Safe Haven

 My brother from another mother, Nathan H., made a highly pertinent comment on my post, "Jesus' Skin Color (Again)." Essentially, we can venerate a White icon of Jesus, as long as we're equally ready to venerate any other one as well. I am, and I have. It got me to thinkin': Anyone remember a comedy skit where the dude is praying in a church, calls upon Jesus, and a legit Black American Jesus shows up? I wanted to laugh, but it does get uncomfortable at points. Jesus is Jesus; we gotta be careful, because His character is still something we're bound to, and that's easy to mess up whilst making a point. Jesus is a Jew, for clarity's sake, so I'd be as stunned if he looked Swedish (Sorry, Max) as I would if he looked West African. But I'm expecting brown, for the record. I want the Apostles to make fun of us in Heaven: "Man, there are a lot of really white people here! I'll bet they didn't like the sun on the old Earth!" There a...

 I've known people whose faith is way too entwined with politics. I've known priests and pastors who can pick out who will leave, if they cross one of those political shibboleths. I've seen political "arguments" that are so simplistic and so bad that it scares me. As an image or an idol, I can grant you that MAGA Jesus exists somewhere. The problem with some of you is that you don't think the opposite image exists. NPR Jesus? Is it too unfair to maybe call it Colbert Jesus? Granted that human beings are disturbingly good at worshipping idols. In a rare attack of good sense, John (Jean) Calvin said that the human heart was an idol factory. But maybe we don't have to go around accusing each other of the most damnable and scandalous errors all the time. Do politics better. Listen. Try to debate issues better. Try to understand each other better. And fight it out in the political arena, shake hands, and do it again next time. Let me note once again that presid...

 Stand-up comedian Dan Cummins has a brilliant bit about getting out of jury duty. In it, he says, "I get paid to make snap judgments about people, and stickin' to 'em, and I plan on doing that here in this courtroom." It's funny, but it's true. Pay attention to how often ignorance  is part of a bit. Nate Bargatze is the absolute master of, "I'm so dumb, and it's funny." Smart people have to turn off their gift to enjoy it sometimes. Because if they colonized a planet, it would be called "Well, Actually." Deep knowledge kills a lot of jokes, and so does nuance. I remember the day I stopped enjoying Stephen Colbert's Trump humor. It was in the midst of the Russian collusion narrative, and maybe something Tom Darrow posted from an official report got read by me. And I happened to catch Colbert's monologue that night. Let's put aside the fact that if Trump were as bad as Colbert and his audience thinks, it wouldn't be f...

 The last 10 years or so has been a grand demonstration of the Dunning-Kruger effect, especially as the internet and associated technologies have democratized information. I'm not a fan of the consequent populism, either here in the US, or worldwide. I went to college. I believe in vaccines. I would have hoped Q-Anon was a 12-step program for people obsessed with the actor John de Lancie. [Aren't you in that?--ed.] Hey, we're not talking about me right now, OK? But the problem with public health for quite a while is that even though you'll never lose money betting on the stupidity of a large group of people, actual persons hate when you talk down to them. These experts do it all the time. And they think they have to lie to ordinary people in order to get them to make the right choice. Seriously, don't do that. The WHO is this arrogance on steroids. I can't think of one time I have thought, "My life would be so much worse, without the World Health Organizati...

 It's part troll, part ploy. President Trump thinks like this: "I want the rest of NATO to fund their own defense. Who is the most credible threat to any other NATO country?" The US. He'll say some blustery stuff, but he wants the Europeans to arm themselves. He also knows that the press will overreact to everything he says and does. He's counting on it. For the record, I am nevertheless appalled. I would never act like this. I'll be glad when these days are ended. But the first principle in realpolitik, or foreign policy realism, is to assume rational actors. If the president is not sick or crazy, he's trying to get out of the Cold War framework.

 Skip down to Section 4. The president himself or herself ends up being the final arbiter in most scenarios that s/he is able to discharge the duties of the office. I do not see 2/3 of both houses of Congress declaring a permanent incapacity here. President Biden was clearly struggling, and we didn't get close to a 25th Amendment scenario. In addition, President Trump's unorthodox methods to achieve fairly sensible ends are well-known enough that the current cycle could be argued to be part of that, i.e. re-armament of NATO. It will be extremely hard to prove that he's literally out of his mind.

 Much like the two notable works of le Carre in the so-called "Karla Trilogy," Herman Wouk's "The Winds Of War" and "War And Remembrance" were made into celebrated miniseries that aired on TV. Also like the George Smiley stories, Wouk's televised adaptations are now barely distinguishable from the books he wrote. Robert Mitchum gives a masterclass in minimalist acting that perfectly captures "Pug" Henry as written. Polly Bergen must have understood the frivolous and irritable Rhoda Henry, because she's expertly unlikable. There was a lot of criticism of the casting choices, because the actors were much older than their characters in general. However, I think it works, because young people of these generations were more mature than people of 1983, or of young people today. I actively dislike Natalie Jastrow, but this testifies to how good Ali MacGraw was. On the one hand, Byron Henry is a loafer and a bum, so he deserves Natalie, good ...

 As a simple explanation, the nature of the dispute between Protestants and Catholics can be illustrated by what we do with the creeds and councils. For the Catholic, the Nicene Creed is a definitive dogmatic declaration from the Church founded by Christ, concerning the nature of God and His work in the world. The definition of Chalcedon more specifically focuses on Christology: the hypostatic union, the two natures--divine and human--united in the divine Person Jesus Christ. Again, for the Catholic, these definitions must be true, because God in Christ is protecting the Church which declares them. Likewise, the Holy Spirit takes from what belongs to Christ, and declares it to us, to paraphrase John's Gospel. For the Protestant, the conclusions of these Councils are deemed true, and explicitly taught in the Scriptures. Since the Catholic Church believes everything she teaches is taught in the Scriptures, we have no cause to disagree. However, as we have argued for about 5 centuries...

 I was functionally fired from my teaching job in November, 2024, after an unjust administrative "process" initiated by HR , and triggered by false accusations the content of which I was never told. My "defense" therefore could have no reasonable basis or direction. I won't say the name of the Local Education Agency, but the town where I lived and worked was Cheraw, South Carolina. I think that once I was on administrative leave, they could use nearly any indiscretion of mine as the final straw to remove me. I did connect with students on social media in protest, and I did express hope that I would quickly be returned to the classroom. The principal of the high school where I worked--a true lackey of the bureaucracy, and fully committed to educational ideas, methods, and solutions that don't work--also allowed his personal dislike of me to take the form of a belief that I was a substandard teacher. He gave me an unsatisfactory review on October 12, and we ha...

 Today, you’re 35. Or at least you would be, in this place. You probably know this, but we’re OK. Not great, but OK. We know you wouldn’t want us moping around and weeping all the time. We try not to. Actually, I guess part of the problem is that you didn’t know how much we loved you. And that you didn’t know how to love yourself. I hope you have gotten to Love by now. Not a place, but fills everything in every way. I’m not Him, but he probably said, “Dear daughter/sister, you have been terribly hard on yourself. Rest now, and be at peace.” Anyway, teaching is going well, and I tell the kids all about you. They all say you are pretty. I usually can keep the boys from saying something gross for a few seconds. Mom and I are going to the game tonight. And like 6 more times, before I go back to South Carolina. I have seen Nicky twice, but I myself haven’t seen your younger kids. Bob took pictures of the day we said goodbye, and we did a family picture at the Abbey. I literally almost a...

Update: I read the whole thing. I’m sorry, but what a weirdo. I thought you [Tom Darrow, of Denver, CO] made a trenchant case for why lockdowns are bad, and I definitely appreciated it. But a graduation speech is *not* the place for that. Secondly, this is an august event. It always is. I would never address the President of the United States in this manner. Never. Even the previous president, though he deserves it, if anyone does. Thirdly, the affirmations of Catholic identity should be more general. He has no authority to propound with specificity on all matters of great consequence. It has all the hallmarks of a culture war broadside, and again, a layman shouldn’t speak like this. The respect and reverence due the clergy is *always due,* even if they are weak, and outright wrong. We just don’t brush them aside like corrupt Mafia dons, to make a point. Fourthly, I don’t know where anyone gets the idea that the TLM is how God demands to be worshipped. The Church doesn’t teach that. ...

 I once had a friend, a dear friend, who helped me with personal care needs in college. Reformed Presbyterian to the core. When I was a Reformed Presbyterian, I visited their church many times. We were close. I still consider his siblings my friends. (And siblings in the Lord.) Nevertheless, when I began to consider the claims of the Catholic Church to be the Church Christ founded, he took me out to breakfast. He implied--but never quite stated--that we would not be brothers, if I sought full communion with the Catholic Church. That came true; a couple years later, I called him on his birthday, as I'd done every year for close to ten of them. He didn't recognize my number, and it was the most strained, awkward phone call I have ever had. We haven't spoken since. We were close enough that I attended the rehearsal dinner for his wedding. His wife's uncle is a Catholic priest. I remember reading a blog post of theirs, that early in their relationship, she told him of the p...

 Someone shut down a discussion--and potential veneration--by stating, "Jesus wasn't White." Which I could easily grant, especially for the sake of argument. But what does "White" mean? How dark would He have to be, before this Marxist-adjacent person would adore Him as God? Or at least allow the discussion to progress? Was it simply a way to invalidate all White perspectives? It seems to me that the universality of Jesus and the gospel message is a threat to certain kinds of essentialism. If there were value in say, "de-centering Whiteness," it would have to be in drawing out the richness of a cultural expression, and adding it to that which is universal. If there is therefore no access to the universals, or no relationship between the universal and the particular, then nominalism, solipsism, and relativism has won. On the other hand, part of the offense of Jesus is that he dared to take on a particular human nature, in a particular place, at a partic...

 I'm no expert on these questions, or related issues, but as a theologian and a person wanting to understand and submit to the Catholic Church on the questions of religious liberty and conscience, I think that the Church has decided that, while a free conscience in error in questions of faith or morals isn't completely free, in light of the soul's true end, the possibility of error is preferable to compliance by compulsion. That is, assent compelled--either to the dictates of right reason, or to those of revealed truth--is itself contrary to charity. The existence of error, and the willingness to tolerate it in some sense, is not to say that truth and error are indistinguishable. Also, "Ultimate truth does not exist" is a statement expressing epistemic skepticism, and is not equivalent to, "People are free to make their own decisions and moral choices." Acknowledging the plain reality of misused freedom is not the same as endorsing freedom that has been...

 Today was the final home game for the St. Louis Cardinals. Accordingly, it was the final regular season home game for Yadier Molina, and Albert Pujols, who have both made it clear that this season is their last. As you may or may not know, Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina now have the all-time MLB record for most starts as pitcher and catcher. It's possible that, given the great caution with which those players are handled, this record is completely unreachable. We will see. I do know that Wainwright is the best pitcher never to win a Cy Young Award as the league's best pitcher, and that he's within hailing distance of consideration for baseball's Hall of Fame. (In point of fact, he has carried the Cardinals this season, and has for several years now, despite celebrating his 41st birthday about 2 months ago.) You can't say enough about Yadier Molina. Once considered a light-hitting catcher, he's just finished his regular season career with a batting mark of .2...

 This covers homosexuality/gender non-conformity, and anything related you can think of. Why? It starts with this simple assertion: Our bodies and our organs are for something, and that something is not exhausted in personal pleasure.  Sex is for creation. To be more specific, procreation. That's what it's for. To create new people is the reason we've been given this gift. To be sure, it gives pleasure. Most likely because people will not always do the things we ought to do, if none of it was pleasant. Why does it matter? If we were to say that "parents" were any two people, and that a "family" is whatever we say it is, we necessarily say   that the traditional view is wrong. Suppose we all chose to believe this, and acted accordingly. The human race would cease to exist. It's no longer about being tolerant of a rare variation; if various radicals are correct, everything we ever believed in is wrong. But we know better. We are seeing that transgender...

 I had to stop watching the Twitter thread of the little Black girls, watching the trailer for next year's re-boot of "The Little Mermaid." It really does matter, and you can see it in their faces. I had to stop, because I had to teach; I can't be crying in the middle of the school day. (And if we are honest, "The Little Mermaid" could benefit the most from a re-imagining. Be honest with us, and yourself.) It got me thinking back to high school, when Disney re-did "Cinderella," live-action, with a predominantly Black cast, including my first celebrity crush, Brandy Norwood--noted R&B singer and actress generally known simply as, "Brandy." I watched it less than 2 years ago; it was like I was 17 again. I love her. The End. Anyway, in those simpler times,--before everything folks didn't like was "woke,"-- most people went, "Wait, what? We've never had a Black Cinderella?" And it was pretty great. Pete's s...

 I haven't watched Fox News intentionally since 2008. It got weird after Obama got elected. By the way, "Some of this criticism is racist, and reflects structural racism" does not mean, "You are a racist," or, "All criticism of Obama is racist." Anyway, sidebar. Apparently, someone made a mistake over there, posting a picture of a couple ostensibly getting married, one dressed as a groom, and the other as a bride. It was part of a piece defending traditional marriage. The only trouble was, the couple are lesbians. And I know how it goes, OK? Fox News says batty things routinely. Our "package deal" partisanship makes it easy to jump on and laugh at everything from hypocrisy to mistakes. But... Marriage can only exist between a biological man, and a biological woman. That's true, and the thing is, even if you want to argue, you know this. It's tragic that in the name of tolerance or inclusivity or whatever you like, that people are wast...

 You often hear this sloppy comparison, when regulating abortion is discussed. How are they different? Erectile dysfunction treatment aids reproduction, while contraception by definition thwarts reproduction. According to a traditional sexual ethics, such as you might find in Christianity,--represented most visibly by the Catholic Church--as long as the sexual act(s) are ordered to reproduction, (and the union of the spouses) aids in that process are licit. Of course, such aids can be used illicitly--like Viagra used in service to an orgy--but that's a licit means to an unjust end. On the other hand, contraception has an intention that can be just--the prevention of pregnancy--but the means thwarts the design and purpose of the sex organs, and the sexual act. Contraceptive sex is by its very nature fundamentally opposed to the purpose of human sexuality. Moreover, anything that has sexual pleasure as the primary or sole end would be out of bounds. Does this mean that the tradition...

 One of the interesting things about the regime of legalized abortion under Roe is that we have pretended that “When does life begin?” is an intriguing question for which we do not have an answer. It’s not only that the decision imposed an answer, though it certainly did, but that the answer was wrong. Any other answer besides “at conception” creates huge ethical problems that our most intelligent people can’t solve. Think about what happens when we say the unborn is “potential life”: that means at any time up to birth,—and after—we could argue that there is some achievement of independence or consciousness that the person has yet to reach. Before that, it’s said that there is no problem in killing the product of conception. You’ll have to forgive me; we have to deal frankly with the implications of arguments. We see that “potential life” essentially talks about the living being in terms of its ability to defend itself, or to be defended by someone else. In contrast, the “conceptio...