Video Meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor

The flyer for the event describes it thus: "Jesus of the Gospel never shrank from entering into intimacy with persons encountered in his ministry. The bonds he formed created a unity only rivaled by the nature of the Trinity. What has happened in today’s Roman Catholicism?... Psychology has helped countless couples find intimacy. Can it advise the Church, our Church?" The way it advised the Church, our Church, on how to cure the priest pederasts? - Terrence Berres of "The Provincial Emails"

It's bad luck to be superstitious. Except in baseball. - John at "The Inn at the End of the World"

Few would expect Muslims to sit idly by if Christians seized control of and denied Muslims access to the Kaaba in Mecca and the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. It would be fully expected that Muslims would retaliate and seek to reclaim control of or access to their holy sites. Common sense makes it difficult not to see among the chief lessons of the Crusades "Don't conquer half of another group's civilization without expecting reprisals" and "Don't touch a people's holy sites without expecting retaliation." Far from being embarrassed by what the crusaders did, contemporary Christians should be proud that--despite their own internecine struggles in the Middle Ages--prior generations of Christians found the wherewithal to do precisely what Muslims would do in the same situation. Christians today certainly should deplore evil acts committed during the Crusades, such as the massacres of innocent Muslims and Jews that periodically occurred, as well as the entire debacle of the Fourth Crusade. However, the enterprise of the Crusades themselves had two important goals at its core: the defense of Christian civilization against outside aggression (making the Crusades as a whole wars of self-defense) and securing access to the holy sites that commemorate to the most important events in world history. - Jimmy Akin

Where the book takes an even more interesting twist - and it wil be interesting to see the reviews in Protestant circles, some of whom are already not too keen on [N.T.] Wright because of that whole New Perspectives on Paul business - is at the end, when he settles on a paradigm to blame for all of this: Western (particularly North American) Protestant Neo-Gnosticism. You'll really have to read it to get what he's saying completely, but it comes down to this: his opinion that Protestantism has a gnostic core, having been founded on the conviction that the Catholic Church was "hiding" the truth about Christianity, and that it was up to them to reveal the real Jesus. - Amy Welborn

Mussalmans have an ordeal to pass through. There can be no doubt that they are too free with the knife and the pistol. The sword is an emblem of Islam. But Islam was born in an environment where the sword was, and still remains, the supreme law. The message of Jesus has proved ineffective because the environment was unready to receive it. So with the message of the Prophet. The sword is yet too much in evidence among the Mussalmans. It must be sheathed if Islam is to be what it means - peace. - Ghandi, on Muslims, via Jeff of "Curt Jester"

Perhaps part of the reason most of us aren't likely to be put to a shameful death is that we don't much hope in God. We live, not in hope, but in expectation. We expect things of ourselves and of other humans, but we have learned not to expect things of God. That doesn't sound good, but I think it's the correct lesson; God has a way of doing the unexpected, and it's hard to construct expectations around that. We're left busily expecting things today and tomorrow, and leaving all that hope in God stuff for after we're dead. A hope like that isn't likely to stir the wicked to revilement and torture. - Tom of Disputations

One of the more ridiculous things I hear [Bengals] fans say is they're "defending our turf,'' as if it's London in 1940. No, you're not. You're rooting for a collection of individuals who live here 6 months of the year and wouldn't know the mayor if he handed them the keys to a Benz. - Paul Daughtery

A good work talked about is a good work spoilt. - St. Vincent de Paul

I watched for years as liberals cocooned themselves in an impenetrable web of smugness till they were utter out of touch with reality. One doesn't achieve this typically without something in your background that you can really be proud of. Liberalism has much to be proud of: the civil rights movement, seeing America through the Depression and WWII, a serious willingness to engage things like the rights of migrant works, etc...Liberalism had a legacy of greatness and goodness--and it knew it. The problem came in, as always, with pride. You begin to isolate yourself from criticism, because the criticism comes from those toads who voted for Nixon, who supported Vietnam, who were so wrong about the Civil Rights Act....The simple fact is, I cannot, for one second, believe that either Christ, nor any bishop in the world (including, particularly, the Holy Father) would do anything but laugh (or weep) at the American Right's excuses for torture. - Mark Shea

An older lady, a retired teacher, came and sat with me. She was very interested in The Da Vinci Code, from what I gathered; and had been pulling for a Jesus/Mary Magdalene relationship for forty years, which I guess means ever since Jesus Christ Superstar came out. - Maureen of "Aliens in this World"

Why would you want a pair of shoes commemorating LAUNDRY? What's next? Shoes with little toilet brushes on them? - MamaT of "Summa Mamas", on $135 dress shoes with pictures of laundry on them

Any subculture exists at its own risk, and can be easily turned in on itself...The self-protective instincts within the [clerical] culture are no different from the same instincts that exists within the law, the medical profession, the military, teaching, or even a family...The dominance of Irish priests who made up the core of the Florida priesthood from the 50's on, had to take on some sort of subcultural aspect, and it did. Those of us who have worked in it have seen it close up. It has its great qualities - a celebratory spirit, a determination to work hard and build up something concrete, and, yes, a generosity. But it has a downside, as well, and one that we see doesn't just involve clerics, but involves many more people in a parish culture in which, in the absence of diocesan controls and audits, much damage can be done. It's a subculture in which secrets are rampant. It's a subculture which joins forces with another subculture - the actively homosexual clerical subculture - and the two, which actually and actively despise each other, weave an intricate, perverse bond of secrecy in which everyone tacitly agrees to keep everyone's secrets - so the party can go on. - Amy Welborn

The father of a 17-year-old Shiite youth killed in an Israeli air strike...asked the youth minister, "Why are Christians helping Muslims?" The minister shared the story of the Good Samaritan and asked, "Who was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The father responded, "The one who had mercy on him." The youth minister then recited the words of Jesus in Matthew 5: "But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." Touched, the father of the deceased boy said, "We have many Christian friends. But we never knew that you have these teachings." - Christianity Today