Mere Christianity

I think one of the great contributions to current Christendom are the writings of C. S. Lewis. It was not only due to his wealthy creativity, or his nearly impeccable logic, or his vast reading in the classics, or his fluency in the ancient tongues, but that he had a sense of what made up in Baxter's phrase, Mere Christianity. He did see the sense of what this faith was at its core. And that core was Christ. This had to be. Without this Christ-core one was putting up sand castles with high tide in the forecast.

Outdoor Cafe Eavesdropping

While at an outdoor cafe discussing "Spiritual Friendship" (Aelred of Rievaulx) with a couple of friends it was quite nice to have the girl at the next table get up and walk over to us and tell us that she appreciated our conversation. She then told us the reason she so enjoyed her eavesdropping (which we encouraged her to continue to do) was that she also was a Christian. Yes, the communion of saints. The body of Christ. Amen and blessings on the dear girl that had courage to come over and reveal to us her kinship.

Cardinal Cupich's Correction

I am compelled to comment on Cardinal Cupich's statement (below) that many who have no faith system at all are many times are "the greater Christians". On reading this I was immediately reminded of C.S. Lewis's gripe about the misuse of the word 'gentleman'. This word failed to endure its misuse and eventually came to mean a man the commentator liked rather than a person of property. The Cardinal's recent comment signifies a similar lack of precision. We already have the word 'nice' for such pleasant people as the cardinal refers to. But the word "Christian" should mean someone who has a set of beliefs. It is much more accurate to say the person is a bad Christian who doesn't live up to their creed than to say he isn't a Christian at all. The same thing goes for the nice person who we say is a Christian when in fact he doesn't believe the Christian creed. We've then ruined the word for any value it once had.

The phrase "without any faith system at all" is the most problematic. Yes, the atheist may be nice (we can't read the heart so even 'nice' might not be as accurate as we think) but to say that he is one of 'the greater Christians' is to badly misuse the English language. A nice atheist is just that: a nice atheist. But to say such a man is a great Christian is take no account for the dictionary definition.

An Unfortunate Role

I must unfortunately protest the actor Robert Duval who had the poor judgement to play Robert E. Lee in the movie, Gods and Generals. What was he thinking? Could he be so lacking in judgement appropriate to the times that such a role was suicide to his career? And not only was he playing a---I guess the adjective in Webster's now is 'Hitlerian', yes, a Hitlerian general, but just look at the title of the film: it mentions "God". And not in derision... so at best the movie must be merely polyannish, or a religious tract. Wouldn't Duval see that this mention of Deity in anything but derogatory terms was a deathblow to the populaity of a film? But even more to the point: to present this Virginia despot as a man that believed in God was to prejudice all us enlightenment educated elites against it! Didn't the producers of this film (and Duval himself) realize that they were participating in the spread of Intolerance and unDiversity? Didn't they realize to make this film would be to step out of our Hate Free Zones into the great Hate Zone which was (and is) the South? I do hope no one within the sound of my humble hate-free tolerant voice will provide one dime of patronage on such a film and renounce any allegiance to such an actor. Perhaps if only Duval could've played some real hero, someone like Robespierre...

The Social Engineering Now Happening

On the social engineering now happening... I think social engineers are like regular engineers in this respect---they just don't wish to replace a rivet but to build an entire structure.

On the Eclipse

On the eclipse. Isn't it quite an amazing thing that such a congruence can be calculated? I would dare suggest that this speaks of order in an ordered universe. If I was an avowed atheist, my 'avowed' would have suffered, I think, a mortal wound.

Would Any Statues Stand?

Ye without sin cast the first stone.

Would any statues stand if we took into account all sins: adultery, theft, impure acts, impure thoughts, lack of charity, hypocricy, etc. etc. etc...?

Fanuel Hall No More

A friend of mine just sent me an article that stated that one of the leaders of the Democratic Coalition ( a nice euphemism) is 'suggesting' (read 'demanding') that Fanuel Hall in Boston be renamed as the man that built it and donated it to Boston was a man of wealth and involved in institutional racism. My friends: don't you see that our very country will be renamed to "The Barack Republic of Racist Repentance". (This, my prediction. I hope that we wake to the root of this. The seeds were sown back in 1917 and brought here under the guise of the Institution of Social Research---and please do research about this group also known as "The Frankfurt School" founded by Felix Weil (among others) (pronounced ironically like 'vile').

The Bolshevik Bully

Doesn't it occur to us that the word "racist" is used as a club by the Bolshevek bully? Witness how it was used for Mr. Trump, for those who voted for Trump, for anyone that disagrees to the orchestrated social engineering that is going on. After all this charge is from the Diversity and Tolerance folks that somehow don't see that diversity and tolerance might also apply to monuments in the south. As I see it their removal has more to do with their representation to resistance to the Federal encroachment of the State's jurisdiction than it does for advocating slavery. Also I vaguely remember my liberal teachers in Social Studies telling us not to stereotype and yet isn't this what is going on today even by well-meaning people that seem to automatically defaul to the term given by the media outlets (which we all know are fair and unbiased) of "white supremicists". So we actually can now read the hearts of everyone on the resistance side in Charlottesille? bAnd are our memories so ephemeral that we don't remember the R-charge against the Tea Party when any fair minded soul would say that was quite a conjectural leap that had no basis in fact. Yes, all these men in stone that are being removed have a significance and that is a resistance even to one's own government when it seeks toward totalitarian bullying. May we have such statues just to remind us that at one time in our history there wer still men willing to fight for what they perceived as the truth. May we have such men today.

A Pawn Speaks Out

We are being played. Never before have I felt more like a pawn. I'm afraid we, the traditional Americans, are sucumbing to a culturally cleansed checkmate. Even the Christian by his virtue is having his virtue used against him. His innocence of the fact that compassion can be corrupted is leading him into his losing all his pieces. May we wake up before the game is over.

Perhaps Next Time...Religious Statues?

I wonder when Mr. George Soros will organize another nice event...perhaps next time it will be religious statues? Of course this will no doubt follow since we have allowed the new Censors to sterilize, in their secular self-righteousness, the South of her sin. No doubt there was nothing but her sin. No doubt to be a Southerner was to have no heroes. No doubt to be a Southerner was to be immune from any virtue. No doubt South Carolina fathers did not protect their families, Virginia mothers did not love their little ones, their boys and girls were the only ones born in original sin. Of course when the event comes about I don't wonder that swaztika flags will be provided to the religious side and tolerance banners to the secularist side so that we who watch the News with such trust will be able to tell the good guys from the bad guys, the humanist righteous from the religious radicals. It won't be long now when our sensitivities will bring about confiscations of the plaster Blessed Mothers in Catholic backyards and front yards. A sensitive society can't help find inappropriate the display of the blue mantled woman. The shame of purity may be just too puritan for the nice overseers of the New World to allow.

Charlottesville

So much political opportunism occurring from Charlottesville. Marx would be smiling for the Marxian paradigm is in full affect. The aggravation of conflict---begun, by the way, by the destruction of southern history, the removing of cultural heroes like Lee, Beauregard, Jackson, Jefferson Davis (whether they are heroes can be debated for another time), demonizing the South as synonomous with Nazi Germany ...what does one expect? When any race sees themselves as demonized as is now happening by the self righteous Marxist moralists, does anyone in their right mind not imagine there will not be pushback? People will resist this kind of bullying by the moral busybodies of our day and yes, ugliness will come out---for in man, as the Bible tells us, there is darkness without the light of Christ. And when everything is marked with the damning charge of racism and every one that seeks to keep their own cultural heritage is charged as a racist---this can only breed an antagonism that many wish to aggravate for their own political advantage. By the way let's be fair: where were all these self righteous souls when white cops were being assassinated? Where was their outrage when the people of Fergeson had their businesses looted and burned? Or when major arteries of cities throughout the country were blocked by BLM? Shouldn't it be all lives matter? And, by the way, those in the womb, black, white or yellow, aren't exempt either. Maybe we should grab that verse again that we seem to use to our convenience, but might it not be applicable now as well? Jugde not, for with what measure ye judge, ye shall be judged. And before we pick up a stone maybe we should stand for a moment in our neighbor's shoes, even if he is a poor white southerner who dares to love his heritage. And before we decry his heritage as not worth anything, may we look at our own heritages that, I scarce suggest, aren't so holy either.

Tired of Hollywood

If you are tired of the typical Hollywood fare these days check out the films produced by the Kendrick brothers of Sherwood Baptist Church under Provident Films. These talented brothers one day decided thaty they were tired of what Hollywood was feeding the country so they decided to try a hand at making their own films: the first being a low budget film called Flywheel. But what it lacked in glitz and Hollywood spophistication it made up in being a great story with surprisin...gly good acting and fine dialogue, and the Christian faith presented beautifully in all its redemptive power. Their next film called Facing the Giants with interwoven story lines of modern day Davids and Goliaths is untiringly uplifting, and the best highschool sports film I've ever seen. Then comes Fireproof, a wonderful lesson in love and what marriage really means; Courageous, a film depicting what fatherhood is when it is fueled with the faith of Christ. Warroom---I won't even suggest what this one is about for the wonder of this one is the ironic twist given the title. As for myself I can hardly wait for Sherwood's next film and will be one of the first in the ticket line. Hollywood take note: I think you would benefit more than a little by learning from this little Baptist church in the backwaters of Georgia.

Little Dorrit

Reading the last pages of Little Dorrit I realized even more emphatically that Chesterton was right about the fact that Dickens' greatness primarily lay in his great heart. You come to the end and you see the truth and beauty, nobility of character of Arthur Clennam and Little Dorrit, hero and heroine, and it puts in your own soul such an aspiration to be such and to find such.

St Paul

Thanks to Ray McNulty for his presentation at St Mary's Men's group on St Paul. What we often forget, or at the least don't appreciate, is the fact that St Paul traveled across Europe and the Mediteranean part of Asia without access to the Greyhound bus lines, the Sesna, Nike shoes. He supported his own missionary efforts with his tent making with no access to pay-pal. He was flogged, shipwrecked, stoned (in the older sense), left for dead. And through all this his faith never flagged. And beside that he had time to also write a few notes to the churches in his spare time when he wasn't walking through his umpteenth pair of sandals.

Old Railroad Bed

Rode the old railroad bed last night in the dark on my bicycle. I've done this many times. My bike light spotlighted with its AAA beam the especially active night. It's about a mile in all but seems a little longer when bats perform kamikaze aerobatics at what must be crosshairs marking your brow. And then at the last second, cottontail bunnies zip across the path, playing dodge just millimeters in front of your madly rotating front wheel; up ahead a fox approaches then retreats on seeing the strange Cyclops ahead; then the real moment of creaturely climax---a family of skunks unseen until you are nearly brushing their black/white striped backs with your pedal. All you can do is speed up a bit at that point. You realize too that a cougar wouldn't have caused the pedals to be pushed in a less casual rotation.