Waiting for Godot to Leave

In seeking to dismiss a civil lawsuit against the archdiocese of St. Louis, Archbishop Robert Carlson has vehemently denied one of the allegations against him ... sort of. Robert Carlson, archbishop of St. Louis The suit was filed regarding the alleged behavior of Fr. Joseph Jiang, who is charged with the crime of molesting a 15-year-old girl .  Archbishop Carlson has been subpoenaed to give a deposition in that case, but has so far manged to avoid doing so.  The trial has been delayed several times. Meanwhile, the girl's parents have filed a civil suit against the archdiocese for negligence in not properly supervising the priest, who was a personal favorite of Archbishop Carlson's, perhaps living with him in the archbishop's mansion (there are conflicting reports of this), and at least having been taken by Carlson under his wing in a kind of mentor relationship. Carlson's denials  in the civil suit avoid the merits of the case, seeking dismissal on technica...

There is a part of the Bible that has always embarrassed me. It's that part in Genesis ( Gen. 30:37-42 ) where Jacob has a claim on spotted goats and sheep, and he tricks the livestock into producing mottled offspring by placing spotted posts in front of them when they're mating.  That has always embarrassed me, since genetics doesn't work that way, and it seemed Scripture was being undermined a bit here. But I've been driving a lot lately ( I'm in Duluth, Minnesota all this week ), listening to David Higbee's Scripture Studies .   David points out that the meaning of that story is that Jacob congratulates himself for being clever (as usual), while obviously the mottled offspring are entirely God's work.  It's not Jacob's accomplishment; it's God's blessing. We shield ourselves from the pain and awe of existence by telling ourselves how clever we are and by using our wiles to gimmick situations.  But we are entirely dependent on His Div...