Jul 31, 2018 | Parents and Family
When I saw the announcement of our latest Supreme Court Justice nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, I couldn’t help notice that this practicing Catholic family had only two kids, daughters. As precious and cute as they were, I wondered why only two. Not too many years past, Catholic families were known for their large families, but in the 21st century two kids is the norm. In fact, 40 years ago the number of families with four children (40%) was the same as the number of families today that have two (41%). That is a striking turn around. Why might this be? One could point to any number of causes, but the triumph of secularism has to be at the top of the list, and Christians have too easily adapted to the secular norm.
It so happens that July 25 was the anniversary of Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s “encyclical on the integrity of love and the appropriate means of family planning.” Not too many days prior to the 25th I read a sad, to me, commentary on the state of child bearing in 2018 America titled, “The Extinction of the Middle Child.” I’m a middle child, and I guess we’re going extinct. The author, from a strictly secular perspective, bemoans the implications of what one less child in a family means for American society. Some years back, I read an article about the implications for extended families that have two verses three children, and how fewer cousins means fewer significant relationships to support that family. And it’s not only relational issues in the family that feel the impact of fewer children, but in a liberal welfare state, fewer with younger people there are not enough income earners to take care of the old who can no longer earn.
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Jul 25, 2018 | Culture
The subject of this post may sound vaguely familiar, but with a very postmodern, 21st century twist. Many are familiar with the beloved 1908 novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables. Netflix has adapted the novel into a series called Anne with an E, and it bears only a passing resemblance to the children’s book of another, less “enlightened” era. The creator of the series, Moira Walley-Beckett, worked as a writer and producer of AMCs hit series Breaking Bad, which may not be the best preparation for bringing Anne of Green Gables to the small screen.
I’d never read the book, but during the first season I came across an article at the liberal Slate magazine with the apt title regarding the series, “Netflix’s dark, gritty reboot of Anne of Green Gables has all the subtlety of a chalkboard smashed over your head.” I wasn’t sure about the chalkboard in the first season, but 7 episodes into the second season, I realized the aptness of her title. Thus my version of the book’s title as gay, and I don’t mean happy. More of that in a second.
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Jul 7, 2018 | Theology
One of the more frustrating things about being a Calvinist is the rampant misunderstanding about Calvin and his theology one encounters pretty much everywhere. Even among some of his followers! The old canard is the Calvinism equals determinism, but nothing could be further from the truth. Here is a definition of determinism:
Determinism, in philosophy, is the theory that all events, including moral choices, are completely determined by previously existing causes. Determinism is usually understood to preclude free will because it entails that humans cannot act otherwise than they do.
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Jul 3, 2018 | Parents and Family
One of my apologetic strategies for my children has been to annoy them, and if you ask them they will tell you I’m really good at it. Of course since the annoying has a purpose, they are willing to endure the annoyance of it all, most of the time. One thing I’m really annoying at is hounding my kids to read, and read some more. I still do it even though two of them are in their 20s, and one a teenager moving quickly toward college. I do this because I think there are few things more important in life than reading, than exercising our brains and imaginations with the written word (above all in books), and especially so in the Age of the Screen.
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