Jimmy Akin's Blog, page 7
November 20, 2011
How to Solve Moral Dilemmas (Plus: How to Recognize Hypocrisy)
There are many times in life where we're confronted with moral dilemmas. It seems like all of our options are bad--even sinful. But are they really? What are we supposed to do in these situations? How can we solve the dilemma?
For example, suppose your child is desperately sick and the only cure is one that was derived from unborn babies who were killed for medical research. Can you use the vaccine to save your child's life? Does doing so mean you're cooperating with the culture of death?
And if you use the cure, does that make you a moral hypocrite? How can we assess charges of hypocrisy?
These are among the questions we explore in this week's episode of the Jimmy Akin Podcast!
Click Play to listen . . .
or you can . . .
CLICK HERE!
. . . or subscribe another way (one of many ways!) at JimmyAkinPodcast.Com.
SHOW NOTES:
JIMMY AKIN PODCAST EPISODE 021 (11/20/11)
* DARRIN ASKS ABOUT MORAL DILEMMAS, EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH, & HYPOCRISY
1 Cor. 10:13: "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."
Instruction Dignitas Personae (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), section 35.
"Nothing is more unjust, however common, than to charge with hypocrisy him that expresses zeal for those virtues which he neglects to practice; since he may be sincerely convinced of the advantages of conquering his passions, without having yet obtained the victory, as a man may be confident of the advantages of a voyage, or a journey, without having courage or industry to undertake it, and may honestly recommend to others, those attempts which he neglects himself" (Samuel Johnson, The Rambler No. 14).
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Joh1Ram.html
WHAT'S YOUR QUESTION? WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO ASK?
Call me at 512-222-3389!
jimmyakinpodcast@gmail.com
Join Jimmy's Secret Information Club!
Today's Music: Active Cheerful (JewelBeat.Com)
Copyright © 2011 by Jimmy Akin
Friend Update
Just an update on my friend: Her blood pressure has recovered enough that they can put her under sedation so that her body can heal. So at this point she's moved back a little from the brink. Thank you for your prayers! Please continue to pray for her!
November 19, 2011
The Weekly Benedict (Nov. 19, 2011)
Here are this week's items for The Weekly Benedict (subscribe here):
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION: Africae Munus: Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Church in Africa in Service to Reconciliation, Justice and Peace (November 19, 2011)
ANGELUS: Angelus, 13 November 2011
AUDIENCE: 9 November 2011, Psalm 119 (118)
APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO BENIN . . .
SPEECH: Welcome Ceremony at Cardinal Bernardin GantinInternational Airport of Cotonou (November 18, 2011)
SPEECH: Visit to the Cathedral of Cotonou (November 18, 2011)
Current Favorite Historical Quotation
It's 346 B.C. and King Philip II of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great) has just subjugated a bunch of Greek city-states.
He then approaches Sparta and sends them a message: "You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city."
The Spartans reply: "If."
November 18, 2011
Prayer Request: Friend May Be Dying
A friend of mine who is elderly recently took a fall and had to undergo surgery. Complications have since set in, and her health is very, *very* precarious right now (may not live the night). If you would please consider praying for her, I would appreciate it. And thank you in advance.
November 16, 2011
What Do You Think of This Liturgical Song?
Last Sunday, through unforeseen circumstances, I arrived at Mass just a couple of moments late and came in during the first reading. As I made my way to the pew, I recognized the reading as the familiar celebration of the ideal wife from Proverbs 31.
Cool! I've always liked that passage. It's got a lot of neat and insightful stuff in it.
Then, after the responsorial Psalm there was the reading from 1 Thessalonians about the end of the world, and finally the Gospel reading from Matthew 25's parable of the talents. (Which, believe it or not, is where we actually get the English word talent, referring to an ability or aptitude. That usage comes from this parable, where the talents are used in their original, literal significance of an ancient measurement of weight, often used with precious metals, as in the parable. The idea of a master distributing talents of precious metals to his servants was rightly understood as a symbol of God distributing abilities to us, and so the main use of the English word "talent" came to refer to ability rather than treasure.)
During the general intercessions (or "universal prayer" we we'll begin calling it in a couple of weeks) there was an intercession that went something like this:
For all the women who work hard to support their husbands and children, may their works praise them at the city gates.
November 14, 2011
Photoshop Help?
I'm looking for someone who would be willing to help me with a very small amount of Photoshop work on a volunteer basis. Primarily just adding nice looking text to pre-existing images.
If you have good design and Photoshop skills and would like to help out, shoot me an email at jimmyakintypepad@gmail.com.
Thanks for your consideration!
Waiting for the Kindle Fire
A while back I pre-ordered a Kindle Fire
from Amazon, and now it's about to be released. Amazon says it should be shipping in 2-3 days.
I'm very interested to see it. I've used Kindles for a long time--ever since the Kindle 2 added text-to-speech functionality (the absence of which kept me from buying the first generation Kindle). Overall, I've been quite impressed with the experience, and I enjoy using my current Kindle--and its associated apps. I spend at least as much time using Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac as I do the actual Kindle itself. On the computers I appreciate the search and note taking functions, and on the device I appreciate text-to-speech.
So my prior experiences with Kindles has me looking forward to the new version, which is billed as a major upgrade. It's color, has a touch screen, and is supposed to have a very fast web browser.
The shift to color and the touch screen puts it in competition with Barnes and Noble's Nook, which I also have and am not as impressed with, though in part that may be because of the trouble I've had getting my books formatted for it, which was much more difficult than getting them formatted for Kindle.
I might like the Nook more if I used it just as a reader, but I don't. I find myself using Kindle for reading and research purposes.
A device that I don't have (yet, anyway) is the iPad. I already have an iPod Touch (which I use to do my square and contra dance calling), and an iPad is basically a giant iPod Touch. That means that the price point for an iPad is too high for me. I've certainly been tempted by the larger screen, but I can't justify spending that much money just for a larger screen (and a few specialized apps that only work on the iPad).
If the price comes down on iPads in the future to where I can justify the price, I'd love to get one, but we ain't there yet.
The Kindle Fire, though, seems to be Amazon's answer to the iPad--at least in broad terms. It's going to allow ebook reading, web surfing, music and video playback, and Droid apps.
It's also vastly cheaper than an iPad.
The new software they've designed also means that it's likely to affect how ebooks, such as The Fathers Know Best and Mass Revision, will display on it, so between the price break and the need to check out how my books format on it, I decided it was worth the price, and I pre-ordered one.
I'll let you know how I like it!
The demand for these is supposed to be high, though, and they're shipping on a first-come-first-served basis, so if you think you might want to get one--either for yourself or as a Christmas present for someone--you might want to go ahead and order.
There is also a new generation of more traditional (and even more inexpensive) Kindles, too, so if you aren't interested in the Fire right now, you might want to . . . CHECK THEM OUT.
Where Do the Members of Jimmy's Secret Club Live?
I've been looking at the statistics on the countries where people who belong to the Secret Information Club live, and the results are interesting.
Not surprisingly, the majority live in the U.S. I was startled to see, though, that AWeber (the service I use to send out the secret information by email) listed the second most common country as "unknown." That's a little ominous if you take the Unknown Country as a Shakespearean reference, though it's more optimistic if you take it as a Star Trek reference. Or . . . wait, I guess that was "Undiscovered Country."
Since I write in English, it's not surprising that many countries after the U.S. and "unknown" were part of the Anglosphere: Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa.
In addition, there are also now members in these countries:
Croatia
France
Ghana
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Italy
Japan
Lebanon
Malaysia
Mexico
Netherlands
Nigeria
Norway
Philippines
Singapore
Slovakia
Spain
Sweden
So it's really cool to see the Secret Info Club becoming a global phenomenon! Thanks, folks!
Have you joined Jimmy's Secret Information Club?
November 13, 2011
The Weekly Benedict (Nov. 13, 2011)
Here are this week's items for The Weekly Benedict (subscribe here):
ANGELUS: Angelus, 1st November 2011, Solemnity of All Saints
ANGELUS: Angelus, 6 November 2011
AUDIENCE: 2 November 2011, Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed
HOMILY: 4 November 2011: Vespers for the beginning of the Academic Year of the Pontifical Universities
SPEECH: To Bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé (C.E.A.S.T.) on their ad Limina visit (October 29, 2011)
SPEECH: To the new Ambassador of Brazil to the Holy See (October 31, 2011)
SPEECH: To members of the Israeli Religious Council (November 10, 2011)
SPEECH: To participants in the meeting promoted by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum (November 11, 2011)
Jimmy Akin's Blog
- Jimmy Akin's profile
- 166 followers
