Screwtape integrity and other thoughts

Posted by - December 30, 2018

C.S. Lewis was a British professor at Magdalene College in Cambridge University during the 1930’s through the 1960’s. Though he is probably remembered more for his role as an author, than as a professor of English Literature. His major contribution to literature was a series of fantasy books on the magical land of Narnia. He

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Christmas

Posted by - December 23, 2018

A Christmas theme that has always fascinated me is the Bethlehem innkeeper who encounters Joseph and a very pregnant Mary looking for a place to stay after traveling some 90 miles from Nazareth on a donkey. It is such a powerful image. It is easy to portray the innkeeper as a cold-hearted villain who ignores

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On toxic faith

Posted by - December 16, 2018

The cable news channels have been running a series of specials on Jonestown. I was trying to figure out why the topic was so popular suddenly, when one of the specials mentioned that this was the 40th anniversary of the event. On November 18, 1978 US Congressman Dan Ryan was visiting Jonestown, a religious compound

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On the story of Bartimaeus

Posted by - December 9, 2018

Not long ago I had an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic. I need to have some surgery done next year and my wife and I were visiting with the surgeon. It was the first time I have ever been to the Cleveland Clinic and I was lost.  That place is massive! It took us a

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On theodicy and typhoons Part 2

Posted by - December 1, 2018

In 1994 Tom Hanks starred in the movie, “Forest Gump”.  This film became a classic and is still enjoyed and talked about by many people. In the movie, Forest is not the smartest person around but he had a good heart and a way of distilling the most complex ideas and related situations into relatively

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On theodicy and typhoons Part 1

Posted by - November 24, 2018

Life was really great for Job.  He had loyal friends, land, livestock, servants, good health, a wife whom he loved, plenty of children and every benefit that money could buy. His life was an endless celebration. He considered himself one of the most blessed persons he knew. Then one day his world got turned upside-down. A

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On the legalization of marijuana (Part 1)

Posted by - October 27, 2018

(The following is an ATW dealing with the issue of legalization of marijuana. I didn’t take any specific position on the topic but rather presented the steps for moral decision making. Though I did point out at the end that both Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis have been opposed to the legalization of

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On virtue in public office (Part 2)

Posted by - October 21, 2018

Principles matter. Our decisions have consequences, whether on the individual or communal level. When we come to a fork in the road our decision to go either right or left takes us down very different paths. During spring of my senior year of college I took the written test for Navy flight school. Like McCain,

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On virtue in public office (Part 1)

Posted by - October 13, 2018

As of this writing it is early September 2018. The burial of Senator John S. McCain occurred just a few days ago, after a week or so of memorial services honoring his memory. Over the years I have seen few world leaders receive such accolades and public honors as did Senator McCain. While the man

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Sexual abuse is a Church’s Spiritual Crisis (Part 1)

Posted by - September 29, 2018

If you follow Vatican news articles, much of the time they are painfully boring.  Occasionally there will be a minor change in some rules that are of interest only to a canon lawyer or a theological clarification that is of interest only to a few theologians. However, in recent weeks there were two items that

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