1 Tim 2:4 tells us God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." Either God doesn't always get what He wants, or He does. The Reformed position is a mess either way, having to twist "all" to mean something other than "all."

A way to think about the fruits borne by false prophets in today's Gospel lessons: A true prophet demonstrates & cultivates the cardinal & theological virtues; a false one, the seven deadly sins.

Iconoclasm strongly correlates with a low anthropology. If I owe a person no reverence because he is inherently wicked, saluting or kissing an icon looks like idolatry. If I owe another person my love, my shirt, my embrace, my life, these devotions to icons seem mild, indeed.

Deontology & consequentialism routinely fail the atomic bomb question. Virtue ethics, especially expressed through the theological virtues and the sacraments of the Church, can. They can forgive what must be forgiven, for which the conscience cries out.

The story of the Prodigal Son only makes sense if he had received the freedom to wallow in sin or to return home and chose to return. If it's all etched ahead of time, then the angels rejoice at a pre-scripted pro-wrestling stlye event, not actual redemption of actual people.

To obsess over the Anglican formularies is to decide that 2,000 years of interpreting Scripture is best filtered through the lens of half a dozen English clerics writing in a 75 year period. I rather doubt that is the case; I instead filter them through the lens of the rest.

"But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." Quite often, we might say the same for "This is my Body."

It's been amusing to see supposedly rational adult men say "This has your bishop's hands all over it!" on events my bishop had absolutely nothing to do with. They do not know +MDH at all, and the negative scripts running in their heads have rotted their brains.

I've spent the last 15 years watching the Reformed side of Anglicans bash Anglo-Catholics relentlessly, but rarely the other way around. Finally someone says, "Y'know what? You do you. We're out." The folks bashing us are now mad, like some obsessive boyfriend who got dumped.

Pro Tip: Being offended on behalf of people who are not themselves offended is a "consider the lilies of the field" moment. Your emotional and mental energy is best spent elsewhere

How it is sometimes. Keep enjoying reverent worship of the Lord in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, y'all. "This is My Body." "The Son of Man must be lifted up." "Behold the Lamb of God!"

A valuable skill that people seem to lose as they get older: the ability to...not. You don't have to play your tape on conservatives, liberals, or those darn kids every time the remotest tangent presents itself. Really.

Metaphysics review: Realism: The ball is a strike because it is objectively in the strike zone. Nominalism: The ball is a strike because the umpire says it is. Nominalism frequently leads to "No true Scotsman" arguments, which often dominate debates on religious tribalism.

Yes, it's true that Anglo-Catholics emerged during the Oxford, Cambridge, and Ritualist movements of the 1800s. Easing up on 300 years of state-run religious persecution will do that, folks. If you need state persecution for your system to endure, your system might need work.

False choices set us up to miss the mark. When Anglicanism is firing on all cylinders, it avoids them. When it doesn't, it wanders into iconoclasm or goofy liberalism. Stripping churches & forcing bare minimalism was bad. Toxic empathy & "do whatever" liberalism are also bad.

"Strive to enter in at the strait gate." "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." "Turn ye unto me, and I will turn to you." "Choose life, that thou and thy seed may live." We can only make the choice because of grace extended, but it IS freely extended.

The key to carrying our cross is balancing love of God, self, and neighbor. Some of us need calluses on our hands. Some of us need to read more. Some of us need to stop affirming every weird thing we see. Some of us need to stop making people feel they will never be good enough.