Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 30

Why Go to Confession?

Why go to confession? Because the fast way to hell might be through a big, nasty, dirty and shocking mortal sin (with sudden death soon to follow) but the slow way is to take the “broad way that leads to destruction.” The road to hell is shoulder to shoulder with nice people who never do [Read More...]

Extreme Conservatives Join in Smacking Mother Teresa

You have to admit, the Catholic Church, being universal truly includes everyone. We have our saints. We have our sinners, and like every family, we have our crazy uncles. While millions of Catholics rejoice at the canonization of Mother Teresa guess what, some of the more wild eyed conspiracy theory types think she’s a stinker. You [Read More...]

If the Left Smacked Pope Francis As They Do Mother Teresa…

What if the left wing secular atheists attacked Pope Francis the way they do Mother Teresa? I expect it would read something like this: Can you believe what this so called “saintly pope” did yesterday? He gave 1500 homeless people a pizza party. That is sooo condescending? He’s able to live an a Renaissance palace if [Read More...]

War and Abortion

There’s some fuzzy thinking among Catholics on the issue of abortion and war. The argument goes like this: “Vote Democrat and innocent babies get killed through abortion. Vote Republican and innocent people get killed in an unjust war. Since you’re going to end up with killing either way, let’s ignore those issues and focus on [Read More...]

Why Blogs Will Die

It doesn’t seem possible that I have been blogging for ten years, but it’s true. I started Standing on My Head in September 2006. For the last six months I have been blogging less and less and I have been wondering why. One of the reason is that I have simply run out of steam, [Read More...]

Is Your House Built on the Rock?

We live in turbulent times. There is much transition and many sense that historic events are taking place before our eyes. Things we thought were solid and secure are shifting and changing. We seem to be dancing on quicksand. As a result of this transition and change people are bewildered, confused, discontented, angry and afraid. [Read More...]

On Mark and Simcha

Everybody in the blogosphere seems obliged to weigh in on Mark Shea’s release from National Catholic Register. I should say up front that I like Mark Shea. He’s a friend of mine, and I’ve always taken his huffing and puffing with a shrug and a smile. He reminds me of  bellicose Hilaire Belloc who was [Read More...]

The Sign of Joy

When I was an Anglican priest I used to walk from my apartment over to church for evening prayer every day. On the way I would walk past the house of a Jehovah’s Witness. This particular JW was the sort of man who always had his hair combed, the car washed and probably went to [Read More...]

Re-Branding the Catholic Church

As you drive around the American South you can’t help noticing that the old fashioned Baptist churches are ditching their Baptist label. Reassuring brick churches with classic style porches and steeples used to be called “First Baptist Church” or “Second Baptist Church” or “North Road Baptist Church” or maybe something with an Old Testament link [Read More...]

Can a Nazi Mass Murderer Be Forgiven?

I have been busy today about parish business, but I wanted to write a bit more about this story I contributed to CRUX. The story recounts how Rudolf Hoss, the commandant of Auschwitz and the one who actually devised and put into action the gas chambers and crematoria had been brought up as a strict [Read More...]