A selection of today's interesting comment

1. the evangelical outpost asks:

Can we be more ethical than Jesus?

Most evangelicals would consider such a question to be the height of absurdity. Since we consider Jesus to be the very standard for moral conduct, it would be impossible to be more ethical than our own Redeemer. What we claim to believe, though, is often betrayed by our actions.

He then goes on to consider the Southern Baptist Convention's position on the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

An interesting recent book on the subject is the one on the right.

2. GetReligion considers a Newsweek article about Pope Benedict's new book about Jesus and finds Newsweek's reporting pathetically deficient:

.... this snide and condescending mainstream media incredulity at the notion that Christians might actually believe that baptism of Jesus took place as described in all four Gospels is just beyond words. I think more than a few barrels of ink have been shed over this very important moment. Unless Newsweek has only graduated to the journalistic equivalent of Chris Hitchens still expressing shock that billions of very backwards people believe in the transcendent. I mean, is that really news? That Christians believe Jesus to be divine? That Christians believe in the Triune God? For real? I mean, talk about your fundamentals!

Now what’s most disconcerting about this whole mess is that Lisa Miller is Newsweek’s religion editor. I know that Newsweek is fond of that whole opinion-journalism-masquerading-as-regular-reportage shtick but this piece reads like it was written by someone with disdain for orthodox Christianity and, much worse, not enough knowledge of the basic topics at hand. ....

3. Anthony Esolen at Mere Comments writes about keeping politics in its proper place:

.... The faith keeps politics in its place, and if that is healthy for the faith, it is absolutely essential for politics, which otherwise will assume the altar. It is the great revelation of Christ, only sporadically understood by Christians themselves, that politics does have a place of its own, and that we should render to Caesar what is Caesar's. But that verse says nothing about the banishment of the faith, or of the laws of God written on the human heart, from the public sphere. When that happens - when we fail to render to God what is God's - then either the state itself becomes the object of worship, or, if it is not a cultic god, it still crawls into areas where it has no business, because nothing is holy, and all rests in the apparent will of the rulers or the people.

4. Fred Sanders at The Scriptorium provides "The Lord’s Prayer as amplified by the Heidelberg Catechism" here.

Sources: the evangelical outpost: What would Jesus drink?, GetReligion: she blinded me with history, Mere Comments: Metastatic Politics, Scriptorium Daily: Awaken in Us Childlike Reverence and Trust