“I Think I Made a Great Scientific Discovery”

I'd originally been looking at my nose.

And like most discoveries of any significant magnitude, I came upon it quite by accident.

In my peripheral vision, really.

So I looked directly. At myself. As I studied the mirror.

I’d originally been looking at my nose. Now my attention was focused elsewhere, distracted by those goings on previously at the edge of my vision.

Yep. I’d definitely learned something new, even this far past my 54th birthday.

I hurried to the kitchen for my wife’s help in confirming this amazing accidental discovery.

“I think I made a great scientific discovery!”

She was busy with supper preparations, but she humored me with less-distracted attention. Read it all

Only Spank Kids on Their Behinds

So say Manitoba social workers (who actually don't support spanking, just so you know).

Manitoba social workers want parents of an orthodox Mennonite community to promise they will only spank kids on their behinds and not use objects, such as belts, as punishment.

Makes sense to me. (“But I suppose that comma after objects shouldn’t be there,” said the Grammar Guardian.)

The parenting rules and discipline guidelines are spelled out in a recent letter from the government’s Child and Family Services Department to members of the tiny community, where Mounties made arrests over several weeks this summer.

The Canadian version of CSD actually allows spanking?! 😯 Read it all

The Older Women of “Team Jesus”

Teach what is good, and so train the young women...to be self-controlled, pure.

I read a gutsy article earlier this morning about modesty alongside a proclamation of Jesus.

I say “gutsy” because I imagine La Shawn Barber has already reaped plenty of scorn and condemnation for it. (Hopefully, some praise and commendation as well.)

Here are some bits from her piece as posted over at World Magazine:

As we entered the park, I noticed a large group of people wearing matching “Team Jesus” T-shirts.

I watched these teenage girls with “Team Jesus” displayed across their chests and wondered why their parents, particularly their fathers, allowed them to leave the house in such tiny shorts and made-up faces.

I observed the girls out of curiosity, knowing that some of the men standing in line observed them for other reasons.

Plus, as Paul writes in Titus, older women “are to teach what is good, and so train the young women…to be self-controlled, pure,” which will not only help discourage lust, but also encourage the wearer to seek holiness.

So even though women and teenage girls can show little or no flesh and still be the object of lust, Christian women should do their part, even in this age of political correctness, to deter sin by dressing modestly and encouraging their younger sisters in Christ to do likewise.

Girls: Beware of what you wear

Generally, I can’t figure out people wearing billboards, especially when they’re just providing free advertising for some clothing line. (If Nike would pay me to wear their swoosh, but when I’m expected to pay them to wear their ad at not cost to them…)

But that aside, if a woman wears one of these “Team Jesus” shirts, where exactly am I supposed to look if I want to read the finer print? And how do I look there without appearing to be looking there?

Of course, I don’t think it best for Christian women to wear T-shirts. And if consistency requires that Christian men not wear them either, I can live with that.

Kenneth Miller Files Appeal

His federal conviction should be thrown out because no part of the crime occurred in Vermont

I had forgotten Ken Miller’s appeal was in the works.

A Mennonite pastor from Virginia convicted of helping a woman flee the country rather than share custody of her daughter with her former lesbian partner says his federal conviction should be thrown out because no part of the crime occurred in Vermont, where he was arrested, prosecuted and found guilty.

Attorneys for Kenneth Miller argued in documents filed with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the effort to get Lisa Miller and her daughter Isabella out of the country began in Virginia and ended in New York state when the pair crossed the Rainbow Bridge to Canada in September 2009 before flying to Nicaragua.

The documents, filed Monday in New York, said Miller’s right to be tried before a jury near his home could be traced to England’s Magna Carta in 1215, the basis for much of the U.S. Constitution.

[…]

The criminal case stemmed from a custody battle decided by a Vermont family court. Miller turned himself in to federal authorities in Vermont in December 2011, and was sentenced in March to 27 months in prison. His sentencing has been delayed pending his appeals.

U.S. Attorney Tristram Coffin in Vermont said Wednesday he had not seen the appeal but would make the same argument as his office made to the trial court — that Miller’s criminal actions became complete once the mother and child left the U.S. and were therefore subject to prosecution where Miller was arrested.

“The crime was not completed until they entered Canada,” Coffin said.

Va. man appeals Vt. conviction in same-sex custody

Ken is called a Mennonite here. Close enough. I think he’s actually Beachy.

Above all, love God!

since November 9, 2005