St. Antony’s Cave

Why should it surprise us that the Boy Scouts of America have dropped their ban on openly gay scouts?  For over a hundred years they thought a belief in a Supreme Being was a sufficient confession of the true God.  For over a hundred years, they haven’t cared for what the First Commandment taught, so why should it startle or surprise that they don’t really care for what the 6^th teaches?  Of course, this turn of events poses some interesting questions. Continue reading →

On May 16, 1968 Donald E. Ballard Corpsman U.S. Navy won the Medal of Honor.  His unit was ambushed.  While applying a field dressing, an enemy solider tossed a grenade into his group of men.  Shouting, “Grenade!” Ballard vaulted over the stretcher and covered the grenade with his body.  The grenade was a dud.  He still received the Medal of Honor (This Day in Military History, www.history.com), and rightly so.  The president of the LCMS, Matthew Harrison, has done a similar thing 45 years later. Continue reading →

Historically Lutheran’s correctly said that said there is no divine distinction between clergy and laity.  The pastoral office is a divine institution, but the pastor himself is no different than a layman.  He is given no indelible mark in ordination as Roman Catholicism teaches.  While no one in the LCMS would argue for an indelible mark, we are making a fundamental distinction between clergy and laity.  Women cannot read the lessons or distribute the sacrament because they are not clergy not because they are not males.  We take this position so as not to run afoul of the spirits of our age egalitarianism and feminism. Continue reading →

If you don’t know the history of this type of phrase Google, Yahoo, or Bing your way to Quayle-Bentsen 1988 debate. In sum, it is a famous putdown where Senator Bentsen assures Vice-President Quayle that he in fact is no Jack Kennedy.  The way in which Bentsen does it is rhetorical oration at its best.  I seek no such heights here.  I’m only here to say that the president of the Lutheran Church Misery, oops Missouri, Synod is no Abraham Lincoln. Continue reading →

What do the Boy Scouts, the military chaplaincy, women voting, and shared prayer services in times of national tragedy have in common?  The world loves them and can see no reason not to be enthusiastic about them.  This is Jerry’s argument too. Continue reading →

The January 2013 Texas District Supplement to the Lutheran Witness trumpets the 25^th annual Church Extension Fund conference in April.  The keynote speaker is Dr. Leonard Sweet.  He is a world renowned leader of the Emergent Church movement, and that’s not even the downside of the soiree. Continue reading →

“’I do not believe that any who shall be so fortunate as to be received into heaven through the atonement of our blessed Savior will be asked whether they belonged to the Presbyterian, the Methodist, the Episcopalian, the Baptist, or the Roman Catholic [faith]’” (American Lion, 206-7). Thus spoke President Andrew Jackson, the American Lion, while in the White House, and I agree with him. Continue reading →