Have We Built Our Own Tribunals? Or Just a Louder Mistake By Ernest DeJure Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. “Give us your keys,” they say, at the church door, “We’ll drive the mind that brought you to this floor.” Use your private mind to choose our holy sect, Then crush that very mind to keep our status checked. Use your judgment, seeker, to see that we are right, Then blow out your candle and trust our guided light. They curse the modern age, the lonely "me-and-God," And paint the individual as arrogant and flawed. They say the text belongs to the community's embrace, A corporate guardrail to keep you in your place. But ask them who decided which community is true, And the finger of the logic points right back to you. You must choose between the councils, the synods, and the popes, Weighing fallible tradi...
Have you heard this story before? It begins like this: Once upon a time (isn’t that how most good stories begin?), a rather odd, older woman (who had never really fit in most of her life anywhere, regardless of what group she might have decided to join), sat behind a lovely couple whom she had never met before who also had two little girls with them. On this day, it just so happened that the older woman and her husband decided to sit on the other side of the church and this family were sitting in the pew directly in front of them and just to the right. The thing that stood out initially was that the two little girls, who had to both be no older than five or six, were able to remain quiet and well behaved without a coloring book or any other items to keep them busy. This both surprised and delighted the older woman, since most children today must be kept entertained in order to not become noisy and disruptive. In fact, most parents now-a-days simply have no other option (because t...