“The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both *may* be, and one *must* be, wrong. God cannot be*for* and *against* the same thing at the same time.
In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party – and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaption to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably true – that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By His mere great power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either *saved* or *destroyed* the Union without human contest. Yet the contest began, And, having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.”
The 44th American President goes on vacation twice a year—in the summer and during Christmas. Over the seven years of his presidency, American taxpayers spent between $10,000,000 and $74,000,000 a year on vacations for the first American family. To understand how such unbelievable expenses accumulate, the cost for only the plane and the bodyguards when Mr. Obama flew his family to Hawaii, in 2014, was $5,316,000.”
He should attend the funeral. It would be a good “post-partisan” gesture, if the president is interested in “going there.” But it’s not too surprising that he’s not attending. 😦
The more I read about Scalia the more I miss him. Check out yesterday’s post on getreligion.com — “February 17, 2016: Think pieces on Justice Scalia, funeral sermons, humility and the First Amendment” — which includes an amazing story about him. 🙂 Worth reading.
Did anyone see CNN’s “town halls” with the GOP candidates (being interviewed separately with an audience by Anderson Cooper). I saw and heard only bits and pieces, but it received good reviews from Mollie Hemingway and others.
Interesting Lincoln quotes. A good reminder to ourselves that there’s a (much!) bigger picture in play during the course of human events that we can’t fully see. Humbling.
Fascinating letter, too, from Scalia about funerals … Posted by the Foundation for Reformed Theology on FB
Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the following about the funeral of Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., and even more about the importance of preaching–especially at a funeral!–preaching the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the eternal life which follows from that.
————————————————————————————–
Supreme Court of the United States
Washington, D. C. 20543
CHAMBERS OF
JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA
September 1, 1998
Dr. James C. Goodloe
Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church
1627 Monument Avenue
Richmond, Virginia 23220-2925
Dear Dr. Goodloe:
I looked for you unsuccessfully at the luncheon following the funeral yesterday. I wanted to tell you how reverent and inspiring I found the service that you conducted.
In my aging years, I have attended so many funerals of prominent people that I consider myself a connoisseur of the genre. When the deceased and his family are nonbelievers, of course, there is not much to be said except praise for the departed who is no more. But even in Christian services conducted for deceased Christians , I am surprised at how often eulogy is the centerpiece of the service, rather than (as it was in your church) the Resurrection of Christ, and the eternal life which follows from that. I am told that, in Roman Catholic canon law, encomiums at funeral Masses are not permitted—though if that is the rule, I have never seen it observed except in the breach. I have always thought there is much to be said for such a prohibition, not only because it spares from embarrassment or dissembling those of us about whom little good can truthfully be said, but also because, even when the deceased was an admirable person—indeed, especially when the deceased was an admirable person—praise for his virtues can cause us to forget that we are praying for, and giving thanks for, God’s inexplicable mercy to a sinner. (My goodness, that seems more like a Presbyterian thought than a Catholic one!)
Perhaps the clergymen who conduct relatively secular services are moved by a desire not to offend the nonbelievers in attendance—whose numbers tend to increase in proportion to the prominence of the deceased. What a great mistake. Weddings and funerals (but especially funerals) are the principal occasions left in modern America when you can preach the Good News not just to the faithful, but to those who have never really heard it.
Many thanks, Dr. Goodloe, for a service that did honor to Lewis and homage to God. It was a privilege to sit with your congregation. Best regards.
Sincerely,
Antonin Scalia
“Valerie Jarrett was on the Chicago Transit Authority board for nearly eight years before becoming a top aide to President Barack Obama. Howard Medley was on the CTA board for a decade before he was convicted in a scheme involving a CTA fuel contract.
Despite their divergent paths, the time Jarrett and Medley spent there proved lucrative to both of them. They and other retired CTA board members — all of them political appointees who worked only part time — each came away with five-figure pensions that have cost the public transit agency a total of more than $3 million over 10 years, a Chicago Sun-Times and Better Government Association investigation has found.
In 2014, the most recent year for which records were available, the CTA paid $330,000 into its board pension fund and doled out $329,744 in pension payments to 19 board retirees or their survivors.
Fifteen board retirees also get CTA-subsidized health insurance — another perk that comes at the expense of riders and taxpayers. Citing federal health privacy law, CTA officials declined to identify those retirees.”
“Pope Francis is more than head of the Catholic Church — he’s also the head of state of the Vatican, which as a government has possibly the most restrictive immigration and citizenship policies of any nation in the world.
The pope, traveling to the U.S. for the first time, has made a special appeal to Americans to welcome immigrants, using his address to a joint meeting of Congress Thursday to invoke the Golden Rule in demanding generosity toward the millions of Central and South Americans seeking to come to the country.”
“Rep. Michael Burgess, Texas Republican, said the U.S. is already doing its part to heed calls for compassion.
“The thing that always strikes me when we get into these discussions is the United States takes in more people every year legally than the rest of the world combined,” he said. “You start from that premise — it was 1.7 million last year, you want to add another 400,000 to 600,000 that came in without the benefit of doing it the right way. What is the right number? If over 2 million is not enough, would someone please tell me what that right number is, and would other countries act accordingly.”
The Vatican, for its part, welcomes millions of visitors a year — but allows only a very select few, who meet strict criteria, to be admitted as residents or citizens.”
“”No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith,” the Republican candidate said.
After being criticized by Pope Francis for his controversial stance on building a Mexico border wall, Donald Trump issued a fiery response to the Vatican on Thursday.”
“”A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Francis said, as quoted by the Associated Press. “This is not in the Gospel.”
Trump, the GOP presidential frontrunner took little time to respond to the pope’s remarks, even insulting Pope Francis.
“For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful,” Trump said in a statement. “No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith.”
Trump said the pope was misinformed by the Mexican government and its leadership who “made many disparaging remarks” about Trump to Pope Francis. “
“DeRay Mckesson, the prominent activist and late entrant into Baltimore’s mayoral race, will meet with President Barack Obama and civil rights leaders at the White House on Thursday for an event honoring Black History Month.
Mckesson, a former school administrator and Black Lives Matter protester who co-founded We the Protestors and Campaign Zero, will attend the meeting along with Al Sharpton, Cornell Brooks, president of the NAACP, and Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia.
A White House official described the meeting as a first-of-its-kind gathering of leaders who represent different generations of the civil rights movement, and said the discussion will focus on criminal justice reform and building trust between police and neighborhoods.
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch will also attend.
For the left, this is an opportunity to impose a liberal agenda on the nation for perhaps as many as 40 years. For the right, it will determine whether conservatives will have the power to stop an agenda they believe is proving ruinous to the country—economically, legally, and morally. The stakes could not be higher.
______________________________________________
A few weeks ago someone posted that they didn’t believe Trump had ever heard the Gospel. I think that may be true and he is 69 years old. If it is true, there are many millions of Americans who have never heard the Gospel.
This whole Pope/Trump thing is primarily a misunderstanding, but it gives our churches a window or a teachable moment to teach/preach “What does it mean to be a Christian?” As always this cannot be done without an explanation of the meaning of the word “repent”.
I think that was me who posted that — and it was based on Trump’s insistence that he was a “good person” and didn’t feel the need to repent of anything.
Can’t have the gospel without repentance.
A lot of people think being Christian means being a “good person.” Perhaps that’s the church’s fault in the past 50 years for failing to preach the gospel clearly — and, often times, getting sidetracked by unbiblical ideas, churches, ministers, etc.
Wandering Views 
“The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both *may* be, and one *must* be, wrong. God cannot be*for* and *against* the same thing at the same time.
In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party – and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaption to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably true – that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By His mere great power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either *saved* or *destroyed* the Union without human contest. Yet the contest began, And, having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.”
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Whoops, hit the wrong key. The quote is from President A. Lincoln. FYI
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I see where Obama isn’t going to attend the Scalia funeral on Saturday.
Fos News calls it a snub.
Thing is, nobody will miss him.
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From “The Oobserver” via Drudge
The 44th American President goes on vacation twice a year—in the summer and during Christmas. Over the seven years of his presidency, American taxpayers spent between $10,000,000 and $74,000,000 a year on vacations for the first American family. To understand how such unbelievable expenses accumulate, the cost for only the plane and the bodyguards when Mr. Obama flew his family to Hawaii, in 2014, was $5,316,000.”
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He should attend the funeral. It would be a good “post-partisan” gesture, if the president is interested in “going there.” But it’s not too surprising that he’s not attending. 😦
The more I read about Scalia the more I miss him. Check out yesterday’s post on getreligion.com — “February 17, 2016: Think pieces on Justice Scalia, funeral sermons, humility and the First Amendment” — which includes an amazing story about him. 🙂 Worth reading.
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It was also published here, tweeted by Mollie Hemingway the other day:
http://fee.org/articles/justice-scalia-s-great-heart/
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The funeral is not about him and shouldn’t be. If he went, he would make it about him.
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Did anyone see CNN’s “town halls” with the GOP candidates (being interviewed separately with an audience by Anderson Cooper). I saw and heard only bits and pieces, but it received good reviews from Mollie Hemingway and others.
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Interesting Lincoln quotes. A good reminder to ourselves that there’s a (much!) bigger picture in play during the course of human events that we can’t fully see. Humbling.
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Now the pope and the Donald are brawling.
As Chris Wallace said this morning, you can’t make this stuff up.
Just when you think this campaign can’t get any more bizarre …
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Ricky, from yesterday, I never compared Putin to Trump.
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On what the pope said.
http://thefederalist.com/2016/02/18/5-problems-with-pope-francis-comments-on-donald-trumps-faith/
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Fascinating letter, too, from Scalia about funerals … Posted by the Foundation for Reformed Theology on FB
Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the following about the funeral of Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., and even more about the importance of preaching–especially at a funeral!–preaching the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the eternal life which follows from that.
————————————————————————————–
Supreme Court of the United States
Washington, D. C. 20543
CHAMBERS OF
JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA
September 1, 1998
Dr. James C. Goodloe
Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church
1627 Monument Avenue
Richmond, Virginia 23220-2925
Dear Dr. Goodloe:
I looked for you unsuccessfully at the luncheon following the funeral yesterday. I wanted to tell you how reverent and inspiring I found the service that you conducted.
In my aging years, I have attended so many funerals of prominent people that I consider myself a connoisseur of the genre. When the deceased and his family are nonbelievers, of course, there is not much to be said except praise for the departed who is no more. But even in Christian services conducted for deceased Christians , I am surprised at how often eulogy is the centerpiece of the service, rather than (as it was in your church) the Resurrection of Christ, and the eternal life which follows from that. I am told that, in Roman Catholic canon law, encomiums at funeral Masses are not permitted—though if that is the rule, I have never seen it observed except in the breach. I have always thought there is much to be said for such a prohibition, not only because it spares from embarrassment or dissembling those of us about whom little good can truthfully be said, but also because, even when the deceased was an admirable person—indeed, especially when the deceased was an admirable person—praise for his virtues can cause us to forget that we are praying for, and giving thanks for, God’s inexplicable mercy to a sinner. (My goodness, that seems more like a Presbyterian thought than a Catholic one!)
Perhaps the clergymen who conduct relatively secular services are moved by a desire not to offend the nonbelievers in attendance—whose numbers tend to increase in proportion to the prominence of the deceased. What a great mistake. Weddings and funerals (but especially funerals) are the principal occasions left in modern America when you can preach the Good News not just to the faithful, but to those who have never really heard it.
Many thanks, Dr. Goodloe, for a service that did honor to Lewis and homage to God. It was a privilege to sit with your congregation. Best regards.
Sincerely,
Antonin Scalia
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is a perfect demonstration of why public pensions, as they currently exist, are unsustainable. Plus, it’s the Chicago way.
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/1320086/cta-pension-bonanza-barack-obama-aide-valerie-jarrett-howard-medley-gravy-train
“Valerie Jarrett was on the Chicago Transit Authority board for nearly eight years before becoming a top aide to President Barack Obama. Howard Medley was on the CTA board for a decade before he was convicted in a scheme involving a CTA fuel contract.
Despite their divergent paths, the time Jarrett and Medley spent there proved lucrative to both of them. They and other retired CTA board members — all of them political appointees who worked only part time — each came away with five-figure pensions that have cost the public transit agency a total of more than $3 million over 10 years, a Chicago Sun-Times and Better Government Association investigation has found.
In 2014, the most recent year for which records were available, the CTA paid $330,000 into its board pension fund and doled out $329,744 in pension payments to 19 board retirees or their survivors.
Fifteen board retirees also get CTA-subsidized health insurance — another perk that comes at the expense of riders and taxpayers. Citing federal health privacy law, CTA officials declined to identify those retirees.”
A disgusting abuse of power.
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Yeah, the pope should mind his own business. Maybe clean up his own house first….
He bashes Trump’s wall idea, and yet…..
http://www.theamericanmirror.com/photos-pope-calls-for-us-to-embrace-illegals-while-maintaining-massive-wall-around-vatican/
—————-
And they have one of the most restrictive immigration systems in the world…..
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/24/pope-call-immigration-unlikely-change-debate/?page=all
“Pope Francis is more than head of the Catholic Church — he’s also the head of state of the Vatican, which as a government has possibly the most restrictive immigration and citizenship policies of any nation in the world.
The pope, traveling to the U.S. for the first time, has made a special appeal to Americans to welcome immigrants, using his address to a joint meeting of Congress Thursday to invoke the Golden Rule in demanding generosity toward the millions of Central and South Americans seeking to come to the country.”
“Rep. Michael Burgess, Texas Republican, said the U.S. is already doing its part to heed calls for compassion.
“The thing that always strikes me when we get into these discussions is the United States takes in more people every year legally than the rest of the world combined,” he said. “You start from that premise — it was 1.7 million last year, you want to add another 400,000 to 600,000 that came in without the benefit of doing it the right way. What is the right number? If over 2 million is not enough, would someone please tell me what that right number is, and would other countries act accordingly.”
The Vatican, for its part, welcomes millions of visitors a year — but allows only a very select few, who meet strict criteria, to be admitted as residents or citizens.”
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And Trump has responded….
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/donald-trump-fires-back-at-867327
“”No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith,” the Republican candidate said.
After being criticized by Pope Francis for his controversial stance on building a Mexico border wall, Donald Trump issued a fiery response to the Vatican on Thursday.”
“”A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Francis said, as quoted by the Associated Press. “This is not in the Gospel.”
Trump, the GOP presidential frontrunner took little time to respond to the pope’s remarks, even insulting Pope Francis.
“For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful,” Trump said in a statement. “No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith.”
Trump said the pope was misinformed by the Mexican government and its leadership who “made many disparaging remarks” about Trump to Pope Francis. “
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Gee…. maybe this has something to do with Obama being so quiet on the recent spate of cop shootings…. I guess Black Live Matter more……
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/blog/bal-deray-mckesson-civil-rights-leaders-to-meet-with-obama-20160217-story.html
“DeRay Mckesson, the prominent activist and late entrant into Baltimore’s mayoral race, will meet with President Barack Obama and civil rights leaders at the White House on Thursday for an event honoring Black History Month.
Mckesson, a former school administrator and Black Lives Matter protester who co-founded We the Protestors and Campaign Zero, will attend the meeting along with Al Sharpton, Cornell Brooks, president of the NAACP, and Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia.
A White House official described the meeting as a first-of-its-kind gathering of leaders who represent different generations of the civil rights movement, and said the discussion will focus on criminal justice reform and building trust between police and neighborhoods.
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch will also attend.
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On the new justice appointment by Cal Thomas:
http://www.worldmag.com/2016/02/antonin_scalia_s_successor
_____________________________________________
For the left, this is an opportunity to impose a liberal agenda on the nation for perhaps as many as 40 years. For the right, it will determine whether conservatives will have the power to stop an agenda they believe is proving ruinous to the country—economically, legally, and morally. The stakes could not be higher.
______________________________________________
LikeLiked by 1 person
A few weeks ago someone posted that they didn’t believe Trump had ever heard the Gospel. I think that may be true and he is 69 years old. If it is true, there are many millions of Americans who have never heard the Gospel.
This whole Pope/Trump thing is primarily a misunderstanding, but it gives our churches a window or a teachable moment to teach/preach “What does it mean to be a Christian?” As always this cannot be done without an explanation of the meaning of the word “repent”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think that was me who posted that — and it was based on Trump’s insistence that he was a “good person” and didn’t feel the need to repent of anything.
Can’t have the gospel without repentance.
A lot of people think being Christian means being a “good person.” Perhaps that’s the church’s fault in the past 50 years for failing to preach the gospel clearly — and, often times, getting sidetracked by unbiblical ideas, churches, ministers, etc.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or it was I. 🙂
Boy, tempting to watch Anderson Cooper take on Donald Trump, one-on-one, tonight …
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