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Don't delay - vote today - to delay.
Dave Benke
This is a matter of trivia. Anybody know what translation or edition of the Bible President Biden used today? I was reported to be 172 (best I can I recall) years old and from his family. It appeared to be very, very old and 5-6 inches thick.
Peace, JOHN
My guess would be the Vulgate. Wasn't that the only Bible for Roman Catholics back then?
Upon further research, the Douay-Rheims Bible is an English translation from the Vulgate that was first completed in 1610. It was revised by Richard Challoner (1691–1781) in the mid 1700s.
Douay-Rheims clearly visible on the spine:
https://i.redd.it/cbls05v19kc61.jpg
I'm not usually a fan of performance versions of the National Anthem, and I barely know who Lady Gaga is. But IMO, she indeed nailed it.
Is anyone familiar with the argument that the word "indivisible" in the Pledge was written against Southern sentiment of the day that still thought that states had the right to secede from the Union? I don't know where I heard this or if there is any validity to it.
As I continue to monitor the news I hear that law enforcement is ramping up in anticipation of even more protests and possible violence. I don't know if it will occur, or if it's just heated online rhetoric, but after last week I understand why they must be proactive this time and prepare for the worst.
But underneath all this is a seething anger. And I'm not just referring to the so-called far right. We saw it last summer in the repeated protests and violence in cities all over the country. Some encouraged and justified the anger then. Now it is roundly condemned. But regardless it remains.
An article from last September by Cal Thomas taps into these questions in "Why So Much Anger?" He notes: "People who are angry at government, instead of looking to Washington, should be looking in the mirror.
There have been injustices as long as humans have walked the Earth. The U.S. government has tried mightily and at great expense to fix them, but most are matters of the heart, not matters for politicians.
If the latter, would not those injustices by now have been solved? While it is possible for government to impose or tolerate immorality, it is close to impossible to impose its opposite. This is the role of churches and of individuals making the right decisions for themselves and their families."
https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/09/17/why-so-much-anger/
Now this was written before the events of last week, but I think that the anger issue is similar. At its heart is the ability and willingness of people to suffer perceived injustice. The psalmists cry out "How long?" waiting for vindication from God against their enemies. Even in Revelation we hear a similar cry: "They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6:10). God's people have long lived under injustice in a broken and sinful world.
In the spirit of this thread I believe that that the church has a heightened responsibility in the midst of this angry turmoil that has engulfed our nation to call for patience in the midst of injustice, prayer for those who hurt us (Luke 6:28), and intercessions for our leaders to make wise decisions. We, as the church, are not called to 'fix Caesar,' if I might coin a phrase. We are not called to push Caesar to do what we want him to do and apply our own political pressure. We are called to proclaim the Prince of Peace in the midst of a violent and angry world, and if we do not point people to Him, we fail to give real hope. We are also called to live lives of Christ-like love in our own contexts and communities. It starts there, not in Washington.
People of faith from the left and the right have too often put their "trust in princes" who "cannot save"(Psalm 146:3). We have turned away from the transcendent and almighty God forgetting that "when their spirit departs, they return to the ground;on that very day their plans come to nothing."
Church leaders may choose to call for impeachment and removal of the president. And if he is removed, which seems a bit unlikely at the moment given the very short time he has left, will we feel that the ongoing anger that flows under our nation will then disappear? Will we believe that once Trump is no longer there that violence will no longer occur? Do we believe that Biden is the chosen deliverer that can miraculously calm the troubled waters of a deeply divided nation?
We believe that God has given us the Kingdom of the Left as a First Article gift for our protection. But ultimately it is to God, not princes, that we look in trust. It is to Him that we pray in the midst of an unhealthy anger consuming people from both ends of the spectrum. Let not the church be consumed with the rest of fallen humanity.
Excellent, thoughtful, and wise.Amen to what Bishop/Pastor Benke just said. And I hope my agreeing with him doesn’t hurt his reputation. But sometimes you have to go for rigorous honesty.
Here's an article written at the beginning of 1963 by Martin Franzmann, prior to the first prominent assassination of the 60's later that year. It's really a treatise on Christian witness and understanding of the times and our place in them. In an era before the use/overuse of the Two Kingdoms aspects of Luther's theology, this heads down the catechetical line in which a lot of us oldsters were trained,namely that the all unrest - personal, communal, national, global, creational - comes under our First Article lives, which are, for us, tempered by and seen through the Second Article of the Creed. As this New Year has crashed and burned already, it's appropriate on January 11:
https://concordiatheology.org/2021/01/the-new-year-and-all-things/
Dave Benke
Something I read today fits in here. The Parler removal thing (and I had not heard of Parler before this week personally) by Apple/Amazon is subsequent to Parler having lost a lot of its ultra-conservative base because it had become an echo chamber, with no one participating who was on the other side on issues, until a bounty of like $20000 was raised by Parler to bring others - Democrats? - onto the site so it would be more interesting. Being paid to have arguments seems to me a sign of the times, no? "I know what I believe, and I know it's right, but I don't have anyone to shout at." So somebody pays people to bring people to provide the shouting match.
Which goes to a point for alpb forum online. I think we should pay people to argue for let's say a fifteen post back and forth, and then vote on who won. The alpb board would set up the arguments based on polls and surveys - wearing masks, nuclear war, acceptable pronouns, etc. We would publish the results, go on talk TV of any kind, and make a good deal of money for ALPB. Our claim would be that in the 21st century, this is how we do evangelical theology.
