Category: Christianity

To Our Days Of Realism

     I’m going to disturb you, Gentle Reader. Some of you, at least. You may find what follows antiquated, a delusion of a past century. Perhaps you’ll deem it offensive. But I have something in mind that Rudyard Kipling expresses beautifully in the poem below. Take up the White Man’s burden Send forth the best …

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Christian Simplicity

     You’ve seen me cite the following passage more than once:      And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?      And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but …

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Long Walks

     “Powerful minds tend to complete their own investigations, once they’ve been given a reason to investigate at all.” – Pope Clement XV      Relax, relax. Pope Francis hasn’t departed this life without you hearing about it, you news junkie, you. Clement XV is a character in one of my novels: the first American to …

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Preaching Politics

     I really, really dislike coming home from Mass in a state of pique.      There’s been enough talk – more than enough, really – about Pope Francis and his open espousal of socialism. It’s deplorable and worse, but the subject has been exercised sufficiently that everyone in Christendom, and points south and east, is …

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Well well, look who finally showed up

Jorge Bergoglio the anti-Pope finally had someone issue a statement regarding the blasphemous opening of the Paris Olympics. “The Holy See was saddened by certain scenes at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games and cannot but join the voices raised in recent days to deplore the offense done to many Christians and believers …

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We all know the answer to this question

“Would they’ve dared to mock Islam in a similar way?” No, Bishop, they would not. You know it, I know it, hell, everyone knows it. Because Christian men are soft. Christian men are afraid to give offence by speaking plainly, that Islam is a satanic religion founded by a pedophile who’s only contribution to the …

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“You Know You’re Over The Target”

     …when the flak is heaviest. This has special application to the public statements of popular figures who dare to go against the Official Line. In our time, Official Lines are everywhere. One differs with them at one’s personal peril. No Official Line is more heavily defended than this one: “Women, You Can Have It …

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Evidence Of Spine

     I’m always heartened to learn of some indication that Americans are rediscovering their courage, in these times when so much has been done to make us furtive and timorous. This one from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho cheered me in two ways:      Christians in Idaho who had been banned from carrying religious symbols during their …

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Uncertainties

     No one really likes them. Especially if they’re about big things. The following popped out of the memory bank a little while ago as I contemplated this subject:      He felt toward Kathy a certain strange cynical trust, both absolute and unconvincing; one half of his brain saw her as reliable beyond the power …

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A Hymn From Across The Pond

If you’re unfamiliar with British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, you can surely be forgiven. He never achieved much popularity outside his homeland. Yet his choral works are among the most beautiful things to come out of the Sceptered Isle. Here’s my favorite:      May you have a blessed Sunday and a glorious summer.

Births And Rebirths

     Happy Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. On this day two millennia ago, the Apostles were granted the gift of the Holy Spirit, which emboldened and equipped them for the mission with which Christ had charged them:      Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. …

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The Grinding Of The Axes

     If you enjoy theological and spiritual reading, as I do, you’re likely to run across the occasional dubious statement in the work of some writer overly ardent for his Cause. Religious writers have their agendas, as do we all. Occasionally their eagerness to advance those agendas moves them to say something that’s not quite …

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Motherhood

     As virtually everyone in the Western Hemisphere knows by now, yesterday was Mothers’ Day, a holiday celebrated by mothers, grandmothers, greeting-card vendors, and Hallmark stockholders throughout the land. Why Mom gets only a single day, while Negroes and sexual deviants get a month each and governments get all of us year after year, I …

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A Millennial Conflict

     Earlier today, I put forth a provocative proposition. Candidly, it was so provocative that it deserved large font: The State and God are enemies.      That probably upset a few folks excessively devoted to the opinions of Saint Paul:      Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power …

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The Key Historical Animosity

     If you bothered to watch the video embedded below, you might have a few questions about this nebulous thing called “Christian nationalism.” I intend to address some of those questions a bit later, when I’m properly awake. For the moment, have a gander at yet another video, this one from the Land Down Under: …

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If You Have 8.5 Minutes…

     …please watch this video: Pastor Doug Wilson is the Christian nationalist they warned you about. pic.twitter.com/E92V7OMLTS — Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 15, 2024      Pastor Doug Wilson articulates an almost satisfactory vision of “Christian nationalism.” The adverb is the most important word in that sentence. For what questions will be asked of his vision …

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“Where Is Everybody?”

     Have you ever watched one of those end-of-the-world movies, wherein a lone survivor awakens to a world that seems to have been depopulated while he slept? There have been a few, and some of them have been pretty good. I have 28 Days Later and I Am Legend in mind as I write this. …

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The Essence Of Divine Mercy

     Today is Divine Mercy Sunday in the Catholic calendar. It’s also known as Doubting Thomas’s Sunday, for today at Mass we read the portion of the Gospel of John that recounts the Apostle Thomas’s transition from disbelief to belief. Notably, the risen Christ invited Thomas to satisfy himself with physical evidence: the wounds in …

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Promise Kept

     In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.      And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from …

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On Being Alone Far From Home

     [After returning to and contemplating this piece, I was moved to repost an old item. It first appeared at the late, lamented Eternity Road in December, 2007. – FWP]      He was far from home, alone in a sterile room in a cookie-cutter businessmen’s hotel, a storage warren for men on the road for …

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