Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 422
March 18, 2013
Have an unglorious Passiontide
This is the week before Holy Week, a part of the church year known as Passiontide. Contrary to those who think that liturgical worship is the same old thing every week, the liturgy, while following the same structure, actually changes each week, with different Bible readings and collects, and it features meaningful variations according to [...]
March 17, 2013
2013 NCAA Tournament
The NCAA basketball tournament is all set. You may fill out your brackets: 2013 NCAA Tournament Bracket – March Madness Tournament Brackets – ESPN. While a good part of America’s workplaces will be turned into gambling parlors, we will host a simpler pool: What two teams will play for the national championship, and which one [...]
“Radical” Christianity vs. regular Christianity
The latest thing in contemporary Christianity is “radical Christianity.” From the Christian bestseller lists to programs in megachurches, Christians are being told that Jesus was “radical” and that they should give up their “middle class” “mediocrity” and start helping the poor. But how is this different from just liberal mainline Protestantism? And isn’t just another [...]
March 15, 2013
Different kinds of atheists
John Gray, author of The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths, is a different kind of atheist. He is friendly to religion, thinks progress is a myth, and is skeptical of humanist ideals like freedom and knowledge. This should remind us that just as there are different religions and different theologies within [...]
The militia part of the Second Amendment
The Washington Post has a front page story saying that the Second Amendment had always been construed to refer to a “collective” right to own firearms on the part of state militias until 2008 when the Supreme Court ruled that it refers to an “individual” right. This change in interpretation, the article contends, was because [...]
Alister McGrath’s new biography of C. S. Lewis
The British theologian and apologist Alister McGrath has written a new biography of C. S. Lewis entitled C. S. Lewis – A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet. The Washington Post has given it a rave review written by Michael Dirda, a critic I’ve appreciated for a long time. I’m surprised but glad to see he [...]
March 14, 2013
Pope Francis on life issues
The newly-elected Pope Francis is, of course, the pope being Catholic, pro-life. To the point of having a good answer for those who believe in abortion in the case of rape–he calls that the death penalty for the unborn (practiced in countries that won’t give the death penalty for the rapists)–and agreeing that politicians who [...]
Medal for drone warriors
The military has instituted a new medal, the Distinguished Warfare Medal, to honor great deeds performed by those who operate drones and other high-tech military systems operated from afar (such as, presumably, cyberwarfare). The problem is that in the hierarchy of medals, the Distinguished Warfare Medal outranks the Bronze Star (which is given for valor [...]
Lent and Vocation
Daniel Siedell, in the course of discussing the Russian film The Passion of Andrei Rublev (1966), about an icon maker who returns to his craft when he helps a child, makes some important connections between Lent and Vocation. (Notice too how Luther’s doctrine of vocation–with his focus on loving and serving the neighbor–is different from [...]
March 13, 2013
Pope Francis
A new pope has been elected: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires in Argentina. He is the first non-European elected to that office in over 1000 years. He will be the 266th person to hold that office. He is taking the name of Francis (the proper form being Francis, not Francis I, as [...]
