Why I'm not on Facebook

Larknews posts this cautionary tale.

At last, something specific for "Occupiers" to protest

Switzerland's highest court has ruled that local authorities can impose fines on people hiking nude in the Alps.

No Biking in the House without a Helmet

    In this book, Melissa Fay Greene tells the story of how she and her husband came to adopt five children internationally in addition to their four biological children. Much of the early part of the book is taken up with the mechanics of international adoption, and so does not apply directly to parents such as ourselves who adopt domestically through social services. However, the more substantial part of the book is the story of how the family incorporated five new members, not as babies, but as children who had already had families of their own. As her family expands to an unwieldy size, Greene begins asking herself, and the reader, a basic question: are they becoming a family, or a group home?

    By the book’s end, as one might expect, they are clearly a family, but Greene offers no formula as to how they got there. Throughout the book, and without explanation, Greene inserts chapters on the developing personalities of each of her children, along with others recounting various anecdotes in the family’s history. Taken together, these explain how they became a family: each child is loved and appreciated for who he or she is as a unique person; and even more, a family becomes a family by acting like a family.

5 minutes you'll never get back

English cuisine is still a horrorshow, and Sting is still an easy target.

No theory of religious liberty?

Peter Leithart provides this provocative summary of Steven Smith's Foreordained Failure: the Quest for a Constitutional Principle of Religious Freedom.

 

Christmastime is beer (2011)

As a public service, I thought I should inform the world of the beers I'd like to see under my Christmas tree or proffered to me by supplicants.

You're welcome, world.

My favorites (i.e., by the case, please) are Full Sail Wassail from Full Sail Brewing and Breckinridge Brewery's Christmas Ale. This year, I'm very interested in trying out two offerings from AC Golden (i.e., Coors): Batch 19 and Winterfest, along with New Belgium's Snow Day. To be safe, a case of each so I can give them appropriate study and analysis.

I'm not picky, though; nearly any beer with "winter" or "Christmas" on the label is likely to please my SADS-immune palate, as is anything featuring hops. Give your favorite Presbyterian Curmudgeon a merry little Christmas this year.

Still annoying

For those who follow the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches, the Vision Forum, et al, amongst the movement's and its associated personalities most annoying characteristics is a pretension of grandeur, perhaps no better exemplified than in the title for an upcoming event: "White Unto Harvest: A Great Commission Mega-Conference." 

With you, I'm not sure what "Great Commission" is doing in an adjectival position, but more to the point: mega-conference? Really? Can't these people hold even a conference without needing to assert how big and important they are?

I suppose they could be more annoying if they tried, but I have a hard time imagining how.

Cheap shot, but oh so true

Thank you, Agnes.

Defending Francis Schaeffer

The writings of Francis Schaeffer had a profound influence on me and continue to color much of my thinking on cultural and political matters. I continue to be disppointed by his dalliance with the "religious right" towards the end of his life, but no hero is without clay feet. Thus, I've been offended by the gross misrepresentations of Schaeffer's work which have recently appeared in media outlets eager to pillory Michele Bachman for her Christian faith. Thankfully, byFaith, the PCA's online journal, has compiled several refutations here.

The end: still nigh

Two words: eyelash extensions.

Marriage & poverty

Much more can be said, and has been said, on the important connection between nuclear family stability and economic security, but a good introduction is this article in the Presbyterian Church in America's online journal byFaith.