And some people are cynical enough to believe that that’s exactly what the Church of Scientology is counting on. They’re in the news again. Believe it or not, but a reporter for an investigative program on the BBC network called “Panorama” is actually claiming that people from Scientology have harassed him. I realize this accusation strains credulity, but that is what he is saying.
ice people. The European-American descendants of northern Ice Age peoples. The term was coined by Dr. Leonard Jeffries, chairman [sic] of the Afro-American Studies Department of the City University of New York, who theorized that humanity is divided into two principal groups, “ice people” and “sun people” (Africans, Asians, and natives of Latin America and the Caribbean). The two groups have
diametrically opposed value systems: ice people are materialistic, egotistical, and exploitive, while sun people are humanistic, communal, and caring.
[Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf, The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook (New York, NY, USA: Villard Books, updated edition 1993), 35. Photo and caption of Idi Amin is found next to the definition of “sun person,” ibid., 71.]
Verse 24, 25. “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness.”See by how many proofs he makes good what was said. First, from the worthiness of the person, for it is not a man who doeth these things, that Continue reading
At about 7:45 p.m. Eastern Time today, one of the Newsweek links on the front page of MSNBC.com was asking whether a particular local chapter of Alcoholic’s Anonymous was actually a cult. The link referred to the following article:
The following video was prepared for the 2006 national conference (September 29-October 1) held by John Piper’s Desiring God ministry. The 2006 conference took its name from David Wells’ recent book, Above All Earthly Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World, (Grand Rapids, MI, USA: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005). Wells (Ph.D., University of Manchester) is a professor of historical and systematic theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Massachusetts.
You can also view this video on Desiring God’s web site, where you will find a page linking to videos of interviews with other conference speakers.
I have been told to reason by the heart,
But heart, like head, leads helplessly;
I have been told to reason by the pulse,
And, when it quickens, alter the actions’ pace
Till field and roof lie level and the same…[Dylan Thomas, excerpted from “Should Lanterns Shine,” in The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas 1934-1952, (New York: New Directions Books, 1971), 72.]
One day I called someone up and got the wrong number. I apologized profusely but then realized just an apology was not enough. I offered some money as partial compensation and then threw in some stocks and bonds at the last minute. Then I thought, perhaps if I could take their address and send them everything I own, then take a journey to Tibet to acquire wisdom, I could then inform them of the truth, something money could not buy. Naturally they were still indignant, but were at least convinced of my sincerity in wanting to make it right. They suggested that after I go to Tibet, I kill myself, thus offering my last breath as penance. This seemed slightly out of line, but not being a good businessman, I agreed.
So now I’m in Tibet, standing on my head on a llama, thinking ’bout the day I got dat wrong number.
—Steve Martin, “Wrong Number,” from Cruel Shoes, (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1979), 61-62.
The version I read, which was written before Joseph Ratzinger became pope, goes something like this: Karl Rahner, Hans Küng, and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger all die on the same day and go to meet St. Peter to learn of their fates. St. Peter approaches the three men and tells them that he will interview each of them to discuss their views on various issues. Continue reading
The first year in which Major League Baseball offered its Rookie of the Year Award was 1947 (at that time there was only one award for both the National and American Leagues). Coincidentally, it was in that same year, on April 15, Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers as the first African American Major League Baseball player. He went on to hit .297, lead the National League in stolen bases, and win the Rookie of the Year Award. Branch Rickey‘s gamble had paid off.
Thirty-six years ago (in 1971), in a series of three lectures that he delivered in Mittersill, Australia, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones asked the question, “What Is an Evangelical?” (You can read them in Knowing the Times [Edinburgh, UK & Carlisle, PA, USA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2001].)
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A guy comes down to Earth, takes your sins, dies, and comes back three days later. You believe in him, and go to heaven forever. How do you get from that to hide the eggs? Did Jesus have a problem with eggs? Did he go, “When I come back, if I see any eggs, the whole salvation thing is off”?
[Judy Brown, ed., Joke Stew, (Kansas City, MO, USA: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2000), 135.]
Weariness hung from his facial muscles like lead weights on fishing lines. His hair, recently mauled by the suburban Chicago winds, reflected the gusts of reproach he had just battled. His jaw was set like that of a courtroom defendant whose guilty verdict was still echoing in his ears as he came to lay his pile of frustrations on the counter just long enough to write out a check to the seminary business office and be on his way.
Something told me he was having a rough day. It didn’t take long for me to dig it out of him. I guess he thought I would empathize.
The light bends through the prisms of dangling yesterdays, stacked-up on floors, spilling off shelves, hiding underneath the papers in the bottom of my briefcase until I accidentally excavate them, following me wherever I go. Sometimes like circus mirrors, sometimes like vignetted dreams, they never knock or phone ahead; they act like that family member who always pretends not to notice that she has a habit of dropping in just before dinner is about to be served. Long ago they stopped insisting that they wouldn’t dream of intruding. Now they just pull up a seat as if it’s a given that I’ll set out a plate and silverware. Continue reading
Have thou ever in thy mind this seal, which for the present has been lightly touched in my discourse, by way of summary, but shall be stated, should the Lord permit, to the best of my power with the proof from the Scriptures. For concerning the divine and holy mysteries of the Faith, not even a casual statement must be delivered without the Holy Scriptures; nor must we be drawn aside by mere plausibility and artifices of speech. Even to me, who tell thee these things, give not absolute credence, unless thou receive the proof of the things which I announce from the Divine Scriptures. For this salvation which we believe depends not on ingenious reasoning, but on demonstration of the Holy Scriptures.
[Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315-387), Lecture IV.17, “The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem,” translated by Edwin Hamilton Gifford, in Philip Schaff., ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Volume 7, (Peabody, MA, USA: Hendrickson Publishiers, Inc., reprinted 2004), 23.]
March 18 is the feast day of St. Cyril of Jerusalem on Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican church calendars.
“Mrs. Larson, you’re not going deaf in your left ear. You seem to have a suppository stuck in there!”
“Well, now I know what happened to my hearing aid.”
[Mike Danforth, et. al., and Garrison Keillor (Introduction), A Prairie Home Companion Pretty Good Joke Book, (St. Paul, MN, USA: Highbridge Company, 2000), 123. The book is now in a fourth edition.]
Our Life Is But a Span 