Tag: featured

Manvotional: Winston Churchill

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I’m a regular reader of the website The Art of Manliness. I love their content, but wish that more of it was made available in audio format, in particular the “manvotionals”. At the moment I’m trying to get hold of the guys who run the site to make this request and also to offer my services as part of the team who’ll provide the audio version of their posts.

As part of my pitch, I’ve recorded a recent “manvotional” posted on their website from the autobiography of a man who is consistently voted as being the greatest Briton of all time, Sir Winston Churchill.

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Manvotional (Download)

“The Descent” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The unaccompanied MP3 is available here.

Pray He finds figs

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If you’ve ever had the chance to speak about the Christian faith with a Muslim, chances are that you will have heard the following objection raised to the divinity of Jesus (whom they call “Isa”):

“Does God know everything? Of course He does! If so, why did Isa (Jesus) not know when you can get figs? In Mark’s Gospel he goes to a fig tree looking for fruit, but he didn’t even know they weren’t in season! Isa therefore cannot be God”

If you’re a Christian who knows his faith, it’s tempting to laugh at such an objection and ignore it. However, today I would like to respond to this argument. I would like to do this for two reasons. Firstly, Scripture commands us to “be ready to give an answer” (1 Peter 3:15). Secondly, I think that the Biblical text being referred to here is really interesting and one upon which we would do well to meditate.

Fig Tree

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Travel Log: Keeping it weird in Portland

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Today I’m in Oregon for Oktoberfest and it reminded me that I never wrote about my trip here last month. After a week on retreat at Mount Angel, I spent the weekend in Portland:

Portland

I got to visit the famous Powells, a three-story bookstore covering an entire city block. I was so proud of myself, I managed to leave without buying anything – quite an achievement!

Powells

I spent most of Saturday morning visiting the extensive Saturday market down by the waterfront.

I also took an “Underground” walking tour of the city where I heard about some of the rather quirky history of Oregon’s most well-known city.

During our tour we went past one Portland’s iconic locations, Voodoo Donuts. The lines outside were crazy, with people waiting over an hour just to get a donut! During the tour we heard the story of how the business began. It turns out that a club owner created donuts which he said were hang-over cures. He could say this because the sugar frosting was replaced with crushed-up aspirins and the jam filling with pepto-bismol! The government discovered what he was doing and freaked out because he was putting drugs in the food he was selling. Rather than letting it sink his business, he then used the media storm as free advertising. He switched to making the kind of delicious sugar-filled treats they sell today and people flocked to buy them!

Walking

Finally, while in Portland I went to Mass at the Grotto on the outskirts to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption. I returned the following day to spend some quiet time in the grotto grounds:

Grotto

The 3%

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DrunkI once read a quotation about statistics which said that “a politician uses statistics in the same way a drunk uses a street lamp, for support rather than for illumination”… I thought that this was an appropriate quotation to begin the subject of today’s post. You see, it’s quite impossible to speak out against Planned Parenthood for long before hearing the following response:

“But abortion is only 3% of what Planned Parenthood does!”

This objection has been raised by many of my friends and you hear this statistic rattled off by politicians and Planned Parenthood advocates. 3% seems so small and insignificant! The argument is that if you defund Planned Parenthood then women would lose access to all the other services they provide as well. This assumes that abortion and healthcare can only come together as a package, treating pregnancy as though it’s just another disease.

How is it that Planned Parenthood is known for being the nation’s premiere abortion provider if it’s only 3% of what it does? Isn’t that incredible?! In fact, if it’s such a small percentage of their work, you can’t help but wonder why Planned Parenthood doesn’t just get out of the abortion industry altogether and save themselves the constant annoyance of having all those pesky pro-lifers outside of their clinics all the time!

There is a problem with the 3% statistic. While there is a certain veracity to the statistic, it’s incredibly misleading, so much so as to be positively meaningless!

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Symbolism: St. John’s chalice and snake

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Over the next few months I’ll be writing some more about ancient Christian symbols (the fish, the anchor etc), but I thought I’d reboot my Symbolism Series by talking about something which caught my eye at Liturgy this morning.

In my parish, around the inner portion of the dome, we have paintings of the Twelve Apostles (with St. Matthias replacing Judas). This morning I ended up sitting next to the following painting of St. John:
John

It occurred to me that, while I know the book he is holding is symbolic of his Gospel, I had no idea of the symbolism behind the chalice and snake. When I got home I needed to satisfy my curiosity, so I did some research…

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Please join me in a “Stupid Boy Project”

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Join MeOne of the first books I read when my sabbatical began was Yes Man by Danny Wallace. Although altered considerably, the book was turned into a movie back in 2009, starring Jim Carey. I had actually read this book before. In fact, that book had played quite a significant part in my final decision to move to America!

In the book, Danny resolves, for the rest of the year, to say “Yes” to every question, suggestion or invitation given to him, in the hope of becoming more open to what life sent his way. As you can imagine, this led to all kinds of adventures, such as when he received an email from the prince of Nigeria asking whether he could have Danny’s bank details… 😉

I’ve been a huge fan of Danny for years and I’ve read all the books and seen the shows chronicling his various adventures. These have included a bet with his friend Dave Gorman to find 54 other people also named “Dave Gorman”, converting his apartment into its own sovereign nation, as well as starting his own cult…albeit a nice one 🙂

If you have read any of Dave or Danny’s books, you will know that Danny’s (now) ex-girlfriend Hanne, referred to his escapades as “Stupid Boy Projects”. Well, September is just around the corner and I have a stupid boy project for you, dear reader! You won’t even need to send your bank details to the crowned sovereign of any nation…

Art Of Manliness

In September I will be working through the PDF guide from one of my favourite blogs, Art of Manliness. The eBook is called Thirty Days to a Better Man and each day you will read just a couple of pages and then set about given the task for the day. For example, on the first day the task is to “Define your core values”. The following day you will “Shine your shoes”. On Day 7 you will “Reconnect with an Old Friend”, on Day 10 you will memorize the poem “If” and on Day 30 receive a straight razor shave.

So, if you’re interested in joining me on this Stupid Boy Project, please download the PDF and I’ll see you on the journey next month to becoming a better man!

#ProtestPP Seattle

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This last weekend I joined the crowd of people outside Seattle’s Planned Parenthood. At 320 other locations around the country many others did likewise, protesting the country’s most well-known abortion provider. It was wonderful seeing all my friends from around the country posting their pictures on Facebook.

Much like last time in Seattle, the counter-protest presence was rather weak. I counted maybe six people who were identifiably there in support of Planned Parenthood. In contrast, the pro-lifers covered most of the city block:

Protest

As you can hopefully see, as usual there was a real cross-section of people present, both men and women, young and old.
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