Upping My Antagonism

My mom always told me picking fights was bad.

Okay, that’s an oversimplificiation. What she said was that you can never convince anybody of anything simply by debating them into a corner. Debate, in any setting, is always for the sake of the audience. And, when the audience is your local church, picking a debate in the middle of, say, the morning service, is probably a bad idea. Odds are you’re more likely to stir up contention instead of bringing anybody to a closer appreciation of the truth. No matter who ends up being made to look stupid, both of you hurt the community of the church.

I’ve always tried to live by this standard of not picking theological fights in church. It’s a good standard. In fact, I’ve tried not to pick theological fights with anybody anywhere. Who ever has gotten saved because a Christian made them look stupid in public? But when it comes to blogging, not picking a fight may be exactly the wrong tack. Continue reading “Upping My Antagonism”

President’s Cabinet

Just as an addendum to yesterday’s post:

I was going to try to squeeze in there the fact that the British equivalent to the US President’s cabinet has members who are called *ministers* instead of the US term, *secretary*, because they serve… well somebody. But as I was looking around I found the official page listing the [US Cabinet members](http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/cabinet.html). Wow. Talk about integration! In the major department heads, WASP’s barely make up a plurality. Seven white guys out of fifteen total. I count two chinese, two hispanic, two black, and four women. Interesting to say the least.

I barely have that kind of diversity among my acquaintances!

Ministry

You know, I’m beginning to dislike the word “ministry.”

I just finished a conversation with a fellow student in my Greek class, and she said to me,

> “You know, I think the Lord is calling me to minister to Koreans.”
“Well,” I said, “There certainly are a lot of Koreans in the area.”
“Do you know xxxx in our class, he’s Korean, and we’ve been driving to class together. Well he ministers at a Korean church.” (I nodded. There *are* a lot of Koreans in the area.) “And the other day I saw the movie [Seoul Train](http://www.seoultrain.com/), and it really touched my heart. And *then*, the school where I work told me they had someone to tutor who is Korean and doesn’t speak a word of English. So I’m thinking, Lord, what are you doing here? Eh?”

Of course, the amazing thing was that she managed to convey all this information, I think, in a single breath. But it’s the word “minister” that get’s to me sometimes. Continue reading “Ministry”

Nobel for Discoverers of Ulcer Bacteria

[BBC News](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4304290.stm):

> Two Australian scientists have been awarded the Nobel prize for medicine for their discovery that stomach ulcers can be caused by a bacterial infection.

I thought this was pretty fascinating. Before Robin Warren’s and Barry Marshall’s discovery in 1982, it was pretty much a given that ulcers were caused by too much stress and a poor lifestyle. Even in the 90’s, when my mom had an ulcer, she was told pretty much to try to reduce her stomach acid levels and chill out a bit. This was so much the case [that](http://www.uncommondescent.com/index.php/archives/388),

> “When Robin Warren and Barry Marshall first claimed that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori plays a key role in the development of both stomach and intestinal ulcers, they were roundly ridiculed. So much so that Marshall actually infected himself to prove the point.”

As William Dembski is pointing out, “The scientific community’s reception of this discovery *should* give us pause about the continuing controversy over ID” (emph. added). The image we often get of scientists is that of open-minded free thinkers, who consider each new idea on its own merits, without prejudice. Why shouldn’t we? That’s how *science* works, isn’t it? But science and scientists are two different things.

In reality, people always like to hold on to their old ideas, whether religious, or cultural, or scientific, and the scientific community can be every bit the masters of the close-minded imperium as the religious council that bid Copernicus recant. It usually takes a good firm shove in the right direction before a person will consider a blind spot. Barry Marshall had to give himself an ulcer to get people to reconsider a bacteria. What will it take to get people to reconsider Darwin?

George Will on “The Doctrine of Preemption”

From [the Curmudgeon](http://theconstructivecurmudgeon.blogspot.com/) I received word of an [excellent speech](http://www.hillsdale.edu/imprimis/) on preemptive war, nation building, and American idealism that is very well worth the read. It was both inspiring and wise.

The odd thing though, is that whatever his intended effect, the general impression I received had little to do with the content of his speech.

Man, I thought, if only *I* could do that with the *gospel*!

First Greek Exam

“I looked upon the words under the cage door…and understood them.”

Last week was a downhill week for me in Greek. I like to think I have a great mind for words, be they English or any other language, but my mind has a very peculiar way of learning. Learning by rote is very very hard for me, whereas any kind of learning in context is ridiculously easy. For instance, in fourth grade I was supposed to memorize the multiplication tables, but I just couldn’t do it. I was the last person in my class to get it down, and if I remember right, It wasn’t until the school year was completely over. I finally ended up assigning personalities to each number in such a way that, when each was multiplied with another, it resulted in some kind of metaphysical combination of the two prior personalities. Suddenly, memorization was a zip.

So, ideally for me, learning a language involves handing me a stack of progressively more difficult children’s books, a lexicon, and a few simple grammar charts. Wait two weeks. Serve chilled. Continue reading “First Greek Exam”

Goofiness

I’m sure by now you know that Bush has selected Harriet Miers for appointment to the Supreme Court to replace Sandra Day O’Connor. And I’m sure you’ve heard the disquiet that Harriet Miers has never served as a Judge. My understanding is that this is not that unusual, since Rehnquist also had never served as a Judge before being appointed to the SCOTUS. But that the consternation comes from not knowing hardly anything about her. William Dyer at [Beldar’s Blog](http://beldar.blogs.com/beldarblog/) has some [good arguments](http://www.beldar.org/beldarblog/2005/10/the_miers_nomin.html) for why we can still be reasonably confident Bush knows what he’s doing.

Nevertheless, to the rest of us, Miers is a bit of an enigma. So I was pleased to look over Valerie’s shoulder this morning and read that [Miers is an Evangelical](http://www.theconservativevoice.com/articles/article.html?id=8727). Continue reading “Goofiness”

Moving up

Since I still haven’t time to say anything meaningful now, I thought I would inform you of a few blogs that are moving up from the “Surveilance” category to bona-fide blogs I endorse. Criteria? I keep skipping over other people to read them when I’m short on time.

All of these are way overdue, but since I don’t have time to give a full review to each of them, you’ll have to make due with a description and my full assurance that they’re worth the read.

* [BatesLine](http://batesline.com/) is the premier blog for all things Tulsa. Always nice to hear more about what’s going on in my home town than I ever knew when I lived there.
* [Brandywine Books](http://brandywinebooks.blogspot.com/) is a very nice Christian lit blog, named after a certain river in a certain book. More information about the Norwegian life than you could get from a full year of Prarie Home Companion.
* [Mere Comments](http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/) functions as a kind of editorial page for [Touchstone Magazine.](http://www.touchstonemag.com/index.html) I”ve mentioned them before.
* [Dangerous Idea](http://dangerousidea.blogspot.com/) is the weblog of Christian philosopher Victor Reppert. Very good, except when he slips into chess. 🙂

As I said, these are all long overdue. And three out of four are getting moved under “Religion.” Go fig.