Relation of Baptism to Baptism of Desire

Last updated on: December 28, 2016 at 6:00 pm By Dave Armstrong

The Good Thief on the Cross, by Jacopo Bassano (1510-1592) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (3-3-07) *** A certain Protestant objection is made that Catholics make baptism necessary for salvation, so that if someone doesn’t receive baptism they are necessarily damned, and that this is the Council of Trent’s teaching (Canons on the Sacrament of Baptism). The Catholic replies that baptism is the normative means of regeneration; however, in extraordinary cases, baptism of desire may suffice, and a person... Read more

Further Thoughts on Receiving Holy Communion in the Hand

Last updated on: April 19, 2017 at 11:17 am By Dave Armstrong

My daughter Angelina on the day of her first Holy Communion at our beautiful church, St. Joseph’s, in Detroit (7-24-11). *** (6-20-13) *** [this is a follow-up to my earlier paper, Thoughts on Communion in the Hand] ***** [I’ve written many times about this; also about abuses in the use of eucharistic ministers; see the papers on my Eucharist & Liturgy web page on my blog; linked below. This was in response to questions received in some private correspondence] Encouraging communion... Read more

Dialogue w Mike Maturen: 3rd Party Candidate

Last updated on: December 28, 2016 at 6:03 pm By Dave Armstrong

President Theodore Roosevelt: the most famous 3rd party presidential candidate. He ran on the “Bull Moose” (or, Progressive) Party ticket in 1912, and received 27% of the votes, to President William Howard Taft’s 23%, and Woodrow Wilson’s 42%. This was the best 3rd party result ever, and the only time a 3rd party got more votes than one of the two major parties. And of course it handed liberal Democrat Wilson the election. Some things never change . . .... Read more

In (Partial) Defense of William Jennings Bryan (Famous “Scopes ‘Monkey’ Trial” of 1925)

Last updated on: December 28, 2016 at 6:04 pm By Dave Armstrong

William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) as a young man [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** (6-6-09) *** [Note: a few years after I wrote this, I was able to visit the famous courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee] ***** I don’t think Bryan was so much a “pseudo-intellectual” as he was simply ignorant of biblical exegesis and the latest developments of science at the time of the Scopes Trial. The man was a lawyer (second in his class), a US Congressman, three-time presidential... Read more

The Bible’s Teaching on Abortion

Last updated on: November 9, 2020 at 9:09 pm By Dave Armstrong

[Flickr / CC BY 2.0 license] (3-8-09) *** [all verses: RSV. Passages in blue are not included in my book, Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths; and the Bible version in the book is KJV rather than RSV] *** FULL PERSONHOOD OF THE CHILD IN THE WOMB * Genesis 16:11 And the angel of the LORD said to her, “Behold, you are with child, and shall bear a son; you shall call his name Ish’mael; because the LORD has given heed... Read more

Abortion as a Deal-Breaker & Ethical Voting

Last updated on: April 18, 2017 at 6:32 pm By Dave Armstrong

Armenian genocide, 1915 [public domain / Pinterest] *** (9-10-08 and 2-22-14: after the five asterisks) ***** One always hears this charge about pro-lifers being “one-issue” voters, as if this is a negative, undesirable, immediately discounting, disqualifying thing. The fact is, that there are many individual issues — not just support for legal childkilling — that are “deal-breakers” in terms of voting for a candidate, and rightfully so. Abortion is often not considered to be one of these, but the moral logic... Read more

Luther Refutes Protestant Deniers of the Real Presence

Last updated on: December 28, 2016 at 6:09 pm By Dave Armstrong

All Saints’ Church, Wittenberg, Germany (built between 1490 and 1511), where Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license] ***** From my book, The Catholic Verses: 95 Bible Passages That Confound Protestants (Sophia Institute Press: 2004) ***** . . . [Martin Luther] believed in the Real Presence, although he denied transubstantiation and rejected the Sacrifice of the Mass. Luther (according to his nominalistic, anti-Scholastic leanings) didn’t want to speculate about metaphysics and how... Read more

On Apologists’ Income: “High” & Low (My Case)

Last updated on: January 31, 2017 at 12:46 pm By Dave Armstrong

1 Timothy 5:18 (RSV): “for the scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages.'” Detail from Labor mural in lunette from the Family and Education series by Charles Sprague Pearce (1851-1914) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** [2-22-14; a few additions and subtractions on 10-4-16] ***** [Note from 10-4-16: this was written six months after Catholic muckraker Michael Voris had attacked what he considered the excessive salaries and... Read more

Why I am Fed Up With Internet Discussion

Last updated on: July 4, 2020 at 11:14 am By Dave Armstrong

[Pexels.com / CC0 public domain license] *** This article has been re-uploaded under the title, “Good Internet Discussion & Dialogue Are Virtually Dead” *** Read more

Debate on Body Piercings

Last updated on: December 28, 2016 at 6:26 pm By Dave Armstrong

Photograph by Sara Marx, from Leipzig, Germany (4-7-07) [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license] ***** This took place on my public Facebook page, with a meme that I put up. It stated: “Lip rings do not make you more attractive. They make you look like a fish that got away.” Someone (just one person on the thread) quickly objected to that. Her words will be in blue. ***** Being a jerk does not make you look good. It... Read more