Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 21

More Muslim Babies Than Christian…

Wall Street Journal reports here today: Within 20 years, more babies will be born to Muslim women than to Christian women world-wide, the latest sign of the rapid growth that could make Islam the world’s largest religion by the end of the century. As John Allen reports in Future Church the center of Christianity is shifting [Read More...]

US Court Equates Gay Rights with Civil Rights

This article from Slate outlines the arguments the 7th Circuit Court has made regarding the employment rights of homosexuals. They have formally equated sex discrimination in the workplace with discrimination against homosexuals. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit issued a landmark decision in Hively v. Ivy Tech holding that Title VII of the Civil Rights [Read More...]

Ten Steps to Perfect Peace

I’m in Bluffton, South Carolina leading a Lenten parish mission on the topic of sin. The first night I told my conversion story with a perspective on the difference between Catholic and Protestant understandings of sin. Last night the session was a discussion of sin using Dante’s Inferno as a guide for examination of conscience. This evening [Read More...]

Can a Catholic Support Trump’s Wall?

Over at CRUX John Allen speculates on how the American bishops might push the envelope over immigration reform. He suggests that the American cardinals and Archbishops might make another visit to the Mexican-US border like the one Cardinal O’Malley made in 2014. You might remember the Cardinal took advantage of a photo op and gave [Read More...]

Waste, Shame and Dante’s Legacy of Hope

In re-reading Dante for Lent I am reminded of the legacy of waste and shame he communicates in his vision of hell. The damned experience the frustration of the waste and shame of their lives. This is terrible enough, but more terrible is the fact that while they have regrets they do not have remorse. [Read More...]

Protestantism and Pop Psychology

Somebody has quipped, “America is a Protestant country. Even the Catholics are Protestant.” It can’t be avoided. Protestantism has been a pervasive influence on the formation of America’s consciousness. I’m thinking particularly about the Calvinistic strain of negativity that seems to be woven into the genetic code of Americans. On the surface we are a [Read More...]

Pope Francis Joins Anglicans

After attending Evensong in St Peter’s Basilica and visiting an Anglican Church in Rome, the news from the Vatican is that Pope Francis is in secret talks with Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Wellbeing about converting to the Anglican faith. Vatican spokesman Aprile Primera said that Pope Francis was drawn to Anglicanism for several reasons. He very [Read More...]

Is California’s Attorney General A Holocaust Denier?

The Federalist reports here on California’s attempt to throw pro life campaigner David Daleiden in prison because he secretly filmed Planned Parenthood officials seeming to discuss how they dismember unborn babies and crush their skulls before they are born so they can harvest and then sell their body parts. Yesterday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced 15 [Read More...]

The Flaw in the Benedict Option

Writing for The Federalist Luma Simms offers her own stark critique of Rod Dreher’s Benedict Option. For those who are not in the know, Dreher’s recent book campaigns for Christians to beat a retreat in the culture wars. He doesn’t exactly call for us to hunker down, pull up the drawbridges and man the battlements, but there is [Read More...]

The Circles of Sin – 2 – The Wrathful

I am recording my homilies for Lent–a series on sin based on Dante’s Inferno. The first week (which you can find here) was on the Vestibule of Hell–where we find the lazy and indifferent. They didn’t do anything terribly wrong, but neither did they do anything wonderfully good. Then the sins of incontinence–loving good things [Read More...]