Monthly Archives: February 2015

An Appropriate Lenten Response to God’s Love and Grace

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Sermon delivered on Ash Wednesday, February 18, 2015, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Columbus, OH.

If you prefer to listen to the sermon podcast, usually somewhat different from the text below, click here.

Lectionary texts: Joel 2.1-2, 12-17; Psalm 51.1-17; 2 Corinthians 5.20b-6.10; Matthew 6.1-6, 16-21.

In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of a 40 day season we call Lent. It is a time for self-examination, confession, repentance, and self-denial. But why do we do these things? What’s the point? Is it to make us feel as badly about ourselves as we possibly can because that’s the way God feels about us? Sadly, I’m afraid, some Christians really believe this. To be sure, our sin and rebellion against God should make us remorseful, but to focus on that alone misses the broader context for Lent with its somber reflection on our sin and brokenness. God wants us to repent, but for the right reasons, and that is what I want us to look at briefly tonight.

To see Lent and its disciplines in their proper perspective we must step back and look at the whole narrative of Scripture. When we do, the first thing we realize is that it is the story of how God is fixing all that is wrong with his good and beautiful creation. Genesis 1-2 tell how God created this world out of nothing and that it was good. And of course, the climax of God’s creative activity was making his image-bearing creatures to run his good world. But as Genesis 3.1-19 makes clear, we humans didn’t get that memo and so we rebelled against God. The sin of Adam and Eve (and everybody ever since) is that we want to elevate ourselves to be God’s equal or worse yet, to replace God altogether. This resulted in God’s curse on us and his creation, and our sin opened the door for evil to operate freely in God’s good world to corrupt it. We all know what this looks like. In the midst of the incredible beauty of God’s world we see thorns sprouting up. Whatever those literal or metaphorical thorns are—whether it is the beheading of innocents or any other form of human cruelty, natural disasters, birth defects, wicked diseases, destructive relationships, or death itself, the ultimate evil—we are living with the consequences of our sin and the evil it has unleashed as well as God’s curse upon it. In our bones we know that life is not as it should be and something needs to be done to fix it.

At first blush this can make us think that God is some kind of ogre who doesn’t care at all about our happiness or welfare and who is out to punish us for every wrong turn we take. We read passages like our OT lesson with its fearsome announcement that God is indeed coming to judge his people on the great and terrible Day of the Lord and say to ourselves and others, “See? I told you. God is against us and wants to rain on our parade every chance he gets!” So we tend to enter the season of Lent reluctantly or with a chip on our shoulder. We tend to look at ourselves as pretty good people and wonder what all the fuss is about regarding sin and repentance, all the while ignoring everything that is wrong in our relationships and lives and discounting or denying our role in any of it. If you want to know what human pride and arrogance look like, look no further than the dynamic of this mindset for your answer.

But of course this gets the character of God and the destructiveness of human sin terribly wrong because sin of any kind makes us spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically sick and ultimately dehumanizes us by slowly but surely destroying God’s image in us. This, of course, displeases God, but not because God is some kind of angry and bloodthirsty God. The sin that dehumanizes us displeases God because he didn’t create us to be sick. He created us to be his healthy, image-bearing creatures who reflect his goodness and glory out into his world so that the world will also be a healthy and good place, just the way God intended it to be. Anybody who has raised children will understand this. At our best (and granted we aren’t always at our best), when our children rebel against us we get angry with them, not because we are angry parents who don’t want our children to ever have any fun, but because we want them to be healthy and happy and have the kind of fun that will contribute to that health and happiness.

And this is what the story of the Bible is about. In answer to our cry that something needs to be done to fix the world, Scripture tells us what God has done, is doing, and will do to fix his sin-corrupted world and its creatures, not to punish us for misbehaving (although that will inevitably happen if we refuse to come off our mark) but to restore us to the health and life he created us to have and enjoy in the first place, a health and happiness that is contingent on us having and enjoying a proper relationship with God, where we realize that God is God and we are not, and where we have the God-given wisdom and humility to be satisfied with that relational dynamic because we realize that only then can we be truly healed and fully human.

Consistent with the role God created us to play in his world, Scripture tells us that God is fixing his good and broken world by using his image-bearing creatures. God called a people for himself, Abraham and his descendants, to bring his healing love to the world. When Israel failed to live up to her call, God became human to do and be for Israel what Israel had failed to do and be. And if we ever hope to observe a holy and productive Lent (and beyond) that is not akin to sitting in a dentist’s chair enduring a root canal, we must understand what the Good News of Jesus Christ is all about because as Bishop Tom Wright has helpfully argued, all too often we don’t treat the gospel or Good News as news, but rather as advice to be followed—do this, don’t do that to avoid being zapped by God.

Think for a minute what news of any kind is. News is a report that something has happened or about to happen and as a result everything changes. Parents receive the news that they are going to have a baby and their lives will forever be changed once the baby is born. The news that we have cancer will change not only our present reality but also change how we look at the future. Again, news focuses on something that has happened and as a result, our lives will change. When we look at the gospel or Good News of Jesus Christ as news rather than advice, it must either change us or expose us as incorrigibly hard-hearted people because the Good News shows us the very heart and love of God for his creation and creatures.

So what is the Good News of the gospel? What has happened that makes us realize the world is a different place and we are living in a different reality? The gospel is the culmination of God’s good but unexpected rescue plan for us and his world, the way in which God has fixed all that is wrong with us and his world. It is the story of how the God of this vast universe became one of his human creatures in Jesus of Nazareth to announce to his people, and through them the rest of the world, that he had not abandoned them and was not indifferent to their suffering and plight. But he wasn’t going to fix all the world’s evil and wrong in a way that many expected and wanted. He wasn’t going to wave his hand and rid the world of its evil because if God did that, he would have to sweep us away too since all of us are sin-infected. But since God is faithful to his creation and wants to save it, this is not acceptable to him.

No, God’s plan to fix this world and defeat the power of evil consisted of becoming human and going to the cross to bear the the full brunt of evil and to condemn sin so that God would not have to condemn us. When Jesus died on the cross, sin was judged and condemned. Punishment was meted out and we who believe this news are now reconciled to God and find peace with him. This is at the heart of what Paul is talking about in our epistle lesson tonight and elsewhere (Romans 8.1-3; Colossians 1.19-21, 2.15). For Christians, the cross is the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord. Why wait to respond to this Good News? Lent is no better time to start!

Of course, without the resurrection, we would have no basis for believing that Jesus’ death was Good News. Without the resurrection, his death would have simply been the death of another failed Messiah wannabe. But when God raised Jesus from the dead, God confirmed that indeed sin and evil had been condemned and defeated and that his promised new world had begun, a world in which one day we will get to live directly in God’s presence and all vestiges of evil and sin are banished forever. And we get to live in this world and enjoy the hope of its promise solely because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, unexpected as that may be.

This is the Good News, then. Something has happened (Jesus’ death and resurrection) that has forever changed the world in which we live. It has changed our world because we know that God has acted decisively on our behalf to rid the world of evil without destroying it and us in the process. And despite the fact that evil is not yet totally defeated, we have hope that one day God’s new world will come as promised and in the meantime we can enjoy life in the way God always intended for us. If you really believe that the resurrection of Jesus actually happened, his death will make sense to you and you will have the necessary hope to help you prevail through the present darkness with all of its fears and uncertainty. This is why it is so important to regain our understanding of the Good News—our faith will be strengthened and sustained.

And this is where our Lenten disciplines come back into play. If we understand the Good News, we will understand that God has acted decisively for us because he loves us and wants the best for us. We will understand that God has visited us once in Jesus of Nazareth and will come again to complete the work that he started in his life, death, and resurrection. This allows us to hear the call to repent, not as some backward-looking thing we must do (and then only reluctantly) to address past sin, but rather as a forward-looking thing to engage in as we anticipate King Jesus’ return to usher in God’s new creation. Think about it. Suppose you got a call telling you that the POTUS was coming to visit. You wouldn’t sit still. You’d get ready for him to come to your house! This is what the call to repent is essentially all about. King Jesus, God himself, has visited and has promised to come again. Get ready. Develop the character and mindset that will allow you to enjoy his presence as fully as you can and to work on his behalf to get others ready for his coming. That’s what Jesus was talking about in our gospel lesson tonight. Doing in secret the things we ought to be doing will not only bring us godly contentment and joy, it will help us to learn to love God for the sake of loving God, not for some lesser reward.

What do you need to do to get ready in anticipation of God’s return? What embarrasses you? What are you ashamed of? What haunts you because you are unable to find forgiveness? What areas of your life are crying out to be tidied up that you have steadfastly ignored? These are the things you should focus on this Lent rather than giving up something meaningless just for the sake of “denying yourself” or because you think you have to give up something for Lent. Confess those things to God and trust that he will forgive you because you trust that the cross stands as the ultimate testimony to God’s love and mercy for you. Whatever it is you work on this Lent, do it as a grateful response for what God has done for you to change your life and world and in anticipation of the wonderful new world that awaits us when God’s new world comes in full because you really do believe that in the death and resurrection of Jesus, you have Good News, now and for all eternity. To him be honor, praise, and glory forever and ever.

In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Archbishop Foley Beach’s Ash Wednesday Message

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Received via email.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent in the Christian Church year. For those of us who will gather in churches around North America and receive the imposition of ashes as a sign of our repentance and mortality, we will be challenged to follow Jesus in our lives, examine ourselves for the sins of which we need to repent, and be encouraged to take on spiritual disciplines which draw us into holiness by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This year as you prayerfully examine your own life during Lent, I want to encourage you to look for your sins of neglect.  What are your sins of omission?  “What is God asking me to do which I am refusing to do?”

Am I neglecting my time alone with God?
Am I neglecting feeding the poor?
Am I neglecting speaking out against evil?
Am I neglecting teaching my children about my faith in Jesus?
Am I neglecting taking care of my body?
Am I neglecting praying for and loving my enemies?
Am I neglecting returning to the Lord His portion of my earnings?
Am I neglecting caring for those in pain around me?
Am I neglecting time with my spouse?

The list could go on and on. You get the point: What are my sins of neglect of which I need to repent?

In trying to deal with my sins of neglect, I have noticed two issues which seem to arise.  Firstly, to repent of these sins costs me time.  They usually take time to accomplish, which means that if I am going to follow God’s leading and repent, then I am going to have to stop doing something that I am currently doing in order to make time for it.  To minister to the needy means I have to give up time doing something else.  To spend more time studying the Scriptures means I am going to have to give up time doing something else.

Secondly, I have noticed that, more often than not, I am blinded to my sins of neglect.  It takes someone else, a sermon, the Scriptures, a book, or a friend to point them out to me.  I am afraid this is a pattern for most of us. We don’t think we have an issue, and then the Holy Spirit convicts us and brings it to our attention.  Because they are usually blind spots, this means we are used to living with them; they are comfortable in our lives.  To repent will make us uneasy and it is often difficult!  We have to be intentional, and oftentimes, we need someone to hold us accountable.

Jesus wants us to repent so we can experience the Kingdom of Heaven in our lives on earth. We often pray in the Lord’s Prayer: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Our sins of neglect truly get in the way of this.

As you walk through the Season of Lent this year, prayerfully look for your sins of neglect. When the Lord reveals them to you, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.


The Most Rev. Dr.  Foley Beach
Archbishop and Primate
Anglican Church in North America

CT: He Is Risen, So I Am Shriven

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54134Can eating pancakes enrich Christian piety? As a part of the traditional celebration of Shrove Tuesday, I believe flapjacks can build our faith.

For those of us who love Jesus and Aunt Jemima, this is very good news.

Shrove Tuesday is essentially the British take on Mardi Gras or Carnival. But instead of flamboyant parties filled with riotous excess, the understated British gather calmly in their homes on the day before Lent to fill themselves with pancakes.

Why pancakes? In medieval Europe, Christians often gave up eating rich foods like meat, eggs, and milk for the 40-day period of penance, prayer, and preparation leading to Easter. The practice and duration of the ritual corresponded to Christ’s 40 days of fasting in the desert.

During Lent, perishable goods would spoil, so pancakes—traditionally just eggs and milk mixed with flour—were the ideal meal for consuming Lenten no-no foods.

But Shrove Tuesday wasn’t just about cleaning out the kitchen. It was also about cleaning out the heart. Shrove is the past tense of shrive, which means to confess sins and to have sins absolved.

Priests would ring shriving bells to call pancake-laden parishioners to church to confess their sins—perhaps starting with their gluttony!

During the Reformation, many Protestants, especially my English Puritan ancestors, dismissed Lent and Shrove Tuesday as superstitious Catholic observances aimed at earning God’s favor through human works. Thus, strict Lenten observance declined among English-speaking people.

But the palate proved mightier than the Puritans. Most Britons didn’t want to give up pancakes—even if, without an austere Lent, there wasn’t any real reason to use up all the eggs and milk. Eating pancakes was reason enough for a party. To this day, people all over Britain and in scattered Anglophone countries eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.

Read it all.

On Presidents’ Day, We Honor…Someone

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From Fox News:

NEW YORK —  Question: Who is honored on Presidents Day?

Answer: Not Ronald Reagan. Or Franklin D. Roosevelt. Or Grover Cleveland or Martin Van Buren.

FoxNews.com conducted an informal and very unscientific poll in midtown Manhattan on Monday and found there are a lot of people who think Presidents Day honors a lot of presidents — with responses ranging from George Washington (No. 1) to Barack Obama (No. 44), with many others in between.

Given the increasing historical illiteracy of this nation, why am I not surprised? So now I need to put on my old history teacher hat. Before you look at the article, do you know which presidents are honored on Presidents’ Day and why it is in February?

Read it all.

Fr. Philip Sang: Change of Transfiguration

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Sermon delivered on Transfiguration Sunday B, February 15, 2015, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Columbus, OH.

There is no audio podcast of today’s sermon. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Lectionary texts: 2 Kings 2.1-12; Psalm 50.1-6; 2 Corinthians 4.3-6; Mark 9.2-9.

Let us pray. Speak to us Lord for our hears and hearts are open to you, in the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Valentine joke.

Valentine died for love, Romeo also died for love, Jack in the Titanic died for love, Samson in the Bible died for love, Greek Heroes Hercules and Achilles died for love, even Jesus Christ died for love! Where are women?

Today is transfiguration Sunday and I remember preaching on transfiguration Sunday here about Reflecting the Glory of God that the glory of God shines on us so that we may reflect it out to others. Today I want us to look at the change of transfiguration

The story from 2 Kings tells of the parting of Elijah, witnessed by his disciple in training Elisha.  Elisha does not want his master to go.  He keeps getting increasingly saddened and perhaps annoyed by those who remind him that Elijah is going away soon.  “Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?”  Yes, Elisha knows, and isn’t in the mood to talk about it.  Not from the company of the prophets in Bethel.  Not from the company of the prophets in Jericho.  Don’t speak of it, he orders them both.  Who has ever wanted their master to go?  Who has ever wanted to lose a mentor, a father-figure, or a protective mother?

Elijah wishes to ease the going.  “Stay here; for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.”  Elisha replies: “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.”  “Elisha, stay here; for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.”  Elisha persists, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.”

Elisha will not leave his master.  He is clinging to his master and won’t let him out of sight.  Not yet ready for the leaving.  It might be a matter of determined faithfulness, staying by his side to the very end;  or it could be a matter of fear of the unknown, uncertain of what else to do.

In the gospel reading Jesus goes up the mountain he takes with him his inner circle of disciples-in-training: Peter James and John. they saw him transfigured. They witnessed the presence of the glory of God and had mountain top experience. They were surrounded by the beauty of the Lord with the two most revered figures in Judaism visible, Moses and Elijah. The glory of the Lord is shining all around and changing the appearance of Jesus’ face and making his clothes dazzling white such as no one* on earth could bleach them. Right then the disciples knew that God was in that place. Right then they knew that this was a special place. Right then they knew that it was good for them to be there. Which is exactly what Peter says: “It is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

Have you ever been in such a place? Where you have a glimpse of heaven?

While he is speaking, a cloud overshadows them and the disciples become terrified. And as they are engulfed by the cloud, and in the midst of their terror, a voice says, “This is my son, the beloved, listen to him.”

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by a big, black cloud?

Ultimately they go back down the mountain where they are with a crowd and Jesus heals a boy possessed with convulsions.

What does a story involving a mountain top experience thousands of years ago about the Transfiguration of Christ have to do with us in the here and now? how does this gospel speak to us today?

One of the ways I truly believe that this story speaks to us today is that it reminds us we must get off the mountain. We must be willing to recognize mountain top experiences for what they are — beautiful, motivational, moving, awe inspiring, amazing, and not meant to last. At some point we need to come down from the beautiful mountain top and mix and mingle and minister in the crowds.

If we try to hold onto that experience, if we try to stay in that beautiful place, we running the risk of being like Peter in this story, “Let’s build a place for us to stay right here.” Besides this story being yet another way God reveals himself through Christ, this story is about us getting off the mountain. We can’t allow ourselves to be so overwhelmed by the beautiful experience and our comfort zones that we neglect the true nature of the gospel.

The true nature of the gospel is this: changed by God to make a difference for God. Does that sound familiar? The work of ministry isn’t found on the beautiful mountain top but is found down below in and among the people.

Think about Jesus, had He stayed up on the mountain, there would be no Passion, no cross, and no resurrection. Think also of the disciples, had they stayed up on the mountain, there would be no apostles and no church. Probably we would not be gathered here today. Our mission isn’t up there; our mission is out there. If we are to make a change and a difference for God we should be willing to come down from the mountain top.

Where are the mountain top experiences in our own lives that keep us stuck in the moment and make it hard for us to come down? What are the beautiful places that continually call us to stay?

These are interesting times for us. Some feel like we are in dark times, like we’ve been overshadowed by a cloud and we can’t see where we are going. We’ve lost our direction and we are terrified.

To be changed by God is pretty but the work of serving God and making a difference for him is not always pretty. The work of service to God doesn’t always go as we planned it, but it certainly goes as God plans if we listen to him. Sometimes we do have mountain top experiences, but we can’t stay there.

Like Jesus and the disciples, we are close to doing something extraordinary. Like Jesus and the disciples, we need to come down the mountain and into the crowds; because it was by coming down the mountain that the full glory of God was shown. And it was in coming down the mountain that the disciples experienced the resurrection and brought people from all walks of life and many locations into the loving embrace of God.

How does this gospel passage speak to us today? consider this: do we want to stay on the mountain and keep God in a dwelling place of our own making, or will we come down the mountain and be part of something bigger than we ever imagined?

When Elisha is about to say goodbye to his master and friend, he has one final request.  That he receive a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.  That a double blessing be passed from Elijah to him for the work ahead that Elisha must do.  Elijah comments that this is a hard request, but that if Elisha is able to see, able to see Elijah as he parts, that this double blessing will be granted him.  And Elisha does indeed see.  He sees horses and chariots of fire.  He sees glory.

As Paul says God has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Thus we need to shine the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Let us proclaim him as servants changed by God to make a difference for God.

If you have looked deeply into this place, into this time, having a glimpse of heaven; if you have looked and have seen the glory, then you have what you need for the journey ahead, difficult though it may be.  Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets, are over you, giving counsel.  God’s love and presence is around you.  Jesus the Christ is going ahead of you.  And you serve and walk with a blessing.

In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dr. Miriam Grossman: A Psychiatrist’s Letter to Young People About “Fifty Shades of Grey”

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iStock_000039660002Medium-1024x682There’s nothing grey about Fifty Shades of Grey. It’s all black.

Let me explain.

I help people who are broken inside. Unlike doctors who use x-rays or blood tests to determine why someone’s in pain, the wounds I’m interested in are hidden. I ask questions, and listen carefully to the answers. That’s how I discover why the person in front of me is “bleeding”.

Years of careful listening have taught me a lot. One thing I’ve learned is that young people are utterly confused about love – finding it and keeping it. They make poor choices, and end up in lots of pain.

I don’t want you to suffer like the people I see in my office, so I’m warning you about a new movie called Fifty Shades of Grey. Even if you don’t see the film, its message is seeping into our culture, and could plant some dangerous ideas in your head. Be prepared.

Fifty Shades of Grey is being released for Valentine’s Day, so you’ll think it’s a romance. Don’t fall for it. The movie is actually about a sick, dangerous relationship filled with physical and emotional abuse. It seems glamorous, because the actors are gorgeous, they have expensive cars and private planes, and Beyonce is singing. You might conclude that Christian and Ana are cool, and that even though their relationship is different, it’s acceptable.

Don’t allow yourself to be manipulated by a Hollywood studio. The people there just want your money; they have no concern whatsoever about you and your dreams.

Abuse is not glamorous or cool.  It is never OK, under any circumstances.

Read it all.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

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Abraham Lincoln pictureToday is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. He would be 206 years old! The president is one of my heroes, primarily because of the role he played in saving this country. Mr. Lincoln had a wonderful spirit about him and his humility, compassion, and willingness to forgive his enemies arguably saved this country from a terrible aftermath following our Civil War. Reconstruction was hard enough as it was, but at least we did not have guerrilla warfare to contend with, something that would have probably done us in as a country forever.

We healed as well as any country could following a civil war. If you don’t believe me, check out other countries who have suffered through a civil war. Most of the time it didn’t turn out well. The reason our country’s reconstruction went relatively well is because of president Lincoln. He set the tone for U.S. Grant and the other Union commanders by insisting that they treat the vanquished with dignity and respect. Lincoln insisted that the rebels would not be treated harshly or punitively and as a result, everyone else followed suit, including the Confederate commanders.

Of course, this wasn’t all Lincoln’s doing, but as president he set the tone for others to follow. It would have been just as easy to hang all the rebel commanders and make life miserable for the vanquished. But Lincoln knew better. He knew how that would turn out. It would have been interesting to see how much more quickly we would have healed as a nation had Lincoln lived to serve a full second term. Instead, the zealots and self-righteous decided to “fix” Lincoln’s initial proposals for reconstruction and nearly managed to destroy all that president Lincoln had sought to establish in the process.

I am convinced God put Abraham Lincoln in our history for a reason. His presidency is more evidence that God has blessed this country. Whether that blessing continues today is debatable.  But that’s a different story for a different day. Today, it is fitting that all Americans honor our 16th president and give thanks to God for placing the right man in the right situation at the right time. Happy birthday, Mr. President, and thank you for your service to our country.

Jonah Goldberg: Comparing Today’s Terrorists to Inquisition is Apples to Oranges

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From the Columbus Dispatch. Goldberg is spot-on in his analysis. This is what happens when we parrot soundbites and don’t do the hard work of studying history. And if you doubt that, check out the comments that follow the column in the Dispatch. They speak for themselves.

But the Inquisition and the Crusades aren’t the indictments Obama thinks they are. For starters, the Crusades — despite their terrible organized cruelties — were a defensive war.

“The Crusades could more accurately be described as a limited, belated and, in the last analysis, ineffectual response to the jihad — a failed attempt to recover by a Christian holy war what had been lost to a Muslim holy war,” writes Bernard Lewis, the greatest living English-language historian of Islam.

As for the Inquisition, it needs to be clarified that there was no single “Inquisition,” but many. And most were not particularly nefarious. For centuries, whenever the Catholic Church launched an inquiry or investigation, it mounted an “inquisition,” which means pretty much the same thing.

Historian Thomas Madden, director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Saint Louis University, writes that the “Inquisition was not born out of desire to crush diversity or oppress people; it was rather an attempt to stop unjust executions.”

In medieval Europe, heresy was a crime against the state. Local nobles, often greedy, illiterate and eager to placate the mob, agreed to execute people accused of witchcraft or other forms of heresy. By the 1100s, such accusations were causing grave injustices (in much the same way that apparatchiks in Communist countries would level charges of disloyalty to have rivals “disappeared”) .

“The Catholic Church’s response to this problem was the Inquisition,” Madden explains, “first instituted by Pope Lucius III in 1184.”

I cannot defend everything done under the various Inquisitions, especially in Spain. But there’s a very important point that needs to be made here that transcends scoring easy, albeit deserved, points against Obama’s approach to Islamic extremism. Christianity, even in its most-terrible days, was indisputably a force for the improvement of man.

Read it all.

C.S. Lewis Opines About Theology

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This is worth your read, especially if you are one who considers yourself to be “spiritual” but not “religious.” Excerpted from The Joyful Christian.

Everyone has warned me not to tell you what I am going to tell you… They all say “the ordinary reader does not want Theology; give him plain practical religion.” I have rejected their advice. I do not think the ordinary reader is such a fool. Theology means “the science of God,” and I think any man who wants to think about God at all would like to have the clearest and most accurate ideas about him which are available. You are not children: why should you be treated like children?

In a way I quite understand why some people are put off by Theology. I remember once when I had been giving a talk to the R.A.F., an old, hard-bitten officer got up and said, “I’ve no use for all that stuff. But, mind you, I’m a religious man too. I know there’s a God. I’ve felt him: out alone in the desert at night: the tremendous mystery. And that’s just why I don’t believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about him. To anyone who’s met the real thing they all seem so petty and pedantic and unreal!”

Now in a sense I quite agreed with that man. I think he had probably a real experience of God in the desert. And when he turned from that experience to the Christian creeds, I think he really was turning from something real, to something less real. In the same way, if a man has once looked at the Atlantic from the beach, and then goes and looks at a map of the Atlantic, he also will be turning from real waves to a bit of colored paper. But here comes the point. The map is admittedly only colored paper, but there are two things you have to remember about it. In the first place, it is based on what hundreds and thousands of people have found out by sailing the real Atlantic. In that way it has behind it masses of experience just as real as the one you could have from the beach; only, while yours would be a single isolated glimpse, the map fits all those different experiences together. In the second place, if you want to go anywhere, the map is absolutely necessary. As long as you are content with walks on the beach, your own glimpses are far more fun than looking at a map. But the map is going to be more use than walks on the beach if you want to get to America [from England].

Now Theology is like the map. Merely learning and thinking about the Christian doctrines, if you stop there, is less real and less exciting than the sort of thing my friend got in the desert. Doctrines are not God: they are only a kind of map. But the map is based on the experience of hundreds of people who really were in touch with God—experiences compared with which any thrills or pious feelings you or I are likely to get on our own way are very elementary and very confused. And secondly, if you want to get any further, you must use the map. You see, what happened to that man in the desert may have been real, and was certainly exciting, but nothing comes of it. It leads nowhere. There is nothing to do about it. In fact, that is just why a vague religion—all about feeling God in nature, and so on—is so attractive. It is all thrills and no work; like watching the waves from the beach. But you will not get to Newfoundland by studying the Atlantic that way, and you will not get eternal life by simply feeling the presence of God in flowers or music. Neither will you get anywhere by looking at maps without going to sea. Nor will you be very safe if you go to sea without a map.

Columbus Dispatch: Who Knew? | Does the Lore Surrounding Groundhogs, Shadows and Winter Hold Any Truth?

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I told you those crazy Pennsylvanian rodents can’t be trusted. Not the case with those wise Ohio rodents like Buckeye Chuck.

1aa-whoknew07---feb--7-art-ggr10bnoa-1groundhog-standingUpon their arrival during the 1700s in Pennsylvania, German settlers had a tradition known as Candlemas Day — at the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. With the occurrence of fair weather, according to the superstition, the second half of winter promised to be cold and stormy. For early Christians in Europe, the custom on Candlemas Day had involved clergy blessing candles and distributing them in the dark of winter, with a lighted candle placed in each window of a home…

The official recognition of Groundhog Day began on Feb. 2, 1886, with a proclamation in The Punxsutawney Spirit. The first of a series of groundhogs was named “Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather Prophet Extraordinary” and his hometown called the “Weather Capital of the World.” His forecasting accuracy, however, ranks as low: 39 percent.

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