Lawson Stone is blogging again. Here's a portion of today's thoughts:
I always think it’s a little sad when Christian institutions get so confused about their identity and mission that they actually start framing their curriculum and programs based on focus groups and market research, reverently termed “empirical data,” rather than first and primarily consulting their own deepest awareness of God’s call and working in their midst.
The ever prolific Jim West weighs in on the current state of Biblical Studies:
Biblical studies, as we know it, needs to end. But [Hector] Avalos is wrong concerning the reason because biblical studies isn’t at all primarily a religionist and apologetic enterprise in the academy, it is thoroughly “a-theistic’” (in the sense of the alpha privative prefix in Greek) in its approach and goals in the academy. Only a person who has never bothered to attend a meeting of the SBL or read the Journal of Biblical Literature or visited a Department of Religion (at, say, the University of North Carolina where Bart Ehrman teaches) could say without their tongue being firmly planted in their cheek that biblical studies is dominated by some sort of faith perspective. Indeed, I would submit for your consideration that in Colleges and Universities across the United States where Departments of Religion exist, that the preponderance of work is purely “a-theistic.”
The Book Bench bemoans the loss of personal selling in books, sometimes called "hand selling:"
There are also algorithms and Web sites intended to provide this sort of service [recommending books], but I find them unreliable and broad. The suggestions on Amazon, for instance, are limited—they tend to pound me over the head with new releases, analogizing books based primarily on sales rankings—and often odd (this morning, in a rise-and-shinish sort of mood, my Amazon site recommended that I might like pancake mix).
Jim Martin talks about a valuable gift:
For a few minutes, he gave us his undivided attention.
I never forgot that moment.
This is where I learned the value of giving another person one’s undivided attention.
Far too often, what people receive instead is our divided attention.
He goes on to talk about the draw of the cell phone, the text message, etc.
Joel and Renee have a nice little announcement:
...we are expecting Baby #5 at the end of January. That makes me about 7 weeks along. So come along Bean Sprout, go easy on your momma, and we look forward to meeting you around January 22!
So, we're going to be grandparents again!
On other notes:
Over the weekend, a raccoon got in the barn. I have chicken wire along the eaves to keep birds out, but coons go through that like a hot knife through warm butter. The neighbor gave us an assist and the coon is resting comfortably under a foot of earth now.
I haven't had any success in finding used parts for the Cub Cadet, so tonight we look at different lawn tractors. There were just too many things going wrong with the thing to be reliable.
On the cheese making front, we tried the brick cheese last night. It seems to have been a failure. It has the consistency of a Brie and tastes like it, too. The center of the block was more solid and tasted "brickish" but the rest didn't. Maybe I'll try again later, but at least I like Brie!
Also this weekend, I picked 45 pounds of strawberries. For the second or third year in a row, as I was finishing up picking, it started to sprinkle. By the time I had carried all 4 flats to the weighing station, it was pouring. As usual, I got drenched! But, I also ended up with 57 pints of strawberry jam. That should last for the year :)
Finally, last night as we were on our walk—a bit after midnight—we heard a plaintive meow a little over 1/4 mile from home. Looking around, we saw a tiny little kitten, probably 6-weeks old, along the side of the road. Being the sensitive sorts we are, we picked it up and brought it home. So, that makes at least 9 kittens 2 months old or less right now, 3 of them orphans. If the ratio holds to normal, by the end of the summer only about 1/3 of them will be alive. Right now we have 5 cats, none of them older than 13 months.
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