Safe Haven

 I went to a trivia night several years ago to benefit L’Arche. In St. Louis, MO, you can raise money for almost anything with a trivia night. It’s just really big in my hometown, for some reason. We’re just smart, and we like eating, drinking, and helping people. I think I just described every Catholic town on Earth. Anyway, I have become pretty aware that I arouse pity just by being out in the world. That’s life with all the visible or audible disabilities, I guess. I myself have no cognitive impairments whatsoever, and I’m happy with that. If I am honest, though, God has deserved more thanks for that than I have given so far. My intellect isn’t mine, any more than Kelsey Mitchell or Caitlin Clark or Roger Federer can take credit (entirely) for their athletic ability. Then again, a defect you carry from the beginning, the opposite of which you have never experienced, carries less sorrow than losing the ability to do something you did before. (I’m losing some of those things, and ...

 On the one hand, I served and learned alongside women as a Presbyterian in seminary (PCA). I'm highly in favor of them getting any advanced degree a man could get. I personally don't really mind them going to more "liberal" denominations to hold pastoral offices, because the taxonomy from the Anglican bishop J.B. Lightfoot within the essay "On The Christian Ministry" highlights both Protestantism's fatal flaw, and illustrates why female clergy really can only occur in a Protestant context. Many Anglicans are angered at being called "Protestant," but they'll finally get over it when they re-join the one true Church. Lightfoot said that the conception of the pastoral office is either "sacerdotal" (from the Latin for "priest") or "functional." Very low church Protestants and independent communities that emerged in the aftermath of the Reformation tend--if this is a spectrum--toward the functional end, while commu...

 She’s Christa Pike’s victim. You can’t say anything about anything without the madding crowd demanding “balance” on every question. Colleen was a person who didn’t deserve to die. She was loved by people, and first by God. She was murdered by Christa Pike more than 30 years ago. Whatever we decide to do with Pike, she did that. Colleen isn’t coming back here. But if I’m right about God, why would we want her to, on the one hand? On the other, we know from experience that human connection and love is a great solace in this vale of tears. There isn’t enough solace here in human terms, if you’re asking me. But you don’t get life from death. Christ defeated death. He didn’t make it sunshine and rainbows. Ordinarily, death begets more death. More sorrow. More loss. Look me in the face and tell me that you want the government who can’t fix our streets and bridges to be meting out death. Don’t answer me from feelings; we know what those often say. If someone killed one of my brothers or ...

 The Dobbs decision was great. It’s a great day for America, and eventually the world. And it never happens if Secretary Clinton wins the presidency. I come by it honest. If I tell you we’d be better off if Donald J. Trump never becomes our president, I absolutely mean it. But the blood would still cry out from the ground. Ask me why I don’t cheer unequivocally for Democrats, and that’s why. Troubling thing about elected Democrats and far Left activists today: Their moral rigidity would be welcome, but for the fact that they’re wrong about everything of consequence. It’s great we don’t say “faggot” and other slurs in polite society; the bait-and-switch about what families are, and what we ought to do in law and culture remains. When I talk about false sentimentality around gay activism, I mean that deep down, we know—or we ought to—that it’s not cost-free to anyone. It’s not a cutesy Will & Grace episode. And it all leads to the rivers of blood pouring out of the abortuaries. P...

 (Note: The balance of this piece was published as a Facebook status first.) People are free to like what they like, and not like stuff they don’t. And this includes Taylor Swift. Me personally? I love her music. But I have to object personally to the idea that her target audience is women and girls. I’m neither one of those things. And even if it were true, the men I associate with genuinely like and admire women and girls. We should be as offended by the idea that women are odd, or so different than men that never the twain shall meet, as we are that all men are violent monsters. Anyway, I remember hearing Taylor at 16 on the radio giving an interview. Her first song “Tim McGraw” had just come out. The interviewer asked her who she wanted to write songs with. She said Craig Wiseman. That dude has some serious credits to his name, including helping Phil Vassar write his self-titled debut in 2000. And I can remember thinking, “This kid is gonna be huge.” Right now, she’s the bigges...

 Christa Pike was the victim of a botched execution in Tennessee. It’s all the proof we need that we shouldn’t do this anymore. While we’re on the subject, her life is textbook “mitigating factors.” We shouldn’t have even gotten to this point in this case. And she was sentenced 31 years ago. Don’t read the comments. We’re coarsened by our thirst for blood. And don’t argue “limited government” with me; the Supreme Court lifted a stay that the state had granted. The federal government imposed itself to help the state of Tennessee kill Pike, and couldn’t even do it right. Your tax dollars at work. The supreme expression of government power over the individual is in killing. If you want more of it, you might be a lot of things, but you’re not a conservative in the Anglo-American sense. A lot of American Catholics are sold on the “Frank The Hippie Pope” narrative, because it obscures the fact that the popes have been moving toward abolition of capital punishment for 60 years. If you spe...

 I've seen the clip a few times. Tyler, son of the legendary coach, played on an AAU team in high school. They asked Coach if she'd coach those boys for one game. Probably not anything of great consequence, and sports in the end is not.  She calls a timeout and says, "Somebody on this team needs to rebound, if we want to win this game!" Summitt never did anything halfway. And that's why she has 1098 wins and 8 NCAA titles. We still miss you down here, Coach.

 Not in the sense of Protestant. In the sense that Jesus is my personal friend. Actually, friendship better captures what’s happening in the Scriptures than anything else. A lot of people are giving up the label. Lots of reasons for this. Sex. People want to be liberal about sex. Maybe they are sinners themselves, and the guilt of believing something else while living differently is too much. Maybe they’re just sentimental and really liked “Will & Grace.” The reality of the lives depicted there is sadder than a sitcom. The true nature of Sola Scriptura and Reformed claims about the Fall work together to make every argument an argument not about what the Bible says, but what it means. There remains a chasm between faith and reason, and under this regime, conscience and history and experience means nothing. We always thought “Where is that in the Bible?” would lead in one direction; it doesn’t. And it’s not really a question, it’s a direct challenge to any purported authority. Pe...

 I really just browse the profiles. I have only chatted with one person. You see lots of interesting women there, and sometimes shockingly beautiful women, but I have one concern, and it’s a weird one. When I see a baptism photo, I wonder if she’s going to a church that gets “creative” with the baptismal formula: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” I think I could convince a sweet Protestant girl that I know Jesus personally. I’m just a nerd, and that’s why I became Catholic! That’s funny, right? But can you imagine if I had to say, “They got creative with your baptism, darling, and it’s invalid”? Sweet mercy, we’d be toast as a couple, inside a week. I might as well tell her Jesus is a Vogon bureaucrat, and she brought the wrong Salvation Form. Theologians are the worst.

 I had one administrator that I really enjoyed working with. He made me nervous at first, but he’s a great educator, for one thing. Could absolutely jump into a lesson on most subjects and not embarrass himself. You figure out quickly who’s been in a classroom and who hasn’t. I’ll codename him “J.F. Sebastian” in homage to the Blade Runner character. He left the high school to be a principal with primary school kids. I just go, “Awww” at the thought of it. I myself wouldn’t want to become cynical, and that can happen in a high school setting. I’m theologically trained, and serious enough to know that the innocence of children can’t save your soul. On the other hand, I haven’t heard of a better personnel shift anywhere in some time. Anyway, I did absolutely feel that at least one person wanted me to flourish. HR and the Board could disappear from the Earth with no appreciable loss, from my vantage point. But it wasn’t all bad.

 But it's not real hate. There are a few players that I dislike strongly, for reasons that may border on irrational, and I would recant that, if confronted in public. Like if I ever disrespected an actual person because he played for a rival. You might recall that the Cubs won the World Series in 2016, breaking a curse of not winning a championship for 108 years. Generations lived and died as Cubs fans without seeing that glory. I was born in 1980. Not only have my Cardinals won three times in my lifetime, but I remember 2 of them. Not only that, but the Cardinals have been the World Series runner-up 3 other times in my memory. It's easy to be a Cardinals fan. It's so easy, I feel guilty about it. In the 2010s, national articles were written about how obnoxiously good we were, and I can't even bother to disagree. It's absolutely hilarious to read about "Cardinals Devil Magic" and so forth. The Cardinals are likely to lose more games than they win this year...

 Apparently, Hank Williams, Jr. said in a song, "If the South woulda won, we'd have it made." I'm sure that ignorant hillbilly believes it, too. Just a recap: The Confederate States of America fought for actual white supremacy. They fought for the continued slavery of Black people. I'm thankful every single day they lost the war. The sheer number of men who fought bravely and died causes us to have more compassion than may be warranted. After all, brother literally fought against brother. All that said, I'm happy to be cited for a noise violation for playing "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic" at full volume. I won't even try to say that President Lincoln was a perfect man. Not even close. But he's ranked by every poll of presidents at the top, and if you're not gonna argue for President Washington, you don't really have a case. Sidebar: Presidents' Day used to be for Washington and Lincoln's birthdays. It's not meant to hon...

 A word on “political”: When people use it pejoratively, they mean “partisan.” And when we say “partisan,” we mean something like, “imbued with a party spirit such that truth, honesty, and even common human decency are set aside.” By the way, you can read it in the comments of every New York Times article. A sneering, left-wing, “our opponents are stupid, and probably poor” sentiment. They can hear and see. You know that, right? After I saw “Rethuglicans” for the 50th time, that pretty much decided that I couldn’t be a Democrat, no matter how sad, mad, and horrified I got at Donald Trump and the Republicans. Then again, I just teach. I don’t have time for team sports. And how to live and flourish together—a good definition for the meat of politics—deserves better than to be treated like an SEC football rivalry. Inevitably, I write about politics and culture here. The life of self-governance is possibly the second-most important universe of questions, after, “Who is God? Who am I? W...

 He’s not by any means a “clean” comedian, but then again, his language isn’t so foul that he couldn’t perform in such a setting. Besides that, what you notice is that he believes in the permanence of marriage. He’s got a bit about the difference between dating and marriage that’s tremendously funny. He says: “If you’re dating, it’s a stressful night. You actually care how this goes. If you get in a fight tonight—maybe over something I’m about to say—the whole thing could be over tonight. The relationship could end tonight… My wife and I could get into the same fight—it could be the worst fight in the world—and we’re not going anywhere, because we don’t have that option.” It’s quaint and beautiful, in its own way.