Bears win.

Orton still stinks. There's no way we make the playoffs.

The Synodical Reorganization Thing

Back when I was teaching Government to high school freshmen, I had an exchange with one of my students that went something like this:

"Mr. Sharp, why do we have to learn all this stuff? It's so boring!"

"You have to learn this, first of all, because the State says so, but also because it is good to know because the more information you have as a voter, the more informed vote you are able to cast."

"Well, I'm never voting."

"That's good. You probably shouldn't vote if you don't know or care about this."



She was offended, but not too much, I hope. And I was serious, but not too much. I guess everybody should vote if they want to, but, ideally, your voters would know what they were doing and vote on the basis on their knowledge and wisdom.

This leads me to the Great Synodical Restructuring Thing. One of their suggestions/talking points/whatever is that large congregations will receive extra votes (that's a horrible oversimplification, but that's the basic idea).

Question: Is the congregation of 50 very well-catechized Lutherans really less deserving of a vote - or deserving of half a vote, or whatever - than a congregation of 2000 people who may or may not have attended a Saturday "new members class" at their congregation which may or may not even call itself Lutheran? Do you think there are active members at some churches in our beloved Synod who don't know that they are members of a Lutheran church? These are the people you want having extra voting power?

I'm not suggesting that delegates to conventions should have to take an entrance exam, but I don't think they've thought out this proposal very well. There's a lot more to it than the perceived fairness of being more representative.

Coffee Update

Current coffee is cold-brewed Tim Horton's. I love Tim Horton's. Picked up a few cans of coarse-ground coffee somewhere in Kentucky, I think, on the way back from Arkansas a few weeks ago. Enough for two batches of coldbrew.

I was excited when Wendy's bought out Tim Horton's and started to expand in the US, but it looks like that all fell through and my dreams of a nearby Timmy Hoho's are shattered.

It's pretty good, but not as good as Zeke's, of course. They have good food, too, way better than Dunkin's.

I have left and I have returned.

I got busy. Sorry.

I am now a real pastor - I was installed on August 24th as pastor of Nazareth Lutheran Church in Baltimore and Christ Lutheran Church in Dundalk.

Good times.