Aiya Iluvatar

Oh Ratz!

You know, I really believed all that stuff about "A Cardinal who campaigns is not elected."  Appears not to be completely true.

I am very concerned about the RC church backsliding to pre-Vatican II positions and the mission of Christ being hampered by more Vatican navel gazing.  Probably means we'll have to wait another decade or longer for meaningful ecumenical dialogue.

On the other hand, it probably does mean I'll be seeing some visitors from the Roman Catholics.

Sure wish it could have been almost anyone else, other than the "Grand Inquisitor of Rome" as the Cardinal Ratzinger Fanclub puts it. (That's serious - no joke)

David+

Unitarian Jihad

My Unitarian Jihad name is "The Nunchuku of Forgiveness."  Thanks to the Unitarian Jihad Name Generator for the new moniker.  Thanks to Kinesis for pointing this out....

Help me! I'm being held prisoner in a MMORPG!

WARNING! If you value your free time, DO NOT try Worlds of Warcraft.

I told one of my students that I had gotten Worlds of Warcraft - his response was, "It will eat your soul."  I'm not sure if it has gone that far, but it certainly has become a bit obsessive.  It's got the best of all worlds - great graphics, an immersive storyline, and a world full of real players instead of just computer-generated monsters.  They have dedicated "Role Playing" servers where stupid names and out-of-character antics aren't tolerated.

The other night, I formed a party that just "clicked."  I was a dwarven paladin and was joined by a human warrior, an elven druid, a gnomish mage and a human rogue.  We took on a difficult dungeon, the "Deadmines"  - it ate hours and we were stopped just minutes from our goal.  Still loved every minute.

Suspect I'll come up for air soon.....

David+

New Blog

After running www.askthepriest.org for a while, using it as a catch-all for my blogging, I decided to add some new voices to AskThePriest and using it mainly for answering questions and theological musings.  The more personal posts will now be on this Blog, Ayia Iluvatar.

I decided to give it a Tolkien theme, because I have been studying the works of Tolkien and their religious significance for several years now.  I am firmly convinced that Tolkien is one of the greatest Christian writers of the 20th century, and that his works spread a Gospel message in a very subtle way.  But not all of this blog will be Tolkien-related.  In fact, most probably won't - I just like the theme.

What, you might ask, does Ayia Iluvatar mean?  In Quenya, the high-elvish language of Middle Earth, it means roughly "Hail, Creator" or possibly even "Praise to thee, God."  The name "Iluvatar" is used in the Silmarillion extensively and the Lord of the Rings sparingly as the name of God.

I look forward to fleshing out this blog.

David+