We just read Jonathan Edwards for my American Literature discussion group. We all agreed that Edwards’ sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, wouldn’t go over too well nowadays. I’m not sure that’s an indictment of the sermon as much as it is of us and our culture. We also read Edwards’ Personal Narrative from which I extracted this quote:

On January 12, 1723, I made a solemn dedication of myself to God, and wrote it down; giving up myself, and all that I had to God; to be for the future in no respect my own; to act as one that had no right to himself, in any respect. And solemnly vowed to take God for my whole portion and felicity; looking on nothing else as any part of my happiness, nor acting as if it were; and his law for the constant rule of my obedience; engaging to fight with all my might against the world, the flesh, and the devil, to the end of my life. But I have reason to be infinitely humbled when I consider how much I have failed of answering my obligation.

How humbled should those of us be who have failed to even attempt such a commitment!

Crime novelist Ridley Pearson and humor columnist Dave Barry have collaborated to write a prequel to J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Entitled Peter and the Starcatchers, the book answers Pearson’s daughter’s question, “But, Dad how did Peter meet Captain Hook in the first place?” From an article in the Miami Herald:

The story takes place on board the ship, Never Land, bound for Rundoon with Peter, four fellow orphans from St. Norbert’s Home for Wayward Boys, and a closely guarded trunk full of ”starstuff,” a magical substance with the power to make people fly or stop aging.
Naturally, the starstuff is stolen, first by a cretin named Slank, then by a nefarious pirate named Black Stache (named for his facial hair), then recovered by some vicious (but quite attractive) mermaids, and finally coveted by island natives who speak their own dialect, in addition to English and French. (Talking dolphins also play a crucial role in the plot. Hey, it’s a fantasy.)
It’s up to Peter to help the secret society called the Starcatchers — led by a comely teen named Molly — get the starstuff back.

Oh, and by the way, September 19 is National Talk Like a Pirate Day. (And thanks to Brandywine Books for the tip on the new book.)

Try this thesis on for size: Conservatives are the wave of the future because . . conservatives, especially religious conservatives, dare I even say Christians and Mormons, are the ones who are actually reproducing themselves. From a September 2, 2004 article in the Washington Post by Phillip Longman, author of The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity and What to Do About It:

What’s the difference between the protesters outside the Republican convention and the delegates inside? There are many, of course, but one will ultimately skew American politics and the culture wars in the Republicans’ favor, regardless of who has God or reason on her side. It’s the divide between who is having children and who isn’t.

Over the past decade, fertility rates among all major American ethnic groups have either remained low or fallen dramatically. Between 1990 and 2002 fertility declined 14 percent among Mexican Americans and 24 percent among Puerto Ricans. African Americans, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, now have a lower average fertility rate than whites, and they are no longer producing enough children to replace their population. But one big difference in fertility rates remains: Conservative, religiously minded Americans are putting far more of their genes into the future than their liberal, secular counterparts.

So I’m doing my part; may God bless the fruit of the womb and bring revival and repentance to the U.S.A.