David Ancell / Sunday, July 27, 2003 / Comments(0)
My parents were here yesterday for my birthday, which is tomorrow. They arrived with a present that I have badly needed for some time. They gave me a new bookshelf. It’s huge, and I was able to get all that I wanted on it. For those of you who don’t know, I really enjoy buying Catholic books. Unfortunately, I enjoy buying more than I enjoy reading, so I am way behind on what I have read. Oh well, now that I can see what I have, maybe I can get started reading.
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David Ancell / Friday, July 25, 2003 / Comments(0)
A home mass scheduled by the Frassati Society went on as scheduled. We had an associate pastor of our church say the Mass. Just before the Mass, we casually talked him into saying the Mass facing the east instead of facing the people. He had never done it before, but he was glad to do it for us. I only wish that this were the norm.
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David Ancell / Thursday, July 24, 2003 / Comments(0)
I really have to wonder about the power grid of Memphis. I can drive to one area of town and find that it has no electricity. I can proceed to the very next block and find that it does have it. The next block or two might or might not. There seems to be no rhyme or reason.
I think of this because I just went jogging on my apartment complex’s jogging trail. Within the same apartment complex, there are units that have power and units that do not. This was some storm that hit us. I am amazed that so much damage was caused in only 30 minutes.
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David Ancell / Thursday, July 24, 2003 / Comments(0)
By now, one may wonder why I am continually posting on Busted Halo and antagonizing them to death. Well, for one, I don’t want to see the Catholic faith misrepresented by those who come from the outside. Some people may be drawn to a better understanding of the faith by having orthodox people chime in. I feel that it is necessary to be around when the faith is being distorted and try to correct the distortions. I doubt I am meeting with much success, but I can at least fight the good fight. Not even Jesus himself convinced everyone to follow.
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David Ancell / Thursday, July 24, 2003 / Comments(0)
Yet another Busted Halo post:
To say that “anyone who is not Catholic is evil” would be for me to make a personal judgment that I cannot make. I can, however, critique their ideas about God when they are out in the open, such as on this forum. A person can have wrong ideas about God and not be aware that their ideas are wrong and therefore not be at fault. Therefore, it is possible to say that one is in error without attributing personal evil to them.
There is a quote often attributed to Dostoevsky, author of The Brothers Karamazov, “If God does not exists, everything is permitted.” Indeed, in such a world, your view of authority would be correct. However, ultimately, all true authority comes from God. Does this mean that Hitler had the authority to do what he did? No, he did not. This was clearly an abuse of authority. So was the child molestation. Just as using our freedom to sin is an abuse of our freedom, using authority to do evil is an abuse of authority. It can be done, but it’s wrong.
You call me narrow minded because I hold that the truths taught by the Catholic Church are exactly that. However, I could just as easily call you narrow-minded in that you are not open to the idea that the Church teaches truth. It would be only natural to, upon having accepted something as true, to believe what contradicts it as false. For example, since I believe that Jesus Christ rose bodily from the dead as truth, I could not also believe that, at the same time, Jesus did not bodily rise from the dead. Two contradictory statements cannot be true at the same time. The acceptance of one statement makes accepting its opposite logically impossible.
Now, suppose that God himself called people together and manifested himself to them. In so doing, he taught them about himself and the life they were to lead, and he gave them the authority to teach in his name. He said that whatever they would bind on earth would be bound in Heaven and vice versa. In this case, he gave them the authority to proclaim what he has said authentically and the power to do it.
However, interestingly enough, neither these apostles nor their successors were ever protected from themselves going against the teaching. However, they were never able to change the teaching to go along with their behavior. For example, child molestation is very much against the Church’s teaching. Those priests have not had any influence on Church teaching. Although many have been forbidden to use them, they do not lose their ability to say Mass because their ability is not based on their personal holiness but their ordination.
Therefore, I view the sins of some of our Popes and other clergy not as an argument against the ability of the Church to teach truth but as an argument for it. If the Church were not given divine authority, then someone could easily have changed the teaching to condone his/her behavior. That’s why people can tell me all day long about child molesters, the Inquisition, the Crusades, Galileo, or anything else (all of which, except for child molestation, have another side to the story) without losing faith.
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David Ancell / Thursday, July 24, 2003 / Comments(0)
I found the mention of this post interesting. They claim that having children decreases “marital satisfaction.” If this is done by secularists, who knows what their criteria were? Greg Popcak has some interesting commentary in the link that was posted.
On another note, I remember some kind of joke about the idea that having children would “ruin my life.” Well, just what do these people think our life is for?
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David Ancell / Wednesday, July 23, 2003 / Comments(0)
Well, ironically enough, the telephone lines are still down, but my cable modem is allowing me back on the Internet. I guess I can blog after all.
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David Ancell / Wednesday, July 23, 2003 / Comments(0)
Before I go, I did want to remark that I have used my time to read Fr. Mitch Pacwa’s Father, Forgive Me, for I Am Frustrated. If you are concerned about problems in the Church, you need to read this book. It is one of the most balanced perspectives I have seen and will likely shape the way I blog in the future, if I ever get my Internet access back.
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David Ancell / Wednesday, July 23, 2003 / Comments(0)
I am one of the lucky few who received power back last night. Unfortunately, shortly after I got it back, my phone went dead. My cable connection to the Internet is also dead. The reason I am blogging now is because I took a day trip to Nashville and found a place to blog. I won’t be able to blog from home at least until the phone is fixed, so it may be a few days before I am back and blogging.
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David Ancell / Tuesday, July 22, 2003 / Comments(0)
I’m still around Busted Halo, and I am pleased to tell you that I have allies. These people can state things better than I can. Take a look at this post. This is another orthodox person on Busted Halo fighting the good fight. This is helping me learn as well.
UPDATE: Due to a recent comment, I just wanted to mention that if your browser doesn’t go to the right comment, you’ll need to scroll down to post #48. Therein lies the bright spot.
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