A million-strong march in support of traditional marriage that took place in Paris a few weeks ago. President Hollande said at the time that he would push gay marriage through, anyway. And he did it. This Associated Press story describes the vote in his Cabinet on the bill legalizing gay marriage that took place shortly after this protest. The bill is not law at this point, but this vote puts it on the way to becoming law. The story reads in... Read more
I’ve had an interesting few days. There was a bomb threat at the Oklahoma State Capitol building last Friday. Just a threat, mind you. No bomb. It was noonish, so everybody evacuated to lunch. We had to evacuate a committee meeting I was in this afternoon because of fire. I got home to learn that the Patheos web site had been temporarily slam-dunked. Bomb-threatened. Torched. Hacked. Ain’t life a charm? And, oh yes, sorry about the difficulties. Read more
Britain’s House of Commons passed gay marriage with a vote of 400-175 Tuesday with predictions that the House of Lords will follow suit. The following analysis by the New York Times seems to indicate that the vote exposed weaknesses in the Prime Minster’s position. I do not understand British politics enough to know if this is true. What I do know is that this law is a change of huge magnitude which will have reverberations throughout British society. The destruction... Read more
Some people call it the “Catholic Divorce.” It is often treated as a pro forma ritual that divorced people go through to “normalize” their relationship with the Church. It requires a lot of paperwork, but it doesn’t cost much money. In fact, the Church will waive any fees if they would prevent people seeking it. The “it” I’m talking about is annulment. Annulment is the somewhat lengthy process Catholics go through when they want the Church to “invalidate” their marriage.... Read more
The Oklahoma Legislature kicked off its 2013 session today. Governor Mary Fallin — the first woman governor in state history — delivered her State of the State address. What this means is that she laid out her legislative proposals for the year. In Oklahoma, the Governor proposes; the legislature disposes. Oklahoma’s legislature is no paper tiger. We are not shorn lambs like Congress. The Governor’s proposals will most likely come out of the legislative process — if they survive the... Read more
President Obama gave his support to recent moves by the Boys Scouts of America to end its policy of not allowing gay Scout leaders or Scouts in an interview today. He also said that he will not hesitate to send women into combat. Boy Scouts of America won a United States Supreme Court case (Boy Scouts of America vs Dal) in 2000. The Court held that a Constitutional Right to Freedom of Association allowed exclude a person from membership when “the presence... Read more
John Corapi shook people’s faith. The bishops who repeatedly transferred child-abusing priests shook people’s faith. I tremble to think of it, but I imagine that if I fell into some deep disgrace, that would shake a few people’s faith. I can’t speak for other people, but I want everyone who knows me to understand that I fall flat on my spiritual face on a pretty regular basis. Don’t look to me for salvation, or even a good example. If you... Read more
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5 I wrote Is Legalizing Pedophilia the Next Amoral Social Movement? a couple of weeks ago. The response to this post (along with another post about a transsexual teacher in a Catholic school) was one of the more sobering experiences I’ve had in a while. Comments supporting pedophilia and basically saying that concerns for children in our schools was unimportant compared to the “rights” of transsexuals... Read more
Democracy is not a lazy person’s form of government. If your idea of good citizenship is watching the dissolution of our society from the sidelines like an insomniac staring at a late-night movie, you need to move to a dictatorship. Democracy is too much work for you. “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” Contrary to popular attribution, neither Thomas Jefferson nor Patrick Henry said this first. The truth appears to be less glamorous. John Philpot Curran first said, “The... Read more
I’ve found that evil usually triumphs…unless good is very, very careful. –DR. MCCOY, Star Trek: The Original Series, “The Omega Glory” I’m going to take my time commenting about President Obama’s recent “compromises” on the HHS Mandate. I want to let the fur fly for a while. In the meantime, here are a few facts and a couple of opinions that I want you to think about as we winnow through the political/media chaff. 1. President Obama did not offer this... Read more
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