Safe Haven

 The comedian Neal Brennan has a bit about how Republicans welcome anyone who says they want to be a Republican. Liberals? Not so much. “Hey, I’m liberal, too!” “Really? We’ll see.” Josh Johnson has a similar bit. Both audiences laughed, because they know it’s true.

 When I was about 20, I used to read him on occasion. I was Reformed, and a Federal Vision sympathizer. Of course I was; I didn’t know it, but I was a writer. And if you’re a little bit artsy-fartsy like that, you’re a crypto-Catholic, even if you’re not ready to submit to Rome. It’s legit a kind of Oxford Movement within Reformed theology; that’s what it was; that’s what it is. I was smart enough to know that Western civilization is Catholic civilization. America is a bit anomalous, but let’s be real: the Anglican Communion at the time of the death of St. Thomas More was just the SSPX of its day: Catholics separated from their visible Head on Earth. Anyway, I laughed at a lot at the Wilson snark, because even a lot of liberal Christians at the time acted like President Bush was a Christian Ayatollah. C’mon, man. This dude from Old Money, whose relatives seemingly own a third of New England? Other than the Calvinist Congregationalists, the region is not known for its excess of reli...

 With due respect to Lichtman, external factors are just background most years. If a substantial portion of people think you hate them, criticism of the candidate who sits back and says, “They hate you, see that?” goes precisely nowhere. I could even grant you that the sitting president is like an internet comment section, like Cliff from Cheers without the sneaky smarts.  I would even grant you that staffing a ton of the executive branch with right-wing radio hosts is highly questionable. It’s the exact thing a TV president who is out of his depth would do. But the Democratic Party’s counterpart to Cliff Clavin was…Tim Walz? An alleged football coach who doesn’t know what a “pick six” is? Not to mention that a guy who is father to a Downs Syndrome son sounds foolish defending unfettered abortion rights. If it’s really true that you believe Republican efforts to restrict abortion access have unanticipated bad effects, handle it legislatively. Trump/Vance on abortion are first-...

 “Kamala Harris cares about they/them. Donald Trump cares about you.” A couple things: I won’t cynically say that a politician doesn’t care about anyone; I don’t know that. Heck, I called George W. Bush the “Comforter-In-Chief” (before some jackwagon at USA Today stole it) and I wasn’t kidding. That second sentence I don’t personally believe. I have to work hard to praise the man. But anyway. This was the crowning moment. Whoever wrote this deserves a place teaching in the Obama-Atwater School of Effective Political Destruction. Harris could recite “The New Colossus” whilst weaning a flock of baby bald eagles with Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless The USA” to no effect. It was over. And it was perfectly emblematic. Normal people don’t spend time worrying about being transphobic. It’s essentially a meaningless word, coined yet again by people who talk exclusively to each other. If I promise not to say “progressive academics,” will you send me money? This is distinct, by the way, from...

 22 years ago in an essay, I said that I preferred Bush 43 to be re-elected president, for lots of policy reasons. But on a personal note, the Democrats acted like our country itself was a gulag, and we were all allegedly locked in it. Happy warriors usually win; dour people embarrassed for the very country they intend to govern usually don’t. In the interest of principled criticism, I definitely know that “enhanced interrogation” and the abuse of terrorist militants violates longstanding human rights commitments. In the present day, ICE detentions that ignore judicial orders to obey habeas corpus have a gulag-adjacent quality. Any lawyer advocating for basic human rights can say anything they want. I didn’t vote for Donald Trump; I didn’t appoint Stephen Miller. This is quite apart from illegal immigration, and the probable likelihood that any such people also are violent criminals. In other words, when ICE agents are protecting Americans and guests from monsters along with other ...

 There was a lot of social science in my electives then. Political science and economics were a blast, but I filled it all out with enough sociology and religious studies that I nearly had minors in both. Sociology was explicitly Marxist. In fact, a lot of those were taught by European immigrants. The only people more self-righteous than American leftists are European leftists. As you may know, religious studies became essentially religious sociology or cultural anthropology after the rise of the New Left in the late 1960s. Studying dogma and religious texts was left to the benighted believers in their churches and seminaries. I still liked a lot of it, but I was often angry and arrogant then. I got saved in 1997. “Deconstruction” meant Marxist dismissal of white and male certitudes from the modern era, and an assertion that some need for power completely explains every contention. But philosophically, if every truth claim is a grasp for power, that’s emotivism: personal gain or de...

 The Democratic Party isn’t winning the presidency lately. I’m going to put a language warning right here. Sometimes, a vulgar word or words is the clearest way to say something. Donald Trump has been described as a carnival barker. I happen to think that is an insult to carnival barkers. He’s a self-involved amoral beast who was born leading off of third base. The only real difference between Bernie Madoff and Donald Trump is that Madoff went broke. If you have money—even if you borrowed it—you don’t have to be bound by anything, and this man isn’t. That said, I don’t believe a whole bunch of left-wing garbage, and most people don’t. Trump is a bullshitter, when he’s not doing something awful or illegal. But if you think about who votes in America, it’s probably a guy about 55, white, named Steve or Ron or Jim. That’s your median voter. I am not him; Tom Darrow and I are too throughly Christian to be the median voter. Most Americans identify as Christian, but Jim’s not a disciple,...

 I will still say that The Lion King is my favorite film, because it helps me process and heal from losing my father, without completely breaking me. Interstellar just breaks me, and if it weren’t so profoundly Christian, I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone I’ve known. I have watched it 5 times, and I will only watch it again if I am sharing it with someone. I don’t hurt myself on purpose, even if pain can be good. Matthew McConaughey may be a funny guy who has done comedy and chick flicks, but when he wanted to avoid being typecast to move into drama, he did it exactly right. He won his Academy Award for Dallas Buyers Club, but Interstellar was the announcement that he would win one. Nobody will ever take the respect that comes with that, and no one should try. It feels sort of cheap to call it “entertainment,” though I suppose it is. My Blu-Ray sits in a box; my streaming copy has never been watched.  What could I possibly say to those actors, without melting into a puddle? ...

 I was going in thinking about Interstellar and Arrival, because those sci-fi films are intentional dramas. And the Nolan brothers write, produce, and direct with the intention of producing an emotional response. If you have seen Interstellar, you know. There’s always a risk of being cheap and mawkish with that effort, but I think both Interstellar and Arrival earn their payoffs with characters we care about and costs that aren’t repaid neatly. This film kind of sets us up for something similar: Hero goes on an apparent suicide mission to save the world. He finds more than he bargained for. He’s reluctant. It jumps around in time to fill in the background. But this film replaces the sorrow with humor and a kind of plucky optimism. It’s not like self-sacrifice is absent; not at all. But “Coop” saves the world FOR his kids, Tom and Murph. In a way, the world IS Tom and Murph. Love drives him. Grace had no one on Earth; he found a purpose in deep space. He didn’t even willingly go. Wh...

 Billy Joel has a hit song called, “Only The Good Die Young.” It’s catchy, but it’s scandalous. If you stop dancing for five seconds, you realize it’s about enticing a young Catholic teen girl to fornicate. I didn’t write it; I am just the messenger. Yeah, Billy, if Catholic girls start much too late, they have good Dads. Anyway, I have noticed that indeed the good do die very young sometimes. You’ve seen it often enough; people who teach you that you’re not grateful enough. People will still decide God is a monster, and I have varying degrees of pity or sympathy, depending on those circumstances. But I understand now. I’m paying attention. Happiness is fleeting here; joy abides, and it is for others. Hand me a Coke or a Mountain Dew, I am happy. Frankly, I will probably arbitrarily decide you’re a good person. Abiding joy goes through me, even if I suffer. Nothing merely human produces abiding joy. You need a relationship with Jesus for that. “It is no longer I who live, but Chris...

 Even in these latter times, tons of safeguards have been added to our penal system, so that instances of capital punishment aren’t seen as barbarism. Doubtless, even some people who in some objective moral sense deserved it were people who reformed their lives—such as they were—and took responsibility for what they did. Let me back up and say that it could never have been intrinsically evil, that is, evil in its very object. Holy Mother Church executed enough notorious murderers that she wasn’t about to impugn her moral authority. By God’s grace, the Catholic Church remains the last best hope for humanity, not only for eternal salvation in Christ, but for a society worth living in. Too many people think even high-level theology and ethics is a Choose Your Own Adventure Book. And that Church discussion is just politics with a longer timescale. I have no time for that, re: capital punishment. We’re even caught between the dignity of the condemned, and the barbarism of their acts. Th...

 In my last post, I took a shot at Ricky Gervais. Well, not really. More like a shot at atheist-flavored ignorance, which even as an entertainer, he’s pretty visible for. We need to actually speak plainly about what we have recorded in what Christians call the New Testament, or New Covenant. Church people, step out of the shoes of loving Jesus and His Church for one moment. How does the New Testament read or sound on the face of it? Let’s just focus on the four Gospels. That’s where all the stuff allegedly said by Jesus is recorded. Jesus as a liar doesn’t have much evidence behind it; he didn’t lounge in Malta after all the stuff, getting rich after selling purported baptismal water. He got called a blasphemer by his own people, and executed as a disturber of the peace by the Roman Empire. Let’s set aside Jesus’ alleged resurrection and every miracle he did for a moment as well. Jesus being crazy seems to have some evidence behind it. No sensible philosopher I have ever heard woul...

 Atheism has never unjustly killed anyone, apparently. Oh, wait. What’s the body count for Marxism-Leninism? 50 million? Can’t wait to hear how those avowed atheists are actually Christians or something. Meanwhile, even if I arrogated to myself the duty to apologize for every awful thing any theist has ever done, those numbers aren’t even close. If you want to say that you don’t want to attend religious services, or even that most of the believers you’ve met are maladjusted weirdos, just say that. But you can’t just make up stuff that’s easily disproven. Meanwhile, have you ever met an atheist-agnostic who said, “Those Christians don’t really love like Jesus”? If Jesus has no divine authority, there’s no profit in being like Jesus. If you don’t believe Jesus is God, or that a god exists, how do you know anything about Jesus? What we know about Jesus purports to be divinely revealed. See where this is going? I don’t know anyone with more chutzpah than the citizens of historically Ch...

 Recent data gathered together by my internet friend James Heaney suggests that 15 percent of the people you might run into (or more) these days may not actually have permission to be in the United States right now. 15 percent is a lot. When I saw the numbers, I was shocked. Me personally? I don’t care. Every immigrant I’ve ever met seems awesome. But let’s say you weren’t sure at even a minimum level that a group of people were committed to a basic posture of nonviolence, or to treat women equally and justly? What if people bring a culture here that’s nothing like ours? Forget skin color or religion, per se. If people don’t commit to basic American values and attitudes, it wouldn’t take much to cause some serious friction that wouldn’t just go away. You can’t just wish all that away with some nice words about equality. That’s about as gracious as I can be toward President Trump and his purpose for being a politician. The last time we had so many outsiders as a proportion of all of...

 I’m writing this now because today, my schoolmate Marci would have been 46. I remember being totally surprised, because I didn’t know she was struggling, and she is/was one of those people who lived so “loud” that you rebuke yourself for wasting time complaining. Have you ever met someone so joyful that you think they’re nuts? Later, you realize the problem is you. I didn’t see Marci much after we left grade school, but I will tell you a story from that time. We’re sitting in class at Ross Elementary in the Physically Impaired classroom. Most of us were slowly being introduced into the general education setting, with plenty of support. One morning in October of 1989, we were regrettably informed that Ross was going to have a fire drill. Now, all the hours and days in the PI classroom, I don’t remember too many alarms. I daresay we didn’t leave for drills (or hear the alarm) as much as the other students. Because if you know anything about cerebral palsy, that startle response of o...

 It was probably some kind of mistake to teach A Wrinkle in Time to my ninth graders. It was originally written at a middle school level. On the other hand, Meg is in the 9th grade. Calvin is an advanced junior. We could lament the decline of the modern student, since I taught early high school, and L’Engle imagined some sixth graders—perhaps reaching a bit, even in 1960–taking it on. On the other hand, the allusions are so rich that literally any person can be enriched by it. I know I always am. Funny thing about the controversies around the book: I am inclined to think that a certain kind of ideology-motivated teacher loves “banned books” because it allows them to take shots at organized traditional religions, public school skeptics, and other politically “bad” people. This is literally the land of the free; you let me know, if any level of government moves to actually ban or prohibit a book. And no, offending your community on purpose isn’t a blow for freedom, Bob. We used to ca...

 These two concepts are kind of opposite each other when thinking about God. Immanence is the nearness of God; the closeness of God to humanity, as we seek purpose and fulfillment. Transcendence is the idea that God is wholly Other, above what he made, and some would say, uninvolved with creatures and the world. The Greeks absolutely believed this. You’re going to hit a wall with Greek philosophy, strictly speaking, for this reason. If the Church had not “baptized” Plato and Aristotle, it’s possible they get forgotten. Joseph Ratzinger, AKA Pope Benedict XVI, essentially says that the Incarnation is this nearness of God. Mankind’s reason vainly reaches as high as it can go, but God in Christ came down. This is who the unknown, unseen God is. Or, as he put it and St. John recorded it, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Our culture is quite messed up, but we’re so used to what Jesus actually did that we mock it in entertainment. The “Buddy Christ” statue from the film D...

 If memory serves, her birthday was March 1. And if I have my years right, she died in 2018, just before she would have turned 93. I saw her a few months before she died. When I think about being a Kettinger, she’s who I think of, along with my father and his siblings, both here, and in the hereafter. One of my brothers is not known for his churchgoing, but he read a Scripture at the Funeral Mass. Nailed it. I have never nailed anything like that in my life. It’s a bit hard to describe my career in simple terms, but if someone described me as a professional Bible reader, I couldn’t deny it. I still couldn’t have done it as well as my brother did that day. At some point, the faithful were invited to sing “On Eagles’ Wings.” I’ve always loved it, but now it’s forever associated with all the love I received from my grandmother, and the courageous life she lived. A dear friend said that he caught the priest rolling his eyes when the hymn started, but he sang it with gusto, like he wrot...

 I happen to believe that the fundamental principle of the Reformation, consistently applied, leads all the way to naturalism-atheism. Private judgment, encapsulated in Sola Scriptura. Blessedly, most people have no interest in severing every possible connection between themselves and the Catholic Church, if they are Christians. And as I work with Barthian Butler, and we talk about how to do ministry together, Sola Scriptura means practically, “We’re gonna mine this divinely inspired written word for everything it has,” not, “Let’s go evangelize the Catholics, before the Whore of Babylon leads them into Hell.” Dr. Cross is right, though: if your lexical tools and your hermeneutical method make it near-impossible to consider full communion with the Catholic Church, those things of themselves lead away from reunion, by the nature of the case. I bring this up with the haze from my recent arguments just beginning to clear. Remember Rachel Held Evans? (Eternal rest…) And she deserved so...

 I should probably be afraid of Italians with mustaches. Or men that wear sleeveless shirts and drive Camaros. I was beaten severely and verbally abused mere minutes after I heard Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” on the radio. No one would blame me, if I never wanted to hear it again. (It’s fine. A delightful song. Don’t worry. I’m happy. See what I did there?) If by some tragedy I started killing Italian men with mustaches who drove Camaros, a profiler would probably dig that up. Someone might even argue that I deserve some consideration, in light of my trauma. But I don’t have the right to generalize my trauma to those others. To use a lesser example, I don’t have the right to slander Italian guys with mustaches in general. My last blog post was probably overstated, as was the Facebook post that prompted it. To the extent that the overstatement was unwarranted, I acknowledge that, and regret the error. A lot of darkness can hide behind a pleasing facade. Beyond finding ou...