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Monday, May 19, 2008
A reader writes: My wife has been blessed with a job offering from our diocese as a youth ministry co-director. The only stipulation is that she earn a master's of theology degree via distance ed as she works. We're having trouble finding a solid Catholic school that offers a distance theology degree. Might you or your readers know any school we could look into? I think Franciscan University at Steubenville does distance learning. Anybody know of anything else? Labels: Mailbag Reasonable Questions for our Manichaean-in-Chief And for Catholic citizens inclined to Manicheeism. Labels: Combox Warriors And Great Multitudes Went Out to Him from All the Surrounding Regions, and Lifting up His Eye to Heaven, He Opened His Mouth and Spake Unto Them Saying... "Crown me and I will give you Hope!" Labels: Secular Messianism Aimee Milburn Rocks the House Friend of the Blog Aimee Milburn just graduated from the Augustine Institute! Even better: she was the class valedictorian! You go, girl! Labels: Doings on Other Blogs, Good News Party of Death Eating its Own Since both parties are now pledging fealty to the Culture of Death in one way or another, I'm thinking about renaming them the Stupid Evil Party and the Evil Stupid party. Labels: Evil Stupid Party, Stupid Evil Party Gene Robinson: St. Narcissus Award-Winner “Just as surely as Jesus called to his friend Lazarus to ‘Come out!’ of his tomb, Jesus called me to come out of my tomb of guilt and shame, to accept and love that part of me that he already accepted and loved.” Because everything is all about him all the time. Labels: Generation Narcissus Dawn Eden's Visit Well, Dawn has come and gone and we had a jolly time while she was here. I managed to screw up meeting her at the airport and so, when I didn't turn up where she was waiting, she sensibly called Fr. Phil Bloom, who came to her rescue. (Rescuing damsels in distress is par for the course for one of the best priests in Seattle.) Eventually (after getting lost down in Tukwila somewhere) I found my way to Fr. Phil's parish out in West Seattle (Holy Family) and we caught up with each other. Then it was off to the Chesterton Guest Speaker dinner (a happy custom of the Chesterton Society) where she got a little taste of Seattle seafood cuisine at Anthony's, near Shilshole. After that, we zipped off to Seattle Pacific University and Dawn talked with the crowd from 7:30 till around 9:00. It would have gone longer cuz there were plenty more questions, but the pizza was cooling down and we didn't want to starve the student more than they are normally starved. I thought it went very well and so did Dawn. Happily, Fr. Sean Raftis (a terrific Jesuit from Seattle University whom I had the pleasure of meeting) was heading south after the gig, so he kindly gave Dawn a ride home. Next day, we went to lunch (more seafood! yay!) down at Ivar's on the waterfront with Fr. Sean and Fr. Phil. We all got to know each other a bit better (I know Fr. Phil, but didn't know Fr. Steve at all and everybody was still meeting Dawn.) Then on Saturday, the Beloved Cow and my daughter-in-law Tasha (who is married to Luke, not Cow, lest you get confused) mosied off with me around 9 AM and we took Dawn on the Nickel Tour of Seattle. Nickel Tours are my speciality! As it happened, out of the various places you can go on a gorgeous May morning in Seattle, Dawn made the sensible choice of the Pike Place Market, which is a good place for getting a huge dose of Seattle culture, as well as your choice of practically any breakfast you could want. She wanted both, so we snagged a baguette and then wandered the Market, watching the fishmongers, and the guys with pet cockatoos, and the jewelry sellers, and the bikers, Goths, duffers, tourists, locals, and everybody in the world savoring a very fine morning. Dawn and Tasha discovered the Bathroom from Hell, with stall that have only half-doors so that (up aide) they are inconvenient for drug users and (down side) everybody in the world who is female can watch you do your business. Dawn said it was something she'd actually had nightmares about in the past. I don't know what that means. Analyze it as you will. After that, we met Dave the Cool Bookstore Guy, who explained to us why the Bathrooms from Hell were designed as they were in a sort of strange vaguely Middle Eastern accent. He looked to be of Arab descent and when we asked where he was from he explained he was from mysterious land older than Time Itself. We all said, "Oooooooh!" Then he reverted to the flat tones of Washington and said, "Actually, I'm from Seattle but I suffer from multiple accent disorder." We were impressed. We wandered down to Golden Age Collectible, where kids transition into libido-driven adolescents without using a clutch (since all the memorabilia was either comics/Star Wars/scifi stuff with a PG rating, or else rather nasty titillation for overblown and hypersexualized adolescent. Then it was time to head back to the house, which we did after the hike up the 45 degree angle hill from the Market to our car. Jan was having a lovely morning, meanwhile, puttering about the garden while the two younger guys were on Scout campout (a whole 'nother story). When we got back to the house around noon she whipped up a salad (Crab! More seafood! Yay!) and we savored the goodness of it all! We hung around the house till around 2:00 chatting. Dawn had this brainwave for a "Theology on Tap" sort of coffee house called "Java Lupe" which I hope she follow up on. Then, as Dawn had a TV interview with an Australian morning show (Sunday morning in Sydney is 3:00 PM Saturday in Seattle), we prayed for her and drove with her (Tasha, Cow and I) down to the KOMO studio where, as I hoped, they let us all come up to the production booth to watch her shoot her live satellite feed). The tech guy there was great. He's a Korean (I think)-American named Billy Oh. Long pony tail. Easy-going, friendly, Seattle Art Institute grad who also studied media stuff down in California. He was very interested in the fact that Luke is studying animation and said there were lots of jobs for animators (good to hear!). Dawn did the interview and did very well. It was a friendly interview, but when it was over the Aussie interviewer on the other hand was overheard to say something like, "Oooookayyyyy! Well! Moving right along...." Heh! Nothing is more delightfully counter-cultural than simply living as a faithful Catholic. You get all the fun of belonging to a subversive counter-insurgency without any of the weird diseases, nasty power grabs, destructive egoism, or bizarre philosophy. All in all, a fine weekend! Oh! Billy's a fine photographer, by the way. Labels: Cool Stuff, Fambly Scratch a Rad Trad, Find an Anti-Semite Not all Traditionalists are Rad Trads. Many are quite lovely people. But I've never met a Rad Trad who wasn't weirdly hostile to Jews. To wit, a reader writes: Help, please! I've been reading the blog of Jeremiah, a.k.a. Paleocrat, fairly regularly since he was received into the Catholic Church last year. Now I find to my great dismay that he and his chums are quite hostile to Judaism. I command nobody so I have no reinforcements to send. However, I post this on the off chance some readers feel like trying to respond. Labels: Rad Trads Sounds Good to Me Dear Friends: Labels: Culture of Life Fr. Rob Handles Liturgy Stuff So I Don't Have to Happily fulfilling my belief that liturgy is best left to those competent to do it, the liturgically competent Fr. Rob writes: I know you're not big into liturgical nitpickiness, but I have a new post up at my blog titled "Beauty, Subjectivism, and Liturgical Music", in which I discuss the tendency to turn liturgy into something subjective, and the contention that one kind of music in the liturgy is as good as any other. I think this may be of interest to you and your readers - if you like it, please quote it and link it at CAEI! Also, for your enjoyment, and as a practical illustration of true Catholic cultural renewal, I have a recording up at my blog of the kids at my parish school singing Gloria VIII at a recent school Mass. Labels: Liturgy stuff My friend Bao Tran writes of his film Bookie: I'm back in Seattle now after a fun ride at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. We didn't win the Golden Reel Best Short Award, but our screening was packed and a lot of people are now enthusiastic fans of the movie. I want to thank especially those who sent us kind words, well wishes, and congratulations for the nomination. Labels: At the Movies Friday, May 16, 2008
Okay. Gotta jet. Lunch with Dawn and Fr. Phil See youse Monday! Put down that bean!!!! Labels: Miscellany Peter Sean Bradley, Who Practices Law in California, Looks at What's Next Polygamy is just part of it. Why (says Peter Singer) does "person" have to only refer to a member of the species Homo Sapiens (and who says all homo sapiens are persons). In the Dictatorship of Relativism, things *must* dissolve into an atomized individualism where things are whatever we say they are. Our sole criteria for a relationship is "mutual consent". Gender doesn't matter. Age will soon not matter (good news for NAMBLA!). Number of participants doesn't matter. Manner in which the relationship is lived out doesn't matter (happy news for the manufacturers of whips and chains). If you feel good about it, then who is anybody to say you are wrong? So this is simply the next step, not the last one. Of course, a society cannot function for long as a chaotic mass of atomized individuals. Original sin will see to that. Once the Big Laws have been dissolved in the acid bath of relativism you will get chaos and, after that, the Strong Man with the Small Laws. Labels: Culture of Death Watch, Doings on Other Blogs A reader writes: We have some friends we know through my husband's work. We've known them for over a decade. They are not married, but have lived together for about 25 years and they have four children, 3 of whom are now grown up. The "wife" has left her family to go live with a man under additionally scandalous circumstances (a doctor/patient thing). Suffice to say, the family are absolutely devastated. The "husband" - a rugged, Aussie outdoorsy bloke and normally happy-go-lucky - told my husband that he has cried every day for the last nine weeks since she left. Lord, hear our prayer! Labels: Prayer Requests Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan: Appeasers They talked with enemies! They are no better than Neville Chamberlain! It's forever 1939! All our enemies are Hitler! Political wisdom from our Elected Manichee. Labels: Politics Speaking of which... Our Robed Masters in California (Republicans all, by the way) have, like Republican appointees Blackmun, Souter, Kennedy and O'Connor delivered themselves of yet another fundamental assault on immemorial human common sense and decided that marriage is whatever the hell they say it is. By the miracle of judicial fiat the notion of marriage as between one man and woman has been found "unconstitutional" (since, as we know, the drafters of the California constitution were absolutely committed to gay marriage in the 1850s, but felt they needed to roll that plan out slowly). And so, the seventh largest economy in the world begins the "What Could it Hurt?" phase of human history. Only slowly will it dawn on people that the reason a civilization husbands its limited resources to help the essential building block of society--the family--is that those resources are *limited*. Meanwhile, we will be agitpropped into celebrating this Great Leap Forward and critics will be duly mau-maued as enemies of Progress till, a generation or two from now, somebody notices the immense wreckage that will proceed from treating the traditional family as an evil and proposes.... some further stupid idea that will compound the problem, perhaps marriage to animal companions who do not impose their values on us. Labels: Two Phases of History The Abortion Industry: Finishing What Hitler Started Israel, being basically a western secular democracy, is doing what western secular democracies do: destroying its future by aborting itself out of existence. "Choice" culture will inevitably face Israel with the choice between being a Jewish state or being a democracy. I hope they wise up, but it appears that only states in the midst of disastrous population collapse (like Russia) finally get desperate enough to start rewarding marriage and families. If babies are God's way of saying the world should continue, the abortion/contraceptive culture of the West is our way of saying it should end. Sin is fundamentally suicidal. Labels: Culture of Death Watch New Puritan Reichsministers of Health Lay Plans for Fat Re-Education Camps Big Brother is coming to do me good! I love Big Brother! Labels: Nanny State Doug Kmiec is Apparently Denied Communion If true, I think the guy who denied him communion is way out of line. Canonist Ed Peter thinks so too. Labels: Doings on Other Blogs, Politics Quick note, then back later Things went very well yesterday with Dawn's talk. She's a real trooper, speaking well and fielding questions directly after an exhausting flight and a fine dinner in a pool of warm sunshine. If it were me, I'd be lapsing into a coma. I reckon if you check her blog today, she'll have her version of events at some point. Meantime, I'm outta here again and will be back in a couple of hours cuz I've got Dr. Tom Curran's radio show "Sound Insight" to do at 8:00 AM PDT. You can stream it here. 80 degrees predicted for this weekend! Winter appears to be over--so far. Oh! And I'm having lunch with Dawn and good Fr. Phil Bloom round noon. So posting will be a bit spotty today. Ciao, dudes and dudettes! Put thou not beans up thy noses whilst I am a-Maying. Labels: Radio Thursday, May 15, 2008
Basically running around today I've got a bunch of stuff to write/edit today, followed by a trip out to SeaTac to pick up Dawn Eden, ferry her to her digs, hang around with Fr. Bloom, take Dawn to the Seattle Chesterton Society dinner and her talk, ferry her back to her digs (in the distant land of West Seattle, far, far way from my home in the North) and return home weary but pleased with a jorb well done. All of which is a windy way of saying, "If I don't see you at Chesterton tonight, I'll see you here tomorrow!" Labels: PSA Republicans: Out of Ideas, Out of Gas, Soon to be Out of Office The self-immolation of the Party of War, Torture, Occasionally Pretending to Care About Human Life, Deeply Caring about Money and Power and Precious Little Else continues. Weirdest part: McCain's opposition to torture is part of what makes him suspicious looking to his highly fractious base. If ever a party was begging for a time in the wilderness till they got a freakin' clue about what America is supposed to mean... Oh! Wait! It's also the Party of Gas tax holidays! Credit where credit is due! Labels: Politics, Stupid Party The Economy Goes South and Sends Postcards from the Edge "Having a wonderful time. Wish you were." Labels: Doings on Other Blogs, Humor Two fun books Answering the New Atheism: Dismantling Dawkins' Case Against God by Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker Prediction: After cheering for several years for Dawkins, once he is made mincemeat of in some particularly embarrassing way, or else he self-immolates by doing something extremely bizarre, his former acolytes will, like Communists after the fall of the Soviet Union, simply announce that he wasn't *really* a *true* atheist. I ran into the same thing after publishing By What Authority. I was constantly told that I had never encountered *real* Protestants who *truly* understood sola scriptura, so it was no wonder I had rejected the pathetic watered-down version of bible-based Christianity I had encountered. Now (they promised) they would show me the Real Thing (if I was truly open to grace, of course). When I evinced the same difficulties with their Shiny New Truly Bible-Only Protestantism as I had shown previous editions, I would then be berated for "not getting it" or "being closed to grace" or otherwise uninitiate in the Inner Mysteries. Atheists often seem to me to have this same curious tendency to eat their weakest members for the crime of badly defending incoherent ideas. Not that it will happen with *this* particular book, I fancy (though I would very much enjoy watching Dawkins go up against the relentless Hahn. That would be hilarious). This book will simply be shouted down. It will be necessary for him to do something particularly weird and insulting and semi-deranged on national TV for the tide to turn. And the way he's going that could happen sooner than you might think. Dawkins is pursuing the course of most vain men: he is surrounding himself with sycophants and starting to believe his opponents are all as stupid as he says they are. That result in embarrassment when you then put yourself in the ring with a heavyweight and show off for the fans. Speaking of Benjamin Wiker, he's got a new book out too called 10 Books That Screwed Up the World: And 5 Others That Didn't Help by Benjamin Wiker. Check out the wonderful cover: ![]() Who could not love that? Wiker co-authored a very useful book called Architects of the Culture of Death which I found very useful in my research for Behold Your Mother. Not cheering reading, but invaluable for anybody asking "How in hell did we get here?" The first trick to repenting, after all, is knowing the way back to where you took the wrong turning. Labels: Book recommendations Kids! Become a Cutting Edge Academic in Seconds with the Postmodern Deconstructionist Thesis Generator! Create highly regarded and utterly impenetrable works of prose with scarcely a movement of the grey matter! Fool your friends! Bamboozle your students! Impress professors! Commit grave sins against the intellect without feeling a thing! Labels: Humor Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Fear of the Incarnation and Its Discontents In which we watch a Truly Reformed guy try to herd the cats of Protestantism, all unaware that his real fear is not abandonment of sola scriptura, but of the Incarnation of the Son of God and its sacramental extension through history. Labels: Inside Catholic Stuff Can you Imagine Actually Reading This Piece of Chloroform in Print? A One-Man Show? The Construction and Deconstruction of a Patriarchal Image in the Reagan Era: Reading the Audio-Visual Poetics of Miami Vice by John-Paul Trutnau Race/Class/Gender Deconstructionist BS is, pound for pound, more unreadable (and far less meaningful) than the Tax Code. Labels: Chattering Class Follies The Register on Obama's Unbending Zealotry for Sacrament of Abortion and Infanticide The man fights to murder children. That's what it comes down to in plain speech. Catholics like Doug Kmiec who make excuses for and defend this are just more consequentists defending intrinsically immoral acts. How do they sleep at night? Labels: Consequentialism on Parade Hey Seattle! Dawn Eden's Speaking here tomorrow! Dear Friends of the Seattle G. K. Chesterton Society, We wish to remind you of the Society's upcoming meeting this Thursday, May 15. Please see the announcement below. There are a couple of special details connected with Thursday's meeting to which we call your attention: First, a NEW LOCATION. The meeting will take place in Room 109, Otto Miller Hall, on the SPU campus. Otto Miller Hall is directly across Third Avenue from the Pavilion in which we have had our meetings up to now. Please see Building 18 on the campus map that is available here. For any who may forget this detail, we will endeavor to have both a sign and person directing attendees across the street to Otto Miller Hall! Second, a CONTENT ADVISORY. The moral fallout of the Sexual Revolution is an important theme of Miss Eden's presentation. Her presentation has been described as "not graphic, but stark." If you would plan on bringing children younger than age 18, Miss Eden respectfully requests that you view the following YouTube clip of her presentation and then decide whether it is appropriate: Yours faithfully, The Seattle G. K. Chesterton Society Thursday, May 15, 2008, at 7:30 PM in Conference Room 109, Otto Miller Hall Labels: PSA Beautiful! Best part: the age of the people in the video. The future of the Church is so bright I gotta wear shades! Aside from the Holy Spirit (obviously) I credit John Paul the Great. Labels: Behold Your Mother Stupid Party Too Stupid to See it Coming Don't tell me: They are chins up and confident about November. They are the Party of Ideas like the gas tax holiday (Hey! Why not Midnight Basketball while they're at it!). Boy, is Ronald Reagan dead. Meanwhile, Bush is back to "Vote Republican or you'll all die horribly in searing pain!!!!" What a bleak election year. Labels: Stupid Party A Tale of Two Covenants, Part Four In which we conclude the discussion of the relationship between the Old Covenant and the New. Labels: Catholic Exchange Stuff Inside Catholic on the Usual Blah from the Usual Organs of Liberal Blahdom "Killing Jews isn't the only issue of concern to Germans; there are many other issues as well (Volkwagens, autobahns, the national economy, etc.); and when we weigh all these things together we see that Hitler's German quotient, despite not being perfectly correct on Jews, is much higher than that of any rival political party. And besides, Hitler views Jews as a 'profound moral challenge.'" Labels: Cafeteria Catholicism This is pretty cool! Tune In to Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) today, Wednesday, May 14th - 8:30am PST / 11:30am EST Wordnet will be featuring Tom Allen, President of Catholic Exchange and Executive Producer of the award-winning film Champions of Faith: Baseball Edition. We at Catholic Exchange hail the success of our Supreme Maximum Leader! Labels: Catholic Exchange Stuff Bloggers Unite to Protect Iraqi Christians One of the many things overlooked by our Grand End to Evil Geostrategists was the extreme likelihood that the Chaldean Church and other Christians would be driven to extinction in Iraq. Some people are taking serious action to help Christians who are inconvenient to the Big Plans of Big Planners. Labels: Suffering Church Making Mincemeat So this little teapot tempest kicked up in the combox on this entry. Neocon: Here is Michael Novak's review of "God Is Not Great." Piatak: Yes, neocon, I invite everyone to read Novak's review of Hitchens' book, and then compare that review to my own: http://www.takimag.com/site/arti...itchens_hubris/ Decision: Piatak: Neocon: The disparity between Tom Piatak's initial criticism of Novak's review and your nuclear response against his "intellectual integrity," coupled with the glaring dishonesty of your defense of Novak -- and equivocation between Mother Teresa's charity and Novak's praise! -- is astonishing and disgusting. Labels: Combox Warriors Hagee and Shoutin' Bill Make Nice Under the 70 X 7 rule, we are, of course, bound to forgive and I do so willingly. The guy's comporting himself better than Wright, I must say. Meanwhile, Beliefnet has an interview with Shoutin' Bill over here. Labels: Politics, The Last Acceptable Prejudice Grant Irene Sendler to dwell in eternal light, Lord Donning a Star of David armband used by the Nazis to mark out Jews, she passed incognito in the ghetto to organise the escape plans. My apologies for the inflammatory wording of the news article. In keeping with current Administration policy and the usage of the right wing blogosphere, the text should say Sendler was "tortured" not tortured. Torture is not torture anymore but is instead "so-called 'torture'" or "enhanced interrogation", even when you die from it. Always remember the wisdom of Victor Morton, Chief Catholic Liaison Officer for the Right Wing Blogospheric Ministry of Truth: "The word 'torture' is a classic example of what Ayn Rand called an 'anticoncept' -- meaning a term with no specific referent, except the speaker's disapproval." Labels: RIP It turns out God made everything, not just Catholics Therefore, if life turns up on other planets, it's not a problem for the Catholic Church. I've never understood how somebody could think that a religious tradition which already accepts the idea of non-human created intelligences (namely, angels and demons) would have a crisis if ET turned up. That's not to say he will. Along with Enrico Fermi, my main question to believers in the Billions of Civilization is "Where is everybody?" But I think it would be hilarious if ET did turn up, was unfallen, and proceeded to instruct the secularists in search of the ET Eschaton that there is one God, the Father, the Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Alpha Centauri Prime. Of course, if there are unfallen creatures capable of space travel, they would probably, in their divine wisdom, stay far away from us. On the other hand, if ET turns out to be fallen like us and capable of interstellar flight, then I think it would be a fine time to re-read The War of the Worlds. Alternatively, we could find that ET is here because he is a sort of unfallen pagan who saw a Star in the Gamma Quadrant 2000 of our earth years ago, and he seeks to meet the race Maleldil has so honored that he became one of us. ET: People of Earth! Our Oyarsa have told us that Maleldil, whom you call in your language by such names as "God" "Dios" Gott" "Dieu" "Allah" and so forth was actually born on your world as a member of your species! We come here full of wonder and seek to know you better. Our Oyarsa have told us not to assume too much from this fact and we shall try not to, but we must say that we eagerly anticipate getting to know you better since your race now stands by virtue of your peculiar relationship to Maleldil, as creatures who are higher than even the Oyarsa themselves! Who among us would want the job of shifting uncomfortably in his seat, coughing, and with burning cheek having to explain to a technologically super-sophisticated alien with the innocence of a saintly child just how our race welcomed God in the flesh? The look of sheer horror on that alien face would be the worst indictment we ever face apart from the face of our Lord himself. Only the power of the Resurrection would over come it. The safest thing to bring with us to any encounter with an unfallen ET would be a Host. For we would have good reason to hope that, being unfallen, he would discern the Lord present there and find the power necessary to forgive us rather than vaporize us on the spot. Labels: Meditations Myths about the Middle Ages The very term "Middle Ages" is agitprop designed by the Generation Narcissus types of the Endarkenment. Here are some fun mythoids:
Speaking of myth-making we've been watching DVD's of the Beeb's Robin Hood series. It's a fun post-modern retelling, mostly because the guy who plays Robin is likeable and the guy who plays the Sheriff of Nottingham is having such a won-der-ful time being evil. Of course, this being the new Millennium, the writers have just about zero capacity to create characters who are remotely believable as actual medievals. Rather, like Kevin Costner's ridiculous costume drama, what you get instead are thoroughly contemporary actors in semi-medieval garb who stand around and spout PC pieties about multiculturalism (one of Robin's Merry Men is a Saracen girl whom he rescued from slavery and who has vast knowledge of chemistry), pacifism (Robin is a disillusioned Crusader) and, of course, wealth redistribution. Marian is this buff chick who knows martial arts. Everybody is impossibly clean, fit, and Euro-sexy. The Church basically does not exist except as the land-grabbing entity who is sending good young men like Robin off to fight in Crusades against Indigenous Peoples. (A nun does turn up once, but she turns out to be a fraud). When religion is mentioned it is basically to catechize the audience in the standard religious vision of contemporary UK Chattering Classes: namely, that all religions are equally superior to Christianity. Mostly, Robin is a good room temperature UK Labor socialist who is clever and always defeats the cunning but ultimately chopfallen Sheriff by robbing from the rich and giving to the poor without any reference whatsoever to the sorts of ideas or pieties that would have animated an actual medieval. Anybody else seen it? By the way, I had the great thrill of flying out of Robin Hood Airport near Nottinghamshire this past November when I left England for Ireland. How cool is that? Labels: Miscellany |