Some days a blog topic leaps out at me and takes me by the proverbial throat. Other days I’m like a wallflower at a dance, watching all the topics foxtrot past; everyone else in a couple and me the odd man out.

Not that I ever went to a dance.

So I shall free-associate. The thing I heard today that impressed me most was something a pastor said at the meeting of the board of the Georg Sverdrup Society, which I attended in my capacity as Journal Editor.

He was talking about the history of Scandinavian Lutherans in America.

In general, he said, there were two kinds of Swedes in America—those who belonged to the One Lutheran Church (called the Augustana Synod), and those who left Lutheranism altogether and became Baptists or Evangelical Free Church or nothing at all.

And among the Danes there were also two sorts—those who belonged to the One Lutheran Church (called, I think, the Danish Synod), and those who left Lutheranism altogether and became Baptists or Pentecostals or Salvation Army (for instance) or nothing at all. (My mother, who was half Norwegian, half Danish, was raised a Methodist, and some of her family were Baptists). Continue reading Herding Norwegians →

Here’s a note from a missionary I know. It’s a few days old, but for those of us who know nothing about life in parts of Africa, it’s revealing.

On Saturday, a contact told my friend “that the Lord’s Resistance Army (a rebel group from Uganda that has been terrorizing northern Congo and the Central African Republic (CAR) throughout the past year) are advancing on Assa, a mission station near the CAR border, and moving toward Zemio. There is a large church, a Bible School, a small hospital, and a town that used to have around 8,000 people. People are beginning to flee in panic.

“A general field conference was to begin Monday at Zemio. People usually come in the thousands to attend these conferences. They are trying to get word out to the distant outlying areas to warn them not to come. Please pray for God’s protection for a virtually defenseless people. The LRA are heavily armed and known for their atrocities and brutality. They burn houses, steal the few possessions and food owned by a poverty-stricken people, rape, kill, and capture children and young people for their army.”

If you’ve been watching 24, I believe this year’s storyline uses an African warlord who kidnaps young boys for his army, like this one from Uganda. May the Lord pour out his rage against the LAR and save many of those abused kids and the innocent people they are attacking.

Hal G. P. Colebatch, whom I like to think of as a friend because we’ve exchanged a few e-mails, has a splendid defense of Christianity (and religion in general) in culture today at The American Spectator Online.

I’m still thinking about the Charles Schulz biography I reviewed last night. There are so many similarities between my personality and Schulz’ (if you read the review, you know that’s not what you’d call bragging) that the story of his life was for me a vivid cautionary tale, and I’m trying not to waste it.

Schulz had (and I have) an emotional problem, which is a misfortune. But the condition provides a convenient excuse for shirking spiritual duty, which is a not a misfortune but a sin. (I think it’s a reasonable argument that people like us can’t be expected to do everything that more outgoing people do, but that’s not the same thing as being excused from service altogether.) Continue reading On not losing faith →

Tonight, for reasons I won’t bore you with, I used a snowblower for the first time in my life. (We got about three inches of snow today. I’m aware some of you got more than that. No need to tell me about it. I feel your pain, as you will no doubt feel mine when it’s our turn.) The experience was pretty much what I expected. It’s less work than my dad’s way, but it’s still work.

Here’s something from my new publisher’s website that impressed me. I’m doubtless motivated to apple-polish a bit, but I’m pretty sure I honestly think it’s exceptionally good. It’s an article arguing that one major reason for the decline in Christian influence in American has been the widespread acceptance of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture interpretation of Revelation. The author argues that holding to this idea (that the whole world is about to slide into war, famine, devastation and tyranny, but that Christians are going to be evacuated before things get bad) has prevented us from engaging the culture. Continue reading Rapture delayed →