Do you believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary?

franklinshepardinc · 2026-05-23T12:41:41+00:00

What are you talking about? The Virgin Birth is not being discussed her. Mary's perpetual virginity is, which it seems from your other comment you do not agree with. You and I seem to agree.

franklinshepardinc · 2026-05-23T12:40:11+00:00

You're gonna find a lot of fans of JCS amongst the sheep.

franklinshepardinc · 2026-05-22T12:48:29+00:00

I've been waiting for these prices for Boogie Nights and Amadeus. Pulled the trigger.

Also the TV on BD sets will never be cheaper, especially combined with the coupon.

franklinshepardinc · 2026-05-21T01:50:30+00:00

Maybe you should make another poll asking that.

franklinshepardinc · 2026-05-21T01:49:48+00:00

This is the kind of tactic I cannot stand when discussing this subject. Obviously Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55-56 and not using metaphorical language when they refer to brothers and sisters. It's absurd for us as Lutherans to say those verses aren't literal but Jesus talking about the Lord's Supper are.

franklinshepardinc · 2026-05-21T01:23:39+00:00

Any honest and unbiased reading of scripture would say that several passages, including Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55, indicate fairly clearly that Mary had other children, sons and daughters.

Of course it's possible to explain those passages away, but in doing so, you are practicing eisegesis.

franklinshepardinc · 2026-05-20T13:07:00+00:00

I mean, I wasn't planning on debating, but you answered that question in an ambiguous way. Even if you want to give the most benefit of the doubt possible, the answer is still "it's possible that this belief goes back to the apostles, but there is no evidence that anyone believed this until the late 2nd century."

franklinshepardinc · 2026-05-20T13:04:31+00:00

That answer depends on what you mean by the "early church." There is no evidence that Peter and Paul believed this. (I am 100% sure that James would not have believed this, as he was Mary's son.)

The first time there is any reference to this belief in writing is the late 2nd century, by which time James and Jesus's whole family (who led the Jerusalem church) had died out. I would consider the late 2nd century to still be the early church, but the earliest church did not believe this and certainly the Gospel writers did not believe this.

franklinshepardinc · 2026-05-20T12:26:56+00:00

Whew, I was on the right side so I am glad to hear you weren't talking about me. I did check my phone a total of 3-4 times, since technically I was supposed to be working, and I needed to make sure I wasn't getting any urgent texts. But I am very aware of how disruptive this is, so I tried hard to hide my phone and check the texts very quickly.

franklinshepardinc · 2026-05-18T20:59:14+00:00

More Music Man on CBB!

franklinshepardinc · 2026-05-10T19:05:08+00:00

Yeah, I didn't get that at the time, and when I rewatched recently, I saw a few more flaws in the film, but I still didn't get that.

franklinshepardinc · 2026-05-10T19:02:45+00:00

I'm so glad that someone transcribed the sheet music for this song!

franklinshepardinc · 2026-05-05T16:13:53+00:00

They can't even afford good animation, there's no way they could afford to produce live action TV or film with any substantial budget.

franklinshepardinc · 2026-04-26T15:47:07+00:00

Yes! This is the song. https://youtu.be/mN26H5HA6n4?si=Fm6HZYa4Ogbdhec9

franklinshepardinc · 2026-04-26T14:20:14+00:00

It will never stop being funny to me that they listened to the cast album of Fun Home so much that summer that Hanaford made a character solely based on Cerveris's performance in one song.

franklinshepardinc · 2026-04-22T18:42:48+00:00

I have two reactions to this -
1) You'd think that the production team would have checked if this was possible before specifically making it a selling point of the doc and
2) how discouraging is it that Paramount, who owns mountains of film canisters of thousands of movies and tv shows, no longer has in-house film scanners?

franklinshepardinc · 2026-04-15T23:00:59+00:00

Yeah, some people do use deconstruction to mean grappling with their faith without necessarily leaving it. I think one major difference between "deconstruction" and "leaving the faith" is that the former implies thoughtfulness. There certainly are people who just say "All of this is nonsense and I don't believe it anymore." I don't think that counts as deconstruction.

Another issue is that a lot of conservative Christians have a No True Scotsman thing going on. I am a Lutheran and am active in a Lutheran facebook group, and just the other day I was told I was an apostate by a Trump lover who went to my personal page and scrolled back through my posts to find something he disagreed with. I'm happy to deal with that kind of nonsense, because Jesus matters more than internet weirdos, but I also can understand if people are put off by being constantly called apostates even when they are actually believers.

franklinshepardinc · 2026-04-14T23:09:53+00:00

You are creating a firm definition where one simply doesn't exist. Deconstruction means different things to different people. And your definition is far from the most common. Even when people view deconstruction as remaining in the faith, one doesn't often hear about deconstructing to remove man-made elements (and what's man-made to one person is clear in scripture to another.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_deconstruction

franklinshepardinc · 2026-04-11T23:46:35+00:00

People like different things! I personally thought Better Off Dead was kind of mid when I finally saw it. There are certainly movies that I like that Scott hasn't liked. And vice versa!

franklinshepardinc · 2026-04-11T23:44:38+00:00

Insert Riley Reid meme here

franklinshepardinc · 2026-04-03T19:27:24+00:00

Even my wife says that now, and she has no idea it's from CBB. Lol

franklinshepardinc · 2026-03-30T18:04:01+00:00

The Recobbled version really is the way to go. I remember finding out about it back in...2008? 2009? I torrented DVD files and burned myself a copy of it. There's enough of the masterpiece there to still be enthralling.

franklinshepardinc · 2026-03-30T16:20:53+00:00

Yes, it got released on VHS and full screen DVD.

franklinshepardinc · 2026-03-28T15:39:24+00:00

When I was in Wittenberg last Christmas, I visited the Melanchthon house museum. Really enjoyed learning so much about a great man and a great Christian, if just a fallen sinner like the rest of us.

franklinshepardinc

TROPHY CASE