ASHES TO ASHES

“Let tyrants shake their iron rod, And Slav’ry clank her galling chains We fear them not, we trust in God New England’s God forever reigns…” “Chester” William Billings, American - 1770 Popular hymn sung by General Washington’s men during the course of the fighting in the Revolutionary War. There has been much controversy made in recent years about the Establishment clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution. Court cases have been argued over the “wall of separation” between church and state by organizations like the ACLU. The Ten Commandments and crosses and other religious symbols have been removed from the public square. Recently, a cross dedicated to fallen soldiers in the Mojave Desert was the source of a law suit by the ACLU alleging that it violated the separation clause of the Constitution. The Supreme Court ruled that the cross could stay but vandals tore it down shortly after the decision. So, what was the intent of the Founders? To have a secular state that ...

ATTICUS by RON HANSEN (1996) Being on something of a “crusade” of reading and discovering Catholic authors, I have been determined to discover as many contemporary Catholic/Christian writers of realistic fiction as possible. Tolkien, Lewis, Sayers, O'Connor and Percy have been written about elsewhere and are generally considered to be part of the 20th Century Christian writers cannon. But has anyone carried on this tradition? Are there Catholics who still write quality fiction? And are there writers who go outside the confines of a parish or monastery or church to grapple with modern problems of living a life of faith in an increasingly secular world? Writers who are, as I like to call it, “informed by their faith”, are those who bring a Catholic Christian world view to their writing much as Grahame Green and Evelyn Waugh did in much of their writing. While rarely writing directly about the Church and their faith from the inside, nonetheless, their writing was deeply Catholic i...

Most troubling is San Francisco's reaction after some of the horrendous crimes committed there by illegals, especially the Bologna murders in 2008.Now they are planning on giving illegals the right to vote in school board elections!

Why did the LEFT want the bomber to be a tea partier or a conservative? An actual terrorist came in 3rd on THE DAILY KOZ'S poll. I am not surprised that they think conservatives are more of a threat to the country than Al Queda. These leftists are seriously disturbed....been watching too much Keith Olberman and Jon Stewart. LOL........surprised they didn't have FOX NEWS as an option to blame.

Since the passage of the controversial Arizona immigration law I have been engaged in a lively and thought provoking debate with many over this issue. Inevitably it leads to discussion of government's role, socialism and our duty as Christians. one priest friend of mine provided this link on the Church's teachings on socialism. the problem, in my opinion, is that socialism is coerced by the STATE. It has failed every time it has been tried (USSR, CHINA, NORTH KOREA, CUBA, VENEZUELA). The only possible exception that I can think of where it "succeeded" was NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMANY and we all know what happened there. Economic socialism is inevitably followed by social engineering by an elite class who want to dictate what is best for us. It removes freedom by its very nature. Free expression and freedom are inevitable casualties of socialism. The central planners brook no opposition.

Prelude: Back when The Da Vinci Code first came out, I noticed that many Catholics were reading this novel.Several of them, whom I interacted with on a frequent basis, seemed to take the premise of the novel rather seriously: that Jesus had an affair with Mary Magdalene and fostered children by her. One even told me it wouldn't be a problem for his faith life as a Catholic. The others seemed disturbed by what the book was promoting and I could see that it had shaken their faith. Needless to say, most Catholics are fairly ignorant of their faith these days. The religious education since the Council has been fairly awful overall, and has not instilled much in the way of real knowledge or truth about their faith. This incident seemed to exemplify how bad the situation really was. But it also illustrated one other important point. Catholics are hungry for something good to read but don't seem to know where to turn these days. Most go to their nearby secular bookstore (virtual or o...