Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 120

Troubled by Evil Spirits or Demons?

Are all evil spirits demonic? I don’t think so, and here’s why: From time to time I will have someone come to see me who thinks they are demon possessed. They may be hearing voices telling them to do bad things or they might be having hallucinations which they interpret as devils. They might have [Read More...]

Get Real Here and Now

I’ve worn out the keyboard on my laptop. Honestly. The keys don’t respond. Maybe my laptop is telling me something. I spend so much time on the laptop because I write, write, write. I’m blessed with lots of ideas so I clutter up the blogosphere, websites and publishers with my tappety tappings. (this is the [Read More...]

Pick Your Villain: Kasper or Chaput

John Allen gives his usual distanced and objective analysis here over some recent fireworks involving Cardinal Kasper and Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia According to CRUX’s heavy hitter, Kasper was unfairly attacked by the conservatives and Chaput by the liberals. First, both the Kasper and Chaput controversies illustrate the importance of context in presenting comments from [Read More...]

Providence, Paranoia and Peace

Here is my article for ZENIT this week. Everyone operates with a certain set of assumptions which they rarely examine. On this foundation of assumptions they construct a framework of beliefs which give order and meaning to their life. Even nihilists find a paradoxical “order and meaning” in believing that there is no order and meaning. [Read More...]

The Intellectually Secular Insane

Fr George Rutler has a clever and rollicking essay here at Crisis Magazine in which he twits the twits in the ivory towers of the Ivy League in their ridiculously blind defense of radical Islam Public thinkers have been usurped by practical atheists who are politely styled “secularists.”  Essentially, the secularist is not without religion: [Read More...]

Ten Things That Are Killing the Family

The Synod fathers this month were trying to address a real crisis in the human race: the disintegration of the family. The problems are very complex and are not simply a matter of people disobeying God’s law and running around with whoever they please. Is promiscuity a problem? Of course. Is divorce a disaster? Without [Read More...]

History, Histrionics and Hysteria

This week’s article at The Imaginative Conservative website chronicles the tug of war in the study of English ecclesiastical history. Which will it be? Once upon a time the people of England were happy Catholics, visiting their holy wells, attending frequent masses and deeply respectful of purgatory and afraid of hell. The lustful King Henry [Read More...]

How Close Is This Church to Reality?

Readers of this blog have been following the progress of an exciting new church building project at Our Lady of the Rosary parish in Greenville, South Carolina. In the heart of the Bible Belt we are building a church that looks Catholic to proclaim our Catholic faith with vigor, joy and confidence. Why is this [Read More...]

Duane Mandible on Welcoming Grays

Guest blogger, Duane Mandible is a contributing editor to The Truth Hurts, a bi-monthly journal of politics, economics and opinion. He also contributes regularly to Freedom Monthly; Illuminations and The Sojourner. Duane is the author of Guns and Knives will Save Your Children’s Lives. He is Vice President of the Sacred Society of St Philibustre, and enjoys hunting rattlesnakes, square dancing [Read More...]

Why Build a Romanesque Church Today?

When I arrived at Our Lady of the Rosary parish one of my first tasks was to meet with the Building Committee. The folks in the parish had been trying to build a church for about twenty years off and on and for various reasons it simply didn’t get done. Now it was my job. [Read More...]