Charles Williams, friend of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, and member of the Inklings, has a wonderful book called "Descent of the Dove", all about the Holy Spirit's role in the Church. It consists of nine chapters. I am summarizing and commenting upon each chapter each day of the nine day Great Novena [...]
http://www.youtube.com/embed/N5oSH1uzR-U This is the entire scene—and a very interesting one, funny and scary at the same time. Many of you have seen the trailer. This scene features the best acting by two bloggers ever. It features yours truly as the pessimist professor and Mark Shea as Innocent Smith. Soon to be released at a theater near [...]
That nasty issue Lying for a Good Cause has reared its ugly head again, thanks largely to a series of editorials in Gilbert Magazine, Janet Smith's attempts to make an apology for lying from a Thomistic perspective, and Brandon Watson's rebuttal to Smith.And yet, now that we've had a few months off since the last outbreak [...]
Over at Facebook, I was foolish enough to criticize the film The King's Speech, in a post which has attracted 37 comments so far, some from people who take critiques of films they like very personally. So I figured I might as well spread the controversy to the blogosphere. Here's the deal: this is nothing more [...]
"If you beat me at Scrabble, I will marry you." This I said to Karen early in our relationship. Nine years later, she still hadn't beaten me at Scrabble, and I still hadn't married her. If it sounds like I was a jerk to her, you're right. I knew she could never beat me at Scrabble. [...]
On Monday I returned from nearly two weeks on the road, our Great North Tour, in which we gave 15 performances of 7 scripts in 13 days in 6 states—from Grand Forks, North Dakota, to Holt's Summit, Missouri. In all of that wonderful chaos God gave me the great blessing of being away from the internet. [...]
Well, people are trumpeting Peter Kreeft's argument on the "Lying for Jesus" issue, in which he comes down on the side of lying-if-we-really-want-to, because we have a "moral common sense" that, in some cases, to do so is right. This is what I would call the "Just Say Know" argument - the anti-intellectual argument from intuition, [...]
I've discovered another one. Objection Number Nine - Scripture, especially the Old Testament, condones lying. Here's my reply, also in the form of a letter to a well-meaning friend. *** There is no question that we need to stand united and strong with those who have the guts to fight abortion. The problem is, as with [...]
Yesterday I posted what ended up being my most controversial post in two years on Facebook. It was simply a quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "A good intention (for example, that of helping one's neighbor) does not make behavior that is intrinsically disordered, such as lying and calumny [slander], good or just. The [...]
We begin with this: the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that lying is intrinsically evil and can never be justified. Now then. There is lighting up across the internet a discussion on the morality of undercover journalism, a la Lila Rose and her videos that show Planned Parenthood workers willing to support underage prostitution. [...]
