Mother Google is getting a bit too clever for my tastes. Why can't I simply enter search terms and get a listing of all pages that fit? Why does it "help" google to know where I am from and what my search history is? It skews the results and ends up in frustration because it gives me what it thinks I want and that is, with increasing frequency, not what I want. This morning's search was a case in point. While searching for "Celtic Christianity", I stumbled across a new church in the Denver area. It is "co-pastored" by a Denver Seminary professor and his wife (she, a former PCUSA pastor). They are currently preaching through Saint Patrick's Breastplate.
This got me wondering that, with all of Denver Seminary's expansion lately, are they not managing to train enough pastors in the trendy new thing? Are they unsatisfied with how their students are doing?
Apparently not being satisfied with teaching feminism on campus, they have to put it into practice as co-pastors. Not that feminism is the only cultural trend they are chasing after. In an effort to echo the title of a Philip Rieff book, Denver Seminary's counseling program seems to have triumphed as well. I am guessing such a therapeutic view of things is the source for their support of another professor-church planter who is divorced and re-married. That church, which currently meets on the seminary campus, describes their leadership council as being composed of men and women fitting the biblical qualifications as elders.
Never mind that women aren't included in the biblical listing of elder qualifications because, apparently, this particular church pays no never mind to that husband of one wife thing, either.
To quote yet another Denver Seminary professor, "The genius of Evangelicalism is its ability to re-invent itself".
Indeed.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Flat, grey and ugly
That's the landscape presented to us by religious feminism. You know they protest most vigorously whenever they are called on their leveling of the tremendous differences between men and women. They cry foul and protest that theirs is a technicolor world and ours is thegrey one, cramped by rules.
But then these spayers and gelders (to borrow my dear friend Anthony Esolen's phrase) let their slip show, proving my point in rather unspectacular fashion. These people who claim to exist for the sole purpose of lifting up women from their prison of kinder, kuche, kirche (unless, of course, the kirche bit includes leading men around by the, ahem, nose in their positions as pastorettes), well, one of them just inevitably goes and says something like this:
God chose to inform Mary first of the impending conception and some time later Joseph was told. If God saw Joseph as the leader of the home he surely would have sent the angel to Joseph first.
Just what are we supposed to do with that? This is the moment upon which history turns. And our wise ones reduce it to "God chose to inform" and "impending conception"?!
There is no beauty, no sense of humble obedience, willingly embracing God's plan here in the religious feminist explanation. And certainly no Magnificat!
But then these spayers and gelders (to borrow my dear friend Anthony Esolen's phrase) let their slip show, proving my point in rather unspectacular fashion. These people who claim to exist for the sole purpose of lifting up women from their prison of kinder, kuche, kirche (unless, of course, the kirche bit includes leading men around by the, ahem, nose in their positions as pastorettes), well, one of them just inevitably goes and says something like this:
God chose to inform Mary first of the impending conception and some time later Joseph was told. If God saw Joseph as the leader of the home he surely would have sent the angel to Joseph first.
Just what are we supposed to do with that? This is the moment upon which history turns. And our wise ones reduce it to "God chose to inform" and "impending conception"?!
There is no beauty, no sense of humble obedience, willingly embracing God's plan here in the religious feminist explanation. And certainly no Magnificat!
My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden,
For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name.
And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm:
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree.
He has filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich He has sent empty away.
He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy;
As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His posterity forever.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Why it matters
Religious feminists often accuse orthodox Christians of adding to the Gospel, of being pharisees who pile on requirements of the law, adding to some supposed pure Gospel. Unless, of course, it is their idea that the "gospel of equality" is the pure and simple gospel.
In this post, Doug Wilson gets it:
When God gave us the world, Hegave us certain building blocks for the understanding -- heaven and earth, sea and dry land, sun and moon, male and female. Let me try to imagine a place which had heaven and earth muddled, sea and dry land reversed, sun and moon backwards, and the female in combat and the male in drag, but where everybody was sound on Christ crucified and justification by faith alone. Can't picture that? Neither can I.
Nether can I.
In this post, Doug Wilson gets it:
When God gave us the world, Hegave us certain building blocks for the understanding -- heaven and earth, sea and dry land, sun and moon, male and female. Let me try to imagine a place which had heaven and earth muddled, sea and dry land reversed, sun and moon backwards, and the female in combat and the male in drag, but where everybody was sound on Christ crucified and justification by faith alone. Can't picture that? Neither can I.
Nether can I.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
To shut it again on something solid
As is frequently the case, the religious feminists over at CBE's blog have again brought to mind a Chesterton quote:
The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.
Their current post is about "pedagogy and gender" and reads like nothing so much as a primer on postmodern/post evangelical reimagining of Christianity. In the post author's own words, "knowledge is dialogical and communal". While I will readily admit that certain forms of knowledge are indeed communal, I hasten to add that Truth is not. Truth takes the form of a person, the God-Man Jesus Christ. But the enlightened ones over at CBE appear to be more interested in whining about patriarchalists not "sharing" than they are in bowing their knee to the one who is Truth incarnate.
To all their concerns about about closure, the opportunity for which is denied if religious feminists are excluded (as the blog manager moans in his response), I can only say that their quibble is with God himself. It is God who established patriarchy-- it is written into his works as well as his word. All known cultures have been patriarchal, even if some have been matrilineal in the reckoning of inheritance. In the beginning God established patriarchy by creating Adam first and then creating Eve from him and for him, then by calling Adam to account for the rebellion even though it was Eve who took and ate first. He established Israel as a patriarchy and eventually gave it Kings (not queens) and priests (not priestesses).
Then, in the fullness of time, God set forth his Son. Did you catch that? In the fullness of time. Jesus Christ did not take on male flesh because the patriarchal culture of his time required it, the culture of his time was patriarchal because it was right, the time was full. Jesus continued this practice by numbering only men among the twelve. After his death and resurrection, they continued His practice by only considering men as possible replacements for Judas Iscariot. This practice was continued by the early church through the Fathers and on down to our present age.
In other words, closure has long been established on this matter. It is not the patriarchalists who exclude the religious feminists. It is the religious feminists who have excluded themselves by their rebellion against God's established order.
The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.
Their current post is about "pedagogy and gender" and reads like nothing so much as a primer on postmodern/post evangelical reimagining of Christianity. In the post author's own words, "knowledge is dialogical and communal". While I will readily admit that certain forms of knowledge are indeed communal, I hasten to add that Truth is not. Truth takes the form of a person, the God-Man Jesus Christ. But the enlightened ones over at CBE appear to be more interested in whining about patriarchalists not "sharing" than they are in bowing their knee to the one who is Truth incarnate.
To all their concerns about about closure, the opportunity for which is denied if religious feminists are excluded (as the blog manager moans in his response), I can only say that their quibble is with God himself. It is God who established patriarchy-- it is written into his works as well as his word. All known cultures have been patriarchal, even if some have been matrilineal in the reckoning of inheritance. In the beginning God established patriarchy by creating Adam first and then creating Eve from him and for him, then by calling Adam to account for the rebellion even though it was Eve who took and ate first. He established Israel as a patriarchy and eventually gave it Kings (not queens) and priests (not priestesses).
Then, in the fullness of time, God set forth his Son. Did you catch that? In the fullness of time. Jesus Christ did not take on male flesh because the patriarchal culture of his time required it, the culture of his time was patriarchal because it was right, the time was full. Jesus continued this practice by numbering only men among the twelve. After his death and resurrection, they continued His practice by only considering men as possible replacements for Judas Iscariot. This practice was continued by the early church through the Fathers and on down to our present age.
In other words, closure has long been established on this matter. It is not the patriarchalists who exclude the religious feminists. It is the religious feminists who have excluded themselves by their rebellion against God's established order.
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