FRED’S THANKS FOR FREDSTOCK – “Student – Teacher: Knowledge and Meaning Dialogue”

November 3, 2011

Ruth and I wish to express our thanks for the wonderful cooperative effort by so many making Fredstock a successful and fun evening. Academy lads from 1962-1968, especially the class of 1966 who suggested the scholarship with the  leadership of  their classmate Dr. Daniel Kriefall.  The Alumni Office served most helpfully in fielding captains who contacted alumni from the Academy, various College and University groups,  such as social science  and history majors, MTEPS , CSAL,  and degree completion programs.. We thank all for their efforts.  Finally it is our children who with imagination and hard work brought Fredstock and the championing of the scholarship to reality. All six children had their assigned roles and effectively worked together. No doubt they inherited their mother’s organizational skills.  I am sure the siblings would agree that Stephanie (which means crown in Greek) exhibited an extraordinary effort and effective coordination and leadership. Anastasia, on her part, built the The Bartling Scholarship web site that has effectively kept her father off the streets with blogging duties.  Love and God bless to all.

Fifty years as teacher and professor at Concordia Academy, College, and University has been a journey affording great joy and happiness in vocationContinue reading “FRED’S THANKS FOR FREDSTOCK – “Student – Teacher: Knowledge and Meaning Dialogue””

AUGUSTINE’S IMPACT ON WESTERN THOUGHT

October 30, 2011

An influential idea in Western thought is that history has a goal and is puposeful.  This idea altered the Greek-Roman notion that history and time revoved in meaningless circles with no ultimate goal. With the fall of the Roman Empire to Germanic invaders in 431 AD  Augustine, theologian and philosopher, wrote The City of God.  This book became a classic source in shaping Western thought.Continue reading “AUGUSTINE’S IMPACT ON WESTERN THOUGHT”

LINCOLN AND MLK – HATE VS. FORGIVENESS

October 26, 2011

Philip Yancey’s book What’s So Amazing About Grace  in the chapter Arsenal of Grace quotes Alexander  Solshenitsyn:  “Only a small crack. . . . but cracks make caves collapse.”  Later in this chapter references are made to Lincoln and Martin Luther King as champions of grace and national reconciliation. Interesting is the fact that the recently dedicaded statue  monument of Martin Luther King is across from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It was here that King gave his “I Have a Dream Speech”.

Lincoln’s election in November 1860 led to the secession of South Carolina in December and the following February ten more states in the deep South seceeded. Lincoln’ inaugural address Feb. 11, 1861 stated:  “We are not enemies but friends”. On February 8th the secessionists created the Confederacy. A four year struggle ensued and left 617,000 casualties on both sides. Total population North and South numbered 40 million (North 30 million, South 10 million of which 4 million were slaves).After four years of struggle Lincoln was urged by vindictive politicians to punish the South. An assassin’s bullet removed Lincoln from leadership and swift reconciliation lead rather to recrimination and bitterness North and South. What might have been?Continue reading “LINCOLN AND MLK – HATE VS. FORGIVENESS”

POLITICS AND THE CHURCH’S BULLY PULPIT

Headline 9/20/2011 in the STARTRIBUNE TWIN CITIES+REGION section: BACHMAN-HAMMOND: JUST THE TICKET FOR OUR TIMES

Writer Jon Tevlin observes that both politics as well as religion make strange bedfellows.  Rev. Mac Hammond, local televangelist from Living Word Christian Center has joined as an advisor the Bachmann campaign. Continue reading “POLITICS AND THE CHURCH’S BULLY PULPIT”

THE NOVEL “PASSING” – LIGHT SKINNED ENOUGH TO PASS AS WHITE

October 8, 2011

Recently a program that reviewed new books in the Becketwood library one in particular caught my attention.  Immediately I understood it to be the flip-side, or northern racial version of the novel and movie “”Help” set in the South. (See blog – Aug 21: HELP WANTED – MAIDS OF HONOR  and “KILLERS OF THE DREAM”) The novel “Passing” was written in 1929Continue reading “THE NOVEL “PASSING” – LIGHT SKINNED ENOUGH TO PASS AS WHITE”

LYNX BRILLIANT COMPARED WITH MINNESOTA “WOBEGONE” BIG TIME MALE SPORTS

Sunday sports page: “Bumblin’  and Humblin” Michigan defeats Gophers 58-0, no scoring no tackling – “defense below rock bottom”.  Monday sports page:  “On the ‘L’ Train”  KC defeats Vickings 22-17 – record 0-4 – “Near record of futility the season is over”. Timberwolves basketball moribund since the departure of Garnett. Rebuilding continues after year’s of futility. Will a new coach come to the rescue? Minnesota Wild hockey team some redemptive features but essentially restructuring mold. Headline 10/4 “It’s a show-me state of hockey” with waning attendance”.  Can a few offseason acquisitions translate into victories and more tickets sold?

A breath of fresh airContinue reading “LYNX BRILLIANT COMPARED WITH MINNESOTA “WOBEGONE” BIG TIME MALE SPORTS”