Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 428
February 19, 2013
The last pope before the End Times?
More doomsday predictions, this time from the Roman Catholic side! According to writings attributed to St. Malachy in 1139, pope #112 will be the last one, and then Jesus will return. That would be the successor to Pope Benedict XVI, who is #111. From NBC: Just when you thought it was safe to go out [...]
Fanaticism
The learned and wise John T. Pless, a professor at Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, warns against fanaticism. He is discussing the recent controversy over a pastor participating in an interfaith service, showing that some on both sides have slipped into fanaticism, as described by both Hermann Sasse (the anti-Nazi confessional Lutheran theologian) [...]
February 18, 2013
Rejecting Christ’s sacrifice
Liberal Catholic intellectual Garry Wills has a new book out entitled Why Priests?: A Failed Tradition in which he makes the rather un-Catholic argument that Jesus institute the priesthood. But he goes farther, giving a Catholic version of what many mainline Protestants and even some supposed evangelicals are saying: That Christ was not sacrificed for [...]
Deporting homeschoolers
Homeschooling in Germany is illegal and is punished harshly with fines, imprisonment, and even the taking away of children from their families. A family that suffered that persecutionfor homeschooling their children came to the United States seeking religious freedom, as so many other immigrants have done, and an immigration judge recognized their jeopardy in their [...]
Prayer request(s)
Buried as comment #381 in a recent post is an urgent prayer request from long-time reader and commenter Frank Sonnek (a.k.a., “fws”; a.k.a., “the gay confessional Lutheran”). I don’t know what it’s all about, and we don’t need to know. But, as a virtual community at this blog, let’s pray for Frank. And perhaps some [...]
My book on literature gets re-released
My book Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature has been re-issued in an updated format. The publishers, Crossway Books, asked me to write about the book for their blog, which I did. Here is an excerpt that tells a little bit about the book: Marvin Olasky was editing a series of books [...]
February 16, 2013
The asteroid feint & the meteor punch
The universe did to the earth what a boxer does to his chump opponent, feinting with his right as a distraction, then punching hard with his left. On the very day we were concentrating on the near miss from the asteroid, which passed within the orbit of some of our satellites, a 55-foot-long meteor, weighing [...]
February 15, 2013
Iceland will ban porn?
Iceland, a Lutheran country, steps up on an issue hardly anyone else is touching: The government is considering introducing internet filters, such as those used to block China off form the worldwide web, in order to stop Icelanders downloading or viewing pornography on the internet. The unprecedented censorship is justified by fears about damaging effects [...]
Spring training!
For some people, the portent of spring, with it promise of new life and new beginnings, is the first robin or the first flowers to bloom. For baseball fans, it’s spring training. And I am happy to say that spring training has started! Hope springs eternal in the human breast, and now the fans of [...]
Alligator is considered a fish for lent
Roman Catholics may not eat meat on Fridays during Lent, though they may eat fish. The Archbishop of New Orleans has declared that alligator is “in the fish family” and “is considered seafood.” Therefore, Catholics can eat alligator on Fridays. From Rod Dreher, Lent In Louisiana | The American Conservative: So are other reptiles and [...]
