Gottesblog

This is a great poem. But as soon as I read it, I was sad. Do you think that could be published in the New Yorker today? I don't think so - because the average literate American would no longer understand even these straightforward Biblical allusions.

I'm scheduled to be on with Rev. Todd Wilken of Issues, Etc., to talk about the recent public prayer case decided by the US Supreme Court, Town of Greece v. Galloway. Tune in today, or listen to the podcast at your convenience anytime at issuesetc.org.

So the Supremes refused to say stop (in the name of love) to prayers at town council meetings. But only if the pray-ers try to be "inclusive" and because, well, nobody really means it anyway.

"O God, save us from the fury of the Northmen!" And then, all of a sudden, the Northmen weren't so bad. They got baptized. They started building churches instead of sacking them. They replaced Beowulf's moral code of blustery boasting (reminiscent, as Prof. Balot used to say, of both Homer's Achilles and any ganga rapper) with the code of chivalry. 

It's been a while since I ran the stats from Call Day, but this year I’m feeling nostalgic as this marks the tenth year since I was one of those fourth year students waiting to hear of his fate. And how things have changed in that decade! There were 144 (an even gross) in my first year class. By the time we made it to call day, that had been culled down to 120 or so. This year saw 57 men placed from our Synod’s larger seminary.

Here is another fine example of why I have been on an Anglican kick in my theology readings. This short piece was penned by Rev. Dr. Thomas Swadlin in 1657. He puts Presbyterians to one side, Romanists to the other, and asserts that he stands in the middle as a "Catholique."