by Matthew Gamel

I hate election season. I always have and I always will. It is a time of absolute deceit and deception and always serves as a reminder to me that regardless of who “wins”, those who love liberty will loose. I have recently been discussing this issue with a few acquaintances of mine beginning with an offhand remark concerning my apathy and desire to possibly refrain from participating in the election. I even honestly suggested that I might be apt to support Chuck Baldwin were I to muster the desire to go to the polls. As expected and with almost predictable precision, I was derided not only for even entertaining the idea of staying at home, but also because Chuck Baldwin was just an unknown name or had no chance of winning. Continue Reading…

by Steven Wedgeworth

(originally posted at Wedgewords)

A careful answer at Creed or Chaos.

HT: Scott Clark

Father in heaven! Draw our hearts to you so that our longing
may be where our treasure is supposed to be. Turn our minds
and our thoughts to where our citizenship is – in your kingdom,
so that when you finally call us away from here, our leavetaking
may not be a painful separation but a joyful union with
you. We do not know the time and the place, perhaps a long
road still lies before us, and when strength is taken away from
us, when exhaustion fogs our eyes so that we peer out as into a
dark night, and restless desires stir within us, wild, impatient
longings, and the heart groans in fearful anticipation of what is
coming, oh Lord God, fix in our hearts the conviction that also
while we are living, we belong to you.

- Søren Kierkegaard
Journals & Papers IV, 45

A Primer on Perspectivalism
John M. Frame

Perspectivalism is a name that has come to refer to some aspects of my theological method and that of my friend and colleague Vern Poythress. We have set it forth especially in Poythress’s Symphonic Theology and Frame’s Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, and we have applied this method in a number of other writings.

Recently, someone asked if there were an article-length introduction to perspectivalism, and I had to admit there was not. There are some fairly concise introductions, but nothing of “article length.” Seeing that as a genuine need, I will try to meet it here.4

Perspectivalism in General

I employ perspectivalisms of two kinds, as a general concept, and as a more specific method. The general concept is simply that because we are not God, because we are finite, not infinite, we cannot know everything at a glance, and therefore our knowledge is limited to one perspective or another.  Continue Reading…

Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse on the Pentagon invading your life.

HT: lewrockwell.com

Trevin Wax Interview with N.T. Wright on Surprised by Hope

I bind to myself today

The strong virtue of the Invocation of the Trinity:
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe.
I bind to myself today
The virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His Baptism,
The virtue of His crucifixion with His burial,
The virtue of His Resurrection with His Ascension,
The virtue of His coming on the Judgement Day.

I bind to myself today
The virtue of the love of seraphim,
In the obedience of angels,

In the hope of resurrection unto reward,
In prayers of Patriarchs,
In predictions of Prophets,
In preaching of Apostles,
In faith of Confessors,
In purity of holy Virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I bind to myself today
The power of Heaven,
The light of the sun,
The brightness of the moon,

The splendour of fire,
The flashing of lightning,
The swiftness of wind,
The depth of sea,
The stability of earth,
The compactness of rocks.

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I bind to myself today
God’s Power to guide me,
God’s Might to uphold me,
God’s Wisdom to teach me,
God’s Eye to watch over me,
God’s Ear to hear me,
God’s Word to give me speech,
God’s Hand to guide me,
God’s Way to lie before me,
God’s Shield to shelter me,
God’s Host to secure me,
Against the snares of demons,
Against the seductions of vices,
Against the lusts of nature,
Against everyone who meditates injury to me,
Whether far or near,
Whether few or with many.

I invoke today all these virtues
Against every hostile merciless power
Which may assail my body and my soul,
Against the incantations of false prophets,
Against the black laws of heathenism,
Against the false laws of heresy,
Against the deceits of idolatry,
Against the spells of women, and smiths, and druids,
Against every knowledge that binds the soul of man.

Christ, protect me today
Against every poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against death-wound,
That I may receive abundant reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the home
Christ in my travels
By land or sea.

I bind to myself today
The strong virtue of an invocation of the Trinity,
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe.

The star-studded hue and cry to “Save Darfur” and “stop the genocide” has gained enormous traction in U.S. media along with bipartisan support in Congress and the White House. But the Congo, with ten to twenty times as many African dead over the same period is not called a “genocide” and passes almost unnoticed. Sudan sits atop lakes of oil. It has large supplies of uranium, and other minerals, significant water resources, and a strategic location near still more African oil and resources. The unasked question is whether the nation’s Republican and Democratic foreign policy elite are using claims of genocide, and appeals for “humanitarian intervention” to grease the way for the next oil and resource wars on the African continent.

Read more.

(HT: Doug Jones & globalreasearch.ca)

For these four virtues (would that all felt their influence in their minds as they have their names in their mouths!), I should have no hesitation in defining them: that temperance is love giving itself entirely to that which is loved; fortitude is love readily bearing all things for the sake of the loved object; justice is love serving only the loved object, and therefore ruling rightly; prudence is love distinguishing with sagacity between what hinders it and what helps it.

St. Augustine, On The Morals of the Catholic Church, chapter 15

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

St. Paul, I Corinthians 13.13