The Mountain Goats - Romans 10:9

Jail Time For Going To Church?

Wow...A Catholic dad going through a divorce from his Jewish wife is facing jail time for taking their daughter to mass and having her baptized.

Video here.

This is a must watch.
My favorite quote from the Dad: "I'm taking her to hear the teachings of perhaps the most prominent rabbi in history." (That would be Jesus.)

Contraception: Why Not?

I recently received a free copy of Dr Janet Smith's talk Contraception: Why Not on CD, available here. I encourage anyone to get a copy of this and listen to it - after all, it's free!

The talk outlines how contraception has hurt and is hurting our society and our marriages, provides some great statistics and logical arguments, and explanations of the teachings of the Catholic Church on the matter.

While society touted contraception as the next great thing for society and marriages, the Catholic Church and specifically Pope Paul VI in his encyclical Humanae Vitae, predicted it would be devastating. Well, guess who was right? Paul VI's predictions are now very obvious and Dr Smith outlines them neatly (and so much more) in this 1 hour talk.

First Prophecy. The Pope noted that the widespread use of contraception would "lead to conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality."
Second Prophecy. Pope Paul VI also feared that the man who grew accustomed to the use of contraceptive practices might ultimately lose "respect for the woman," and "no longer caring for her physical and psychological equilibrium" might come to consider her as an "instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion."
Third Prophecy. Pope Paul VI also observed that the widespread acceptance of contraception would place a "dangerous weapon... in the hands of those public authorities who take no heed of moral exigencies." (government family planning and forced abortions, etc.)
Fourth Prophecy. The final warning Pope Paul VI gave about contraception is that it would lead men and women to think that they had limitless dominion over their own bodies and functions. (A rise in sterilization, test tube babies, euthanasia, abortion, etc.)

http://www.usccb.org/prolife/programs/rlp/HVProphetic88.pdf

So much more can be found at One More Soul and anyone interested in NFP should contact their local diocesan representative or the Couple to Couple League.

A Star Curiously Singing

It's hard to find good fiction. And by good I mean good. There is a disturbing lack of Christian fiction these days. What happened to the days of Tolkien and Lewis? My preferred genres are fantasy and science-fiction. Good luck trying to find something that is both fantasy/sci-fi and Christian! Oh, wait - I did.

Marcher Lord is a small Christian publishing company specializing in Christian speculative fiction. Recently I read the debut novel from author Kerry Nietz entitled A Star Curiously Singing. When the book arrived I really didn't expect much. Some small publishing company I've never heard of, an author I've never heard of, and Christian sci-fi. What kind of sappy drivel was I going to read? My expectations were, needless to say, low.

The cover was the first thing that hooked me - I know what they say. I knew nothing about the book when I got it, but the cover started to give me an idea. I immediately started browsing through it and started in on the first couple of pages - then I never stopped. I put down Ender's Shadow for this book.

Nietz has done a wonderful job creating a compelling and richly realized new world. Set in a technologically advanced future ruled by sharia law, A Star Curiously Singing sets the mood early on and it is bleak. Slavery, behavior control, a wide division between rich and poor, a strict caste system, and an overbearing sense of hopelessness and apathy. Just what you'd expect in a place ruled by extremists but with robots.

The story is told through some very interesting and different literary devices for this genre. A Star Curiously Singing is told in the first person present. I'll give you a minute to pull out your high school text book. The main character is telling the story as it happens. Not only this but he occasionally speaks directly to the reader. This creates a real sense of urgency and involvement on the part of the reader and it works very well.

Sandfly is a debugger, a person with an implant in his brain that allows him to interact with the nanotechnology of the time and with the stream, something akin to the internet. Debuggers are basically paid slaves of their "abdul" masters. Sandfly is chosen for a task in which he must solve the mystery of what happened to the servbot that accompanied the crew of an experimental deep space flight to a distant star. The robot picked up a transmission and promptly tore itself apart.

Now none of this may sound very Christian and that's exactly what I was thinking as I read it. However, this is the first in a series and at the end of the novel you get the first real sense of the Christianity in this story ("He stoops!"). A Star Curiously Singing is a quick and easy read, yet a compelling and intriguing novel. I look forward to future novels in the Dark Trench Saga as well as other books from Marcher Lord.

I know I haven't said too much about the plot, but that's because I don't want to spoil this deceptively simple novel. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Karin Beery. Her blog got me a copy of the book and she has an interview with Kerry Nietz.

Leave Your Bats and Follow Me

Yahoo has the story about 23 year old future baseball star, Grant Desme, who quits to follow his calling to be a Catholic priest.

Susan Slusser has more on Desme's decision to leave playing against the Padres and Cardinals so he can start praying with other padres and cardinals at a Catholic seminary in Orange County. He said the news came as bit of a shock to Billy Beane, but that the Oakland GM and entire A's system have been supportive of his decision.

Here's what Desme himself says about it:

"I'm doing well in baseball. But I had to get down to the bottom of things, to what was good in my life, what I wanted to do with my life. Baseball is a good thing, but that felt selfish of me when I felt that God was calling me more. It took awhile to trust that and open up to it and aim full steam toward him ... I love the game, but I'm going to aspire to higher things."

Exactly the kind of role model we need for our kids. In an age where most athletes seem to be striving for mega-paychecks, craving fame, and brandishing handguns in the locker room here's a young man who is instead seeking eternal rewards. Pray for him and all our priests and seminarians and for an increase in vocations among our young people.

Have you encouraged your sons to be priests lately?

Virtual March For Life

For those of us who aren't at the actual march right now:

Join the Virtual March For Life!

http://www.virtualmarchforlife.com/

Pat Robertson and the Bible

Maybe he should read his Bible before he claims that God sends earthquakes to destroy people.

Jeremiah 31:27-32
The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will seed the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast.
As I once watched over them to uproot and pull down, to destroy, to ruin, and to harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD.
In those days they shall no longer say, "The fathers ate unripe grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge,"
but through his own fault only shall anyone die: the teeth of him who eats the unripe grapes shall be set on edge.
The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.

Thank God for the New and Everlasting Covenant! God won't destroy us or punish us for the sins of our ancestors. Whew!

Please pray for all those affected by the earthquake in Haiti.