tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50001967016821200872024-03-14T03:01:47.034-04:00Just a CurmudgeonSometimes I don't agree with myself.William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-66643722108639840992018-05-29T15:22:00.001-04:002018-05-29T15:22:59.767-04:00This Blog Is Ended<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dear friends,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I announce the end of this Blog, <a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/" style="font-style: italic;">Just a Curmudgeon</a>, and of its predecessor <a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/" style="font-style: italic;">A Christian Curmudgeon</a>,<i> </i>as well as the aborted attempt to begin <i><a href="https://anglicanparson.blogspot.com/">A Reformed Reformed Episcopalian</a> </i>where I had hoped to show that a Reformed Episcopalian (theological term) is a Reformed Episcopalian (denominational term) historically speaking, both in terms of historic Anglicanism and of the founding of the Reformed Episcopal Church. However, this latter project never came to fruition.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of the vows a Reformed Episcopal minister (presbyter, minister, pastor, priest - you choose) takes is to obey his Bishop. My Bishop, whom I consider also to be my pastor of 5 years and my friend of 50+ years, has directed me not to continue my work as a Blogger. While I know he has been from time to time displeased with the content of my Blogs and other comments as they related to the Reformed Episcopal Church, his reason(s) for directing me not to Blog have to do with me - who I am and my life's failings. In this case, the fault is not at all with him and entirely with me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I remain a Reformed Episcopalian. I am in agreement with the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (though my preference would be the Edwardian Prayer Book), the 39 Articles of Religion, and the preaching, teaching, and writing of the English martyr Thomas Cranmer, and the Founding Principles of the Reformed Episcopal Church. I also accept and submit to Episcopal government. I believe in Prayer Book worship, the Articles, the equality of ministry of Word and Sacrament, weekly Holy Communion, and the Church Year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So long as I continue under my Bishop's authority (and I do not anticipate it being otherwise) and a Reformed Episcopalian, I am due to submit to his lawful Episcopal authority.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So I must bring my Blogging life to and end, and, for now at least, my preaching life. I shall miss them both.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Having happily retired as a Presbyterian minister, and now seeing the end of my ministry as an REC minister, I am grateful that, however unworthy I am, God has spared me in ministry since 1972, though I wonder why he has so done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The contents of the three Blogs remain available at the 3 links above.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I ask your prayers and I commend you all to the mercy of God.</span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-37937844557040903522018-05-24T16:52:00.000-04:002018-05-25T12:05:53.594-04:00A Graduation Address for the Son Who Greatly Disappointed Me<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What follows is a condensed version of an address I gave in June of 1997 to the graduating high school class at Trinity Christian School in Pittsburgh, PA, when I was pastor of First Reformed Presbyterian Church (PCA). I would have been 49 years old. (I am now 70, and, as all old people do, I ask, "How could it have been that long ago?" For as many years to pass by the time I die as have passed since I gave this talk, I would have to live to be 91!) It was kindly picked up and edited the next spring to serve as a "Soul Food Column" by my old friend from Washington days, Dr. Marvin Olasky, Editor of World Magazine (May 16, 1998).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">As I wrote this address out in long hand in my study (I failed the only typing course I ever took and did not learn to type on a computer till the first decade of the present century), I had two persons in mind - me and one of my sons for whom my heart ached. (He knows who he is.) As it turned out, I am the only one of the six males in my family who has consistently lived up to the standard of averageness. The son I had in mind when I wrote this has greatly disappointed me by rising far above average to much success in his chosen field. I will not identify his field except to say that he may me the last one ever to let you down.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I want to speak tonight briefly to the superior students, and mostly to the average ones. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you're wearing the cords of the National Honor Society, if you won a most-valuable-player award, or you are otherwise one of the "cool kids" in the class of 1998, I have only three brief areas of counsel to offer you: (1) It's possible that you've been a "big </span><br />
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fish in a small pond." At college you may find you are only a medium or even small-sized fish in a big pond. In other words, you may not be as good as you think. (2) Don't blow your advantages. Don't go to college thinking you've got it made. Work hard to exploit all your strengths. (3) None of your achievements is a substitute for loving God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. As Jesus said, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" (Mark 8:36).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I want to talk mostly to you average graduates because I am eminently qualified to speak to you. When I graduated from high school 33 years ago I was decidedly average - no athletic letter, no academic honors, no "cool kid" status.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But I want to tell you some ways you can be excellent:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">First, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>you can be an excellent Christian.</b></span><span style="font-family: "verdana"; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"> There is no correlation between being average athletically, academically, and socially, and being average spiritually. In fact, if anything you have an advantage. One of the most important elements of being a healthy, holy, useful Christian is knowing how much you need the Lord Jesus Christ, how inadequate you are in yourself, and how only by God's grace can you be sufficient for anything. It may take a long time and many hard knocks for more gifted people to realize this reality, but you know it already. A wise man once said, "It is not great gifts God uses, but great likeness to Christ." Timothy was an average young man. He didn't enjoy the best of health, didn't have a strong personality, and didn't feel qualified for what he was called to do. But his fellow Christians spoke well of him and Paul assured him that God would use him: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline" (2 Timothy 1:7). Give yourself to Christ. Rely on His Holy Spirit. And you will excel as a Christian. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Second, <b>you can be an excellent friend</b>. Choose your friends carefully because your friends will have a great influence on you. But don't choose friends </span><br />
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because they will join your pity party about being average. Choose friends who will challenge and help you to be a better Christian. I don't mean "goody-goody types" but real people who will join you in the struggle to live a life that pleases God. And be a real friend. Proverbs 20:6 asks, "Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find?" Real friends are loyal, and trustworthy, and there when you need them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "verdana"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">Finally, <b>you can be an excellent person</b>. Have you read the Dylan Thomas poem that protests old age and death? Do not go gentle into that good night ... Rage, rage against the dying of the light. I don't want you to spend your life raging against your mortality, but I do want you to "rage, rage" against mediocrity. Quit using your being average as an excuse. Don't be angry with God because he didn't make you more talented. Don't say, "What do you expect of me? I'm only average." Thomas Edison said, "Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." Character is more important that intellect. Guts are more important than ability. On A Prairie Home Companion they used to advertise Raw Bits, a breakfast cereal for shy people who need to get up in the morning and do what has to be done. I have to eat a big bowl every morning. You may be slow, but you can run as hard as you can all the way to first base every time you get the bat on the ball. You may not be able to buy your clothes at the finest stores, but you can take pride in your appearance. You may not be able to make all A's but don't let anybody out-work you. There is nothing wrong with being average, but there's everything wrong with being a lazy, "don't care" underachiever. </span></span></div>
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-30023999436770832442018-05-22T22:24:00.001-04:002018-05-23T18:16:35.045-04:00More Thoughts about Suicide<div style="text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "arial";">hard </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "arial";">times come early when you’re born with the blues</span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "arial";"> From <i>Born with the Blues </i>by </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "arial";">Merle Haggard</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Afflicted and close to death from my youth up</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> From Psalm 88 by the Sons of Korah</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world" (John 16:21). So women who, in the agonies of childbirth, can literally get angry with their husbands for making them pregnant, and who sometimes swear, "I will never go through this again," go on to have more babies - sometimes many. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is generally true that it is difficult to talk or write about painful experiences when the pain is not present. It is difficult to write about being severely, deeply depressed when you're not there. That's something of my difficulty at present, though, for me, what Churchill called his "black dog" is never so far away from me as for me to feel he has found another trail to follow. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>1. Responses. </b> I received a number of responses following my original post (<a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2018/05/thoughts-about-suicide.html">Thoughts about Suicide</a>), and I am grateful for them. Some were simple affirmations of continuing respect and love, which are appreciated whether justified or not. Others were of the "I understand," or "Thank you for understanding," sort, whether based on personal experience, or having walked through the experience with loved ones, or having witnessed a particular problem such as the need for some kind of "reform" of the way the medical establishment responds to persons who have "suicidal thoughts." I am appreciative of two men, one for whose Internet publication I gather materials, and another whose pulpit I fill once in awhile, who, despite my offers to release them from any obligation to me, confirmed their desire for me to continue my service. I am in debt to three men of the Reformed Episcopal Church who have ministered to me, my Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Dan Morse; my pastoral counselor (or, as I call him, "father confessor"), the Very Rev. Curtis Crenshaw; then my friend, mentor, and former colleague in Roanoke, the Rev. Rich Workowski for their counsel and support. I am particularly appreciative of those who told me I need to continue writing (though I know there are those who did not respond who probably think the contrary), not just on the same or similar topic, but on other subjects I have addressed in previous Blog posts. Some people commented on my "courage" to write transparently. I am not sure whether the virtue of courage was at work or not, but I am thankful for the encouragement. I will note just two of many meaningful comments. One from a friend I have never met face to face:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I wrote a review for 'Night Driving' in the latest edition of Modern Reformation. If you read it, you may pick up on some clues that when I wrote it, I was about where you were. Or have been. I am also Reformed and thoroughly endorse the book. It was a brilliant and cathartic book that I recommend to anyone who feels they have done too much to too many people and deserve the isolation they feel.<br /> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So I can assure you that not all Reformed folk disapprove of that book. I read it precisely because I was in a place where I felt abandoned and alone. Those days still come and go but I wanted to recommend the book to anyone to whom darkness has been or does feel to be their only consistent companion.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The other is from a dear friend and member of a church I served:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-af07ad16-8aae-9640-a5e3-6a66d0d1d1f0"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am glad</span></span> you wrote this. You have walked beside me through tough times, tho I was not suicidal, I was depressed. And you were a help and “got me through." I have always found the story of William Cowper to be encouraging to me...I believe your gift of helping is a result of your own struggles.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>2. Don't. </b>If you are a person, who struggles with persistent, serious depression and who may have had or be having"suicidal thoughts," the one thing I must say is, "Don't"; or to quote from the old Bob Newhart as psychologist dealing with a neurotic person routine, "Stop it. Just stop it." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I do know how weak those words may be to you, but the reality is that suicide is wrong. It is a sin against the commandment, "Thou shalt do no murder" which forbids "offing" oneself, not just others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It was not long ago that there was a consensus that suicide was both a churchly sin and a civil crime. Perhaps you remember the scene in <i>It's a Wonderful Life</i> when the bridge tender says to George Bailey and Angel Second Class Clarence, "Suicide's a crime around here." The Roman Catholic Church has historically taken a very strong stand against suicide, considering it a mortal sin, which, there being no opportunity for repentance, is damning. Roman Catholics who killed themselves were denied Christian funerals and burial in consecrated ground. However, the RCC has "relaxed" its view of suicide. In order for suicide to be a mortal sin, one has to be capable of making the free decision to take one's life. That is, one has to be in his "right mind" for suicide to count as mortal sin. That leads some Roman Catholics ethicists to say that few, if any, suicides are mortal sins, for who in his right mind takes his own life?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I must leave aside any extended comments on the "end of life" issues that come with modern medicine. Surely taking the lives of infants with birth defects or of older persons with a "low" quality of life is wrong, through active or passive measures, and must devalue all human life and contribute to the brutalization of society. But end of life issues can be complicated. Is there virtue in suffering intractable pain? I have known Christian doctors, for instance, who do not have a problem with erring on the side of giving "too much morphine" when a person is near death. But the presumption must stand that one must not take his/her own life or seek the aid of others in doing so.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To my knowledge in the Bible there are seven recorded suicides: In the Old Testament there are the cases of Abimelech (Judges 9:52-54), Samson (Judges 16:28-30), Saul (1 Samuel 31:3,4), Saul's armor bearer (1 Samuel 31:5), Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:23), and Zimri (1 Kings 16:18). The one case of suicide involving one who seems to me to be a believer, for all his moral weaknesses and failings, is that of Samson. The most sobering case of suicide occurs in the New Testament, that of our Lord's own disciple and betrayer, the son of perdition (John 17:12), Judas (Matthew 27:3-5, Acts 1:15-20). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But there is nothing in Holy Scripture to indicate that the sin of suicide is the sin without forgiveness. I believe there are many cases of believers, whose professions of faith are not to be doubted, who have taken their own lives. For instance, when I lived in Pittsburgh, there was the case of a faithful minister of a conservative Presbyterian church, who, suffering pain with incurable cancer, took his own life while his wife was away from the house attending a Bible study. This was a case of a believer, who (wrongly I believe, though I have not been where he was) concluded, "I cannot go on like this." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One thing that ought to be noted is that, while it is worthwhile to make the arguments, statements such as, "Look at how God has used your life," or, "Think of the friends, relatives, and loved ones who will be bereaved by your loss," may be completely ineffectual. George Bailey, who was suicidal because he thought that his business had failed beyond recovery and that he and his family would be subjected to scandal (he even to prison), was given the "gift" of "a chance to see what the world would be like without you." </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Strange isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives, and when he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?" The "message" of the movie is a quote from Mark Twain inscribed by Clarence in a copy of <i>Tom Sawyer</i>, "Remember, no man is a failure who has friends."* </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The problem for the suicidal person is that none of that rings true to him/her. While he/she may be sufficiently rational to see that such a selfish act will cause havoc and pain in the lives of loved ones, he/she does not believe it is because they prefer him alive as he is now. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the other hand, it may be something apparently mundane that will save a life. I read of a man near to committing suicide who got a call from a friend, inviting him to do something with him, that interrupted his plan and saved his life. That is a life saved by something very ordinary: "I think I'll go get something to eat with John rather than kill myself." You never know what God may use. It cannot be your fault if someone takes his/her own life, hence there is no reason for guilt if it happens. But the greatest human deterrence and the greatest gift you can give to the deeply depressed person is presence, availability, interest, acceptance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To conclude this section: If you are deeply depressed, fight it however you can. If you have suicidal thoughts: Don't do it. It's a sin against God, others, and yourself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>3. Somebody's Got to Do It.</b> My wife and I could hardly be more different. She is an intensely practical person who doesn't spend (she would probably say "waste") a lot of time reflecting on life. She asks, "What needs to be done next? Wash the dishes? OK, then I'll wash the dishes." I ask, "Why are there dishes? Why must they be washed?" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Forgive me for giving in to ethnic stereotypes, but, like her father before her, my wife is German. She is about responsibility, work, order. I am about angst, rumination, feeling. She has spent (perhaps I should say "wasted") nearly 50 years trying to put me in good order. She also is, as I have said before, the only woman I have ever known who could have lived with me this long and not killed me. As Ray Price sang, "She's got to be a saint, 'cause, Lord knows, that I ain't." She is, beyond any doubt, God's great grace communicated to me through a fellow embodied soul or ensouled body.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">She wonders why anyone would choose to be like me (if one can be said to choose it). And, why, being as I am, do I do things - read a little poetry, read a few novels, and listen to country music - that seem to minister to and intensify the misery to which I am prone? </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The simple answer is because those things give expression to my experience, make me feel that others have walked my path, and, whether a sign good, bad, or indifferent, cause my soul to say, "Amen." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Moreover, it seems to me, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">somebody's</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> got to do it. What if everyone were like my wife? Who would do the philosophy? For that matter, who would know there are any philosophical questions? Who would write the country songs? Who would sing them? Who would write the novels and poetry? Who would have written the darker Psalms (Calvin described the Psalms as "an anatomy of the whole soul")? Who would have asked, "How long, O Lord? Where are you, O Lord? Why, O Lord?" Who could have written a Psalm 88 that ends on a more bereft note than it begins? I love the title of Carl Trueman's chapter, "What Shall Miserable Christians sing?". If you attend a church where everyone stands for 15-20 minutes singing praise songs led by a rock band, the answer is, "Nothing." Even as it took someone who knew the joys of erotic love to write Song of Solomon, so it took someone who knew disillusionment with life to write Ecclesiastes, and someone who deeply felt the heavy hand of God to write Lamentations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The truth, it seems to me, is that just as there must be people who do things; so there must be people who think things. Just as there must be people who look outward; so there must be those who look inward. Just as there must be people who see the glass as half full; so there must be those who see it as half empty (and those, too, who see it as neither - but as just a half glass of water). Just as some people are upbeat; others are downbeat. (Something I found freeing recently was when I said to a secular counselor, "I can't remember ever not being depressed," and he replied, "Perhaps that's just the way you are. Maybe we can learn some ways to live with it.") Just as some spend much time on the Mount of Transfiguration beholding our Lord's glory; so some must go to dark Gethsemane and spend much time understanding our Lord's agony. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Not for a moment would I excuse the self-sensitivity, self-pity, self-absorption, and the other besetting sins of us depressives, but I take some comfort in believing that God can use and work through depressives in all their weakness and failings, too. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>4. Childhood and Religion</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">From <i>Learning to Live with Myself by Merle Haggard</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I must reflect a little on my childhood and religious experiences. As I do that, you are right to ask, "Do you think your life has been unique? Do you think that either your home or religious upbringing were worse or harder than that of others?" Absolutely not! I know of, respect, and am convicted by others who, going through far worse things than I can imagine, not only have endured but triumphed. Their hardships made them strong, even grateful. The best I can do at explaining the differences is something that was said to me long ago. "Different people process different things in different ways." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have wondered many times if my being a depressive is the cause of the way I have processed my family and religious experiences, or if the way I processed my family and religious experiences is the cause of my being a depressive. I have come to believe the relationship is not either/or but symbiotic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am deliberately going to avoid talking about my home life. I do that for two reasons: a) concern not to violate the 5th Commandment and b) awareness of my own parental failings. I will, rather, say one specific positive thing which requires alluding to one negative: I grew up in a time when parents still believed in "beating the hell" out of their kids, but I have always felt that my father was the one human being who would never - no matter what - give up on me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What I will say more about is my religious upbringing. The conservative Southern Presbyterianism in which I grew up consisted of several disparate elements: Calvinism, revivalism, fundamentalism, dispensationalism, legalism, and higher life-ism. (This same "coalition" brought the Presbyterian Church in America into existence.) Justification by faith alone was clearly taught and preached, but so was legalism and guilt. There were rules that "consecrated" Christians observed, including prohibitions of such worldly practices as dancing, card playing, going to movies, smoking, drinking, etc. The legalistic aspect of this might be summed up by two Garrison Keillor sayings I recall: "We didn't do anything; we just thought about sex all the time," and "Guilt is good; it's the only thing that keeps some people in line." Now in my case all this was exacerbated by my attending from second through ninth grades, Pensacola Christian Reformatory, supported by fundamentalists involved in Child Evangelism and/or the Gideons, founded by two Bob Jones graduates who were Child Evangelism workers, and staffed mainly by teachers trained at Bob Jones. I will say that Pensacola Christian School did a number on me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In my experience the underlying emphasis was on experience. Had you really asked Jesus into your heart? If you died tonight were you really sure you would awake in heaven? Did you have just head knowledge or also heart knowledge? Now many of my childhood friends have nothing but fond memories of this environment. But, not I. How many times did I ask Jesus to come into my heart or wrestle with whether I ought go down the aisle at this or that meeting? The issue was on whether what had happened in your life was the authentic experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then I went to seminary where I became acquainted with experimental Calvinism. There were still the old fundamentalist revivalists, the Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship men who preached in chapel, but now there was something new - exposure to a real Calvinistic emphasis on experience. I think of the Presbyterian, John Gerstner, and his emphasis on preparation to receive grace. But primarily Baptists such as Al Martin. I remember Ernie Reisinger, a saintly man, who applied his message with, "Have you closed with Christ" - terminology I did not know the meaning of because I had never heard it before. Al Martin truly "disturbed" me - a good thing in experimental Calvinism. The emphasis was still on reality and authenticity, but with new terminology - primarily regeneration and conversion. Had you been truly regenerated? Were you really converted? This has led me - I am tempted to say millions of times in the last 50 years - to despair over my spiritual condition and sins, and to pray, "If I am not a Christian, make me a Christian. If I am not regenerated, regenerate me. If I am not converted, convert me." But always the underlying doubt - the fear that I, having preached to others, should be a castaway, or that like Judas, who preached and did miracles, I might not know the Lord. Countless times I have thought of myself, "He saved (or at least preached the gospel to) others; himself he cannot save." It is hard to live with oneself; it is hard to live - period - with such torturing doubts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here is the question it has come down for me lately. How much is God the Father like the father of the prodigal? Is he really straining for a glimpse of his returning son? Does he really interrupt the son's confession and contrition, immediately give gifts that can never be earned, and start the party that comes from his present, unreserved joy? How much is Christ like the true elder Brother, sharing the Father's celebration and, if necessary, heading down the road to bring the Prodigal back again and again because it gives the Father joy? Or to put it in more earthy terms, "Does God love and accept the ones he has 'fixed' or does he love and accept screw-ups, not just one time screw-ups, but repeat screw-ups? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">That is the answer to "learning to live with myself" - living with the screw-up you are and others accurately tell you you are.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">* </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I must tell a story. Bill Peterson was the football coach who began Florida State's emergence from the shadow of the University of Florida. An alumnus invited him to my church to speak to a Men and Boys breakfast. Bill did not know what kind of church he was in, so he told a joke about a policeman who encountered a man about to jump off a bridge. Cop: "Don't do it, man. Think about your family." Man: "I haven't got any family." Cop: "Well, think about your friends." Man: "I haven't got any friends." Cop: "Then think about Robert E. Lee." Man: "Who's Robert E. Lee?" Cop: "Well then, jump, you damn Yankee."</span></span></div>
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-61108844974792885202018-05-12T13:20:00.000-04:002018-05-12T22:12:50.172-04:00Thoughts about Suicide <div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">John Berryman experienced four broken homes. When Berryman was a boy, his father, John Allyn Smith, an unemployed banker, who, though still living with the family was going through a divorce with his wife,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">very early in the morning, rose with his gun and went outdoors by my window and did what was needed" - killed himself. A devoted altar boy, Berryman lost his faith: "my father's suicide when I was twelve blew out my most bright candle faith." Berryman's mother married another John whose last name was Berryman from whom John Berryman received his last name. That marriage eventually ended in divorce. John Berryman, the poet, was married three times and twice divorced.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Berryman was an intellectual, scholar, academic, and Pulitzer Prize winning poet. He also was idiosyncratic, a depressive, an alcoholic hospitalized numerous times, an adulterer, a difficult person. In 1970 he experienced a religious re-conversion: "I fell back in love with you, Father," and described himself as "Under new management, Your Majesty: Thine." But he continued to struggle with both depression and alcohol abuse. On the morning of January 7, 1972, he jumped to his death in the Mississippi River from a bridge in Minneapolis.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Well, you may be thinking, this is simple: John Berryman was obviously never a true Christian. It is not surprising, then, that he died as his father before him died. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But let me tell you about another man.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">He was also a great poet, a friend of John Newton, an evangelical Christian who led his brother to a profession of evangelical faith when his brother was dying. Though his poetry ranged widely, many of this poet's poems were religious in nature, and quite a few of those are still sung where Christians still sing hymns. He wrote, "There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains...The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away." </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">His name was William Cowper. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bet let me tell you some other things about him your minister or "worship leader" probably has not told you. Cowper was also was a depressive, spent time in an insane asylum, and attempted suicide four times. He knew what it was like to go to church and get nothing out of it: "</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thy saints are comforted I know and love thy house of pray'r; I therefore go where others go, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">but find no comfort there." </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Though he continued to hold an evangelical faith and believed others were saved, he became convinced that he was "damned beneath Judas." After a dream that confirmed to him his reprobate condition in 1793, Cowper never attended church or said a prayer (we know about). Though John Newton did not doubt Cowper's salvation, he died in 1800 convinced hell was his destiny. Cowper's story is not the stuff of evangelical experimental testimony.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now, let me tell you about another person. The title of this Blog post, <i>Thoughts about Suicide</i>, is a double <i>entendre</i>. I have thoughts about suicide I want to share, but I also have thoughts about suicide - or suicidal thoughts as they are called. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Twice my suicidal thinking has resulted in hospitalization. Once 8 years ago and most recently 5 weeks ago. I have wrestled with whether to write this, and even as I write, am wrestling with whether to publish it. My suicidal thoughts involve not just me but my family. Should my wife and sons and their families who, of course, know about these things, have to deal with their friends and extended families knowing this about me?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then hardly anyone beyond the immediate family knows this about me. Over the years people have said some nice things about my ministry, not just my preaching and teaching, but even my personal concern for them and pastoral care of them. Will this disillusion and disappoint them? Possibly - probably? Will I lose friends because of this? I could. God forbid that any should question the faith I have preached because of it. I also have friends and relatives who do not hold the historic Christian faith, some having never believed it, some having left it. Again, God forbid that my confession should confirm them in disbelief. Also, I have been living in a new area for less than a year, and people among whom I live know nothing of this. What effect will that have on relationships if new friends and acquaintances read this? I may spend the rest of my life here. Would I be happier if they do not know?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But here is the truth. I have been a depressive most of my life. I remember being depressed and doubting my relationship with God as a child. Why? I don't know. Childhood experiences? Maybe. Biology? Perhaps. Spiritual issues? No doubt. I have recently been told by a professional who deals with medications that my depression seems little helped by medications, though with her recommendation I continue to take some. Certainly my depression has been caused by and accompanied by sins that often are concomitant with depression. Even as I write this, I wonder about my motives and if this is simply an exercise in ego. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why then write? For these reasons, I think:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1. Though I have deliberately barely touched on the connections between depression and sin and deliberately focused only on thoughts about suicide so that this is not a tell-all confessional, I think there is some value in being honest about, rather than hiding the reality of, one's experience. That is, is it best to be who you are or to be someone else?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">2. I hope that this may help some Christians, who have experienced or may yet have experiences when "darkness is my only friend" (Psalm 88:18), know that they are not alone. That feeling that you are "the only one" or "the only one whose case is so bad as yours" is torture. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What does it feel like to be so depressed you have suicidal thoughts? Well, it feels like, "I can't go on like this," or, "I don't think I can/don't want to go on like this." If the person is really serious, he/she will probably have some kind of plan. One of the thoughts that might (but not necessarily) restrain someone who believes the Bible is, "Hell is worse, and that could be my destiny, and it is forever." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then there is the temptation to projected self-pity - to think of oneself as dead, and feeling like Ralphie in <i>Christmas Story </i>who got pleasure from imagining himself as a blind adult and his family both feeling extremely sorry for him and engaging in self-recriminations because they helped cause his condition. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is also another thought - that some problems would be solved and others' lives would be better off if you were not around. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then just about all sinful and negative feelings are present or close to hand: isolation, anger, abandonment, resentment, self-pity, and always despair and hopelessness. Moreover, if others are around, the things you say and do may make it difficult for them to help or even to want to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If that is your experience, your experience will have its unique aspects, but it is not unique to you. I do not have solutions to offer, but sometimes it helps - a little - to know that others understand almost exactly what you feel, because what you probably think is that no one understands.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And, if you receive mercy from God and others in your circumstances, resolve to be a person who shows mercy to others in the future. It is so easy for us to be like the servant who, forgiven the debt of a fortune, grabbed a fellow servant by the throat because he owed him a small debt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">3. I want to say some things to those who may have to put up with people who have suicidal thoughts. You need to know that, much as you might want to help, sometimes neither you nor any other human can. If you've been there, you will not feel it strange that I say also that it is hard not to feel angry with despairing people. And you may well doubt whether the person is serious who tells you he/she does not want to live. You want to say, "Get over yourself," or, "It's late and time for the pity party to be over," or, "There are people who have died who would have loved to live, and look at you." There may be well-meaning Christians who will want to quote Bible verses, offer an extended prayer**, or recommend a book or CD. Others, even professionals, may say what the person needs is some really tough love that allows him/her to be miserable - "to sit with" what has brought him/her to this place. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The most important thing you can do is to be there. And that may be the one thing the person who needs you may not allow. In addition you may find that you do not want to be around the person in such a condition. Try to remember that the person has given up on him/herself. Your being there says, "But I haven't." The person feels abandoned. Your presence says, "But you're not. I'm here." The person feels, "I can't go on." Your being there may communicate, "Let's do it together."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There are no simple, easy, or guaranteed to work answers. Do what you can. When you have, put it in God's hands. And always remember, if the worst happens, it's not your fault. There are things you can't stop from happening. The person "who goes down suicide" makes a choice. To him/her it may seem the only choice; nevertheless, it is his/her choice.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">4. I want someone to tell the medical establishment that it needs to think about the way it responds to people with suicidal thoughts. I may be wrong, but here is what I think: If a person goes to or is taken to a hospital, the hospital will have two priorities: a. Prevent the person from harming him/herself or anyone else. b. Keep the hospital or health professional from getting sued. There will be little concern about what the person is feeling, or why, or how to help. In fact, the patient's needs are at best secondary to the needs of the medical industry. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In Mississippi there is a 72 hour "hold" put on suicidal patients. That means you will be held against your will for 72 hours. Let me tell you from my most recent experience some things a patient may experience: No legal rights. You can fight the "hold," but you will lose, and the judge may commit you to the state hospital. So it's better to go ahead and go to "X Facility." There you may experience an environment that reminds you of <i>One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.</i> You may be subjected to such things as: deeply humiliating "procedures," playing a game of hitting balloons with rubber sticks, sitting around a table where you are the healthiest, most sentient, and sanest person. Spending your nights with a baby sitter. Being denied books in your room (I was able to persuade them to let me keep my Prayer Book.). When I finally met the psychiatrist, it was when the "team" met to decide what to do with me. His personality made a dish towel just used to dry the supper dishes seem both interesting and empathetic. When he asked about health conditions, he told me that it is not possible to have together two health conditions that I do have. About the only thing he said was that they would like me to stay a few more days. I declined. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you say, "Well, it's your own fault; you didn't have to go through any of that," I agree. Still my conclusion for myself (I do not recommend it to others) was: "If you are having suicidal thoughts, do not go to a hospital or tell a medical professional. If you weren't really suicidal before, you may become so by the 'treatment' you receive." </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I don't know what can be done, but something needs to be done about the way hospitals and medical professionals deal with people who have "suicidal ideation." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">5. Churches and denominations of churches need to realize that attendees, members, and ministers may be, to quote James Taylor, "moving in silent desperation." Some are living in the shadows because they cannot risk transparency. Their experience does not match the Christian experience they hear about in sermons and testimonies, the experience they themselves think they should be having, or the experience it seems everyone else is having. Yes, there are people who go to churches who are chronic whiners, people whose greatest joy is to complain, people who want to talk constantly about their favorite subject - themselves. Even those folks need the ministry of the church, because the church includes all sorts of folks. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But somehow the church needs to communicate to real sufferers that it's OK to be honest about who you are - your struggles, your sins, your despairing moments - and that the church will not promise to pray for you, then forget you, look down on you, hope you'll find another church. In other words, the church needs to be the church - a fellowship of fellow pilgrims and strugglers. The church should be the first place the despairing person can turn and know he/she will be accepted, even held onto tightly. That person needs the Communion of the Lord and the communion of the saints.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have a special word about ministers, and that is to say how thankful I am to be in the Reformed Episcopal Church. I have concerns about the theological/liturgical direction of my church, but I have found that my church is pastoral toward pastors. My Bishop and the minister from whom I receive spiritual counsel, know not only about my depression and experiences of suicidal </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">thoughts</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> but also about my sins. Yet I am still a minister of Word and Sacrament and am still welcome at the Lord's Table. My pastoral counselor asked me to watch a YouTube video. It was about an hour and a half long, so I watched in two parts. When we met, he asked me what I thought he wanted me to get out of the video. I said, "When I watched the first half, I thought you wanted me to conclude that I am no Christian at all." He responded, "That never crossed my mind." That is one of the most encouraging things anyone has ever said to me. My Bishop has held me accountable, including giving admonishment and warning, but he has been kind, patient, and supportive throughout. My experience of my church has been that it looks on people as did Jesus,"who had compassion on them" (Matthew 9:36).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I think there is also a place for what today is called "talk therapy." The practice of psychoanalysis is no more (save for a few places), thank God. The emphasis today is, "Where are we now? Where do we go from here? How do we get there?" I think there is value in talking with someone in an unguarded, even earthy, fashion whose goal is to understand and help you practically.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Lately I have got help from a book some of my Reformed friends may disapprove,<i> Night Driving: Thoughts of a Prodigal Soul. </i>My story here is somewhat like the title of that book. I am better now, else I could not write this. But this</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> is not a "victory in Jesus" story.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> It is a story of someone God has apparently chosen to hold onto despite himself. Its testimony is only, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is a story in progress not a story with all the loose ends brought together in a satisfying conclusion. In that sense it is like Psalm 88, a Psalm that leaves us uneasy because at the end the Psalmist has it no more together than he did at the beginning. The one hopeful note in the Psalm is...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">** I like this prayer for "Those in Mental Darkness" from The Book of Common Prayer: "O Heavenly Father, we beseech thee to have mercy upon all thy children who are living in mental darkness. Restore them to strength of mind and cheerfulness of spirit, and give them health and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."</span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-20868485815346565582018-05-03T11:04:00.001-04:002018-05-03T11:06:32.626-04:00Celebrating the 70th Birthday of Israel<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Droid Sans"; margin: 20px 0px 0px; position: relative; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;">On the 14th of May Israel will celebrate the 70th Anniversary of its modern creation in 1948. I thought posting something from my old Blog <i>The Christian Curmudgeon </i>would be appropriate.<i> </i></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Israel Is Not Israel</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Modern National Israel </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Is Not Old Testament Israel</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">The older I get the more I know, to use Donald Rumsfield's phraseology, that there are "known unknowns" and there are "unknown unknowns." There are things we do not know, and we know that we don't. We know we do not know the date of the Second Coming of Christ. We know enough to know we don't know that. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">But there are things we do not know of which we have no awareness at all. With regard to the past, we can give examples of what were "unknown unknowns." Until the new physics came along we did not know that there are particles that behave chaotically - that is non-predictably. But with regard to the future, we cannot give examples simply because we do not know enough to know we don't know. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">One of my known unknowns is what God is going to do with ethnic Israel. Even to try to define "ethnic Israel" is an exercise in frustration. What does "all Israel will be saved" mean? Does Paul teach us that all elect ethnic Jews will be saved or does he teach us that there is yet to be a mass turning of ethnic Jews to Christ? I take a "wait and see" approach to this issue.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">But one of my "known knowns" is that, if there is to be a mass turning of the Jews to Christ, it does not require a national homeland for ethnic Jews in the approximate location of ancient Old Testament Israel. Jews can turn to Christ as well in the United States, or Egypt for that matter, as in the modern state of Israel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">The modern state of Israel is geographically strange. It encompasses only part of the territory promised to God's people in the Old Testament. Specifically, while Israel has settled Israelis in the west bank area, Israel does not encompass "Judea" and "Samaria" to say nothing of any east bank territory one may believe that God meant to give the Israelites.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Here is one proposed map of Israel according to the allotments to the tribes:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Here</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> is a map of the approximate borders of Israel in the time of Solomon, the apex of ethnic/national Israel's territorial control.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">But what about the modern state of Israel?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Last summer the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America divested itself of stock in three companies that sell to Israel materials that have military uses. Many evangelicals tried to prevent this action and decried it after it was taken.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Lately with regard to the conflict in Gaza much support for Israel has been expressed. Panelists on Fox's Special Report, especially Charles Krauthammer, strongly support Israel's action. Rush Limbaugh supports of Israel, saying that the Palestinian groups must be defeated and subdued before there can be peace in the area. Israel must impose peace on its defeated foes. I have also seen a number of posts by Christian friends supporting the Israeli incursion. </span><span style="font-size: medium;">For the purposes of this Blog let me grant that the Israeli action is politically, militarily, and morally necessary. </span><span style="font-size: medium;">That granted for now, I want to question reasons for the support of Israeli actions. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">It seems to me that some Christians' support of just about anything Israel does assumes that Jewish people have continuously dwelt in and occupied territory in the geographic area that came to be known as Palestine or, if you prefer, Canaan from the days of Joshua or post-Exilic days (take your pick) forward. But that is not the case. Here is a map showing Jewish settlement from 1881 to 1914.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">The Balfour Declaration of 1917 vaguely committed the British government to the establishment of a Jewish "homeland" in Palestine. However, a geographical grant of territory to Jews did not come about until 1947 when the United Nations partitioned Palestine between the Israelis and the Arabs (or Palestinians). The Jewish state of modern Israel declared its existence in 1948. The Arabs did not like partition or the existence of the state of Israel, so a war ensued.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Here are maps of the U.N. Partition and of the 1948 war:</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-twQLR7b-1Xo/U9jmjfh-wEI/AAAAAAAAFcg/zSuI_mkrLbc/s1600/arab-israeli-war_1948__1_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #094eb8; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="345" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-twQLR7b-1Xo/U9jmjfh-wEI/AAAAAAAAFcg/zSuI_mkrLbc/s1600/arab-israeli-war_1948__1_.jpg" style="border: none; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">There is a good chance there would have been no Israeli state, at least not for quite awhile, had it not been for virulent anti-Semitism in Europe and particularly had the Holocaust not occurred. This ratcheted up demands for a "safe homeland" for Jews (how is that working out?). After World War II, when Britain still governed Palestine, the British gave up efforts to control it, partly because of Jewish terrorism against the British (carried out by men such as Menachem Begin, later Prime Minister). At the same time there was growing Jewish pressure in the United States which led to President Trueman's supporting (at least in part because of electoral considerations) the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. From that time forward there has been almost continuous conflict (including 3 wars) about the land between the Jews and the Palestinians. Still the modern state of Israel does not occupy the territory claimed by Old Testament Israel. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Here is a map of Israeli territory before the 1967 War and today.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 18px;">Israel 1967 and Today</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">A question we must ask is:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Does the Israeli state have a right to the territory allotted to the tribes of Israel by Joshua? If you are a dispensationalist</span><span style="font-size: medium;">, you do think that, because you believe that the Jews are God's people, that there is a future for Israel distinct from the church, and that the Old Testament land belongs to Israel by divine right. You believe that the human race is divided both as believers and unbelievers and as Jews and Gentiles. We live in a parenthesis (the Church Age) which will be followed by God's implementation of his original plan for Israel and the fulfillment of his ancient promises to Israel. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">My question to those who are not dispensationalists is, Why do you respond to the actions of the Israelis on dispensationalist assumptions? That is, Why do you respond to the conflicts in Palestine as though you believe a geographical land belongs to ethnic Jews and the modern Jewish state? Or, Why do you instinctively support what the Israeli state does as though it has a special status that trumps every other consideration?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">In other words, it seems to me that the right way to view the national claims and geographical aspirations of ethnic Jews is to view them the same as we would any other group of people in the world. It is to view these claims and aspirations as we would if (as is the case) ethnic Jews do not have a Biblical claim to land in the Middle East. The modern state of Israel is no different from any other nation as to its rights and obligations. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">The state of Israel does exist. We may question whether it was wise to establish a state for ethnic Jews in Palestine. But we may not question the fact of its existence. As a state it has no less but also no more rights than any other state. We have no reason to condemn Israel's actions when they fall within the rights we recognize for ourselves or any other nation. But we also have no reason to support Israel as though it were a special case.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">I find the situation with Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Jews, and Palestinians politically, militarily, and morally vexing. I have trouble sorting out the right and the wrong, the wise and the foolish, the workable and the unworkable. I do not know what a just, wise, and workable solution looks like. What I do know is that there no Biblical reason to look at these questions as though the modern state of Israel is a special case.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Modern Israel is just another country that is in the world and whose existence is recognized by the United Nations. No less. No more.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">When Abraham walked the land of Palestine and God told him that every place his foot fell would belong to his descendants, God was giving Abraham and his descendants a sign of and down payment on the much bigger promise</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> to give him the whole world (Romans 4:13). And who are Abraham's descendants who have inherited this promise? He is "the father of all who believe without being circumcised... and...the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised" (Romans 4: 11,12). The promise of the world will be gained, not by armies, rifles, artillery shells, and missiles, but now by the gospel and in the end by coming again of the Lord. </span></div>
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-38637596048869980492018-04-19T11:17:00.002-04:002018-04-23T07:12:18.255-04:00Laws, Politics, and Sausages<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Purity, Absolutism, and Politics</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">And so it begins...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In 1869 the <i>Daily Cleveland Herald</i> quoted lawyer John Godfrey Saxe as saying, "Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made." (A variation of this quotation is often attributed to the Iron Chancellor, Otto Von Bismarck, but the first attribution to him did not occur the 1930s.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I like sausages. I like hot dogs, especially Bratwurst. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hot dogs in process</td></tr>
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In Pittsburgh we got introduced to Polish Kielbasa, and love it. We don't eat a whole lot of sausages, but we don't listen to the scoldings of the health monitors whose general rule is, "If you like it, don't eat it." Sausages and bacon are two of the comforting mercies in this life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But it is true that the less you know or the less you <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The real thing in Wiesbaden</td></tr>
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think about how sausages are made, the more likely you are to enjoy them. Sausages are made of meat "parts" - all sorts of animal parts, which can be from pigs, cows, and turkeys - plus flavoring spices and fillers such as bread crumbs. Though there are artificial encasements now, traditional sausages are encased in pig intestines. The hot dog form of sausage got its name from its association with dogs. Some say it is because German immigrants brought both the sausage meat product and the "sausage (or wiener looking) dog" (the daschund). Others suggest it was because of the not unfounded suspicion that some hot dogs included dog meat. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In any case, while it might be different for farmers and workers at meat processing plants, for most of us the less we know about the making of sausages the more likely we are to enjoy them. Just eat them; don't think about them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mr. Saxe was making the same point about the making of laws - or, the legislative process - in 1869. What is true of the legislative process by which laws are produced is true of the political process in general. The more we know about these processes the less likely we are to feel positive about the outcome. The recent Omnibus spending bill adopted by Congress and signed by the President is an example of the problem we have respecting the product when we know about the process.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What is true about the making of laws is at least as true about the practice of politics. The trouble many of us have about politics is that we tend to be romantics, idealists, purists, and absolutists. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When it comes to love, men in general are more likely to be scoundrels than women but are nevertheless the more inclined to be romantics about love, courtship, and marriage. Men want the love affair of the ages; women want someone who will come home after work, provide the money to feed the babies, and take out the garbage. Women are less devastated and more quick to recover from a "love affair gone bad," while men are more likely to become depressed, listen to country music, and take longer to get back on their feet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">All of us, however, want to be romantics about things such as the founding of our country. We speak of the Founders as though they were the perfect patriots who were committed to freedom above all else and who worked in harmony to produce a nearly perfect Constitutional union. The reality is something less. The Constitution is the product of political conflict and compromise. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Christians are often idealists. They think of the "New Testament Church" as the time when Christianity was nearly perfect. They tend not to take into account, the almost lost gospel of the Galatian church, or the sin and chaos of Corinthian church, or even the realities of a relatively healthy churches such as Philippi or Thessalonica. They express the longing to get back to the New Testament church life. (Note: the Reformers also wanted to get back to the church of New Testament age but were realists. They wanted to reform the church's worship, doctrine, government and life according to the teaching of the Apostles preserved in the Apostolic writings, not return to the flawed church life of New Testament church). Idealism is followed by disillusionment for church leaders who go to conventions, assemblies, or other church gatherings, however named, expecting to experience and observe, the never-existent New Testament churches of their idealist conception. The truth is the church is and always has been more or less a mess. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As with the church, so with the country. Many want to think that there is a basic unity of American citizenship - what the American people "really want." If we could just get to what almost all Americans want and believe, unfiltered by the media, uncorrupted by the Washington "swamp," unhindered by the corrupt "establishment," all would be well. The reality is different. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We are a country of people with different ideals. For instance, some Americans believe in a version of "American dream" that means all of us can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and achieve success; others believe only the help of the government can level the playing field and give us all a chance to participate in the "American dream." Some think Social Security and Medicare are great blessings, offering older Americans a modicum of financial security to help them at least to "get by" in their, not golden, but rusting years. Some think that Medicaid provides a "health care safety net" for the poor and their children, while others think Medicaid produces a class of people who will never be motivated to care for themselves and will always be dependent on government (i.e. taxpayers) to stay alive. There is always a tension between the ideas and ideals of Americans. We have to talk, sometimes to fight, and always to live with the less than perfect when ideals are different.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then, especially in politics, some are purists and absolutists. Not too long ago, I said of a Mississippi candidate for the United States Senate, Chris McDaniel, that he is a purist and absolutist in politics. He flattered me in two ways: 1) He took my description as accurate, a description he wore as a badge of honor. I was a nobody whose description of prominent Mississippi politician was taken seriously by him. 2) He responded to me as a representative of the Mississippi Republican "establishment." (Here is the extent of my MS establishment credentials: I once heard Tate </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Reeves, when he was MS State treasurer, speak on the matter of "advance paid tuition" for college and introduced myself to him afterward. I once heard then Governor Haley Barbour speak at a Lincoln Day Dinner in Winston Country, met him, and with all others in attendance received from him the pin of the MS National Guard. I once saw him at Christmastime coming down from the balcony at First Presbyterian in Jackson. I once had some dealings of a personal, not political, nature with his chief of staff. I once gave the invocation at a Winston County gathering at which Roger Wicker and Greg Harper were introduced. Do any of these people today know who I am? Of course not. Do I have any influence in the Mississippi Republican Party? Not one bit. I have challenged "the McDaniel people" to ask of anyone they know whom they consider to be an establishment member: "Who is Bill Smith?" They will receive a blank look as though the person were suffering from memory robbing dementia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The kind of "establishment Republican" I am is the the kind who does not believe that Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell are the embodiments of Republican establishment evil. I rather believe they are the kind of "sausage making Republican grown up establishment politicians" who make it possible for legislation such as the "Trump tax cuts" to be enacted. In other words, in my view men such as these are "Reagan Republicans" - the kind of Congressional Republicans with whom Reagan not only could have but would have been happy to work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What does a Republican purist-absolutist Republican believe? One example is he is a "Second-Amendment purist and absolutist." What does that mean? Does he believes in the right of the ordinary American citizen to own any kind of firearm whatsoever? Since 1934 the government has regulated and controlled firearms, in particular what we call "machine guns." Should machine guns be legal for personal possession? What about combat jets or personal missile systems? What about nuclear arms? It is impossible to be a Second Amendment purist-absolutist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The real issue having to do with the Second Amendment is not with whether individual citizens shall have the authority to own, possess, and use, firearms (of whatever sort) but with whether their possession and use is for the purposes of recreation, hobby, hunting, and, if necessary, self-defense. Or, are guns necessary for possible resistance to the government? Do you own the gun to stop the intruder into your home or to stop what you see as government intrusion into your life? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If it is the latter, then we have a problem. I am a southerner. While I think slavery as practiced in the south was evil and believe the south should have found way to "phase it out" (that is, I would not have been a typical abolitionist), I would have favored the resistance of the south against the imposition of the will of the north in the 1860s which forced states that voluntarily entered the Union to remain against their wills. There was a war, and what should have been settled by political process was settled by military conquest. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But, we have tried resistance to government by force of arms, and it did not work. Superior resources of population, materiel, and money made it clear that not even eleven confederated states can successfully resist the imposition the will of the majority. However many or what kinds of guns you and your neighbors own, you cannot succeed in resisting the force of the government. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Or, take absolutism. "I am an absolutist when it comes to the budget of the U.S. It must be balanced, and expenditures must be slashed." OK, are you still an absolutist when a Camille or Katrina devastates your state? Are you an absolutist about the needs of the military? Would you deprive the military of the resources it requires when this country or its vital interests are threatened by foreign powers, whether a government or terrorist organization? If you think Social Security is unconstitutional would you abolish it or would you, as did Ronald Reagan, commit to its preservation?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But let's take another form or purism and absolutism. Chris McDaniel has recently attacked his Republican opponent Cindy Hyde-Smith: "</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">he accused Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith of being 'a life-long Democrat' and accused the lifetime National Rifle Association member with an A rating of having pushed for gun control." By purist and absolutist standards, is any of that true? No. Cindy Hyde-Smith was a Democrat, as were many Republicans in MS till 2010. At that point she changed parties and was elected statewide as the state's Commissioner of Agriculture for two consecutive terms as a Republican. Is Ms. Smith-Hyde in favor of gun control? Only if favoring gun control means checking into if there were any ways she as Commissioner of Agriculture could prevent the carrying of handguns at the MS State Fair. Does anyone really want to attend the Fair, children or grandchildren in tow, knowing there are teenage gang members who are carrying handguns in their waistbands which a teenager might use if provoked to anger or if he wanted to rob you? What about if a "shooting war" broke out among rival gangs? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Justice Antonin Scalia is universally recognized as a conservative judge, an originalist in philosophy. He wrote the majority opinion that overturned the District of Columbia's ban on the possession of handguns. But he also wrote that the right to possession of firearms guaranteed by the Second Amendment is not absolute:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. From Blackstone through the 19th-century cases, commentators and courts routinely explained that the right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. See, e.g., Sheldon, in 5 Blume 346; Rawle 123; Pomeroy 152–153; Abbott333. For example, the majority of the 19th-century courts to consider the question held that prohibitions on carrying concealed weapons were lawful under the Second Amendment or state analogues. See, e.g., State v. Chandler, 5 La. Ann., at 489–490; Nunn v. State, 1 Ga., at 251; see generally 2 Kent *340, n. 2; The American Students’ Blackstone 84, n. 11 (G. Chase ed. 1884). Although we do not undertake an exhaustive historical analysis today of the full scope of the Second Amendment , nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am not recommending cynicism, skepticism, or indifferentism. There is nothing wrong with a certain "romantic patriotism." I have experienced it many times, especially when I participated in the Desert Storm victory celebration in our nation's capital. It is good to have ideals in which we believe. It is healthy to want Constitutional purity by the three branches of government, especially the courts, if by that you mean honest interpretation of the Constitution that takes into account over 200 years of interpretation and practice. It is a good thing to be a Barry Goldwater absolutist - who desperately wanted to vote for the 1964 Civil Rights law, but could not get past his conscience that it was unconstitutional, and who, once the law was passed and upheld by the courts, accepted it and believed it ought to be obeyed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Politics becomes impossible when we fail accept the reality that its practice is like making sausages.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Please give me a not dog - with mustard, onions, and pickle relish - but don't ruin my enjoyment by reminding me how the dog was made. </span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-68667537849146353042018-03-29T10:12:00.002-04:002018-03-29T10:53:22.927-04:00Chris McDaniel Has a Ryan Walters Problem<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today Ryan Walter has up a piece explaining and defending himself for tweets he wrote yesterday offering to help a Democrat get elected to the "Cochran seat" in the United States: <a href="http://mississippiconservativedaily.com/no-mississippi-conservative-daily-did-not-endorse-a-democrat-for-us-senate-an-open-letter-from-ryan-s-walters-editor-of-mcd/">No, Mississippi Conservative Daily Did Not Endorse a Democrat for US Senate: An Open Letter from Ryan S. Walters, Editor of MCD</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ryan's tweets apparently stirred up enough trouble to merit Ryan a phone call from Senator McDaniel: </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">In fact, he called me last night and, in his kind way, told me to pipe down." When a politician distinguished in part by his throwing Molotov cocktails such as accusing Cindy Hyde-Smith of not supporting the Second Amendment, has to tell Ryan Walters to "pipe down" however kindly, you know Ryan has made some pretty deep doo-doo. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">Ryan's piece this morning is typical Ryan:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Typical writing</b>: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Yesterday, the Roger Wicker campaign released two new attack ads aimed at Senator McDaniel. I found the ads to be pathetic, distasteful, and uncalled for. And, yes, they made me quite angry. McDaniel has already switched races, although he had not officially taken his name out of contention, an action he took on Wednesday. But Wicker’s despicable “stink tank” saw fit to continue to smear him. And I’m not sure as to the real reason why. Could it be to lift Cindy Hyde-Smith’s floundering candidacy? That in itself is pathetic! </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cogent, compelling writing: “pathetic, distasteful, uncalled for…yes they made me angry’…despicable ‘stink tank” – some of Ryan’s favorite words for building a logical argument: pathetic (used twice in same paragraph), distasteful, uncalled for. And Ryan is angry. Nothing new there. Ryan is usually angry, and his anger drives much of his writing.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Typical self-knowledge: </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When Senator McDaniel made his decision to switch races, I immediately ceased all research, articles, and social media posts against Roger Wicker. I told our team to turn their focus on Phil Bryant’s appointee to succeed Thad Cochran. I cared not a bit about the Wicker race. It was a non-issue for us at that moment. I felt that we had made a gracious move.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ryan felt he made a gracious move because he stopped attacking Roger Wicker. Forgive me, but that is pure bull. Why did he stop? Because Roger Wicker was no longer his target. His attacks could not hurt Wicker, who is sure to be elected. Grace would be ceasing attacks when Wicker was still his target, when he might be able to hurt Wicker. This was not grace, but the political decision to change targets since his friend and brother was no longer running against Wicker. If this is Ryan's graciousness, please let us be spared his love and mercy.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Typical reality problem: </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In a hasty tweet I wrote: “@msdemocrats @richardboyanton @dbaria We’re ready to help you take down @rogerwicker! Time for him to go! You’re welcome to all our research! #mssen #RememberMississippi” And I must admit the first part of the tweet certainly could have been better stated. But consider the next part: ‘You’re welcome to all our research.’ I meant what is on our site now and what is to come later. I’m not going to pull the Wicker pieces down and we now have more in the works. Those published pieces will stay on our site. But I’m not going to endorse the Democrats, send them any information, or help them in any way, yet they are free to use anything they can FROM THE SITE in the fall campaign. That’s all I meant by that tweet.” </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The trouble Ryan has is that what he “meant” is NOT what he said. What he said was that he was offering his help to “take down” Wicker and was offering not only what was on his site. The Democrats are welcome to “All our research!”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Typical Argument: </b></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Of course, Governor Phil Bryant, who is angry with me for blowing up his phones over the Cochran vacancy, wrote a snarky reply: ‘As it was written long ago: And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.’ This from a man who just appointed a Democrat to the US Senate (talk about hypocrisy!), so he has absolutely no credibility to say anything to me!</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Governor is mad with Ryan for “blowing up his phones.” No doubt Ryan wears this as a badge of honor. He tried to bully the Governor, and the Governor was irritated! Whose sympathy is not with the Governor on this one? I get irritated getting called once or twice a month by a recording telling me there is nothing wrong with my credit, but still they’d like to talk to me about it. <br /><br />Then Ryan Walters, the master of the attempts, if not success, at snarkiness, complains that the Governor wrote a snarky reply. I don't care for the Govrernor's misuse of the words of our Lord, but it was snarky to respond to Ryan's tweets with a statement about truth and the freedom that comes with knowing it?<br /><br />Then, according to Ryan the Governor appointed a Democrat to the Senate. A plain untruth. Cindy Hyde-Smith has twice now been elected to statewide office as a Republican. Ryan’s complaint is about the same as some disgruntled Republican in California complaining that the Republicans were running that Democrat, Ronald Reagan, for Governor. And Ryan thinks it’s Phil Bryant who is the hypocrite! <br /><br />Then Ryan clinches his argument with another piece of irrefutable logic: The Governor “has absolutely no credibility to say anything” to Ryan. I am sure the Governor will spend his whole day worrying about not having any credibility with Ryan Walters. What worse could happen to the Governor?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Watch for These</b></span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">: </b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If Ryan deigns to respond to this Blog, watch for how long it takes for him to say that The Curmudgeon is "some kind of preacher" or to write,"And a preacher wrote this!" Apparently Ryan holds preachers to a different standard of commenting than he holds himself. But the more important and serious issue is that Ryan seems not to be able to make the distinction between the office of a minister and the same person's rights as a private citizen. He seems to think that those who are ministers may write as private citizens about public subjects, never once invoking ministerial authority, and still be accused of misusing the ministerial office.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Watch for how long it takes for Ryan to accuse me to being a "troll," specifically that I have trolled him and Keith Plunkett. Ryan's definition of a troll is someone of a different opinion from his who dares engage in the free exchange of ideas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Watch for how long it takes Ryan to call me a "nut." Now in some ways I don't mind being identified with Earnest T. Bass, but at the same time I remember what my father-in-law said so often: "Takes one to know one."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Watch for Ryan to scorn me becausue I am old. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Apparently in his Sunday School, he never learned: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thou shalt rise up before the </span><b style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">hoary</b><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><b style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">head</b><span style="background-color: white;">, and honour the face of the old man... (Leviticus 19:32).</span> </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then watch for Ryan to call on all good, righteous, reasonable persons not to pay any attention to what I write, and, when possible, to block me so as not to have to be exposed to my dangerous writing. Apparently Ryan's devotion to the First Amendment does not match his devotion to the Second. </span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But you won't find me complaining like this:</span><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I've never felt this much hate from the establishment. Even in 2014. Each day brings a new attack, another lie. More junk!</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And I'm just a little guy from Ellisville, Mississippi.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But I will say that I am just a little old guy from Water Valley.</span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-29070239480836631052018-03-06T12:34:00.000-05:002018-03-07T07:26:56.481-05:00Does Chris McDaniel Know What a RINO Is?<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In Mississippi, it's always RINO season, but especially in election years. The announced retirement date (April) of Senator Thad Cochran has created the extraordinary circumstance that Mississippi will elect two new United States Senators next November. Senator Roger Wicker, the junior Senator, is up for re-election and faces a primary challenge from state Senator Chris McDaniel who challenged and almost beat Sen. Cochran in 2014. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">However, Senator Cochran's retirement could change things. Governor Phil Bryant has the power to appoint an interim Senator to take office upon Sen. Cochran's retirement. However, whether the interim Senator seeks to retain the seat or to hold it only till the general election, only the winner of the election in November can fill the remainder of the Cochran term (which expires in January of 2021.). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This creates a decision for Sen. McDaniel. Press on in his primary challenge to Senator Wicker? Or, drop the challenge to Wicker and run in November for the open seat created by Senator Cochran's retirement?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Either way Senator McDaniel and his supporters such as Ryan Walters, Melanie Sojourner. Keith Plunkett, and the Senator's multitude of Facebook followers have already used the term "RINO" approaching <i>ad infinitum </i>and can be counted on to continue using it till, the rest of us, like the Israelites consuming the quail in the wilderness, have heard it <i>ad nauseum.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"RINO" is one of those terms that is used so much that many seldom stop to ask the meaning of the term and the appropriateness of its use. It stands for "Republican in name only," but what kind of Republican is one in name only? It is an interesting question that, it seems to me, deserves a little reflection.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One consideration is who have been the Republican Presidential nominees since the end of World War II and the Roosevelt era? They are:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1948 - Thomas Dewey, Gov., NY</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1952 - Dwight Eisenhower, Sup. Allied Commander, European Theater, WW II</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1956 - Dwight Eisenhower, POTUS</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1960 - Richard Nixon, Eisenhower's V.P.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1964 - Barry Goldwater, U.S. Sen., AZ</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1968 - Richard Nixon, former V.P.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1972 - Richard Nixon, succeeded by V.P. Gerald Ford</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1976 - Gerald Ford, POTUS</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1980 - Ronald Reagan, former Gov., CA</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1984 - Ronald Reagan, POTUS</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1988 - George H.W. Bush, Reagan's V.P.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1992 - George H.W. Bush, POTUS</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1996 - Bob Dole, Sen., KS</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2000 - George W. Bush, Gov., TX</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2004 - George W. Bush, POTUS</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2008 - John W. McCain, Sen., AZ</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2012 - Mitt Romney, former Gov., MA</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2016 - Donald Trump, Businessman, NY</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Who among them is not a RINO by McDaniel standards? Goldwater, Reagan, and they hope (though I doubt it) Trump. I think what they really like about Trump is not his conservatism but his combativeness. They like people who "blow things up." The more Trump adjusts to political realities in order to accomplish his agenda, the less they will like him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Another way, specific to Mississippi, that we might look at this matter of the "RINO" is to remember who were the founders of of the MS Republican Party. This is especially relevant since the "true conservatives" in MS talk about "taking our Party back." The Jackson Daily News once referred to the reborn Republican Party as "scalawags." The Clarion Ledger warned voters not "to play with fire" by voting for Republicans. Who were some of the prominent men involved in the rebirth of and growth the Republican Party in MS? Among them were: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /><br />Wirt Yerger - first Chairman, kept segregation out of platform<br /><br />Clarke Reed - second Chairman, delivered MS delegation to 1976 Convention to Ford<br /><br />Jim Herring - ran for Governor, member National Committee, believer in 11th Commandment<br /><br />Rubel Phillips - ran for Governor, moderate who later moderated on race, Meridian Star called him "no conservative"<br /><br />Charles W. Pickering - prosecuted the Klan<br /><br />Gil Carmichael - gentlemanly moderate<br /><br />Billy Mounger - Trent Lott, a protege<br /><br />Leon Bramblett - ran for Governor, an aid to Sen. Cochran</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Who among these or who not listed above would Sen. McDaniel acknowledge as non-establishment true conservatives who created the modern MS Republican Party?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Who led the Republican Party to its present success, holding super majorities in the State Senate and House? Holding every statewide state office but one? Holding both U.S. Senate seats and 3 of 4 House seats? Haley Barbour. "Nuff said" for the McDaniel loyalists.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Senator McDaniel has declared war on the Republican "establishment" and is ready for a fight with all who are "liberal-moderate-not true conservatives." He has proclaimed himself a Taft-Goldwater-Reagan conservative. But is he? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">True, Taft was known as "Mr. Conservative" and opposed much of the New Deal. But Taft also supported the federal housing program and federal aid to education. While, Mr. McDaniel may agree with Sen. Taft's opposition to American involvement in WW II and the creation of NATO, Taft would find strong opposition from Reagan and would find himself out of step with mainstream Reagan conservatism.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Goldwater was the "conscience of conservatism." But Goldwater was both respected and liked by almost all his Senate colleagues. He served in the position Senator Wicker just held, Chairman of the Republican Senatorial Committee, and supported all Republican incumbents including the unabashed liberal, Jacob Javits. Goldwater pronounced Bob Dole the heir of Goldwater-Reagan conservatism and joked to Dole,</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> <span style="background-color: white;">"We're the new liberals of the Republican Party. Can you imagine that?"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">What about Reagan? There is no doubt that Reagan is the embodiment of modern Republican conservatism who spoke the conservative message winsomely, eloquently, and forcefully. But, even in his first term, Reagan had to defend himself against those who believed he had sold out. He replied to some of his critics: </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I’m not retreating an inch from where I was. But I also recognize this: There are some people who would have you so stand on principle that if you don’t get all that you’ve asked for from the legislature, why, you jump off the cliff with the flag flying. I have always figured that a half a loaf is better than none, and I know that in the democratic process you’re not going to always get everything you want.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Reagan also said the kind of thing that drives McDaniel loyalists crazy: "</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally - not a 20 percent traitor."</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So what is a RINO? I am a big tent Reagan Republican who wants more, not fewer, Republicans. I am more interested in drawing circles than lines. But, it seems to me that history makes it plainly evident thar, if there are any RINOs in MS, they are the McDanielites.</span></span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-38393840004218389702018-03-01T11:22:00.001-05:002018-03-01T16:45:06.235-05:00The War on Lent<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Every year as Christmas approaches (say as soon as Walmart pulls the costumes and candy and cues the songs of which we will soon be sick), we start hearing some Christians complain about the War on Christmas. These Christians get upset about efforts to suppress the use of the word "Christmas" and the pressure not to wish others a "Merry Christmas." After all Christmas is a "Christian" observance or holiday, celebrating the birth of Jesus the Christ. Political correctness pressures us not to use words and greetings that might offend the sensitivities of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Kwanzaa observing Blacks, and atheists. One of the reasons evangelicals support President Trump is because, though he never feels the need to confess his sins, from which Jesus came to save us, he has determined that there will be no governmental support for the War on Christmas. "Merry Christmas!" is back.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Of course, we Episcopalians, being the odd ducks that we are in "do whatever you darn well please" America, are not supposed to say "Merry Christmas" till December 25. We say it from the day our true loves gives us single partridge in a pear tree through the day our one and only gives us twelve drummers drumming. The comes Epiphany on January 6, at which time we allow the Magi to arrive in Jerusalem.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />But there is another war on the holy conducted at this time of the year. It is the War on Lent, the period that begins on the first day of Lent, which many call Ash Wednesday, and concludes on the Saturday before Easter Day. It is conducted not by the unbelieving world, which could not care less, but by Christians. Every year I can count on friends such as Darryl Hart, Rachel Miller, and Scott Clark to protest the observance of Lent. This year, to my knowledge, Rachel has been silent about Lent, though in the past she has seen it as a sure sign of a drift toward Romanism (<a href="https://adaughterofthereformation.wordpress.com/2014/03/06/if-it-looks-like-rome/#comment-3935">If It Looks Like Rome...</a>). Darryl has, to my notice, made only one snippy remark about Lent and that only in passing in his comments about a conference being held at Redeemer NYC (<a href="https://oldlife.org/2018/02/26/at-least-its-not-a-conference-about-lent/">At Least It's Not a Conference about Lent</a>). But Scott has rolled out the heavy guns to bombard the observance of Lent. He offers 21 <a href="https://heidelblog.net/2018/02/resources-on-lent/">Resources on Lent</a>, all opposed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are two sorts of objections to the observance of Lent. There are those who consistently hold and observe the "regulative principle of worship" which means in the words of the Westminster Confession of Faith that "the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture." This principle rules out not only any observance of the Christian year, but many other practices that are accepted by other Christian churches, including most Presbyterian and Reformed ones. <br /><br />Last Sunday I attended a Presbyterian church that practises conservative "traditional worship" including a call to worship, the Creed, the Doxology, the Gloria Patri, the Lord's Prayer, the confession of sins, the assurance of pardon, and hymns sung from The Trinity Hymnal, as well as the reading and preaching of the Word, led by a minister dressed in a Geneva gown. But, then at the top of the order of worship I found "Second Sunday in Lent" and around the minister's neck I observed a purple stole. This is one illustration of a problem I pointed out in an previous Blog, <a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-regulative-principle-doesnt-work.html">The Regulative Principle Doesn't Work</a>.<br /><br />The other kind of objection to Lent is that it is a "bridge too far" for those who fear a drift toward Roman Catholicism. The "Christmas season," Christmas carols, even Christmas decorations of the church and a Christmas musical program are acceptable. So, too Easter, and perhaps even a Maundy Thursday Communion service and/or a Good Friday service. Protests would be heard if Easter were not observed, but Lent is just too Romish.<br /><br />First, let's be clear what the word "Lent" means. It comes from a secular Old English word which means "to lengthen" and came to be used of "long days" or spring. While Lent is not a spring observance, we can at least say that it occurs during the lengthening of the days that lead to the spring season.<br /><br />Second, let's note what are some the "Romish" associations with Lent. One point that is made, which does not have much force, is that it is a time of temporary self-denial, when in fact, the whole Christian life is a life a self-denial. But, to quote, Lee Corso, "not so fast." According to the New Testament temporary times of self-denial are not inconsistent with a life of self-denial Matthew 16:24, 6:16-18; 1 Corinthians 7:5). <br /><br />Another objection is that those who observe Lent use it as a time for the temporary repentance from certain sins which are normally indulged, while Jesus calls us to repent of all sins all the time. It may well be that some poorly instructed Christians view Lenten practice in that way, but in my experience I have never heard anyone who observes Lent speak of a temporary giving up of sin.<br /><br />The most serious objection to Lent is that Christians look upon whatever practices they may observe (going to Lenten services, various sorts of self-denial) as meritorious - good works that gain us God's favor. It should be noted that there are a great many Christians who so look upon their private devotional practices, their abstinence from alcohol, or their tithing in exactly the same way. But the point about Lent is that, as it is observed by Protestant Anglicans and others, there is not a word about merit. Quite the contrary.<br /><br />In the interests of helping my friends know what upsets them, I have printed below the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels appointed for the Sundays of Lent. It should be noted that the Collect for the first Day of Lent is said every day of Lent and the Collects for each Sunday are repeated every day of the week through Saturday in connection with the Daily Office (Morning and Evening Prayer). For those not familiar with the word "collect," a Collect is a compact prayer that gathers together in one sentence an address or invocation (to God, usually the Father), a divine attribute or action that relates to the petition, a petition (asking for one thing), an aspiration or purpose (the desired result of God's granting the petition), a pleading or basis for approaching God and making the request (such as "in the name of thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ"), and a response by the people ("Amen").<br /><br />I understand that strict or consistent "regulative principle" people, will likely respond that in and of themselves there is no objection to the pairing of the Epistles and Gospel and no theological objection to the content of the prayers. Still, they will, say,"It is will worship" - that is worship imposed by the will of an ecclesiastical authority on the wills of the people without any clear Scriptural authorization, that is, apart from or contrary to God's will. It is impure worship when practiced by Anglicans, Lutherans, and other Protestants. It is for Presbyterians (and some other Reformed) a clear violation of church doctrine derived from Scripture. I understand where you're coming from. We disagree. And, while that's not OK with you, it's OK with me.<br /><br />But both strict observers of the regulative principle, as well as those who object to Lent just because is sounds and feels "Romish," should find it at least worth knowing what the ecclesiastical observance of Lent is about. The Epistles, Gospels, and Collects below are from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which remains the legal Prayer Book of the Church of England today and are the readings and prayers of the Book of Common Prayer of the communion in which I hold membership.<br /><br />Three questions: 1. Is there anything at all "Romish" below? 2. Is this much Scripture read in your church each Sunday? 3. Is there as much substance in the free prayers of your church as there is in the Collects?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The Season of Lent</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The First day of Lent, </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Collect</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">(This Collect is said every day in Lent after the Collect appointed for the Day.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the Epistle:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Joel 2:12 (This is an example of a Sunday when a reading from another portion of Scripture is substituted for either the Epistle or Gospel.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Gospel:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> St. Matthew 6:16.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">O Lord, who for our sake didst fast forty days and forty nights; Give us grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever obey thy godly motions in righteousness, and true holiness, to thy honour and glory, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Epistle: 2 Corinthians 6:1</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; By pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Gospel: St. Matthew 4:1</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Second Sunday in Lent</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Collect</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Almighty God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Epistle: 1 Thessalonians 4:1</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Gospel: St. Matthew. 15:21</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Third Sunday in Lent</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Collect</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We beseech thee, Almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of thy humble servants, and stretch forth the right hand of thy Majesty, to be our defence against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Epistle: Ephesians 5:1</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Gospel: St. Luke 11:14</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered. But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Fourth Sunday in Lent</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Collect</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that we, who for our evil deeds do worthily deserve to be punished, by the comfort of thy grace may mercifully be relieved; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Epistle: Galatians 4:21</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Gospel: St. John 6:1</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Fifth Sunday in Lent</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Collect.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We beseech thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon thy people; that by thy great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Epistle: Hebrews: 9: 11.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Gospel: St. John 8:46.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jesus said, Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me. And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Often Called Palm Sunday</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Collect</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Almighty and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility; Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Epistle: Philippians 2:5</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Gospel: St. Matthew 27:1</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death: And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me. And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly. Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down they watched him there; And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.</span></span></div>
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-17806176283148900212018-01-29T20:01:00.000-05:002018-01-30T19:00:30.793-05:00MLK Day:A Civil Solution<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">President Ronald Reagan, a conservative Republican, signed into law an official Martin Luther King, Jr, Day in 1983. In 1986 Martin Luther King Day, as a Federal Holiday, began to be observed on the third </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Monday</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">of every January. MLK Day has largely supplanted in the South Lee-Jackson Day intended to honor the two great generals of the Confederate States.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let it be said that Martin Luther King is a hero. He is not a man of the moral caliber of Lee and Jackson, but he is an American hero because the the role he played in the too long delayed attainment of the civil rights of all American citizens, black and white. He deserves a day to honor his memory and accomplishments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">MLK Day seems to have become a carefully, if unofficial, religiously observed day. I have noted for several years that bulletin services have offered a special Martin Luther King, Jr., bulletin cover. I assumed that these special covers appealed primarily to Black congregations. But perhaps I was wrong.</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mEE8R6NaxZQ/Wm-xVtai3oI/AAAAAAAAAmw/Z7NqUJzDJwEPu1Gk7Wv-wLdnlGnO7EOxgCLcBGAs/s1600/Russell%2BMoore.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="183" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mEE8R6NaxZQ/Wm-xVtai3oI/AAAAAAAAAmw/Z7NqUJzDJwEPu1Gk7Wv-wLdnlGnO7EOxgCLcBGAs/s200/Russell%2BMoore.jpeg" width="133" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If I counted correctly, on MLK Day there were five articles at The Gospel Coalition</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">, in one way or another, in praise of Dr. King. There was also an article exposing and condemning the racial views of Robert L. Dabney, Southern Presbyterian theologian who for a time served as chief of staff to Gen. Jackson. On the same Day, Dr. Russell Moore, head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, published an article that can be described only as a grounding of Dr. King's positions in Scripture. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But there are realities, doctrinal and moral, that tell against the treatment of Dr. King as a theological hero or a man to be honored by an unofficial ecclesial calendar. The truth is that Dr. King was theological heretic (<a href="http://thechristiancurmudgeonmo.blogspot.com/2015/01/is-martin-luther-king-in-heaven.html">Is Martin Luther King in Heaven?</a>) and a moral philanderer (a subject I deliberately avoided but which is <a href="https://www.snopes.com/history/american/mlking.asp">acknowledged by Ralph Abernathy</a></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So my question is very simple: why observe MLK Day as though it were a religious observance when there is every reason to observe his day as a civil holiday as we do with Washington's, Lincoln's. and Columbus' Days? </span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-27414875181329859402018-01-26T12:45:00.004-05:002018-03-30T17:53:29.627-04:00No, I'm Not a Chauvinist and I Don't Wear Wife Beaters <div style="text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marlon Brando, Streetcar Named Desire<br />
Supposedly the attribution of "wife beater" to the sleeveless<br />
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movie version of Tennessee Williams <i>Streetcar Named Desire.</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Since I published this Blog, my friend Rachel Miller, kindly has informed me that the decisions, which she approves, to publish her friend Dr. Valerie Hobbs, were made, not by her as the News Editor at The Aquila Report, but by the Editor. I appreciate this clarification and additional information while retaining my surprise that the decisions were intentionally made to publish an academic feminist and social/ecclesial egalitarian. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">My Blogger friend, Rachel Miller, has published at her Blog, </span><a href="https://adaughterofthereformation.wordpress.com/2018/01/18/no-im-not-a-feminist-or-an-egalitarian/"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>A Daughter of the Reformation </i></span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i> </i>(1/18), and republished a<i>t </i></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><a href="https://www.theaquilareport.com/no-im-not-feminist-egalitarian/">The Aquila Report</a> </i></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(1/24), where she serves as News Editor, <i>No, I'm Not a Feminist or an Egalitarian. </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Apparently someone(s) has called her both names, and she finds it personally hurtful, inaccurate, misleading, and perhaps sinister. She writes:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">W</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">ords are powerful, as are labels. They can be helpful. They can be used to encourage and build people up. But they can also be used to dismiss others. They can be used to belittle and discourage.</span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When a conservative calls someone a feminist, it can be an attempt to question the person’s faith and commitment to Scripture.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Feminist doesn’t mean “a woman I disagree with and wish she’d stop talking.” Egalitarian doesn’t simply mean “someone who thinks women can have opinions about theology.”</span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I’m not a feminist. I’m not an egalitarian. What I am is tired of the name-calling and the attempts to silence me and others like me. No doubt those who need to hear these words the most are the least likely to listen. But I hope that those who are tempted to believe the lies about me will do me the honor of considering what I’ve written here<span style="color: #333333;">.</span></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let me make clear at the outset a couple of things: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(1) I know this falls into the "I have black friends" category, but I am married to a very strong woman. Anyone who really knows her would acknowledge that. Years ago, when she was serving as an administrative assistant, she and the other members of the staff took one of those "work personality" tests. The test identifies the predominant characteristic of the staff member according to the DISC formula: dominant, people influencer, steady, and competent. She was a "high D." Now combine that high D with a high C (get all your ducks in a row), and you've got the woman who has been my wife for 48 years. Believe me, just as in <i>The Naked City,</i> so there are 8 million stories in a marriage that joins two "High Ds." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(2) I am, at least in the circles in which I have been, a relatively liberal conservative. For instance, we Episcopalians use lectors who read the Scriptures (except for the Gospel). At the last Christmas Eve service of lessons and carols I planned I used all women lectors (and all of them did better than than the usual male lectors). Had I remained as vicar, I would over time have sought to introduce the practice of using women as regular Sunday lectors. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(2) I do not believe I have ever suggested that Rachel Miller is a feminist or egalitarian. I have no judgment about that, and take her word that she does not believe herself to be either.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(3) What I do know is that she publishes both feminists and egalitarians. To cite one example: Mrs.Miller publishes Dr. Valerie Hobbs who is both a feminist scholar and a social-ecclesial egalitarian. Dr. Hobbs' writes in her latest post at </span><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Aquila Report</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">: </span></i></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">But there are also those in the church who have confused strength with dominance. At this crucial moment, as the Christian church considers how to resist and reject rampant toxic masculinity around and among us, men would benefit not from ‘manning up’ but from looking for inspiration in an overlooked place: the sacrificial strength of Christian women. As Penny Long Marler</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Women-and-Religion-in-the-West-Challenging-Secularization/Sharma-Aune/p/book/9780754658702" style="text-decoration-line: none;">contends</a><span style="background-color: white;">, “As the women go, so goes the church.” </span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">She goes on to offer a new 21st century "dynamic equivalent" translation of 1 Corinthians 16:13,14. She writes: "</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Consider therefore how Paul’s metaphor might translate to all our ears today:"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith,<b> act like women</b>, be strong (emphasis added).</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let all that you do be done in love.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To cite another example, Mrs. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Miller has published at </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">The Aquila Report</i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> articles such as</span><a href="https://www.theaquilareport.com/hierarchy-before-the-fall/"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></a></span><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.theaquilareport.com/hierarchy-before-the-fall/">Headship is Not Hierarchy</a> </span></i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">which takes the typical egalitarian view that headship in the New Testament means "source" and not "authority." </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"> </i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The husband isn’t the boss, the commander, the chief, the king. All of that belongs to Christ. Rather, the husband is the head, and she is the body. He is to nourish, cherish and love her as his body, because she is his body. That’s the point. To ask the question, “But isn’t he still in charge?” is to miss the point entirely. Do you think that she will turn into a harpy if you neglect to command her for a day? Whom did you marry? Is she not also an heir of eternal life and a firstborn son of God in Jesus Christ?</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">While I accept Mrs. Miller's assertion that she is neither feminist nor egalitarian, I must ask, </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What is one to make of the association between the authors and content Mrs. Miller publishes and Mrs. Miller's own views?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let's look at Mrs. Miller's denials and affirmations. She writes:</span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Why would anyone think I’m a feminist? Let’s consider my beliefs (which I’ve stated before.) I hold to the following beliefs regarding men, women, and gender:</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <span style="background-color: initial;">God made man: male and female in the image of God</span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: initial; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> In Christ, male and female are equal before God</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<ul style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">
<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Husbands are called to sacrificial, servant leadership of their wives, loving them as Christ loves the church</span></li>
<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wives are called to voluntary submission to their husbands, submitting to them as the church submits to Christ</span></li>
<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ordination is restricted to qualified men in the church</span></li>
<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Marriage is between one man and one woman, ideally for life</span></li>
<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Men and women need each other and depend on each other</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Take particular notice of what I believe about leadership and submission in marriage and ordination in the church. Those right there set me apart. I’m not a feminist. I’m also not an egalitarian, closet or otherwise. I have respect for the egalitarians I know. I appreciate the work some egalitarians have done defending the Trinity. But we have significantly different interpretations of what the Bible teaches about marriage and ordination.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is NOTHING here with which I find myself required to disagree. I would ask a few questions for clarification.</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1."<span style="background-color: initial;">God made man: male and female in the image of God."</span> Does this include the inspired implications drawn by the Apostle Paul from God's creation of man and woman? </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man (1 Corinthians 11:8,9).</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="text 1Tim-2-12" id="en-ESV-29712" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-29712U" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29712U" title="See cross-reference U">U</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span class="text 1Tim-2-13" id="en-ESV-29713" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">For Adam was formed first, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-29713W" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29713W" title="See cross-reference W">W</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>then Eve...(1 Timothy 2: 12,13).</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">2. "<span style="background-color: white;">In Christ, male and female are equal before God." True (Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11). But does this remove the functional differences in this world, including the rule of males in the home (husbands) and the church (officers)?</span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">3. "<span style="background-color: white;">Husbands are called to sacrificial, servant leadership of their wives, loving them as Christ loves the church." Yes, but are husbands by implication from the text also called to leadership of their wives, though not by way of compulsion? And are husbands charged by the Apostle to love their wives conditionally or unconditionally? In other words, what if she turns out to be hard to love? Is he still under obligation to love her or not?</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">4. "Wives are called to voluntary submission to their husbands, submitting to them as the church submits to Christ." Does "voluntary" submission mean "if they wish" or does it direct a wife as part of her being "in Christ" to submit to her husband without being compelled to do so? Is the charge to submit conditional or unconditional? Does a wife submit to her husband only if, as she sees it, he makes good decisions and gives wise leadership? If he proves himself dumb as a post, is she freed from the Apostolic command?</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">5. "Ordination is restricted to qualified men in the church." Does this restriction include the functions of the ordained offices or only the status of ordination?</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">6. "<span style="color: #333333;">Marriage is between one man and one woman, ideally for life." Of course, but what if the marriage is not ideal?</span><span style="color: #333333;"> </span><span style="color: #333333;">Under what circumstances or upon what grounds is divorce allowed according to the divine revelation about the institution of marriage?</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">7. "Men and women need each other and depend on each other." Indeed.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We believe Mrs. Miller identifies herself as a non-feminist and non-egalitarian, and so we shall regard her. However, there is this question to be asked: What is the significance of Mrs. Miller's, as news editor at <i>The Aquila Report,</i> publishing feminists and egalitarians<i>? </i>Two cases in point: (1) She has frequently published Dr. Valerie Hobbs. Dr. Hobbs is a feminist scholar and a social-ecclesial egalitarian. I have quoted and responded to Dr. Hobbs a sufficient number of times at this Blog for that to be clear. (2) She publishes articles such as<i> </i></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><a href="https://www.theaquilareport.com/hierarchy-before-the-fall/">Headship is Not Hierarchy</a></i> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">in which Sam Powell argues that headship has to do with origin, not authority. This is the same argument that was being made in the 70's by feminists, both male and female, in order to explain that the Apostles never intended to imply that a husband, as head, has authority in marriage. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Again, OK, Mrs. Miller is not a feminist-egalitarian. But she publishes and promotes feminist-egalitarians. Several years ago, Mrs. Miller wrote an article about Protestants doing such things as wearing vestments, observing Lent, and practicing a Eucharistic liturgy, <i><a href="https://www.theaquilareport.com/if-it-looks-like-rome/">If It Looks Like Rome...</a> . </i>What if what one publishes what not only looks like but are feminist-egalitarian authors and content? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mrs. Miller moves on from feminism to complementarianism and egalitarianism. She no longer regards herself as a complementarian. (As I understand the coining of the term "complementarian" was negatively an effort not to use the misleading word "patriarchy," a decision that makes Tim Bayly mad as a hornet. Positively it was an effort to describe the man, Adam - woman, Eve, the husband-wife relationship in terms of the creation account: "</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="text Gen-2-18" id="en-ESV-49" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">Then the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-49R" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-49R" title="See cross-reference R">R</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>I will make him a helper fit for </span><span class="text Gen-2-18" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">him'”</span><span style="background-color: white;"> Genesis 2:18.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mrs. Miller tells why she is no longer comfortable with calling herself a complementarian:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">So then the question is, am I a </span>complementarian<span style="color: #333333;">? I used to think so. I </span>used to call myself one. After all, I believe that husbands are the spiritual leaders of their families. I believe that wives should submit to the leadership of their husbands. And I believe that ordained church leaders should be qualified men. Isn’t that a complementarian?</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Apparently not. To be a true complementarian, you also need to believe:</span> </blockquote>
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<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">women were created to be submissive, responsive, soft</span></li>
</ul>
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<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">men were created to be leaders, providers, strong</span></li>
</ul>
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<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">men are supposed to be priests for their families</span></li>
</ul>
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<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">women are supposed to be at home and not in the workforce (unless there’s a really good reason, but even then)</span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">
<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">divorce is wrong even when there is biblical justification for it</span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">
<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">the eternal subordination of the Son, especially as it is applied to men and women</span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">
<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">all women are rebellious feminists at heart and men must put down that rebellion (an interpretation of Genesis 3:16)</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">She goes on to state her beliefs and in the process to say again that she is not an egalitarian:</span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How do I know this is necessary for true complementarianism? Well, when I disagreed with these beliefs, I was called a “soft,” “thin,” or “anorexic” complementarian. I was also called a closet egalitarian or a feminist because:</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
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<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I questioned what CBMW taught about men and women and the Trinity</span></li>
</ul>
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<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I defended orthodox Trinitarianism against the eternal subordination of the Son</span></li>
</ul>
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<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I raised questions about the ESV translation for changing the wording of Genesis 3:16 and 4:7</span></li>
</ul>
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<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I wrote about abuse as biblical grounds for divorce</span></li>
</ul>
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<li style="background: url("/wp-content/themes/aquila_2/images/list.png") left top no-repeat; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 5px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I believe women can be leaders in business and politics or even cops and umpires</span></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1. It is regrettable that the doctrine of the Trinity has been introduced into the discussion of how men and women should relate to one another. On the one side there is a defense of what I believe to be historic Nicene Trinitarianism. The Father and the Son are co-eternal and co-equal in their ontological relationship ("the same in substance, equal in power and glory"). However, as the Messianic-Son, the second Person of the Trinity voluntarily subjected himself to the Father in order to accomplish the work of redemption (called by some "the economic Trinity"). But what is the purpose of this restating of the doctrine? It is to say that the eternal relations of the Father and the Son are reflected in the man and woman relationship so that, as the Father and Son are equal in their Godhood, so men and women are in their humanity. (One thing I have not seen - and I may have missed it - is, if the Father and Son are equal in eternity but the Son is subordinate in redemption, then are men and women to be equal in the eschaton while women are subordinate in this world and time?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the other side, there is defense of a form of Subordinationism. While the Father and Son are equal, both being fully God, in eternity and in the ontological relationship there is some kind of Father-Son relationship with the Son "naturally" subordinate, fulfilling the role of Son to the Father. The economic relationship does not exist only in time but also in eternity. This subordination of the Son in eternity also serves a purpose in the debate about men and women. It is argued that the relationship of the Father and Son is reflected in the male-female relationship. Man and woman can be equal in created dignity and redemptive blessings, while woman is subordinate to man. Just like the Father and the Son.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But, I contend that the doctrine of the Trinity - remember there are three not two equal Persons - is mostly irrelevant to the debate about man and woman. God made us in his image, but God is also a wholly other Being. The eternal relations of the Persons of the Trinity are unique to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. These relations are eternal and and ontological (having to do with essential Being) relations within the Trinity. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why can't there be two debates? One debate is about the relationship between males and females, husbands and wives. Here we can talk about patriarchy, egalitarianism, complementarianism, and all the subjects that arise when we seek to account for all the Holy Scriptures say about men and women.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The other debate is about the Being of God and the relationships of the Persons of the Trinity. Here we can talk about Adoptionism, Subordinationism, Arianism, and about Nicene, Chalcedonian, and Athansian Trinitarianism. When we discuss the Trinity we talk about the Being of God and the relations within God, the Holy Trinity.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">2. It seems to me that there is an over-reaction to the revision of the ESV text at Genesis 3:16. So great is Mrs. Miller's distress that she and her family have abandoned the ESV and returned to the NASB (<i><a href="https://www.theaquilareport.com/saying-farewell-esv/">Saying Farewell to the ESV</a></i>). The issue is this: the original translation of Genesis 3:16 reads: </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Your desire shall be <b>for</b> your husband, <b>and</b> he shall rule over you.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">" The revised text reads: "</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Your desire shall be <b>contrary to</b> your husband, <b>but</b> he shall rule over you." In the one case wives have desire for their husbands - probably a result of the Fall and described in various ways such as excessive dependence upon the husband - but, rather than responding positively to the wife's desire (need?), the husband sinfully rules over his wife. In the other case there is a an underlying conflict in the relationship, the wife sinfully asserting her will against her husband, and the husband asserting his will, often in sinful ways, to bring her into submission. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mrs. Miller calls the revision an "interpretation." It is an interpretation in the same way the original reading is an interpretation. The question for Hebrew scholars, linguists, stylists, and all involved in translation is, "What does the Hebrew text say?" I am not such a scholar, so I have nothing to say about the two possible translations. What I will say, based on 45 years of ministry, is that I have seen the dynamics of the husband-wife relationship work out according to both readings of the text. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3. Mrs. Miller has written about abuse as a ground for divorce. Depending on the definition abuse, she would find little disagreement. If a spouse's abuse results in the abused spouse's leaving the home, then the abusive spouse has caused a separation which amounts to desertion. It was not long ago that, if you said a man was an abusive husband, you meant that he physically attacked and was a threat to the physical safety of his wife. It appears that is no longer the case. What concerns me is Mrs. Miller's definition of abuse. She has published Barbara Roberts and and written a commendatory review of a book by Jeff Crippen on abuse, divorce, and remarriage. Here is their definition of abuse found at the website </span><i><a href="https://cryingoutforjustice.com/"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A Cry for Justice</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">:</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />The definition of abuse: A pattern of coercive control (ongoing actions or inactions) that proceeds from a mentality of entitlement to power, whereby, through intimidation, manipulation and isolation, the abuser keeps his* target subordinated and under his control. This pattern can be emotional, verbal, psychological, spiritual, sexual, financial, social and physical. Not all these elements need be present, e.g., physical abuse may not be part of it.<br /><br />The definition of domestic abuser: a family member or dating partner (current or ex) who has a profound mentality of entitlement to the possession of power and control over the one s/he* chooses to mistreat. This mentality of entitlement defines the very essence of the abuser. The abuser believes he is justified in using evil tactics to obtain and maintain that power and control.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">You could drive a Mack truck named "Divorce" though that opening. Is this Mrs. Miller's definition of abuse?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">4. Mrs. Miller believes that </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">"</span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">women can be leaders in business and politics or even cops and umpires." I agree. My only concern is if a woman can call the strike zone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As for me, I have a bigger problem. Last night I managed to burn the expensive salmon Mrs. Smith got from her fish monger yesterday.</span></div>
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<tr><td id="yui-gen35"></td><td id="yui-gen36"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c353c; font-family: "source sans pro" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1. Men's close fitting, ribbed, sleeveless white cotton undershirt most commonly used before T-shirts </span><a class="autolink" href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=came" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #134fe6; font-family: "source sans pro", "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit;">came</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c353c; font-family: "source sans pro" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> into vogue as undergarments. It is named </span><a class="autolink" href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wife" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #134fe6; font-family: "source sans pro", "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit;">wife</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c353c; font-family: "source sans pro" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> beater after Marlon Brando's character, Stanley Kowalski, who wore one during much of the movie version of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire." Stanley proved to be a sloppy, drunken, ill-tempered brute who </span><a class="autolink" href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=beat" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #134fe6; font-family: "source sans pro", "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit;">beat</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c353c; font-family: "source sans pro" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> his wife. </span></td></tr>
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-4397826738613491812018-01-13T11:49:00.000-05:002018-01-14T08:16:36.072-05:00Race, Sex, and the Generation Gap<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I suppose there have always been generation gaps. I recall an incident that took place in a class with Dr. Morton Smith. In those days I was among the last of what used to be the "traditional" seminary student, men who graduated from college and went directly to seminary. You went to college for four years and graduated at 21. You went to seminary for three years and were ordained at 24. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But there were also "older men." Some of them were students, who had careers in business, but now were called to the ministry and enrolled in the Master of Divinity program. One day, as we were walking back from chapel (in those days held at the old Westminster Church on Clinton Blvd.), one of the older students made a disapproving remark to another "oldster" about some of us who were not wearing socks. Having grown up in the beach town of Pensacola, FL, it never occurred to me that there was anything improper about going sockless. You wore blue or dirty white tennis shoes without socks to school or for more formal occasions weejuns without socks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But back to Dr. Smith. The incident I am recalling involved some older local men who were not Reformed and not preparing for the ministry, but who wanted to take some seminary classes. Some subject came up (I have no idea what it was, though civil rights and the Vietnam War were hot issues of the day), and, after allowing the discussion to progress for awhile, Dr. Smith commented, "I think what we have here is a generation gap."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I expect that Adam, who lived to be 930 years old, had many occasions to comment to Eve, "What's going on with these kids of ours? We didn't bring them up like this. Where did they get these ideas? What's up with that cacophony they call music?" And, if Adam, how much more </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Methuselah</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">, who had to contend with one more generation than Adam since he lived to be 969?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">My interest today is with a generation gap that characterizes our society and has a big impact on the church. In America one of the advantages of being an Episcopalian is that you live in the backwaters of denominationalism where your concerns, if you are an evangelical of the Cranmer sort, are Anglo-catholicism and N.T. Wrightism. But since I am that rare American Episcopalian, the evangelical (which was also true of the founder of my denomination, Bishop Cummins), I have a concern for the evangelicalism that is often spelled with a big "E."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is my belief that two of the great challenges that exist in contemporary Evangelicalism are race and sex, both revealing a huge generational gap. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Surely the generation of which I am a part, and that is quickly passing from the scene (I have reached threescore and ten years), experienced some big changes regarding race and sex that sometimes created a gap between us and our parents' generation. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Regarding race we may have grown up with segregation (my high school was "integrated" with two black girls and one black boy when I was in the 10th grade) but we became integrationists.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> We believed that no one, because of the color of his skin, ought to be denied any of the rights of an American citizen or an opportunity to get a job and move up the economic ladder. We bought Dr. Martin Luther King's vision of judging people not by the color of their skin but the content of their character. We believed that by integration, all of us could be assimilated to a common culture, which was predominantly western (though enriched and modified by various cultural influences including black influences) in nature because the West was the highest form of human civilization and culture that mankind has yet produced. It looked simple. As the Italians, the Irish, the Germans, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">et. al.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> had been assimilated into American culture, so, if given a fair and much too long delayed chance, would African Americans. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Regarding women, we became egalitarians. Though World War II opened the door to women working outside the home, most of our mothers were stay at home moms (housewives, as they were called). However, many of our contemporaries got jobs and had careers and kids. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Were women created by God to be subservient to all males in society? No. Margaret Thatcher was not an example of the "monstrous rule of women." She was an example of meritocracy. She succeeded politically because of her gifts, experience, skills, work, and accomplishments. Are there other women of Margaret Thatcher's abilities? Then, please God, raise them up and give them success - women of courage, today's Deborahs, women who know what they are committed to and who can lead political cultures into the way of truth, justice, and right. Such women can lead us, not into women's ways of truth, justice, and right, but into the ways of truth, justice and right where sex makes no difference. The P.M.'s name may be Winston or Margaret, but he will not lead as a man nor she as a woman, but both as steely Prime Ministers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">However, today integration and egalitarianism are not enough. In fact both represent, not equality, but the dominance of those who are white and male over the oppressed members of society, such as blacks and women. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is the generation gap. Younger adults have absorbed the view that the structures of society give white people and men privileges that put blacks and women at a disadvantage. Whites and males have created these structures and imposed them on blacks and women. Whites and males make the rules that give them the advantage, and then they expect blacks and women to play by these rules that put and keep them behind. There are not just incidents of discrimination; there is structural racism. There are not just places where women are not fairly treated; society is structured to be sexist. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Worst of all the oppressors are not even aware of this reality, so they must be confronted with their guilt, re-educated and sensitized, and they must change.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">White people must see that insisting on standard English, teaching the Western canon in literature and philosophy classes is culturalism (which is what racism really is), and traditional SAT testing and scoring are examples of white prejudice and dominance. These are tools used to keep blacks down. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">White people must accept the massive collective guilt that is theirs because of slavery and Jim Crow laws and instinctive racism. They must apologize, and find out what black people want them to do about the past and present. White people must stop pointing out the examples of such as Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Ben Carson, Condoleezza Rice, Tim Scott, because these black people are not really black. They have been educated and socialized to the point that they operate as effectively whites. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Men must stop encouraging one another and their sons to "act like a man" or "man up." Men must know that holding a door open for a woman may be perceived by her as a micro-aggression which at best is thoughtless and at worst is a put down that says, "You're not able to open the door yourself. You need a man." Men need to stop being their manly selves which leads to toxic masculinity, sexual aggressiveness, and spousal abuse. Men need to observe, listen to, learn from women, and change their concept of masculinity.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Older generations may not be aware of this change in the worldview of the younger. The younger generation are not concerned with merit and equality, for these are not sufficient. Their concern is social justice. They want those who are white and male to acknowledge the privileges that white males have historically enjoyed and used to their own advantage to the detriment of people of color and women. If they are evangelicals, these concerns for racial, sexual, and economic justice are transformed into "gospel issues."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is not enough that a black person can attain anything for which he or she is qualified and works. No, the standards are wrong. The standards are white, and they must be changed to deal fairly with the unique experience of blacks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is not enough that a women can attain anything from CEO of a large company, to Secretary of State, to President of the United States. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">No, the standards which are defined by males must be rethought, modified, and perhaps radically changed to take into account what women are, think, feel, and want. Do you need to be able to carry 150 pounds to be a fire person? Then the standard must be changed since most women cannot cannot 150 pounds. Do men approach life the way they do a department store - go in, shoot it, get out of there, and take it home? Perhaps they need to change. Do boys spit and scratch and sometimes pee outdoors? Maybe they need the Barney Fife treatment - "nip it in the bud." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To bring all this into the world of the church, if you want examples evangelicals for whom race is the primary category of life, look at Jemar Tisby, Michelle Higgins, and her father Mike. If you want an example of an evangelical for whom sex is the primary category look at Valerie Hobbs, who describes her academic focus: "</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">My primary research at present focuses on the discourse of conservative evangelical Christians, particularly the ways in which members of this community talk about gender roles. I am especially interested in corpus-based and corpus-assisted discourse studies and have built several of my own corpora." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you are a commissioner to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America or a messenger to the Southern Baptist Convention, listen and you will hear the the generation gap regarding race and sex.</span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-67559037468164276312018-01-10T17:35:00.000-05:002018-03-30T17:54:07.210-04:00I Am Valerie, Hear Me Roar<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am woman</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am invincible</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am strong</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am woman.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Helen Ready</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ah, you fake just like a woman, yes, you do</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You make love just like a woman, yes, you do</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then you ache just like a woman</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But you break just like a little girl</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Bob Dylan</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like women, be strong. <span style="text-align: center;">Let all that you do be done in love.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Valerie Hobbs</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I feel like Jude. I wanted to write about something else, but circumstances intervened, and "</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints." In my case, I wanted to get started blogging as "The Reformed Reformed Episcopalian" and argue that Anglicanism from its beginnings was not only a reformed English church, but also a Reformed church, though somewhat different from the Reformed churches on the Continent, nevertheless not only reformed but Reformed in doctrine.</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> </span>However my attention was diverted to Dr. Valerie Hobbs' latest<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">, </span><i><a href="http://theaquilareport.com/act-like-women/">Act Like Women</a>,</i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> at </span><i>The Aquila Report.</i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Her reasoning as I follow it, is:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(1) What Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians was 13:13, 14 was:</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> "Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love" (ESV).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(2) What Paul was doing when he wrote "act like men" was to use as a metaphor the Roman soldier: "</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here, Paul draws on military imagery, evident from the Greek: <i>grēgoreite</i>: keep awake, keep vigilant, take as your inspiration a Roman soldier. It’s a metaphor for the spiritual life, intended for all Christians, men and women" (Valerie Hobbs).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(3) Who are the Christians today who most embody the characteristics of the vigilant Roman soldier? Valerie's answer is, "Christian women" who have endured "toxic masculinity."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(4) Therefore, if Paul were writing today and wanted an apt metaphor, he likely would write not "Act like men," but "Act like women."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A few notes on what Valerie has written:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(1) When Paul wrote "to act like a man" or "to conduct oneself in a manly or courageous way" (<i>A Linguistic Key to the New Testament</i>), his metaphor was not how the Roman soldier acts but how a man who is manly acts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(2) The way the phrase is translated</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> "quit you like men" (KJV)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> "</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">quit you like men" (ASV)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> "</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">be courageous" (RSV)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> "</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">act like men" (NASB)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> "</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">act like men" (NIV)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> "</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">be strong</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">" (NKJV)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> "</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">be courageous" (NRSV)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> "</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">act like men" (ESV</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">(3) What is clear is that even the more "dynamic" translations understand what the Apostle wrote as based on "manly characteristics" or "manly virtues." No one understands the the word as associated with those character traits which are distinctive of the female person. The Greek word has to do with "men" and even those translations that are "looser," seeking the significance of the word over its literal meaning, translate it with reference to words that are associated with "manliness" - that is, "courage."</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">A few notes regarding Valerie's understanding of the text:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "verdana" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">(1) Dr. Hobbs has missed what Paul wrote in Greek. She calls our attention to Paul's use of the metaphor of the Roman soldier. But it is not the third ("act like men") but the first verb of the sentence that calls </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">our attention to the soldier, "grēgoreite," translated as "Be watchful," which means "to watch, to stay awake, to be alert" (Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(2) Paul does not write "act like a man" or "be courageous" until the third verb of the sentence. Here he uses used "andrizesthe" (</span><span id="docs-internal-guid-13d43a5b-ea1f-8486-7a9a-ca5563c23863"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana"; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">from</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">aner</span><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">/</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">andros -</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> male or man) which means "to conduct oneself in a manly, or courageous way" (Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament). "The word was also used in a papyri in the exhortation 'therefore do not be fainthearted but be courageous as a man'" (Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament). In other words, while Paul calls us to emulate the Roman soldier with the first verb, he calls on us to emulate men with the third verb.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(3) For Paul men and women are essentially one in Christ: "</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus'' (Galatians 3:28). But essential oneness and equality in Christ does not extinguish the differences between men and women in this world. Men are called to be leaders and women followers in the home (Ephesians 5:21-33, 1 Peter 3:1-7). Men are to teach and rule in the church while women are to listen and learn (1 Timothy 2:8-13, 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, 1 Corinthians 14:33-35). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(4) As there are differences of role in home and church, so there are differences of nature and natural characteristics between men and women. When Paul's readers, male and female, read, "Act like men," they had no struggle with understanding, for they knew what men are naturally like. Men are designed to be courageous, though there are men who fail to "act like men." It is the man who places himself between his wife and children and the attacker. If it is the wife who must stand between the attacker and her husband and her children, then she is having to fill an "unnatural role" in which she, rather than her husband, must "act like a man." As much as Dr. Hobbs may wish to flatten the differences between men and women, husbands and wives, and to blur the distinctions between men and women, the Bible won't allow it, for the Bible everywhere teaches that men and women are different in creation and redemption. There is such a thing as "acting like a man" and "acting like a woman," and when a woman acts like a man or a man acts like a woman the natural (created) differences are denied, or, to put it more bluntly, rebelled against.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Finally, what are we to make of Dr. Hobbs? She is a Christian and a feminist, or, to put the terms together, she is a Christian feminist. Three times she speaks of "toxic masculinity" not just in society but also in the church. What is her goal? The removal of distinctions between men and women in society and in church so that there is "equality and fraternity":</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">By now, to all with eyes to see, the evidence is clear of the pervasiveness of a toxic masculinity that cultivates male violence, sexual aggressiveness, and emotional distance. But it is too early to say whether we will see any change in our society’s perception and treatment of women and other vulnerable people. What might it take for Hollywood, for politics, for all our institutions to be transformed into bastions of equality and fraternity after the reckoning of its tyrannical power players?</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I fully grant Dr. Hobbs right to be a Christian feminist. The one thing I do not understand is why she, as a Christian feminist, should have a voice at a website committed to confessional Reformed Presbyterianism. </span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-17960299389174194772017-12-31T16:15:00.000-05:002018-01-01T17:07:00.487-05:00The Curmudgeon's 2017 Top Ten<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iGikxAsfdY8/Wkk--Pk34qI/AAAAAAAAAlY/u6k0niJZZGEe1ZzXFxYCdG0jnukXDPwIwCLcBGAs/s1600/Top10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="848" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iGikxAsfdY8/Wkk--Pk34qI/AAAAAAAAAlY/u6k0niJZZGEe1ZzXFxYCdG0jnukXDPwIwCLcBGAs/s400/Top10.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The authorities of my young life always told me that, "Everybody's doing it," is not a good reason to do it. Parents, school teachers, youth group leaders would ask, "If everybody was setting themselves on fire, would you do it?" That seems to clench the argument until you think, "Well everybody's not setting themselves on fire, but they are going to the dance, or wearing their hair longer, or seeing <i>Alfie</i>." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have noticed that everybody, including Bloggers, is posting year end top 10 lists. This seems good enough excuse for me to do so, too. Now I don't qualify to play with the Davids who slay their 10s of 1000s, or even the Sauls who slay their 1000s. But that doesn't stop me from joining in the boasting - er, telling others how my humble efforts have been used. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, here are my top 10 Blog posts of 2017. I give the title linked to the Blog post, tell the number of looks (which is not the same as number of readers) the post got, and provide a brief description of the content of the post.</span><div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1. <a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-regulative-principle-doesnt-work.html">The Regulative Principle Doesn't Work</a> (3426) I point out the liturgical chaos in the Presbyterian Church in America, which holds the regulative principle of worship, and argue for the prescribed worship of The Book of Common Prayer.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />2. <a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/02/who-cares-what-tim-keller-says.html">Who Cares What Tim Keller Thinks?</a> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">(3256) I respond to Tim Keller and 99 other evangelical leaders who wrote the President to tell him the Christian view of refugees and immigration.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">3. <a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/03/critical-race-theory-rts-and-sbts.html">Critical Race Theory, RTS, and SBTS</a> (2772) I describe Critical Race Theory and its influence at Reformed Theological Seminary and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.</span><div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4. <a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/02/people-ought-to-care-what-michelle.html">People Ought to Care about What Michelle Higgins Says</a> (2757) I describe Michelle Higgins' (a black female on staff of a PCA church in St. Louis) race views and analyze a poem of hers.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">5. <a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/07/it-was-already-too-late-terry-terry.html">It Was All Over Before Terry Johnson Entered the PCA</a> (2370) I respond to the Rev. Terry Johnson's lament about the worship he experienced at the 2017 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">6. <a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-dishonoring-of-honorable-man.html">The Dishonoring of an Honorable Man</a> (1955) I write of the character of Dr. Morton H. Smith and about the failure of Reformed Theological Seminary to be represented at his funeral.<br /><br />7. <a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/03/i-think-ive-been-snobbed.html">I Think I've Been Intellectually Snobbed</a> (1819) I respond to Dr. Sean Lucas' and Dr. Otis Pickett's responses to my Blog on Critical Race Theory (#3 above).<br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">8. <a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/07/what-about-hugh-freeze.html">What about Hugh Freeze?</a> (1783) I write about former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze, a professing Christian whose moral scandal led to his resignation.<br /><br />9. <a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/03/russell-moore-live-but-there-will-be.html">Russell Moore Lives, but There Will Be Blood</a> (1693) I write about controversies surrounding Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission, because of his views of and involvement in politics and certain social issues. <br /><br />10. <a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/10/does-john-piper-believe-in-salvation-by.html">Does John Piper Believe in Salvation by Works</a> (1225) I explore the controversy regarding John Piper's view of works in relation to salvation by faith, now and at the judgment. <br /><br /><br /> Don't forget or pass up the opportunity to know yourself before beginning a new year. Find out if you, too, may be a Curmudgeon by reading the brief <a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/12/30-indicators-you-could-be-curmudgeon.html">30 Indicators You Could Be a Curmudgeon</a>. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-56256780660262354782017-12-30T12:02:00.000-05:002017-12-31T22:24:56.463-05:0030 Indicators You Could Be a Curmudgeon<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">You Might be a Curmudgeon...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you are descended from a father who frowned when a church song leader called on everyone to smile.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you are descended from a father who in the early days of feminism responded to a receptionist who offered to get him a cup of coffee, "I didn't think y'all did that anymore."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you are descended from a father (who answered,"fried" when a Yankee's asked how he liked seafood, to which the man responded, "That's the way YOU like it") who answered, "That's what I said."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you find Elizabeth Warren to be the most obnoxious politician of your lifetime.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you like the way Mitch McConnell looks and speaks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if what others call pessimistic you regard as a reasonable and rational realism.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if sometimes you think Job's wife gave good advice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you are tempted to deliver a crippling body blow to anyone who says, "How can we turn this negative into a positive?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you have an empathetic understanding of Greta Garbo's famous saying.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you think multi-culturalism is destroying the highest form of civilization mankind has produced.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if sometimes when the family is having fun at Christmastime you disappear for awhile.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you'd rather hear H.L. Mencken than Robert Schuller deliver a sermon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you are mystified how any man can identify with Joel Osteen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you think putting John Wayne in charge for 5 years could fix most of society's ills.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you wonder, if Christian women are raising their sons to be the kind of men they think their husbands should be, who in the future will play football, fight the wars, take charge in times of crisis, and man-up?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you would not be disappointed if the NFL disbanded.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you know the NBA plays some game, but not basketball.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you think baseball players should be forbidden to wear jewelry and required to wear the bottom of their pants at the knee.</span><br />
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...<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">if you'd like to deliver an uppercut to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and say, "Good night, sweet princess and prince."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you like D.G. Hart even though he makes snarky comments about the church year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you like to tell D.G. Hart that his great book <u>The Lost Soul of American Protestantism</u> bore fruit many years later in making an Episcopalian of you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you have concluded that The Episcopal Church doesn't know what to do with all the emphasis on repentance during Advent because there are no sins save homophobia, white and male privilege, and in general not approving acts and attitudes condemned by John the Baptist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if it's clear to you that in your own little corner of the ecclesiastical world Anglo-catholicism means the English Catholic, without the Pope, the church of Henry VIII, not the church of Cranmer, Edward, or Elizabeth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if, when you arrive in heaven and are greeted by a song leader or praise team and told you have to sing gospel hymns and/or praise and worship songs, you will wonder if you arrived in heaven.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">if you think retailers, who put out Halloween stuff while summer sales are still going on, Christmas as soon as Halloween over, Valentine's as soon as Christmas Eve is over, Easter as soon as Valentine's is over, should be executed till the rest get the message.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you think the para-church is not beside but in competition with the church.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you think it would be more accurate to call "naturalist- physicians" "non- physicians."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you think it is ridiculous that a man or woman can vote in elections and die for their country but may not buy a six pack of beer or a pack of cigarettes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you think Steve Bannon needs a shave and a shower.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...if you read The Curmudgeon and agree with him 50% of the time and think he's nuts the other 50%.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-69054572275149424332017-12-23T09:51:00.000-05:002017-12-23T09:51:29.265-05:00Wicker, McDaniel, The Flag, Primary<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Ryan Walters and The Curmudgeon Disagree</b></span></div>
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<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I have got to know through his writings Ryan Walters, who holds a Master's Degree from the University of Southern Mississippi, calls himself an "independent historian, and publishes <a href="http://mississippiconservativedaily.com/">The Mississippi Conservative Daily</a> (though it is written in TX and is not published daily). We disagree about quite a few things, though we both consider ourselves conservatives. Ryan is as committed a supporter of State Senator Chris McDaniel as there is. Senator McDaniel came within a hair's breadth of defeating Mississippi's senior Senator, Thad Cochran in 2014. McDaniel, Walters, and many others believe that McDaniel was cheated out of what was his by the shennandigins of Haley Barber and those they consider to be "The Establishment." Their cry for the last 3+ years has been "Remember Mississippi." Now all political eyes are on Senator McDaniel to see if he will challenge the junior Senator Roger Wicker or choose to run for some other statewide office in 2018. In 2014 Chris McDaniel was endorsed by Donald Trump. In the upcoming election the President has endorsed Roger Wicker. Below is a Blog by Ryan, looking at a Recent Mason Dixon poll, followed by my response.<h1 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.44; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poll Shows Why The Establishment Should Fear McDaniel</span></b><div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Even though there is no current race for a Mississippi US Senate seat, you wouldn’t know it by all the news and speculation. In the most recent news, the Mason-Dixon company recently <a href="http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/37104554/new-poll-shows-senator-wicker-ahead-of-chris-mcdaniel-in-possible-senate-race-matchup">polled</a> a potential race between Roger Wicker and Chris McDaniel. And the survey of more than 650 Mississippi voters gave Wicker the lead by a margin of 49 to 33.<br /><br />On its face, the poll seems to give Wicker a commanding lead and provide the Establishment some much-needed breathing room. But there is trouble in the numbers!<br /><br />For an incumbent US Senator who has served for nearly a decade in that position, not to mention more than 10 previous years in the US House, to be under 50 percent is more than a little troubling. Equally troubling is the large number of “undecided” voters – 18 percent. And most “undecideds” have a strong tendency to break away from the incumbent toward election day.<br /><br />These numbers are even more problematic given the fact that Wicker has been running against McDaniel for several months. He was once “Senator Invisible,” but now he’s “Senator News Cycle.” One can hardly scroll through Facebook without seeing Wicker’s face.<br /><br />Now, if the poll had showed Wicker with a solid 60 percent of the vote, or more, along with very few undecided voters, then perhaps a conservative challenger might have a problem. But it didn’t.<br /><br />(It’s also interesting to note that the poll, on the question of McDaniel vs. Wicker, did not give a breakdown of the numbers, as it did on job approval questions for Trump, Wicker, and Cochran.)<br /><br />But no one is yet facing Wicker. No challenger has come forward to expose his liberal voting record. And no one has, as of yet, shown the majority of the state’s voters that Wicker has called for the state flag to be removed and placed in a museum. These issues, and many more, will most certainly swing those numbers in the opposite direction.<br /><br />The numbers certainly did tilt when McDaniel began assailing Thad Cochran at every turn in 2014. And he did it while trying to build an organization and raise money. Now he has an organization, money, two PACs, websites, big backers, and the like.<br /><br />So let not your heart be troubled. Cochran was once considered “unbeatable.” Polls showed him with massive leads early on in 2014. No one gave McDaniel even the slightest chance to beat Cochran. But he did, in the primary on June 3, and for many of his most die-hard supporters, again on June 24.<br /><br />The Establishment had better worry about this potential matchup – Wicker vs. McDaniel. And this poll should only add to their stress.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>The Curmudgeon</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Reply</b><br /><br />Ryan, you are nothing if not a believer that repeating an inaccurate statement somehow makes it accurate. Wicker is liberal in the same way that Ronald Reagan was a liberal. Both believed that it is better to get things done than to stand outside the process waving a flag of absolute purity. Wicker is part of the Senate leadership that has helped President Trump to make very good progress in getting his agenda enacted during this first year of his Presidency. Tax reform is that latest and perhaps most significant accomplishment for President Trump, the Senate and House leadership, and the Republican caucuses in the Senate and House. Sen. Wicker is a strong conservative and is so perceived in the Senate and the country,<br /><br />You seem to hang one of your hats on the state flag issue. That is very revealing. One of the ways you would like to see Sen. McDaniel or some other representative of your point of view attack Sen. Wicker for having spoken in favor of changing the flag, and, even more important, to appeal to Mississippi’s voters by supporting keeping the Confederate battle flag in the upper left corner. That means, first, to say to the 38% of Mississippians who are black, “We know that flag offends you and that you cannot identify with it, but we don’t care. We will continue to cram the flag down your throats.” It says to older Mississippians such as I, who are proud of their Southern ancestors and heritage, but who are not racists, and who want a flag that will unify our people, “You obviously are not true conservatives, else you would be indifferent to what blacks and others think and feel about the flag.” It says to Mississippi’s young, college graduate, skilled people, “We are going to stay the way we are. If you don’t like it you can move” (and you are getting that wish, for they are leaving). This flag issue is not about pride in heritage, or acknowledgment of history, but about prejudice and provincialism and fear. And, it cannot be denied that the appeal to a certain segment of those voters, who cling to the flag no matter what, is racial.<br /><br />Interestingly you leave out some things that the Mason Dixon poll reveals, such as Sen. Cochran, whom you and the McDaniel contingent have continued to savage surpasses even the President in approval ratings (Trump 51%, Cochran 54%) and Sen. Wicker whom you and other McDaniel surrogates have attacked relentlessly has a 70% approval rating among Republicans. RE Sen. McDaniel, I, too, would be interested in finding out both his positives and negatives among the voters.<br /><br />Mississippians may also take note of Alabama. Roy Moore was hurt not only by the allegations of the nine women, but also by his political history. He greatly motivated Democrats and Alabama’s smaller percentage of black voters to go the polls and vote. In MS a pro-life Democrat could prove a significant challenge to a Republican with Sen. McDaniel’s views and political history.<br /><br />Then Mississippi Republicans 86& of whom approve of President Trump are going to dismiss the President’s endorsement and likely appeals to Republican voters that he needs Sen. Wicker to help him get succeed in the hard struggles that will continue as he pursues his agenda.</span><br /></div>
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-37277635222958500512017-11-26T20:56:00.001-05:002017-11-27T07:34:09.747-05:00Judge Moore and the Women<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To Believe or Not to Believe?</span><br />
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Accuser who says she was 14</td></tr>
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Accuser who says she was 16</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />You'd have to be Rip Van Winkle not to know that making allegations of various degrees of sexual improprieties are almost as ubiquitous as college football coach firings. (I fear that one morning I will wake up and see Mrs. Smith on MSNBC as the accuser and myself as the accused.) The accusers are</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> mostly by women, though not in Kevin Spacey's case</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">. Those accused include men in the entertainment industry, news industry, and (cue Gomer Pile!) politics. Most of the accused confess that they did something, though some have denied the allegations and others have said their memories of the offenses are not the same as those of their accusers. It is not a good time to be a man, unless you are ready to affirm all accusers and to condemn all accused. It is likely that we are experiencing an over-correction to the problem of not listening to victims and that some of those who have been or will be accused will be vindicated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Two of the holdouts who have not plead guilty are Congressman John Conyers (D) and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore (R). Moore, a </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">former two time Chief Justice of the state's Supreme Court and outspoken Baptist Christian, has been accused of various kinds of improprieties by nine different women. The state Party Executive Committee is standing by him. The Governor says she has no reason to doubt the accusers, nevertheless, will vote for Moore. Jeff Sessions, who held the seat Moore is running for before resigning to be the Attorney General of the United States, also says he has no reason to disbelieve the women. Richard Shelby, Alabama's senior Senator, has said he will not vote for Moore, but will write in the name of another Republican. Most national Republicans, including</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> most of those who would be Moore's Republican Senate colleagues, have either said that he should drop out of the race, if the charges are true, or said that he should have already dropped out. Senators such as Mike Lee and Ted Cruz, who are "anti- establishment," have withdrawn their endorsements. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Though the allegations against Moore range from the </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">creepy to the criminal,</span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Moore is not going to drop out. He and the Democrat, Doug Jones, will face off on December 12, and one will be elected. In Washington a number of Senators, Republican and Democrat, have said that, if Moore is elected, he should be seated, investigated, and then excluded from the Senate. The advantage to the Republicans of that happening is that they would not have Moore tied as a millstone around their necks next year for the the midterms and that the Republican Governor would appoint a Senator, allowing the Republicans to hold the seat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Moore and his wife of 30 years, Kayla, have gone on both the defensive and the offensive. They deny all of the allegations. They have attacked the accusers. They explain all of the allegations as attacks by his enemies - the liberal media and not only Democrats but "establishment" Republicans, foremost of whom is Mitch McConnell, whom Moore has called out and wants replaced. In fact, Moore's "real" enemies, as he and his loyalists see it, are not progressive Democrats but mainstream Republicans. He is seeking to capitalize on the anti-establishment resentments which helped to elect Donald Trump.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have been interested in the ways Moore's most zealous defenders, some of them pastors, have defended him. I have (perhaps unwisely and with no success) engaged some of them on Facebook. So far as I can discern, those I have engaged are Christians who believe there is a distinctly Christian view of everything, who assert that Christ is Lord of all ("every square inch"), and at least some of them are theonomists who believe the Law given to Israel should be the pattern for law in America. These, against the common sense reading of Romans and contrary to the historical setting of both Paul and the Roman recipients, believe Romans 13 was written to teach Christians how to relate to government as it should be, not government as it was, the Roman Empire with Nero as Emperor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">All the Christian defenders of Moore believe he is a champion of the Christian "worldview." He is persecuted for being a courageous believer and a conservative Christian who will stand up for God, the Bible, and "Christian values." He stood for God and the Bible as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and was removed from office, not because he twice refused to obey federal courts, but because he would not bow the knee to Satan and godlessness. He has exposed, is exposing, and will expose Christians who are on the side of the forces of darkness and are part of the media and Washington "establishments." They are afraid of a God-fearing man who will unmask the lying media, challenge unprincipled politicians concerned only for power and money, and shame compromising Christians who seek the praise of man rather than the approval of God. With righteous anger his defenders condemn their fellow Christians, whom they think may not be Christians at all as well as all who have any sympathy for the accusers and any doubt about Moore's innocence. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Several things stand out to me about those who have defended Moore. First is that it seems that there is nothing that could shake their confidence in Moore's uprightness. It is similar to the case of the husband caught in the act, who says, "Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Second, they accuse Moore's accusers of lying. The fact that they have come forward 40 years after the events to accuse Moore before an election he was sure to win, strongly suggests that they are part of a conspiracy to deny Moore the seat. Some are certain there is convincing evidence that the accusers have been exposed for the liars they are. The women have been discredited and their stories debunked. The Moore supporters dismiss research that shows that waiting to come forward is not at all unusual. Their confidence is not shaken by the fact that there are nine different women, and some people who worked at the mall, who allege Moore's strange behavior (hanging out at the mall to see teenage girls, which some say, led to his being banned from the mall), questionable behavior (a man in his 30s dating teenage girls), and chargeable behavior (partially undressing and fondling a 14 year old while try to get her to fondle him and seeking to force sexual his sexual advances on a 16 year old). So far as the believers in Moore are concerned, the case is closed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Third, after saying they do not believe the accusers, some pivot to say that, if he is guilty, it doesn't matter. It was long ago. The things of which he is accused are not that bad. It may be the girls' fault if it happened. Alabama pastor, Earl Wise, a strong supporter said, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“How these gals came up with this, I don’t know. They must have had some sweet dreams somewhere down the line. Plus there are some 14-year-olds, who, the way they look, could pass for 20.” </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Whatever may have happened Roy Moore is God's man, who will speak up on behalf of God and Biblical values and will represent Christians who need and deserve a voice in the Senate. He opposes gay marriage; he is against abortion; he has questioned whether Muslims should be allowed to serve in public office; he takes a hard stand on illegal immigration. His positions are Christian. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of the defenses his supporters believe is unshakable is legal. (1) The statute of limitations ran out a long time ago. There is no way to establish guilt through the courts. (2) Even if something happened, where is the evidence? Come forward with it, or shut up. Otherwise, you're just gossipping. (3) The Old Testament says that guilt cannot be established except on the testimony of two or three witnesses, and that standard has not been met. It appears that some would allow nothing to establish guilt apart from two or three eyewitnesses coming forward who were present in the room and will testify they saw Judge Moore, wearing in nothing but his whitey-tighties, undressing the 14 year old down to her bra and underpants, his hand cupping her the front of her bra or grabbing the front of her underpants. (4) </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Accused persons are innocent until proven guilty. He cannot be guilty unless a court says he is. They seem to believe that it would be wrong for a conservative Christian or a Republican who would have voted for Moore before the allegations, to believe the women and so not to vote for him. That would be cowardly at best, sinful at worst.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">How could the voters of Alabama, or those of us who follow the story because we are evangelical Christians, or values voters, or political junkies, or political conservatives, come to a decision about Judge Moore? I would suggest several questions to ask:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1. What is your sense of the women making the allegations? Do the accusers seem genuine and do you have feeling that their accusations are credible? Or do find that something just doesn't ring true?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">2. What is your sense of the denials of Judge Moore? Do you find yourself believing he is an honest man and that his denials are genuine? Or are you uneasy about him and his denials?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">3. What do you know about the accusers that would lead you to accept or not accept what they say? Does the fact that people who have experience say that it is not unusual for victims of sexual improprieties to keep silent and to come forward, if at all, years later, make any difference to you? Is there anything about the history and present lives of the accusers that tend to impeach them? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">4. What do you know about Judge Moore that would lead you to believe or disbelieve him?</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> How much weight do you give to his 30 year marriage to Kayla and his faithful church involvement? Is there anything about Moore's public life and years on the Alabama Supreme Court that would create reservations in your mind about believing him?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">5. What are the opinions of people you respect and tend to trust? You may put a lot of weight on what who have known him through the years say. The pastors who have spoken on Moore's behalf and said they believe him may persuade you to believe Moore. Or you may be moved by what Russell Moore (no relation to the Judge), the head of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, or Ted Cruz, or the editors of National Review. Where do opinions of folks you respect and trust leave you?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Answering these questions will not make the decision whether to vote for him. You could believe every one of the women and the worst he has been accused of and still vote for him. It depends on how much weight you put on your conclusion that Moore is a bad man versus how much you want to keep that seat in Republican hands. Answering these questions will not give you absolute certainty about whether he is guilty of all, some, or none of the accusations. Certainty is not possible, and the search for certainty is sure to frustrate you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I do want to answer those who say that nothing short of legal proof is sufficient to justify making any decision other than to consider Judge Moore morally worthy of your vote. Most of the folks who say this no doubt believe what they say, but they are wrong. They ignore that there are many situations we all face that are not legal but put us in a place of believing or disbelieving. You are considering buying a car, and get the feeling in your gut that the salesman can't be trusted, so you walk away. It's just a feeling, but you don't buy the car. He doesn't get the commission, and maybe he and his family really need it right now. You run into a person at a party, and knowing you have an appointment to see Dr. Jones next week, you ask, "Have you as a patient ever seen Dr. Jones?" The person says, "I wouldn't let Dr. Jones take my temperature." You haven't seen anything that says Dr. Jones has been sanctioned by the state medical board or been sued for malpractice, but you invest enough credibility in the person who said what he thought of Dr. Jones that you cancel the appointment. You are a young lady who goes out on a date with Joe. Your intuition says, "This guy is creepy." So, when he calls next week, you say, "No, I don't want to go out Saturday, and I'm just not interested in seeing you again." You may be missing out on a great guy, but you don't ask him for a list of other girls he's dated so you can check him out. And, if your good friend tells you she has a date with Joe, you will tell her, "I went out with him, and he creeped me out. I'm not saying don't go out with him, but I feel I should tell you my intuition about him." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, what about Bill Smith? Inquiring minds want to know. I think that after much hesitation and conflict, I voted for Donald Trump. (I say "think" because I cannot clearly remember. I was recovering from knee replacement surgery and was taking opioids and cannot remember for sure whether I did or did not cast an absentee ballot.) In terms of what he has done or not done, I have not regretted that vote, if I cast it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If I were an Alabama voter, I think I would not vote for either Roy Moore or Doug Jones. I am fairly certain I would soon regret voting for either. I think I would write-in a candidate. Why not Moore? Mainly because of my answer to my question number four above. And, no, I am not on opioids, though I can testify they are sometimes a great mercy. </span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-46893668730796572312017-11-18T19:19:00.003-05:002017-11-22T09:48:00.072-05:00The Dishonoring of an Honorable Man<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Dr. Morton H. Smith Sleeps</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. Since I published this, my long-time friend and sort of relative (his sister, Sara, is married to my wife's brother, Jim Drexler), Joel Belz, called me to thank me for this post. Joel, a former Moderator of the PCA General Assembly, and founder of World Magazine, also attended the funeral. I thanked him for the effort he made to attend the funeral, despite his own health struggles. Joel is a man I love and respect highly. He is a blessing to me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. I have also heard from my friend John Muether informed me that there were extenuating circumstances that mitigate Reformed Theological Seminary's not having a representative at Dr. Morton Smith's funeral. The Chancellor and Board of Trustees President were out of the country. Many of the faculty had gone to the meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. The Seminary community, unlike I and others, did not hear of Dr. Smith's stroke and brain tumor, and did not learn of his death till the day he died, leaving only two days between the the day of his death and the funeral. I agree that there were mitigating circumstances. It still seems to me that RTS could have had at least one representative at the funeral. I also add that I think that RTS was not alone in the oversight/failure to honor Dr. Smith at his funeral. I have been told that the funeral was sparsely attended. This might be expected, as Dr. Smith, having reached the age of 94, had outlived his contemporaries. However, given his role as a father of the PCA, as well as RTS, I think there should have been a large number of people, including his fellow founders of the PCA and Committee Coordinators in attendance. Further, with regard to dishonor, I am grieved that Dr. Smith, despite his gracious treatment of others, was attacked by not a few young, and some older men, because of what they regarded as his sinful views regarding race. I cannot more strongly express my disagreement with them and my belief that that they dishonored one of the most godly and humble servants of the Lord who served the church.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. Dr. Smith and I disagreed, even clashed, a number of times about important things. I know we disagreed about race. Perhaps the greatest tension between was in connection with our service on the PCA's Creation Study Committee. He was disappointed that I had adopted the view of "the days" that he had taught when I was a seminary student. If he knew it, I am sure that he was disappointed with my move to Anglicanism and change in my views of the "regulative principle." However, it would be difficult to overstate the affection and respect I have for the man. He gave me the theological foundation and superstructure of my ministry, not only as a Presbyterian minister, but also as a presbyter of the Reformed Episcopal Church. Rest in peace, Dr. Smith; rise to glory. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4. I extend condolences to his wife, Lois, and his children, Sam and Susan. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dr. Morton Howison Smith is with God. He died at the age of 94 and entered the nearer presence of his Savior on the Lord's Day, November 12. His funeral was held on Tuesday, the 14th. And now he rests.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dr. Smith was a remarkable man - a, husband, a father, a lover of nature, a pilot, a theologian, an author, a preacher, a pastor, an advisor, a denominational executive, a professor. During World War II he trained Army Air Force pilots. He took his Ph.D. under G.C. Berkouwer at the Free University of Amsterdam. He then entered a life of service to Christ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dr. Smith's service to the cause of Christ was extraordinary. His was varied, long, and manifestly useful labor in the Lord's vineyard. He was a professor of Bible and the head of the department at Belhaven College (9 years), the founding professor and teacher of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary (12 years), a founder of the Presbyterian Church in America, the first Stated Clerk of the General Assembly (15 years), and a founder of and Professor of Systematic Theology at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (15 years). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What gets the attention, however, is the profound godliness of the man. He loved the Lord, the Bible, Presbyterianism, and the Reformed faith. He walked consistently according to his profession of faith. I have heard people criticize him, as I have on occasion, but, until recent years and the era of political correctness invading the church, I have never heard anyone criticize his Christian life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What stands out most to me is his humility. Not his learning, nor his service, nor the praise given him by colleagues and students engendered in him pride. Of course, I do not know his heart, but it appeared that pride was not a temptation for him. He lacked hubris. He did not promote himself, or stand on his rights, or become angry at slights. He bowed himself before the providence of God even when it meant bearing false representations and mistreatment by those who chose to be his enemies, failure to come to his defence by those who knew the man better than did his critics, and ingratitude by those who owed him much. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">After the funeral I heard from a mature and temperate brother who attended. Dr. Paul Gilchrist, who succeed Dr. Smith as Stated Clerk, and Dr. Roy Taylor, the present Stated Clerk, attended the service. Whether any others who have served or serve in the administration of the PCA attended, I do not know. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">However, my informant told me that not a single representative of Reformed Theological Seminary was present. Not the Chancellor, nor any of the Presidents of the regional campuses, nor any members of the Board of Trustees attended. While the Lord can raise up from nothing what he wills to bring into existence, it is difficult to see how Reformed Theological Seminary could have come into existence or attracted the students it did in the early years apart from the role of Morton Smith. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">How could it be that no one from RTS attended the funeral? I can only guess.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>First</b>, Dr. Smith was not the RTS kind of professor. Dr. Smith was an Old School Presbyterian (this is not to say there have not been and are not other Old School men at RTS), who wanted to see the PCA be an Old School Church and RTS be an Old School institution. I believe he thought it was possible for both, but it became evident that neither would be Old School. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There was a time early in the days of the seminary when the seminary concluded that it was not satisfied with the "product" - that is with some of its graduates who now were ordained, serving churches, and active in presbyteries. I can recall a meeting at which the President and a leading member of the Board of Trustees called several of us to a meeting at the seminary and told us to "cool it." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now, who was responsible for these graduates who turned out to believe and practice Reformed theology? Dr. Morton Smith. Once, I had Dr. Luder Whitlock, the second President of RTS, speak in my church for a weekend and preach for a Reformation Day Service. During the weekend I told Luder that what Dr. Smith had given us boys was a system of theology we could learn, understand, and teach. It provided the foundation and structure of our ministries. Dr. Smith believed what he taught, but he was guilty of none of the sin, stupidity, and foolishness of us young fellows who studied under him. Nevertheless, he was blamed for our being Reformed and for our assuming we could reform our churches. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dr. Smith was not the sort of professor that RTS wanted shaping future ministers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Second</b>, Morton Smith was instrumental in the beginning of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. I think it is fair to say that GPTS was founded to be what RTS did not become. The powers at RTS did not appreciate that, and, though Greenville was no threat to RTS, there was no love lost between the two institutions. It is disappointing, but not surprising, that RTS would not have wanted any of its leadership to pay last respects to a man who, though he was a key to RTS' existence, was also a key to GPTS' existence. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Third</b>, Dr. Smith was known to be a principled segregationist who believed his views were consistent with the Christian faith. He was not a racist. He harbored no animosity toward African-Americans. He was toward everyone a Christian gentleman. But he believed that the races should live separately, and he believed that was by God's design. (I am not aware of a single student of his who shared his views.) For all this he has been condemned, especially by young men, who, no less than those of us who were early graduates of RTS were, are certain they are right. (It is interesting that the separation of the races is now promoted by African Americans who believe there needs to be a distinctively African American theology, worship, and church.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dr. Smith has been the target of a great deal of attention, condemnation, and denunciation by some older men but mostly young men, both black and white. In a display of nothing, if not hubris, these men called him to repentance for his views. So strong was their conviction that Dr. Smith was wrong and needed to repent that they hounded him as an old man in his 90s.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now RTS has been in the forefront of "racial reconciliation" though this seems to have fallen on hard times because of the increasing desire for separation on the part of African Americans. RTS has sought to attract and equip African American students (a laudable goal), and its Chancellor has taken a lead in the cause of "racial reconciliation" (itself laudable, but as it is promoted now much influenced by liberation theology and critical race theory.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, if he attends Dr. Smith's funeral, how does the Chancellor of RTS go to Mississippi and face Jemar Tisby and explain why he honored Morton Smith by attending his funeral? How does RTS have credibility among those who men, white and black, who are convinced that Dr. Smith was associated with the great sin of the 20th century, if some administrator(s), or professor(s), or member(s) of the Board of Trustees attended his funeral? How do you recruit students (and every educational institution is seeking numbers) </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">who share the views of Dr. Smith's critics? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's a very practical decision. Honoring Dr. Smith, though he deserves it, is not worth the heat you will take by honoring him. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So the decision is to dishonor him. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Does Dr. Smith care? Surely not now. Nor, I believe, would he if he could have lived and known the dishonor that would be shown him at his funeral. He did not court and was not affected by honor or dishonor shown him during his life, so why would he at his death? He was "another man's servant." That other Man is Jesus Christ. </span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-2202187207891385722017-11-12T20:35:00.003-05:002017-11-14T11:51:16.804-05:00I Don't Want Any Moore<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Evangelicals, political conservatives, and Republicans have been rocked since last Thursday when the Washington Post published a story about Republican U.S. Senate nominee, Roy Moore, that accused him of one crime (which can never be adjudicated because the statute of limitations long ago expired) and of several actions which some regard as improprieties. The alleged crime is that he partially undressed a 14 year old girl whom he then fondled while attempting to get her also to touch him sexually. The other alleged actions are that he as a man in his early 30s showed an interest in and dated teenage girls.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Allegations. </b>Let's first address the matter of his alleged crime and improprieties.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As many have noted, the crime allegation, if true, is a very serious matter. If what is alleged happened, it seems, barring further revelations, that it does not indicate Judge Moore has a "problem" - a proclivity for sexual activity with post-pubescent but young teenagers. So far as we know, there are no other allegations of this sort of activity. Nevertheless, even if there was one act of this sort, it is scandalous behavior, and good reason for those who have favored his election to reconsider. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So far as I know, no Republican Senator has joined with those who have defended Mr. Moore. One of the most conservative Senators, Mike Lee, has withdrawn his endorsement. All who have spoken, including not just "establishment" men such as Republican leader Mitch McConnell, but challengers of the "establishment" such as Ted Cruz, have said that, if these charges are true, Mr. Moore should withdraw from the Senate race. <i>The National Review</i> editors and writers David French and Jonah Goldberg have denounced Moore in strong terms and called for him to step aside. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The response of Evangelical leaders has lacked unanimity. For example, Moore's pastor and Jerry Falwell, Jr., have defended the Judge, while Al Mohler and Russell Moore have expressed outrage (assuming the allegations are true). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now Christians must always say that sins, however great (and Christians have been guilty of much worse behavior than than Moore is accused of), is never beyond forgiveness. Nor should sin against a 14 year old girl 40 years ago, if it occurred, be a millstone around the neck of Moore, regardless of what it means for his candidacy, for the rest of his life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We also need to put this charge in the context of the current moral outrage against sexual harassment and abuse as one revelation follows another about both heterosexual and homosexual men. While I do not know of any Hollywood women who have been accused, it seems that every week there is some female school teacher who is accused of taking advantage of her position to pursue sexual relations with male (and occasionally female) students. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I expect some of these allegations will prove untrue, but in the current context, there is a strong inclination to take them all as true. We will do well to remember the hysteria in 1980s when children, urged by parents, prosecutors, and psychologists, made accusations of very gross forms of of sexual abuse against various caregivers. There were about 80 convictions. Most of those convicted were ultimately exonerated. It is certainly possible that we are experiencing another wave of hysteria and that this has affected the judgments that are being made about the allegations against Mr. Moore.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Regarding the "allegations" of impropriety, I am much more sanguine than others. It seems to me that there is nothing inherently wrong with a man who is 30 looking at a girl or woman, who is or soon will be, of marriageable age as someone whom he might date. One of the best men and friends I have ever known was 30 and looking for a wife. He had not found himself content with making a commitment to or asking for a commitment from any of the "possibilities." One day it occurred to him that a girl who loved horses, who had asked for a job, and whom he had hired in his veterinary practice seemed to have the qualities for which he was looking. (As he sometimes said, she was a good worker.) When her crusty father asked him what his intentions were, he replied, "Honorable." Soon they were married. She was 18 (as was my wife when we married, though I was only 21). Till he died, they enjoyed a solid marriage and an excellent partnership. They had 6 children, and somewhere in there she got her Bachelor's and Master's degrees (at his, not her father's, expense!) She was a strong woman and, as I saw it, a near perfect complement (forgive me, all you anti-complementarians) for him. Now some of those who have their underpants in a wad about a 30 year old dating a teenager with her parents' permission might hope to have a marriage half so happy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Disqualification. </b>Let's move to Judge Moore's qualifications for office. Even apart from whether the allegation of sexual activity with a 14 year old is true, I do not think him qualified. I expressed this view during the Republican primary. Repeating the opinions I read at National Review, I think he is neither a conservative nor a Constitutionalist. Further, as I have written before (<a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/09/roy-moore-gods-man.html" style="font-style: italic;">Roy Moore: God's Man?</a>), he is a lawless man, or perhaps, a law unto himself, or, perhaps we should say, a typical American evangelical (he is a Baptist - see</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/09/protestants-are-too-much-like-baptists.html">Protestants Are Too Much like Baptists</a></i>) who elevates his own conscience above the authority of church or state. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">He has twice been removed as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for civil disobedience. The first time he refused a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument he had installed in the Supreme Court building. The Alabama Court of the Judiciary said:</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"> </span>"Indeed, we recognize that the acknowledgment of God is very much a vital part of the public and private fabric of our country...(but) the highest judicial officer of this state had decided to defy a court order" and, therefore had to be removed. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The second time (officially he was suspended for the rest of his term without pay), in defiance of federal court decisions, he instructed probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. The Alabama Court of the Judiciary found he had violated the Code of Judicial Ethics and wrote: </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"This case is not about whether same-sex marriage should be permitted...Moreover, this is not a case to review or to editorialize about US Supreme Court's June 2015 decision, a decision that some members of this court did not personally agree with or think was well-reasoned." Rather, they found Moore's action "</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"grossly inconsistent with his duties" and</span><span style="background-color: #fefefe;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #262626;"> </span>"incomplete, misleading and manipulative." In fact, these judges found Moore's offenses in this case to be worse than his earlier defiance of a court order. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fefefe;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I know some Christians will say, "But Judge Moore followed a higher law, God's." Some of the same folks will say, "We need God-fearing men in office." No, he did not follow a higher law, unless Judge Moore's understanding of his duty is to supersede not only federal courts but Holy Scripture (Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:12-17, both written with the government of the Roman Empire, and specifically Nero, in mind). Nor is Judge Moore God-fearing so far as these two matters are concerned.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe;">We need in office, not men and women like Judge Moore, but men and women willing to operate under our system of government, to obey the law themselves, and to work for change by lawful means. And those are the sort of people, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack of them, we as Christians ought to want to see in office, most especially when those running for office are professing Christians. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe;">There are few things that could more set back the reputation and effectiveness of Evangelical Christianity than a man who would behave as a Senator as Mr. Moore did as a Judge. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe;"><b>Politics. </b>Finally, let's take into account the political implications of Judge Moore's candidacy. I begin by saying I am a conservative Republican who does not claim his political views are derived from the Bible. Nor do I believe I am advancing the Messianic rule of Jesus Christ by my political positions and activities. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe;">So what are the possibilities in connection with Moore's candidacy for the Senate? The best case scenario is that he would withdraw. The Republican Party in Alabama should then identify, coalesce around, and work like crazy for a Republican write-in candidate. Another possibility is that the voters, including Republican voters, will take another look at Moore, decide they don't want him in the Senate, and elect his Democrat opponent </span></span><span style="background-color: #fefefe; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">(the race has tightened and one poll shows the Democrat with his first lead)</span><span style="background-color: #fefefe; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe;">Perhaps the worst case scenario is that Judge Moore will be elected to the Senate. Even apart from the allegations against him, Moore will be a marginalized member of the Republican caucus in the Senate. If the allegations are considered credible by his Republican colleagues, he will be further marginalized, as few, perhaps none, of them will risk contamination. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe;">Further, if Roy Moore wins, that will embolden Steve Bannon whom I think wants to blow up the Republican Party as it now exists and destroy mainline Republicans. After Moore, Bannon cannot succeed in getting elected many, if any, Republicans of the sort he prefers elected, but he can do a whole lot of mischief trying. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe;">Further the Democrats could hardly ask for a better Christmas gift than his election as we head toward the mid-term elections in 2018. It will be very easy for them to point at Judge Moore as a Republican and say to the electorate, "Do you want people like Moore in the Congress? Vote Republican!"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe;">If lived in Alabama, and Judge Moore stays in the race, I would face a similar choice as I faced last November. Back then I knew that either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump would be President. The question was, "Of these two, for which will I vote?" I made my decision and cast my vote. If I were an Alabamian, I would face the reality that either Republican Roy Moore or Democrat Doug Jones will be Alabama's Junior Senator. I do not believe I could vote for Judge Moore.</span></span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-68463584657973456472017-11-06T17:08:00.002-05:002017-11-07T11:34:26.396-05:00The Bulls of Bashan<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="text Ps-22-12" id="en-ESV-14217" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; text-align: start;">Many bulls encompass me;</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: start;" /><span class="indent-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: start;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Ps-22-12" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-14217V" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14217V" title="See cross-reference V">V</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>strong bulls of <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-14217W" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-14217W" title="See cross-reference W">W</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>Bashan surround me;</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="indent-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: start;"><span class="text Ps-22-12" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"> Psalm 22:12</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Psalm 22 is beyond doubt prophetic of our Lord Jesus Christ. But it is also descriptive of the experience of its author, King David. In both cases, that of David and David's greater Son, the Bulls of Bashan are strong and ferocious enemies who surround with the intent to destroy the righteous sufferer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">While the ultimate and redemptive fulfillment of Psalm 22:12 is in the sufferings of Jesus, since it also describes David, who is both a type of Christ also an example of believing faith and experience, it is applicable to Christ's church and people today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have been thinking of the Bulls of Bashan for several days - since word came that 94 year old Dr. Morton H. Smith suffered a stroke last Thursday and that tests revealed that Dr. Smith is also suffering from a brain tumor. To the surprise of his doctors Dr. Smith survived the stroke and today (Monday) is eating, but, as might be expected, but to our grief, the brain tumor will not be treated. Presently an effort is being made to find a residential hospice in which Dr. Smith can finish his course.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have had a "mixed" relation with Dr. Smith. When I was a kid in seminary and arrived to take the exam for the third quarter systematic theology exam, Dr. Smith was not pleased that I was wearing Bermuda length shorts. He kicked me out, and told me to go home and change. I thought him wrong then, and I think him wrong now. A good number of years later, word got to me that Dr. Smith had criticized me for the position I had taken in defending an interracial marriage. I thought I was right then, and I think I am right today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But, today, I, who will reach threescore and ten this week (should I be spared till my birthday) can say that through the many years since I graduated from seminary in 1972, and today, while I respect many, there is no one I respect more than Dr. Smith. It is hard to use the word "love" with regard to Dr. Smith, because, while he has always been a gracious Christian gentleman in my dealings with him, I have never felt what we now call "empathy" and "warmth" from him. But, if love is appreciation, respect, and steadfast loyalty, then I do love Dr. Smith.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dr. Smith was attacked by the Bulls of Bashan a couple of years ago. It was not because of his having in old age turned </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">away from Christian or Reformed orthodoxy. In fact his is a stalwart of Biblical faith. It was not because in old age he had turned away from godliness. His is a consistent godliness, and he has only grown to love and reflect his Savior more. In fact, when I think of a godly old man, no one comes to mind more quickly or naturally than Dr. Smith. No, it was not for lack of Biblical faith or Biblical godliness that Dr. Smith has been surrounded by the Bulls.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> It is because Dr. Smith, a man born in the South in 1923, believed in and wrote in defense of segregation. You see, mistaken views about race are not only mistakes; they are sins. They are not only sins; they are grievous sins. They are not only grievous sins; they are the worst of sins. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now many of these brothers are young Bulls, and, while they are full of bull, they can be excused for lacking the judgment and maturity needed to judge either the times or Dr. Smith rightly. Some, however, including one who went to confront Dr. Smith and to call him to "repentance," are old enough to know better and cannot be excused for a lack of time to develop judgment. The surrounding of Dr. Smith by these Bulls reminds us that, if Dr. Smith can be described as "sinning," he is surely more sinned against than sinning. These Bulls are misguided at best, merciless at worst. What they have done to this old saint is, in any case, inexcusable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When Dr. Smith was undergoing relentless attacks by the Bulls two years ago, I wrote three Blogs to try to give some perspective and to defend Dr. Smith. If you are interested, here are links to them:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://thechristiancurmudgeonmo.blogspot.com/search?q=Morton+Smith">6.24.15 Somebody Must Defend a 92 Year Old Man</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://thechristiancurmudgeonmo.blogspot.com/2015/06/heavens-pca-hounds.html">6.25.15 Heaven's PCA Hounds</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://thechristiancurmudgeonmo.blogspot.com/2015/06/heavens-pca-hounds.html">6.26.15 No Country for Old Men</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I know that Dr. Smith has other defenders besides this Reformed Episcopalian. What I do not know is if any of the leadership of Reformed Theological Seminary or of the Presbyterian Church in America have risen to his defense. Perhaps they have, but, if they have not, their failure to do so is a great example of ingratitude, cowardice, and not having done what they ought to have done. So, brothers, if you are going to speak up for a godly man, the time is short, and the time to do so is now. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have no doubt whatsoever that the God, who vindicated David and David's Son, will vindicate Dr. Smith. I have no doubt that Bulls of Bashan will finally be put to shame. The Bulls of Bashan are fierce and sometimes they win for awhile, but always they are utterly defeated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">May our Lord grant his servant a safe journey, a peaceful passage, and a happy arrival in the heavenly kingdom.</span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-17741109407274549912017-11-02T17:25:00.002-04:002017-11-02T17:25:30.777-04:00Two Blogs, One Curmudgeon<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Why Two Blogs? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><i>The Curmudgeon</i> and </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px; text-align: center;">A Reformed<br />Reformed Episcopalian</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have recently created a new Blog titled <i><a href="https://anglicanparson.blogspot.com/">A Reformed Reformed Episcopalian.</a> </i>But first a word about the older Blog <i>The Curmudgeon. </i>I chose that name for the Blog, partly in jest - poking fun at myself - and partly telling some of the truth about the perspective of the Blog. But I have found, as often happens with humor, that a few took me seriously as though I meant to say that I, to quote one definition, am </span><span style="font-size: medium;">“an ill-tempered (and frequently old) person full of stubborn ideas and opinions.”</span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;">Well, I'm old for sure. I will soon reach threescore and ten. I can be ill-tempered, though I do not think I should be nor do I want to be. I am stubborn, but I hope not so rigid that I am not willing to listen to the ideas and opinions of others or incapable of appreciating nuance and distinguishing black, white, and gray. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Perhaps I can answer the question of what I mean by quoting a few lines from my original Blog </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>The Christian Curmudgeon</i></span> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">where I explained what I meant by "curmudgeon."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">The curmudgeon partakes of the spirit of Linus Van Pelt: “I love mankind – it’s people I can’t stand.”... The curmudgeon is often disappointed with people, not least himself. He understands well why the Bible tells us not to trust in man...</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">The curmudgeon also partakes of the spirit of <i>Network</i>’s Howard Beale who persuaded viewers all over the United States to open their windows and shout “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” ... He agrees with ... (Christian philosopher) Cornelius Plantinga...that things as they are “not the way it’s supposed to be.” </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">He has low expectations, at least in the short run...the world is so messed up that nothing short of the personal coming of Jesus Christ in glory with power, to defeat the powers of darkness, to fix the broken world, and to set his people free from sin and death can put things right. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">In the end of curmudgeon is something of an idealist, even romantic...but he is too realistic (and, I think, too Biblical in outlook) to be a utopian so long as this present age continues. In that sense, he longs for the final in-breaking of the kingdom of God...</span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">I hope that helps. If not, I'm sorry.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">But, why two different Blogs? I noted that I had used <i>J<a href="https://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/">ust a Curmudgeon</a></i> Blog to comment on matters from of the American Presbyterian-Reformed (P-R) worlds and on matters of the Anglican-Episcopalian (A-E) world. It seemed to me that some might find that </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">confusing. Some of my P-R friends experienced consternation when I wrote things that reflect my distinctive views and practices as an A-E - such as (though this is a very broad statement) clerical dress, the church year, liturgy. On the other hand some of my A-E friends wondered, if I were really an Anglican or Episcopalian (take your pick) if I followed and commented on the P-R world. In fact, my doing so might be proof that I am really "a Presbyterian with a Prayer Book."</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">So, if I am really an A-E, why do I follow the P-R world? Two reasons: (1) I get paid to do it. I have a one hour a day job in which I collect materials from that world for an e-zine. Now on, as they say, a fixed income, I need the money! (2) It interests me. But why does it interest me and why do I sometimes comment? Let me explain it in this way: I was born and raised in Pensacola, Florida, but I live in Mississippi and consider myself a Mississippian. I am and expect to die a Mississippian, but I have never lost interest in my hometown. I visit from time to time, follow the local news, and have opinions about local issues. I have even left comments on the electronic version of <i>The Pensacola News Journal</i>. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">I am an A-E, expect to die an A-E, and to be buried according to A-E rites. But I was born and raised a Presbyterian, ordained a Presbyterian minister, and served for 41 years. Moreover, I believe in Protestant catholicity. So, why should I lack an interest in the P-R world? </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">But what of a Blog on the A-E world and of the title <i>A<b>Reformed</b> Reformed Episcopalian</i>?<i> </i>The reason for a different Blog is that I want to look at and comment on matters of the A-E world without confusion with matters of the P-R world. I want to comment as an Anglican (the word in America is used to distinguish various stripes of conservative Episcopalians who are not, even if they once were, members of The Episcopal Church, and to tie most of them to worldwide Anglicanism by means of their connection with the Global South. (Of course, while their orders are recognized by the Global South, they are not recognized by TEC.) So, inasmuch as I am a theological conservative and my denomination is a jurisdiction within the Anglican Church in North America, I am an Anglican.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">But my denomination is the Reformed <b>Episcopal </b>Church. The church in America, whose mother is British Anglicanism, calls itself Episcopal. It would not have been acceptable after the Revolution for a church in America to be The Church of England in America. Since my church's mother is TEC, it has always called itself the Reformed<b>Episcopal</b> Church. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">But why, if my church is the Reformed Episcopal Church, do I call my Blog <i>A Reformed Reformed Episcopalian</i>? The second use of the word "reformed" refers to the name of my denomination. The first </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">use of the word "reformed" refers to Reformed theology by which I mean not Calvin's Institutes, nor the Westminster Standards, nor Calvin's liturgy, nor the Westminster Directory for Worship, but simply the theology held in common by the Continental and English Reformers. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">To ask if one can be a Reformed Episcopalian who is Reformed in that sense, while it may be disputed by some, is to ask a ridiculous question. Could Cranmer be in the Reformed Episcopal Church? May the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion be held by ministers in the Reformed Episcopal Church? May the 1662 Prayer Book (the first service of Holy Communion in the Prayer Book of the Reformed Episcopal Church) be said by a minister in the Reformed Episcopal Church? I will explore these questions further in future posts. I will ask what authentic Anglicanism is, what the Anglican way is, what the <i>via media</i> means. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">For now it is enough to say that I am a low church, Reformed, Reformed Episcopalian, a Cramnerian, an Articles and Prayer book man. I am not a not a Puritan or a proponent of the "regulative principle." I am not a Presbyterian, and, heaven forbid, certainly not a Baptist, with or without a Prayer Book. But I am not an Anglo-catholic or one who believes that authentic Anglicanism is the Church of England after its liberation from the Pope and before its Reformation. I do not believe the Tractarians won the battle - historically, Biblically, doctrinally, or liturgically. I honor and follow our English reformers and martyrs. I believe in what the Articles and Homilies teach about such things as election, justification, faith, and the presence of Christ in Communion. When I say Morning or Evening Prayer or Holy Communion, I do so strictly according to the Prayer Book. In light of these statements I ask, "If a Reformed minister cannot be in the mainstream of the Reformed Episcopal Church, then who authentically can?" I don't believe Reformed Reformed Episcopalians should quit the field. We have as much right to be on it as anyone else.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">It is not my purpose with this Blog to be contentious but to be charitable and collegial as I explore questions. Yes, sometimes I will contend for what seems to me to be plain historical and doctrinal truth regarding the Anglican-Episcopal tradition. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-15498531285561267692017-10-22T10:39:00.000-04:002017-10-23T08:25:09.582-04:00A Rigid Mind Is Not the Friend of Good Theology<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Truth Is Nuanced</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">(This Is Not about John Piper)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When my boys were little, one of them favored simplicity. One day two of them were with me as I drove through the campus where I served as a campus minister. The younger of the two asked, "Dad, who made this road?" The older replied something like, "God did, dummy." He also early grasped the truth of predestination, and this became his stock answer to any "why" question. Why do the leaves change color in the fall? "Predestination." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is a virtue in rigidity and simplicity of mind. These two characteristics can get you to ultimate answers quickly and clearly and result in your standing firm. They are particularly useful for children whose minds are not yet mature enough to grasp nuance. "Who made you?" "God." That's a truth important for Christian children to grasp. But it does not address other truths that will be important for them to grasp when they are older: ovaries, testes, ovulation, intercourse, gestation, birth. "Why did Uncle Harry die when he was just 49 years old?" "Predestination" is a right but an un-nuanced answer. It says nothing about such things as family history, genetic predisposition, cholesterol, plaque formation, clotting factors, heart attacks, damaged heart muscle, and heart rhythm. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A similar thing seems to be happening regarding the the teaching of John Piper on the doctrine of salvation by faith alone. All Evangelical Protestants owe John Piper a debt of gratitude for the work he has done of reading, analyzing, and showing the problems with the work of N.T. Wright and for defending against Wright the Biblical doctrine of justification and the Reformational exposition of Paul. But Rachel Miller has a problem with Piper. She questions if Piper really believes in salvation by faith apart from the works of the law:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Piper is saying that we are justified by faith alone in Christ alone but that there is also a final salvation separate from justification that includes our works. In this way, he says, we are saved through faith AND works. This is not simply sloppiness or poor wording. This is what he is teaching, and it is clear from the context of the article. And it is contrary to Scripture, to the Reformation, and to the Reformed confessions and catechisms.</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Though I think he would answer, "Yes," if asked if present justification determines final salvation, in one sense I do not not care what John Piper believes. Of course, I care about his beliefs and teaching, but my purpose is not to examine his views. I do not know for certain what John Piper in his heart of hearts believes and teaches about whether present justification guarantees the future vindication of the believer on the Day of Judgment. Nor do I know whether, as </span><a href="https://heidelblog.net/2017/10/background-on-the-current-salvation-controversy/" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Scott Clark</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> says, Daniel Fuller has strongly influenced the views of John Piper on salvation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I want to say again what I said in my previous blog: I am not a fan, reader, or follower of John Piper. The fact that he is a follower of Jonathan Edwards and a proponent of experimental Calvinism is sufficient for me as an Old Side Presbyterian (if I were still a Presbyterian) and as a Prayer Book Episcopalian (which I presently am) to say, "I am not of Piper." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But the issue at hand is the need for an flexible mind and nuanced thought when "doing theology." I am thinking of my friend and colleague, Rachel Miller's Blog post, </span><i style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://adaughterofthereformation.wordpress.com/2017/10/18/back-to-the-reformed-confessions-and-catechisms/">BACK TO THE REFORMED CONFESSIONS AND CATECHISMS</a> </i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">in which she pushes back against the criticisms that she has received for her criticism of John Piper. What I want to demonstrate is that Biblical and confessional theology is a multi-faceted diamond and that, if one does not turn the diamond and note and study all the facets, it is possible to miss "full truth" of the diamond. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Westminster</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let's begin with a quotation from the Westminster Confession of Faith to which Rachel has added emphasis:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;">By this faith, a Christian believes to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word, for the authority of God Himself speaking therein; and acts differently upon that which each particular passage thereof contains; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life, and that which is to come.</span><strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace. </strong><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;">(WCF XIV.2 on Saving Faith, emphasis added)</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Suppose we omit Rachel's emphasis and instead emphasize other things is the same paragraph:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b>By this faith, a Christian believes to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word, for the authority of God Himself speaking therein; and acts differently upon that which each particular passage thereof contains; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises</b></span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;"> of God for this life, and that which is to come.</span><strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </strong><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace. </i></span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;">(WCF XIV.2 on Saving Faith, emphasis added)</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The paragraph should be taken as a whole in order to grasp the fullness of the truth it expounds, but, if one chooses to emphasize one part of the truth over another, indicating such by bold print, then it is obvious that nuance makes a difference. The principal acts of faith do not exclude the other acts of faith, else the writers</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> of the Westminster Confession would not have included them. What the writers did in this paragraph was to begin with the source of theology, the Word of God, emphasize that the whole of Biblical truth is to be received with faith, </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">give examples the proper responses of faith to the various types of teaching in the Bible, and bring the paragraph to its climax by calling attention to the the principal acts of saving faith - trusting in Christ for the whole of one's salvation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Consider Rachel's quote of the chapter on Good Works, where I accept Rachel's emphases but would also embolden the phrase "done in obedience to God's commandments":</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">These good works</strong><span style="background-color: white;"><i>, </i><b>done in obedience to God’s commandments</b><i>,</i></span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;"> </span><strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith</strong><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;">: and by them believers manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify their brethren, adorn the profession of the Gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries, and glorify God, whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus thereunto, that,</span><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;"> </span><strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">having their fruit unto holiness, they may have the end, eternal life.</strong></span> </blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My friend continues to quote the Confession to prove that the the best of our good works are "mixed" with sin and weakness and are not meritorious in obtaining salvation. The truth both Rachel and I accept is that our best good works do not contribute at all to the righteousness that God will accept and is absolutely necessary for our final salvation. But <b>that is not to say that good works have nothing to do with our salvation</b>. We do "good works in obedience" to God, and they are "the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith" by which we obtain the righteousness of Christ. These good works in turn produce the fruit of holiness which leads to our obtaining the ultimate goal of our salvation, eternal life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But, before we leave the Westminster Standards, let's call attention to another chapter of the Confession - the chapter on repentance, which Rachel does not quote: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I. <b>Repentance unto life is an evangelical grace</b>, the doctrine whereof is to be preached by every minister of the Gospel, as well as that of faith in Christ.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">II. By it, a sinner, out of the sight and sense not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, as contrary to the holy nature, and righteous law of God; and upon the apprehension of His mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, so <b>grieves for, and hates his sins, as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavouring to walk with Him in all the ways of His commandments.</b></span><b> </b></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">III. <b>Although repentance is not to be rested in, as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of the pardon thereof,</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">which is the act of God's free grace in Christ,</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>yet it is of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it</b>.</span> </blockquote>
<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dordt</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Rachel also quotes from the Canons of Dordt: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;">FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 4. The wrath of God abides upon those who believe not this gospel. But </span><strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">such as receive it and embrace Jesus the Savior by a true and living faith</strong><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;"> are by Him delivered from the wrath of God and from destruction, and </span><strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">have the gift of eternal life conferred upon them.</strong><span style="background-color: white; font-style: italic;"> (Canons of Dordt, 1.4, emphasis added)</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It is important to remember that the Synod of Dordt was called to address the errors associated with Arminius that had caused confusion among the Belgic churches concerning the doctrine of salvation. The main purpose was to vindicate the doctrine of election and its associated doctrines (depravity, efficacy of grace, extent of the atonement, and perseverance) as the teaching of Scripture. It is not a document that specifically addresses the relation between faith and good works. Nevertheless, in defending the doctrine of election, the Canons clearly show that the faith God gives to the elect is not a faith that is alone:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 9. ... men are chosen to faith and to the obedience of faith, holiness, etc. Therefore <b>election is the fountain of every saving good, from which proceed faith, holiness, and the other gifts of salvation, and finally eternal life itself, as its fruits and effects</b>, according to the testimony of the apostle: "For he chose us (not because we were, but) in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." (</span><span style="color: black;">Eph 1:4</span><span style="background-color: white;">).</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">FIRST HEAD: ARTICLE 13. ... The consideration of this doctrine of election is so far from encouraging remissness in the observance of the divine commands or from sinking men in carnal security, that these, in the just judgment of God, are the usual effects of rash presumption or of idle and wanton trifling with the grace of election, in<b> those who refuse to walk in the ways of the elect.</b></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The question is not whether we are saved by faith alone but, rather, what is a true and lively faith that will inherit eternal life? This inevitably requires discussion of repentance, good works, holiness, perseverance, final judgment, etc. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Belgic</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Rachel quotes from the Belgic Confession, but I am not sure why she does not notice the the whole of the teaching of the Confession on the nature of saving faith:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We believe that this <b>true faith,</b> being wrought in man...<b>regenerates him and makes him a new man, causing him to live a new life, </b>and freeing
him from the bondage of sin<b>. </b>Therefore it is so far from being true that this justifying faith makes men
remiss in a pious and holy life, that on the contrary without it they would never do anything out of love to
God, but only out of self-love or fear of damnation.<b> Therefore it is impossible that this holy faith can be
unfruitful in man; </b>for we do not speak of a vain faith, but of such a <b>faith which is called in Scripture a faith
working through love,</b> which excites man to the practice of those works which God has commanded in His
Word. (Emphasis mine.)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Rachel goes on to note the Reformation era document of my tradition, The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, but I wonder what she does with with the whole paragraph she quotes:</span><br />
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<span class="Subhead_green" style="border: 0px; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">XII. Of Good Works. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Albeit that <strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Good Works, which are the fruits of Faith, and follow after Justification</strong>, <span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">cannot put away our sins</span>, and endure the severity of God’s Judgement; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and <strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith</strong>; insomuch that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Good works <b>spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith</b>; insomuch that <b>by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by the fruit</b>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Articles, setting forth the doctrine of election, also touch on the nature of true faith:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Furthermore, <b>we must receive God's promises in such wise, as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture: and, in our doings, that Will of God is to be followed</b>, which we have expressly declared unto us in the Word of God. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Scripture</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then there is the reality that the Scriptures seem to indicate that there is both a present and future justifying of justifying faith. There is St. James' challenge of the present reality of justifying faith:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="text Jas-2-14" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-30291T" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-30291T" title="See cross-reference T">T</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>but does not have works? Can that faith save him?</span> <span class="text Jas-2-15" id="en-ESV-30292" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,</span> <span class="text Jas-2-16" id="en-ESV-30293" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?</span><span class="text Jas-2-17" id="en-ESV-30294" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.</span></span><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-30295W" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-30295W" title="See cross-reference W">W</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">apart from your works, and I will show you my faith</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-30295X" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-30295X" title="See cross-reference X">X</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">by my works (James 2:15-18).</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is St. Paul's teaching of a future examination of the deeds of believers. While confident he will be the Lord after death, the Apostle also acknowledges that there is a future accounting of what has been done in this life and that this is motivation for him to persuade others (the commentators are divided on whether he means here believers or unbelievers) to be reconciled to God:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others (2 Corinthians 5:6-11).</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then there are the words of our Lord:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' Matthew 7:21-23). </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="text John-5-25" id="en-ESV-26224" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Truly, truly, I say to you, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-26224AI" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-26224AI" title="See cross-reference AI">AI</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>an hour is coming, and is now here, when <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-26224AJ" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-26224AJ" title="See cross-reference AJ">AJ</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the dead will hear</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span class="text John-5-25" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"> <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-26224AK" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-26224AK" title="See cross-reference AK">AK</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-26224AL" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-26224AL" title="See cross-reference AL">AL</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>will live.</span></span><span class="text John-5-26" id="en-ESV-26225" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-26225AM" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-26225AM" title="See cross-reference AM">AM</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>For as the Father has life in himself, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-26225AN" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-26225AN" title="See cross-reference AN">AN</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span class="text John-5-27" id="en-ESV-26226" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>And he <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-26226AO" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-26226AO" title="See cross-reference AO">AO</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. </span></span><span class="text John-5-28" id="en-ESV-26227" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Do not marvel at this, for <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-26227AP" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-26227AP" title="See cross-reference AP">AP</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>an hour is coming when <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-26227AQ" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-26227AQ" title="See cross-reference AQ">AQ</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>all who are in the tombs will hear his voice</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span class="text John-5-29" id="en-ESV-26228" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">and come out, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-26228AR" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-26228AR" title="See cross-reference AR">AR</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment (John 5:25-29).</span></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="text Matt-25-31" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24036AL" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24036AL" title="See cross-reference AL">AL</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>then he will sit on his glorious throne.</span><span class="text Matt-25-32" id="en-ESV-24037" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>Before him <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24037AM" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24037AM" title="See cross-reference AM">AM</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>will be gathered <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24037AN" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24037AN" title="See cross-reference AN">AN</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>all the nations, and <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24037AO" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24037AO" title="See cross-reference AO">AO</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24037AP" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24037AP" title="See cross-reference AP">AP</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the sheep from the goats.</span><span class="text Matt-25-33" id="en-ESV-24038" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.</span><span class="text Matt-25-34" id="en-ESV-24039" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>Then <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24039AQ" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24039AQ" title="See cross-reference AQ">AQ</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the King will say to <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24039AR" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24039AR" title="See cross-reference AR">AR</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>those on his right, "Come, you <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24039AS" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24039AS" title="See cross-reference AS">AS</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>who are blessed by my Father, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24039AT" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24039AT" title="See cross-reference AT">AT</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>inherit <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24039AU" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24039AU" title="See cross-reference AU">AU</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the kingdom <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24039AV" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24039AV" title="See cross-reference AV">AV</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>prepared for you <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24039AW" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24039AW" title="See cross-reference AW">AW</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>from the foundation of the world.</span><span class="text Matt-25-35" id="en-ESV-24040" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>For <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24040AX" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24040AX" title="See cross-reference AX">AX</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24040AY" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24040AY" title="See cross-reference AY">AY</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>gave me drink, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24040AZ" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24040AZ" title="See cross-reference AZ">AZ</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>I was a stranger and you welcomed me,</span><span class="text Matt-25-36" id="en-ESV-24041" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24041BA" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24041BA" title="See cross-reference BA">BA</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>I was naked and you clothed me, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24041BB" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24041BB" title="See cross-reference BB">BB</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>I was sick and you <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24041BC" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24041BC" title="See cross-reference BC">BC</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>visited me, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24041BD" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24041BD" title="See cross-reference BD">BD</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>I was in prison and you came to me."</span><span class="text Matt-25-37" id="en-ESV-24042" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>Then the righteous will answer him, saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?</span> <span class="text Matt-25-38" id="en-ESV-24043" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?</span><span class="text Matt-25-39" id="en-ESV-24044" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?"</span><span class="text Matt-25-40" id="en-ESV-24045" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>And <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24045BE" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24045BE" title="See cross-reference BE">BE</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24045BG" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24045BG" title="See cross-reference BG">BG</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>my brothers,you did it to me."</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span><span class="text Matt-25-41" id="en-ESV-24046" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then he will say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24046BI" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24046BI" title="See cross-reference BI">BI</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>cursed, into <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24046BJ" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24046BJ" title="See cross-reference BJ">BJ</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the eternal fire prepared for <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24046BK" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24046BK" title="See cross-reference BK">BK</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the devil and his angels.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span class="text Matt-25-42" id="en-ESV-24047" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>For <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24047BL" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24047BL" title="See cross-reference BL">BL</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span class="text Matt-25-43" id="en-ESV-24048" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me." </span><span class="text Matt-25-44" id="en-ESV-24049" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then they also will answer, saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?"</span><span class="text Matt-25-45" id="en-ESV-24050" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>Then he will answer them, saying, "Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24050BM" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24050BM" title="See cross-reference BM">BM</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>you did not do it to me."</span><span class="text Matt-25-46" id="en-ESV-24051" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24051BO" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24051BO" title="See cross-reference BO">BO</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>into <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-24051BP" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-24051BP" title="See cross-reference BP">BP</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>eternal life (Matthew 5:31-46).</span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">These are difficult and searching words which must be handled both carefully and forthrightly. And, frankly, one of the reasons we must introduce into our understanding of ourselves as "those who have done good" that we are good because of our being "in Christ" who is our righteousness is because we can point to many unbelievers who have done far more good in this world than have we as believers. Further we must introduce "the righteousness of faith" into our interpretation of the righteous who have done good works in this life is because we know there are many unbelievers who have done far more than we for the strangers, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What these passages do show is that the Day of Judgment will not mean the saved all have "justified" stamped on their hands so that the angels pass those so stamped immediately into the fullness of glory while the unsaved will remain to face the judgment. There will be some kind of serious examination and accountability of what we have done in this life, and, only after that, will we be vindicated as the sons and daughters of God. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Perhaps the most disturbing part of Rachel's post is this paragraph:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">No matter how much we may like Calvin, Twisse, Edwards, Horton, or Piper, ultimately we don’t confess them. We confess the standards of our denominations. It really is that simple.</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This statement seems to say: "I am disturbed by a John Piper article which seems to say that our works will have something to say about our salvation on the Day of Judgment. I have found statements in the Confessions that say we are saved by faith apart from our works, so whatever Calvin might have said that has some affinity with Piper, should be dismissed. So must any like thing said by older theologians such as Twisse and Edwards. Of contemporary theologians we must dismiss not only Piper but even Michael Horton." It's something like: "The Confessions have statements that good works have nothing to do with final salvation. I believe it. That settles it. End of discussion."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To quote Lee Corso, "Not so fast." The Confessions were not written in nor may they be interpreted in a vacuum. In the background of all Reformed Confessions is the writing of the magisterial Reformer, Calvin. Behind Calvin is his knowledge not only of the Old and New Testaments in the original languages, but the Church Fathers, the catholic creeds, and the writings of contemporary Reformers. The writers of the Confessions, too, are men who wrote other things, and their other writings can help us to understand what they meant in the Confessions they helped to produce. And, since the days of Reformed Confession writing, there have been a great many exegetes and theologians who have studied, interacted with, and even written commentaries on those Confessions. None of these men would have taken their stand on certain phrases on the Confessions and said, "This is settled and clear; there is no need for anything else to be said." They were too humble theologians for that. All this is to say that making sense of the place of good works in the final vindication of believers requires a flexible mind and an appreciation of nuance. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Are we or will we be saved by good works? No. But that's not all we must say. Evangelicals run into problems sometimes because, when they ask, "Brother, are you saved?" they mean, "Have you accepted Jesus into your heart?" which they understand to be the way one is justified and so saved. Even for more Biblically and theologically understanding Christians can use "grace," "saved," and "justified" as though they are synonymous. Sometimes they are very close to synonymous; they are always closely related but they are not each explanative of the other. We were saved - justified by a faith graciously given that always bears the fruit of good works. We are being saved - sanctified and preserved by grace that produces good works in us. We will be saved - by grace ushering us into eternal life, glorified in body and soul, after the judgment of our good works which will vindicate our faith. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Salvation</b> is a comprehensive term that includes everything God does to save sinners from election to glorification. <b>Grace</b> explains and guarantees salvation, always meaning God's initiative toward condemned and unable sinners, sometimes meaning God's</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves (we are passive), and sometimes meaning God's doing in us and through us what we cannot unaided do (we are active). The whole of our salvation is by grace through <b>faith</b>, but the emphasis on faith is particularly at the point of justification - receiving and resting upon Christ alone as he is offered in the Gospel. Sanctification and </span><b style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">good works </b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">are by faith, but they are not apart from our active striving against sin and for righteousness by the grace which God supplies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">John Murray wrote in <u>Principles of Conduct</u>, "At the point of divergence, the difference between right and wrong, between truth and falsehood, is not a chasm but a razor's edge." What is true in ethics is also true in theology.</span><br />
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<br />William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-4562459518548520862017-10-12T04:45:00.001-04:002017-10-12T14:55:18.452-04:00Does John Piper Believe in Salvation by Works?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Attention has been called to a recent (September 26) article by John Piper, <i><a href="https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/does-god-really-save-us-by-faith-alone">Does God Really Save Us by Faith Alone?</a>. </i>In this short article, Piper asserts:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In <em style="border: 0px; font-size: 19.44px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">justification</em>, faith receives a finished work of Christ performed <em style="border: 0px; font-size: 19.44px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">outside</em> of us and counted as ours — imputed to us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In <em style="border: 0px; font-size: 19.44px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">sanctification</em>, faith receives an ongoing power of Christ that works <em style="border: 0px; font-size: 19.44px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">inside</em> us for practical holiness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In <em style="border: 0px; font-size: 19.44px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">final salvation</em> at the last judgment, faith is confirmed by the sanctifying fruit it has borne, and we are saved through that fruit and that faith. As Paul says in <a class="rtBibleRef" data-purpose="bible-reference" data-reference="2 Thess 2.13" data-version="esv" href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/2%20Thess%202.13" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-style: dashed; border-top-color: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #666666; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: all; transition-timing-function: ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap;" target="_blank">2 Thessalonians 2:13</a>, “God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, <em style="border: 0px; font-size: 19.44px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">through sanctification by the Spirit</em> and <em style="border: 0px; font-size: 19.44px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">belief in the truth</em>.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Piper goes on to say:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">(Paul) said in </span><a class="rtBibleRef" data-purpose="bible-reference" data-reference="Gal 5.6" data-version="esv" href="https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Gal%205.6" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-style: dashed; border-top-color: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #666666; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: all; transition-timing-function: ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap;" target="_blank">Galatians 5:6</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">, “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">faith working through love</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">.” The only kind of faith that counts for justification is the kind that produces love — the kind that bears the fruit of love. The faith which alone justifies is never alone, but always bearing transforming fruit.</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I think what lights the fire here is Piper's contention that the five <i>solas</i> (Scripture alone, grace alone, Christ alone, faith alone, the glory of God alone should be understood as relating to justification and not to the whole of salvation (justification-adoption-sanctification-good works-glorification).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Only after </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">justification</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> can the five prepositional phrases follow and do their magnificent work to define and protect the gospel from all unbiblical dilution. </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We are justified by God</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> by </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">grace</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> alone; on the basis of </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Christ’s</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> blood and righteousness alone; through the means, or instrument, of </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">faith alone</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">; for the ultimate </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">glory of God</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> alone; as taught with final and decisive authority in </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Scripture</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> alone.” All five phrases serve to modify God’s work of </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 19.44px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">justification</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> — how sinners gain a right standing with God so that he is one hundred percent for us and not against us.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am not sure that Piper's take on the </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">solas</i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> is entirely correct. I might quibble with him particularly on "grace alone" and "Scripture alone." But that is not the issue. The issue is, "Does Piper reject Reformed orthodoxy regarding salvation by faith alone?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One writer has taken issue with Piper's article as evidence that he <a href="https://adaughterofthereformation.wordpress.com/2017/10/04/salvation-by-grace-alone-through-faith-alone-in-christ-alone/">does not hold to the Reformation doctrine</a> of salvation by faith alone. This article has itself received some push back, but <a href="http://theaquilareport.com/rachel-miller-contra-mundum-5-solas-john-piper-part-1/">another writer has come to the defense</a> of the criticism of Piper.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let me confess several things:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">1. I am not a theologian (except in the sense of being a "student of God") nor an historian (except in the sense that I have read and know some history). Put simply, I am not qualified to teach theology or church history in a college or seminary.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">2. I have read very little of John Piper. I did hear him speak quite a few years ago at the old Pensacola Theological Institute, and I found him "too mystical" for me. I felt like the student who asks, "Teacher, have I got it?" to which the teacher answers, "Not yet, my student, but don't give up."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">3. While I think that Piper basically holds to the consensus of traditional evangelicalism on the matter of women, there are some things he has said that seem bizarre to me. I do not agree with him on these "fringe" views.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">4. I have not been in agreement with those I term "the obedience boys." I have often said and more often thought that, if I am not saved by the work Christ did for me outside of me, and if Romans 7:14ff is not a description of the experience of a regenerate man, then I will not see glory.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">5. I am an Anglican. Before I became a sincere Anglican I was a Presbyterian who took seriously covenant theology and Reformed sacramentology. That is to say: I am not a Baptist. For me the great divide between Piper and me is that he is a Baptist and I am a Reformed Anglican. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But, with regard to Piper, I think the issue could be clarified and and perhaps resolved for those who hold to the Reformed confessions' teaching on salvation by faith alone, if Piper answered these questions:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">1.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> Does justification received now in this world by faith declare not only God's present verdict but what shall be his final verdict regarding his people? </span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">2. Can justification, once declared, be revoked? </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">3. Will any who are justified in this age be judged as unjust before God by Christ, the Judge, at the last day? </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If Piper should answer these first of these questions in the positive and the next two in the negative, then I think that he holds to Reformed orthodoxy on the matter of salvation by faith alone through grace alone. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">After all, it is taken as almost a Protestant-Evangelical-Reformed truism that "we are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone." And, we do have to wrestle with what the Apostle meant when he wrote:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span class="m_-5521442384703493658m_1923891928516058421gmail-m_-1421170126592577116gmail-m_3504384106628571875gmail-text m_-5521442384703493658m_1923891928516058421gmail-m_-1421170126592577116gmail-m_3504384106628571875gmail-2Cor-5-9" id="m_-5521442384703493658m_1923891928516058421gmail-m_-1421170126592577116gmail-m_3504384106628571875en-ESV-28870" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black;">So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to <span class="m_-5521442384703493658m_1923891928516058421gmail-m_-1421170126592577116gmail-m_3504384106628571875gmail-crossreference" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; vertical-align: top;"></span>please him.</span><span class="m_-5521442384703493658m_1923891928516058421gmail-m_-1421170126592577116gmail-m_3504384106628571875gmail-text m_-5521442384703493658m_1923891928516058421gmail-m_-1421170126592577116gmail-m_3504384106628571875gmail-2Cor-5-10" id="m_-5521442384703493658m_1923891928516058421gmail-m_-1421170126592577116gmail-m_3504384106628571875en-ESV-28871" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black;"><span class="m_-5521442384703493658m_1923891928516058421gmail-m_-1421170126592577116gmail-m_3504384106628571875gmail-versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>For <span class="m_-5521442384703493658m_1923891928516058421gmail-m_-1421170126592577116gmail-m_3504384106628571875gmail-crossreference" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; vertical-align: top;"></span>we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, <span class="m_-5521442384703493658m_1923891928516058421gmail-m_-1421170126592577116gmail-m_3504384106628571875gmail-crossreference" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; vertical-align: top;"></span>so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. </span><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span><span style="color: black;">Therefore, knowing </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-28872O" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28872O" title="See cross-reference O">O</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span><span style="color: black;">the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.</span></span></blockquote>
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-74516592708013276732017-10-08T09:08:00.002-04:002017-10-09T11:47:18.282-04:00The End Could Be Near<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I wonder if it's a sign that the end is near. The Scriptures speak of mercy and truth meeting together and righteousness and peace kissing each other (Psalm 85:10). On a more limited scale Aimee Byrd and Tim Bayly have met together at Hugh Hefner's grave and exchanged the holy kiss of connecting Hugh and complementarianism. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Both have read and disdained Ben <br />Domenech's <i>Federalist </i>piece, <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2017/09/28/hugh-hefners-legacy-is-about-more-than-sex/">Hugh Hefner's Legacy Is About More Than Sex</a>, which defends Hefner as at least celebrating the differences between the sexes that draws man and woman to one another (or, to use the pure and Biblical phraseology, "the way of a man with a maid (Proverbs 30:19). In addition Aimee has read and commends (and it's commendable) Ashleen Menchaca-Bagnulo's <a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2017/10/20206/?utm_source=The+Witherspoon+Institute&utm_campaign=84a04142ea-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_15ce6af37b-84a04142ea-84153097">The <i>Playboy </i>and the Death of Sexual Complementarity</a> published by the Witherspoon Institute. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Tim is his "I told you so" self with his objection that <i>The</i> <i>Federalist </i>has reduced complemtarianism to the matching of body parts:</span><br />
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I’ve warned souls that <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Federalist</em> is politics and morals stripped of God and His Law and Word. A friend passes on this <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2017/09/28/hugh-hefners-legacy-is-about-more-than-sex/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #00a9ac; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">paean to Hugh Heffner</a> as Exhibit A.</div>
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Here’s a eulogy that tells readers to look past Heffner’s moral degradation so we can stop and give thanks for his complementarianism. Stop and give thanks that his brand of moral degradation honors natural theology (meaning the right use of body parts). Of Heffner, The Federalist says:</div>
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…his work celebrates the sexual complementarity that has bound men and women together since the dawn of time.</div>
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This is what complementarianism has become and we have only ourselves to blame.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But for Tim it is more than the reductionist complementarianism of <i>The Federalist</i> piece. The problem is with complementarianism itself, the compromising complementarianism of the Biblical Council on Manhood and Womanhood, which must inevitably lead to Domenesch's celebration of Hefner's complementarity of bodies and worse:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">First, we all jumped on board with the Danvers Statement and began to do something unheard of across church history. We denied that father-rule is a universal law established by God when He created Adam first, then Eve. Instead, we reassured Christians that male authority is only a private Christian thing limited to the Christian church and home. Joining the compromisers of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, we too trotted out the lie that father-rule is not established by God’s order of creation—and thus father-rule has no application to the billions living without God and without hope in this world.<span class="footnote_plugin_tooltip_text" id="footnote_plugin_tooltip_6702_1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: -0.1em; vertical-align: top;">1</span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Next, we all jumped on the same-sex attracted, gay Christian bandwagon and began repeating their talking points perfectly matched to CBMW’s talking points before them. Manhood and womanhood are not callings given us by God. A gender identity contrary to the sex God made us is no sin. It’s fine to be an effeminate as long as you promise not to copulate wrongly. Godliness is not heterosexuality. Godliness is merely the avoidance of wrongful use of body parts. Some of my best friends are gay same-sex attracted Christians living out on LivingOut.org.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So now America’s playboy Hugh Heffner has died and <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Federalist</em> is telling readers that, despite his lechery, we should celebrate the fact that his lechery celebrated “sexual complementarity.”</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Evangelical reformed men stripped the public square of any faithful witness to the Edenic meaning of man and woman, so now they’re left grasping Hugh Heffner’s “sexual complementarity.” This is their legacy.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">With Tim it is easy to know how he wants to correct the deviance of complementarianism. It is a return to what he is certain the Bible teaches beginning with creation - patriarchy, father-rule of the household including wife and children and male rule of church and society. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Aimee, no less than Tim, hates Hefner and the praise of his "legacy" of the complementarity of male and female bodies, and she joins Tim in to some extent blaming it on Christian complementarianism. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But the church's complementarianism is both more subtle male domination and better mannered "hyper-masculinity" than Hefner's or Bayly's</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Most churches would never endorse Hefner’s lifestyle. We are disgusted by the sexual revolution and the damage it has done. And yet, some echo this nostalgic brand of complementarity. Menchaca-Bagnulo turns to churches promoting the same view of complementarity as Hefner, which she calls an “intellectualization of domination and dehumanization.” I’ve seen this polished, Christianized version of complementarity with all its hyper-masculine teaching for men and “complementary” femininity taught as subordination. It’s all so one-dimensional and dangerous. </span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The problem with Aimee's problem with complementarianism is that it is impossible to know what she would offer as its substitute that in some fashion manages to take seriously the Scriptures and their description of the relation of man and woman in both creation and redemption, both pre-fall and post-redemption. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What did God intend to say to us by Moses' account of the creation of woman?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="text Gen-2-18" id="en-ESV-49" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Then the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-49R" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-49R" title="See cross-reference R">R</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>I will make him a helper fit for him.”</span> <span class="text Gen-2-19" id="en-ESV-50" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-50S" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-50S" title="See cross-reference S">S</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>Now out of the ground the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord </span>God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-50T" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-50T" title="See cross-reference T">T</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.</span><span class="text Gen-2-20" id="en-ESV-51" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. </span><span class="text Gen-2-21" id="en-ESV-52" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">So the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> God caused a <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-52U" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-52U" title="See cross-reference U">U</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.</span><span class="text Gen-2-22" id="en-ESV-53" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>And the rib that the <span class="small-caps" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lord</span> God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.</span><span class="text Gen-2-23" id="en-ESV-54" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>Then the man said,</span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="text Gen-2-23" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="text Gen-2-23" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">“This at last is <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-54V" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-54V" title="See cross-reference V">V</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>bone of my bones</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="indent-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="indent-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="text Gen-2-23" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"> and flesh of my flesh;</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="text Gen-2-23" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="text Gen-2-23" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"> she shall be called Woman,</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="indent-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="text Gen-2-23" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"> because she was <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-54W" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-54W" title="See cross-reference W">W</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>taken out of Man.”</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="text Gen-2-24" id="en-ESV-55" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.</span><span class="text Gen-2-25" id="en-ESV-56" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed (Genesis 2:18-25).</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What did St. Paul mean to teach as he drew out the implications of both creation and fall for life in the community of redemption?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Since I have quoted them recently, I will not here copy and paste them. But in 1 Corinthians 11 what does Paul mean by "head"? Does it mean only "source" or does it mean "headship"? What does Paul mean In Ephesians 5:22-33 when he describes the relationship of husband and wife in terms of both Christ's sacrificial love and the church's universal submission to him? What does St. Peter mean to teach Christian wives in 1 Peter 3:1-7 about how to live with unbelieving husbands who may be both harsh toward and lacking in understanding of their wives?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I keep getting the impression that there are some Reformed women who are not comfortable with this that I believe would not that long ago have been unobjectionable: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Man and woman are both made in the image of God and share equally in the blessings of redemption. Consistent with this is that by both the order of creation and the nature of Christ's redemption of his church, God calls men to headship in their homes, loving their wives as reflexively as they love their own bodies and as sacrificially as Christ loved the church. He also calls wives to submit to their husbands' leadership, including deferring to their husbands in what should be the rare cases when either there is an intractable disagreement or the husband finds that he cannot out of love defer to his wife's wishes and will. In the church the relationship between husbands and wives is the same as in the home. Moreover, God sets apart and calls some men, but only men, to serve by leading and teaching. Those men who are called to lead the church should do so with humility and gentleness, and those who are called to teach should be skilled in the handling of the Scriptures and with understanding of the sheep whom they feed, whether male or female, children or adults. At the same time the people of the church should live at peace with one another, respect their leaders, and receive the word with meekness from their teachers."</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am happy to see Tim and Aimee come together at the grave of Hugh Hefner. If, however, their substantial disagreements should turn into a beauty contest, Tim ain't got a chance. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But, my worst nightmare is that both, one on the platform of <i>Out of Our Minds</i> and the other on the platform of <i>The Mortification of Spin</i>, will turn their big artillery pieces on me, when I hope I shall be able to count on Mrs. Smith's protection. If not, my departure is soon at hand. </span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5000196701682120087.post-53028620932256386272017-10-05T10:09:00.002-04:002017-10-06T02:53:27.172-04:00 Who's Right? Who's Wrong? (Response to Valerie Hobbs: Pt. 3)<br />
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<span class="text Prov-18-17" id="en-ESV-16919" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; position: relative;">The one who states his case first seems right,</span><span class="indent-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Prov-18-17" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">until the other comes and examines him.</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></div>
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<span class="text Prov-18-17" id="en-ESV-16919" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; position: relative;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">Proverbs 18:17</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">There must be two sides to every story</span></div>
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And who's to say who's right and who is wrong</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Willie Nelson </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> The Babe and the Curmudgeon</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>One side of a story. </b>With <i><a href="http://theaquilareport.com/serving-status-quo/">Serving the Status Quo</a>, </i>we have come, God be praised, to the last of three posts by Dr. Valerie Hobbs regarding a woman named Jessica Fore. Ms. Fore and Dr. Hobbs believe Ms. Fore has experienced two kinds of abuse, domestic and ecclesial. Ms. Fore separated from her husband whom she considered abusive. We do not know what kind of abuse Ms. Fore believes she suffered. We know only that Dr. Hobbs has told us of Ms. Fore's allegation and what followed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Nor have we heard this story from other vantage points. What would be Mr. Fore's story? The Pastor of the church's story?T</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">he Session of the church's story? The Clerk of the Presbytery's story? The Shepherding Committee's story? The Presbytery's story? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If Ms. Fore were writing a book, the title could be <i>My Story as Told to and by Valerie Hobbs. </i></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I don't know who Ms. Fore is, of what church she is a member, who is her Pastor, of what Presbytery her church is a member, the name of the Clerk against whom she has grievances, or anything else. All I know, and most readers know, is limited to the three posts at The Aquila Report by Dr. Hobbs in which she told us of Ms. Fore and her experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We know one side of a many-sided story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Judicial Process. </b>Because of Ms. Fore's separation from her husband and her refusal to accept the church's counsel that she reconcile with her husband, her church removed her from her position as a "worship leader." In my opinion this should have been the end of the story so far as her "position" was concerned. She took an action, separating from her husband, which she had the legal right to do. The church judged this to be unacceptable conduct on the part of a "worship leader." The church, as was its ecclesial and legal right, removed her (or, as Dr. Hobbs put it, "fired her") from the position in which she had served. The church had no way to compel her to return to her husband. She had no right to try to compel the Pastor and Session to restore her to her position as "worship leader." (If one reads Dr. Hobbs's original post, it appears that at some point Ms. Fore was excluded from a small group "without due process." This is, to put it mildly, confusing, raising questions about whether participation in a small group is a church member's right and if "process" is required to remove such member.) With regard to the "worship leader position" her removal should have been the end of the story. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But that was not the end of the story. At that point in various ways the PCA Book of Church Order kicked in. In almost every case the implementation of the procedures and processes of Book of Church Order, involving charges, testimony, trial, sanctions, and complaints means the situation is unlikely to be resolved pastorally. Relationally, it's almost bound to get worse. The Session (board of elders) disciplined her, she and the Clerk of the Presbytery clashed, and she submitted two complaints to the Presbytery. Along the way Ms. Fore has been advised by Dr. Hobbs and others. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One thing that should be noted about the PCA and some other presbyterian churches is that they term their governing bodies "courts." There is a positive historical reason for this. They are called courts because they are not legislative bodies, but judicial bodies. They do not make law; they declare and administer the law of Christ as it is found in his Word, the authoritative interpretation of which is the denomination's Confession of Faith and Catechisms. This is supposed to restrict the authority of the church to make pronouncements and rules that limit the freedom of the consciences of its members.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">However, calling the governing bodies of the church "courts" tends to put the focus on their judicial functions and in some cases to cause the body to rush to judicial procedures to resolve problems. When that happens, the possibilities of pastoral solutions greatly decrease, while the likelihood of judicial solutions greatly increases. Once problems get wrapped around the wheel of judicial procedures, they are all but impossible to untangle. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the last General Assembly the Presbytery was cited by the Committee on the Review of Presbytery Records as not having properly handled Ms. Fore's complaints, so presumably the Presbytery will hear the complaints again and dispose of them according to the procedures prescribed in the Presbyterian Church in America's Book of Church Order. That is about the best one can hope for now. But, so much has happened, that it is impossible to imagine, apart from an unusual work of God's grace, for the broken relationships to be restored, deep hurts to be healed, and the pastoral care (remember the "pastor" is a "shepherd" which implies both care and leadership) of Ms. Fore to be re-established in the congregation where this whole mess started.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It seems that this is not what Ms. Fore wants now. What she wants is vindication, acknowledgement that she has been wronged and is in the right. Perhaps she will get what she wants. But, it might be helpful for her to hear from some of us that sometimes, when we have thought ourselves in the right, we have been in the wrong. That sometimes, when we have thought ourselves entirely right, we have been partly in the right and partly in the wrong. And sometimes we have, so far as we can see, been entirely or substantially in the right and suffered wrongs within the church inflicted by fellow Christians, and that these show no signs of being put right in this world. The church and Christians, though redeemed by Christ, remain fallen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>What if? </b>Not infrequently, when it comes to a woman's difficulties, the question comes, "What if she were a man?" If a woman with five children is not hired for a position, the question may come, "What if she had been a man with five children?" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'd like to turn the question around regarding how the church initially responded to Ms. Fore's separation from her husband. She was removed from her position of leadership in worship. What if there had been a man who led in worship? Without taking up with another woman or alleging adultery on the part of his wife, the man says he "can't take it anymore" and moves out? Soon the state of his marriage is a matter of public knowledge within the church. After consulting with the elders, the pastor goes to the man and says, "We think it is best for the church and its worship that you not to continue in your leadership role while you are separated from your wife. We want to talk with you both, understand the circumstances of your marriage from both perspectives, and, if appropriate, arrange for marriage counseling." Would anyone consider it unjust or unreasonable for the man to be removed from leadership in worship? I expect that almost anyone who has, as a Senior Pastor, been responsible for paid and volunteer staff has faced such delicate situations.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Behavior. </b>In the evolution of the case, Ms. Fore has done some things that can only be termed bizarre. I don't mind using Dr. Hobb's word "deviant" to describe the conduct. Mrs. Fore painted words she alleges the Presbytery Clerk had used on a dress and wore it to Presbytery. She made a sign that said "Justice Not Abuse," took it to church, and placed it in front of her. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As I understand it, Dr. Hobbs thinks our response to such behavior should be to ask ourselves, "What kind of hurt is it - and how deep it must be - that would lead a woman to paint words and a dress and wear it to a Presbytery meeting or lead to her making a sign and placing it in front of her in worship?" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Again, I would ask, what if the person were a male - let's say a minister? Suppose he is not guilty of any heresy, dereliction, or immorality, but he loses the approbation of some of his elders and important members of congregation. The Presbytery's shepherding committee gets involved and advises him to resign (they almost always do). Believing he has been called to that charge, he does not. But a congregational meeting is called, and by a narrow majority the congregation votes to retain him. The shepherding committee brings the matter before Presbytery and recommends that, because of the tenuousness of the situation in the church, the pastoral relation be dissolved. The Presbytery concurs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The minister continues on the role of Presbytery without call, and he feels wronged, aggrieved, and isolated. So he takes a white dress shirt and, using a laundry pen, writes on the shirt the slanderous things that have been said about him by elders, church members, and some fellow presbyters on the shepherding committee. He wears the shirt to Presbytery. He also starts bringing a sign to Presbytery which says "Vindication Not Condemnation for Faithful Servants"? Is it possible that he is in the right or at least substantially in the right, having not done or failed to do anything that would justify his removal? Suppose he has been ground down by congregational and presbytery politic. Suppose he and his family are deeply hurt and scarred. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let me ask: Does anyone consider his wearing the shirt and carrying the sign to be normal behavior? Are any, even friends, going to say of him, "How much pain he must be in"? Perhaps those who know him well and love him will sympathize, but even his friends will take him aside and sympathetically counsel that he not continue to wear the shirt and carry the sign. If they believe it could help, they might without condescension suggest he see a medical doctor and perhaps a therapist. But, it is unlikely even the most sympathetic ally will consider such behavior indication of a healthy psychological/emotional/physical state. And it is certain that such behavior will not result in redress of his grievances. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Dr. Hobbs. </b>Who is Dr. Valerie Hobbs and what is the perspective from which she writes and analyzes the case of Ms. Fore? As I pointed out in my response to her first post:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On her University of Sheffield page she writes: "</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My primary research at present focuses on the discourse of conservative evangelical Christians, particularly the ways in which members of this community talk about gender roles..."</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dr. Hobbs is an academic, teaching at both a secular university and a theological institute. Her training is in linguistic analysis from a feminist perspective. She brings this with her not only to her academic work but also to her analyses of the dynamics of conservative presbyterian church courts (which are all male bodies) and of male-female interactions within the church, particularly in light of what she perceives as the privileges and powers of males in relation to women whom she sees as marginalized and disadvantaged within conservative evangelical bodies. You may have noted how Dr. Hobbs offered her expertise to the Presbytery of which Ms. Fore's church is a member:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After it became clear that the shepherding committee would not hear Jessica’s complaint against the clerk, I suggested to Jessica that I send them an analysis of her conversation with the clerk. I hoped to impress on them the magnitude of his violation of her and the paltry nature of his response. I sent my letter and analysis in early January, 2016, after which the chair duly thanked me for my ‘unbiased opinion of the event.’</span><span style="font-family: "lora" , serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">How might such analysis look? I will run the risk of quoting from my first response to Dr. Hobbs's first post, where I quote myself from an earlier Blog in which I made some observations regarding Dr. Hobbs's report of her attendance at an OPC Presbytery's trial of a minister:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There is something about Dr. Hobbs' paper that I noted in my first reading and have in every reading since that gives me concern...My concern is the academic framework that seems (to me clearly) to influence both her thoughts and her vocabulary... It appears that she is influenced to some (significant) degree by feminist scholarship in the fields of language and sociology. A few quotes taken from three sections of the article will show why I have this concern. She writes:</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am a linguist at the University of Sheffield, and so my interest was academic to some extent. For several years, I have been <b>researching the kinds of language used by Reformed Christians to characterize women and their roles in the home, church, and society.</b> As this trial involves not just the defendant but also his wife, I attended <b>to observe the kinds of language used to speak about the defendant’s wife</b>. (Emphasis added by me indicated by bold print in quotes.)</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What I aim to show in this report is that central to the trial itself and to my experiences therein are <b>the repeated denial of a woman’s physical self and the elevation of her spiritual, domestic, idealized self</b>.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">... this Presbyter’s questions and behavior were, in my opinion, founded on the<b> assumption that since my physical presence was neither domestic nor docile, it was unacceptable</b>.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is of no little importance to remember as we read Dr. Hobbs's three posts the person who is writing, her academic training, and her life perspective. We are reading the well-intentioned report by a Christian-evangelical-reformed feminist of the experience of Ms. Fore in her marriage, her PCA church, and her church's PCA Presbytery. Furthermore, should we suppose that Dr. Hobbs is not a feminist, we are still left with the bottom line that all we know about this case of which Dr. Hobbs makes so much is what she tells us in three posts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But since Dr. Hobbs practises linguistic analysis and has a particular interest in the ways that "conservative evangelical Christians" talk about "gender roles," and "</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Reformed Christians...characterize women and their roles in the home, church, and society," </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">it might be of interest to members of these groups to know how she analyzes the ways that Apostles spoke about gender roles and whether conservative evangelicals and the Reformed have rightly understood the ways the Apostles wrote. What of the Apostolic teaching regarding man/husband and woman/wife in the church?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man (1 Cor. 11:9).</span></blockquote>
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<span class="text 1Cor-14-33" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: center;">As in <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-28695AI" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28695AI" title="See cross-reference AI">AI</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>all the churches of the saints,</span><span class="text 1Cor-14-34" id="en-ESV-28696" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-28696AJ" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28696AJ" title="See cross-reference AJ">AJ</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-28696AK" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28696AK" title="See cross-reference AK">AK</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>should be in submission, as <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-28696AL" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28696AL" title="See cross-reference AL">AL</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the Law also says.</span><span class="text 1Cor-14-35" id="en-ESV-28697" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church (1 Cor.14:33-35).</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="text 1Tim-2-11" id="en-ESV-29711" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: center;">Let a woman learn quietly <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-29711T" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29711T" title="See cross-reference T">T</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>with all submissiveness.</span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"> </span><span class="text 1Tim-2-12" id="en-ESV-29712" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: center;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-29712U" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29712U" title="See cross-reference U">U</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.</span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"> </span><span class="text 1Tim-2-13" id="en-ESV-29713" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: center;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-29713V" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29713V" title="See cross-reference V">V</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>For Adam was formed first, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-29713W" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29713W" title="See cross-reference W">W</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>then Eve;</span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"> </span><span class="text 1Tim-2-14" id="en-ESV-29714" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; text-align: center;">and Adam was not deceived, but <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-29714X" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29714X" title="See cross-reference X">X</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the woman was deceived and became a transgressor (1 Tim. 2:11-14).</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What of the Apostolic teaching regarding wives in relation to their husbands?</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span class="text Eph-5-22" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">Wives, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-29310AS" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29310AS" title="See cross-reference AS">AS</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>submit to your own husbands, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-29310AT" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29310AT" title="See cross-reference AT">AT</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>as to the Lord.</span> <span class="text Eph-5-23" id="en-ESV-29311" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">For <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-29311AU" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29311AU" title="See cross-reference AU">AU</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the husband is the head of the wife even as <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-29311AV" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29311AV" title="See cross-reference AV">AV</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-29311AW" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29311AW" title="See cross-reference AW">AW</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>himself its Savior.</span><span class="text Eph-5-24" id="en-ESV-29312" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-29312AX" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29312AX" title="See cross-reference AX">AX</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>in everything to their husbands...</span></span><span class="text Eph-5-33" id="en-ESV-29321" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">However, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-29321BI" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29321BI" title="See cross-reference BI">BI</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-29321BJ" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-29321BJ" title="See cross-reference BJ">BJ</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>respects her husband</span><span style="background-color: white;"> (Eph. 5:22-24, 33).</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="text 1Pet-3-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">Likewise, wives, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-30409A" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-30409A" title="See cross-reference A">A</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>be subject to your own husbands, so that <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-30409B" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-30409B" title="See cross-reference B">B</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>even if some do not obey the word, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-30409C" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-30409C" title="See cross-reference C">C</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,</span><span class="text 1Pet-3-2" id="en-ESV-30410" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>when they see your <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-30410D" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-30410D" title="See cross-reference D">D</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>respectful and pure conduct.</span><span class="text 1Pet-3-3" id="en-ESV-30411" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-30411E" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-30411E" title="See cross-reference E">E</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—</span><span class="text 1Pet-3-4" id="en-ESV-30412" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>but let your adorning be <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-30412F" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-30412F" title="See cross-reference F">F</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.</span><span class="text 1Pet-3-5" id="en-ESV-30413" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands,</span><span class="text 1Pet-3-6" id="en-ESV-30414" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>as Sarah obeyed Abraham, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-30414G" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-30414G" title="See cross-reference G">G</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-30414H" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-30414H" title="See cross-reference H">H</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>do not fear anything that is frightening (</span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3:1-6).</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And, since the case of Ms. Fore touches on separation and perhaps divorce, what of the teaching of our the Apostle and our Lord?</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="text 1Cor-7-10" id="en-ESV-28481" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">To the married <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-28481M" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28481M" title="See cross-reference M">M</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-28481N" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28481N" title="See cross-reference N">N</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the wife should not separate from her husband</span><span class="text 1Cor-7-11" id="en-ESV-28482" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>(but if she does, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-28482O" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28482O" title="See cross-reference O">O</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-28482P" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28482P" title="See cross-reference P">P</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the husband should not divorce his wife. </span></span><span class="text 1Cor-7-12" id="en-ESV-28483" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span class="text 1Cor-7-13" id="en-ESV-28484" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span class="text 1Cor-7-14" id="en-ESV-28485" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-28485Q" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28485Q" title="See cross-reference Q">Q</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><span class="text 1Cor-7-15" id="en-ESV-28486" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-28486R" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28486R" title="See cross-reference R">R</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>to peace.</span><span class="text 1Cor-7-16" id="en-ESV-28487" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>For how do you know, wife, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-28487S" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-28487S" title="See cross-reference S">S</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? (1 Cor. 7:1-16)</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="text Matt-19-3" id="en-ESV-23763" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">And Pharisees came up to him and <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-23763E" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-23763E" title="See cross-reference E">E</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>tested him by asking, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-23763F" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-23763F" title="See cross-reference F">F</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>“Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?”</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span class="text Matt-19-4" id="en-ESV-23764" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">He answered, <span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-23764G" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-23764G" title="See cross-reference G">G</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,</span></span><span class="text Matt-19-5" id="en-ESV-23765" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>and said, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-23765H" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-23765H" title="See cross-reference H">H</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-23765I" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-23765I" title="See cross-reference I">I</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>the two shall become one flesh’?</span></span><span class="text Matt-19-6" id="en-ESV-23766" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>So they are no longer two but one flesh. <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-23766J" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-23766J" title="See cross-reference J">J</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span class="text Matt-19-7" id="en-ESV-23767" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">They said to him, <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-23767K" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-23767K" title="See cross-reference K">K</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>“Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?”</span><span class="text Matt-19-8" id="en-ESV-23768" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span>He said to them, <span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;">“Because of your <span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-23768L" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-23768L" title="See cross-reference L">L</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.</span></span><span class="text Matt-19-9" id="en-ESV-23769" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"> </span><span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-23769M" data-link="(<a href="#cen-ESV-23769M" title="See cross-reference M">M</a>)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery" (Mt. 19:3-9).</span></span> </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And, inasmuch as Ms. Fore is a member of a presbyterian church is it worth asking how Dr. Hobbs analyzes the language of the Confession of Faith:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Although the corruption of man be such as is apt to study arguments unduly to put asunder those whom God has joined together in marriage: yet, nothing but adultery, or such wilful desertion as can no way be remedied by the Church, or civil magistrate, is cause sufficient of dissolving the bond of marriage: wherein, a public and orderly course of proceeding is to be observed; and the persons concerned in it not left to their own wills, and discretion, in their own case.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I ask but two questions, though I acknowledge they are difficult and complicated. (1) What do these texts mean? (2) What use should the church make of them?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>To Go or to Stay? </b>Dr. Hobbs addresses both the advice given by some and the legitimate question some would ask: Why has not and why does not Ms. Fore leave and go to another church? After all this is America. Church membership is voluntary. While churches have a right to receive or reject members who wish to join, they have no power, save spiritual (which most consider to be of none effect), to retain members. Why in this five year ordeal has Ms. Fore not moved on to another church? As noted above, what is her reason for staying? Apparently, she desires vindication. But, what if in the reconsideration of her complaints, she is vindicated by the Presbytery? Does she intend to return to the congregation where all this began and place herself under the preaching and pastoral care of the Pastor and Session? Perhaps she does. But, I have trouble envisioning it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps she has in mind that, though she will not return and submit to that church, it will be good for the Presbytery and the church to acknowledge their wrong and make such repentance as they can. Otherwise, it is hard to see the point of it all. It begins to look like vindictiveness rather than a quest for vindication.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have from time to time experienced hard things at the hands of the brethren and have moved on. You move past, but you don't get over those things. However, there came a point at which, not with regard to myself but another, I saw what I believed then and am certain now was a grave mal-use and injustice in the disciplinary processes of the one Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America. I made use of the avenues available to me for the reversal of that wrong, but, when the process came to an end and the decision was confirmed by the General Assembly, and I continued to be certain that injustice had been done, and that I could no longer trust or entrust myself to the politics and processes of that system, I availed myself of an avenue open to me. I had come to love worship according to the Book of Common Prayer. I encountered a mainline Episcopal priest who gave damn about me, while my wife received no care from the pastor of the church she attended. I made contact with my old friend from college days, the Rt. Rev. Daniel Morse, a Bishop in the Reformed Episcopal Church. He was willing to receive me - warts and all - into his Diocese. So I got two blessings for the price of one - I exchanged the chaotic worship of the Presbyterian Church in American for the Prayer Book worship of the Reformed Episcopal Church and the judicial government of the PCA for the pastoral government exercised by the Bishops of the REC. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thanks be to God. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As I write I am in Europe. The other day we had an experience which allowed me <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LpnjSAXTJn4/WdYy5alI89I/AAAAAAAAAhM/-iVQb63UXAAMjlRblSR9kGSnFi2GAoT7gCLcBGAs/s1600/Susan%2Bon%2BBoatride%2Bin%2BBruge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LpnjSAXTJn4/WdYy5alI89I/AAAAAAAAAhM/-iVQb63UXAAMjlRblSR9kGSnFi2GAoT7gCLcBGAs/s320/Susan%2Bon%2BBoatride%2Bin%2BBruge.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boatman and Victim, "Honey"</td></tr>
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the opportunity to practise Dr. Hobbs's linguistic analysis. We took a boat ride through the canals in Bruge, Belgium, and when the trip ended the boatman climbed up on the dock, and, when she was ready to get off the boat, he took my wife, Susan's, hand and said, "Take your time, honey." Here is the analysis: Taking her hand. (assuming she would need, allow, and welcome his action and in the process taking control of her as she exited the boat). "Take you time" (assuming that she might need more time than a man and that she needed his permission to take her time), "honey" (demeaning word for a woman and familiarity not based on an existing relationship between them). This stuff is not hard if you know the code. I should thank my college philosophy professor who taught language analysis courses, my seminary professors who taught me exegesis, and, Dr. Hobbs for the update.</span><br />
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William H. Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16943856892268011802noreply@blogger.com0