Reason over Rhetoric

Here’s a question. What ancient Christian hymn and popular Christmas carol contains a verse that is based upon a deueterocanonical book? No, it’s not Rudolf the Deuterocanonical Reindeer. It’s O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. The second verse is:

“O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.”

This verse is based upon Wisdom. 8:1, 3, which reads, “She [God’s wisdom] reacheth therefore from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly…For it is she [God’s Wisdom] that teacheth the knowledge of God, and is the chooser of his works.”

The words to this hymn come from the 12th century and it has found a home within many Protestant hymnals, which is no surprise since the Deuterocanon (or what Protestants call the Apocrypha) was once considered part of the Protestant Bible. As these books began to be disparaged and eventually dropped from Protestant Scripture, the hymn lived on. Today, most people sing this hymn without the slightest awareness that verse two comes from a book that once occupied a place in the Protestant Bible.

Keep this in mind next time you go caroling with non-Catholic Christians and use it as an opportunity to re-introduce them to one of the lost books of the Protestant Bible.

In case you forgot the melody, here is a link with music and lyrics.

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/c/ocomocom.htm

I personally don’t trust the press. Their primary reason for writing is to make money, not to report the truth. For this reason, I’m not altogether sure I trust two articles that have appeared concerning the Church of England endorsing a policy of infanticed for deformed or handycapped children. It’s possible that this is true, but it’s difficult to believe. Here are the links:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=416003&in_page_id=1770

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/14/061114121931.cz2p8l5u.html

At its inception, the Church of England (founded by King Henry VIII) has rejected essential Christian doctrines beginning with the Papal primacy and the priesthood. In recent years, the rejection of other core Christian doctrines have been accelerating in pace and these changes has caused much trouble in the Episcopalian Church.

The allowance of what is called “passive euthanasia” is only the beginning. We’ve seen what has happened in this country. Extraordinary means becomes dumbed down to include food and water. Moreover, what are the implications of a religous body saying that some life isn’t worth saving?  

If these reports are true and the Church of England is going to endorse infantice, we need to keep them (and all the innnocents that will lose their lives) in our prayers.

I don’t take much stock in polls. The questions asked are often leading. I especially don’t trust poll during an election cycle (for obvious reasons). However, this little poll came out and there are a number of ways on can interpret it.

 http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/31/061031235233.s0l4o4wy.html

 The poll breaks down certainty of God’s existance by religions. Only 64 percent of Catholics responded that they were “absolutely certain” God exists as opposed to 76 percent of Protestants and 30% of Jews. Check out the poll for yourselves.

At first, I was shock to think that anyone would join a religion without believing in God. What’s the point? Then I realized that this question was a bit more qualified. It asked whether these people were absolutely certain God exists. People may have said no just because absolute certainty made have sounded too much like “demostrated” or “proven.” Unfortunately, it would have been nice to know how many people (especially broken down by religious affiliation) would say that the are “absolutely certain” God does not exist. But why not just ask people whether they believe God exists? Why probe people’s certainty? Is there a point to this poll? I don’t know. there are other questions.  I’m not really sure what do make of this poll. I’d love to hear your feedback.