Left behindists beware
Posted by Steve Wilkins
Our newest Athanasius Press offering just walked through the doors: Duane Garner’s Why the End is Not Near: A Refutation of End-Times Hysteria. It’s the second of our “Answers in an hour” series and it’s really, really good.
This follows Mark Horne’s fine Why Baptize Babies? in the same series. 
Check em out at the Athanasius Press website.
Oh yeah? so?
Posted by Steve Wilkins
The paper this morning gave us the latest news regarding the “fattest” states in the union and I’m proud to say that Louisiana is number 4! My home state of Alabama is #2 and the state where most of my children were born was #1 (say hey Mississippi!). I confess, I couldn’t be prouder. All you wimpy Yankee states ought to be ashamed of yourselves.
Randy Booth and I were talking this past weekend and decided that our new motto should be “Eat what you want and die like a man!”
I love it.
David Dark on Flannery
Posted by Steve Wilkins
“Though they’re all mostly short and entirely unpretentious, O’Connor’s stories leave me feeling winded and humbled. Her endings always manage to surprise me even when I’ve read them numerous times before. As a rule, you can generally read the first paragraph, close your eyes and imagine what the worst possible fate could be for the characters described, and then continue reading to gradually discover that whatever the worst-case scenario you had in mind, it probably wasn’t sufficiently horrifying. And yet somehow, with your head pounding, you know that the story was accelerating inevitably to this point from the very first word. This is the way it had to be, and to insist otherwise feels almost immodest. Somehow, you can even sense, beyond whatever it is O’Connor herself had in mind when she started, a voice affirming, amid the mind-bending messiness, ‘It is good.’ . . .
[O’Connor] can never be popular enough, because there’s something uniquely healing in her powers. She cures the heart of all desensitizing sentimentality. In her company, we will be shocked awake from whatever anaesthetizing spirits have rendered us incapable of thinking clearly about ourselves and the world we inhabit. She delivers us from the deluding evil that is ever apocalyptic’s moving target. Listening to her stories changes everything. A new world is busting through the fabric of folly. It isn’t polite. It isn’t what we’re expecting. And it’s offering us a choice that we will have to make, even if it kills us.”
(Everyday Apocalypse, 28-29)
And I says, yep and right on, amen, hear, hear, and all that.
Catching up
Posted by Steve Wilkins
Been on vacation and traveling the last couple of weeks and was able to get a little reading done (and I know *everybody* has read these already . . . probably years ago, but, as usual, I’m trying to catch up). It’s been interesting and fun. Here are some of the titles:
Blink and Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
and on pop culture icons and what we can learn from them, Everyday Apocalypse by David Dark.
Also finished James Blaylock’s All the Bells on Earth.
And speaking of novels, I finally got around to reading Susan Howatch’s amazing Starbridge trilogy (Glittering Images, Glamorous Powers, and Ultimate Prizes) and I’m ready to start on the last three in the series.
so, whachoo bin readin?
Happy anniversary to Gone with the Wind
Posted by Steve Wilkins
from The Writer’s Almanac:
Yeah, this too
Posted by Steve Wilkins
Oh and one more thing, the headmaster of our school (Ed Lang) sent out a link to an interview with Andrew Stanton from Pixar films about their latest hit: WALL-E. Then Jon Barlow pointed to the review of the movie by the New York Times.
Right now, Pixar is doing it.
Wowsers with jeepers on top
Posted by Steve Wilkins
Well, I was going to say something about the action of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America in DECLARING their opposition to all things generally related to the Federal Vision and the New Perspective, but our internet service went out and has been out for the last two days. So now I can just refer everyone to Doug Wilson’s comments and to those of David Field which are much more polite and sensible than mine were going to be anyway. So we’re all better off thanks again to God’s wise and happy providence.
Now I can be done with only one line: This is undoubtedly one of the silliest things I have ever seen done by a denomination. Ever.
incredible.
Sadler on 1 Corinthians 12:12-13
Posted by Steve Wilkins
v. 12 “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ”
“The connection between the last verse [v. 11] and this one is this: The formation of the Church and its inherence in Christ as the Body of which He is the Head, is the work of the Holy Spirit, Who, when He baptizes any one into Christ, assigns to him a position in the mystical body as one of its members, and afterwards endows him with the grace by which he will be enabled to fulfill his function, as a member of that body.
Thus, it is in the Body of Christ, i.e., His Church, as it is in the natural human body. The body is one, and yet this very oneness of the human body postulates a variety of members, and the multiplicity of members does not imply a multiplicity of separate organisms or bodies, but one organism only, and as it is with our human mortal bodies, so it is with Christ as the Head of His Body, the Church, with which He is one, so that instead of the Apostle saying the Body of Christ, he actually says “Christ,” Christ and His Body in the Apostle’s eyes forming, as it were, one Personality.
v. 13 “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body”
This means that by the operation of the Spirit in Holy Baptism we are all baptized into, that is, are all made members of, the One Mystical Body. It may be well to consider for a moment the question, Does this refer to the visible Sacrament whereby we are made members of Christ, or does it refer to an invisible baptism by the Spirit, altogether distinct form the outward sacrament, and very seldom simultaneous with it? Now it may be sufficient to answer that the Holy Apostle knows nothing of such a baptism introducing us into an inner body or church apart from the outer. On the contrary, such an idea neutralizes the greater part of his teaching, which is, that all the professing members of the Church should consider themselves as having a real connection with Christ. There is but one Church from his point of view, an outward visible body endowed all of with invisible graces and powers: so that each baptized person, instead of doubting that his baptism brought him into connection with Christ, should have no manner of doubt about it, but be assured that if he does not live as a member of Christ so much the worse for him, and that if he does realize his union with Christ so much the more power has he against sin and on the side of holiness.”
(M. F. Sadler, The First and Second Epistle to the Corinthians, pp. 205-206)
To whom it may concern:
Posted by Steve Wilkins
Dear unknown Dog Owner:
Just a note to express my astonishment over your dog’s regularity. Really, it’s extraordinary — you must let us know of your presence someday so that we can come out and meet him. And speaking of meeting, do you continue to remain anonymous or will we ever meet? (What time do you come around anyway?) I think I must have seen you from a distance once when your dog was looking for a place to dump (I came along and you dragged him away — so I guess your rule is “no dumping if anybody in the neighborhood is a witness”).
It would be nice to meet you someday. Then I could introduce you to my children who have ruined their shoes and clothes thanks to your dog. I could also tell you some of the stories about how difficult and expensive it sometimes is to clean up behind you. I am always surprised that you don’t feel compelled to leave a note of sympathy behind (you know, something like, “Sorry, my dog pooped on your yard again — and he did it in a place you’ll never notice until you step in it, but hey, that’s what unsuspecting neighbors are for, right? I mean, you can’t really expect me to let him do THAT in my yard can you? Thanks for understanding, etc.”)
May I assume that since you allow your dog to do his business in our yard, you won’t mind if I leave a bag or two of our garbage in yours? (I promise it will neither smell as bad nor will it ruin your shoes, but that’s the closest I can come to reciprocating since I don’t have a dog myself). Maybe I can let it sit in the sun for a while before I drop it off just so you can experience at least something close to what we enjoy after one of your visits. Really. It’s no trouble, give us a call, we’ll try to work something out.
Sincerely,
your friendly neighbor who provides a dumping ground for your dog
Tired of me
Posted by Steve Wilkins
Am I the only one who thinks Duane has been just a tad SLACK about posting on this blog????
I don’t think so.
Solution: email and harrass.
begin.
