Saturday, December 31, 2005

Reformation 21 » Ferret Breeding

My Petra Appreciation post is unavoidably delayed.

In the meantime, have a loock at this interesting article from Reformation 21. (HT: Emeth Alethia)

Here's the thing. Surely there must be a way to weed out "the beardless Calvinists" without requiring initials behind our names before we've earned the right to speak. Whatever happened to "God used the foolish things to shame the wise," "knowledge puffs up," etc?

9 comments:

Kim said...

This is something I have discussed with my husband on many occasions. I have often bemoaned to him that I probably couldn't be taken seriously as a "scholar" or a "theologian" or anything like that unless I got some more education. My husband always responds with the answer that the truly educated aren't always the ones who have the most formal schooling. Unfortunately, for me (especially since I'm a stay at home mother) if I want to be taken seriously, or earn the right to be heard as the article suggests, I have to have little letters beside my name, and more than the ones I currently have (only B.A.).

I'm wondering if one can generalize about earning "the right to be heard." Doesn't it depend on who the audience is?

It's probably just my feminine mind getting all worked up, but I found the article a little condescending. But then, I have a notoriously thin skin.

The Main Family said...

The article is a bit condescending, but I did enjoy reading it.

Imagine, though, a similar rant coming from the sixteenth century. Replace the word "printing press" for "web" and "diocese" for "PhD". Ultimately, Luther's critics had to respond to what he was saying rather than his right to say it.

Kim's husband sounds like a wise man.

Matt Gumm said...

He is. He's also got this Kafka thing going on (see the photo).

Kim said...

Oh, I don't like that picture he has up there at all! I told him it creeped me out! I think that's likely why he's keeping it there :-)

Neil said...

Matt, you're worse than Turk for obscure allusions! I grew up under a rock, so I have no clue what you're talking about, or who Kafka was. Here is what my research has revealed so far:

"In fact, generally speaking, Kafka was a charming, intelligent, and humorous individual, but he found his routine office job and the exhausting double life into which it forced him (for his nights were frequently consumed in writing) to be excruciating torture, and his deeper personal relationships were neurotically disturbed." from kafka.org

To Kim in ON: Sorry honey.

Matt Gumm said...

No one is worse than Turk (except maybe Thomas Watson--more on that another time).

Kafka wrote this story called Metamorphosis, where this guy wakes up one day & basically turns into a bug. Your picture looks just like it.

More here.

P.S. Are you guys back from your trip? How did you enjoy the States?

Neil said...

Okay got it. Metamorphosis. Kim spoke slowly and explained it to me. Pretty good!

For a real comment, I liked the last paragraph in the article, which sort of said go ahead and blog away, but don't take yourself very seriously.

I really don't buy the notion that PhD is a magical infallible surname. There are lots of dueling camps of PhD's that think the other camp is nuts. At least some of them are right.

And there are lots of otherwise smart PhD scholars that are just plain wrong about the nature and power of God, and there are PhD's who think they are "Christian", but are not truly saved, and are not indwelt, and their work reflects that fact.

On the other hand, if I challenge a PhD, I will lose and embarass myself probably more than nine times out of ten, because they know more than me! But if I'm blogging, and a Scholar is pointing in a direction other than the true way of Christ, then woe to me if I don't stand up for the truth (in love, and very very humbly).

But Phil said it best. This is all just a waste of time if we are not living and doing the will of God out in the real world.

Kim's right, you have a really good blog Matt. see ya.

Neil said...

Oops, cross commented with you.

Yup the States were fun. We made a wrong turn (Kim's fault) and ended up in the Love Canal district of Niagara Falls. Not very pretty! My daughter said on her blog that U.S. money looked like play-money and she is now in a good natured online battle with a young man in Seattle about whose money looks more Monopoly-like.

Kim said...

Matt, the wrong turn was not my fault! I had a faulty map.

My husband has an aversion to PhDs because he's afraid I'll go out and get one and people might think I'm smart!