A lot of atheists belittle beliefs that are based on faith. Yet when I look around the world, I find atheism requires much more of a leap of faith than my Christianity.

When I come across a finely prepared meal on a table, it would be quite a leap of faith to believe that nothing put it there. And it would be far more reasonable to believe that something must have put it there. So it is with all of creation.

Yet, somehow these days believing (the obvious) that somebody put it there is seen as just a bunch of hocus pocus mumbo jumbo unscientific nonsense. After all, when we arrived, the meal had already been prepared. Did you see somebody prepare it? Do you have any scientific evidence...READ MORE

This is the kind of stuff that really makes my lumbago act up.

"Ain't no homo gonna make it to heaven"... those are the words this toddler sang in church on Sunday. Give a listen:

And to cheers, no less (and what appears to be an encore). This is the kind of stuff that gets used as propoganda in the secular media around the world to paint Christians as ugly fools. Makes me frustrated and sad.

This highlights where fundamentalism so often goes so wrong. And where the pro-traditional-Marriage movement has been hijacked by unreasonable (and often ignorant and ugly) rhetoric that does more harm to the movement than help.

Why so many Christians can't separate a person's sexual...READ MORE

This video gives a lot of great reasons why we shouldn't use social media:

It's not that we shouldn't use social media. It's just that there are some reasons why we shouldn't. There are lots of other good reasons why we should, though. And the good outweigh the bad - by far. But it's good to be honest about both the good and the bad in the process.

Sometimes we in the Church can get a bit idealistic (as opposed to practical) to the point that we only accept perfect solutions. We focus only on what is wrong with a particular solution. Or the potential problems it could create. Or all of the drawbacks it has. And we forget about not only all of the benefits, but we ignore the present...READ MORE

Most of my generation grew up not knowing the word "vocation." And I mean vocation in the sense of something in life that you are divinely made for and called to. And specifically, I mean Marriage vs. (what I'll here call) not-Marriage.

And by not-Marriage I don't mean all of the things the world tries to call Marriage but are actually not Marriage.  By "not-Marriage" I mean things like religious life, priesthood (the non-married version), consecrated life, the diaconate (the non-married version), the single life, and any other legit form of it I'm missing and whereby I am not sure of a single word that can describe all of it without somebody complaining that I left something out so...READ MORE

When we can manage to look past the many downers and dangers of social media, it's inspiring to find the many more blessings hidden beneath it all. One such blessing is that social media can help save lives. Here's one way (among many other examples of natural disasters and Arab Springs, etc.) Facebook is helping to do so:

A new Facebook program provides military personnel, veterans and their families with customized resources when their content is flagged as harmful or suicidal.

It is an extension of a suicide prevention effort Facebook launched in December, which lets friends alert the social network when other users express suicidal thoughts by clicking a link next to the...READ MORE

Recently, this conversation concerning the HHS mandate between Jon Stewart (Daily Show host) and David Barton made the top search on Google.

It was a terriblly frustrating discussion that never seemed to get to the meat of the real issue. And, David Barton (God bless him for his support) in trying to defend our position (i.e. "the Catholic thing"), ended up giving a platform for Jon Stewart (a very smart guy) to completely miss the point repeatedly...to the applause (and extreme google search interest) of a Comedy Central crowd that apparently doesn't know any better.

Here's the convo (with comments below):

Okay, so...

1. First, Christmas trees everywhere does not mean a...READ MORE

Your parish (or your diocese) doesn't need a technology strategy. Here's why.

"The internet comes along and it's mysterious and suddenly we need an email strategy and a social media strategy and a web strategy and a mobile strategy.

No, we don't.

It's still people. We still have one and only one thing that matters, and it's people. All of these media are conduits, they are tools that human beings use to waste time or communicate or calculate or engage or learn. Behind each of the tools is a person. Do you have a story to tell that person? An engagement or a benefit to offer them? Figure out the people part and the technology gets a whole lot simpler." - Seth Godin

The...READ MORE

The birth rate is a very different thing than the pregnancy rate. But many are happy to pretend they're the same when convenient. Here's one such good example which was pointed out by Students for Life:

In a new report, the CDC has released figures showing that the U.S. teen (ages 15-19) birth rate has dropped to an all-time low. In the release, the CDC claimed that this drop is due to a combination of “strong pregnancy prevention messages…as well as an increase in contraception use.”  Also cited as a reason why birth rates declined was the economic recession, similar to the Pew Foundation’s findings earlier this year which cited the recession as a cause for a lower birth rate for...READ MORE