Safe Haven

 In my last post, I took a shot at Ricky Gervais. Well, not really. More like a shot at atheist-flavored ignorance, which even as an entertainer, he’s pretty visible for. We need to actually speak plainly about what we have recorded in what Christians call the New Testament, or New Covenant. Church people, step out of the shoes of loving Jesus and His Church for one moment. How does the New Testament read or sound on the face of it? Let’s just focus on the four Gospels. That’s where all the stuff allegedly said by Jesus is recorded. Jesus as a liar doesn’t have much evidence behind it; he didn’t lounge in Malta after all the stuff, getting rich after selling purported baptismal water. He got called a blasphemer by his own people, and executed as a disturber of the peace by the Roman Empire. Let’s set aside Jesus’ alleged resurrection and every miracle he did for a moment as well. Jesus being crazy seems to have some evidence behind it. No sensible philosopher I have ever heard woul...

 Atheism has never unjustly killed anyone, apparently. Oh, wait. What’s the body count for Marxism-Leninism? 50 million? Can’t wait to hear how those avowed atheists are actually Christians or something. Meanwhile, even if I arrogated to myself the duty to apologize for every awful thing any theist has ever done, those numbers aren’t even close. If you want to say that you don’t want to attend religious services, or even that most of the believers you’ve met are maladjusted weirdos, just say that. But you can’t just make up stuff that’s easily disproven. Meanwhile, have you ever met an atheist-agnostic who said, “Those Christians don’t really love like Jesus”? If Jesus has no divine authority, there’s no profit in being like Jesus. If you don’t believe Jesus is God, or that a god exists, how do you know anything about Jesus? What we know about Jesus purports to be divinely revealed. See where this is going? I don’t know anyone with more chutzpah than the citizens of historically Ch...

 Recent data gathered together by my internet friend James Heaney suggests that 15 percent of the people you might run into (or more) these days may not actually have permission to be in the United States right now. 15 percent is a lot. When I saw the numbers, I was shocked. Me personally? I don’t care. Every immigrant I’ve ever met seems awesome. But let’s say you weren’t sure at even a minimum level that a group of people were committed to a basic posture of nonviolence, or to treat women equally and justly? What if people bring a culture here that’s nothing like ours? Forget skin color or religion, per se. If people don’t commit to basic American values and attitudes, it wouldn’t take much to cause some serious friction that wouldn’t just go away. You can’t just wish all that away with some nice words about equality. That’s about as gracious as I can be toward President Trump and his purpose for being a politician. The last time we had so many outsiders as a proportion of all of...

 I’m writing this now because today, my schoolmate Marci would have been 46. I remember being totally surprised, because I didn’t know she was struggling, and she is/was one of those people who lived so “loud” that you rebuke yourself for wasting time complaining. Have you ever met someone so joyful that you think they’re nuts? Later, you realize the problem is you. I didn’t see Marci much after we left grade school, but I will tell you a story from that time. We’re sitting in class at Ross Elementary in the Physically Impaired classroom. Most of us were slowly being introduced into the general education setting, with plenty of support. One morning in October of 1989, we were regrettably informed that Ross was going to have a fire drill. Now, all the hours and days in the PI classroom, I don’t remember too many alarms. I daresay we didn’t leave for drills (or hear the alarm) as much as the other students. Because if you know anything about cerebral palsy, that startle response of o...

 It was probably some kind of mistake to teach A Wrinkle in Time to my ninth graders. It was originally written at a middle school level. On the other hand, Meg is in the 9th grade. Calvin is an advanced junior. We could lament the decline of the modern student, since I taught early high school, and L’Engle imagined some sixth graders—perhaps reaching a bit, even in 1960–taking it on. On the other hand, the allusions are so rich that literally any person can be enriched by it. I know I always am. Funny thing about the controversies around the book: I am inclined to think that a certain kind of ideology-motivated teacher loves “banned books” because it allows them to take shots at organized traditional religions, public school skeptics, and other politically “bad” people. This is literally the land of the free; you let me know, if any level of government moves to actually ban or prohibit a book. And no, offending your community on purpose isn’t a blow for freedom, Bob. We used to ca...

 These two concepts are kind of opposite each other when thinking about God. Immanence is the nearness of God; the closeness of God to humanity, as we seek purpose and fulfillment. Transcendence is the idea that God is wholly Other, above what he made, and some would say, uninvolved with creatures and the world. The Greeks absolutely believed this. You’re going to hit a wall with Greek philosophy, strictly speaking, for this reason. If the Church had not “baptized” Plato and Aristotle, it’s possible they get forgotten. Joseph Ratzinger, AKA Pope Benedict XVI, essentially says that the Incarnation is this nearness of God. Mankind’s reason vainly reaches as high as it can go, but God in Christ came down. This is who the unknown, unseen God is. Or, as he put it and St. John recorded it, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Our culture is quite messed up, but we’re so used to what Jesus actually did that we mock it in entertainment. The “Buddy Christ” statue from the film D...

 If memory serves, her birthday was March 1. And if I have my years right, she died in 2018, just before she would have turned 93. I saw her a few months before she died. When I think about being a Kettinger, she’s who I think of, along with my father and his siblings, both here, and in the hereafter. One of my brothers is not known for his churchgoing, but he read a Scripture at the Funeral Mass. Nailed it. I have never nailed anything like that in my life. It’s a bit hard to describe my career in simple terms, but if someone described me as a professional Bible reader, I couldn’t deny it. I still couldn’t have done it as well as my brother did that day. At some point, the faithful were invited to sing “On Eagles’ Wings.” I’ve always loved it, but now it’s forever associated with all the love I received from my grandmother, and the courageous life she lived. A dear friend said that he caught the priest rolling his eyes when the hymn started, but he sang it with gusto, like he wrot...

 I happen to believe that the fundamental principle of the Reformation, consistently applied, leads all the way to naturalism-atheism. Private judgment, encapsulated in Sola Scriptura. Blessedly, most people have no interest in severing every possible connection between themselves and the Catholic Church, if they are Christians. And as I work with Barthian Butler, and we talk about how to do ministry together, Sola Scriptura means practically, “We’re gonna mine this divinely inspired written word for everything it has,” not, “Let’s go evangelize the Catholics, before the Whore of Babylon leads them into Hell.” Dr. Cross is right, though: if your lexical tools and your hermeneutical method make it near-impossible to consider full communion with the Catholic Church, those things of themselves lead away from reunion, by the nature of the case. I bring this up with the haze from my recent arguments just beginning to clear. Remember Rachel Held Evans? (Eternal rest…) And she deserved so...

 I should probably be afraid of Italians with mustaches. Or men that wear sleeveless shirts and drive Camaros. I was beaten severely and verbally abused mere minutes after I heard Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” on the radio. No one would blame me, if I never wanted to hear it again. (It’s fine. A delightful song. Don’t worry. I’m happy. See what I did there?) If by some tragedy I started killing Italian men with mustaches who drove Camaros, a profiler would probably dig that up. Someone might even argue that I deserve some consideration, in light of my trauma. But I don’t have the right to generalize my trauma to those others. To use a lesser example, I don’t have the right to slander Italian guys with mustaches in general. My last blog post was probably overstated, as was the Facebook post that prompted it. To the extent that the overstatement was unwarranted, I acknowledge that, and regret the error. A lot of darkness can hide behind a pleasing facade. Beyond finding ou...

 And look, I’m not married. I’ve never been married. I have no children. I didn’t choose that; things just worked out that way. If you must know, I haven’t had sexual intercourse either. I probably should say “coitus,” so I am not arguing with some progressive activist about what “sexual intercourse” means. But I figured out from influencer videos or something what a “dead bedroom” was. Unless a couple mutually agrees that they don’t want to have sex/coitus anymore (hopefully to pray and serve) this is usually bad. I’ve known enough couples that it’s probably an indicator of trouble, especially for couples who are still able to have children. Is it really that wild to at least hope that Mr. and Mrs. Vance love each other? That a fourth child yet born at least might indicate that they enjoy each other?  Children are definitely not responsible for their parents’ happiness. That’s absolutely true. But wouldn’t any child hope their parents were happy, when they came into being? As...

 When I actually started college, the year started with “19.” When I returned to the big university, the son of a president had just defeated Al Gore, Jr. to have the privilege of becoming president himself. The inauguration was a few days into the new semester. About 9 months later, some radical monsters hijacked some airplanes and changed the world forever. I knew this kid from the dorm—I’m sorry, “residence hall”—who thought I was intriguing because I was profoundly disabled but a fire-breathing conservative Republican. He needed to find out how in the Sam Hill that could possibly happen. And he had that verbal dexterity that you find among liberal college kids. I’m the kid who correctly read the word “acrylic” when I was 9 on some intelligence test. My uncle handed me The Fountainhead at around the same time. Don’t get it twisted: As a Christian and Catholic theologian today, I could and would grind Ayn Rand’s whole philosophy to dust. But I was 13 when I actually finished Anth...

 For my entire life, the quickest way to be a “moderate Republican” according to the media is to support abortion. That’s it. Now, in the 21st century, it’s “gay/trans rights” as well, or something similar. No interesting economic theories or ideas will do it. Even though bloody Ronald Reagan himself nearly got 60 percent of the public to vote for him, he can’t be a moderate. The only time you hear about a “conservative Democrat” is when the media doesn’t like that person. They probably think that businesses should earn profits to some degree. If you do that, the mainstream media will treat you like the bad guys in FernGully. Religion and traditional views of human sexuality are interrelated, but there is no causal relationship between the two. A big problem for Democrats is that faithful believers perceive them to be hostile to traditional religion. I guess they don’t mind religion, as long as the candidates go to Rainbow Sparkles Open-Minded Community Church. Which, I don’t care;...

 I’m the biggest fan in a certain sense, because my brain and heart is a startlingly impressive catalog of (mostly) American popular music. I could have been a DJ. I haven’t heard everything by any means, but I’ve heard a lot. Even some of you who proverbially live under a pop culture rock [Bryan Cross.—ed.] may have heard of our actual leader, Empress of The Free World, Taylor Swift. What many do not know is that she is named after a notable musician of much older vintage, James Taylor. I’ll just say that probably his fans and fans of Bob Dylan could duke it out for the question of who is America’s greatest living songwriter. Mr. Taylor in fact is so influential that a young boy growing up in Oklahoma put on his records (and others) and dreamed of being a singer. When the boy made good, he changed music forever, selling over 200 million LPs in about 10 years, and taking the “Country” radio format from a niche to outright competing with the biggest stars in rock history. We know th...

 I’ve got a buddy, Jeremy Tate, trying to displace the ACT and maybe the whole College Board, with the Classical Learning Test. Let’s be blunt: it’s marketed toward college bound classically educated and homeschooled students whose families believe that the public school curriculum is deficient and ideological. Let me say that a perceived ideological bias is one argument, and perceived deficiencies in curriculum are another argument. But in the unfortunate ideological sorting that happens today, that gets conflated by almost everyone. If I’m honest, some sharp kid could have figured out that I’ve been a partisan, but also all over the place. They might have figured out that I probably would agree more with Zora Neale Hurston than Toni Morrison. Maybe. I never told them what they should think, but I was a really open book, myself. They might have thought it odd that I talked about sacrifice and communal meals as important rituals in world religions, as seen in The Odyssey. I don’t c...

 I saw a clip once recently of Jordan Peterson, talking about teaching. He said something like, “Teaching is not primarily about the transmission of knowledge; it’s about setting the intellectual frame, and dramatizing the act of learning.” And he’s right. If I could communicate on some level that what we’re learning is meaningful and important to me, that’s when I was most effective. I might be wrong in some respects about teaching primary students, but the goal for even them is eventually self-directed learning, with the ultimate meaning of the information determined by the students. I taught emerging young adults, and Peterson teaches young adults in university. A computer can correct a factual mistake, programmed correctly. A teacher tells the story of why the facts and data matter. It need not mean the same thing to the students as it does to the teacher, but if you tell them, “What you make of it is up to you,” and they believe you, you’re going to have enormously motivated s...

 I’ll try to be nice. Shouldn’t be that hard. I don’t think I’ve had any persistently negative thoughts about her. She’s beautiful. She is. I hadn’t fully decided to abstain from voting for president until very late that year she became the Democratic nominee, and I’ll just admit that I never minded seeing her on the TV. I’m just girl crazy, and that’s never going to change. I have been completely in love with three women in my life (possibly four) whilst having those feelings returned in some respect. Two out of the three were Black, or from the Indian subcontinent. Harris is both at once. I imagine that twenty years ago, she had most men tripping all over themselves. Mr. Emhoff has learned some grace for these guys (and probably some women) because unless Michelle Obama walks in, he’s the envy of the room. She seemed nervous on a national stage to me. I do think that potentially becoming the second Black president and the first woman president adds a special pressure that we coul...

 A friend from high school just celebrated 26 years. The husband has a great name: Jason. [You are the most self-involved person on Earth.—ed.] I know, right? My friends are close to being grandparents, at least some of them, and I feel a certain sadness about not being in the game, as it were. But this is your frequent reminder that great and cool people don’t find their person sometimes. So-called “inter-abled” relationships are really hard. I know. I honestly think That One Time didn’t work because of the intersection of disability, employment discrimination, and ableism. Do I think ableism and discrimination had something to do with losing my job as a teacher? Yes. Yes, I do. I won’t tell you who I worked for, but it rhymes with “Chesterfield County School District.” I’ve got your social media policy right here, you clowns. Anyway, Jesus said of marriage, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery.” (Luke 16:18) Of course, some Christians use the l...

 It sure seems like Caitlin Clark enjoys playing for her coach (White) and the others on the Fever. There are “family” vibes around all of them. I see the superstars supporting the role players, and vice versa. Stephanie White is now 55-28 overall, since taking over going into the 2025 season. They were 1 (!) win from the WNBA Finals, without Clark and 5 other key players. Understand what this means: Caitlin Clark is a cross between Michael Jordan, and John Stockton. She’s shooting only about 25 percent from 3 point range. If she shot it at 40 percent, she’d score 40 points a game, AND lead the league in assists. Like it or not, she’s the face of the league, even when she isn’t playing particularly well. Some of the fanboys and fangirls need to relax. She can’t play every minute, even if she wanted to. She’s an elite scorer, but she doesn’t have to be. She’s surrounded by players who can score. That’s why she’s the assist leader! Kelsey Mitchell is a top 5 scorer in the league, and...

 My head is swimming with a lot today. I started the commentary on St. Mark’s Gospel today. It’s also my sister Alyse’s (June 11, 1989-April 5, 2023) birthday. It’s the first day of the FIFA World Cup. I’ve got my all-time Spotify playlist playing as I compose this. Taylor Swift’s “betty” is playing right now. I hope she had fun at the Knicks game last night. I’m rooting for the Spurs, but credit to the Knicks for that epic comeback. Did I speak profanity whilst observing ESPN’s GameCast on my phone? Yes. There are no lies on the blog; I speak Swear better than I would like. I had Roger Federer on my mind, because I love him, at least as much as I can love a stranger whose odd sporting skill and character I appreciate. Back in 2015, ESPN created a title screen/highlight package with a dance-pop song called “Something New” by the duo Axwell + Ingrosso. Every time I hear it, I think of Roger, doing Roger things. It made my Spotify playlist, too. I’ll still never be able to express to...

 The reverse statement is of course pithy Calvinism, and it’s pithy nonsense. Maybe going soft on human sexuality is just easier; you can consign anyone you don’t like to Hell anyway. You can’t really appeal to an unavoidable moral law, irrespective of religion, or any flavor of virtue ethics, in this scenario. The erstwhile interlocutors love it, because they can consign any position they don’t like as coming from religion, properly speaking, and appeal to liberty or something similar. The progressives are still Puritans, sans Jesus. The problem was never religion; it’s fanaticism untempered by Divine Love or truth.

 Now, Steven Deacon Greydanus is going backwards, from mistreating people he disagrees with politically, to publishing pro-homosexuality propaganda. Then again, everything is political now. It’s not enough to disapprove of Donald Trump’s personal conduct; we apparently have to disapprove of Supreme Court decisions that left-wingers don’t like. More to the point, the alleged mistreatment of sexual minorities is either fabricated, or exaggerated. We don’t have to join in various celebrations just to affirm our commitment to nonviolence and basic human respect, because well-adjusted people can respect others without necessarily agreeing with them. Maladjusted people need endless affirmation, because the voice of conscience is so loud. It’s funny that so many worry about what “conservatives” will do with government power, but they don’t seem like they are as afraid of words, debate, and disagreement. Hmmm. Coercion is the last refuge of cowards. Speaking of cowards, that’s what I call ...

 The people with the tough, hard exterior are just scared. Scared to love, and scared to be loved. I can see right through them. Kids are like this, too. Growing into adolescence, you can’t show fear, or vulnerability, or need. Especially boys. The only trouble is, if you do enough bad things pretending to be hard, you become that. If you don’t break out of that, you’ll hurt yourself and others—maybe badly—and wonder how it all went so wrong. I taught a kid like this once. He probably should have graduated the other day. We’ll call him “Matt.” I should say, I attempted to teach him. No fooling, he tormented me. When you’re young, testing boundaries is part of the deal. But in strong families, with luck, you get to test your own boundaries while you grow up. If not, they test them on the green and profoundly disabled teacher. This sad story wasn’t my fault, objectively. I know that. But I still think about that kid. I question everything I said and did. On the other hand, the next t...

 I’m up way too late tonight, because I started adding pop culture stuff to my Facebook profile. Among my ten favorite films are two starring this man: Hook (1991) and What Dreams May Come (1998). I didn’t even add Dead Poets Society (1989) or his Oscar-winning performance in Good Will Hunting (1997) and I don’t much like the two leads who wrote the script: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Robin kept that movie from being youthful self-congratulatory nonsense. Will sucks, and Affleck’s character is pointless. If I didn’t resonate with the trauma and the love story, I might have hated it. Robin has absolutely iconic films that I haven’t seen. But anyone who thinks he’s just a comedic actor isn’t paying attention. Dude is one of the best actors, period. And he gave us himself without playing himself. It’s cliche and mainstream to love him, and his death saw an outpouring of emotion that felt weird, even for an admirer like me. But really, he was deeply human in the best way. I hope the Ju...

 My opposition to voluntary pregnancy termination (commonly known as abortion) goes like this: All human beings—irrespective of their ability or inability to defend themselves—have an inviolable dignity. It is morally unacceptable to murder a living human being. (Indeed, it’s reprehensible to desecrate the body of a human being who has died.) Murder is the unjust taking of a human life. Voluntary pregnancy termination is the taking of a human life at an early stage of development. Murder is always wrong. Some argue that a living human being is only a person when they are older, such as when they can speak and think. One argument mistakenly claims that an embryo or fetus cannot feel pain, and thus, it is claimed that killing them would be morally acceptable. But to accept this would violate the first premise. Taking the life of a human being at any early stage of development, such as the zygotic or embryonic stage, is particularly unacceptable because they are defenseless. Aggressio...

 I can actually imagine the kind of person who worries that that America’s putative conservative political party will usher in some crazy religious nutters. The avowed Christians around Donald Trump are not like your Grandma. I might have said they haven’t had a normal day since Halloween, 1985, but they probably don’t celebrate Halloween. We can imagine those people; they are depicted on TV a lot, fairly and not. I saw a clip of the stand-up comedian Danny Jolles talking about “bros” the other day. [Bros? Oh. Like, not the guys who call everything “sportsball” to seem cool to their wussy academic friends. Gotcha.—ed.] He said a funny thing, insulting maybe, meant for that “wussy” audience: “Bros are like the dogs of people.” Loudly announcing themselves, potentially annoying, but really just want to make friends. After mentioning that genuinely evil, dangerous bros exist, he noted that a “good bro” refers to Roe v. Wade approvingly. And maybe Danny Jolles is the kind of liberal co...

 The infamous Juror #3 was played by Lee J. Cobb, and of course his intransigence was driven by his distance from his son. He saw his son in the defendant. He got called a sadist by Henry Fonda’s Juror #8, and he did a fair amount of yelling. But in the end, I’m pretty sympathetic. The real bigot is Juror #10. He goes on a big rant, and gets shunned by all the others. Ed Begley. He had to be a heck of an actor. The anger ranges from subtle to explosive. I think the lesson is that anyone can seem normal when they aren’t pressed.

 The basis for all the case law that we think of as “human rights” is natural law, and revealed Christianity.  [Sarcasm on] It’s cool on the worldwide Left to think of “human rights” as pertaining to sexuality, as long as it’s abnormal, or involving the intentional killing of preborn people in the womb. Wars are always bad, especially when engaged in by the United States. Actually, wars started in response to the “evil” hegemony of the United States are good, obviously. [Sarcasm off] Somewhat inconveniently, the only time sexual minorities are actually erased are in countries that happen to be enemies of the United States. Forgive me, but I think the idea of Christians being the problem is patently absurd. Domestic politics is absurd, silly, and even destructive. But you know, we can ignore people who say crazy things. Then again, doing politics might involve hearing things that sound crazy, but are actually not. Doesn’t it seem clear that people stay in bubbles where they nev...

 I had some pretty rough days as a child. Most people don’t know. Whenever I could, I would escape to my room and watch PBS. Because in St. Louis where I grew up, Channel 9 comes in the best, even today. It’s a moral intuition that told me Fred Rogers was safe. Don’t bother me about his views on homosexuality; by the time I get to Heaven, the Lord has already talked it over with him. [Did you just baldly assert that Fred Rogers is in Heaven?—ed.] Yep. Feeling pretty safe about that one. But if he needs my prayers to make it all the way Home, he’s got them. Pete’s sake, I feel like he’s a friend of my Dad, at the very least. He’s been dead 23 years, and he still seems present. I know I’m not the only one. I’ll elaborate my conflicted views about public television and radio later. Suffice it to say that I really don’t know if I would be here, without Mr. Rogers.

 There’s a pretty woman who gives sex advice for a company called “Yoxly.” I’ve seen the reels on Facebook. I have no need for sex advice, but you know, good-looking women are good for marketing. I’ve noticed one weird thing: the worst-case scenario in all these reels is pregnancy. The worst thing next to that is unprotected sex. Or, as normal people call it, “sex.” I know objectively that not everyone is Catholic. I also know that a Catholic life is a difficult life, at least with willpower alone. I also know that the purveyors of the zeitgeist are absolute freaks. Seriously, what is wrong with you people?

 I admittedly aim a lot of my fire at these wishy-washy liberal evangelicals, because they seem to assert that all Trump opposition has to be basically progressive. Maybe rightism was forced down their throats. Or maybe they’re just dumb. I’m never going to say abortion is acceptable. I’m never going to support euthanasia. I’m never going to say that a family is whatever you want it to be. Let me be blunter about it: I don’t think homosexuality is good, or even neutral. People are going to do what they do, and I don’t believe in government power to force people to do things. But I also think the “pro-gay” consensus is fraudulent. It’s a witches brew of stupidity and sentimentality. At best. While we’re at it, the reason to support one man-one woman marriage is that children result from those people having sex. I suppose that’s kind of obvious, but you can’t take anything for granted, given the influence of gender ideology. Young people are so steeped in it that they can’t even prac...

 I was snarkily thinking it was cute to see who liberal Democrats think is a unifying figure who could win the presidency. But then I thought, “Well, the Right isn’t having a normal one, either” and that we don’t really talk across that divide. We talk about each other, but not to each other. I’m glad Stephen Colbert’s show is ending. I like him, or at least I think I would, but he hasn’t been funny for years. And he’s one of those people who reinforces arrogant left-wing attitudes and perspectives. He’s the Pauline Kael of the century; he doesn’t have any friends who voted for Trump, and he won’t know anyone who voted for the next guy. I could have said “person,” but I don’t think we’ll see a female GOP nominee for some time. It seems like Rubio is in a good position to unite the Right, but he’s the child of immigrants. Will the nativist wing allow him to be kinda liberal on immigration? On the other hand, a lot of Trumpism is pretending to care about things—enough to enrage the L...

 I’m in a wheelchair with spastic hands, arms, and legs, so I wouldn’t touch a Host or a chalice unless I was compelled to do so. Along with the Magisterium, I place no special burden upon people to do it my way. I will say that if the Host ever did touch my hand, I would lick my hand, to make sure nothing of Jesus ended up on the ground or some other unworthy place. I don’t abide “traditionalist” nonsense that only clerics should touch the sacred species because only their hands are consecrated. By baptism, all the faithful are consecrated and made worthy by Jesus to be there. He could destroy us all, but he wants us there. The priest is consecrated in a unique and permanent way to make the Eucharistic Sacrifice, but the whole liturgy is sacrifice and communion. If extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion remain bothersome, it is because not enough people avoid Communion for reason of grave sin/mortal sin. But that’s a much bigger problem than the “traditionalist” desire to presu...

 It’s the film Argo, about the rescue of the hostages taken by the Iranian cult regime. Several CIA agents did great work, and it’s awfully hard not to swell with pride at hearing from President Carter in the ending credits.    I never went along with the legend that the Iranians were terrified of Reagan, so they released the diplomats. They weren’t afraid of Reagan when they sent the PLO terrorists to Beirut to kill Dr. Malcolm Kerr in 1984. Obviously, if you’re gonna lose, you want to have a post-presidency like that one. Also, how do we know he wasn’t just unlucky in the macroeconomic sense? George H.W. Bush got similarly unlucky in the fall of 1992. And the Right was divided by a nativist populist that year. I seriously hate it when that happens. I hate it even more when a dumber, cruder version of the guy wins two non-consecutive terms. I digress.

 A 7-year-old was kidnapped, strangled, and murdered in Texas. As soon as the man dies, the little girl will still be dead. There is a team of people who have to practice putting him and others to death. Their bodies and souls won’t care how deserving the man is. I know a lot of “conservative” Catholics who love to say, “The Church is right about everything” when it’s homosexuality or contraception, but this one, they grab a tray at the cafeteria.

 Jesus speaks of a narrow gate or way, and few find it. It leads to life. The wide gate or way leads to destruction, and many find it. This is a hard saying. I have to conclude that Hell is real, and that more end up separated from God, than united to him. I’m not the final interpreter here—thank you, Jesus, for the Magisterium—but that’s a plain reading of this text, and a few others. Jesus in the Gospels is the lens to interpret literally everything else in the Bible, because He is the Word, the beloved Son of the Father, Lord of the Sabbath, and everything else. How empty or full either Heaven or Hell are—other than saying an empty Hell wouldn’t need to exist, for one—is wasting time. You can drive yourself crazy with fear, and activities designed to mitigate or manage the fear, to little effect. We can have moral certainty of being in a state of grace by examining our conscience, and going to Confession if necessary. Beyond that, we have to trust in the mercy of God. If God wer...

 Alito went on for 40 extra pages about how to constitutionally pass muster with the Court. But Warnock and the rest of the Democrats would rather scream “racist, racist!” than do their bloody jobs. But that’s a far Left that’s grown accustomed to achieving their ends through the Courts, since they have given up persuading fellow citizens, either to win the presidency, or pass legislation. “Sad!” you might say.

 Progressives (unreasonably liberal Democrats) are having a freak-out over the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, where the Court (6-3) ruled that a map creating a second “majority-minority” district was racially discriminatory. A key finding was that the motive was primarily racial justice (or someone’s idea of racial justice). The government can only specifically use race as a factor if the congressional district: 1. Addresses a specific, measurable harm; and  2. is not otherwise discriminatory in intent. Failing that, “strict scrutiny” under the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment is triggered, and there are only a couple scenarios where government action could be justified, neither of which were present here. I want to add in a couple things I know/believe that can shed further light on the majority opinion: 1. Most analysts do not believe Black majorities are required to elect Black candidates. I learned in college that a critical mass of about 30 p...

 I know the words to the Canadian national anthem. I grew up watching hockey. You’re not a true hockey fan, if you don’t know Canada’s anthem. It’s short and to the point, anyway. The Buffalo Sabres of the NHL have both anthems sung, regardless of whether they are playing a Canadian team. (It’s customary to sing both, if the visiting team is from the other country.) Their home ice is less than 10 minutes from Canada, so a good number of their fans are Canadian. They are our neighbors and friends to the north. Since most NHL teams are in the United States, I think we should honor Canada like this.

 We have been fighting against factions and spiritual elitism from the very beginning. The thing about public revelation is that it’s public. Jesus wants everyone to know. Heaven is so important to complete our being that the Great Commission makes sense. Water baptism in the Triune Name, and obedience to the teachings of Jesus. Simplifying spiritual practices so that His Apostles could literally reach around the world. A priest serves the teaching mission of the Bishop. A priest without his bishop is a sheep without a shepherd. Fr. Chad Ripperger wants to tell you that the obvious stuff isn’t enough; he wants to make you think that you need special knowledge—his special knowledge—in order to be a saint. At best, he is dangerously misguided; at worst, he is a wolf. The only thing you really need to know about exorcisms is that they exist. Anything more is dangerous. The true child of the Church obeys. The priest obeys the bishop; the bishop obeys the Successor of Peter. And so on. ...

 You could remind me that the paragraphs in the universal Catechism have different levels of assent they require of us, and consequently, the formulations are only as true as the teachings they rely on. And that’s true. But I am not a PhD, for one, and practically, levels of assent don’t help most people. When I read the Catechism, it is my intention to believe what the Church teaches, to understand what the words mean as best I can, and if I can’t understand, to seek those with more faith and/or knowledge than I have. Frankly, though I have great zeal for our faith, I have never been able to consent to the label “traditionalist.” It seems to be a habit of mind that supposes that the Church in her spiritual dimension can err, and that the men set apart by God to govern and teach us are not owed submission or deference in any respect. Moreover, there is a conceit that a purer time in the past existed, and that if we draw from this alone, we will be unstained by the world. Yet all th...

Let’s get right to the point: Is it acceptable to ask God to end our suffering, even though God shows us the true nature of everything through it? Good question. I say yes. Physical pain is a reminder of death in a groaning creation. It is—rather inconveniently—the result of original sin. God uses everything for our good, including suffering and death. But He doesn’t grant a goodness in itself to either of those things. We’re not dualists. We don’t want the proclamation of God’s goodness and wisdom to confuse us. We must endure suffering, but there need not be a necessity in itself for suffering. And if you think about it some, it makes sense. He couldn’t promise to wipe away every tear from our eyes, if sorrow had some inherent value. Death, thirst, every other privation, is not necessary, strictly speaking. God’s will gives it purpose, and thus, direction. Therefore, I am a spiritual being whose hopes and desires ought to reach to the highest Heaven, but I am also a creature trapped ...

 To state the obvious, Muslims are not Christians, because among other things, Christians worship Jesus Christ as God. Moreover, we say they have distorted the Hebrew Scriptures. Theologically, it’s so deterministic in a philosophical sense that John Calvin would cry. Somewhat alarmingly, The Atlantic reported in an essay that perhaps 20 percent of worldwide Muslims would be willing to engage in violence to advance their religion. To be completely fair to that point, one out of five is not a good number. On the other hand, I have met plenty of ordinary Muslims here in America. I wouldn’t get scared in Dearborn at a mosque, or at a fencing club near Savannah. I just wouldn’t. I don’t know what the demons are up to ordinarily, and it would be incredibly self-serving to imagine that of course the Muslims are infested with demons, whilst I and my co-religionists are beloved of God. But let’s cut the mess: the Catholic Church teaches that Muslims, Christians, and Jews all worship the sa...

 I can't remember exactly when I picked up a book by St. Teresa of Avila, but I was too young in faith to understand it. It was The Interior Castle, and I definitely thought she was nuts. The spiritual life goes forward, and then things become clearer. I had another book by a British nun named Ruth. I guess one feels more freedom to speak plainly in the same spiritual family. Sr. Ruth definitely didn't agree all the time with St. Teresa. What follows is some speculation based in my reading and direct experience. I think physical suffering is to separate the soul from the world. I use "the world" in the negative sense that St. John the Evangelist does when he refers to "the world, the flesh, and the devil." That is, everything opposed to God. Everything in normal human experience teaches us that pain is bad. It's in fact a really good indicator that something is wrong. Pain and problems unresolved lead to death. It's normal. We are destined to die, in...

 I appreciate the efforts of the leaders at the school where I once worked to discourage the students from drinking, from drinking and driving, and riding home with anyone who has been drinking. And now that I don’t work there, I can say one more thing freely: You don’t have to have sex, either.  If you choose not to, you’re not weird. Even if you’re 17 or even 18, you have a right to not be ready. I have often been told that pastors don’t preach about it in the churches. I think we were so worried about not seeming “judgmental” that we’re forgetting to mention that unmarried sex is a sin, according to both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. God is ready and willing to forgive *anything* you have done. And you can always start over. Sometimes we feel guilty about things, and we’re unable to forgive ourselves, in a way. So it becomes easier to pretend that others are trying to make us feel guilty, when we’re doing it ourselves. Remember, my beloved students: I loved you alw...

 I’m gonna help you with this, and I don’t need a dubious degree in a dubious discipline to do it. What is a “boy band”? If it’s white/Latino/Asian kids singing Black music, or pop in a Black style, it’s a boy band. We know it, but we don’t say it. If it’s Black kids doing the exact same thing, it’s a vocal group. It might not even be fair, but that’s how it works. It’s even more obvious if the audience is pre-teen or teenage white girls. That’s a boy band. You might feel slightly embarrassed to put on really old New Edition; awkward songs about youthful crushes. But they did OK after that. I don’t have any Backstreet Boys albums; I just don’t. Why? I wasn’t their audience. That’s why Andy Samberg getting criminals to sing “I Want It That Way” was really funny; we know he’s twisting a gender and sex boundary, even if we don’t say it. This is your “JK Liberal Post Of The Week.” Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

 For the record, I am only part-way into season 3. And a lot of people who probably go to a lot of therapy are really inspired by it. I suppose that’s fine; I can’t claim my eyes have stayed dry the whole time. But it’s a comedy primarily, and it’s actually funny. Those of sensitive conscience will be out; it’s got strong language. But I speak Swear natively, so I hardly noticed. It’s about a soccer team in England who hires an American football coach as a gag, but Ted isn’t a bumbler, and it starts to work. You’ll like these people, and you should. I have been a teacher and a coach, so I know that motivation is the true key to success, and Ted Lasso absolutely believes it, too. Brett Goldstein as Roy Kent is the best character on Anglo-American TV this side of Alec Hardy. He’s crass and endearing, and it just works. I saw him in a Sesame Street clip, and I just got happier not long ago. Goldstein was originally just a writer on the show, and he said, “I think I’m Roy,” and he cert...

 These liberal politicians just grind my gears. The police are part of the system, but at the top of that system is capital punishment. No major Democrat has moved against it. They’re the Government Is Good Party, but they can’t even move against the supreme expression of state power, which is unnecessary. Rural cops haven’t been leading in extrajudicial killings since like 1930, but on and on they rail about rural Republican love of guns. Mark Shea is intellectually useless, but Greydanus might stand to notice that New Jersey isn’t quite as wide open as say, Utah, or Kansas. I’d be way more afraid of guns, too, if my neighbors were on top of me. And mental health plays a role in almost all these mass shootings, too. Personally, I am all for more spending on mental health. Maybe we can use the annual subsidy that Planned Parenthood gets.

 Let me preface this by saying that my general sense of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church seems to advocate for a social democratic state that would terrify Ronald Reagan, to say nothing of American “conservatives” today. But. One funny little aspect that throws a wrench into various left-wing dreams AND Tom Darrow’s advocacy for a UBI: The dignity of work. We could probably do everything conceivable along the lines of preventing disastrous externalities—and it’s probably right and good to do so—but a UBI can’t replace a minimum wage, because it’s not a wage. Wages and salaries get paid for work that gets done. We could make a Basic Needs Floor or something, but that’s not a wage. Looking forward to where this goes.

 But Dr. Bryan Cross of Mount Mercy University was my Confirmation sponsor. And taught me RCIA/OCIA. He’s a credentialed expert on Alasdair MacIntyre. Some of it possibly rubbed off. Dr. Lawrence Feingold was my teacher, also. He’s a  Thomist. A group of folks spent hours at Larry’s reading the Summa. I don’t mind zucchini because of dinners there, and I can read St. Thomas without wanting to curl into the fetal position. Maybe that makes me a Thomist.  You just gotta read him; no easy way to become a Thomist. You can be guided by a great teacher through Aquinas, but you’re not a Thomist until Thomas is your teacher. When you can anticipate what he would say—or flat-out recite it—you’re a Thomist. Pastor Timothy Butler of Little Hills Church in St. Peters, MO is absolutely a Thomist. I think he thinks in Summa article format. Good quirk to have. [Oddly, he’s not Catholic.] He oddly is a lot of other things, though! I’m willing to lose a bet that Tom Darrow has read the Su...

 It’s probably insane to mark the time when I was about 20 as “the good ol’ days,” but if you think about it, unless you’re sick, being 20 is generally awesome. I didn’t fornicate with any women, so I can’t talk about that. I’m a massive nerd, who was the type to learn whilst entertaining himself. I never belly-laughed at Dennis Miller, but I appreciate him. The forerunner of every rightist trying to be funny. A conservative Republican at his/her best knows something you don’t. He’s not depressed; he leaves that for you, liberal. I will say Gutfield is trying too hard; when The Five was first on, it was hilarious. Conservatives aren’t funny when they’re aggrieved; they’re funny when you’re aggrieved. I don’t have anything to say really about the Pope and Vice President Vance. It wasn’t a smooth move for a general election, when the Catholic vote—both observant and otherwise—will be crucial. You can totally see Marco Rubio getting photographed at Mass, hugging his Bishop, and carryi...

 I always fear that my friend Tom Darrow, lately of Denver, Colorado and now presumably Iowa, cannot follow my chaotic digressions. But he seems to hold up well enough. [You probably shouldn’t give him your private message novellas late at night; he has a family, you scumbag.—ed.] Well, I used to rely on the forced generosity of the Mountain time zone; now, I am legitimately just trash. Anyway, I had a point, other than shouting out Tom. Being on the Right like 25 years ago at the dawn of the internet age was wild. Instapundit was the blogger version of the New York Times. And from there, you could go to Blackfive and Ace of Spades for military blog posts, James Lileks for culture and humor, some chick named Virginia who was in tech or something who was attractive and interesting, and on and on. Kausfiles was linked, and I am sure liberals thought and think he’s a betrayer, but those were the days that Democrats could outright win national elections. No, seriously. It used to be a ...

 Barry Manilow is a great songwriter, producer, and performer. His most famous songs are ones he didn’t write. “Mandy” and hilariously, “I Write The Songs” are the obvious examples. But he did write “Looks Like Me Made It.” Now, I love that bloody song; the lyrics and chorus just ring somehow. Yet I got to thinking. That’s the exact song that made me realize Manilow is gay. If he’s got actual sexual experience with women back there somewhere, I stand corrected. But no healthy heterosexual man—if you will forgive the term—would openly say anything like this, and especially not when he’s supposed to marry someone else. Maybe most people are recklessly…active, and I’m naive. But most of his records are kinda heteronormative in a way that isn’t convincing. With all due respect. Granted, pop singers aren’t known for continence and fidelity. But if say, Lionel Richie had been closeted gay for 40-odd years, I’d be stunned.

 I said that the Left had a presentation problem, and that is not quite right. First, a couple anecdotes: 1. I read once that 86 percent of babies aborted in New York City are Black; 2. Gov. JB Pritzker, someone with presidential aspirations, and whose state contains one of the largest cities in America, signed a bill authorizing euthanasia in Illinois. (Pope Leo XIV is a Chicago native.) Two literal examples of genocide, if not in intent, in result. Even the people who caved and used IVF or condoms one time know that we’re in a spot. Even if you can be funny on Colbert, you’re not “just one of the folks” if you support a genocide. Before you support single-payer healthcare (all the government), what are you going to say when that euthanasia becomes involuntary? Meanwhile, some Christians make a big fuss about various “visibility days” related to LGBTIA issues. Before I go on, let me say this as carefully as I can: I can show respect and even sympathy for people who are struggling—...

 Trump is Trump, and “appalling” and “blasphemous” are probably apt descriptions. But someone I know started a statement like the title of this post. I reject it as Marxist ideology, as if a person with a certain skin tone must think a certain way, and must be in eternal conflict with white people. It’s everywhere; it’s almost embedded in “mainstream” liberalism. Personally, I have opposed Trump at every turn. I’m not going to accept him as the logical outcome of a “white” view of the world, as if that also exists. A certain type of evangelical just falls into this ideological capture, because they are apocalyptic about everything, including politics. No “we lost today, but we’ll get them the next time.” No cooperation for the good of the city. Good guys and bad guys. The right-wingers do the same thing in reverse.

What if most of this phrase is political and cultural bullshit?  There is probably a theobro somewhere who agrees with me. I’m not one of them; I think women should vote, and have driver’s licenses and credit cards and whatever. I think “bodily autonomy” is a trash euphemism that means, “I think it’s perfectly acceptable to murder the results of my sexual promiscuity, because sexism, or whatever.” Something very close to 99 percent of all intentional pregnancy terminations are elective. Those three words before “are elective” are precisely chosen, so I don’t get into a pointless equivocation with the latte-drinking girly-boy husband of an exvangelical, because they like to conflate medical terms with common usage ones to sound smart. I don’t know “Allison,” maybe traditional Christianity seems “hurtful” because you slept with your boyfriend in college, and every time you open a Bible, you feel guilty. Except when Pastor Ben displays that verse about immigrants from the Old Testamen...