There it is on a list of 60 or so clubs at my daughters’ high school. Amid the Chess Club, Karate Club, Astronomy Club, Powerlifting Club, and Robot Club is the Gay and Straight Alliance Club. With straight faces we have alliances like this at our high schools. Continue reading
Have the flames been fanned or has Ablaze hit the fan?
This is from the official annual report on the Fan into Flames funds found at www.fanintoflamelcms.org Resolution 1-09 adopted at the 2007 Synod convention required “a detailed annual report…to be published throughout the Synod.” The report is only 6 pages with large margins. Rather than a little blurb in mice type on page 23 of the February Lutheran Witness saying where the report could be found, the whole report could have been published. But then the faithful Lutherans supporting Ablaze! would witness where their money is really going. Continue reading
Posted in Ablaze, LCMS 2007 Convention
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Just in Time for Valentine’s Day
A member showed me an AT&T ad from Sunday’s paper. At the top of the page in block letters in the question: “How do I love thee?” He has written to the side, “Even AT&T understands what editors of modern Lutheran hymnals do not.” Continue reading
Posted in Contemporary Worship
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Knowing Nothing or Knowing Nothing But
A member wrote me today saying in part, “I found myself despairing over Obama and his future presidency and what this means for the abortion industry…. [F]or you, does Obama change anything?” Continue reading
Posted in General
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Exhorting to Frustration
I want to do auto mechanics. I yearn to be able to pop the hood and know what I’m looking at. I want to get under the car on a mechanic’s creeper and say, “Hand me that ¾ inch wrench,” and really know where to use it. Do you think all the exhortation in the world is going to enable me to become an auto mechanic? Continue reading
Posted in Families, For Pastors Only
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Ugly Betty
Betty isn’t ugly but we are making her that way. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when Father Christmas is handing out gifts he gives to Susan a bow and a quiver full of arrows and a bow and says, “You must use the bow only in great need, for I do not mean you to fight in the battle.” To Lucy he gives a dagger saying, “And the dagger is to defend yourself at great need. For you also are not to be in the battle.” This puzzles her and she says, “’Why, Sir? I think – I don’t know – but I think I could be brave enough.’” Father Christmas responds as so many fathers today fail to, “That is not the point. But battles are ugly when women fight.” Continue reading
Posted in Families, LCMS 2007 Convention
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Does Order Matter?
The sainted Father Rudolph Kurz pointed this out when it happened. The Lutheran Annual originally listed the names of pastors on the LCMS clergy roster and then listed congregations. Continue reading
Posted in For Pastors Only
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Quibbling is better than not Knowing
This is off-color, but there is often pointed truth in ribald humor. Continue reading
Posted in For Anyone who dares, LCMS 2007 Convention
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It’s Long Past Time
Rev. Matthew Harrison of LCMS World Relief has published a paper titled “It’s Time” and subtitled “LCMS Unity and Mission.” It is but the latest plan to get together by talking. Issuing yet another call to talk is not how the process begins. Continue reading
Posted in LCMS 2007 Convention
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Not Very Comforting
In Army Airborne School in 1976, the instructors would say as you walked out to the plane for your first jump, “The jump isn’t that bad; it’s just that last 2 inches you got to watch out for.” I didn’t find that very comforting. In February 1546, Luther wrote one last letter to his wife. Continue reading
Posted in For Pastors Only
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