Wonderful Matters

I saw the ballet "Cinderella" tonight with some of the high schoolers from the club I advise, and it was standard fair. You know, the stepsisters abuse her until the fairy godmother gets her to the ball where she dances the night away-- until midnight of course when she returns to her old self. Yet she accidentally leaves that one glass slipper. The prince can now scour the country to find his true love by seeing whose foot fits the slipper. As he visits each village, each woman takes her shot at it. Maybe, just maybe, it will fit her foot and she and the prince would live happily ever after. After watching this process, each woman taking her turn, I thought of something, and I just can't believe this is the first time it's been thought. Think about this: What would each woman think after the slipper is found to be a poor fit, in light of the fact that she'd just been revealed as a brazen liar . For you see, each woman must know that she is not Cinderella. The ...

"Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." These words were shared by Jesus to ask John to write to the angel of the church of Smyrna in Asia Minor about particular items of concern to Him, all recorded in the book of Revelation. They come to mind in thinking about this guy in Afghanistan who is apparently on trial and could receive the death penalty merely for converting from Islam to Christianity. I can't help but think that Romanist operatives are working in the mix here somehow. Indeed they've been working through history to set it all up, making Islam one huge god club that takes brazen flight from its ranks very seriously. While not questioning this man's faith-- he may indeed have Jesus' name on his lips-- I'd venture to say that his conversion is simply the switching membership from one god club to another, and the affront of Islamic power brokers is so severe that they cannot sit idly by and save face. To them the very essen...

Want to help young people be physically fit? Consider giving to the Capital Athletic Foundation. Want to contribute to a foundation for good ideas about better relations around the globe? Consider giving to the American International Center. Want to give a generous helping hand to all kinds of disadvantaged people all over the place? Consider giving to the Good Things for All People Foundation. When the federal government found out that a good way to be its brother's keeper was to institutionalize good-deed-doing through non-profit incorporation, it had to have known that a lot of people would really really try to be good-deed-doing by signing on, but fail miserably. And that they would not just fail but criminally fail, as in, "What a great scam! I can just pretend that I'm doing good things for everyone, and I get a nice cut! In fact, why even do the good things? Why not pretend to be real good! More money for me! And with our society so codependent, so addicted to '...

On Friday night, NBC broadcast its third installment of "To Catch a Predator," the network's august program of exposing sexual deviants. The entire approach is to lure these men into middle-class suburban houses where they presume they're going to have a sexual encounter with a minor. Waiting for them is a news reporter, who, with transcripts of their chat room conversations, confronts the individual about his intentions. The result is almost always the same-- tepid dissembling and evasiveness, and, when the hidden camera is revealed, abject shock and embarrassment. I imagine most would find this modern-day Scarlet Letter shaming perfectly acceptable, the just punishment for such heinously criminal behavior. As I watched the first half-hour or so of this show (which is about all I could take) I myself could only think of cockroaches-- not as much for the thoroughly reprehensible aspect of their behavior, but for the fact that NBC is nabbing only a pittance. There are ...

Over Christmas break I was at my mother-in-law's, and during a down time browsed through a Time magazine she had from the holiday season last year , 2004. The cover story was something about the birth of Jesus, but what caught my attention was the last page essay by Simon Robinson commenting on efforts by gatherings of renowned musical artists such as Band Aid to sell original Christmas music and use the proceeds to advance African relief efforts. The previous home page piece on my website The Catholicist Nation was a critique of One.org's valiant but futile attempts to bring prosperity to Africa. (You may read that critique here ) I brought up items that were confirmed by Robinson's piece, and I just wanted to draw attention to them. He elaborates on something we should all know but don't get, that the real issue is not environmental but spiritual, it is their sin that causes the lack, not the other way around. He says, "the continent's famines are caused by ...

Anyone been paying attention to the legal situation involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff? It is actually big news because it may bring to light the corruption of several high-profile politicians. But I don't know if many are really watching because his activities are thought to be so complicated. What he did is not a whole lot different than running a racket, essentially an operation in which people are persuaded to pay big money because they are fearful that if they don't pay it, bad things will happen. In this case-- at the cost of being overly simplistic-- Abramoff convinced Native American tribes that they could get cool government things (to keep them from having those bad things happen) if they gave him a lot of money, and he in turn paid Congresspersons to get those cool things, who took the money (sometimes in the form of "perks") because they wanted their piece of the action. Abramoff skimmed his cut off the top, elaborately lied about it, and will now be going ...

The two biggest movies out during the holidays now are The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and King Kong. There is one thing that both have in common besides being reasonable hits, and I'll elaborate on that in a minute. But first some thoughts about the films. I loved the Chronicles of Narnia book series, and like all C.S. Lewis fans I reveled in the way he made what was biblical into fantastic allegory. There are just flatly certain things we long to engage in, and brilliant, beautiful fantasy helps us connect with that. Lewis acknowledged wonderfully that God did not give us imaginations for nothing. But I must say that I was disappointed with the film. As much as Christians all around have said that Disney kept all the "Christian" stuff in, for one, that's not exactly the point, and for two, it was still a grand Disney simulation. Being completely Disneyfied, it was not only missing critical dialogue, but all the uniquely enchanting Le...