Some Randomly Not Necessarily Connected Thoughts

"Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary." This quote is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. The problem, as Glenn Stanton notes, is that St. Francis never said it. Stanton writes,

It is always attributed to St. Francis of Assisi — founder of the Franciscan Order — and is intended to say that proclaiming the Gospel by example is more virtuous than actually proclaiming with voice. It is a quote that has often rankled me because it seems to create a useless dichotomy between speech and action. Besides, the spirit behind it can be a little arrogant, intimating that those who "practice the Gospel" are more faithful to the faith than those who preach it.

I agree with Stanton. Christians proclaim the Good News in word and in deed. It is not an either/or matter; it is a both/and command. Of course, we certainly should be discerning about when when to open our mouths and when to keep them closed, but that is a different matter entirely (HT on Stanton's post goes to Francis Beckwith).

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I wrote my Th.M thesis on the Christian ethicist, Paul Ramsey and his application of the Just War Tradition to the conflict in Vietnam. So, I am very interested in the discussion taking place right now on the issue of just war and cyberwarfare. Three authors ask the question, "Is It Possible to Wage a Just Cyberwar?" Two other thinkers, Mariarosaria Taddeo and Roger Crisp offer their responses. If one is going to apply the Just War tradition here, I tend to agree with Crisp that the JWT already has the language necessary to think through this, but as John Howard Yoder argued years ago, practitioners of the JWT haven't done a very good job in applying it to specific wars throughout history. If they had, the West might not have been the bloody theatre it has been. I do know this-- the less bloody war becomes with the use of technology and unmanned drones and other automated weapons-- the easier it will be to wage it. During the Civil War at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Robert E. Lee stated, "It is well that war is so terrible-- lest we grow too fond of it."

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A solar storm is headed our way and due to strike this weekend. There is disagreement over how severe the storm will be. One way or another, this too shall pass.

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Penn State released the report of its internal investigation on the Sandusky child abuse scandal. The report states, "The most saddening finding ... is the total and consistent disregard by the most senior leaders at Penn State for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims," the report reads. “Four of the most powerful people [at Penn State] failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade."

Authority demands responsibility and accountability. Tragically, for the victims, the senior leaders in the athletic program at Penn were not responsible in taking seriously their charge to protect these children. Now they must be held accountable. These leaders should rightfully lose the good reputations they had; for Sandusky's victims lost their innocence.

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Here's an article on celebrities wearing "weird" outfits. Why is this news? Aren't celebrities and fashion normal people wouldn't be caught dead wearing "par for the course" in Hollywood?

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This post says that one of the top ten foods we should never eat is shellfish. "According to Dr. Broer, a lobster is an arthropod, a cockroach is an arthropod! Unclean. Scavengers." Well, this blogger plans on continuing to eat big cockroaches. They are indeed tasty with drawn butter.

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People have asked me how a particular blog gets on my blogrolls. The blogroll at the top left is the Methoblogger roll, so all blogs by Methodist clergy and laity are included. If there are any Methodist bloggers out there who are not on my roll (and I'm sure there are), drop me an email at arbevere(at)yahoo(dot)com, and I will add you.

The blog roll in the right-hand column is a list of bloggers who consistently have something thoughtful to say. Their politics and their theology vary greatly, and that is intentional on my part. I look at that blogroll as one big round table discussion with people who have very different opinions, and who regularly make their readers think.

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Silly Season in Politics: Many people rightfully bemoan the huge amounts of money being spent on political campaigns on both sides. If we really want to reduce the amount of big contributions, the American people can start a "mute the message movement" where every time a political advertisement from either party and from every candidate appears on TV, the watchers hit the mute button on the remote and turn down the volume when the ad appears on the radio. If that became the general practice throughout the country, perhaps big donors might be less willing to give. What would we lose in doing this anyway, other than saving ourselves from having to endure half-truths and outright lies being told right in front of us? Actually, that's not such a silly suggestion.

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This Week in Christian History: On July 12, 1536, Desiderius Erasmus died in Basil, Switzerland. He was the first editor to publish a complete Greek New Testament. He was a contemporary of Martin Luther. While he was critical of the Catholic Church he did not join in the Reformation. He willed that all his belongings would be distributed to the poor upon his death.