Category Archives: Religious

Through No Fault of Their Own….

Musings, Personal Ramblings, Politics, Religious

Do you ever experience multiple thoughts in your mind fighting for supremacy?  Most days, my mind feels like a rocky cliff upon which competing tides of ideas smash themselves, leaving the spray of individual motes floating down to join new idea tides and renew the cycle.  Some days, a hurricane of thoughts form off the coast and smash opposing ideas against each other, leaving my own current of thought ragged and choppy.  Some days are calm, with ideas few and far between; I enjoy those days just as much as the hurricane ones, for in variety is life.

And then there are the tsunamis.

You know the feeling, the one where something swells up inside you and swamps your every other thought?  Some people call it their ‘light bulb’ moment, others their ‘ah-ha’ moment…whatever floats your boat, as it were.  For me, that moment came today while listening to arguments on “Dreamers” and DACA – the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – and the continued use of the phrase, “through no fault of their own.”  It was such an interesting phrase that I had to give it some more thought.

Through no fault of their own (hereafter: TNFOTO), Dreamers were brought to this place.  TNFOTO, Dreamers cause hardships to those around them.  TNFOTO, Dreamers take resources from caretakers and governments and can’t repay their debt for decades.  TNFOTO, Dreamers are not considered citizens.  TNFOTO, Dreamers are considered a throwaway class by some.  TNFOTO, Dreamers are under assault by those who do not understand them.  TNFOTO, Dreamers are treated as political Ping-Pong balls without regard to their inherent worth as a human being.  TNFOTO, Dreamers will eventually live or die based on the choices of others.

Stark?  Maybe.

Now replace the word “Dreamers” with the phrase, “the Unborn”.

Here, I’ll do it for you:

Through no fault of their own (hereafter: TNFOTO), the Unborn were brought to this place.  TNFOTO, the Unborn cause hardships to those around them.  TNFOTO, the Unborn take resources from caretakers and governments and can’t repay their debt for decades.  TNFOTO, the Unborn are not considered citizens.  TNFOTO, the Unborn are considered a throwaway class by some.  TNFOTO, the Unborn are under assault by those who do not understand them.  TNFOTO, the Unborn are treated as political Ping-Pong balls without regard to their inherent worth as a human being.  TNFOTO, the Unborn will eventually live or die based on the choices of others.

These children didn’t ask to be brought into this world, but they still deserve the basic human rights of all other people on this beautiful marble hanging in space.  These children don’t know what our founders stated early on: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”  Self-evident…created equal…heavy stuff.

TNFOTO, all men are created equal.

Dear Fellow Catholics: Please Remove Your Rainbow Flags

Personal Ramblings, Religious

Here are a few radical ideas for my fellow Catholics to contemplate:

  1. The Catholic Church condemns homosexual (“Gay”) Marriage.
  2. The Catholic Church condemns homosexual behavior.
  3. The Catholic Church does not condemn homosexuals.

Just reading those three facts together may confuse some people; they might look upon them and assume this is a “one of these things doesn’t belong” test, but it’s not. The simplest of explanations is thus: condemn ≠ hate. Read that again. “To condemn” does not equal “to hate”. The proper definition of condemn in this context is, “To pronounce to be utterly wrong; to utter a sentence of disapprobation against; to censure; to blame.” As an example, “I personally condemn racism” or “The Catholic Church condemns racism.”

Make sense? Okay. So why bring this up now?

Two words: Gay Pride.

Recently, there have been social media movements advocating the advancement of Gay Pride and LGBTQA+ items. As part of the social media movements, many persons have been posting positive articles and changing logos and profile pictures to include rainbow stickers or flags or whatnots to indicate support of this agenda. What people do with their lives is on them, I understand, but what bothers me is when fellow Catholics stand loud and proud on this issue OPPOSITE the teachings of the Church. The Catholic Church’s stance regarding homosexual acts is clear: “Under no circumstances can they be approved”.

In some people’s minds, that clearly means that Catholics and the Catholic Church hates homosexuals, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Literally three sentences later, the Catechism states: “They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided”. EVERY SIGN! Internal, external, third person potential prospective injunctive whatever…EVERY SIGN! We do not hate homosexuals, we condemn their behavior.

That being said, we as Catholics cannot support movements that promote or advocate positions opposite the Church’s teachings on life, including those of the LGBTQA+ community. You cannot condemn the activity and behavior out of one side of the mouth while glorifying and praising it out the side of the other. To advocate for LGBTQA+ agendas is to speak a lie, i.e. to not proclaim the truth…and in this case, the Truth with the capital T.

Let us keep in mind that Christ dined with the sinners, but he did not advocate their behavior. In John 8:11, He said to the woman caught in the act of adultery, “Go and now sin no more.” Interestingly, in the earlier part of the sentence (again, John 8:11), he said, “Neither will I condemn thee.” In this case, he was literally stating he would not condemn her to die as the crowd of tricksters was asking Him to do. He told the woman the truth, that what she was doing was wrong, but told her he would not kill her for it. We in the Church should do the same: tell people that this behavior is wrong, but that we don’t advocate for their harm. In fact, we will refuse to unjustly discriminate against them in word, thought, or deed as the Catechism teaches us. Does that mean we accept their sinful behavior? No. Are there times where we will justly discriminate against homosexuality, such as keeping blatantly effeminate/homosexual men from being ordained priests and thusly leading their flock into sin by following their behavior? Absolutely.

In the end, recall some of His most famous words: “A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” When you love someone, you tell them the truth.

If you love someone as Christ commanded, you tell them the Truth.

Wicca Growing in America

Musings, Religious, TDaC, Writing

See, this is the kind of stuff I worry about….

For reference, here’s the article:

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s the basics: Wicca as a ‘religion’ is growing.  Ugh.  I remember when I first read Fr. Amorth’s book “An Exorcist Tells His Story” I had trouble believing his statement that paganism is on the rise.  I’ve seen some stories recently that have turned my head and opened my mind, most recently of which is this one cited above.  Reading through the article, this caught my eye: “It’s funny, because I’ve got people who are devoted Catholics coming to me and saying, ‘I’ve got a problem, and can you do a spell for me?’ ”

A couple of things to point out here.  If you’re a “devoted” Catholic, you’re not going to ask for a spell from a Wiccan anymore than a devoted Prolifer is going to ask for an abortion.  It kind of defies the label.  Plus, bonus, it’s stated in the Bible that you shouldn’t consult a witch.  Period.

Witchcraft is a shortcut, a way to get something for less than what you want to ‘pay’ for it.  When people ask me about Catholic Birth Control (yes, they capitalize it in their speech) they’re asking how we can abstain from sex on some days and not others and wouldn’t it just be easier to use “real” birth control?  Yes, it is harder, but it makes the times we can be intimate more special, thus increasing the joy in the activity (which I have so dryly spoken of here).  If you feel like you’re shackled by bad luck, where are your prayers?  Where is your fasting, your attendance at daily Mass, your Eucharistic Adoration?  Nah, those things are hard, lemme skip over here to the purveyor of spells and just get a quickie thing done.  Couple of bucks, no biggie, right?  No biggie, but only as long as you don’t value your soul.  By going to a witch or a fortune teller or a psychic or whatever it is that allows people to commune with the dead or the ‘spirit world’, you’re violating a tenant of your faith…so no, no biggie.

This is one reason why I wrote “The Devil and Casari: Ad Hominem“, so I can make sure to reach an audience who may not have heard the importance of staying away from crap like this.  Some doors you can’t shut once opened.  Consider this: the easy road is easy because it’s well paved and greased, but doesn’t that mean it’s also harder to stop moving when someone starts hauling you where you don’t want to go?  That’s witchcraft – you open the door, get (maybe) what you want, then find that you got more than what you wanted…only not in a good way.

TLDR: Don’t mess with witchcraft; playing with fire can get you burned.

Gotta Burn to Build

Religious, TDaC, Writing

An official half of all beta readers are finished with rough draft number one!  Huzzah huzzah!  With readings come critiques, and as requested, they are painful and unforgiving.  My stomach is in knots, my heart it is a’racing…yeah, the picture should be an easy one to draw. They burn, they burn! 

GOOD! 

These bodyblows help strengthen the writing, find flaws that I was blind to, and suggest trimming or plumping of certain areas or thoughts. Cool.  Of course, that means more work for me, but what’s the point asking for critiques if you don’t listen?  I’m not taking all suggestions to heart, mind you; after all, these are critics, not co-authors, so I’ll do as I please. It just so happens top please me to do most of what’s suggested. 

Among the best suggestions thus far are the addition of several chapters increasing the relationship between the three main characters, so that’s what I’ll be working on while the other half of my beta readers finish their copies.

In other pointless news, one of the exorcists whose book was influential to my writing “just” (May 2015) participated in the first ever recorded (so written) COUNTRY WIDE exorcism. Target: Mexico. Why?  In part, this heinous death cult of Sante Muerte, or “Saint Death”.  Evil, evil, evil!  People hesitate to turn to God but THIS gets their attention?  Tell me again how Satan isn’t real or isn’t operating in our world? 

Alright, end pointless rant and not coincidentally pointless news update. More as it comes!