Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 134

Old Monk on Death

Keep Death Daily Before Your Eyes

Polygamy, The Feds and the Gas Chambers

A Utah judge has ruled against a legal ban on polygamy. Mark Gordon reports on the case here. The story is not that complicated. Kody Brown, who is a member of a fundamentalist Mormon sect is living with his four wives. The judge observes that if they were not married, but just living together in an [Read More...]

Why Do Muslims Behead People?

Are the brutal beheadings done by ISIS fanatics connected with their religion? Douglas Murray, writing here at the Spectator discusses the reluctance of any of the intelligentsia to discuss the reason for the barbarism of radical Muslims. Murray was on a BBC discussion program with a group of intellectuals who were debating the deteriorating situation [Read More...]

Powerful St Patrick

Some time ago I had a dream in which I saw a young boy swimming in a river. As he was swimming happily downstream I saw that around the bend was a large crocodile. I watched in terror as the boy swept past the crocodile and the beast slipped out from the undergrowth where he [Read More...]

Mary Alma Parker RIP

On Tuesday Mrs Longenecker and I traveled to Charleston for the funeral of Mary Alma Parker. Mary Alma was the wife of Fr James Parker–the first Episcopal priest to be ordained under the Pastoral Provision in the early 1980s Jim Parker helped untold numbers of Anglican Christians both lay and clergy to make the journey [Read More...]

Holy, Holy, Holy – How to Build a Beautiful Church

  Here is my latest article for Our Sunday Visitor on God’s blueprint for a beautiful and sacred church. God is not “the Great Architect,” and he doesn’t deal in blueprints and building committees, but did you know God told us how to build a church? It’s in the Bible. If we believe the sacred [Read More...]

O Lord, Make Me Happy, But Not Yet…

Sister Mary Lucy was a Poor Clare nun who suffered greatly. She lost her eyesight and had a degenerative bone disease which caused her spine to crumble. The doctors could do very little to help her. I used to visit her regularly, but never once heard her complain. Instead she had a huge radiant smile. [Read More...]

Gigantic Spanish Food Fight!

August is the silly season… Go here for a gallery of photos from Spain’s annual Tomatina tomato festival which ends in a gigantic food fight with thousands of folks chucking tomatoes at each other. I think Mantilla the Hon may have something to say about this later.

Can You Get Catholicism Gradually?

Here is an article for the editorial stream at Patheos which explores the problem of different religions–all of which make truth claims. Should we merely be tolerant of all religions? Should we seek to amalgamate them all? The Catholic solution is unique: If the modern multicultural world is to be understood, then the world’s religions [Read More...]

Onward Christian Soliders? Not Likely

George Tate was in the US Army in World War II. He served in a unit that was establishing communication lines across the Himalayas. George’s son, Sid is a parishioner, he said about his Dad, “His plane was riddled with enemy gunfire going in, and as I understand it his job was conducted in an [Read More...]