On Burger Joints and Byzantine Churches
The Chesterton in me can't help but root for the Byzantine desire to keep their ancient ways from being plowed under by the Culture of Walmart with its obssessive uniformity and consumerist attitudes. I'll take a Byzantine parish over Our Lady of Pizza Hut any day.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Homosexuality is the Source and Summit of All that is Noble, Good and Beautiful
It is vital that every single crevice of our culture be permeated with that all-important dogmatic fact.
It is vital that every single crevice of our culture be permeated with that all-important dogmatic fact.
Why George Coyne is full of bunk
Coyne says first, "Science is completely neutral with respect to philosophical or theological implications that may be drawn from its conclusions."
But then he goes on to magisterially declare: "God lets the world be what it will be in its continuous evolution. He is not continually intervening, but rather allows, participates, loves. Is such thinking adequate to preserve the special character attributed by religious thought to the emergence not only of life but also of spirit, while avoiding a crude creationism? Only a protracted dialogue will tell."
In other words, he contradicts not only himself, but also the teaching of the Church, which is summed up by JPII, "It is by virtue of his eternal soul that the whole person, including his body, possesses such great dignity. Pius XII underlined the essential point: if the origin of the human body comes through living matter which existed previously, the spiritual soul is created directly by God."
For Coyne, spirit is an epiphenomenon of "the fertility of the universe", not the direct creation of God. But then, Coyne has already made clear that where Christian orthodoxy and his materialist vision of creation collide, Christianity must give way lest we embrace a "crude creationism" which regards God as, you know, Creator.
This is one of the reasons I have so much trouble with the philosophical and theological overreach of the Neo-Darwinists. They seem to me to be full of sophistical tricks like this.
Coyne says first, "Science is completely neutral with respect to philosophical or theological implications that may be drawn from its conclusions."
But then he goes on to magisterially declare: "God lets the world be what it will be in its continuous evolution. He is not continually intervening, but rather allows, participates, loves. Is such thinking adequate to preserve the special character attributed by religious thought to the emergence not only of life but also of spirit, while avoiding a crude creationism? Only a protracted dialogue will tell."
In other words, he contradicts not only himself, but also the teaching of the Church, which is summed up by JPII, "It is by virtue of his eternal soul that the whole person, including his body, possesses such great dignity. Pius XII underlined the essential point: if the origin of the human body comes through living matter which existed previously, the spiritual soul is created directly by God."
For Coyne, spirit is an epiphenomenon of "the fertility of the universe", not the direct creation of God. But then, Coyne has already made clear that where Christian orthodoxy and his materialist vision of creation collide, Christianity must give way lest we embrace a "crude creationism" which regards God as, you know, Creator.
This is one of the reasons I have so much trouble with the philosophical and theological overreach of the Neo-Darwinists. They seem to me to be full of sophistical tricks like this.
Another State Paves the Way for Murdering Aging Boomers
Costly New Hampshire geezers will be snuffed via "end-of-life care". Makes it easier for Gen X to start spending the fortune. And think of the estate tax revenues! It's downright patriotic!
Costly New Hampshire geezers will be snuffed via "end-of-life care". Makes it easier for Gen X to start spending the fortune. And think of the estate tax revenues! It's downright patriotic!
Why I'm skeptical that global warming is a manmade phenomenon
We don't know what the weather will do next week, but we're sure sure what it will do in a thousand years?
We don't know what the weather will do next week, but we're sure sure what it will do in a thousand years?
Read about it on my blog in 2002
See it start to come to fulfillment today.
Mark my words, the day will come when the Church will be damned, not for covering up pedophilia, but for condemning it. The internal logic of our whole post-Christian civilization is driving inexorably toward the permission of any act by any two consenting individuals of any age.
After that, it will drive toward the permission of any act by any person strong enough to commit the act and get away with it. As Lewis says, after all expressionsof "I ought" have been seen through, the words "I want" still remain since they have no pretension of morality. Or, as Dostoyevsky puts it, "If there is no God, everything is permissible." Our whole post-Christian civilization is only long attempt to go down that road without meeting the monster at the end of it. The method is simple: baby steps and the consoling thought that we're not all *that* corrupt.
See it start to come to fulfillment today.
Mark my words, the day will come when the Church will be damned, not for covering up pedophilia, but for condemning it. The internal logic of our whole post-Christian civilization is driving inexorably toward the permission of any act by any two consenting individuals of any age.
After that, it will drive toward the permission of any act by any person strong enough to commit the act and get away with it. As Lewis says, after all expressionsof "I ought" have been seen through, the words "I want" still remain since they have no pretension of morality. Or, as Dostoyevsky puts it, "If there is no God, everything is permissible." Our whole post-Christian civilization is only long attempt to go down that road without meeting the monster at the end of it. The method is simple: baby steps and the consoling thought that we're not all *that* corrupt.
If you haven't done so lately...
do check out Rod Bennett's Tremendous Trifles. The man is interested in everything from the Golden Age of Hollywood to Wax Museums to roadside kitsch and his interest is infectious.
So refreshing to meet a guy who has not lost his sense of wonder.
do check out Rod Bennett's Tremendous Trifles. The man is interested in everything from the Golden Age of Hollywood to Wax Museums to roadside kitsch and his interest is infectious.
So refreshing to meet a guy who has not lost his sense of wonder.
Disputations makes the case for Celebrating Today (the Visitation) rather than Pentecost as the birthday of the Church
I would argue that the Visitation is the Braxton-Hicks contractions of the Church.
I would argue that the Visitation is the Braxton-Hicks contractions of the Church.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Another satisfied customer
One of my hosts writes from Ireland:
It's not too late to have me come speak at your parish or gathering! And the best part is, I can talk about lots of other stuff besides the Da Vinci Code!
One of my hosts writes from Ireland:
I must say I'm impressed with your boundless energy- as I learned you been in Phoenix this week too!... I think you must get it from that large chocolate bar / full cream milk diet:-). After you left a group of young people from Youth 2000 gave out flyers and "Irish Catholic" newspapers at the cinemas and that seemed to go very well. It is sad that the movie has been a big box office success thus far in spite of the critics. It remains to be seen the full impact the movie will have long term. I hope because the critics have discredited the movie this might go a ways to discredit the book also in the popular mind. I know there is a mood here that it's not "cool" to be caught believing the Dan Brown claims...at least on the surface anyway.
Myself, Jason, Mary and friends are delighted with how your trip went over here. We couldn't have asked for more. You have done a great service in our wee country and we are very grateful!
God bless you for all your efforts and your goodness to us!
It's not too late to have me come speak at your parish or gathering! And the best part is, I can talk about lots of other stuff besides the Da Vinci Code!
If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing badly
In that spirit, allow me to link--a day late and a dollar short--to the Special Chesterton Celebration designed to mark the 14 days from GKC's birth (May 29) to his death (June 14).
In that spirit, allow me to link--a day late and a dollar short--to the Special Chesterton Celebration designed to mark the 14 days from GKC's birth (May 29) to his death (June 14).
Oh No!
I'm shocked and saddened by the death of Fr. Todd Reitmeyer. I had the privilege and honor of meeting him a year or so ago when I did the big 700 mile loop through South Dakota in January. He was a fine priest and a fine man with a ton of integrity and a great sense of humor. What a terrible loss!
May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace!
Fr. Todd, thanks for your gift of yourself to our Lord and his people. May you be remembered with love on That Day and rise again in joy and ecstasy through the power of the Holy Spirit!
I'm shocked and saddened by the death of Fr. Todd Reitmeyer. I had the privilege and honor of meeting him a year or so ago when I did the big 700 mile loop through South Dakota in January. He was a fine priest and a fine man with a ton of integrity and a great sense of humor. What a terrible loss!
May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace!
Fr. Todd, thanks for your gift of yourself to our Lord and his people. May you be remembered with love on That Day and rise again in joy and ecstasy through the power of the Holy Spirit!
An Orthodox reader send along the follow cure for the Scourge of Society That is the Catholic Hospital
Said Scourge is described here.
Said Scourge is described here.
First, we gotta let doctors get married. These things would never happen if doctors weren't forced to be celibate.
Next, we gotta allow women to be made doctors. An all-male physician corps creates this kind of diseased mind set that fosters sex crimes.
Then, we gotta pass laws that make sure doctors and hospitals can always be held accountable for crimes no matter how long it takes for their crimes to surface. Anything less is a disservice to society's most vulnerable sector, the ill and suffering.
Finally, we gotta close down Catholic hospitals everywhere. The priests and the doctors are Catholic, meaning they refuse women their civil right to kill the unborn or get the abortifacient drugs they need to be happy, not to mention that they cannot get enough sex from little boys.
This has the distinct scent of bovine excrement all over it
Now humans are apparently guilty of stopping evolution, a process we were assured just a few months ago was invisible because it happens so slowly. I am beginning to think Michael Crichton is right and that much of what passes for "science" in the popular mind is just hysterics and media manipulation in a lab coat. My congenital hostility to conspiracy theories and grand overarching Theories of Everything only gets ramped up more when some bonehead like Al Gore starts pontificating about The End of Civilization as the worshipful suckers pop the flashbulbs. But when this is combined (as it inevitably is) with crude "Just Enough of Us, Way to Much of You" calls to limit the population of the human bacteria so that rich guys like Gore can keep driving three blocks to pick up their awards for Saving Mother Earth, I simply want to puke.
Now humans are apparently guilty of stopping evolution, a process we were assured just a few months ago was invisible because it happens so slowly. I am beginning to think Michael Crichton is right and that much of what passes for "science" in the popular mind is just hysterics and media manipulation in a lab coat. My congenital hostility to conspiracy theories and grand overarching Theories of Everything only gets ramped up more when some bonehead like Al Gore starts pontificating about The End of Civilization as the worshipful suckers pop the flashbulbs. But when this is combined (as it inevitably is) with crude "Just Enough of Us, Way to Much of You" calls to limit the population of the human bacteria so that rich guys like Gore can keep driving three blocks to pick up their awards for Saving Mother Earth, I simply want to puke.
Evil Party of California Reliably Lead the Charge to Murder People Like Dogs
Not Dead Yet resists the cultural push to define their lives as Unworthy of Being Lived.
Nobody kills with a maudlin glistening tear of self-regard for their own sensitivity better than a liberal.
Not Dead Yet resists the cultural push to define their lives as Unworthy of Being Lived.
Nobody kills with a maudlin glistening tear of self-regard for their own sensitivity better than a liberal.
Yay!
May's best-selling Catholic books. Your is the #1 paperback.
From the Catholic Book Publishers Association:
Paperback
1. The Da Vinci Deception
Mark Shea, Edward Sri & the Editors of Catholic Exchange. Ascension Press
May's best-selling Catholic books. Your is the #1 paperback.
From the Catholic Book Publishers Association:
Paperback
1. The Da Vinci Deception
Mark Shea, Edward Sri & the Editors of Catholic Exchange. Ascension Press
A reader writes:
I've had an idea in my mind for the past 3 years, which I am finally acting upon. Basically, it is all described in my new blog located at my corporate website, www.ShemSystems.Com . If have built a website shell, which I am calling a "Town Domain Name Service." I am hoping that individuals around the country will purchase the domain name of their own town and point that website address to my service, and then become the site administrator for their town website. The blog explains, in part, how this project is - for me - a response of faith to the revelation of the person of Jesus Christ. Would you please, be willing to mention this on your blog so that others would have an opportunity to take a look at mind ramblings and consider their involvement?
Jimmy Akin is my Go To Guy Whenever I Want to Try to Figure Out Some Picky Liturgical Issue
Happily, such moods are very rare for me. Mostly I mention this one because a number of readers feel that they must, for reasons that elude me, involve themselves in a stupid quarrel between a liturgical tyrant and his rebellious flock. I suppose it's because here in America--the land where there are always only two sides to every issue--the assumption is that Something Will be Accomplished by declaring one side or the other the Good Guys and the Bad Guys and then siding with them. Personally, it sounds like everybody involved is childish.
Happily, such moods are very rare for me. Mostly I mention this one because a number of readers feel that they must, for reasons that elude me, involve themselves in a stupid quarrel between a liturgical tyrant and his rebellious flock. I suppose it's because here in America--the land where there are always only two sides to every issue--the assumption is that Something Will be Accomplished by declaring one side or the other the Good Guys and the Bad Guys and then siding with them. Personally, it sounds like everybody involved is childish.
Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, matters pertaining to this life! If then you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who are least esteemed by the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no man among you wise enough to decide between members of the brotherhood, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that even your own brethren. (1 Corinthians 6:3-8)
Stupid Party Works Overtime at Stupidity
The Drunken Sailor Party Manages to Transform Barney Frank into a Mammon-First Conservative.
The Drunken Sailor Party Manages to Transform Barney Frank into a Mammon-First Conservative.
Seattle Crisis Pregnancy Ministry Needs a Director
Many of you may be familiar with Angelorum Pregnancy Services, a pro-life crisis pregnancy center in northern Seattle. Currently they offer pregnancy tests, counseling, baby's clothes, maternity clothes, and other services to women in crisis pregnancy situations. The clinic is working on becoming a medical clinic so that they can offer ultrasound.
Angelorum is looking for a new director, for a 20 hour per week job. If this sounds like something you or someone you know might be interested in, please call or email Denise Ericson for more details at 425 776 7605, neener101@msn.com.
Please forward this to those who might be interested. Thanks so much for your help!
As I say, sickly decadent postmodern democratic capitalist relativism will not have the staying power of Islam
On the other hand, Christianity does have this knack for finding its way out of tombs.
On the other hand, Christianity does have this knack for finding its way out of tombs.
A reader writes:
Know anyone who might have interest in the book-writing project described below?All:
Below is an excerpt from an email sent by a friend of mine. My friend knows the woman referred to, Y, who is a certified home attendant, i.e., a person who provides basic care to the elderly or disabled. Y has great experience with how dreadfully adult children treat their aged parents, basically denying them things from decent care to their accustomed pleasures in life, in order to maximize the children’s inheritance. Having watched this pattern of events unfold time and time again, Y now wants to write a book about her experiences, presumably in a manner that would not allow the persons described to be identified by the general reader.
As you’ll see from the below, Y needs a co-author. Apparently Y can supply all the information, but the co-author would have to do substantially all the writing.
I am writing to you now in the hopes that you may know someone who would be interested in participating in such a project. If so, please let me know. Thanks.EXCEPT FROM EMAIL:
Y would like very much to work with someone you may know to co-author the book…or someone to actually put the words to paper. If they read Spanish it would be easier, as she takes notes in Spanish. She is an intelligent woman and speaks English well ; she can discuss things verbally with whomever works with her.
The end purpose of this book would be to shed light from within on what is happening to the elderly in our society. It seems both the unborn and the elderly are dispensable in the eyes of many. In this particular case, an intelligent woman is fearful of what her own children will do with her…she has no access to her money, they want to place her in a nursing home even though Y is a certified home attendant and feels she can handle her. She continues to sink into depression as a result.
Y prefers to remain anonymous with this and protect the identity of her present lady. She has been doing this work for years and can pull from her many experiences.
For readers in the NY Metro area
You should all come and support Good Counsel - a halfway house for women in the NY Metropolitan area (+NJ & CT) who are pregnant and need help.
The Ball for Life is a great way to do it, and was a *lot* of fun last year. It was also the "Who's Who" of Metropolitan Conservatism for you politics-wonks - my friends and I saw a bunch of people from National Review, including Kathryn Jean Lopez, Peggy Noonan from the WSJ - who was honored there last year and was really cool to chat with, Maggie Gallagher, etc. Fr. Benedict Groeschel from EWTN will be there this year too. Friday June 9th from 7pm- Here's the article from the NY Sun about last year's Ball:
and here's where you can get tix:
Please pass this on if you know someone who'd be interested...
More from the Mailbag
Two related notes:
and
I don't know that I'm particularly qualified to diagnose The State of the Irish Soul. My impressions are scattered and haphazard, but basically twofold. First, with the exception of Islam--which has done a fine job of extirpating Christian faith by sheer brutality and replacing it with, well, Islam--the next most powerful solvent for Christian faith in the world is decadent Western democratic capitalism and its dictatorship of relativism. US and English secularism and the all-important Idol of Coolness are succeeding in accomplishing what centuries of English brutality could not do: talking the Irish out of their Irishness and their Faith. I doubt it will succeed in the long run because the key to fully destroying the Christian faith seems to me to be replacing it with some other ersatz faith, much as carbon monoxide binds with hemoglobin with an affinity 200 times greater than oxygen. Islam does this. Postmodern democratic capitalism has not yet shown it has the legs to do this. As soon as the stream of Things and Distracting Images stops, there's nothing left. So if the economy bottoms out, I suspect people drugged by the Carthaginian Paganism of the West will come to and wonder what they were thinking. In Islam, there's been no escape.
Judging by the number of Irish reading the DVC, as well as the inane uniformity of the Irish Media in the response to the DVC, it sounds as though the Manufacturers of Culture are basically lockstep with ours. On the other hand, the Manufacturers of Irish Culture are not the same thing as the Irish, anymore than the top ten percent of the income brackets in DC, LA, and NY are "The Americans". The Irish I actually met were kind, generous, interested, engaged, critical thinkers, and quite as serious about Jesus as they were funny about life. My suspicion is that four centuries of persecution by the Brits has put some antibodies into the Irish constitution that were sorely lacking in Quebec. So while I think Ireland is fighting an uphill battle, I don't think it as likely to collapse like the Quebec House of Cards in the 60s (living proof, in my opinion, that the preconciliar Church was not all that hot and that the Council was necessary to keep similar collapses from happening all over the place).
Recently one of the Irish priests caused a kerfuffle by concelebrating Eucharist with an Anglican. Now he's (finally) been sacked, though he was a pain in the keester for a long time. A poll shows that most of the Irish don't think what he did was a big deal. For my part, I'm not sure how much this reflects a careless attitude toward the Faith and how much it shows the characteristic Irish tendency to try to mitigate hostilities (only the Irish could refer to 70 years of terrorism as "the Troubles" and a driving rainstorm as a "soft day"). So I'm not quite ready to see the Doom of Irish Catholicism in that poll. But it is bothersome.
As to the Sodomite Intifada, I dunno nuthin' 'bout how that's impacted the Irish. Maybe some of my readers know.
On the whole, I found the Irish fascination with the DVC to be a mixed bag. Lot of people reading it on trains and planes. Lots of questions. General sense that the (as one radio host put it, "the wheels are coming off the institutional Church". But also a lot of bred in the bone devotion to Jesus and Mary that is hard to rinse out. So: I don't know where things are going in Ireland. Certainly, the younger folk I spoke to were the most skeptical crowd. But on the other hand, they were really asking questions to find things out, not to keep from finding things out. As long as that Irish quality of skeptical inquiry in pursuit, rather than avoidance, of truth prevails I shall continue to have hope for the Irish.
By the way, one happy story of encounter with secular Irish media:
One radio guy asked me, for the umpteenth time, "Don't tell me you take the Bible *literally*?"
Inspired by the Holy Spirit (I assume), it occurred to me to ask, "Which parts?"
He stared at me blankly, having no idea how to reply because, in point of fact, he did not know one frickin' thing about what is in the Bible.
"Do you mean the Psalms?" I pressed him. "Of course, I don't take them literally. They're poetry. Or do you mean I should not take it literally when it says that David hid from Saul in the cave of Adullam?"
He continued to stare blankly, then finally said, "Look, I don't know all that much about the Bible."
"THEN WHY DON'T YOU FIND OUT A BIT BEFORE ASKING THIS STUPID, IGNORANT SHOPWORN QUESTION?"
It felt good!
Two related notes:
I would be interested in what your Irish hosts had to say about the state of Catholicism in Ireland. From what I've read, it sounds as if in their rush to become hip, secular, EU-niks, the trendy young Irish have relegated the Faith to the dustbin, along with bacon and cabbage. But I get my information from the Irish Times, and I'm not sure if that is much different from basing your opinions about America on what you read in the NY Times. Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you could shed some light on this. I think it's terrific that the Irish have gotten a taste of prosperity and that their young people are no longer forced to emigrate. If they are losing their faith in the process, though - well, that's tragic.
Bless you and thanks for all you do!
and
Now that you're back and high as a kite, I hate to be the wet blanket, but please step back, take a deep breath and give a sober assessment of the vibes and atmospherics in erstwhile Catholic Ireland:
* Relative to its population, what has been the scale and impact of what you call The Scandal and I call the Sodomite Initfada.
* How far down the road is Ireland to Quebec-style mass apostatsia or is it in a state of intermediate Boston-style decay and soft-landing implosion?
Your thoughts, and that of the rest of the troops (hopefully this won't turn into a puppy-eat-puppy intra-Canadian pillow fight).
I don't know that I'm particularly qualified to diagnose The State of the Irish Soul. My impressions are scattered and haphazard, but basically twofold. First, with the exception of Islam--which has done a fine job of extirpating Christian faith by sheer brutality and replacing it with, well, Islam--the next most powerful solvent for Christian faith in the world is decadent Western democratic capitalism and its dictatorship of relativism. US and English secularism and the all-important Idol of Coolness are succeeding in accomplishing what centuries of English brutality could not do: talking the Irish out of their Irishness and their Faith. I doubt it will succeed in the long run because the key to fully destroying the Christian faith seems to me to be replacing it with some other ersatz faith, much as carbon monoxide binds with hemoglobin with an affinity 200 times greater than oxygen. Islam does this. Postmodern democratic capitalism has not yet shown it has the legs to do this. As soon as the stream of Things and Distracting Images stops, there's nothing left. So if the economy bottoms out, I suspect people drugged by the Carthaginian Paganism of the West will come to and wonder what they were thinking. In Islam, there's been no escape.
Judging by the number of Irish reading the DVC, as well as the inane uniformity of the Irish Media in the response to the DVC, it sounds as though the Manufacturers of Culture are basically lockstep with ours. On the other hand, the Manufacturers of Irish Culture are not the same thing as the Irish, anymore than the top ten percent of the income brackets in DC, LA, and NY are "The Americans". The Irish I actually met were kind, generous, interested, engaged, critical thinkers, and quite as serious about Jesus as they were funny about life. My suspicion is that four centuries of persecution by the Brits has put some antibodies into the Irish constitution that were sorely lacking in Quebec. So while I think Ireland is fighting an uphill battle, I don't think it as likely to collapse like the Quebec House of Cards in the 60s (living proof, in my opinion, that the preconciliar Church was not all that hot and that the Council was necessary to keep similar collapses from happening all over the place).
Recently one of the Irish priests caused a kerfuffle by concelebrating Eucharist with an Anglican. Now he's (finally) been sacked, though he was a pain in the keester for a long time. A poll shows that most of the Irish don't think what he did was a big deal. For my part, I'm not sure how much this reflects a careless attitude toward the Faith and how much it shows the characteristic Irish tendency to try to mitigate hostilities (only the Irish could refer to 70 years of terrorism as "the Troubles" and a driving rainstorm as a "soft day"). So I'm not quite ready to see the Doom of Irish Catholicism in that poll. But it is bothersome.
As to the Sodomite Intifada, I dunno nuthin' 'bout how that's impacted the Irish. Maybe some of my readers know.
On the whole, I found the Irish fascination with the DVC to be a mixed bag. Lot of people reading it on trains and planes. Lots of questions. General sense that the (as one radio host put it, "the wheels are coming off the institutional Church". But also a lot of bred in the bone devotion to Jesus and Mary that is hard to rinse out. So: I don't know where things are going in Ireland. Certainly, the younger folk I spoke to were the most skeptical crowd. But on the other hand, they were really asking questions to find things out, not to keep from finding things out. As long as that Irish quality of skeptical inquiry in pursuit, rather than avoidance, of truth prevails I shall continue to have hope for the Irish.
By the way, one happy story of encounter with secular Irish media:
One radio guy asked me, for the umpteenth time, "Don't tell me you take the Bible *literally*?"
Inspired by the Holy Spirit (I assume), it occurred to me to ask, "Which parts?"
He stared at me blankly, having no idea how to reply because, in point of fact, he did not know one frickin' thing about what is in the Bible.
"Do you mean the Psalms?" I pressed him. "Of course, I don't take them literally. They're poetry. Or do you mean I should not take it literally when it says that David hid from Saul in the cave of Adullam?"
He continued to stare blankly, then finally said, "Look, I don't know all that much about the Bible."
"THEN WHY DON'T YOU FIND OUT A BIT BEFORE ASKING THIS STUPID, IGNORANT SHOPWORN QUESTION?"
It felt good!
John Zmirak Reveals: Dan Brown is an Even Bigger Dumbbell Than Was Previously Believed
The more I look at the Reclusive Literary Genius of New Hampshire, the stronger the impression becomes of an idiot savant with a genius for marketing and very little else. Talk about an empty suit. If he has a conscience, I hope it is haunted by the daily knowledge of how little is the molehill of talent, skill, knowledge, and honesty upon which the mountain of money and acclaim rests. He now has the rest of his life to try to live up to his reputation, and fail. Perhaps the Holy Spirit can enter into the rankling knowledge of that gap and speak to him.
The more I look at the Reclusive Literary Genius of New Hampshire, the stronger the impression becomes of an idiot savant with a genius for marketing and very little else. Talk about an empty suit. If he has a conscience, I hope it is haunted by the daily knowledge of how little is the molehill of talent, skill, knowledge, and honesty upon which the mountain of money and acclaim rests. He now has the rest of his life to try to live up to his reputation, and fail. Perhaps the Holy Spirit can enter into the rankling knowledge of that gap and speak to him.
The Next Big Thing: Evangelical Lefties
Could happen. The rising generation of Evangelicals (the so-called "Emerging Church") is, in large part, a confused reaction of youngers to elders. The good part of this is that young Evangelicals are more open to the Catholic Church than ever before (because it's been Forbidden Fruit). The bad part is that many young Evangelicals have no idea what they really believe. They are uncomfortable with the Evangelical ghetto: the contemporary Christian music, the jargon, the suburban comfortableness, the pat answers and slogans. They know what they *don't* want, but they don't know what they want. That's dangerous, because mere revolt is the perfect setup for the oldest dynamic in human history: "What could it hurt?" followed by "How was I supposed to know?"
Not a few young Evangelicals are primed to follow the useful idiots who have embraced postmodern relativist deconstructionism with a vengeance. This emptying of the brain is often conflated with "openmindedness" and "the rejection of rigidity". What it really boils down to is the embrace of trendy leftiness and the worship of power in the zeal to flee anything that smacks of "My Father's God".
Trouble is, once you abandon the supernatural God of Israel, there's only one thing left to worship (and worship you must, that's not an option): creatures. So the scramble becomes "What shall we worship?" and in this culture, the rules are pretty much weighted toward one answer: Power.
I'm acutely aware that the Right as well as the Left worships power. That's partly what young Evangelicals are reacting to. But the answer to that is to worship God, not to simply react and find a new way to worship Power. My prayer is that young Evangelicals will not simply go off in search of the Ring yet again.
Could happen. The rising generation of Evangelicals (the so-called "Emerging Church") is, in large part, a confused reaction of youngers to elders. The good part of this is that young Evangelicals are more open to the Catholic Church than ever before (because it's been Forbidden Fruit). The bad part is that many young Evangelicals have no idea what they really believe. They are uncomfortable with the Evangelical ghetto: the contemporary Christian music, the jargon, the suburban comfortableness, the pat answers and slogans. They know what they *don't* want, but they don't know what they want. That's dangerous, because mere revolt is the perfect setup for the oldest dynamic in human history: "What could it hurt?" followed by "How was I supposed to know?"
Not a few young Evangelicals are primed to follow the useful idiots who have embraced postmodern relativist deconstructionism with a vengeance. This emptying of the brain is often conflated with "openmindedness" and "the rejection of rigidity". What it really boils down to is the embrace of trendy leftiness and the worship of power in the zeal to flee anything that smacks of "My Father's God".
Trouble is, once you abandon the supernatural God of Israel, there's only one thing left to worship (and worship you must, that's not an option): creatures. So the scramble becomes "What shall we worship?" and in this culture, the rules are pretty much weighted toward one answer: Power.
I'm acutely aware that the Right as well as the Left worships power. That's partly what young Evangelicals are reacting to. But the answer to that is to worship God, not to simply react and find a new way to worship Power. My prayer is that young Evangelicals will not simply go off in search of the Ring yet again.
Catching up on my mail
A Lutheran friend writes (in part) after seeing the DVC flick:
A beautiful moment in what has been called the "ecumenism of the trenches". Protestants of all stripes should be double insulted by the DVC. Not only does it assault their most fundamental beliefs as Christians, but it does so while being too ignorant to even be aware that Protestants exist. For Brown, the only Church in the world is the Catholic Church. No Protestants, Amglicans, Orthodox, or Copts (to name a few of the non-existant Christians). And the Catholic Church *is* the Vatican.
Thanks for the letter, Tim. Sorry you had to endure the film. Happily, it appears the drop-off in interest is even more precipitous than I'd hoped it would be. Unhappily, they've greenlighted the prequel.
Oh, and Grace Hill Prostitutes, that crafted the "Sucker Evangelical leaders into promoting DVC as a learning opportunity" and wrote me while I was gone and tried to get me to shill for the latest devil flick can take me off their rolodex. I'm disgusted with them.
A Lutheran friend writes (in part) after seeing the DVC flick:
I'd love to get me one of those Opus Dei pins. On one hand, it'd spook people who've seen the film, and on the other hand, it's be like the Danes who wore stars of David during the Nazi occupation - a mark of solidarity in the face of persecution.
A beautiful moment in what has been called the "ecumenism of the trenches". Protestants of all stripes should be double insulted by the DVC. Not only does it assault their most fundamental beliefs as Christians, but it does so while being too ignorant to even be aware that Protestants exist. For Brown, the only Church in the world is the Catholic Church. No Protestants, Amglicans, Orthodox, or Copts (to name a few of the non-existant Christians). And the Catholic Church *is* the Vatican.
Thanks for the letter, Tim. Sorry you had to endure the film. Happily, it appears the drop-off in interest is even more precipitous than I'd hoped it would be. Unhappily, they've greenlighted the prequel.
Oh, and Grace Hill Prostitutes, that crafted the "Sucker Evangelical leaders into promoting DVC as a learning opportunity" and wrote me while I was gone and tried to get me to shill for the latest devil flick can take me off their rolodex. I'm disgusted with them.
Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Demons
Happily, sophisticated 21st Century postmoderns are vastly superior to the ignorant superstitious religious fanatics of the Dark Ages.
Happily, sophisticated 21st Century postmoderns are vastly superior to the ignorant superstitious religious fanatics of the Dark Ages.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Hi! Bye!
And now it off with all the Sheas to a richly earned and badly needed four day vacation on Lopez Island!
Back Tuesday! Honest!
And now it off with all the Sheas to a richly earned and badly needed four day vacation on Lopez Island!
Back Tuesday! Honest!
Sunday, May 21, 2006
On the Road Again
This time to Phoenix:
I get back Thursday, scramble to get stuff done, then go (ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!) on a well-earned vacation to Lopez Island for four blissful days, Friday to Monday. Back (finally!) on Tuesday next week.
In my absence, please feel free to contact any class A jerks you know and have them send Amy letters full of dimestore psychoanalysis and mind-reading from quacks with egos like the Hindenburg. It's a proven scientific fact that unthinking robotic slaves to patriarchy such as Amy can only be healed by cocksure jerks with delusions of godhood who fancy they can read the hearts of human beings as they hold forth on matters of which they are utterly ignorant. Please send as many of these people as possible to Amy because, you know, they're just so damn fun to read!
See you (briefly) on Thursday!
This time to Phoenix:
May 22-23 In Phoenix, AZ. Topic: The Da Vinci Deception. Contact: Janet Thompson.
May 24 Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Mesa, AZ. Topic: The Da Vinci Deception. Contact: Angela Mayer.
I get back Thursday, scramble to get stuff done, then go (ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!) on a well-earned vacation to Lopez Island for four blissful days, Friday to Monday. Back (finally!) on Tuesday next week.
In my absence, please feel free to contact any class A jerks you know and have them send Amy letters full of dimestore psychoanalysis and mind-reading from quacks with egos like the Hindenburg. It's a proven scientific fact that unthinking robotic slaves to patriarchy such as Amy can only be healed by cocksure jerks with delusions of godhood who fancy they can read the hearts of human beings as they hold forth on matters of which they are utterly ignorant. Please send as many of these people as possible to Amy because, you know, they're just so damn fun to read!
See you (briefly) on Thursday!
Since Amy has admirably covered the DVC reviews I won't gild the lily...
...except for one, since my son Matthew is the source of the anecdote that concludes Steve Greydanus' review.
Happily for us Othercotters, Over the Hedge gets good marks from Steve.
...except for one, since my son Matthew is the source of the anecdote that concludes Steve Greydanus' review.
Happily for us Othercotters, Over the Hedge gets good marks from Steve.
I'm a Media Darling!
Here, here, here, here, here, here (complete with egregious misquote about DVC being "without equal"), here, and here.
Speaking of media, Ireland continued to be a complete media frenzy to my last day. The only day I had without constant interviews was Wednesday, when I took the train to Dublin and then Limerick. Got to see a bit of Dublin. Went to Trinity College to check out the Book of Kells. Got there with only a few minutes left before we had to go back to the train station, so my host brassily approached the tour guide and (to my great embarrassment) announced I was visiting from America, only had a couple of minutes, and could I be allowed in ahead of the line and without paying admission. To my astonishment, the guide said, "No problem" and bustled me in. There, another tour guide was explaining all about how Irenaeus decided the contents of the Bible (grrrrrr.... WRONG!). Wandered upstairs till I got to the room with the Book of Kells. It's open to the Passion Narrative in Mark and, to my amazement, I could read it (it was the part were there was darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour.
The Long Room at Trinity was what every old library was supposed to be: huge endless shelves of ancient tomes like the book Indiana Jones produces with the picture of the Ark of the Covenant. They were featuring a display on the work of Samuel Beckett. The great thing about Dublin is that it honors not just political heroes (like the leaders of the Easter Rising) but poets and writers. There were statues to James Joyce and I walked right past Oscar Wilde's house. I also saw the Post Office where the Easter Rising began, as well as the dumb featureless Pointy Thing that was put up to replace the Lord Nelson column that was blown up a few decades ago in a moment of patriotic pride.
After that, it was off to Limerick where I talked in Cafe theology setting (as the priest put it, "The Irish have enough 'theology on tap' as it is.") (Only one interview followed that gig).
However, the next day (Thursday) it was katie-bar-the-door! I hit the ground running after I got off the train in Dublin and didn't stop till dinner. Print, radio, television... running all over the city, jabbering about this dumb book, answer the same questions ("Isn't it just a movie?") My favorite moment was when a radio interviewer asked me in tones of extreme skepticism if I really "took the Bible literally". I asked him which part of the Bible he meant. After much spluttering, he had to confess that he knew nothing about the Bible and so could not reply to my simple question.
Anyhow, I was relieved when it was all done and am happy to be back in the States where I am once again obscure. I loved Ireland, particularly the people. Lovely, generous, quick-witted and quick-tongued, with a peculiar sense of humor that I enjoyed immensely ("Have you ever seen an Irish Wolfhound?" said my friend Jason, pointing to a picture of a dog on the hotel room wall. "Yes," said I. "That's not an Irish Wolfhound" said Jason. He also advised me to say "Hahnds oop" as I entered an Irish bank. "It's an Irish greeting," he said.
So many other memories crowd in now that I'm home and I'm sure I will talk about them in future. But for now, I'm just glad to be home. At least till tomorrow, when I head for Phoenix and more Da Vinci Detox for the good people of Arizona.
Here, here, here, here, here, here (complete with egregious misquote about DVC being "without equal"), here, and here.
Speaking of media, Ireland continued to be a complete media frenzy to my last day. The only day I had without constant interviews was Wednesday, when I took the train to Dublin and then Limerick. Got to see a bit of Dublin. Went to Trinity College to check out the Book of Kells. Got there with only a few minutes left before we had to go back to the train station, so my host brassily approached the tour guide and (to my great embarrassment) announced I was visiting from America, only had a couple of minutes, and could I be allowed in ahead of the line and without paying admission. To my astonishment, the guide said, "No problem" and bustled me in. There, another tour guide was explaining all about how Irenaeus decided the contents of the Bible (grrrrrr.... WRONG!). Wandered upstairs till I got to the room with the Book of Kells. It's open to the Passion Narrative in Mark and, to my amazement, I could read it (it was the part were there was darkness from the sixth to the ninth hour.
The Long Room at Trinity was what every old library was supposed to be: huge endless shelves of ancient tomes like the book Indiana Jones produces with the picture of the Ark of the Covenant. They were featuring a display on the work of Samuel Beckett. The great thing about Dublin is that it honors not just political heroes (like the leaders of the Easter Rising) but poets and writers. There were statues to James Joyce and I walked right past Oscar Wilde's house. I also saw the Post Office where the Easter Rising began, as well as the dumb featureless Pointy Thing that was put up to replace the Lord Nelson column that was blown up a few decades ago in a moment of patriotic pride.
After that, it was off to Limerick where I talked in Cafe theology setting (as the priest put it, "The Irish have enough 'theology on tap' as it is.") (Only one interview followed that gig).
However, the next day (Thursday) it was katie-bar-the-door! I hit the ground running after I got off the train in Dublin and didn't stop till dinner. Print, radio, television... running all over the city, jabbering about this dumb book, answer the same questions ("Isn't it just a movie?") My favorite moment was when a radio interviewer asked me in tones of extreme skepticism if I really "took the Bible literally". I asked him which part of the Bible he meant. After much spluttering, he had to confess that he knew nothing about the Bible and so could not reply to my simple question.
Anyhow, I was relieved when it was all done and am happy to be back in the States where I am once again obscure. I loved Ireland, particularly the people. Lovely, generous, quick-witted and quick-tongued, with a peculiar sense of humor that I enjoyed immensely ("Have you ever seen an Irish Wolfhound?" said my friend Jason, pointing to a picture of a dog on the hotel room wall. "Yes," said I. "That's not an Irish Wolfhound" said Jason. He also advised me to say "Hahnds oop" as I entered an Irish bank. "It's an Irish greeting," he said.
So many other memories crowd in now that I'm home and I'm sure I will talk about them in future. But for now, I'm just glad to be home. At least till tomorrow, when I head for Phoenix and more Da Vinci Detox for the good people of Arizona.
The Chris Sullivan Virus
Write a post on any subject: say, Fr. Sirico, The Zwicks, and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church and, if you do not have the proper vaccine, the Chris Sullivan virus will invade your combox and inject its simple, rapidly-reproducing DNA code into the conversation, wiping out the fruitful and productive discussion that might have occurred and turning it into a repetitive, monomaniacal conversation about the need for everybody everywhere to subscribe to absolute and total pacifism and reject the Church's Just War doctrine. It doesn't matter what the topic is. The Chris Sullivan virus will simply re-write the DNA of the combox so it's All Pacifism All the Time.
Get your shots now!
Write a post on any subject: say, Fr. Sirico, The Zwicks, and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church and, if you do not have the proper vaccine, the Chris Sullivan virus will invade your combox and inject its simple, rapidly-reproducing DNA code into the conversation, wiping out the fruitful and productive discussion that might have occurred and turning it into a repetitive, monomaniacal conversation about the need for everybody everywhere to subscribe to absolute and total pacifism and reject the Church's Just War doctrine. It doesn't matter what the topic is. The Chris Sullivan virus will simply re-write the DNA of the combox so it's All Pacifism All the Time.
Get your shots now!
Randall Terry is Now a Catholic
And Tim Drake, by the way, is amassing quite an impressive array of interviews.
And Tim Drake, by the way, is amassing quite an impressive array of interviews.
Nice Piece by Jeff Jacoby on the Progress that Has Been Made in Jewish-Christian Relations Since Nostra Aetate
Of course, as Bill Cork notes, some Rad Trads miss the good old days of Jew hatred.
Of course, as Bill Cork notes, some Rad Trads miss the good old days of Jew hatred.
Restive God-First Conservatives Get Tired of Being Used by Mammon-First GOP
The GOP will have to pretend to care about God-first Cons for a while, so as to survive the elections. Then they will return to stiff-arming them.
The GOP will have to pretend to care about God-first Cons for a while, so as to survive the elections. Then they will return to stiff-arming them.
Help Wanted
Director of the Bishop Helmsing Institute
Full time faculty position in Theology, to begin in July 2006 -- or sooner, if feasible. The successful candidate will possess a Ph.D. or S.T.D. The Institute is seeking an established scholar with recognized contributions to the field of Theology to direct the newly founded Institute and to teach and author courses in our integrated core curriculum.
Applicants should be conversant with patristics, moral theology and all magisterial teaching. In addition to suitable credentials, applicants should demonstrate experience in pastoral settings, a knowledge of and commitment to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, competency in Latin or Greek desirable, ability to travel regularly, management and leadership skills, and the classroom skills appropriate to the educational needs of a markedly diverse student body.
In addition, the successful applicant will be committed to the educational mission of the Diocese, which is the education of the whole person in the Catholic liberal arts tradition, as articulated in Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Veritatis Splendor, and Fides et Ratio.
Applicants should submit a letter of application, a short statement relating the diocese's mission to their philosophy of teaching, curriculum vitae, official transcripts, and three letters of recommendation to:
Rhonda Stucinski, Human Resources Director, Diocese of Kansas City ~ St. Joseph, Post Office Box 419037, Kansas City, Missouri 64141-6037.
Electronic applications are preferred.
Review of applications will begin upon receipt and continue until the position is filled. The Diocese is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
A reader asks
Discuss, class.
The chaplain at the univ I help at wants me to assemble a list of the top 20-30 books every Catholic univ should have. I think of the catechism, Denzinger, Ott, etc. what say ye and your readers?
Discuss, class.
Back. Briefly.
And then off to Phoenix tomorrow for a series of talks on The Book that Won't Die and the Film That is Dead on Arrival.
Speaking of which, one of my drive-by commenters expresses well the "courage" of the typical anti-Christian cultural vandal that animates the creators of the Da Vinci Code when he writes:
Further proof that the popularity of the Da Vinci Code is an important indicator of the utter historical ignorance of the average Western mouth-breather. Yep. The 20th and 21st Centuries are times of unprecedented kindness toward Christians. What persecution?
Of course, the same gutless wonders who congratulate themselves for their "courage" in standing up to the menace of the Christians will bend over in lickspittle servitude to Radical Islam. It's the same pattern that makes the NY Times suddenly filled with religious sensitivity about showing Danish cartoons, yet burning with zeal to publish "Piss Christ" because of our "right to know."
Speaking of our "right to know", you really *must* read as "Gabriel" writes Amy Welborn to "rebuttal your opinions". When "Attila the Nun" thinks he's the last word in postmodern scholarly erudition, you just know the guy has class with a capital K.
And finally, here's an interesting piece on how Sony marshalled useful Christian idiots to promote Da Vinci via Grace Hill Prostitutes. Particularly funny is this money quote as one of the most useful and idiotic of the shills for the film responds to the obvious truths being spoken by the inimitable Barb Nicolosi (Bold-face text highlights my favorite moronic statements):
This was the guy on the panel in Hollywood. A living example of the fact that there is no idea so stupid but that some intellectual has said it. How could millions of Germans be wrong to elect Hitler? How could millions of people be wrong to think disco is good music? How could millions of flies be wrong to like eating dung?
And as to the notion that that claim of Jesus' marriage is offensive only to priests and religious, or that Jesus' choice to remain celibate (even the gnostic gospels *never* claim that Jesus was married) means simply nothing... one despairs for the Evangelical intelligentsia some days.
Detweiler is Exhibit A when I say that Evangelicalism in its present configuration can't last. It will either become Catholic or Orthodox, lapse into fundamentalism, or corrode into a particularly virulent form of postmodern deconstructionist relativism of which Detweiler is a prime example.
And then off to Phoenix tomorrow for a series of talks on The Book that Won't Die and the Film That is Dead on Arrival.
Speaking of which, one of my drive-by commenters expresses well the "courage" of the typical anti-Christian cultural vandal that animates the creators of the Da Vinci Code when he writes:
Mark, I don't get it. This is win win. The church gets to act all horribly persecuted and done upon, even though, as usual, you aren't.
Further proof that the popularity of the Da Vinci Code is an important indicator of the utter historical ignorance of the average Western mouth-breather. Yep. The 20th and 21st Centuries are times of unprecedented kindness toward Christians. What persecution?
Of course, the same gutless wonders who congratulate themselves for their "courage" in standing up to the menace of the Christians will bend over in lickspittle servitude to Radical Islam. It's the same pattern that makes the NY Times suddenly filled with religious sensitivity about showing Danish cartoons, yet burning with zeal to publish "Piss Christ" because of our "right to know."
Speaking of our "right to know", you really *must* read as "Gabriel" writes Amy Welborn to "rebuttal your opinions". When "Attila the Nun" thinks he's the last word in postmodern scholarly erudition, you just know the guy has class with a capital K.
And finally, here's an interesting piece on how Sony marshalled useful Christian idiots to promote Da Vinci via Grace Hill Prostitutes. Particularly funny is this money quote as one of the most useful and idiotic of the shills for the film responds to the obvious truths being spoken by the inimitable Barb Nicolosi (Bold-face text highlights my favorite moronic statements):
Nicolosi felt that Christians had been sold out, as she proceeded to make clear on her blog. “Christians being coaxed into writing anti-DVC pieces on a stupid web site . . . are meekly accepting that they are being given ‘a seat at the table’ in some grand cultural discussion,” she wrote. “Duped! There is no seat, folks. There is no discussion. What there is, is a few P.R. folks in Hollywood taking mondo big bucks from Sony Pictures, to deliver legions of well-meaning Christians into subsidizing a movie that makes their own Savior out to be a sham.”
Nicolosi says that those participating in the Sony project are debating “on Hell’s terms,” and she refers to the Web site’s contributors, some of whom are her friends, as “useful Christian idiots.”
“I think that was actually applied to me,” Craig Detweiler, a professor of mass communications at Biola University, an evangelical college near Los Angeles, says. Detweiler has written for the Dialogue site, and has spoken admiringly of Dan Brown’s book—publicly posing the question “How can forty million readers be wrong?” Detweiler acknowledges that the Christian community in Hollywood is divided over the film. “I think there are just very differing levels of offense taken at the novel,” he says. “Some are able to sort it out and say, ‘You know what? It’s a novel, it’s fiction.’ And I believe that the average moviegoer and reader can figure that out.” He also says that the different responses suggest a Catholic-Protestant divide. “The accusation that Jesus might have been married—to many people, that’s kind of an interesting notion. It doesn’t affect their faith significantly, one way or the other. To someone who’s taken a vow of celibacy and put on a collar, that is a very large foundational challenge. So it’s understandable why that has maybe crossed a line for certain members of the Christian community.”
This was the guy on the panel in Hollywood. A living example of the fact that there is no idea so stupid but that some intellectual has said it. How could millions of Germans be wrong to elect Hitler? How could millions of people be wrong to think disco is good music? How could millions of flies be wrong to like eating dung?
And as to the notion that that claim of Jesus' marriage is offensive only to priests and religious, or that Jesus' choice to remain celibate (even the gnostic gospels *never* claim that Jesus was married) means simply nothing... one despairs for the Evangelical intelligentsia some days.
Detweiler is Exhibit A when I say that Evangelicalism in its present configuration can't last. It will either become Catholic or Orthodox, lapse into fundamentalism, or corrode into a particularly virulent form of postmodern deconstructionist relativism of which Detweiler is a prime example.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Ireland, Day 4
More TV and radio interviews yesterday. One sympathetic and a couple more asking the tired question, "Isn't it just fiction?" I proposed a fictional film in which all the homosexuals in the world were engaged in a vast conspiracy to destroy Western Civilization.
"That would be offensive."
No duh.
The *only* time people fall for this notion that a fictional story which goes out of its way to malign and defame a billion people is "just fiction" is when it bashes Christians. The only time such people believe it will have absolutely no effect on what people think is with the Da Vinci Code. Try making a modern fictional film in which blacks are all watermelon-eating Stepin Fetchit dunces, or Jews are all conniving lechers and you will (rightly) get a storm of protest because these lies are pernicious and do real damage. But declare Christians the suckers of a 2000 year old Vatican conspiracy of murder and lies in the service of "the greatest coverup of all time", blaspheme Jesus and call all Christians fools for believing in him: that's just fiction.
And the msot galling aspect? It's "courageous" to say this. As if Christians are going to bomb the office of Sony or issue a fatwa against Ron Howard.
Weasels.
Other than that, Ireland is lovely. In fact, a young girl (maybe 14) came up to me my first night and said, "I brought me friend because she believes the DVC. After your talk, she doesn't believe it anymore." If I accomplish nothing else, I go home content with that.
More TV and radio interviews yesterday. One sympathetic and a couple more asking the tired question, "Isn't it just fiction?" I proposed a fictional film in which all the homosexuals in the world were engaged in a vast conspiracy to destroy Western Civilization.
"That would be offensive."
No duh.
The *only* time people fall for this notion that a fictional story which goes out of its way to malign and defame a billion people is "just fiction" is when it bashes Christians. The only time such people believe it will have absolutely no effect on what people think is with the Da Vinci Code. Try making a modern fictional film in which blacks are all watermelon-eating Stepin Fetchit dunces, or Jews are all conniving lechers and you will (rightly) get a storm of protest because these lies are pernicious and do real damage. But declare Christians the suckers of a 2000 year old Vatican conspiracy of murder and lies in the service of "the greatest coverup of all time", blaspheme Jesus and call all Christians fools for believing in him: that's just fiction.
And the msot galling aspect? It's "courageous" to say this. As if Christians are going to bomb the office of Sony or issue a fatwa against Ron Howard.
Weasels.
Other than that, Ireland is lovely. In fact, a young girl (maybe 14) came up to me my first night and said, "I brought me friend because she believes the DVC. After your talk, she doesn't believe it anymore." If I accomplish nothing else, I go home content with that.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Ireland, Day 3
Media whirlwind! I had no idea I was going to be an Irish Media Darling for the week, but I have done a boatload of interviews. Yesterday, I interviewed with TalkBack, Ulster TV, BBC Sunday Sequence, the Newsletter (Protestant), the Irish News (Catholic), BBC National TV (which filmed an interview and part of my talk for broadcast all over the UK), and also found out I will be chopped up and parceled out to BBC Today (a national radio news rpogram). This morning I was on Radio Limerick and this afternoon it'll be Highland Radio and BBC Radio Foyle. Tonight I hit Channel 9 in Derry before I go to Mass and speak at the Drummond Hotel in Limavady at 8:00. These handlers of mine have done their homework!
Today I get to see the Giant's Causeway and the Irish Coast! Yippee!
Gotta run! Dootee calls!
Oh! I met reader "Hibernicus"! How fun!
Tomorrow, it's off to Limerick by way of Dublin and a talk at the Cafe Java in Catherine Street at 7:00 PM.
Tra la!
Media whirlwind! I had no idea I was going to be an Irish Media Darling for the week, but I have done a boatload of interviews. Yesterday, I interviewed with TalkBack, Ulster TV, BBC Sunday Sequence, the Newsletter (Protestant), the Irish News (Catholic), BBC National TV (which filmed an interview and part of my talk for broadcast all over the UK), and also found out I will be chopped up and parceled out to BBC Today (a national radio news rpogram). This morning I was on Radio Limerick and this afternoon it'll be Highland Radio and BBC Radio Foyle. Tonight I hit Channel 9 in Derry before I go to Mass and speak at the Drummond Hotel in Limavady at 8:00. These handlers of mine have done their homework!
Today I get to see the Giant's Causeway and the Irish Coast! Yippee!
Gotta run! Dootee calls!
Oh! I met reader "Hibernicus"! How fun!
Tomorrow, it's off to Limerick by way of Dublin and a talk at the Cafe Java in Catherine Street at 7:00 PM.
Tra la!
Monday, May 15, 2006
Ireland, Day 2
Got up after a gloriously refreshing sleep of nine hours feeling like a new man. Got interviewed by my pal Sherry Weddell, who had popped in for a day for a visit since she was vacationing in London and figured it would be stupid to be this close and not pay a visit. The interview was for a podcast that will go up on the St. Catherine of Siena Institute site soon. Then we took Sherry to the airport so she could go back to London. After that, we went into Belfast with my host Paul Macaree and his pal Jason Hamilton (the two brains of the outfit) and got interviewed at the Europa Hotel. (As we were walking in, Jason informed me "This is the most-bombed hotel in the world." Just love hearing that as you enter the building. Turns out the IRA blew it up regularly during the Troubles, but the Troubles effectively ended in 1994, so no bombings in the last decade or so.
Got interviewed by the Irish Catholic, biggest paper in Eire. Then sped across town to a few minutes Adoration at a downtown parish that was built when Cornwallis was handing over his sword to Washington in 1783. Amazing. After that, off to an interview on BBC's "TalkBack" (which you can listen to here). It was a rather pugilistic interview (as I expected) since the BBC is basically the NY Times of the English airwaves, dedicated to extirpating the ignorant superstition of the Irish and all other unthinking slaves of Catholic authoritarianism. Mostly the guy asked the Usual ("It's just fiction so who cares?" [Never asked of anti-semitic or racist propaganda films]. "Shouldn't we question the Church?" [Of course. But if the Church makes an intelligent reply will you listen?] "Why does the Church get to decide what's in the Bible?" [Why do you get to decide what's in your family photo album?") and so forth.
After this, we went to Mass at St. Malachy's (too late to receive Communion, but oh well...). Then to lunch and now back to Paul's house for an interview with yet another BBC show called "Sunday Sequence" a religious magazine programme that airs on Sunday mornings. They're doing a story on DVC concurrent with the movie launch this weekend, so I'll chat with them for a half hour or so.
After this, it's off to Mass and/or Confession at some point and then another DVC talk this evening at the Peter Frogett Lecture Hall at Queens University at 8 PM tonight. Tomorrow I'll be in Limavady at the Drummond Hotel at 8 PM, as well as being interviewed by Ulster TV on Guess What?
I'm enjoying myself immensely. Ireland is such a gorgeous place. Gotta run! The Beeb is here!
Got up after a gloriously refreshing sleep of nine hours feeling like a new man. Got interviewed by my pal Sherry Weddell, who had popped in for a day for a visit since she was vacationing in London and figured it would be stupid to be this close and not pay a visit. The interview was for a podcast that will go up on the St. Catherine of Siena Institute site soon. Then we took Sherry to the airport so she could go back to London. After that, we went into Belfast with my host Paul Macaree and his pal Jason Hamilton (the two brains of the outfit) and got interviewed at the Europa Hotel. (As we were walking in, Jason informed me "This is the most-bombed hotel in the world." Just love hearing that as you enter the building. Turns out the IRA blew it up regularly during the Troubles, but the Troubles effectively ended in 1994, so no bombings in the last decade or so.
Got interviewed by the Irish Catholic, biggest paper in Eire. Then sped across town to a few minutes Adoration at a downtown parish that was built when Cornwallis was handing over his sword to Washington in 1783. Amazing. After that, off to an interview on BBC's "TalkBack" (which you can listen to here). It was a rather pugilistic interview (as I expected) since the BBC is basically the NY Times of the English airwaves, dedicated to extirpating the ignorant superstition of the Irish and all other unthinking slaves of Catholic authoritarianism. Mostly the guy asked the Usual ("It's just fiction so who cares?" [Never asked of anti-semitic or racist propaganda films]. "Shouldn't we question the Church?" [Of course. But if the Church makes an intelligent reply will you listen?] "Why does the Church get to decide what's in the Bible?" [Why do you get to decide what's in your family photo album?") and so forth.
After this, we went to Mass at St. Malachy's (too late to receive Communion, but oh well...). Then to lunch and now back to Paul's house for an interview with yet another BBC show called "Sunday Sequence" a religious magazine programme that airs on Sunday mornings. They're doing a story on DVC concurrent with the movie launch this weekend, so I'll chat with them for a half hour or so.
After this, it's off to Mass and/or Confession at some point and then another DVC talk this evening at the Peter Frogett Lecture Hall at Queens University at 8 PM tonight. Tomorrow I'll be in Limavady at the Drummond Hotel at 8 PM, as well as being interviewed by Ulster TV on Guess What?
I'm enjoying myself immensely. Ireland is such a gorgeous place. Gotta run! The Beeb is here!
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Greetings from Newry in County Down!
Finally made it to Dublin! Got picked up and taken to Mass and then fed, napped, and off to the first talk, which went well thanks to serious prayer. Now back to the house for tea and chocolate and then to bed. More later!
Ireland is beautiful!
Finally made it to Dublin! Got picked up and taken to Mass and then fed, napped, and off to the first talk, which went well thanks to serious prayer. Now back to the house for tea and chocolate and then to bed. More later!
Ireland is beautiful!
Friday, May 12, 2006
Upshot: Third time's the charm
I'll try another shot at Chicago and on to Dublin tomorrow. Prayers appreciated!
God remains good, whatever United Airlines does.
I'll try another shot at Chicago and on to Dublin tomorrow. Prayers appreciated!
God remains good, whatever United Airlines does.
Never, ever, EVER, fly United--EVER!
I have never seen an airline as incompetent and contemptuous of both their workers and their customers.
Shea again. Writing you from Seattle, where I am, for the second day in a row, stranded and unable to get to Dublin or Belfast.
Checked on line and they said the flight to Chicago was delayed three hours. Called to see if I could book an alternate route. Nope. Won't change it on the phone. Have to make the 40 minute trip to the airport. Too convenient and respectful of the customer otherwise.
Arrived and asked the guy at the front desk how long the flight was delayed (the board just says "Delayed"). It'll just be a few minutes, he says. So I go to the gate, where I am promptly informed that it will be at least two hours. Then three.
They try to persuade me to go to Chicago cuz I'll "probably" catch the connecting flight. I ask them to check and see if my connection was delayed yesterday. They tell me to buzz off because there are customers in line. In short, I have no idea if I'll make my connection (and I get stuck with the hotel bill if I'm wrong cuz it's weather).
I go back to the front desk (on the other side of the airport) and they tell me I have to call American about the connection. Off to the pay phones. They tell me the Dublin flight takes off on time. So there's no way to connect since my flight is now taking off over three hours late.
There's also a shot at Seattle/Chicago/Glasgow/Belfast. Back to the front desk, who informs me that's impossible, but that there's an 8:19 AM flight I could have taken this morning (it was only 15 minutes late) which *would* have gotten me to Chicago for the Dublin flight. So I *could* have left today if they had not had one (1) freakin' harrassed gate agent trying to rebook 200 people yesterday who missed that connection. (She told me privately that working for United is like working for a third world country and that she sincerely hoped I would complain, warn people *never* to fly with United, and contribute to the hasty destruction of this villainous and incompetent corporation.) Now I'm booked on two Chicago flights in the hope that United can accidently be competent and courteous and get me to my connection (albeit with a five hour layover). Here's hoping they don't lose my luggage.
So, on behalf of all harrassed and contemptuously-treated United Airlines travelers and employees, consider this public service announcement. Fly *ANYTHING* but United and help to drive this atrocious corporation to its well-deserved grave. So help me, I will *never* fly United again and I will urge every traveler I know to beware of their lousy and incompetent service.
I have never seen an airline as incompetent and contemptuous of both their workers and their customers.
Shea again. Writing you from Seattle, where I am, for the second day in a row, stranded and unable to get to Dublin or Belfast.
Checked on line and they said the flight to Chicago was delayed three hours. Called to see if I could book an alternate route. Nope. Won't change it on the phone. Have to make the 40 minute trip to the airport. Too convenient and respectful of the customer otherwise.
Arrived and asked the guy at the front desk how long the flight was delayed (the board just says "Delayed"). It'll just be a few minutes, he says. So I go to the gate, where I am promptly informed that it will be at least two hours. Then three.
They try to persuade me to go to Chicago cuz I'll "probably" catch the connecting flight. I ask them to check and see if my connection was delayed yesterday. They tell me to buzz off because there are customers in line. In short, I have no idea if I'll make my connection (and I get stuck with the hotel bill if I'm wrong cuz it's weather).
I go back to the front desk (on the other side of the airport) and they tell me I have to call American about the connection. Off to the pay phones. They tell me the Dublin flight takes off on time. So there's no way to connect since my flight is now taking off over three hours late.
There's also a shot at Seattle/Chicago/Glasgow/Belfast. Back to the front desk, who informs me that's impossible, but that there's an 8:19 AM flight I could have taken this morning (it was only 15 minutes late) which *would* have gotten me to Chicago for the Dublin flight. So I *could* have left today if they had not had one (1) freakin' harrassed gate agent trying to rebook 200 people yesterday who missed that connection. (She told me privately that working for United is like working for a third world country and that she sincerely hoped I would complain, warn people *never* to fly with United, and contribute to the hasty destruction of this villainous and incompetent corporation.) Now I'm booked on two Chicago flights in the hope that United can accidently be competent and courteous and get me to my connection (albeit with a five hour layover). Here's hoping they don't lose my luggage.
So, on behalf of all harrassed and contemptuously-treated United Airlines travelers and employees, consider this public service announcement. Fly *ANYTHING* but United and help to drive this atrocious corporation to its well-deserved grave. So help me, I will *never* fly United again and I will urge every traveler I know to beware of their lousy and incompetent service.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
"We wanted to come to you--I, Paul, again and again--but Satan hindered us." - 1 Thessalonians 2:18
I can relate, Paul.
Shea here. Writing from... Seattle.
It's like this: Big storm hits Chicago. Air traffic stops. Flight delayed 3.5 hours. United (which I will never use again and I urge you all to never ever use again) staff one harried ticket agent to rebook 200 people. American has other flights to Dublin, but the ticket agent misses this and tells me the best she can do is hope my plane to Dublin will be delayed. I call American and find out about the other flights to Dublin, but by then I'm out of line and have to wait for 200 people (oh, and my connecting flight is right on time, so there's no hope of catching it). Bottom line: all day at Sea-Tac with nothing to show for it. No TV show debate with Baigent (unless they want to re-schedule it, which I doubt).
So I will try again tomorrow and arrive in Dublin Saturdary AM. Everything else (God willing) should go as planned.
I'm beginning to think some intercessory prayer would be a good thing. If you are so moved, I would appreciate a little spiritual air cover.
On the bright side, I get to sleep in my own bed tonight.
I can relate, Paul.
Shea here. Writing from... Seattle.
It's like this: Big storm hits Chicago. Air traffic stops. Flight delayed 3.5 hours. United (which I will never use again and I urge you all to never ever use again) staff one harried ticket agent to rebook 200 people. American has other flights to Dublin, but the ticket agent misses this and tells me the best she can do is hope my plane to Dublin will be delayed. I call American and find out about the other flights to Dublin, but by then I'm out of line and have to wait for 200 people (oh, and my connecting flight is right on time, so there's no hope of catching it). Bottom line: all day at Sea-Tac with nothing to show for it. No TV show debate with Baigent (unless they want to re-schedule it, which I doubt).
So I will try again tomorrow and arrive in Dublin Saturdary AM. Everything else (God willing) should go as planned.
I'm beginning to think some intercessory prayer would be a good thing. If you are so moved, I would appreciate a little spiritual air cover.
On the bright side, I get to sleep in my own bed tonight.
Gone to Ireland!
Please don't send me mail or newslinks unless it's critical, cuz it'll all be old and gray by the time I return and I'd rather not wade through ten zillion emails and delete them all.
Will write from the Old Sod when I get a chance.
Ciao!
Please don't send me mail or newslinks unless it's critical, cuz it'll all be old and gray by the time I return and I'd rather not wade through ten zillion emails and delete them all.
Will write from the Old Sod when I get a chance.
Ciao!
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
The Irish Plot Thickens
Here's a website that provides documentary evidence that I really will be in Ireland and not just goofing off next week.
In addition (and I would appreciate your prayers for this), I find to my surprise and excitement that I will be debating none other than Michael Baigent on The Late Late Show (something of an institution on Irish TV, I'm informed). That will be Friday evening, and I will be blotto after a long flight from Seattle. Prayers that I can be a clear witness to Christ would be appreciated.
Note to self: Have to pick up a copy of "The Jesus Papers" for the flight.
Here's a website that provides documentary evidence that I really will be in Ireland and not just goofing off next week.
In addition (and I would appreciate your prayers for this), I find to my surprise and excitement that I will be debating none other than Michael Baigent on The Late Late Show (something of an institution on Irish TV, I'm informed). That will be Friday evening, and I will be blotto after a long flight from Seattle. Prayers that I can be a clear witness to Christ would be appreciated.
Note to self: Have to pick up a copy of "The Jesus Papers" for the flight.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Back Home Briefly
Saw WWII Memorial, wandered down the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial and (more importantly) met a great friend and a real hero, Glenn Cooper, who is a reader and a Navy jet pilot. *Really* enjoyed getting to know him and hear his story. What an incredible man and incredible disciple of Christ. Had lunch with him, reader John Simmins (a man with a very droll and very black sense of humor), Eve Tushnet, Pavel Chichikov, Greg Krehbiel, and Michael Norris (I think that's the name, apologies if I bollixed it up). Lovely time, munching Thai food on K Street and rubbing shoulders with corrupt lobbyists who suck the life blood from our great nation.
Beat feet to Lexington Park about 2:30, got dinner (and verified Glenn's claim that every waitress in Southern Maryland calls you "Hon"). Did the talk, which seemed to go well based on the laugh quotient and on the intelligent questions. Then blasted back to Fairfax, with much chocolate as sustenance for the long drive. Got up early, dodged traffic. Got to Dulles only to find the flight was cancelled. Got rebooked. Called Jan at unholy hour with new itinerary. Caught plane. Met really nice Reformed Charismatic pastor who was on a junket to Seattle for a meeting at Mars Hill Church. Talked about Mary and various Catholic stuff. Lovely man. Got in this morning. Much bustle in prep for Ireland. Which is why this post sounds so much like Gerard E. with all his works/pomps. :)
Not sure when you'll hear from me again. I'll try to blog from Ireland when I can. Meantime, noses, beans. You know the drill.
Ta!
Saw WWII Memorial, wandered down the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial and (more importantly) met a great friend and a real hero, Glenn Cooper, who is a reader and a Navy jet pilot. *Really* enjoyed getting to know him and hear his story. What an incredible man and incredible disciple of Christ. Had lunch with him, reader John Simmins (a man with a very droll and very black sense of humor), Eve Tushnet, Pavel Chichikov, Greg Krehbiel, and Michael Norris (I think that's the name, apologies if I bollixed it up). Lovely time, munching Thai food on K Street and rubbing shoulders with corrupt lobbyists who suck the life blood from our great nation.
Beat feet to Lexington Park about 2:30, got dinner (and verified Glenn's claim that every waitress in Southern Maryland calls you "Hon"). Did the talk, which seemed to go well based on the laugh quotient and on the intelligent questions. Then blasted back to Fairfax, with much chocolate as sustenance for the long drive. Got up early, dodged traffic. Got to Dulles only to find the flight was cancelled. Got rebooked. Called Jan at unholy hour with new itinerary. Caught plane. Met really nice Reformed Charismatic pastor who was on a junket to Seattle for a meeting at Mars Hill Church. Talked about Mary and various Catholic stuff. Lovely man. Got in this morning. Much bustle in prep for Ireland. Which is why this post sounds so much like Gerard E. with all his works/pomps. :)
Not sure when you'll hear from me again. I'll try to blog from Ireland when I can. Meantime, noses, beans. You know the drill.
Ta!
Monday, May 08, 2006
Greetings from the Great Commonwealth of Virginia!
It's been a busy weekend and it ain't over yet. Flew to Houston on Friday and gave four talks at St. Thomas Aquinas parish in Sugarland. Got to eat yummy shrimp gumbo (what? you think I'm gonna get that close to the Gulf and not sample the cuisine?). Met Bill Cork (who looks like his brother, whom I met a couple of years ago in Atlanta. Turns out Amy was in town the same time I was and the local Warner News network interviewed us both, as well as an Opus Dei family and a couple of parishioners. As always, they interview you for like a half an hour and you burble out this gush of information, then they edit it down to a 2.5 second sound bite. I felt bad about missing Amy, but she was even more in and out than I was, so there it is.
Then, off to Fairfax, VA where I spoke last night and got to see my old friends, the Whiteheads. I also got to meet reader Glenn Cooper, who is squiring me around the DC area today. We're going to meet some other members of St. Blog's at the Thai Kingdom, 2021 K St. at noon. If anybody else in the area want to join us, please do!
Then, it's off to Lexington Park for the last talk tonight, then home tomorrow--for a day and half. After that, Ireland!
Well, enough blogging. Time to go check out Our Nation's Capitol!
It's been a busy weekend and it ain't over yet. Flew to Houston on Friday and gave four talks at St. Thomas Aquinas parish in Sugarland. Got to eat yummy shrimp gumbo (what? you think I'm gonna get that close to the Gulf and not sample the cuisine?). Met Bill Cork (who looks like his brother, whom I met a couple of years ago in Atlanta. Turns out Amy was in town the same time I was and the local Warner News network interviewed us both, as well as an Opus Dei family and a couple of parishioners. As always, they interview you for like a half an hour and you burble out this gush of information, then they edit it down to a 2.5 second sound bite. I felt bad about missing Amy, but she was even more in and out than I was, so there it is.
Then, off to Fairfax, VA where I spoke last night and got to see my old friends, the Whiteheads. I also got to meet reader Glenn Cooper, who is squiring me around the DC area today. We're going to meet some other members of St. Blog's at the Thai Kingdom, 2021 K St. at noon. If anybody else in the area want to join us, please do!
Then, it's off to Lexington Park for the last talk tonight, then home tomorrow--for a day and half. After that, Ireland!
Well, enough blogging. Time to go check out Our Nation's Capitol!
Thursday, May 04, 2006
I'm outta here!
This weekend is the Big Domestic Da Vinci Tour (Houston, TX; Fairfax, VA; Lexington Park, MD). Then I'm home on Tuesday, where I catch my breath for a day (and speak at the University of Washington Newman Center on Wednesday evening). Then, on Thursday, I depart for the Great Irish Trek of '06 where I will speak yet again and anon, on Da Vinci junk. I will be out of country May 11-19 running around from Dublin to Belfast to Derry to Limerick to Dublin. Then home, were I will log sleep and catch up on work till I go to Phoenix May 22-24. Then home again and (God be praised) to a Memorial Day vacation on Lopez Island.
Upshot: I will try to blog, but no promises. If you want to book me to speak, please check my calendar and then check my speaking info page. I will respond as soon as I can!
This weekend is the Big Domestic Da Vinci Tour (Houston, TX; Fairfax, VA; Lexington Park, MD). Then I'm home on Tuesday, where I catch my breath for a day (and speak at the University of Washington Newman Center on Wednesday evening). Then, on Thursday, I depart for the Great Irish Trek of '06 where I will speak yet again and anon, on Da Vinci junk. I will be out of country May 11-19 running around from Dublin to Belfast to Derry to Limerick to Dublin. Then home, were I will log sleep and catch up on work till I go to Phoenix May 22-24. Then home again and (God be praised) to a Memorial Day vacation on Lopez Island.
Upshot: I will try to blog, but no promises. If you want to book me to speak, please check my calendar and then check my speaking info page. I will respond as soon as I can!
A Not-Terribly-Convincing Gloat over the Imminent Demise of the Right
The trouble with polemics is that you can often come to hate your subject so much that you stop actually addressing reality and simply start flinging out whatever insult you can think of . So, for instance, in this piece we discover that Conservatism is about to crack up *and* that it's an unstoppable Frankenstein Monster.
Um, only one of these things can be true, if that. Both might be false.
Personally, I think the fault lines in conservatism are marks of its overwhelming success. When you really have achieved hegemony is exactly the moment at which you can relax and allow your internecine differences to emerge because you no longer fear that any division will be exploited by a "divide and conquer" strategy. 20 years ago, Reagan's "Eleventh Commandment" was to never speak ill of a fellow conservative. Why? Because the war with liberalism had to be won and internal squabbles were the principal obstacle to that. Now that it has been won, the internal squabbles begin to emerge. All the interesting conversations are happening on the Right. On the Left, they're still mostly just foaming and wetting themselves.
The trouble with polemics is that you can often come to hate your subject so much that you stop actually addressing reality and simply start flinging out whatever insult you can think of . So, for instance, in this piece we discover that Conservatism is about to crack up *and* that it's an unstoppable Frankenstein Monster.
Um, only one of these things can be true, if that. Both might be false.
Personally, I think the fault lines in conservatism are marks of its overwhelming success. When you really have achieved hegemony is exactly the moment at which you can relax and allow your internecine differences to emerge because you no longer fear that any division will be exploited by a "divide and conquer" strategy. 20 years ago, Reagan's "Eleventh Commandment" was to never speak ill of a fellow conservative. Why? Because the war with liberalism had to be won and internal squabbles were the principal obstacle to that. Now that it has been won, the internal squabbles begin to emerge. All the interesting conversations are happening on the Right. On the Left, they're still mostly just foaming and wetting themselves.
What Indian Catholic Youth are up to
Check out the Jesus Youth website and the Rex Band, which was started, in part, by the brother of a guy in my parish.
Check out the Jesus Youth website and the Rex Band, which was started, in part, by the brother of a guy in my parish.
Rod Dreher Ponders Orthodoxy
I'm happy to see this entry, because now people can take any burning need they have to hold a referendum on Rod's faith life right to the source and not do it on my blog. Personally, I think the best thing to do is, well, pray for the Drehers that they obey God. Then, shut up and refrain from holding a referendum. Generally, that's what yields the best long term gains.
I'm not a big believer in discussing matters of the heart in cyberspace. Some folk have a naive belief that if you just lay it all out there for discussion and expose your most vulnerable and painful questions to public discussion then a beautiful fruitful consensus will be achieved through the Wisdom of the Voters.
I think that's insane.
Cyberspace is the agora, not the sanctuary. It's where you go to discuss public matters in all the rough and tumble of public discourse. But, with all due respect to you, Gentle Reader, I would no more discuss my private thoughts, hopes, loves, struggles and fears here than I would seek you out for the sacrament of confession. Men and women can be gentle and kind, but Man is a vicious animal who will think nothing of using your heart as a pin cushion or a football if you expose it.
This is why I almost never post emails from readers who are seeking "input from your readers" on some personal struggle they are going through. I can think of no more certain way to hurt somebody than to put their personal trials and struggles on display for the tender ministrations of some combox thugs who think nothing of battering the weak and struggling like pinatas. I always urge people to take their personal struggles out of the harsh cold winds of cyberspace and straight to a friend, counselor, therapist, or confessor.
Bottom line: the sanctuary is the sanctuary and the agora is the agora. Each have their place, but for heaven's sake don't confuse them.
I'm happy to see this entry, because now people can take any burning need they have to hold a referendum on Rod's faith life right to the source and not do it on my blog. Personally, I think the best thing to do is, well, pray for the Drehers that they obey God. Then, shut up and refrain from holding a referendum. Generally, that's what yields the best long term gains.
I'm not a big believer in discussing matters of the heart in cyberspace. Some folk have a naive belief that if you just lay it all out there for discussion and expose your most vulnerable and painful questions to public discussion then a beautiful fruitful consensus will be achieved through the Wisdom of the Voters.
I think that's insane.
Cyberspace is the agora, not the sanctuary. It's where you go to discuss public matters in all the rough and tumble of public discourse. But, with all due respect to you, Gentle Reader, I would no more discuss my private thoughts, hopes, loves, struggles and fears here than I would seek you out for the sacrament of confession. Men and women can be gentle and kind, but Man is a vicious animal who will think nothing of using your heart as a pin cushion or a football if you expose it.
This is why I almost never post emails from readers who are seeking "input from your readers" on some personal struggle they are going through. I can think of no more certain way to hurt somebody than to put their personal trials and struggles on display for the tender ministrations of some combox thugs who think nothing of battering the weak and struggling like pinatas. I always urge people to take their personal struggles out of the harsh cold winds of cyberspace and straight to a friend, counselor, therapist, or confessor.
Bottom line: the sanctuary is the sanctuary and the agora is the agora. Each have their place, but for heaven's sake don't confuse them.
By the way, I think I'm the only person who thinks its a good thing Moussaoui didn't get the chair
Peg Noonan's reaction is typical and understandable, but I much prefer to see the guy disappear into the bowels of some penitentiary to face "Where are They Now?" oblivion than to become a poster boy and martyr for jihad recruiters.
I say this, by the way, not out of my general opposition to the death penalty, but (in this case) from the standpoint of a Just War advocate. If killing Moussaoui would be the most effective way to fight Radical Islam, then I say, "Kill him" just as I have no compunction at all about blowing Osama's head off. I just happen to think that consigning Moussaoui to oblivion is a better way of getting rid of him.
Peg Noonan's reaction is typical and understandable, but I much prefer to see the guy disappear into the bowels of some penitentiary to face "Where are They Now?" oblivion than to become a poster boy and martyr for jihad recruiters.
I say this, by the way, not out of my general opposition to the death penalty, but (in this case) from the standpoint of a Just War advocate. If killing Moussaoui would be the most effective way to fight Radical Islam, then I say, "Kill him" just as I have no compunction at all about blowing Osama's head off. I just happen to think that consigning Moussaoui to oblivion is a better way of getting rid of him.
A reader writes:
I've not read Steve's book since none of my kids are in Catholic school. However, people are welcome to discuss your questions here.
Our Diocese of Metuchen (NJ) is having our first Synod since the Diocese was carved out of Trenton 25 years ago. I went to a "Speak Up Session II' last night which was focused on Education. I went having recently read Steve Kellmeyer's, "Catholic Education : Designed to Fail." The people that I talked to last night were very committed to the Church and everyone had a strongly evident love for the Lord. Two of my four suggestions were received well (I won't mention those details), but my other two ideas went over like a lead balloon and I would greatly benefit by some discussion on you blog about these two ideas, which I got the Steve Kellmeyer's book. I was wondering what you're thoughts are on that book. The two proposals which were not taken well last night by my brothers and sisters who attended the session are...
1) The DRE in the parishes should cease their present role of teaching the faith to the kids, and this role should be placed squarely on the shoulders of the respective parents of those children. DRE's, with regard to children, should simply have the role of testing to see if (a) the kid wants to receive the sacrament in question, (b) the kid knows how to receive the sacrament in questions, and (c) the kid can describe some of the effects of the sacrament in question.
2) The mission of the priests and bishops is not to save "catholic schools" at all costs. In fact, the mission of the priests and bishops, is to catechize adults, not children. It is the role of parent as primary catechists, to catechize their own children. Therefore, if there are limited resource, then we should sacrifice the "catholic schools" in order to have an effective adult catechesis.
Out of the group of 7 seven that I was in, one person had read Steve's book. And she felt strongly that we should work hard to keep the catholic schools open, she proposed, that when a the bishop tries to close a schools, the parents almost always plead with the bishop and they promise to do "anything" to keep it open. Therefore, she says, the schools must have a purpose and be preserved. I don't get it. Now, I'm a convert and I did not go to catholic school. And, of course, the line "I went to through catholic school, but..." is a good part of why I'd like to see them close, personally. Yet, I know committed catholics who would mortgage their entire life to keep their children in those catholic schools. That's what I don't get. Why? Why? Why? Is there anyone who reads your blog who can explain to me why?
I've not read Steve's book since none of my kids are in Catholic school. However, people are welcome to discuss your questions here.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
The WaPo Pays a Visit to the Drehers
Behold! CrunchyCons in their natural habitat! See them eat! Watch them interact with their young. Observe their remarkably human-like behaviors!
Behold! CrunchyCons in their natural habitat! See them eat! Watch them interact with their young. Observe their remarkably human-like behaviors!
More on Medjugorge
One reader sez:
while another writes:
Before anybody comments on either note, permit me to stick my oar in with yet another passage from my Mary book: this time on the thorny problem of private revelation:
Note that last paragraph especially. As I've said, I'm reserving judgment on Medjugorge. I know skeptics and I know true believers. I'm neither. Some of the fruit of Medjugorge seems good. But then there is the reality of the episcopal condemnation. Some of the support for Medjugorge seems to me to have the quality of urban legend. But then there are the changed lives. So I take a "wait and see" approach.
To the skeptics, I urge gentleness and a close and careful re-reading of the last paragraph above. This is people's *hearts* you're kicking around here. So be cautious. On the other hand, to the true believers, I say "Don't get your faith inextricably bound up in a private revelation that the Church has not approved. If you do, you could well find your faith shaken to its foundations should the Church in the future definitively declare that Medjugorge (or whatever you are invested in) is not an authentic apparition."
One reader sez:
Your mention of the book on Medjugorge was great. I keep with the approved appearances of Our Lady.
Between you and me... She has been "Appearing" for over 25 years now... what does she need to say that would take this long?
while another writes:
Just using this form to make a mention rather than the comments re: Medjugorje...AGAIN. It's always the usual suspects from way up in the balcony anyway who've never gotten involved and never get their facts straight, going and on and on with the usual condemnations, etc. and it's useless to use that forum in hope for any open mindedness on this subject. They keep preaching to their own choir...with the usual sharing of misinformation...like the bishop has decided...wrong!...like it's over and the Church has spoken...wrong! Once again, the bishop, due to his obvious prejudice stemming from the long and deep seated arguments with the much beloved Franciscans over the seculars (the Franciscans went through thick and thin with the locals and were martyred by the commies...and, somehow the people are grateful to them, love them, and prefer them...makes bishop very mad)...anyway the bishop had his authority over Medj decision making taken out of his hands by our now pope and given to a commission of national bishops who may open the investigation again since it's still ongoing, anyway they left it in the neutral position of the 3 possible decisions...along with our beloved Pope JP's deep belief in and love for Medjugorje, visiting with visionaries, blessing them, telling bishops and priests to come tell him all about their visits, even ordering some not to miss it. It's all documented...now with signed and verified letters to his former Polish assistant and his wife, a Medj. devotee.
Meanwhile here we have the 25th anniversary this July 25th. The crowds will be unbelievable...no room in the now many inns. Sometime, Mark, you ought to make a visit. Go with a youth group. You'd be one who would love it, I know. No one leaves without a special grace. I went after the year my mother had died of cancer with myself being diagnosed at the same time with the same and needing immediate surgery right after her funeral. The love and true "miracles" one witnesses is like no other place that is living itself out during our own lifetime. Pope JPII said it was a continuation of Fatima. Fatima was for the last century mostly and Medj. now continues that loving concern of our Mother.
I know that no one has to believe one way or the other re: private revelations. Even if a bishop approves people don't have to believe....the same goes if he disapproves...one is still free to believe. That's been shown by so much history in the various first disapproved and then approved sites. So let's let this one play itself out in history.
I'm tired of trying to offer real facts to the closed minded and fearful in the comboxes. You of course are perfectly free to disagree with me, but please don't base it on one or two dyed in the wool nay sayers who know nothing of personal experience by the millions, worldwide, including hundreds of bishops, thousands of priests and just really beautiful conversions and faith filled people who have gone home to urge prayer, reconciliation, mass, rosary in their own communities. I know because I'm surrounded by Marian groups, new Catholic bookstores, great orthodox priests, in the Philly area, all refreshed in their faith due to Mary's love through Medj. and the wonderful sacrificing people who live and serve there and who were "miraculously" changed themselves.
Before anybody comments on either note, permit me to stick my oar in with yet another passage from my Mary book: this time on the thorny problem of private revelation:
Some Things to Notice about Private Revelation
A couple of things are worth noting here. The first is the curious smallness of these epiphanies. No parted seas. No big explosions. They're an intensely personal experience, often involving only God and the person to whom He is revealing Himself, or just a few intimates. Not for nothing does Scripture refer to revelation as a "still small voice" (1 Kings 19:12). The recipient of the private revelation will often be the only person aware of what has just happened. But for that person the whole cosmos has changed. Vistas have suddenly opened before him and he has the chance to follow God into a new world transformed by the Living Presence.
Or not. For, of course, our free will isn't taken away. Augustine responded with all his heart to the mysterious invitation extended him. As a result, from this small incident (completely invisible to any onlooker at the time) God led Augustine to change the entire course of history in what is arguably (after St. Paul's) the second-most important conversion in the annals of Western Civilization. But my friend Betty walked away from her private revelation. Though she was very concerned that I believe her story and not think her crazy (and I do believe her), she nonetheless remained an ex-Catholic even after this with the silly excuse, "If God really loved me, why do I have diabetes?" (When she said this, I thought, "Sheesh, lady! What do you want? An engraved invitation? We are, after all, talking about a Church founded on a man Who was crucified." But despite what I thought, she exercised her free will to ignore the astonishing gift she'd been given.)
Another point to note is that real private revelation always points back to public revelation, just as public revelation illumines and completes private revelation. For that reason, private revelation never takes precedence over public revelation—ever. Augustine's private revelation took him straight to Sacred Scripture and the public revelation of the Church. Betty's, likewise, constituted as impressive an invitation from God as you could ask for, but it was an invitation not to some new revelation, but to come back to Mass. And likewise, through the history of the Church, all authentic private revelation, however weird it may be (and some stories are doozies), has always essentially had the same message: Repent of your sins, believe the teaching of the Church, say your prayers, be good, love God and your neighbor, receive the sacraments—in a word, Believe and Live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's because there's no new light to give. There's just the good old healthy daylight of Jesus, but it's often falling on eyes that need their scales removed. The Apostles handed the Light Who is Jesus on to the Church two thousand years ago and the Church has been handing that Light down ever since by the power of the Holy Spirit. Private revelation sheds no extra light. It just peels scales off of our eyes so we can see the only Light there has ever been: Jesus Christ.
Various Problems Arising from Fake and False Private Revelation
Numerous questions and problems arise from the fact of private revelation. The first and most obvious one is that a great many alleged private revelations are fake or false. Note the distinction between "fake" and "false". A fake private revelation is a deliberate deception. An average Evangelical (and, for that matter, an average Catholic) is typically ready to assume a claimed private revelation is fake, and there is good reason for that. The world abounds with charlatans claiming miraculous powers and looking for fame, money, sex, and/or power. They are easily found in any religious tradition and that fact doesn't need to be elaborated here. The basic rule of thumb regarding fake revelation: There's a sucker born every minute. Don't be one of them. Trust God and keep an eye on your wallet.
But keep an even closer eye on the teaching of the Church. Not all fake private revelation is after your wallet. Sometimes it's after your soul. The devil does indeed come to us as an angel of light. And he always seeks to turn us away from the teaching of Holy Church toward the worship of some creature (it matters little what creature). Therefore, a private revelation which sets itself up against the public revelation of the Church or the authority of her pastors is, by definition, not to be accepted because God cannot contradict Himself.
Having said that, we must also note that not all false private revelation is fake. A "revelation" can be false while the person experiencing it may seriously believe it's legit. In such a case, the person claiming the "revelation" isn't a crook or a liar, just mistaken. At the same time, sincerity doesn't guarantee immunity from the harm a false "revelation" may cause. After all, people who mistake the exit ramp for the on-ramp of the freeway are also quite sincere. That doesn't mean they don't experience painful and even fatal consequences as a result of their mistake. People can be sincerely wrong.
So, for instance, somebody may take seriously a false "revelation" claiming that blood transfusions are sinful. As long as you and your loved ones are in good health, such a blunder is merely a quirky notion. But if you (or worse still, someone in your care, such as a child) are involved in a car accident, your commitment to a false revelation could well spell the difference between life and death—or between liberty and a prison sentence on a murder charge.
There's a Weirdness in God's Mercy
Complicating things further is the fact that sometimes the recipient of false private revelation may—in the strange Providence of the God Who writes straight with crooked lines—receive real grace. An example of this can be seen, for instance, in the recent story of a Baptist woman named Diana Duyser who believed (I am not making this up) that a grilled cheese sandwich she bit into in 1994 was a sign from God because she saw in it the face of the Blessed Virgin:
The strange story began some 10 years ago, when Duyser prepared the sandwich for breakfast. She placed a slice of Land O' Lakes yellow American cheese between two slices of Publix white bread and cooked it on a non-stick pan. She then took a bite from the corner and saw what she describes as the face of Mary staring back from the bread. She spit out the bite and screamed for her husband.
"It scared me half to death," said Duyser, a housewife and amateur doll maker.
Duyser told friends and neighbors, and the story spread throughout metro Miami. She kept the sandwich in a small plastic container and padded it with cotton.
"All those years, whenever I'd get real down, I'd go in and say things to her and make sure she was still there," Duyser said. "Sometimes my husband would come in and say, 'What is this lady trying to say to us, this Virgin Mary?' And I'd say, 'I don't know, honey, unless she wants us to put her out there and show the whole world.'"
Duyser said the past decade has been blessed because of the sandwich. She won $70,000 at a Florida Indian casino and attributes it to the sandwich.
As you might expect, the reaction from most people (including Catholics) has been justifiably skeptical:
"This is just so dubious that I would say the chance it's any kind of legitimate miracle is almost zero," said Father Ernan McMullin, a well-known author and professor of philosophy at Notre Dame University.
Moreover, many casual onlookers needed no further evidence of fakery when they read Duyser auctioned the sandwich off "for $28,000 on eBay. The buyer, Golden Palace online casino of Las Vegas, plans to tour the sandwich worldwide to generate publicity for its company and raise money for charities".
But a closer look suggests Duyser, however mistaken she may be about the supernatural origin of the sandwich, acted in good faith. In addition to holding on to the sandwich for ten years, she gives every indication of parting with it only out of desperation:
"She is unbelievably sincere, which is about 100% of the appeal of the sandwich," Kerr told the Register.
"She talks to the sandwich likes it's a person. She definitely believes in God and believes this is something important. She wept when she had to give the sandwich up."
Recently, however, the Duysers fell on hard times. Her 52-year-old husband, Greg—a former air conditioning technician—was diagnosed with terminal emphysema, and the couple has no health insurance. They live on a $1,153 monthly disability check.
"We had always intended on selling her at some point," Diana Duyser said. "We wanted her to go to Ripley's Believe It or Not, or a museum, and I thought we'd get a couple hundred bucks. We decided to try eBay, and I think she was watching over us. Now people everywhere will see her, and that was my goal."
This month, the Duysers are traveling the United States in a luxury RV the casino bought, displaying the sandwich everywhere. Kerr said the casino has heard a few complaints from faithful who believe the promotion is sacrilege, but not many. He said most Christian faithful appear deeply moved by the sandwich.
A Miami Herald reporter drove the sandwich to Las Vegas, after the casino bought it, and showed it to a variety of people along the way. Some were amused; others fell to their knees and cried.
Weird? You bet. A genuine apparition? Nah. Grill enough cheese sandwiches and you can get burn patterns resembling anything from a woman's face to a picture of the Space Needle.
But does that make Duyser a liar? Again, no. There's no evidence for that. Duyser obviously believes. Indeed, she believes so sincerely she is now contemplating joining the Catholic Church—because of the sandwich:
"I'll be going to a Catholic Church, to visit, and I'll see how it goes," says Diana Duyser, 52. "Mary came to me, and she touched me, and there isn't much that's ever said about Mary in the Baptist church."
Duyser said she knows little about Catholicism, but she understands that Catholics know Mary as the sinless mother of God.
Duyser's story highlights exactly the sort of conversion that makes Catholics cringe and critics of Catholic faith whoop with glee. But I would simply note that Christian history—Protestant as well as Catholic—is full of people who have found the motivation they needed to follow Jesus in some very strange—and very strangely commonplace—things. Indeed, a modern skeptic might well see in Augustine's "pick it up and read it" voice a very simple "natural explanation" ("It was just a kid playing a game next door!") that totally overlooks the fact that for Augustine the incident was a divine invitation even if it did have a completely "natural explanation". That's because Augustine, while a Supernaturalist, did not separate nature and supernature into separate, watertight compartments. He took it for granted that things with natural explanations could still be signs from the God Who is in control of nature. In other words, he believed in Providence.
Similarly, car accidents are, like burn patterns on a grilled cheese sandwich, natural everyday random phenomena, yet when a young Karol Wojtyla—the future Pope John Paul II—was hit by a car and survived:
He spent the next two weeks in the hospital, recuperating and pondering the peculiar ways of Providence. That he had survived this incident seemed a confirmation of his priestly vocation.
God is not proud. He's willing to meet people at their growing edge, and it's difficult for us mortals to make hard and fast judgments about what natural or supernatural means He might employ to do so. Anything from a miracle of hearing in a Seattle hospital to a child's voice to a car accident to a grilled cheese sandwich may be used by Him to get through to us.
Revelation is Not Dependent on Our Intellectual or Moral Perfection
To make matters still more complex, recipients of real divine assistance can even be lacking in brains, emotional stability, or morals and still, by Divine Providence, land on their feet. As St. Paul notes:
God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:27-29)
And so, however sensible it is to note that a claimed revelation is being reported by a scoundrel, a fool, a basket case, or an ignoramus, it's not automatic disproof of God's involvement. If all the other evidence points to the truth of the thing, simply dismissing it ad hominem is a poor way to proceed. Indeed, it's often to blind oneself to a crucial fact in favor of the sign. So, for instance, the risen Christ is reported to have been seen first by a woman from whom seven demons had once been driven out (Mark 16:9). On its own, this would not appear to be a promising psychological profile for a witness. But the interesting thing is precisely that the Church preserved this bit of testimony despite the fact that a woman and a former victim of demonic possession is exactly the witness you would never invent if you were trying to make a case to a first-century Mediterranean patriarchal culture. In short, the Church acts as though it's preserving a historical memory, not inventing a story.
Another demonstration of how God's grace isn't dependent on how smart or saintly we are is found in Genesis, when God condescended to help Jacob even though Jacob's Bronze Age ignorance of genetics had filled his mind with all sorts of bogus notions about animal breeding and his questionable ethics had not exactly put God in his debt.
The story goes like this: After ripping off his brother Esau's inheritance, Jacob had been himself ripped off by his uncle Laban. Jacob wanted nothing more than to get away from Laban, but Laban held most of the family assets. So Jacob cut a deal with Laban and promised to take only the speckled and spotted sheep, every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats as his wages. Laban agreed. So Jacob, operating under the solidly wrong Bronze Age assumption that an animal's coloring depends what its mother sees as it's conceived, pulled the following "trick" on Laban:Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the rods. He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the runnels, that is, the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the rods and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own droves apart, and did not put them with Laban's flock. Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding Jacob laid the rods in the runnels before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the rods, but for the feebler of the flock he did not lay them there; so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. Thus the man grew exceedingly rich, and had large flocks, maidservants and menservants, and camels and asses. (Genesis 30:37-43)
The point of this story isn't that Bronze Age ideas about animal breeding are revealed by God to be good science. The point is that God condescended to help Jacob despite the man's ignorance of genetics, because God had plans for Jacob (and because Laban had been unjust to Jacob, who deserved his wages). God didn't grant Jacob's desire for restitution because striped and speckled sticks make goats bear striped and speckled kids, but because God's mastery of the universe is so subtle that he can work within real genetic laws and the foolish notions of Bronze Age men. Similarly, God can and does grant private revelations to people who may be as deeply ignorant or wrong about all sorts of things in their lives as Jacob was in his.
Walking the Tightrope
I mention all of the above because it's easy for us to assume that all claims of private revelation are not merely false but fake, or to assume that because somebody has some facts wrong or is a morally dubious character (like Jacob), God can't possibly be involved with them. Our default setting for claims of private revelation isn't "evaluate" but "reject". But the reality is that some claims are true and therefore, while it's necessary to be cautious when faced with claims of private revelation, it's also possible to be too cautious. If we aren't cautious enough we can find ourselves relieved of our cash, or crushed with heartache. But if we unthinkingly reject all claims of private revelation, we just might find ourselves mocking St. Bernadette Soubirous, persecuting the children at Fatima, or taking part in the judicial murder of St. Joan of Arc.
To the recipient of authentic private revelation, such a phenomenon inevitably feels rare, so rare that people who experience it seldom discuss it with others for fear of looking like a fool or a nut. But even a quick informal survey of the people around you will show that experiences which bear all the earmarks of private revelation are, in fact, amazingly common. That's why huge numbers of people will, if they feel safe enough to discuss it, testify to it in stories that invariably begin along the lines of, "You know, I had something weird happen to me once too. If you promise you won't laugh at me, I'll tell you about it..."
This is only to be expected, since private revelation is, by its nature, addressed to each particular human person in a way designed to get his or her attention. Indeed, it can well be argued that any person who has had a moment in his or her life where God reveals Himself as a living reality has experienced private revelation in the sense the Church means it. This need not entail apparitions, miracles or dancing suns. It need only entail an encounter with the living God. One need not even be a believer for it to happen—as the experiences of Carrel and Zola both attest.
Because authentic private revelation is always an encounter with the living God, it can be an overwhelmingly powerful experience and can often constitute the central spiritual event of a person's life. For many, it's a kind of "soul anchor" to which a person clings in moments of confusion and doubt, saying, "I don't know much, but I do know God showed Himself to me that day." For the faithful recipient of authentic private revelation, the thought of ignoring or disobeying the revelation is akin to blaspheming the Holy Spirit, a fundamental violation of conscience so profound as to be a form of spiritual suicide.
But therein lies the difficulty: For when the most sacred experience of a person's life is roughly manhandled by people who assume it to be the product of delusion, hunger for Mammon, or demonic deception, the results can be explosive and painful. The Church must therefore strike a balance between respectful treatment of real private revelation and clear rejection of false revelation.
Note that last paragraph especially. As I've said, I'm reserving judgment on Medjugorge. I know skeptics and I know true believers. I'm neither. Some of the fruit of Medjugorge seems good. But then there is the reality of the episcopal condemnation. Some of the support for Medjugorge seems to me to have the quality of urban legend. But then there are the changed lives. So I take a "wait and see" approach.
To the skeptics, I urge gentleness and a close and careful re-reading of the last paragraph above. This is people's *hearts* you're kicking around here. So be cautious. On the other hand, to the true believers, I say "Don't get your faith inextricably bound up in a private revelation that the Church has not approved. If you do, you could well find your faith shaken to its foundations should the Church in the future definitively declare that Medjugorge (or whatever you are invested in) is not an authentic apparition."
My Schedule for This Weekend
Hope to see all y'all at either Houston, Fairfax, or Lexington Park!
May 5-6 7:30 PM, Friday and 9:00 AM-3:00 PM, Saturday. St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Houston, TX. Topics: How I Got This Way, The Da Vinci Deception - Parts 1 and 2, and Mary: The True Sacred Feminine
May 7 6:45 PM. St. Mary of Sorrows, Fairfax, VA. Topic: The Da Vinci Deception.
May 8 7:00 PM Immaculate Heart of Mary Church parish hall, Lexington Park, MD. Topic: The Da Vinci Deception.
Hope to see all y'all at either Houston, Fairfax, or Lexington Park!
Justin Katz has more patience than I do
My letter would have read something more like, "You're a priest. Your task is not to be trendy, but to understand, guard, and teach the Tradition, dammit. If you want to agonize about gay marriage, then do it over a beer with your bishop and stop messing with the heads of your flock while you indulge yourself in a public therapy session about your precious conflicted feelings."
My letter would have read something more like, "You're a priest. Your task is not to be trendy, but to understand, guard, and teach the Tradition, dammit. If you want to agonize about gay marriage, then do it over a beer with your bishop and stop messing with the heads of your flock while you indulge yourself in a public therapy session about your precious conflicted feelings."
Had lunch with Jeffrey Overstreet yesterday
He's a film critic for Christianity Today and a great guy. Lives here in Seattle. You can check out his blog here.
And here's a nice interview with him, featuring a nice shot of him cringing behind his laptop.
Turns out he's finishing up a book on film from a Christian perspective.
I'm looking forward to it.
He's a film critic for Christianity Today and a great guy. Lives here in Seattle. You can check out his blog here.
And here's a nice interview with him, featuring a nice shot of him cringing behind his laptop.
Turns out he's finishing up a book on film from a Christian perspective.
I'm looking forward to it.
The Astounding Capacity of the Dictatorship of Relativism to Reduce Intelligent People to Pools of Intellectual Mush
In the old days, the question "Can you believe in God while practicing a religion that denies there is a Supreme Being?" would have been answered with a clear-headed, "No." But in LA, all you have to do is call this flat self-contradiction "paradoxical" and you're good.
A paradox is a *seeming* contradiction. Here is a paradox: God is one God in three persons. It seems like a contradiction, but it turns out not to be. But there are also *real* contradiction. One of them is this: "God exists" vs. "God does not exist".
This particular article is focusing on "JuBus": Jewish Buddhists (an astonishly high percentage of Buddhist converts are Jews). But I've little doubt that you can also find a goodly number of Catholic dolts who are CathBus.
Don't mistake: I have a high regard for the Buddhist tradition. I esteem it *way* more than I do the Work Buy Consume Die ethos of the secular West. I think the Buddhist critique of materialism is something that would vastly improve our culture if it were heeded. But I have a *very* low regard for the sort of spiritual sightseeing indulged by Westerners who enthuse over Buddhism as the Latest Fad and who thereby bowdlerize both their own spiritual patrimony and Buddhism's as well. Such spiritual tourists are an insult to both the eastern and western religious traditions.
In the old days, the question "Can you believe in God while practicing a religion that denies there is a Supreme Being?" would have been answered with a clear-headed, "No." But in LA, all you have to do is call this flat self-contradiction "paradoxical" and you're good.
A paradox is a *seeming* contradiction. Here is a paradox: God is one God in three persons. It seems like a contradiction, but it turns out not to be. But there are also *real* contradiction. One of them is this: "God exists" vs. "God does not exist".
This particular article is focusing on "JuBus": Jewish Buddhists (an astonishly high percentage of Buddhist converts are Jews). But I've little doubt that you can also find a goodly number of Catholic dolts who are CathBus.
Don't mistake: I have a high regard for the Buddhist tradition. I esteem it *way* more than I do the Work Buy Consume Die ethos of the secular West. I think the Buddhist critique of materialism is something that would vastly improve our culture if it were heeded. But I have a *very* low regard for the sort of spiritual sightseeing indulged by Westerners who enthuse over Buddhism as the Latest Fad and who thereby bowdlerize both their own spiritual patrimony and Buddhism's as well. Such spiritual tourists are an insult to both the eastern and western religious traditions.
Rosslyn Chapel Whores it For the Da Vinci Gulls
Historian complains, but who cares about history or fact?
Historian complains, but who cares about history or fact?
Barb Nicolosi Gets to Rant Right at Evangelicals About DVC on Their Home Turf
Barb's so refeshingly not-full-of-crap.
Barb's so refeshingly not-full-of-crap.
Sounds Like the St. Michael Prayer is really in order here
Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -
by the Divine Power of God -
cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
As of late Tuesday afternoon, Nick Thomm of Ave Maria Radio has been moved to a regular semi-private room following a stay in the ICU while initially recovering from brain surgery. His color is coming back and he is already eating and feeling better. He has a bit of tingling in his arm but no paralysis or other adverse effects. They may have him up and walking around later this evening. Later in the week, he's looking forward to visitors.
One change from the previous update is that a MRI from Tuesday morning indicates that at least 30-50% of the tumor was removed. Please continue your prayers for Nick and Jen and leave a message for the Thomms here. You can find the Litany for the Sick in the first two comments.
If you would like to send a message to Nick you can do so by clicking here or address cards to 1 Ave Maria Dr., PO Box 504, Ann Arbor, MI 48106
And here is more news.
Last week was the fund drive for our Catholic radio station and besides Nick's problem during that time, Al Kresta, the president of our Catholic radio station, and Mike Jones, the general manager, both faced problems too.
Al's wife was discovered during the week to have breast cancer and the last day of our drive she had surgery to prepare her for further surgery maybe next month. Al still found some time to lead the drive efforts even though his time was cut short from his usual involvement.
Mike Jones got a call from his wife Wednesday because she was having great pain in her abdomen. He had to take her to the hospital right away and they found that she had a burst appendix. She stayed in the hospital and had intravenous feeding of antibiotics and was sent home Saturday to continue the medicine until she was well enough to go for surgery next month.
These three men are the top men of the seven employees in the Ave Maria Radio station and that made it look like the evil one was doing all he could to cause the failure of the fund drive that keeps the station going. He failed and the drive went a little bit over what we were looking for. The hard work of everyone at the station is all for the honor and glory of God and that was just too much power for the evil one to succeed to cripple operations.
Thank you again for your prayers.
Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -
by the Divine Power of God -
cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
Interview with Bp. Carlson of Saginaw
I'm very impressed with that guy. I met him when he was in Sioux Falls and I heard him preach in Saginaw just a month or so ago. Please send us a thousand more like him, O Lord!
I'm very impressed with that guy. I met him when he was in Sioux Falls and I heard him preach in Saginaw just a month or so ago. Please send us a thousand more like him, O Lord!
Grief for the Homestarrunner Family
I've been wondering why Homestarrunner productions have stopped lately. Now I know the sad news:
Condolences to the Brothers Chaps on their loss. May Mr. Chapman's soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace. and may your kids continue to bless the world with their goofy and odd sense of humor.
I've been wondering why Homestarrunner productions have stopped lately. Now I know the sad news:
DONALD R. CHAPMAN, 66, of Dunwoody died at his home Saturday, April 15, 2006. Surviving are his wife of forty-one years Harriet Eldridge Chapman; sons and daughters- in-law, Don and Laura Chapman, Michael Chapman and Melissa Palmer, Matthew and Jackie Chapman; daughters and sons-in-law, Julie and Jason Hand, Karen and Chris Wagner; three grandchildren, Astrid Wagner, Colin and Emily Chapman; father and mother, Ray and Rita Meyer Chapman; sisters and brothers-in-law, Kay and Manuel Martinez, Carol Vires, Janet and Guy Gage; brothers and sisters-in-law, Jon and Julie Chapman, Ken and Nickie Chapman, and nieces and nephews. Mr. Chapman was born June 5, 1939 in Winamac, Indiana and moved from Indianapolis to Atlanta in 1980. A graduate of Indiana University, he was a certified public accountant. From 2000 until his death he was the heart and soul of homestarrunner.com a company his sons established. During his career Mr. Chapman was employed by Crawford & Co., P. R. Mallory, and Peat Marwick Mitchell. A mass celebrating his life will be held Tuesday, April 18th at one o'clock at All Saints Catholic Church. Interment North Atlanta Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Southeastern Brain Tumor Foundation, P. O. Box 422471, Atlanta, GA 30342 or Food for the Poor, 550 SW 12th Avenue, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442. Express tributes and condolences by visiting www.mem.com. Friends may visit with the family Monday evening from five until eight o'clock with a prayer service being held at seven-thirty at H. M. Patterson & Son Oglethorpe Hill Chapel, 4550, Peachtree Road, NE, Atlanta, GA 30319, 404-261-3510.
Condolences to the Brothers Chaps on their loss. May Mr. Chapman's soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace. and may your kids continue to bless the world with their goofy and odd sense of humor.
The Day After Roe
Some anticipated tectonic shifts in the American political landscape when this idiotic judicial fiat finally goes the way of the dinosaur.
Some anticipated tectonic shifts in the American political landscape when this idiotic judicial fiat finally goes the way of the dinosaur.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
I can top Amy
The Emperor Constantine, the all-purpose Good Times Virus of the ancient world and source of all evil in the universe. At least, according to historical illiterates.
The Emperor Constantine will re-write your hard drive. Not only that, but he will scramble any disks that are even close to your computer. He will recalibrate your refrigerator's coolness setting so all your ice cream goes melty. He will demagnetize the strips on all your credit cards, screw up the tracking on your television and use subspace field harmonics to scratch any CD's you try to play.
Constantine will give your ex-girlfriend your new phone number. He will mix Kool-aid into your fishtank. He will drink all your beer and leave his socks out on the coffee table when there's company coming over. He will put a dead kitten in the back pocket of your good suit pants and hide your car keys when you are late for work.
Constantine will make you fall in love with a penguin. He will give you nightmares about circus midgets. He will pour sugar in your gas tank and shave off both your eyebrows while dating your girlfriend behind your back and billing the dinner and hotel room to your Discover card.
Constantine will seduce your grandmother. It does not matter if she is dead, such is the power of Constantine, he reaches out beyond the grave to sully those things we hold most dear.
Constantine moves your car randomly around parking lots so you can't find it. He will kick your dog. He will leave libidinous messages on your boss's voice mail in your voice! He is insidious and subtle. He is dangerous and terrifying to behold. He is also a rather interesting shade of mauve.
Constantine will give you Dutch Elm disease. He will leave the toilet seat up. He will make a batch of Methamphetamine in your bathtub and then leave bacon cooking on the stove while he goes out to chase gradeschoolers with your new snowblower.
The Emperor Constantine, the all-purpose Good Times Virus of the ancient world and source of all evil in the universe. At least, according to historical illiterates.
Shea's Sixth Law of Internet Discourse is again borne out
In addition, we see at work the almost Newtonian Principle which states that the level of arrogance in any discussion of religion is inversely proportional to the amount of actual knowledge of the subject under discussion. A complete idiot with no knowledge whatever will always speak in the most condescending tone and make confident assertions that would make even a modestly educated person wince and cringe with embarrassment. I think I will call that Shea's Seventh Law of Internet Discourse.
In addition, we see at work the almost Newtonian Principle which states that the level of arrogance in any discussion of religion is inversely proportional to the amount of actual knowledge of the subject under discussion. A complete idiot with no knowledge whatever will always speak in the most condescending tone and make confident assertions that would make even a modestly educated person wince and cringe with embarrassment. I think I will call that Shea's Seventh Law of Internet Discourse.
Victory for Andrea Clark!
Thanks be to God.
By the way, speaking of Wesley Smith, did you know he's an old Naderite? His big concern was the way in which bean counters for giant corporations were trampling all over the little guy in the pursuit of profit and not letting basic human right like, oh, life get in the way of the Almighty Dollar.
The Dems, who used to be the party of the Little Guy before they sold their souls to Moloch, should have been his natural home. But because of their devotion to the sacrament of abortion, they turned him away.
One happy thing to note is that the Andrea Clark story first came to light on Democratic Underground. One can hope that the Dems may be lurching toward reclaiming a bit of their patrimony and remembering that the preservation of the lives of us little people (indeed, even the littlest people) is a thing worth fighting for.
Thanks be to God.
By the way, speaking of Wesley Smith, did you know he's an old Naderite? His big concern was the way in which bean counters for giant corporations were trampling all over the little guy in the pursuit of profit and not letting basic human right like, oh, life get in the way of the Almighty Dollar.
The Dems, who used to be the party of the Little Guy before they sold their souls to Moloch, should have been his natural home. But because of their devotion to the sacrament of abortion, they turned him away.
One happy thing to note is that the Andrea Clark story first came to light on Democratic Underground. One can hope that the Dems may be lurching toward reclaiming a bit of their patrimony and remembering that the preservation of the lives of us little people (indeed, even the littlest people) is a thing worth fighting for.
We need to lift the statute of limitations on school teachers and sue till there is not one school district left standing
Even if we have to destroy the entire educational system, we must allow nothing to stop us in our ruthless quest to punish with limitless punishment a system that allows such things to happen. Students and teachers who will get their hair mussed by the annihilation of the American educational system need to stop whining. They obviously care nothing for victims.
Even if we have to destroy the entire educational system, we must allow nothing to stop us in our ruthless quest to punish with limitless punishment a system that allows such things to happen. Students and teachers who will get their hair mussed by the annihilation of the American educational system need to stop whining. They obviously care nothing for victims.
Interesting New Book on Medjugorge is coming out
Donal Foley thinks Medjugorge is bunk.
People periodically ask me what I think. I think I'll wait for the Church to render a definitive judgment. I figure there are enough approved apparitions to keep me busy. So I basically concur with Foley: if apparitions are your thing, then why not stick with Fatima or Lourdes?
Donal Foley thinks Medjugorge is bunk.
People periodically ask me what I think. I think I'll wait for the Church to render a definitive judgment. I figure there are enough approved apparitions to keep me busy. So I basically concur with Foley: if apparitions are your thing, then why not stick with Fatima or Lourdes?
Reason #93845734983457345834539487345 to Homeschool
My children are entirely ignorant of the need to affirm lesbigaybitrans sex as the source and summit of all that is noble, true, good and beautiful.
My children are entirely ignorant of the need to affirm lesbigaybitrans sex as the source and summit of all that is noble, true, good and beautiful.
Show me a culture that despises virginity and I'll show you a culture that despises children
Democratic capitalism's salvific power is again called into question.
Democratic capitalism's salvific power is again called into question.
Nick Thomm Update:
Dear friends and listeners, The initial news is that Nick Thomm came out of surgery in the late afternoon. The doctors and Nick's wife, Jen, are very happy. The surgeons removed about 75% of the tumor. It came out cleanly indicating it wasn't tangled around other tissue. The remaining 25% was touching the motor strip and will be treated in the future. Nick may experience some loss of sensation in the face, hand and arm temporarily or possibly, permanently. He will be in Intensive Care for the next two days.
Please keep him and Jen in your prayers. More information to come as Nick and Jen release it.
If you would like to send a message to Nick you can do so by clicking here or address cards to 1 Ave Maria Dr., PO Box 504, Ann Arbor, MI 48106
Requiem Press has a New Book out from Russell Shaw on the Mission of the Catholic Laity
They also have a bunch of other good things.
Check 'em out!
They also have a bunch of other good things.
Check 'em out!
Baptist Bigot Hijinx at Baylor
I'm surprised. I didn't know they still made Baptists who indulged in this crude bigotry. However, since this is a university, it could be that these are new sophisticated postmodern post-Christian deconstructionist anti-Catholic bigots instead of old crude believing Babdist anti-Catholic bigots. Funny how the results are indistinguishable. But then, as Rod Bennett points out...
I think Rod Dreher's quibble with the bishop is just that: a quibble. The bishop is basically reiterating Veritatis Splendor: that freedom is ordered toward virtue, not toward doing whatever the hell we want, damn the consequences. The bishop's your ally, Rod. Don't slap his hand for failing to use utterly precise language.
I'm surprised. I didn't know they still made Baptists who indulged in this crude bigotry. However, since this is a university, it could be that these are new sophisticated postmodern post-Christian deconstructionist anti-Catholic bigots instead of old crude believing Babdist anti-Catholic bigots. Funny how the results are indistinguishable. But then, as Rod Bennett points out...
I think Rod Dreher's quibble with the bishop is just that: a quibble. The bishop is basically reiterating Veritatis Splendor: that freedom is ordered toward virtue, not toward doing whatever the hell we want, damn the consequences. The bishop's your ally, Rod. Don't slap his hand for failing to use utterly precise language.
Gov't Drafts Pandemic Flu Plan
There are some things we have no control over as individuals. I pray we dodge this bullet.
There are some things we have no control over as individuals. I pray we dodge this bullet.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Reader Juli Loesch Wiley write to Amnesty International
Here's the scoop:
Dear AIUSA,
Amnesty International has always struggled to expand the framework of human rights to include more and more of the human family, particularly those who are marginalized: the "different," the "other," those with no papers, those who have been deprived of citizenship, nationality, and identity.
AI defends those who are conscientiously opposed to killing, in a political world where killing is an ever-present policy option. AI protects non-violent religious and political dissenters from the punitive arm of the State.
So I was stunned recently to read that AI is considering adding abortion advocacy to its agenda. This would be a total polar reversal of the Amnesty International ethic.
The Preamble to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which on 2 September 1990 it entered into force as international law, says that the child "... needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth." Article 6 of the Convention "recognises that every child has the inherent right to life".
And now some members of AI propose that the killing of the vulnerable should be explicitly endorsed, and that conscientious objectors (e.g. doctors who will not cooperate with killing) should be exposed to punitive sanctions?
This would deprive AI of many potential supporters who are pacifists, who oppose destroying human lives at any age or on any pretext. It would erect a barrier against the participation of Catholics, Orthodox Christians, traditional "Peace Church" people (especially Mennonites and Brethren), and many Baha'is, Buddhists, and other people of faith. Humanists and atheists who object to criminalizing of anti-abortion Conscientious Objectors would also be deeply disturbed by abortion advocacy on the part of AI.
But rather than urging a calculation of whether AI would gain or lose supporters by this proposed change, I would rather plead with you to consider your long and honorable legacy of defending human rights, human life, and human dignity. I am convinced that if Amnesty International chooses to support the destruction of any part of the human family, it will lose its reason for existing in the first place. It will lose its soul.
I urge you not to become involved in any aspect of abortion advocacy.
Sincerely,
Julianne Wiley
Here's the scoop:
Web site www.amnestyusa.org
Telephone +1 212 807 8400
Fax number +1 212 463 9193\1 212 627 1451
Address 5 Penn Plaza - 14th floor
New York
NY 10001
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
E-mail admin-us@aiusa.org
* * *
Amnesty International Considers Pushing Enforcement of Abortion as Human
Right Ominously proposes punishing "abuses of sexual and reproductive rights by
private persons, organizations"
By John-Henry Westen
New York, April 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Amnesty International (AI) has proposed actively fighting against the right to life for unborn children by using its resources to promote a so-called 'right to abortion'. In proposed changes to its Sexual and Reproductive Rights Policy, the organization has asked members to comment on proposals around AI's abortion position by May 20, 2006.
In its Sexual and Reproductive Rights (SRR) Consultation Kit, AI includes a "Draft Policy statement on Sexual and Reproductive Rights." The policy includes the demand that "Governments must refrain from denying or limiting equal access to sexual and reproductive health services." Adding ominously, "they must act with due diligence to punish abuses of sexual and reproductive rights by private persons, organizations and other non-state actors."
The draft policy also seeks to hamper the right of health care workers to disassociate from abortion services. "The right of individual health care professionals to object on grounds of conscience to providing certain information and services does not absolve them or the health care system for which they work from taking immediate steps to ensure that the necessary treatment is given without delay," says the draft.
In another document reviewing "key" issues regarding sexual and reproductive rights, AI quotes a UN representative who suggests denying abortion constitutes "violence against women". The review states, "Former UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Radhika Coomaraswamy, has stated that 'acts deliberately restraining women from using contraception or from having an abortion constitute violence against women by subjecting women to excessive pregnancies and childbearing against their will, resulting in increased and preventable risks of maternal mortality and
morbidity.'"
The AI International Council is already decidedly in favour of promoting abortion as can be deduced from the language they use. The International Council calls for a consultation on the question of abortion, which "should enable AI to take an informed decision as to the organization's position - should it choose to do so - on the question of whether a woman's right to physical and mental integrity includes her right to terminate her pregnancy, subject to reasonable limitations, and of whether abortion should therefore be legal, safe and accessible to all women."
The plan is to decide by the end of 2006 on adopting a position on three aspects of abortion:
- "decriminalization of abortion";
- "access to quality services for the management of complications arising from abortion";
- "legal, safe and accessible abortion in cases of rape, sexual assault, incest, and risk to a woman's life"
The document notes that "all other decisions related to possible AI positions on the issue of abortion" would be taken to the 2007 International Council Meeting.
AI then asks its members the following questions:
Level 1
1. Do you have specific comments, reactions or questions about the Draft Policy statement on Sexual and Reproductive Rights?
Level 2
1. Should Amnesty International adopt a policy on any of the three aspects of abortion or should we maintain our current policy (which states: Amnesty International has not adopted a position on whether or not women have a right to choose to terminate unwanted pregnancies...)?
Level 3
2. Should the International Executive postpone any decisions on the three aspects of abortion until the fall, next spring or the next International Council meeting, to provide more opportunity for us to give input?
To contact the Amnesty office in your country::
http://web.amnesty.org/contacts/engindex
New Convert with New Blog!
One of the fun things about the Easter Season is all the new convert stories!
One of the fun things about the Easter Season is all the new convert stories!
What is a parish?
A fascinating colloquium in which the following will be participating, July 17-20 in Chicago:
· Most Rev. Francis Cardinal George, OMI –Archbishop of Chicago - keynote
· Mark Chopko, Esq., General Counsel for the USCCB
· Robert Christian, OP, Asst. Dean - Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome
· Joseph Fox, OP, Professor - Canon Law - Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit
· Rev. Anthony Oelrich, Director - Continuing Education, Diocese of St. Cloud
· Mark Sargent, Esq. Dean - Villanova University School of Law
· Michael Sweeney, OP, President - Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology
· Sherry Weddell, Co-Director - Catherine of Siena Institute
I will also be there, giving a response to Sherry's presentation.
A fascinating colloquium in which the following will be participating, July 17-20 in Chicago:
· Most Rev. Francis Cardinal George, OMI –Archbishop of Chicago - keynote
· Mark Chopko, Esq., General Counsel for the USCCB
· Robert Christian, OP, Asst. Dean - Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome
· Joseph Fox, OP, Professor - Canon Law - Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit
· Rev. Anthony Oelrich, Director - Continuing Education, Diocese of St. Cloud
· Mark Sargent, Esq. Dean - Villanova University School of Law
· Michael Sweeney, OP, President - Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology
· Sherry Weddell, Co-Director - Catherine of Siena Institute
I will also be there, giving a response to Sherry's presentation.
A reader asks:
No. Merely smug. Here's the intro to our Catholic Scripture Study of John. It's got an imprimatur and a nihil obstat.
A number of years ago I returned to the Catholic church after a 23 year absence. I left to attend Evangelical churches.
I have been involved in a faith formation class in my parish, and i am constantly at loggerheads with the people there. Most recently we had a discussion about the Gospel of John. For 29 years anything I have ever read about John attributes authorship to the Apostle.
I was told that I did not know Catholic Theology. Are they right?
No. Merely smug. Here's the intro to our Catholic Scripture Study of John. It's got an imprimatur and a nihil obstat.
Authorship, Place, Date and Audience
The Tradition of the Church, supported by the unbroken line of patristic testimony, as well as internal evidence from the text itself is that the gospel is rooted in the testimony of the Apostle John, son of Zebedee.
St. Irenaeus (Ear-ren-AY-us), for example, is a second century Church Father who was originally from Asia Minor and who received the gospel from St. Polycarp (POL-ee-karp). Polycarp, in turn, heard the gospel directly from the lips of St. John the Apostle himself. Irenaeus tells us (circa 180 A.D.) that the fourth gospel comes from the Apostle John himself, who wrote it in Ephesus. Likewise Polycrates (Pol-ee-KRAYT-eez), the bishop of Ephesus circa 190 AD, confirms that John the Apostle had lived and died at Ephesus (though some minor traditions support a location in Syria, perhaps the city of Antioch, while some have suggested other places, including Alexandria.) Numerous other witnesses in the second and third centuries corroborate the basic witness of Irenaeus and Polycrates.
In addition, elements within the gospel strongly suggest John, son of Zebedee, as the author. First, the gospel claims to rest on the eyewitness testimony of "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (cf. 13:23)-- a disciple whom no one but John corresponds to in the biblical record in the tradition of the Church. In various ways, the gospel shows the mark of someone who was present at the events it relates, yet who stands outside the traditions related in the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. That person was, quite clearly, a Jew familiar with the conditions of Palestinian Judaism at the time of Christ. Geographical details in the gospel, such as the pool of Bethesda and the pavement where the trial of Christ took place, are confirmed by modern archeological investigation. In addition, there are countless details which, if they are not the testimony of a first-hand eyewitness who was even present at the Last Supper, are an absolutely isolated occurrence of novelistic realism nineteen centuries ahead of its time. That he was part of Christ's "inner circle" of Peter, James and John (cf. Galatians 2:9) is even more likely given that he was the disciple at the Last Supper who laid his head on Christ's breast. Since the text distinguishes between Peter and the Beloved Disciple who wrote the gospel and since James was martyred long before the gospel was written (Acts 12:2), John is almost certainly the author.
Further, several bits of evidence lean toward confirming that the gospel was indeed composed at Ephesus. First, it is the traditional site of the Assumption of Mary, whom tradition says lived with John after Jesus commended her to his care (John 19:26). Second, the gospel addresses a considerable portion of material to disciples of John the Baptist who had heard only of his "baptism of repentance", but not of his full testimony to Jesus. We know from Acts 18:24 and 19:1-7 that there was some sort sect of centered in Ephesus which fit this description, to whom the apostles repeatedly addressed pleas to follow the Christ whom John the Baptist serves. Finally, the gospel's vocabulary shows an Aramaic origin of some kind, now adapted into Greek to serve the needs of a very well-educated audience of Jewish and Greek converts. His gospel assumes that his readers are familiar with the other canonical gospels and means to either detail material left untouched by them and/or expound at far greater depth the meaning signs they record. It also assumes a great deal of familiarity with the sacramental life of the Church, as well as a high degree of familiarity with the Hebrew Scriptures. This would fit the fact that the New Testament epistle with the most sophisticated exposition of theology is also associated with Ephesus: the epistle to the Ephesians. However, it also worth noting that John gives no indication that he intends his gospel only for readers in the area of Ephesus. In fact, archeological evidence indicates that the gospel spread very rapidly over the Mediterranean world. This makes sense, given that John wrote the gospel for the entire human race: all who would "believe and have life in his name" (20:31).
Other hands appear to be involved in the final editing of the gospel (cf. 21:24), but this, of course, does not negate the fact that even these other hands bear witness to the overwhelming preponderance of evidence that John is the author and that this gospel contains his first-hand, eyewitness memories of the words and works of Christ. Most scholars believe the gospel was probably edited into its present form somewhere between A.D. 90 and 100. This is based on a tradition which is not documented until the end of the third century. However, it is also worth noting that John 5:2 says that there "is" a pool near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, which was not the case after the city was reduced to a heap of rubble by the Romans after 70 AD. So it is possible that the gospel was composed before the destruction of Jerusalem, possibly in the 60s.
Feddie of Southern Appeal writes:
Now that George Clooney has made Darfur the cool cause to champion (and kudos to him for his support and involvement), I thought I'd mention (or remind you about) a blog that I started way back in February 2005 with a liberal blogging buddy of mine, Eugene Oregon of Demagogue, called "Coalition for Darfur":
You can read about how the blog was founded here if you're interested:
We've even received a mention in the NY Daily News.
Some of y'all have already been very supportive of CFD, and for that Eugene
and I thank you. But if you could remind your readers that CFD is providing
daily news of the Darfur tragedy, we would greatly appreciate it.
"Under our Constitution, it is Congress, not the president, who decides on war."
Yes, that is the theory. But of how many divisions is the Congress Commander-in-Chief? This, along with an Imperial Autonomous Court, is one the big design flaws of the Constitution, IMHO.
Yes, that is the theory. But of how many divisions is the Congress Commander-in-Chief? This, along with an Imperial Autonomous Court, is one the big design flaws of the Constitution, IMHO.
A reader writes:
I have no idea how many people, Catholic or non-, want to destroy the Church. Revelation assures us that there have always been devils and people who wish to do so. This is one of the reasons the bishops who covered abuse and/or stonewalled victims have so badly betrayed the Church, for they have betrayed not only the victims of abuse, but all the innocent flock who will be hurt when the parasitic diseases strike the body of Christ as the immune system is battered to pieces by people with no interest in the Common Good. Your diocese is bankrupt and must sell off all its physical resources to meet some insane 50 bazillion dollar judgement? Too bad for you. All that matter is that punishment goes on in perpetuity, with statutes of limitation lifted *only* for Catholics.
I don't know that there *have* to be that many people eager to destroy the Church (though they do exist). Really all there has to be is silence from the majority of Catholics. And that silence is easy to get because every time somebody raises a bleat of protest against insane penalties and the removal of all statutes of limitation, they will, of course, be told that they are heartless bastards who care nothing for the suffering of victims. That notion that a victim does not have a limitless claim for punishment will fall on deaf ears and Catholics who have themselves done absolutely nothing wrong will guiltily accept blame and punishment from lawyers who see a magnificent opportunity to pillage the Church.
Personally, I think Catholics should insist on some kind of reason (probably in the form of caps on damages) and particularly in the form of not singling Catholics out for removals of statutes of limitations. Otherwise, I doubt there will be much left of the institutional structures of the Church in 40 years. And I have every reason to think that, thus physically weakened, our Church will be prey to very real and violent persecution from the culture of death.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the first order of business is always prudence: the clear-eyed assessment of what is So. If Catholics don't awaken to the fact that our culture is rapidly turning against the Church, they are in for a big surprise a few years down the line.
I have read your blog with great enjoyment for years and find you on the nose with most of your views and insights. I have to say that the response thread under your "Suiciding the Church" has really shaken me. In your opinion, based on your e-mails, travels and responses, is it a large segment of the American Church that has the "cry me a river" mentality and seems to literally lust for its destruction? Have we come to a point where super-righteousness is displayed by visceral hatred of the Church? Once these people have become comfortable with their hatred of the Church, then where do they go? Or did they always believe that the physical institution of the Church was somehow superfluous? I don't know about anybody else, but I am not a disembodied spirit. I need a Church building to go to, and a priest to confect the sacraments, and a Bishop to ordain the priest. To act as if suddenly that is all window dressing and I can join a mob to tear it all down would seem to put me outside of both the institution and spiritual reality that Christ left to us.
I have to say some of the responses actually brought tears to my eyes. I know the Church will always survive, but I have only to look to North Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, etc. to see what can happen in a place where the Church once thrived. I think the histories of these areas show that Christ, after much mercy, patience and forbearance is willing to remove the candlestick if we truly don't want it. And none of those lands have been the better for it.
I have no idea how many people, Catholic or non-, want to destroy the Church. Revelation assures us that there have always been devils and people who wish to do so. This is one of the reasons the bishops who covered abuse and/or stonewalled victims have so badly betrayed the Church, for they have betrayed not only the victims of abuse, but all the innocent flock who will be hurt when the parasitic diseases strike the body of Christ as the immune system is battered to pieces by people with no interest in the Common Good. Your diocese is bankrupt and must sell off all its physical resources to meet some insane 50 bazillion dollar judgement? Too bad for you. All that matter is that punishment goes on in perpetuity, with statutes of limitation lifted *only* for Catholics.
I don't know that there *have* to be that many people eager to destroy the Church (though they do exist). Really all there has to be is silence from the majority of Catholics. And that silence is easy to get because every time somebody raises a bleat of protest against insane penalties and the removal of all statutes of limitation, they will, of course, be told that they are heartless bastards who care nothing for the suffering of victims. That notion that a victim does not have a limitless claim for punishment will fall on deaf ears and Catholics who have themselves done absolutely nothing wrong will guiltily accept blame and punishment from lawyers who see a magnificent opportunity to pillage the Church.
Personally, I think Catholics should insist on some kind of reason (probably in the form of caps on damages) and particularly in the form of not singling Catholics out for removals of statutes of limitations. Otherwise, I doubt there will be much left of the institutional structures of the Church in 40 years. And I have every reason to think that, thus physically weakened, our Church will be prey to very real and violent persecution from the culture of death.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the first order of business is always prudence: the clear-eyed assessment of what is So. If Catholics don't awaken to the fact that our culture is rapidly turning against the Church, they are in for a big surprise a few years down the line.
King George I is not bound by the laws that bind puny mortals
Yeah, yeah. We're at war dammit! Still I'm one of those people that voted for the 1994 Congress because I was sick of Dems acting like a law unto themselves. So why give King George a pass?
Yeah, yeah. We're at war dammit! Still I'm one of those people that voted for the 1994 Congress because I was sick of Dems acting like a law unto themselves. So why give King George a pass?
Speaking of solving problems with violence
...murdering Andrea Clarke will solve a problem for some bean counters. It will, however, be yet another harbinger of much greater problems for Baby Boomers when they get too feeble to change the Beatles CD. Remember: Inconvenient people should die. That is the message that Boomers have taught their children. Soon we will learn how well that lesson has been learned.
...murdering Andrea Clarke will solve a problem for some bean counters. It will, however, be yet another harbinger of much greater problems for Baby Boomers when they get too feeble to change the Beatles CD. Remember: Inconvenient people should die. That is the message that Boomers have taught their children. Soon we will learn how well that lesson has been learned.
What is and is not "understandable".
Britney Spears is (say the headlines) pregnant again! (Note the all-important italics). Who can fathom a woman who wants children?
On the other hand, when a man stabs his wife to death, that is, says the judge "illegal but understandable." She had Alzheimer's you see. Who could not understand that?
We understand solving problems with violence much easier than we understand giving life.
Britney Spears is (say the headlines) pregnant again! (Note the all-important italics). Who can fathom a woman who wants children?
On the other hand, when a man stabs his wife to death, that is, says the judge "illegal but understandable." She had Alzheimer's you see. Who could not understand that?
We understand solving problems with violence much easier than we understand giving life.
Who knew "60 Minutes" could actually do a story on religion that was worth watching?
Ed Bradley exposes dumb Priory of Sion hoax. Brown hides. Lincoln reasserts his credentials as a researcher upon no basis whatsoever.
Ed Bradley exposes dumb Priory of Sion hoax. Brown hides. Lincoln reasserts his credentials as a researcher upon no basis whatsoever.
Carl Olson (aka "The Amazing Colossal Apologist") and Sandra Miesel will be on the EWTN Live Show with Fr. Pacwa on Wednesday, May 3. Check your listings!
Carl was at the CSS hooptido in Charlotte this weekend. We had a jolly time!
Carl was at the CSS hooptido in Charlotte this weekend. We had a jolly time!
Binky the Web Elf Returns Showering Good Cheer and Puckishness on All the World!
World's back to normal again.
World's back to normal again.
Those Piskies are Hep Cats
Behold the Hip Hop Book of Common Prayer
A reader writes:
File under "Nixon Trying to Disco".
Behold the Hip Hop Book of Common Prayer
A reader writes:
My favorite part is the Absolution after general confession:
"It's Cool.
God has forgiven you.
It's a done deal!"
And don't miss the hip-hop version of Psalm 23...
File under "Nixon Trying to Disco".
Fr. Robert Carr covers the ongoing morph of the Great Enema into the Pillaging of the Church Without Regard to the Common Good
Speaking of which...
A basic principle of life outside the Garden is that grave injustice tends to lead to more injustice. We saw it after the Treaty of Versailles and we're seeing it now. No punishment will *ever* be enough and pretty soon people start talking as though the only "remedy" is to visit limitless destruction, not only on the ones who committed the injustice, but on everybody associated with them (that would be you and me, if you are Catholic). And, of course, any calls for moderation are seen as hard-heartedness toward victims.
It's almost impossible for us to conceive of the possibility that one can be a genuine victim and still commit real evils.
Speaking of which...
A basic principle of life outside the Garden is that grave injustice tends to lead to more injustice. We saw it after the Treaty of Versailles and we're seeing it now. No punishment will *ever* be enough and pretty soon people start talking as though the only "remedy" is to visit limitless destruction, not only on the ones who committed the injustice, but on everybody associated with them (that would be you and me, if you are Catholic). And, of course, any calls for moderation are seen as hard-heartedness toward victims.
It's almost impossible for us to conceive of the possibility that one can be a genuine victim and still commit real evils.
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