Green Baggins

I encourage you to go over to my friend Jason Van Bemmel’s new blog, especially if you are new to the Reformed faith. He will be blogging through Calvin’s Institutes and the Westminster Confession of Faith. Even if you are not new to the Reformed faith, and missed your chance at celebrating the 500th anniversary (2009) of his birth (1509), then here’s your chance.

To all readers, I have posted rules and guidelines on a permanent page here. I have also moved up the “pages” widget so that the guidelines are more easily accessible. Please read and follow these guidelines.

Most of you probably already know via Ref21′s announcement, but in case there are some of you who don’t read Ref21, I would like to announce that Dr. Michael Kruger, professor of New Testament at RTS Charlotte, is now blogging. I heard him at the last PCA General Assembly, and I was very much impressed. This is a younger scholar to watch. He knows what he believes, and is passionate about teaching it. Those who go over there will shortly find out that one of Kruger’s main areas of specific research is early canon formation, certainly an area of concern for us today, given the recent challenges to the exclusivity of our canon. He and Charles Hill are currently editing a book together on New Testament criticism. For my part, I sincerely hope that Kruger will start publishing commentaries as well.

I have offered (and Paige has graciously accepted) a place on my blog’s editor team to Paige Britton. She has been contributing quite a bit to the blog recently, and has done some fantastic proof-editing for this year’s Confessional Presbyterian Journal, as well. She sent me her bio, which I reproduce here below. In the meantime, please give a warm welcome to her.

I grew up in the Washington, D.C. area, where I benefited from the youth ministry of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, MD (this is how come I know the brothers Hutchinson). I earned a BA in English from Haverford College (PA), and later an MEd in Special Education from Millersville University (PA). I have been married for 17 years to my best friend, Josh, who is a computer programming and math teacher at a public high school in our area. We have two kids, 12 and 7. Before my son was born, I was a public school teacher (1st and 2nd grades) in our town. Since becoming a mom I have remained at home, and we’ve home schooled from the beginning. We live in southern Lancaster County, PA.

Despite the influence of the 4th Pres youth programs and Chris Hutchinson’s friendship, I never really knew anything about the Reformed expression of the faith till about twelve years ago. I was struck by the message of God’s sovereignty in Romans, and realized I had to re-learn my Christianity from the ground up. Since I was the only Reformed person I knew (close by), I had to learn all of this from books and Modern Reformation. It turned out I had a good head for the study of theology and just plain loved it, so I kept going. After some years of this, I was given some unexpected opportunities to write on Reformed topics. Also, about four years ago we found it necessary — for wise, not theological, reasons — to leave the small local evangelical church we’d been a part of, and we gravitated up the street — again for wise, not theological, reasons — to Faith Reformed Presbyterian Church (PCA). That’s where we’ve settled; I help out as the coordinator for the Adult SS program, which means I make sure there are teachers each quarter and sometimes create curriculum for them. Josh offers his musical gifts, especially with the kids. My writing has appeared in Modern Reformation, the World Reformed Fellowship website (www.wrfnet.org), and most recently Beginning with Moses. I like to edit other people’s writing, too.

I just don’t like the aesthetics of the new template that much (and I think losing the numbered comments isn’t going to work, either). I liked the old template better. However, in response to comments concerning the font size, I am going to be changing the font size that I use. In order to be easier on tired or aging eyes, I will use this medium font size. It’s a bit more work for me, but I am more than willing to do that to make it more readable for folks.

Note for moderators: Any future posts you would like to make need to have the code for medium font size around each and every paragraph. You can find the code here. All you have to do is copy and paste the <span style etc., and change from "x-small" to "medium" in the code, and then don't forget to close the bracket with the span closing. *New Edit* I am also using Garamond font. In the example linked, substitute garamond for comic sans ms and medium for the font size, and we’re all set.

Many people have said that GB needs a face lift. I really did like Thirteen, the theme I was using before. I had been extremely reluctant to change themes, for one crucial reason: none of the other themes that were green (a necessity with a name like Green Baggins) had numbered comments. Well, today, I decided to take the plunge and change themes anyway. I urge people in debate now to quote name and words of the person they are debating, so that people can still keep track of who is saying what. Any feedback on the new theme would, of course, be appreciated.

I’m having an incredible time over here in Jackson, MS. I can talk to someone as a confessional Presbyterian, and I don’t have to apologize for it. Follow the Fellowship on the official blog here.

I don’t know that anyone would want to use this feature, as most people simply use a blog reader to keep track of blogs. Nevertheless, WordPress has added an email subscription feature. If one scrolls down on the sidebar long enough, you will find it. For anyone who wants this feature, they can have it.

My twin brother brought to my attention this article. I am certainly glad to know about it, even if I think the FTC is wrong to horse down on bloggers in this fashion. The FTC seems to assume that people reading blogs do not need to exercise common sense. Why should a blog have any authority at all? It’s just cyber words, after all. One would hope that readers would be able to form their own judgments about whether to trust a blogger or not. The government has been looking for ways to clamp down on the internet for a long time, since they have had precious few ways to regulate anything. It is one of the final frontiers of human freedom. Of course many people abuse that freedom. And there is no doubt that some of the problems described in the article do exist. But isn’t the solution to educate people about the problems, rather than legislating concerning it? Be that as it may, I intend to conform to whatever stupid laws come down the pike regarding blogging. But I don’t have to like it.

I don’t know if anyone would be interested in this, but I just thought I’d make it available, since it’s a new feature just added to the wordpress blog. There is now an RSS feed both for the blog and for the comments. It’s on the very bottom left of the blog. You can then add that to your blog reader, if you want.