Safe Haven

 (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.

 I don’t interact with Pastor Tim Butler on the Twitter that much directly, but what happens is that I usually find him arguing with a crazy person who’s enmeshed in political dark arts (racists, Nazis, misogynists) and I will say something brief, hopefully to turn that person around. So I just said, “Europe is nearly godless. Why would you want to replicate that?” You see, liberals and progressives these days usually spend most of their time lecturing people, and trying to demonstrate how much better they are than the great unwashed. Ironically, this drives people deeper into the scary places, because scary people will say to them, “No, you’re right. Mainstream people don’t hear you out, but I will.” I don’t know if that dude was reachable. I think “the Great Replacement” is a stupid thing to worry about. I don’t care what skin color someone has. The United States was founded on ideas, not race or ethnicity. I don’t necessarily agree that Charlie Kirk was a “normie Republican” as ...