Rants

Funerals are for the dead

August 24, 2010

I disagree with the common saying, “Funerals are not for the dead, but for the living.” An important function of a funeral – a Christian one, at least – is the reverent disposition of the body. I think everyone deserves a funeral. God cares about the body, and we should too.

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C.S. Lewis on the word “Dynamic” and the Stagnation Party

August 10, 2010

My colleague Rev’d Charles McClean and I often bemoan the description of various churchly events as containing “dynamic” worship, “dynamic” speakers, “dynamic” music, and the like. He shared with me this morning an excerpt from a letter of C.S. Lewis to his brother, March 22, 1940 (!) – apparently people have been troubling the world [...]

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Pour Mama down the Drain

July 10, 2010

It’s the logical continuation of a society that allows cremation, but I’m hard-pressed to think of anything more horrid than this: Undertakers in Belgium plan to eschew traditional burials and cremations and start dissolving corpses instead. The move is intended to tackle a lack of burial space and environmental concerns as 573lbs of carbon dioxide [...]

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Canceling church

December 26, 2009

Northern Virginia is a cowardly area when it comes to snow – schools have closed on the mere forecast of snow (including once when it ended up not snowing at all), and many churches cancel services if it snows. Last weekend, it seemed an awful lot of churches canceled Sunday services, but we don’t cancel [...]

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Thrivent hates me and has a devious, wicked plan for my life

November 27, 2009

In an earlier post, we saw how Thrivent promotes the anti-Christian belief that only the soul lives after death, without a bodily resurrection. In the same pile of questionable materials for my review, I found another publication by Thrivent seeking to make my life miserable on a much more practical level. A book called Step [...]

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Why you probably usually misunderstand me

March 24, 2009

I have come to realize that few things in life are actually important. The liturgy is important. Family is important. Beyond that, most everything is transitory and a joke. For years, I took myself and everything I said and did far too seriously. I regret that. So when I’m preaching or presiding at mass, I’m [...]

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Take this hymn and shove it!

November 18, 2008

I have no patience for hymns that have nothing Christian about them. Take this stinker from LSB (#789) by Albert F. Bayly: Praise and thanksgiving, Father, we offer For all things living, Created good: Harvest of sown fields, Fruits of the orchard, Hay from the mown fields, Blossom and wood. . Bless, Lord, the labor [...]

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Guest Post: An aggrieved voter speaks her mind

November 4, 2008

The following guest post is by my wife, Kassie, who is almost never angry enough to confront someone or work out her frustrations with words. “Like water off a duck’s back,” she often says. Not this time! I’m angry. It turns out I had a choice to vote by paper ballot or electronically. I would [...]

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Numbers and my stupid brain

October 2, 2008

Am I the only one that can’t remember the numbers for the hymns in the new book? I had them all memorized in LW. I still knew a lot of the numbers in TLH. But here we are, almost two years in to using LSB, and I have no ablazing clue what the numbers are. [...]

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If you try…

May 20, 2008

Chuck Finney has done it again, ruining another morning. The devilish proponent of the New Measures is praising the “modern sound” at CrossPoint Lutheran Community Church, with their blend of Amazing Grace and the Rolling Stones. Isn’t it great how the “modern sound” is something from 1969? The radio stations that play this stuff are [...]

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