A friend of mine sent me this piece a while back and it is even more pointed in the wake of Corporate Hollywood’s sudden discovery of conscience about sex predator Harvey Weinstein: Mocking neoliberalism is a vicious, unsporting pastime, like bear baiting or fishing with dynamite. This is not because our woke capitalist elites and their echo chambers in the media don’t deserve ridicule, but because they invite it so heedlessly. A case in point is the routine breathless enthusiasm... Read more
I will be speaking tomorrow night at St. Monica’s on Mercer Island at 7 PM. I’ll be talking about the Our Father. Then on October 24 at 7 PM I’ll be talking about 101 Reasons Not to be Catholic at Holy Family in Kirkland. And on October 25 I will be speaking at St. Mary of the Valley in Monroe, at 7 PM about the Our Father and the Mass. Hope to see you at all of ’em! Read more
I mentioned the term “intrinsically immoral” in my discussions of the death penalty. Lots of people are confused about that term. Calling a sin “intrinsically immoral” does not make a sin extra super duper gravely evil. Let’s back up. The Church distinguishes grave sins from less serious ones. Minor sins (or “venial” sins as they sometimes are called) are still sins and still hurt us. It was, never forget, a minor sin called “stealing an apple” that got the snowball rolling for the... Read more
I’ve been trying my hand at a bit of poetry because my heart has felt creaky. Here are a couple of sonnets: Sunday Evening Healing Walking by the urban roar, monoxide fills my grey lungs and I exhale, exhale till nothing spirit is left. I’m all hide and sinew. A hollow cup, ungrailed. How shall soul’s sail belly or birth hope If I do not breathe in your fresh breezes? This life you have given me must not grope inward... Read more
regarding the series I am doing on Jesus and the Canaanite Woman for the Catholic Weekly, specifically the second piece in the series concerning the question of whether Jesus could learn things. Sez he: Howdy, Mark! Saw your piece on Jesus learning, and your commenter is mistaken in some of his claims regarding dogs. First, not all dogs were wild. While many Muslims reject dogs as pets, ancient Jews could and did keep them as pets (cf. Ps. 68:23)/guard animals... Read more
So a little initiative by women on Facebook took off like wildfire the other day. It simply consisted of women who have been sexually harrassed or assaulted writing “Me too” on their walls. The simple point was to try to get it through thick male skulls that This Is a Thing and not a rarity. The astonishing thing for this Thick Headed Male was just how many women answered the call. The immensity of the #metoo movement takes my breath away and... Read more
Yep: “There is more at stake here than bad politics. When Christians ally their faith with bias and exclusion, they are influencing how the public views Christianity itself. They are associating the teachings of Jesus Christ — a globalist when it came to the Great Commission — with ethnonationalist ideology. This should be a sobering prospect for any Christian. But few seem sobered. Instead, the faithful give standing ovations to the purveyors of division and prejudice.When anyone or anything takes... Read more
Even the Orthodox are all like, “Get serious, you guys!” to American conservative Catholics pretending Pope Francis’ remark that it is contrary to the gospel is some huge problem: To kill people unnecessarily is contrary to the gospel. Huge baffling mystery that puzzles American conservative Catholics alone resolved! The spectacle of Catholics striving to drag the Church away from the Holy Father and mercy and closer to Communists and Islamic despots is just such an amazing freak show. Pete Vere,... Read more
My pal Tom McDonald, finder of astonishing Catholic arcana, will periodically make that remark when he posts some amazing oddity out of Catholic history and culture. I thought of that the other day when we were having one of those discussions about the Catholic Puritan strategy for shutting down whatever it is the Catholic Puritan hates with the tried and true, “Would the Immaculate Conception do or say X?” The backdrop of the conversation was the firing of Rebecca Bratten Weiss... Read more
As much as kill crazy American Conservative Catholics and their close intellectual allies, the Communists and Islamic despots may stamp their feet and demand it, the Church is not going to stop calling for the abolition of the death penalty. Pope Francis just made this clear again by telling us that capital punishment is contrary to the gospel. The Usual Suspects on the RightWingoSphere are out in force panicking that the Pope is now a Full Blown Heretic and offering... Read more
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