Monthly Archives: December 2011

Things I didn’t say on Facebook: Voter Photo ID

Posted by on 28 Dec 2011 Comments Off on Things I didn’t say on Facebook: Voter Photo ID

After a friend posted the following:

……….from Larry Winget: “You have to show a photo ID to use a credit card at most stores, to buy liquor and cigarettes, to get on a plane and do most other things yet some think it is a violation of your rights to have to show one to vote. I am dumbfounded by this.”

This was the response I wanted to make:

I agree with that sentiment as far as it goes. The other side of photo ID is the cost to the individual to get one. Solve the problem of losing a day’s wages (or your job) to go stand in line and get a photo ID and I think we have a workable system. If you already have a photo ID and can’t see the problem here then you are playing the part of the rich, landed gentleman poo-pooing the poll tax.

I am a Hopeful Person

Posted by on 19 Dec 2011 Comments Off on I am a Hopeful Person

Henry Neufeld on his hope that Christopher Hitchens — and indeed many people we write off as not meriting God’s grace — might be in heaven.

I’m not a universalist, but I am a hopeful person.

via Christopher Hitchens Dies « Threads from Henry’s Web.

Self-Congratulatory Holiness

Posted by on 6 Dec 2011 Comments Off on Self-Congratulatory Holiness

This turn of phrase was tasty and polysyllabic enough that I wanted to repeat it.

…Ostentatious performances of self-congratulatory holiness…

via slacktivist » An open letter to Rachel Held Evans.

Is Saturn the Greater Light?

Posted by on 4 Dec 2011 Comments Off on Is Saturn the Greater Light?

Putting this quote from Dennis Venema here just so I don’t lose track of it.

One issue of potential concern during Calvin’s time was the growing understanding of the relative sizes of the various heavenly bodies. For example, astronomers had determined that Saturn was in fact much larger than our own moon. While this comes as no surprise to us now, nor of any theological importance, at that time this discovery was seen by some in the church to contradict the Genesis proclamation that the sun and moon were the “greater” and “lesser” lights created by God. If indeed Saturn was larger than the moon, would not it be named as the “lesser” light instead? While it might be tempting in the present to dismiss this discussion as trivial, we must remember that for its day, this was a significant concern for some. Which was correct? Science, or Scripture?

via Driscoll, Darwin and Doctrine, Part 1: Science or sola Scriptura? | The BioLogos Forum.