There is not really much said about crime and punishment in the New Testament that can guide the Christian who wishes to set governmental policy for criminals. This is because the apostles and disciples were outside the governmental system, and only saw it defendants. In passing, this is why we have to be careful about […]
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost 2008
The Scriptures for today were Galatians 1:1-20 and Luke 16:19-31. I, for one, am glad that the Church put those two Scriptures together. The first one is St. Paul’s brief recounting about how he received the Gospel which he preaches. The second one is our Lord Jesus’ story of the poor man who died and […]
National crime and prison policies are failures, part 04
So, what is the religious component to this prison policy change? Any theology can be misused and misrepresented. Anything that is true when said in a balanced way, can become untrue when only part of it is misused or when it is misunderstood. And, this has been true of Evangelical/Fundamentalist theology with relation to the […]
National crime and prison policies are failures, part 03
Well, as you can imagine, the last couple of days have been all too busy. Nor did I think that it would take a couple of days to come back to this subject. However, I am finally back to it. USA attitudes towards incarceration were not always as they are nowadays. Several events began to […]
Choosing a political candidate
A relative of mine sent me a question asking how I could support a particular candidate that shall remain unnamed in this blog. I sent my relative the following answer: Let me give you a really short answer. I will send a longer one later. But, today my day is full full full. Martin Luther, […]
What is a monk?
“Fr. Ernesto suggested above that we should look to the monastics of the early church. But is that Biblical? Where in the Bible does it say we should withdraw from society and exclude the rest of the world, and live lives of poverty?” The first example of monasticism (Eastern style, not Western) is John the […]
National crime and prison policies are failures, part 02
So, how did we get into the prison mess in which we find ourselves? To recap part 01, we have the highest prison population in the world, both in numbers, and in the percentage of our residents who are in jail. But, the situation that the Pew report lays out is even sadder than what […]
National crime and prison policies are failures, part 01
In a report on the failure of California’s prison policies, the New York Times reports that California now spends 10% of its budget on prison costs, and that this cost is expected to go higher. What are the causes? A study done by the Federal government shows that it is a mixture of policies that […]
Scripture, Tradition, and Ecumenical Councils, final post
This series of posts began with a post from Caldonia Sun found here related to the autumn book club on mysticism. It triggered me to begin reflecting again on Holy Tradition, what it is, and what it means for our lives. But, behind it was also a whole set of discussions over a several year […]
Scripture, Tradition, and Ecumenical Councils, part 06
This will probably be the least satisfying posting, both for myself and for those reading this. Remember that it took decades for the Church to work out the four negatives (only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation) that define our Lord Jesus Christ. I have very little faith that […]
