Free Republic

Editor’s note: This piece is not for the Evangelical faint of heart. It is about personal piety and devotion in a manner that freaks most Protestants out. Proceed with caution. Evangelical and Protestant Christianity today tend toward Gnosticism, more often than not. By the grace of God, I’ve learned that symbols and matter, well, matter. I was reared in a God-fearing, non-denominational country church of the Baptist variety. There are many good and Godly men and women there who desperately love God and want to serve him (quickly, before he comes back and snatches them away soon, very soon!). Discipleship...

CALVIN ON BAPTISM, PENANCE, AND ABSOLUTION By Rich Lusk Copyright © 2002 CALVIN ON THE SACRAMENTS: MEANS OF ASSURANCE OR MEANS OF SALVATION? Calvin was a highly nuanced theologian. Sometimes, though, these nuances have been lost on his theological descendants. For example, Calvin's discussion of predestination includes numerous careful qualifications that are intended to short cut philosophical speculation and prevent the doctrine from appearing arbitrary or tyrannical. But many modern followers of Calvin, especially his numerous popularizers, often truncate, and therefore distort, his pastoral, Christ-centered view of election, turning Calvinism into a caricature of its real self. Nowhere is the...

I stand upon the cold, hard stone - the earth’s bones, their old gray forms having stood here for years beyond my count or experience. All about me the stone plunges swiftly down into a yawning chasm. Upon my right the great wall of stone circles around, in a deep amphitheater of cliff and tumbled, broken boulders, with but a few trees beneath them reaching towards the sky, their deep, cool moulds sloping down away from the roots of the stone. Gray and ambered and reaved with great, black streaks the stone rounds and rounds, brooding in unspeaking grandeur. The...

Y'all know you're from the great state of Mississippi when: You've been to or know about the towns of: Hot Coffee, Whynot, Soso, Shuqualak, Okalona, and Noxapater. When someone talks about The Flag, you know exactly what flag they're refering to. In any given parking lot, every third car has a Flag bumpersticker. Your neighbor (or yourself) has the Confederate battle flag in his yard and nothing else. You eat coon hash. You know where chittlins come from. You know it's coke, not "pop", or "soda." You know pop is a noise or an action (ie the coon popped out ...

I'm interested in your input to this burning (pardon the pun) question in my mind: Is controlled (managed, prescribed, etc.) fire a good thing or a bad thing? I am of the opinion that it most certainly is, due to the fact that it cuts down on brush, maintains valuable wildlife habitat, keeps certain fire depoendent forests (ie longleaf, ponderosa) healthy and alive, and is overall benificial in keeping wildfire hazards down. What is your opinion? Is it playing with fire (sorry)?

Go to htpp://www.gulf1.com/Briefs/1212.htm The times for the rally are wrong; it started out around 11:00 or so.

The rally in Pensacola today was great! At least a thousand people showed up(or at least it seemed to be that many!). Joe Scarborough(sp?) spoke, along with several Florida reps and retired servicemen. Several of us Freepers met up at Christ Church and proceeded to the rally. Eagle Eyes, Timeout, a guy whose name I can't recal(sorry!), my father, me, and a couple "lurkers" were in attendance, all with signs.(If anybody else was there that got left out, sorry) A band was there, playing several parody and patriotic songs, including the Palm Beach Pokey. The weather was fine, and a ...