A very sad anniversary

Being raised Lutheran, the last day of October wasn’t just Halloween. The bigger focus at church and school was on certain events of the 16th century.

It’s mind-boggling that the combination of pride, anger, miscommunication, pride, anger obstinacy, pride, anger, politics, pride, anger, greed, pride, anger, lust, pride and anger produced a witches’ brew of heresy and schism that has bubbled for nearly five centuries.

Folks often get quite upset that the Church doesn’t take sterner positions against one faction or another. I suggest that the Church has learned from the experience of long ago and is thus loathe to contribute to a multiplication of schism.

As I’ve written before, there’s a schismatic group in my hometown. I know some of the participants – many of whom have one foot in with the skizzes and one in with the One Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church. Far be it from me to push any of them all the way over the line.

Schism comes from any number of angles, as does the proper response thereto. One surprisingly good response to a particular brand of schismatic can be found here. A more complete response – including discussion on the necessity and means of reform within the Church – is here.

Since it is customary to pray for the dead during November, might I suggest praying especially for those dead who died in imperfect communion with the Church?

Greetings

to those so kindly referred here by the eminent Mr. Hewitt.

I just can't resist!

Hugh Hewitt continues his shilling for the Miers nomination. I’ll take his bait (numbers were not in his post).

1. Does George W. Bush deserve any loyalty from his party? From pundits identified with his party? If so, how much and why not more?
2. Do Harriett Miers' many accomplishments count for nothing?
3. Does Harriett Miers strike the commentator as a dedicated public servant?
4. Why not wait for the hearings to at least begin?
5. How important is it that Roe v. Wade/Casey be reversed?
6. Which five precedents does the commentator think are in most pressing need of reversal?
7. Does the commentator agree with George Will's assertion of Justice Lewis Powell as the "embodiment of mainstream conservative jurisprudence?"
8. Is a neo-Borking underway which will discredit the conservative cause's defense of its future nominees against similar, future attacks from the left?
9. What are the political consequences of a defeat of Miers at the hands of a GOP controlled Senate?

1. W deserves some loyalty from both his party and from pundits associated with his party when he acts on principle and in a way that advances the interests most crucial to the person in question. When W errs, it is incumbent on his erstwhile political allies to call his attention to the error and attempt to correct him.

2. Miss Miers’ many accomplishments have been duly noted. Some find that the accomplishments of others are more notable. There is no shame in this.

3. It is beyond question that Miss Miers is a dedicated public servant. Meaning no disrespect, I know a postman who is very dedicated. No one would suggest that he is qualified to sit on the Supreme Court.

4. Is it not better to start fixing something broken sooner rather than later?

5. More important than any foreign or domestic policy question facing the United States.

6. Casey, Roe, Griswold, Lawrence and Evans.

7. No. I’d say that Scalia fits that bill.

8. No, this is an attempt to prevent either (a) a bruising fight with Congress – likely over Congress’ access to executive branch documents or (b) the appointment to the Supreme Court for life of a person who strikes the impartial observer as both a crony and someone whose skills, while formidable, are not those likely to exert a positive influence on the Court in decades to come, such as a Justice Scalia.

9. That is an open question. Many other simultaneous and unrelated issues will come into play here. Should energy prices plummet and inflation be held at bay, W will still be strong. Should Fitzgerald indict WH staff members, W will be weakened. Time will tell. A corollary question would be “what are the political consequences of social conservatives feeling that they’ve been ruthlessly exploited by the GOP?”

Funny but true

I check in to a hotel to attend a conference out of town. In the room the Gideon Bible is not only displayed on the dresser, but open. To Job.

Let's see

The White Sox have a rather big blot in their past. But, as I see it, the Astros have a bigger one in their present. Go, go Sox!

On a lighter note

Here's hoping for the very Catholic series of the Angels v. the Cardinals. If nothing else it will drive secular fundamentalists crazier.

An especially sad funeral

A friend’s family recently experienced the tragic and unexpected death of a baby. The funeral was today at an exurban evangelical megachurch. Weird beyond words and sadder than I could have imagined.

There were four large screens at the front of the auditorium. Before the service two screens were showing movies of sunsets while a pianist played selections from the Windham Hill catalog. The outer two screens were dark throughout. A large bare cross made of copper tubing and a small cross carved into the podium were the only visible signs that the auditorium was to be used mainly for Christian purposes.

After the dozens of family members were ushered in, the presider strode to center stage and read portions of Psalm 27 and Matthew 18 (“let the little children come to Me”). During the opening prayer, the pianist started playing chords in a familiar progression that I couldn’t quite place. After the prayer concluded, the pianist segued into Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” which he sang well.

The parents of the dead baby came to the podium next where the baby’s father read a touching letter to her. Understandably both of them cried quite a bit.

The pianist then sang “Amazing Grace”. The sermon was lengthy, but contemporary-casual. It was followed by a music video of “My Daughter’s Eyes” and then a reading of Psalm 23. The closing prayer didn’t have any musical accompaniment.

Of course this was a sad event. The death of an infant is a very sad time for all. For those who reject infant baptism, it’s sadder yet. But this funeral added unnecessary sadness throughout.

Jesus was mentioned only three times: once in the reading from Matthew (which wasn’t discussed at all during the sermon) and by “in Jesus’ name we pray” at the end of the two prayers. The sermon focused primarily on the inevitability of difficulties in earthly life and featured reading of scattered verses from the Pauline epistles and the minor prophets. Nothing approached mature theodicy. It still boggles my mind that a putatively Christian funeral would include only cursory mention of Our Lord. Changing just a few words here and there would have effectively changed this funeral to a completely secular one. Is that all the deeper that expressions of faith may be made in our depraved culture?

Probably because of the preacher’s rejection of infant baptism and semi-Pelagian outlook, there was no serious discussion of the baby’s fate – just a “now she’s your little angel”. Well at least that aspect of the preacher's theology was no worse than the rest of it.

Wow

I’ve been pretty much addicted to St. Blog’s for more years than I care to recount. I don’t think anything I’ve read compares with that post –meaning no disregard for anyone. This just resonates!

It amplifies a subject I’ve been considering lately: how it is so easy to run off the rails and substitute human causes, sometimes even well-intentioned (from here and here to here and here) for those of Christ – and hoping I don’t do the same. It’s because humans want to discover the truth through our own abilities. We can do that to only a small degree. Now we see dimly, as through a glass. If we act on the images we see of our own power, we can only err as we also want to see what we want to see. We don’t want to see where we’re at fault.

The only area where I’d take issue at all is the statement “While the teachings of Christ are spread out throughout the different books of the New Testament, the same teachings are packed in the Psalms in a superior manner, in that it is presented, already, in the form of prayer (and made by the Holy Spirit at that.)” I’d add “and Canticles” after “Psalms”. The Magnificat has taught me more than any catechism or treatise. Still, though, I know so very little.

BTW – the referenced blog has the nicest template ;-)