Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 110

Free Speech or Irrational Rage?

The Jihadist murders and subsequent mayhem in Paris have got me thinking about free speech, bullying, vengeance and retaliation. As usual, it is all much more complicated than we first think. We’re the ones who are rational, educated, refined, witty and tolerant right? But in fact, the cartoons at Charlie Hebdo were anything but rational, refined, [Read More...]

Don’t Be Like Jesus…

…Be Jesus. In other words, there is more, much more to being a disciple of Jesus Christ than simply trying to imitate him. How dull is that? Instead we’re talking about becoming Jesus Christ alive in the world today. He wants to do more, much more than we can ask or imagine, and he does [Read More...]

Pause for Prayer

I think this blog and our tired old world needs an injection of spirituality. As a Benedictine oblate I sure need to pray more and should be sharing about prayer with my readers more. When I was an Anglican priest a friend gave me a book of quotations on spirituality, theology and philosophical fragments that [Read More...]

An Insane Poet’s Meditation on His Cat

Are you familiar with the poet Christopher Smart? The poor man spent many years in an asylum. Opinion is still out whether he was insane or merely persecuted for being a religious extremist Take time to enjoy reading Christopher Smart’s Jubilate Agno and be glad for the incarnation imagination of poets. For they teach us [Read More...]

Anglicans Burn the Bridges

  This article for National Catholic Register explains why Anglicans claim to be Catholic, but have repeatedly burnt their ecumenical bridges. Over the last four decades, Anglican-Catholic relations have become increasingly strained, as member churches of the Anglican Communion adopted an increasingly progressive agenda. In 1975, the Episcopal Church of the USA was the first [Read More...]

Must You Submit to the Pope to Be Saved?

I received an email with this question: In brief, I am wondering how you can reconcile Pope Boniface VIII’s dogmatic definition in Unam Sanctam (“…we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff”) with Lumen Gentium’s clear affirmation that salvation is possible for those who [Read More...]

Should You Question Your Faith?

Of course. A good Catholic is engaged in his faith intellectually, emotionally and physically. This article for Aleteia discusses the difference between legitimate questioning of our faith and doubting and disbelieving. It’s the difference between a doubt and a difficulty. A difficulty is an honest question. It is faith that is seeking understanding. Doubt is [Read More...]

Providence and Paranoia

Before I was ordained I started a business training/personal development company and used to do work in prisons and schools as well as in management training. We would often talk about belief systems and I would say that everyone believed in something. One prisoner said, “Not me. I don’t believe in anything.” My reply was, [Read More...]

Charlie Hebdo – Victims, Violence and Vengeance

Now we will see the backlash. Europeans will begin to scapegoat all Muslims. The hatred lying just beneath the surface will erupt. Mosques will be targeted and attacks on innocent Muslims will simmer then explode. So the ancient, mindless cycle of victims, violence and vengeance will begin. This is the way of the world from [Read More...]

I’m Not Sure About Agnosticism…

Not knowing about agnosticism is like saying, ‘Deja vu? Haven’t I met you somehwere before?’ When you think about it agnosticism is really a no man’s land. It is a country you pass through, a stage on a journey, and never a destination. The human heart hates a vacuum, and the emptiness of agnosticism cannot [Read More...]