Presidential Debate: Interruptions vs. Irreverent Incoherence

Last updated on: September 30, 2020 at 1:40 pm By Dave Armstrong

Trump clearly won on substance and noting his accomplishments in office. Biden’s basic modus operandi was simply to deny everything: every radical position he holds (sometimes essentially forced into by the radical left base of his party), he pretended not to hold (because he has to, to win). He offered no convincing policy proposals. Basically, he simply trashed Trump, which is no surprise at all. It’s what you do, when you have exhausted your own [constructive / positive] ideas. Unfortunately,... Read more

Penal Laws Against American Catholics: 1606-1789

Last updated on: September 29, 2020 at 1:35 pm By Dave Armstrong

[the first part below is an abridged version of Part IV of the article, “Penal Laws,” in The Catholic Encyclopedia; written by Edwin Burton, E. A. D’Alton & Jarvis Kelley, 1911; originally posted on my blog on 3-10-08] ***** Anglican Establishments The first Virginia Charter in 1606 established the Anglican Church. The second, in 1609, repeated the terms of the establishment and prescribed the Oath of Supremacy. Intolerance of dissent was latent and implicit. Lord Baltimore, refusing as a Catholic to acknowledge the... Read more

English Persecution of Irish Catholics: 1536-1829 & Beyond

Last updated on: September 29, 2020 at 1:23 pm By Dave Armstrong

[Slightly abridged version of Part III of the article, “Penal Laws,” in The Catholic Encyclopedia; written by Edwin Burton, E. A. D’Alton & Jarvis Kelley, 1911; originally posted on my website on 3-10-08] ***** Although the penal laws of Ireland were passed by a Protestant Parliament and aimed at depriving Catholics of their faith, such laws were not the outcome of religious motives only. They often came from a desire to possess the lands of the Irish. When Henry VIII... Read more

Charismatic Emotional / Demonstrative “Excesses”: Biblical Analogies

Last updated on: September 28, 2020 at 4:30 pm By Dave Armstrong

Someone made a snide reference to “some lady jumping up and down and rolling around on the church floor” and automatically assumed that this was counterfeit or illegitimate. The following is my reply. ***** How do you know for sure that it is not the “real thing”: judging by a biblical worldview? There were some pretty strange things sanctioned by God. He told Hosea the prophet to marry a prostitute as an analogy of unfaithful Israel and God.... Read more

KKK / Slavery Analogies & [“New”] Pro-Life Democrats

Last updated on: September 29, 2020 at 11:20 am By Dave Armstrong

Various thoughts of mine, and a few from friends of mine as well (in blue and green fonts): ***** How could an obedient, magisterial Catholic (consistently, as opposed to “canonically”) vote for one who favors abortion in all nine months, when a pro-lifer is on the ballot? * I don’t ever vote for childkillers. I would by default if two pro-aborts were on a ballot and I had to choose the lesser of two evils. The Church permits that, but... Read more

Catholic Charismatic Movement Defended

Last updated on: September 27, 2020 at 11:08 am By Dave Armstrong

Liberation theology, process theology, radical feminism, Mariolatry, etc. have all been condemned by the Church, but the Catholic charismatic renewal (“CCR”) has been accepted. The charismatic movement in its Catholic “wing” has not been condemned by the Church. I have seen statements by the pope and people such as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, in support of it. Many orthodox Catholics, however, seem to be suspicious of it, often on the grounds of it being a “Protestantizing influence.” Or they consider it subversive of... Read more

Chris Ferrara & My Debates w Keating & Lawler Re Pope Francis

Last updated on: September 25, 2020 at 6:41 pm By Dave Armstrong

This is a response to Ferrara’s article, “The Importance of Not Being Us” (The Remnant, 12-31-17), which was in turn a critical commentary on my post, “Dialogues with Karl Keating & Phil Lawler on Pope Francis [12-29-17]. Ferrara’s words will be in blue. * ***** * Ferrara’s always entertaining and a stylish, colorful writer. I’ll grant him that (wholly apart from his atrocious content). It’s particularly fascinating to read his sociological analysis of what is going on today among non-reactionary orthodox... Read more

Futility: Explaining Anti-Catholicism to an Anti-Catholic

Last updated on: September 24, 2020 at 12:54 pm By Dave Armstrong

Peter Pike is a Presbyterian. He has been a Reformed Christian since 1995. Some of his favorite theologians are John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, R. C. Sproul, John Piper, James White, Greg Bahnsen, and A. W. Pink. His words will be in blue. ***** Since everyone who disagrees with you is automatically an “anti-Catholic” can I just call you an “anti-Calvinist” from now on? Jason Cebalo, a Catholic, replied: sigh If you’d bother to read what Dave actually writes, he doesn’t call... Read more

Salvation by Works in the Catholic Catechism?

Last updated on: September 24, 2020 at 12:59 pm By Dave Armstrong

[originally posted on 8 May 2002 from public board discussions; Anti-Catholic polemicist Frank Turk’s words will be in blue; Catechism citations will be in green] *** If you are suggesting that Rome does not provide a semi-pelagian view of grace and the nature of man, you have to rationalize the catechism in paragraphs 1786-1794. This is referring to the formation of conscience and cases of ignorance, where a person has never heard the gospel. It has nothing whatever to do with salvation... Read more

SCOTUS Confirmations & Increasingly Radical Democrats

Last updated on: September 23, 2020 at 12:09 pm By Dave Armstrong

These are my comments in a lengthy thread on a public Facebook page of a friend. Questions to me or things I am commenting on will be summarized and paraphrased [in brackets] and green and blue color (two different people). ***** You’re probably too young to observe or know much about what happened to potential Justice Robert Bork and Justice Clarence Thomas, in 1987 and 1990. But you saw the Kavanaugh fiasco. It’s all typical Democrat histrionics and faux hysteria and... Read more