Just a Tool, Two

Posted on January 6, 2025 by Paul Harris

In my never ending quest, perhaps Quixotic, to expose the seedy underbelly of all things techie, I offer “Just a Tool, Two” or “2.0” for you Big Tech enthusiasts.

The scene in the 1980’s movie is this: the hero has tracked the irascible killer to a remote area in Los Angeles where he is burying his final victim whom he thinks dead but is not. The place is too remote for a scream for help to be effective.

This scene is not believable and would be not written, directed, acted, or sold today. The ubiquity of the smartphone, or even just a flip phone, means no one would write this scene or even think it. Think how far back not just in writing but in thinking the story would be different. Continue reading →

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Give Me the spirit of heaviness rather than disease of depression

Posted on December 30, 2024 by Paul Harris

Every year at this season, the “news” goes between how more depressing this time of year is to how it’s really a myth that this time of year is more depressing than others. I think what is most certainly depressing is that when everyone, including Christians, hear depression we think therapy or more likely medicine, we don’t think Word and Sacrament let alone the pastoral office. Continue reading →

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Forensic Justification is Objective Justification

Posted on December 23, 2024 by Paul Harris

The single greatest threat to Confessional Lutheranism is the denial of Objective Justification (OJ). It is a denial of the Gospel. That’s what Dean Saleska said in a 1981 meeting of the faculty of Concordia Theological Seminary at Fort Wayne. He said it to Dr. Preus, president of CTS, over against the question of disciplining Dr. Walter A. Maier II’s denial of Objective Justification. (I overheard this heated discussion while on security duty on the campus late one night.) While much has been and can be written on this subject, below is another effort at defending the concept of OJ. It’s not the whole story of justification. You can see this blog (https://www.pastorharris.com/2020/11/17/believers-baptism-communion-and-justification/) where I treat both Objective and Subjective Justification. Continue reading →

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Sanctity of Life Sunday

Posted on December 19, 2024 by Paul Harris

Before I retired, I moved the celebration of The Holy Innocents to Sanctity of Life Sunday. If you look at the history of the celebration on December 28, it was originally celebrated after St. Stephen and St. John, to tamp down the over celebrating that accompanied Christmas. As much as I am loath to tinker with the historic Church Year, I think moving it from December 28 to around January 22 is not only apropos but called for. Our society has devolved, deturpated, decayed, to the point where it is open-season on the most helpless. Continue reading →

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Even Pagans and Zombies Get It

Posted on December 16, 2024 by Paul Harris

I’m watching a bit more TV and movies, and falling asleep a lot more to documentaries and reality shows now that I’ve retired. Who knew there were whole shows devoted to lumberjacks, pawnbrokers, car customizers, and swamp people? Not to mention to hoarders, garage sale enthusiasts, and pickers. Should there be? Bread and circuses have been popular fare and anesthesia for some time now. This being said, popular entertainment demonstrates a better (higher?) understanding of baby-killing than many if not most churches. Continue reading →

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Social Media – The Unrest of the Younger Generation

Posted on December 9, 2024 by Paul Harris

In a 1936 essay entitled “The Literary Twenties – The Younger Generation” a New York literary critic, Carl Van Doren, looks back at the generation of the 1920’s which he was on the cusp of. Among his pearls of wisdom is that no generation can really understand the one behind it or in front of it. Here’s how he illustrates that view: “I loved danger, says the father, and it hurt me. The sons says, I love danger.” Another pearl is that there is always a “Younger Generation”. Continue reading →

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Giving away the Farm – Part II

Posted on December 2, 2024 by Paul Harris

In the February 22, 2024 post, I promised this. There I posted the 1993 essay mailed to me at that time, and probably most conservative Lutherans.  The booklet was titled “A second opinion after ‘The Church and Human Sexuality” (The ELCA’s ‘study’ on sexuality). The actual essay inside was titled The Bible and Sexual Boundaries. It was by Professor Craig R. Koester of Luther Seminary, St. Paul. Did you see the pottage for which the Order of Creation birthright was sold if not profaned? Continue reading →

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Reportage or Fearmongering?

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Paul Harris

I was going to title this “Fake News and Battle of the Bulge” in homage to St. Merv. Merv was with the 101st Airborne at the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. “Band of Brothers” is his story. We were together on 9/11 watching the news on TV as it came streaming in (a reference to amount not technology). He, a combat veteran of both WWII and Korea, walked away muttering: “Too much information. No one can process this.” Too much information is the norm today with a 24/7 livestream. What human can process it all? What is reportage and what is fearmongering? Which is news and which is fake news? Continue reading →

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Politically Incorrect and Beyond

Posted on November 18, 2024 by Paul Harris

Continue reading →

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Evolutionary Racist

Posted on November 11, 2024 by Paul Harris

You don’t have to have ever seen the 1965 poster “The Road to Homo Sapiens”, more commonly referred to as “The March of Progress”, or to have read Darwin’s Descent of Man to know that evolutionary theory if not the root than certainly produced the fruit of racism. But what would you think if I told you Darwin’s wife’s favorite pet name for him was…. Continue reading →

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