“The war between the sexes is over. We won the second women started doing pole dancing for exercise.” Jacob (Ryan Gosling) A Pyrrhic victory if ever there was one. (more…) Read more
“The war between the sexes is over. We won the second women started doing pole dancing for exercise.” Jacob (Ryan Gosling) A Pyrrhic victory if ever there was one. (more…) Read more
Post One: An Un’civil’ View of Marriage I was married twenty-eight years ago in a Protestant church. At the conclusion of the service, the minister cleared his throat and in an unctuous baritone declared, “By the authority vested in me by the State of Rhode Island, I declare you husband and wife.” As a born-and-bred Evangelical, I thought nothing of it at the time. It was only a decade later, as I prepared for reconciliation with the Catholic Church, that I reflected... Read more
From John Boehner: ‘Today’s unemployment report is more proof that all of the Washington spending, taxing, and regulating is devastating our economy”. (more…) Read more
Let’s not forgot the latest GOP attack on the core principles of Catholic social teaching. With all the commotion over the debt ceiling deal, very few paid attention to the FAA shutdown. You will hear different things about this, but the main issue is an attack on unions and collective bargaining. Here is a good articulation of the issue: “a provision that would reverse a regulator’s ruling that airlines can unionize if an election is held and a majority of... Read more
Please be warned that the first video is not suitable for all audiences. (more…) Read more
At six this morning, I was butchering three large catfish—one of them well over twenty pounds. I filled a small cooler with fillets. We ate catfish for dinner last night and we will eat catfish again (and again). Tonight, and for lunch tomorrow. Catching fish—especially big ones—is thrilling. Cleaning them isn’t. I recall my adolescent, nausea-filled regret the Sunday evening when I shot nine rabbits—a personal record—and had to clean them all, each one stinking with delicate summer fur sticking... Read more
I love stylish writing. Prose that plays, wiggles, and spills over the lines. But not too much. There is a certain, incredible freedom to the pen that purposefully writes for the sake of writing, for the sake of life itself. Writing, it seems, can sustain life. A true writer is someone who can write beautiful nonsense. (more…) Read more
I have always been curious about the role of demography in the spread of religion. As a religious person who already has more children than the Canadian national average (not that that is saying much!) and who plans on having more, I have always found the idea that religion is dying out to be a little hard to believe. In my own experience, religious people have larger families than non-religious people. That, it seemed to me, was a significant point... Read more
From a recent talk: “The people of this land were called Christians before they were called Americans. And they were called this name in the Spanish, French and English tongues. From this history, we learn that long before the Boston Tea Party, Catholic missionaries were celebrating the holy Mass on the soil of this continent…. This is the missing piece of American history. And today, more than ever, we need to know this heritage of holiness and service — especially... Read more
Readers may recall a two–part interview I did with theologian Matthew Levering a few months back. Many are also aware that one of our newer contributors, Tim Muldoon, also writes for Patheos. These two circumstances combined to net Vox Nova an invitation to participate in the Patheos Book Club and blogger roundtable for Matthew Levering’s latest book “The Betrayal of Charity.” If all goes as planned, you should soon see reflections from Sam, Tim and yours truly. Some readers may... Read more
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