I threw the following tweet into the digital abyss the other day, and watched it flutter downward, ever downward, reminding me of one of those maple tree whirligig things. Anyhow, this is what I said. Those who cannot respond to examples of cultural madness with laughter are in the process of going mad themselves. And …
Trolls Live Under the Bridge
This post will be part housekeeping, and then some exposition of the housekeeping. First the housekeeping. Under our new system here, comment moderation is managed according to the folkways, mores and customs of Disqus. This system is now necessary because right around the same time I moved to my new theme, the number of comments …
Why Do It Then?
The other evening our elders had a special meeting with our parishioners to go over some of the details of the recent controversies. The meeting was fantastic, but my point is not to get into all that. Rather I wanted to simply to respond more fully to one of the questions, one that went something …
Trudeau and the Left Overs
One of the life lessons that should be learned early on is the one which teaches us not to get into arguments with the funny papers. This is a very good rule of thumb, but I bring it up because I am planing on dispensing with that sound advice today . . . but just …
The Whites of Their Thighs
An essential part of a pastor’s duty is to fight heresy. But it is not an essential part of his duty to screech at it in such a fashion as to make all the heretics bless their false god for having given them such an incompetent adversary. Some shepherds fight so listlessly or apologetically that …
Just Getting a Drink
A recent jag in the feminist jihad has to do with what they are pleased to call microaggressions — what Jonah Goldberg recently worried might become nanoaggressions. So let’s talk about all that for a microbit. Conservatives will frequently make merry about this kind of fevered brow behavior, assuming that these women’s-study-center-people have utterly lost …
Preparing for the Refugee Column
A couple of posts ago, I made a joke about “lesbyterians,” which resulted in some objections and ongoing discussion. I have made a particular distinction on this topic before, but I really should mention it again. You could look here, or put apostle and refugee in the search bar and see what happens. My rhetorical …
As We Populists Like to Say
Over the last few weeks, a couple of epic comment threads have broken out here, and they have been revolving around the proposed view that I don’t know what I am talking about. In these cases it had to do with my idea that entropy and evolution are inconsistent, and also my lack of suitable …
Pastors in Pale Pastel
I have noticed, on the Internet and elsewhere, that when a pastor says something angular, the kind of thing that provokes questions and/or consternation, a very common stock response emerges. That response is that such behavior is “not very pastoral.” Such a response initially seems to be thoughtful and wise, concerned for unity and love, …
Catholicity Begins at Home
One of the things I have noticed over the years is that an awful lot of theological assessment is made on the basis of who you are standing next to when you say something. This creates problems if you have ecumenical impulses, because you might be standing next to entirely different types of people at …