I think we can get away with some Handel today. TOday is Easter, and the texts for today discuss explicitly the idea of covenant. A Covenant is a contract: in reformed theology it is a contract between God and man. In the first passage we talk about nationalism, in the second about covenant and the … Continue reading Who is your covenant with?
Month: March 2013
The earth is not flat. The red pill is only a metaphor.
Haley's Halo is usually an interesting site, but it gets its fair share of trollettes. The most recent one is Natalie. She starts up her comment stream with... Also, plenty of betas are off doing their own thing. Alpha doing his own thing = chicks. Beta doing his own thing = shlub a basement somewhere … Continue reading The earth is not flat. The red pill is only a metaphor.
Duty, Honour, Love.
Yesterday I had a very long conversation with my son. It started with the idea of shunning. Going to Coventry. Not speaking to those who break the rules of society. For the rules of society are not its laws. Consider prostitution. This is legal in NZ. But a woman who works in the sex trade … Continue reading Duty, Honour, Love.
A defense of shame and condemnation
Yesterday I had a conversation how our society works by shame fear and shunning (or honour, love and duty). I guess condemnation involves shunning and shaming. In earlier times it involved severe punishment and death. Now, if a society decides that they do not want these things, then... well... two things happen. Firstly, many men … Continue reading A defense of shame and condemnation
The cross should drive us to shame.
. This day is a Holiday. It has been at the end of a difficult week, and I did what I would do most Saturdays. I slept. Through Church But then I turn to the scripture, and I am driven to shame. For this is the day we recall the suffering of Christ John 18:1-19:42 … Continue reading The cross should drive us to shame.
Haters will inevitably hate the Church.
Part of my job is being a psychiatric jailer. There is a thing called a mental health act or mad act in every country -- it may not be called that, but it exists either in judicial practice or in law because every society has to find a way to protect the mad and those … Continue reading Haters will inevitably hate the Church.
Revision to commenting.
I switched off the spam filters a few weeks ago and had a pile of trackback spam. Since I use Disqus for comments, I have re-enabled Akismet via Disqus. Julian O'Dea has managed to use facebook to log in here, and I have used Twitter, to if you have those logins they will work. Otherwise, … Continue reading Revision to commenting.
Do not watch the news, watch TED.
When I was a child and young man, there were some verses my father quoted to me fairly consistently. He was particularly fond of the Philippians passage, but quoted "The heart is desperately wicked" enough times. Those I did not need to memorize. They were graven into my brain by Dad. However, they follow on … Continue reading Do not watch the news, watch TED.
Quotage.
This is an odd week locally. Yesterday was Otago Anniversary Day. This is not celebrated by the university, who (by long tradition) account the anniversay as the Tuesday after Easter. However, Easter in early this year, and if you do not work on the Monday of this week you will be trying to cram five … Continue reading Quotage.
The struggle of discipline.
The issue of discipline is one that I struggle with. After writing about it yesterday, I ended up not doing the work I should have and instead watching the last session of the current cricket test. If I was in Auckland I would be considering taking a day's leave to be there for the final … Continue reading The struggle of discipline.