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AnotherIrishViking
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Country: United States
State: Massachusetts
Interests: A wide variety of serious and silly matters. I like obscure Puritans the best.
Expertise: 17th Century Puritanism; Post-Reformational Sacramental Theology as it relates to baptism.
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Yahoo:  anotheririshviking
Member Since:
9/9/2004
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| Well hello again! After three plus years, I thought, "Maybe it's time for another blog entry."
Today I taught my World Civilization class on the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church in the 15th century. I explained to the class that it wasn't my intent to undermine their faith, if they were Catholics. My purpose was to lay a foundation for them to understand the need for the Reformation. I was asked after the class what Catholic historians would say. I explained that any honest historian writing from any perspective would say the same things about the history that I did. The man seemed encouraged.
I enjoyed teaching at the college too much. It reinvigorates me each day I teach. My perception is that at least last semester I was able to influence many students for the good. In one of my classes we spent three weeks talking about the Puritan sexual ethic. Now remember, this is a state school in, well, those of you subscribing know where I live. 
Gram went to her back doctor today to get some shots for pain. Sue brought her. Gram seems to be feeling better. She has had a tough winter dealing with the pain.
I am using electronic toy I bought last September. It is NaturallySpeaking voice recognition software. I speak and the text magically appears. I have to watch it closely because it doesn't always understand what I'm saying, though it is getting better. They call it artificial intelligence. But I am not sure if they're talking about the software or me.
A friend of mine told me about Puritanboard.com. It's a discussion board for Reformed and Puritan interests. So far I've made about a dozen posts. 11 of them were in the entertainment in humor section. Only one about Baxter and Tombes was of any substance. It was in a thread dealing with Baptist Successionism. The software had a little trouble with that last word--it originally wrote, succession in him. I'll train it later.
Here in Eastern standard Time we will soon be eating. Thanks for reading. I'm not sure when I'll be back. Most likely it will be after we set up Grams Presto printer.
AIV
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| All--
My brother (yes, there are two of us) sent me the URL for this wonderful exposition of Postmodern thought. Read at your peril!
From: A dangerous place on the web....
—AIV 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The Postmodern Medium-Length Catechism
Being a List of Questions compiled by the Work of divers
Postmodern Divines and edited by Christopher Alexion.
Q1: What is the chief end of humankind?
A: Humankind’s chief end is to promote world peace and enjoy it forever.
Q2: What rule do we have to direct us how we may accomplish this peace?
A: We have but one rule, and that is that we have none.
Q3: What is God?
A: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His design to Bless America.
Q4: Are there more gods than one?
A: There is but one only, though the term includes all religions.
Q5: How many persons are there in the Godhead?
A: As many as we want there to be.
Q6: What are the decrees of God?
A: The decrees of God are the contingent purpose according to the counsel of our will, whereby, for our benefit, He will make all our favorite sports teams win.
Q7: How doth God execute His decrees?
A: God executeth His decrees in the work of watching us exercise our free will.
Q8: Where and how is God to be worshipped?
A: He is to be worshipped at the Washington National Cathedral, in the name of the Father, Mohammed, and Jesus Christ.
Q9: What is the first commandment?
A: The first commandment is, Thou shalt make no Absolute Judgments.
Q10: What is the second commandment?
A: The second is like unto it: Thou shalt accept all views as thine own, and be not Bigoted.
Q11: Are we ourselves Bigoted in our thinking?
A: Not at all.
Q12: Not at all?
A: No.
Q13: Not even a little bit?
A: No.
Q14: No?
A: Absolutely not.
Q15: What is the only redeemer of postmoderns?
A: The only redeemer of postmoderns is the Lord High State, which though the coercer of men, condescended to feel our pain, and so was, and continueth to be, coercer and pain-feeler, in two distinct natures, and one administration, forever.
Q16: Wherein consisteth the humiliation of the State?
A: The humiliation of the state consisteth in its being limited by the Founders, in allowing Terrorist Attacks, and losing Jobs.
Q17: Wherein consisteth the exaltation of the State?
A: The exaltation of the State consisteth in it its overcoming of the Constitution, its rule at the right hand of God, and its creation of Jobs.
Q18: What office doth the State execute toward the redeemed?
A: The State executeth the office of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king.
Q19: How doth the State execute its office as prophet?
A: The state executeth its office as prophet by revealing to us, by the TV news, the will of the State for our salvation.
Q20: How doth the State execute its office as priest?
A: The State executeth its office as priest, in continually offering up tax dollars for social programs, and in delivering us from Hate Crimes.
Q21: How doth the State execute its office as king?
A: The State executeth its office as king, in subduing us to itself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all its and our enemies.
Q22: What is the true method of politics?
A: The true method of politics is, to take a position that avoids all extremes, even as this catechism is neither Larger nor Shorter but Medium-length.
Q23: What is the duty of civil government?
A: The duty of civil government is, in matters important, clemency; in matters unimportant, severity; in all things, neutrality.
Q24: What is the principal threat to neutrality in the civil realm?
A: The principal threat to neutrality is Religious Extremism.
Q25: What is Religious Extremism?
A: Religious Extremism is, the view that certain absolute truths exist independent of the minds of men and women, that if something is true, it is true, and that A and not-A cannot both be true at the same time and in the same sense.
Q26: Who are the two most dangerous proponents of Religious Extremism?
A: The two most dangerous proponents of Religious Extremism are Jerry Falwell and Rush Limbaugh.
Q27: By what means may we defeat Religious Extremism?
A: We may defeat it by allowing it to make no Judgments in the civil realm.
Q28: Is this itself a Religious Judgment?
A: Nope.
Q29: Not at all?
A: Not at all.
Q30: Art thou sure?
A: Absolutely.
Q31: Though the aforementioned Extremism is a vicious crime, does this imply that there is no place for religion?
A: No, for there are the Liberal Churches.
Q32: What are the Liberal Churches?
A: The Liberal Churches are those churches which, to avoid conflict with non Christian thought, and to maintain a High Level of Relevance, have rejected certain Minor points of faith.
Q33: Wherein consisteth the worship of Liberal Churches?
A: Liberal worship consisteth in tolerance, affirmation, lighting of candles, experiencing of religious experience, and the consumption of Goodies.
Q34: What is the Moment of Silence?
A: The Moment of Silence is, a time wherein one may engage in private prayer, meditation, or daydreaming, all while maintaining Religious Neutrality.
Q35: What are the seven deadly vices?
A: The seven deadly vices are, Intolerance, Bigotry, Logic, Extremism, Sexism, Smoking, and making Sin-judgments.
Q36: What is the postmodern view of organized religion?
A: Organized religion is to be carefully avoided (unless at the Washington National Cathedral or in certain Liberal Churches), as are the accompanying matters of liturgies, psalms, and catechisms.
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| THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER
(cut and pasted from an Irish email--author unknown)
OLD VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the
summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his
house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the
summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and
demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed
while others are cold and starving.
CBS, NBC, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering
grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a
table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a
country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody
cries when they sing, "It's Not Easy Being Green."
Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where
the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome." Jesse
then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.
Tom Daschle & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Peter Jennings
that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both
call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share."
Finally, the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act,"
retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing
to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to
pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.
Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a
defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of
federal judges that Bill appointed from a list of single-parent welfare
recipients.
The ant loses the case.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of
the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens
to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't
maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house,
now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once
peaceful neighborhood and are identified as the ones who supplied the
grasshopper with drugs. Government agents bull doze the house as it is
identified as a crack house and send the bill for the demolition charges
to the ant.
MORAL OF THE STORY
Vote Republican
--AIV | | |
| THE JOY OF TRAVEL
Jetlag aside, travel has its own rewards.
I returned last evening from a week-long trip to the Emerald Isle. What a lovely place! The trip was eventful. My host for the first weekend brought me deep into Northern Ireland where we met a recently retired minister. He made us a "hot" curry after we had teased him a bit for reasons I should not post to a public blog. I spoke at a Church in Dundalk on the Sunday. It is a small, but wonderful congregation full of hope and about the business of building Christ's kingdom. The pastor and I travelled down to a conference for Christian workers in Kilkenny. (Why people would call places names to give the impression of a murder, I will never figure out. Although, Kilbarny is one exception I am willing to allow.)
At the conference I met about a dozen and a half men to whom our Church sends literature. It was a delight to hear the responses of the men. On the Wednesday, a friend and I headed out for Abbeyleix (pronounced abbey leaks). We needed to finalize arrangements with a hotel for a conference next June. They offered us a free lunch. We had to settle for prime rib cut right off the bone in front of us.It was a wonderful trip. Thursday saw the car ride up to the airport at Shannon. It was time to head back home, the American cowboy needed to ride into the sunset, on an Aer Lingus Airbus 330.
As I sat in the departures lounge, I saw a US Naval officer standing near the pub-like area. He was holding an oversized briefcase. He looked like some sort of attache. Then I noticed a number of men with ear-pieces. They held an undefined perimeter around another, shorter man. This man had his back to me. I could not tell who he was by his rather ordinary hiarcut and windbreaker. But, a woman was talking to him in an animated manner.
After the woman finished her words, this man turned back towards the men around him. He rolled his eyes ever so slightly. At one and the same moment I recognized who he was. I opened my briefcase, took out the digital camera, walked closer to that area to get a better shot (bad metaphor, perhaps). I took two pictures. He saw me take the second and approached with his hand outsrtetched, saying, "You're too tanned to be an Irishman." I said, Actually, I have dual citizenship." A rather pleasant conversation of 2-3 minutes ensued with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. His offical photographer took our picture together.
Towards the end he asked, "If you could tell the president one thing, what would it be?" I replied quickly, "We need to love our neighbors whoever they might be." Without any delay, he replied, "That's what the president says repeatedly." I went back to my seat. Others came to talk to this man of celebrity. When his collection of attaches and protectors walked over to their gate, Rumsfeld, came over to me to wish me a good flight. I wished him the same. Such was a brush with greatness, well, fame, or if you have contrary politics, infamy. I for one, enjoyed the fleeting but direct nature of our discourse. One never knows the effects of words fitly spoken.
I arrived alive back to my family. My children think I am more famous than when I left. Let's let them have that mythology for a few more years.
Thanks for listening, ahh, reading....
AIV
PS If I can figure out how to add a photo, I'll post the ones I took.
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| A RANT:
THE DANGEROUS EXTREME OF HYPER-COVENANTALISM
Individual anecdotes are not normative, but illustrative of the fruit of men’s labors. The fruit of a belief will be seen in how it manifests itself in practice. Ideas have consequences, intended or not. Let me illustrate.
The background: A friend with whom I attended seminary called me recently to discuss a matter effecting the life of the Church he presently pastors. The Church is a Presbyterian Church. My friend has always been a traditionally conservative Presbyterian pastor holding to all of the Westminster Standards—even the Directory for Publick Worship, yes, ending it with a "k". His recent experience struck at the heart of how the infant’s interest in the Covenant of Grace via the Abrahamic Covenant is working itself out in some covenantal Presbyterian or paedobaptist circles.
The anecdote: A young woman in her late teens had become a nightmare to her "Christian" parents. She was disruptive at home and rebellious to all the authorities in her life. Her Church prayed for her regularly over the course of almost two years. So regularly they prayed that it seemed to the pastor that the congregation had given her over as a hopeless cause. They had become desensitized through familiarity with her condition. A Christian friend of this young woman from her school the previous year showed a concern for her. She "reached out to her with a lifeline" as the evangelical cliché says. This friend invited her to a Church other than her family’s where there were special summer evangelistic meetings. The subject agreed to attend. The rebellious one was struck by the force of the preaching and made a public profession of faith. (Let’s not get lost in a visceral reaction to poor methodology at this point.) Late that night, she went home. She announced to her parents with tears of repentance interspersed with her words that everything was going to be okay from now on because she was now a Christian. "She got saved." Sounds good, doesn’t it?
The "Christian" father went into a tirade. He had presumed his daughter was already regenerate by virtue of her election and her place as a "Covenant child." He would not be shown to be wrong. He had already prfessed faith for her at her baptism almost two decades earlier. His hyper-covenantal theology blinded him to the possibility that his daughter could have been unregenerate. In his view, she had "…broken the covenant again" by making a such a public profession of faith. What might have been a merciful answer to the church’s prayers was perceived as a greater evil than her two years of outward rebellion. For this act she was cast from the home. It was the proverbial last straw. The father’s real grief, his child had become "A [expletive deleted] Baptist."
With those not-so-tender words the father conveyed his horror to his pastor, my friend. For the first time in his ministry, my friend saw the consequences of "Pressing too much out of covenant theology." He asked in desperation, "What’s a pastor to do?" Since he knows my dry sense of humor, I replied, "Become a Reformed Baptist."
Dear friends, be careful! Many are on the precipice leaning towards this same error. In the next decade, it will be a defining issue of orthodoxy. IT is a new liberalism; a challenge to Westminsterian Reformed theology. Men, women and children are Christians by virtue of regeneration--not procreation. They are the spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham only if and when THEY are brought by the power of God to believe the gospel of grace.
AIV | | |
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