In today’s Gospel from St. John, Jesus tells his disciples that “unless a grain of wheat fall to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it does, it produces much fruit.” The first thing that comes to mind when one hears that passage is Jesus’ own death and resurrection.
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Letting the Grains of Wheat Fall to the Ground
I suspect somewhere in more than a thousand posts on here, I have mentioned once or twice about the importance of unity in a message. Order is often present, if only by virtue of the progression of the text. Progress is sort of present, inasmuch as the number of verses are running out, as is the available time. But all too often, in preaching in some circles, the sense of unity is negligible or just plain vague. Too many messages are essentially a series of points united by a common textual source and a title. This is not the inherent unity that is there in the text. Often messages are essentially a vague-subject completed. Three things about our title. Four aspects of such and such. This is not really reflecting the unity that is present in a unit of thought. Sometimes I wonder if we might be forcing texts into sermonic structures, rather than structuring sermons in such a way as to effectively communicate the texts
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Have I Mentioned This Before?
Amritsar, Punjab: To prevent eruption of controversies over books and films based on the Sikh religion, gurbani, history and culture, the five Sikh high priests have directed the SGPC to constitute a “censor board” comprising Sikh scholars to examine and clear books and films before their formal release.
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Sri Akal Takht Sahib directs SGPC to form ‘censor board’
Marriage as exactly one woman and one man is an “ideal,” writes Ross Douthat , trying his best to frame up a coherent, non-shrieking, last-gasp defense of legalized inequality. Fair enough — let’s suppose it is an ideal
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The Proof from Diorama
Examiner.com Julia Roberts practising Hinduism Examiner.com It appears that her conversion to Hinduism makes Ms Roberts the 'most famous convert since the late George Harrison, a member of the Beatles who embraced …
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Julia Roberts practising Hinduism – Examiner.com
Paul Harvey We’ve had a number of posts here in the past where folks have reflected on their experiences researching in various archives. One of my most enjoyable was a couple of weeks years ago at the Amistad Research Center at Tulane, where I dipped a bit into the massive archives of the American Missionary Association, the Congregationalist enterprise which after the Civil War was heavily involved in education for the freedpeople. At the time of this research, I was thinking of a good deal of the literature on postwar black education, leading to “industrial” schools; that literature focused on missionary paternalism.
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Education for Liberation: The American Missionary Association from Reconstruction through Civil Rights
Dan Terry, 64, had been in Afghanistan for 40 years, 30 of them under appointment by the United Methodist Church’s national board, the General Board of Global Missions. Apparently, on at least one occasion, Terry and his wife were here in Lakeland at the Florida Conference’s annual meeting.
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Slain Aid Worker in Afghanistan Had Florida, Methodist Connections
It’s a sad thing to behold, but apparently a necessary evil given the state of things: in this video, Ted Olsen, one of the attorneys who successfully litigated on behalf of marriage equality in the recent proposition 8 trial, gives a basic lesson in civics to a FauxNews hack, Chris Wallace: Individual rights are not, and should not be, subject to majority rule. If 50% + 1 — or even 100% — of voters want slavery, censorship of newspapers, or a mandatory form of worship, it is out of bounds under our system of law. The majority’s wishes do not dictate the legal outcome when it comes to fundamental individual rights, and the right to marry is a long-recognized individual right.
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K-5 Civics
Paul Harvey Once again, it has happened, and I am happy. Every time I think my field of study (religion in the South) is disappearing as a distinctive entity — every time I start assuming that regional homogeneity is the order of the day, that immigration has fundamentally changed religious patterns, that the Journal of Southern Religion will have to close up shop — Gallup or somebody does a survey and finds plus ça change, and all that.
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Survey Says . . . . . You Southernists Still have a Job!
Every August I receive many, many emails from nervous, anxious, frustrated mothers trying to make decisions about this year’s homeschool plans. Some are deciding to homeschool, some are deciding on teaching approaches, some are deciding on curriculum. The common thread is fear of making the wrong decision.
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An Easy Way to Make Homeschool Decisions