Moses seat

Do as they say, not as they do?

Today’s gospel reading includes this from Matthew 23:1-3: . “Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.'” . Jesus speaks of […]... Read More
Emperor has no clothes on

Be the Proverbial Child Who Mentions the Emperor is Naked

Whenever you imitate the proverbial child who says the emperor has no clothes on, people react in one of three ways. They: a) ignore you, rationalizing “he’s just a kid” (or a religious fanatic, or one who’s ‘out of touch’, etc.); b) attack you personally with the wrath of hell for daring to challenge their […]... Read More

How Can Jesus Command Us to Love Our Enemies?

Today’s gospel reading has Jesus exhorting His followers to love their enemies, contrasting this with Jewish and pagan teaching. . There are two places mentioned in scripture that Jesus’ followers express dismay at the difficulty of His teaching: consuming Him in the Eucharist (Jn 6:66) and His ban on divorce (Mt 19:10). If there were […]... Read More

The Logic from Contraception to a Culture of Death

The logic is consistent. Whenever a people accept contraception, abortion and other perversities are soon to follow. With U.S. law, it was contraception (1965), abortion (1973), and unnatural “marriage” (2015). In Ireland, it was contraception (1979), unnatural “marriage” (2015), and abortion (2018). Contraception is the catalyst that by attempting to separate love from life, it […]... Read More
Neuralink thumb

Neuralink and the Problem of the Soul

Some of the questions we tackle, beneath the surface: - Does Neuralink have the potential to alter human nature? - What do technological innovations such as this say about the human soul? - Does the soul have a special relationship with the brain, different than it does with the other bodily organs? - Doesn't this contradict Aquinas' teaching and the doctrine of the Church that says the soul is the form of the body?... Read More
Stages of life

The Psychological Disorientation of ‘Pro-choice’

One fundamental element is missing in those who can’t see that killing the preborn at any stage of development is an abomination. There is nothing in their spirituality enabling them to lift their minds above the limits of time and space in order to interpret it properly. Let’s go beneath the surface. This vision of […]... Read More
public square

Good Public Policy

What underlying principles should be used for making public policy? There is overlap, but generally speaking there are three options: bad morality, no morality, and good morality – which represent the philosophies of secular progressivism, libertarianism, and Christian conservatism respectively. The first two are based on a false sense of freedom born of modern philosophy, […]... Read More

God and His Secondary Causes

Rational inconsistencies fascinate me. . The ancient world had a simple grasp of the universe that saw all phenomena as direct signs from God or the gods. . While almost all modern Christians willingly give credence to the notion that in the order of nature, God as first Cause uses secondary causes to bring about […]... Read More

The Pro-Life Movement’s Fatal Flaw

To destroy a condemned building you attack the pillars on which it rests. The same principle should apply to abortion. Mocking the God of Life, our culture of death rests on an undivided triunity of grave sin. And here's the fatal flaw of the pro-life movement, and why the slaughter of innocents continues: You will never end abortion by focusing on abortion.... Read More

Neo-cons and Neo-cul-cons

While neo-cons are known for being war hawks, the new cutural conservatives (neo-cul-cons?) occupy the space of “I don’t care what people do in their private lives as long as they don’t force it on others.” This position, libertarian at heart, is unteneble within the egalitarian anti-discrimination ethos that is part of the American creed. […]... Read More
Trinity symbol

Reflecting the Trinity

Love begets truth, which together produces life. Likewise, truth is the form of love, which is inherently life-giving. This eternal paradigm of the Blessed Trinity reflected in creation corresponds to the truth of our being, i.e. human nature. Acts that contradict the truth of human nature can never be love, despite any subjective desire or […]... Read More
creation

Reason and Science Lead to One Fundamental Choice

Human beings have a tendency to personify, even deify animals, objects, and natural forces. We see this in ancient polytheism, modern cartoons, and the contemporary naming of hurricanes. Ancient religions based in panthesism and polythesism embraced this tendency. Polytheism, which directs humanity’s strong penchant for personifying the forces of the universe into many ‘gods’, is […]... Read More