Gene Edward Veith Jr.'s Blog, page 73
June 5, 2017
Walther on our “mystical union” with the Holy Spirit
Yesterday was Pentecost, the great festival remembering God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. Thanks to my fellow Patheos blogger Rev. Jordan Cooper for posting some excerpts from a sermon by C. F. W. Walther, a founder of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, on Pentecost. In these profound words, we learn that Lutherans do believe that the [Read More...]
New York Times just outed our top spy in Iran
The New York Times published an article that revealed the CIA’s top spy in Iran. The newspaper justified its treacherous irresponsibility that may be putting his life in danger and that exposes an important U.S. intelligence operation by saying that the individual had already been exposed in a different operation (by the New York Times) and that [Read More...]
Terrorists attack UK once again
Three terrorists ran their van into a crowd on London Bridge, then jumped out with 12-inch knives and started stabbing people, shouting “This is for Allah!” They killed seven and injured nearly 50 before the terrorists were killed by police. This is the third terrorist attack on Great Britain in three months. Prime Minister [Read More...]
June 2, 2017
Embedded religion vs. movement religion
I’ve been reading Kenneth L. Woodward’s Getting Religion: Faith, Culture, and Politics from the Age of Eisenhower to the Era of Obama. I’ll be publishing a review of it for the Concordia Historical Institute Journal. Woodward was the religion editor of Newsweek for nearly four decades before his retirement, an old-school journalist who is widely [Read More...]
Trump withdraws U.S. from Paris climate accord
President Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement. He said that the deal to address global warming is unfair to the United States. He did say that he would be open to renegotiating the climate accord or initiating a new one. In his announcement, President Trump said, “I was elected to represent [Read More...]
The ACLU is targeting Catholic hospitals
One in six patients in America today is treated in a Catholic hospital. The numbers are even bigger in poverty-stricken areas, especially in large urban areas. And the number of Catholic hospitals is increasing. In some areas, a Catholic hospital is the only option for treatment. This has the American Civil Liberties Union worried. Catholic [Read More...]
June 1, 2017
There already is a church that is both evangelical and sacramental
Gordon T. Smith has written a book entitled Evangelical, Sacramental, and Pentecostal: Why the Church Should Be All Three. His thesis is that since Christianity exists in those three forms, we really should have churches that combine them all. A review in Christianity Today agrees with his “exciting proposal,” that Christians today should bring those strains together in their [Read More...]
Five sentences that killed 200,000 Americans
Addiction to opioid painkillers has killed nearly 200,000 Americans and has devastated far more lives than that. How could this have happened? A study has traced the problem to a five sentence, 101 word letter to the editor in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1980. The letter described a study of 12,000 hospital patients who [Read More...]
The founding document of professional sports
On February 2, 1876, the constitution of the National Baseball League was signed. Before that, playing a sport professionally meant that the players split the money that the fans paid to watch the game. Amateur sports was considered far more honorable. The document establishing the National League not only was foundational for baseball. It was [Read More...]
May 31, 2017
Quantum physics is oppressive
Quantum physics is oppressive, according to a feminist scholar, because it promotes “binary and absolute differences.” This makes it “hierarchical and exploitative.” As such, it is “part of the system that enables oppression.” This is an example of the anti-intellectualism and Stalinism that is plaguing the academic world. Stalinist because it subjects all knowledge and [Read More...]
