Food: the New Sex?
March 31, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Mindful Eating, Mindless Sex
Imagine inviting some new neighbors to a dinner party. The first couple tells you they’d love to come. But, they warn, they think it’s immoral to eat animals, so please—vegetarian options only.
The second couple also wants to come, but—they’re almost embarrassed to mention it—they only eat locally grown food. No strawberries from Chili, or shrimp from Asia. Importing food from faraway countries damages the environment, they explain.
Couple number three also wants to attend—but, they ask, you aren’t serving genetically enhanced vegetables, are you, or meat produced by industrialized breeding practices?
At this point, you might be tempted to cancel the party and go out for a cheeseburger, followed up by a banana split—made with bananas from Ecuador. But you might wonder, as you bite into that greasy hunk of beef, just why it is that people have become so moralistic about food. Especially when so many are immoral in other areas—like their sex lives.
One person who has wondered about this is Mary Eberstadt, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. In her article “Is Food the New Sex?,” Eberstadt notes that food is cheap and plentiful in the West. The same can be said for sex. Technology has tamed many of the dangers associated with sex, like pregnancy and disease. Moreover, social and religious strictures have all but disappeared.
Which leads to an interesting question: What would happen, Eberstadt wondered, when, “for the first time in history . . . [people] are more or less free to have all the sex and food they want?” Would they pursue both food and sex with equal ardor?
Oddly enough, they don’t. Instead, many engage in a sexual free-for-all—but put stringent moral strictures on anything to do with food. A modern young woman might think nothing of living with several different men, and having abortions when she gets pregnant. But she would not dream of eating anything from a factory farm. That would be immoral. . . (continue reading)
And the Hillary-Clinton-Meets-OLG Caption Contest Winner Is . . .
March 31, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Caption Contest Results
Wait. Before I tell you who won, let me first offer my hearty thanks to all of you fine people who proposed a caption for the picture of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton being shown an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico last week. Over 130 entries were registered, which was awesome.
Secretary Clinton’s encounter with this image ocurred not long before she accepted an award from Planned Parenthood for her “contributions to the advancement of women’s health care through [her] work promoting prevention and family planning” [which is code for contraception and abortion, dontchyaknow]. Watch the video of that infernal spectacle here, if you can stomach it.
And the Hillary-Clinton-Meets-OLG Caption Contest Winner Is . . .
March 31, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Wait. Before I tell you who won, let me first offer my hearty thanks to all of you fine people who proposed a caption for the picture of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton being shown an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico last week. Over 130 entries were registered, which was awesome.
Secretary Clinton’s encounter with this image ocurred not long before she accepted an award from Planned Parenthood for her “contributions to the advancement of women’s health care through [her] work promoting prevention and family planning” [which is code for contraception and abortion, dontchyaknow]. Watch the video of that infernal spectacle here, if you can stomach it.
being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon…well, I don’t want to ruin the ending for you.”
Yes, Virginia, We Are Living in Exponential Times
March 31, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Some interesting stuff here:
A Priest Comments on "Slumdog Millionaire"
March 31, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
I watched this movie on my interminably long flight to Tokyo a couple of weeks ago and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Given all the media hype surrounding its recent release, I had assumed it would be just another glitzy waste of time (or worse). But, as I discovered, that was a misapprehension. “Slumdog Millionare” actually has a powerful, positive message. To add some perspective, here’s a bit of insightful commentary on the movie by Father Robert Barron (courtesy of our friends at Creative Minority Report).
You Want Holy Catholic Priests? Then Do Your Part and Pray for Them
March 31, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
your childhood dream was to be a Priest,
to win souls for God.
You endured years of toil and humiliation
to attain the Priesthood.
You became a priest truly after God’s own heart,
outstanding in humulity and poverty;
prayer and mortification.
Totally devoted to the service of God’s people.
The Church has exalted you as model
and patron saint of all Parish priests,
trusting that your example and prayers
will help them to live up
to the high dignity of their vocation
to be faithful servants of God’s people,
to be perfect imitators of Christ the Saviour
Who came not to be served but to serve,
to give His Life in ransom for many.
Pray that God may give to His Church today
many more priests after His own Heart.
Pray for all the priests under your patronage,
that they may be worthy representatives
of Christ the Good Shepherd.
May they wholeheartedly devote themselves
to prayer and penance;
be examples of humility and poverty;
shining modelss of holiness;
tireless and powerful preachers of the Word of God;
zealous dispensers of God’s Grace in the Sacraments.
May their loving devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist
and to Mary His Mother
be the Twin Fountains of fruitfulness for their ministry.
Amen.
Pope John Paul II on the Coming Battle for Truth
March 31, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Archbishop Sheen on the Coming Battle for Truth
March 31, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Three Views of the Future
March 30, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Suddenly, it’s 100 years from now—the late 21st century. You can see the Catholic Church’s condition as it could be when your great-grandchildren are adults. What will it be like?
The following “documents” present scenarios for the Church as it might become a hundred years from now. The author wishes to point out to the reader that, given the complexity of factors in the present world, many other situations could develop. But the following suggest three which are not beyond the realm of possibility.
The first: The Catholic Church is undergoing a worldwide persecution, during which the strengths of the Body of Christ are in full flower under conditions of extreme stress.
The second: A worst-case scenario, in which the Church, especially in North America and Europe, has been largely compromised, has grown lukewarm and has made a false peace with the
spiritus mundi.The third: After a delay of a century, a grace period brought about by the “New Evangelization” of Pope John Paul II, the Church has succeeded in bringing the gospel to the entire world. However, once again the secular order has begun to degenerate into universal materialism. The Church, having made many gains and suffered some losses, now faces a situation strikingly similar to that of the late 20th century. ( Continue reading.
)5 Myths About 7 Books
March 29, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
People don’t talk much about the deuterocanon these days. The folks who do are mostly Christians, and they usually fall into two general groupings: Catholics — who usually don’t know their Bibles very well and, therefore, don’t know much about the deuterocanonical books, and Protestants — who may know their Bibles a bit better, though their Bibles don’t have the deuterocanonical books in them anyway, so they don’t know anything about them either. With the stage thus set for informed ecumenical dialogue, it’s no wonder most people think the deuterocanon is some sort of particle weapon recently perfected by the Pentagon.
The deuterocanon (ie. “second canon”) is a set of seven books — Sirach, Tobit, Wisdom, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, and Baruch, as well as longer versions of Daniel and Esther — that are found in the Old Testament canon used by Catholics, but are not in the Old Testament canon used by Protestants, who typically refer to them by the pejorative term “apocrypha.” This group of books is called “deuterocanonical” not (as some imagine) because they are a “second rate” or inferior canon, but because their status as being part of the canon of Scripture was settled later in time than certain books that always and everywhere were regarded as Scripture, such as Genesis, Isaiah, and Psalms.
Why are Protestant Bibles missing these books? Protestants offer various explanations to explain why they reject the deuterocanonical books as Scripture. I call these explanations “myths” because they are either incorrect or simply inadequate reasons for rejecting these books of Scripture. Let’s explore the five most common of these myths and see how to respond to them. . . . ( Continue reading.)
