Shameless

The Pseudo-bishop of New Westminster, Michael Ingham, has sent a letter to Dr. J. I. Packer threatening him with suspension from ministry. This after the church of which Dr. Packer is a member, St. John’s Shaughnessy, which happens to be the largest Anglican church in Canada, voted 475 to 11 to leave apostasy the Anglican Church of Canada.

This boggles the mind. My readers are well aware of the giant Dr. Packer is among teachers and theologians. I know I’ve been very much influenced by two of his works, Knowing God and Keep in Step with the Spirit. It’s hard to find a good analogy to describe a heretical gnat like –Ingham threatening a man like Dr. Packer in any way. (Perhaps my readers would like to give it a try?)

As BabyBlue puts it (referring to Dr. Packer’s oversight of the English Standard Version): “He's edited The Bible, for goodness sake. Has Ingham lost his mind?”

I suspect he has. He certainly seems to have lost the part of his brain in charge of shame.

Not-so-by-the-way, there is something seriously wrong with a communion in which a great man like Dr. Packer is threatened while a wolf like Ingham remains a member in good standing.

Another Day Off

I’m experimenting with a different allergy drug, Zyrtec I think is the name. It seems to be working, but it also makes it difficult for me to type and put my thoughts into words, although at least I’m functioning better than under yesterday’s regime. I was going to post this morning, but after a while I saw it still wasn’t worth it.

There used to be a liquid drug (I forget the name.) that worked wonderfully on my allergies when I was under attack and didn’t knock me out at all.

The FDA pulled it off the market, of course.

Day Off

I’m going to take a day off from normal blogging today. The culprit: my allergies and the lack of a non-drowsy drug to deal with it.

The same cold front that brought mayhem to the Southeast U. S. brought just a strong dry wind here. And that means lots of gunk blown to the coast here from inland. So even though I took a useless Claritin, I had a bad allergy attack yesterday. So I then took something I can’t spell in my current condition. It works, but then makes it so I can barely work. I started on a real blog entry, but it was such slow going, I thought, “Forget it.”

Pray for me as I seek to find a way to deal with these dry early Spring fronts. They are especially hellish for me this year.

How to Fit in at Church

Some of my good readers may be considering actually going to a church. Going to an Anglican church for the first time can be especially awkward. A Pentecostal friend of mine came with me to my church for Evening Prayer complete with the singing of The Litany.

I’m glad to report he is recovering from clinical culture shock and is doing better.

Well, the Rev’d Daniel Sparks has some helpful hints on how to fit in at church.

You’re welcome. Always glad to help.

Aside:
Sadly, the cell phone bit is only too true. At a recent FUNERAL with which I assisted as Lector, cell phones kept going off.

The first time, I can understand. It’s easy to forget to turn off your cell phone. But you’d think that first time would prompt others to turn off their phones. Nope. Cell phones kept going off again and again and . . .

Gulag UK Bans Christian Couple from Fostering Children

As Cranmer reports, the Labour-controlled Derby City Council has banned a Christian couple from fostering children in spite of their exemplary, nay, saintly history. Why?

They take their children to church and don’t teach them that homosexual lifestyles are o.k.

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Yes, let it sink in what an absurd outrage that is. And if you think I exaggerate when I write of “Gulag UK,” think again.

Now the current Archbishop of Canterbury says that the church ought to take up for those of other faiths. But his response in defense of these good Christians against the predations of Labour’s hypersecular gulag?

Silence.

His response in defense of children being deprived of such an excellent home because of the absurd orthodoxies of the Labour secular state?

Silence.

Some shepherd he is.

The Real Danger to Obama’s Campaign

What the heck? Hillary has come to town. Obama’s coming to Corpus Christi today. And Bill is coming tonight and tomorrow.

Who would have thunk it a few months ago? Texas runs its primaries in March when all the presidential nomination races are long since over, of course. And we haven’t been a swing state in November since before Reagan. So us Texans, especially way down here in South Texas, are more likely to shoot a burglar than to see a presidential candidate.

This is a strange election year, is it not?

On a slightly more serious note, I’ve long thought the biggest danger to Obama’s campaign isn’t Hillary stealing delegates, it’s his own lefty ways. And it’s not just this gun-owning, lib’rul bashing Texan that thinks that, but Gerald Baker of the Times:

There is a caste of left-wing Americans who wish essentially and in all honesty that their country was much more like France. They wish it had much higher levels of taxation and government intervention, that it had much higher levels of welfare, that it did not have such a “militaristic” approach to foreign policy. Above all, that its national goals were dictated, not by the dreadful halfwits who inhabit godforsaken places like Kansas and Mississippi, but by the counsels of the United Nations.

Though Mr Obama has done a good job, as all recent serious Democrats have done, of emphasising his belief in American virtues, his record and his programme suggest he is firmly in line with this wing of his party.

This, I think, not his inexperience in public office, is the principal threat to Mr Obama's campaign.

Having been around lefties in two university towns and more, I know that Baker has leftists right. And he is on target on Obama as well.

The news media has largely given Obama a pass on his lefty ways. (Can you imagine them giving such a pass to a right-winger?) Unless the Republicans are stupid (which they are at times), they will give Obama’s liberal/leftism no such pass in the general election campaign. I suspect that will stop the Obama juggernaut in the end.

And by the way, in case you think Mr. Baker and I are exaggerating Obama’s lefty ways, I commend to you a Rolling Stone (!) article of exactly one year ago.

Hero

I’ve been very impressed with the story of 12-year-old Michael Guggenheim. Michael has a learning disability, dysgraphia, that makes it very difficult to write. But a few years ago, he was allowed to use a laptop instead. And he has thrived ever since.

Not only that, he has even started a charity that helps underprivileged kids to learn to use computers and donates laptops to them. And, as you can tell by his charity’s blog, it’s already having quite an impact.

I post this not only to bring him and his charity to your attention, but also to illustrate a couple things on my mind. First, I’ve lately been impressed (again) with the awesome hearts boys around Michael’s age often have.

Second, I’ve been thinking a lot about how when we are weak God is strong and turns our weaknesses into strengths. How Michael has not only overcome his weakness, but has even let it become a strength on behalf of others is certainly a shining example of that.