More Pseudogamy

More Esolen on marriage:

Pseudogamy 104 - Egalitarianism in marriage is fiction. The difference between men and women is not a matter of mere reproductive hardware. Masculinity and femininity are unique gifts from God and not to be discarded in favor of some contrived sameness.
Pseudogamy 105 - Happiness comes from the commitment to love, not the option to divorce. Your marriage vows are not said with some reservation that, if things don't go as well as planned, the vows can be broken. Breaking them is not an option.
Pseudogamy 106 - The same kind of mindset produces economic instability as produces divorce. When one's word (whether an economic pledge or a marital vow) is noly good inasmuch as it benefits the one pledging, it's no good. My entering into marriage is not meant to bring benefit to me but to my spouse. Likewise, an economy only functions effectively if people understand their work to bring to others what they need and want.
Pseudogamy 107 - What happened to community? We've become transient: "In a sense, easy divorce is a function of the more general and heart-dampening transience. We don't tend the land with care; we treat animals as if they were no more than meat-making machines; we ship our children off to day-asylums and then to school, and when they are not at school we leave them in the care of Hollywood; we don't know our neighbors; and we, surprise, surprise, uphold no-fault divorce. That last is the stake in the community's heart. It is transience in the most intimate relation we know on earth."

More to come...

False Marriage

or "Why I love Anthony Esolen"
or "Why I think intelligent Christians should read Touchstone or at least the blog"

Pseudo=false, gamy=marriage

Pseudogamy 101: Divorce Mentality
Pseudogamy 102: Willful Childlessness
Pseudogamy 103: Cohabitation

Start reading. More to come...

Pray for Our Brothers & Sisters in the SID

We drove down to Kentucky Friday evening for my brother's college graduation. We drove along I-57 after what the National Weather Service described as an "inland hurricane" tore across Illinois. My parents, who drove down ahead of us, were stopped on the interstate as crews cleared trees that had blown across the road. We came through in the dark, so we didn't see the damage that surrounded us, but we heard about iton the radio stations. Passing through Marion was remarkable because, except for a few lights atop the hospital, the town was completely black.

Several of our congregations in that area were affected, as well as countless others. Keep them in your prayers.

From SID President Mueller:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

They say it was an “inland hurricane” that swept through Southern Illinois. One individual, a member of Immanuel, Murphysboro, was killed by the storm when a tree fell through his house. Please pray for Pastor Mayes and the members of Immanuel as they mourn this loss.

We had some property damage in Murphysboro, Marion, and Carbondale, but by far the greatest damage to property was at Christ, Jacob. Attached are a couple of pictures of the school at Jacob. As you can see, the gymnasium was totally destroyed and a tree fell on the school itself. No one was hurt, God be praised, at Jacob, since they had been listening to the weather radio and had all the children and teachers huddled in an inner room when the storm struck their building.

Please raise a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord and ask His further protection and blessing for all those affected.

You will hear more from us soon.

Blessings,
+Herb Mueller

Happy Mothers' Day

Some insight from Fr. Hollywood on the popular denigration of motherhood.

Dean in His Tux

Some of you asked to see a picture of Dean in his tux that his grandmother bought him for his aunt's wedding. Well, here he is.

26.2

I did it. Barely.
I stopped running 3 weeks ago because of shin splints.
Then all Holy Week I had (still do) a very painful ear infection.

But while running, it was my lack of fitness, not the shin splints or ear infection (those were controlled with Advil, orthotics, and cortizone from the PT) that contributed to my slow, slow time. But I can't say what it is because then you'll figure out it was only 10 minutes faster than when my wife ran a marathon 2 years ago. Humbling.

Easter in the Octogon: Right Shape, Wrong Idea

The Post Dispatch had a front-page article today about Tom Skiles, pastor of (the appropriately-named) SOSChurch in St. Louis. The church began a month-long sermon series on Jesus the Ultimate Fighter on Easter. The story featured a picture of Tom and his wife constructing the chain-link octogon replica of a UFC arena.


Right shape, wrong idea.


An octogon is the correct shape for Easter, but not the octogon wherein you might get your face punched in. Worse. The octogon of Easter is where you'll get drowned to death: the Baptismal Font, traditionally 8-sided to confess that in Baptism is the beginning of the New Creation, the 8th day.


Here's the RFT's interview with Skiles.