Confessional Lutheran theology, hagiography, philosophy, music, culture, sports, education,
and whatever else is on the fevered mind of Orycteropus Afer
17 October 2008
A Confirmed Untruth — Revised
A previous post that's since been parked addressed rumors surrounding the alleged demise of the Concordia Publishing House book Women Pastors? The Ordination of Women in a Biblical, Lutheran Perspective by Matthew C. Harrison and John T. Pless. After laying out crisscrossing and conflicting reports, I wrote, "Avoid extremes, weigh the evidence, and don't believe a radical departure from the norm it until you can prove it."
I noted that it would take solid evidence to believe such radical conspiracy theories. Of course, the only solid evidence was to the contrary. In actuality, the book remains in the CPH inventory but sold out its first two printings. It's now being readied for a third print run in a second edition. It remains indisputable that most of the copies have been gobbled up, so any other procrastinators may not be able to obtain the book until the new edition is made available.
Regarding the now-vamoosed previous post, I listed as "true" the fact that gossip was flying and summarized its content. I never endorsed this content as "truth" and, as noted above, promoted a wait-and-see attitude. I was happy to receive bona fide notification that these rumors were false. However, I removed said post because some people, even after I provided brightly marked addenda (roughly equivalent to twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was), mistook the factual reporting of the content of the rumors for my approval of them. Well, they can rest easy now. The litany of speculations has vanished. Thus, yesterday's breaking news was made into today's broken news and now we can guarantee peace for our time.
Of course, we could start another conspiracy theory (and please, oh, please read this as tongue-in-cheek): If a publishers truly wanted to spur sales of particular titles and had little regard for ethics, might they not spread stories of the books' impending demise due to Orwellian forces at work so as to stimulate a buy and hoard response?
Sadly, a real world parallel has existed for years, wherein lies are disseminated in order to manipulate stock prices. Even in the midst of our general fiscal crisis, there remain those who'll tempt fate (and SEC audits) in order to make a few more bucks by playing to others' fears through illegal means. So dare we ask, "How many of yesterday's 75 swings in the Dow Jones Average based upon panic, how many on savvy investment strategies, and how many because someone was lying through his teeth (or keyboard)?"
And they all lived happily ever after. The end.
Technorati Tags: Women Pastors? | Matthew C. Harrison | John T. Pless | ordination of women | women's ordination | essays | Concordia Publishing House | CPH | LCMS | Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod | doctrinal review | Bible | Christianity | Christian | Lutheran | Lutheranism | doctrine | theology | confessional Lutheran | Aardvark Alley
P.S. If even extensive therapy, meditation, or medication, cannot occasionally bring you to an appreciation of viewing life from my perspective, I'm not holding your attention span hostage. You can always bail on the Alley and instead read the latest comedy from Joel Osteen or the psycho-social insights of Zippy the Pinhead. ¶ 11:42 |
A previous post that's since been parked addressed rumors surrounding the alleged demise of the Concordia Publishing House book Women Pastors? The Ordination of Women in a Biblical, Lutheran Perspective by Matthew C. Harrison and John T. Pless. After laying out crisscrossing and conflicting reports, I wrote, "Avoid extremes, weigh the evidence, and don't believe a radical departure from the norm it until you can prove it."
I noted that it would take solid evidence to believe such radical conspiracy theories. Of course, the only solid evidence was to the contrary. In actuality, the book remains in the CPH inventory but sold out its first two printings. It's now being readied for a third print run in a second edition. It remains indisputable that most of the copies have been gobbled up, so any other procrastinators may not be able to obtain the book until the new edition is made available.
Regarding the now-vamoosed previous post, I listed as "true" the fact that gossip was flying and summarized its content. I never endorsed this content as "truth" and, as noted above, promoted a wait-and-see attitude. I was happy to receive bona fide notification that these rumors were false. However, I removed said post because some people, even after I provided brightly marked addenda (roughly equivalent to twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was), mistook the factual reporting of the content of the rumors for my approval of them. Well, they can rest easy now. The litany of speculations has vanished. Thus, yesterday's breaking news was made into today's broken news and now we can guarantee peace for our time.
Of course, we could start another conspiracy theory (and please, oh, please read this as tongue-in-cheek): If a publishers truly wanted to spur sales of particular titles and had little regard for ethics, might they not spread stories of the books' impending demise due to Orwellian forces at work so as to stimulate a buy and hoard response?
Sadly, a real world parallel has existed for years, wherein lies are disseminated in order to manipulate stock prices. Even in the midst of our general fiscal crisis, there remain those who'll tempt fate (and SEC audits) in order to make a few more bucks by playing to others' fears through illegal means. So dare we ask, "How many of yesterday's 75 swings in the Dow Jones Average based upon panic, how many on savvy investment strategies, and how many because someone was lying through his teeth (or keyboard)?"
And they all lived happily ever after. The end.
Technorati Tags: Women Pastors? | Matthew C. Harrison | John T. Pless | ordination of women | women's ordination | essays | Concordia Publishing House | CPH | LCMS | Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod | doctrinal review | Bible | Christianity | Christian | Lutheran | Lutheranism | doctrine | theology | confessional Lutheran | Aardvark Alley
P.S. If even extensive therapy, meditation, or medication, cannot occasionally bring you to an appreciation of viewing life from my perspective, I'm not holding your attention span hostage. You can always bail on the Alley and instead read the latest comedy from Joel Osteen or the psycho-social insights of Zippy the Pinhead. ¶ 11:42 |
