Safe Haven

 I really just browse the profiles. I have only chatted with one person. You see lots of interesting women there, and sometimes shockingly beautiful women, but I have one concern, and it’s a weird one. When I see a baptism photo, I wonder if she’s going to a church that gets “creative” with the baptismal formula: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” I think I could convince a sweet Protestant girl that I know Jesus personally. I’m just a nerd, and that’s why I became Catholic! That’s funny, right? But can you imagine if I had to say, “They got creative with your baptism, darling, and it’s invalid”? Sweet mercy, we’d be toast as a couple, inside a week. I might as well tell her Jesus is a Vogon bureaucrat, and she brought the wrong Salvation Form. Theologians are the worst.

 I had one administrator that I really enjoyed working with. He made me nervous at first, but he’s a great educator, for one thing. Could absolutely jump into a lesson on most subjects and not embarrass himself. You figure out quickly who’s been in a classroom and who hasn’t. I’ll codename him “J.F. Sebastian” in homage to the Blade Runner character. He left the high school to be a principal with primary school kids. I just go, “Awww” at the thought of it. I myself wouldn’t want to become cynical, and that can happen in a high school setting. I’m theologically trained, and serious enough to know that the innocence of children can’t save your soul. On the other hand, I haven’t heard of a better personnel shift anywhere in some time. Anyway, I did absolutely feel that at least one person wanted me to flourish. HR and the Board could disappear from the Earth with no appreciable loss, from my vantage point. But it wasn’t all bad.

 But it's not real hate. There are a few players that I dislike strongly, for reasons that may border on irrational, and I would recant that, if confronted in public. Like if I ever disrespected an actual person because he played for a rival. You might recall that the Cubs won the World Series in 2016, breaking a curse of not winning a championship for 108 years. Generations lived and died as Cubs fans without seeing that glory. I was born in 1980. Not only have my Cardinals won three times in my lifetime, but I remember 2 of them. Not only that, but the Cardinals have been the World Series runner-up 3 other times in my memory. It's easy to be a Cardinals fan. It's so easy, I feel guilty about it. In the 2010s, national articles were written about how obnoxiously good we were, and I can't even bother to disagree. It's absolutely hilarious to read about "Cardinals Devil Magic" and so forth. The Cardinals are likely to lose more games than they win this year...

 Apparently, Hank Williams, Jr. said in a song, "If the South woulda won, we'd have it made." I'm sure that ignorant hillbilly believes it, too. Just a recap: The Confederate States of America fought for actual white supremacy. They fought for the continued slavery of Black people. I'm thankful every single day they lost the war. The sheer number of men who fought bravely and died causes us to have more compassion than may be warranted. After all, brother literally fought against brother. All that said, I'm happy to be cited for a noise violation for playing "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic" at full volume. I won't even try to say that President Lincoln was a perfect man. Not even close. But he's ranked by every poll of presidents at the top, and if you're not gonna argue for President Washington, you don't really have a case. Sidebar: Presidents' Day used to be for Washington and Lincoln's birthdays. It's not meant to hon...

 A word on “political”: When people use it pejoratively, they mean “partisan.” And when we say “partisan,” we mean something like, “imbued with a party spirit such that truth, honesty, and even common human decency are set aside.” By the way, you can read it in the comments of every New York Times article. A sneering, left-wing, “our opponents are stupid, and probably poor” sentiment. They can hear and see. You know that, right? After I saw “Rethuglicans” for the 50th time, that pretty much decided that I couldn’t be a Democrat, no matter how sad, mad, and horrified I got at Donald Trump and the Republicans. Then again, I just teach. I don’t have time for team sports. And how to live and flourish together—a good definition for the meat of politics—deserves better than to be treated like an SEC football rivalry. Inevitably, I write about politics and culture here. The life of self-governance is possibly the second-most important universe of questions, after, “Who is God? Who am I? W...

 He’s not by any means a “clean” comedian, but then again, his language isn’t so foul that he couldn’t perform in such a setting. Besides that, what you notice is that he believes in the permanence of marriage. He’s got a bit about the difference between dating and marriage that’s tremendously funny. He says: “If you’re dating, it’s a stressful night. You actually care how this goes. If you get in a fight tonight—maybe over something I’m about to say—the whole thing could be over tonight. The relationship could end tonight… My wife and I could get into the same fight—it could be the worst fight in the world—and we’re not going anywhere, because we don’t have that option.” It’s quaint and beautiful, in its own way.

 I don’t interact with Pastor Tim Butler on the Twitter that much directly, but what happens is that I usually find him arguing with a crazy person who’s enmeshed in political dark arts (racists, Nazis, misogynists) and I will say something brief, hopefully to turn that person around. So I just said, “Europe is nearly godless. Why would you want to replicate that?” You see, liberals and progressives these days usually spend most of their time lecturing people, and trying to demonstrate how much better they are than the great unwashed. Ironically, this drives people deeper into the scary places, because scary people will say to them, “No, you’re right. Mainstream people don’t hear you out, but I will.” I don’t know if that dude was reachable. I think “the Great Replacement” is a stupid thing to worry about. I don’t care what skin color someone has. The United States was founded on ideas, not race or ethnicity. I don’t necessarily agree that Charlie Kirk was a “normie Republican” as ...

 Our automated overlords informed me that the original airdate was March 4, 1973, almost a full 7 years before I was born. But great art really does stand the test of time. It seems to me that the popularity of murder mysteries--and Columbo, that's never a mystery at all--has led us in a certain way to be desensitized to the brutality of murder in the real world. On the other hand, Columbo is better than most in this regard. Laurence Harvey, who played "Emmett Clayton" (the murderer) portrayed a wretched character, who has very little to redeem him. The victim, "Tomlin Dudek," played by Jack Kruschen as a likable, friendly Eastern Bloc chess champion who comes out of retirement to play a match against Clayton. Clayton has only ascended to his height of popularity by the voluntary retirement of Dudek, whom he has never beaten. They hilariously shut down a French restaurant nearby their hotel by playing a chess match with the restaurant condiments on a checkered t...

 This is St. Paul instructing us on the Eucharist/Lord's Supper, one of the central mysteries of the Christian faith. If you didn't know, this parish was messed up. Back in chapter 5, St. Paul says he knows there's a guy sleeping with his father's wife. The context seems to indicate that sexual ethics was going to be challenging for these people. Sex cults devoted to various gods and goddesses in the Greek pantheon were not uncommon, even in these latter days long past the heyday of Alexander the Great. Let's remind ourselves that this was literally in human terms just a letter at first. What we know now as the Bible is--in the New Testament--four accounts of the life of Jesus, believed to be the Messiah hoped for in the Hebrew Scriptures, and a bunch of letters to churches that sprang up for the purpose of adoring Jesus as this Messiah. St. John the Evangelist, the fourth Gospel guy, clearly believes this Jesus is God in human flesh, and fair to say that the conver...

 Some “rabbi” is “gutted” that a euthanasia law didn’t pass somewhere. He says the opponents have denied people hope. You don’t get hope from death. Hope comes from the defeat of death, and the changing of death into life. The idea of the resurrection of the dead is actually in Daniel, in the Hebrew Scriptures. Pain isn’t fun, and I won’t sugarcoat that. But medical science is amazing regarding pain management now. And getting better all the time. You know what probably doesn’t advance that cause? Voluntary death. Meanwhile, euthanasia gets coercive toward the most vulnerable, because we already feel we are a burden. Apparently, people feel we aren’t genociding ourselves fast enough. Liberal religion is also stupid. Join UNICEF or Doctors Without Borders instead. If God always agrees with you, that ain’t God.

 You want less of them. That’s the reason. You may find that it’s too hard to stop people from doing the thing, literally blood, sweat, and tears trying to prosecute people, but that’s a different thing. We can decide that a pothead doesn’t deserve to rot in prison until he’s dead. Full legalization is a different matter. Most people are stupid. Better said, most people are simple: if the government says something is OK, they do it if they want to. If it’s illegal, that’s all the coercion most people need to never do whatever it is. As much fun as it would be to play poker with Larry Elder, Neal Boortz, and the ghost of Ayn Rand, the charming belief that most people decide for themselves what is right and wrong regardless of what the government says is the most utopian nonsense ever. Despite his liberalism, Ken Burns and his friends do the best historical documentaries I’ve ever seen. The one on Prohibition is amazing. William Wheeler, who spearheaded the effort to make alcoholic b...

 Unfortunately, I can’t say I haven’t ever thought about it. September 14, 2019 was possibly the worst night of my life. I literally thought, “I need to make sure that I don’t have too many pharmaceuticals in here, because I don’t trust myself right now.” What was odd and hard about that was that I’m possibly the most optimistic person I’ve ever met. I’ve been through really hard things. REALLY hard things. But that stuff about stressors is not BS; I had given everything, and it blew up in my face. For those few hours, I didn’t know what the point of my life was. On the other hand, I knew what it was, and I gave myself permission to be really sad, and I believed that if I could see the sun the next day, I would be fine. I was meeting Bryan Cross the next day, and we were going to Kentucky that day to hear Wendell Berry. I have lived the luckiest life. I truly have. I had to give myself instructions out loud to do things, though I lived alone. “Brush your teeth.” “Flip that switch.”...

 I remember I slept late. 10 o’clock in the morning. I’m brushing my teeth in my residence hall bathroom. A dude ran in and said, “Someone attacked the World Trade Center; they think 50,000 people are dead.” I said, “C’mon, man. That’s not funny. Don’t joke about that.” It was real. It’d been a couple years I think since a guy drove a truck into the parking garage of the World Trade Center that contained a bomb. I remember when the USS Cole got attacked the previous year. We knew it was Islamic-flavored terrorists. I went toward the front desk. We always had news summaries on a standing whiteboard. Above the news, there was a note: “In spite of everything that has happened, we are committed to treating everyone with respect, no matter their religion.” I was proud to see that. I’m still very proud it was there. In those days, it wasn’t normal to try to offend political opponents on purpose. It wasn’t that the day was so hard; it was too shocking to feel anything. The days and weeks ...

 He was killed one year ago today. I can remember when Turning Point USA started; I didn’t think much of him, I’ll be honest. Especially in the early days, I didn’t think it was useful or helpful to troll the Left. Whatever the “conservative movement” is or was, I still think ideas are important, and because ideas have to do in this sphere with how people govern themselves, persuading people should be the goal of politics and policy.  If there is any meaning to the terms “far Left” and “far Right,” I think it would have to apply to people who are unwilling to tolerate those who differ from them, up to and including using violence to achieve their goals. In that way, Charlie Kirk absolutely was quaint in his belief in persuasion. He became a Christian somewhere in there. And I don’t say that so I can praise him to the skies; I’m not a middle-aged liberal Catholic deacon who reviews movies on the side. And I don’t think I’m the rightist opposite, either. Kirk definitely made me ...

 With a 2-2 draw in Portland last night, St. Louis City SC finished their 14th consecutive league match without a loss. (9 wins, 5 draws) They haven't lost since May 3. Certainly, they would prefer wins over draws, but they have marched up the league table from near the bottom. If I am not mistaken, 10 league matches remain.

 The distinct approaches to sacramental efficacy by Protestants and Catholics are rooted in what each group wants and expects in its theological system. Protestants--first Lutherans, then others in turn--had to make a case that there was no aspect of divine appointment about the apostolic succession and the priesthood. Sadly, 16th century Catholicism provided ample provocations.  This is why a Protestant understanding of “apostolic” is that the apostolic kerygma—the apostolic preaching—is entirely contained within the Scriptures. The excision of 7 books of Scripture as it had been received, not all at once, and not all for the same reasons, is harder to justify in a principled way. In any case, theologically what Luther, Calvin, et al. eventually argued was that the sacraments functioned independently of the Catholic hierarchy; that is, the workings of grace depended primarily on the disposition of the receiver, not on the precise performance of the ritual with the right form,...

 I read all of Aaron “The Rat” Nelson’s posts on Facebook, and I venture to say that if he becomes one with The Borg—let the reader understand—that a bunch of our priests are going to tell him to chill out. I suppose indeed it is the mark of a saint to blame yourself first and primarily, but it’s also the hallmark of saints to tell the truth. The good that God has wrought cannot be muted in the blather of false humility and self-deprecation. I remain thankful that he has a burning antipathy for Calvinism, ironically enough. He’d denigrate himself even more if he spent the last 25 years in those waters. Bryan Cross and I both were Reformed at one point. Since Bryan is about 3 times smarter than I am, I assume he understood it better than I did to that degree. I’m just a Bible guy; I don’t think logically enough to be naturally good at systematic or dogmatic theology. The supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit I think make me able to put mental citation “tags” on things. I said when I...

 I don't usually watch news; it's not well done these days. Whether because of the profit motive, or because of a subculture of rank laziness, you're not going to find a level of depth and accuracy with respect to what you need to know, or even what you would want to know, from one report. You might even find bias, in all the mediums of news delivery. Even in earlier days, when the physical newspaper was the undisputed king, the pressure to be first and the pressure to sell could distort a perspective. There are people who have made it their life's work to evaluate the news, and to attempt to re-present it--mostly by gathering as many good faith sources as possible--as fairly as possible. That is not me. I rely on much more analytical minds for that. But I did do a web search on Lindsay Clancy. You don't need my opinion on this case, and you won't get it. What you will get are a few thoughts about how our legal system is generally designed, and why it's adve...

 Fair warning: This is my favorite passage in my favorite Gospel, and St. John is my patron saint. That is, my confirmation name is John. Frankly, you could start with this text and go all the way to v. 71, and it would obviously benefit you. But I’m zooming in here because the Eucharist/Lord’s Supper is so important and is a point of disagreement between Catholics and the children of the Reformation. As always, there is a ton of overlap here, as well there should be. The glory of Jesus Christ and His love for us will come through if your heart is open. I may say some things concerning preference re: how the sacrament functions within the Catholic system, but again, questions of authority and submission are important, and are distinct from saying, “The system would be better if it had/lacked x.” I think the Magisterium or teaching office is wonderful and helpful, but only if Jesus actually put it there. If he didn’t, then quite literally, to Hell with it. Conversely, I find Protest...

 Before this gets too Greek and dorky—I’m not bloody Bryan Cross anyway—let me preface this by saying that I don’t ever want to simply give a Catholic interpretation of a passage, and ask you to consider it, and then if you’re persuaded about a Catholic dogma or even all of them, that you should then become Catholic. We don’t believe in Sola Scriptura. (Please see CCC, 100 and 105) To simply become Catholic because those dogmas accord with one’s own interpretation of Scripture would be to be a Catholic on Protestant/Reformation terms. The Catholic worldview depends upon the Church, the visible, united community joined to the successor of Peter, head of the Apostles. I don’t ask you to assume that; but I think it is reasonable in faith to reach that conclusion, looking at Christian history. God and us have won that argument in hundreds of billions of hearts over two millennia. One other preface: There’s a lot of overlap between us as Christians. There should be! If there is but one ...