Jeff Cavanaugh

2011-01-15T11:15:00.002-05:00

I've started a new blog that more closely aligns with one of my main hobbies, so it should continue to be updated much more regularly than this one.

You can find it here:

The Thrifty Gent

2010-12-08T17:39:00.005-05:00

Can you believe I've had the privilege of being husband to this beautiful woman for nearly four years? Me neither.

Happy (almost) anniversary, Andrea. Every day with you is a delight.

Casimiro

2010-11-15T22:23:00.006-05:00

I know I sound like an old codger when I say this, but it's amazing to me what you can find on the Internet these days. I've been working on genealogical research off and on for the last three years, mainly using Ancestry.com.

Before I started, I didn't know the name of my grandfather's maternal grandfather, Casimiro Di Cristina. Until last week, I knew almost nothing more about him--I knew he was a Sicilian immigrant, but that's about it.

Then, last week, I got this email from Ancestry.com. Apparently, they search new records for your ancestors and let you know as new matches are found.

I followed the link and found his 1921 passport application. Apparently he was returning to Italy to visit his mother. And the back of the page included a photo of my dapper, 5-foot-eight great-great-grandfather!

I kept searching, and found more interesting stuff: a 1913 passport application, also for the stated purpose of returning to Italy. The ship's passenger list from when he returned to the US from that trip, via New York. His 1903 naturalization record. And, perhaps coolest of all, the ship's passenger list from when he originally immigrated to the Port of New Orleans in 1889, at the age of 17.

He seems to have been fairly well off. He's the only person listed on his sheet the 1889 passenger list who made the voyage in a cabin, rather than in steerage. His occupation on the passport applications is listed as "Merchant." And, presumably, only someone who was at least comfortably middle class would have been able to make the journey back to Italy just to visit family.

Seeing these records--especially his photo--has given me a newfound sense of connection to the past and an appreciation for the place of immigrants in the fabric of US history. I'm delighted to have found this info, and amazed that I didn't have to go to New Orleans and hunt through who knows how many records, as I would have done even ten years ago.

I've made other cool discoveries, but I'll save those for another post, later.

Papa and Jeff

2010-08-26T21:08:00.004-04:00

See any family resemblance?

Books for Boys

2008-06-05T11:00:00.002-04:00

Today Dr. Mohler pointed out on his blog that a major reason many guys don't like reading is that they don't have reading material that captures their interest and fires their imaginations. He recommended a list of books that sound fascinating, but are definitely for older teenagers and adults.

When I was a boy I had no such dislike of reading. I read just about everything I could get my hands on. Visiting the library was a several-times-a-week occurrence. When I was disobedient and in need of correction, my parents found that one of the most effective punishments was not to let me read anything for a period of time.

I thought I'd list a few of the books that I loved when I was a kid, in case you know a boy who is always in search of new reading material. Most of these will be appropriate for kids who have graduated from Dr. Seuss but aren't yet ready to tackle unabridged, adult-oriented novels.

The Hardy Boys, by F.W. Dixon. The classic boys' mystery series, and I read them all. The woman who evaluated my homeschooling work told me one year that I needed to read fewer Hardy Boys and branch out into other material.

Tom Swift, by Victor Appleton. Original science-fiction for boys, these books have been around since 1910. I read the atomic-age books (the New Tom Swift, Jr. Adventures series) that were written in the '50s and '60s.

The Chronicles of Prydain, by Lloyd Alexander. Alexander draws on Welsh folklore to tell a fantastic store of Taran, a boy who doesn't know he's a king.

The Dark is Rising sequence, by Susan Cooper. Cooper's stories incorporate Welsh and English mythology, including Arthurian legends, and revolve around five kids who are caught up in a climactic struggle between good and evil

Grimm's Fairy Tales. The original stories are nothing like their Disneyfied modern incarnations, and will appeal to boys' love of monsters, witches, gore, and adventure.

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. I can still remember discovering The Hobbit on the shelves at the library for the first time. Probably the best fantasy stories ever written.

The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. These really need no introduction, given their current publicity with the movies.

The Borrowers (and sequels), by Mary Norton. A Carnegie Medal-winning story about little people who live in the walls and borrow things from big people.

Doctor Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting. The 1967 film adaptation with Rex Harrison is a classic; the books are even better.

The Redwall series, by Brian Jacques. A fantasy series about talking animals. I only became aware of these books as a teenager, but I read a bunch of them and thoroughly enjoyed them. Jacques has a gift for adventurous plots.

The American Girl books, by various authors. Yes, that's right. I secretly read every single one of my sisters' AG books, and was fascinated by them. It has taken me a decade to find the courage to admit it, though. :-)

Perhaps a better series of historical novels, for boys who can't bring themselves to read American Girl books, are the books written by G.A. Henty in the late 19th century. Each focuses on a boy who lives through an important historical time or event. They've recently been republished by Dover. I only read a couple, but they're great.

I should also mention that I was introduced to many of the great classics by Moby Books' "Illustrated Classic Editions." They're abridged, illustrated versions of classic novels that are perfect for younger readers. Some of the ones I loved include:

A Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne
The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells
Around the World in 80 Days, by Jules Verne
The Three Musketeers, by Alexander Dumas
The Man in the Iron Mask, by Alexander Dumas
The Swiss Family Robinson, by Johann Wyss
Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe
The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Mark Twain
Ben-Hur, by Lew Wallace
Captains Courageous, by Rudyard Kipling
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

2008-03-03T08:03:00.001-05:00

Vote Jeff Cavanaugh in 2008!

Faithfulness, not fruitfulness

2008-02-11T21:01:00.001-05:00

In my reading for my class on Personal Spiritual Disciplines recently, I came across an interesting and sobering anecdote about the Puritans in J.I. Packer's A Quest for Godliness. Making a point about the Puritans' ministry being focused on spiritual revival, Packer contrasts the ministries of Richard Greenham and Richard Baxter, two English Puritans who ministered about 70 years apart.

Greenham, a pastoral pioneer, was incumbent [pastor] of Dry Drayton, seven miles from Cabridge, from 1570 to 1590. He worked extremely hard. He rose daily at four and each Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday preached a sermon at daybreak, to catch his flock before they dispersed into the fields; then on Sunday he preached twice, and in addition catechised the children of the parish each Sunday evening and Thursday morning. Mornings he studied, afternoons he visited the sick or walked out into the fields 'to confer with his Neighbours while they were at Plough.'
...Yet, for all his godliness, insight, evangelical message and hard work, his ministry was virtually fruitless. Others outside his parish were blessed through him, but not his own people. 'Greenham had pastures green, but flocks full lean' was a little rhyme that went round among the godly. 'I perceive noe good wrought by my ministry on any but one family' was what, according to Holland, he said to his successor. In rural England in Greenham's day, there was much fallow ground to be broken up; it was a time for sowing, but the reaping time was still in the future.

Contrast this with Richard Baxter:

Finally, we glance at Richard Baxter, who ministered at Kidderminster from 1641 to 1660, with a five-year break during the Civil War. Kidderminster was a town of some 2,000 adults, and most of them, it seems, were converted under his ministry. He found them, he tells us, 'an ignorant, rude and revelling people, for the most part...they had hardly ever had any lively serious preaching among them.' But his ministry was wonderfully blessed.
The Congregation was usually full, so that we were fain to build five Galleries [balconies] after my coming thither...In a word, when I came thither first, there was about one Family in a Street that worshipped God and called on His Name, and when I came away there were some streets where there was not past one Family in the side of a Street that did not so; and that did not by professing serious Godliness, give us hopes of their sincerity.

These two Puritan pastors both worked remarkably hard, laboring for decades harder than most pastors do today. Both were extremely godly men. Yet, for whatever reason, Baxter's ministry was blessed by God in ways that Greenham's was not. Yet Greenham's faithfulness has borne fruit for over four hundred years in the lives of those who have read his works and looked to his example, fruit that he never saw in his lifetime. No doubt Greenham was extremely discouraged at times, yet he persevered. And the seeds that he and his contemporaries sowed helped to enable Baxter's generation to see such fruit from gospel ministry in England.

Most pastors today will probably have ministries that resemble Greenham's more than Baxter's. But they need to remember that they will be judged according to their faithfulness, and not necessarily by their fruitfulness.

Ancestry

2007-12-28T11:04:00.000-05:00

Oh, the things you learn when researching your family tree!

My 24th great-grandfather was king of Leinster, the southwest province of Ireland, in the 12th century.
Isaac Newton was my 1st cousin, 13 times removed.
Mark Twain was my 6th cousin, 4 times removed.
Jimmy Carter is also my 6th cousin, 4 times removed.
Lyndon B. Johnson was my 8th cousin, 2 times removed.
Booker T. Washington was my 9th cousin.

I am also distantly related to JFK, Judy Garland, Butch Cassidy, Percy Bysse Shelley, William Faulkner, Willa Cather, Helen Keller, William Randolph Hearst, and at least two signers of the Declaration of Independence.

All information courtesy of Ancestry.com.

2007-09-07T23:38:00.000-04:00

For J.D., who soon will see her Lord.

O death, let me die
So I may live.

O death, close my eyes
So I may see
White shores to the West
Of a shining sea.

O death, let me sleep
So I may rise
In that blessed morn
Of golden skies.

O death, stop my mouth
So I may sing,
"Glory, laud, honor
To the righteous King."

O death, thou harsh foe
Of mortal men,
Thy pow'r is broken
And I call thee friend.

O death, let me die
So I may live.

©2007 Jeff Cavanaugh.

The Oddities of English

2007-09-04T18:33:00.000-04:00

I'm here, I'm just getting re-adjusted to academic life.

I've said for a while that one of the best things about learning Latin in college was how much it strengthened my grasp of English grammar. I'm experiencing a similar phenomenon as I plunge into the considerably murkier waters of Hebrew. It's not helping me understand how better to use English, as Latin did, at least not yet. Rather, it is making me more aware of just how odd and difficult a language English is, even preposterously so.

Let's just consider spelling. Do you realize how absurdly we native English-speakers spell things? We don't spell them the way we pronounce them, for starters. We spell them, in many cases, the way they used to be pronounced hundreds of years ago. Knife is one example: the initial K is silent, though it was once pronounced in the word's Old and Middle English ancestors.

Then there are all the useless letters in the alphabet. Letters whose functions are performed perfectly well by other letters, and whose presence in the alphabet just leads to confusion. C is a great example; its hard sound is also produced by K, and S does a great job all by itself with the soft sound. X and Q don't even have sounds--they have combinations of other letters' sounds, ks and kw. It is all eckstremely kweer.

And vowels! English has the most confused system for reproducing vowel sounds. Just think how many different ways you can represent the vowel sound from the word shoe. Oe as in shoe, ew as in threw, ough as in through, oo as in spoon, eu as in eucharist, ue as in flue, and ou as in you. Need I go on? Yoo and I need one consistent way to spell a given sound, so it's not so confyoosing.

In closing, I will leave you with this phonetic gem from Douglas Wilson's The Paideia of God, which illustrates some of the difficulty. "A rough, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

Phonetic transliteration for the understandably confused: "A ruff, doe-faced, thawtful plowman strode throo the streets of Scarboruh; after falling into a sloo, he coffed and hiccupped."

Sigh.

More on College Wear

2007-08-18T23:30:00.001-04:00

In my article linked from my last post, I talked about the stylishness of college men in years past. In support of that point, I offer this site--pictures of student members of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau that span the years from 1914 to 1967.

Below are the fellows from 1935-36.

Dressing Well

2007-07-15T23:08:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted, mainly because I've been busy with our move to Louisville, Kentucky. I'm hoping to post more frequently in the coming days and weeks.

A few months ago I began thinking here about why Christian men should care about the way they dress. I haven't done much with the series since then.

However, I've just had my first-ever article published, and it deals with the topic a bit:
Making the Most of College: The Importance of Dressing Well

Wiki-surfing

2007-05-23T12:39:00.001-04:00

Wikipedia has grown to be one of my favorite websites. Next to Google, I think it's one of the most useful tools on the web. Hardly a day goes by, it seems, when I don't look up multiple things on Wikipedia. I haven't yet found a topic that didn't have at least a short article written about it.

Wikipedia can also be dangerous, however. I've found that when I look something up, I rarely stay just on that one article's page. Every Wikipedia page contains numerous links in the text to articles on other, related topics. I often see another link that looks interesting, click on it, read that page, click on a link to yet another article, and so on. Sometimes it can eat up a lot of one's time, and sometimes the trail of links can get pretty long. By the end of my Wiki-surfing (when I finally force myself to get back to work), I'll often be on a topic that has nothing to do with what I originally came to look up.

Here's a recent example. I heard about a particular dog breed, the Tosa, and decided to look it up. That to the following string: Tosa-->Sumo-->Yokozuna-->Onogawa Kisaburo-->Jujutsu-->Karate-->Syngman Rhee-->Cold War.

From dogs to the Cold War, by way of Japanese culture. Weird. And I've had even longer and stranger Wiki-surfing chains.

Straw Hat Day

2007-05-16T10:34:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, May 15, was Straw Hat Day, the day when hat retailers in the US traditionally encouraged men to put away their warm felt hats and switch to cooler straw ones.

I have a classic Panama hat on order, but it has to come from Ecuador and so it didn't get here in time. Instead, I wore my vintage Cavanagh boater to mark the occasion.

The boater, or skimmer as it's also called, was once the standard summer hat for well-dressed men, for at least the first three decades of the 20th century. Boaters were worn with everything from beach wear to tuxedos (when accessorized with a black ribbon). A photo from 1912 of the congregation of Capitol Hill Baptist Church standing outside the new church building that was under construction shows nearly every one of several dozen men wearing boaters. In fact, if you look closely enough at the Paris 1919 cover below, you can see that while the heads of government are wearing top hats to go with their formal frock coats, their aides behind are wearing boaters with their suits.

Travelers returning from abroad made the Panama hat gradually more popular, and Panamas eventually replaced boaters as the standard summer hat. In these hatless days, the boater is now relegated to a costume piece, worn mostly by barbershop quartets and actors reprising Dick Van Dyke's role in Mary Poppins. Like the morning coat, the tailcoat, and stiff collars, the boater is on life support in the world of menswear. However, with the resurgence of hat wearing in general, perhaps the boater will experience a new era of acceptability as a legitimate alternative in headwear for men with style.

If at first you don't succeed...

2007-05-15T15:57:00.000-04:00

Recently I've begun reading Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed The World, by Margaret MacMillan. It is an account of the Paris Peace conference in 1919 following the armistice that ended World War I, which produced the Treaty of Versailles and founded the League of Nations.

I was particularly interested to read this, from the book's foreword by Richard Holbrooke:

In the headline version of history, the road from the Hall of Mirrors to the German invasion of Poland only twenty years later is usually presented as a straight line. But as MacMillan forcefully demonstrates, this widely accepted view of history distorts the nature of the decisions made in Paris and minimizes the importance of actions taken in the intervening years.

......MacMillan corrects the widely held view that thre reparations payments impose by the victors were so onerous as to have caused the wreck of the German economy that paved the way for Hitler.

The view which Ms. MacMillan apparently corrects in this work is one that sounded familiar to me. While I'm interested in history generally and wanted to read something on World War I, I also have another reason for wanting to read this book. You see, when I was a freshman in college, I completely, utterly, and totally botched a paper on Hitler's rise to power for Dr. Sanders' History of the Western World class. I think I got a D on the paper and, consequently, a C in the class--the worst of my college career.

Apparently I didn't understand the situation then, as I believe I repeated the very view that Mr. Holbrooke talks about above. So, I thought that now would be a good time to remedy that situation and come to a better understanding of the events. I think Dr. Sanders would be proud.

Eastern Market Burns

2007-04-30T15:00:00.000-04:00

Eastern Market, a Capitol Hill landmark, caught fire this morning. Most of the South Hall, where the market's shops and food stalls were located, was consumed in the blaze. This is a heavy loss for the area, as it has been a huge part of the Hill community for over 130 years. I have enjoyed Saturday morning walks down to the Market for breakfast at the Market Lunch counter and fresh produce from the farmer's market outside. The french toast--the best I've ever tasted--will be especially missed.

WaPo photo slideshow of the Market here.

Climate Change Hits Mars

2007-04-30T09:43:00.000-04:00

Hasn't anyone told the Martians to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions?

On the bright side, maybe Al Gore will be making the trip to investigate.

CAPH

2007-04-27T14:07:00.000-04:00

The Concerned Alumni of Patrick Henry website has been updated with a new look and updated content. It will be further expanded in coming weeks, so stay tuned.

Why Technology Is Not Enough

2007-04-27T11:23:00.000-04:00

Eye halve a spelling check her;
It came with my pea sea.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye kin knot sea.

Eye ran this poem threw it
Your sure reel glad two no.
Its vary polished in it's weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.

A check her is a bless sing;
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when aye rime.

Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule;
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.

Bee fore wee rote with checkers
Hour spelling was inn deck line,
Butt now when wee dew have a laps,
Wee are knot maid too wine.

Butt now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
Their are know faults with in my cite,
Of nun eye am a wear.

Now spelling does knot phase me,
It does knot bring a tier;
My pay purrs awl due glad den
With wrapped words fare as hear.

To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should be proud;
And wee mussed dew da best wee can
Sew flaws are knot aloud.

That's why eye brake in two averse
Cuz eye dew want too please.
Sow glad eye yam that aye did bye
This soft wear four pea seas.

Creation, Stewardship, and Eschatology

2007-04-23T12:14:00.000-04:00

While recent posts have made it clear I'm skeptical on the prevailing theories of human-induced climate change, I should also make it clear that I do think environmental issues are important. God has entrusted His creation as a stewardship to those made in His image, and we are called to be faithful with that charge. Christians have even more reason to do so, as we understand that Christ's rule is not only over the hearts of his people but extends to all of creation in all its aspects. For that reason, I think that pollution, for example is a bad thing, and efforts to use land responsibly are good things.

Unfortunately, too many conservatives these days (in the US, at least) believe that environmental concerns impinge on capitalistic venture and the all-important individual freedom that is the god of our liberal society. Even many Christians sadly believe that creation exists for man's use (over against stewardship) and see no problem with individual or societal lifestyles that destroy the beauty of the created world. Both of these are problematic for reasons that I think are almost painfully obvious from Scripture, but which I'd be happy to elaborate later, if necessary.

One question has long plagued me, though. Passages like 2 Peter 3, Hebrews 1, and Matthew 24 seem to indicate that the created world, regardless of its beauty or creational goodness, is destined to be destroyed in the last days. What then, is the eternal use of caring for creation, if it's going to be consumed in fire? Isn't it all a bit like painting the rails on a sinking ship?

Neocalvinist blogger Steve Bishop is doing a series of posts on environmental issues called "Christians--the reluctant greens." In his latest entry, he addresses the question I just outlined and explains why it's the product of a faulty eschatology. It's a very interesting, and persuasive, piece of exegetical reasoning. It also has clear implications beyond the issue of environmental stewardship. The idea that earthly work is ephemeral (and therefore of no ultimate significance) is mitigated if the earth will not be destroyed, but instead transformed. There is hope that we can contribute to efforts--social, political, environmental, cultural--that will become part of the new heavens and the new earth because they have been faithful in light of the reality of Christ's rule over and renewal of all things.

Washington and the District of Columbia

2007-04-20T15:38:00.000-04:00

While most of the rest of the country thinks that Washington, D.C. is one place on the banks of the Potomac, those who live here know differently: Washington and the District of Columbia are two very different cities that happen to occupy the same 68 square miles.

Washington is a seat of power and authority, a hub of business and culture, and a place where people from all over the world come to see the sights and engage with the United States. The District, by contrast, is a crime-ridden and poverty-stricken place where broken people live broken lives and where people from all over the world don't go, fearing for their safety. In Washington, lobbyists spend millions to secure billions in federal funding. In the District, people are desperate for your pocket change. In Washington, a crook ocasionally gets elected, but he's always from somewhere else and folks pretend not to know or care about his private life. In the District, homegrown crooks are near and dear to the people's hearts, and a crackhead can be elected to four terms as mayor and at least one on the city council.

It's not always clear where one begins and the other ends; it isn't just a matter of staying on the right side of H street. Living in DC means you get to walk past the US Capitol every day on your way to work, but it also means you might get mugged just a few blocks from the Capitol if you aren't careful. Living in DC means you get to take advantage of a world-class public transportation system (the Metro), but it also means you're likely to return home to find your car has been stolen, ticketed, booted, or towed.

This divide affects me every day. I love living in Washington; I hate living in the District. I love that I can walk to the National Gallery of Art and see a different Shakespeare play nearly every month. I love the best church I've ever found, which is here. But I hate being stranded on one side of the city because all the roads have been shut down for a marathon. And I really, really detest dealing with the District's government.

I had to visit the city courthouse five times before I could get a marriage license. I've gotten more parking tickets than I can count, and my car has been booted and then towed after I paid the fine for which the boot had been placed. Recently I sold the car, canceled my insurance, and turned in my license plates to the DMV. That's the end of that headache, right? Nope. I received a letter in the mail telling me I'd been fined $171.50 because I didn't do it in the proper order. An order I searched for, in vain, on the DMV's web site before I sold the car. Now I've been fined $171.50 on account of a car I don't even own anymore.

I love this city, and I will miss it when we move away. But in some ways, I hate this city, and I can't wait to be gone.

More on Global Warming

2007-04-20T11:50:00.000-04:00

Here's another documentary, "The Great Global Warming Swindle," produced by a British media organization. It goes even more in-depth into the problems with the theory of human-influenced global warming, including the history of the movement and some of the effects it's having around the world. Just a few of the interesting and disturbing points I noted from the film:

- Carbon dioxide levels do rise roughly in conjunction with global temperatures--but they lag behind the temperature variations by as much as hundreds of years.

- The oceans relase vastly more CO2 into the atmosphere than humans--so do animals, bacteria, decaying plants, and volcanoes.

- The sun is a huge factor in global temperature variations. Solar astronomers have become remarkably accurate at predicting long-term temperatures, more so even than terrestrial climatologists and meteorologists.

- Political attention on human-influenced global warming began as a political strategy employed by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s as a way to promote nuclear energy over coal and oil. She didn't trust the middle east, and her government was having problems with labor strikes by the UK's miners.

- US federal funding for global warming-related research went from $178 million to over $2 billion in the early 1990s. It is now over $4 billion. A lot of science that has little or nothing to do with global warming is being clothed in global-warming language so that the researchers can get funding for their own pet projects.

- In the name of preventing more carbon dioxide "pollution," the developing world is essentially being encouraged not to develop, not to touch their oil and coal resources. This has disastrous consequences for public health--whole rafts of illnesses and causes of early death can be directly linked to not having access to electricity.

I am increasingly worried about the consequences of this whole global warming mess. Not concerned about what might happen if we don't somehow check the warming, but rather about what the consequences of the hype itself might be. Too, it is a disturbing illustration of how a few loud voices can deceive an entire society by capturing the media and public attention, completely ignoring the truth.

Update: If you want to see a shorter version of the documentary than the hour-and-a-quarter version I link to above, go to Eric Langborgh's website, here.

Applied Shakespeare 101

2007-04-19T16:57:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday, Andrea and I attended a performance of William Shakespeare's Coriolanus by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Kennedy Center. While the RSC undoubtedly put as much oompfh into the production as one would expect from their world-class reputation, the play nonetheless failed to scintillate. Apparently, just being the greatest English playwright ever doesn't automatically guarantee that all your plays are great. While Andrea was so unimpressed that she spent most of the second half snoozing, I was busy redeeming the time by noting a number of useful passages from the play's text that should come in handy at one point or another.

For students of a Southern Baptist seminary: "Have we no wine here?" (Act I, Scene IX)

For those with fickle spouses: "He that depends upon your favours swims with fins of lead, and hews down oaks with rushes." (Act I, Scene I)

For one who must gracefully bow out of a conversation: "More of your conversation would infect my brain." (Act II, Scene I)

For professors plagued by troublesome students: "What's the matter you dissentious rogue that, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, make yourselves scabs?" (Act I, Scene I)

A sober warning for those who would become pastors: "Priests must become mockers, if they shall encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are." (Act II, Scene I)

And a friendly fare-thee-well for those situations when "'Bye" just won't do:
"All the contagion of the south light on you,
You shames of Rome!--you herd of--Boils and plagues
Plaster you o'er, that you may be abhorr'd
Farther than seen, and one infect another
Against the wind a mile! You souls of geese
That bear the shapes of men..."
(Act I, Scene IV)

Now, who ever said that a liberal arts education isn't useful? Ol' Bill is just full of practical wisdom and useful phrases for everyday life.

Forgiveness

2007-04-19T15:48:00.000-04:00

Blogger Alan Cornett wrote a post about forgiveness with regard to a specific incident that has been in the news lately, and it sparked a lively debate among commenters on the question of whether or not it's possible to forgive someone who has not asked for forgiveness. My response (to commenter "Anonymous") got a bit long for a simple comment, so it is posted here.
The nub of this debate seems to come down to a difference over the nature of forgiveness. Is it a two-way transaction that takes place between two willing parties (the offender and the offended), or is it a unilateral act on the part of the one offended? Anonymous believes it is the former; I humbly argue that Scripture and plain reason indicate it is the latter.

Dictionaries give several definitions for "forgive" and "forgiveness," however, they all seem to point to things that one person, alone, can do unilaterally: to grant pardon for a debt or offense; to cease to feel resentment against another, etc. Obviously, merely citing a dictionary does not conclusively prove the matter; we have to be sure that Scripture speaks of forgiveness in the same way that our dictionary authors understand it. However, this is useful in two respects: first, it indicates a generally agreed-upon understanding of the meaning of forgiveness as a unilateral act, and second, it helps provide illumination of the fact that those who have translated the Bible into English believe that "forgive" and "forgiveness" are appropriate translations of the relevant Greek and Hebrew words of Scripture.

Moving on to Scripture itself, it's clear that the Bible consistently treats forgiveness as something that the one offended does or grants, regardless of whether the offender asks for it or even acknowledges it. Moses and the prophets beg the Lord to forgive the sins of Israel, a "stiff-necked people," often when Israel had not asked for the Lord's forgiveness, had not repented their sins, and sometimes even while they were still engaged in rebellion and idolatry!
We find repeated instructions in the New Testament that believers are to be characterized by forgiveness. Paul tells the Corinthians to forgive the one they had cast out of their fellowship because of his sin. He tells the Colossians, "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another." Jesus teaches that we should be willing to forgive another as many times as he sins against us--his "seventy times seven" in Matthew 18 is a way of saying there is no limit to the number of times we should forgive. What's interesting is that in each of these cases, the command to forgive is absolute, not contingent. It isn't qualified with "If your brother asks your forgiveness..." The only instance I can find where there is such a conditonal is in Luke 17:4, where Jesus says, "If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him." In this case, however, Jesus' point is not that you have to wait until you're asked to forgive, but that when you are asked there is no point at which you don't have to forgive anymore.

Perhaps the strongest argument for forgiveness as a unilateral act are the actions of Jesus himself. Consider the case in Luke where the paralyzed man is brought by his friends to see Jesus. This man was not coming to Christ to ask him for forgiveness from sins. If anything, he asked Jesus for something altogether different--healing from his paralysis. But what does Jesus do? He announces to him, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." Jesus granted him forgiveness when he had not asked for it or expected it, to demonstrate that He had authority over sin because of who he was. He was turning their world upside-down by bringing to them what they used to have to go and seek at the Temple.

As Alan already pointed out, witholding forgiveness when it hasn't been sought by the one who needs it is not an act of piety or even of necessity. It's an act of disobedience and a confusion of our role with God's. Ours is to forgive the sinner, in light of how greatly we have been forgiven in Christ. God's is to forgive that sin or not; to punish that sin, either in Christ's death on the Cross or in that sinner's person, in hell.

Global Warming

2007-04-19T11:48:00.000-04:00

The Friar over at Reason & Revelation links (1, 2) today to a very interesting documentary challenging the prevailing opinion on human-induced climate change. Produced by a researcher named Hayward who works with, among others, the American Enterprise Institute, the video shows that much of the hype about global warming being propagated by Al Gore, among others, is just that--hype.

Several interesting points:
- There's good evidence for a medieval (pre-industrial) warm period that mirrors the present warming trend.
- Contrary to most people's assumption, environmental quality in most of the US is getting better, not worse.
- The most dire predictions about rise in global temperature are based on wildly implausible forecasts about industrial and economic growth--such as North Korea's exceeding US economic levels by 2100.
- The most conservative predictions about rise in global temperature are based on current emissions growth levels that have basis in actual fact.

There seems to be general consensus that global warming is happening. The science available does back that up. What there is considerably less consensus about--despite what many journalists and politicians would have us believe--is why that warming is taking place, to what extent it will contiue or worsen, and how drastic its effects will be. I'm not yet convinced that the most prominent voices' message--that humans are destroying the planet--is anything more than hype with little or not basis in fact.

Patrick Henry College

2007-04-03T12:14:00.000-04:00

Readers of this blog may remember references I've made over the past couple of years to goings on at my alma mater, Patrick Henry College. To sum up, while I had an overall good experience (albeit a frustrating one, at times), the school has changed drastically in the last year or two, to the point that it's virtually unrecognizable as the same school I graduated from. That alone would be enough for me not to be able to recommend it to anyone now, but it gets worse. The events of the past year or more concern me enough that I would actively work to dissuade anyone I care about from attending PHC. It's just not a good place to be, and hopes for improvement are slim, at best.

If anyone is curious about the events that have led me to this conclusion, you can find out a great deal more on the website of the Concerned Alumni of Patrick Henry. If you, or anyone you know, is interested in attending or working at PHC, you need to read the contents of this site carefully and thoroughly.

Good news for people with taste

2007-03-23T11:33:00.000-04:00

According to NPR, "the fastest-growing segment of music sales in 2006 wasn't rock, dancehall, or hip-hop; it was classical music." (HT: Gideon Strauss.)

Classical radio in Washington, DC has had a somewhat turbulent time of late. First, the city's only classical station switched frequencies because its previous one (the strongest in the area and Arbitron's highest-rated station) was bought out by an all-news format. I thought it had gone off the air altogether, but then I discovered it had moved to a new frequency, albeit a much weaker one. Still, I was glad there was still a classical music option on regular broadcast radio, as I don't want to sign up for XM or Sirius.

Then, a few months ago, I found out that the second station had been bought out by Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who planned on turning it into a sports-talk station (of which the city already had three). At the time when I read it in the paper, there were no plans for another classical-format station in the DC area.

Thankfully, however, when the station did switch, I found that one of the city's two NPR stations had changed formats to become the new (and still the only) classical station on the air. As it turns out, this switch has been a positive thing. Because the old station was a for-profit venture, it ran commercials and its DJs tended to play only the most familiar, popular classical works--pieces which can be both great and clichéd at the same time. The new station, because it is public radio, doesn't air commercials and isn't obligated to play only what sells. Now I get to hear things that the old station rarely or never played--organ music, vocal works, baroque and twentieth-century selections, and, on Saturday afternoons, Live from the Met opera performances.

Looks as though classical music--both here in DC and across the country--is alive and well.

Oh, one other thing--check out the Met's new series of opera perfomances broadcast in high definition to movie theaters around the country. You'll get most of the experience of attending a world-class live opera performance, for less than half the cost of the cheapest seats at the Met.

On This Day in History...

2007-03-23T10:14:00.000-04:00

...In 1775, Patrick Henry gave the speech that made him famous to the Virginia House of Burgesses, concluding, "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

Incidentally, I wonder what Mr. Henry would think today of the institution that bears his name? I've wondered that a lot, actually, over the last several years.

Hymn

2007-03-21T15:27:00.000-04:00

Leader of faithful souls, and Guide
Of all who travel to the sky,
Come, and with us, even us, abide,
Who would on Thee alone rely;
On Thee alone our spirits stay
While held in life’s uneven sway.

We’ve no abiding city here,
But seek a city out of sight;
Thither our steady course we steer,
Aspiring to the plains of light,
Jerusalem, the saints’ abode,
Whose founder is the living God.

Through Thee, who all our sins hast borne,
Freely and graciously forgiven,
With songs to Zion we return,
Contending for our native heaven,
That palace of our glorious King,
We find it nearer while we sing.

Raised by the breath of love divine,
We urge our way with strength renewed,
The Church of the first-born to join,
We travel to the mount of God;
With joy upon our heads arise,
And meet our Captain in the skies.

~Charles Wesley (1707-1788), in Hymns for Those That Seek and Those That Have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ.

Favorite Songwriter/Album

2007-03-09T11:07:00.000-05:00

Thanks to my brother-in-law, I've recently discovered the work of singer/songwriter Andrew Peterson. I've only listened to his most recent album (The Far Country, 2005) so far, but that one album is excellent.

I don't generally make a habit of listening to contemporary Christian music. Most of what I hear on the radio is shallow and trite at best; at worst, there's nothing distinctively Christian about it or it's downright blasphemous. However, once in a while, I come across a Christian musician whose work displays a profound understanding of the gospel, love for the church, and a outlook on the world that is soaked in the understanding that Christ is King. Andrew Peterson is one of these.

The Far Country is mainly about death, dying, and the life to come. Not nice or comfortable topics even for most Christians these days, especially not those whose tastes run to what's "safe for the whole family." But Peterson has put together a compilation of songs that shows he understands this life is not as good as it gets, that something far better awaits those who are in Christ, and, paradoxically, that the anticipation of that life makes this life worth living.

Peterson's vision is no pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by sentimentalism, nor is it the product of a depressed, ascetic otherworldliness that sees everything in the present life in shades of grey. He expects that, "when you lay me down to die," he'll miss his family and the memories of a good life lived in the blessings of God. He knows that parting with friends is "the price that I must pay to sail beyond the arms of the havens grey" (a Tolkien reference that will please fans of the Professor's work). Still, he understands that the good things we enjoy in this life are meant to be a foretaste of the joys of the new heavens and the new earth.

The One who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Jesus Christ is Lord of all, and has already begun the rewnewing work of His kingdom, which will have no end. Andrew Peterson is caught up in it, and with The Far Country, he is helping renew a little more of God's Creation.

Hymn

2007-02-16T10:59:00.000-05:00

Come away to the skies, my belovèd, arise
And rejoice in the day thou wast born;
On this festival day, come exulting away,
And with singing to Zion return.

We have laid up our love and our treasure above,
Though our bodies continue below.
The redeemed of the Lord will remember His Word,
And with singing to paradise go.

Now with singing and praise let us spend all the days
By our heavenly Father bestowed,
While His grace we receive from His bounty, and live
To the honor and glory of God!

For the glory we were first created to share,
Both the nature and kingdom divine,
Now created again that our lives may remain
Throughout time and eternity Thine.

We with thanks do approve the design
Of that love that hath joined us to Jesus’ Name;
Now united in heart, let us never more part,
Till we meet at the feast of the Lamb.

There, Oh! there at His feet, we shall all likewise meet,
And be parted in body no more;
We shall sing to our lyres, with the heavenly choirs,
And our Savior in glory adore.

Hallelujah! we sing to our Father and King,
And His rapturous praises repeat:
To the Lamb that was slain, Hallelujah again!
Sing all Heaven and fall at His feet!

~ Attributed to Charles Wesley, 1755. Wesley wrote this hymn for his wife’s birthday, titling it “On the Birthday of a Friend.”

Progress and Renewal

2007-02-08T11:04:00.000-05:00

"[T]hose who operate from an Enlightenment perspective typically associate progress with renewal and view disillusionment as a symptom of decay. Those who operate within a framework of Judeo-Christian values, on the other hand, characteristically view a belief in progress as a symptom of decay and a sense of disillusionment the first step toward a realistic appraisal of the world without which renewal is impossible."

~David F. Wells, No Place For Truth, p. 56

Real Men Read Austen

2007-02-05T12:48:00.001-05:00

Many of those familiar with great literature know that Jane Austen is among the greatest novelists of all time--perhaps the greatest female English-language novelist ever. There seems to be, though, a widespread perception that she wrote novels aimed at and appealing to only women--sort of a 19th century version of chick lit. A quick look on Allconsuming.net shows that the overwhelming majority of those who say they've read Emma appear to be women. I, too, was under the same impression for years, but I have to say now that I was wrong. Austen's books are just as appealing and enjoyable--and instructive--for men as they are for women. I've read Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, and I'm currently reading Emma.

Peter Leithart comments on this at the beginning of a lecture on Austen's art, a lecture he gave in 2001 at the Christian Worldview Student Conference. Men should be more willing to read Austen for a number of reasons. First, she's actually less romantic and more grounded in a realistic view of the world than, for example, Dickens was. Second, she's funny. She writes with a sharp wit and a keen sense of irony that makes her dialogue and narrative commentary tremendously entertaining--just read the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice for proof of this. Third, because she's a woman and tells her stories from the women's point of view, reading her novels can be a helpful way to learn how women think--and that's useful to any man. Fourth, men can learn a lot about the character of honorable and dishonorable men from studying her male characters. Mr. Knightley (Emma), on one hand, is a gentleman who uses his wealth and position selflessly for the benefit and protection of those less fortunate than him. Wickham (P&P), on the other hand, is a scoundrel who seems charming at first but reveals his deceitful, self-serving nature in the end. Any man who wants to be a gentleman should study the kinds of male characters that Austen writes, and think about why each one is portrayed as he is, good or bad.

So, there you have it. Jane Austen's books aren't just for girls. Real men read Austen.

As always, electronic versions of Austen's works, in text and audio, are available from Project Gutenberg and Librivox.org, respectively.

Why Care About Your Appearance? Part 1

2007-02-02T15:26:00.000-05:00

Anyone who knows me very well will know that I care about my appearance, especially as it pertains to clothes and shoes. Learning about style and finding good clothing affordably is one of my main hobbies. I spend quite a bit of my free time reading about clothing and style, both in books and online. I'll freely admit that I like to look good--and I like knowing I look good.

I hope that anyone who knows me well also knows that I deeply love the Lord Jesus, and desire to honor and glorify him above all else. Any object, love, or passion that would compete with the Lord for my deepest affection is to be despised and given no place in my heart and mind.

Yet to some, these might seem to be competing passions. After all, isn't vanity supposed to be a sin? Of what value is the outward appearance, when the Scripture says, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart"? Peter indicates that true beauty should and does consist in holiness and godliness, not in clothes and the outward appearance. So what business does a Christian have caring so much about how he or she looks? At the very least, acquiring more clothing than the barest necessities must be "laying up treasures on earth, where moth[s]…corrupt."

In addition to this primary, spiritual issue, there are other reasons why people look askance at a man who cares about his appearance. After all, isn't that kind of…unmanly? It's supposed to be a womanly thing to preen and primp and spend hours in front of the mirror and shopping for clothes. Any man who obviously puts effort into his appearance is usually thought to be less than desirably masculine at best, and a complete fop or homosexual at worst.

Well, I want to take the next several days and weeks to do a series of blog posts answering these objections and explaining why I think it's a legitimate thing for a Christian man to care about how he looks--even a positive good. In doing so, I'll have to go into the nature of vanity, pride, and beauty, think about what it really means to be a man and a gentleman, and examine social conventions and mores that shape our perceptions of style and manners. I'm looking forward to hashing these things out in writing, and I hope it will be a worthwhile exercise.

Favorite Blog

2007-01-31T11:24:00.001-05:00

If you have a taste for satire, especially for satire that sends up the ridiculousness that plagues much of modern evangelicalism, check out a new blog called Tom In The Box. Headlines include: "Extreme Home Makeover Church Edition Hailed A Success," "Robertson Declares Himself the Winner of the 2008 Presidential Election," and "Amillenial 'No Behind' Novel Suffers from Lackluster Sales." It's quite funny stuff, but doesn't feel as sacreligious as sites like Landover Baptist

A (somewhat heavy-handed) Parable

2007-01-26T15:12:00.001-05:00

I didn't catch the Bears-Saints playoff game last week; I was busy doing other things and didn't have time to sit down and watch it. So on Monday morning, I asked a coworker who had won, and he told me that the Bears had been victorious. But then I was talking to another person a bit later, and he said that, in fact, the Saints had won the game. This confused me, so I asked some more people, wanting to know the truth. But I didn't get any satisfactory responses. Some people said the Bears had won. Some people said the Saints had won. Some people didn't know. Some said nobody could say for sure, because it had been a close game decided by a questionable call from the referee. Finally, I decided that since people couldn't agree on the truth about the outcome of the game, there must be no truth. Since everyone saw the outcome of the game from their own perspective, with their own bias, it must be just as true that the Saints won as that the Bears won. For all I know, there was no game at all. It doesn't matter to me; I'm a Saints fan and I choose to believe that the Saints won. That's the truth...as I see it.

Favorite Site

2007-01-16T10:53:00.001-05:00

Sometimes, in my current employment, I do work that...well, let's just say it doesn't require intense concentration. To stave off boredom, I've found a great resource to help me pass the time: . Similar to Project Gutenberg, LibriVox (the name comes from the Latin words for 'book' and 'voice') hosts audio recordings of scores of classic books that are now in the public domain. Like Wikipedia, it's an open-source, collaborative project, so anyone can expand the site's catalog by recording chapters of books and adding them to the collection. I'm slightly ashamed to admit it, but this is how most of my reading has gotten done in the last several months. Here are some of the LibriVox books I've consumed recently

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
Dracula, Bram Stoker
Ghost Story collections (1) (2)
Gift of the Magi, O. Henry
King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Iriving
My Man Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories, Ambrose Bierce
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Psmith in the City, P.G. Wodehouse
Right Ho, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse
Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe

When I'm tempted to complain...

2007-01-08T09:50:00.001-05:00

...that my apartment is too small, I need to remember that it could be worse. Thanks be to God for the (relatively) palatial space that Andrea and I have.

(HT: Randa)

Entertainment of the Day

2007-01-04T11:43:00.001-05:00

If you're in the mood for some entertaining reading, check out the Amazon customer reviews for a gallon of milk. I'm not kidding.

Style on the Page

2007-01-03T17:15:00.000-05:00

Back in September, I posted about online resources for learning about classic men's style, and I said I'd mention some books on the topic at a later date. Well, that time has come, and I'll start with two books given to me for Christmas by my wonderful wife.

First up is The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men's Style, by Nicholas Antongiavanni. Possibly the most entertaining and inormative book on men's style that is in print today (it certainly tops the non-illustrated list), it is also the most recent. Mr. Antongiavanni has fashioned his book in the style of Niccolo Machiavelli's classic The Prince. While the language might be somewhat confusing to those who miss the connection, for anyone who has read Machiavelli's seminal work The Suit will stand out as an artfully crafted imitation with class and significance all its own. This book is perfect for that special Straussian in your life.

Next is Alan Flusser's Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion. Flusser sets out to demonstrate (and illustrate, with scores of photos) that permanent fashion is not an oxymoron. Rather, with careful attention to fit, proportion, color, and pattern, any man can acquire a wardrobe that will help him look his best for years, no matter how fashion-runway frippery may change. Mr. Flusser's writing style can be a bit florid, but the real gems in this book are the illustrations. Every page has photos of stylish men from the 1930s to today, and, as they say, each one is worth a thousand words.

Flusser has also written Style and the Man, a guide on how and where to buy the fine men's clothing that he describes in the previous book. It is composed partly of instruction on what to look for when you're in a store, and partly of a directory of where the best haberdashers are worldwide. The latter section is now somewhat dated, and at any rate will be of limited use to men who, like myself, don't have thousands of dollars to spend on clothing each year. In most of the stores he lists, I daresay I couldn't afford a pair of socks, let alone a custom-tailored suit. Still, the guidance on how to shop for clothing will be helpful to a man on any budget, and will arm you with better knowledge than most store salesmen possess today.

Also of great sartorial significance is Gentleman: A Timeless Fashion, by German author Bernhard Roetzel. Like Dressing the Man, this volume is indispensible for its illustrations of how to wear clothing of different styles, patterns, and colors. Roetzel meticulously examines all the elements of a stylish man's wardrobe, and he covers many areas, including shoes, accessories, and formalwear, with a thoroughness that Flusser's books can't muster. This book is currently out of print, but used copies can be had from several online sources.

These books are just a few of many available that seek to give fashion advice to men, but they're some of the best--far better than anything Kressley or Molloy can offer. Any man who takes the time to peruse them carefully and apply their advice to his buying and dressing habits can hardly fail to cut a fine figure and impress those around him with his taste and refinement.

At the Company Christmas Party

2006-12-27T16:16:00.000-05:00

Married

2006-12-21T12:21:00.000-05:00

As of last Saturday, I am happily married to the most wonderful woman in the world. We were married on December 16 at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. You can see a couple of photos from the reception here at the Cavie Family's blog. I will post more pictures when we get them. For now, here's one of my lovely wife, taken in Colonial Williamsburg, VA. Isn't she beautiful?

The Soul of the University

2006-12-04T17:19:00.000-05:00

My friend the Friar has an interesting post over at his blog on the topic of the "dwindling power of the faculty" in universities today.

This touches on something I and another former professor of mine were discussing the other day. In any good university, the soul of what goes on is in the faculty and in the relationship between the teachers and students. The faculty preserve and guard knowledge, while passing it on to future generations of students, some of whom will eventually become teachers themselves. The university can rightly be said to exist for this purpose. Therefore, the job of school administrators and non-academic staff is to facilitate the work of the faculty and the learning of the students.

I think that the recent decline (some would say self-destruction) of my alma mater can be summed up in saying that the above isn't what happened. The president of the college (now the chancellor), did not understand the nature of his role. He assumed that the college was like the organization he had previously founded, which had scores of staff all working to accomplish his ends. Rather than dedicating himself to serving the students and the faculty by creating a place where liberal learning could take place, he assumed that the college existed to serve his goals, ambitions, and plans. Rather than protecting the faculty's space to teach truth in the manner they saw fit, he invaded that space by trying to architect a curriculum on his own model. Rather than understanding himself as part of a complex institution that existed for a purpose outside himself, he saw the college as an extension of himself or a tool he could wield at will. Any criticism of the way things were being done at the college, therefore, he saw as an affront and a personal attack on himself.

Sadly, it seems that this perspective is shared by the new president of the college, as well. Recent reports indicate that the president has said he believes that "honor should be given where it is due." Therefore he is considering handing back to the chancellor much of the power and authority that was seconded from him in his move from president to chancellor. Sad, and ill-advised, but not altogether surprising. The circumstances of the new president's hiring made it clear that he had been handpicked by the now-chancellor to be of like mind.

So, Mr. Chancellor, and Mr. President, listen to this advice: Do not persist in thinking that the college is yours to do with as you please. Do not continue to think that it is a tool you can use to "reclaim America" or some such end. Do not continue to assume that the faculty and the students are there to serve you. Find faculty who are trustworthy and competent (like the ones you alienated), and let them do their jobs. Trust them to teach the truth in their respective disciplines, even if you don't like every word they say or every conclusion their students come to. Dedicate yourselves to serving, rather than being served; to learning, rather than dictating, and there may yet be hope for your college.

Friedman and Freedom

2006-11-16T18:14:00.000-05:00

Economist Milton Friedman died today, at the age of 94. Friedman is much admired by conservatives and libertarians for his work as the leader of the Chicago School of monetary economics. Friedman also wrote much on public policy, with the overarching goal of promoting individual liberty in society.

I have some admiration for the man myself, a remaining influence of my conservative upbringing and education. I am no economist, but Friedman undoubtedly did much to work against the harmful effects of a Keynesian approach to monetary policy and its promotion of a directed economy. However, I find myself increasingly at odds with conservatives, to some extent, and libertarians, to a much greater extent, when they promote individual freedom as the goal of public policy and the greatest good in society.

Part of this disgreement stems from my belief that the individual is not the basic unit of society--that is, all institutions, phenomena, mechanisms, cultures, and such cannot merely or fundamentally be thought of as a bunch of individuals working together in a particular way or for a specific purpose. To look at them through the lens of the individual is potentially to miss the created structure of these institutions as such, and so to misunderstand their nature. For example, a family is an institution created by God with a specific structure--father, mother, children--and ordained for particular roles and ends in the world. It is not merely a collection of individuals who bond together to express and experience love and commitment. Therefore, two men can't be or have a family together--biological considerations aside. Likewise, to assume that government exists to promote the liberty of individuals is to wrongly account for government's existence, structure, and purpose.

A related principle is that any government or institution created by God is obliged to be ordered by God's law. He reveals this law to us in part through nature, and more fully and more clearly in Scripture. The only model of a society ordered by divine law that we have in Scripture is that of Israel in the Old Testament. Looking at the law given to Israel seems to show that promoting right relationships, not individual freedom, is the greatest good in society. Thus a purely free market that takes no account for human selfishness (as sin, not simple economic self-interest) fails to properly restrain man's own impulses that would destroy relationships and twist them for his own purposes.

Now, freedom is not a bad thing. Jesus Christ came to set men free. But freedom, defined wrongly, is an idol that conservatives and liberals and libertarians alike must repent of. Freedom is found in loving submission to the Lord God, and that has implications for all of life. So as you think about the legacy of Milton Friedman, think carefully and critically. His work contains keen insight, but, like any man's, should be examined in light of the Word of God.

Happy Reformation Day!

2006-10-31T12:37:00.000-05:00

This post is dedicated to David Snyder and Matt Brownfield. May we sing together again.

The Reformation Polka
by Robert Gebel

[Sung to the tune of "Supercalifragilistic-expialidocious"]

1. When I was just ein junger Mann I studied canon law;
While Erfurt was a challenge, it was just to please my Pa.
Then came the storm, the lightning struck, I called upon Saint Anne,
I shaved my head, I took my vows, an Augustinian! Oh...

Chorus:
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation
Speak your mind against them and face excommunication!
Nail your theses to the door, let's start a Reformation!
Papal bulls, indulgences, and transubstantiation!

2. When Tetzel came near Wittenberg, St. Peter's profits soared,
I wrote a little notice for the All Saints' Bull'tin board:
"You cannot purchase merits, for we're justified by grace!
Here's 95 more reasons, Brother Tetzel, in your face!" Oh...

[Chorus]

3. They loved my tracts, adored my wit, all were exempleror;
The Pope, however, hauled me up before the Emperor.
"Are these your books? Do you recant?" King Charles did demand,
"I will not change my Diet, Sir, God help me here I stand!" Oh...

[Chorus]

4. Duke Frederick took the Wise approach, responding to my words,
By knighting "George" as hostage in the Kingdom of the Birds.
Use Brother Martin's model if the languages you seek,
Stay locked inside a castle with your Hebrew and your Greek! Oh...

[Chorus]

5. Let's raise our steins and Concord Books while gathered in this place,
And spread the word that 'catholic' is spelled with lower case;
The Word remains unfettered when the Spirit gets his chance,
So come on, Katy, drop your lute, and join us in our dance! Oh...

[Chorus]

Schism

2006-10-25T13:48:00.000-04:00

If you've been under the mistaken impression that Baptists are just a bunch of schismatic heretics, or if you've heard people expressing this opinion, check out this post on the current state of various Anglican bodies in the United States. Whenever churches fail to follow Scripture's model for church government and think that a bishop or a general assembly has authority over their congregation, these kind of separations will naturally ensue.

Words

2006-10-23T17:07:00.000-04:00

I've been tagged by my fiancée, Andrea, with a word meme. Apparently this is some version of those delightful little word-assoctiona icebreaker games where people who don't know each other (and don't really want to) sit uncomfortably in a circle and pretend that the third or fourth thing that came into their heads at the mention of a certain word was actually the first response they thought of. This promises to be a more enjoyable version, I hope.

At any rate, here are the words with which I've been tagged, and my responses:

WEDDING: Andrea; church; lots of planning still to do; ghastly formalwear

BOOK: Library; old friends; learning; too much money spent on Amazon

BREAD: Hot crusty goodness; whole-wheat; Panera

NAP: The thing I wish I could get more of; Rip van Winkle; Sunday afternoons; why don't they furnish cubicles with beds?

I'm afraid thinking about bread and naps has made me too sleepy to think of who else to tag. Oh, well. If you're reading this and you have a blog, consider yourself tagged.

Hymn

2006-10-10T16:41:00.000-04:00

Jerusalem, my happy home!
When shall I come to thee?
When shall my labors have an end,
Thy joys when shall I see?

Thy saints are crowned with glory great;
They see God face to face;
They triumph still, they still rejoice
Most happy is their case.

When shall these eyes thy heaven built walls
And pearly gates behold?
Thy bulwarks, with salvation strong,
And streets of shining gold?

There happier bowers than Eden’s bloom,
Nor sin nor sorrow know:
Blest seats, through rude and stormy scenes,
I onward press to you.

Why should I shrink at pain and woe?
Or feel at death dismay?
I’ve Canaan’s goodly land in view,
And realms of endless day.

From every tribe doth music rise,
All nations form the choir:
Ten thousand times that man were blessed
That might this music hear.

Jerusalem, my happy home!
God grant that I may see
Thine endless joys and of the same
Partaker ever be!

O Christ do Thou my soul prepare
For that bright home of love;
That I may see Thee and adore,
With all Thy saints above.

~Joseph Bromehead, 1748-1826; alt. st. Andrew Sherwood, 2005

John Calvin was a Baptist?

2006-10-04T16:38:00.000-04:00

We Baptists are often criticized by our Reformed friends for our belief that baptism is a profession of the faith of the one being baptized. Such a definition, the argument goes, makes baptism too much an individualistic thing, all about me-'n-Jesus, with no necessary reference to the larger body of Christ. I wonder if they realize that John Calvin said the same about baptism? Granted, Calvin had a lot of other things to say about the significance of baptism, many of which are helpful as well, and which I can happily agree with even as a Reformed Baptist.

From Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, chapter 15:

Baptism serves as our confession before men, in as much as it is a mark by which we openly declare that we wish to be ranked among the people of God, by which we testify that we concur with all Christians in the worship of one God, and in one religion; by which, in short, we publicly assert our faith, so that not only do our hearts breathe, but our tongues also, and all the members of our body, in every way they can, proclaim the praise of God. In this way, as is meet, every thing we have is made subservient to the glory of God, which ought everywhere to be displayed, and others are stimulated by our example to the same course. To this Paul referred when he asked the Corinthians whether or not they had been baptised in the name of Christ, (1 Cor. 1: 13;) intimating, that by the very circumstance of having been baptised in his name, they had devoted themselves to him, had sworn and bound themselves in allegiance to him before men, so that they could no longer confess any other than Christ alone, unless they would abjure the confession which they had made in baptism.

Yes, baptism is more than simply a profession of faith. Calvin knew that, and so do we. It is a sign and seal of God's grace. It is the rite by which one is united to the visible church. It is a symbol of regeneration and a picture of heart circumcision. It is more than merely a profession of faith. But it is inescapably a profession of faith.

On Being Reformed and Baptist

2006-10-03T17:02:00.000-04:00

If you haven't noticed it already, in the comments on one of my recent posts there's a brief discussion of a recent LifeWay poll on Calvinism in the Southern Baptist Convention. This coincides with a recent article on young evangelical Calvinists in Christianity Today. The discussion continues over at Gregory Baus's blog, with his post on Calvinism in the SBC, and in the comments on that post.

Also, David Koyzis wonders if becoming soteriologically Calvinistic mustn't lead Baptists to reconsider other areas of theology, as well. The answer, at least in my case, is yes. An understanding of God's sovereignty in salvation--and especially an understanding of the history of that doctrine--can't help but affect other areas of our thought as well. See my comment on his post for more.

For the Rest of You

2006-09-27T12:02:00.000-04:00

I realize that my previous post on "Online Style" may not be of interest to some folks who just don't like dressing up. Well, here's a link for you too: http://www.businessbibs.com

2006-09-19T10:39:00.000-04:00

Arr.

Online Style

2006-09-15T17:58:00.000-04:00

One of my hobbies is reading and learning about men's clothing and style. Some have said I have a passion for fashion, and, while that has a nice ring, the word "fashion" has some unpleasant connotations that I prefer to avoid.

At any rate, I thought it'd be interesting to do a quick tour of some of the online resources I've found helpful in learning about how to dress well.

Ask Andy About Clothes is a great site with some helpful articles on dressing, but the real treasure here is in the Forums, where hundreds of men (and a few women) talk with an astonishing degree of knowledge about sartorial matters.

The London Lounge is another, similar forum, but devoted more specifically to what's known as "bespoke," or custom-made clothing.

Styleforum is yet another similar forums site, albeit one that I don't visit very often.

There are also several blogs that are fascinating in this category:

The Sartorialist, Scott Schuman, is a New York photographer who is constantly shooting photos of well-dressed people on the streets of the Big Apple.

Film Noir Buff is the pseudonym of a fellow who has written lots of interesting, if overly wordy, essays on clothing and style.

English Cut is the blog of an English tailor, Thomas Mahon, who specializes in bespoke suits. Tom is, if not the first blogging tailor, almost certainly the best-known one.

Martin Stall is another bespoke tailor with a blog, and a friend of Tom Mahon's. He works from the Netherlands.

Desmond Merrion is another British tailor with more great insights on what goes into making a well-done custom suit.

Darren Beaman posts pictures of some of his bespoke creations on his blog, though his has been idle since June.

Solomon Animashaun is a fellow sartorial fan who posts pictures of some of the clothes he likes and owns, though his blog is also idle for the time being.

And that, dear friends, along with a few books I may mention later, is how I came to know as much as I do about dressing well.

To Daniel, whoever you are

2006-09-15T10:16:00.000-04:00

Dear "Daniel":

Just wanted to send you a friendly note, and, since I don't know who you are, I'm posting it on my blog.

Apparently sometime in the last couple of weeks you've inadvertently written down your phone number incorrectly on a form somewhere. Or maybe your business cards were misprinted, and you haven't noticed yet. In any case, you're giving people a phone number that isn't yours. It's mine.

If this were an isolated incident, Daniel, I wouldn't be worried. I've gotten wrong-number calls before when people misdialed the number they intended to call. No big deal. But when I get your phone calls on a near-daily basis, I begin to be slightly annoyed. More than anything, though, I just want to be sure you aren't missing important calls. I mean, who knows? The people who call me expecting to find you could be trying to offer you a new job. Or they could be trying to tell you your housing application has gone through. I don't think I've recognized Ed McMahon's voice (from Publishers' Clearing House) on any of the calls, but who knows what could be next? I think you can see this is a pretty big deal, and I recommend you do something to fix the situation soon. For your own good, and for my sanity's sake.

P.S. If you're my friend Daniel S., and you've given my number out intentionally as a joke, I'll get you.

Housekeeping

2006-09-11T18:12:00.000-04:00

I've pared down my blogroll a bit, the better to indicate which blogs I actually read on a semi-regular basis. I'm toying with breaking it out and categorizing them, but this is it for now.
If you're offended I've left you off, I'm sorry--just send me an email and let me know.

I Belong

2006-09-11T11:26:00.000-04:00

In a very helpful sermon on Ruth 3, yesterday, my pastor Mark Dever asked this probing question: "I wonder whose you would say you are. To whom do you belong? Do you have anyone in your life who directs you, who guides you? Anyone in your life who cares that much? Anyone in your life who points you to the good in the way Naomi did Ruth?"

Mark was directly addressing non-Christians, but the idea of belonging is one that Christians need to remember to think deeply about, as well. As a child, whenever I was about to go spend time with friends and my mother wanted me to be on my best behavior, she often said when I was leaving, "Remember whose you are." She knew that just telling me to behave, to do this or not to do that, would never be as effective as reminding me that what I did and said mattered more than I usually realized. What I did reflected on my family, whose name I share. Most importantly, what I did mattered to the Lord.

I'm reminded again of the wonderful first question and response of the Heidelberg Catechism:

Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death?

Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.

I belong, first and foremost, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

I belong to an earthly family, whose name and blood and history I share; to parents, who have invested their lives in raising me in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

Very soon I will belong to a wonderful wife, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony.

I belong to the 536 saints of God known as Capitol Hill Baptist Church, with whom I have covenanted and pledged to walk together in brotherly love.

Without these belongings, life would be a cold, comfortless, disconnected and frustrating existence. But by the grace of God, I belong. Thanks be to God.

Hymn

2006-09-08T14:28:00.000-04:00

The love of Christ is rich and free;
Fixed on His own eternally;
Nor earth, nor hell, can it remove;
Long as He lives, His own He’ll love

His loving heart engaged to be
Their everlasting Surety;
’Twas love that took their cause in hand,
And love maintains it to the end

Love cannot from its post withdraw;
Nor death, nor hell, nor sin, nor law,
Can turn the Surety’s heart away;
He’ll love His own to endless day

Love has redeemed His sheep with blood;
And love will bring them safe to God;
Love calls them all from death to life;
And love will finish all their strife

He loves through every changing scene,
Nor aught from Him can Zion wean;
Not all the wanderings of her heart
Can make His love for her depart

At death, beyond the grave, He’ll love;
In endless bliss, His own shall prove
The blazing glory of that love
Which never could from them remove

~ William Gadsby, 1773-1844. In 1793, Gadsby joined the Baptist Church at Coventry, and in 1798 began to preach. In 1800, a chapel was built for him at Desford, Leicestershire, and two years later another in the town of Hinckley. In 1805, he moved to Manchester, becoming minister of a chapel in Rochdale Road, where he continued until his death.

The Happy Couple

2006-09-06T14:15:00.000-04:00

Here's a photo of Andrea and me immediately after she accepted my proposal.

I love the (entirely unintentional) composition of this picture with green elements--my shirt, her coat, the fallen leaves, moss on the stones.

"I have thrust myself into this maze...

2006-09-05T10:00:00.000-04:00

...Haply to wive and thrive as best I may."
(W. Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, 1.2.56-7)

Attention, loyal blog readers! As of last Saturday afternoon, I am engaged to be married to the lovely Andrea Ruffner. I asked her to marry me on the grounds of the National Cathedral in Washington, a beautiful place that has become rather special to us. To my delight, she said yes.

Andrea and I met last fall when she began attending Capitol Hill Baptist Church, where I was serving as a pastoral intern for the semester. I had the opportunity to sit in on her membership interview with the pastor, and was immediately interested as I heard her testimony of God's grace in her life. We found shortly thereafter that we had a number of interests in common, including literature, theology, education, and more. Our friendship developed over the next few months, and we began dating in May.

It didn't take me long to realize she is one of God's greatest kindnesses to me, and I've fallen deeply in love with her. As some of you are no doubt thinking, it's true, I'm rather overmatched. She's smarter, better-looking, better-educated, and in every other way outclasses me, but please have pity on me and don't try to talk her out of this.

We look forward to a life spent learning to love one another, serve one another, and live together as an image of Christ and His Church.

Reading

2006-08-28T10:28:00.000-04:00

I've updated my sidebar with a link to my reading list on Allconsuming.net. The old reading list I had posted there hadn't been updated since last December or so, and I figured it was time for a change.

Disclaimer: The times associated with my beginning and ending the various books are not necessarily accurate. That's a list containing books I've been working through for months, as well as some that I've started in the last couple of weeks.

Reformation History

2006-08-25T18:10:00.000-04:00

If you have never studied or read much about the Protestant Reformation, It would be an invaluable way for you better to understand the origins of the various strands of Protestantism that are around today, and a wonderful look at the way God has preserved the witness of the Gospel in His church. Right now I'm reading Diarmid MacCulloch's excellent The Reformation: A History. It's a hefty volume, at 864 pages, but it's excellent. I'm about two hundred pages into it so far, and I'm amazed at MacCulloch's evenhanded treatment of the events, and more importantly the ideas, of the Reformation. Unlike many secular historians today, he takes seriously the idea that people are often moved to do extraordinary things because of what they believe--not simply because of political, social, economic, or psychological factors under the guise of religious belief.

One key selection:

The old Church was immensely strong, and that strength could only have been overcome by the explosive power of an idea. The idea proved to be a new statement of Augustine's ideas on salvation. That is why there is so much description of apparently abstract thought in my account of the Reformation, and why the discussion of this abstract though sometimes has to get extremely intricate. Monarchs, priests, nuns. merchants, farmers, labourers were seized by ideas which tore through their experiences and new memories and made them behave in new ways, sometimes admirable, sometimes monstrous. Social or political history cannot do without theology in understanding the sixteenth century.

Goals

2006-08-18T15:34:00.000-04:00

Like many people, I believe that having goals and intentionally working to achieve them is important. It's a useful way of ordering my life rightly for meaningful ends. The Bible clearly paints a picture of the Christian life that is ordered, disciplined, and working toward one great goal--knowing and loving and glorifying God in Jesus Christ. This is the great end that every Christian is called to, and in some sense all our other goals should be things that aid us in the task of glorifying God and enjoying Him forever.

One interesting and potentially useful web tool for keeping track of goals and desires is 43 Things. It allows you to see how many others are working on the same goal (to a limited extent; they have to be phrased in exactly the same way). I've made a list of goals--some great and all-encompassing, many smaller and less weighty--that you can find here. They appear in no particular order. Whether I use this tool for keeping track of my goals or not, at least the process of thinking through what I want to do and writing some of it down was very helpful.

The Gifts of God for the People of God

2006-08-16T12:30:00.000-04:00

You scored as Calvin. You are John Calvin. You have a Nestorian Christology and separate the Divinity and Humanity of Jesus. You believe only those who have faith are united to Christ, who is present spiritually, yet you call this "Real."

Calvin

88%

Zwingli

69%

Luther

50%

Catholic

13%

Unitarian

Eucharistic theology
created with QuizFarm.com

I don't know about Nestorian Christology--in fact I reject attempts to separate (rather than distinguish) Jesus' humanity and divinity. I have found Calvin's commentary on the Lord's Supper helpful, though.

Wonder Woman?

2006-08-14T22:07:00.000-04:00

Wanna see something funny?

Ok. Go to Technorati.com.
Search for my blog's URL--"http//jeffcavanaugh.blogspot.com"--and see all the blogs that Technorati finds linking to mine.
Now go to page two, and look at the last entry.

Wonder woman? Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman? What on earth does a blog about an upcoming film adaptation of a comic book by the director of such small-screen classics as Buffy the Vampire Slayer have to do with me or my blog?

I'm confused. And, even more frustratingly, I can't find a single reference to my blog on the whole site, not even in its source code.

Maybe Baus can help me out here--he seems to be pretty good at philosophical analysis of comic-book characters.

One Book...

2006-08-14T15:37:00.000-04:00

Last week I saw a book meme on Gideon Strauss' blog, and wondered if it would make it around to me. Looks like it has--I've been tagged byThabiti Anyabwile.

1. One book that changed your life: Grace Unknown: The Heart of Reformed Theology, R.C. Sproul. Credit for this one goes to my dad, who lent me the book when I asked him as a teenager what this "Reformed" thing that I'd been hearing about meant.

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: 1984, George Orwell

3. One book I’d want on a desert island: The biggest collection of Spurgeon's sermons available

4. One book that made me laugh: Right Behind, Nathan Wilson

5. One book that made me cry: A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis

6. One book that you wish had been written: On Baptism, by Polycarp (a disciple of the Apostle John)--in which he explicitly settles the question of whether the church under and immediately following the Apostles baptized infants or not

7. One book you wish had never been written: The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, John Maynard Keynes

8. One book that you are currently reading: The Reformation: A History, Diarmid McCullough

9. One book that you’ve been meaning to read: Biblical Theology, Geerhardus Vos. Own it, read the first few chapters last summer, never finished it.

Now I tag...Emily O'Neal, Kyle Newcomer, and John Letoto.

Broken

2006-08-11T10:12:00.000-04:00

This has got to be one of the greatest sites ever: This Is Broken

Generosity Added to Love

2006-07-27T13:29:00.000-04:00

"She went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love--which is always a tremendous task, dear friends, a mammoth task."

~ O. Henry, The Gift of the Magi.

That phrase--"the ravages made by generosity added to love"--is one of the most beautiful and profound things I've heard in a long time. It stopped me in my tracks when I heard it, and I was so startled by its simple beauty that forgot what I was doing. O. Henry's short story about a young husband and wife who each sacrifice what is most dear to them so they can show generosity to one another is, likewise, one of the more delightful things I've read recently. It's an amazing picture of the generosity and wisdom of love, and a tremendous encouragement to display the sacrificial love of Christ. You can find the text of the story online here, and an audio recording here.

Seersucker Style

2006-07-25T18:12:00.000-04:00

At the risk of being censured for self-promotion, I refer you here for a story in the Washington Times on the popularity of seersucker suits in Washington which quotes me. It's not a bad article, all things considered.

God's Grandeur

2006-07-24T11:45:00.000-04:00

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

~ GMH.

Bavinck on Calvin on Common Grace

2006-07-18T17:46:00.000-04:00

"[Because of God's common grace], not only is an orderly civil society made possible among men, but arts and sciences develop, which are not to be despised. For these should be considered gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is true the Holy Spirit as a spirit of sanctification dwells in believers only, but as a spirit of life, of wisdom and of power He works also in those who do not believe. No Christian, therefore, should despise these gifts; on the contrary, he should honor art and science, music and philosophy and various other products of the human mind as praestantissima Spiritus dona [most outstanding gifts of the Spirit], and make the most of them for his own personal use."

~ Herman Bavinck, Calvin and Common Grace, tr. Geerhardus Vos

Consumer Worship

2006-07-12T18:03:00.000-04:00

John Parker, a priest in the Orthodox Church in America, has an excellent article on church worship services in this month's issue of Touchstone Magazine. Therein, he discusses the increasing market-driven commodification of many modern Christian worship services. Churches today are determining what they do in their public services (and when and where they hold the services) by what the consumers--baptized, believing members or not--want, rather than by the Word of God and tradition. As a result, they have forgotten that the audience of worship is the triune God, and that the purpose of the church's public gatherings is primarily for God's people to worship Him corporately and to be built up in faith by Word and sacrament. Though Rev. Parker and I would undoubtedly come to significantly different conclusions regarding the details of the worship service, we share the fundamental perspective that it is for the Church, not "seekers" or "consumers" or "the unchurched." And it is God who determines how his people are to approach him--not the latest fad or gimmick that will get people in the doors.

Redemption Through Christ

2006-07-06T11:14:00.000-04:00

THE second Adam, sov'reign Lord of all,
Did, by his Father's authorizing call,
From bosom of eternal love descend,
To save the guilty race that him offend;
To treat an everlasting peace with those,
Who were, and ever would have been his foes.
His errand, never-ending life to give
To them, whose malice would not let him live;
To make a match with rebels, and espouse
The brat which at his love her spite avows.
Himself he humbled, to depress her pride,
And make his mortal foe his loving bride.
But, ere there marriage can be solemniz'd,
All lets must be remov'd, all parties pleas'd.
Law-righteousness requir'd, must be procur'd,
Law-vengeance threatned, must be full endur'd,
Stern justice must have credit by the match,
Sweet mercy by the heart the bride must catch.
Poor Bankrupt! all her debt must first be paid,
Her former husband in the grave be laid:
Her present Lover must be at the cost,
To save and ransom to the uttermost.
If all these things this Suitor kind can do,
Then he may win her, and her blessing too.
Hard terms indeed! while death's the first demand:
But love is strong as death, to take the upper hand
To carry on the suit, and make it good,
Though at the dearest rate of wounds and blood.
The burden's heavy, but the back is broad,
The glorious Lover is the mighty God.

~The first part of one of several "Gospel Sonnets" by Ralph Erskine [1685-1752], an 18th-century Scottish preacher and pastor. The son of a Puritan minister who was forced out of his living by the 1662 Act of Uniformity, Erskine pastored--first Dumferline Abbey, then Queen Street Church--for over forty years. Throughout his life, Erskine was dedicated to expositional preaching and considered it the most important work of his ministry. He was also a gifted poet, and was fond of setting forth systems of divinity and engaging false doctrine in verse.

Visually Speaking

2006-06-28T18:07:00.000-04:00

This is my blog's source code, rendered graphically. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but it looks pretty cool. Get your own here.

Hymn

2006-06-28T16:13:00.000-04:00

Come, let us join our cheerful songs
with angels round the throne.
ten thousand thousand are their tongues,
but all their joys are one.

"Worthy the Lamb that died," they cry,
"to be exalted thus!"
"Worthy the Lamb," our hearts reply,
"for he was slain for us!"

Jesus is worthy to receive
honor and power divine;
and blessings more than we can give,
be, Lord, forever thine.

Let all that dwell above the sky,
and air, and earth, and seas,
conspire to lift thy glories high,
and speak thine endless praise!

The whole creation join in one,
to bless the sacred Name
of him who sits upon the throne,
and to adore the Lamb.

~ Isaac Watts, 1674-1748

Watts’ father was Nonconformist imprisoned twice for his religious views. Isaac learned Greek, Latin, and Hebrew under Mr. Pinhorn, Rector of All Saints, and headmaster of the Grammar School in Southampton. Isaac’s taste for verse showed itself in early childhood, and his promise caused a local doctor and other friends to offer him a university education, assuming he would be ordained in the Church of England. However, Isaac declined and instead entered a Nonconformist Academy...

Writing

2006-06-23T18:03:00.000-04:00

When you write copy you have the right to copyright the copy you write, if the copy is right. If however, your copy falls over, you must right your copy. If you write religious services you write rite, and have the right to copyright the rite you write. Very conservative people write right copy, and have the right to copyright the right copy they write. A right wing cleric would write right rite, and has the right to copyright the right rite he has the right to write. His editor has the job of making the right rite copy right before the copyright can be right. Should Jim Wright decide to write right rite, then Wright would write right rite, which Wright has the right to copyright. Duplicating that rite would copy Wright right rite, and violate copyright, which Wright would have the right to right. Right?

Why Blog Post Frequency Does Not Matter Anymore

2006-06-23T17:00:00.000-04:00

Whew.

Blogging Apostasy?

2006-06-22T12:12:00.000-04:00

A disgrace to humanity no more, David Cooper is back on the blogging wagon. He's covering events within the Episcopal Church (USA), which in the last couple of weeks has been continuing to pursue apostasy hand over fist at its annual General Convention. It seems the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians (USA) are competing for the honor of being the least recognizably Christian denomination in the US.

My heart and prayers go out to all the local churches (to say nothing of individual members) who are fighting to preserve an orthodox witness to the Gospel within their denominations. Don't stop fighting heresy--whether you elect to do it from within or without.

Hymn

2006-05-30T16:03:00.000-04:00

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heav'nly hosts;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Praise God, to Whom all blessings be;
Praise Him, who stand on His decree;
Praise Him Who hath redeemed thy soul;
Praise God, His virtues now extol.

Praise God, in Whom all blessings rest;
Praise Him, His faithfulness attest;
Praise Him with joyful, rev'rent tune;
Praise Holy Godhead, all triune.

~First verse, Thomas Ken, 1837-1711. Ken trained at Winchester and New College, Oxford, and was ordained an Anglican priest in 1662. In 1663, he became Rector of Little Easton, and Rector of Woodhay and Prebendary of Winchester in 1669. He published a Manual of Prayers, for the use of the scholars of Winchester College, in 1674. He was briefly chaplain to Princess Mary, and later to the British fleet. He became Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1685. He was one of several bishops imprisoned in the Tower of London for refusing to sign James II’s “Declaration of Indulgence” (hoping to restore Catholicism in England); he was tried and acquitted. Ken wrote much poetry, published posthumously in 1721.

Second and third verses, my own.

Well Said

2006-05-24T14:40:00.000-04:00

Judah gets it. So does Kevin. So do Missy and Galen. There's a pattern here.

Why doesn't Patrick Henry College's administration get it?

Alma Mater Cecidit

2006-05-15T15:15:00.000-04:00

Recent events at Patrick Henry College, whence I graduated last year, have sparked quite a bit of media coverage. I will refrain from commenting for now, but here are some of the stories for your perusal:

Chronicle of Higher Education

Christianity Today

Leesburg Today

Andrew Sullivan

Marc Fisher (Wash. Post)

More About This Blog

2006-05-12T22:48:00.000-04:00

I have more thoughts related to my earlier musings on what to do with this blog. As I am someone who intends to go to seminary in the not-too-distant future and hopes to be the main preaching elder at a church someday, it would seem obvious that this space would be a good place for me to develop my skills in biblical exposition and sermonizing. After all, that's what lots of pastors and aspiring pastors do with their blogs. Pick a text, and write on it. To some folks, it might seem odd that I would choose to write on they might consider lesser subjects than the Bible.

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Nostalgia

2006-05-11T08:44:00.000-04:00

Remember the good old days when Napster was free, and you could tie up your home phone line for hours at a time downloading music at what now seems like a snail's pace? Well, the good old days are back, sorta. In an effort to break into Apple's stranglehold on the music-downloading business, Napster now allows registered users to listen to a song five times for free, after which you can buy it or pay Napster's subscription fee for unlimited access to music. Not quite as good as the days before RIAA went crazy, but that's still a lot of free music. Check it out.

Hat tip: Stephen & Sarah.

Science (fiction) and faith

2006-05-10T14:56:00.000-04:00

If you like science fiction, check out Arthur C. Clarke's short story, The Star. Clarke explores the centuries old-question of the relationship between science and faith, in a story that is as powerful and startling as it is brief. Clarke won a Hugo Award in 1956 for this story.

Sci-fi has never made much of an impact among the great works of western literature, with only the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne available in the "classics" section of your local library or bookstore. Nonetheless, I think the genre has gotten short shrift and is capable of carrying the same literary weight as other forms of fiction. Though lots of the sci-fi that is out there is written purely for entertainment and in that respect aspires little higher than a Harlequin romance, many sci-fi novels are quite well written and explore important social, philosophical, and personal issues. One good example is my favorite modern sci-fi author, Timothy Zahn, who in his recent novels has explored marriage and irony.

Currently reading

2006-05-08T21:29:00.000-04:00

There are in fact quite a number of things I'm currently reading, including Preachers and Preaching, Mind: A Brief Introduction, The Cross-Centered Life, Beyond the Fall of Night, and From Embers to a Flame: How God Can Revitalize Your Church, just to name a few. I have a habit of starting a book before I finish the one(s) I was already working through, and sometimes it makes it seem like quite a triumph to actually finish one.

At any rate, a smaller work I've discovered recently is an article by Herman Bavinck called Calvin and Common Grace. I've long been interested in the doctrine of common grace and what various theologians and Christian authors think of its importance, and this is, so far, an interesting treatment of the subject in manageable size. Bavinck takes a high view of the value of learning from the wisdom of so-called pagans:

The good philosophical thoughts and ethical precepts found scattered through the pagan world receive in Christ their unity and center. They stand for the desire which in Christ finds its satisfaction; they represent the question to which Christ gives the answer; they are the idea of which Christ furnishes the reality. The pagan world, especially in its philosophy, is a pedagogy unto Christ; Aristotle, like John the Baptist, is the forerunner of Christ. It behooves the Christians to enrich their temple with the vessels of the Egyptians and to adorn the crown of Christ, their king, with the pearls brought up from the sea of paganism.

Hymn

2006-05-04T10:58:00.000-04:00

O day of rest and gladness, of day of joy and light,
O balm of care and sadness, most beautiful, most bright:
On Thee, the high and lowly, through ages joined in tune,
Sing holy, holy, holy, to the great God Triune.

On Thee, at the creation, the light first had its birth;
On Thee, for our salvation, Christ rose from depths of earth;
On Thee, our Lord, victorious, the Spirit sent from heaven,
And thus on Thee, most glorious, a triple light was given.

Thou art a port, protected from storms that round us rise;
A garden, intersected with streams of paradise;
Thou art a cooling fountain in life’s dry, dreary sand;
From thee, like Pisgah’s mountain, we view our promised land.

Thou art a holy ladder, where angels go and come;
Each Sunday finds us gladder, nearer to heaven, our home;
A day of sweet refection, thou art a day of love,
A day of resurrection from earth to things above.

Today on weary nations the heavenly manna falls;
To holy convocations the silver trumpet calls,
Where Gospel light is glowing with pure and radiant beams,
And living water flowing, with soul refreshing streams.

New graces ever gaining from this our day of rest,
We reach the rest remaining to spirits of the blessed.
To Holy Ghost be praises, to Father, and to Son;
The church her voice upraises to Thee, blessed Three in One.

~ Christopher Wordsworth, 1807-1885

Nephew of poet William Wordsworth, Christopher was both a scholar and athlete in his student days. Later, he served as headmaster of Harrow Boys School (1836-1850), which Winston Churchill would attend a century or so later. Wordsworth was also Vicar at Stanford-in-the-Vale, Berkshire (1850-1869), and Archdeacon of Westminster, and became Bishop of Lincoln in 1868. A recognized Greek scholar, he also wrote theological and other works. Of his hymns, he said, “It is the first duty of a hymn to teach sound doctrine and thence to save souls.”

Two-year review

2006-05-03T10:59:00.000-04:00

You may have noticed that things have been somewhat quiescent here on my blog for the last few months. Part of the reason for that, I'm sure, is simple laziness. A great deal of it, however, is the fact that I'm sort of at a loss as to what I should be doing with this project.

I started it two years ago in hopes that it would do for me something no journal has ever done: exercise and develop my writing skills by giving me a space in which to publish things I write. While the blog has therefore been for myself as much as anyone else, I had hoped that the semi-public nature of the thing would motivate me to keep it up and write regularly.

Well, it's been two years now, and I think the results have been mixed. There have been periods when I posted rather frequently. Working an overnight security shift for a semester and needing something to keep me awake helped that. So did my internship at the church in which I wrote 3000-5000 words a week. There have also been periods, though, where posting was much less frequent and substantially less substantial.

I want to keep the blog going, because it has been a good exercise for me, even if I haven't always kept it updated frequently. I certainly have written more than I would have without it. The trouble is that I'm not sure what to do with it. I've never been comfortable with using it as an online diary, the way some folks do with their blogs. Anyone who has been around the blogosphere for very long is familiar with the divide between linkers and thinkers--that is, between those who mainly link to interesting work produced by others and those who mainly write down their own thoughts. I've tried to be mainly a thinker, but consistently producing interesting original material is hard work. My respect for those who write regular columns has risen immensely since I started blogging.

Over the last two years, I've covered a wide range of subjects with my posts, including politics, philosophy, theology, ecclesiology, book and film reviews, poetry and literature, and more. Though it reflects the broad range of my interests, I'm not quite satisfied with this, and I think I would benefit from focusing my writing more narrowly on a specific discipline, topic, or field of interest. It might give me an incentive to do more specific, focused study and research than I've done before. I think it would also make my blog more interesting, at least to some people, than the average ramblings of an armchair philosopher--which you can find on literally thousands of personal blogs. I guess I need a thesis for my blog. Trouble is, I'm not sure what that should be.

So, until I solve this problem and figure out what exactly to do with this thing that occupies my free time and doesn't make me any money, I suspect it'll continue mostly as it has up to this point--a somewhat meandering window on the things I'm thinking, reading, and writing.

Hymn

2006-05-02T13:48:00.000-04:00

Poor sinner, dejected with fear,
Unbosom thy mind to the Lamb;
No wrath on His brow He does wear,
Nor will He poor mourners condemn;
His arm of omnipotent grace
Is able and willing to save;
A sweet and a permanent peace
He’ll freely and faithfully give.

Come just as thou art, with thy woe,
Fall down at the feet of the Lamb;
He will not, He cannot say, “Go”,
But surely will take out thy stain
A fountain is opened for sin,
And thousands its virtues have proved
He’ll take thee, and plunge thee therein,
And wash thee from filth in His blood.

The soul that on Jesus relies,
He’ll never, no never deceive;
He freely and faithfully gives
More blessings than we can conceive;
Yea, down to old age He will keep,
Nor will He forsake us at last;
He knows and is known by His sheep;
They’re His, and He will hold them fast.

~William Gadsby, 1773-1844

In 1793, Gadsby joined the Baptist Church at Coventry, and in 1798 began to preach. In 1800, a chapel was built for him at Desford, Leicestershire, and two years later another in the town of Hinckley. In 1805, he moved to Manchester, becoming minister of a chapel in Rochdale Road, where he continued until his death. (source: cyberhymnal.org)

Dancing Words

2006-04-26T17:00:00.000-04:00

In honor of National Poetry Month, which I just recently found out about, here are a couple of selections from one of my favorite poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Summa

THE BEST ideal is the true
And other truth is none.
All glory be ascribèd to
The holy Three in One.

The Windhover
To Christ Our Lord

I CAUGHT this morning mornings minion, king-
dom of daylights dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skates heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

The Examined Life

2006-04-25T21:36:00.000-04:00

A sermon preached on April 23, 2006, in the evening service at Capitol Hill Baptist Church

Lamentations 3:40 – “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.”

About two and a half millennia ago, while on trial for his life before the citizens of Athens, charged with atheism and corrupting the city’s youth, the Greek philosopher Socrates offered a defense of the life he had lived. His actions and his words, the things that had gotten him in trouble, he said were the product of his philosophical, contemplative way of life, of his pursuit of the truth. From this defense comes what may be his most famous statement: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” He showed that he truly believed that statement, as he chose to have a death sentence carried out on him rather than go into exile or change his way of life.

Well, what do you think? Is Socrates right? Is self-examination the key to the good life, the only kind of life that is worth living? It certainly doesn’t seem that most people in our society today live as though this were the case. Among the things that we often turn to for meaning, fulfillment, and a happy life—money, possessions, pleasure, work, whatever—contemplation and self-examination probably doesn’t rate very high on the list. In some ways, one might say our society isn't altogether different from the one with which Socrates clashed so many years ago.

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Christianity and Films

2006-04-12T10:11:00.000-04:00

My friend Thomas, an aspiring filmmaker and one of the most creative men I know, often posts on a Christian approach to film and art over at his blog, Trinity Station. Examples here, here, and here. He always has good things to say (or at least interesting links).

Also of interest on this topic, and what prompted me to do this post, are a couple of episodes of the White Horse Inn radio show where the hosts interview Brian Godawa, a Reformed Christian screenwriter who did the film To End All Wars. Their conversation with Brian focuses mainly on how to engage with and interpret films as a Christian on a more substantive level than simply counting how many times the F-word occur in them. The interview is well worth your time, and can be found here and here. Godawa also appears to have a movie blog over at the Chalcedon Foundation's website, which I just discovered and haven't yet had time to browse much.

2006-03-21T14:42:00.000-05:00

I may have posted this before, but it's worth doing again. Check out the Semi-Pelagian Narrower Catechism. It's a hoot.

Doctrine quiz

2006-03-20T21:51:00.000-05:00

How well do you know basic Christian doctrine? Try your hand at this quiz from the White Horse Inn. Answers to follow later.

Questions About God and Christ (Answer True or False)
1. Jesus was God, but only appeared to be human.
2. Jesus was the first of all God’s created beings.
3. Jesus had a human body and divine soul.
4. In the Old Testament, God was known as the Father, in the New Testament, as the Son, and after Pentecost, as the Holy Spirit.
5. Mary is the mother of God.
6. God chooses people because he knows in advance they will choose him.

Questions About Salvation (Answer True or False)
7. The only way we can be saved is by the perfect conformity to the law of God.
8. We are saved by grace after all that we can do.
9. I am saved because of my decision to accept Christ.
10. God is so sovereign, he can change his mind.
11. The Bible teaches that there is an age of accountability, and that children who die before this age go to heaven because they are innocent.
12. If I die with unconfessed sin, I will not go to heaven.
13. The main motivation for holiness is fear of punishment and hope of reward.
14. God cannot hold someone guilty for the sins of another.
15. Justification is the process by which a person, through faith in Christ and sorrow for his sins, receives the gift of the Holy Spirit and so becomes a child of God.
16. God cannot require of us anything which cannot be performed.
17. True Christians believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible.
18. God helps those who help themselves is a biblically sound principle.
19. Though no one is perfect, the Lord looks on the heart to see who really loves him

John Piper, Thug Style

2006-03-07T21:10:00.000-05:00

John Piper, Alistair Begg, and others get into the hip-hop scene. I'm gonna see if I can get Mark to do his next sermon to some beats. 2 Corinthians 8, anyone?

TL4L!

Calvinist?

2006-02-20T14:24:00.000-05:00

"We would like to spell out what we believe the Scripture teaches on these five points. Our great desire is to honor God by understanding and believing his truth revealed in Scripture. We are open to changing any of our ideas which can be shown to contradict the truth of Scripture. We do not have any vested interest in John Calvin himself, and we find some of what he taught to be wrong. But in general we are willing to let ourselves be called Calvinists on the five points, because we find the Calvinist position to be Biblical.

"We share the sentiments of Jonathan Edwards who said in the Preface to his great book on THE FREEDOM OF THE WILL, 'I should not take it at all amiss, to be called a Calvinist, for distinction's sake: though I utterly disclaim a dependence on Calvin, or believing the doctrines which I hold, because he believed and taught them; and cannot justly be charged with believing in every thing just as he taught.'"

~Bethlehem Baptist Church staff, "What We Believe About the Five Points of Calvinism"

Evangelicals and C.S. Lewis

2006-01-29T21:09:00.000-05:00

This evening on the way to the evening service at church, my friend who's from Northern Ireland asked my opinion of an interesting phenomenon he's noticed. Evangelicals in the U.S., he points out, generally love the writings of C.S. Lewis, and look to him in many respects as something of a spiritual mentor or guide. Lewis, however, was not himself an evangelical, and had some theological views that most evangelicals today would find troubling. In Britain, it seems, most evangelicals are aware of this, and while they might appreciate some of Lewis' works, they wouldn't nearly treat him as much of a patron saint as Americans do. Why, then, is it that your average American evangelical would probably tend to trust Lewis as someone whose writings are generally faithful to Scripture and trustworthy?

I have enjoyed several of Lewis' works myself, and I appreciate the gift of clear, thoughtful, imaginative communication that God clearly bestowed on him, but I'm curious about this. Is it that American Christians are generally fairly theologically ignorant and undiscriminating? Maybe the average member of Wherever Bible Church wouldn't expect to get along with an Episcopalian spiritually, but, not knowing much about Lewis' affiliation, doesn't know or care enough about theology to know problematic material when he or she reads it?

I'm just musing here, and I'm curious to know what others think. Why do you think American evangelicals regard Lewis so highly?

T4G Blog

2006-01-21T15:57:00.000-05:00

I don't often plug others's blogs (I let my blogroll in the sidebar do that for me), but here's one you must see: the Together for the Gospel Blog. Mark Dever, Al Mohler, C.J. Mahaney, and Lig Duncan, all blogging together. Great stuff. Hanging out with any one of these men is quite an experience (well, I haven't met Lig yet), but get two or more of them in a room together, and buckle your seatbelts! Read this blog, and it'll be almost like spending time with them.

Honestly, I'm just amused by the fact that Mark Dever--who doesn't even own a cell phone--is now blogging.

A ministry opportunity for you (shameless begging)

2006-01-20T17:41:00.000-05:00

Beloved readers, the internship that produced so much of the material you've seen in this space in recent months has come to a close. That means I'm hunting for a job at the moment, and it also means I'm flat broke. So, if you feel so inclined, donations in support of this blog and its author would be most welcome. You could be building the Kingdom of God, too, by supporting a would-be future pastor.

More on Elders and Baptists

2006-01-12T11:06:00.000-05:00

My friend Randa asks a good question in the comments on my last post. Where do I find in scripture that elder leadership should be in a congregational context? Where does the Bible teach that the whole church ultimately has responsibility for issues of discipline and doctrine? I thought the answer was worth a blog post in its own right, as it's a bit more lengthy than would suit a comment.

I draw a distinction between normal leadership and ultimate authority. God has indeed given elders to his church to lead and shepherd the flock. Those who are Godly men, apt to teach, especially those who normally have the responsibility of publicly teaching the Word of God, are to be the ones who lead, shape and guide the church in its normal life. Church members, in turn, have an obligation to submit to and obey the leaders God has given them, so long as they don't teach or practice contra the Scriptures.

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Baptists and Elders

2006-01-05T13:48:00.000-05:00

Another essay from my recently-completed internship at Capitol Hill Baptist Church

In today’s evangelical world, it seems most people don’t give a lot of thought to how the Bible says that the church should be governed and led. For those in established denominations, those conversations are several hundred years in the past. For those in non-denominational churches, the assumption seems to be that whatever works or is most effective is generally what should be done. As Mark Dever makes clear in the last chapter of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, however, God has in fact given us a pattern for church leadership in His Word, the Bible. Those of us who value the Bible and intend to submit to its rule in all of faith and life would do well to understand and follow the Biblical model of church leadership.

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Theological humor

2005-12-25T21:55:00.000-05:00

Hat tip to Kent Hendricks.

It just so happened one day that Karl Barth, Paul Tillich,
and Reinhold Niebuhr find themselves all at the same time
at Caesarea Philippi. And who should come along but Jesus,
and he asks these three famous theologians, "Who do you
say that I am?"

Karl Barth stands up and says: "You are the 'wholly other,'
the vestigious trinitatum who speaks to us in the modality
of Christomonism."

Following this, Paul Tillich states: "You are he who heals
our ambiguities and overcomes the split of angst and
existential estrangement; you are he who speaks of the
theonomous viewpoint of the analogia entis, the analogy of
our being and the ground of all possibilities."

Reinhold Niebuhr gives a cough for effect and says, in one
breath: "You are the impossible possibility who brings to us,
your children of light and children of darkness, the
overwhelming oughtness in the midst of our fraught condition
of estrangement and brokenness in the contiguity and
existential anxieties of our ontological relationships."

And Jesus looks at them and says, "What?"