Tag Archive for culture

Go Ask Alice

June 26, 2015 General Interest, Intellectual Formation No comments

I recently came across an interview by Trent Beattie in the National Catholic Register (NCR) with Dr. Alice von Hildebrand. Dr. von Hildebrand is Professor Emeritus at Hunter College in New York City. To many, she is known as the wife of the late Catholic theologian and philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand whom she met when a student at Fordham University. In 1949, Alice received her PhD in philosophy from Fordham and was hired as the first woman to teach philosophy at Hunter College (CUNY) in New York City. Like her famous husband, she is an accomplished author and worldwide lecturer.

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An Intergrated Attitude Toward Drinking

June 5, 2015 General Interest No comments

I recently engaged in a conversation with work colleagues regarding the pros and cons of returning the drinking age to 18. As most of them were under the age of 30, they were unaware of the history of Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) over the past 4 decades. For those of you who don’t recall, between 1970 and 1976, approximately 30 states lowered their MLDA from 21 to 18, 19, or 20. Thankfully, this was shorted lived as highway statistics showed a marked increase in traffic deaths caused by young drunk drivers in most of the corresponding states. In response

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Our Missing Rib, Part 4: Belated Mother’s Day Edition

May 17, 2015 Moral Action One comment

Blogger’s Note: This is the fourth in an irregular series of posts on the differences between the genders in order to spread peace and understanding. Mother’s Day was last weekend. In honor of those life-givers whose love and labor sustain our presence in this tilted world and civilize us savages, I thought I’d share two items: The first is this post from our Catholic comrades-in-arms, Those Catholic Gentlemen, entitled “What You Owe Your Wife.” I’ve run across a number of articles lately slamming Christianity, the “patriarchy,” traditional families (why “families” need such a qualifier is beyond me), and men in general for

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Is All ‘Inequality’ Created Equal?

May 3, 2015 Intellectual Formation 2 comments

Over the last several weeks, I’ve seen a 2009 opinion piece by former President Jimmy Carter resurface on social media — apparently it went viral over Easter this year. Entitled “Losing my religion for equality,” it offers Mr. Carter’s rationale for breaking off his longtime relationship with the Southern Baptist Convention on the grounds that the group’s leadership “quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be ‘subservient’ to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.” As

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The Paraclete says “Man Up!”

April 6, 2015 Moral Action No comments

We write a lot about the difficulties facing Catholics in an increasingly evil culture, and rightly so.  Yet on this day after Easter, looking forward to Pentecost, we remember the promise of a Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, who will remain with us forever, teach us all things, and judge the world.  Where is the “power of the Paraclete” now to help me in this increasingly hostile world in which we live? Paraclete is one of those words in Scripture transliterated from the Greek without a direct English equivalent.  The verb form of the word (parakaleo) is used over 100

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More Musical Mayhem

April 5, 2015 Intellectual Formation 2 comments

Given the fun we’ve had to date discussing the good, the bad, and the ugly of liturgical music , I thought I’d share this two “top 10” lists from First Things: Are These the Ten Worst Hymns of All Time? Are These the Ten Best Hymns of All Time? What do you think? I like the hymns on the “Best” list, although like some of the commentators, I truly wish “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” had made the cut — and I have to admit a soft spot for songs like “Amazing Grace” and “How Great Thou Art.” On the

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On Gender and Genesis

March 29, 2015 Intellectual Formation One comment

Some time ago I listened to a CD of a priest talking about the Fall, and the common misperception that Eve is completely to blame for first eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and then giving it to Adam to eat. The priest pointed out a turn of phrase often overlooked in the the story: “The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and

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‘An Immortal Contract’
— and a Challenge?

March 22, 2015 Intellectual Formation 2 comments

Now a conservative is a person who sees human society as an immortal contract between God and man, and between the generations that are dead, and the generation that is living now, and the generations which are yet to be born. — Russell Kirk, 1957 The quote above is taken from a post entitled “No Conservatism Without a Religious Foundation” on The Imaginative Conservative (TIC) website. The post itself is an excerpt, but stands neatly as its own essay or column, reminding us that, “A society which denies religious truth lacks faith, charity, justice and any sanction for its acts.”

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(Unhealthy)2

March 20, 2015 General Interest, Moral Action No comments

While driving home from work one day last week, I happened to glance over at an abandoned gas station and unexpectedly caught sight of two young girls holding signs promoting their group. At first, I was surprised because they looked too young to be the local HS girl’s cheer/volleyball/basketball squad who normally occupy this space to wash cars as a fund raiser. As I drove closer, I discovered that they were actually a troop of Girl Scouts(GS) who had set up a convenient “drive through” cookie store. Clever, why not, I thought! Over the years I have witnessed the Girl

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Looks Like Someone Forgot Repentance…

March 15, 2015 Moral Action 2 comments

On Friday, TIME magazine continued its love affair with our Holy Father with a brief web post entitled “Pope Francis Has Taught the Catholic Church to Thrive Again.” The writer attributes this assertion to three characteristics of Pope Francis’s leadership: he leads with mercy, authentic joy, and humility. As a result, the writer asserts, “Pope Francis has made it cool to be Christian again. His pontificate is allowing the world to rediscover the great contribution of faith to culture and civic society.” This seems to be a popular perspective these days. It also ignores that Jesus led with repentance and told us multiple

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