tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68675735031363077192024-03-13T15:17:42.122-07:00catholicism, conservatism"Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to blow upon the earth,
So Truth be in the field,
We do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength,
Let Truth & Falsehood grapple,
For who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter." John Miltonsuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-12231462968116311252018-10-11T23:01:00.000-07:002018-10-11T23:01:04.011-07:00June 20, 2018 Father's Day<br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">June 20, 2018 Father's Day</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We just celebrated Father's Day. I lost my Dad in 1992. Looking at the cultural vitriol such as "severed heads, profanity, vile name calling that assaults us daily to make a political point, I think back to the greatest gift, among many, this humble man gave to his children. He gave us a part of himself, a love and trust in God, and a love for Truth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There were three of us children, my Mom, my Grandma and always, a German Shepherd. I remember this time in particular because we had fallen on hard times. Looking back, besides being loved, my Dad made sure we would cultivate a love for seeking out the Good, the Noble, the True. He was a brilliant man, well read, immersed in all the classics, he had large sections of Shakespeare memorized along with many other poets. And, his actions proved him a good man, always helping others, always giving each the benefit of the doubt. I adored him, and followed him around like his shadow; we became very close. He was my father, he was also my mentor. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Ben Franklin once said, (we've all heard it,) when asked by someone after the Union had been formed, "What have we got?" Franklin responded, "A Republic if you can keep it." He was 81 at that moment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Every night as we lingered around the family dinner table, my Dad would start a conversation, always about an idea; philosophical, theological, political, ethical, etc., usually accompanied by some quote, poem he had in his head. The debate would begin. Mom would keep the coffee warm, or the desert coming, while each of us, even the youngest, myself, expressed our opinions, trying to back them up on solid ground. He or one of my two older brothers would of course challenge, and this could go on for hours. I grew to love those times although never fully appreciating what he was doing until years later. We had intense discussions, but always with courtesy and respect for the other. My Dad modeled humility and gave dignity to each of us. We learned to love debate, the search for truth and each other. We yearned to read high minded people's thoughts and ponder them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As I grew up, I thought all families did this. I was surprised to find not all my peers were as addicted to philosophical debate. Years later after realizing this was not going away, I began to understand what a gift he had given us. It cost not a dime, only his time. From the first book I fell in love with at 12, Viktor Frankl's, "Man's Search for Meaning," to the book that changed my life, after many missteps, Teresa of Avila's, "Interior Castle," and many since, I finally thanked my Dad, in my heart, he was with God by then. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now, I also realize what Ben Franklin meant, and Jefferson reiterated, without an educated, virtuous, and faith-oriented populace, this "experiment" of government by the people for the people would never last. We must learn in each generation to love the True, the Good, the Noble. As St. Augustine once said, long after a squandered youth, "too late have I loved Thee, Oh Ancient Beauty, so ancient and ever new." </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If I leave my own children nothing more, this will suffice.</span></div>
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suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-14512844954194634942012-11-26T20:15:00.000-08:002012-11-26T20:15:10.245-08:00Trivial Pursuit...Pundit Commentary<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Many conservatives, moderate Republicans and even Democrats
are writing ad nauseum about what the GOP must do in order to win presidential
elections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find most of it superficial;
actually more harmful than helpful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
then I confess, I am looking through a slightly different prism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To the Ann Coulters, the Bill Kristols, the
Charles Krauthammers, the Peggy Noonans, etc, I say STOP.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think about what you are doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are swimming with the Piranhas and don’t
even realize it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You risk becoming
“beltway pundits;”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“full of pomp and
fury, signifying nothing.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have you been
successfully tempted by the enemy? Has he perhaps appealed to well known
weaknesses of human nature….you want to be accepted, wooed, complimented,
invited, respected, in a word, popular!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Accomplished!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what is
bartered away in such a process is the “pearl of great price;” the one true
thing, discovered by Dante in his painfully introspective journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Commentary is only efficacious when its goal
is pre-eminently, truth!</div>
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Our society has become quite proficient at latching on to
one or another superficiality or distraction and wrestling the darn thing to
the mat!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did this strategy or that
strategy <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">work?</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What was most effective (in avoiding the
truth and winning votes?)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are
commentators on every cable network wholeheartedly engaged in this battle as
though it meant something important!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
tragedy is that these trifles are completely meaningless;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they are nothing more than the tactics of evil;
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>successfully keeping us enthralled, at
the restless surface, where nothing of import can be discovered, but where our
self-congratulatory<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>escapades remain
completely harmless to the deeper inexorable movement taking place; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the reality that threatens are very existence!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the most part, the public schools and our universities
have completely surrendered to the zeitgeist of “trivial pursuit” at the
surface. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, like Hitler’s well
trained youth, they have even become the gatekeepers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Woe to the one who steps out of lockstep and
asks Ann Coulter, or God forbid, a Clarence Thomas to speak on campus!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The “goon” squad will soon beat this “fool”
down until the invitation is swiftly retracted and things have once again
returned to “normal!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Freedom is no
longer the privilege of learning to love the true and beautiful and staking
ones existence on it; no, freedom is now synonymous with license.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, license requires no responsibility, only
power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, “power” it shall have!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Currently, in our culture, one of two things is happening;
either the individual chooses to be liked and accepted and therefore precludes
himself the opportunity of challenging the irrationality of narcissistic license;
gradually evolving his own thinking into its fantasy ,riding rather gleefully
undisturbed along the surface.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
keep themselves deceived by busily dotting the (i)s or crossing the (t)s rather
than ever risking a look at the earthquake quivering in the depths.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The other group has opted out of thinking at all….they are
all in!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, having become the acolytes
of the new “normal “they have successfully stifled all curiosity, questioning
or rationality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usually, they have
traded an obsession, an addiction, a “pleasure” for their very soul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, as Dante frequently alludes to in
his epic poem, the irony is, these individuals are no longer free.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have traded their freedom, their
individual human dignity for society’s imprimatur! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In truth, they have become slaves.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Furthermore, rather
than making them cheerful and happy acolytes, they become more and more hostile
and hateful toward their perceived enemies, the remnant who oppose them
intellectually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are the “Occupy Wall
Street” types, or the frenzied crowd outside the WH on election night, cheering
“socialism and Karl Marx. “<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even “mainline
Democrats,” with whom I came in contact while working at Douglas County
Elections, were afflicted with this hostile, cheerless voice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After their candidate had won re-election,
several approached me wanting to engage in conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They asked, “Why do you dislike Obama?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I responded that his votes to allow
infanticide in the Illinois State Legislature along with rabid endorsement of
Planned Parenthood, in spite of proven corruption in their operations, would be
the first among many, reasons I voted against him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather than answer my response rationally,
they suddenly became personally hateful and displayed such anger and hostility
that I was shocked!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They told me to STOP,
to shut up NOW!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess they had
forgotten that it was they who asked the question!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I simply asked them to look up Obama’s voting
record in the Illinois legislature…facts can be found independent of what they
think about me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One would think they had
been the losers that night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would also include
most of the pseudo journalists on MSNBC etc who rail against the” shadows on
the cave wall.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Far from being objective
or even acknowledging well known facts, regarding Benghazi, for example, they
simply charge ahead in what can only be described as emotionally unbalanced
hatred and intolerance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They make a
mockery of what “journalism” is supposed to be in a free society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are nothing more than propagandists.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately, this latter group will only become more hateful;
in other places and times they have accelerated a totalitarian government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once one has come this far, he either throws
all his chips in, or he is mercifully <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>shocked out of his downward spiral and
literally hits the brick wall of reality….and it is at this time when he is
once again offered an existential choice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, what is deep below the surface?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Truth!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How do we know it is the “truth?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Absolute truth, what the founders meant when they spoke of
human rights and sovereignty springing from the Natural Law; it does
exist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its wisdom is like a key which
opens the door to man’s intellect, his will, his heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Man was created to explore, understand and
grow by this very seed implanted in his soul which is the very “image of God.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Man is the pinnacle of God’s creation, he is
self-conscious, he is imbued with free will, he is perfectly suited to
intellectual discipline and he is a natural contemplative as his spirit is “compassed”
to guide him back home to the Triune communion of love which is his home.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the reason man becomes more and more disintegrated
and agitated when he willfully turns away from God and makes himself a
god.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The “utopia of freedom” supposedly
achieved is, in fact, nothing more than a hideous anarchy descending into
totalitarianism, power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This death
spiral has occurred many times in history, yet man’s lower nature follows Dante
down to the inferno time and time again!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It fails because it denies the very nature of man!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Man needs worship; he needs worship because
he was made in the image of his Creator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Man is a creation of body and soul, of physical and spiritual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s
consider a train….we all love to watch trains rattle around the track, putting
miles and miles of terrain behind them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One could, in looking at that locomotive, say to himself, “that poor
train is stuck on that track, it’s the only way it can go any place; if it
could think, might it say, just once I would love to jump that track and go off
on my own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t need the track….I
want to be free.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, if the train could
think, it would be missing a very important point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It IS after all, a train!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its very nature requires a track in order to
move through reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It only stops its
forward momentum if it somehow jumps the track.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If man is indeed God’s creation, made to find fulfillment
within the Triune love of God, than anything short of that will fail to answer
man’s existential need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the depth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are the questions man has been wrestling with from the
beginning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And man, through generations
upon generations has come up with some answers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We do a grave injustice to the wisdom that has come before us if we
simply disregard what has been rationally and spiritually tested for centuries,
only to placate our drive for selfish indulgences.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here is an example of what has come before us, about 2000
years before us:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovable, whatever is admirable…think about these
things.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Phil. 4:8</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately, the search for “truth” is not uppermost in
the minds of modern day “talking heads.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Trivial Pursuit” is the game “du jour!”</div>
suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-7999378888050466832011-04-09T12:23:00.000-07:002011-04-09T12:50:28.093-07:00The "Scam"/Thanks Mark Levin<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Mark Levin has it right....this supposed "deal" is nothing but a ponce scheme! Its supposed cuts come from such things as the Administration's 2011 budget, which never existed. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Boehner and Bush cohorts have done nothing but completely collapse again. This is their only expertise. If some intestinal fortitude doesn't show up at the party soon, we are in big trouble. There is no chance they will do any better at the upcoming two battles....they are afraid of their tails. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">They lost the riders, the defunding of Obamacare and even the spending cuts are in the nature of a mirage! Taxpayer funded abortions continue unabated. It is a disgrace.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Levin has called it truthfully, thank God for his voice of truth.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Michelle Bachman has lost credibility as well. She basically stuck with the Bush Washington elitists stating her optimism that the deal would go through and avert a shut down (oh, heaven forbid!) albeit, without the Planned Parenthood rider and then later had the political cover to vote NO stating she was never for such small cuts. It's the typical Washington ploy played out from the inside.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">The "votes" in the Senate will obviously lose so the Dems lost nothing on that. They demagogued the issue chasing the gutless entrenched Republicans right into the box they devise every single time.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Ryan's budget will go no where except to raise the issue in the election and the debt ceiling will be raised, period end of story.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><b>There is only ONE unpredictable variable in this entire sickly mess...and that is the American people. They are the only ones with any guts because they have to "walk the walk" every single day of their lives. They don't continue to get paid when they completely shirk all responsibility, they don't get life time pensions like the teacher's unions just because they walk in the door like leeches on the wallets of taxpayers, and "the people" have not forgotten there is a God, to whom we have made a covenant bought in Blood, and that we will be held accountable for our acts. They still believe in the Natural Law, morality and the truth of a man's word. Though many forces are arrayed against them, if they stand up to Washington, our Nation may yet be saved from disaster.....this is our only hope.</b></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><b>God help us and forgive us for yet more innocent unborn lives snuffed out at taxpayer expense. Our society kills its own children and then jumps onto the band wagon that we need more illegals to help pay for Social Security etc in the future. What have we become?</b></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><b></b> </span><br /><br /></span></span></div>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-68855017559183134312009-07-03T16:13:00.000-07:002009-07-05T13:24:51.478-07:00Sarah Palin and Conventional Wisdom<div><p class="MsoNormal"><st1:placename st="on"><span style="font-family:Georgia; color:black">Sarah</span></st1:placename><span style="font-family:Georgia; color:black"> <st1:placename st="on">Plain</st1:placename>’s decision to leave office in <st1:place st="on"><st1:state st="on">Alaska</st1:state></st1:place> has aptly highlighted the irony of "conventional wisdom."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:black"><o:p> I've got news for all the media pundits, Washingtonian elites and beltway political junkies, who walk in lock-step with each other, their mediocrity ricocheting like images on a mirror, with about as much reality as an amusement park fun house. </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:black">I pity this self-absorbed, arrogant class of bland uninteresting pundits for they have lost the ability to think and thereby intuit creatively. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:black">Sarah Palin is not one of them, there is a profound difference in her; the public sees it plain as day but it totally eludes the elites. They are blind as bats here. In some respect, its laughable, however, with the state of our country, the critical stakes for the future in mind, on another level, it is extremely disconcerting. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:black">To put it simply, one need only go back to another unconventional soul, Henry David Thoreau. Sarah Palin's personhood "beats to the beat of a different drummer," and this is exactly what makes her hated by the left and misunderstood and underestimated by elites on the Right. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:black">However, to be a "real" leader, not a badly orchestrated facade, like Obama, the ability to "think outside the box," to incorporate a certain, spiritually guided risk into one's existence and bravely act on it, is more than an eccentricity, it is a necessity. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:black">Risk, by definition requires a potential cost. As we celebrate July 4th this weekend, I am reminded of what many of the soldier's under George Washington's seemingly hopeless cause answered, when their peers, who thought it safer to stay within the folds of King George, asked them why they chose to stay and fight, with little food, no uniforms, few weapons and rampant diseaase? Their answers, revealed in extant letters, was simple; this man has risked everything, including his fortune, his honor and his life for the cause of freedom; "I cannot abandon a man who has so courageously put everything on the line." George Washington risked, his heart heard a distant drummer; this is the sign of a real leader!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="color:black">From a theological perspective, one need only look at the story of the Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>The conventional wisdom of the day was that Jews should have no contact whatsoever with Samaritans. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>The history went back centuries, but basically, Samaritan’s were considered apostates and “untouchables.” <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>It went so far that Jews would not even take a road through Samaritan territory, instead traveling for miles out of their way for the sake of avoidance. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="color:black">It was the hottest part of the day when this woman went to draw water. One did not endanger himself this way ordinarily. <span class="apple-converted-space"> The cooler hours of morning or evening were far more typical, unless, of course, one </span>was an outcast, even in Samaritan society. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="color:black">She did not want to be seen by respectable people. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>What an irony! <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>She comes upon God incarnate. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Not only does Our Lord speak with her, in spite of her own sarcasm toward Him, but He lays bare His own divinity by telling her every detail about her life. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Furthermore, he shares with this complete societal outcast the secret of true wisdom. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>True wisdom is not like this water which quenches thirst for the moment. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>On the contrary, true wisdom is like a fountain forever brimming over to eternal life. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>He explains to her that God seeks those who will worship “in spirit and in truth, for God<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>is</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>spirit.” In other words, worship has nothing to do with conventional wisdom, it has only to do with truth.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">Conventional wisdom and truth have nothing to do with each other, one speaks to reality, the other to a mirage. It is deadly to a creative life, to leadership and to vision. And, it is not the stuff that motivated men like our founding fathers nor laid the cornerstone of freedom for this great nation.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="color:black">I don't know what will become of Sarah Palin, but I have confidence that whatever, path her life takes she will be just fine. Why? Because she has already demonstrated in her life's choices that she is a free and independent thinker, she is not afraid of risk but feels more comfortable fighting against conventional wisdom than rushing headlong with it. She is creative, courageous and unafraid. In a word, she is a leader. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:black">God's speed Sarah, whether you are one day President or not! <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p></div>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-47552114613082011472009-05-03T15:27:00.000-07:002009-05-03T17:05:11.319-07:00Courage/"Do you also want to leave Me?"This has been a rough week for <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">truth</span>. The signs of the times are looking dismal; just this week Katherine Sebelius was whizzed through the confirmation process, a nightmare for the lives of the innocent in their mother's wombs.<div><br /><div>Janet Napolitano, another radical, who seemed not the least bit cognizant of her irrational responses to the possibility of closing down the border with Mexico until we could get a handle on this brand new virus creeping into our country, went on TV spouting the administration's line.</div><div><br /></div><div>Justice Seuter announced his coming resignation...Spector changed parties...illustrating a completely transparent motive of ultimate self-interest, in maintaining the good life that power in Washington undeniably engenders.</div><div><br /></div><div>Eric Holder went to Germany to announce that he has plans for releasing Gitmo terrorists into our country. Never mind his own country's citizens concerns over such idiotsy!</div><div><br /></div><div>And all the while, Obama continues his appalling fast track to the radical left, leaving the unborn and all other American values for which our bravest have fought and died, littered, like trash, all over the ground on which, he, the "Messiah" walks.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, we, as Christians are becoming marginalized, we are heading for a period in the wilderness, of relatively no political power...this will be a time for testing our love of, Truth Himself, Our Blessed all loving Lord, Jesus. </div><div><br /></div><div>We must not fail Him!</div><div><br /></div><div>In the midst of all this chaos, which turning away from God engenders, there have been those who hold up the model of courage, a mantle we must take upon ourselves.</div><div><br /></div><div>Today's Gospel in the Catholic Lectionary is John 6, starting about verse 22. It is one of the few times when Jesus places a very concrete demand on his diciples. It appears to most of them to be scandalous, and it tests their faith to the very core. In order to stay with Jesus, they will need to abandon all conventional wisdom and give <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">truth</span> all the trust they can muster, however weak their souls. </div><div><br /></div><div>There is courage to be had in this incident but Jesus apears willing to lose every single one of His followers to uphold His Word.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jesus, who usually teaches in parables, mades a very literal statement, with no excuses, no chance to rationalize, either accept it or reject it, no middle ground here. He doesn't chase after those who walk away saying," wait, I didn't mean that literally, only figuratively. Come back." </div><div><br /></div><div>No, He was willing to embrace the agony of their desertions.</div><div><br /></div><div>He says, "I am the Bread of Life...in truth, in very truth I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of God, and drink His blood, you have no life in you....my flesh is real food, my blood is real drink,...whoever eats this bread will not die but live forever." My quote is very truncated, Jesus devotes alot of time and words to this very concrete admonition.</div><div><br /></div><div>As one might expect, this was "the straw to break the camels back" for most of His diciples. Murmering and arguing erupted among them all, "how can this be?" There must be some other meaning, it must be figurative.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yet, Our Lord did not back down one bit. As many of his followers began to separate themselves and walk away, Our Lord, looked to His twelve closest followers. The pathos in his question to them breaks my heart.</div><div><br /></div><div>To me, His transparent glory, His pure agape love, His will to be ultimately vulnerable toward His children shines through like a beacon. He directs His attention to his most intimate friends and these words come from His mouth...</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Do you also want to leave Me?"</span><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>He is willing to be forsaken by every last one of those He loves opening Himself up to utter rejection, so important is this to Him.</div><div><br /></div><div>Simon Peter is filled with courage, it hangs from every passionate word he utters in response. He responds in kind to his Beloved, to his God. "Lord, to whom should we go? Your words hold eternal life. Peter doesn't care a wit about anything in the world, he has surrendered his soul to Jesus. </div><div><br /></div><div>Courage. There will come a defining moment for every Christian when he becomes aware of that fork in the road and he must take "the road less travelled."</div><div><br /></div><div>So, who gave us examples of this kind of courage this week, in our own time? </div><div><br /></div><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Mary Ann Glendon</span>, former Ambassador to the Vatican wrote a letter to Notre Dame University, articulating with courage and wisdom, why she will not accept the award for which she had been invited; the University, she states, has left Our Lord by its actions in rewarding Obama when he fights for infanticide around the world. The University has walked away from Our Lord just as those many diciples separated themselves from Him 2000 years ago. She will stand with Peter. Her mantle will be courage born of love for Jesus. (<a href="http://www.firstthings.com/blog/2009/04/27/declining-notre-dame-a-letter-from-mary-ann-glendon/">http://www.firstthings.com/blog/2009/04/27/declining-notre-dame-a-letter-from-mary-ann-glendon/)</a></div><div><br /></div><div>And, please read <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Andrew McCarthy's</span> letter to Eric Holder, rejecting the invitation he received to be a token member of a panel, which will be used to release Gitmo detainees. (<a href="http://www.lgstarr.blogspot.com/2009/05/mccarthy-beautiful-mind-just-says-no.html">http://www.lgstarr.blogspot.com/2009/05/mccarthy-beautiful-mind-just-says-no.html)</a> </div><div><br /></div><div>He articulates the truth, defending the values for which every one of our soldiers has fought and sacrificed their lives for; honestly characterizing Holder's actions for the antithetical "sacrilege" that they are. He will not be a part of that....instead he will bear the mantle of truth, however unpopular the repercussions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Holiness can come out of the wilderness...just when the Roman Empire thought it had extinguished Christianity forever, a young Constantine, about to see a vision of the cross, upended the entire western world by making Christianity the crown of western civilization.</div><div><br /></div><div>Again, the pagan, secular world is feeling their power, they can taste victory: we must cling to our Beloved in humility and He will adorn us as "the lillies of the field," we will not lack for the courage needed. </div><div><br /></div><div>May St. Michael and all the Choirs of angels assist us in the wilderness as they assisted God Himself!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-31501980036934227922009-04-22T17:31:00.000-07:002009-04-22T17:50:35.744-07:00Demographics/No children, no wealth for America<a href="http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6564">http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6564</a><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Please go to this link and read this article; everybody in America needs to read it. </div><div><br /></div><div>What is the number one issue young conservatives should push in the coming years? We have got to have more children! And, we have to provide BIG tax advantages for people who are willing to take on the responsibility of raising the next generation. </div><div><br /></div><div>David Goldman explains, in <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">economic</span> terms, why our economy is dithering toward depression, and the only hope to turn this sinking ship around. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-90506332192917480652009-04-15T19:13:00.000-07:002009-04-15T20:50:16.400-07:00Tea Party Day a Great Success/A Gathering StormAs soon as I got home from work I turned on the TV and my laptop, in reverse order.<div><br /></div><div>Of course, Fox News Channel was the only media outlet covering the cultural event of the day. </div><div><br /></div><div>I lived through the 60's protests, and, of course, the more recent leftest groups filled with paid rebels funded by the likes of Acorn and George Soros. Never have I seen Americans rise up across this nation like happened today.</div><div><br /></div><div>These were traditional, hard working, ordinary Americans; the umbrella under which they stood was the banner of freedom, personal responsibility, faith in God and love of everything this country has stood for since our founding.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then I turned the channel to EWTN and watched some of the Installation Mass of the new Archbishop of New York, Timothy M. Dolan. </div><div><br /></div><div>A few minutes earlier, I had come across a piece on the web about Governor Paterson of New York, initiating the process to legalize gay marriage in the state. The same article made the additional point that the new Archbishop, Timothy Dolan, had just made a comment today that he would actively oppose any attempt to legitimize gay marriage in New York. </div><div><br /></div><div>Governor Patterson happens to be one of the honored guests at tonights ecclesiastical installation. The visual scene provided an interesting dichotomy.</div><div><br /></div><div>While watching the Mass in the majesty of St. Patrick's Cathedral, framed by the ancient liturgical beauty of the ceremony, the camera spanned the congregation and there was Governor David Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg...politely clapping, revealing rather somber expressions.</div><div><br /></div><div>An uneasy spiritual feeling crept over me; two simultaneous pictures before my eyes; the masses of Americans preparing to democratically fight to bring back the America they have known and loved all their lives, the Catholic Church about to appoint a conservative pro-active Archbishop of New York, prepared to fight for the Church's stance on social issues on one side, and the Governor of New York, hoards of far left Obama "kool aid" drinkers at his back, along with undeniably radical Administration appointees, on the other side; it was almost like waiting for the curtain to rise on some great Shakespearean tragedy. </div><div><br /></div><div>It had a medeival feel about it...there is a grave seriousness on both sides and the cultural differences could not be more antithetical.</div><div><br /></div><div>The sides are gathering, everyone will eventually have to choose, I am lining up with the Tea Party folks. May God Bless this country and give us wisdom.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> <br /></div>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-63248786367078364812009-04-11T21:06:00.000-07:002009-04-11T22:55:19.932-07:00"The Hound of Heaven"// No wisdom in Newsweek<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">It is Good Friday.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;">At this moment, as I write this sentence, the Roman Church is celebrating the Stations of the Cross in Rome, Italy. Where is this liturgy taking place? In the ruins of the Roman Coliseum, where Christians by the thousands were torn apart by lions, wild beasts, victims of the most henious acts of violence. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;">Yes, The Roman Coliseum is where Christianity died.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;">Fast forward through history and one finds Nietzsche declaring the death of God in his philosophy. Ironically, his own sister was a nun.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;">Yes, modern philosophy is where Christianity died.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;">Then, in 1966, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Time</span> magazine graced its cover with the headline: "Is god dead?" Then 3 years later the same magazine had to retract slightly with a different cover: "Is God coming back to life?"</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;">And, now, again, this week during Holy Week, Newsweek's cover declares the decline of Christianity. It is too archaic for our times, we are too enlightened now, it is miserably, irrefutably politically incorrect. It cannot compete with our new gods, the god of "tolerance," "relativism," and "secularism." </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;">Yes, the 21st century is where God died.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;">On Good Friday, we enter into, the first time Christianity died, on a cross, outside the walls of Jerusalem. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Deicide</span>. The historical record since that dark day has nothing new to tell us. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;">Three days later, the unquenchable fire that is Being Itself, reconstituted life...the resurrection, "trampling down death, by death." Oh, no, creation, I live, and I will hound you to your last breath so that you may be lifted up with Me to life eternal. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;">I remember watching the movie, Jesus of Nazareth, years ago. I particularly liked one line a Roman soldier says at the end of the movie after entering the empty tomb..."now it begins..."</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;">Jesus <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">is</span> the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">truth, the way and the life; He is </span>life. Truth will not die...because truth is not a trend, a philosophy, even a religion. Truth is a Person. There is no being, no creation, nothing, without the loving will of Being Itself.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;">Sometime "google" the poem by Francis Thompson, "The Hound of Heaven." I find it captures the essence of a love so enamored with his creation that He tracks us down in every silent crevice of our existence...He lives.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;">G. K. Chesterton said of his poem:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-size:18px;">"That is the primary point of the work of Francis Thompson; even before its many colored pageant of images and words. The awakening of the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Domini Canes, the Dogs of God, meant that the hunt was up once more; the hunt for the souls of men; and that religion of that realistic sort was anything but dead...In any case it was an event of history as much as an event of literiture, when personal religion returned with something of the passion of Dante, the </span>Dies Irae, after a century when such religion had seemed to grow more weak and provincial, and more and more impersonal religions appeared to possess the future. And those who best understand the world know that the world has changed,and that the hunt will continue until the world turns to bay."</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);">"I fled Him down the nights and down the days,</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-size:18px;">I fled Him down the arches of the years,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-size:18px;">I fled Him down the labyrinth of ways,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-size:18px;">of my own mind, and in the midst of tears.....</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-size:18px;">All that which I took from Thee, I did but take,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-size:18px;">Not for thy harms,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-size:18px;">But only that thou might seek it in my arms.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-size:18px;">All which thy child's mistake,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-size:18px;">Francis, as lost,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-size:18px;">I have stored for thee at home.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-size:18px;">"Rise, clasp my hand, and come.....</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-size:18px;">I am He whoc though seekest!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 0);">There is much more. Find this poem and give yourself to it for a moment. You will see God is not dead, He continues to hound our every moment with His love.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 0); font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 0); font-size:18px;">Alleluia, Christ is risen indeed.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-31239976117566968702009-04-05T20:24:00.000-07:002009-04-05T20:32:13.935-07:00The "inviolability" of the "person"/This is truth minus the dross!Ken Connor has written a great piece on Townhall regarding the Notre Dame invitation to Obama...<div><br /></div><div>The salient point here is the kernal of pure truth in the assertion<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"> </span>made by John Paul II:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">"The inviolability of the person which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, finds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life</span>." </span><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div>Here is his piece:</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/KenConnor/2009/04/05/obamamania_infects_notre_dame">http://townhall.com/columnists/KenConnor/2009/04/05/obamamania_infects_notre_dame</a><br /></div>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-89582280280574589742009-03-30T23:01:00.000-07:002009-03-31T00:00:14.903-07:00Thomas Sowell/A mind of easy discernment<div>Thomas Sowell is one of those people who does not become confused and even momentarily lured off the course of truth by conventional wisdom. He has another article today about our "Rookie President," which is right on target.</div><div><br /></div><div>Read it here...</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ODk5M2I3YWI2NTU2ZGZjZDBjMGVjNTVkZGQwNWI5ZTg=">http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ODk5M2I3YWI2NTU2ZGZjZDBjMGVjNTVkZGQwNWI5ZTg=</a><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I watched the Disney movie, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Pinocchio</span>, with my grandson this weekend. Boy, was he glad to see that whale, finally sneeze!</div><div><br /></div><div>It reminded me of how easy it is to become enticed with that which takes us off the course of truth, just as little Pinocchio was lured by the shiny bauble, following it to near disaster. </div><div><br /></div><div>There are others in the media who fall prey to the conventional thought "kool aid" of the day and then as often as not stumble back to the original truth, in time. Many conservatives serve as examples of this, like Bill O'Reilly, who remains so impressed by Obama's style, on many subjects he just can't pick out the truth and highlight it; look also at people like Peggy Noonan, who wrote speeches for another man who could easily discern the truth with his gut, Ronald Reagan; she has been a disaster...whether it's Washington elitism or just confusion of thought, she has been ensnared by Obama's "style."<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>It's not difficult to see how people such as Hitler came to have such power and why "discernment" is so fundamental, especially in times like these. Even within the walls of the church one is confronted with this secular relativism, like the catholic church, in its refusal to face the ethical repercussions of its own illegal alien policy. or, for example, many evangelicals who have rationalized the core "life" issue, justifying a vote for Obama on such flimsy grounds as environmentalism or social justice concerns, equating these with the Ontological truth of the Trinity.</div><div><br /></div><div>I think Rush Limbaugh is pretty good at staying focused as well, evidenced by today's video of his show, where he discusses Obama's inner anger, a major psychological motivator of his behavior. Don't think there's not a strong element of Rev. Wright in Obama and Michelle.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sometimes I wish we could just look for growing mule ears or tails or noses on these media types! Instead we have to exercise our God given rational faculty, and humbly seek the truth in love. "Seek and ye shall find," the "Pure in Heart will see God," "Where your heart is, there will you treasure be..."</div><div><br /></div><div>God help us to stay on the path of truth, not to be lured away by smooth rhetoric or externals. Where we find truth, let us cling to it, for its sake alone; always at the ready to depart from that which is not truth, no matter the comfort of the context in which it is presented. Let "truth" and truth alone be my master; teach me, like Michaelangelo sculpted, to chaff away the dross in every circumstance, and reveal the living everlasting Truth.</div><div><br /></div><div>Pinocchio has some important moral lessons...time with my grandchildren is never wasted time.</div><div><br /></div><div>God Bless our children! </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-9261160692402368772009-03-29T02:56:00.000-07:002009-03-29T03:11:27.025-07:00Dear Father Jenkins/What is blasphemy?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap; "><div>(I sent the following letter to the President of Notre Dame. The fact that a Catholic university could manifest such grave moral confusion in regard to the one intrinsic evil which is the very substance of Christianity, only highlights the inherent dangers of succumbing to "the relativism of our times.")</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Fr. Jenkins:</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap; "> You are in grave error in your rationalization concerning Obama's invitation. It is an act of blasphemy on a par with the Israelites "golden calf." Why? Christ said, "I AM the way, the truth & the life;" Life, Being Itself, is our God, a communion of personhood, a divine relationship; love is only possible within the context of being, life. As a catholic university, you are His disciple. Yet, by honoring an individual, no matter his secular office, king or pauper, you are highlighting and lauding someone who pro-actively fights for the very antithesis of God, whose actions in the Illinois State Legislature were a mortal sin, justifying infanticide through his argument and vote. This is a grave matter for the university, for your soul and for our country as a whole. It is not the equivalent of inviting him for a debate or even to express his opinion in honest intellectual repartee. He has proven through his actions, which are anything but honest, to represent a direct assault on Life..."I AM." Your letter only illustrates a grave confusion between what is an "intrinsic evil" as opposed to views and arguments on resolving various ethical and political issues which are open to compromise and disagreement. "Life" is our God. Do not choose to dance around the golden calf; it is not the Holy Spirit here, it is the antithesis propelling the university in this action. Please do not grieve the heart of our Savior. To honor a secular official whose highest priority, demonstrated by his very first actions in office, are to commit sacrilege and blasphemy against the womb by militantly supporting murder of the innocent there, is spiritually catastrophic. In Christ, Sue Langstaff</span></div>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-14133158317105273522009-03-23T19:09:00.000-07:002009-03-23T20:12:05.155-07:00"Pauper, Pauper"/The Power of Humility<p class="MsoNormal">One of the most beautiful Communion hymns is Panis Angelicus, (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr9Do5ZxPZA">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr9Do5ZxPZA, this is a beautiful version on youtube .)</a></p><p class="MsoNormal">Part of the translation into English is, "Pauper, Pauper... your humble servant; you have given us the Bread of Angels, the Bread of Heaven, O, the miracle!" </p><p class="MsoNormal">After waking up tomorrow morning, you will start your day with certain intentions, plans and responsibilities.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Things may be going according to expectations, then, oops, you spill your morning cup of java all over the floor, your clothes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Now, you’re running late, you rush through the door at work, flip the switch on your computer and as you’re reviewing your e-mail with little enthusiasm, suddenly there is a crying co-worker standing next to you.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She needs your support.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>These are very simple disruptions that all of us encounter in our daily life, seldom does your day end with every plan and expectation met perfectly, no surprises.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Sometimes the interruptions are more serious, occasionally, utterly shocking and life changing.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> One day, as I was pondering this inevitability, a thought occurred to me.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Suppose we look at our daily plans as an internal force propelling us along a straight line, like the straight beam of Our Lord's cross. </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Furthermore, as the inevitable obstacles begin to cross our path, suppose we liken them to the cross bar on which Our Lord's arms were stretched and nailed. </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Suddenly, it was as though He was entering the "conversation." What does that "crossbar" do for you? Do you see it as an opportunity? It places you at the center of salvation, where man meets God, where the mystery of love <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">acts</span>.</p><p class="MsoNormal">It reminded me of a section of Dostoevsky's novel, The Brothers Karamozov: </p><p class="MsoNormal">Dostoevsky’s character, Zosima, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Brothers Karamozov, </i>states, …”Loving humility is a terrible force:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>it is the strongest of all things, and there is nothing else like it.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Father Kallistos Ware in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Orthodox Way, </i>continues, “whenever we give up anything, or suffer anything, not with a sense of rebellious bitterness, but willingly and out of love, that makes us not weaker, but stronger. </p><p class="MsoNormal">So what are we saying here? Yes, something as small as a spilled cup of coffee can have an altering and salutary effect on the world, depending on the degree of love with which it is born.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Father Ware also states that love is creative, transforming, an objective reality, just as hatred, is de-structive.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It is a mystery, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">the</b> mystery.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Next time, the dog surprises your morning with a dastardly deed...don't let that "crossbar" go to waste. Offer it up into that great mystery of Love, it may be the most creative act of love in your day!</p><p class="MsoNormal">Pauper, Pauper...in your weakness is your strength.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-88346760244790259652009-03-15T11:26:00.000-07:002009-03-29T11:18:38.681-07:00"America is a Christian and Moslem Country"/What?Arveh Spero, (<em>It's Foreign Policy Stupid! at </em><a href="http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=31014"><em>http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=31014</em></a><em>): perhaps a prophetic piece about Obama's blundering foreign policy.</em><br /><em></em><br /><em></em><br /><em>Apparently, in an interview with Al Arabia, Obama said, "America is a country of Christians and Moslems." What? We have all been living under the mistaken notion that our founding and our history are <strong>Judeo</strong>-Christian! Boy, where are the "re-education" centers when you need them?</em><br /><em></em><br />Spero explains the long list of catastrophic errors this administration is making which are weakening our security, while Rome is burning and nobody is paying too much attention, not the least of which is reneging on defensive missile shields for our Eastern European allies, in hopes Russia will help us stop Iran's nuclear intentions.<br /><br />I'm certainly no historian, but even I can reasonably conclude that per history, whenever the poison of anti-semitism begins to seep into the rhetoric of any western country, watch out! It's like the canary in the mine...the next thing you know there's an explosion somewhere.<br /><br />No, Barack, we are a Judeo-Christian country!<br /><br />But, there may be good news on the horizon; after reading today's <a href="http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=31014">Gatewaypundit.blogspot.com</a>, apparently General Petraeus is giving a commencement speech...in Iowa, in 2010!suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-58939650352100725442009-03-14T18:52:00.000-07:002009-03-14T19:16:09.988-07:00"We the People"/A gathering place“We the People”<br /><br />Boy, Glen Beck is emotional on this week's show on Fox. But, it’s all about his patriotism; the back drop on the set is a copy of a mosaic “We the People,” carrying the American flag. Enlarged it is thousands of faces of ordinary Americans.<br /><br />The theme is about bringing back the American values still prescribed and lived in our military, most notably in the ranks of Navy Seals, Green Berets, etc. His interviews with these two heroes, truly inspiring!<br /><br />Beck is promoting a new website as a gathering place for American Americans, a place where we can get together, discuss our values and how these values can bring back the country we love. Watch out NEA, “truth” is getting its “boots on!”<br /><br />The website is:<a href="http://www.the912project.com/">http://www.the912project.com/</a> The server went down tonight because of all the hits but they're fixing that problem.<br /><br /><br />Here are the Values and Principles: Go to the website, participate.<br /><br />The Nine Principles<br />1. America is good.<br />2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.<br />3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.<br />4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.<br />5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.<br />6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.<br />7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.<br />8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.<br />9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.<br /><br />The 12 values Americans must embrace:<br /><br />Honesty<br />Reverence<br />Hope<br />Thrift<br />Humility<br />Charity<br />Sincerity<br />Moderation<br />Hard Work<br />Courage<br />Personal Responsibility<br />Gratitude<br /><br />He asks you to make a choice.suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-19017587135487055162009-03-08T17:13:00.000-07:002009-03-08T17:37:41.114-07:00The Three Temptations/"Lo, I will be with you, even until the end of time"The three temptations in the wilderness, suffered alone by the 33 year old Jesus after His baptism in the Jordon, are so substantively layered, one could use a lifetime to deliberate on their meaning, not less, their practical implications.<br /><br />Father George Rutler, Rector of the Church of Our Savior in New York City, took up the subject this week; in so doing, he applied them to our own time, especially now, as the culture tumbles into catastrophy.<br /><br />Father Rutler reminds us that Our Lord knew these same temptations would “assault” every generation, in fact each individual existentially; his current thoughts spell a prophetic warning.<br /><br />The first temptation can easily be discerned in the “justice for the poor” campaign which has literally taken over so many Christian Churches and congregations. One of the most conspicuous examples is the Rev. Wright Church, profiled during the last election campaign. Rev. Wright preached social justice, worse, he de-christianized his rhetoric to the extent that the individual became no more than a self-pitying victim of the rich.<br /><br />Why would the force of Evil in the world desire this seemingly virtuous intention, tending to the poor, to usurp the Church? <br /><br /><span style="color:#990000;">“Satan first tempts the Church to turn stones into bread: to reduce the Church to a human creature devoid of supernatural charisms. The Church is the world’s greatest feeder of the poor, but unless she feeds souls, she is redundant in a materialist culture. Satan wants to replace Communion lines with bread lines, as if the Body of Christ were nothing more than temporal sustenance. But Christ is Our Saviour and not Our Philanthropist. “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you” (John 6:53). “<br /><br /></span>If the Church is no more that a philanthropist, among others, she has no eternal power, no mystery.<br /><br />The second temptation, and I think, Fr Rutler puts this so well…the temptation is that Christ (always applying to each one of us as well) mock the Church. To mock, is an egregious form of cruelty. I have always hated it, hated it growing up in school, when groups of kids would mock others, hated it as it erupts in work or social situations, etc. It is a terrible form of blasphemy and arrogance. How dare I, a mere creature, from dust to dust, mock the creative wisdom of the Divine?<br /><br />Will Jesus jump from the pinnacle?<br /><br /><span style="color:#990000;">“Secondly, Satan tempts the Church to mock herself, as he wanted Jesus to jump from the pinnacle of the Temple and survive. This test will see whether Christians will take up the daily crosses of life with Christ in a broken world, or engage grace as a kind of New Age energy arrogated to ourselves without moral obedience to natural law. To fly against nature is to live in an unreal world, claiming to be Catholic without living as Catholics</span>”<br /><br />Will Christians take up their daily crosses; take on themselves the suffering, in union with Our Lord, to sanctify it from the inside out. That is the way Christ redeemed his own in the world. It is not love to flaunt miracle after miracle, even though possible, Christ, in His divine nature, could, if He had so willed, lifted Himself off the cross…He did not. He suffered and died, demonstrating the nature of love, only through love would He bring us Home.<br /><br />Or, are we more inclined to demand proof, now, of God’s power?<br /><br />I often picture Christian healing in a mystical sense; what if a doctor was told, "the only way you can heal this patient is to mystically get within the very heart of it, take it on your own being; then, yourself being the remedy, literally push it from the inside out." There would be a lot of sick people!<br /><br />I have known human beings who actually had this inner intuitive and mystical connection with their patients. Kim, my older brother, had it. It was instructive, though filled with pathos, to watch his interaction with patients. It made him an extraordinary diagnostician. It also made him a suffering disciple of Christ.<br /><br />Finally, the third temptation per Fr. Rutler:<br /><br /><span style="color:#660000;">“Thirdly, the Church is tempted with earthly power. Cardinal Consalvi reminded Napoleon that the Church’s power is not from earthly rulers. Pius XII said that Stalin would be able to count the Church’s divisions only after he died. The two Thomases, Becket and More, made similar remonstrances with their own blood. In the history of the Church,Judas was the first to accept a government grant in exchange for doing evil. The Church is entering a time of severe testing, and she will be crucified in ways more tortuous than nails, for she will be jeered by journalists and patronized by politicians and menaced by false messiahs, but in the end the Church’s despisers will hear severe words: “You could have no power at all against me, were it not given you from above; so he who delivered me to you has the greater sin” (John 19:11).v<br /><br /></span>A time of great testing awaits us all, versions of these temptations will assault our culture and our hearts. Everything the Obama Administration is thrusting upon us, is based not on truth, but on worldly power. <br /><br /><strong>Humility </strong>is the key to discernment. If we seek Truth in honesty and humility, we will be guided through the tempest. <br /><br />We must be “men” not wimps. What is a man? (I speak universally here, refusing the collar of political correctness, where, <em>truth</em> is the first casuality), Human "manhood," is not being unreachable, remote, tough; or winning your first fight.<br /><br />How does one know, he is a "man?"<br /><br />It’s when we can recite these words, as our own existential truth, on our deathbed. It is not impossible...such souls are everywhere among us.<br /><br /><div align="center">IF<br />If you can keep your head when all about youAre losing theirs and blaming it on you,If you can trust yourself when all men doubt youBut make allowance for their doubting too,If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:</div><div align="center"><br />If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;If you can meet with Triumph and DisasterAnd treat those two impostors just the same;If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spokenTwisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:</div><div align="center"><br />If you can make one heap of all your winningsAnd risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,And lose, and start again at your beginningsAnd never breath a word about your loss;If you can force your heart and nerve and sinewTo serve your turn long after they are gone,And so hold on when there is nothing in youExcept the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”</div><div align="center"><br />If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;If all men count with you, but none too much,If you can fill the unforgiving minuteWith sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!</div><div align="center"> </div><div align="center">End</div><div align="center"><br /> </div>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-21510347476284748392009-02-22T13:40:00.000-08:002009-02-22T13:50:36.243-08:00"I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandie, Yankee Doodle, do or die; Born on the 4th of July...!"A lot has happened since my last post.<br /><br />The “unthinkable” happened, Obama was elected, woe to the public school system in the last few decades who founded, for the most part, his constituency. Our founding fathers warned their descendents that two things were required in order to retain what, in effect, was a political miracle in world history, a free republic based on the human dignity of each individual; an educated populace and a consensus of morality based on the Natural Law, ordained by the Creator, God.<br /><br />Both of these requirements have systematically been driven out of our public consciousness. There are, of course, many dedicated, well intentioned, teachers, but they have essentially been held hostage on the Titanic as it merrily heads toward disaster. <br /><br />Americans, who are not euphoric eunuchs of Obama, have a seriously uneasy feeling in the pit of their stomachs. Are we on the edge of something dire? The new man added to the roster on Fox News, Glen Beck, even had a show this week on different catastrophic scenarios across America should one of several forms of tyranny converge on its citizens.<br /><br />While running errands this weekend, I was listening to a weekly radio show called “Around the House.” The host answers any question from how to fix a broken toilet to how to discourage wasps in your attic. This week he did something a little out of the ordinary. <br /><br />He, like many others, suffers from a sense of discomfort, anxiety, about the future of our great country. Making every attempt not to politicize a home improvement show, never the less, he had to make a comment about the attitude of the new administration toward its own citizens.<br /><br />Most recently, our new Attorney General, Eric Holder, who has his own checkered past in regard to courageous stands against the unethical, ie., the Marc Rich pardon, commented that Americans are essentially “a nation of cowards.”<br /><br />Beautiful! I’m sure our nation’s enemies were elated, what a propaganda tool! It’s a little reminiscent of Michelle Obama’s comments during the campaign about “finally being proud of her country.” The current administration reeks of this condescending attitude toward ordinary Americans.<br /><br />Mr. “home improvement” put it very simply…”we are Yanks!” We can solve any problem. Where is the God given faith in the principles, the virtues, the courage, the “can do” attitude that has always characterized our view of ourselves? <br /><br />It hit me. Obama, and his crew of self-congratulatory elitists, have absolutely no sense of being “Yankees” at all. They have no pride, no confidence in the bare bones; gut level, “exceptionalism” of the American experiment. They might as well be a bunch of Frenchmen at the rudder of State!<br /><br />The term “Yankee” reminds me of a 1964 movie starring James Garner and Julie Andrews, “The Americanization of Emily,” a comedy, about an American Naval Officer who upsets the English sensibilities of a WWII widow, during the time frame of Normandy. It is a funny love story, Garner was at his best. During the movie Julie Andrews, initially repelled by Garner’s shocking “Yankee ways,” eventually falls in love with his true “manliness,” demonstrated through a deep seated and intractable courage and optimism. She soon realizes there is much more to this American than his love of Hershey Bars! <br /><br />The term “Yankee” has evolved and no one is certain of its origin. The British used it derogatorily against Americans in 1775 after the Battle of Concord and during the Civil War, it took on a distinctly Union flavor, but by the time of WWII, Americans had positively internalized the term to embrace all that makes the United States of America a uniquely noble adventure, imbued with God’s grace, destined for His favor.<br /><br />Political correctness has stripped us of this little symbol of our heritage, our vocation.<br /><br />I’m with the weekly host of our local home improvement show. We are Yankees! No one, not even a misguided group of “Washingtonians” will take that away. We mere ordinary citizens, the ones who give our blood, sweat and tears, everyday to make this country work, will take back the dignity and patriotism, bequeathed to us by our founding fathers. <br /><br />It shall not parish from the earth as long as one brave heart stands up for God and country!<br /><br />America will come back to its senses, because truth is “getting its boots on,” lest the world underestimate the Spirit which animates this gentle Lion!<br /><br />God Bless America, may each one of us work every day to revive the truth which underlies her patriotism!<br /><br />Go rent "The Americanization of Emily!"suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-75268073233079681572009-01-18T09:39:00.000-08:002009-01-18T20:15:22.028-08:00Lincoln v. Obama on LifeToday, is highly ironic, as President Bush has proclaimed it, <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2009/01/20090115-1.html">"National Sanctity of Human Life Day."</a> The media is agog with the celebrity innauguration, hardly a mention has been made about <em>the</em> catastrophic crises, the responsibility of which, lays directly at our nation's feet!<br /><br /> I predict, President Bush's Declaration of Life, will hold exponetially more significance 100 years from now, than anything you will see or hear through the national media this week regarding the Innauguration, especially Obama's speech.<br /><br />If one peruses history, it becomes very clear that it is the ordinary, almost unnoticeables which eventually rock centuries and people, not the trendy splashes of "the times." This week there will be ample celebrity adulation, autographs, balls, empty speeches, superficiality and hypocrasy. Man loves to make much of himself!<br /><br />Like the confetti and gas-filled balloons, 100 years from now it will only illustrate man's vanity, as Shakespeare so brilliantly articulated in Macbeth.<br /><br /><span style="color:#000099;">"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,To the last syllable of recorded time;And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing."</span><br /><p>But there is something happening this week which will hold up well against the onslaught of time; it is the effort, the sacrifices of prayer and fasting, marching and speaking out on behalf of life and truth, made by a remnant of souls, who may be feeling a little despair in some corner of their hearts tonight. </p><p>Yes, you will be haughtily ignored, ridiculed, and mocked by the worldly, you will see no substantive or transcendent victory this week. </p><p>But, do not despair, and, as Pope John Paul said so many times, "Do not be afraid." If God is with you, who can be against you? </p><p>You are heroes, you are the ones who will be remembered because you stand on the side of "truth," of "right and wrong." You are the ones who can't figure out why the TV anchor interviewing some member of the Obama transition team spouting off about "pay to play" politics in Chicago, isn't compelled to ask the only pertinant question worth asking? Do we not even care about right and wrong anymore? Is there no shame left?</p><br />Obama loves to compare himself to Lincoln, he is using the Bible Lincoln used for his oath. He, of course, did the same train ride, etc., so I decided to look back at the circumstances and speech Lincoln made at Gettysburg.<br /><br />If it gives hope to anyone, it should not be to Obama, but to you, the remnant, you are holding true to "right and wrong" to the dignity of each human life, to the sanctity of marriage and the family and to the transcendent necessity of worship and gratitude to our God.<br /><br />Drawing my history from this historic site; <a href="http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/sites/gettysburg.htm">http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/sites/gettysburg.htm</a><br /><br />here are a few words to give you strength on your journey...<br /><br /><span style="color:#999900;">Lincoln only stayed in Gettyburg for 24 hours. </span><br /><span style="color:#999900;"></span><br /><span style="color:#999900;">The speech was delivered on "cemetery hill," an old cemetery; adjacent were new burials from the horrific battle; Lincoln's wagon ride to the hill top went past the remnants of battle; "all about were traces of fierce conflict, rifle pits, cut and scarred trees, broken fences,...scrapes of blue and gray clothing, bent canteens...</span><br /><span style="color:#999900;"></span><br /><span style="color:#999900;">The main speaker that day was Everett, a nationally famous speaker, who gave a two hour speech. Lincoln gave only the "dedicatory remarks at the end," approximately 2 minutes.</span><br /><span style="color:#999900;"></span><br /><span style="color:#999900;">(Lincoln's) "effort was the product of a lifetime, from a man known for deep study and reflection."</span><br /><span style="color:#999900;"></span><br />If Abraham Lincoln stood for anything, he stood for Truth, and you, who are <em>still </em>standing against relativism, secularism and utilitarianism, and standing <em>for</em> "life," have Lincoln as your unfailing advocate, you stand on his mighty shoulders. Mark your place and go on until your dying breath. <br /><br />Obama and Michelle may have made an appearance at the Lincoln Monument today, again, in an attempt to parallel their ascent to power, to his. But, remember, life is full of irony. A sign standing on "Cemetery Hill" before the battle at Gettysburg, read: "All persons found using firearms on these grounds will be prosecuted with the utmost rigor of the law."<br /><br />With Obama it is all about "perception", with Lincoln it was reality. <br /><br />Many remarked that day at Gettysburg the sad lined face of the President...I can see his deep reflective eyes still...mourning for the unborn.suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-62116472633243406492008-11-16T18:47:00.000-08:002008-11-16T18:53:50.465-08:00American Idol---Pun Intended/Father George RutlerFather Rutler, rector of Church of Our Saviour in New York City writes the following about Catholics and the election of Obama, it's sobering.<br /><br />"In February of 1943, the ill-prepared United States Army II Corps valiantly fought against the German-Italian Panzer Army at the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia but had to retreat. The army did wake up, commanders were replaced, the troops regrouped, and eventually the war was won. This is a contemporary allegory, when we see the social consequences of poorly formed Catholics overwhelmed by secular forces that have no love for the Church. <br /><br />In the nineteenth century, Cardinal Newman warned that naïve Catholics would fall into "mass apostasy" through lack of preparedness in spiritual combat: "Do you think (the Prince of Lies) is so unskillful in his craft, as to ask you openly and plainly to join him in his warfare against the Truth? No; he offers you baits to tempt you. He promises you civil liberty; he promises you equality; he promises you trade and wealth; he promises you a remission of taxes; he promises you reform. This is the way in which he conceals from you the kind of work to which he is putting you; he tempts you to rail against your rulers and superiors; he does so himself, and induces you to imitate him; or he promises you illumination, — he offers you knowledge, science, philosophy, enlargement of mind. He scoffs at times gone by; he scoffs at every institution which reveres them. He prompts you what to say, and then listens to you, and praises you, and encourages you. He bids you mount aloft. He shows you how to become as gods. Then he laughs and jokes with you, and gets intimate with you; he takes your hand, and gets his fingers between yours, and grasps them, and then you are his." <br /><br />Many have warned about the consequences of yielding the Faith to false messiahs. Years before becoming pope, Benedict XVI wrote: "Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes not divine, but demonic" (Truth and Tolerance, p. 116). <br /><br />We are about to witness many outrages against the dignity of life by politicians who have taken advantage of nominal Christians. For starters, we may expect removal of the present administration's ban on destructive embryonic research, and rejection of the Mexico City accords which restrained abortion and eugenics. Most immediately, the New York State legislature has proposed a bill removing the statute of limitations on lawsuits that would damage, and possibly bankrupt, Catholic and other private institutions. Since Cardinal Egan wrote his letter about this, the recent election gave both houses of the legislature to the party that favors this bill. <br /><br />As with the lesson of the Kasserine Pass, we are learning that there is no place for amateur soldiers in the army of the Lord. A short time from now, many will say: "We should have listened to the warnings." The hard response will be: "Why didn't you?"suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-41013740782531024582008-10-04T19:07:00.000-07:002008-10-06T18:20:46.123-07:00"Self-Limitation"/Understanding Patriotism<div align="center">"Wisdom comes out of the mouth of children"</div><br />My 3 year old grandson's most recent interest is "super heroes." Not long ago, when we were together, he designed the game "du jour."<br /><br />First, we gathered up all the super heroes placing them on the couch, we were to stay put on the couch as well, (as the "unmoved movers!") Then, he explained the objective; defend our territory against the "bad guys," (the anti-heroes.) It was an exacting struggle, as first one super hero, then another, fell off the couch arms, only to be quickly rescued by another super hero, just in the nick of time. In the end, we won.<br /><br />According to G K Chesterton, what my grandson was doing in this little game, was creating his own version of "self-limitation."<br /><br />Children play "stepping stone" games, arbitrarily limiting the stones on which they can step. We've all played "hopscotch." We've all heard the story of Noah's Ark, perhaps we played our own version of it as children. Most of us have read Robinson Crusoe. GK makes the point that what makes it such a great tale is not that a boy makes an explorative step outward, but that he becomes a man, surviving alone, on the self-limiting environment of an island.<br /><br />Have you ever been asked the perennially intriguing question: if you could only have one book, while stranded on a desert island, which one would you choose?<br /><br /><em>Self-limitation</em>, as Chesterton calls it, seems to be innate. Chesterton's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=The+Napoleon+of+Notting+Hill">first novel</a>, a political allegory, concerns Adam Wayne, a man living in a future authoritarian England, the culture of which, is drowning in ennui and apathy. Given the opportunity, he re-ignites the entire country with a sense of vigor and life, by patriotically defending his own little hamlet, Notting Hill.<br /><br />We all have our "Notting Hill."<br /><br />However, most on the political Left, as well as the intellectual elite brooding on college campuses, or, the "sophisticated Europeans," like Barack Obama is wont to be, tell us, who are still steeped in the pride of patriotism and love of America, that we are backward buffoons! Could it be true? Is patriotism only a parochial prejudice that leads to Imperialism?<br /><br />Chesterton would say, "No!" In fact, as he traces the evolution of his own thoughts on the subject, in his <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=g+k+chesterton+the+autobiography&x=13&y=20">autobiography,</a> he comes to the conclusion that patriotism is necessary, nurturing and spiritually edifying to man's nature.<br /><br />Man, is at his best when he is rooted, ideally, within the context of his own "means of production," contributing to the larger society. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Servile-State-Hilaire-Belloc/dp/1602068674/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223179158&sr=1-8">Hillaire Belloc </a>wrote: "Give a man a farm, a small business, an artisan's anvil, a boat to sail, wine to drink-suffuse all this with the love of Christ; center man's life around liturgical rhythms; and that man....is happy..."<br /><br />Patriotism, in this context, does not contribute to the "aggrandizement of power and territory," characteristic of Imperialism; on the contrary, it celebrates the liberty and dignity of every man to his own "Notting Hill."<br /><br />We have enshrined these principles of the Natural Law in our founding documents. Thousands of Americans have sacrificed their own lives so that other human beings, in distant lands, could have the opportunity to thrive on their own Notting Hills.<br /><br />God forbid that patriotism should die in our land, because if it dies here, the lofty principles upon which it rests, will have met their demise as well.<br /><br />The kind of patriotism that invigorates Americans is the life blood of humanity, and our Father would not have us take it lightly! <em></em><br /><br />As Father Brown states, in Chesterton's famous <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=father+brown+series">"Father Brown"</a> series:<br /><br /><div align="center">"Reason and justice, grip the remotest and the loneliest star"</div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">Therefore, you are right to keep a firm grip on them as well, on your own, "Notting Hill."</div>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-51213627869939378462008-09-21T17:54:00.000-07:002008-10-05T19:51:40.705-07:00A Crisis of Faith/The Battle for Western Civilization<div align="center"><strong>"IT'S FALL, THE LEAVES ARE COMING DOWN,and I have fallen into myself. I'm flat on my back, under the cottonwood,yellow leaves falling, brilliant blue above, abandoned rake beside. My two children sit at my side, feeding sticks to the dog, who understands that every time he gently takes a twig from their hands and crushes it in his teeth he is causing great delight, and so he keeps doing it stick after stick. Somtimes they leave him long enough to tackle me and I have just enough time to clench my stomach muscles so the air isn't knocked out of me, and we laugh and wrestle. When they grow tired of all this, I play an injured character so that I can stay a bit longer, an injured knight, injured princess,...all in need of medical attention. I tell stories, and while we play I watch the leaves come down...Finally, finally, finally, I have fallen."</strong></div><div align="center"><strong></strong></div><div align="left">This is from a piece in "5280" magazine, September 2008 edition, by Laura Pritchett, entitled, <em>Falling Into Myself. </em></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">In my opinion, Laura Pritchett exemplifies, "<em>man</em>," discovering his mystic core. Man, is, by nature, a mystic. </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">But, back to that in a minute, to change the subject slightly...</div><div align="left"><br />This is a pivotal time in American history, in world history; since people<em> make</em> history, it's a pivotal time for each one of us as well.</div><br />Everyone has heard of the culture war, proximally effecting the upcoming federal election, but also apparent in everything from media to education to economics. We are in the midst of a fierce existential struggle; everything, even our own salvation, depends on it. The entirety of Western civilization is at stake... no more procrastinating; we are literally on the brink. So, if you never thought of yourself as a soldier before, start thinking in those terms now, because you are on the front lines of a raging battle, whether you like it or not.<br /><br />How does <em>mysticism</em> apply? Before we can rescue Western civilization from the forces arrayed against it, we must recover <em>ourselves,</em> our heritage, so to speak.<br /><br />Listen to what a wise catholic convert, now gone on to the church triumphant, Malcolm Muggeridge says:<br /><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">"...the real crisis which confronts us is about faith rather than power, about the question 'Why' rather than the question "How"--about man's relationship with his Creator rather than about his energy supplies, his currency, his balance of trade and Gross National Product, his sexual fantasies, and his other passing preoccupations with which the media interminably concern themselves. ...whereas the <span style="color:#000000;">God</span> we serve, the salvation we hope for, the light we live by in this world, and when we come to leave it, the vista reaching before us into eternity--these concern the very fundamentals of our moral existence." </span><br /><br /><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;"></span><br /><span style="color:#000000;">And, now, another prophetic voice, William McNamara, a Discalced Carmelite monk:</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">"What is at stake is not the means to survive, not even the will to survive, but the faith to survive. Was not our Western civilization born of the great drama enacted in Palestine two thousand years ago, the drama of the Incarnation, the Passion and the Resurrection and all the ramifications of that latter world-changing event? It was this divine drama that inspired the great art, music, literature and architecture that have and will be the glory of our civilization."(<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Christian-Mysticism-William-McNamara/dp/0819907936/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222046965&sr=1-20">Christian Mysticism</a>.)</span><br /><br /><span style="color:#000000;">What is the battle over...it is "the very fundamentals of our moral existence." Western civilization, going as far back as the long spiritual history of our Jewish forebears, has given us the American principles of liberty, justice, the rule of law, and, the moral principles and ideals of virtue expressed in our Declaration of Independence.</span><br /><br />If we hope to win this war, we will need the kind of faith born of man's natural mysticism. And, this is precisely what we are losing in our headlong rush toward human self-sufficiency, obsession with busyness and "enlightened" social engineering. In the process of degrading the language, the culture, by "political correctness," our values are giving way to the meaninglessness of post-modern relativism. If this descent continues, we will lose. The enemy, both within and without, seeks to destroy the very fundamentals of Western civilization.<br /><br />Laura Pritchett also quotes from the great philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard:<br /><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">"The biggest danger, that of losing oneself, can pass off in the world as quietly as if it were nothing; every other loss, an arm, a leg, 5 dollars, a wife, etc, is bound to be noticed."</span><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;"></span><br />How do we recover ourselves, our common mystical faith? By doing what is the most natural thing in the world for us.<br /><br /><br />The mysticism of which I speak is not the "pie in the sky" New Age spirituality of modern charlatans, like Deepak Chopra, whose true character was exposed recently in his tirade against a perfectly normal, well-meaning American mother, Sarah Palin; nor does it have anything to do with trendy politically correct fashions within the church, which simply try to accommodate secular tastes. Nor is the answer to be found in the myriad of "self-help" tomes on bookstore shelves, nor is it in ivy league liberal arts departments, long ago surrendered to the idols of modernism.<br /><br />No, Pritchett's final relvelation, "buying substantially less stuff, being outside, being present and playful with my children," is closer to an answer than any of the foregoing.<br /><br />Go with your gut. There is more truth to be found in a game of "kick the can," or in collapsing on a pile of Fall leaves and letting your puppy and your toddler crawl all over you, than can be had in any other activity.<br /><br />Trust your gut...your common sense; does it seem just "crazy" that the neighborhood elementary school can't have a <em>Christmas Program</em>, that a high school senior can't attribute her valedictorian achievement to Our Lord in a graduation speech, for fear of having her microphone turned off, that a baby in the womb can't be kept safe, that creeping social banalities continue to challenge traditional marriage, legitimize internet pornography, and mock Judeo-Christian values? Your common sense is right. It <em>is </em>crazy!<br /><br />Let us remember what brought us to the highest pinnacle of human civilization. It is inherent in us, it is easy, don't doubt it, <em>live</em> by its wisdom and fight for every square inch of it, whether in the public square or in a pile of leaves in your front yard!<br /><br />And, keep yourself "little," grateful, or, in the words of the poet, Francis Thompson, a Catholic convert, in his "<em>Essay on Shelley."</em><br /><br /><span style="color:#33cc00;">"Know ye what it is to be a child?<br /><br />It is to have a spirit yet streaming with the waters of baptism,<br />It is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief,<br />It is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear,<br />It is to turn pumpkins into coaches and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its own soul, it is to live in a nutshell, and to count yourself the king of infinite space, it is,<br /><br />'To see the world in a grain of sand,<br />And a heaven in a wildflower,<br />Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,<br />And eternity in an hour.'”</span><br /><span style="color:#33cc00;"></span><br />(<em>Essay on Shelley, Francis Thompson)</em>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-1341473678051907312008-09-19T17:06:00.000-07:002008-09-19T20:01:17.220-07:00Catholic Bishops, where are you on Immigration?Catholic Bishops, where are you...again?<br /><br />Ok, so <em>finally, </em>you are, more or less collectively, speaking out in the pulpit and in the media against voting for politicians who support abortion, ie., (we're talking about OBAMA here,) and some of you are even asking priests not to offer the eucharist to politicians who scandalously vote for abortion legislation or who deny the Church's teaching regarding when life begins...think Pelosi.<br /><br />I say, good, and it's about time. I wish you had been so pro-active in the pulpit 15 years ago. However, better late than never.<br /><br />But, you still have a big problem, ethically. Its name is "<strong>immigration</strong>." And, your misguided efforts to encourage illegal immigration has a collateral effect on the "life" issue. I don't know why you can't figure that out...or, if you have, then, I'm even more disturbed as to your motives.<br /><br />I went to a Roman Catholic Mass last week. The priest announced that they now have a Spanish Mass every week to accommodate their parishioners. Why does the Church need a Spanish mass, all of a sudden? Could it be that there are so many illegals in the community who, of course, don't speak English?<br /><br />What did the priest NOT say? He didn't say this..."As your spiritual father, I want to address this to any illegal immigrants in the congregation today, it is a sin to cross a sovereign border, illegally. By doing so, you have put at risk thousands of innocent people. You have compromised their property, their healthcare, their jobs, their very lives and you must take responsibility. The Church does not justify your actions and admonishes you to come out of hiding and report yourselves to the authorities..you need to do the right thing. You are welcome in our country but only when you come legally and do not expose current American citizens to the inevitable and undeserved repercussions. The Church will support you sacramentally and with humane assistance, but we do not condone the initial sin that brought you here in the first place."<br /><br />We will never hear that sermon! Now, I understand why priests love to swell their congregations, but, by justifying what is actually a sinful act, you are also encouraging sympathetic Mexican Americans to vote for Obama because of the imimigration issue.<br /><br />Worse, I have even read on some catholic forums that many in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church rationalize voting for a pro-choice democrat by saying, "we really can't do anything about the abortion issue at this point, so, we should vote on the immigration issue."<br /><br />This is a blasphemy, especially when it occurs in the religious community.<br /><br />Selective morality on the part of the Church will reap what it sows....<br /><br />The bishops and priests need to be consistent morally; then, and only then, will their compassion be genuine. Right now, by encouraging illegals they are showing NO compassion for the 900 Americans a month, who suffer from violence at the hands of illegals!suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-24546144524454758852008-09-05T09:37:00.004-07:002008-09-06T12:53:04.365-07:00Authenticity wins/"A contrite and humble heart, O Lord"I'm watching the live streaming video of the Colorado Springs rally today. Wow, thousands are showing up, I 25 was really backed up for miles! <br /><br />The American flags that the Democrats trashed after their convention at Invesco were rescued by a good soul, the Boy Scouts collected trash bags full of these flags; they are now being distributed to people in the crowd to be taken home and flown with pride! A telling meaphor.<br /><br />I am convinced that the wrenching authenticity of John McCain and Sarah Palin will propel them over the finish line in November.<br /><br />There was one stunning moment in John McCain's speech on Thursday night. <br /><br />"They broke me, I felt ashamed."<br /><br />As a Catholic, I could not help recall the 51st Psalm, "a wounded heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise."<br /><br /><br />Such candor is rare, especially in a politician! However, McCain is older and in terms of death bed reflection he's got nothing to lose, but he's also been to hell and back, he realizes the gravity of what he's asking of the American people. He owes them the truth.<br /><br />Showing no insecurity, he was brutally honest. He conceded that he had been broken, he was no longer his own man. What saved him? The "Other." In a prison cell in Viet Nam the "other" came in the grit of a fellow prisoner who gave him the energy to get up and try again. This is the ultimate existential moment of every man, that is why it struck home to every American like a white hot ember melting through the dross.<br /><br /> It is at this moment, when man’s spirit is freed from the depths of his soul, and man, becomes who he is. He faces reality directly, honestly. A mere creature, part of the organic matter upon which he rests, and yet, within this mystery, there is a paradox, for, it is at this very moment when the lion within groans, rises out of the ashes of despair and roars majestically, all the way into infinity, spirit seeking Spirit. <br /><br />Yes, man is mere creature, but at this moment he “knows,” (in the existential sense of that word, “gnosis,” translated from the ancient Greek,) that he is a creature…with a Father.<br /><br />Here we have utter authenticity. One is now teachable, capable of wisdom.<br /><br /><br />Now to Sarah.<br /><br />She strikes the same resounding chord of authenticity. How? Did you notice Piper licking her hand and patting down her little brother's hair while Mom was speaking?<br /><br />Sarah said "yes" to God's will for her soul in giving birth to Trigg, her beautiful little boy. She's " walked the walk," or, to put it another way, she's given her own "fiat." <br /><br />Inspite of what the pseudo-feminists say, like NOW, Goria Steinem, Oprah, etc., Sarah Palin is authentically <em>feminine.</em> Pseudo femininists are not advocates of women, they are advocates of one thing and one thing only...abortion. True feminism cradles, nourishes and protects new life...this takes true courage, true strength of character.<br /><br />Both of these individuals have faced their own trials, both have come out on the side of sacrificial love, a refining fire.<br /><br /><br />Sarah and John can be trusted. Pray for them.suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-91803767271650380582008-08-22T19:39:00.000-07:002008-08-24T14:47:13.254-07:00The train tracks of lifeMy grandson loves to watch his "Thomas" go rolling around the tracks, through tunnels, over bridges, he loves to lay down at eye level with it, relax, and just watch the train be a train.<br /><br />One time, while we were stretched out on the floor enjoying the moment, I remembered an analogy I had come across in a book, (can't remember now which book.) The writer had compared man's existential condition to a train moving along train tracks. His context, as I remember it, had to do with Catholics fretting over church dogma, and how the rules were necessary because they were conducive to man's spiritual destiny.<br /><br />Suppose the train could reflect on itself. It might say, "Look at how confined I am by these tracks, I want to jump these accursed tracks and be free." Unfortunately, as soon as our talking train escapes his imprisonment he finds himself completely immobile! The moral, of course, is that it's fine to live ones life off the tracks, unless one is a <em>train</em>!<br /><br /><p>The defining question here is, what is man? Is he, by <em>nature,</em> a worshipping being, is he a creature, who, by definition, requires meaning as much as knowledge? Does he have a transcendent spiritual core which is "restless until it rests in (Martin Buber's )'Thou."? (St. Augustine)<br /></p><p>Let's examine what separates the cultural "right" from the cultural "left?" What separates the religious "right" from the religious "left?" These political, theological and cultural divides are, in reality, disagreements over the intrinsic nature of man. They are substantive debates, and should not be trivialized by the "can't we all just get along mentality." We need to engage and confront these controversies honestly.<br /></p><p>Consider the debate over absolutes and secularism, which Pope Benedict referred to in his first major address as Pope.</p><br /><p>Secularists are preoccupied with humanism in one form or another. Man is unraveling the secrets of the universe, of biology, of physics...religious rituals, loyalties, are now obsolete, in fact, they are counter productive, inhibiting man's inevitable progress. Man is now capable of setting the parameters, rules are self-interpretive and situational. Man runs toward self-glorification with every step. Here we have <em>relativism.</em></p><br />On the other side, we have the long Judeo-Christian Tradition, a spiritual legacy embodied in the Natural Law, and the "corner stone" of western civilization. Man is created in the image of God, his destiny is communion, a covenant of love with the three Persons of the Trinity. The wonders of scientific discovery, the mystical heights of contemplation, in complementarity, draw man more deeply into the love story. Man runs towards God and finds his destiny. Here we have <em>absolutes.</em><br /><br /><br /><p>Two very different world views, indeed. From which well should we drink? Which source has the "living water," that will quench man's unremitting thirst for freedom, for meaning?</p><br /><p>My "money" is on the Judeo-Christian Tradition. At times, in my life, I have been, "off the tracks" and the freedom it promised was a mirage. True freedom enables man to be most <em>himself, or, in theological terms...we are to become what we are.</em></p><br /><p>Mark Steyn, in his latest piece in <em>Imprimis, </em>entitled, <em><a href="http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp">Lights Out on Liberty</a>,</em> gives us a very sobering analysis of what is lurking out there, off the tracks, so to speak.</p><br /><p>"On August 3, 1914, on the eve of the First World War, British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey, stood at the window of his office in the summer dusk and observed, 'The lamps are going out all over Europe.' Today, the lights are going out on liberty all over the Western world, but in a more subtle and profound way."</p><br /><p>He proceeds to list numerous instances where the western world is cowering, appeasing and giving way entirely to forces that would utterly destroy our freedoms. To name a few;</p><br /><p>1. In the Danish cartoon crises the European Union Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security proposed "prudence" when dealing with Islam, aka...Islam is off limits!</p><br /><p>2. Steyn himself is currently being sued by the Canadian Islamic Congress because of his "flagrant Islamophobia."</p><br /><p>3. The British government is "issuing Sharia-compliant Islamic bonds,</p><br /><p>4. Steyn reports that the Fortis Bank, in London, "has stopped using Knorbert the piglet as a mascot for fear of offending Muslims,</p><br /><p>5. And, according to Steyn, last month the Archbishop of Canterbury said that it was dangerous to have one law for eneryone and that the introduction of Sharia to the United Kingdom was "inevitable." Oh, yes, the ugly spector of relativism haunts the Church as well.</p><br /><p>I only touched the surface with these snippets. Steyn concludes, if this is what is happening now with Muslims at 10% of the population, what will happen when they are 20%...? "Honor killings" are taking place in our own big cities right now.</p><br /><p>I would argue, that when one sees true liberty, piece by piece, being abolished, all in the name of tolerance and peace...we are <strong>severely off the tracks!</strong></p><br /><p>There <strong>are</strong> absolutes in regard to man's highest and noblest aspirations. It is my contention, they are as firmly planted in our nature as is our DNA.</p><p>If we want to go anywhere we're going to need those tracks.</p>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-28286051488717449002008-08-18T12:55:00.000-07:002008-08-31T12:51:31.309-07:00"Renewing America's Promise"/Cecile Richards?<p>This is a difficult topic...<strong>the</strong> most difficult topic, because it strikes at the very heart of good and evil. </p><p>Evil in our time, given a slight post-modernist spin, <span style="color:#cc0000;">(a cultural tendency of the late 20 th century it is underpinned by French theorists such as Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Francois Lyotard . It rejects a notion of universal truth but emphasises that meaning is in appearance and interpretation</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.aber.ac.uk/~cerwww/tourtea/education/takingteaGlossar1.doc"><span style="color:#cc0000;">. ...) </span></a>is, in effect, calling what is good, evil, and vice versa. Nowhere is this more evident than in the "Alice in Wonderland" jibberish that passes for the abortion debate.</p><p>Most intellectually honest individuals realize, for example, that to call the philosophy, that justifies the taking of innocent human life in a mother's womb, which, should be the safest place for it, "pro-choice," is a catastrophic abuse of language, and, more tragically, of <em>meaning</em>. So, now, individuals who believe in the ultimate dignity of human life, are <em>anti-choice! </em></p><p>This is a lie, of course. The truth is, that "responsibility" begins <strong>before</strong> conception, not after. However, this is the nature of evil, where ever it is perpetrated. It is not difficult to make <em>truth</em> a casuality when, according to our post modern culture, <em>meaning itself</em> is "[only] appearance and interpretation."</p><p>Politics now brings us to Tuesday night at the DNC. The theme of the night is, "Renewing America's Promise." On this night, Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, will speak to the Convention. Her abortion message, a sacrilege, certainly fits in with renewing America's promise, doesn't it? Welcome to "Alice in Wonderland!"</p><p>BHO has, <em>in truth</em>, (<a href="http://www.nrlc.org/ObamaBAIPA/Obamacoveruponbornalive.htm">please see the American Right to Life website for an account of all the dismal facts, which difinitively prove his lies, regarding Illinois legislation BAIPA</a>,) cast down his "thirty pieces" with evil, on the only ultimately significant issue--the dignity of human life, created in God's image. No Catholic should EVER vote for such an individual...<a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=render+unto+caesar">see Chaput's recent book, <em>Render Unto Caesar.</em></a></p><p>I have written several posts about the theological concept of "Personhood." Arguably, every threat to our Judeo-Christian culture today, is an attempt to strike down "Personhood," for the individual human being, and, ultimately, the Divine Communion/Personhood, of our Trinitarian God. </p><p>We, as Christians, simply must acquire a grasp, both intellectually and mystically, through prayer, of the danger and existential threat, to which we have fallen victim in the modern age. We are an inextricable part, an indispensable and sacred part, of the greatest of all Mysteries, God's own Mystery of love. We must take our stand on the battle lines and fight the good fight in our daily lives, as heirs of those great founding fathers who, unapologetically, brought forth our country in sacrifice and love, founded on Judeo-Christian principles.</p><p>Finally, perhaps this is too harsh on the Church, some of the Bishops, most notably Pope Benedict himself, and, in my own community, Bishop Chaput of Denver, have called Christians out to defend <em>truth</em>, against relativism, secularism and the assault on human dignity and freedom.</p><p>I came across a wonderful piece by Professor Michael Heller, given at the Templeton Prize News Conference in March of this year. The full statement can be read <a href="http://www.michaelnovak.net/Module/Article/ArticleView.aspx?id=265">here,...</a>, it speaks of the "Great Mystery," of God,</p><p><span style="color:#990000;">Science is but a collective effort of the Human Mind to read the Mind of God from question marks out of which we and the world around us seem to be made. To place ourselves in this double entanglement is to experience that we are a part of the Great Mystery. Another name for this Mystery is the Humble Approach to reality – the motto of all John Templeton Foundation activities. The true humility does not consist in pretending that we are feeble and insignificant, but in the audacious acknowledgement that we are an essential part of the Greatest Mystery of all – of the entanglement of the Human Mind with the Mind of God. </span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;">Yes, true humility accepts his vocation, his mirthful and holy "entanglement" with God, and, as Aragorn, in the "Lord of the Rings," cries in his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgSdiX0kDI">"Battle Speech</a>," </span></p><p>"...My brothers, I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me, a day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day; an hour of woes and shattered shields, when the age of man comes crashing down, but it is not this day, this day we fight. By all that you hold dear, on this good earth, I bid you stand..."</p><p>I will not watch Cecile Richard's speech, it "will take the heart of me,"-- brothers, stand with me...<br /></p>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6867573503136307719.post-32421263410440590902008-08-17T08:32:00.000-07:002008-08-17T12:12:58.619-07:00The boy and the man/Obama and McCainLast nights match up between Obama and McCain was a disaster for Obama. One thing only was blatantly obvious, Obama's immaturity. And, since the only remedy for that is the time-consuming task of growing up, his election hopes will, most likely, continue to diminish.<br /><br />In fact, Obama is stunningly immature for his age, perhaps because he has inculcated himself within a particularly marginal <em>post modern</em> clique, whose primary emphasis is naval gazing. It has produced, in him, a peculiar contemporary type of indoctrination primarily responsible for catastrophic blind spots in his perspective, both theologically and politically.<br /><br />For example, from last nights contest, when asked about a singular moral failure, Obama, agitatingly verbose, could only mention adolescent misdeeds. McCain, unhesitatingly, said, his failed marriage. The "boy's" response was superficial, it was all he had...his life experience and resulting self-sacrifice, negligible. McCain, on the other hand, spoke as an adult, having invested himself and lost in one of life's momentous committments; he could draw on the wisdom and humility such an experience inevitably engenders in the reflective soul.<br /><br />Yesterday, while researching President George Washington's final hours, I discovered Martha's first words, when told of her husband's death..."Tis well, all is now over, I shall soon follow him, I have no more trials to pass through."<br /><br />Trials, "I have no more trials to pass through," these are the words of one refined in fire, purified and humbled through the hard labor and travail of life, at once wholeheartedely accepted and lived, not on one's own terms, but, in humility and grace, on such terms as are <em>given</em>. Trials are the means to "character," yes, we all wish it were otherwise, but it isn't. Years of self-sacrificing investment in life, failures, rising again from the ashes and starting over, this, and this alone builds character, humility and wisdom.<br /><br />Perhaps the most eerily unsettling example of the "boy" and the "man" last night was Obama's response to the question of evil. How should one respond to evil, appease, negotiate, contain or destroy?<br /><br />Nowhere was the contrast more stark. He mentioned the horror in Darfur, then, immediately honed in on injustices in American streets, concluding with a self-flagellation of this country for not having sufficient humility; in so doing, he epitomized the utter shallowness of his "theology," and I use the term lightly!<br /><br />McCain, unapologetically, went straight to the heart of Islamic terror and our moral duty to destroy it before it destroys civilization itself. He was able to hit the target with pinpoint accuracy--existential scars forever steadying his aim. Again, unavoidably, Obama lost the match.<br /><br />Finally, Obama was asked to give an example of when he stood against the Democratic party to reach across the aisle. His answer disclosed a desperately juvenile attempt to distort reality. He recalled his collaboration, ironically, with McCain, to enact ethics reform. However, apparently this episode ended with Obama "chickening out," at the last minute to side with the democratic leadership! What?<br /><br />One of my father's favorite poems was Rudyard Kipling's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AJqESdw7xs"><em>"If,"</em> </a>he recited it effortlessly<em>.</em> Through the years, he encouraged his children to internalize its wisdom. Could it be Obama, as the product of affirmative action, is so enmeshed in what is owed to him, that he is incapable of enobling risk?<br /><br /><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">"If you can make one heap of all your winnings.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">And lose, and start again at your beginnings,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">And never breath a word about your loss;</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">To serve your turn long after they are gone,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">And so hold on when there is nothing in you</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">...Yours is the earth and everything that's in it,</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son."</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#000099;">Rudyard Kipling</span></div><br /><div align="justify"></div>suehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116858916995976161noreply@blogger.com0