its theological institute is the Westfield House at [Read More...]

Do Your Duty

I published an article in Tabletalk Magazine about the concept of “duty,” tying it via the Small Catechism to the works of vocation. Do Your Duty by Gene Edward Veith, Tabletalk Duty is one of those words that used to carry great weight but really doesn’t anymore. It is still an important concept in military [Read More...]

Supreme Court vs. Affirmative Action

Is a law racially discriminatory if it forbids racial discrimination?  The Supreme Court ruled “no,” upholding a Michigan referendum that forbids racial considerations–that is, affirmative action programs– in college admissions. From Supreme Court upholds Michigan’s ban on racial preferences in university admissions – The Washington Post: The Supreme Court on Tuesday made clear that states [Read More...]

US troops deploy in Poland & the Baltics

In a show of force to counter Russian expansionism in the Ukraine, American troops are deploying in the NATO-member nations of Eastern Europe.  Six hundred are now in Poland, and more will arrive in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania on Monday.  The units will participate in war games and will be part of a regular rotation. [Read More...]