The UmBlog

Maybe ten years ago I remember myself saying out loud that I couldn't stand John's gospel . It was too obtuse. I didn't get it. Now it is my favorite. Today's Lenten reading included all of John's gospel. I listened to most of it as I was working in the lab today. John leaves golden eggs of the deity of Jesus throughout his gospel. He leaves them in every chapter. As I listened to chapter 5, I noticed something new to me. It's a minor assertion overshadowed by the mountains of theology all around it, but it's still important, especially when chatting with the Jehovah's Witnesses who come by, denying the deity of Jesus. John 5:22-23 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. My question is can there be a way to honor God the Father that does not include worship? And isn't the on...

Here is another delicious quote from  Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies  by  David Bentley Hart .   the result of the fourth ecumenical council convoked at Chalcedon in 451 was a fragmented church - divided for the most part by terminology rather than by faith. At the same time, the evolution of Christological dogma must also be remembered as one of the most extraordinary intellectual achievements of Christian tradition. Again the principal engine of dogmatic definition was the theology of salvation, and again the chief concern was ho the church might coherently affirm that, in Christ, the divine and the human had been perfectly reconciled and immediately joined. That Christ was wholly God had been proclaimed by the Council of Nicaea; but, in order for his incarnation to have created a truly divinized humanity, he must also have been wholly man. Gregory of Nazianzus stated the matter in a rather elegant aphorism in his "Epistle to Cledonius...

this guy is working hard

Jehovah's Witnesses :: Husband renews effort to make medical decisions for his wife : "Tawnya Nissen, 28, was hospitalized Aug. 4 with neuroleptic malignant syndrome, a condition caused by a reaction to diet pills. She entered a coma and physicians at the University of Iowa Hospitals honored health care decisions made by her husband, a Jehovah's Witness. Earlier this month, a Johnson County judge suspended Chris Nissen's ability to make medical decisions for his wife, awarding temporary guardianship to the woman's father, Richard T. Reid. Tawnya Nissen emerged from a coma last week and requested a transfer to a Davenport hospital, and despite a setback late last week is recovering, attorney Frank Santiago said. "She's talking, laughing ... doing a lot better," Santiago said. "Even her husband went back to work, and he wouldn't have done that if things weren't getting better.""

Too bad Terri Schiavo wasn't in Iowa.... IOWA CITY (AP) — A Jehovah’s Witness who would not permit blood transfusions for his comatose wife has been barred from making her medical decisions. Tawnya Nissen, 28, of Clinton, who has been in a coma for about two weeks, will be under the guardianship of her father until she can make her own decisions, according to a ruling issued Wednesday by a Johnson County judge...