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A Report from Tuscaloosa’s Ground Zero

The Warrior River borders the University of Alabama campus, separating old Tuscaloosa from up-scale housing developments to the north. Tuscaloosans know a “north of the river” address connotes six-figure incomes. The schools, public and private, are excellent. It’s the country club set. The Warrior River forms a barrier separating Tuscaloosans by class and largely, although […]

Bin Laden and the Hydra of War

As we ponder the significance of Osama bin Laden’s death, it is well to reflect that Islamists are not the cause of hostilities; they are but symptoms of a much greater cause. Individually killing them off—which is nice—is like a doctor temporarily treating a sick patient’s symptoms without eliminating the cause of sickness. Ayman al-Zawahiri, […]

Son Day. Sunday. Some Day.

Sunday is the Son’s Day.  So I thought once-upon-a-time in my little girl reasoning. Jesus is the Son of God. He rose from the dead on a Sunday.  Hence, Sunday is Son-day.  Little did I know back then that my silly little play on words was not far from the truth. This ever-ancient-yet-ever new Catholic […]

The Royal Wedding and How to Take Marriage Seriously

They grace the cover of Time magazine this week, do Kate and William, with not one but two full-page spreads inside: of the coach ride after the wedding and of the Westminster Abbey recession. Days after the grand affair, the world still gawks and talks.  Much of the talk is about what the newlyweds have […]

Vicarious Revolutions for the West

Since January this year, the world has been watching the Middle East with anticipation and hope.  A cascading series of uprisings in the Arab world began in Tunisia with the overthrow of President Ben Ali.  In one country after another, populist insurgents were pitted against autocratic dictators.  Some – like Mubarak of Egypt, Gaddafi of […]

Time for a Fresh Start on ‘Terrorism’

The liquidation of Osama bin Laden is a cause for full-throated national celebration.  It must also be the occasion for a redirection of our efforts to wage and win what has been misnamed “the War on Terrorism.”  At last, we must recognize the struggle we are in for what it is – the War for […]

Comic: Concupiscence?

Exposed

No means No. Duh! you might be thinking. What else could it mean?  Well, for some men “no” translates to mean, “yes”. And for law enforcement officials, “no” could mean a charge of rape.  But I’m getting ahead of myself. This all begins with Shannon Deitz’s book, Exposed: Inexcusable Me, Irreplaceable Him. It is a […]

Getting Off the Misery-Go-Round of Scrupulosity

“Bless me Father, for I have sinned.  It’s been an hour and fifteen minutes since my last confession,” Mike fearfully utters to the priest.  Mike had confessed prior to the Mass he just attended, but during Mass remembered something he did not confess.  This greatly troubled him because he knew it was a mortal sin.  […]

May Christians Preach Outside a Philadelphia Mosque?

Law enforcement scrutiny, detainment by police, and a court date to answer trumped-up charges: these are the consequences of preaching Christianity to Muslims not only throughout much of the Islamic world, but sometimes even in America as well. The most infamous example occurred last June, when four missionaries from Acts 17 Apologetics were arrested and […]

Obama and the Nature of Truth

Some people collect coins, others scan the beach with metal detectors. I enjoy trolling footnotes at the back of a book for little gems of insight or historical anecdote. I was recently rewarded for this eccentricity while reading John D. Mueller’s new book, Redeeming Economics: Rediscovering the Missing Element recently published by ISI Books. Mueller, […]

Poem: “Wild Riding Kingdom”

Wild Riding Kingdom I. Wild animals took flight before a tsunami clouded the land with rushing water pushed by shifting plates below the sea, yet we could not see it coming. Magellan saw clouds of dwarf galaxies three billion years away but did not know what we know: Some stars eat each other. II. Black […]

Open Hunting Season Again on Human Embryos

“This case is not over,” said lead attorney Samuel B. Casey about Friday’s 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. that gave the green light for the destruction of human embryonic stem cells for research purposes.  That action overturns an injunction put in place by a District Court judge last summer. […]

Bush, Obama, and Osama: America’s Hour of Choosing

“In Bin Laden Announcement, Echoes of 2007 Obama Speech,” declared the headline in The New York Times. It’s difficult to find a newspaper that has demonstrated a worst pro-Obama and anti-Bush bias than The New York Times, especially when dealing with the War on Terror. And so, I expected a headline like this in the […]

Remembering to Remember

Standing in the liminal space between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man, the true believer often finds himself wrought by two seemingly conflicting realities.  On the one hand he knows he is the creation of the one true God, redeemed by the God-man Jesus who is the Christ, and sanctified by the […]

What Role Does Virtue Play in Catholic Bioethics?

Virtues empower folks to reliably, freely, and happily engage in truly noble acts by which they become even more virtuous than they already are.  Like a surgeon who has progressed into a surgical virtuoso — a fully flourishing surgical artist whose patients rightly trust with their lives and their limbs — clinicians of various stripes […]

Poem: “Citadel”

Citadel It wasn’t just a place to name the animals To guard the Tree of Life To know the good of life and not the evil It was the citadel impregnable, a refuge of the trees A rampart of the oaks and tamarisks Walls and towers made of limbs and leaves There was a peace […]

Did Somebody Just Make it All Up?

The Gospels tell an incredible story.  A virginal conception.  Miraculous healings.  Even people coming back from the dead.  How are we to know that it’s not all just a fanciful fabrication? There is much evidence for the reliability of the Gospels, but here is one of the strongest bits of evidence I know.  Think for […]

May Blossoms, Part One

It already started, you know. The hoopla over Mother’s Day is well underway. In the next several days, the greeting card companies, florists, and chocolate manufacturers will do their best to make us feel like villains if we don’t get our mother something sweet and sentimental for “her” day. At least, of course, we’d better […]

Entering the Promised Land

“From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road, to bypass the land of Edom. But with their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or […]

The Fount of Divine Mercy

“I thirst.” In these, the shortest of the last seven words of Christ on the Cross, one sees evidence of the Lord’s physical suffering as His precious Body – beaten and bloodied for our transgressions – paradoxically approached death as He hung parched upon the Tree of Life. In order to grasp at the deeper […]

Thank You JP II

Millionaires in America

Recently, CNN’s Money.com posted an article bearing the title, “U.S. Millionaires Population Expanded by 8 Percent in 2010.” According to the article, there are now approximately 8.4 million millionaires in the United States, and last year’s increase was due primarily to rising stock prices, following a 27-percent decline in the number of millionaires in 2008 […]

The Not-So-Simple Simple Prayer

Did you know that prayer doesn’t mean having to stop everything and getting out a book, or having to come up with something formally well-rounded that makes sense?  Did you know that prayer is as simple as talking to your next-door neighbor (not that anyone does that anymore) or a co-worker?  Absolutely!  For the most part off-the-cuff conversations with […]