Safe Haven

There's a parish near my house a little closer than the one where I attend Mass. I often liked to go there for Confession, because I had a very holy priest friend who served there. He's not there anymore, but it's a beautiful church in many ways, despite being new in construction, relatively speaking. It starts earlier in the day than our Reconciliation time, and that's nice, also. I saw ten or twelve folks ahead of me, so I didn't worry. I should have; it seemed to take forever. Their vigil Mass starts right after the time, and I thought I may miss out. Besides that, each one seemed to take a long time. I kept looking at the crucifix; I wanted the Lord to know that I was sorry, that my eyes of faith and my heart saw things clearly. I want to agree with the Lord about reality, and I always do, even if my walk tells me I have moments of doubt. That's what a sin is, ultimately: a freely chosen moment of unbelief, after a fashion. Suppose--and you may correct...

I don't think casual sex empowers women; I don't think it empowers anyone. I don't begrudge anyone the use of the term, "feminist," per se, because a lot of ordinary people who use it aren't aware of how terrible real feminism actually is (or at least could be). They think it means the general uplift and improvement of women. Fine; let's use that definition. Does anyone care to actually make an argument that casual sex is or has been actually a positive force for women? I'll name fatherless children, shattered hearts, abortions (of living people, by the way) and poverty against it. All anyone can name in its favor is, "It's really pleasurable. Like, a lot." There are a lot of very pleasurable things I could do that would be wrong to do, like punching Donald Trump in the face. I'd really enjoy that. It doesn't mean I should. People say in reply, "Well, sex makes women start to celebrate their bodies! Maybe they have been s...

State ownership of the means of production. That's what it is. Hoping and advocating for a more equal distribution of wealth could be socialist, depending on the means chosen, but simply expressing this desire is not socialist, or morally objectionable, in itself. There is a sloppy tendency on the political Right to label anything we don't like "socialist," and I understand that. All the great tragedies of working-class movements, when they've turned truly heinous, 1) were explicitly socialist in intention, or, 2) involved the excesses of a State which had already been empowered to enforce its vision of economic fairness, above all other goals. Why is socialism bad? It turns every human interaction into an economic one; it conceives of every human problem in exclusively economic terms; while claiming to lift the worker, it denies him or her self-determination, in favor of the whole. It turns the person into a mere instrument of the Ideal State, or the Ideal Ma...

5. Being a billionaire doesn't preclude someone from being stupid. 4. And I don't think stupid people should run for president. 3. When "Today's sacrifice to the Gun Cult" becomes your schtik, and hours after a tragic shooting, probably by an ill person, I don't listen to you anymore. You certainly haven't respectfully interacted with anyone who values those rights, and--without being callous toward any unnecessary losses--might disagree. If I were going to make the same point, I would say: "Without prejudice to those who exercise their Constitutional rights articulated in the Second Amendment responsibly and without malice, I believe the sheer number of unnecessary deaths caused by firearms should prompt people such as myself to revisit the structure of the regulatory apparatus as currently constituted." Yes, it takes longer, and I make certain people unhappy anyway, but I have adopted the posture--in the very choice of my words--of listenin...

I can't do subscripts here, I don't think. Anyway, "H20" is the title of the 1982 album by Daryl Hall & John Oates. I'm not a music critic, OK? So you're not going to get long, wordy descriptions about things the guy doesn't understand anyway. I really hate it when pop/rock critics make you feel like they know more than you, and more than they actually do. I just want to go, "Look, buddy, I may have heard one or two of these on the radio, and I need you to tell me if the album is worth it. Comprendo?" I especially liked "Go Solo." I looked it up; this magical track was never released as a single. Paging Tommy Mottola, or whomever! You messed up big time on that one. I may have listened to it 37 times, actually. What I mentally do is listen all the way through, and if some song grabs me, I'll come back to it. Consider me grabbed. Hall wrote that one by himself; good for you, Daryl! [You should remind everyone that you're ...

So what would be the point of fussing over whether any person is "saved" in this moment? That could change. I don't know whether I'm saved in this moment. If that bothers you, because Luther, Calvin, or "Jesus Loves Me" said so, get over it. Mother Church says moral certainty is really all we have. I don't want Benny Hinn to burn in the fires of Hell. I don't want anyone to end up there. Why is this shocking? Is there a point of doctrinal or moral error where we get to utter some pious version of, "We don't like you"? That's not how this works; that's not how any of this works. I'm all about drawing lines in the sand, as it were. If you don't believe me, check the archives. But I'm going to talk incessantly about the mercy of God, the unyielding, unchanging, unquenchable fire that is Love. Judgment is all the more terrible when you begin to understand. I don't think anyone should dare to proclaim the gospe...

As I told a friend on Facebook, I found a cassette of Daryl Hall & John Oates' "Big Bam Boom" album buried in my stuff. "Out Of Touch" might be my favorite, and that was the big single from that "record", as the pop musicians still say. I've decided that I like Recorded Young Daryl and Old Live Daryl just as well. I never have had this weird vendetta against electronic instruments, either, so I don't mind the recorded versions. I'm sure a critic somewhere said, "They are to be commended for adapting to the changing times, and the chart success has vindicated them." These guys are nearly 70, and they've still got it. Oates in the '80s looked a little like my Dad, sans mullet. I was recalling how huge they were back then. I was pretty young, but I remember. Guys like Daryl and John were close to 40 already, but big with the first MTV generation. I wonder if it surprised them? Jimmy Fallon had Daryl on The Tonight S...

I was too tired to do the last three decades last night, so I did them this morning. During the fourth mystery, I wanted to break someone's face. How fitting that the fourth Sorrowful Mystery is the carrying of the cross. The cross I carry is the heart-burden that someone is being unjust and unfair to someone close to me, and I can't really do anything about it. I have a friend named Douglas who once said, "Sometimes, men get angry when they should be sad, but they don't know how to be sad." That's right. I am really sad. I'm sad that people sometimes think unquestioned affirmation is the price of love. I'm sad when people who have the power to stand up and do better, to absolutely demand it, don't. There is a little pride in here, too, for good or ill. I carry my name very proudly; if someone says I've failed to honor it, they'd better bring the goods. If they don't, they dishonor me, but everyone who carries it. It's a shame t...

The easiest Christian thing to say in the whole Josh Duggar mess is, "Don't we all have a little of that in us?" Well, yes. And I guess we still need to remind ourselves of that, since many professed Christians seem to join in the cultural chorus of treating certain heinous sinners like non-people. I had another thought though, as I pondered my own failings, and sought mercy: we have a sacramental system, and we make frequent use of the sacraments, not because we lack confidence in God's love, but because we want to remain ourselves. That is, the change from a holy person into a wicked one is often slow, and maybe imperceptible. Isn't one of the tragic parts of these public falls that people live a double life? You can't do that unless your friendship with the one who knows you best atrophies. Moralists aren't often wrong about what is moral, but without a shared life, they are just rules, like words on signs. Having God as your friend is like walking ...

Most people who get motivated by politics are idealists; even the people who get angry about their opponents in politics are idealists. If we don't stop these people, they're going to destroy everything. Isn't it funny how everyone says that? That shows me that we have a lot of passion, and not a lot of wisdom. There's an intellectual virtue of listening and reflecting; I know I don't have it. The biggest problem with the "left" as it were, is that they believe two huge lies: That an unborn baby is not a person, and that nobody in Heaven and earth cares--or should--about what I do with my sexuality. Actually, replace "sexuality" with "money," and you've described a pretty big chunk of the "right," also. And of course, a few of them haven't bothered to wrestle with that fundamental realization of human personhood, either. A lot of people are cynical about politics right now, and I suppose I understand that. Our poli...

It's awesome in various ways. If you are a sensualist and a sinner, you have already thought of the words "drinking" and "free love". If they were in no way related to the good, it stands to reason, they would not be pleasurable. Do we exist for pleasure, however? And our own, at that? It would seem not. The pretense that universities exist for higher things strongly suggests that they once did. And I say that, not merely to suggest a wistfulness about days gone by, as if the days passing itself has caused whatever is lacking, but that what has been lost is truth about ourselves. What is the purpose of knowledge? If I may be momentarily pedantic, the purpose of knowledge is to know. Whether what we know has any great value will depend on how well we order the various goods, and how well we share them. We become sharers of knowledge and even teachers because we want others to love, and therefore know, the highest things. The highest subject you can study is the...

It's my favorite Kenny Loggins song , and really, it's not close. Look, I get it. Hippies, socialists, eco-wackos, yadda yadda. This song is a gold mine, lyrically speaking. I don't know how to make cool videos on the internet, but if I did, I would make a montage of this song with quotes from Laudato Si. This song is Laudato Si. I was lurking around the internet yesterday, when I caught sight of Confirmation Sponsor Guy picking apart some emotivist "conservative" argument about something or other. My life goal, one of them, is to make an argument about something political that he doesn't pick apart. I wish myself luck. I wish us all luck on that one! I just think it's funny that some folks make a big fuss about being the Party of God, the same God who said, "Behold, I am making all things new!" and when the leader of the People of God says something like, "Hey, everything is connected, because Jesus became incarnate to give his life for...

MLB Network had one of their games from Toronto. Toronto is loaded, no doubt. The Bombers will have to fight. But they have That Thing. It's in the water here in St. Louis, but it's that weird chemistry that makes no sense on paper, but means October baseball. It's oozing out of their ears. The Yankees commentators pointed out that the GM Brian Cashman stood pat at the trade deadline, because these young guys had played together; he knew they had That Thing. I saw it before the year started; I called it. These so-called "experts," I tell you. Do they even watch this game?

The biggest temptation for any person is to live a lie; we all have moments where we just say, "Sod it all, I don't care." I'm the weakest person I know; my file on "sins of weakness" (as opposed to malice) is the biggest one they have, I'm sure. You might be able to say the same. But I had a firm decision yesterday; I'm not going to deny reality to make myself happy; I'm not going to deny it to make others happy. People do this all the time. Getting along is easier than speaking hard truth. You might have to say, "Mental illness is real, and you need to face it," or "Abortion is murder," or any number of things. Not wanting to rock the boat could be an exercise of prudence, or a failure of fortitude, and it's not always easy to discern. But if you let people continue in horribly unhealthy or immoral patterns for years at great cost to yourself without doing anything at all to change it, it's probably the latter. I...

Most Christians you meet are not arrogant enough to think all they need is themselves, the Holy Spirit, and the Bible; they are going to make an argument from history and the creeds at some point. This is why Mathison's attempted distinction between Sola Scriptura and "Solo Scriptura" is so popular, when faced with the Catholic challenge. It has a surface plausibility; the Reformation has persisted for almost 500 years; everyone you know would think 500 years is a long time. If you appeal to an idea or a doctrine that is at least 500 years old, give or take, most people would credit you with the rootedness and historical awareness that you desire to project. The problem is with biting the bullet, and saying that the Reformation commitments were there from the very beginning. The result of that bold commitment is to essentially consign great luminaries like Augustine and Aquinas to a purgatory (metaphorical, of course) for questionable ecclesiology and soteriology. Which...

You hear evangelicals say sometimes, "The culture wars have really hurt our Christian witness." Nonsense. Hypocrisy has hurt the Christian witness. When someone speaks derisively of the "culture wars," they mean the politics of sexual "liberation." They think somehow that there is some formulation of the good news that doesn't include sex, and if we talk about that other stuff, well, maybe that other stuff will go away. Isn't it obvious that politics at its core is the imposition of public morality by force? The libertines know this; their opponents shouldn't be so naive. The very people you want to reach, Christian, nod their heads in tragic approval of your surrender, because that's exactly what it is. The people who say, "We shouldn't legislate morality" are actually saying, "I don't like the one you want to legislate." It's either deception, or stupidity, and we shouldn't find it compelling. Law...

I was talking politics with an older, more liberal friend last night, and he said he thought Sen. Rubio not believing in abortion exceptions for rape and incest would hurt him. I remember thinking I didn't care, because he's right on the issue, if indeed he believes this. Indeed, as I have said, it's the most principled position to take, if a pre-born child is a person. Sen. Goldwater had said that extremism in pursuit of liberty is no vice, and if we say "virtue" in place of "liberty," he's right. The game of politics is about persuasion as much as anything, though, and that's why winning is about not seeming to be extreme, even if you are. More interesting still, when discussions about principles and policy degenerate, the game of politics becomes about convincing the people one's opponent is "extreme," an outlier in relation to some mythical middle that you and your travelers occupy. "Extreme" is the postmodern secula...

It's not just an abortion stance. Not to me. It is the deepest, most fundamental conviction I own: that the fundamental dignity of the human person is the beginning and the end of my political philosophy. I think the gravest indictment of the Democratic Party I could articulate is this: If every Republican became an anti-abortion George McGovern or Paul Simon in exchange for the end of the evil of abortion, and its advocate, Planned Parenthood, no Democrats of any consequence would take the deal. You want to lecture the GOP on its anti-child, anti-family, anti-mother policies after birth? Fine; I'd probably join you. It wouldn't allow any of us to affirm corruption, inefficiency, mismanagement, and policies that don't work. Liberals can shout, "Seamless garment!" until the final resurrection; if we don't oppose abortion in all its forms, we're close to useless. There is no garment, if the emperor has no clothes. If it sounds at once like a politica...

I may spout any number of political ideological heresies from this space, as is my right and duty. Yet I think it is important to say that I like Republicans; I think like them, and talk like them. I am them. As Catholics wishing to adhere to all that the Church teaches, we may find ourselves at odds with deeply-held ideological commitments; if we do it well, we can articulate a bold, truly humanist conservative vision that will be compelling to the body politic; if we do it poorly, we alienate the very people we want to reach, and we unwittingly reinforce the piecemeal approach to ethics and political engagement that we abhor. The very first rule of effective communication is to connect with the audience; dispose them to hear what you are saying. If a faithful Catholic is indeed compelled to question the philosophical basis for the broad economic vision of his political party, for example, he can do this more easily by frankly acknowledging the things the listening or reading audi...

Abortion. Hey, good morning! Time for serious things! OK, here's your syllogism for the morning: Murder is the unjust taking of an innocent human person's life; Abortion is the unjust taking of an innocent human person's life in the womb; Therefore, abortion is a species of murder. Given this, there can be no exceptions, if indeed murder represents an intrinsic evil. So, on this issue, there are actually two real principled positions, all turning on the second premise of the above argument: A fetus is an innocent person, in which case, no exceptions to abortion can be allowed; or, A fetus is not a person, in which case, no restrictions to abortion are necessary. The fact that politics on this issue are mired in arguments over qualifications and exceptions tells me that most people aren't accustomed to thinking clearly, and in fact, nearly all of us know we have been wrong to permit abortion all this time.