In which I dilate upon some ideas I was noodling here last week. That bit of noodling got blasted last week as a “classic attack on the perspicuity of Scripture” in the normal circles of apologetic huff-puffery. A few words on that: The whole “Scripture is perspicuous” thing is a classic case of elevating human tradition to the level of equality with the word of God. It works like this: the enthusiast for the doctrine of the “perspicuity of Scripure”... Read more

Dear Friends, Has the summer heat gotten you down? Fear not! The cool new edition of Dappled Things is sure to refresh you with an invigorating selection of prose, poetry, and art. Our fiction this issue runs the gamut from the weighty to the wild. We have Dena Hunt’s The Funeral, a moving meditation on the finitude of human loves, followed by a story that features a troop of Dominican friars dispassionately considering whether they should eat each other or... Read more

of over-rated children’s books. The Giving Tree tops the list, an assessment with which I heartily concur. It’s children’s literature for Generation Narcissus, in which we learn the valuable lesson that It’s All About You–Forever. Take as much as you want because it would be wrong, terribly wrong, for the ones you exploit to judge you. At the end of the day there will be no consequences because Love means letting you do whatever you like without regard for relationship–Forever.... Read more

remembers stuff. Not the the liars of pro-abortion agitprop will care. They’ve already made clear they know they are justifying murder. They just don’t care. So they just keep lying because when you’ve already committed to murder, what’s a few fibs on top of that. So the “it’s just a mass of cells” lie just keeps getting pumped out for general consumption. Read more

Ave Maria U is about as far away as you can get from me and still be in the Continental US. I periodically hear rumbling and complaints from there or a stray survivor of some purge or shakeup or mass murder or whatever it is they do down there will ocassionally wander through my mailbox (or on to the headlines), but then things quiet down again. Given that my interest in Ave Maria is almost undetectable on the Richter Scale,... Read more

Dear Friends of the Seattle G. K. Chesterton Society, The time left for pre-registration for the annual conference of the American Chesterton Society has grown very short. If you have not yet done so, I urge you to do so. I have been informed that tickets for the Banquet on Saturday remain available only through this Wednesday, July 22. Please do not miss this opportunity! The principals of the Seattle Chesterton Society are honored to be helping to host the... Read more

In which we begin our look at the Sacrament of Baptism. Read more

Jack Smith writes: Rep. Tim Ryan has abandoned his pro-life position and is set to introduce the likely vehicle for “common ground” on abortion this Thursday. Please see the post below and alert others to support the Pregnant Women Support Act supported by the U.S. Bishops. Democrats and Republicans both need to support PWSA and we need to shed light on Ryan’s duplicity before his big money for Planned Parenthood bill becomes the new definition of “common ground”. Rep. Tim... Read more

is one of those stupid tropes that have gained currency among the sort of people who value cleverness over wisdom. It sounds great and is routinely trotted out to smack down anybody who argues for things like the existence of God or the reality of a miracle. There’s only one problem: it’s meaningless crap. There is no sliding evidentiary scale whereby claims of factuality require more and more astounding evidence until the biggest claim of all requires and infinite amount... Read more

About a month back, Todd Lemieux wrote asking your prayers as he donated a kidney to his brother. Now he writes: In the effort of full disclosure, I wanted to do another email that would update everyone on the surgery now that we are three and a half weeks out. Kyle is doing very well. There was a minor rejection scare about two weeks ago, but it was nothing serious and all of his numbers have leveled out. He is... Read more