Always Reforming

Oh, Fauci, you're in trouble now! Fauci has been, much to his own pleasure, ubiquitous over the last 18 months.  One finds it difficult to turn on the TV or log into social media without seeing his likeness gracing the headlines, memes, etc., and the opinions regarding his character and effectiveness are rarely moderate--he's either a god or the devil incarnate.  Personally, I'm confident he's just another member of America's ruling elite--what I like to call our unofficial aristocracy .   His latest scandal stems from research done in Tunisia that included, how can I summarize this neatly, sacrificing beagles to sandflies.  Previously he faced stiff opposition when it was discovered that the origin of COVID-19 may be tied gain-of-function research in a Wuhan lab that the NIH funded under Fauci's leadership.  Besides his general hypocrisy and vacillation, which should be enough to discredit him, these two scandals have convinced many that Fauci is more ev...

I do not consider myself a Doug Wilson fanboy , nor do I consider it my duty to defend his antics.  I really don't think he needs my assistance, nor would I care to defend everything the man has said or done.  Nevertheless, both Christian ethics and intellectual honesty require us to take a man's words in context and to allow him to say what he has actually said. Wilson's latest kerfuffle stems from a meandering  article aimed primarily at discussing the intolerance of Christianity by modern liberals.  This is the paragraph that is causing the stir among those who would most likely concur with the general drift of his argument: So in this system all is  not  permitted. Christianity is not permitted. Christ is not permitted. Christians are not permitted. To be an orthodox and believing Christian is to be guilty of violating the only real taboo they have. So I would want to encourage you in this. Go right ahead. Be ultimately transgressive. Subvert the domin...

Buried beneath  Decades of earth I find Peace Purpose Rest Unsought Unimagined Uncovered This Canterbury Cross This new direction This second chance Sorrow becomes joy Confusion is transfigured Into vision A bitter end  Gives way To a new beginning  

Another day Slips away, Another year Disappears, Another lifetime Drifts into oblivion. Always running, Always busy, Exhaustingly frantic, Frantically exhausted. Always Distracted by  Something, Distracted by Nothing, Distracted by Our search for Distraction. You blink and it's Thanksgiving, You turn around and Christmas has passed, You rest your eyes and Another Summer  Has come and gone. We bow down, We prostrate ourselves, Before Mammon  And his Hedonistic hordes, We abandon ourselves to The mind-numbing monotony, We deny  Eternity  By our Daily pursuits. Rush through the  Work day To get to the  Weekend Until you Retire  Or  Expire.

Don't worry, guys.  I'm not becoming Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox. But, I do think we have much to learn from our more traditional, liturgical brethren.   The topic of worship, and how it relates to the Scriptures, has been swimming around my mind lately, so you should take this post as exploratory and not dogmatic.  At risk of sounding like a YRR  (which I am not), rethinking everything after reading a few of the Fathers, I am beginning to believe that worship as it is found in the average American Evangelical church has little to do with the historical practices of the Early Church, or really the Church at any point in Christian history before, let's say, the 19th Century.  Now, that doesn't necessarily invalidate modern worship a priori , but I think it is noteworthy and concerning. Let's talk about the Regulative Principle of Worship for a moment.  I was raised in a church that held strictly to this principle, which, to summarize it crudely,...

Originally written September 12th, 2016. In case you were wondering, This is what it looks like when you cross A paranoid mother and A zealous father. Here I am, The third son, The seventh child, Something between A gasp for air and A sigh of relief, The baby of the family Who never really had a childhood, Trapped in this middle ground between Who I thought I'd be and What was expected of me. I learned the hard way the danger Of underestimating the effects that Loss can have on a teenager, Plagued by a strange blend  Of fear and apathy, I failed at everything I never tried. I found my way, I guess, I hope, I found something resembling A trajectory, But for all my victories, I can't help but to wonder, Who I would have been, What I would have done, What lost opportunities I will Never know I missed. So here I am, Documenting my life the only way I know how, In case you were wondering.

I am currently plodding through  The Shape of the Liturgy by Dom Gregory Dix.  Having consumed about 100 pages, my initial reaction is that our modern conception (by which I mean that of American Evangelical Protestants) of the worship of the Early Church is highly skewed.  The study I have done over the past few years has convinced me that any attempt to become more Biblical or to imitate the Early Church requires one to become more, not less, liturgical.  American Protestants are often mystified and/or horrified by the smells and bells of the liturgical traditions (Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, etc.), but the harsh truth is that those traditions are far closer to the worship of the Primitive Church than the concerts put on each Sunday at your local mega-church. But I digress... What I would like to do today is highlight one of Dix's emphases, which he in turn draws from the writings of the Pre-Nicene Fathers.  This emphasis ...