Month: December 2024

Jimmy Carter's Youth and Navy Years: From Plowing With Mules to Nuclear Submarines
Civil Rights

Jimmy Carter’s Youth and Navy Years: From Plowing With Mules to Nuclear Submarines

12/31/2024 Bruce Strom 0

While Jimmy Carter was transitioning from a technologically demanding naval career working with nuclear submarines to move back to rural Georgia, where farms had yet to transition from mules and horses to tractors, rural Georgia was also experiencing the same racial transitions that the military was dealing with. The year after his retirement, the Supreme Court issued the Brown decision, mandating that public schools be desegregated with all deliberate speed. […]

Meno, a Platonic Dialogue. Why did Xenophon Despise Meno?
Philosophy

Meno, a Socratic Dialogue. Why Did Xenophon and Plato Despise Meno? How Did Meno Die?

12/21/2024 Bruce Strom 0

Xenophon, in Robin Waterfield’s translation, remembers:
“It was obvious that Meno longed to be rich; he wanted military command because it would bring him a greater share of the spoils, he wanted prestige because it would help him increase his wealth, and he wanted to be on good terms with the most powerful men because then he could avoid being punished for his crimes.”
Xenophon continues, “Meno thought that the quickest way for him to achieve his goals was to use perjury, lies, and deceit. In his opinion, openness and truthfulness were synonyms for stupidity. He evidently felt no affection for anyone, and if he claimed to be somebody’s friend it soon became clear that he was trying to sabotage him.”
Xenophon said that “Meno was frightened of people he found breaking promises and committing crimes, because he regarded them as well protected, and he tried to exploit people who were moral and honest because he regarded them as weak.” […]

Did May Give Birth to Jesus in a Cave With a Midwife? Infancy Gospels of James and Pseudo-Matthew
Bible Stories and Parables

Did Mary Give Birth to Jesus in a Cave With a Midwife? Infancy Gospels of James and Pseudo-Matthew

12/21/2024 Bruce Strom 0

The Infancy Gospel of James was well known by the early Church Fathers, especially Origen, and possibly Clement of Alexandria. Although this infancy narrative was condemned by Pope Innocent I in 405 and was considered apocryphal by the Gelasian Decree around the year 500, it was one source of the early church tradition of the perpetual virginity of the Virgin Mary, Theotokos, Mother of God. It was especially treasured by the faithful in both the ancient and medieval worlds. St Jerome even speculated that Joseph was also perpetually virgin, and that the Hebrew word translated as his sons were actually his cousins.
Should we reject the Infancy Gospel of James as apocryphal? Would it be fair to label them as heretical? Although this infancy gospel contains many fanciful stories, there are no obviously heretical teachings, nor are the actions by anyone in the Holy Family morally or doctrinally objectionable. Rather, they are similar to the many Jewish midrash Talmudic stories, many of which are similarly fantastic, but are instead cherished for their moral teachings. Indeed, they wouldn’t be midrash if they weren’t improbable. […]

Should You Leave Your MAGA Church? Or Should You Choose To Stay?
Current Events and History

Should You Leave Your MAGA Church? Or Should You Stay?

12/09/2024 Bruce Strom 0

Rev Trevors does not address the common situation where the pastor or priest is setting the MAGA tone when he is leading the congregation, which is so often true in congregations in America. This generates another concern: Should you stay in a church where you will be challenging the teaching authority of the pastor or priest?
Is this a special case for this more basic question: Does the Decalogue exhort us that respect precedes love? Is love impossible when we disrespect either God or those in authority?
There is no verse in Scripture that directly commands the believer to attend weekly services. Several verses in the Psalms sing on how the believer should joyfully be drawn to the house of God, but in the New Testament we only have the verse in Hebrews that simply exhorts:
“Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.” […]

St John Climacus on Love, Lust, and Marriage: Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 15, on Purity & Chastity
Ladder of Divine Ascent

St John Climacus on Love, Lust, and Marriage: Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 15, on Purity and Chastity

12/07/2024 Bruce Strom 1

Laymen often wonder: How can those who are married be chaste? In his commentary on the Ladder of Divine Ascent, Father Vassilios Papavassiliou teaches us that “people tend to think of chastity in purely sexual terms as the virtue opposed to sexual depravity.” But just as the word concupiscence has a deeper meaning for Catholics, chastity has a deeper meaning for Orthodox Christians. “In the Orthodox marriage service, we pray that the newlyweds may live in chastity. But yet in the same service, we pray numerous times that they may have honorable children. How can a couple live in” “sexual purity, and yet have children?”
The simple answer is that chastity and sexual purity are not exactly the same. He points out that “a fuller, more accurate translation of the Greek term sphrosini is whole-mindedness, or harmony between the flesh and the spirit.” Father Vassilios teaches us that in the Church “the intimate union between husband and wife is a living symbol of the union between Christ, the Bridegroom, and the Church, His Bride,” which is why intimacy should be experienced by a man and his wife. […]