That is the title of a papal bull of 1460. Its name comes from the opening word of the Latin text declaring it “execrable” to appeal to a council concerning a papal ruling. No confessional Lutheran is a Catholic, big “C” but we are Execrabilis. Continue reading
This is a June 27, 2000 letter I sent to the Austin American Statesman, and they published it. They titled it. Medicated society
We now have a pill to kill children in the womb (‘FDA approves abortion pill,’ Sept. 29). This is in addition to a pill to keep children from being conceived and one to control them if they do manage to somehow escape the other two. Pity we have yet to make a pill to control adults who cannot control themselves. Rev. Paul R. Harris, Austin Continue reading
In reading Albrecht Peters’ Ten Commandments I was surprised by some of what he told me Luther believed, taught, or confessed. At first I thought this might be due to the translator, but it was Holger K. Sonntag whom I know to be a native German speaker and a faithful theologian. So, look out 2017. Us non-German speakers may be surprised by the German Luther. Continue reading
Finally, after visiting a Pentecostal Church, a Bible Church, a Wisconsin Synod Lutheran Church, Redeemer Presbyterian, and St. Albert the Great Catholic church, I heard the Gospel proclaimed clearly, more than once, and not as adjunct to something else. It was at High Pointe Baptist Church, Austin, Texas. Continue reading
I have been bombarded in the last two years with LCMS pastors seeking funding for their mission field. My response is “Send me the Book of Romans.” Continue reading
I have a thirty-year-old cartoon in my files from Christianity Today. It depicts an absolutely frazzled man on the edge of a bed, phone plastered to his ear, with a freaked-out expression. The caption is: “My wife just left me, I lost my job, I need surgery, and my spirits have hit bottom! Pastor, you’ve gotta help me. What’s the difference between pre-, post, and amillennialism?” That is a laughing matter that isn’t. Continue reading
I know I have a blog referring to Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion as spiritual pornography (3-13-08), and I’m sure I have referred to Guideposts magazine that way in Bible Classes. I note that no pastor worth his salt would not confront a Playboy magazine lying on a member’s coffee table, but many, myself included, have let Guideposts so slumber. I did so under the rubric of how to treat sleeping dogs and the fact that Guideposts was usually found in the homes of the elderly who have long known that dog as a pet. Then I read it. Continue reading
There is a “Seinfeld” episode in which Kramer is obsessed with levels particularly having them in his apartment. It was the usual send-up. Perhaps, though, we should pay more attention to levels. Continue reading
If you know anything about Consumer Reports, the magazine and the research group that supports them, you know they are fiercely independent. They accept no advertisement so that they can’t be accused of bias. Well I’m here to tell you they are. Continue reading
The debate between Doctors Kloha and Montgomery was truly great in that instead of pretending there are no differences among us those differences were brought into the light of day. However, like the Scopes Monkey Trial in which Clarence Darrow faced off against William Jennings Bryan, I fear that all that we shall inherit from it is the wind. (“Inherit the Wind” is the title of a fictionalized account of that debate.) Continue reading
