“The communion of saints means that the body of Christ is a glorious and unified mystery. It means I am one with all the saints in heaven, just as I am one with all the saints alive today in China. But if I were crossing a street, saw a truck with no brakes hurtling toward …
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
Introduction: As a bemused public watches the clown car revue that is the developing race for the Democratic nomination for president, a few constitutional oddities have attracted our notice. It is bad when the wheels are coming off of the clown cars. To change the metaphor, as the paddle of our 24/7 news cycle stirs …
What We Don’t Get to Assume
“It would not rock my Protestant world at all if I died and went to heaven, only to discover that at some point in my worldly sojourn, Mary had stumbled across some aspect of my story and prayed for me. ‘Oh, my. Look at that poor sap there.’ But for me to ask her to …
So Here Are More Letters
Prophetic Language, Huh? Greetings in the name of Christ. I have benefitted from your writing over the years and I agree with you on many of even the most controversial topics you cover. Yet your terribly poor judgment in using that filthy word, and your recalcitrance in now refusing humbly to repent, calls into question …
The Problem Is What You Assume, Not So Much What You Say
“When I ask my friend Bob to pray for me because I have an appointment with the surgeon tomorrow, I do not have to assume any superhuman powers on the part of Bob in order to make the request of him. I know he heard me, because he was right there, and he heard the …
On the Nature of Prophetic Language
Introduction : I much prefer doing what I do over against reflecting on what I did in the public eye afterward. Why talk about what you did when you have the opportunity to just do it another time? I mean, daylight is burning. But we were not put into this world for pleasure alone, and …
Sanity as Insurrection
I am currently on the road, and speaking for the Illinois Family Institute. The notes for my talk are below. Introduction: In one of those famous Orwell quotes that Orwell apparently didn’t say, the sentiment is noble anyhow: “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Not only so, but …
Just Sits
Lesser Kissing
“The fact that humans can have it all worked out in their abstract theology (latria, hyperdulia, and dulia) such that they can admit to being an iconodule, but not an idolater, makes me hop in place in my impatient Protestant way. Imagine a wife catching her husband kissing the chambermaid. ‘Ah, my dear,’ he says. …
Lesser Authorities
“The Bible teaches that I am as a Christian to submit myself to spiritual authorities other than the Bible. These authorities would include my parents (who taught me to love God before I could read), my church (which taught me, for example, to memorize Scripture), and Bauer’s Lexicon (which teaches me that eulogeo means to …