Women's Ordination

William Witt's Article Series on Women's Ordination

John Piper and Wayne Grudem's Complementarianism

Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE): Free Articles

The Rise and Fall of the Political Ultra-Rich

The Rise of the Political Ultra-Rich

The most important statement made in this article is the heading of the final paragraph: "How establishment Republicans are trying to survive Tea Party challenges." This is the most telling data point of the whole piece. It clues us in to the reality of the situation: the Supreme Court's decision doesn't affect the Rep-Dem stranglehold on political posturing. The writer indicated that there will be a short-term benefit to Reps but that it would only be short, really short.

So in the least pontificated "paragraph" of the article do we find an exquisite exposition of the incredible implications? No. It reads almost as if the article was truncated. It ends abruptly.

So in the spirit of charitable free-lance, allow me to finish the article which was just starting to get good before it got gone.

How establishment Republicans are trying to survive Tea Party challenges

Turning to Senate contests, we’re seeing examples of how establishment Republicans are trying to survive Tea Party challenges. In North Carolina, American Crossroads is airing a TV ad for establishment GOPer Tom Tillis highlighting his work for voter ID laws. And in Mississippi, Thad Cochran is using guns and abortion as way to strengthen his conservative bona fides.

But saying that they are merely challenges is to obfuscate the symptoms with the source of those challenges. As indicated earlier in the article, the power of influence is via the power of the dollar, traditionally speaking. However the "Republicans" of today are less traditional. In fact, this is a problem for establishment Democrats as well. The establishment's base of support is dwindling due to changes in the culture, largely brought about by reactionary changes from generation to generation as well as the technological changes that have sparked the information revolution.

The response is revolutionary. What is becoming ever obvious to ordinary citizens is that the bureaucratic machine continues to polarize the public and pander to the politically minded. The establishmentarians fail to realize that the new generation of collective, political activism known broadly as the Tea Party is an idealist, intellectually-grounded, free-thinking, and politically-centrist movement of ideologues that cannot be bought by anachronistic advertising. They deal in the currency of ideas. They are neither republican, nor democrat. They are neither conservative, nor liberal. They desire the one thing that a bureaucratic machine cannot deliver: freedom. And like their forefathers, they are ready to fight for it.

Billions of dollars spent on smear campaigns won't deter the coming tide. If the establishment will not change to suit their constituents, their constituents will change the establishment. The rise of the political ultra-rich is also, paradoxically, the fall of the political ultra-rich.

Anglican Bios (wiki)

(T) Listed as "formative Anglican divines" in an article by the Very Rev. Dr. Justyn Terry on TSM website.
(W) Listed as a "founder of Anglican theological thought" on Wikipedia bio for Hooker.

Thomas Cranmer (T)(W)
Richard Hooker (T)(W)
Lancelot Andrewes (T)
John Jewel (W)

Notable martyred Anglican bishops:
Cranmer "the great man of learning"
Ridley "an able theologian"
Latimer "the great preacher among the Reformers"
Hooper
Ferrar

Founders of Anglicanism:
Henry VIII
Queen Elizabeth
Thomas Cranmer
Richard Hooker
John Jewel
George Herbert
John Donne

Famous Anglicans:
C. S. Lewis
N. T. Wright
John Stott
J. I. Packer
Alister McGrath

Global Warming and Risk, Risk, Risk! Subtitled: Our Diar[rhea] Circumstances...

Holy Crimea Batman! This piece reads like the alarmist literature it claims to not be. As I got a good laugh out of how it linked all of the world's ills to global warming, I thought to myself, "Why not blame the widening rich-poor gap on global warming too!" And guess what? Unfortunately, I cannot even muster the courage to quote the ridiculousness contained therein. Instead, I shall make a prediction.

I have no idea how long it will take for policy setters...er...modern scientists, to quit their shenanigans. Thus I give no timeline to my prediction. One disclaimer: I don't mean all scientists have disavowed science for politics, I mean that those policy setters wearing the academic garb of scientia are not scientists in any sense of the word (hyperbole). The average person will one day view global-warmers as we now view flat-earthers. Unfortunately, they will probably misattribute the held belief of the common uneducated person to the religious who have opposed the common view if for no other reason than that it fails to align with divine revelation. #endrant

Looking for a Biblical Defense of the American War for Independence

The Puritan Board.

Calvinism in History, By Loraine Boettner (excerpt on puritanboard.com is from ch3)

Witherspoon of Paisley and Princeton, By John A. Mackay (an excerpt? published in Theology Today Vol 18, No. 1 - January 1962)

Church History: America once an Episcopalian nation, Article found on Free Republic orig. from The Daily Citizen)

The Church History article conflicts with the argument provided in the previous link (Witherspoon). Both use numbers or statistics to make their point.

Point: "The Presbyterian Church, moreover, was the principal Christian denomination in the America of that time, both during the Revolutionary War and in the years that immediately followed."

Counterpoint: "Statistically no group of Christians held a greater influence over the founding and initial direction of the United States of America than the Episcopal Church."

Found one of the articles after taking the bunny trail of Little Geneva's broken link. But here is the other missing article. Of course it only exists in the archives and I have saved the image so...

More info on the origins but not defense...I'm working on it. Wiki-pedia may have the answer...

Here is a good resource: Political Sermons of the American Founding Era. (2 vols.). In it can be found the political theories of colonial ministers.

Summary: While attempting some semblance of research, what I have found is a discussion of the socio-political origins of the "Presbyterian Parson's War." Or perhaps a psychology that provided a willingness to go to war due to the Calvinists' recent history: Cromwell, War of the Austrian Succession, religious persecutions, antithesis with the Church of England, etc. Thus the climate was one of libertarian ideals/classic liberalism.

Wikipedia mentions the Hebrew Scriptures as a possible source for a Biblical defense. The colonialists saw themselves as Israel rebelling under Pharaoh, etc. Or maybe that they were the divinely appointed tool being used by God.

I also found that there was the fear of losing their religious freedoms due to a soon to be had Bishop of the Church of England being installed in the colonies. Obviously this would have been someone under the influence of the king and as such would result in a diminishing of religious and political freedoms.

"After the Seven Years’ (French and Indian) War ended in 1763, Whitefield arrived in America for his sixth tour. On April 2, 1764, he held a private conversation in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with Samuel Langdon and other established ministers that alarmed Americans already worried about their liberty. Whitefield was quoted as saying: 'I can’t in conscience leave the town without acquainting you with a secret. My heart bleeds for America. O poor New England! There is a deep laid plot against your civil and religious liberties, and they will be lost. Your golden days are at an end. You have nothing but trouble before you. . . . Your liberties will be lost.' Whitefield outlined the secret plans (as he said) of the British Ministry to end colonial self-government and to establish the Anglican Church (William Gordon, The History of the Rise, Progress and Establishment of the United States . . . [2d ed., 3 vols. New York: Samuel Campbell, 1794], 1:102). This episode galvanized the clergy in their opposition to British policy, especially when the intelligence proved true and the 1765 Stamp Act was adopted." (Ellis Sandoz on George Whitefield's BRITAIN’S MERCIES, AND BRITAIN’S DUTIES)

Still inconclusive as to the "Why?". Too exhausted to continue. This will have to suffice for now.

Update (9/7/08): I think I am slowly beginning to understand...The Church of England was an imposition on the Puritans/Presbyterians in Britain and prevented them from worshiping God with clear consciences, thus their revolt and Oliver Cromwell and such. This sentiment carried over into the New World as they were seeking religious freedom on these shores. But with the threat of British consolidation of power (taxation is a form of control) they feared that they would lose their religious liberty. I suppose then that the War for American Independence was seen as a defensive war.

Would you not practice civil disobedience if your religious liberty was constrained? Civil disobedience comes in various degrees. And to the early American Presbyterians taking up arms to defend their right to live and worship how they pleased was important enough to them.