Let's get the band back together!!!

Anyone who knew me in college knew me as the ultracool frontman of everybody's favorite campus band, Blind Dog and the Silent Seven. I'm assigning myself 20 Hail Marys as penance for that fib. Anyway, you can listen to our Kelly's Blues, with my bad self on vocals and lead guitar.

Jehova Jireh

Praise God for He is Good.
I recently found out that one of my long time friends is getting married and another one got a job teaching apologetics, rhetoric, and the Bible to high school juniors and seniors in a geographical setting that is ideally suited for him.
His mercy endures forever.

Lutheran Carnival

Click the title above to visit the first installment of the Lutheran Carnival, which is going to be a weekly feature.

Augsburg Evangelical bloggers have changed my life.

With the departure of the Beggars All gentlemen from active blogging (may God speed their return), I have had opportunity to think about the influence of blogs on my life as a Christian. I first happened upon the Boars Head Tavern when my wife and I had recently joined a Lutheran congregation as a compromise between her native Roman Catholicism and my confused ecumenical background. The conversation at the BHT was quite similar to the late night conversations I had during college with my reformed friends (occasionally over a draught). Josh S. was posting there (the first time) when I was also a barmate. Despite the danger of possibly making his head asplode I will say this of Josh, I am indebted to him for modeling to me how a Confessional Lutheran thinks and pointing me toward Christ. I've since had the same experience of other confessional Lutherans on the web. To read the comments on these blogs one would think that Confessional Lutherans are the most rejecting of souls. Not so! We are concerned for the purity of doctrine but I am much more at peace with the eternal home of my deceased Roman Catholic family members as an Augsburg Evangelical than was ever possible as a confused ecumenicist. The God of Luther is both immanent and transcendent truely, a balance that I didn’t find in RC or Reformed theology (though Reformed theology did teach me how to fear God again).

I have a question for the Confessional Lutherans on the web: Where is our Credenda/Agenda, our R.C. Sproul, our St. Anne's Pub? Issues Etc. is great, but were is all the other teaching/exploratory stuff that you find all over the net from the Reformed folks?

Cyberonics in the News

An implantable device that stimulates the vagus nerve has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of depression. The device was originally implanted to short-circuit epileptic seizures. Apparently some folks had a reduction in depression symptoms so they began to study it's effect on depressed folks for whom antidepressant medications were not working. Preliminary results are encouraging, especially considering the drawbacks of electroconvulsive therapy. My buddy worked in the clean room for this company and it's right down the street from my parent's place, so I'm experiencing the vicarious excitement that comes from familiarity.

My First Publication - More

My paper on the Ethics of treating same-sex attracted individuals is scheduled for publication in December. The wheels turn very slowly.