Posts from November 2018
Silent Night
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”(Luke 2:13-14) Joseph Mohr was born in Salzburg, Austria in 1792. In 1815, he was ordained to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church and served in a number of parishes in the Salzburg area. As of Christmas 1818, he was the assistant priest at St. Nicholas church in the…
Practical Atheism
A news story caught my eye last week. The United Church of Canada, the largest Protestant denomination in the country, reached a settlement in the pending heresy trial of one of their clergy, Gretta Vosper. The General Council of the church released a statement announcing that they had settled all issues with Vosper, and she was allowed to keep her pulpit. Ordinarily, this sort of thing would hardly be worth noticing. In fact, you are probably wondering right now what…
Enter With Thanksgiving
Special times for giving thanks for blessings as well as celebrations of bountiful harvests are ancient traditions in a number of cultures. In the New World, both the Spanish and French conducted thanksgivings in the 16th century. English settlers in Jamestown held a thanksgiving in 1610. But what we consider the “first Thanksgiving” was, of course, held by the Pilgrims in Plymouth Colony in 1621. We all learned about that in elementary school and know names like Squanto and Miles…
Church and State Postscript: What Now?
The election is now behind us. Perhaps you are distraught that the Democrats gained control of the House. Or maybe you are on the other side, upset that they did not gain the Senate too. Or maybe you are one of those in the middle who thinks a divided government is a good thing because it forces compromise. In any case, we have spent multiple weeks laying out fundamental Scriptural principles that should guide us politically: the sovereignty of God;…
Church as Social Strategy
We have attempted to refine our thinking on the relationship between Christians and the government. After laying down some fundamental principles, we moved last week toward application, exploring the mission of the church: to call people out of the world and into the kingdom of God. That leads to a second, closely related observation: attempting to co-opt the government to promote a Christian vision of society is not only the wrong mission, but it is also the wrong method. Political Activism…