I am on Hugh Hewitt now.

Don’t forget to give here.

We switched.

Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University has opted for the ESV.

Why? It is as accurate as the NASB, but reads as well as the classic RSV. It is culturally sensitive to the writer’s intent while written in modern English. It is correct without being politically correct.

The ESV is one of those rare translations that are remarkable in their own right without getting in the way of the original text.

The ESV is simply magnificent.

The silliest comment I have heard from a talking head is the notion that a switch to stopping looters was done because we value “property over lives” and that this had something to with our “free market” or Republican culture.

This is simplistic. It is true that stopping looting would not seem like a priority until we understand that once people begin looting their behavior decays. Today’s looters are doing worse things on the morrow.

Stopping tagging or breaking windows in a neighborhood seems like a waste of time. Why not go after the killers? It turns out that killers often begin as taggers or window smashers. The same idea applies to looting in a crisis. It begins to break down social inhibitions that society cannot afford to let slip.

Some slopes really are slippery.

To save lives in the long run, looting must be stopped.

Has anyone considered that our use of the New Technology is making us less patient with the “real world?” We see a crisis and want to react. Our money can reach an account in seconds. We want the relief to reach the people in hours, but then it takes days to get there.

We begin to look for someone to blame.

However, the fact that information can now be delivered very quickly does not mean huge mounds of food and manpower can. People still live in the world of three dimensions. A truck can only drive so fast. A downed infrastructure can only be rebuilt one sack of cement at a time.

Do we expect a problem that requires 1950’s technology (cement, steel, and manpower) to be solved at 2005 information technology speed?

My Dad is helping organize relief for the family of my first cousin. They are good folk, engaged in a great pastoral work in a hard hit area, and need your help. Details of how to help are in a letter from my Dad. You can trust my father who has been in ministry for over forty years to handle your funds well. It will be going directly to the aid of a pastor and a Southern Baptist church that could use the help!

Here is the great thing about family and the broader family of God: This Antiochian Orthodox blog hopes you will give money to my CE Church father (Father Dad!) to give to my Southern Baptist pastor first cousin.

This is a real ecumenical movement!

Dear Family and Friends:

Our niece and her family live in La Place, Louisiana which is the first town west of New Orleans off I-10. It is the first parish above sea level. It is about twenty miles west of New Orleans.

Here are some facts:

Rev. Emory and Kelly Putman have four children. Emory is the pastor of a small Southern Baptist church in LaPlace. Most of his people work in New Orleans, so they no longer have jobs. Emory does not know when he will get his next paycheck. They have a home in LaPlace.

The family had the wisdom to go to Shreveport, LA to stay with Kelly’s brother and his family. They are still there and do not know how much damage was done to their home or the church.

One can get in and out of LaPlace. Emory plans to go on a scouting trip to LaPlace, perhaps today to see if he can do a damage assessment and see when it will be safe for at least him to return.

If it is suitable, he hopes to use his church as a center for relief efforts when he can.

As far as he knows there has been no looting in LaPlace.

We are establishing a fund in the Appalachian Highlands Mission to be of help to the Putmans and perhaps later to help Emory with relief efforts through his church. We are calling it the St. John’s Fund. This may be a permanent fund so that AHM is set up to help in emergencies.

Though St. John was called one of the “sons of thunder” he was also the Apostle of love. It is said that he was carried to church as a very old man, after being freed from Patmos. The leader would ask the old man if he had anything to say and invariably the old saint would say: “Little children, love one another.” We thought it would be appropriate to call this outreach of love in honor of him.

My chief concern right now is to help Emory and Kelly with their immediate financial needs.

Would you like to help supply emergency funds to meet the immediate needs of the Putmans?

If so send your check to:

Appalachian Highlands Mission

206 50th St. SE

Charleston, WV 25304

Put “St. John’s Fund” on your check.

Remember to pray for them and the others affected by the horrible devastation of Katrina.

I would ask family members to spread the word among folks for whom I do not have a email address.

The Lord be with you!

Dayton+