My essay for Imaginative Conservative this week focuses on Tolkien's driving force of providence behind his plot lines. While I feel Pippin’s pain, I have confidence, because like the omniscient one, I know how Lord of the Rings ends. I can see that Pippin and Merry’s capture was no mistake. Their ordeal brings them to Fangorn to meet [...]
You may have seen the clip from Donald Trump's rally where he said he wanted to punch a protester in the face. What disturbed me most about his bullying was not so much that he wanted to punch the guy, but that the crowd ate it up and roared their approval. The root problem was not the [...]
I was brought up very strictly in a Christian home. We didn't go to movies. We didn't go to dances. We didn't smoke or drink. Heck, we weren't even allowed to play cards because they were linked with gambling. Then some years ago I visited Detroit and my host took me out to lunch. Bob pulled [...]
My article for Aleteia this week recommends prayer for politicians. One of the charming things about being an Anglican were the petitions in the Book of Common Prayer for “HMQ” aka Her Majesty the Queen. How quaint and Queenly is this beautiful prayer? Almighty and everlasting God, we are taught by thy holy Word, that the [...]
My blog posts criticizing Trump have elicited some pretty nasty emails from Trump supporters blaming me for being a Sanders supporting Communist, Marxist and blaming me for never condemning Clinton, Nancy Pelosi or Biden. Anybody who has read this blog with any frequency at all will know that I've thrown plenty of stones at that gang [...]
Julius Caesar - Note the comb over.... Is history repeating itself in a remarkable and disturbing way? Do you know what happened to the Roman Republic? First, did you know that the Roman Empire was preceded by a Republic? For about five hundred years just before the birth of Christ Rome was governed by [...]
I have been astounded to receive emails and FB attacks from Catholics who side with Donald Trump against Pope Francis. That so many Americans have fallen in love with this loud mouthed, lying, bragging, adulterous con man is bad enough, but when I read that a good number of Evangelicals are swooning at his feet I [...]
The Pope pops Trump Trump Dumps Pope. Has it occurred to anyone else that Donald Trump's attack on Pope Francis has happened in South Carolina--a state not known (errmm) for its love of Catholics? After all, this is the state where the Bob Jones crowd protested the visit of John Paul II in 1987, and when [...]
My latest blog post at National Catholic Register compares Justice Antonin Scalia to Don Quixote and says we need more like him... Addressing the Knights of Columbus, Justice Antonin Scalia said, “God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools ...If I have brought any message today, [...]
Over at ChurchPoP they've reprinted one of my old blog posts about miracles. Why then, are there not more miracles reported amongst those who believe? There are a couple of reasons. For one, very often our “belief” in miracles is purely academic. We say we believe in miracles because it is part of our whole Christian [...]