Safe Haven

I screwed up getting in my chair today. I was SO CLOSE! I was pretty mad. I'm fairly certain I said foul words. The things I usually do when something goes wrong don't seem to work anymore. I could have yelled, but I didn't know who was here, or if anyone was. So I waited it out. No, I wasn't hurt. I reached for the cord that held my cell phone, and it looked promising, but when it fell, it bounced the other way, out of my reach. I just laughed at that; I figured that would happen. What you need to know is that we love these little battles. Don't pity me, because the thrill of victory is as sweet as any sporting enterprise. What does one think about in a spot like that? You'd be surprised how ordinary it was. I have no great insights for you. Just that I might be getting old, and that that one pretty girl probably isn't stuck on the floor! Lucky her. Someone asked me what I did today. I'm proud enough that I didn't want to say. You know how it ...

I've been in graduate school twice. And I was set up perfectly for a good experience by the challenge of my undergraduate studies, which was a great struggle. When you have an obstacle most others don't, it's a great teacher. You learn all about how your lack of discipline made all the difference between success and failure. Other students can have a life, can coast here or there; you can't. You don't get away with laxity; there's no time. My other great challenge was and is perfectionism. My abiding awareness that I'm barely scratching the surface could be paralyzing at times. I had to be dismissed twice from college before I could begin to change it. When I got back, I said, "Forget this, I'm already a failure. There's no one to impress. I'm going to learn." I began to notice that the sheer force of curiosity, the love of truth and wisdom, carried me past my peers. Here's my #1 dirty little secret: Most people don't care e...

"Speak for yourself, Sparky." That's what you're thinking. And there are times even now when I feel like the worst sinner who ever breathed, because we all have our weak moments. I'm not unfamiliar with Grave Matterville. But I also know mercy. I can hardly speak it to you, I have received so much. As it is written, "And from His fullness we have received grace upon grace." That used to be just words on a page. Now... Now I understand that every grace is a potential moment of covenant renewal, where God says, "Choose this day whom you will serve." Yet I learn each day how weak I am in my own strength, and yet, paradoxically, how it must be mine in a certain sense to be real. God is not trying to earth the gospel in the abstract; I am the arena for His praise and glory. This life. I do not want to be reckoned righteous when I am not. That would make God a liar, though it appears to make Him merciful. Grace saves; if it doesn't, it's ...

But this merits some serious consideration.

Good point .

There are two ways to understand this . One obviously is to say Dungy hates "gays," and that one person's tendencies toward certain sins gross him out more than his own. There is obviously another way, and I think it's the right one. I read Tony's whole statement like this: "I wouldn't want the whole circus, and my lack of enthusiasm for Michael Sam's lifestyle (and your resulting attempts to villify or pity me) to be a distraction to the team." That's why the activists created the weasel-phrase "sexual orientation" in the first place: If you can make the whole debate about accepting the person, and not about whether a particular class of actions is harmful to people in body and soul, you've won. Don't let a bunch of foolish people intimidate you. Recognize what's going on.

A certain intellectually lazy cast of mind reacts to the ecumenical moves of Pope Francis with a snide, "Yay, syncretism!" On the contrary; the person who is utterly convinced that--to borrow a phrase--"Jesus is who he says he is" can afford to be magnanimous. Can anything really stand against the love of Christ? To the soft heart and the docile will, the word of Christ is like the choicest food: it is irresistible. There is nothing true, good, or beautiful that is not already His; the only question is whether you want others to see that for themselves, or to keep it for yourself. If that sounds like a dare, it is. To love the Truth, we must discern Him from among pretenders; that is true. But we must also celebrate when others meet Him, or are very close to doing so.

5. True wisdom from a rap song: "We need to pray just to make it today." 4. Wisdom from Garth Brooks, or one of his cronies: "Life is not tried, it is merely survived, if you're standing outside the fire." 3. The New Evangelization, with Deon Estus and George Michael: "Heaven help me talk to strangers." 2. The secret to the spiritual life, from Kenny Loggins: "To know what it is to forgive, and be forgiven." 1. Do you think someone has called up Derek Jeter and said, "Please bring me my wine"?

5. It's Cardinal Newman vs. Lionel Richie right now, and Lionel is winning. 4. "Hello," the ultimate creeper song. Yeah, you just laughed, but you know it's true. 3. Has there been a more enjoyable song that was more lyrically nonsensical than "Dancing On The Ceiling"? 2. "Ballerina Girl" is about his daughter, Nicole Richie. It's harder to see her so negatively now, isn't it? 1. Hopefully, those recordings of me singing Lionel will never be found.

It is possible to have too close an association between a political agenda, and the message of salvation in Jesus Christ. But the antidote for that is the correct anthropology of man, that corresponds to the reality that God has made. What is man? What is his end? What's his problem? It becomes "political" when one group or another decides to deny the inherent dignity of the human person, and in that sense, it must be. What has been revealed in Christ is a totalizing reality, and He makes no apologies in that. But of course, the good news is not a list of "don't's". The truth applied to an issue might sound like this: "Because of what God reveals about marriage and chastity, adultery and pornography are sins against it, and we should flee those things."

5. Hug the clergy today. 4. I'm serious. I'm not going out today, so you have to do it for me. 3. If you're Protestant, and uncomfortable that I said, "clergy," well, a little discomfort is good for the soul. 2. Want to sweep the Dodgers? All you have to do is beat Clayton Kershaw. 1. RIP, James Garner.

You know, I like Dennis Prager, the conservative commentator. He has that way of being right-wing without ruining anyone's day. We still need more of that. I watched a short video of him giving a primer on the Israel-Palestine conflict the other day, and it was persuasive. Then, I just watched a pro-Palestinian one today. Also, very persuasive. Don't you hate it when that happens? Still, I had a few thoughts: 1. A modern state created as a refuge for those fleeing perhaps the most horrific genocide in history, which then becomes an apartheid state against other groups, is tragic and ironic, to say the least. 2. Unjust conduct in war does not invalidate a grievance, but it does not advance it. 3. Territory gained in war--even a defensive one--cannot be licitly held. 4. A free state that maintains ethnic homogeneity by force is by definition not free.

5. No Fences, Garth Brooks. 4. Weezer (The Blue Album), Weezer. 3. In Pieces, Garth Brooks. 2. August And Everything After, Counting Crows. 1. In The Life Of Chris Gaines, Garth Brooks. 5 More: 5. Leap Of Faith, Kenny Loggins. 4. House Of Love, Amy Grant. 3. For The Cool In You, Babyface. 2. Affirmation, Savage Garden. 1. Faith, George Michael.

I really do get it. You look at the Christian landscape, and you see all these allegedly Christian communities going soft on what Michael Liccione calls "the pelvic issues." Even though to fight in the public sphere is all we have when we cannot achieve dogmatic consensus because of the individualist tyranny of Sola Scriptura, still, it's crazy. We're down to Natural Law, basic stuff called into question, essentially because politics and identity trumps the law of God. At the same time, we've got to define our terms. What do you mean by "gay-affirming"? Really? If I don't have the guts to say that a person even practicing homosexuality is in some sense loved by God, I do not understand the corresponding evil of that sin. I'm going to say that again: You don't understand it, or the love of God, which is denied in it. There is too much "us vs. them." The activists are completely right about this, even if some of them use it agains...

Not only is this true and wise, it's hilarious. I may be an expert in pope-pologetics and fawning, but I'll tell you what, buddy: I'm not taking my right to prudentially criticize the Holy Father's imprudent (alleged) statements unless and until I'm seeing God in the Beatific Vision. You know why? Because we have too much to do. Also, spiritually, I'm just a kid. We have enough riches in the Sacred Tradition to last us our whole lives. Am I also the only one to notice my lack of being conformed to Christ, and secondarily, the need of our brothers? But we're worried about what Pope Francis says? Prepare yourself. 99.99997% of the time, what the pope says is not directly relevant to our lives. Yes, a Catholic can and should say this. The Church does not stand or fall on Pope Francis. At the same time, I'm not going to repudiate him or his legitimate authority because some of you involved in the grave matter of schism would feel better about yourselves. ...

5. I mean, I really love books. It's getting crazy. I need to have a book-burning, I mean sale, of all my Reformed/Protestant books.* [You are a bad person.--ed.] 4. Maybe I really should renew my library card. It's a little awkward when your 2 favorite hobbies are watching Star Trek (in all incarnations) and buying books. [Dude, you bought those books on W.J. Bryan like a year ago. At this rate, you will not read those until you are 75.--ed.] Patience, my friend. I may not read or work as fast as I'd like, but I'm persistent. 3. I would have linked to Trueman , but it was being obnoxious. Then you can read my thoughts , if you like. [Would you say that is the best he can do?--ed.] That, I can't say. But I'm going to charitably choose to believe he believes what he's written. It doesn't hold water to me, but of course, I'd say that. 2. I do not deny that the subjective experience of various infidelities among professed Catholics is a kind of sc...

5. Real baseball returns! Cards tomorrow. 4. I hate re-writing stuff. But humility is a cross called, "Revision." 3. Oh, man, Devin Rose! You think he's the "Cross-Examiner" now? Just wait until he edits your stuff! Buahaha! 2. I admit it: I feel bad for sleeping the last two hours on the way back from Steubenville. Not very manly, when Confirmation Sponsor Guy had to drive the whole way. [On the other hand, he didn't have to hear you talk.--ed.] So true. 1. That awkward moment when reading Numbers 16:1-3 when you realize Korah et al. were saying they wanted to be another "faithful outpost of the (invisible) church catholic."

I had a few thoughts on this . In the first case, they are likely responding to liberals, or some other "bad people" who disagreed. In the latter case, I suspect it's a set-up, to convince broad evangelicals that they need to be Reformed (and that an appeal to scholarship will settle the interpretive disagreement). But everybody has their Captain Jack. We're back to the original problem. And pointing out the potential problems in the Catholic way of thinking doesn't really do anything against the Noltie Conundrum, which stated essentially is, "What is the doctrine of God on these essential matters of faith, given the fact of interpretive disagreement, in spite of the mutual appeal to the Holy Spirit?" A tie goes to the papists, essentially because the Reformation promised doctrinal and moral certainty and clarity, against the backdrop of the Papacy's "failure," both real and imagined. It doesn't make Catholicism true, but it gives a rea...

...and for God. I see more clearly each day that I live (when I bother to look) that it's not about me. The world does not revolve around me. The best thing I can do is to point others, in big ways and small, to Him, because it does revolve around Him. I read this today. Annie doesn't want pity or sympathy, I'm sure, but I have buckets full, if she ever wanted it. It intrigued me that she really wanted to meet Derek Jeter, and got to do it. He's all the talk these days, with this his final season serving as the coronation of a Hall Of Fame career. It struck me again as I watched that commercial "Respect" from the other day that none of these elite athletes understand how much bigger than the games they play they can be. Remember the firefighters who tipped their caps to Jeter? Firefighters. "Heroic" is in the job description, for goodness' sake. And yet, here they are. Why? Because sports are not an escape; they are a mirror. Jeter and others ...

10.  “A key part of the book's argument is the apparent anarchy created by the Protestant emphasis on the perspicuity of scripture.” You don't say, Carl! How's about giving us an answer, instead of pretending that the "problem" was invented at the last Catholic Answers confab. 9.  “Perspicuity was, after all, a response to a position that had proved to be a failure: the Papacy.  Thus, to criticize it while proposing nothing better than a return to that which had proved so inadequate is scarcely a compelling argument.” The fact that rival claimants to the Papacy proved so disruptive proves the opposite point, no? He either has jurisdiction, or he doesn't, and never did. If he does, he does, and no amount of human weakness changes it. This is why the moral objection to the Catholic Church falls flat in any century: it argues for conversion, not for starting over. 8. " Empirical fact: The Papacy as an authoritative institution was not there in the early ...