Vatican City

I am sure if I had looked at "famous places" I would have had an easier time. I am familiar with Italy now though :)

Mark Shea had these linked the other day ... they really are worth the time to watch. Everyone at our office is yelling WOOOAHHHHWWW!!! I am sure that will last a couple of weeks.
Terry's World
Draft Day
OSPN Office Athlete of the Year
Sensitivity Training
Terry takes a vacation

They are also saying "True dat" and DOUBLE TRUE courtesy of
The Chronic-WHAT-cles of Narnia

CVSTOS FIDEI: Europe May Force Priests To Marry Homosexuals

I can see this happening even in this country in the name of individual rights trumping freedom of religion. In fact, I have an inkling that arguing that religions preventing the free exercise of "personal" versions of said religions is a violation of freedom of religion might be part of the argument used to drive this.

I guess I have little faith in legal authorities in this country having any sympathy for the Church. Call me a pessimist. Catholic Charities is already being legally required to provide contraception to its employees. How much of a stretch is it to require that the Church dispense the sacraments to whomever wants to have them? After all that seems to be the argument the pro-Kerry receiving communion camp was running with when it came to pro-aborts receiving communion. Isn't it a right?

My pessimism aside this is an area where I think prayer is needed.

And I still get visitors, most of them by way of common spelling errors directing people my way AND from the pictures I have linked of the destruction of Holly Beach by Hurricane Rita. Some people have even decided to stay and read my blog. Thanks.

Whether you are delighted or appalled, WELCOME.

Back to my regularly scheduled "not enough time to post things to my blog"

I have a few things I would like to comment on ... hopefully soon ...

I hate to be brief and offer little more than links to other interesting things to read but work calls these days ... Enjoy anyway

NCEA president impressed by work of Catholic schools in New Orleans
Saying "I Don't Believe in Organized Religion" is Sort of Like Saying "I Don't Believe in Organized Biological Systems"
Did Jesus exist? Court to decide

My question on this is simple. Since the Catholic Church preserved a great deal of the documentation they have of history from time periods prior to Christ, does that mean we should jettison all of history? I mean, from what I have read the documentary evidence for some quite significant political figures is scanty compared even to Christ yet few people doubt their existence.

Of course Christ existing doesn't prove He was God ... Different matter.

The Myth of the Ancient Baptists
Complaints about fundamentalism mainly aesthetic?
WMD

In theory, the issue is uncomplicated: western societies as a group are becoming de-populated, and Muslim immigrants, who have been brought in to close the economic gap created by declining European numbers, have high birthrates.

Major Anglican Group Prepares for Full Communion With Rome



and also Yes, Aquinas, There Is a Santa Claus - a defense of Santa Claus done in the style of St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa. HT to The Curt Jester

I had to pick a Top 5 for stories of the year ... at least as far as I was concerned.

5. Post-tsunami cleanup
4. Everything Iraq
3. Terri Schiavo
2. Death of JPII, Naming of Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI
1. Katrina and Rita

On Katrina and Rita ... in terms of major news stories I don't think any have had the impact on my life personally that these two had. Things are still far from normal but as time progresses the New New Orleans will take shape.

I also decided to do a quick timeline of this past year for us on the home front

Jan 19 - decided to sell old home, contracted to buy new home
Mar 30 - moved out of our old home, move into apartment .. deal falls through on selling old home which subsequently causes the new home deal to fall through
Jul 6 - Signed a contract on a second new house - "We are buying a new house"
Jul 26th - closed on old home
Nov 30 - closed on new home [see link above]

I have decided that it does little good for me to look back and complain about the many ills those events caused us. From our narrow perspective the first deal looked ideal: New neighborhood, larger homes, friends in the neighborhood AND it was within walking distance of a Regnum Christi school. At the time it seemed as if the hand of God was walking us into the perfect situation for raising our kids. Didn't happen. The second deal looked far less ideal: Far away from homeschooling parents, no Catholic school in the vicinity ... smaller than the first new house we intended to buy, but certainly nicer. It was close to work and at least we knew that if life forced us to use the public schools they were ranked "second in the state" ... whatever that means. It is what happened. So God has us here, in Livingston parish. We are starting to see the advantages. We are getting a vague idea of what God may have had in store for us and 10 minutes drive time to work regardless of traffic snarls elsewhere in town is NICE. It is time to really set up our domestic church. That is our plan right now. Focus on Christ and pray that the rest of this mess keeps falling into place.

Four Arrested in Stolen Explosives Case

You see, when I looked at this headline I thought that we had discovered a race of tiny people and that we managed to open an explosives case to find four of these tiny people being arrested.

Maybe its just me ....

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL We have really enjoyed Advent this year. We tried to do the Jesse tree and the Advent wreath every night. We failed miserably. We fail miserably a lot. It just lets me know I have a LONG way to go.

I have decided that I am going to try and blog a tiny bit over the next week. My personal life has taken a tremendous amount of time in recent weeks so I have not been reading blogs all that much.

The short of what has been going on

First off, my job has demanded my full attention.
Second, we FINALLY managed to navigate our way through all of the legalese, paperwork and heinous treatment by insurers that accompanies buying new home and moving to a new town. We are now mostly settled and thus thrilled. Payment numero-uno is due on the first of the year. We are less thrilled about that. Moving, of course, was the big time factor. I could write a years worth of posts on what has happened to me in the past month regarding this house but I won't bore anyone with the details. We are just glad to be settled.

Today's audience

There is one thing I wanted to touch on for my own sake. I am currently skimming the Catholic Evidence Training Outlines. They are very interesting from an apologetics standpoint but to me the MOST interesting thing is the practical advice given for "todays audience" ... "Today" however means several decades ago. Still, much of it applies to audiences of today.

Now, it seems logical for a convert or revert from Protestantism to assume everyone is in the position he was in before his own conversion. Thus, for me, the thought of standing up and giving a the best argument against sola scriptura that has ever existed seems to hit at the core of what everyone believes. It would rock the masses to the core and mass conversions of the average Joe, like me, would make headlines.

However, in my reading I came across the idea that a message has to be carefully delivered, keeping very much in mind the audience. Quite simply, the audience is NOTHING like me. With sola scriptura, for example, you need to take great care to not let people get the idea that Catholics do not revere Sacred Scripture. A lot of ignorance about Catholics and Scripture almost certainly stems from poor apologetics efforts on the topic of sola scriptura. There is a lot of foundation that needs to be set otherwise your words sound like

blah blah blah Catholics don't believe the Bible blah blah blah

A Protestant with a lot of background in dealing with Catholics might have a decent idea of where Catholics are coming from and UNDERSTAND that the second "blah blah blah" up there would be "is the sole rule of faith". The qualifications MUST be explained and the context has to be thoroughly understood. What those are depends on the level of understanding about a myriad of other topics.

I have noticed the same in reading discussions on the dogma "There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church". The immediate defensiveness of non-Catholics requires the touch of a truly patient person. -- BTW Happy Catholic has a good entry on this today -- and my thoughts on EENS

I guess all I am getting at is the simple fact that most of us want to rush in with our swords drawn killing everything in sight ... souls be damned. Bible zinger here. Early Church Fathers there. Ooohhh Wahhh -- A logical victory!!!

We need to start in a manner completely opposite of that mindset. Prayer -- Prayer puts us in the mode of listening. It requires patience and humility. Those are the qualities, I have noticed, of a good apologist. They trust their opponents to God first. We have to go there first because after all, our rampant slaying of arguments isn't what saves. God's grace is. Our frustration with people not "getting" what seems plain to us offers nothing of worth to us. It is only the seed of hatred.

I have had a problem with this type of frustration. I stay up at night irritated at people who seem to hate the Church. I think Fulton Sheen was correct in his estimation that there a maybe 100 people who hate the Catholic Church. The key in calming my anger is entrusting people to God's mercy and trying to understand that the thought processes of others are very difficult for us to comprehend .... dare I say .... impossible.

I have tried to get to my blog and post something. It will happen sooner or later. Until then enjoy these

Teach philosophy in schools This would be an EXCELLENT thing.
All that ID stuff = "The Church of Materialism must be separated from the State if we are to remain consistent in our law." Speaking of ....
Rationalism and Materialism
Re-Enchanting the Mass - How beauty affects belief by Pontifications.
The Perfect Child Myth
Conspiracy theories - Hey Secret Agent Man ... an RSS feed would be nice :)
Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist - Oh this is a huge shocker to most of us. Seriously ... the results are interesting.
Mary = Homegirl? Ave Maria University students wear religious beliefs on their T-shirts Young and Catholic ... I'm married with 3 kids. Can I still be part of this? You bet so!
You've Got Big Ratings, Charlie Brown

I am not really back ... that will happen when I have Internet service at home.

Still I wanted to post this link so that I would never lose it. I have Ott's "Fundamentals of Dogma" which this references ... It is an excellent book which covers the declarations of dogma in the Church and spells out what is absolutely required for belief. This page has an excellent summary.

Dogmas of the Catholic Church. (Fundamentals)

Closing on our new home is coming up and that means MOVING and a ton of housework. Hopefully closing will happen on Wednesday. If so, we will at least have a small bit of stuff in for Thanksgiving.

Anyway, I likely will not post for much of that time since I won't have the Internet connection that I have here.

Please pray for me and my family. Thanks and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Contemplating the Laundry Interesting blog that keeps coming up in my daily reading.

Blogworthies -- sorry not much commentary today ... I wrote an essay on the loss of art in the Church last night in case you missed it. :)

Catholicity and the Ne Plus Ultra in Anglicanism from The Sacred Weblog of the Universal Inquisition
Gay priests struggle with church that considers them 'disordered'
Tortured Interpretation of Scripture - Dealing with the parable of the talents (gospel reading from this past weekend).
Could the Church Catholic Ever Sanction Homosexual "Relationships" as a Legitimate Development of Moral Theology?
Fr. Bryce Sibley is now podcasting
Why the Second Vatican Council Was a Good Thing & Is More Important Than Ever
Republican betrayal of pro-lifers? Is there any question?
Points to Ponder: (On "Ignorance" and "Education")

When Anglicans, Catholics switch churches, what happens to dialogue?

"Anglicans who become Roman Catholic generally become very conservative Roman Catholics, while Roman Catholics who become Anglican tend to become very liberal Anglicans,"

like I said here:

You know, I hate that anyone would leave the Catholic Church but it is becoming more and more clear the dynamics of what is happening. You have devout mainlines and evangelicals finding their way into the Catholic Church. You have liberal Catholics finding their way into the mainline Protestant denominations. I see it as the Holy Spirit at work.

Now bring on that permanent Anglican (Use) Rite.

another work in progress ... comments would be appreciated

A few years ago my wife and I attended a local parish that was collecting for its building fund. Donations from us and the rest of the parishioners were lacking. The project was slated to cost quite the hefty sum and was to be traditional in design – a vast improvement over the current church building which essentially looked like a converted cafeteria. The church had great difficulty raising even a third of their goal and decided to settle for a modest unattractive homage to the current cafeteria looking church. Instead of a step in the right direction, we end up with another generation of flying saucer churches with forms devoid of much meaning and art that struggles to direct worshipers to Christ. What went wrong?

Part of the problem is a general American mentality. I call it the Wal-Mart/Fast Food mentality. For example, Wal-Mart sells cheap furniture that is mediocre looking, highly functional and made of the latest in Franken-wood-plastic materials … and cardboard. There is always cardboard. All around you feel like you are getting a good deal – unless you are the guy that gets to spend all day reading 20 pages of multi-lingual instructions and getting an education in the latest twisting-locking patents. You have to have furniture and you could better drop the remaining cash in three easy installments on some other utilitarian cost and time saving device. In fact, the furniture is so cheap that in five years you can buy another one just like it. We might as well call it disposable furniture. On the other hand, buying a hand crafted, solid wood heirloom would require two things:

Money and Patience

Church buildings are the same way. Many churches are opting for the disposable church for a variety of factors. Most of it has to do with people needing or wanting the church in next to no time because they waited until scores of folks were standing in the streets trying to figure out when to kneel and stand instead of anticipating growth. Finally, it’s just easy for groups of American bean-counters to apply their Wal-Mart furniture mentalities to the “problem” of needing a larger worship space. After all, they can leave the next generation with the same problem in 20 years.

You see, cheap and functional are amongst the highest prizes in our nation because if you can keep costs down, you can maximize shareholder wealth. You can also save time, which means you can squeeze a few more moments out of those 40-80 hours that your employer owns you during the week. Everyone profits when you go with cheap and functional …but is that the way Catholics are supposed to build their churches?

Lets look at history …

The finest examples of cathedral architecture took, at a minimum, decades to build and required the labors of entire towns to complete. People literally gave their lives to make these masterpieces of architectural history. Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris took hundreds of years to complete. The same also holds true in the United States with many fine examples, in the northeast especially, of churches that took generations to build. As Catholics, we have to develop a sense of the long term and root out the plague of money centered mentality that we have come to value. Ultimately this patience and willingness to seek out the best will be required to build and pass on memorable churches for our children.

Devaluing art itself

We also have a problem of devaluing art in this country. It makes me shiver to think how many seemingly sensible fathers squashed the dreams of the next Michelangelo by telling him that “you will never be able to support a family as an artist”. Sadly, the sensible dad is right. The way we operate as a nation is hostile to artistic talent unless you want to craft witty logos and slick advertisements for a living. We have created a huge void where our European neighbors have managed to hold over their support of art in the form of tremendous state subsidies … Neither of these is an ideal way to support art. Still, the true subsidy of art in the case of American Catholics should come from the pews. The market is developed by creating and working on spectacular churches for future generations and taking the time to raise the funds and do the work to make it something future generations will marvel at. Art history and its development is supported by solid foundation of religious art. Any student of art can tell you a joke about the number of Madonna and Child paintings they had to thumb through in their art texts. Art is our Catholic heritage and our Catholic faith is the heritage of art.

Another problem affecting art is what it, as a culture, has become. Artists have developed a twisted culture of self-affirmation regardless of whether talent is present or never will be. The question is does this stuff really sell? Based on what the average new home looks like, I would say no. Many newer homes reflect a tapestry of new ideas and traditional arches, adorned lamps and exquisite gardens reminiscent of many eras past. We want beautiful homes rooted in tradition but pushing the envelope with the new methods of today. Why would we want any less for God? Finally, shouldn’t WE CATHOLICS, the ones who understand and love our faith be the ones designing and building our churches? Its bad enough that most churches simply find “a firm” and hire out the job to the lowest bidder. It is a tragedy. Hiring the best secular architecture firms to design and build churches is quite simply, wrong. Catholics should build Catholic churches.

When Mother Angelica built her church in Alabama she was fortunate to be bankrolled by some generous benefactors. It takes money … I am not immune to that reality. It is, however, truly an American tragedy that she had to import artistic talent from Europe in order to complete the project.

What we can do

We have to develop a vibrant, and profitable Catholic art culture. I have but a few suggestions to try and address the problem in a positive way:

- If you have artistic talent, give it to God. Create religious art.
- Support art styles you LIKE, even if it is secular in theme.
- Seek out Catholic writers, artists and musicians and GIVE to their cause. If you find a good choir at another church, give to them.
- Make a point to support building projects in your diocese that understand the purpose of a church. Make it known why you support this over Bobs Metal church buildings. Be active in the process.

Having babies is a smart thing to do!

I will try to verify this later. Regardless, I am sure my wife is thrilled to know that she is getting smarter. I have always thought it to be true.

Massive pro-family rally in Madrid to protest new education law Unfortunately, it appears, the socialist government in Spain is making big strides in rapidly advancing the culture of death. This article simply demonstrates that it appears more and more like it will not happen without a fight. Praise God for pro-family groups.

Sitting on the fence is painful, but necessary. This is an excellent read about being a middle of the road Catholic. Not too traditional. Not too "spirit of Vatican II". One finds that over the course of Catholic history a pendulum swings from indifferentist heresies to over-emphasis of a doctrine that was particularly ignored during the previous time period. It is always important to not overemphasize or deemphasize particular teachings of the Church. Excellent read. I highly recommend.

"Are Catholics Allowed To Read The Bible": An Article by Francis J. Ripley

Pre-reformation literature is saturated with Bible quotations. Much that is left to us consists either of books of the Bible or breviaries which are almost wholly made up of Scripture. The sermon literature of the Middle Ages was a mosaic of Scripture texts. Preachers used the Bible much more than is customary today in any pulpit. Half an hour’s perusal of the sermons of a Bernard or a Bonaventure shows us that the preachers almost thought in Scripture texts. For those who could not read, the Church moreover, provided a knowledge of the Bible by means of mystery plays, illustrated editions of parts or the whole of it the paintings, sculptures, and stained glass windows of her churches: the statuary of one great cathedral is known as the Bible of Amiens. Of the Bible in pictures, the Synod of Arras (1025) said: "The illiterate contemplated in the lineaments of painting what they, having never learnt to read could not discern in writing."
To the man of the Middle Ages the Bible was a living reality.

A perfect example of this would be looking at the wealth of Bible one would get from looking just at the windows in Chartres Cathedral. I took one of the pages of the diocesan web page dedicated to the cathedral to literally illustrate the point. I have linked to The Passion and the Resurrection window. Using the links on the page you can review the images. The point is that on just on ONE of the hundreds of windows you have 14 Bible stories.

Meanwhile, I have picked up another stained glass image from Chartres that I may add to the right. Here it is:


Weeding Out the "Unfit" Unborn - New Threats From an Old Ideology from Katolik Shinja Pro-lifers don’t like to rail on Margaret Sanger because she was supposedly a proto-feminist. They rail on her because she wanted to use birth-control, euthanasia and the like to breed out the undesirables.

Cardinal Arinze on the synod and the Mass

(further clarification of politicians holding to pro-choice stances and receiving communion) Suppose somebody voted for the killing of all the members of the House of Representatives, "for all of you being killed. I call that pro-choice. Moreover, I am going to receive Holy Communion next Sunday." Then you ask me, should he be given communion. My reply, "Do you really need a cardinal from the Vatican to answer that question?" Can a child having made his First Communion not answer that question? Is it really so complicated? The child will give the correct answer immediately, unless he is conditioned by political correctness. It is a pity, cardinals have to be asked such questions.

Need I tell anyone here that Cardinal Arinze is totally awesome?

and now for something completely different … some weather

Caught On Tape: Tornado In Woodward ... OK. This is an incredible video, but I have to ask. What possesses someone to RUN OUTSIDE when a tornado is in such close proximity to ones home?

OK, I found my favorite way to do a blogroll, mainly because I could load my OPML file in and sort out my favorites.

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://rpc.bloglines.com/blogroll?id=weunice&folder=1_Favorites"></script>

Now all I have to do is maintain my blogs on Bloglines. Here is my current blogroll .. (it even adapts to the CSS properly) ...

Warning Issued for Birth-Control Patch Let me see. I thought these side effects have been known for years? I also thought these side effects were also known with most variants of the pill as well?

"I wish I had known," she said. "It's quite likely I would never have used it."

Then you should do some research on the pill while you are at it -- especially if you are pro-life.

Science, Faith, and the Catholic Way of Reading the Bible

This is actually one of the most appealing things about the Catholic faith, however, as a Protestant I held to similar thoughts on the matter. I didn't see the contradiction that people see between faith and reason. I still don't. It was never something I had to get over. I know quite a few Protestants who feel the same way.

The Cantus Project via The New Liturgical Movement: The Cantus Project - WOW!!! A gorgeous blog about a supurb topic. I plan to read this far more frequently than I have.

A couple of items from the Catholic League:
Catholics NOT Turning to Anglican Church
Wal-Mart Bans Christmas, Boycott Launched

I am not sold on this reason for a boycott of Wal-Mart (in fact, within minutes of my posting this Wal-Mart responds appeared on Southern Appeal). I don't shop at Wal-Mart for a host of other reasons. There are far better reasons why a Christian should avoid Wal-Mart. Working conditions for employees ... pay etc. Even the environmentalist in me has issues ... For example, their treatment of tropical fish is attrocious. They use, at least locally, third-rate breeders and they hardly clean the tanks and they put fish who are hostile to each other in the same tanks resulting in injury. Its called common sense and it is the main reason I will always buy fish from people I KNOW care about the well being of them.

Traditional Anglican Communion - Traditional Anglican reunion with Rome? I think I post a link to this every other day. I am so pumped about this possibility.

Hamlet for First Grade via Bettnet - Musings from Domenico Bettinelli, Jr.

See Hamlet draw his sword. See Hamlet stab.

Stab, Hamlet, stab.

The Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living - It seems to be good stuff. I kid you not. Click on the link ... read the quotes and get yourself a copy. I plan to.

Check out the cool LAUNCHCast thingie on the right ... Now you can know how totally off the wall my tastes are WITHOUT having to bother with being aurally offended by all of the bleeps and blips on my station. My wife says it sounds like crickets.

A Hard Pill to Swallow - Christianity Today Magazine via Amy Welborn - This speaks for itself. If you have Protestant friends who are friendly towards this Catholic teaching, send it to them. Sometimes Protestants will listen to other Protestants. It takes a while to get to the point of even hoping to give the Catholic Church a fair shake on anything ... at least it did with me.

I am also very glad to see that the birth control pill being an abortificient is sufficient enough grounds to get people seriously thinking about the issue of contraception. See the Contraception portion of my conversion story for details on how this issue affected my life.

classic_cartoons - We have had a hard time giving up TV. Gabe dressed up as Superman for Halloween ... I HAD to let him watch a couple of the old Superman toons.

Pope to Bishops: Don't Water Down Church Teachings and sadly, of course, we all know this happens too often. I got the distinct imporession watching the Journey Home the other night that people do not come into the Catholic Church expecting people to tell them that all is OK with where they are and that nothing is expected of them to take their relationship with Christ to the next level. It actually takes the wind out of your sails when every week you hear of large numbers of priests telling their congregations essentially to "be good", live and let live.

Study finds live-in boyfriend puts kids at risk - Not only that but 48 TIMES more at risk. Folks, this is a strong association and this is very much worth being concerned about. You are used to seeing weak associations, or what amounts to "hot air" about every topic from things that cause cancer to global warming as NATIONAL HEADLINES. Lets see if actual alarming statistics cause a rethinking of shacking up.

WOW, I have some doozies on the reading list for today ...

Legends about Luther: Nailing the 95 Theses to the Door of the Castle Church indirectly derived from Against the Grain

Everyday I learn some universal fact that generally is accepted by everyone is not true. I find it really bothersome that the teaching of historical facts gets so muddled in school. I am sick of being a college graduate who is having to constantly unlearn things that I was taught year after year all the way through college.

Conscience and the Cafeteria Catholic - I plan to read this soon as it mentions one of my favorite books "The Spirit of Catholicism" by Karl Adam. That book is a must read for all Catholics. It is one of the best overviews of Catholicism that I have found.

"Mamma Rosa" Beatified: Mother of 11 children! - Apparently this is part of a movement towards highlighting the lives of people who live lives like most of us do. It is hard sometimes to connect with numerous saints from the religious life. My wife, for example, looks to St. Margaret of Scotland. Still, how many of us are kings or queens? We need more examples of "moms with bunches of kids".

The recently discovered early Church (photos). Makes that point that "the Church in the Third or Fourth Century was concerned with beauty in worship, as it still is".

Fuel's paradise? Power source that turns physics on its head from Life in Australia The one thing I find most interesting about this is how scientists, of all people, seem to be guarding the "old way" as if it is the truth itself. I thought only the backwards thinking Church did that? Scientists? C'mon ... the world is upside down. Just goes to show, as I have learned many times over in my career as a software devloper. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. The idea of change is highly bothersome to most people. That is why a company I used to work for made sure that all of the highly complex key-strokes of the character version translated to the GUI version. Nevermind the fact that using the mouse made many more interesting and faster things possible. If eleven tabs didn't get you to exactly the same place it used to get you to, then heads would roll. Just click the button folks ... eleven tabs is ten actions too many.

How do homeschoolers change a lightbulb? Excellent funny ...

Catholic 'gay' clergy policy 'helping Anglicans': US bishop and of course we know all is really well with the Episcopal church. There is no pending Anglican Split.

You know, I hate that anyone would leave the Catholic Church but it is becoming more and more clear the dynamics of what is happening. You have devout mainlines and evangelicals finding their way into the Catholic Church. You have liberal Catholics finding their way into the mainline Protestant denominations. I see it as the Holy Spirit at work.

And speaking of Episcopalians, Cacœthes Scribendi mentions that an incident where the IRS has contacted a church about its anti-war stance prior to the 2004 presidential election is creepy. I totally agree. Despite the fact that this church likely supports most everything I am against I think the precedent here is a bad one. If being against a single stance of the incumbant administration is tantamount to supporting a candidate then in all reality what church or politically active organization can be tax exempt?

Surprise: Halloween's Not a Pagan Festival After All from Mark Shea which fits in nicely with my rant on why Christians should participate in Halloween as it has become in the United States

In my stuff to read entry from last night I cited the following --
Why is there an Epidemic of Depression?

I want to first make it clear that this is an excellent post and I agree with it but I did want to add my two cents on a particular passage:

Our grandparents had comfortable spiritual furniture to sit in when they failed… big families, community, God, church, etc. Younger people’s spiritual furniture is threadbare. We believe we can make it in the world without spiritual sustenance and the support of a close-nit family and community.

To a degree I agree that our cultures worship of "independence" causes a great deal of stress in our lives and a lack of dependence on anything outside of ourselves. This is particularly troubling for a Christian who is most certainly supposed to be greatly dependant on God. Part of that dependence is one of making contacts with other Christians and taking part in community. My wife has often said that "I don't see how people make it through life if they are not a Christian." I think however, some of this lack of dependence on family and especially community is thrust upon us unwillingly.

Take for example the situation of my wife and countless other stay at home moms (SAHM's) in the world. Baton Rouge is a working town. Everyone over the age of 18 works. Period. This leads to situations like with our previous neighborhood where you have both parents working in every home and few if any SAHM's. My wife has been involved with various playgroups, some city wide, and encountered only a handful of moms and most of them had short term plans to return to work. The net result is that their careers have impacted the possibility of developing long term relationships with other mothers who do raise their children at home. As a result, the "support network" for the SAHM, especially one who happens to have a lot of kids, is virtually non-existent. Only recently have we discovered some of these other hidden mothers, toiling away in their homes to exactly zero fanfare.

The ethic of our society is one of "leaving a societal legacy" ... The idea is that we are defined by our careers and not by our families. Most people want to invent the next television, or be the next famous athlete, or write the next great expose on a president. They want people to know what they "did" with their lives. The idea of taking on raising seven kids seems mind-bogglingly insignificant to most people, but it IS vitally important to the future of this nation. I can tell you that there are teachers who were important to my life. I learned a lot from them and they shaped who I am. None of them compare to the impact my mother has had on my life. She was there. When I skinned my knee in 2nd grade, she was there before I even made it to the nurses station. She was there when I walked in the door from school and she was always ready to know how good or bad my day was. A LOT of my emotional development came from knowing I had SOMEONE who was there.

I don't want to go down the path of blaming working moms for the increase in depression in families. We are blessed we even have the choice to have mom stay at home. It isn't the fault of working moms so much as it is the reality of our current culture which is based on generations of bad choices. You cannot afford a comfortable home for raising a large family in this nation unless you are in the upper half of household incomes. It is hard to even find a 4+ bedroom home in our area. I can tell you now that insurance for lots of kids, especially with maternity is next to impossible to fit into any budget. Most people can get there if they add two incomes together and cut back on having children -- especially getting that maternity off the insurance. Our society is perfect for the economy. It works out for the corporations who have their worker bees. It works out for the families who can provide for the increasingly expensive lives ... it even generates work by making necessary large numbers of day-care centers. In reality, however, our generation is not as well off as our parents. In order to have our higher standard of living that the previous generation told us we "deserved" we have to sacrifice time at home and relationships with other parents for careers.

Its depressing for those who make that choice when they have it and it is even more depressing for those who have no choice and suffer the consequences of the choices already made. Trust me ... We all try to handle our depression the "old school" way but there isn't anyone there. Their cell-phone goes off and they just have to get back to work. We all try to meet new parents with similar goals -- or heck, just any parents with kids will do. The depression is greatly fueled by the reality of being shot down at every attempt to garner some support in a world that is just simply very hostile to family life.

OK, I am sort of sick. My family is a little more classically sick. I will spare you the details.

Decided to, at a minimum, post my reading list for the past day or two.

Joke - A little crude yes ... but it is still a really funny joke.

Mark Shea: Vatican Says Absolutely Nothing New about Relationship of Science and Religion - If you are Catholic you realize the false dichotomy setup in the minds of the rest of the world about Church vs. Science. You also know what the Church teaches about it. Finally, you realize as Mark has noted here that the world seems to think that the Church is FINALLY starting to listen to science. Silly wabbits.

Homosexual Activist Group Opposes Charge against Christian Pastor - This reminds me, whenever the Boy Scouts were in hot water over not letting homosexuals be leaders a gay activist group in this country also sided with them. Basically it seems they didn't want to let heterosexuals in their all homosexual groups.

That 9th Circuit Decision that I referenced in the previous post about another reason to homeschool .. Yeah .. that one ... Looks like it was a good decision.

Why is there an Epidemic of Depression?

Our grandparents had comfortable spiritual furniture to sit in when they failed… big families, community, God, church, etc. Younger people’s spiritual furniture is threadbare. We believe we can make it in the world without spiritual sustenance and the support of a close-nit family and community.

Its not that we believe this. Its that we have to. I'll post more on this later ....

The Curt Jester: A Modest Proposal "Yes Victorian Secrets! Where parts of your body are actually secret." Another gem from the Jeff. I used to have a series of links that were what I considered his "best of". I need to compile that again.

Not feeling as well as I would like so I am off to bed ... Good night!

Pulled this and some comments off of DCF ...

Court says parents not sole providers of kids' sex education

SAN FRANCISCO – A federal appeals court dismissed a lawsuit by elementary school parents who were outraged that the Palmdale School District had surveyed students about sex.

While the surveys asked students how often they thought about sex, among other questions, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday that parents of public school children have no "fundamental right" to be the exclusive provider of sexual information to their children.

and

Parents whose students took the survey signed consent forms, however the forms never mentioned sex would be a topic. Questions the children answered included whether they thought about having sex, thought about touching other people's "private parts" and whether they could "stop thinking about having sex."

About which VegMom wrote:

I don't understand the type of mental process that allows someone to believe that the government is better equipped to raise children than their own parents.

Sadly, I think I do. The idea is that parents are a bunch of wackos, especially homeschool parents. This is evidenced by the recent story on the Nazi "Olsen" twins and that guy who raised his daughter in a cave in Washington state. For a second I entertained the thought that we as homeschoolers must do something about this fringe in order to give better credibility to our movement but alas after discussions with more rational folks than myself I came to realize that wackos are part of the price we pay for freedom. That, and I couldn't think of a good solution that either didn't infringe on everyones right to raise their own children or that didn't place some arbitrary and unfair "standards" on the majority of parents who are well suited to raise and educate their children. From a comment my BIL made on my blog

The question of the parents who shouldn't be homeschooling is the same as the question of those parents who shouldn't be raising kids. If you argue against homeschooling because some few parents are violently unsuited to it, you also have to argue against parenting because some people are violently unsuited to it -- and what do you do then? Raise all kids in daycare using licenced child-raising experts?

Of course, as you know, some people want to go to that extreme. WE ARE NOT SUITED TO BE PARENTS MUCH LESS EDUCATORS ... or so they would say.

I would think that the public school system ideally should be held accountable by the client -- or parents (voters) -- but that isn't what happens. It is manipulated by the elite for their own means. This ruling about solidifies my opinion that this is what is happening.

We might as well cut the whole process short and fix the standard of accountability yourself. Educate your own children.

Some reading ...

Are Cradle Catholics and Converts Created Equal?
On invincible ignorance, EENS, etc. This teaching is one of the most difficult teachings for both Catholics and non-Catholics to comprehend. This is an excellent overview.

There is a common thread in the first two articles that I want to discuss

From the first:

But at times, they may also be tempted to say it isn’t "fair." They labor to serve God all their lives, while others breeze late into the Church, and receive the same rewards.

From the second:

Here am I (you complain) tied down by all sorts of restrictions and regulations which interfere seriously with my enjoyment of the present life; and here are these Protestants, invincibly ignorant of all these rules and regulations, and therefore having all the fun which I miss, and no worse off when it comes to a future life than myself?

And of course both of them resolve this objection in the same manner.
Matthew 20: 1-16 (NAB):

1 "The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.
2 After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.
3 Going out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
4 and he said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.'
5 So they went off. (And) he went out again around noon, and around three o'clock, and did likewise.
6 Going out about five o'clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?'
7 They answered, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard.'
8 When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.'
9 When those who had started about five o'clock came, each received the usual daily wage.
10 So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage.
11 And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner,
12 saying, 'These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day's burden and the heat.'
13 He said to one of them in reply, 'My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?
14 Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
15 (Or) am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?'
16 Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last."

Maybe God is trying to tell me something since I keep encountering this passage. Our All Saints mass was difficult. That happens frequently when there isn't the usual childcare provided. On a day like that it is easy to say "Gessh, I sure had it easy when I wasn't required to go to church". The fact is, being in the Church with all of its gifts is a blessing and we have to see it that way, even when it seems like we are getting the bum end of the deal. What we HAVE is far greater than what we miss.

Some more reading ...

Top 10 Changes a Catholic Majority Would Make to the Supreme Court via Happy Catholic Supurb!
Archbishop: Pope will 'prune' institutions with weak Catholic identity via De Civitate Dei I hope this happens and I hope a solid cleansing of our higher learning institutions results in significant changes in the intellectual outlook of not only the Church but this nation.
Large Families Deserve Support, Pope Says YES PLEASE!!! We need all the help we can get. Well, I guess we aren't "large" yet but the plea remains. :)

Christmas Time is here ...

Heh ... LAUNCH (My Station) has pulled out the Christmas music
first song .. a classic ... Skating by Vince Guaraldi

Reading for the day ...

Ten Principles For Political Involvement
ABORTION 101 via Not So Quiet Catholic Corner - Good to see a bishop telling it like it is: Abortion "is always intrinsically evil. There are no circumstances that justify abortion."
On abortion, a nuanced stand via Catholic and Enjoying It! - Some concern with Alito? The hearings should make everything clear. Abortion is the liberal litmus test. We WILL know where he stands.
Candy coated doctrine - Upset that Halloween overshadows Reformation Day? HUMOR folks -- go read it ... its funny.
Speaking of the Reformation ... 10 Questions for "Bible Christians". Yep, and all 10 of them have to do with the doctrine of sola scriptura. Speaking of sola scriptura, the next section I intend to tackle in my conversion story will cover that.

ARGH!!!! Firefox crashed before I could complete this so you will have to do without some of the cool reading I had prepared for you ... I am having problems with Firefox on Windows XP that I never had on Windows 2000. I wonder what gives?

Still beats IE any day ...

Evangelical Lutheran Church-Conditional Support for Polygamy, Homosexuality - I guess this is the easy way to solve the problem of polygamist converts in Africa.
Sensual and Sacred, Body and Soul, Catholicism and Art
Bush Nominates Alito for Supreme Court OK, I SERIOUSLY doubt my blog is the first thing you read today so this is SO old news but I am linking it anyway ... Five Catholics on the Supreme Court? I can't wait until the conspiracy theories start coming out of the woodwork on this one.
Vandals damage to Panhandle church, 10 other properties - As if Hurricane Katrina wasn't bad enough