Understanding Depression Through Love Sickness

Posted on February 7, 2023 by Rev. Paul R. Harris

               This is my third post on things psychological that I advise you not to read. This is not mainstream thinking. If that’s where you are, you will consider me nuts. Remember I claim no expertise in this field. I do know what is to be personally depressed, panicked, and obsessed. I don’t think the “depression as disease” model that carries the day, not only in secular society but Christian, is helpful.

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You’ve been Warned

Posted on January 16, 2023 by Rev. Paul R. Harris

This is for pastor’s only. If you are a layman, turn around now. I’m not kidding. I’ve shared such thoughts below in Bible classes and it bothered some. I can’t blame them. It bothers me. But you don’t need to be bothered at all. Turn back now. Don’t click the read more.

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When Will They Ever Learn

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Rev. Paul R. Harris

Japanese businessmen wishing to break into the then lucrative Christmas card industry began selling their own. The image they chose for their first offering? Jesus kneeling in prayer and in agony in Gethsemane. In the immortal words of St. Maxwell, Smart that is, “They missed it by that much.”

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Visit to Our Savior Lutheran, Austin, Texas – Theology in a Time of Pandemic

Posted on December 5, 2022 by Rev. Paul R. Harris

Right off the bat let me say that I heard the Vicarious Atonement, Universal Atonement, and the Bible is the Word of God mentioned. The Nicene Creed was confessed and the Lord’s Prayer prayed. So, an unbeliever could have entered this church and walked out a Christian, but it is doubtful anyone could come out or stay a Lutheran here. Why? It’s the little things.

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Defection by Television

Posted on November 14, 2022 by Rev. Paul R. Harris

Forty Autumns, the story of East Germany and Germans inside and out of that dystopian regime is worth the read. It illustrates why the most effective way of undermining an Iron Curtain is not an effective way for spreading the Gospel. The ubiquity of Zoom services and Facebook streaming not withstanding.

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Prolife Pregnancy Centers and Contraceptives or 21st Century Bread and Circuses

Posted on October 24, 2022 by Rev. Paul R. Harris

               Recently my congregation stopped funding a local prolife pregnancy center because they provide birth control to the unmarried. When I told this to the center this is how they responded:

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“I Support Rick Sawyer”

Posted on October 3, 2022 by Rev. Paul R. Harris

            That’s the title I saved this under in 2011. I think this is the writing of his I am referencing https://steadfastlutherans.org/2011/03/acelc-conference-the-divine-service-and-daily-offices-by-rev-rick-sawyer/ . As always from the original Seelsorger of the web, good stuff.

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Fact or Fiction, the Blurring of Theology

Posted on September 19, 2022 by Rev. Paul R. Harris

               In the category of truth is stranger in fiction, we find that Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mocking Bird, and author and gadfly Truman Capote grew up together.

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Pope was Right

Posted on August 29, 2022 by Rev. Paul R. Harris

No, not the Pope but Alexander Pope, the turn of the 18th century English poet who some consider better than the Bard. He told us how we would come to embrace LGBTQ. And boy have we.

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Uxoriousness

Posted on August 8, 2022 by Rev. Paul R. Harris

I had to look this word up when I first read it. Uxoriousness means to be “excessively fond of or submissive to a wife”. It’s from the Latin for wife uxor (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/uxorious ). In his 1999 book The Church Impotent, Roman Catholic scholar Leon Podles observes: “Not tyranny, but uxoriousness, is the chief danger of patriarchy” (73).

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