Making Mary Visible


A taste of the argument to come in my forthcoming book. Read on...

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How to Be God-Right

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I have had a fair amount of fall-out thanks to the video that I did with my friends about Vox Day’s book on Jordan Peterson . If you have watched the video, you know that I agree with Milo and Vox in their critique of the Good Professor. Like Milo and Vox, I do not see Jordan as on “our” side . Quite the reverse. I became wary of Professor Peterson about this time last year, after spending over a month trying to make sense of what happened in his interview with Cathy Newman. I became increasingly suspicious as I watched his interactions with Ben Shapiro and Dave Rubin on their shows , and I lost all faith in him as an ally when he threw Milo under the bus rather than argue with Bari Weiss about whether Milo was “possibly [a racist].” By the time Professor Peterson made his Kavanaugh tweet, the camel was already on the ground, crippled and unable to rise. I do not think Professor Peterson  believes in God by any definition that I would recognize . ( Hint : If you care more a...
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Joe the Plumber

Me, writing political commentary?! Stranger things have happened, like, for instance, having a candidate for president who is intelligent and articulate and able to put issues before what the other candidate's campaign is saying about him personally. So, I watched the debate Wednesday night with increasing hope and concern: is it possible that America might go so far as to elect a president who, while rich*, was also at the top of his class in school? Or are we going to fall yet again for the dumbing down of our politics to the level of personal grievance and feelings? It all hinges on Joe the Plumber. But who is he? I don't mean in real life; everyone knows that now . Even on Wednesday, Senator McCain didn't really care about who "Joe" was or his staff would have bothered to find out, for example, that "Joe's" full name is Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher and that he isn't even licensed by the Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters and Service M...
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Driving Home the Faith with Mary

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Join me and Fr. Rob Jack of Sacred Heart Radio for a Lenten series on Mary and prayer! March 7 On how Mary trains Christians to pray: March 14 On why Mary loves hearing the Ave Maria and what it means to serve her: March 21 On whether it is possible to praise Mary “too much” and how Mary helps us understand the mysteries of the Incarnation and Trinity: April 4 On the Middle Ages as the great Age of Mary, the complexities of the Marian Office, what Mary knew, and what it means to describe her as the Immaculate Conception: April 11 On the psalms and prayer as the source of understanding about God and Mary and why Mary has so many names: April 17 On the fire in the cathedral of Notre Dame of Paris and what it teaches us about praying with Mary: Praying for Notre Dame Fr. Rob Jack On the psalms in the Marian Office, see  Mary and the Art of Prayer: The Hours of the Virgin in Medieval Christian Life and Thought (New York: Columbia University ...
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How to Know If You Are a Liberal

You care . You mean well . You are passionate . You believe in taking action , particularly when it comes to children. You believe in community , particularly at the global level. You celebrate diversity , but abhor exclusionary categories . If something is wrong in the world, you expect the government to do something about it. You abhor war , but celebrate dissent , even if (or when) it is expressed through violence . You believe that education should be relevant to society and issue in action . Just trying to get a few things clear in my head...
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Lies My Demons Taught Me*

"You are broken."  (Not just humanly fallible, but flawed, damaged in a way that others are not.) "You are dangerous.  One day you may even kill somebody."  (Said to me, age 8 or 9, when I was fighting a bully.) "You are wrong to defend yourself, even when you are attacked."  (See above.) "If you cannot do x or y now, it is because you have no talent for it.  Don't even try."  (My father's rule in life.) "You are impatient--and stubborn--because of where you were born."  (Meant as an affectionate joke, but heard as an accusation: "You can't change.  You're just the same as when you were two.") "It's amazing anybody would want to marry [you]."  (Said by my father to one of his friends; reported to me at his funeral, albeit in disbelief.) "You're not brilliant, you just work hard."  (Said by one of my classmates in college after I got a higher grade on a paper than he did....
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