Dangerous behaviour made safer?

No, it's not about Sex Ed . . . Or is it?

What Ewe'll be wearing . . .

Spring snow-storm fashions for the recently sheared ovine.

In the most unexpected moments . . .

God reaches out and touches us. Sometimes, it's a touch so light and unexpected that it is utterly devastating. Tonight, I was listening to the new musical sensation, The Priests. When, through my headphones, came the closing song and I found I was completely caught up in it.


"Be Still, My Soul"
by Catharina von Schlegel, 1697-?
Translated by Jane Borthwick, 1813-1897

Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul; thy best, thy heavenly, Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul; thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul, though dearest friends depart
And all is darkened in the vale of tears;
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrows and thy fears.
Be still, my soul; thy Jesus can repay
From His own fulness all He takes away.

Be still, my soul; the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul; when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.
.

Ya gotta love them Dems!

The people who we elected to improve our reputation in the world are at it again -- accomplishing the opposite.

First, there were the twin insults to our closest ally, Great Britain. And now, Madame Secretary has insulted, not only the world's Catholics, but our important neighbor, Mexico:

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Oh, you also need to know that in Roman Catholic teaching, Our Lady of Guadalupe is the protectress of the unborn.

Cooking in the kitchen today . . .

And the menu for the week is:

Cabbage and Red Lentil Soup

Coleslaw (it was a big cabbage)

Edamame Caviar (sort of like 3-bean salad)

Breakfast Beans

Adam's new love

Last night, on the way home from a dinner party, I bought the newest P.D. James novel. It's the fourth installment since Adam Dalgleish's new love interest appeared on the scene. Actually, his only love interest since his wife died in childbirth in (I think) the first novel.

If she doesn't get the two of them married by the end of this book, I'm never reading another PD James novel again.

And if you DARE spoil it for me . . .

An error in the question

There are some questions which reveal a fundamental error in their asking. For instance, "How can I safely stick my finger in a light socket?" does not reveal a willingness to question the status quo - rather, it reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of electricity and the purpose of fingers. It's a question that would never be asked if the person first understood the nature of the matters he is questioning.



In the same way, someone who questions the necessity of separating men and women in accountability groups when sexual matters are being discussed understands very little, if anything, about the meaning and purpose of our sexual natures. It is only when we begin to understand the nature of things that we can begin to ask the right questions. It is only when we stop asking the wrong questions that we can begin to understand the right answers.

How low will they go?

In their quest to reconstruct Evangelical Christianity, the religious feminists are discussing the "Church of Gender Division" and the real need to minimize gender-specific ministries. Now I will readily agree with them, if they want to argue some churches go too far and make stereotypes out of their men's and women's ministries. However, I will not travel to the following place with them. The following comment was left as a discussion reply and it has me wondering, "Do they believe EVERYTHING needs to be deconstructed?"

I agree that we need to minimize gender-divided meetings. One exception to this, though, may come up in accountability-type groups. I can’t see guys spilling their sexual mess in front of women… and suspect that might not even be a good idea (though would be interested in others’ thoughts — maybe I’m just accepting as conventional wisdom something which needs to be challenged?). Women, too, might find it harder to talk about sexual issues, or (just to make one up) issues regarding insecurity over weight and so forth, in front of their male “judges.” All sorts of unexamined assumptions may underlie what I’ve said here. I’d love to get feedback."

Thinking themselves wise, they became blind . . .

Romans 1:18-23

18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

19because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.

20For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

21For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22Professing to be wise, they became fools,

23and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

Those of you who know me and have read this blog know two things. The first is that I am utterly convinced that, among religious feminists, we see these words of Holy Scripture being played out before our very eyes. Those who seek to continue to justify their rebellion are becoming increasingly foolish in defense of that rebellion -- which becomes harder and harder to maintain as the evidence mounts up against them.

One such person recently asked about studies linking Complementarianism with mental illness. Another has accused a well-known ministry of covering up an epidemic of child abuse in their midst. Another well-known religious feminist leader has talked about how much God loves it when she "makes love" to her lesbian partner. And yet another giggles like a school girl about being taken to task for selective eliding quotes in order to prove her case. But these same folks, professing to be wise, are so fragile they can't understand God's word without altering it so that they "know" they are included.

The other thing you know about me is that I think the world of Alice von Hildebrand and wish I could sit at her feet as a disciple for all the days she has left on this earth. And that is why, in light what I've recounted above, I was so pleased to catch a few moments of a recorded interview with her. When she was asked about the war of the sexes, this was her reply:

They became blind to the fact that men and women, though equal in ontological dignity, were made different by God's choice: male and female he mad them. Different and complementary.

I couldn't have said it better myself!

The Adolescnce of Homo Sapiens

For some years a metaphor has been stuck in my mind: the twentieth century was the adolescence of Homo Sapiens. Nineteenth-century science, from Darwin to Freud, offered a series of body blows to ways of thinking about human beings and human lives that had prevailed since the dawn of civilization. Humans, just like adolescents, were deprived of some of the comforting simplicities of childhood and exposed to more complex knowledge about the world. And twentieth-century intellectuals reacted precisely the way that adolescents react when they think they have discovered Mom and Dad are hopelessly out of date. They think that the grown-ups are wrong about everything. In the case of twentieth-century intellectuals, it was as if they thought that if Darwin was right about evolution, then Aquinas was no longer worth reading; that if Freud was right about the unconscious mind, the Nichomachean Ethics had nothing to teach us.

The nice thing about adolescence is that it is temporary, and when it passes, people discover that their parents were smarter than they thought. I think that may be happening with the advent of the new century, as postmodernist answers to solemn questions about human existence start to wear thing -- we're growing out of adolescence. . .All of us whore deal in social policy will be thinking less like adolescents, entranced with the most titillating new idea, and thinking more like grown-ups.


Charles Murray
2009 Irving Kristol Lecture
The American Enterprise Institute

Bonhoeffer on Meekness

But not only my neighbor's will, but also his honor is more important than mine. "How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" (John 5:44). The desire for one's own honor hinders faith. One who seeks his own honor is no longer seeking God and his neighbor. What does it matter if I suffer injustice? Would I not have deserved even worse punishment from God, if He had not dealt with me according to His mercy? Is not justice done to me a thousand times even in injustice? Must it not be wholesome and conducive to humility for me to learn to bear such petty evils silently and patiently? "The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit." (Eccles. 7:8)


-- Deitrich Bonhoeffer, from Life Together

Can you judge a book by its cover?

If you want closure . . .

Apparently we women are awfully stupid. We keep falling for the wrong men and doing the wrong things to keep them. How else to explain this book that looks just plain silly? Here is a quote from a reader review at Amazon:

There was nothing new or different; most of the subjects that Mr. Boom covered were the messages that mothers and grandmothers have been passed down for years.

And, for this we need to buy a $15 paperback?

Here's one you don't hear everyday . . .

Overhead page at the hospital this afternoon:

Spiritual Care to ICU, STAT!

Would that we always thought spiritual care required a rapid response.

Maybe dead people require more?

A friend pointed me to a discussion on one of the more irresponsible religious feminist discussion sites (hey, whaddya mean "more" irresponsible?). Notice had been taken of Dr. James Dobson's resignation from FOTF, and the following response was posted:

"And now I suspect Falwell may be greased to slip into Dobson's spot."

So, do dead people require more grease to slip into someone else's spot? Perhaps she meant his "plot" instead, as in gravesite? Or was she referring to Jonathan Falwell who has taken over his father's preaching position at Thomas Road?

Who knows?

It's Women's History Month

Lest you all forget, it's Women's History Month. This year's theme is, Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet. This year, "the National Women's History Project honors women who have taken the lead in the environmental or "green" movement. We are featuring Rachel Carson, the founder of the contemporary environmental movement, as the iconic model of the theme."

Pity so much of Carson's revolutionary work was founded upon lies. Pity now that so many of those lies still live and contribute to the deaths of millions in Africa where a bit of targeted DDT spraying would save those millions of lives by wiping out Malaria-spreading mosquitoes.

Instead of honoring someone whose work involves the death of so very many, why not focus on a life-giving woman? This month, instead, let us feature a woman who never worked outside of the home, who never published anything, who never invented a life-saving device or sculpted a monument or wrote a symphony.

Instead this month, let us feature Mary of Nazareth. The woman who did what only a woman can do - give birth. Let us honor the woman who gave birth to Truth itself. The woman whose son is the pivot of human history - the salvation of the human race.

Why not?