The Arrow's Path

The subject of blessing(s) in the Bible is a major theme, particularly in the Old Testament. The word appears 133 times in the Bible as a whole. That 133 is the total for the entire Bible, including what Protestants refer to as the Books of the Apocrypha. I include those works in this total because my original letter writer refers specifically to the King James Version. The original King James Version did include what Protestants now refer to as the Apocrypha, but, ironically, the books are not now found in most Protestant editions of the King James Version. The following list breaks down how many verses in the Bible contain the word "Blessing" in the King James Version by book (a few instances have the word used more than once in a verse): Old Testament: Genesis: 15 Exodus: 2 Letivicus: 1 Deuteronomy: 17 Joshua: 1 2 Samuel:  2 2 Chronicles: 2 Nehemiah: 2 Job: 1 Psalms: 15 Proverbs: 7 Isaiah: 6 Ezekiel: 4 Joel: 1 Zechariah: 1 Malachi: 2 Tobit: 7 Judith: ...

I had a priest tell me once, "Never get into a Scripture spitting contest with a Fundamentalist...you'll lose every time." While to a certain extent true, I feel I must say that this particular priest was the stereotypical example of an Anglican cleric: he was smug, arrogant, and probably could not have quoted a bible verse to you off the top of his head to save this life. Likewise, if you had asked him how one defined "a Fundamentalist," he probably would not have been able to give you a coherent definition. "Fundamentalist" is often used by mainline churchy types (and the New Atheists for that matter) much the same way people now use the term "Nazi" in everyday conversation. That is to say, they view the very accusation of being a "Fundamentalist" as the ultimate rhetorical trump card. If you can just label your debating opponent as a "fundamentalist" or a "Nazi," then somehow they assume they have won the ar...

This is a continuation of my previous blog posts here and here , concerning what I have dubbed the "Bless Your Heart" Hate mail I received earlier in the week. As I posited in the second linked post above, the legitimate theological issue of blessings of people, animals, or inanimate objects was raised in the letter. I believe that actually is a very good question. Certainly some people feel very strongly about it, either positively or negatively, in terms of theology. As such, I am going to turn now to those questions that I believe the initial letter posed. As I understood the letter (and I am being generous in giving the benefit of the doubt on a number of things in it), I believed the three substantive theological questions were as follows: Where do I come off blessing animals (or non-humans)? Where do I come off blessing inanimate objects? What theology (read: actual Scripture verses) do I base any of the preceding questions on? I had initially envisioned posting o...

The first question that was posed by what I am calling the "Bless Your Heart" hate mail letter involved, "...and where do you find St. Francis of Assisi patron saint of animals? I've read the King James Version through and have never read this." I am going to endeavor to not be too cheeky in my answer to this one. The answer to this one is quite simple. Francis of Assisi lived from circa AD 1181 to October 3rd, 1226, hence the feast day (and usually the annual blessing of the animals in commemoration of Saint Francis is still held on or around October 3rd. All writings in what we call the canon of Scripture, commonly referred to as the Bible, were largely completed by AD 100 to AD 120. The later dates are contingent on how you date some of the Johannine literature (i.e. the Gospel of John, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and Revelation) Many modern scholars tend to posit them as the last New Testament texts written. Ironically, the earliest fragments of the New Tes...

As I noted in my previous blog entry , I received some anonymous hate mail in my parish post office box concerning the following pictures that ran on the front page of the local newspaper: If you can't read the text because my scanner hates newsprint, it reads with names omitted, "Blessing of the Animals- Today is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals. To honor him and the creatures he loved, the Rev. ____ ____ pastor of Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Brookings,  here a "Liturgy for the Blessing of the Animals in the church courtyard on Sunday afternoon. On hand were about eight dogs and their owners. Shown above Father _____ blesses Maxwell, who is owned by the pastor and his wife, ____. At left, _____ ______ holds his black footed ferret and _____ _____ looks on while the Rev. _____ _____ blesses the stuffed animal."  That seemed to me, and everyone I know that saw it, to be a fairly innocuous couple of pictures. I actually q...

I was away this last weekend, as I was down visiting in-laws in Nebraska. Upon my return on Monday, I checked the parish mail box. Lo and behold, I received the following piece of hate mail: Front Back This does, of course, reference the front page picture the local paper ran of me a few weeks back regarding our annual St. Francis Day Blessing of the Animals. And then for kicks, added with this anonymously hand written letter were two little booklets, one of which had some of the following pages excerpts: Front Middle Page 1 Middle Page 2 I have decided to leave out the other more inflammatory pages and booklet. Suffice is to say, I'm going to burn in hell like all the rest of the Roman Catholics (and Anglicans, Eastern Orthodox, Lutherans, and a wide range of other Protestants). I don't even know where to begin with this. I would have actually theologically responded to the author, had there been a return address. I will likely respond to the basic...

The following is a post Canon Andrew White, the Anglican Vicar of Baghdad, posted on his blog earlier today. I think it is excellent information for those who don't understand the differences, and an interesting take, seeing as he is both a Christian and someone facilitating reconciliation between the two factions. He does delve into politics, and, as I do try to steer clear of politics, the opinions are solely his own.  (Reprinted with Permission)  -The Archer -------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUNNI AND SHIA ISLAM by Canon Andrew White A large amount of my work now days is concerned with reconciliation between Shia and Sunni. The conflict between the two has been widely publicized in the media. Yet the vast majority of people do not even know what the differences of these two are. I therefore want to go into significant detail about these two major strands of Islam so that people understand the fundamentals of this issue. In Chr...

The media has been full of news of late over a certain presidential political candidate who is an adherent of the Mormon faith. Seeing as the Religious Right is a major contributor to the party of that political candidate, one of the burning issues is whether Mormonism is Christian or is Mormonism a cult? (And subsequently whether a Mormon could or should be President of the United States.) I have watched with some interest to see where people I know (either in the media or in person) fall on that. On the one hand, the "Don't Judge lest you be Judged" and "Diversity if Life" crowds are out in force on the internet via blogs and such. One the other hand., there are the good Christians (some of whom are extremely mainline to catholic folk) I know who very much quietly with a wink and nod agreed with the Baptist pastor in the news who denounced Mormonism as a cult. People have asked me my thoughts on the issue. While I theologically disagree with a lot that the...

so, naturally, you threw a hot dog at Tiger Woods. And they wonder why they stopped serving beer at Golf events.

I received the following cryptic e-mail from Canon Andrew White, the Anglican Vicar of Baghdad, this morning: "I wrote earlier about our conference "Light in Darkness". Today has been such a day. We woke to the wonderful news of the imminent release of Gilad Shalit. We shared the great news that we wanted the conference for youth and adults. then the darkness began. Bomb after bomb. Shuddered but not hurt. We do not know how many have been killed but we know the light of the Lord is still here. And there are never any bombs where the conference will be." Please pray for Baghdad and particularly the Christian community there. It must be particularly bad this morning because Canon White usually does not send messages like that. -The Archer

in 1 minute and 18 seconds.

"Love is represented as the fulfilling of the law,--a creature's perfection. All other graces, all divine dispensations, contribute to this, and are lost in it as in a heaven. It expels the dross of our nature; it overcomes sorrow; it is the full joy of our Lord." -Anglican Theologian Richard Hooker, "On Love."

There was never quite a duet like these two:

This blog post will no doubt generate discussion (and probably visceral hatred) but the news has been made of Steve Jobs' (Former Apple CEO) tragic death. I have watched a torrent of news clips and Facebook updates deifying the man. Yes, let me be clear, his death was tragic. I don't mean to belittle the ravages of pancreatic cancer or of Steve Jobs' legacy as a business man and entrepreneur. He knew how to make money and sell stuff. However, I always thought Steve Jobs was the epitome of the worst elements of consumer culture and big business. Yes, he made gadgets and computers chic , but let's be clear about what he did before we canonize him as a saint. He made people addicted to gadgets they didn't need, most of which (the gadgets not the people) are now in land fills because his ability to sell anyone anything made his latest gadget all the rage and the now obsolete one went right into the trash. Apple was always at the bottom of Environmentally Friendly Corp...

They say that engineers can never truly design anything to be idiot proof...because the world will just design a better idiot. Case in point: sewage from the city line backed up into our basement today. The reason for all this Saturday morning fun? Someone up the line decided to flush a T-shirt down the toilet.