Where I Was Saturday Afternoon

Saturday I was up in Austin cheering on the Ponder Lions to their second Texas 2A basketball state championship. I was there for the first one back in 2001, too.

I got into Ponder basketball years ago when I lived in Denton County. I was a youth leader to a couple guys on the basketball team. So I started going to games to support them. I loved the atmosphere of the games and of the school, and I soon became hooked.

I even played pick-up basketball with the players on some Sunday afternoons. I like to flatter myself that dealing with my relentless defense helped Calvin Redfearn become the player he is.

Even now, I’m much more interested in small town basketball than what goes on in the larger divisions. What is there not to love with teams named Arp or Jim Ned (Ponder’s two opponents in the state tournament this past weekend) and with the small towns that become nomadic following them once a year during the basketball playoffs?

Saturday was a little bittersweet though. I know fewer people than when I went to see Ponder compete for state two years ago. And reunions were a little more awkward. And the next time, I’ll surely know fewer people. But it was definitely fun to go see Ponder play one more time and win state.

First Chalice

The past Sunday was my first time to be in charge of the chalice.

Sunday morning, Father John, the associate Rector, pulled me aside and asked me to administer the chalice. The lead Rector couldn’t walk due to a sprained ankle and John wasn’t feeling 100% himself.

I tried to talk him out of it, pointing out that I’m clumsy and haven’t even practiced it. But I didn’t want to say no to him. So I was volunteered. He showed me what to do. And thankfully, my words were reduced to “The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation.” I asked if that conformed with REC rubrics, and he assured me it did. The usual formula at my parish is much wordier (and more Zwinglian, too). So I’m thankful I was given a much shorter sentence.

I vested for the first time. I wore the Rector’s vestments as we are very close in size and shape, but I otherwise vested like an acolyte as I am laity. Also, I did not participate in any way in the consecration. No lay presidency here.

Before the service, when we were praying in the vestry, I asked if there was a prayer against spillages. Father John later instructed me to avoid overfilling the chalice . . . then during the service filled it a bit too close to the brim for my comfort.

Fortunately, everyone was easy to give the chalice to. One two year old who usually takes a drink intincted, by his merciful mom’s instructions I’m sure.

I did help John consume the remaining wine. That knocked me for a small loop. Not even in college did I gulp down that much wine.

But I think I kept liturgical abominations to a minimum. And there were no spillages. So it went as well as can be expected.

And, yes, I would do it again. It’s a service beyond words.

British Denied Referendum on Joining Gulag EU



Parliament yesterday passed the Enabling Act denied the British people a referendum on whether to approve membership in the new, improved, even more dictatorial EU.

But what’s a trivial thing like democracy to get in the way of the Antichrist Glorious European Union.

It wasn’t just the Labour Party that rammed this down the throats of the British people. The so-called Liberal Democrats helped, too.

Brits, if you still have backbones, you better use them now . . . or it will soon be illegal to possess backbones or anything else in opposition to the Glorious Secular European Reich.

Times Reports Vatican to Rehabilitate Luther.

Yes, the Times reported overnight that Pope Benedict will rehabilitate Martin Luther.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Texas Republican Crossovers

The evidence is anecdotal, but it appears many Texas Republicans crossed over to vote in the Democrat primary yesterday. (Yes, that’s legal in Texas.) That’s understandable given that, for the first time in many years, most of the real action was in the Democrat primaries here, not the Republican. And it appears a majority of those crossovers voted for Hillary Clinton.

This event brings back distant memories of when the Democrat primary was always the only political game in town in Texas. And, yes, back in the old days, many (most?) Republicans crossed over and voted in the Democrat primary.

I remember when “Mama”, may she rest in peace, crossed over to vote in the 1970 Democrat primary for Lloyd Bentsen for Senate against the sitting Senator Ralph Yarborough. Mama hated liberal Yarborough with a passion. With the help of such Republican crossovers, Bentsen won and went on to have a long Senate career.

The crossover Republican support for Bentsen had unintended consequences, however. It scuttled the chances of the Republican in the November election, one George Bush (the elder). And Bentsen turned out to be unbeatable, holding the Senate seat for 22 years until his retirement to become Secretary of the Treasury.

Such Republican miscalculation is understandable though. Back then, most Texas elections were decided in the Democrat primary as it had been since Reconstruction.

That would soon end, however. The “Yellow Dog” Democrats were already beginning to die off. 1972 and George McGovern would lurch the national Democrat Party to the left. In the Reagan years, Texas would become a strongly Republican state.

So it’s been many years since Texas Republicans had reason to cross over into the Democrat primary. Although it would be a cold day in Hell before I would do so (I do usually split my ticket in November though.), I think this development is healthy. Being a one party state or close to it breeds corruption and complacency regardless of which one party is in power. As a Republican precinct chair, I saw first hand negative effects of Denton County being a one party Republican county. It woke me up to the fact that the rot of one party politics isn’t just a Democrat problem. So I think the strong Democrat primary yesterday was healthy, both for Texas and for the Texas Republican Party.

And, yes, I’m also glad we slowed down Obamarama.

More here and here.

And I am ready to hear confessions from Republicans who crossed over.

A Sample of Obama’s Religion

It includes equal adoption rights for homosexual couples. Read more here.

Remember, he’s United “Church” of Christ.

The Texas and Ohio primaries are today, by the way.

Shame

In commenting on Michael Ingham’s attack on Dr. J. I. Packer, the Anglican Church League of Sydney absolutely nails it.
(The emphasis is mine. Thanks go out to Stand Firm.)

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The ACL notes with alarm the Bishop of New Westminster’s threat to revoke Professor J I Packer’s ‘spiritual authority as a minister of Word and Sacraments’.

Professor Packer, one of the leading Christian voices of the twentieth century, is amongst those who have voted to stand with authentic and orthodox Anglicans rather than those who have undermined biblical truth over many decades and most recently by their innovations regarding homosexual practice. As one of these he has now become a target for revisionist aggression. Once again the intolerance and anti-liberal heart of liberal Christianity has been exposed.

Professor Packer continues to be held in the highest regard by all those who seek to live in faith and obedience to the Scriptures as the written word of God. As a disciple of Jesus Christ he has provided a remarkable example of faithfulness and steadfastness for more than fifty years. We in the ACL assure him of our love, support, and continued prayer for him at this difficult time.

This latest incident highlights what has been happening to authentic and orthodox Anglican men and women in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom in the past few years. Ministers have been deprived, congregations have been forced to leave their buildings, law suits have been instigated and campaigns of misinformation have been launched in the religious and secular press. Others have simply been threatened with these things and more in an attempt to silence them.

This use of coercion by revisionist bishops has not been publicly addressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury or by those who champion the so-called ‘Windsor Process’. Their silence is deafening and shameful. In the light of this it is little wonder that so many of us have very little confidence in this process or in the resolve of those behind it to focus on the most important issues.

We look to the Lord of heaven and earth, who is more than able to protect his people and vindicate his own word. If even the gates of hell will not prevail against Christ’s church we need not fear ecclesiastical bully-boy tactics.

The ACL also give thanks to God for those who have begun to act to bring about genuine reformation and a renewed vision for the gospel mission in world Anglicanism and eagerly anticipate much good from the forthcoming Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem.

Mark D Thompson
President
Anglican Church League

March 2, 2008.

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The refusal of the Archbishop of Canterbury and other bishops to defend the sheep is indeed shameful. And it’s one reason I, who once eagerly yearned to be under Canterbury, now want little to do with that decrepit see.

As for the “Windsor Process,” instead of defending the faith and the faithful, it was and is a ploy to buy time for apostates and heretics and to give cover for their evil. To Hell with it!