Safe Haven

 When he played that 2007 US Open final against Novak Djokovic, he’d just turned 26. (Born August 8, 1981) I took him for granted in these prime years. We’re so used to speaking of his elegance and shot-making, but that narrative was cemented by him in his 30s and 40s, when his anticipation and variety hid the downtick in the savagery of his athleticism. You have to go back that far to find Novak Djokovic out of sorts. Roger was behind the whole time, but he knew the younger Djokovic would crack. This title was during his run of 5 consecutive US Open championships. When he lost to his rival and good friend Rafa Nadal at Wimbledon in 2008, Federer was contending for his sixth title there, consecutive. Remember that he won again on the grass in 2012, and again in 2017 (!). Even so, he lost 3 times to Djokovic there, culminating at Wimbledon 2019, at age 38, when he needed just one more shot to win his 9th title at the All England Club. The GOAT argument cannot be settled, and it neve...

 The Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis is suing ICE because they are denying priests access to those requesting sacraments in detention. That’s Missouri, by the way. Not Laredo, Texas, or southernmost California. Before we go on, I would like to add that I believe in law. I don’t believe that deportation is, of itself, wrong. But if I wouldn’t deny sacraments to a condemned prisoner in his or her last moments, what sense does it make to treat an illegal alien worse than a murderer? People seriously would rather be “conservative” (or liberal) than Christian, it seems. This whole focus on immigration itself seems wildly disproportionate, and certain federal officials seem intent on dehumanizing anyone who doesn’t serve their ends. Unless the Mississippi River is beset by hundreds of barges full of illegal aliens who embarked off New Orleans, it’s not obvious why ICE operates a detention facility in rural Missouri anyway, but I digress. I remain much more sympathetic to anti-Islamic i...

 If anyone deserves to die, it’s this guy. A US Army officer, he started shooting, killing 12 people and injuring 32 others. And it’s terrorism. He probably became persuaded of the eventual conquest of the decadent “Great Satan.” Whatever. By the way, I don’t care if there happened to be a mosque in my neighborhood. We’re the land of the free, and the home of the brave, not the home of the paranoid. More than likely, someone first got here from the Middle East or Iran or even Africa to get away from the “Islamic” terrorists. If someone accepts our pluralistic society in general and dare I say liberal values—with apologies to Patrick Deneen and Bryan Cross—it’s not my concern. I’m more worried about progressives not accepting our way of life than Muslims, to be frank with you. You know, I am not really worried about dating myself, but I get curious about what people are saying. I started following this cute girl (woman) because she said she was a matchmaker. About 2 weeks later, I f...

 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...