Here is an MP3 File of a song I wrote a couple of years ago. The demo is a bit rough, but I hope it helps you focus this Good Friday on what happened at the Cross. Lyrics are attached below.
Categories
Author: David Opderbeck
Categories
Today (Yesterday) in NJ
Patty romping in the snow. Do I smell Spring in the air, or did you just step in something?
A recent post at Blogodoxy, picked up by Jollyblogger, suggests that the “real issue” in the Schiavo case is the definition of personhood. I think Blogodoxy is partly right. The definition of personhood is critical for clear ethical reflection on the withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) from a person in a persistent vegitative state (PVS). The uproar over the Schiavo case, however, is driven, I think, more by politics and conservative Catholic teaching rather than by independent ethical reflection.
Perhaps unwittingly, many Evangelical and Reformed bloggers and activists are advocating a hard-line position on the withdrawal of ANH that ultimately traces back to the Catholic Magesterial teaching and a recent Address given by Pope John Paul II. While I respect this Pope greatly, I’d like to examine this question a bit more closely, and suggest that a balanced Christian perspective should be less dogmatic about whether ANH can be withdrawn from a PVS patient.
Categories
Today in NY and NJ
Morning commute: rainy on Broadway.
Evening commute: big snowflakes in NJ.
In fact, our doctrine tells us so. I remember leading a Bible study on First John years ago and being unsettled by its emphasis on orthopraxy and it’s relative lack of emphasis on orthodoxy. Can it be more clear than this: “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. . . . Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:3, 6).
Categories
Academic Augustine Big Questions Books and Film Chrysostom Culture Ecclesiology Education Epistemology Flightsim Genealogy Historical Theology History Humor Justice Law and Policy Looking Glass Miscellaneous News Pascal Personal News Relief Work Science & Technology Spirituality Sports Theology Travel
Schiavo and Judicial Activism
I was listening to the Sean Hannity show on my way into the office this afternoon. He was discussing the Florida District Court’s ruling denying the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order under the federal statute passed by Congress (the “Schiavo Act”). Hannity stated that he believed the court’s opinion did not even reference the Schiavo Act. He was hammering the federal court’s decision as symptomatic of the arrogance of the judiciary. Senator Rick Santorum came on the Hannity show and claimed the Schiavo Act required the federal court to order the reinsertion of nutrition and hydration tubes pending a full hearing on the merits. Santorum also decried the ruling as an abuse of judicial power. This seems to be the Christian Right’s theme: a National Right to Life Committee spokesman referred to the federal court’s decision as a “gross abuse of judicial power”; Christian Defense Coalition Director Pat Mahoney, quoted in a Focus on the Family article, attributed the federal court’s decision to “an arrogant and activist federal judiciary.”
Unfortunately, all of these comments about judicial activism are wrong.
I’ve avoided commenting on the Terry Schiavo case because it’s such a hot-button issue and I haven’t studied it carefully enough. In my experience, cases like this are factually, legally, and ethically complicated, and seldom reduce to a single moral response. When I practiced law, I was involved in a few cases involving insurance and medical care. Usually I represented insurers that were denying coverage for care. On the surface, these cases seemed to present a classic moral situation: the big, evil insurance company against the suffering individual. Yet, most of the time, a detailed review of the facts, law and public policy involved in the case revealed significant moral ambiguity about the proper result. So, I try to reserve judgment in a case like Schiavo’s, unless I can dig into the underlying law and evidence.
I’ve gotten copies of some of the Schiavo court filings, and I hope to become better educated soon. Initially, though, there are two trends I’m seeing in the faith-based blogsphere that I’d like to address.
Categories
The Telos of the Passion Week
Today Christians around the world celebrate Palm Sunday, the start of the passion week. In my home church, the children’s choirs came down the aisles with palm fronds, a group of the kids performed a sweeping, graceful liturgical dance, and we sang great old hymns with the organ and trumpets blaring. In doing this we recalled Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, as the crowd shouted “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” just days before Jesus would be crucified and rise again. (John 12:12)
It’s unlikely the crowd present on that first Palm Sunday appreciated how Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem represented an acceleration towards the divine telos of history. In fact, John 12:16 tells us that even Jesus’ disciples didn’t understand the triumphal entry until after Jesus had ascended to heaven. But here was the tip of the spear, thousands of years of waiting, finally arrived. Even as the lambs were being driven towards the city for sacrifice during the passover, the Lamb of God rode in willingly. Soon sin would be defeated once for all.
Now we wait for the final act of the divine telos: when Christ returns victorious, judges sin, and establishes His Kingdom in fullness. The final scene is described in Revelation 21: “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” At the right time, Christ came to offer himself on the cross. At the right time, he will come again.
As we celebrate this passion week, those of us who name Christ as Lord eagerly anticipate his return, and proclaim the invitation Christ himself gives: “To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.” (Rev. 21:6.)
Categories
Stan Grenz's Passing
I hadn’t heard of Stan Grenz’s sudden passing until this morning. I didn’t know Dr. Grenz personally, but I appreciated and was greatly challenged by his book Beyond Foundationalism. I once e-mailed him to comment on a blog post of mine about his book, and he promptly e-mailed me back with some helpful comments. There are many moving eulogies on his web site from folks who knew him.
Categories
New Member of Opderbeck Family
Here are pictures of me and St. Patty. She’s a labrador / something-or-other mix. We adopted her from a local shelter today. Isn’t she the sweetest thing!
