Blogwatch, it’s not a blogwatch so you feel a bit insulted…

Camassia on blogging and faith: “Book learning is, I’m sure, deeper than blogging for people who already have had in-person experience with faith and church. But for those outside, with no idea where to start, blogging is a much better way in.

“If Telford had never started his blog, not only would I never have met him, I most likely would never have met anyone like him.”

Family Scholars: Beautiful post from Elizabeth Marquardt about marriage and gift-giving. This is the opposite perspective from that standardized one that always must point out how “gift” in German is “poison.” Marquardt acknowledges how much most of us want to give gifts; in fact, to refuse someone’s gift is often a grave insult because it is like a refusal of the person and his affections. We want to be gifts to one another. And more here, from a different writer: “Keeping a running tab on your partner’s contributions doesn’t exactly make the heart grow fonder. And depending upon your partner for nothing but emotional sustenance does not necessarily bind you together when the going gets tough.”

Kross & Sweord: “What a difference four decades makes! In 1962 Leander Perez and several other Catholic politicians in Louisiana were excommunicated by New Orleans Archbishop Joseph F. Rummel. Their offense? Opposing Rummel’s pleas to end racial segregation in schools.”