Another day at Netherfield Hall

Elise and I had a lovely day experiencing what a dance would have been like during the Regency Period. Elise went to the Regency Ball at the Palais Royale in South Bend, Indiana last year; this was my first time. We are now really in the mood to watch Pride and Prejudice!

Happy Birthday, Lindsay!

A Little History of Birth Control Acceptance in America

This is a very informative, timely interview on Issues, Etc. entitled, "American Evangelicals and Birth Control." I have read a fair amount about how Christianity came to accept birth control as the norm, but there were a few things I learned in this interview, especially how Margaret Sanger put a spin on things to Planned Parenthood's advantage. If you are pro-choice, I would encourage you to listen to this to see how Planned Parenthood came to be accepted in our society; if you are a pro-life Christian, I would encourage you to listen to learn a little about how Protestant Christians moved away from the church's historic position against birth control. It is always good to know how we got to where we are today.

Dead Ritual?

If you have ever heard discussions regarding the "worship wars" (so-called contemporary versus traditional worship), inevitably you will hear the point made that the traditional liturgy is a dead ritual. Yet how many rituals do we have in society? I don't hear people complaining about the singing of the "Star-Spangled Banner" at sporting events, or graduates wearing caps and gowns and walking down the aisle while "Pomp and Circumstance" is playing. Why doesn't anyone call those customs dead rituals? The traditional liturgy is based on Scripture, and Scripture is the life-giving Word of God. So, the liturgy is not dead, but we are dead in sin (see Ephesians 2). In his book Heaven on Earth, The Gifts of Christ in the Divine Service, Dr. Arthur Just states:

"Our Historic liturgy, which we call the Divine Service, is a pattern of formal, repetitive behavior. Those who feel that our historic liturgy is an impediment to missions and evangelism will point to the formal, repetitive aspect of our liturgy and describe it as a "dead ritual." But rituals themselves are neither dead nor alive. Those who participate in them make them appear as living, vital rituals or as dead ones. Said plainly, it is not the ritual that is dead, it is we who are dead." (p. 35).

Editorial update:  This post won blog of the week on Issues, Etc.