Commercial for Higher Things?

 From the National Youth Gathering, man.  Groovy and far out!

By contrast, here is a little soul-bleach: Higher Things 2022.

Gotta Love His Enthusiasm...

 From the National Youth Gathering...

The Society of You-Know-Who?

Imagine a religious order named after our Lord Jesus Christ being ashamed to say "Merry Christmas." 

Imagine this order within Roman Catholicism blandly and cowardly referring to Christmas, the incarnation of our Blessed Lord, as merely a celebration of "connection and togetherness" and that we should use this time to "reflect on the power of coming together" (without ever mentioning Christ).  Imagine a popular and well-respected member of this order scandalizing the faithful by openly calling for the recognition of same-sex "marriage" in open rebellion against canon law and the Holy Scriptures.  Imagine hundreds of members of this order being discovered to be sexual deviants and pederasts, with hundreds more covering for them for decades.  Imagine a university run by this order including a line immediately under a person's email signature line to indicate one's preferred "Pronouns." 

Imagine the chaos in the Roman Catholic Church if a member of this order ever became pope.

Well, we don't have to imagine.

Maybe this order should change its motto from AMDG (Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam - for the greater glory of God) to RBL in honor of Churchill's apocryphal quip about the Royal Navy.

Clearly this order, the Jesuits, that is, the Society of Jesus (S.J.) is ashamed of Jesus.  And I surmise that Jesus is terribly ashamed of them too.  Maybe they could use a new name for their (dis)order, maybe something with the initials S.S.

I used to respect the Jesuits as scholars.  But now I think they are intellectual and spiritual frauds: just a bunch of sad, pathetic, dirty old lechers looking for young men to take advantage of.  They make me sick.  They are unworthy of the name that is above every name.

I have a class ring from Walsh Jesuit High School.  I don't think I ever want to wear it again.

Fight the Stupids!

A lot of classic works of literature are proving to be prophetic in our day and age.  Our 21st century American culture and political life are growing more and more to resemble Orwell's 1984, Huxley's Brave New World, Rand's Atlas Shrugged, Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and other seminal works of art.

I would also include one that resonates with me as a Christian pastor trying to shepherd people in Christ's Church amid the decay and normalization of the rot, and that is the insightful apocalyptic novel Father Elijah by contemporary Canadian wordsmith and raconteur, the traditionalist Roman Catholic author Michael O'Brien.

And then there is Mike Judge's satirical film Idiocracy, which has become eerily prescient of our own breakneck cultural decay a mere eight years after its release.  Things that seemed over-the-top crazy in 2006 have nearly become downright quaint in 2014.

Today's Drudge Report headlines could have stepped right out of many of these works that predicted the unraveling of western civilization into a quivering ball of anti-intellectual animalistic mush.


These current headlines include:

• Outrage over LAPD's state-of-the-art spy drone
• BRAIN DRAIN: IQ scores decreasing
• Mob tackles airline employees as ticket giveaway descends into chaos
• Debut 'SPIDER-WOMAN' Cover Slammed as Sexist Due to Butt Shot
• 'DATING NAKED' sued by cast member -- for showing her naked!
• 'SEX BOX' Reality Show to Put Couples on Display
• HBO defends scenes of violence and rape
• 'Performance Artist' Vows To Have Sex With Someone New Every Day
• Sex-Crazed Narcissist
• CHENEY: Obama Would 'Rather Be On Golf Course' Than Situation Room
• All Smiles And Fist Bumps
• Doctors baffled by rise in penis birth defect
• Spanish senator blames national debt on homosexuals
• Hook-Up Culture at Harvard, Stanford Wanes Amid Assault Alarm

This is our Brave New World, where ignorance is strength, a sensationalistic (and yet bored) culture of casual orgies and mind-numbing pharmaceuticals and lack of interest in books and in thinking, a society that rewards sloth and mooching, where good is evil and evil is good.  We live in that culture in which plants are figuratively believed to crave electrolytes, and to suggest otherwise is to invite ridicule from one's mouth-breathing "superiors."

Having said all of that, I believe I'm going to apply the cure suggested by Mrs. Hollywood: a daily dose of Anthony Esolen.  Go here.  Read an essay every day.  And even if you are not Roman Catholic or not Christian, give Dr. Esolen a shot anyway.  Your mind will thank you.  He is eloquent, uses our language as an art form, and writes with his mind directed at that which is good, beautiful, true, transcendent, and uplifting. Even in matters of disagreement with him, what a delightful alternative to the incessant pipeline of cultural bilge that flows unabated (and in fact, invited) into our inboxes and news-feeds incessantly.  We do not have to yield to the forces of barbarianism.  We can choose to be civilized.

In the words of the slogan of a local bookstore: "Fight the stupids!"

Two Perspectives on Life

Gen 1:27

(use the cc button at the bottom to turn on English subtitles)

John 13:35

 

HT: Lew Rockwell blog.

An Unwelcome Pulmonary Visitor

I had a small piece of boiled egg "go down the wrong pipe" - which sent my body into a tizzy.  The lungs are not made to digest food, and sometimes, weird things can happen when things get out of wack.

The above article also shows the tenacity of life, especially given the Creator's implantation of DNA and life's ability to germinate and survive in the most extraordinary circumstances.

I wonder if the guy was able to keep the plant alive?

Awesome Office Meltdowns!

Life imitates Art?

So, let me get this straight...

The president of the United States, the champion of "the little guy" and small businesses - who himself smokes cigarettes on the sly and wolfs down all kinds of things his wife tells the rest of us "little guys" we shouldn't eat - (and who also gets campaign funds from Big Tobacco) signs into law (smuggled in a (cough) "transportation bill") an act that puts small cigarette businesses out of business, causing "little guys" to lose their jobs - all at the behest of Big Tobacco, their lobbyists, and their allies in government.

And this was done with the full aid of the "opposition" party that claims to be for economic freedom, "job creation," and personal liberty.

Yes, this sounds just like an Ayn Rand novel...

Speaking of the sale of ULC...

Nuff said!

American Royalty and a Missed Opportunity

No wonder people spend millions of dollars making promises they could never keep to the American people  in order to become president and first lady, or should we say king and queen of America.  It's a pretty good gig!

I would love to be there for pizza with His Royal Highness in Detroit next Wednesday, but I'm having the oil changed in my Learjet that day, and I'm also expecting Bill Gates and the Sultan of Brunei over for beanie-weenies served on solid platinum saucers.  I do hope somebody is bringing the Dom Perignon, especially after I just bought brand new matching tumblers from WalMart (Biden tipped me off about the rollback...).

Ah, what is a good American to do?  I'm so disappointed.

Note to self: be sure to have regrets sent engraved by hand on solid gold plates and delivered by the butler as soon as he returns from the French Riviera (good help is so hard to find these days).

Opulence, he has it!

 What the people think the bishop had on his wrist

What the bishop really had on his wrist

This surreal article made me think of the video below...





And this one too...



A good "reflection" or bad?  Epic win, or epic fail?  Does the bishop have any lap giraffes?

The Remarkable Dr. Iris Mack

Dr. Iris Mack grew up in a housing project in New Orleans and has a truly remarkable story.

Even without the obstacles she overcame, just looking at her list of accomplishments is extraordinary and inspiring:

• High school valedictorian
• Double Bachlor's degrees from Vassar in Mathematics and Mathematical Physics
• MS in Mathematics from UCLA (Research Fellow at Bell Laboratories and holder of a patent in fiber optics)
• Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard (only the 2nd black woman to earn this doctorate from Harvard).  Dissertation: "Block Implicit One-Step Methods for Solving Smooth and Discontinuous Systems of Differential/Algebraic Equations: Applications to Transient Stability of Electrical Power Systems"   
• Executive MBA from the London Business School
• Investment banker
• Professor at MIT, University of San Francisco, and Clark Atlanta University
• NASA astronaut semifinalist
• Lecturer in London, Paris, and Zurich
• Whistleblower at Enron
• Tangled with two former treasury secretaries of the United States (Rubin and Summers)
• Correctly informed Harvard of the impending disaster facing its endowment because of risky derivatives (they not only didn't listen to her, at the cost of billions of dollars, but also fired her)
• Founder and CEO of Phat Math - a comprehensive approach to mathematical education
• Author of Mama Says "Money Doesn't Grow on Trees!" (available on Kindle for $2.99 here!) and currently writing Energy Trading and Risk Management as part of a multi-book deal with Wiley Publishing House
• She is also into serious weight training, running, and amateur aeronautics
• She currently works as an investment banker in London and speaks Spanish and French

More details here.  Her insights into economics and involvement in political matters can be read here.

And by the way, you may wonder who someone of Dr. Mack's economic insight and real-world experience is endorsing during this presidential election cycle (certainly no tinfoil-hat wearing racist kook, to be sure).  You can read about it here in Dr. Iris Mack's own words.  She believes that he is "the only presidential candidate who understands the current dire straits the economy is in and the only one with a coherent plan to fix things.... the only non-elitist candidate and the only candidate that would put the country back on the road to liberty."  Pretty high praise coming from someone of her caliber!

Where does this road end? And when?

Sobering.  Q: How long can we "kick the can down the road" spending "money" we don't have on a worldwide trillion-dollar empire of military bases abroad, and a spiralling ponzi-scheme of entitlements at home, desperately begging and borrowing from China (and whoever else will buy our increasingly risky debt) and printing money out of thin air to "pay" for it all?  A: Until the road ends.

Where women's "ordination" leads

This article about a recent conference (featuring a priestess of the goddess Isis) at a "Lutheran church" (sic) - a member congregation of the ELCA (not affiliated with the LCMS) - is an honest explication of what, and who, is behind the recent phenomenon of women's "ordination."  It is also an indictment of the leadership of the ELCA to not only tolerate this kind of thing year after year in one of their congregations, but to actually encourage it by allowing one of the "church's" leading scholars to participate (a point cogently made here by ELCA member Dan Skogan).

Here is a link to the conference.  Here is a link to the "church."  And here is a link to the Isis temple.  This is a crystal-clear confession of feminist theology.  At least they are being honest about it.

I know that we're not really in a position to throw stones, but when the name "Lutheran" is attached to pagan goddess worship, it affects us whether we like it or not.  Kyrie eleison!

If this were going on in Afghanistan...

HT: Lew Rockwell

So, could I just...

I'm getting a lot of requests for baptisms lately.

But it's not necessarily good news.

Just today, I got a call from a guy who lives about an hour away and would like his children "christened" at Salem Lutheran Church  "Christened."  That's always the first clue.  He said the name of his home church quickly, and then explained that his parents live in the area and that it would be most convenient to "just do it there."  So, could I just do the baptism?

I slowed him down and found out that he belongs to a Presbyterian church.  I told him that we do have Presbyterian churches in the area and that it would be best to find out which one is in fellowship with his church.  He insisted that Salem Lutheran would be more convenient, and that Lutheran and Presbyterian is really the same thing anyway.  So, could I just do the baptism?

I explained to him that Lutherans and Presbyterians do have some fundamental differences.  I briefly explained, for example, the difference between our views on the Eucharist.  He said that he was christened a Catholic and had no problem with our view of the Sacrament.  So, could I just do the baptism?

I recommended that he find a church that believes the way he believes.  I asked him which denomination of Presbyterian his church belonged to.  He didn't know.  He explained that did not pick that church based on belief, but based on the fact that they are convenient and have a really good school.  Belief really isn't the issue.  So, could I just do the baptism?

I explained that if I were to baptize his children, they would be under my pastoral care.  They would be Lutherans.  He replied that this would be fine with him.  He would have no problem being a Lutheran.  He didn't know what Lutherans believe, but he was certain that he would be fine with it.  But he really likes to go to the Presbyterian church because it's so convenient. And they have a really good school.  So, could I just do the baptism?

I felt like I was stuck in one of those Rev. Hans Fiene Lutheran Satire cartoons complete with the monotone computer voices, circular reasoning, the astonished silent blinking pastor, and Offenbach's Can Can music.

So, could I just do the baptism?

When Bureaucrats Attack - a few thoughts on ULC and the Real Mission of the Church

University Lutheran Chapel - soon to be a parking lot?

"Developing missional leaders in congregations and schools."
   - the mission statement of the Minnesota South District

The shocking and appalling behavior of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod's Minnesota South District in selling the campus of a vibrant church in a naked land- and money-grab should serve as a reminder of what the Church's purpose is.  It should also reiterate what our priority is as the Body of Christ.  It should also serve as a warning to each and every congregation of the LCMS of the nature of bureaucracy and the dangers it holds to the Real Mission of the Church as a whole and of individual parishes.

The purpose of the Church, carried out in individual churches, is to deliver the forgiveness of sins won for the world by the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ through His chosen means: word and sacrament.

In so doing, we have communion with one another and communion with God.  And we Christians can then live out our lives as forgiven sinners by working together - preachers and hearers - to serve the mission of bringing this good news to our neighbors.  To be truly "missional" is to invite the world to join us in being "sacramental."  It is done by the Lord's chosen means, not by the world's entertainments.

In any such endeavor, there will always be a certain amount of necessary paperwork and bureaucracy.  Coordinating efforts in training pastors and supporting missionaries has created a need for a structure that binds together congregations - and all structures require management.  Traditionally, church management has been run by churchmen - ordained pastors who continue to serve at altars and pulpits in the ordained ministry while exercising what scripture calls "episkope" - oversight.

And as Lutherans, we have learned from our own original history as a distinct communion and confession what happens when a church body's leadership loses touch with the ministry of word and sacrament, and has its head turned by the lure of power and money.  Power corrupts, and in the Church, it takes the focus off the Gospel and puts that focus on preserving, or even enriching, the bureaucracy.

Left unchecked, such church bureaucracies become antichrist - existing not for the sake of the Gospel but for the sake of money and power itself - and in some cases, setting itself up over and against the Gospel.  This is why there is such a thing as Lutheran Christianity at all.

This shift in priority is a danger to Lutherans as much as to any communion within the church catholic.  Lutherans who hold power in church bodies are sinners as much as any medieval Roman pope.  This is why it is an act of mercy to oversee the overseers lest they lose touch with what the Church is supposed to be doing.

We need to constantly remember why the Church exists and what her purpose is.  The bureaucracy of the Church exists to serve the congregations - not vice versa.  We need to remind ourselves - and our district offices - of this reality.  And any church bureaucrat who dismisses such concerns need only be told three words: University. Lutheran. Chapel.

What is happening in Minnesota can happen anywhere.  Granted, the financial arrangement of University Lutheran Chapel is not typical of congregations in the LCMS.  However, in our polity, there are times when district presidents (and their staffs) exercise a great deal of power - over congregations, pastors, and lay church workers.

There is a tendency in the nature of bureaucracy - whether in the secular or ecclesiastical world - to seek to preserve the bureaucracy.  When this impulse is at odds with the larger overall mission of the Church (word and sacrament ministry), we see such abominations as the betrayal of University Lutheran Chapel.  At its best, church bureaucracy is at a bare minimum, existing with frugality, to actually help local congregations and their leadership (lay and clergy) to be about their Father's business.  But when the bureaucracy becomes "too big for its britches" and when individual bureaucrats are more concerned about their own jobs and preserving their own office buildings instead of parochial ministries and buildings, when they become the guardians of cubicles and parking spaces instead of the stewards of altars and pulpits - that is when we see bureaucrats acting like mobster land-sharks instead of servants of the servants of the Word.

What does this do to the faith of individuals?  We Lutherans teach that the church is a "sanctuary" - a sacred space made holy by the very Presence of Christ in our midst - especially at our altars where Christ is miraculously and physically present for us.  And bureaucrats in our own church body are proposing to bulldoze this holy space into something befitting the world: a parking lot, strip mall, or apartment complex, to desecrate a holy altar - for money.  And not to mention, so that their own jobs are preserved.  What kind of a faith is that?  In all of the bureaucratic ink: resolutions, task forces, meeting minutes, etc. is there any language ministering to people whose faith will no doubt be shaken by this?  What kind of a faith do we proclaim when the powerful and mighty in positions of leadership circle like vultures over the exposed bodies of the Body of Christ?

Left unchecked, such monstrous bureaucracies - acting like parasites - will suck the lifeblood out of the host and eventually destroy themselves.  They are like a cancer that will eventually kill the person and itself in its selfish recklessness.

The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod has recently voted to restructure itself.  Maybe this is a good first step.  Perhaps we need to remind our synodical and district officials why they have jobs - to support, not to destroy - the local congregations and pastors who together engage in the Real Mission of the Church: to deliver the forgiveness of sins won for the world by the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ through His chosen means: word and sacrament.

Maybe that should be the district's mission statement.

In any case, the Minnesota South District has made a mockery of its own mission statement - such as it is.  The real mission statement of any unchecked bureaucracy is to support, sustain, and expand the bureaucracy.  In that light, the Minnesota South District is doing a fabulous job.

In the larger context, what has become of the purpose of the synodical structures to support missionaries and seminaries when overseas missionaries must actually raise their own salaries and when seminaries must fund nearly every dollar themselves?  Did our forbears create a synodical apparatus simply for the sake of synodical bureaucracy?  I believe the actions of the Minnesota South District is a barometer of just how badly we have lost our way as a synod.

Please keep the Rev. David Kind, his faithful congregation, and their fruitful cross-centered outreach ministry in your prayers.  Maybe a miracle will happen.  Maybe someone will admit to the grave sin of putting greenbacks ahead of the Gospel, and maybe there will be an internal change of heart and an external change in policy.  Or maybe a lesser miracle will happen and the congregation will be able to pay the district's "protection money."  But lest the parasite destroy its host, let us pray to the real Host upon whose body all sinners feed, seeking protection against our sinful nature's shocking ability to cannibalize on itself.  Let us find a way to rein in the power of those who wield it recklessly, and let us pray that the ministry of word and sacrament may go out unhindered by our own church bureaucracies

Let us pray that the congregations may be secure in their work of proclaiming the Gospel and administering the sacraments - which is, after all, the Real Mission of the Church.

There's a word for this...

You can read more here.  Lord, have mercy!

Libido Dominandi

Yet another account of what many will, no doubt, describe as TSA stupidity: the idea that TSA workers are low-paid simpletons who lack common sense.

I don't believe this is the case at all.  I believe this is rather a case of what St. Augustine called libido dominandi, the lust for domination.  It is the sinful desire to rule over other people, to bully, to use one's power to make other people do things or comply with orders.  And while there may be a million psychobabble reasons for such behavior, there really is only one explanation: sin.  People love pushing others around.  There is a little fascist inside every bearer of original sin.

This is a special temptation for those with government power and/or authority.  I saw it first hand as a corrections officer.  Of course, there are rules and there is authority.  But what causes a man (who otherwise seems easy-going and socially normal) to enjoy making as much noise as possible in the middle of the night every 20 minutes so as to deprive inmates of sleep?  Does it add to his quality of life or make society any safer?  The only thing that is satisfied by such actions is libido dominandi.

In our current climate, TSA agents are given a lot of power.  They have a captive audience, and they know it.  They have the ability to look at anyone they choose naked, simply on their word.  Likewise, they can select anyone they choose for what is euphemistically called a "patdown."  And what's more, they can threaten to fondle and grope, thus exercising power over people who are trying to avoid such treatment.

For the sinful "Old Adam," at least in many cases, this is just too much to resist.  In the case mentioned above, the TSA agents are obviously not keeping the planet safe for democracy by refusing to allow a parent to speak for his mentally disabled son, nor by seizing his toy plastic hammer and trying to convince everyone - themselves included - that this was in the interest of airline safety.

Technology has changed since the days of St. Augustine, but fallen human nature hasn't.

Culturally Backward?

We live in strange times - politically and culturally.  The Weiner Circus is just one example of something factual that is zanier than a Will Ferrell movie.  And here is an example of how various opinions are a cultural bellwether.

In fairness to Chris Mathews, he does make it clear that he personally finds congressman Weiner's antics to be, shall we say, not of a good ethic.  But on the other hand, I think he paints an accurate snapshot of the culture clash of the country and the reputation of those who still hold to an ethical standard at least in part pegged to Christianity: "people in the rural areas of this country who are Christian conservative culturally - you can say backward if you want...don't like this kind of stuff."

To much of the cultural elite, Christians in "flyover country" between the east and west coasts are considered "culturally backward" for disapproving of a married man taking pictures of his genitals and sending them to women. 

"Culturally backward."

Actually, it's the opposite.  People who do not approve of such things are normal - even if the majority - or at least only the upper crust of the opinion-makers - beg to differ. 

But by the same token, I think the antics of Ben Bernanke are far worse and ultimately will destroy more lives.  But then again, if his name had been more ironic, like Ben Counterfeiter, it might attract more media attention.