Trawlerman's Song

2008-12-21T07:23:00.004-05:00

I've started posting again. We'll see how long it lasts.

Chasing Pictures

I've started posting again. We'll see how long it lasts.

Chasing Pictures

2007-02-04T21:09:00.001-05:00

Something New...

Trawlerman's Dirge
dirige.blogspot.com

2006-10-21T14:40:00.000-04:00

Coming Soon...

Something New

2006-06-10T13:18:00.000-04:00

Humility

2006-04-02T16:44:00.000-04:00

2006-03-12T17:13:00.000-05:00

Dice, Women, Nonsense, I Love

And let not men, therefore, spend their time in barbers' shops and taverns, babbling nonsense; and let them give up hunting for the women who sit near, and ceaselessly talking slander against many to raise a laugh.

The game of dice is to be prohibited, and the pursuit of gain, especially by dicing, which many keenly follow. Such things the prodigality of luxury invents for the idle. For the cause is idleness, and a love for frivolities apart from the truth. For it is not possible otherwise to obtain enjoyment without injury; and each man's preference of a mode of life is a counterpart of his disposition.

- Clement of Alexandria

It is interesting that Clement speaks of frivolities apart from the truth, implying... What of "frivolities" contained in the truth?

2006-03-11T21:04:00.000-05:00

Columbia Records PSA

Found on the sleeve holding my copy of At Folsom Prison…

Here’s How Records Give You More Of What You Want:

The Best For Less. Records give you top quality for less money than any other recorded form.

They Allow Selectivity Of Songs And Tracks. With records it’s easy to pick out the songs you want to play, or to play again a particular song or side. All you have to do is lift the tone arm and place it where you want it. You can’t do this as easily with anything but a phonograph record.

They’re The Top Quality In Sound. Long-playing phonograph records look the same now as when they were introduced in 1948, but there’s a world of difference. Countless refinements and developments have been made to perfect the long-playing record’s technical excellence and insure the best in sound reproduction and quality available in recorded form.

They’ll Give You Hours Of Continuous And Uninterrupted Listening Pleasure. Just stack them on your automatic changer and relax.

They’re Attractive, Informative And Easy To Store. Record albums are never out of place. Because of the aesthetic appeal of the jacket design, they’re beautifully at home in any living room or library. They’ve also got important information on the backs—about the artists, about the performances or about the program. And because they’re flat and not bulky, you can store hundreds in a minimum of space and still see every title.

It It’s In Recorded Form, You Know It’ll Be Available On Records. Everything’s on long-playing records these days… your favorite artists, shows, comedy, movie sound tracks, concerts, drama, documented history, educational material… you name it. This is not so with any other kind of recording.

They’re Your Best Entertainment Buy. Every album is a show in itself. And once you’ve paid the price of admission, you can hear it over and over.

They Make A Great Gift. Everybody you know loves music. And practically everyone owns a phonograph. Records are a gift that says a lot to the person you’re giving them to. And they keep on remembering.

And Remember…It Always Happens First On Records.

(My favorite is.. "If it's in recorded form, you know it'll be available on records." This has become appallingly untrue. Today, I begrudgingly purchased a copy of I Am the Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey on CD, becuase it is not being released on vinyl. I should write to Vanguard Records, letting them know how disgusted I am that a RECORD company with the word RECORDS in its very title has ceased to press new records. I should write to them, but I'll trust instead that they seek out my blog, read my griping, and change their policy according to my preference and in keeping with their long, reputable history of record-making. I'm done.)

2006-03-11T10:04:00.000-05:00

Pose a Riddle

Pastor Jeff Meyers has posted some great, "random," thoughts on the parables spoken by Jesus:

Random Thoughts on Parables

Now, finally, Jesus appears “teaching them many things in parables” and what are we to conclude? The parable is the medium of judgment, the grammar of God’s wrath and curse against his obstinate people. The parable is propounded to a people that deserve his judicial blinding. Parables are uniquely suited to engage and challenge the hearers to judge their own situation. The parables by their very nature are wisdom devices, call for careful thought and spiritual discernment. Parable’s mask, they veil the truth. They hide as much as they illustrate. Only those who have ears to hear can understand them. Parables hide precisely what dull hearted, conscience seared people cannot find.

2006-03-10T17:35:00.000-05:00

Je suis comme je suis

There are those who have always considered Prevert no more than a surrealist clown, with (as one American poet has said): “a tinpanalley ear for a cadence, and the cheapest mind this side of Hollywood, with the least integrity, and the most eagerness to fake and crib and puff himself up.” And he is finally put down by today’s poets and critics for committing the cardinal crime of too much clarity in a world whose very Absurdity Absurdly cries for an expression of that Absurdity in all its arts.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti on Jacques Prevert, from the Translator’s Note to Paroles

2006-03-08T14:13:00.000-05:00

The Example of Brave Heart (II)

The castle of Dundee had been handed over to the English baron, Brian Fitz-Alan of Bedale, along with other strongholds in Angus and Fife. Fitz-Alan, by now a Guardian of the realm and also one of the three Justices of Scotland, placed the castle in the hands of a constable named Selby, 'a fierce man of war who had done much injury to the Scots, a man despiteful and outrageous in his dealings'. He had a son about twenty years of age who, with three or four companions, used to go into the town every day: 'a proud, overbearing young rascal, wanton in mischief'. One day in December 1291 young Selby caught sight of William Wallace, brightly clad in green and towering head and shoulders over the others in the street. Selby accosted him saying, 'Thou Scot, abide; what devil clothed thee in so gay a garment? An Irish mantle were the right apparel for thy kind; a Scottish knife under thy belt to carry; rough shoes upon thy boorish feet.' So saying, he demanded the handsome dirk at William's belt. Wallace's response was swift and dramatic; grabbing the Englishman by the collar, he drew his blade and thrust it through his assailant's heart.

- James Mackay, from William Wallace: Brave Heart

2006-03-07T20:23:00.000-05:00

The Example of Brave Heart

Evidence of William's early religious education is provided by the psalter which he habitually carried on his campaigns, and his attachment to the Psalms of David was noted by the eyewitnesses of his execution.

- James Mackay, from William Wallace: Brave Heart

2006-03-06T20:38:00.000-05:00

In the Shadow of a Baby Post

The absence of the urge to create is decadence

-David Mamet, from Writing in Restaurants

2006-02-28T19:52:00.000-05:00

Delivery

I am still in a state of shock.

27 February Anno Domini 2006

The midwife had to see someone else for a few minutes. The nurse stepped out of the room for a "minute" to grab some supplies. That was the moment the all-wise Creator chose to bring this baby out of the womb. Yes, I delivered the baby.

Susannah Wren

2006-02-27T18:47:00.000-05:00

Celery Fiesta!

Yes, it's true! More details to be announced shortly.

2006-02-18T09:25:00.000-05:00

Thinking about...

Very soon now.

2006-01-23T18:08:00.000-05:00

What If....

Michael Chabon had written the script for the recent FF movie?

the Goths you ridicule somehow communicate a difficult truth?

Thomas Aquinas denied a local presence of Christ in the Eucharist?

we can hardly know how to read the Scriptures?

you suddenly lost all present and future Internet access?

Yup, just clearing out all of the bookmarks that should have made full posts. I'm having a hard time dealing with Internet demands, but I'm enjoying reading everything that has to do with this game that I'll be playing tomorrow night.

2006-01-21T07:35:00.000-05:00

You Don't Know Jack

From the December 2005 issue of Christianity Today:

A guy approached Jack on the street one day and asked if he could spare a few shillings. Jack immediately dove into his pocket, brought out all his change, and handed it to this beggar. The chap he was with--I think it was Tolkien--said, "Jack, you shouldn't have given that fellow all that money; he'll just spend it on drink." Jack said, "Well, if I had kept it, I would have only spent it on drink."

-Douglas Gresham, giving an example of one small way in which his stepfather, C.S. Lewis, lived out his faith.

2006-01-14T09:42:00.000-05:00

Co-ed Naked Blogging

After a brief burst of blog posts, I found that I'm still not quite up to the sustained level of Internet use that I had become accustomed to during the school semester.

Anyhow, I've been thinking about nudity in motion pictures.

I've never written about my position at length, but most friends that I converse with in person know my thoughts on the matter, which are (very) briefly summarized in a comment here on my own blog about a year ago:

"Well, the truth is that you're not watching an actor commit a murder. No murder takes place. It's pretend.
This is not true of sexual scenes in films. Yes, that male actor is actually touching that female actor's breasts. Maybe his thoughts are somewhere else, but his actions betray him. There is no pretend."

A few days ago, I was reading an interview of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. They were interviewed by Lawrence Grobel and the interview was originally published in Playboy magazine.

Grobel: And couldn't one be curious about seeing an actor or actress without any clothes on in a love scene in a movie?

Ebert: The moment that an actor takes off his or her clothes, the movie changes from a fiction film into a documentary.

Siskel: I remember something Spielberg told me about sex scenes. He feels that it's almost impossible to do a sex scene without the audience having the reaction, "Oh, that's what they look like."

Ebert: I am not arguing against nudity in the movies. All I'm saying is that acting has traditionally consisted of putting on costumes, not taking them off. Actors have traditionally been in the business of pretending to be somebody else other than themselves. Well, the moment that the actor completely unclothes, the actor abandons character and becomes self to some degree.

I think that Ebert is absolutely right in his last comment.

The revelation of self in nakedness will almost always destroy the narrative flow of a motion picture.

It is that moment when I'm reading Spike's novel and think to myself, "Well, that sentence was very clever and extremely well-written." Yes, indeed, it may have been, but the fact that it drew attention to itself means that it drew me out of the narrative and made me focus on the mechanics of the story rather than the story itself.

The same is true in this nakedness business. The viewer watches a Scorcese film and sees Harvey Keitel nude (Harvey Keitel is always nude), and instead of becoming further engaged in the story, as one might think an intimate sex scene may do, one is driven away from the story by the sudden unspoken (perhaps half-thought) realization that we're no longer looking at a character named J.R. We're looking at Harvey Keitel.

Impromptu conclusion, Spike's most clever sentences are akin to full frontal nudity on the big screen.

That's not at all where I had intended to go with this post.

2006-01-08T20:29:00.000-05:00

Random (?) Post

Though I could quibble, I'm mostly in agreement with M. Joseph Young's Confessions of a Dungeons & Dragons Addict.

For the purpose of this post, here's a quote from his essay that I'll continue to think about:

"First, like most games--all those which use dice or cards--Dungeons & Dragons(tm) assumes that dice and cards fall in a random pattern along statistically predictable probabilities. It is extremely difficult for us to deal with this assumption. The question of whether dice and cards fall at random or are divinely controlled is far beyond the scope of this article, but the answer goes directly to the nature of the sovereignty of God. Christians who play such games should grapple with the issue and form an opinion about it. Note that it is possible to avoid all such games by only playing those games which pit skill against skill--athletic competition, chess, checkers, reversi, competitive puzzles such as tic-tac-toe and dots--but these are the games most susceptible to the problems of the competitive spirit, the idea that one wins and therefore all others lose. That may be a far more dangerous challenge to the principles of the gospel than the more intellectual question of whether the assumption of statistical randomness is an affront to the sovereignty of God."

Related is a blog post by Mark Jackson that I saw for the first time today: Why Religious People Shouldn't Design Board Games

"Perhaps the very structure of a competitive game is antithetical to communicating Bibilical theology. I dunno - I'm gonna have to think about this one some more."

2006-01-04T07:29:00.000-05:00

Mashed, Baked, Fried, Leave Those Skins Alone

2006-01-03T05:48:00.000-05:00

Shot a Man in Reno

Here are two Mildred quotes from last night:

Will we get to meet Johnny Cash when we go to heaven?

Yes, other children may be wiggling to the Wiggles, but my daughter is celebrating with Cash. I'm not sure if she's so much concerned about his immortal soul, or whether or not she'll get to hear his voice mixed with others around the throne.

Mildred: Does Elizabeth Krantz have a baby in her belly?

Abigail: I don't think so.

Mildred: But she's married.

Abigail had a difficult time phrasing a response, and Mildred's definite tone of voice (and subsequent lack of interest in the conversation) suggested that none was needed. So, Elizabeth, if you ever read this, you have been admonished by Mildred for possibly not living up to your marital responsibilities. You must start procreating immediately!

2006-01-02T14:12:00.000-05:00

Closer to the Grave

We're getting closer to the grave each day
Mortal man won't you stop now and pray
Leave the road of sin alone, let Jesus lead you home
We're getting closer to the grave each day

-Hank Williams

A few weeks ago, I bought a large stack of comics at a GoodWill store. They were all from the 60s and 70s, a couple dozen or so, bought cheap because they were all missing their covers.

One of these purchased comics is Tomb of Dracula #59, the August, 1977 issue.

I've never read any Tomb of Dracula, and have heard very little about it, so I had no expectations heading in.

Brief narrative summary: A team of vampire hunters, each one of them seeking revenge, will not stop until Dracula is dead. Against their better judgement, they follow the lead of one of Dracula's followers, who has his own reasons for betraying his dark lord. The betrayal and subsequent attack on Drac's life is scheduled to occur during the Feast in celebration of Drac's newborn son.

The best moments are when the various vampire hunters are almost working against each other, because, even though they are superficially a team, they each feel the need to be the one that destroys their evil foe. In the ensuing battle at the feast, a bullet meant for Dracula passes through him, as he turns to mist, and strikes and kills his infant son.

Dracula strikes out in his fury, killing the traitor, and about to turn his wrath on the hunters, when his human wife stops him from doing so.

It is at this point that things get even stranger. Dracula's wife, Domini, has been following someone whose likeness adorns the wall; a picture of Jesus (this is an assumption on my part that it is Jesus- the painting is never explicitly referred to by that name, but it seems obvious - but don't take my word for it, for all I know this is a picture of Dr. Strange in the costume he wore in the '70s).

Here is the concluding dialogue from the last three panels....

Dracula: But.. But something prevented me from touching it... from removing that mocking portrait from the wall. And now.... you tell me that you listen to his words over mine? How could you, wife? How could you?

Domine: Dracula, you are my husband, the man I love. The father of my child. Please, come here. Embrace me, and accept His words. He will show you the way. Take my hand, my love. Please, take my hand.

Dracula: (As he's saying this, he's turning into a bat and flying away from his wife) After all this time... you simply do not understand me. You can't understand what I've become, and why I can't do what you ask me to do! Lord help me... I can't!

2006-01-01T16:00:00.000-05:00

Geek Stones

In the past month, I have not been on the Internet much, but, when I have been, I've been updating my BoardGameGeek collection information and earning GeekGold toward an Avatar.

My first review (and the first review of the game on BGG) can be found here:

Under-active Bladder

Want to play?

2005-12-31T21:24:00.000-05:00

Anticipation.... Fulfilled!

Although, therefore, that infancy, which the majesty of God's Son did not disdain, reached mature manhood by the growth of years and, when the triumph of His passion and resurrection was completed, all the actions of humility which were undertaken for us ceased, yet to-day's festival renews for us the holy childhood of Jesus born of the Virgin Mary: and in adoring the birth of our Saviour, we find we are celebrating the commencement of our own life. For the birth of Christ is the source of life for Christian folk, and the birthday of the Head is the birthday of the body. Although every individual that is called has his own order, and all the sons of the Church are separated from one another by intervals of time, yet as the entire body of the faithful being born in the font of baptism is crucified with Christ in His passion, raised again in His resurrection, and placed at the Father's right hand in His ascension, so with Him are they born in this nativity. For any believer in whatever part of the world that is re-born in Christ, quits the old paths of his original nature and passes into a new man by being re-born; and no longer is he reckoned of his earthly father's stock but among the seed of the Saviour, Who became the Son of man in order that we might have the power to be the sons of God. For unless He came down to us in this humiliation, no one would reach His presence by any merits of his own. Let not earthly wisdom shroud in darkness the hearts of the called on this point, and let not the frailty of earthly thoughts raise itself against the loftiness of God's grace, for it will soon return to the lowest dust. At the end of the ages is fulfilled that which was ordained from all eternity: and in the presence of realities, when signs and types have ceased, the Law and prophecy have become Truth: and so Abraham is found the father of all nations, and the promised blessing is given to the world in his seed: nor are they only Israelites whom blood and flesh begot, but the whole body of the adopted enter into possession of the heritage prepared for the sons of Faith. Be not disturbed by the cavils of silly questionings, and let not the effects of the Divine word be dissipated by human calculation; we with Abraham believe in God and "waver not through unbelief" but "know most assuredly that what the Lord promised, He is able to perform."

-Leo the Great, Sermon XXVI: On the Feast of the Nativity VI

2005-11-20T23:31:00.000-05:00

It ain't easy...

...being green. I couldn't make it to Wales this year, but, if I could have, I would have been at the Green Man Festival

The next best thing, of course, is getting a second-hand report from the BBC's Collective.

Green Man Festival Sessions at Collective

2005-11-20T23:27:00.000-05:00

The Lure of Linux

I haven't made the switch (yet), but here's the story of one librarian that has...

Linux Lass

2005-11-19T10:33:00.000-05:00

Crossover

John Byrne is called upon to testify in Funky Winkerbean...

Evidently Byrne and Batuik are friends, and Byrne has even filled in as guest artist on Funky in the past.

2005-11-16T16:13:00.000-05:00

We Still Have Cartoons

The New Yorker gets it wrong, so wrong. It's hard to believe that this is an established, well-regarded mag.

The New Yorker on C. S. Lewis, in which it is revealed that the New Yorker knows little of the Incarnation, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, or Narnia

2005-11-15T10:10:00.000-05:00

Open Source Video

In my steady attempt to escape most things Microsoft, I've discovered the VLC media player, which easily surpasses Windows media player for watching video content.

2005-11-15T09:59:00.000-05:00

Randall Scott Has a Beard!

2005-11-05T19:24:00.000-05:00

Harold Harrington: The Board Game

Not really, but maybe the next best thing.

Hammer of the Scots is a wargame based on the Scottish Wars of Independence.

I've read all of the reviews that I could find, and everything that I've read suggests that the game is a rather light, accessible wargame, meaning, of course, that none of you true sons of the Kirk have any excuse for not buying this.

From Paper Wars:

"Hammer of the Scots is a well-researched, visually strong, highly playable game on this fascinating period in history. If you like block games, or thinking of trying one, or are interested in the subject matter, this one is a very safe buy. For some war gamers it may come across a little light--at times I personally desired a little more elaboration and chrome. But I must admit, my fellow gamers expressed no desire for more detail and loved the swift flow of play just how it is, and I believe this is no accident. Hammer of the Scots was clearly designed as a player's game, with the emotional sweep of this war of independence well reflected. Both players feel the huge burden of their task, and are required to use all their resources and wits to make it happen, but without the obstacle of poorly conceived rules and mechanics. Kilt, claymore, and clan, this one is a keeper."

2005-11-02T23:48:00.000-05:00

Voice Over

There are so many things that we all take for granted.

Believe it or not, Porky Pig's voice was not his own. His voice (and so many others) belonged to a voice actor.

Read Mark Evanier's history of voice acting.

Then, find out more about the voices you love...

Just follow any of the links on the bottom of the excellent VoiceChasers links site.

2005-10-29T19:48:00.000-04:00

The Ghost of John Fahey

I'm excited about this.

Almost unrelated, but I'm thinking about cover songs...

William Shatner's version of the Pulp song Common People is so much better than Pulp's own.

2005-10-29T16:37:00.000-04:00

I've Never Read a Graphic Novel

Charles Burns and Chris Ware discuss graphic novels on the radio show Open Source.

The Dark Pages: An hour of radio dedicated to the graphic novel

In a comment on the program, I came across this:

I am reminded of an anecdote shared by Neil Gaiman in an interview on the PRI program Studio 360. Gaiman was at some literary shindig, and had told some literary bigwig that he made comics. After some awkward conversation, the man brightened and said “Oh, you’re Neil Gaiman! My dear fellow, you don’t write comics; you write graphic novels!” Recalling this, Gaiman said, “I felt like a whore who had just been told that she was a ‘lady of the evening.’”

I hunted down the interview; it can be heard here.

2005-10-24T23:19:00.000-04:00

Access

"The times are changing, and the model of intellectual property that derives from circumstances where only a few people had available the capital to underwrite the mass reproduction of information--that model of intellectual property no longer functions. Interested parties may keep it alive in a declining state of vitality, but the circumstances that supported the model no longer obtain."
-A. K. M. Adam

The Disseminary:
What Theological Educators Need to Learn from Napster

2005-10-21T17:05:00.000-04:00

In Control

Johannah Faith Duggar was born at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and weighed 7 pounds, 6.5 ounces.

"Where is... the funky tattooed intellectual poetess who, along with her genius anarchist husband, is popping out 16 funky progressive intellectually curious fashion-forward pagan offspring to answer the Duggar's squad of über-white future Wal-Mart shoppers? Where is the liberal, spiritualized, pro-sex flip side? Verily I say unto thee, it ain't lookin' good."

-Mark Morford, God Does Not Want 16 Kids

Matt Colvin posted a short, nifty response to this heinous, almost desperate sounding, newspaper column.

Matt wrote,

"For all the author's feigned concern for the well-being of the 16 "hungry" children, and for the overpopulation problem, he is actually distressed about Christians having babies because he fears their cultural influence. It angers him that a Christian couple has 16 Christian kids. He is frightened of the prospect of those 16 kids each having more kids. The author frets, "gay couples still can't openly adopt a baby in most states." Which of course, wouldn't be a concern, were it not for the fact that they can't reproduce in any states."

Reading Matt's response (and, indeed, it was Matt's post that made me aware of the hostile article) reminded me of a Doug Wilson post from last year that has stuck with me since I read it.

The irony is that for thirty years, pro-life Christians have been unsuccessfully trying to dissuade secularists from killing their own replacements, the next generation of secularists. We have failed in this, but in that failure we must come to see the severe judgment of a holy God. And because sin never makes sense, when it finally completely dawns on the secularists what they have succeeded in doing, they will become furious with us. Why? Because we have children, we received them from the hand of God, we loved them, we gave them a real education in the ways of the covenant. As the bumper sticker puts it, "I'm pro-life and I vote. And so do all my kids."

2005-10-21T07:38:00.000-04:00

Imaging the Word

Even if you don't like the project I'm linking to, you have to enjoy the idea of an effete group of artists reading through the book of Leviticus for material to illustrate.

The Flaming Fire Illustrated Bible

2005-10-18T21:30:00.000-04:00

Ollie Ollie Oxen Free

I just finished reading Green Arrow: Quiver, written by Kevin Smith, pencilled by Phil Hester, inked by Ande Parks

Smith's story caters to the fanboy, with references and allusions to Zero Hour, guest appearances by the Phantom Stranger and the Sandman, and an all-around plot atmosphere so steeped in DCU history that it leaves one dizzy (and wanting more).

The most humorous moments are the loving jabs:

Batman: Arrow-Plane. Haven't heard that in ages. You retired it years ago along with the Arrow-Car.
Green Arrow: What about the Arrow-Cave?
Batman: Good Lord, man -- did you ever have an original thought back then?

Occult themes figure large and the theology is terrible, but forgivable, as it's not to be expected that a fictional universe conform to reality. Mostly, the spiritual construct set in place is forgivable because it completely serves the story. This story can only work in the spiritual world that Smith presents and I don't think that he anywhere contradicts any previous DC mythology. And, anyhow, who can accept a DC heaven that does not accept DC heroes?

Click to see larger image

All of the reunion scenes are fun, and I'm sure to start the next collection because I want to find out how Green Arrow rebuilds all of the relationships in his life.

This book is what a superhero title should be: Smith treats the material seriously, almost religiously, all the while laughing at himself, the DCU, and us.

2005-10-08T21:53:00.000-04:00

What is it good for?

"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography."

-Ambrose Bierce

2005-10-06T06:24:00.000-04:00

Endless Numbered Days

"The number eight was, for ancient Christianity, the symbol of the Resurrection, for it was on the day after the Sabbath, and so the eighth day, that Christ rose from the tomb. Furthermore, the seven days of the week are the image of the time of this world, and the eighth day of life everlasting. Sunday is the liturgical commemoration of the eighth day, at the same time a memorial of the Resurrection and a prophecy of the world to come …"
-J. Danielou, The Bible and the Liturgy

Check out Eighth Day Books and request a print catalog.

2005-10-04T15:25:00.000-04:00

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42

This "GOD" fellow evidently has a lot riding on how you do in this week's progressive jackpot.

2005-10-02T16:23:00.000-04:00

Leithart Spotting

Date: 7/24/2005
Title: Prayer
Passage: 1 Kings 17:1-24
Speaker: Peter Leithart

Here is the direct mp3 link:
http://www.trinity-pres.net/audio/sermon05-07-24.mp3

Also, don't miss the Leithart Sunday School lecture from the same day:
1 Kings 22 The Lying God?
http://www.trinity-pres.net/audio/ss05-07-24.mp3

Both files are from Trinity Presbyterian Church of Birmingham, Alabama.

2005-10-01T16:54:00.000-04:00

Compulsory Reading

As I was flipping through a book for class, I came across the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child.

-------
Article 28

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:

(a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all;
------

For anyone that has never questioned the idea of compulsory education, please read this:

Confederacy of Dunces: The Tyranny of Compulsory Schooling
by John Tayor Gatto

"Compulsory schooling has been, from the beginning, a scheme of indoctrination into the new concept of mass man, an important part of which was the creation of a proletariat." -Gatto

Section IX, in particular, was influential in my decision to become a librarian.

2005-09-27T23:07:00.000-04:00

Imago Dei

Interview: Neil Gaiman and Joss Whedon

"...Every now and then I'll do little things, a short story or something, that doesn't have any fantastical elements, but mostly I like the power of playing God and I like to imagine things. You can imagine. It's the power of concretizing a metaphor. Taking something and making it real and making it happen and seeing where it goes. It's a special kind of magic." -Gaiman

2005-09-25T15:50:00.000-04:00

Jones Madrid

I need an excuse to put up this animated gif from Envoy Magazine, so I'm also linking to the short written debate between Douglas Jones and Patrick Madrid on the relationship between Scripture and the Church.

Protestant Link

Catholic Link

2005-09-20T22:10:00.000-04:00

Librarian Humor

Unshelved is not a great comic, but it does, at its best, capture the essence of what's funny (or should be taken more lightly) about librarianship.

Booktalking
(I have to do a booktalk for my YA class)

2005-09-15T23:38:00.000-04:00

Two Web Comics

1) Peter Conrad's Lou's Garage

Peter Conrad's strip, Stymied, morphed into Lou's Garage. I still very much enjoy the strip, but the focus on garage shop humor isn't something that I would normally be interested in if I hadn't already become a Conrad fan through Stymied.

We Don't Talk Anymore

2) Nicholas Gurewitch's Perry Bible Fellowship

PBF is not strictly a web comic, since it has a print counterpart, but I am not fortunate enough to have access to the print version. My favorite example of Gurewitch's dazzling control of the medium of comics is Lord Gloom. It is a perfect strip.

Lord Gloom

2005-09-11T17:41:00.000-04:00

Chicken Bus

Doug Savage's Savage Chickens is enjoyable. I'm not sure why it took me so long to link to. Perhaps soon I'll post links to all of my favorite webcomics (there aren't many).

2005-09-10T20:42:00.000-04:00

Waiting is Over

The New York Times Funny Pages

2005-09-10T08:23:00.000-04:00

RP, Part II

"In regard to the Lord's Supper, I confess that it is an evidence of our union with Christ, since he not only died once and rose again for us, but also truly feeds and nourishes as by his own flesh and blood, so that we are one with him, and his life is common to us. For though he is in heaven for a short while till he come to judge the world, I believe that he, through the secret and incomprehensible agency of his Spirit, gives life to our souls by the substance of his body and blood."

John Calvin, from Brief Form of a Confession of Faith

2005-09-09T15:39:00.000-04:00

Real Presence

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."

-Philip K. Dick, from I Hope I shall Arrive Soon

2005-09-04T18:40:00.000-04:00

Icy Eye

I have never laughed at Flash Gordon before, but the, "RRRRAH...?" of the cyclops today gave me the giggles.

2005-09-04T08:39:00.000-04:00

No Music Lover

Shel Silverstein was a bigger Johnny Cash fan than I am, and that's saying a lot.

Listen to "A Front Row Seat to Hear Ole Johnny Sing"

2005-08-31T19:31:00.000-04:00

Transcendence

Last Monday, I posted a James Gunn reminiscence of the alleged origin of "Sturgeon's Law."

While down in Nanticoke, I pulled an issue of Galaxy (the September 1975 issue, exactly) out of storage and came across a rather complementary quote by Spider Robinson in a review-essay on the "Golden Age" of SF and the then-current (even more so now current) wave of nostalgia and the wealth of quality reprints that such nostalgia demands. While praising the best of the past, Robinson does not tarry there, but instead is optimistic about the future of SF, refusing to relegate the so-called Golden Age to any past era.

"Put down that axe, sir, and let us discuss this like gentlemen. I will concede that we live in decadent times--they don't, for instance, make guitars like they used to. Every area in which individual craftsmanship and professional pride have been phased out has declined, inevitably. But SF is not produced by an assembly line of sullen transients, much as it seems that way at times, and by its nature it cannot help but improve. Mass Man's output gets steadily worse, but things made by and for individuals always get better."

2005-08-30T22:46:00.000-04:00

Righteous or Right?

I'm so outside of the loop as far as current events go, yet I have, of course, heard of the recent Pat Robertson scandal. I have nothing to add to the conversation, but Dave Lily has put up a brief angry post on the subject that I think is worth linking to here.

"To claim authority for his own statements from the actions and teaching of Bonhoeffer left me aghast, pissed off, helpless, speechless, FULL of speech (angry, mostly swear words unfortunately), and likely dozens of other things I didn't even notice. How dare he? Where does he get off?

Bonhoeffer became involved with an assassination attempt on Hitler's life because there are some things greater than one's country. Robertson called the Chavez's assassination because nothing is."

2005-08-29T14:50:00.000-04:00

Ichabod

The Outbursts of Everett True is good stuff. I went from being in a crabby mood after having two consecutive cans of soda falling onto the ground and exploding on me to uncontrollable belly-laughing after reading some Everett True.

Living in a small upper apartment with a pregnant wife and two children made the following strip all the more funny for me.

Race Suicide

2005-08-25T07:41:00.000-04:00

Hearts in the Air

I love my wife and my wife loves me.....

Hey diddy, diddy, diddy, diddy, diddy, dee!

2005-08-25T07:30:00.000-04:00

State Fare

No blogs for me. This weekend is our trip to the NY state fair. Once we return to Buffalo, I'm going to a couple of shows, classes start Monday, and Jonathon Winters will be in town for a short while to play some German board games.

2005-08-24T07:26:00.000-04:00

Invincible Iggy

The Roman definition substitutes for the ancient motto of Tertullian, outside of Christ there is no salvation, and Cyprian’s motto, outside of the church there is no salvation, the motto, “outside the Roman church there is no salvation.” –extra ecclesiam romanum nulla salus. This was meant by the Fourth Lateran council, 1215, when it declared “the universal church of the faithful” to be the body outside of which no one at all is saved—extra quam nemo omnino salvatur. Eugene IV in 1441, affirmed that “the Holy Roman church fully believes that all who are outside of it, Pagans and likewise also Jews, heretics and schismatics cannot become—fieri non posse—partakers of eternal life but will go to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Pius V, opened his fulmination against Elizabeth by declaring that “outside the one holy Catholic and Apostolic church,” over which God has placed the Roman pontiff, “there is no salvation.” In the nineteenth century Gregory XVI added to the statement that men “are saved only in the Catholic religion” the declaration that “those who die in heresy cannot attain to eternal life.” His successor, Pius IX, in his allocutions, December 9th, 1854, and August 10th 1865, announced it to be “a most assured dogma and a matter of faith that outside the Apostolic Roman church it is not possible for anyone to be saved and that those who resist its authority and are obstinately separated from its unity and from St. Peter’s successor cannot obtain eternal life.” The Romanist who ventures to look upon intelligent Protestants as included in the number of the saved defies such utterances (emphasis mine -jro). If the pope is infallible on any matter, he ought to be infallible when he defines the terms of salvation.

from Our Fathers Faith and Ours, by David Schaff

(It is important to note that Schaff deliberately uses the word intelligent before Protestant in contrast to those of us who are "invincibly ignorant".... Oh, to be invincible!)

2005-08-23T06:32:00.000-04:00

Sabbath High

Pews: they are a violation of the regulative principle.

2005-08-22T20:47:00.000-04:00

Trout

Just tonight, I've decided to complete my collection of the Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon. Currently, I own three of the ten volumes. Soon, I'll own all ten.

James Gunn writes:

Of course what became known as Sturgeon's Law was then only a sentence in a talk that Ted gave to the entire convention; total membership was only 750, and there was no need for separate programming. The general thrust of Ted's remarks was that science fiction was the only genre that was evaluated by its worst examples rather than its best. "When people talk about the mystery novel," Ted said, as I remember, "they mention The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep. When they talk about the western, they say there's The Way West and Shane. But when they talk about science fiction, they call it 'that Buck Rogers stuff,' and they say 'ninety percent of science fiction is crud.' Well, they're right. Ninety percent of science fiction is crud. But then ninety percent of everything is crud, and it's the ten percent that isn't crud that is important. and the ten percent of science fiction that isn't crud is as good as or better than anything being written anywhere."

2005-08-17T21:31:00.000-04:00

Bathroom Readers

Spike may be pleased to know that I'm on my way through the 4th chapter of the Desert novel.

I had committed to reading it starting on the 1st of July. Spike, due to circumstances, didn't get it to me to me until several days into July, and by that time my resolve had broken down. I'm still not sure what kind of block I was suffering from, but I've had the same block with many other books that I've put off for a long time.

So far, I am really enjoying it and have only had some quibbles with some phrasing, but don't know that I have any better suggestions.

Anyhow, I brought it into the bathroom to read on the toilet tonight, which is a sure sign of something.

Here's a snippet that I read (and enjoyed) tonight:

"Since when were you going to be a priest?" asked Isaac, as soon as we got in the car.
"Since when I was 12 and foolish," said Frank.
"No sex," said Dennis.
"Yes, but a costume and a purpose," said Frank, "just like a superhero."

2005-08-16T07:28:00.000-04:00

Better dead than red?

I'll most likely be homesteading once debt is paid off (though probably for a long time supplemented with a library job).

I've been impressed with several homesteading communities, some of them kookier than others....

But I think that I've finally found one that might be the perfect match for my family:

The Homestead Project
"To arrive, survive, and thrive"

I can't believe how much land there is out there for the taking!

2005-08-08T18:12:00.000-04:00

Gernsback Galore

The 2005 Hugo winners have been announced.

2005-08-07T16:08:00.000-04:00

Leithart Spotting

Date: 6/5/2005
Title: The Blood of Naboth
Passage: 1 Kings 21
Speaker: Peter Leithart

You can find the mp3 file here:
http://www.reformationcovenant.org/sermon.asp?ID=205

Also:

Leithart's own translation of 1 Kings 21

Written sermon notes

2005-07-31T14:23:00.000-04:00

A Eugenics Catechism

Q. What is the most precious thing in the world?
A. The human germ plasm.

Q. How may one's germ plasm become immortal?
A. Only by perpetuation by children.

Q. What is a person's eugenical duty to civilization?
A. To see that his own good qualities are passed on to future generations provided they exceed his bad qualities. If he has, on the whole, an excess of dysgenic qualities, they should be eliminated by letting the germ plasm die out with the individual.

-American Eugenics Society, 1926

"Society must look upon the germ-plasm as belonging to society and not merely to the individual who carries it."

-Study and Report on the Best Practical Means of Cutting Off the Defective Germplasm in the Human Population, 1912

Find out more about Eugenics at Wikipedia. I couldn't make this stuff up.

2005-07-30T11:35:00.000-04:00

As Large as Life

In 1924, the comics page was the size of a small child. And, yes, that whole page is one strip.

2005-07-29T18:51:00.000-04:00

Here, Hear!

Jonathon Winters wants me to indulge in music list-making with him. I will give in this time, but I won't pass the tag on.

Directions: List your current six favorite songs and then tag six other people to do the same in their journal

(Note: In addition to simply listing the songs, I've uploaded them to YouSendIt so that anyone interested can hear the songs. Same deal as always with YouSendIt: one week or 25 downloads, whichever comes first.)

1) In the Pines - trad. arr. by Huddie Ledbetter

(This song popped into my head as I was walking out of the grocery store yesterday, and it hasn't popped out yet.)

2) In Your Hands - Sounds Like Fall

(I bought this album because I absolutely trust Gallman's taste in music. I'm glad I bought it. This song is a perfect honkeytonk hymn, and reminds me of something that Woody Guthrie may have written late in his life, or that Hank Williams may have written after waking up from a drunken stupor.)

3) Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts - Sufjan Stevens

(I've resisted for a long time, but I've done gone broke down and become an all-out Sufjan groupie with the rest of the world.)

4) Zpivam, Pane mec v ruce mam - Svatopluk Karasek

(Said the Gramophone posted this song early this morning. The lyrics alternate between Czech and English... "I'm singing with the sword in my hand." I can't get it out of my head.)

5) Psalm 45 - The Trees

(I've posted about this song before. It's the greatest psalm rendition I've heard in a long time; it captures the heart of the psalm while expressing an air of medieval festivity in the context of a decidedly American "hippie" scene.)

6) Vengeance, pt. 2 - Wooden Wand

("We will recover, but who can see when; there's never a quiet enough time." The constant refrain of "and god says vengeance is mine" comes as a sober warning, whether Toth understands the words he sings or not.)

That's it. Six.

2005-07-27T22:00:00.000-04:00

Why Here When You Could Be There?

There was a lot of good stuff to be found in the blogosphere today. In case you missed any of this, here's my pointers.

#1) Alastair gives us more to think about regarding Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 4 as a symptom of a much larger problem

#2) Jeff Steel reminds us that we should be praying for the unity of all Christian people

O GOD, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Saviour, the Prince of Peace; Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions. Take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatsoever else may hinder us from GODLY Union and Concord: that, as there is but one Body, and one Spirit, and one Hope of our Calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may henceforth be all of one heart, and of one soul, united in one holy bond of Truth and Peace, of Faith and Charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

#3) Backwards City quotes an Harper's essay on 'The Christian Paradox.' This is the situation that we are in. Forgive me for simply up and stealing the whole quote and placing it here:

Only 40 percent of Americans can name more than four of the Ten Commandments, and a scant half can cite any of the four authors of the Gospels. Twelve percent believe Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. This failure to recall the specifics of our Christian heritage may be further evidence of our nation’s educational decline, but it probably doesn’t matter all that much in spiritual or political terms. Here is a statistic that does matter: Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that “God helps those who help themselves.” That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin’s wisdom not biblical; it’s counter-biblical. Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbor. On this essential matter, most Americans—most American Christians—are simply wrong, as if 75 percent of American scientists believed that Newton proved gravity causes apples to fly up.

...

And therein is the paradox. America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior. That paradox—more important, perhaps, than the much touted ability of French women to stay thin on a diet of chocolate and cheese—illuminates the hollow at the core of our boastful, careening culture.

#4) Crooks and Liars posted a clip of Rick Santorum on The Daily Show. People are criticizing Stewart for going soft on Santorum, but I think that Santorum should be criticized for being too wishy-washy. Santorum, it seems to me (and I don't know much about the man), is part of the natural law crowd. Instead of presenting God's Law, Santorum argues for "what's best for society" yet I'm not sure if he is able to offer compelling reasons why something is best for society.

Far instance, Santorum concedes to Stewart that there can be "virtuous homosexuals." I just can't understand this, unqualified as it is. Would he say that there are virtuous adulterers, virtuous rapists, virtuous thiefs, virtuous murderers, etc? When someone defines oneself and labels oneself as one engaged in a sin, then revels in it and defends it absolutely; is this what Santorum means by virtuous?

Sorry, that's not my major complaint, just a tangent I probably shouldn't have gotten started on.

Anyhow, I enjoyed the interchange between the two and thought that it was rather civil. I'm a big fan of The Daily Show and I'd be watching it often if we had cable television. For now, I have to settle for internet scraps.

#5) Paul Duggan has been posting a very excellent, very readable defense of the power of paper, (sacramental efficacy)first here, and then here.

#6) This one probably shouldn't count since it's almost a week old, but Uncommon Folk put up a song from the new Wooden Wand album. I heard it once and immediately played it at least a half a dozen more times. It's one of those. I'm not sure if I'll order the CD now or wait for the vinyl. Oh, the trials I face!

2005-07-25T02:44:00.000-04:00

Batman for Beginners

About a month ago, after seeing the new Batman film, I linked to a Bob Kane interview on NPR. That short post inspired (enraged is probably closer to the truth) Steve Ely to write a very informative post about Bob Kane's atrocities and the slighting of Bill Finger. I was ignorant of this, and figure that most of you are, too, so here's the link to Steve's excellent short history of the creation of Batman and those involved. I stand corrected of my uninformed assumptions and defer to Steve's expert presentation of the facts.

2005-07-25T01:30:00.000-04:00

Gone Before

I'm pretty pleased with myself for winning Uncommon Folk's "Music Maker Package Giveaway" and am looking forward to receiving the prize.

I've been looking at the Music Maker website (which I had never heard of before) and I really think that it's a worthy organization.

Here's the mission statement:

"Music Maker Relief Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping the true pioneers and forgotten heroes of Southern musical traditions gain recognition and meet their day to day needs. Today, many such musicians are living in extreme poverty and need food, shelter, medical care, and other assistance. Music Maker's aid and service programs improve the quality of recipients' lives. Our work affirms to these artists that we value the gifts of music and inspiration they have delivered to the world."

As a bonus, I found that the organization's newsletter features Pekar/Dumm comics which are mini-bios of different artists.

2005-07-24T18:50:00.000-04:00

RosenCROnig

In honor of Joel and Sonya Dunham having stayed with us for the past four days, I'm linking to:

How to Make a Board Game

2005-07-24T18:10:00.000-04:00

Time and Space

Pickles by Brian Crane is one of the greatest strips running in the papers right now (I know that's not saying much, but I think that it would still be true even if the competition were something fiercer).

.

2005-07-24T16:46:00.000-04:00

Presenting Presby

After attending the FORC synod and spending time listening/talking to my Pastor, last week I picked up my copy of the Westminster Confession to see what was in it regarding Presbyterian polity. I was surprised that there is absolutely nothing in the confession about local church government or the ordering of the "kirk." Chapters 25 through 31 deal with the nature of the Church, the communion of the saints, the sacraments, church discipline, and the authority/lawfulness of the calling of broader assemblies. Yet there is nothing about Presbyterianism vs. Episcopacy, or, more specifically within Presbyterianism, two-office or three-office views. I'm not sure why this is the case, but I'd like to think that it's because the Westminster divines were not willing to make Presbyterial government an article of faith.

After failing to find anything in the confession, I looked at the subordinate documents and there found the "The Form of Presbyterial Church-Government" which was a product of the assembly at Edinburgh, not Westminster. It was this document that the Scottish Kirk subscribed to as far as settling the nature of church government. (I just think that it's interesting to note that it is the product of Scottish church officers in Edinburgh and not the work of the English church officers gathered at Westminster). So, even though I haven't looked at any other documents yet, I now have a better understanding of the form of church government that the Scottish church adopted, and which has affected all subsequent Presbyterian bodies.

The "Form" basically takes a three-office view, though that term may be a bit simplistic because the Form also breaks up roles within offices.
The office of Presbyter is broken up into Pastor and Teacher (or Doctor), yet the Form recognizes that these roles can and indeed must overlap. The distinction is meant to emphasize that there are different strengths and gifts given to different men in the office. Yet there are not two offices of Presbyter, but one.

The Pastor is primarily responsible to:

- pray for and with his flock, as the mouth of the people unto God, where preaching and prayer are joined as several parts of the same office. The office of the elder (that is, the pastor) is to pray for the sick, even in private, to which a blessing is especially promised; much more therefore ought he to perform this in the publick execution of his office, as a part thereof.
- read the Scriptures publickly
- feed the flock, by preaching of the word, according to which he is to teach, convince, reprove, exhort, and comfort.
- catechise, which is a plain laying down the first principles of the oracles of God, or of the doctrine of Christ, and is a part of preaching.
- dispense other divine mysteries.
- administer the sacraments.
- bless the people from God
- take care of the poor.
- And he hath also a ruling power over the flock as a pastor

The Teacher, on the other hand, is primarily one that “excels in exposition of scripture, in teaching sound doctrine, and in convincing gainsayers.”

Though both Pastors and Teachers are both recognized as Elders (Presbyters), equal in authority, there does seem to be a stress in the idea that Pastors exhibit more in the role of oversight (overseer=bishop), while the Teacher’s primary role seems to be teaching (surprise!). Nevertheless, they occupy the same office and the Pastor does not have authority over the Teacher and is not excused from the role of teaching, while the Teacher must practice oversight as well, especially if he is the only officer in the local congregation.

“… where is but one minister in a particular congregation, he is to perform, as far as he is able, the whole work of the ministry”

In addition to the ordained office of Presbyter/Bishop, the Form introduces what I would call elders with a little ‘e’. These elders are non-ministerial men in the local congregation with “gifts for government, and with commission to execute the same” in the government of the church. This position is analogous to those “elders of the people” under the Old Covenant who were “joined with the priests and Levites in the government of the church.”

Finally, the Form presents deacons as “distinct officers in the church … whose office it belongs not to preach the word, or administer the sacraments, but to take special care in distributing to the necessities of the poor.”

“For officers in a single congregation, there ought to be one at the least, both to labour in the word and doctrine, and to rule”

There needs to be at least one officer (Presbyter) in a local congregation. This may be surprising to those that describe Presbyterianism as rule by a plurality of Elders (big ‘e’ or little ‘e’ elders) at the local level. This is true to a certain extent, because “It is also requisite that there should be others to join in government” at the congregational level. “And likewise it is requisite that there be others to take special care for the relief of the poor.” So, the local congregation has to consist of at least one ordained Presbyter/Bishop and is required to have layman elders to join in government and deacons to care for the poor, the number of which is “to be proportioned according to the condition of the congregation.”

That is the basic government, according to the Form, of a local congregation. According to the Form, however, the local congregation is not really a full “church.” This may sound strange to us at first, but there are Biblical examples given to support this distinction.

According to the Form, “It is lawful, and agreeable to the word of God, that the church be governed by several sorts of assemblies, which are congregational, classical, and synodical.”

Congregational Assemblies consist of the ruling Officers of a particular Congregation.

Classical Assemblies consist of a presbytery. “A presbytery consisteth of ministers of the word, and such other publick officers as are agreeable to and warranted by the word of God to be church-governors, to join with the ministers in the government of the church.”

Here’s where it gets interesting, at least to me… (I’m going to quote a huge chunk here)

(Quickly, though, the third type of assembly is Synodical: “Synodical assemblies may lawfully be of several sorts, as provincial, national, and oecumenical.”)

The following is concerning “Classical Assemblies” –

_______________________________________

The scripture doth hold forth, that many particular congregations may be under one presbyterial government.

This proposition is proved by instances:

I. First, Of the church of Jerusalem, which consisted of more congregations than one, and all these congregations were under one presbyterial government.

This appeareth thus:

First, The church of Jerusalem consisted of more congregations than one, as is manifest:

1st, By the multitude of believers mentioned, in divers [places], both before the dispersion of the believers there, by means of the persecution, and also after the dispersion.

2dly, By the many apostles and other preachers in the church of Jerusalem. And if there were but one congregation there, then each apostle preached but seldom; which will not consist with Acts vi. 2.

3dly, The diversity of languages among the believers, mentioned both in the second and sixth chapters of the Acts, doth argue more congregations than one in that church.

Secondly, All those congregations were under one presbyterial government; because,

1st, They were one church.

2dly, The elders of the church are mentioned.

3dly, The apostles did the ordinary acts of presbyters, as presbyters in that kirk; which proveth a presbyterial church before the dispersion, Acts vi.

4thly, The several congregations in Jerusalem being one church, the elders of that church are mentioned as meeting together for acts of government; which proves that those several congregations were under one presbyterial government.

And whether these congregations were fixed or not fixed, in regard of officers or members, it is all one as to the truth of the proposition.

Nor doth there appear any material difference betwixt the several congregations in Jerusalem, and the many congregations now in the ordinary condition of the church, as to the point of fixedness required of officers or members.

Thirdly, Therefore the scripture doth hold forth, that many congregations may be under one presbyterial government.

II. Secondly, By the instance of the church of Ephesus; for,

First, That there were more congregations than one in the church of Ephesus, appears by Acts xx. 31, where is mention of Paul's continuance at Ephesus in preaching for the space of three years; and Acts xix. 18,19,20, where the special effect of the word is mentioned; and ver. 10. and 17. of the same chapter, where is a distinction of Jews and Greeks; and 1 Cor. xvi. 8,9, where is a reason of Paul's stay at Ephesus until Pentecost; and ver. 19, where is mention of a particular church in the house of Aquila and Priscilla, then at Ephesus, as appears, Acts xviii. 19,24,26. All which laid together, doth prove that the multitude of believers did make more congregations than one in the church of Ephesus.

Secondly, That there were many elders over these many congregations, as one flock, appeareth.

Thirdly, That these many congregations were one church, and that they were under one presbyterial government, appeareth.

__________________________________

So, according to the Form above, churches exist on the city-level, and individual churches can, and frequently do, consist of multiple congregations. The whole church, on the city-level, is ruled by a presbytery. This seems to be the heart of the difference between Presbyterial government and Episcopal government, that the church on a broader level (diocese, in Episcospeak) is governed by a presbytery (see above definition) instead of by a single bishop, occupying an office separate and above the other presbyters.

That’s my brief interaction with and summary of “The Form of Presbyterial Church-Government.”

I find interesting and convincing the idea of a single church consisting of multiple congregations. I find the argument for lay elders less convincing and I’m not sure where I stand on the matter yet.

Please, if I’ve made any errors above in summarizing this position, please correct me.

Here’s a good place for a disclaimer, too. If it’s not obvious, I should let all know that the above position is not necessarily my own position. I’ve been settled (relatively so) on many matters related to Reformed Dogma and Doctrine for a few years now, but I am very uncertain and lacking in knowledge in regards to polity.

Anyone that wants to make suggestions regarding books/articles/essays on forms of Episcopal or Presbyterial church government, please do so.

Somewhat related:

Read Joel Garver’s essay Catholicity and Authority.

2005-07-18T17:55:00.000-04:00

Older I Get

"There are those who might insist that whatever we do in church ought to be positive and uplifting. And I suppose such people would have trouble with singing the blues in church."

Yet...

"Singing the blues in church is a matter of honesty."

2005-07-17T22:28:00.000-04:00

Trousers Rolled

This afternoon I listened to an informative lecture on "Reformed Liturgy" by Hughes Oliphant Old. (found on Westminster Theological Seminary's Audio Page)

Old's lecture doesn't really cover specifics of Reformed Liturgy as its title seems to suggest that it would, but it does include lots of general historic background covering the Reformation era.

"The way covenant theology started out among the reformers was a means of understanding the Lord's Supper and Baptism. That is really the root of covenantal theology."

-Old, from the lecture

.

2005-07-12T16:40:00.000-04:00

Arrangement of Words

2005-07-12T15:38:00.000-04:00

Schulz on Trudeau

"GROTH: How do you feel about [Garry] Trudeau's demanding more space [for Doonesbury]?
SCHULZ: [Pause.] That he's not a professional. He's never been professional.

GROTH: How do you mean that?
SCHULZ: I don't think he conducts himself in a professional manner in the things that he does.

MARSCHALL: You're not just talking about the artistry of the strip?
SCHULZ: It's his whole attitude toward the business.

GROTH: You don't admire the strip.
SCHULZ: [Shakes head.]"

(thanks to Mr. Ely)

2005-07-12T15:21:00.000-04:00

Spike quote:

"The secret of the “End Of the World” movies is this – we think we should be the ones that inherit the planet after the warring factions have destroyed everyone else."

2005-07-11T22:05:00.000-04:00

Umberto Eco quote:

"We don't have kings any longer and the few who are still there — they commit the same sins that human beings do.... I think the real Catholics in the days of the Pope's death were at home praying and the people in St. Peter's Square were atheists looking for a king."

(source)

2005-07-10T17:31:00.000-04:00

Wendell Berry Quote:

"I do have an interest in this book, which is for sale. (If you have bought it, dear reader, I thank you. If you have borrowed it, I honor your frugality. If you have stolen it, may it add to your confusion.) Most of the sale price pays the publisher for paper, ink, and other materials, for editorial advice, copyediting, design, advertising (I hope), and marketing. I get between 10 and 15 percent (depending on sales) for arranging the words on the pages.
As I understand it, I am being paid only for my work in arranging the words; my property is that arrangement. The thoughts in this book, on the contrary, are not mine. They came freely to me, and I give them freely away. I have no "intellectual property," and I think that all claimants to such property are thieves."

2005-07-08T21:17:00.000-04:00

Accident?

It's no secret that I love cover music. Any artist covering another artist's song is endlessly fascinating to me.

Everyone probably knows Britney Spears' version of 'Oops! I did it again!', but have you heard Richard Thompson's cover (from his 1000 years of popular music album) of the Spears song?

Oops by Thompson

Enjoy!

I leave early tomorrow on a train to New York City. I'll be sure to report any pig farms that I come across.

2005-07-07T16:41:00.001-04:00

Independence

Following Independence Day, I've seen a lot of writing/reflection on the Revolutionary War/War for Independence. Of them all, Seth Ben-Ezra's recent post is the absolute best. This has been an issue that has been debated on both sides in the National Reform Association for a long time (I was an NRA junkie for a while, going to a conference, buying and reading a decade worth of back issues of The Christian Statesman).
I come down on the issue clearly in favor of Seth's position.

On the American Revolution by Seth Ben-Ezra

2005-07-06T18:40:00.000-04:00

Recovering Hippies

I was browsing one of my favorite music sites tonight (The Unbroken Circle), and I found a really great rendition of Psalm 45 done by a group named The Trees, that I know very little about (besides the review at Unbroken Circle).

You can listen here:

Psalm 45

While I'm at it, I ought to point out that Valerie has recorded a setting of Psalm 107 for J.O. Butler's PsalmCast.

2005-07-04T19:27:00.000-04:00

Vertical Farming

"What is proposed here that differs radically from what now exists is to scale up the concept of indoor farming, in which a wide variety of produce is harvested in quantity enough to sustain even the largest of cities without significantly relying on resources beyond the city limits. Cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and other large farm animals seem to fall well outside the paradigm of urban farming. However, raising a wide variety of fowl and pigs are well within the capabilities of indoor farming. It has been estimated that it will require approximately 300 square feet of intensively farmed indoor space to produce enough food to support a single individual living in an extraterrestrial environment (e.g., on a space station or a colony on the moon or Mars)(35). Working within the framework of these calculations, one vertical farm with an architectural footprint of one square city block and rising up to 30 stories (approximately 3 million square feet) could provide enough nutrition (2,000 calories/day/person) to comfortably accommodate the needs of 10,000 people employing technologies currently available. Constructing the ideal vertical farm with a far greater yield per square foot will require additional research in many areas – hydrobiology, engineering, industrial microbiology, plant and animal genetics, architecture and design, public health, waste management, physics, and urban planning, to name but a few. The vertical farm is a theoretical construct whose time has arrived, for to fail to produce them in quantity for the world at-large in the near future will surely exacerbate the race for the limited amount of remaining natural resources of an already stressed out planet, creating an intolerable social climate."

Read more: VerticalFarm.com

2005-06-25T16:21:00.000-04:00

Danielou in Nanticoke

The following Danielou selection from "The Salvation of the Nations" fleshes out for me Addleshaw's statement that "The Incarnation is not something new."
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Of the Divine Persons, why was it the Word Who was sent forth? Why did not the Father become man? Or the Holy Ghost? This is explained to us by what Scripture, particularly the New Testament, tells us concerning the person of the Word and His relation to the Father. The Word, as His very name implies, Verbum, Logos, is the element of expression in God, whereas the Father is the element of origin and principle. The Father expresses Himself through His Word, Who is His image. As Saint Paul says in an admirable text of the Epistle to the Colossians: “(He) is the image of the invisible God.” Or again, in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “(He is) the figure of His (the Father’s) substance.” Therefore He is, as it were, an image in which God sees Himself and is pleased.

Therefore, it is natural that if, as certain Fathers of the Church have said, the Father is Silence, whereas the Word is Expression – and this is in the eternal generation of the Word, inasmuch as the Father expresses Himself eternally through His Word, prior to all creation – then it is also normal that there should be a special relation between the Word and creation. The Word is the substantial and eternal image of God. Creation is like a reflection of this image, the image of the image, as the Fathers of the Church used to say. That is what we find in the mysterious and pregnant prologue of Saint John that we read every day at Mass: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him.” He was with the Father from all eternity, and it was through Him that everything was created. Or again, as Saint Paul says in the Epistle to the Colossians: “He is the first-born of every creature.” At first glance, this expression seems mysterious to us because the Word is not a creature. He exists eternally. But he is the first-born of every creature in the sense that it is through Him that all creatures were created. And that is why the Epistle to the Colossians adds: “All things were created by him and in him.”

This is very important in stressing the bond that exists between the Word and creation; that is why, when the Word came into the world to save it, Saint John was able to say: “He came unto his own” – His own domain, among His own people – “and his own knew him not.” But, at any rate, He came into His own domain. Thus, when the Word came into the world at the Incarnation, it was not by accident, as if the world had gone on without Him until then, and He had come only at that particular moment. But from its origin the world was His. It was by Him that the world had been made, it was through Him that the world was held together. In consequence, when He came into the world, He came among His own. And on this were founded the various missions of the Word in the world, through which the Word was to come in order to achieve His work, and little by little bring it to fruition.
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2005-06-23T22:52:00.000-04:00

Batman Begins

Listen to an interview with Bob Kane to discover how Batman really began.

2005-06-22T22:03:00.000-04:00

Nude as the news

I don't watch the news (I rarely watch television any longer). I rarely listen to the news on NPR or other radio stations (though I gather news via this method far more often than through any other medium). I buy the newspaper to read the comics and maybe some movie reviews; the rest goes to Abigail and then to the garbage.

Nevertheless, I am well enough acquainted with the news to wholeheartedly agree with this recent Leithart post.

Now you know why you haven't seen me on the news. My power forbids me. Anyhow, back to business...

2005-06-22T20:57:00.000-04:00

Schism

What chance does Orthodoxy have, when Heresy tastes so good?

2005-06-22T20:34:00.000-04:00

six six six

For skooshje, a song...

Science Fiction by Douglas Wilson

This is my official argument in response to your cosmology post.

2005-06-20T06:37:00.000-04:00

Share

I enjoy a lot of things on the world wide web, but one of my absolute favorites is Cory Doctorow's frequent posts on copyright over at BoingBoing.

Yesterday, while plugging his new novel, Doctorow shared a Woody Guthrie quote that should become the mantra of those opposed to current U.S. copyright law...

"Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do."

I'm planning on buying a hard-copy of Doctorow's new novel, but anyone interested can download it for free at his website, then do whatever you want with it! I'm thinking about going to the signing at Bakka Pheonix on my birthday.

2005-06-19T20:12:00.000-04:00

All My Favorite Singers Couldn't Sing

I had been a Pavement fan for a while, but it took Matt Earl to introduce me to the Silver Jews during my student teaching experience, senior year at Houghton. Matt, a member of the Houghton soccer team, all-around popular guy, was also one of the nicest guys I knew at Houghton (Abigail always says, "oh, the elf"). During student teaching we would commiserate, and Matt always kept a bottle of whiskey under the driver seat of his old lemon of a car. Matt gave me a tape copy of the album American Water.

"We are real" is not the best song on the album, but it does contain the best single line on the album (which is the title of this post)...

You can listen to it here:

We are real (note: this is another YouSendIt link that expires in a week or 25 downloads, whichever comes first)

Due to Scott's prompting, I was over at Farmer Buie's blog and left a couple of comments, which I'll re-post here for everyone's benefit (ha!)....

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As far as rock music goes, here are a few comments from the current Bishop of Rome (dating back to when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger):

"On the one hand, there is pop music, which is certainly no longer supported by the people in the ancient sense (populus). It is aimed at the phenomenon of the masses, is industrially produced, and ultimately has to be described as a cult of the banal. “Rock”, on the other hand, is the expression of elemental passions, and at rock festivals it assumes a cultic character, a form of worship, in fact, in opposition to Christian worship. People are, so to speak, released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects. However, in the ecstasy of having all their defenses torn down, the participants sink, as it were, beneath the elemental force of the universe. The music of the Holy Spirit’s sober inebriation seems to have little chance when self has become a prison, the mind is a shackle, and breaking out from both appears as a true promise of redemption that can be tasted at least for a few moments."

Source: The Spirit of the Liturgy, (SF, CA: Ignatius, 2000), p. 148

Where I found it:
Milites Veritatis

"... Rock music seeks release through liberation from the personality and its responsibility ... [it is] among the anarchic ideas of freedom which today [1985] predominate more openly in the West than in the East. But that is precisely why rock music is so completely antithetical to the Christian concept of redemption and freedom, indeed its exact opposite. Hence music of this type must be excluded from the Church on principle, and not merely for aesthetic reasons, or because of restorative crankiness or historical inflexibility."

Source: Address to the XVIII International Church Music Congress in Rome, November 17, 1985, translated as "Liturgy in Church Music" in Sacred Music, Vol 112 No 4 (Winter 1985).

Where I found it: Asia Times Online

Now I'm going to go listen to some Dock Boggs and you should all do the same.

For the record:
I listen to rock music.
I love raw milk.

(I didn't include it in my original comment, but I wanted to half-heartedly tongue-in-cheek suggest that those involved in this debate are closet Papists)
-
and then, my follow-up comment:
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No, I had never listened to Un-Reconstructed. I've now listened to samples available on their website. My opinion, from what I've heard now....
They are good as far as technique and present decent arrangements of 19th century songs, but... they don't have the same soul of a Dock Boggs. I can't imagine anyone writing an article like this about them.

In my opinion, there aren't too many excellent modern interpreters of Anglo-American folk music (though there are some).

If you really care about "old-timey" music, then go to the sources. We're blessed today to have readily available the efforts of early and mid twentieth century men like Alan Lomax and Mike Seeger that went into homes and prisons and countrysides and recorded real people, housewives, murderers, coal miners, singing real songs. We have these recordings, and there is no excuse to not be familiar with them, unless you were even more blessed to have these songs passed down to you by your father and your grandfather and you know them by heart. These songs were our heritage, yet we have been robbed of them, and given a platter of feces in their stead.

I'd suggest starting with Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music if you're interested at all.
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-
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I love folk music, and I'm convinced that folk's true heirs are closer to Drag City than to Rounder.

2005-06-18T11:29:00.000-04:00

Public Nudity

I laughed at today's Borgman offering, and it is funny.

But it's also sad that a climate exists in which this cartoon could be thought up.

What kind of culture produces the atmosphere in which it's deemed abnormal to provide one's child with natural sustenance while out in public?

2005-06-17T19:25:00.000-04:00

Woman's Body = Nuclear Power Plant

My family visited Messiah's Congregation in Brooklyn during our last visit to Long Island. The day we chose to visit happened to be the day of the baptism of Pastor Schlissel's granddaughter, and the gracious host invited us to a barbecue/picnic party celebration. Probably the most memorable part of the day for me was speaking of Eastern Orthodoxy with Schlissel's son-in-law, while perhaps the funniest part of the day to tell others of is that Schlissel initially thought that I was lying to him when I told him that my name is John Owen.

Schlissel is one of my favorite preachers and I have greatly appreciated his having posted over 100 sermons online at SermonAudio, where they can be downloaded for free.

My favorite is a two-part series covering the Book of Samuel, entitled "David: Covenant King."

You can get them here:

David: Covenant King (Part 1)

David: Covenant King (Part 2)

What Schlissel does in these sermons (in my opinion) is convey the Biblical text as Story. He makes plenty of applications, but never strays far from simply telling us a story. What's even more, he sounds like he's enjoying(!) his subject material, and that he himself is actually in awe of David, this man after God's own heart.

I've had these Schlissel sermons for a couple of years and I've listened to them many times, but I just listened to them again during my recent trip back from LI. I was inspired to listen to them once again because I've been reading Samuel and I just recently started listening to James Jordan's lecture series on Samuel before I left last Friday.

The passage relating Absalom's death has especially stuck with me for the past couple of weeks, and I've reflected on it often, mostly wondering about Joab.

postscript.
(The title of this post is only one of the wild, but accurate, analogies that you'll absorb if you listen to the Schlissel sermons. Enjoy!)

2005-06-17T18:07:00.000-04:00

11 hours of party

(from left to right: Nate, Nick, Sorrentino, Parthe, Me)
(photo courtesy of Nick's disposable b&w camera)

2005-06-17T06:10:00.000-04:00

Heart in the air

During my time at Houghton I was introduced to the music of Will Oldham through Dan Kraviewz' (sorry I probably slaughtered your last name) subscription to the SubPop singles club and, subsequently, the Imaginary Cate O'Brien's CD collection (via Ben Gallman who was convinced that she did in fact Exist).
Following leads on Oldham rarities, I struck up a friendly correspondence with a young Dutch lad named Ruben. Ruben introduced me to The Mountain Goats.

In a recent interview for the Willamette Week Online, John Darnielle (who IS the Mountain Goats) exchanges haikus with his interviewer.
For example, examining the new song "magpie" ....
-
Erik Friedlander pushes this short tune along with deft mandolin work while Darnielle warns, "The magpie will come at midday and you will go down on all fours."

Q. Preparing yourself
for an ominous ending
What is the magpie?

A. Only a traitor
undresses his metaphors
As if they were whores
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Unfortunately, I can't find a copy of this song online, but Amazon has four tracks from the new album that you can listen to here.

2005-06-09T22:38:00.000-04:00

Noted

2005-06-09T20:22:00.000-04:00

Quickly falling in love...

...with Thimble Theatre....

(I know that no one will be convinced of the strip's greatness from this one panel, but I posted it here because in the context of the story arc which it represents, it made me swell with laughter)

2005-06-09T19:01:00.000-04:00

The (super)natural

"These precious things
Let them bleed
Let them wash away
These precious things let them break
Their hold over me"
- Tori Amos

I began reading Stephen King's Needful Things a few days ago. I have no significant insights/thoughts right now (if, in fact, I ever do), but figure I'll take this moment to link to two old King-related posts....

The King says:

and

Some thoughts on Salem’s Lot

I'm flying solo down to LI tomorrow night for an old friend's wedding reception, and I'll be driving back up in a surprise vehicle (picture sure to follow!).

2005-06-06T23:05:00.000-04:00

X

A few weeks ago Abigail and I spent part of an evening rapidly browsing through about a year's worth of Speed Bump panels. Very enjoyable.