Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 71

Is God Going to Punish Us?

With the rise in violence, abortion, sexual immorality, the breakdown of family, abuse of children, extreme economic inequality, pollution, genocide, terrorism and war many people are saying, “Surely God can’t allow this to continue.” People ask if God is going to punish us. They remember what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. They think of natural disasters [Read More...]

Admitting the Divorced and Re-Married to Communion?

John Allen reports here on the continued conversations about how to  best deal with divorced and re married Catholics. Every pastor feels sympathy for the spouse who has been abandoned by a creep of a husband or a tramp of a wife. The innocent party in a marriage break up has to suffer? Why can’t we [Read More...]

Women Priests and Married Priests: Are These Two Joined Together?

The other day some rumors started flying that one of the newly appointed bishops of LA–Fr David O’Connell, was on the record as being in favor of married priests and women priests. The comment was from a statement somebody, somewhere dug up about Fr O’Connell from 2002. I’m sure if it is true that he [Read More...]

What if St Paul Debated the Donald?

Viewing a few clips of Donald Trump and realizing that he has millions of Americans cheering him on, I wonder, does anybody in the United States stop to question the underlying values that so many Americans seem to swallow without thinking? I’m talking about what I call the Alpha American Achievement culture. Go, go go! [Read More...]

Lewis, Tolkien, Chesterton and Fantasyland

Joseph Pearce has an excellent article over at Imaginative Conservative that summarizes the influence of G.K.Chesterton on  C.S.Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkien t is difficult to overstate the influence of G.K. Chesterton. Apart from the numerous converts who have come to Christianity, at least in part, because of an encounter with his writings, two of the bestselling [Read More...]

My Visit to Norcia

My latest article for CRUX reflects on my visit in June to the Monks of Norcia Historically the monks have endured great hardships without complaint or self-concern. They have been persecuted, slandered, and imprisoned. Their monasteries have been turned into prisons and poor houses. Their buildings have been razed, only to be raised again. Time [Read More...]

Children, Porn and Playtime

If you want a sampling of the state of our culture jump over to this article in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph. It is shocking beyond belief, and be warned, some of the language is graphic. Here’s the setting: nice, upper middle class English woman is having a picnic with some friends and their kids. Then the [Read More...]

Five Reasons Why the Transfiguration Really Happened

You know the old schtick from the New Testament scholars: all those miracles stories and supernatural events? They’re all pious fiction. Somebody made it up. It’s “mythical”. They added that stuff to make Jesus more special. They added that stuff to make it seem like he was fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. They cooked up those [Read More...]

Sin? There’s Nothing Original About It

Sin is never original What I mean is that there is nothing new or fresh about sin. The devil never created anything. He can’t create anything new. All he can do is twist and distort something that already exists. C.S.Lewis points this out regarding human creativity as well. While we are very creative, he says, [Read More...]

Ross Douthat Lays Out the Evidence on Planned Parenthood

The videos from Center for Medical Progress have raised lots of emotions and passionate articles. Ross Douthat, with his usual razor sharp intelligence, lays out the evidence against the wishy washy argument that abortion restriction legislation causes more people to need abortions. The essential argument of people like Dana Milbank here is that de-funding Planned Parenthood will [Read More...]