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My Lord and My God! By Philip D. Ropp
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And
while those on the left would claim that
this Jesus has merely set an example for us and cannot save us, and
while
those on the right would claim that his salvation is contingent upon
the rules
and rites of men, it is up to us to set the true example for them by
placing a
finger in the nailprint of his hand and thrusting a hand into his
side.
Let us then with Thomas exclaim in wonder,
“My Lord and my God!”
Excerpted
from "My Lord and My God!" by Philip D. Ropp
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Radio New Jerusalem Catholic Journal Presents... The Reflections, Essays, and Opinions of Philip D. Ropp |
| The Writings of Philip D. Ropp by Category: |
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| Catholic Issues | Reflections |
Biblical Essays |
Features and Stories |
Response to 9/11 |
Seminary Papers |
| Catholic
Issues and Opinions |
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| Conversion at
the Cross By Philip D. Ropp Happy New Year to you.
I believe that if you are actually able to
walk the path you have chosen and can continue to understand your life
in the terms that you say you are currently making your priority
(putting God first), that you will find this year of 2012 to be a great
turning point for you.
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| Why We Must Not Fiddle While Rome Burns By Philip D. Ropp On
July 15, 1979, then President of the United States Jimmy Carter
addressed the American people concerning what his administration had
identified as a "crisis of confidence" within the country's
population. This was perceived as a general uneasiness and
uncertainty brought on by a continuing energy crisis and the ensuing
economic woes of the day. In an attempt to get a feel for the
pulse of the nation, Carter's pollsters had determined that the
assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther
King, Jr.; the Vietnam War, Watergate and the Three Mile Island nuclear
disaster had brought the nation into a state of ongoing malaise.
In fact, though the word never appears in Carter's text, this address
has been known ever after as the "malaise"
speech.
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| Jesus Christ:
Historical Presence, Transcendent King By Philip D. Ropp His name is
Jesus, and He is the Christ,
the Son of the living God. He comes to us from beyond the sands of
time and from farther than the vast reaches of space. He is at once
foreign to all that we see and comprehend, yet so familiar that we
recognize Him with an intimacy that touches the very innermost part
of our being. He has been with us always, and, as He has done since
days long before our human measure, He comes to those who belong to
Him and He beckons, now as then, "Follow me!" And to those
who recognize Him; who know Him to be the mysterious and eternal
"One" Who has, in some inexplicable way, been known to us
since before our human life took shape within the womb, there is but
one answer that can pass the lips and that is, "Yes, Lord!"
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| The
Church Possessed: The Homosexual Revolution in the Roman Catholic Church By Philip D. Ropp One rainy summer day many years
ago, I was in
Bob's chair at The Strand Barber Shop getting a haircut when the
conversation suddenly turned from the trials and tribulations of the
Detroit Tigers to a local scandal that was then in progress. The
pastor of a large and prosperous local Protestant church had recently
submitted his resignation to the church's governing board because
of several extra-marital affairs that he had conducted with various
women in his congregation over a period of several years...
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| A New Assumption? By Philip D. Ropp Note:
Father Paul J.
Rennick is Academic Vice President at Assumption University
in
Windsor, Ontario, Canada. At the time this letter was written,
Father
Rennick
was engaged in restructuring the Assumption University Saginaw Program,
which granted unaccredited master level degrees in Pastoral Ministry
and
Religious Education. I was enrolled as a student in this program in the
fall of 2005. My letter, the text of which follows below, was in
response to Father Rennick's
general letter of May 30, 2006, detailing the progress of this
restructuring for the student body of the Saginaw Program. The
issues addressed here should prove to be of interest to all Catholics,
and so are reproduced here. Father Rennick has yet to
respond. The
Assumption University Saginaw Program is currently being phased out
within the Diocese of Saginaw. -- P.D.R.
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I find it curious "Easter Lore" sites five sources in its bibliography and all are works on "superstition." One would think that the obvious source that herein goes untapped would be the local Catholic priest or Protestant clergyman, most of whom have between three and seven years of higher education dealing with the development of Christianity and its various and sundry traditions and accouterments... |
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| Day of the Dove Revisited: Making Peace in the Catholic Church By Philip D. Ropp Conflict within the Catholic
Church is hardly a modern
phenomenon. From Paul withstanding Peter to his face to the current
negotiations that are taking place between the Vatican and the
followers of Marcel Lefebvre, the history of Catholicism is fraught
with
controversy and debate, contempt and rebellion, negotiation and
reconciliation...
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A
review of the 25th anniversary edition of Fr. Albert Nolan's much
heralded tome on liberation finds an outdated text with theological and
historical holes big enough to drive a Papal Instruction through.
Nolan's attempt at making Jesus relevant only serves to reveal his own
irrelevancy...
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"It seems that people don't need us. All we do seems useless." Pope Benedict XVI was speaking to140 priests, religious and deacons of the Diocese of Val d'Aosta at the church of Introd, near Les Combes, where the Holy Father was spending his summer vacation. He was referring to the so called "crisis of religious indifference" that, in one form or another, plagues Western society and manifests itself in the widespread desertion of mainstream Christianity -- both Catholic and Protestant... |
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As was to be expected, the white smoke above Saint Peter's Square had not dissipated before the controversy surrounding the election of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI began. The first German pope since Hadrian VI reigned briefly from 1522 to 1523, the selection of the 78 year old Cardinal Ratzinger represents a "care taker" papacy in the best sense of the term... |
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For
the Sake of His Sorrowful Passion:
In Tribute to the Life and Times of Pope John Paul II By Philip D. Ropp Though a Protestant at the time, I remember taking more than a passing interest when Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II in October of 1978. I was fresh out of college with a degree in religion from a small, liberal Presbyterian school and fancied myself quite the scholar in those days. I had, in fact, been quite intrigued at the selection of Albino Cardinal Luciani as Pope John Paul I, and was quite as shocked as everyone else when his pontificate ended 33 days later with his death on September 29, 1978... |
| Reflections |
|
By
Philip D. Ropp
This claim that Jesus is risen from the dead was as radical in the days of the original disciples as it is in our time. In the reading from Acts, Peter, speaking on behalf of all of the disciples, proclaims boldly, “We are witnesses of all that he did...” These words are most significant because they are spoken in the home of Cornelius, a Roman centurion converted to the faith, who has had the risen Lord appear to him as a man in dazzling robes who has asked that Peter be summoned. |
| That
He Might Have Mercy Upon All By Philip D. Ropp
“Thus says the LORD: Observe what is right, do what is just; for
my salvation
is about to
come, my justice, about to be revealed.” These opening words from
the 56th chapter of the Book of
Isaiah accomplish two things for us. First of all, they
illustrate the ultimate simplicity of
what God
requires of us: Observe what is right. Do what is
just. Secondly,
we
are told that salvation and true justice come from the Lord and that
they are
about to be revealed to humankind. As
Christians, we recognize that this revelation has taken place in the
person of
our savior, Jesus Christ.
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| Truly,
You are the Son of God By Philip D. Ropp The fourteenth
chapter of Matthew, from which today’s gospel reading is taken, begins
with
Herod expressing his fear that Jesus is John the Baptist, risen from
the
dead. “That is why miraculous powers
are at work in him!” the king exclaims.
Matthew is in the midst of recounting for us what a controversial
figure
Jesus has become. At the end of chapter
13, Jesus has been denounced by the inhabitants of his own town, and
leaves
after telling them that, “Only
in his hometown and in his own house is a
prophet without honor.”
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| Called According to His Purpose By Philip D. Ropp
In my
work here as a counselor, I make it a point never to tell anyone that
incarceration is a blessing. At the end
of my day, I get to go home from this place.
That’s the blessing: going home.
However, when I hear one of you say to me that this experience has been
a blessing to you; that you are reaping a positive benefit from what
you are
going through, then I know I am talking to someone that is using his
time here
rather than just doing it. I know I am
talking to someone who has found the right track and who has his life
moving
forward. And forward is the direction
that leads to freedom, and freedom means the blessing we all seek:
going home.
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By
Philip D. Ropp
Last Monday night, as we were passing the Book Cart down the rocks, Chaplain Sue and I found ourselves frustrated by the fact that we had very little good reading material to lend out. Summer at the Saginaw County Jail is an even tougher time than the rest of the year. The jail population is up, the donations of books and other reading materials that we rely on are down, and so on this Monday night we had precious little to recommend. The one notable exception to this was an old, yellowed copy of The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. |
| Put to Death the Deeds of the Body -- And
Live! By Philip D. Ropp All have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God: Familiar
words from the Apostle Paul, who
remains to this day, as from the beginning, the greatest of Christian
teachers. Sin is a hard master. This is Paul’s message to
us. Sin is the tool that the devil uses to
destroy us: To bring us to utter
destruction. To take from us the gift of
eternal life that Christ Jesus won for us at the Cross, and pull us
down
to be
with him in hell.
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| Whatever you
Bind on Earth Shall be Bound in Heaven By Philip D. Ropp In
today’s
gospel reading from Matthew chapter 16, Jesus poses a loaded question
to his
disciples: "Who do people say that Son of Man is?" Their answer
shows us that Jesus, to this
point in his earthly ministry, has been a pretty mysterious
figure.
Some say he is John the Baptist, raised from
the dead. Some say he is none other than
the prophet Elijah, returned from heaven. Others
say that he is Jeremiah or one of the other great
prophets
miraculously manifested within their midst. No
one seems to really know what to make of him, but they
are clearly
willing to acknowledge that this Jesus is someone different.
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| Nothing
is Concealed that Will Not be Revealed By Philip D. Ropp Jesus
was not arrested by the religious leaders of his own faith because of
his
sweet, loving disposition. He did not
suffer at the hands of sinful men because of his unswerving loyalty to
God and
his devotion to the disciples placed in his tender care. He was
not bruised and scourged by pagan
soldiers because he healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, cleansed
the
lepers, or cast the demons out of the possessed. Jesus was not
nailed to the cross to die in
agony because he loved the multitudes and taught them, or because he
took pity
on them and fed them.
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|
By
Philip D. Ropp
A tour guide was leading a party down the dusty road from Jerusalem through the Judean wilderness and onwards toward Jericho. On the way, the group met a shepherd carrying a lamb that was draped around his neck. One of the lamb’s legs was neatly splinted and bandaged, and the tourists were curious about this and asked their guide what could have happened. Had he fallen into a ravine? Had a predator attacked him? To their surprise and horror, the guide explained that the shepherd had broken the leg of the lamb himself. |
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By Philip D. Ropp Many years ago, I was teaching a Sunday School class. It was the primary grade, and I guess the children present must have been in third or fourth grade. I challenged them with a basic yet very difficult question: “What is faith?” One of the boys present, a usually quiet lad by the name of Billy Freeman, spoke up and said, “Faith is believing something that you know can’t be true.” I can’t remember now what the clever answer was that I had prepared, but I still remember young Billy’s. |
| Founded Upon A Rock By Philip D. Ropp
In the
dictionary,
“rock” is described as a “naturally occurring hard substance.” In
this jail, a “rock” is an “unnaturally
occurring hard place.” It is a place in which time is served. And
time is an unrelenting master. Time moves slowly and
methodically, with a
history that stretches back to an ageless beginning and at the same
time looks
forward to a timeless eternity.
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| Exceeded Expectations By Philip D. Ropp This past week
there was a story in the news about two men in a small
airplane flying over the wilderness in
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By
Philip D. Ropp
The
most
endearing quality of the Old Testament tradition is the way in which
God
reveals himself to humankind in such a profoundly personal way.
In Genesis Chapter 18, the Lord appears to
Abraham not in any grand and glorious way, but merely as a traveler
along the
dusty road as Abraham is relaxing at the entrance of his tent and
trying to
beat the afternoon heat. |
| Receive the Holy Spirit! By Philip D. Ropp
At Pentecost, we celebrate the descent
of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Jesus. It is at this
moment
that they are transformed by this miraculous power from simple
fishermen, tax collectors, and their other various earthly occupations
into the apostles
of Christ. They have been witness to the single most important
events
in human history -- the death of Jesus of Nazareth on the Cross at
Calvary, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and his
exit under his own power from the garden tomb.
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|
By Philip D. Ropp Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Jesus into heaven where, we are told in Scripture and Creed, He sits at the right hand of God the Father, and from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. In these past few days in which I have been learning the routines of the Saginaw County Jail with Chaplain Sue, I’ve noticed that there are times and places within this facility in which “living” and “dead” almost seem like relative terms. |
| Journey to
Jerusalem By Philip D. Ropp Today’s
Gospel marks the end
of the Galilean ministry of Jesus and the beginning of the fateful
journey to Jerusalem and the
cross. This Galilean ministry, as presented to us
in Luke, begins with Jesus accepting the baptism of John, and with it
the
proclamation that he is the Son of God.
|
| He
Must
Increase
While I Must Decrease By Philip D. Ropp It would seem fitting at this, the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, to consider just who this enigmatic character clad in camel hair and feasting on locusts and honey really was. From today’s Gospel we know that he was the son of a priest named Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth. We know that they were righteous people, well on in years and childless. |
| Who
is
This Who
Even Forgives Sins? By Philip D. Ropp We are
all familiar with the words of
Jesus in Luke 12:48: "To whom much has been given, much will be
expected." Today we learn that to whom much has been forgiven, much can
be expected. And the three examples that we are given who
exemplify
this truth are King David, Saint Paul, and Saint Mary Magdalene.
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| A
Miraculous
and
Glorious End to a Wondrous and Joyous Day By Philip D. Ropp To this day, the church collects its offerings in wicker baskets. This is a tradition that can be traced all the way back to the feeding of the 5000, as recounted in today's Gospel, wherein no less than twelve of these baskets were filled with the scraps that remained after all had eaten and were satisfied. It was a miraculous and glorious end to a wondrous and joyous day. |
| The Rumors of
God's
Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated By Philip D. Ropp Is
God Dead? When these words
appeared on the cover of Time
on
April 8, 1966, a religious storm was loosed upon the cultural landscape
of the United States that has yet to subside. Trivia buffs will recall
that clever bumper stickers on cars were originally popularized by one
that read "My God's Not Dead -- Sorry About Yours."
|
| After the
Order of
Melchizedek By Philip D. Ropp The
Gospel According to Saint John is not only
the deepest and most theologically profound of the four New Testament
accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, but also the most
misunderstood. While the three synoptic Gospels share much
material in common, and are often treated by scholars as if they
comprise three separate parts of the same whole, the Gospel of John
stands alone in its format, its concept, and its vision of who our
Savior is and how we are to relate to him.
|
| Spider-Man 3: A Gospel Message for the World of More and Better Gadgets By Philip D. Ropp Perhaps
the most interesting thing about the Book
of Acts is the fact
that there is so little in our religious life that has actually changed
since the earliest days of the Church. When we look around us and
observe how truly different the physical and political world is today
compared to the world of the apostles, it is astounding to realize how
very much the same as us the people are that populate that world.
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|
At the prison, each of our worship groups has an assigned leader. This is the man that is chosen to be representative on the prison’s activities committee, the body that oversees religious worship, and he also serves as the lay leader for our prayer services. John is the man that serves in this capacity for the Level III security group, and Will serves in this role for the guys in Level IV. |
|
By Philip D. Ropp
Every actor, from the days of the first flickering silent pictures to the cinematic extravaganzas exhibited today, has lamented that some hack editor has left his best work to rot on the cutting room floor. This creative difference of opinion between actor, director and editorial personnel has more than once resulted in the police restoring order at a Hollywood party at which an earnest conversation about artistic merit had become, shall we say, somewhat less professional. |
| My Lord and My God! By Philip D. Ropp The
solemnity of Lent
has drawn to a close and now we find ourselves celebrating the joy of
the
Easter season. Today, this season
stretches out before us, as we await the celebration of the Lord’s
Ascension on
May 17 and the Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost on May 27.
|
| Untie Him and
Let
Him Go By Philip D. Ropp As our
Lenten journey begins to draw
to a close, we find ourselves in
|
| Fatted Calves By Philip D. Ropp When I
was a boy entering into my early
teenage years, I attended Sunday School at Eastminster Presbyterian
Church. My teacher was a young man in
his mid 20’s named Gary Fetzner. Mary
knows Gary’s
younger brother John. He’s president of
our parish council at St. Mary’s. John’s
younger brother, Rex, is one of my best friends, and has been going all
the way
back to this time back in the mid 1960’s.
|
| Burning Bush,
Holy
Name By Philip D. Ropp Moses
was merely minding his own business and that of his father-in-law,
Jethro. Tending sheep, leading the flock
across the
desert, he comes to Mount Horeb, the “mountain of God,”
which would later take on the name of the entire surrounding region:
Sinai. There was a bush and it was on
fire; and, though on fire, it was not consumed. As
if that was not strange enough, God spoke to Moses from
the midst of
the burning bush.
|
| The Wandering Aramean By Philip D. Ropp Last
week, we celebrated Ash Wednesday and the beginning of our annual
Lenten
journey. It is a journey from the
wilderness of our fallen, sinful human nature to the light that beckons
to us
from the promised land that lies beyond the Cross. It is a
journey that brings us up and out of
the Egypt
of this broken promise land of man’s inhumanity to man, and leads us
onward
through the desert towards a land flowing with the milk and honey of
salvation.
|
| The Source of Our
Faith By Philip D. Ropp On
Wednesday, as the disciples of Jesus, we
begin our annual Lenten journey with him towards Jerusalem.
Already, the long shadow of the cross casts itself in our direction
from
the hill of Calvary. Already, the
distant horizon of Holy Week is in view, and we are beaconed to enter
the dusty
road with our fellow pilgrims and make our way once more towards the
source of
our faith.
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|
By Philip D. Ropp
In previous weeks, I have stood here and presented to you the reflections that I had prepared and given at the prison in St. Louis: The so-called “correctional facility” that so often seems to need more correcting than it gives. The reason for this “double dipping” from the pool of reflections is not so much that it allows me to get extra mileage out of the work that I do for them, but, more, that the words of inspiration that they need to hear seem to apply equally to you as well. |
| A Still More
Excellent Way By Philip D. Ropp
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has
sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the
blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable
to the Lord." These are the words that Jesus speaks just
prior to the beginning of today's scripture lesson. This is that
scripture passage which was, in that day, fulfilled in their hearing,
and is in this day, fulfilled in ours.
|
| The
Beginning Of His Signs By Philip D. Ropp The
gospel according to St. John tracks the
journey of Jesus to his destiny at calvary through a series of seven
dramatic signs. Each of these signs is a miraculous deed that
serves to reveal the true nature and identity of Jesus in
a progressively more wondrous, profound and significant way. By
the time the last of these signs is reached, the astounding and deeply
moving resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, Jesus has transitioned
from the deliverer of the Jews, to messianic king of all Israel, to the
Christ -- the transcendent Son of God Incarnate and Savior of the human
race.
|
| Next Year in
Jerusalem By Philip D. Ropp L’shana
ha’ba-ah b’Yerushalayim. "Next year in
Jerusalem." This is a Passover prayer that has sustained
the Jewish people for two thousand years. In its historical context, it
hearkens back to the social and religious trauma experienced by the
Jews at the
destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70
AD. Dispersed throughout the world,
subjected to the harshest realities of political, social and religious
persecution, this simple phrase came to symbolize the hope, belief and
ultimate
trust in the deliverance and salvation of God.
|
|
Our
Scripture
readings today are chosen for the purpose of
illustrating the inter-relationship between God, the law and
ourselves. We are all aware of the rules and regulations
by which our society and its institutions are governed. Our lives
and our relationships are in no small way defined and determined by the
rules that we are taught as
children and which follow us and become ever more complicated as we
progress to
and through adulthood. This is true not only of each of us as
individuals,
but of peoples and nations as well.
|
| Biblical Essays
and
Commentary |
| A
Brief Description of The
Documentary Hypothesis And the Origin of The Old Testament By Philip D. Ropp As the
Renaissance brought about the questioning of church authority that
resulted in the Reformation of the 16th century, so the Reformation
lead to the European Enlightenment that blossomed in the 17th century.
This new Age of Enlightenment, spawned from the Protestant Reformation
and later Catholic Counter-Reformation, called into question the
authority of the institutional church, be it Catholic or Reformed, to
interpret and teach Biblical truth based upon assumptions that remained
from ancient times, and traditions that had become attached to the
faith through the Dark and Middle Ages.
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|
Understanding
the
Parable of
Wheat and Weeds
By Philip D. Ropp The Gospel of Matthew is a
skillful literary construct that neatly
organizes the birth, life and passion of Jesus into a tightly crafted
account. Its decidedly Jewish perspective begins with a genealogy
that establishes the Davidic lineage of Jesus and which sets the tone
for Matthew’s contention that Jesus is the messiah and the fulfillment
of the scriptures. By the end, Jesus has exceeded even these
fantastic
expectations...
|
|
The authenticity of
Paul’s
letter to the church at Galatia is attested to by the typical Pauline
dichotomy that is the overriding characteristic of the text. From
a
technical standpoint, the letter poses more questions than it
answers.
There is a wide range of debate as to not only who but also where the
Galatians were, when the letter was written and where it
originated.
Thematically, the content is vintage Paul and is most often compared to
his letter to the Romans... |
| Trouble Not the
Master: Reflections on the Resurrection of the Daughter of Jarius in the Gospel of Luke By Philip D. Ropp The seventh, eighth and ninth
chapters of Luke’s gospel mark the
transition of Jesus from an itinerant Galilean preacher, prophet and
worker of wonders into the “Christ of God,” destined for Jerusalem, the
cross, and, ultimately, the miracle of the empty tomb. To be
sure,
controversy had traveled with Jesus since the beginning of this
Galilean ministry, when he brought it down upon himself in no uncertain
terms at the synagogue in Nazareth...
|
| The
Mark of Cain By Philip D. Ropp One of the great
casualties inflicted upon modern man by the widespread acceptance of
the
scientific view of history has been the relegation of the Bible to the
intellectual scrap heap of myth and legend. There was a time,
and not that long ago, when all of western civilization understood the
world historically and socially within the context of a Biblically
based
reality. The story of how this came about is familiar enough...
|
| Features
and
Stories |
|
By Philip D. Ropp
Those
of us born and raised in America during the Cold War years after World
War II were brought up in a secular society. We were taught a
worldview in which religion was an historical footnote. It was as
if
Communism,
by the very nature of its atheism, had removed God from politics in
much
the same way that the atheism of Darwin had served to remove God from
the
scientific debate...
|
| Curfew of the Body, Soul and Mind: The Strange Story of Bill Cooper By Philip D. Ropp Christian short wave in the United
States has always marched to a different drummer, with a distinctive
flavor
and character not heard anywhere else. Uncensored, noncommercial, and
with
an identity shaped by it's own easy and open accessibility, the
American
interpretation of the medium became a forum that crossed racial,
ethnic,
denominational and political barriers to present the wide diversity of
thought and expression that is believing Christianity in this
country.
And, like Cajun cooking, it became a uniquely American medium,
unusually
spicy, and with some of its contents hard to swallow...
|
| The
Patriot Radio Revolution By Philip D. Ropp In the early days, Christian
short wave radio in America was a medium largely comprised of small,
independent
radio ministries. Broadcasters, viewing their role as a mission
to
those that were called of God to preach the gospel or provide
information
useful to Christians via radio, worked diligently to help worthwhile
programs
establish and improve themselves, oftentimes carrying large receivable
balances and offering free promotional spots until audience
support
could be established...
|
| Response
to the
Events
of September 11, 2001 |
| The
Last Crusade: Observations on a National Day of Prayer By Philip D. Ropp Today, a major portion of the
financial district of our greatest
city lies in ruin. As the nation struggles to come to grips with
what has happened, regional rivalries and political differences have
melted
into a sea of compassion, concern, and an outpouring of outright
affection
for our countrymen in New York and those that struggle so valiantly to
save the few survivors...
|
| Sackcloth and Ashes By Philip D. Ropp Flags fly as hearts fill with
pride and men scramble, and so
America prepares to go to war with a nostalgic zeal for glories
past.
Entrepreneurs swing into the defense effort with T-shirts, key chains,
coffee mugs and any other item on which they can imprint a flag or
inscribe
a snappy patriotic slogan...
|
|
As the skyline of New York City continues to smoke and the mood of the country continues to smolder, we find the churches of the land again jammed with souls on this first Sunday in the new America. Just last Sunday it was golf, football, beer and entertainment, but today America put on her Easter best and went to church for prayer and solace... |
|
By now, all of America has seen
the file footage of public
enemy number one, Osama Bin Laden, crouching and firing a very
ominous
looking military assault rifle. It is just like the rifles that
Palestinians
and other militant Moslems have been seen firing in the air in
celebration
of the World Trade Center catastrophe. It is the rifle of choice
for virtually every nation and group that hates the United States of
America.
It is the AK-47, the general issue weapon for the Red Army, and it's
built
in Communist China...
|
| The Seminary
Papers |
| Introduction By Philip D. Ropp Elsewhere
I have in rather blunt terms outlined some of the observations that I
have made concerning the state of the church and of "Christianity" (the
organized variety) since beginning my brief seminary career.
These remarks were made not out of any sense of vindictiveness or
superficial indignation, but more because of a great need on my part to
reconcile the reality of the church to its ideal as set forth in the
New Testament. The basic conclusion that I have come to through
this process of analysis is that the organized church is an institution
that bears not even slight resemblance to that which we see within Acts
and the works of Paul...
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| With Liberty and Justice for
All
By Philip D. Ropp My friend, Ray, died last night. He was no great leader, no great personality, and by the standards that such things are judged, he made no great contribution to humanity. He was a little man like so many little men that spend their lives groping for a little dignity and end up in an obscure grave wearing the only decent suit they've ever owned. Instead of eulogies the most that is said is, "Well, he's better off." Ray is not better off. He's dead... |
| The Strange Malady By Philip D. Ropp The
term "Malady" in the title of this piece is somewhat misleading to the reader, since we are dealing here
with that wonderful institution that is called "organized Christianity"
(among other things), and said institution is not merely ill but rather
deceased. Oh, it still has some sort of earthly presence (the
only presence it has) in that it owns much in the way of real estate
and cultic paraphernalia (candle holders, choir robes, office machines,
etc.) but the truth of the matter is that what we are observing here is
a corpse that should have been buried eons ago so that the smell of its
rotting flesh would have been banished from the face of the earth...
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It would seem that the result of obsession with the strange malady would be the denial of any kind of God at all so that the immersion into the temporal and earthly might be more complete. This is not the case at all since having some sort of God or other kicking around up in the attic of the church (beside the worn-out altar cloths and hymnals that are no longer used) is a very real necessity. How could they ignore the responsibility of the faith as it is presented in the Scriptures without the "Grand Old Man" upstairs to inform them through the well-paid "witnesses to the truth" that their indiscretions are of "His will?" |
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Years ago, before the all
important studies of science and theology taught us to believe that
there was nothing in existence that wasn't right before our very noses,
man believed in God. And he believed that this God was the
all-powerful ruler of the universe and the entire cosmos; by His very
nature and power an entity that was to be loved, respected and
feared for the grasp that He had upon the frail and arrogant little
creatures that he had created...
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| Gentlemen, All is Not Well By Philip D. Ropp It is most definitely within the
realm of great understatement to claim that these are indeed strange
times in which we find ourselves living. My grandparents lived in
a time when the telephone was a rare oddity, and could easily remember
the advent of such things as automobiles, the radio, electricity,
airplanes, various modes of "modern" warfare, and much, much
more. One summer's night in July of 1969, my grandmother told us
the story of the time she saw her first automobile; of how awestricken
and mystified she and her friends had been as the rattly-little
contraption came chugging and wobbling down the road on its wooden
carriage wheels, bearing the local doctor enroute to a house-call at a
nearby farm...
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| The Abuse of Scripture By Philip D. Ropp The Bible, that curious old relic
that is employed by the church executive as a means of "sermon
illustration" and is made the subject of great study by those of great
learning, is by and away the most mistreated of all the literature that
claims to be Holy Writ. No other religion has turned as blatantly
against the teachings of its faith than has the tradition that calls
itself by the name of Christ. The scholars, supposed "experts" in
the understanding of the Scriptures, sit for hour upon hour with their
pens poised as blunt scalpels, carving up this passage and dissecting
that passage in the vain attempt to gain more knowledge of what is
written...
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| The Census of Babylon By Philip D. Ropp Some
60 years ago, in those glory days of World War I, my great uncle Leroy
found that he too was to go under the conscription of the draft so as
to be sent to kill a faceless enemy that was, in fact, of a similar
ancestry to that from which he descended. Distant family ties not
withstanding, the basic stone that stuck in his gizzard was that of the
realization that if he were to go to the army, he would be forced to
become a cog in the wanton and evil machine of war. He turned to
his church (Congregational by variety) for a solution, hoping that they
would reassure him that such abominations as warfare were contrary to
the teachings of the faith that they professed, and instead was
lectured severely concerning his "patriotic duty to God and country..."
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| The
Incident Year By Philip D. Ropp During
the 1970's, I was a candidate for
ministry in the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.. I attended
Alma College, a
small, liberal
arts,
church affiliated school, and received very good grades in my course
work in religious studies. I was well respected by the faculty
and my fellow students, and continually assured that my future in the
church was bright. In the beginning of this process, God
was merely a concept that I took for granted. By the end of this
experience in liberal religious education, my faith
had been shaken and challenged to where I was uncertain that there was
any spiritual reality to life at all...
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