Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 76

Hell? What’s That?

My article this week for Imaginative Conservative is an abridged and edited version of a chapter from my book The Quest for the Creed Someone once asked the famous mystic Padre Pio, what he thought of modern people who didn’t believe in hell. His blunt reply was, “They will believe in hell when they get there.” [Read More...]

The Rise of the Post Christian Crybaby Bully

With the rise of Christianity a new perspective entered human history: the triumph of the victim. Previously if you were a slave, if you were poor, if you were disabled, if you were strange, if you were an alien in the land, if you were an outcast you were considered to have got what you [Read More...]

“Spiritual but not Religious” How Do You do That?

“I’m spiritual but not religious” is one of the catch phrases you’ll hear a good bit these days. My question about this is, “How do you do that?” Just exactly what do you do to be spiritual without being religious? Do you kind of sit quietly from time to time and think beautiful thoughts? Maybe you go [Read More...]

Cardinal Kasper: Modernist in Our Midst?

Edward Pentin has an excellent article at National Catholic Register here in which he interviews Austrian philosopher Thomas Stark in an attempt to understand Cardinal Walter Kasper. Put simply, Kasper’s thought is modernist through and through, although like the classic modernist, he covers it over with orthodox language. Stark explains: My conclusion? I would say [Read More...]

Cardinal Kasper: Modernist in Our Midst

Edward Pentin has an excellent article at National Catholic Register here in which he interviews Austrian philosopher Thomas Stark in an attempt to understand Cardinal Walter Kasper. Put simply, Kasper’s thought is modernist through and through, although like the classic modernist, he covers it over with orthodox language. Stark explains: My conclusion? I would say [Read More...]

What’s Really Behind the Confederate Flag Fuss

Why all the fuss over a flag? There is more to this than meets the eye. Everyone can agree that racism is odious, and everyone can agree that the Charleston shooter was a sick, deluded soul who somehow thought the world would be a better place for shooting some black people. He clung to his [Read More...]

Ten Things to Remember if You’re Worried About Persecution

With the Supreme Court making same sex marriage a civil right, Catholic bishops issuing statements for Catholics to stand firm for true marriage it’s understandable if you’re feeling nervous about possible persecution. Then when you read about two lesbians who took a Christian baker to court in Oregon and hear that the baker and his [Read More...]

A Communist Crucifix? The Devil is in the Dialogue

This news article attempts to whitewash the Bolivian president’s tasteless and offensive gift to the Holy Father: a Communist Hammer and Sickle turned into a crucifix. The Pope’s press secretary Fr Lombardi put a diplomatic spin on the gaffe… “You can dispute the significance and use of the symbol now, but the origin is from [Read More...]

Pope Francis and the “Mother Wound”

My article for Aleteia this week focusses on Pope Francis’ homily in Ecuador on the role of Mother Mary. This “mother wound” then affects our own ability to love and be loved. That inability then extends to our relationships, and when it is multiplied throughout society the whole culture becomes dysfunctional. The ability to love, [Read More...]

Hate the Sin Love the Sinner: How Do I Do That?

I’ve been troubled recently while pondering the spiritual bromide “We hate the sin, but love the sinner.” Here’s the problem: how do you separate out the sin from the sinner? Isn’t that a kind of dualism we don’t really believe in? We say, for example, that the human person is a unity of body, mind [Read More...]