Category: Uncategorized

Go read this.

I’ve been messing around and looking at medblogs lately…I haven’t gotten very far but I do have a few linked under the science and medicine drop-down on the side. One of the sites I’m starting to read is Doctor Mental and he has a good post called “Hope for Freedom” that I think is a good summary about the war in Iraq. It’s not very long, but I liked it. Hope you do too.

This is a sad day indeed.


> JUDICIAL WATCH STATEMENT ON THE DEATH OF TERRI SCHIAVO

> (Washington, DC) Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton issued the following statement today concerning the death of Terri Schiavo:

> “This is a shameful day for our legal and political systems. Under court order, an innocent woman, Ms. Terri Schiavo, was killed by starvation and dehydration. Politicians at the state and federal level were derelict in their absolute duties to protect innocent human life. Our culture has crossed an awful Rubicon – for we now have legal precedent for the murder of innocent, disabled and voiceless adults. We hope the American people are now alerted to the crisis posed to this nation by an activist judiciary that would sanction such barbarity. Our prayers and condolences go out to Ms. Schiavo’s family.”

Continue reading “This is a sad day indeed.”

Moral Neutrality

Politics for a Christian, in my opinion, is primarily an act of apologetics. There’s nothing wrong with participating in society simply because you are a member of that society, but as Christians, we have a duty to participate in society *as representatives of Jesus Christ* This means that very little of what we do in public is morally neutral.

As I said yesterday, we have a calling to be both salt and light. As salt, we have a responsibility to intervene and actively bring corruption to a halt (see: preservative). As light, we have a responsibility to instruct the world on the difference between sin and righteousness. Often we get to do both at the same time.

OMF Serge makes this same point with much better clarity than I could over at [Imago Dei](http://www.imago-dei.net/) in his series on [The Myth of Moral Neutrality](http://www.imago-dei.net/imago_dei/2005/02/the_myth_of_mor.html). For one thing he has concrete examples.

Hat tip: [New Covenant](http://newcovenant.blogspot.com/)

Christian Politics?

One of my online discussions for seminary was a question of whether we ought to discuss politics in church. Almost everyone who responded to the question wholeheartedly endorsed the position that people should say nothing – nothing – at church in regard to politics. The most political statement that any person should make is that you should vote.

I think I was one of the very few people who pointed out that it’s one thing to pray for your political leaders and always honor and respect political authority. It’s another thing to deliberately censor yourself from political activity in a system that requires precisely that activity. Might as well have asked Constantine, upon conversion, not to pass any Christian laws so that he could properly “render unto Caesar.” In a democratic system, we **are** Caesar.

Continue reading “Christian Politics?”

Milk Guzzling is Approbatious

Valerie – my fiancé – has this… fetish… with milk.

I don’t get it. I’m just not into that sort of thing. Now, I like milk. I like it in my coffee, and in my cheese; I like it in yogurt and chocolate bars. I even like it straight – with 3 or 4 tablespoons of Ovaltine mixed in. But Valerie – whew! – she likes *milk*. Just milk. I have personally seen her drink a full gallon of milk over a period of a weekend. Straight. No chocolate syrup or pancakes (which need washing down) or anything. Just straight milk. It’s… it’s… eww!

So. I came into the room the other day and was picking up some thing and as I was heading out, she said, “wait!” and grabbed her glass of milk. Now, I try to stay pretty tolerant of my darling’s little habits, but this was way too much. She wanted me to take her glass into the kitchen, which glass was still mostly full. Her solution was to drink the *entire* thing – just guzzle it – right there on the spot. Right in front of me.

It’s not so much that she was drinking milk in front of me. I’ve gotten used to that. It’s the fact that she was going to slosh it all down like it was lemonade on a hot summer day, like it was Gatorade and she’d just finished competing in the Olympics, like it was **all** ***O-K***. Really.

And I watched her as she poured it down, as if swallowing wasn’t even necessary, and I’d had enough. I had to say something.

So I said the most condescending thing I knew to say:

“Milk guzzling is approbatious.”

“What?” she said.

“Milk guzzling… is… approbatious.”

“Okay. What does that mean?”

“It means… worthy of approbation,”

“And? What does that mean?”

“Scorn. Derision. Something like that… Um, I think.” I said, frantically scurrying. This was not turning out as I had planned.

“Uh huh.” She raised a quizzical eyebrow, once again prooving her superiority. I have no quizzical eyebrow -raising capacity, a fact which she constantly throws againt me. “”Why don’t you go look it up?” she asked.

“Alright… Where did you hide my dictionary?”

(This was the moment of truth for me. I’m the wordy one. I like being the wordy one. I like words. But sometimes I overshoot a little and throw out a word that I’ve heard somewhere when I only have a partial idea how to use it. Usually I can catch it. Usually it means exactly what I intended. But sometimes… sometimes…)

I found the dictionary and brought it to the bedroom. And I looked up my newfound word of condescension.

“Here it is. Approbation… Approval.”

I ducked my head and left the room to the sound of pealing laughter. Somehow, I have the feeling that our milk budget may exceed the means of your average lexicologist.