Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I was skiing. Really! See there I am, skiing my heart out, far, far, far too busy to post on BadCatholic. But what goes skiing must come back and post, which I understand to be a wise saying, and so watch this.Jon Stewart is the man. He points out that no one likes the right/left polarization of the media, just as no one likes the right/left polarization of the country. So what's the answer? Well, in a word, Catholicism. Part of what I love about … [Read more...]

I find that if a phrase seems beautiful and poetic, it is usually not considered so because of a well-placed inflection, a mere complex wording or surprising diction, but because it strikes a truth that our hearts know, but our minds are not aware of. After all, if we are made in the image and likeness of God then we have hearts shaped with divine truths, and souls molded with the answers to questions the brain asks.Thus it is with the phrase "unimaginable love." We use this term to describe … [Read more...]

For all the absolutely millions of acres of millions of things a man can do - from being joyful, to dancing, to learning to play the sitar, from reading the dictionary to blowing up his car - there are only ten forbidden. This is no strictness, these forbidden ten, but a generosity and an easiness so immense it may only be described as divine. God  is the dad who takes his kids to the playground: "don't hurt yourself, and don't pee on the slide, but besides that do what you want." … [Read more...]

So there I was, washing dishes, getting chicken grease off of industrial sized pans, when a friend mentioned that her father was writing a book.Me: Yeah, what's it called?Her: Calvinism and the Doctrine of Grace.Me: You're one of those lucky, pre-destined few?Her: Yeah, I'm one of the elect.Me. Cool. Well I guess that's cooler than being an Evangelical.Her: I am an evangelical!Me. Ah. I meant Baptist, it's better than being a Baptist.Her: I am a Baptist! I'm a Reformed Baptist.Me: Ohhhh, well by … [Read more...]

To think of the end of the world as an event frightening and distant is to think a boring thought, one that will make a man weary of existence, akin to viewing Christmas with a hostile suspicion, or a birthday with twinges of fear. For the truth - if we are happy enough to admit it - is that every man reaches the end of his world within his own lifetime, not a moment too soon and not a moment later - and I write with all literalness. Death is mighty close to the living. And thus every sky must … [Read more...]

To say what you're going through is but the dark before the dawn would make some sense, but would have you as a mere placid sky-watcher, an observer of celestial events over which you have no control. And besides, I think I better understand now -- the desire to build your faith and your life elsewhere is not so much a darkness as a competing light, one I cannot help but think of as a flickering, phosphorescent bulb that lines public school hallways, but which I am sure looks prettier in your … [Read more...]

As a more avid reader/watcher of Lord of the Rings than you (yes you with the orc mask) - by which I refer to the 17 times I've watched all three of the extended DVDs, which means - let's see now, 210 minutes per movie, times 3 = 630, times 17, carry the two - 5040 minutes or 84 hours I have spent having my brain soaked in an alternative reality of epic proportions - I have come to the conclusion that I love Hobbits. For Tolkien, they represented the farmers of his country, the … [Read more...]

...would also be a good name for an album. It's tough to be bored and truly Catholic. Sometimes I wish it were otherwise, that my religion would gently tell me, "sit back, relax, God is an infinite, unreachable energy that pervades the universe as the whole of our collective consciousnesses." That would be easy. I could turn up some Jack Johnson, smoke a morally subjective joint and take a nap with that world view. But my religion - may it live long and prosper - demands that I listen to … [Read more...]