The Practical Parson

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.    Speak unto others as you would have them speak unto you.   Speak of others as you would have them speak of you.    Love others as you would have them love you.   Give unto others as you would have them give unto you.   Be a friend unto others as you would have them be a friend unto you.   Care for others as you would have them care for you.    For by the standard that you judge others, you yourself shall also be judged.  If we say that we are above the judgement of man, yet judge other men; how shall we be spared ourselves from the more righteous judgment of God?  We speak ill of those we despise, we treat with contempt those with whom we disagree, we lash out against those who have angered us; forgetting that we ourselves are reflecting the manner in which we desire to be treated by our treatment of others.   Love your enemies, do good to those...

 In recent decades, more so since about 2007; there has been an increasing demand from people in the world for all churches to open up the ministry to women instead of just men.  While there are some denominations where such a shift would not matter greatly, as they are focused primarily on the written word instead of any actual service; to make such a demand of the sacramental priesthood is a problem which cannot be simply overcome by political ideology or social justice cause.  To put it bluntly, women cannot be priests.   Having nailed the colors to the mast with that statement, I will elaborate: From the beginnings of the Christian Church, the services and means of worship were never intended to be divorced from their Jewish origins.  To this day, within traditional sacramental worship, there are elements of the service which correlate to ancient Jewish temple practices; from the manner in which the priest holds his hands in prayer, to the way in which ...

 Modern man believes money can solve past mistakes.  To do so, he impoverishes his neighbors to make himself feel righteous.  -Practical Parson This week, the head of the institution formerly known as the Church of England announced that he was earmarking 121 million dollars (100 million pounds) to address the Church's apparent past benefiting from the transatlantic slave trade.  This is a new step in the modern notion of reparations; one that ignores truth, while enshrining hatred as a foundational value of the modern church and hierarchy.   Were there people in the church involved in the slave trade?  Undoubtedly. Were there donations that came from the success of the slave trade?  Most assuredly.  The trouble with demanding that money today be spent in reparation for what those men did is that you are not taking money away from those who committed the act; but rather from your own neighbor.  It is akin to a judge sentencing a criminal...

 Many years ago, when I was but a young child, my parents decided to send myself and my older brother to a private, christian school in North Carolina.  They were promised an academically inclined, superb learning environment for their children, one in which college preparation was well in hand and all students were equipped to succeed after graduation.   What they got, was sadly none of what they were promised.  Instead, their children were mistreated, bullied, abused, and even suffered academically because of that hellhole's agenda.  You see, the agenda of that particular so-called school was not so much to educate young minds for the future, as much as it was to condition our minds into their perfect, ideal, cookie-cutter little evangelical christian soldiers; who would never oppose them and always do whatever they say.   From the time I was in the seventh grade, until halfway through my junior year; I was brutally bullied, abused, and merciles...