New Year's Resolution: Lexio Divina

Yup. It's that time. Obligatory promises to self. The secular version of Lent. My challenge to myself each Lent, and thus round New Years as well, is to find a new way to Run Toward Christ.

I've made the commitment to create Lexio Divina video's in preparation for each Sunday's Mass. It's one way I try to run toward Christ. Whether you join me via video or do Lexio Divina with others or on your own -- it's a powerful way to Run Toward Christ!

My Lexio Divinas are posted here each week (feel free to follow the RSS).

What if HM used an iPhone?

Here's an article about yours truely exploring faith (a bit invisibly), technology, and overcoming brain injury. 

Where Hope is Found

Eucharist plants seeds,
Christ's Mass Grows within,
Prepare ye the way!

Eucharist plants the seeds of Christmas in our mind, our heart, our soul. How do we nurture the seed of Christ? What fruit will we eventually bring forth?

Eucharist plants seeds,
Christ's Mass Grows within,
Prepare ye the way!

Science Fiction and Salvation

Science Fiction is a powerful tool for exploring and understanding how we human collectively see ourselves.

"No," some might argue, "it's simply the result of a few minds and how they see the world."

Indeed. That's true of any given work. But, those that make it to the masses and become popular, have somehow spoken to people "en mass" and it has a lot to say about how we collectively see ourselves.

Jules Vern, Doyle, Asimov, Roddenberry, Lucas. These are among the minds that have asked us, collectively, to ponder our human potential and how we recognize and choose good and evil, God or Satan.

Of modern note are creations that in recent decades have become popular TV series. Star Trek, Babylon 5, Star Gate series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, Heros, Sanctuary.

There is a tendency among the modern sci-fi creations to be highly cynical. There is a distinct lack of hope. There is the premise that evil has won and survival equals victory. There is an underlying belief that humanity is doomed, and that being human means being irreprably connected with evil. This is an accurate and scary reality of the world without Jesus our Christ.

Mutations that are advancing humanity to our fuller potential and to greater potential for destruction abound. There is an awareness that humanity is called to more than we realize, but they very rarely point to God as the avenue for our salvation. 

Watching them, it can be easy to forget the through Jesus our Christ, we can rise up to fulfill a destiny far greater than we imagine -- the one God created us to be. It can be easy to forget we are each made in God's image, and if we can say "Yes!" to Christ being born within us, just as Mary did 2000 years ago, that God's grace gives up hope of living up to being fully human.

Bizarre and Artificial Rift Between Pro-Life and Social Justice “Camps”

This is the Enemy of human dignity clearly at work, dividing a house that should clearly be
united. There are errors on both sides, both of which boil down to not understanding our own
Catholic social teaching.

The battle against abortion is a clear moral “trump” issue. Without life, there is no opportunity
for human dignity here on earth. At the same time, our faith requires us to recognize Jesus our
Christ in every person and seek to help each person overcome the barriers between then and
equal opportunity.

One Body, In Christ

We can have both. We need to strive and struggle, together, toward both.
My prayer is that this model of Catholic social teaching can help move people beyond this evil
rift. We are one body. It’s time we started working like one, including that we realize we’re only one part and that other parts have other jobs and we work best when we realize we are one part, serving all parts.

Does Obama see the Evil around him?

It doesn't appear that Obama recognizes evil for what it is. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, he may have emerged from Chicago politics startlingly clean. If so, he clearly has an understanding of right from wrong in his own choices.

There are potentially many, many things that can be missed when we haven't cultivated the ability to recognize the Enemy's tail slithering in the background.

I pray I'm wrong. I pray for Obama and for his ability to recognize and combat evil, that we may truly be one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Human Dignity in One Lesson

In 1946 Henry Hazlitt wrote "Economics in One Lesson." It's a painfully simple book that cuts through a lot of confusion in economics. What is this one lesson? Turns out, it's one sentence:

"The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups." (p. 5)

Indeed, this is perhaps the simplest, most elegant way to describe the art of upholding human dignity.

Any policy, no matter how ill-conceived, can be shown to benefit some sub-group of people for some limited amount of time. But who does it harm? What are the medium and long term effects? How does it effect all people?

Proof of Concept:
Care for a non-economic example? I'll take a non-controvercial one (sardonic grin):

Abortion
In the little picture, abortion benefits a defined subset of the human population for a limited time. But doing so ignores that it harms everyone involved, plus society at large when we look at the big picture.

Resources for learning more:

Model of Catholic Social Teaching

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Variety of books on Freedom and Economics

We are witnessing the slow death caused by subtle socialism

The Soviet Block used overt socialism to kill itself in 70 years. The US is using subtle socialism to accomplish the same thing over a longer timeframe.

Why does it take longer to kill a nation with subtle socialism than with overt socialism? Because the free market breathes new life into the infected nation, giving it strength to endure and last longer than otherwise.

I say this not based on economics. I say it based on the principles of human dignity. In the early 1900's the US began undermining human dignity by turning to the government to unnecessarily regulate the free market, undermining subsidiarity by hindering the ability of people to enter freely into contracts with each other.

It's now so common place we don't realize the government doesn't belong as a third wheel controlling how any free interaction takes place. The government sitting on each person's hand looks right to us. It's not.

If the government is involved, increased regulation is needed to keep the government in check while it regulates the interaction (otherwise, the government is tempted to become a player in a sandbox that's it's regulating). When abuse happens, we daftly trust the government to fix it by adding more regulation (brilliant deduction! I'm off to wipe the sardonic off my face) and instead of doing the right thing to uphold human dignity (remove regulation and government involvement), we add more of both, compounding the problem.

Now, we've given up on even the facade of subtle socialism and our government is deciding which companies get bailout finding (gee, no chance for further waste there!).

Unless we take drastic action to remove the insidious cancer of socialism from all aspects of government -- cutting it's role back to only the most basic and necessary functions to protect our population and define and uphold the rules of the free market -- our great nation will crumble under the weight of our own bungling weight, and human dignity will be squashed just as equally as it was under overt socialist USSR.

Let's try everything except nothing!

Everything Seems Reasonable without Principles to Stand On
Treasury Secretary Paulson today changed strategies in the financial bailout. I don't pretend to understand what he's now proposing (and I'm far from convinced he knows either), but what I do know is that we have strayed far and wide from what the proper role of government is: upholding and ensuring the rights of the people to life, liberty, and property (see The Law, by Frederic Bastiat).

Och! How very much our government has become the legal plunderer rather than the protector.

The government has two right and proper roles in the free market (which I call the sandbox):

1. Define the sandbox and its rules
   
2. Uphold and enforce the rules
   

Bully in the Sandbox

Of course it is hardly content with only those two roles, and so it steps into the sandbox to play, often in the name of "fairness". Except that as make, enforcer, and now player in the sandbox, there is nothing to stop the government. And we just elected leaders who want to play even more in the sandbox.

Of course, the problem with a bully in the sandbox is no other kids are quite sure they want to play because anything they play might get taken away. So of course we still have a credit crisis. You hold on to your toys when the bully's around, especially when he says "Go ahead, play!"

Mini-Revolution

Time for a mini-revolution to return government back to being by the people and for the people.

Our one option: vote them out! They clearly won't get out of the way. We are the only ones who can stop the government. Not entirely. It has a right and proper role. It's just that right now it's doing everything except its right and proper role, and in so doing harming those it is supposed to protect.

Christmas Abundance in Today's Economy

I thought I'd share how we're responding to the much tighter budget this year as we prepare for Christmas.

We talked with our daughters and explained that this year we will be making our presents for each other. We've long read about the Christmases Laura Ingles Wilder had growing up -- and they really like the idea of Christmas gifts being made by us for each other and family and friends.

So our wee house of elves is busy at elven activity! The joy it brings to be doing that is a wonderful gift in itself! It looks to be a wondrously industrious and joy-filled Advent as we prepare for Christ's Mass!

How will your family find abundance this Christmas? Share your thoughts in the comments section.