St. Boniface House

“We take comfort…that we are citizens fo the greatest, most powerful nation in the history of the world. Doing so, we are tempted to support exercises of American might and wealth that may be unjust but are assumed to be necessary to secure our nation’s power.  To be a citizen of such a nation at least suggests our lives will not be forgotten. When the history of history is written, America, like Rome, cannot be forgotten; as Americans we will have a place in history. Is it any wonder that a people so formed believe that what is happening in this man Jesus’ life is something about our significance? Is it any wonder that we find the lean and gaunt account of the life and crucifixion of Christ so unsatisfying?”

     –Stanley Hauerwas, Cross-Shattered Christ: Meditations on the Seven Last Words, 41-42.

“Is it any wonder we find Good Friday so shattering? On this day and with these words, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing,” all our presumptions about God and the salvation wrought by God are rendered presumptuous. Moreover, that is how we discover that what happens on the cross really is about us, but the ‘what’ that is about us challenges our presumptions about what kind of salvation we need. Through the cross of Christ we are drawn into the mystery of the Trinity. This is God’s work on our behalf. We are made members of a kingdom governed by a politics of forgiveness and redemption. The world is offered an alternative unimaginable by our sin-determined fantasies.”

     –Stanley Hauerwas, Cross-Shattered Christ: Meditations on the Seven Last Words, 31.

Here’s another home run by Douglas Jones.

Discussions about the California court decision regarding home schooling have been making the rounds for a few days now, and various other folks have already mentioned it: e.g. here, here, here, and here.

Really, we’re not surprised by this decision, but I guess my jaw dropped a little when I read this from the judge’s explanation:

“A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare.”

In the words of the teacher of my children, “At least they’re honest”.

One of the dumb people around Douglas Wilson writes an excellent post here.  It’s, well, refreshing, to see someone who rejects the Christian left’s “interfaith” pluralism and the idolatry of the Christian right.

 Also, he’s my long lost twin brother, or so they tell me up in Moscow.

“[S]ociety can best be understood as an extended argument, since living traditions presuppose rival interpretations. Good societies enable the argument to continue so that the possibilities and limits of a tradition will stop its growth and in reaction some may deny the necessity of tradition for their lives. The truthfulness of a tradition is tested in its ability to form people who are ready to put the tradition into question, or at least to recognize when it is being put into question by a rival tradition. Of course…some traditions lapse into complete incoherence and can be recovered only by revolutionary reconstitution.”

–Stanley Hauerwas, CC, 14

Pastor Helsel shares some interesting insights here.