Safe Haven

5 Thoughts For Today 5. I don't believe Christian and Republican are the same thing, but the Democratic Party is completely opposed to everything good, true, and right that I believe in. I don't have the desire to be "cool" and "winsome" or whatever young Christians think they are doing. I'm happy and proud to be Republican. 4. Where they may have good points, they squander them by cowardice. 3. Rand Paul is a coward, too. You were right the first time on the drone strikes, sir. 2. Why has no Republican presidential candidate in recent memory had the guts to be opposed to the death penalty? 1. There will be a challenge from the social-con Right (Santorum?) and quasi-libertarians (Paul), but the base and the establishment will settle on Rubio. Yes, this is exactly what I think will happen. Then again, I thought Mittens would win.

5 Thoughts For Today 5. I will be dressed to the nines on Saturday. It's so unfair to the other dudes. 4. Nobody said life was fair. 3. I think Facebook Chat is broken. 2. No, I haven't seen the new Star Trek movie. Of course, I want to. What kind of stupid question is that? 1. Prayer, or Miami Vice? Welcome to my extended vacation.

The truth of the matter is that I'm probably smarter than you. I have a freakish ability to retain information. I'm also an avid reader, and absorber of new information. If I find someone smarter than me, I usually become his or her student. Even though I am allergic to anything that requires actual effort, I realized several years ago that I still out-work most people out of sheer curiosity. So, I will eventually write some books, and teach some stuff. But humility is in precisely this: No matter what happens, I'm still the guy with barbecue sauce on his pants.

I was a Bible-reading fool that day. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews. We went to Adoration and got caught in the rain, too. Overall, a great day. Me and Jeffins and Paulie had gone to Adoration last week some time. It was good, but I'm still carrying the Painful Thing, and I'm not near over it. What does it mean to forgive? If you find out, let me know. I never got a chance to ask Him about my career. Better luck next time.

I don't believe in penal substitutionary atonement. Oh, look, the world is still turning, Christ still reigns, and I am waiting for Him. What person decided that we had to believe that the Father was punishing the Son for the specific sins of specific people, who then go free? What about the rest of them? And another thing: doesn't it seem like some guy just decided to make this the end-all-be-all of "the gospel," and then guilted everyone else into it? This is why every person who wants to be provocative starts essays with, "I believe in [insert stupid, barely passable Protestant formulation of some truth], BUT..." Has no one thought any of this through? Whose fault is it, if you fail to respond efficaciously to a gospel invitation you never got the grace to heed? Wouldn't any reasonable person conclude that the "good news" isn't for them? For whom did Christ die? I've got a problem with the idea that the drama of the Cross is a ...

This is not a blog to come and feel bad about yourself. I have no platform to "minister" to you and tell you how bad you really are. And that's mostly because I don't know. But this passes for religion for some people. You get the feeling God just puts up with us for the sake of His Son. I don't know, but my "Jesus loves you" would sound pretty hollow at that point. Jesus loves me and all of us more than we could possibly know. I KNOW that. I'll say that. If there's something in the way, go deal with it! But then move on. We fail; He still loves. If that judgment still falls on us, it's because we have finally forsaken Total Love. This is what Papa Francis was talking about last week. He's not a universalist; he's making the distinction between objective redemption, and subjective redemption. Objective redemption is the fact of what Christ did for all of us; subjective redemption is the application, the reality of that work experi...

Holy marbles! I didn't even know the Indianapolis 500 was today. Open-wheels just doesn't even have the resonance that it did even when I was a kid. I think Dale Earnhardt has a lot to do with that. NASCAR dominates the American motorsports conversation. Jeff Gordon dominated NASCAR in the mid-90s and following, but people forget that he emerged primarily as a rival to Earnhardt. You think Jeff Gordon and the rest of them are hosting Saturday Night Live without that blazed trail? Don't kid yourself. The biggest, most popular star in NASCAR is Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and he's never won a championship. THAT'S how big a shadow Earnhardt still casts over the sport. [Are you saying Junior is getting by on his daddy's name?--ed.] Look, I'm not saying he's a talentless hack. But...yes. Meanwhile, the reason open-wheel racing (IndyCar) plays second-fiddle is because of Tony George, the former president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the chief instigator ...

I like a lot of women, I suppose. That's just me. I'm comfortable with them. In a limited sense, I can say I may even understand them somewhat. [In a very limited sense, apparently.--ed.] There's a meme floating around today featuring a nerdy guy and his moderately pretty high-school girlfriend. The message is something like, "Stick with it... [picture of same nerdy guy, and his lady is now a "10"] ...because sometimes it works out." I'm not gonna go on about super-unrealistic ideals of attractiveness, because even that fuels unhealthy attitudes about body image. I'm angry more about how this thing portrays men. Let me say it this way: Real men don't care that much about your looks or body. It matters some. Of course it does. It matters to you, doesn't it? But if we like you, we like you. End of story. Personally, I don't really care if no one else does. That's the point. I'm not showing a museum-piece; I'm loving the ...

My friend, Russ Ramsey, was on the show. Yes, really. He knows people. This is just the sort of big thing that ought to happen to good guys, and sometimes, it does. If you're wondering, it's not that I wouldn't enjoy a show like that, because I totally would. But I made the prudential decision that it wouldn't be good for me. Just go with it. Besides, it's not like I have time anymore; I'm in graduate school. I'm not one of those "TV is the devil!" types. Quite the opposite. Stories are important, and TV is one of the big ways we tell each other stories. But a Christian says, "Is this a good story? Why or why not?" It may be more my calling to read the great works of theology, so I feel the question of, "Why are you watching TV instead of reading Newman or Vatican II?" more than most. But I think one is a traditionalist in the Pelikan sense more than a Christian when he blames things and not people for sins. Call me a sinn...

Joshua Lim : “Barth was of little help here. His constant criticism of all human knowledge, a consistent overflow of the Protestant notion of total depravity mixed with Kantian skepticism, led to a point where no one church or person could be trusted–for God is ever the Subject and can never be made into an ‘object’ that is controlled by man. Though Barth was undoubtedly reacting to the Protestant Liberalism of his time, his own christocentric solution only held things in abeyance without giving a permanent solution. Ultimately, by insisting so heavily on the event character of revelation, the focus on the actual content of revelation itself could only be blurred. As one Catholic theologian put it, Barth’s “insistent cry of ‘Not I! Rather God!’ actually directs all eyes on itself instead of on God. Its cry for distance gives no room for distance.”   For my part, the precise content of revelation is exactly what is at issue in this debate. The positing of a fundamenta...

You all know what has happened in Oklahoma, I'm sure. I pray for those who have died, that they soon enjoy the Beatific Vision, knowing God face-to-face very soon, if they do not see it right now. I pray for those here who have lost loved ones, including children. You alone, O Christ, know their sorrow. Give the Holy Spirit abundantly to all in need of comfort. Turn the hearts of the wicked toward You, and remind us all to seek the things that last, since we have seen that so much does not. We pray this through Christ, Amen.

5 Thoughts For Today 5. We skipped the spring after the extended winter, and went right to summer. St. Louis, everybody! 4. It probably won't rain until September 30, now. 3. Yes, this is Watergate-level bad, Mr. President. Better get out now. And if you're lucky, Don Cheadle will star in a semi-sympathetic biopic in 30 years. 2. OK, it will be Jaden Smith. 1. Anybody who hopes Gosnell goes to Hell REALLY doesn't understand the gravity of what they say.

We sat in section 147. That is essentially field-level, to the right of home plate. We could hear the pop of the catcher's glove, and the crack of the bat. It was plain to me that the umpire at home was "squeezing" the pitchers; that is, he wasn't calling strikes. As a result, the score was 3-3 after 2 innings. The Mets as a club are in a bad way. They didn't have a chance without the extra walks granted by the stingy umpire. In all frankness, I did say that both Stevie Wonder and Ronnie Milsap could better call the game. In my defense, I did not yell this at the umpire; I merely shared it with my mother. Lance Lynn, who was the starting pitcher for the Cardinals, shut down the Mets for 5 consecutive innings before the Cardinals scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 7th. They pinch-hit for him in that inning, so he was correctly and justly awarded a win. Those runs were the winning margin. There is a magic to baseball, and to these Cardinals. It is very early, bu...

1. Communion with God is the fulfillment of the human person; 2. God is offering that communion, and indeed, obligates man to seek it; 3. That communion requires of man the total submission of himself to God in a loving, filial relationship; 4. The purpose of theology is to know how to enter into that relationship; (and secondarily, to begin to understand the nature of it) 5. The basis or driving force of theology is God's self-revelation for the purpose of communion with man; 6. God cannot deceive or be deceived; 7. Therefore, God must safeguard the truths of theology and make them accessible, based upon His nature and intent.

Actually, with profuse apologies, knowing God is not like knowing your auto mechanic in an important way. I absolutely agree that natural knowledge, having been forced to acquire a level of certitude well beyond what is required for living and acting, caused a severe curtailing of  what humans thought they could know. We moved from epistemic realism to idealism and nominalism, and now, a rigid empiricism rules the day. We cannot simply say that natural knowledge has been limited by bad philosophy, though it has. We must also preserve the truth that theology requires a higher certainty still. If theology--even after all caveats, qualifications, and disagreements about sources of revelation are laid aside--does not ultimately ground its conclusions in God, who cannot deceive or be deceived, it serves no purpose. In other words, we need absolute certainty in theology, unlike in other fields. For one to say, "I do not need intellectual certainty," one is first failing to disting...

This is a relatively new feature on sports video games, where one controls the finances, the drafting of new players, and of course, the game on the field. In actual sports, drafting is highly inexact. The 3-time Super Bowl winning quarterback Tom Brady was the 199th selection in his draft. In most games, however, you can spend the time to make sure that a high pick is not a bust. My favorite thing to do is trade my roster's highest-paid player (a surefire star) for a very high draft pick. If you can get the same task done for less money, you do it, in this context. There are very few moral dilemmas related to justice when one's employees are super-rich. GMs have to be ruthless. The basic concept behind things like 'Moneyball' is to figure out what you need to win, and giving up the least to get it. The market value of a star will be inflated by his reputation, and by competition over his services. My insight was to figure out a style that worked for my personnel,...

http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2011/10/westminster-in-the-dock-reflections-on-the-peter-leithart-trial/#comment-23127 . This is the heart of the entire struggle. Forget the Catholic conclusion; doesn't matter as much as the question. Answer the question: What is the relation between my visible community, and the allegedly invisible Church? If it doesn't have real authority right there, it doesn't have any. See how the ecclesiology in its ambiguity drives doctrinal relativity? This is Newman's great insight. A person is compelled to find the basis for divine truth, not merely by a claim to possess it, but he understands that he himself must have been mistaken in his manner of apprehending it, in his method.

But this is good . Nor do I have an opinion on this particular matter, because A) I'm Catholic; B) the words don't mean the same thing within Catholic theology and praxis as in this context (or at least it seems unwise, based upon my knowledge and experience, to presume that the meanings of the terms are the same) and C) it seems like we need more precise definitions in general. On a personal note, if it is not manly to watch musicals--and like them--then here are my Man Cards. And yet, those cards would not be worth the paper they are printed on. Because that's stupid. You hear that, Driscoll? Stop turning manliness into an awkward health class video from 1978. One of the things I love dearly about "The Doctrine Of Humanity" by Charles Sherlock (quite apart from the bad arguments for female ordination, and that terrible Anglican/Protestant sacramental presumption) is that he includes a chapter on being a man, and one on being a woman. He says essentially that ...

I say this not as an apologist myself, though perhaps I am, but as one who looked and said, "Here are two horns of a dilemma, neither of which are conducive to the position I hold or want to hold, but one must be correct." There were about 8 of these. But let us concentrate on the Church. See, the Fathers insisted that apostolic succession was the principal means by which the Church was identified. The third party in all of this is the Catholic Church of today. So, the interesting problem is this: Both the ancient Church (pick a century; doesn't matter) and the Catholic Church agree that this is correct, and as a necessary inference, that therefore, the Church is fundamentally visible. One problem with the basic claim of the Reformers is that one cannot test their counter-claim (that "apostolic" refers to doctrine) in any meaningful way. Who will definitively establish the body of doctrine from which the ancients allegedly fell away? I have more choices than I c...

I went outside. The sun did seem to make things better. I do not know if I am still slightly ill, or if those friendly byproducts just simply do not clear from the body of a person like myself, but I have a light cough. The worst of the illness was two weeks ago. I feel fine, it's just annoying. And I worry that something worse may occur. I wonder how much Dayquil or whatnot you can take before it's a concern. Should I see a doctor? What will he or she do that I haven't tried? So there was that in prayer. And the acquaintance who has many hurdles in his attempt to study in America. And the heart-wound that won't seem to heal. I feel like the Lord is the only one who is for me on that one. But I thanked Him for the day, for the sun and for grace. I just walked along and prayed. I talked with the saints and the Blessed Mother, because I wanted to. And we do that. I appreciate liturgical prayers of many kinds; the worst error is to spurn them out of some sense of passion...