Mark Horne

For those who care.
My birthday will be here soon.
And then on the 20th: another special day.

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You can watch the Republic become an empire in Episodes 1-3 of the Star Wars story, you can read the Harry Potter books about how the Ministry of Magic operates, or you can read this post by Jon Barlow.

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On Marketplace, David Frum exposed the nefarious scheme of newly-elected Congressional Democrats:
Imagine if the Republicans had retained their Congressional majority and the first thing they did was suggest big new subsidies for, say, the oil industry. Would there no public outrage?
The answer, of course, is no, because the Republican majority elected in 2004 passed an [...]

Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, “I repent,” you must forgive him after a time of discipline in which he proves to your satisfaction that his repentance [...]

I was thinking about letting my boys see the third Xmen movie, but this trailer has made me think I’d better keep them away from it. On the other hand, The Sound of Music looks like it might be perfect for them, or maybe a little scary.
Hat Tip: HNBP

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Wishing women free from pain in childbirth is a good thing. It is a desire for healing and a repeal from the fall. But I have a hard time believing that such wonderful motivations lie behind this superstition. I’m suspicious that Mary must neither be permitted pleasure nor pain, especially not in [...]

First, this lecture by N.T. Wright is excellent. If nothing else (and there is plenty else) Wright is an example to all Christians of how painstaking scholarship and a pleasant attitude can win a hearing in places many Evangelical scholars never get to go.
Do you see a man skillful in his work?
He will stand [...]

Jeff Meyers: “Not Make Believe”

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All Christians struggle with sin.
Many times even relatively mature Christians commit sins they thought they had long since left behind and end up struggling anew with sinful habits in thought, word, or deed. Naturally, this means they must rouse themselves to action in putting to death the deeds of the flesh.
Such action requires motivation. The [...]

I don’t trust myself to order or prioritize these, so put no weight on what item comes before another.

Drink and eat a lot with family and friends (Deuteronomy 14.22-27; Ecclesiastes 9.7).
Include strangers, people below your socio-economic status, and characters of ill-repute in these parties–if you notice they aren’t being treated in a really welcoming manner, [...]

PCUSA evangelicals do Advent, but I think very few PCAs do.
What? No way. I’ll agree that there are more anti-Advent churches in the PCA, but it wouldn’t surprise me if over half the churches acknowledged advent in some way. Every PCA church I have ever attended has “done” the advent season.
OK. [...]

If you are a member of an organization that had many parties and conflicts that suddenly all become calm as everyone pursues a singular crusade, you need to read this book:
The more unbearable their personal scandals become, the more the desire to extinguish them in some huge scandal seizes the scandalized. This phenomenon can [...]

Montrose by C. V. Wedgwood is quite concise, yet it tells the story well. I found her tale much easier to follow than John Buchan’s earlier work. The use of illustrations was helpful–illuminating without being overpowering.
James Graham, Marquis of Montrose was a true Presbyterian martyr, far superior to the Kirk that excommunicated him [...]

Let us finally consider how naive it is altogether to say: “Man ought to be such and such!” Reality shows us an enchanting wealth of types, the abundance of a lavish play and change of forms—and some wretched loafer of a moralist comments: “No! Man ought to be different” … He even knows what man [...]

Alvin Plantinga’s God and Other Minds: A Study of the Rational Justification of Belief in God is a great book. It basically argues that arguments for skepticism regarding God work equally well against the existence of other minds, or against the objectivity of the “external” world.
But even though it is a good book, I’m [...]

John Armstrong’s blog is full of good profound stuff, but I cannot help but link the joke post. The bumper sticker cracked me up!

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Remember how upset Evangelicals got at Clinton when he chose to call his plan “a new covenant”? How on earth did this not provoke a reaction?:
Tomorrow is September the 12th. A milestone is passed, and a mission goes on. Be confident. Our country is strong. And our cause is even larger than our [...]

Today I’m thankful for over-the-counter muscle relaxors.  If it wasn’t already a holiday, I would still make it a yearly celebration for the family.

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For those who want more (and much better) stuff on how shoddily “anti-Americanism” is targeted by scholars, Joel Garver, makes some trenchant comments. His conclusion is also incisive (see the original for links):
Grudem and Burk can hardly be unaware that a younger generation of evangelicals doesn’t necessarily (and certainly does not monolithically) embrace the [...]

It is pretty hard to sleep when relaxation requires a contraption of pillows to keep you seated on the sofa and an ice pack.  And it is hard to sleep when someone you love is constantly needing to tweak the contraption.  So last night Jennifer and I mostly didn’t.
I’m off to take the children to [...]