I'm taking a little time off for R&R in Holland, Michigan, right on the shores of Lake Michigan. The weather here has been beautiful, with clear, sunny skies and temperatures just right to make you want to go jump in a lake. This particular lake has enough of a microclimate that there's wind blowing moderately large breakers that you can actually surf on. The kids are deliriously happy, and I'm not far behind.
Driving in from the eastern part of the state one begins to notice more and more Lutheran and Calvinist churches. There's only one Catholic church here in town and guess what it's called? That's right, Our Lady of the Lake. You can recognize it pretty easily, because it's a lot uglier than the other churches. I haven't been inside yet, but I'm sure it will be lovely.
Holland is home to Hope College, also Calvinist, at least by background. I'm not familiar enough with things here to know whether it has the same sort of affiliation with the Calvinist religion as Duke has with the Methodist, but one hopes not--even Calvinism is better than sheer debauchery. I think.
It's not hard to find WiFi access here, but it is rather difficult to find it on the beach, and it's even more difficult to find time to get away from the beach, so probably blogging will be even lighter than it has been of late. On the other hand, when one is on vacation one does tend to ruminate, and I suppose I will find at least a little time for some of the usual vapidity that my readers have grown accustomed to.
2 comments:
Scott, ever since taking "Reformation History" at the Faculty of Divinty of the University of Edinburgh (which doubled, in some respects, as a Church of Scotland seminary) I have found Calvinists by far the most interesting people to argue with.
Many modern US evangelicals seem to combine a belief in "making a choice for Jesus" (which is semi-Pelagian at best) with a belief that "salvation cannot be lost." I find this ludicrous, whereas, although I disagree with Calvinists, I can at least follow their reasoning.
Don't get me wrong--I love Calvinists! They make the Russian Orthodox look positively cheery by comparison.
Post a Comment