Welcome to the Police State of Colorado

But please don’t bother the money grubbing politicians or film them sucking down lobbyist goodies or the storm troopers will arrest you. That’s what happened today to an ABC News producer. The Washington Post reports

An ABC News producer was arrested outside a downtown hotel here Wednesday while he and a camera crew tried to shoot footage of corporate donors leaving a meeting with a group of Democratic senators. Asa Eslocker, who works with the network’s investigative unit, was charged with trespass, interference and failure to follow a lawful order. He was released four hours later on a $500 bond. “We expect to see this kind of behavior in Myanmar, not in Denver, Colorado, at a national political convention where a reporter is trying to videotape big-money donors trying to meet with elected officials,” said ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider.

No, actually we do expect to see it here in the States- because the powers that be have a vested interest in lying out both sides of their mouths to their constituents: on the one hand claiming to be working for the people and in truth working only for themselves and special interests whose money they take with great aplumb. So, don’t bother them or point out their immorality or you too might find yourself in the pokey.

Such sickening behavior by the Denver P.D. So much for freedom of the press in the Police State of Colorado.

It Is Intellectual Dishonesty…

To deny the existence of the Historical Jesus.  Neither James nor Doug say it that way in their response to someone named Stephen Law – and indeed probably wouldn’t say it that way- but I will because it is the depth of insanity and intellectual dishonesty to deny what is self evident.  Denying the existence of Jesus is like denying that the earth revolves around the sun or suggesting that the moon is made of cheese.  Reasonable people may, and can, and should, argue about exactly how much we can and do know about that historical figure- but that there was a historical figure is 100% undeniable.

Only a madman looks at the ripples of a pond and imagines that nothing was tossed into the pond that caused the ripples.

Law must find himself in the camp of the moon landing deniers and the holocaust deniers and the conspiracy theorists who see shadows where there’s only sunshine.  Hence, he is either intellectually dishonest (saying something he doesn’t really believe only to stir the hoards) or he is an idiot.  Either way, he cannot be taken seriously.

A Memorial Service for Henry Chadwick

The Times Online has the details which run as follows:

A memorial service for Professor Henry Chadwick will be held in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, on Saturday, September 27, at 2pm. Seats may be reserved by writing to the Liturgy Assistant, the Cathedral Office, Christ Church Oxford OX1 1DP, or by e-mail to precentor@hotmail.co.uk. Clergy are asked to notify in advance if they wish to robe.

I certainly hope the service isn’t populated by disrobed clerics! That would be beyond the pale of decency. Via Mark Goodacre.

Baptists In Europe

This book is one of the many that arrived a few days back now that certainly is worthy of wide attention. It offers interested readers a glimpse of life in Baptist Churches in the USSR, Moldavia, Finland, Bulgaria and Bosnia. I found the essay by Anneli Lohikko, August Jauhiainen and the Pentecostal Dilemma in the Finnish Baptist Union (1930-1953) particularly pertinent because it addresses an issue presently faced by Baptists in the United States; i.e., the problem of pentecostal tendencies among Baptist leaders and in Baptist churches. Anneli astutely notes ‘I will seek to argue that the main reason the Union has remained so small has been the constant quarrels that from time to time have torn the Union from the inside’ (pp. 119-120).

Baptists currently debating pentecostal issues would do well to take a glance over at the recent history of the Finnish Church to see how such debates turn out.

Now That’s Pretty Cool

Logos is offering folk one volume of a new commentary series for free. Scott has the details and I won’t repeat them here. One thing the webpage notes raised a question in my mind:

The contributors to this series–Allen P. Ross, Tremper Longman III, Darrell L. Bock, Harold W. Hoehner, and many others–represent a wide spectrum of theological positions within evangelicalism, reflecting the rich variety that exists in the church.

Exactly how wide a spectrum within Evangelicalism is there? From Fundamentalists on the one side to Conservatives on the far left of the Evangelical spectrum? Not to pick on the tag ‘Evangelicalism’- but those who find themselves able to bear that label don’t really deviate too widely from one another on most issues of biblical hermeneutics.

No matter how that question is answered- it is still very cool that the sample volume being offered is free.

UPDATE: I’ve downloaded and installed and have looked through the introduction to Matthew ever so briefly.  There I hit upon a discussion of the Gospels and Historicity (a subject near and dear) and I was pleasantly surprised to note Turner’s declaration which runs

… we have in the Gospels theological interpretations of selected traditions that the authors believed to be genuine historical events from the life and ministry of Jesus.

I actually would agree with that. Yes, so perhaps this volume, and the series, have more to offer than my skeptical mind earlier believed.

David Ker is Right, 1000 Times Right! At Least This Time

He’s right about why blogs are both interesting and boring. I can’t add or subtract anything to or from what he says because he’s just right.

Scott’s Spreading Seed

Scott has apparently gone completely mad after spending far too many hours watching videos of maniacal and insane preachers and has, for that reason, begun his own ‘faith’ ministry titled ‘Seed This Ministry‘. Poor Scott. He’s taken one puck to the head too many… And with winter coming on up there in Canada it’s only going to get worse (since he won’t be able to go outside because of the 34 feet of snow sure to fall and seal him in for the season).

I predict he will spiral more and more into the abyss of madness. So don’t be surprised if he gets piercings, tattoos, and sports a bald head and a goatee. Poor lad.

A Most Awesome New Mozilla Application

Called Ubiquity. Here’s the tutorial (which shows you some of the things it can do for you) and here’s the download page. It’s fantastic! Mind you, I’m no programmer or the like but it can do loads of stuff that’s just excellent. Firefox users, enjoy.

The Decline of the German Bible Society

Idea.de reports a bit of bummer news today:

Die Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft in Stuttgart hat in den vergangenen zehn Jahren ihre Mitarbeiterzahl drastisch reduziert. Vor allem der Wegfall der Druckerei hat dazu geführt, dass statt ursprünglich rund 200 nur noch 60 Personen beschäftigt sind. Bis zum Frühjahr sollen weitere zwölf Arbeitsplätze im Versand wegfallen. … Gegenüber idea bestätigte Generalsekretär Jan-Adolf Bühner, dass steigende Kosten die Bibelgesellschaft zwingen, sich stärker auf ihr Kerngeschäft zu konzentrieren, nämlich Bibeln herzustellen und Hilfen zu ihrer Verbreitung und Benutzung zu geben.

Bummer.

Now Here’s Something to Ponder…

We question and discredit those who see the future before it happens. However, to get over that embarrassment by inventing a second prophet, Deutero-Isaiah, is to read Isaiah in such a way as to make the book fit our world. It is akin to the other nineteenth-century notion that Jesus walked on stones, not on water. A world where people walk on water is just as alien to me as a world where prophets can see the future two centuries later. However, to re-create the literature in order to minimize the embarrassment is to radically beat the text into a shape in an attempt to make it fit more comfortably in a world where חָזוֹן is an alien way of perceiving the real world. — Ed Conrad

Interesting, huh? Mind you, Ed doesn’t think there’s historical reality behind the ‘visions’ but he does say something quite important here, doesn’t he.

The Nun-ny Pageant is Off…

Sad news for the nun-ophiles out there who were looking forward to the ‘contest’.

An Italian priest who had planned an online “pageant” for nuns has suspended the project, saying he was misinterpreted and had no intention of putting sisters on a beauty catwalk. “My superiors were not happy. The local bishop was not happy, but they did not understand me either,” Father Antonio Rungi told Reuters by telephone from his convent in southern Italy Tuesday. “It was not at all my intention to put nuns on the catwalk,” said Rungi, a priest of the Passionists religious order, speaking from his convent in the town of Mondragone.

Now what will Antonio do this weekend????  And I have a question- what’s he doing at a convent?  I thought convents were for women and monastaries for men.  Or are they co-ed these days?

It Survived Because It Isn’t Of This World, It is Of Hell

A four-year-old cat in Germany called Bonny has survived after being walled in beneath a bathtub for seven weeks, its owner said Tuesday.

So says Reuters. The explanation is simple- since cats come from the foodless pits they can survive in our world without eating without problem Don’t you see – dear reader – how insidious their evil? They lull you into a false sense of security and one day, out they will spring to destroy the planet.

De convitiis Eckii

Zwingli’s Fidei ratio made the Catholics a bit mad.  So Joahnnes Eck took his sharp pen in hand and wrote a 404 article refutation.  The 36 page booklet took Eck all of three days to write.  Of course it was impossible for Zwingli to ignore this tract and so on the 27th of August, 1530, he published his rejoinder.   In it he took ’sling in hand and went out to slay Goliath’.  The central theme of the work is that Christ is made present not in the sacrament but in faith.  It was addressed to the assembly gathered at Augsburg.