Safe Haven

Marti Schodt, of HelloGiggles.com, on falling in love: "I have to be vulnerable. I have to open myself up to judgment and rejection. I have to talk about my past and my pains and hope that he'll still want to hold my hand after he finds out that I drool rivers in my sleep and cackle like a witch sucking helium." Bahahaha!

May I please have the gifts of chastity, contentment, a job, and if it's not too much to ask... The world champion San Antonio Spurs on national TV? Amen.

Got your attention, didn't I? But it's true. It's very simple: If you have some liability, some weakness, you need something powerful to cancel it out. You need goodwill, or humor, or exceptional intelligence. Hillary has at least 2 weaknesses: Her husband President Clinton, and her own unpleasant disposition, magnified by her impressive talent for pathological dishonesty and evasion. In short, people don't like her. People vote for people they like. We might say that the voting public has no good reason to like or trust someone, but if they do, they do. The American people are capable of overlooking a lot if they like you. Bill Clinton committed a felony while in office; did it matter? Nope. The people generally acted like it was the Republicans' fault that we even heard about it. Reagan could have easily gotten impeached for Iran-Contra; doesn't matter. We liked him. George W. Bush flat-out lied to us about their use of waterboarding; it won't matter. ...

Some people object to the association of homosexuality and sin, but by and large, I think they know they are fighting against their own consciences, and the law of God. This is why the activism--when the extremely generous estimates tell us that 1 out of 100 people experiences sexual attraction to people of the same sex--is so intense. When Satan has a stronghold, it's a stronghold. I can't recall a time when such a small percentage of people was able to shift public opinion in this way. It's certainly odd. But our sexuality is powerful. Sins against it, whether by us, or others, do a lot of damage. The inverse of the total self-gift of sexual complementarity in marriage is an endless array of variations on the theme of selfishness. I've got to wonder how many "fallen-away" Catholics and other once-practicing Christians are "allies" of the homosexuality movement because of shame for their own sins? Or even misplaced shame, because someone abused ...

Big-time hero.  The UN--predictably--took away Dallaire's peacekeepers at the crucial moments of what would become the Rwandan genocide. The United States recalled its diplomatic personnel, and as I recall, 800 US Marines, at the same time. No one has ever advocated an attack on the Tutsi government. But it seems to me that if the Marines had been placed under Dallaire's command with an expanded mandate to intercept the weapons, the whole catastrophe might have been averted. Rest In Peace, Romeo Dallaire.

For your information.  A note of correction: Ted Haggard was the president of the "National Association of Evangelicals," not as written there.

Aren't you just tilting at windmills here , since Sola Scriptura doesn't allow anyone to claim hermeneutical victory, because good faith disagreement still exists? Derek might think that a certain interpreter fails to account for context, but a more "liberal" interpreter, if you will forgive the term, can make the same claim. There is no such thing as a "Magisterial" reformer. They don't exist. They never existed. Later, you could say that an interpretation was further away from the Catholic Church than another, but everyone who believed and believes that Scripture alone is the final infallible rule of faith and practice is actually making his or her own interpretation of it the rule of faith. He does this with his so-called "derivative" authorities, too. To make them binding would be to--even in his mind--repeat the alleged Catholic error. To appeal to them derivatively allows him the conceit of historical/theological continuity (especially ...

There was a terrorist attack in France today; Georgia is about to execute a decorated, mentally-ill veteran; countless children will be murdered in their mothers' wombs today. Something is clearly wrong with us, as a whole. We invent new ways to kill each other, and then we come up with clever euphemisms to hide it, like that first fig leaf. I took my title from that guy who ran for mayor of New York. He'd answer every question with, "I don't know, but the rent is too [expletive] high!" Good for a chuckle, for sure. Maybe one big part of the gospel is that, like these others, I am too quick to de-humanize and de-personalize the one who is not like me, who doesn't look like me, think like me, or live like me. Bodies die; souls are eternal. We are too fond of famous people, but isn't it just technology that shows us some person's special gift, something to marvel at, and appreciate? It makes us friends with people we haven't met. If you knew Ro...

Justice may be a thing that is practiced or not by individuals, but in regard to temporal goods, justice is a primary concern for governments. In other words, if a system fundamentally denies justice, that is, structurally, it does not matter how many or how pronounced the material successes are. Conservatives cannot confuse justice and charity, out of a fear of socialism. The very reason for federalism is to minimize the possibility of undue interference in economic self-determination in the pursuit of solidarity and the common good. It seems to me therefore that the progressive case for just wages is an eminently winnable one, and cannot be defeated merely by citing negative outcomes resulting from increasing the minimum wage.

The right moment for a prayer. The moment when sins become who you are is the moment you stop recognizing this moment, when your life becomes an endless stretch of Whatever. The "fallen away" Catholics aren't some weird species of leper; they are the people whose Grave Something became a whole series of them, and it's easier to kill the love inside than to face the shame. You don't stop existing, you know. And most people know that they want to like themselves, and even that they're supposed to. So they have to construct a reality where they are happy, and where they are good. That's why the public space is so absurd: some people are trying really hard, and they have a lot of shame. Anywhere there is self-made anything, Satan is behind it. You can't make yourself good; you can't try hard enough, or please God or anyone else in your own power. When you stop to pray, you are rhetorically answering the question, "Is this my reality, or God...

I have read a few things about this man since he died Sunday; I recall the ESPN The Magazine piece about his maniacal workouts since the cancer diagnosis. I knew he had teenage daughters; I might speculate that he was the most popular anchor on ESPN's flagship program even before all these things took place. Why? I think it's because he understood what a beautiful contradiction sports is: We pay people money to watch other people play childhood games. On the face of it, it's absurd. But we know that because it's human, it goes much deeper. It's a thing that demands a little levity, and at least potentially, the utmost seriousness. I think Stuart Scott could move between those poles better than almost anybody. It might be an exaggeration to say that my attention to the post-Jordan NBA as a fan increased because of Stuart Scott, but not much of one. He made the viewer passionate about whatever he happened to be talking about. You meet people like that from time to...

1. A belief that there are too many Mexicans here. 2. A too-rigid view of the benefits of citizenship. 3. An irrational fear that the presence of too many Mexicans (or whomever) will make the transmission of distinctly American values and traditions impossible (because America is linked with whiteness). 4. Because it will help the Democrats. The Democrats always (stupidly) think they are on the verge of a permanent majority. It'd be funny, if they weren't so earnest. 5. Because Republicans In Name Only also support it. The sun shines on a dog's behind sometimes. Chuck Hagel is not the definition of "incorrect."

Chilling stuff. Literally.

I'm not a feminist. I'm going to define the term, and then you'll understand why.  Feminism is a political movement, the goal of which is to subjugate men to women. That's what it is. If you want to talk about what most people want it to mean, and all manner of ancillary desires that people have (most of which I share, by the way), we can do that. But numerous problems faced by women which induce them--and a fair number of men--to call themselves "feminists" does not mean it is defined accurately in that case. For most people, feminism means recognizing the dignity and status of women. It means speaking out against sexual violence. It means encouraging girls to learn math and science (and everything else), or even play sports. I'm OK with all this, to a point. And feminists know this about most of us, which is why they like their movement being associated with all these things. But you need to understand: these are just means to an end, for the ...

There's a show I love called, "Criminal Minds." It's about a "Behavioral Analysis Unit" of the FBI that profiles serial killers and other violent offenders. We've been touched by violent crime in our family, so we have a great interest and admiration for what law enforcement does in this area. Great show. Anyway, there was a killer on the show who was murdering young women because of unresolved guilt over same-sex attraction, AND his parents sent him for "reparative therapy," where he was forced to watch pornography, and raped by a woman. It's so absurd, no wonder they think we Christians are insane. I could lodge objections against some forms of so-called "nouthetic counseling" all day long, but bottom line, this craziness doesn't fit any "pray away the gay" ideas I know of! In any case, I may just scream if I am subjected to one more consequentialist argument this week. (specifically, that it's OK to be com...

I could very well be imagining things; I can't say I felt totally contemplative in reading this Gospel. Still, the things which kept sticking out to me were "your people Israel" and, "the consolation of Israel." I can't get away from the joy and the sadness of what it must've been like, to wait, knowing that the transgressions of the covenant left God's People with a very circuitous route to the experience of His mercy. Simeon was faithful Israel, in his own way, carrying around in his body, and in his yearning, the death of Christ. And Mary is faithful Israel par excellence. We don't need to wonder at foolish questions, like whether Mary could die for us; she is not the Savior. We have an impoverished view of our God and Lord, in fact, if the only thing we love Him for is his sinlessness. In any case, if we don't see that we participate in what God is doing for His People Israel, we have no idea how great the New Covenant is. Most of us ...

5. Her pop albums--namely "Heart In Motion" and "House Of Love"--are better than the Christian music that made her famous. 4. I love the title track "House Of Love," but it makes me uncomfortable. Is there a non-judgmental way to say, "Divorce and re-marriage make me uncomfortable, because they're wrong"? 3. I know someone who almost asked out Amy Grant, because he literally had no idea who she was. (Of course, there's a big difference in age, but that proves that she has remained absurdly beautiful for a very long time.) 2. I was going to say, "How come Amy Grant and Kenny Loggins never had a duet?" but they did: "Return To Pooh Corner." 1. I have like 50 songs I think are the Greatest Song Ever, but one of them surely is "I Will Remember You."

This. 1000 times. In other news, I'm still not linking Joe Carter. Acton Institute, are you paying attention?

Dude,  Bryan wasn't even a literalist, as he admits in his own unquestionably heroic testimony. Just read it. No, the teaching of evolution in the state of Tennessee had far more insidious purposes for Bryan. The textbook embraced social Darwinism, of the kind we fear, but progressives knowingly or not, routinely advance.

I got in the car to go to my brother's on Christmas afternoon, and the radio was on. We chose 106.5, the one adult format station that doesn't cave to seasonal pressure. If I want Christmas music, I'll go to church. They were playing "Locked Out Of Heaven," by Bruno Mars. It worked somehow. It's a sketchy song, but it tells us something important. Even when people are doing the most selfish things, like using each other for sexual gratification, they are thinking of and hoping for Heaven. That's how much of a claim God has over us. The power of Christmas and Jesus Christ is this: You don't know many people completely unaffected by the "magic" of Christmas. The worst person you know can't fail to notice that these days are different. That vague intuition, no matter how poorly articulated, is the work of grace. It's grace that can lead all the way to salvation in Christ, if one remains open to God's promptings. The weary world...