This is a lie: Back in the day, Christians stated clearly that that God created man to know him, love him, and serve him in this life and to be eternally happy with him in the next. Back when Christians were formed by the tradition and not by FOX news and the Federalist, war was a consequence of the Fall, not something God created and not something humans were created for. To be sure, sometimes it is necessary to fight,... Read more
There will be 837 marches happening around the gl0be to demand sanity from the United States of America and its insane gun regime. The Gun Cult and its wholly owned subsidiary, the GOP, has made an implacable enemy of a whole generation of kids who clearly understand that the GOP does not care if they live or die. This fall, 4 million of them will be able to vote for the first time–and they are coming for the Party of... Read more
He works in a different part of the Vineyard from me. The soil he tills is richer and has people of good will like David French in it, willing to really try to work for the common good. The soil I till is full of rocks and deals with far more elementary moral divides in the Church, such as this: I’m addressing super-basic moral choices such as “When seventeen kids have their guts and brains splashed across their lockers, and... Read more
So we are past a year into the most prolifeyest administration in the history of ever. Some of us remember when Constantine Redivivus was going to save us all from certain death at the hands of Diocletian Clinton. This was the Flight 93 election. Vote Trump or die horribly in searing pain!!!! All the stops were pulled out to scare the sheep into voting GOP. More than this, it was proposed as the election of a beautiful Baby Christian who... Read more
My friend Pete Vere has a new blog here at Patheos: Orthodoxy in Communion With Rome: Tales from the life of a Byzantine Catholic canonist moonlighting as a professional wrestling referee Pete is, as the subtitle suggests, a card. He is also a Canuck, which makes his perspective a source of sanity for me, because he is often bemused by the looniness he sees south of the border. And as a Byzantine, he is also very useful as a counter-weight... Read more
My latest at Catholic Weekly. Here’s a taste: The best definition of a Gospel I have ever heard is “a passion narrative with a long introduction”. That is to say, a quarter of the ink spilt in every Gospel concerns a 72-hour period in the life of Jesus of Nazareth: from Holy Thursday to Easter. A couple of Gospels take us a bit further—to a couple of other resurrection appearances, or to the Ascension. But the main thing is the story... Read more
…they will begin gearing up now to oppose the war our Idiot-in-Chief and his lunatic advisor John Bolton are planning to launch: But the strong likelihood that Donald Trump will now choose John Bolton as his next national security advisor creates a prospect of war with Iran that is very real. Bolton is no ordinary neoconservative hawk. He has been obsessed for many years with going to war against the Islamic Republic, calling repeatedly for bombing Iran in his regular... Read more
That God is still a God who chooses and elects and that the Preferential Option for the Poor is really a thing. This upsets people–especially wealthy people–who discern in it the sinister sound of Marxism and Class War and urge us to believe the poor are lazy parasites and the rich have what is best in mind for all of us. These tend to be people like Larry Kudlow, who say monumentally foolish things like this: But really it’s just... Read more
Results of the ‘pro-life’ party’s omnibus bill. Support for Planned Parenthood funding (for the sixth time! Congratulations, President Trump, Most Prolife President Ever!). No conscience protections. Are we tired of winning yet? To get a man’s soul and give him nothing in return–that is what truly gladdens the heart of Our Father Below. – Uncle Screwtape Read more
…by Bishop Robert Barron, who manages to work the thought of Paul Tillich in, which is not something you run into in most film reviews: All of this actually put me in mind of Paul Tillich, one of the most significant Christian theologians of the last century. In his massive Systematic Theology, Tillich presented what he called the three ontological polarities, that is to say, tensions or contraries that characterize living things at every level. A good part of the drama... Read more
Catholic and Enjoying It!
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In