With all due respect – which I understand to be a statement that allows you to say anything you want – there were a lot of wrongheaded responses to my last two posts on pornography. Most were centered along the fallacy that there exists no difference between nude art and pornography, or if there does, it is so slight a difference that it is irrelevant. There was also the general insinuation that the real, deep reason I’m even posting about this at all... Read more
If you look at a thing 999 times, you are perfectly safe; if you look at it for the 1000th time, you are in danger of seeing it for the first time. — G.K. Chesterton The modern world cannot comprehend the fact of the Saint. Actually, I’m becoming ever-more convinced that the modern world can’t comprehend much at all — but that’s beside the point. The reason she shudders and grinds to a halt when contemplating the Contemplators is the false... Read more
Herod’s Slaughter of the Innocents is one of the few ways a man can get close to proving the existence of sin by mere example. The story has haunted me since I was a child. And it haunts me now because it still goes on, in abortion clinics across the world, at a morbid, clinical pace of 4000 innocents a day. When Herod sent his soliders out to kill every boy under the age of two in Bethlehem and its surrounding area,... Read more
I was writing fiction, and when I seriously considered describing my character’s feeling of anxiety as similar to “the heightened feeling of angst that came from copying something onto his clipboard and getting immediately distracted, knowing it to still be there and ready to be pasted, but forgetting entirely what it was,” I realized that I a) need a new career, b) need more sleep, and c) that I am – like so many of my peers – undeniably affected by the Internet Age, and that... Read more
The New Atheist gets all grumpy about ‘stupid’ conversions to the faith. Francis Collins – a self-described ‘obnoxious atheist’ and incredible genetic scientist – revealed the end of his own journey to God… “I turned the corner and saw in front of me this frozen waterfall, a couple of hundred feet high. Actually, a waterfall that had three parts to it — also the symbolic three in one. At that moment, I felt my resistance leave me. And it was... Read more
Is beauty subjective or objective? Is it a thing defined by us, or a thing that exists apart from us? I guess it all comes down to this: Is beauty truly in the eye of the beholder, or is that particular maxim a particularly boldfaced lie? For those of you thinking this is a boring excursion of a non-controversial nature, let me tantalize your intellect – if beauty is objective, there is a God. If it isn’t, there ain’t. Oh we’ll get... Read more
After writing about the naked body I got a colorful variety of responses, some in absolute and excited agreement with the concept of beauty as a response to pornography, and others who advised readers to stop reading yours truly, as I was clearly preaching heresy. As for myself, the question that arose out of the muddle was, “Why are we so confused?” Why are we so morally conflicted when it comes to nudity? First of all, it is worth pointing... Read more
The word ‘pornography’ means “writing about whores”, from the Greek pórnē – harlots. Now it would seem to follow that best pornography in the world would have to display the best harlots. But the best harlot – by the true meaning of the word best – is a forgiven harlot, like Mary Magdalene, who makes the radical shift from the rotten to the whole. And if she is whole, she is no longer a harlot. She is a virgin. Unfortunately, there is no word for... Read more
I wrote this for another blog, which is becoming a podcast (more on that eventually) so I figured I’d post it here. It also gives me the delightful excuse to throw some jams your way. You say, “Christian music.” Your agnostic friend thinks, “A load of unoriginal crap by Casting Crowns and Tree63.” He certainly doesn’t think MuteMath: And the world of Christian music-lovers wonder where to direct their angry mob. I hold that Christian Radio shoulders the bulk of... Read more
If I had but one sermon to preach it would be this: The ripples are not the rock, the rock is not the ripple, and it is the confusion of the two that damages the Church. A current trend amongst Catholic leaders, priests and ministers is to look at the Holy Mass and ask, “How can we get the world to come? Ah, well, we could bring the most beautiful art into our churches, we could bring the music people... Read more
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