Safe Haven

 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;...