But many of Mr. DeLay’s actions remain legal only because lawmakers have chosen not to criminalize them.

Such wisdom! This is obviously why we need the mainstream media to keep us all straight. (HT: Volokh and Pursuing Holiness) Related Posts: Copyright Trolls Justice Thomas on Citizens United On Merry Christmas from Last Year Burned Out Pastors A Good Politician Powered by Contextual Related Posts ]]> From the New York Times editorial today:

But many of Mr. DeLay’s actions remain legal only because lawmakers have chosen not to criminalize them.

Such wisdom! This is obviously why we need the mainstream media to keep us all straight.
(HT: Volokh and Pursuing Holiness)

C. S. Lewis is, of course, a brilliant writer. I enjoy reading even those things with which I disagree, and not just because I like to be challenged. [...]]]> There’s an article in the Touchstone archives by Bishop Wright which I find very interesting, largely because it expresses some of my own feelings regarding Lewis.

C. S. Lewis is, of course, a brilliant writer. I enjoy reading even those things with which I disagree, and not just because I like to be challenged. He simply uses the language brilliantly. I would also say that the book Mere Christianity played a role in my Christian life both when I was a student, and then when I was returning to church. At the same time, I don’t use a great deal of the apologetics that Lewis used in supporting my own faith in discussions with others. The trilemna, for example, doesn’t work for me as an argument for the divinity of Jesus. It does help clarify things, I believe, at a certain point, but it is not, in itself, convincing.

I have also observed what Wright notes as well, that C. S. Lewis, though often embraced by conservative evangelicals, was not one himself. I would note that even from my more liberal perspective, I find Lewis’s view of inspiration to be a bit beyond where I want to go. Nonetheless, I think I can understand the value of Lewis to evangelicals in that he makes some fairly viable statements on some of the essentials, and he provides us with expressions of many other ideas that are valuable in themselves.

All in all, thanks to Bishop Wright for helping clarify some of my own thinking about one of my favorite authors. (Wright himself is another, though he tends to be a little less delightful in style!)

But I hadn’t blogged about it. Allan Bevere did so on [...]]]> I live on the Gulf Coast, but I’ve continued to go to BP gas stations. Yes, I deplore what has happened, and the negligence involved, though I think our national push for more and cheaper oil is an underlying cause of the problem.

But I hadn’t blogged about it. Allan Bevere did so on his blog. I agree with him completely.

What I have been coming to realize over the years is that there is simply no one way to do church. …

You need to read the whole post at Parchment and Pen to get the real drift of what he’s saying, complete with evangelical discomfort with a [...]]]> From C. Michael Patton:

What I have been coming to realize over the years is that there is simply no one way to do church. …

You need to read the whole post at Parchment and Pen to get the real drift of what he’s saying, complete with evangelical discomfort with a seeker sensitive service, a discomfort I share to some extent. I do think he makes some excellent points for people on both sides to consider.

On the one hand, advocates of seeker sensitive worship should take to heart the points about discipleship. Christian discipleship is not really all that seeker sensitive!

On the other, many do well to consider why people come to hear the gospel under some circumstances, but not others.

That version, however, has been replaced in committee. I’m going to do something I don’t usually do, and put in a “tear line” so this won’t [...]]]> I wrote about this before, and commented that it seemed to accomplish nothing–nothing, that is, except to possibly encourage some school boards to tangle with the federal courts.

That version, however, has been replaced in committee. I’m going to do something I don’t usually do, and put in a “tear line” so this won’t get too long, as I intend to quote both versions of the bill in full:

First, the bill as introduced:

1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to public education; creating s.
3 1003.4505, F.S.; authorizing district school boards to
4 permit the delivery of an inspirational message at a
5 noncompulsory high school event; providing purpose;
6 providing an effective date.
7
8 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
9
10 Section 1. Section 1003.4505, Florida Statutes, is created
11 to read:
12 1003.4505 Inspirational message.–
13 (1) District school boards are authorized, but not
14 required, to permit the delivery of an inspirational message,
15 including a prayer or an invocation, at a noncompulsory high
16 school activity, including a student assembly, a sports event,
17 or other school-related activity, if a majority of the
18 participating students request the delivery of an inspirational
19 message and select a student representative to deliver the
20 message.
21 (2) The purpose of this section is to provide for the
22 solemnization and memorialization of noncompulsory high school
23 events and ceremonies. This section shall not prohibit a school
24 or school official from disciplining students in regard to
25 unprotected speech or behavior that is inappropriate or
26 disruptive.
27 Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2010.

I don’t see anything in there that authorizes anything a school board couldn’t do already under Florida law, provided, of course, that they were in compliance with federal law. And of course the Florida legislature can’t change federal law.

Now here’s the committee replacement:

1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to public education; creating s.
3 1003.4505, F.S.; prohibiting district school boards,
4 administrative personnel, and instructional personnel from
5 taking affirmative action that infringes or waives the
6 rights or freedoms afforded by the First Amendment to the
7 United States Constitution in the absence of certain
8 consent; providing an effective date.
9
10 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
11
12 Section 1. Section 1003.4505, Florida Statutes, is created
13 to read:
14 1003.4505 Protection of school speech.—District school
15 boards, administrative personnel, and instructional personnel
16 are prohibited from taking affirmative action, including, but
17 not limited to, the entry into any agreement, that infringes or
18 waives the rights or freedoms afforded to instructional
19 personnel, school staff, or students by the First Amendment to
20 the United States Constitution, in the absence of the express
21 written consent of any individual whose constitutional rights
22 would be impacted by such infringement or waiver.
23 Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2010.

I’m skipping the second substitute which was less all-encompassing. Now I’d be interested in hearing from readers who have more legal background than I do, but this one looks a great deal like a bill that tells school boards not to violate the constitution, which should be pretty obvious to start with. I have no doubt, however, that the legislators will play this to their constituents as protecting things like prayer at public school gatherings, when they know that nothing has changed with regard to that. The federal courts will rule and that will be that.

It all seems like a waste of the tax payer’s money to me. Of course, if they weren’t doing this, the legislators would likely be causing more mischief elsewhere…

Now the fact is that my experience differs from [...]]]> Adrian Warnock issued a 10 day empty grave challenge, asking Christian bloggers to write about the resurrection at some point before Easter. Even though I have yet to read his book (I’ll get to it sometime!), I thought I’d take him up on his challenge.

Now the fact is that my experience differs from Adrian’s in that I have found that most churches I have attended tend to be pretty happy about the resurrection, but much more likely to neglect the cross. They have generally been quite happy to discuss the resurrection without any concern for why it was necessary. Unfortunately, however, I believe that if one neglects the cross one can hardly fully understand the resurrection.

A song from my youth, Henry de Fluiter’s Homesick for Heaven:

I’m homesick for heaven, seems I cannot wait,
Yearning to enter Zion’s pearly gate;
There never a heartache, never a care,
I long for my home over there.

I may seem to be deviating from the topic, but I grew up with this concept. A desire for the coming of God’s kingdom is a kind of standard in Christian discourse. We want to go to heaven, with the obvious subtext “not too soon.”

Now I had always thought that I really was homesick for heaven. But it took the time when my son was sick and death was threatening to teach my what homesickness really meant. I am aware that I bring up this one incident constantly in discussing, but living through the death of a child is an event that will change your life for better or worse.

But the experience that I relate to the resurrection is not death, but an earlier time in our experience. James had gone through surgery to remove one lung, and was in intensive care. Prior to the surgery I had committed to teach a series each Sunday for a month at a church about 2 1/2 hours away, at least as I drive. The pastor told me he’d understand if I canceled, but he wasn’t going to withdraw the invitation.

Saturday night I stood by James’s bed side and dithered as to whether I could make it. James was trying to say something to me, but was muffled by the tubes, so I came closer so I could hear. He said one word to me: “Go!”

I went. On those trips I was sustained by the music of the kingdom. I recall in particular one song, “Singing with the Saints” –

I’ll be be sitting at the throne with an angel band,
Shoutin’ hallelujahs to the great I am
If you think it’s a dream, well it ain’t
I’ll be singing with the saints.

I played that music loudly all the way. One of those Sundays–I don’t think it was that first one because James was able to talk to me–my wife Jody tried to call me on the cell phone as I drove and I didn’t hear it ring. When I did notice the call and called back they were shocked that I had missed the call due to the music. You see, I very rarely listen to music that loudly.

But in that experience there were moments when I sensed I could feel the grass of the fields of heaven. I felt a homesickness for that land that I had never felt before. I understand that others whose view of life and whose faith (or lack of it) differs from mine. I know that they too endure great difficulties and come through them. But for myself, it was that part of my faith, not particularly the future hope, but the moments experiencing eternity here and now that sustained me. I realized that I was a native of that kingdom for just a moment. As St. John Chrysostom said of the patriarchs:

What then? Did they mean that they were “strangers” from the land that is in Palestine? By no means: but in respect of the whole world: and with reason; for they saw therein none of the things which they wished for, but everything foreign and strange.

Before that I only thought I was homesick.

I’m reminded of a quote from Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy, p. 37:

…The Eucharist has so often been explained with reference to the gifts alone: what “happens” to bread and wine, and why, and when it happens! But we must understand that what “happens” to bread and wine happens because something has, first of all, happened to us, to the Church. It is because we have “constituted” the Church, and this means we have followed Christ in His ascension; because He has accepted us at His table in His Kingdom; because, in terms of theology, we have entered the Eschaton, and are now standing beyond time and space; it is because all this has first happened to us that something will happen to bread and wine.

In worship we are not merely commemorating historical events, or looking forward to future events, but we are experiencing our true homeland. When we truly get a taste of that true homeland it changes who we are and the way we look at the world.

When we study and meditate on the resurrection, I believe it should take us through that journey. We cannot do so without Good Friday and Silent Saturday. The first reminds us of the nature of evil and of the hardships we all encounter. It reminds us of the price of the kingdom. Silent Saturday is that time of waiting. Victory doesn’t come in an instant, but requires patience and determination. Easter Sunday is the victory of the kingdom.

I’m also opposed to those who think Israel is always right. But [...]]]> Brian McLaren links to this article at the Huffington Post. It may be inconvenient, but is it truth? (I guess I need to tell my readers that I often like what Brian McLaren has to say, but then there are these moments.)

I’m also opposed to those who think Israel is always right. But there is some weird thinking that goes on in deciding who is oppressed and who is the oppressor in various circumstances. Here in America we threw a multi-year temper tantrum after a few thousand deaths. We decided it was alright to invade Iraq over this, which oddly enough had nothing to do with that terrorist attack. I’ll note that the international community generally supported us in Afghanistan, which did have something to do with it, yet quite justifiably (in my opinion) were more reluctant to do so in Iraq.

Yet Israel is supposed to just take it. Israel’s enemies, in general, negotiate on the basis that Israel has no right to exist at all. Laying aside all arguments over the validity of Zionism, ask yourself whether it is reasonable to expect the Israeli government to negotiate on the basis that it has no right to exist.

I think there are many things that the Israeli government has done that are not good. I don’t believe our policy must be attached to Israeli policy. We can be independent. I don’t support unilateral extension of settlements. The issue I have here is with making Israel the exclusive bad guys.

Yet at the same time we need to recognize reality on both sides. Israel faces a much greater terrorist threat than we do, and many of those terrorists would not be satisfied unless Israel ceased to exist. Your actions in your own defense might change if you faced such a threat.

Just look how ours changed when we faced a proportionally much smaller threat.

What would happen if we “let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everlasting stream” (Amos)? It wouldn’t work out very well for me.

This one hits [...]]]> Why? My pastor, Geoffrey Lentz, says it’s because following Jesus in social justice is hard and demanding and might mess up our lifestyes:

What would happen if we “let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everlasting stream” (Amos)? It wouldn’t work out very well for me.

This one hits us right where it hurts!

Mainline Protestant Christianity has become known for leaving people in slavery, because somewhere along the way, our strategy changed from leading people out of Egypt to planting churches along the Nile. And that’s why mainline denominations continue to lose members. People don’t need churches to help them stay in [...]]]> From the Wesley Report:

Mainline Protestant Christianity has become known for leaving people in slavery, because somewhere along the way, our strategy changed from leading people out of Egypt to planting churches along the Nile. And that’s why mainline denominations continue to lose members. People don’t need churches to help them stay in slavery– they can do that by themselves!

Don’t get it? Go read the whole thing.