Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 430
February 11, 2013
The pope resigns
The pope has surprised the world by announcing his resignation. From BBC: Pope Benedict XVI is to resign at the end of this month after nearly eight years as the head of the Catholic Church, saying he is too old to continue at the age of 85. The unexpected development – the first papal resignation [...]
Better than witnessing the Transfiguration
Yesterday was the climax of the Epiphany season, Transfiguration Sunday, marking the most explicit epiphany of Jesus during His time on earth. St. Peter saw witnessed it personally, as he describes in His second epistle. But he goes on to say that we have something even better, even more certain, than witnessing the Transfiguration. 2 [...]
Assassination courts?
Is this back to the Star Chamber approach to justice, with secret courts, no indictments, no witnesses, and no appeals, all in service to the monarch? U.S. senators are now floating the idea of an assassination court as a way to rein in the ever-expanding drone program — a secretive operation that, as it is, [...]
“God is really blessing the LCMS”
Todd Wilken with an important reminder in light of the uproar over the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod’s stand against our civil religion, with its president disciplining a pastor for participating in an interfaith service for the school shootings in Connecticut: God is really blessing the LCMS this week. How do I know? Here’s how. All [...]
February 8, 2013
Lutheran crisis deja vu
Pastors of the Lutheran Church Missouri-Synod are not allowed to participate in joint worship services, not with other denominations we are not in fellowship with and certainly not interfaith services with other religions and where other gods are worshiped. After 9/11, a pastor led a prayer in the interfaith service in Yankee Stadium organized by [...]
Your boring job
The blogger who goes by the name of Josephus Flavius quotes the 20th century Orthodox saint St. Nikolai of Žiča writing to a railroad engineer who complained about his boring job. He was writing about vocation and how seeing one’s work in relation to faith can transfigure its meaning: You complain that you are tired [...]
A near miss
On February 15, an asteroid of the size that struck this planet in the past, knocking out that forest in Siberia and making Meteor Crater in Arizona, will pass not only between the earth and the moon but between the earth and the orbit of some of our satellites.Reporting by Cole Hill: Half the size [...]
Economic stimulus as narcotic
Some business teachers and managing consultants still use their yellowed notes about Japan’s economic success, but that is way out of date. For decades, Japan’s economy has been in the doldrums. Why? And why hasn’t their economy ever bounced back? Economics columnist Robert J. Samuelson says the problem is that Japan has relied on [...]
February 7, 2013
7 rules that Christians must break
Rev. Jonathan Fisk, the young pastor known for his lively Worldview Everlasting videos, has published a book entitled Broken – Seven “Christian” Rules That Every Christian Ought to Break as Often as Possible. This is a book that needs to get into the hands of Christians who are emergent, burnt out, disillusioned, lapsed, millennial, cynical, [...]
The new left’s doctrine of “repressive tolerance”
It has long been observed that advocates of tolerance can be quite intolerant when it comes to those who do not share their beliefs. But I stumbled upon these quotations from Herbert Marcuse, hailed as “the Father of the New Left,” who was the author of “Repressive Tolerance” (1965). He teaches that the establishment of [...]
