Heresy Doesn't Develop

Tim Troutman has a great blog called Army of Martyrs. He has a post worth reading called Heretical Doctrines Do Not Develop. Take a look. Very interesting.

Please welcome our son into the Body of Christ

Last Saturday, our fifth child was born of water and Spirit (Jn 3:3-5), cleansed of original sin (1 Cor 6:11), and incorporated into the mystical Body of Christ (Rom 6:4-6). In other words, he was baptized. Please welcome him to the Church! (and please say a prayer for him). He was the one wearing white.

Priest attacked by a man frenzied by Da Vinci Code movie

A Roman priest is fighting for his life after being stabbed in the neck and stomach by a deranged man who had just watched the film The Da Vinci Code on television.

Eyewitnesses said that Marco Luzi, 25, asked to see Father Canio Canistri, 68, parish priest at the church of Santa Marcella in the San Saba district on the Aventine Hill, and then attacked him with a knife hidden in a cloth. An elderly parishioner who came to the priest's aid is also in serious condition.

Pray for the priest and read the full story from the Times by clicking here.

Saint Basil the Great on the necessity of confession of sins

"It is necessary to confess our sins to those whom the dispensation of God's mysteries is entrusted." Basil, Rule Briefly Treated, 288 (A.D. 374).

Basil is, of course, referring to the act of Christ whereby he endowed the Apostolic ministry with the office of remitting sins:

"If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (Jn 20:23).

Abp. of Canterbury will visit Lourdes for 150 year anniversary

This is significant. Personally, I believe that Rowan Williams is not one of the Church of England's "Top One Hundred" Archbishops of Canterbury. However, I am impressed that he is traveling to Lourdes for the 150 year anniversary of our Lady's apparitions to Saint Bernadette.

From AFP:

LONDON (AFP) — The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will on Wednesday become the first Anglican leader to visit the Roman Catholic shrine of Lourdes, his office said.

The Church of England chief will preach at the International Mass at the invitation of the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Monsignor Jacques Perrier, Williams's Lambeth Palace said in a statement.

His appearance coincides with the 150th anniversary celebrations at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, in the southwestern French town, of what Catholics believe were apparitions of the Virgin Mary to French peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous.

Along with his address at the International Mass, celebrated by His Eminence Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, Williams will also take part in a pilgrimage of bishops, clergy and laity of the Church of England.

Pope Benedict XVI visited Lourdes, one of the world's most revered Christian shrines in the foothills of the Pyrenees, earlier this month and held a mass for the sick there.

Hat tip to Dwight Lindley.

Catholic Priest honored by Jews as "Righteous among the Nations"

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- The family of a Latvian priest posthumously named as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, will receive a medal honoring his work in Riga, Latvia, Sept. 26.

Cardinal Janis Pujats of Riga will attend the ceremony to honor Father Kasimir Vilnis at the Israeli Embassy in Riga.

Father Vilnis' name also will be inscribed on the Wall of Honor at the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

Read the whole article by Judith Sudilovsky at Catholic News Service

Recording of Taylor Marshall on Catholic Answers Live

If you missed the radio show  that I did last Friday on Catholic Answers Live, you can download or listen to it in mp3 format by clicking here: Catholic Answers Live September 12, 2008 with Taylor Marshall: "Old Testament and Catholicism."

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comments box and I’ll get to them ASAP.

A special thank you to all who listened and especially to all those who called. I am very honored. Lastly, thank you to Catholic Answers for the amazing opportunity. Don't forget to look up your local Catholic radio station so that you can listen to Catholic Answers every afternoon:

Find your local Catholic radio station by clicking here.

Are Mormons Christians?

No, members of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints ("Mormons") are not Christians. The reason for this is that Christianity is defined by belief in the Holy Trinity, a doctrine explicitly denied by the LDS.

First of all, Mormons teach that the Father and the Son are bodily persons. This denies that the Father and the Son are "consubstantial" as taught in the Nicene Creed.

Moreover, the Book of Mormon also contains doctrines that are contrary to the classical Catholic doctrine of the Trinity as revealed by Christ:

1 And now Abinadi said unto them: I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people.
2 And because he dwelleth in flesh he shall be called the Son of God, and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son—
3 The Father, because he was conceived by the power of God; and the Son, because of the flesh; thus becoming the Father and Son—
4 And they are one God, yea, the very eternal Father of heaven and of earth.
5 And thus the flesh becoming subject to the Spirit, or the Son to the Father, being one God, suffereth temptation, and yieldeth not to the temptation, but suffereth himself to be mocked, and scourged, and cast out, and disowned by his people.

- Mosiah 15:1-5

This passage teaches the ancient heresy of Sabellianism or Modalism
- that the three Divine Persons are actually "one person". This error is sometimes also called "Patripassianism" because it teaches that the "Father suffered the passion on the cross." This is contrary to the witness of Scripture, yet the Book of Mormon (above) teaches that the Father "suffereth".

In short, the book of Mormon presents a doctrine of God that is fundamentally flawed. Thus, Mormonism is not Christian. It presents a Christ that is not the Christ of Catholic and Protestant Christianity. For this reason, the Catholic Church considers Mormon baptisms as invalid.

Heaven and Hell, Eden and Gehenna in Judaism and Catholicism

Excerpt from Taylor Marshall's book Does the Pope Wear a Yarmulke?:

Heaven and Hell, Eden and Gehenna
Orthodox Jews sometime speak of the Gan Eden (“Garden of Eden”) as the place of spiritual reward. It seems that Gan Eden is not the “historical” location described in the Bible. The term is used to evoke the beauty and peace that man experienced prior to sin. The rabbis describe Eden with the most beautiful imagery. The peace that one feels in Eden is sixty times more powerful than the peace one feels on the Sabbath. It is more pleasurable than sexual intercourse and more pleasant than the warmth of the sun. A mortal man cannot begin to understand the glories of Eden. It is like trying to explain the concept of color to a blind man. Saint Paul uses similar language concerning the Christian understanding of Heaven: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9).

Only the truly righteous go straight to Gan Eden. All others go the place of spiritual torment called Gehinnom or Gehenna. This is a place of punishment, but also a place of purification. It is sometimes called Sheol, meaning “the grave” or “the pit.”

The word Gehinnom is the name of a geographic location, the Ge Hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”) located on the southern border of ancient Jerusalem. The valley stretches eastward from Mount Zion to the Kidron Valley. The Bible first mentions the location as a deep, narrow ravine at the foot of the walls of Jerusalem where refuse was burned (Josh 15:8). Gehinnom was also where unburied bodies were dumped and it considered a cursed and unclean place. It is associated with Hell because it was once the location where Canaanites sacrificed children to the false god Moloch. The prophet Jeremiah refers to the location as the “Valley of Slaughter.” (Jer 19:2-6)

Like Gan Eden, the cursed Gehinnom is not identical with its historical geographical location. Gehinnom is a spiritual state. Some believe Gehinnom is a place of severe and eternal punishment, similar Christian Hell of fire and brimstone. This would presumably be the final destination of Adolf Hitler. Others see it as a place of purification, like the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory. A common view is that this “purgatorial” version of Gehinnom lasts no longer than twelve months. After this one-year probationary period, the person ascends to his proper place in olam ha-ba. This twelve-month purification derives from the Talmud, and it is connected to the mourning cycles and the recitation of Kaddish.

Jesus of Nazareth taught that Gehinnom was not a temporary place, but an eternal state:

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched (Mk 9:47-48).

"Gehenna" is also found in the epistle of James, where he teaches that Gehenna ignites the tongue with hurtful words (Jam 3:6).
Most Christians understand Gehenna (i.e. Hell) to be a place of eternal punishment. On the other hand, annihilationists, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, understand Gehenna to be a place where sinners are utterly destroyed (like garbage in a burning dump), not tormented forever. The New Testament also refers to Hades as a destination of the dead and of those who will not be exalted in heaven (Mt 11:23). However, Hades is portrayed as a different place from Gehenna.

Jewish Origins of Catholicism Podcasts by Taylor Marshall

A hearty welcome to all the new visitors who have come to this site after listing to "Does the Pope Wear a Yarmulke?" on Catholic Answers Live (5pm Central Sept 12, 2008). If you are looking for more information about Judaism and Catholicism, you may enjoy the podcasts (mp3) listed below. Simply click on the links and wait for the page to load. Then press the "triangle button" to play the file.

A special thanks to the Catholic Information Center for hosting these podcasts.

The Jewish Origins of Catholicism Podcasts
by Taylor Marshall

• Jewish Tevilah, Catholic Baptism
• Jewish Passover, Catholic Mass
• Jewish Manna, Catholic Eucharist
• Jewish Levites, Catholic Clergy
• Jewish Vestments, Catholic Vestments
• Jewish Temple, Catholic Cathedral
• Jewish Synagogue, Catholic Parish
• Jewish Nazirites, Catholic Monastics
• Jewish Marriage, Catholic Marriage

Catholic Apocalypse Podcasts
by Taylor Marshall

• Three Catholic Keys to the Apocalypse
• Why is the Church Centered in Rome and Not Jerusalem?
• Do Catholics Believe in the Rapture?
• Mary and the Book of Revelation
• Concept of Antichrist in Catholicism
• Mark of the Beast and Caesar
• Will the Jews Be Converted Before the End?

I'll be on the radio today

I'll be on the radio show "Catholic Answers Live" at 5pm central discussing the Catholic Church and Judaism. I encourage all readers of Canterbury Tales to listen.

The title of today's show is "Does the Pope Wear a Yarmulke?" - the same title of my forthcoming book.

Read more about it here.

Is the Papacy early or late?

Martyrdom of Saint Clement
Is the Papacy found in the era of the early church Fathers (ante 500) or is it a medieval invention? Technically, this question is misguided from a Catholic point of view since the Papacy was founded by Christ in about AD 30. Its institution is did not begin sometime later, either earlier or much later.

That being said, we find that in A.D. 96, Clement (the fourth pope and also disciple of Saint Paul mentioned in Phil 4:3) believed that he had special authority over the entire Church. He writes from his place in Rome to the Christians in Corinth:

“If anyone disobeys the things which have been said by Him through us, let them know that they will involve themselves in transgression and in no small danger.” Clement of Rome, Pope, First Epistle to the Corinthians, 1, 59:1 (c. A.D. 96).

In the year A.D. 256, Pope Stephen was called: “Stephen, who announces that he holds by succession the throne of Peter.” Firmilian to Cyprian, Epistle 74/75:17 (A.D. 256).

The writings of Jerome (who lived in Rome and Palestine) testify to the universal authority of the Pope in Rome in the 300s. Writing in A.D. 375, Jerome said:

My words are spoken to the Successor of the Fisherman, to the disciple of the cross. As I follow no leader save Christ, so I communicate with none but your blessedness, that is, with the Chair of Peter.

For this, I know, is the rock on which the Church is built! This is the house where alone the Paschal Lamb can be rightly eaten. This is the ark of Noah, and he who is not found in it shall perish when the flood prevails.” (Jerome, To Pope Damasus, Epistle 15:1-2)

Jerome believes that Pope Damasus is the successor of Peter and that the Pope’s chair (apostolic see) is the locus of unity and communion for the universal Church. Keep in mind that all of these quotes were written before the canon of the books of the Bible had been selected and confirmed by Pope Damasus in A.D. 382.

In other words, the Papacy is older than the canon of Scripture. There was only one church in A.D. 382 and its chief pastor on earth was the Pope in Rome.

Denver Bishops address abortion/politics issue

Archbishop Charles Chaput and Auxiliary Bishop James Conley of Denver have released a statement in response to the abortion comments of Senator Joseph Biden on Sunday's edition of NBC's "Meet the Press."

Joseph Biden is Barack Obama's running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket.

To Catholics of the Archdiocese of Denver:

When Catholics serve on the national stage, their actions and words impact the faith of Catholics around the country. As a result, they open themselves to legitimate scrutiny by local Catholics and local bishops on matters of Catholic belief. In 2008, although NBC probably didn’t intend it, Meet the Press has become a national window on the flawed moral reasoning of some Catholic public servants.

On August 24, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, describing herself as an ardent, practicing Catholic, misrepresented the overwhelming body of Catholic teaching against abortion to the show’s nationwide audience, while defending her “pro-choice” abortion views. On September 7, Sen. Joseph Biden compounded the problem to the same Meet the Press audience.

Sen. Biden is a man of distinguished public service. That doesn’t excuse poor logic or bad facts. Asked when life begins, Sen. Biden said that, “it’s a personal and private issue.” But in reality, modern biology knows exactly when human life begins: at the moment of conception. Religion has nothing to do with it. People might argue when human “personhood” begins – though that leads public policy in very dangerous directions – but no one can any longer claim that the beginning of life is a matter of religious opinion.

Sen. Biden also confused the nature of pluralism. Real pluralism thrives on healthy, non-violent disagreement; it requires an environment where people of conviction will struggle respectfully but vigorously to advance their beliefs. In his interview, the senator observed that other people with strong religious views disagree with the Catholic approach to abortion. It’s certainly true that we need to acknowledge the views of other people and compromise whenever possible – but not at the expense of a developing child’s right to life. Abortion is a foundational issue; it is not an issue like housing policy or the price of foreign oil. It always involves the intentional killing of an innocent life, and it is always, grievously wrong. If, as Sen. Biden said, “I’m prepared as a matter of faith [emphasis added] to accept that life begins at the moment of conception,” then he is not merely wrong about the science of new life; he also fails to defend the innocent life he already knows is there.

As the senator said in his interview, he has opposed public funding for abortions. To his great credit, he also backed a successful ban on partial-birth abortions. But his strong support for the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade and the false “right” to abortion it enshrines, can’t be excused by any serious Catholic. Support for Roe and the “right to choose” an abortion simply masks what abortion is, and what abortion does. Roe is bad law. As long as it stands, it prevents returning the abortion issue to the states where it belongs, so that the American people can decide its future through fair debate and legislation.

In his Meet the Press interview, Sen. Biden used a morally exhausted argument that American Catholics have been hearing for 40 years: i.e., that Catholics can’t “impose” their religiously based views on the rest of the country. But resistance to abortion is a matter of human rights, not religious opinion. And the senator knows very well as a lawmaker that all law involves the imposition of some people’s convictions on everyone else. That is the nature of the law. American Catholics have allowed themselves to be bullied into accepting the destruction of more than a million developing unborn children a year. Other people have imposed their “pro-choice” beliefs on American society without any remorse for decades.

If we claim to be Catholic, then American Catholics, including public officials who describe themselves as Catholic, need to act accordingly. We need to put an end to Roe and the industry of permissive abortion it enables. Otherwise all of us – from senators and members of Congress, to Catholic laypeople in the pews – fail not only as believers and disciples, but also as citizens.

+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Archbishop of Denver

+James D. Conley
Auxiliary Bishop of Denver

Taylor Marshall on Catholic Answers Live this Friday at 5pm central, discussing "Does the Pope Wear a Yarmulke?"

I'll be on Catholic Answers Live this Friday at 5pm central time discussing the topic "Does the Pope Wear a Yarmulke?" and the Jewish origins for Catholic customs and doctrines.

Does the Pope Wear a Yarmulke is the title of my forthcoming book on Judaism and Catholicism. Stay tuned for more details.

If you're wondering whether the pope does wear a yarmulke (see picture above), the answer is no, he wears a zuchetto - but there are tons of Catholic customs that do come from Judaism. Listen on Friday for more on this.

Follow this link to find the Catholic AM station in your city. For those of you living in Dallas, that's AM station 910.

Christian & American: New news blog for Christians

Recently, I've been blogging about US politics and news. Almost one third of the readers of the Canterbury Tales blog are not American and I realize that these posts are of little interest to many. Moreover, this blog is primarily a blog about Scripture, Theology, History, and Philosophy.

Therefore, I have set up a completely different blog for political commentary. It's called "Christian and American" and you can find it at:

www.christianandamerican.com

I'll be tweaking the format and template design for the next month or so until everything is set and correct. Till then, I'll also be posting regularly. The comments boxes are already open.

[Just another reminder - this blog "Canterbury Tales" will be moving to "www.taylormarshall.com" in the next couple of weeks.]

Is it okay to be a one issue voter when it comes to abortion?

A reader of this blog has recently left a comment appealing to the other readers with the following words about single issue voting:

Please, please...don't let one single issue [abortion] be your deciding factor. I don't believe in abortion either, but this election is truly about much, much more than that.

I've been hearing this a lot from the left. For some reason "single issue" voting is seen as being shallow. Well, let me put it this way: Would it be okay for Germans to vote for Hitler because his "election was truly about much, much more than that" when his platform included the state-supported murder of Jews? Would it be okay to vote against Hitler simply because one objected to killing people based on creed or race? What if you agree with Hitler on national pride, unity, health care, tax structures, schooling, etc. Should one ignore the one important issue and vote for Hitler because "we agree on everything else?"

Barack Obama says it's okay to kill infants and wants to use my tax money to assist in that diabolical practice. This one issue - the right for a human being to have life - is the one issue that supports all other rights. If a child does not have the right to life, then he or she doesn't have the right to education, healthcare, etc.

How can any issue in this election be "much more" important than that?

Think about all the babies that have been killed. Can a war in a Iraq, gas prices, health care, or mortgages be more important than a single issue when that issue is the fundamental issue for all human beings?

We're looking into the eyes of manifest evil. You have a vote. Vote to end the evil.

Two pictures worth two thousand words

The recent polls show that the presidential race is all tied up again...

By the way, the pro-abortion ads that Obama is running will only hurt the Obama campaign. 54% of Americans consider themselves "pro-life" while 38% of Americans consider themselves "pro-choice". Obama is appealing to a minority base. Most American agree that abortion is tantamount to homicide.

The wave is turning against the pro-aborts. Slavery came to an end. Nazism came to end. Communism is coming to end. Abortion is now receiving rightful attention.

G.K. Chesterton explains how to love

The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.

- G.K. Chesterton

Sarah Palin was a Catholic before she was Pentecostal

How about that speech last night? Wow. It was awesome. I would actually like her to be President. Powerful

Not to judge, but I just read this over at Fox News:

Palin was baptized Roman Catholic as a newborn. She was then baptized in a Pentecostal Assemblies of God church as a teen and attended that church until six years ago, when she and her family adopted a different home church, an independent evangelical church.

Interesting...

Once a Catholic always a Catholic...

For the Catholic readers - Does this matter to you?

It doesn't matter to me, at all. In fact, it makes me hopeful that she'll return to her roots.

Athanasius on praying before meals

One of the most ancient formulae of prayer at meals is found in a treatise of the fourth century, attributed without foundation to Saint Athanasius. Having made the sign of the cross, the prayer followed:

"We give Thee thanks, our Father, for the Resurrection which Thou hast manifested to us through Jesus, Thy Son; and even as this bread which is here on this table was formerly scattered abroad and has been made compact and one, so may Thy Church be reunited from the ends of the earth for Thy Kingdom, for Thine is the power and glory for ever and ever. Amen."

From Catholic Encyclopedia.

Irenaeus on the Date of the Book of Revelation

Here's the quote from Adversus Haereses by Irenaeus regarding the date of the book of Revelation in the context of the Apostle John's life:

"We will not, however, incur the risk of pronouncing positively as to the name of Antichrist; for if it were necessary that his name should be distinctly revealed in this present time, it would have been announced by him who beheld the apocalyptic vision.

For [it or he] was seen not very long time since, but almost in our day, towards the end of Domitian's reign."

- Saint Irenaeus, Adversus haereses 5, 30, 3

I went and checked the Greek text preserved by Eusebius and it's ambiguous. The part about "being seen" could be translated in three ways:

Option #1
For it, that is the vision, was seen not very long ago, but almost in our day, towards the end of Domitian's reign.

Option #2
For it, that is the written book, was seen not very long ago, but almost in our day, towards the end of Domitian's reign.

Option #3
For he, that is the Apostle John, was seen no very long ago, but almost in our day, towards the end of Domitian's reign.

So which is it? I have no idea. I just think that it's interesting that the classic Patristic text for proof that John wrote the Apocalypse around A.D. 95 is ambiguous.

The interpretive tradition has favored Option #1 (because that is the spin that Eusebius gave it).

Robert Gundry has done a lot of great work on demonstrating that Eusebius has manipulated many texts in order to discount the book of Revelation. Gundry goes at great lengths to show that Eusebius created the dichotymy between "John the Apostle" and "John the Elder" in order to discount the book of Revelation because of its supposed millenialism.

I recommend the article to you because I find it quite compelling:

Gundry, R.H. "The apostolically Johannine pre-Papian tradition concerning the Gospels of Mark and Matthew," in Gundry R.H., The old is better: New Testament essays in support of traditional interpretations. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005, pp. 49-73.

I think that Saint Irenaeus does not necessarily close the case on this question since we don't know what he meant.

Comments?

Dating the Book of Revelation

Something hit me today as I thought about the date for the book of Revelation. The internal evidence of the book of Revelation seems to suggest that the Temple in Jerusalem is still standing at the time of the vision. Moreover, the mark of the beast is an allusion to Nero Caesar. Since the Temple was destroyed in AD 70 and Nero killed himself in AD 68, the vision would have to date before AD 68.

Yet the scholars who place the vision later always drag out that Irenaeus quote stating that it was written "at the end of the reign of Domitian". So I looked up the quote in Irenaeus. Guess what? It doesn't say that the book was written at the end of Domitian. Nor does it say that the vision of Saint John occurred in the reign of Domition. Rather, it says that it was "seen" towards the end of Domitian's reign.

"It was not seen very long time since,but almost in our day, towards the end of Domitian's reign" (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 5, 30, 3).

In other words, the document appeared in the reign of Domitian. This doesn't mean that it was written or experienced at that time. John could have experienced the vision of Revelation and only published the document in about AD 96.

The Pythonical Spirit of the girl in Acts 16

You've got to love how the King James Version rendered Acts 16:16:

And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying.

However, the Catholic Douay-Rheims is more literal, and actually even more stunning:

And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain girl, having a pythonical spirit, met us, who brought to her masters much gain by divining.

We might notice that the Douay-Rheims speaks of the girl having a "pythonical spirit". This translation actually follows the Greek, which states that she had a πνεῦμα πύθωνα or pneuma pythona ("python spirit").

What's a pythonical spirit?

It goes back to a tradition that the Greek shrine at Delphi was once guarded by a terrible snake or dragon - Pytho. When I visited Delphi a number of years ago, I visited some ancient ruins that seem to have been the cultic site for the worship of this feminine snake deity.

According to Greek tradition, the god Apollo came to Delphi and wanted to settle there. However, it was already inhabited by the Pytho. Thus, Apollo slew Pytho and gained her name as a title for himself.

This may actually be an etiological story of how a male god (Apollo) suppressed the cult of female goddess (Pytho) in the region of Delphi. The fact that Delphi was considered the "belly button of the earth" or "center of the earth" would indicate that this site was originally a shrine to Mother Gaia or Mother Earth. Snakes are associated with her because they are so close to the earth and live in holes in the earth.

A woman as the "Pythia" or fortune-teller officiated at the Delphic oracle. The Pythia spoke with a foreign voice and divined the future.

Saint Luke is identifying the demonic presence in the young girl with the legend of the pythian serpent at Delphi. The serpent imagery dovetails with the image of Satan as a serpent or dragon.

Canterbury Tales soon moving to "www.taylormarshall.com"

Just another brief reminder that Canterbury Tales blog in the next week or so will be moving to:

www.taylormarshall.com

This will allow me to podcast more and avoid the drawbacks of being attached to blogger. I also plan to make the blog's search-ability more accessible.

Godspeed,
Taylor