Category America
Tribes
Growing up in New York City, it was the usual practice for people to refer to themselves as “Irish,” “Jewish,” or “Italian.” Not “Irish-American,” but simply “Irish.” The same for all other ethnic groups in the so-called melting pot that was New York in the middle of the last century. We also lived in segregated […]
Peer pressure
Fifth graders have been receiving Gideon bibles at their school in Tennessee (story here). Handed out by their teacher, with the admonition that the kids weren’t required to take one. Yet being called up, in class assembled, row by row. Think there might be some peer pressure? The ACLU, natch, has challenged this bible distribution […]
Acts 5:29
Professor Paula Fredriksen’s review of The Aryan Jesus in Tablet should hit rather close to home for any whose church (or synagogue, for that matter) displays symbols of the secular power. The comparison between an American flag in a church today, and the swastika of Nazi Germany, is invidious. But there is a point […]
A Christian nation?
The question is as old as our Republic. And still has no satisfactory answer that will go unchallenged. Today’s multicultural crowd will shudder at the notion that we might be a Christian nation; they will, at the mere hint of Scripture being sent their way holler “Theocracy!” On the other hand, there are (usually) well-meaning […]
Eternal Father, Strong to save
For anyone who has ever worn Navy Blue, this hymn’s for you. The Navy Hymn, Eternal Father, Strong to Save, was written in England and has become the standard hymn sung at Protestant services in our Navy. And, at a goodly number of funerals of Navy veterans. Here’s one version via YouTube; here are the […]
Heave those stones, Father
We know that some priests must be without sin, because they remind us of ours, over and over. Case in point: the Washington Post’s On Faith feature, which is just chuck full of clerics and others who remind us of how sinful we truly are. This time it’s a Jesuit, Thomas Reese, formerly of the […]
Wretched excess?
The Romanesque bread and circuses gala shown in the picture is the Fourth of July celebration at First Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale. One wishes two things: first, that a church of our Lord was not used to celebrate a worldly power, the United States. Second, that if it were done, it wasn’t done in […]
Thanks for the Puritans
As a nation we celebrate Thanksgiving as a time of family gatherings, overeating, and football. Oh, and as the official kickoff of the Christmas shopping season. Although the Christmas decorations have been up for some time at my local malls. Since just after Halloween, it seems… Thanksgiving is, of course, about thanking the Source for […]
Shop now and (be) save(d)!
There’s a book review up at the Wall Street Journal that captures some of what we should love, and despise, in the “megachurch” phenomenon. The book in question is “Shopping for God” by James Twitchell. The book deals with the shop-’till-you-drop approach of some evangelical churches of no particular denomination. And it deals with the […]
“pelican in her piety”
Louisiana, Louisiana, they’re trying to wash you away…or so goes the Lyrics from Randy Newman’s Louisiana 1927. The Corner’s David Freddoso points out that this is an outrage, a lawsuit waiting to happen. The flag is a blatantly Christian work of art. Got that right, David. From this useful website, some words on the symbolism: […]
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