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Sacraments Wholesale

  • Father Waldo Explains His Reference to Excommunication

    (This post is slightly revised from the earlier edition, after a couple of editing errors were corrected. We are saved by Grace, not by works, thanks be to God!) In an effort to become as notorious a false prophet as Balaam and Simon Magus, I decided to predict the relative chances of the [...]
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    Posted: December 02, 2009, 2:18pm EST

  • Handicapping the Bishop’s Candidates

    In these last few days before the delegates of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina choose their eighth Bishop, the tension is palpable. Little knots of people gather around coffee urns or in parking lots whispering, worrying, wondering. The Episcopal Church, as its name implies, takes on the personalities [...]
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    Posted: November 30, 2009, 10:42pm EST

  • Why Recovery.gov Sucks So Badly

    I knew this was going to happen. I told my staff this was going to happen. I told our grants officer this was going to happen. I hate it when I'm right. When my organization received a recovery grant last spring to expand AmeriCorps programs in the Upstate, the staff groused' [...]
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    Posted: November 18, 2009, 11:24am EST

  • The 24th Sunday After Pentecost Year B

    Proper 28B/Ordinary 33B/Pentecost 24 November 15, 2009 From Certainty to Faith Daniel 12:1-3 Hebrews 10:11-25 Mark 13:1-8 I used to run my fingers over its embossed cover. Like a secret cipher, the raised relief contained a hidden universe: where days were years and beasts were kings and numbers didn't add up the way they do' [...]
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    Posted: November 15, 2009, 5:22pm EST

  • The Bishops Candidates: Will They Speak Out Against Uganda?

    The Lambeth Conference, that diennial display of purple that purportedly defines who is Anglican and who is not, made a promise at its 1988 gathering: to “listen pastorally to the experience of homosexual persons and ... to assure them that they are loved by God...” and to “minister pastorally and [...]
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    Posted: November 15, 2009, 2:32pm EST

  • Allahu Akbar!

    This morning the United States Army said that the suspect in the mass murder at Fort Hood shouted "Allahu Akbar!" before shooting. Of course, yesterday the Army said that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was dead, but now says he's not quite, so perhaps the Army's grasp of the facts is not yet firm. [...]
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    Posted: November 06, 2009, 9:16am EST

  • Father Burwell Responds

    Father Burwell has responded to my post in two emails sent last night. Rather than take any of what he said out of context, I will print them in their entirety below. Dear Tim, Thank you for taking the time to get to know me a little bit better today and [...]
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    Posted: November 03, 2009, 6:16am EST

  • The Bishop Candidate: The Very Reverend John B. Burwell Part 5 Lunch at Queen Anne's Revenge

    The Very Reverend John B. Burwell,wrote to me after one of my posts and told me that I had misunderstood him. Some of our email exchange was posted here. We agreed to meet for lunch today to sit down in person and try to understand each other. We met at Queen [...]
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    Posted: November 02, 2009, 10:26pm EST

  • Is the Boeing 787 an Edsel or a BMW?

    Both of my non-Episcopalian readers are now gone, bored by two solid weeks of all Bishop's race all the time. So now for something completely different: Boeing comes to South Carolina. Like everybody else with a Twitter account my inbox quickly filled up Wednesday with dozens of messages from politicos [...]
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    Posted: November 01, 2009, 9:45pm EST

  • The Bishop Candidates: The Very Reverend Dr. Philip C. Linder

    The Search Committee produced a slate of five candidates from which the Diocesan delegates, it hoped, would select the eighth Bishop of Upper South Carolina. A group of those delegates (three clergy, three lay) submitted a petition to include a sixth, The Very Reverend Dr. Philip C. Linder, Dean of [...]
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    Posted: October 31, 2009, 10:56pm EDT

  • The Bishop Candidate: The Reverend Jerre Stockton, Jr.

    Thanks to Mark for noting that a combination of human imperfection, fatigue, single malt scotch and dyslexia had resulted in the deletion of Fr. William's last name in the original post. This is the corrected edition. The incarnation of the Word of God means God’s self-communication in Jesus Christ. There' [...]
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    Posted: October 28, 2009, 11:24pm EDT

  • The Bishop Candidates: The Reverend W. Andrew Waldo

    Theological liberalism, is according The Encyclopedia Britannica, “a form of religious thought that establishes religious inquiry on the basis of a norm other than the authority of tradition.” The Catholic Encyclopedia describes it as “certain tendencies in the intellectual, religious, political, and economical life, which implied a partial or total [...]
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    Posted: October 26, 2009, 10:45pm EDT

  • The Bishop Candidates: The Reverend David. F. O. Thompson

    The Reverend David F. O. Thompson is Rector of St. Bartholomew's, North Augusta, South Carolina. He has been part of the Diocese of Upper South Carolina since his arrival at St. Bartholomew's and during his long ministry there St. Bartholomew's has grown into a solid, mature Christian ministry. [Full disclosure:' [...]
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    Posted: October 23, 2009, 1:34am EDT

  • The Search Committee Posts Dean Linder's Responses

    Thanks to the Bishop Search Committee for posting Petition Candidate Linder's photo and responses to the questions. You can now access them on their site. Note to the hardworking folks on the Committee: more information is always better than less and late is better than never. [...]
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    Posted: October 22, 2009, 11:36pm EDT

  • The Bishop Candidates: The Reverend Canon Dr. Neal O Michell: Part 2--Yo' Momma?

    Let’s say you are an Episcopal priest, having gone through a deep and prolonged period of prayerful discernment about your ministry and its future direction. And further, let’s say that, pulling weeds in your garden or washing the soap off in your shower, you hear the voice of God say: [...]
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    Posted: October 22, 2009, 8:54am EDT

  • The Bishop Candidates: Cathedral Dean is a Petition Candidate

    The rumours have been swirling for days. And now they are confirmed: a petition has been filed with  the Chancellor of the Diocese for The Very Reverend Dr. Philip C. Linder to be added to the list of candidates for Bishop. Dean Linder was previously a nominee for Bishop, but [...]
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    Posted: October 21, 2009, 4:03pm EDT

  • The Bishop Candidate: The Reverend Canon Dr. Neal O. Michell

    Neal O. Michell is Canon to the Ordinary in Dallas, having served for seven years as Canon Missioner for Strategic Development. He was previously a finalist in the episcopal search processes in the Diocese of Texas, the Diocese of Dallas, and the Diocese of Tennessee. He is an author of [...]
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    Posted: October 21, 2009, 2:09pm EDT

  • The Bishop Candidates--A Response from the Very Reverend John B. Burwell (and the Deacon's reponse to the reponse)

    date Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 8:40 PM subject From John Burwell Deacon Tim, I do not blame you for being suspect and skeptical about me. If another opinion would help, I would invite you to contact the Reverend David Williams of St. Stephens, Charleston. Here's a recent Quote from [...]
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    Posted: October 20, 2009, 8:41am EDT

  • The Bishop Candidates: The Very Reverend John B. Burwell--Part 3: Same Sex Blessings and the Way Forward

    In his answer to the third question from the Search Committee, Fr. Burwell begins by citing the catholic nature of the Anglican Communion, “where the actions of some can and do affect the lives of all.” On whether the blessing of a same-sex union could be sanctioned, he writes: “At [...]
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    Posted: October 18, 2009, 11:45pm EDT

  • The Bishop Candidates: The Very Reverend John B. Burwell-- Part 2 Management Style and Conflict Resolution

    Fr. Burwell’s response to this question can be blamed partially on the question’s utter inanity. It is an example of how leadership in the American church has become confused with leadership in corporate settings, as if the qualities which would make one the darling of Wall Street would equate to [...]
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    Posted: October 18, 2009, 7:13pm EDT

  • The Bishop Candidates: The Very Rev. John B. Burwell

    Part 1: Faith Story and Call to MinistryThe Very Reverend John B. Burwell is Rector, Church of the Holy Cross Sullivan's Island, Daniel Island and I'on, South Carolina. Holy Cross is a fast growing congregation with three locations in affluent communities outside Charleston. It has, according to Fr. Burwell, “gone' [...]
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    Posted: October 17, 2009, 9:48pm EDT

  • The Deacon and the Candidates for Bishop--Making Waves

    When Sacraments Wholesale was launched, my intention for this space was to have an honest encounter between 21st century faith and politics. I have often published my sermons here, even though most of them were not very good. But I have rarely turned this space over completely to issues of [...]
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    Posted: October 17, 2009, 6:50pm EDT

  • Why the Nobel Matters

    The Nobel Peace Prize is only rarely given to someone who has actually made peace. The first one, given in 1901 to the founder of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (which never does anything, but still exists) and the founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross (which does a great [...]
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    Posted: October 10, 2009, 8:25am EDT

  • Why is this in my Email In-Box?Am ...

    Why is this in my Email In-Box?Am I that Bad a Person? Reno, Nevada | November 14 - 16, 2009PASTORS, MINISTRY LEADERS & THOSE INTERESTED IN FAITH-BASED TRAVELREGISTER TODAY! Have you continued to do the same trips year after year? Are you looking to plan new, exciting trips that will [...]
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    Posted: October 08, 2009, 10:16pm EDT

  • The 18th Sunday After Pentecost

    The 18th Sunday After Pentecost Proper 22BGenesis 2:15 - 3:21Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12Mark 10:2-16CardiosclerosisBack in Judea, the people are waiting on the miracle man. There will be a great show today. Already they are lining up in long queues, listening to his teaching, waiting for the moment when he invites them [...]
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    Posted: October 04, 2009, 6:18pm EDT

  • First Thing, Let's Kill All the Government Workers

    Bill Sparkman was the kind of guy that should have been a hero to the pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps crowd. He held two jobs, while he went back to college and got a degree. He was a single dad, working hard to provide for his son, Josh. A former Boy Scout staffer, he [...]
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    Posted: September 23, 2009, 10:11pm EDT

  • Bud Ferrillo's New Film Will Make You Proud to Live in South Carolina

    [...]
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    Posted: September 20, 2009, 8:43pm EDT

  • The Primacy of We

    The 16th Sunday After Pentecost Year BThe Primacy of We Proverbs 31:10-31James 3:13 - 4:8Mark 9:30-37It had been a, shall we say, interesting, few days. From their excursion into the heathen realms of Syria and Lebanon, they finally had wandered back to the southwest towards home.Three of them had slipped [...]
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    Posted: September 20, 2009, 7:05pm EDT

  • The Speech

    We have just witnessed the most powerful example of how the Great Divide in the current American political morass functions (to use a highly inappropriate term):Millions of Democrats heard the President say tonight that his health care proposal would not replace their current health insurance plan. Instead, they would be [...]
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    Posted: September 09, 2009, 11:20pm EDT

  • Salvation Goes to the Dogs

    September 6, 2009Proper 18 / Ordinary 23/ Pentecost 14Isaiah 35:1-10Psalm 146James 2:1-17Mark 7:24-37I will call him Brad. He was my spiritual guide as a teenager. He was the kind of pastor who radiated the Holy Spirit when he talked about God, who handled the Bible, not as truncheon, but as [...]
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    Posted: September 06, 2009, 7:08am EDT

  • What John Spratt Might Have Said

    I guess I'm in the wrong business. I need to be in the consulting business, coaching Democratic politicians on how to answer questions, because they sure as hell don't know how to do it on their own. Of course, they don't seem to be conscious of their ineptitude so I' [...]
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    Posted: September 03, 2009, 8:44pm EDT

  • Teddy, We Knew Ye All Too Well

    Chappaquiddick was a darker tome than Dallas. Dallas told the end of Camelot, Johnny-we-hardly-knew-ye, a profile in courage borne on a caisson from the Capitol. Chappaquiddick created the bloated, made-for-National-Enquirer story about the end of the great American political dynasty. Each of the narratives was in its own way only [...]
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    Posted: August 29, 2009, 2:12pm EDT

  • Nothing but Jesus

    11th Sunday After Pentecost, Year BProverbs 9:1-6Psalm 34Ephesians 5:15-20John 6:51-58 The Temple is long gone, its cedar beams burned by General Titus, its massive pillars pulled down, its porticoes crushed, the altar in the inner sanctum long ago turned to ash, and blown away by the wind.The days were evil. [...]
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    Posted: August 16, 2009, 3:18pm EDT

  • How Good Revolutions Go Bad

    The Obama phenomenon was supposed to usher in a new era in American politics. We would put behind us all those strident accusations and counter-accusations, the lies and half-truths, the abrogation of power, the trampling of the Constitution. There would be no more Blue states or Red states, only the [...]
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    Posted: August 10, 2009, 6:53pm EDT

  • When is Success Spelled "F-a-i-l-u-r-e"? In GOP Land.

    If I owned a grocery store and, through a special incentive to sell milk, offered to me by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, I was able to reduce the price of milk to the point that my customers emptied my shelves, and still clamored for more, would I think that [...]
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    Posted: August 05, 2009, 10:01pm EDT

  • Demint's "Health Care Freedom Plan" Is No Plan At All

    What's with all the thin skin around the GOP lately? Sarah Palin quits her Governorship because Jon Stewart makes fun of her. And now Jim Demint threatens to sue television stations playing a DNC ad stating that "the only health care plan Jim Demint supports is no plan at all." [...]
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    Posted: July 23, 2009, 7:22pm EDT

  • What the Media Got Wrong About the Episcopal Church in Anaheim (Nearly Everything)

    As long as I've been an Episcopalian (two decades--Lord, I'm old!), the triennial General Convention has been a source of glee to the mainstream media, who can usually be counted upon to misunderstand its actions and proclaim The Episcopal Church mortally wounded upon its conclusion. This year's gathering in Anaheim, [...]
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    Posted: July 19, 2009, 5:32pm EDT

  • When in the Course of Human Events

    When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, [...]
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    Posted: July 04, 2009, 12:57pm EDT

  • Physician, Kill Thyself

    “Political suicide,” one of Governor Sanford's friends texted me today. Considering the prognosis of South Carolina's condition, perhaps political death by one's own hand is preferable to governing. Our economic infrastructure, too long dependent on manufacturing, has completely unraveled (and as John McCain famously said, “Those jobs are not coming [...]
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    Posted: June 25, 2009, 12:12am EDT

  • From the Famous Author of "Keep Gays and Whores Out of the Classroom"

    Yep, that's right (far right). Our own Senator No, Jim Demint has a new book.Back in 2004, Senator Demint proposed eliminating the IRS and replacing it with a 23% national sales tax. That was after it was revealed that he had several tax liens for failure to pay his own [...]
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    Posted: June 18, 2009, 8:19am EDT

  • "So Are They All, All Honourable Men"--the Left Turns on Obama

    You knew it had it to happen.  Moses didn't get the Red Sea mud off his sandals before the Children of Israel were clamoring for water, and watermelon. David may have routed the Philistines, but he never quite got the unity thing down pat, and within a generation of his' [...]
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    Posted: June 14, 2009, 9:35pm EDT

  • If You Meet the Anti-Christ on the Road, Kill Him

    It was dark. The kind of back-road Southern dark where the devil growls a low country blues and cicadas chirp like Hell's own minions. I was driving back from a late meeting with a co-worker and we had spent a couple of hours in the kind of small talk that [...]
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    Posted: June 07, 2009, 9:35pm EDT

  • Darth Dem Land kills the cigarette tax and aims his light sabre at payday lending reform

    Now that Altria's tar-and-nicotine-stained money have all but guaranteed that there will not be an increase in South Carolina's largely symbolic 7 cents-per-pack cigarette tax, the dark side of the Force will again ascend as Darth Dem John Land aims his light sabre at payday lending reform. While consumer advocates have [...]
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    Posted: May 17, 2009, 6:17pm EDT

  • Gitmo is the U.S.? Jim DeMint Needs A Geography Lesson

    South Carolina GOP Senator Jim DeMint has a bit of difficulty reading a map. Evidently, he thinks that Cuba is part of the United States of America. Sort of a Little Miami, with more hurricanes. Today's Post and Courier quotes him as saying:"The fact is that Guantanamo is probably one" [...]
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    Posted: May 14, 2009, 10:46am EDT

  • With Democrats Like These, Who Needs Republicans?

    I believe in speaking truth to power. Or in this case, to lobbyist-owned weaklings. In particular to the Democrats on the SC Senate Finance Committee. So here goes:Cut the crap. Pass the cigarette tax or shut the hell up about how you care about kids, health care, working families and [...]
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    Posted: May 06, 2009, 3:38pm EDT

  • The Un-Fairness of the Fair Tax

    I probably don't need to tell you that the South Carolina GOP is dominated by politicians who have been placed there to insure that the moneyed interests are protected at the expense of the working and middle classes. But in case you are from Mars and think that our picturesque' [...]
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    Posted: May 02, 2009, 11:19pm EDT

  • The Third Sunday of Easter--It’s All About Jesus

    Acts 3:12-19 Psalm 4 1 John 3:1-7 Luke 24:36b-48 They ran the six miles back. Ran. Back to the dark place.  They ran past the hill outside the walls, where only two days before it had all ended. They ran past the Temple, standing inert, its interior dark in the moonlight. [...]
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    Posted: April 26, 2009, 9:43pm EDT

  • Mobile Vulgus: Does the GOP Have Asbestos Gloves?

    I wasn't at the Tea Party. I (unlike many of my neighbors) have a job, and had to go to work. Thus I missed the "Obama is a Fascist" signs and even the stranger-than-fiction image of the former next Governor of South Carolina being booed off the stage by a crowd' [...]
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    Posted: April 20, 2009, 9:23pm EDT

  • Christian and Muslim?

    I have no problem holding two opposing theological views at the same time: God created the universe and millions of years of evolution produced every form of life in it. Government is God's servant to us for good (Romans 13:1-7) and government is always ready to eat us alive (Revelation [...]
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    Posted: April 04, 2009, 6:15pm EDT

  • Serve America Act Passes without Graham and DeMint

    No surprise: South Carolina's GOP Senators just joined their House colleagues in voting against the Serve America Act. It passed anyway 79-19.When will South Carolina voters tell these people that they don't represent our values and send them home? ' [...]
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    Posted: March 26, 2009, 6:11pm EDT

  • “There is a quiet awakening going on right now.”

    The State, in an article about how South Carolinians view Governor Mark Sanford, notes that many former supporters are losing faith in him.But it also quotes Senate President Glenn McConnell who says “I don’t see anything wrong with his approach." And there's the Upstate software sales rep, who wrote the" [...]
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    Posted: March 21, 2009, 8:35am EDT

  • SC's Republican Congressmen: National Service is a Communist Plot

    So let's pretend that you believe that serving your country is a noble, or even, self-less act. Further, let's suppose that you believe that those who serve their nation, rather than embarking on a career, should be given a living allowance (and since this is only pretend, let's say it's' [...]
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    Posted: March 18, 2009, 6:51pm EDT

  • Letters From Desolation Row, SC (part II)

    My name is [withheld], I live in Westminster SC (Oconee County) and I was just wondering if you know any where that provides dental work for low income families I am willing to travel some where if need be.I was going to apply for Medicaid I had to wait for [...]
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    Posted: March 16, 2009, 10:37pm EDT

  • Obama's Non-Existent Attack on Charities

    A Greenville News editorial this morning unveils a dastardly attack by the Communist-Mixed-Race-Usurper-of-the-Republican throne on charities in his 2010 budget outline. It seems that "President" Obama wants to limit the ability of people who make over $250,000 a year by letting top tax rates return to the confiscatory levels of [...]
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    Posted: March 12, 2009, 8:33am EDT

  • Sanford Rejects SC's Stimulus Money Prompting a Constitutional Crisis

    Ok, it's official. Governor Sanford has rejected South Carolina's share of the stimulus package, unless he is granted a waiver to pay down the state's debt. It's not surprising, but it is disappointing. The Governor's action opens up the possibility of a constitutional crisis between Congress and the states. As Jack [...]
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    Posted: March 11, 2009, 11:01pm EDT

  • A Letter From Desolation Row

    Every single day I hear from people around the state of South Carolina who are not getting by. I've always gotten letters like this, but now they come in waves. Here's the latest from Desolation Row.I never thought I would have to write a desperate plea for help like I' [...]
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    Posted: March 04, 2009, 6:55pm EST

  • Governor Sanford: Rush Limbaugh is an Idiot

    I can stop being embarrassed when one of my colleagues from some less benighted state sneers: "What about that Governor of yours?" I can stop muttering apologies that, whatever you might want to say about Mark Sanford, he is an unwavering proponent of smaller government, and if you ever had [...]
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    Posted: February 25, 2009, 10:20pm EST

  • Free Marketeers in Rehab: Nationalizing the Banks

    Alan Greenspan is for it. Lindsay Graham is for it. Ben Bernanke says it's only just this once and, honest, it will feel good.How come the architects of the world financial meltdown are suddenly in favor of nationalizing the banks? Because they've been caught drinking and driving again. Once again,' [...]
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    Posted: February 20, 2009, 7:52am EST

  • Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

    They were against all that wild spending before they were for it. Not a single house Republican voted for the stimulus bill and only three Republican Senators did. "It was a vehicle for pet projects," "loaded with wasteful deficit spending."But now, passed into law without their help and with their [...]
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    Posted: February 18, 2009, 9:59pm EST

  • The Party of Veruca Salt

    They wanted tax cuts. TheDemocrats gave them $280 billion of tax cuts in the $789 billion package. That includes up to $800 a year for two worker families, $8000 tax credits for buying a house, $1500 in energy efficient home remodeling, sales tax reductions on new car purchases, ending the [...]
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    Posted: February 15, 2009, 8:16pm EST

  • Fear and Loathing

    He's a senior staffer of a senior member of Congress. I was sitting in his office to ask the member's support on a couple of bills that are very important to me and to my ministry. Their cost is measured in millions, not billions, so it shouldn't be that hard' [...]
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    Posted: February 12, 2009, 9:13pm EST

  • The Fiddlers on the Capitol Roof

    We're all concerned about the fact that the very wealthy and the very poor, the most and least educated, and a majority of minority voters seem to have more or less stopped paying attention to us--Mitch McConnell (R-Ky)They got hammered in 2006, then completed knocked out in 2008. So they've [...]
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    Posted: February 01, 2009, 7:17pm EST

  • In Jesus' Name (Part 2)

    Presidential pray-ers whose faith is Christian have a tendency to pray "in Jesus name," by closing their prayers with the some variation of "in Jesus' name, Amen." That is, I suppose, due to the words of the fourth Gospel "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so'" [...]
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    Posted: January 22, 2009, 9:16pm EST

  • In Jesus' Name (Part 1)

    I like Rick Warren. I don't agree with him on a lot of things, but I like him. He is one of the voices moving evangelicalism away from personal piety and towards a more inclusive, universal view of Chrisitanity. His prayer for President Obama yesterday has elicited a quite a firestorm.' [...]
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    Posted: January 21, 2009, 10:53pm EST

  • It's Back To Work Tomorrow

    The millions are making their way back home. The powerful and the glamorous, the well-connected and the well-heeled, the middle-managers and the teachers, the aging airmen, the young soldiers, the entreprenuers and the unemployed, the great multi-colored throng that filled the streets of Washington have nearly all left. Tomorrow it's [...]
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    Posted: January 20, 2009, 9:28pm EST

  • The Rev. Rick Warren's Prayer For President Obamaa

    Let us pray.Almighty God, our Father, everything we see and everything we can't see exists because of you alone. It all comes from you, it all belongs to you. It all exists for your glory. History is your story. The Scripture tells us "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God;'" [...]
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    Posted: January 20, 2009, 9:22pm EST

  • Bishop Robinson's Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama

    The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire Opening Inaugural EventLincoln Memorial, Washington, DCJanuary 18, 2009 Welcome to Washington!  The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president. O God of our many understandings, [...]
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    Posted: January 19, 2009, 9:53pm EST

  • Hiatus Over

    If Barack Obama can put together a team to govern the Free World in just over two months, I guess I can get my act together enough to continue to write publicly. Sacraments Wholesale is back online as of today, the eve of Inauguration Day. A few weeks ago, my friend [...]
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    Posted: January 19, 2009, 9:37pm EST

  • The Coin Toss

    Exodus 33:12-231 Thessalonians 1:1-10 Matthew 22:15-22  The Pharisees, who believed that taxation by the Romans was an unconscionable Imperial confiscation and transfer of wealth, and Caesar’s sycophants, the obsequious Herodians, who never saw an Imperial tax that they didn’t love, met him at the Temple gates. It was a rare [...]
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    Posted: October 21, 2008, 8:36pm EDT

  • Government of the People, by the Bankers and For the Investors

    "We recognize that the turmoil in the financial markets is affecting all our citizens, All of us recognize this is a serious global crisis that requires a serious global response for the good of our people." President George W. BushThe end of U.S. national sovereignty actually happened a long time [...]
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    Posted: October 11, 2008, 10:02am EDT

  • An Even Worse Solution: Wooden Arrows Are Not Socialism

    "The Bailout" is now "The Rescue." But whatever name it now goes by, it's still an irresponsible handout to the people who sold our grandchildren into slavery to debt. The Senate's approval today of a package that's nearly 800,000,000,000 of those things we used to think of as dollars is even' [...]
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    Posted: October 01, 2008, 10:11pm EDT

  • Smashing the Golden Calf

     "I do believe that we could have gotten there today had it not been for this partisan speech that the speaker gave on the floor of the House,"  said Republican Minority Leader John Boehner.But the truth is much more complicated (Isn't it always?). This bill was never going anywhere. Democrats were' [...]
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    Posted: September 29, 2008, 8:58pm EDT

  • The Cult of Republicanism

    Could Republicanism be a sorry cousin to Scientology? Could the so-called "conservative movement" actually be a Jonestownish-kool-aid-swilling cult? Could all those people who are chanting "Drill, baby, drill!" be a half-degree removed from Heaven's Gate?Consider: twenty-eight years ago, Republicans swept into power with a promise to cut the size of' [...]
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    Posted: September 17, 2008, 9:56pm EDT

  • McCain/Palin 08: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

    I would really like to like Sarah Palin. She's got a story that would make for one of those Hollywood light comedies starring Sandra Bullock and Bill Pulliam. Little girls all over the country are taking notice: this could be the President after next. But each day, I'm growing more [...]
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    Posted: September 13, 2008, 9:28am EDT

  • The Truthiness of Sarah Palin

    Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska , I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like [...]
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    Posted: September 04, 2008, 10:29pm EDT

  • The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Benefits Packages

    I hate it when I'm on the same side of an issue as Sick Willie Folks, who has combined gratuitous sexual innuendo and the occasional leak from political insiders into a nearly real job. Today's FITS News raises the question of the salary and perks of the United Way of [...]
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    Posted: August 26, 2008, 1:30pm EDT

  • The Convention Begins Tonight

    The Democratic Convention kicks off tonight. And like the rest of this electoral race so far, it's pretty interactive. A group of South Carolina's best progressive blogs (not that I count Sacraments Wholesale as among "the best," but the rest of them felt sorry for me and let me into [...]
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    Posted: August 25, 2008, 2:11pm EDT

  • Pay Grades

    My good friend Not Very Bright was on the story, but alas, Sunday was a work day for me, with two masses and a funeral. (No wedding, though. Pity.) Since my whining even annoys me, I'll just do my job here, which is to bring a theological dimension to the' [...]
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    Posted: August 19, 2008, 10:14pm EDT

  • Wars and Rumors of Wars

    It's getting exciting. Kind of like when the Soviets shot down that Korean Airlines flight back in the dark ages of 1983. Ronald Reagan wanted to show that the Russian Bear was a dangerous animal, while the rest of the West was slouching towards detente. The Soviets handed him a [...]
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    Posted: August 19, 2008, 9:31pm EDT

  • There You Go Again: Read My Lips 2.0

    As Ronald Reagan said to Jimmy Carter in 1976, "There you go again." Or as George H. W. Bush said in 1988: John McCain, mumbling across the country as he tries to con Americans into four more years of the wildest spending spree in American history, told an audience in [...]
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    Posted: August 02, 2008, 9:08am EDT

  • Rich's Riches and Senate District 10

    Nobody will replace Senate President Pro Tempore Emeritus John W. Drummond. Someone will win his District 10 seat, but the Ninety-Six native will never be replaced. He's the last of the old breed, the wise warrior statesmen, who guided South Carolina out of the Jim Crow South into the twenty-first [...]
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    Posted: July 07, 2008, 9:18pm EDT

  • Does Jim Dobson "Make Stuff Up?"

    In the mid to late 1980's I was going through a spiritual journey that would take me from the insular world of hyper-fundamentalist Christianity with its certainties, quick and easy answers, and lack of ambiguity to a place where I had to walk by faith and not by the myth' [...]
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    Posted: June 25, 2008, 9:42pm EDT

  • Amen and Hallelujah! "Christian License Tag" Lawsuit Filed

    From a press release sent out by Americans United For the Separation of Church and State earlier today: Americans United for Separation of Church and State today filed a lawsuit in federal district court on behalf of several religious leaders and a religious organization whose First Amendment rights are violated [...]
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    Posted: June 19, 2008, 9:26pm EDT

  • South Carolina's Bad Laws and Worse Religion

    We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, grateful to God for our liberties, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the preservation and perpetuation of the same. (The Preamble to the South Carolina Constitution)I am an unapologetic follower of Jesus Christ. I recite the Creeds, [...]
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    Posted: June 12, 2008, 10:44pm EDT

  • Post-Clinton, Not Post-Feminist

    Maybe it’s finally over, this primary season that felt like a primary decade. Hillary’s out, thanks to New York’s Charlie Rangel. It’s on to Denver where Barak Obama will be officially nominated and then the end-game with Senator McCain.What was it that made Obama the winner and Hillary the runner-up? [...]
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    Posted: June 05, 2008, 9:20pm EDT

  • The Cigarette Veto is Coming Tomorrow

    Speaking of disagreements, Governor Sanford will have a press conference tomorrow announcing his decision on vetoing the 50 cent per pack tax on cigarettes. In case you think the outcome is in doubt, the Governor has already stated that he would veto any bill that did not have an offestting [...]
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    Posted: May 26, 2008, 9:11pm EDT

  • God bless Cal Thomas, too

    In the midst of the season of poison, when the former first woman President hints darkly that a vote for her is a vote to save her opponent's life, and the Republican scream machine keeps cranking out e-mails stating that Barak Obama is a radical Muslim who will not recite [...]
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    Posted: May 26, 2008, 8:54pm EDT

  • The Candidates At Play in the Fields of the Lord

    Of course, it comes as no surprise to those of us who understand the doctrinal swamp that is premillenial dispensationalism. But to a secular press, and a naive John McCain, the revelation that one of McCain’s most prominent evangelical supporters believes some pretty weird things about the meaning of scripture, [...]
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    Posted: May 25, 2008, 10:28pm EDT

  • The Children of Eldorado

    Now that Austria has replaced Texas in around-the-clock media coverage of child abuse, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ has moved from the front pages to the inside. The polygamist group, housed in an Eldorado “compound,” has long promoted the plural marriage as the divinely ordered state of holy matrimony, [...]
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    Posted: May 01, 2008, 10:26pm EDT

  • The Two GOP's of South Carolina

    In state where the opposition is not only ineffective, but darn near moribund, some people think we live in a one-party state. But that's not true. There are, in actuality, two (maybe three) different GOP's that govern South Carolina. The first, pragmatic, pro-business, deficit conscious, and unafraid to think differently [...]
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    Posted: April 09, 2008, 10:14pm EDT

  • WWOD?

    From Lark News, comes this story about the signs and wonders happening on the Obama campaign trail. AUSTIN — Ginny McCallum, 43, who has been confined to a wheelchair for much of her adult life, came to hear presidential candidate Barack Obama speak at the University of Texas. Afterward she found [...]
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    Posted: April 01, 2008, 10:07pm EDT

  • Tax 'Em If You Got 'Em, Boys

    Today's Greenville News has an op-ed piece about the effort to raise the cigarette tax in South Carolina, penned by Don Weaver, President of the South Carolina Association of Taxpayers. Mr. Weaver maintains that raising the cigarette tax and using the money for health care is a "welfare plan" and [...]
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    Posted: March 25, 2008, 9:44pm EDT

  • For Good Friday: A Rare Perfume

    I saw my father’s green Mercury Cougar pull into the parking lot a block or so ahead of me. I had been out of town at a conference and hadn’t seen him in a couple of weeks, so I slid across three lanes of traffic and whipped into the space [...]
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    Posted: March 21, 2008, 4:34pm EDT

  • Not This Time

    No, he didn't repudiate the man he calls "family," the man who brought him to faith in Jesus, the man who presided at his wedding and baptized his children. And so it should be. One does not quickly sever the ties that bind. Nor did he condone the "God damn America" [...]
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    Posted: March 18, 2008, 9:06pm EDT

  • Caught Up in the Concept

    If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept. –Former [...]
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    Posted: March 16, 2008, 9:22pm EDT

  • Betrayers All

    A Meditation for Palm Sunday He never thought of himself as a betrayer. He really despised Caiaphas and Annas, those corrupt old religionists, in league with the Empire. He despised all the priests, but these two were worthy of a special sort of hatred. He carefully laid a trap, using their [...]
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    Posted: March 16, 2008, 7:17pm EDT

  • Eliot Spitzer and the Deacon's Rule

    And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? (Matthew 7:3) Let's call it the Deacon's Rule: No matter who it is, no matter how holier-than-thou, no matter how beloved, no matter how high the hopes nor [...]
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    Posted: March 12, 2008, 2:26pm EDT

  • Once Upon a Time with John McCain

    Way back in 2000, when the world was new, John McCain was something different: a Republican who stood up to the radicals that had taken over the party of Lincoln and Goldwater; a man of principle, whose triumph over his Viet Cong captors was the stuff of legend and the [...]
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    Posted: March 10, 2008, 9:16pm EDT

  • The Third Sunday in Lent

    Thirsty in Sychar Exodus 17:1-7 Psalm 95 Romans 5:1-11 John 4:5-42 She passed two other wells on the way to the edge of Sychar’s gates. One was near the square and one by the market. At the market, the men were gathered, talking politics and arguing religion, the men who winked or whistled when she [...]
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    Posted: February 24, 2008, 10:52pm EST

  • South Carolina General Assembly Weak In Review (February 23, 2008)

    In case you thought our South Carolina lawmakers were not doing anything but spending your money wildly, I am furnishing a list of some of the most signifcant legislative action from the past week. (You can find the bills at http://www.scstatehouse.net/index.html) The House and Senate set up a Gang Prevention Study [...]
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    Posted: February 24, 2008, 10:39pm EST
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