The following is quoted from the English version of the press release today: We, Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, express our profound gratitude to God for the gift of this new encounter enabling us, in the presence of the members of the Holy Synod, the clergy and the faithful of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, […]
Archives for November 2014
Aliens and strangers–New Testament
Recently, a poster on my blog critiqued my use of an Old Testament quotation from the Old Testament about strangers and aliens and my using the quote on the subject of immigrants in the USA. It was a reasonable critique that I would like to answer. The quote I used was “And if a stranger […]
Two prayers by two pastors–Thanksgiving 2014
Up above you can read two prayers for Thanksgiving Day by two different pastors. The Rev. Samuel F. Pugh was editor of World Call, a missions magazine for the Disciples of Christ. Chaplain W.T. Kennedy served in World War II as a Navy Chaplain. Both prayers are important because they place thanksgiving in the context […]
This Thanksgiving let us remember the immigrants — 2014
This Thanksgiving, it is indeed proper and right to worship and to give thanks to our God for his many mercies and kindnesses toward us. There is an old Protestant hymn that I still love for this season. It was not written for Thanksgiving Day, as it was written in the 1500’s by the Dutch […]
Why are college costs so high?
State appropriations for public higher education have just faced another tough year. And yet, public institutions have faced many such years over the past three decades. Despite steadily growing student demand for higher education since the mid-1970s, state fiscal investment in higher education has been in retreat in the states since about 1980. In fact, […]
When we dishonor USA military medical personnel
When I came out of the Army, I had been trained as a Medical Laboratory specialist. I had performed what was considered advanced work in the Third Army Regional Medical Laboratory. But, in a civilian setting, I was nothing. Medics who served in Viet Nam and even performed minor surgery were no longer allowed to […]
Language and paradox, part 2
The problem with valid arguments that are not sound are that eventually, some event happens that disproves the argument. When that event happens, it can have serious repercussions. Whether in the world or in the Church, the repercussions can be serious, can be humorous, can be of little effect, etc. This is why it is […]
Language and paradox
One of the interesting things about language is that language is able to express things that are impossible. That is, with language you can say things that are understandable, are valid, but are not sound. For instance, an argument with false premises may have false conclusions and still be valid. But, an argument that is […]
Well, this reminds me of college!
Have you ever had one of those discussions when you were back in college that made you wonder what you were on when you remembered it the following day? No, I am not talking about drug abuse. Rather, college, at its best, used to encourage people to probe the borders not only of science, but […]
Yep, Americans listened to the news media yet again
In case you have missed it, Chagas disease is supposed to be the latest new disease that can ravage the USA. Oh, you are still talking about Ebola? That is so old news. I mean, there are no new cases of Ebola and nothing is happening, like. And, you know, like, the news media would […]
