SPQR

Christmas in Dayton, Ohio

-1 F.

Most snow here in 20 years.

I'm from California and South Florida. After helping a lady push her car out of some ice, I discovered that air this cold totally stings your lungs as you breathe hard.

Plenty o' photos can be seen here.

Frog

I'm trying to raise a few dollars for Sarah's tuition by selling my rowing shell and a Force 5. I tried to poke this frog off the coming, but he was stubborn.

Sarah likes this picture.

If for some reason you're interested in seeing photos of the boats for sale, you can see them here.

You can also tell how bruised and haggard the palm trees look from the hurricanes. I had to cut down a tangelo tree where that stood where the boats are placed.

If you're interested, I'm in Dayton, Ohio.

It got up to 17 yesterday.

Yikes!

Jeff, dad gave me your old address and I will try to go by and take a photo.

Pray for the salvation of the Reformed

Warning: Non-political post. Strictly pertaining to Christianity.

I teach at a small fairly fundamentalist Baptist school, which I'm told was formerly quite legalistic, and each morning we have a faculty meeting of some sort, which usually includes prayer.

Yesterday, one woman offered a prayer request for the wife of a man she knows who will soon be dying of cancer.

She then said "But we're not sure if she's a Christian or not, she's "Dutch Reformation" or something, and they don't believe in salvation like we do."

And everyone nodded in agreement.

Someone else said, "You mean Dutch Reformed?"

"Yeah! That's it."

I don't really mind that she doesn't consider people of the Reformed faith to be 'real' Christians, I've come to expect that from many of the dispensationalists I've come into contact with.

But I was somewhat offended that she apparently knew nothing of Presbyterianism.

I've always made a point of being familiar with at least the basic tenents of other denominations and branches of Protestantism.

At the risk of sounding extremely haughty, I am coming to believe that Arminian churches are institutionally plagued with anti-intellectualism. The total emphasis on "soul saving" logically leads to a reduced interest in the deeper aspects of doctrine and theology.

Once you are "saved" there is no need to dig any deeper.

In Fit Bodies, Fat Minds, Os Guiness blames premillenialism for the rampant anti-intellectualism in American Christianity, and I feel like I'm beginning to see this for myself.

My students have no idea that until recently no one believed anything like what they read of in their dog-eared copies of Left Behind. This is heavy, scholarly reading after all, right, Mr. O?

I've become frustrated with the methods of our Baptist sisters and brothers. After my high school students say the magic words of "the sinner's prayer" at the altar call, (the Baptist's third sacrament) there is no need to develop a distinctly Christian thought or worldview.

I realize that I probably sound elitist and combative, but this can't be loving God with our minds as well as our hearts.

In my desk I found a stack of little blue cards from a couple of years ago with a post-it note attached that says "The Pastor wants all teachers to carry these with them."

The card read:

SPIRITUAL DECISION CARD

Name:
Grade:

Makes to following commitment: (check one)

____ Accepts Christ As Personal Saviour (Salvation)

____ Dedicates Life to Christ (Surrender) (I'm not sure what this means)

____ Dedicates Life to Full-Time Service

____ Rededicates Life to Christ

_________ Faculty signature

Because they fail to see that God's chooses his elect, Arminians place a tremendous weight on the supposed 'moment of salvation.' Whereas the Calvinist knows that God's people were saved "before the foundations of the earth."

By the way, what if you accidentally checked the wrong box? Let's say you had been backsliding, meant to check 'rededicates life to Christ' and instead hit 'dedicates life for full-time service'. What then? Off to the jungles of Africa with you!

I didn't mean to write all of this, and I certainly don't mean to disrespect our Baptist bretheren. I feel genuinely frustrated concern.

Overturning Roe v. Wade would be good for the Democrats

Be Careful What You Wish For

BY JAMES TARANTO
Mr. Taranto is editor of OpinionJournal.com.
Wednesday, December 8, 2004 12:01 a.m. EST

Harry Reid, the new Senate Democratic leader, is moderate to pro-life on abortion. In 1999 he was one of only two Senate Democrats to vote against an amendment expressing "the sense of Congress in support of the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade." But when he appeared on "Meet the Press" Sunday and Tim Russert gave him a chance to take a clear position against Roe, Mr. Reid demurred, saying that "it would be pretty difficult for everybody" if the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 ruling.

Actually, it would be far more difficult for the Republicans, for the continued existence of Roe allows the GOP to have it both ways on abortion while forcing the Democrats to take politically untenable positions.

By mostly removing the issue from the democratic process, Roe created the current polarization over abortion, in which both parties are officially committed to extreme positions. The Republican platform calls for a Human Life Amendment, which would presumably ban all or most abortions, while the Democratic platform backs "a woman's right to choose . . . regardless of her ability to pay"--meaning abortion on demand, at taxpayer expense.

Opinion polls consistently show that only a small proportion of Americans favor either of these extremes. But because Roe v. Wade and subsequent decisions take off the table any restriction that imposes an "undue burden" on a woman seeking to abort her pregnancy, Republicans are an extreme antiabortion party only in theory. When it comes to actual legislation, the GOP favors only modest--and popular--regulations. The Democrats, on the other hand, must defend such unpopular practices as partial-birth abortion, taxpayer-subsidized abortion, and abortions for 13-year-olds without their parents' knowledge.

If the Supreme Court overturned Roe, legislators would have to consider the legality of abortion itself. Antiabortion absolutists would demand action from Republicans--but the GOP would be unable to comply without putting off moderate voters, who are much more numerous. Thus the battle would shift to terrain far more favorable to the Democrats.

Congressional Republicans' smartest response would be to avoid the issue and leave it to the state legislatures. But this would free Democrats as well as Republicans to tailor their positions to match their constituents'. Abortion would likely remain legal in much of the country, and the Democratic Party would find it has nothing to fear from democracy.

Bizarre Spam

I'm sure you've seen some of the spam that's been plaguing all of these blogs lately, but have you noticed how bizarre some of them are?

Take these for example:

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and this

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and my personal favorite

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These are all from one post.

Wierd.