Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 53

What is that Paris Climate Change Summit All About?

The world leaders are meeting in Paris for two weeks to come up with a plan to halt the “catastrophic threat” of global warming. This eye opening article in today’s Daily Telegraph punctures the hot air balloon of climate change fear mongering. For 30 years we have been told how, thanks to the dramatic rise [Read More...]

Steenson Steps Aside as “Anglican” Ordinary

For those who are interested in the development of the so called Anglican Ordinariate (properly known as the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter) the best summary of what is going on is here. The first inkling that there was anything afoot at the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter came Tuesday [Read More...]

Why St Andrew is My Favorite Apostle

St Andrew is my favorite apostle. Here’s why: I love the story of him at the feeding of the 5000. The disciples are disturbed by the hungry crowd and ask Jesus to do something about it. Jesus tells them to do something about it. They grumble that there’s not enough money to buy food for all the [Read More...]

Christ and the Culture Clash

I gave a talk to our parish men’s group, the Fellowship of St Joseph on the relationship between Christ and culture yesterday. It was loosely based on the classic text by Lutheran theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, Christ and Culture. However, I always found Niebuhr’s analysis to be weak and vague. It also was not completely coherent with [Read More...]

Angels on the Radio

I have started a series of articles called Angels of Advent over at Aleteia. The first is an overview of St Thomas Aquinas’ teaching on angels. While St. Thomas says the angels can assume a physical body it would be more precise to say they appear to be in physical form. Rather than the angel taking [Read More...]

A Monastic Response to Violent Islam

The film Of Gods and Men is an intense experience of some Trappist monks’ interaction with violent Muslim extremists. My comments on the film are my latest article for The Imaginative Conservative website. “What can man do against such reckless hate?” asks the trapped and helpless Theoden King in Peter Jackson’s The Two Towers. He speaks for [Read More...]

Ten Positive Principles of Personal Wealth

I was going to write a blog post criticizing what I call “faux Franciscanism”–that is the problem in the church in which poverty is praised for its own sake. We should be clear. Poverty is not a virtue on its own. The  poor are not blessed because they are poor. We should remember that poor [Read More...]

Church of England Lady Bishop Advocates Nudism

Long time readers of my blog may remember one of my alter egos named The Rev’d Humphrey Blytherington–a lovable but doddery Church of England country vicar. In this post from 2009 Humph was dealing with the outrageous subject of Christian nudism. The trendy female vicar from the next parish named Lavinia had been advocating the [Read More...]

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving and Narnia’s Puddleglum

Is there a link between atheism, Thanksgiving Day and Puddleglum from Narnia? I wonder on this Thanksgiving Day, therefore, what the atheist does. I admit that he may nurture a simple attitude of gratitude for the good things in his life, but does he stop to ask why he should feel grateful in the first [Read More...]