College football kicks off big time today. It's a glorious day, and my alma mater picked a I-AA team for its opener. Kind of embarrassing. Thing is, Appalachian State has won the last two I-AA championships. If Michigan wins, it's embarrassing that it scheduled them. If Michigan loses, it's even more embarrassing. My other alma mater plays Georgia Tech. People are talking about the Irish starting 1-7, but that won't happen. If they win today, I think they'll start 5-3 and have a shot at a BCS game. If they don't win today, they'll start 3-5.
There are some decent games today. In addition to ND, keep an eye on the West Virginia game. West Virginia is ranked 3rd nationwide and favored by 24.5 points, but their opponent, Western Michigan, is tough and has a good coach. I'd take WMU getting 24.5.
Other than some football, I have no plans for the weekend. It ought to be nice. Potential plans that prompted me to decline one party invitation didn't materialize, so now I'm just reading, writing, and spending time with my children. These weekends, I love. That it's a three-day weekend makes me practically delirious.
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An evangelical rightly bemoans the lack of great evangelical contemporary literature (what about Left Behind!?!?) and urges his brethren to look at Flannery for guidance. Excerpt:
[T]he host of near contemporary conservative Christians–sometimes quite evangelical and even evangelistic, though not “Evangelicals”–who were also important writers. G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, T. S. Eliot, Graham Greene, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, Walker Percy, and Flannery O'Connor are all recognized as important literary figures even by people who do not share their Christian commitment.
Where is the contemporary American Evangelical who can make such a claim?
The modern Christians who are important writers are all from liturgical churches: Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox. The closest thing Evangelicalism has to a name that could rank with these is probably Walter Wangerin, Jr., who is not really a mainstream Evangelical but a Lutheran–again, from a liturgical tradition.
Try to think of a conservative Baptist, a Free or Wesleyan Methodist or a Nazarene, a conservative Presbyterian, a Plymouth Brother, a member of the Evangelical Free Church or the Christian and Missionary Alliance, a Pentecostal, or a member of an independent Bible church who belongs in that company.
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That's it for now. The weekend calls.
