Safe Haven

Fred Noltie clarifies.

Some people are saying America isn't so great. What are we celebrating? I suppose you could say that from any direction. Doesn't it always seem like something important has been lost when time passes? Nostalgia is a temptation for great nations, and great peoples, who perhaps have grown weary of testing their principles, and themselves. A weary people grows tired of testing principles, and a people without virtue grows tired of employing them. Maybe we are that people. But we can be so much more. I read about a guy who jumped in a lake to save a 4-year-old from drowning. He was paralyzed in the process, and then he lost his life. That kind of selflessness, that's America. What would you say to the friends and family of the beloved dead in Charleston? True forgiveness is not unique to us, but it's as American as apple pie. That's hero stuff right there. Maybe some of us will need to learn that process is important, that there are hidden costs to pursuing one...

I got your flowchart right here , Sparky. Really, when sex was separated from procreation, it opened the door to all kinds of arrangements based on subjective feelings, instead of reality. Blessed Pope Paul VI, pray for us!

It would be easy to go in two directions on this marriage question we're all been talking about lately, and neither of them are good. I could simply thump the Bible here and there, unwilling to recognize that the most sophisticated advocates of same-sex marriage know the texts as well as I do, not in any way making human contact with these sinners or their allies. I could also confess the truth of traditional teaching joylessly, almost reluctantly, and I can allow myself to be moved emotionally by the scenes of same-sex couples gaining legal recognition. With respect to the first case, I'm going to say that I understand sinners. If you sin, that means in that moment, whatever it is has become more valuable to you than the God of the universe. We know intellectually how stupid that is. If you're a sinner, however,--and not in the theoretical--you know that reality in your own life; it's not just a pious guilt-trip you give to Johnny-Bob. It sounds good in fundrais...

The End.

Everybody's talkin' 'bout freedom. Define your terms. What is freedom? Two choices: 1. Absolute individual autonomy to make whatever choice you want to make.  People are already getting jumpy, because most of them don't want to kill someone else, or seriously hurt them. But then, most people are going to do some serious equivocating, because "My Body, My Choice!" Not your body, or your choice, in fact. Except for that. I think most people could make a distinction between killing and murder, such that it would be morally licit to use lethal force against another person, in tragic and unavoidable circumstances, in self-defense. Was the Second Iraq War in self-defense? Debatable. Were the ends sought significant enough to render numerous unintended bad effects acceptable? Except for that. Not to beat up on anyone here, but we're getting into the weeds pretty fast. It's like we're talking about morality . Uh-oh. What's our second definition o...