The world's oldest monastery has been restored Posted on February 09, 2010, 8:30 AM | Brian Saint-Paul
Apologies for my long blog silence. I spent most of last week serving on a jury, and the remainder battling off a life threatening Man Cold. But now I'm done with both, and ready to get back at it. Lucky you.
First, here's a little good news for Christians in the Middle East: The world's oldest monastery has been restored, and at no cost to the faithful.
Egypt's antiquities chief on Thursday unveiled the completion of an 8-year, $14.5 million restoration of the world's oldest Christian monastery, touting it as a sign of Christian-Muslim coexistence.
The announcement at the 1,600-year-old St. Anthony's Monastery came a month after Egypt's worst incident of sectarian violence in over a decade, when a shooting on a church on Orthodox Christmas Eve killed seven people....
St. Anthony, widely revered as the founder of Christian monasticism, settled in this remote mountainous area at the end of the 3rd century to live in isolation. Upon his death, his followers built the monastery, which was completed around A.D. 350 remains in use to this day.
In the government-sponsored project, workers renovated the fortress-like ancient wall surrounding the monastery and the walls of its two main churches -- the 14th century Church of the Apostles and the 6th century Church of St. Anthony. They also renovated monks' quarters and a 6th century tower into which monks would retreat during attacks by marauding Bedouin tribes throughout the Middle Ages.
As an interesting side note, the renovation work was carried out by Muslims.
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The award for Funniest Reaction to that Tim Tebow spot goes to Slate's Mary Elizabeth Williams: "Weirdest eHarmony ad ever."
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Anyone interested in a used space shuttle? NASA is having a sidewalk sale, and you can pick up the Atlantis for about $28 million. If I had that kind of money, I'd be seriously tempted to buy it, just so I could put it up on blocks in the front yard.
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Here's a video I missed last week: Reason.TV takes an entertaining look at the president's use of Orwellian doublethink/doubletalk in his State of the Union Address.
The USCCB's Membership In a Pro-Abortion Civil Rights Group Posted on February 09, 2010, 7:36 AM | Deal W. Hudson
Matt Smith has published more information on the USCCB's problematic membership in the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Calling it LCCHR's "Greatest Hits," Smith juxtaposes the civil rights organization's opposition to the Federal Marriage Marriage and support for CEDAW with the Catholic positions advocated by the USCCB.
Why would the bishop's conference be a member of an organization that lobbies for abortion and same-sex marriage? As Matt Smith comments:
Even if the USCCB claims they do not sign onto every coalition letter led by LCCHR, the organization does not delineate with their press releases or other materials which group has joined their voice on a particular issue. The Bishops’ Conference claims “non-partisanship,” however, when you read through the legislative priorities and past actions by the LCCHR it lines up with the Democrat National Committee platform. The Bishops’ Conference paying dues and being listed as a “coalition member” raises serious concerns about the type of representation being made of Catholic teachings to the Congress and Executive branch. Further participation with such groups will continue to highlight questions of neutrality and effectiveness in articulating the teachings of the Church in Washington.
A Catholic Candidate Who Will Not Compromise Posted on February 08, 2010, 7:39 PM | Deal W. Hudson
Over at the Catholic Advocate, I have posted my interview with Marco Rubio, who is on track to be the GOP candidate for the Florida Senate seat vacated by Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL).
Here is an excerpt:
For Rubio, his pro-life convictions are the “cornerstone” of everything else. “A society that does not respect the sanctity of life cannot make sense of anything else, and it leads to absurd and dangerous policies.” Without a belief in protecting preborn life, “the entire society is endangered, and social justice cannot be the outcome of such an unjust system.”
As the son of Cuban exiles, Rubio’s core beliefs were shaped, not just by his Catholic upbringing, but by his parents’ stories, and the stories of many in the Cuban community of Miami.
“We are not just immigrants, we are immigrants of a unique kind –- the Cuban exile community has a real passion for liberty because we know that politics matters and has consequences. This awareness runs through the veins of our community, that liberty is not something that is self-perpetuated.”
Real-Life 'Last of the Mohicans' Posted on February 08, 2010, 4:45 PM | Joseph Susanka
Only last night, I was discussing James Fenimore Cooper's classic, "The Last of the Mohicans," (as well as the surprisingly tepid film adaption from Michael Mann). As a less-than-eager Cooper fan, I was waxing poetic about the validity of Mark Twain's side-splittingly hilarious critique of Cooper's works, particularly Cooper's "high talent for inaccurate observation." Demanding rigorous accuracy from someone like Cooper, whose works' "flat-out toothy adventureawesomeness" is a large part of their particular appeal, might not be entirely fair. But a base-line of reality seems like it could have been a good thing.
Imagine my surprise, then, to happen across this story:
Bao Sr was 85, as best she knew, when she died last week. She was the oldest surviving member of the Bo, an ancient, indigenous people who, together with nine other tribes, made up the Great Andamanese people of the Indian archipelagos.
They are believed to have lived on the Andaman Islands for as many as 65,000 years, with a family tree that traces its history to one of the oldest human cultures on earth.
There are now only 52 Bo remaining but none who speak the original language. Boa Sr was the last member fluent in the tribe's mother tongue.
Over at The Daily Mail (UK), the story's comment section is bubbling with arguments about whether or not the Great Andamanese people could actually be 65,000 years old, particularly if one has a "literal" view of the Bible. (It never ceases to amaze me how frequently this particular argument comes up.)
No matter what one's views on that particular issue, the complete extinction of a language seems like a true loss. Nor is it the first (or even the most severe) tribulation the Bo have experienced in the past:
In swiftly dwindling numbers, the remnants of the amalgamated tribe continued to live their way of life as much as possible in the archipelagos. At one point, the British forcibly resettled the Great Andamanese to a single island in order to "civilize" them. The tribe was moved into an "Andaman home" during which time 150 children were born. None of them lived beyond the age of 2.
Sadly, Cooper's account of Chingachgook's predicament appears to have been more realistic than I would have hoped.
The Religious Life -- on Oprah Posted on February 08, 2010, 12:02 PM | Margaret Cabaniss
News has been spreading through the blogosphere that the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, will be appearing on Oprah tomorrow afternoon. The sisters explained how it all came to be in an e-mail update:
Oprah was interested in doing a show on religious life as a hidden way of life which many people never experience, and so her producers asked us if we would be willing to welcome them. We accepted this invitation as an opportunity to share our life, and by extension, the Gospel, with an audience that we might not ever reach otherwise.
A camera crew came to the Motherhouse in Ann Arbor at the beginning of [last] week, and then on Thursday, Sr. Mary Samuel, Sr. John Dominic, Sr. Mary Judith, and Sr. Francis Mary were flown to Chicago for the taping. Some of our Novices and Postulants also participated in the taping from the Motherhouse via “Skype.”
. . . please join us in praying that Our Lord will use this television show to touch the hearts of many, so that they may come to know Him and His boundless love and mercy.
The Dominican sisters are a great order to demonstrate the beauty of the religious life, being such a vibrant community. Who knows what good may come from their visit? Tune in tomorrow at 4 to see the sisters in action (more photos on their Flickr stream here).
Update: On the other hand,The Anchoress says that "the Sisters will share the hour with a look at the 'the word’s only Western Geisha'":
I guess Oprah’s “theme” here is that two rather “secret” lives are being looked into, but I do wonder at the mindset that puts Consecrated religious like and Geisha on the same footing. Either one of these subjects could easily fill an hour’s worth of television, and by reducing them to 23 minute overviews, both features promise to be as penetrating as prop knives; superficial, shallow and sensationalistic.
Read the rest of her take on the line of questioning likely to follow, which can be summed up as: "You don't have sex? What about sex? How can you not have sex?"
The Saints Went Marching In Posted on February 08, 2010, 8:20 AM | Zoe Romanowsky
I'm not much of a football fan, but I usually find myself watching the Superbowl every year. It provides an excuse for a party, after all, and that means snacks. This year I was rooting for the Saints, mainly because they were the underdogs and have never taken home the Lombardi trophy. (Plus, I like saints more than horses.)
“In recent years, as Mr. Tom Benson has owned the team, the Saints organization has been very involved with the local Catholic Church and Catholic Charities,” Sarah Comiskey McDonald, Director of Communications for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, said on Friday. “Mr. Benson is a major donor to our PACE Center (Program for all-inclusive care for the elderly) and our first center was named the Shirley Landry Benson PACE Center at St. Cecilia in memory of his deceased wife.”
Mr. Benson's family members are deeply involved in helping the Catholic Church in New Orleans, and various team members have given time and money to schools and ministries.
The name “Saints” apparently harkens back to 1967 when the team's owner approached the Archbishop and asked if it was sacrilegious to use the word saints for a football team. The Archbishop heartily approved and even wrote an official prayer for team that year that included these words:
“...Our Heavenly Father, who has instructed us that the 'saints by faith conquered kingdoms...and overcame lions,' grant our Saints an increase of faith and strength so that they will not only overcome the Lions but also the Bears, the Rams, the Giants, and even those awesome people in Green Bay... .”
The CNA article also notes that the Indianapolis Colts have their own fans in the Church. In fact, Archbishop Daniel Buechlein of Indianapolis and New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond made a bet on the game:
...If the Saints win, Archbishop Aymond will receive southern Indiana pork chops, but if the Colts win Archbishop Buechlein will have gumbo on his dinner table.
When asked if prelates often bet on sporting events, Archbishop Aymond told CNA that “As far as our friendly wager, we cannot say whether it is a norm, but it is all in good fun.”
Maybe Archbishop Aymond will invite the Saints over for Indiana pork chops.
Sunday Comics: Uncle Harry's Gold Mine, Part 5 Posted on February 07, 2010, 7:35 PM | Eric Pavlat
Don't sign that contract, Uncle Harry! Those guys are up to no good!!
(As always, these pages come from Catholic University's online archive of Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact. This is part five of a 10-part series from 1960.)
You just don't see steam engines used in stories anymore...
The Snow and the Surprising Strength Posted on February 06, 2010, 4:01 PM | Deal W. Hudson
OK, the snow may be beautiful, but it is not fun! I took this picture from the kitchen this morning when there were only 19" on the ground. We are headed for 30"or more.
Enough snow was shoveled in the back yard for the dogs to have a space for their "business," and then the "shovelers" headed inside for a scary movie by the fire.
Chippy, however, wanted to roughhouse with the old man, so always being ready to take on a male challenger, I removed the glasses, carefully, and got down on the rug.
He turned 13 last month and is still small for his age, but something was different as we rolled around trying to pin each other. For the first time, I needed my full strength to hold him down, to make him say "Uncle," which, of course, he never means.
I remember how my father's strength both scared and fascinated me. I still like to tell the story of how he tried to rip the door off a taxi in front of the Waldorf Astoria in NYC after a driver had refused to slow down. Dad's elderly mother -- we called her 'Nana' -- had arrived from San Antonio to see Rex Harrison in "My Fair Lady."
The cabbie driving from LaGuardia ignored my father's pleas, then orders, to slow it down. When they arrived at the hotel, Dad got my grandmother and her luggage out of the cab, paid the driver, then gripped the passenger door and bent it back against the car. With the door hanging by one hinge, they went inside, as my father told the doorman to call the police if the driver tried to follow him in.
Then the day came when I could match my father in strength, if not in courage, and the time came when I realized the latter was far more important.
Chippy, for now, simply delights in shaking off his father's grip, something he could never do before. Yet, at thirteen, he still wants to sit in my lap while I rub his head and scratch his back. This is a moment in both our lives marking a beginning and an end. His sudden strength signals that childhood is ending, the young man is emerging. With my 60th just past, I can no longer avoid the description of being "older."
God willing, I will be here long enough, like my father was, to help my son discover the courage to guide his strength.
Trust No Video Posted on February 05, 2010, 3:00 PM | Joseph Susanka
Over at the frequently amusing, ever-quirky blog Within the Cranium, I ran across this demo reel from Stargate Studios, "a high tech production company offering visual effects and production services to the film and television industries." It's called simply "Trust No Video." And that pretty much says it all.
Some of those sequences contain fairly obvious CGI elements. (What is it about really high canyon shots that makes them so impossible for FX folks to carry off without looking cartoonish?) Others, on the other hand, are completely seamless. The cityscapes, in particular, strike me as absolutely convincing. (Sorry to break this to you, Margaret, but you could not have popped onto the freeway and headed down to D.C. to see Jack in person. He's not to be trusted.)
Wendell Berry Friday Posted on February 05, 2010, 1:24 PM | Zoe Romanowsky
If you ask me, we're way overdue for a Wendell Berry reading around here.
In Berry's essay The Use of Energy, he reflects on the agrarian ethos, the connection between religion and energy, and the role of living things, tools, and machines. He concludes that the energy crisis is not one of technology, but of morality. And the issue at hand is restraint.
He asks: "Can we forbear to do anything that we are able to do?"
The only people among us that I know of who have answered this question convincingly in the affirmative are the Amish. They alone, as a community, have carefully restricted their use of machine-developed energy, and so have become the only true masters of technology. They are mostly farmers, and they do most of their farmwork by hand and by the use of horses and mules. They are pacifists, they operate their own schools, and in other ways hold themselves aloof from the ambitions of a machine-based society. And by doing so they have maintained the integrity of their families, their community, their religion, and their way of life.
They have escaped the mainstream American life of distraction, haste, aimlessness, violence, and disintegration. Their life is not idly wasteful or destructive. The Amish no doubt have their problems; I do no wish to imply that they are perfect. But it can not be denied that they have mastered one of the fundamental paradoxes of our condition: we can make ourselves whole only by accepting our partiality, by living within our limits, by being human -- not by trying to be gods. By restraint they make themselves whole.
Friday Free-for-All Posted on February 05, 2010, 8:26 AM | Margaret Cabaniss
So, if what the weather forecasters are saying is true, I will apparently be buried up to my neck in snow by the time you read this. Better get moving, then:
Pope Benedict speaks out on England's proposed "Equality Bill," saying that it would in fact limit religious freedom and that it "violates the natural law."
You may have heard about that football game coming up on Sunday -- who's everyone rooting for? I can't resist a good underdog story, so I'm pulling for God's own team -- the Saints. Feel free to commence with the trash talk in the comments.
Baksheesh backlash Posted on February 04, 2010, 7:20 PM | Laurance Alvarado
This is simply brilliant.First off, for you international travelers and residents, how many times have run across the stubborn (fill in the blank) official in some developing country when you’re trying to get through customs, fill out an application for a local phone, or simply get the right part for your car?
After the obligatory back-and-forth, the tone of said official softens, and is generally accompanied by a lowering of the chin, a slightly canted head, and a “knowing” twinkle of the eye under an overly officious wide-brimmed hat.This is typically the cue to shake hands, discretely pass a neatly folded bill, and wait for magic to ensue.
In some places I’ve been, the coy look is simply replaced with the RCA dog stare.
Well, an Indian expat physics professor at the University of Maryland came up with the idea to create the note in the picture here.He, like the majority of people who have traveled to India (and other places), was so tired of the death-by-a thousand-duck-bitesprocess of greasing the thousands of bureaucratic palms, that he started passing out this valueless bill as a polite way of saying no.
The zero-rupee notes caught the attention of the NGO called 5th Pillar, and have distributed 1 million of these guys since 2007.The Economist reports:
One official in Tamil Nadu was so stunned to receive the note that he handed back all the bribes he had solicited for providing electricity to a village. Another stood up, offered tea to the old lady from whom he was trying to extort money and approved a loan so her granddaughter could go to college.
This action is so elegant, so simple, and so effective. One World Bank official observes that transforming social norms is the key to fighting petty corruption and the notes help that process.
Where else might something like this work?I can think of a dozen scenarios…love to hear your ideas.
How Not to Prepare for Marriage Posted on February 04, 2010, 12:05 PM | Margaret Cabaniss
Things got a little heated around here last week on Zoe's post about marriage and annulments. In response to the news that Pope Benedict was asking marriage tribunals to tighten up the annulment process, Zoe suggested that we should be taking marriage prep more seriously at the same time -- with an eye toward obviating the need for so many annulments later.
It seems like one diocese is trying to do just that: The Phoenix diocese has recently decided to require nine months of marriage preparation instead of the usual six (in addition to mandatory NFP classes) to stem "the tide of marital breakdown."
Over at the Creative Minority Report, guest blogger Erin Manning understands the impulse, but thinks that this kind of "sacramental gatekeeping" is the wrong move:
A couple wishing to marry in the Phoenix Diocese isn't going to undo what might be a couple of decades of religious indifference or bad catechesis with a whopping total of three extra months of preparation, especially when a lot of that preparation is likely to involve being in a classroom with dozens of other couples who are all filling out worksheets with titles like "Relationship tools--what are your expectations of marriage?" or "Money--who is in charge?" A simple Google search of the Pre-Cana program (a standard marriage preparation class for Catholics) shows glowing reviews by couples who attended--and who lived together before marriage and had no idea of separating before the wedding, and who weren't asked to, or who lied and said they had separate addresses, etc. . . .
So what ends up happening is this: the philosophy of Sacramental Gatekeeping keeps thinking that less-serious Catholics can be brought to a greater understanding and appreciation for the sacraments they seek if they have to attend more classes (and pay more class fees), take more tests, prove more attendance, add more "service hours," and otherwise do more and more things that really have very little to do with the sacraments at all as "minimum requirements" for receiving these sacraments. And the less-serious Catholics keep figuring out ways to get around the increasingly burdensome requirements--while those Catholics who do take their faith seriously, who are at Mass every Sunday and Holy Day (and sometimes quite a few weekdays as well), who have been active in their parishes since their Baptisms (or at least since they left the Cry Room) end up being told "You wish to receive a sacrament, or have your child receive one? Great! Here are six more hoops through which you must jump..."
Erin has a valid point: "More" doesn't always mean "better." Sometimes it's just more. But it's clear from her comments that she doesn't find the standard marriage-prep class to be all that enlightening, either. So what's the answer?
As a single person who has never been through a marriage-prep course, I can't really speak to the content of those classes. But with so many friends who have agonized over their vocations, whether a particular person is "the one," when they should be getting married, etc., I've always seen a usefulness for something like a "pre- pre-Cana" program. By the time a couple reaches the marriage-prep stage, the wedding is essentially a done deal -- save-the-date cards have been sent, caterers have been booked, and the odds of a couple calling off (or even simply postponing) a marriage because of any potential issues turned up in their pre-Cana courses seems slim.
So rather than wait until the decision is made, why not help them get to the right decision in the first place? What about marriage discernment counseling or retreats for couples? Most of our current discernment outreach seems focused on the religious life -- a necessary and helpful thing -- but marriage is often treated as the fall-back alternative, without much guidance offered on what the married vocation means or, more particularly, what it might mean for a given couple. As my local priest said recently, "Preparation for the priesthood takes six to eight years. Preparation for marriage can be done in two weekends." Something is not right with this picture.
Still, this is probably the kind of thing that would interest those who take their faith seriously already -- not necessarily those who really need the most guidance on the subject of sacramental marriage. Making it a mandatory step to marriage in the Church doesn't seem likely, or even necessary. But surely helping to guide a couple in making what may be the most important decision of their lives could only help.
What do you guys think? What are some realistic, concrete ways we could improve marriage prep -- or any sacrament prep -- without simply turning them into more "hoops" to jump through?
Gay "Marriage" Study Finds Polyamory Common Posted on February 04, 2010, 9:54 AM | Eric Pavlat
That bastion of conservatism, the New York Times, reports that "monogamy is not a central feature for many" gay and lesbian couples.
In fact, fully 50% of gay couples are involved in polyandry, according to the soon-to-be-released Gay Couples Study by San Francisco State University. (In contrast, between 1.7 and 6% of heterosexual married couples are in open marriages, per the last paragraph of section 2 of this link). A brief trip to Wikipedia lists dozens of sources confirming the frequency of polyamory among homosexuals.
Basically, though some people in the gay marriage movement want only the "right" to "marry" their partners, this legalization will inevitably lead to a radical re-definition of marriage that is harmful to children, and therefore to our very future.
Pope: St. Francis the model for dialogue with Muslims Posted on February 04, 2010, 8:24 AM | Zoe Romanowsky
In his audience last Wednesday, Pope Benedict spoke about the model St. Francis provides for dialogue with other religions, particularly Islam. Francis met in 1210 with the leading Muslim leader, Sultan Malik al-Kamil, in Egypt:
"I want to underline this episode in the life of St. Francis because of its great relevance. At a time when there was a conflict between Christianity and Islam, Francis -- armed only with his faith and his personal meekness -- successfully followed the path of dialogue," the pope said.
St. Francis' desire to speak to the sultan and the sultan's cordial welcome is "a model that must inspire relations between Christians and Muslims today as well, promoting a dialogue in truth, mutual respect and understanding," he said.
What struck me is that the pope’s view of this encounter is similar to that taken by the Franciscan order, which sees the meeting between Francis and the sultan as source and inspiration to its emphasis on inter-religious dialogue. Benedict even uses that sometimes controversial word “dialogue.” That isn’t what I would have expected from someone who was put off by John Paul II’s Franciscan-influenced “spirit of Assisi” approach.
Moses goes on to say that Benedict's seems to reject St. Bonaventure's account of the meeting Francis had with the Sultan. He further hopes the remarks will lead some to reconsider their approach to relations with Muslims.
Working Hard in Florida for InsideCatholic.com Posted on February 03, 2010, 9:02 PM | Deal W. Hudson
I'm in the midst of my annual "swing" through Florida visiting various supporters of InsideCatholic.com. Here I am hitting a 4-iron to the 200 yard 9th hole on the Hills Course at Jonathan's Landing on Jupiter Island. The ball ended up in the trap on the front right of the green. I didn't get up and down, but carded a pretty good score for the day, 76.
My host for the day was Jerry Trautschold, the chairman of our annual Lazarus Golf Tournament. That's Jerry below, hitting off the tee on the same hole -- his shot landed left of the green but did get up and down for his par.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of playing with my friend Jack Whelan at the Bradenton Golf Club, a classic Donald Ross layout where the six-time winner of the British Open, Tony Jacklin, lives in a house on the back nine. Paul Azinger, also a member, holds his annual fundraiser there.
Last night I purposely plotted a driving route from Bradenton, on the East Coast near Tampa, to Jupiter Island through Arcadia and Okeechobee in order to see what the innards of Florida looked like. It's flat and agricultural, as you might imagine, and much of the land must have looked that way for many, many years. The sudden eruptions of subdivisions look comically out of place along the highways bordered by orange groves and turf farms.
Tomorrow I drive down to Miami to meet a new friend, Rodolfo Milani, another round of golf at his Riviera Golf Club, and an interview with Senatorial candidate Marco Rubio. I will try to get home on Friday ahead of the blizzard blowing toward Washington, DC, another 16 or more inches I am told.
It would be such a pity if all the flights were cancelled and I was stuck down here another couple of days! (No, I'm not looking for Super Bowl tickets.)
Bill Watterson, Twenty Years Later Posted on February 03, 2010, 5:30 PM | Joseph Susanka
I've always been a huge fan of Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes comics. There was something about the series' tone -- sarcastic, yet strangely innocent -- that always attracted me to the little boy and his stuffed tiger. And now that I've got an entire household of my own "Calvins," I can see that the man was even more insightful than I though in my early encounters with the strip.
Over at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, features reporter John Campanelli has gotten his hands on something even harder to find than the proverbial hen's teeth: an interview with Watterson himself.
The interview with the famously reclusive Watterson, which arose (I think) out of an article Campanelli was writing in honor of the 15th anniversary of the strip's demise, focuses exclusively on Watterson's involvement with the strip and with his decision to "walk away" at the height of its popularity rather than on any details of Watterson's personal life or current projects -- a focus to which Campanelli attributed the interview's very existence.
I found this question and response particularly interesting, especially given the entertainment industry's current obsession with sequels:
Readers became friends with your characters, so understandably, they grieved -- and are still grieving -- when the strip ended. What would you like to tell them?
This isn't as hard to understand as people try to make it. By the end of 10 years, I'd said pretty much everything I had come there to say.
It's always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now "grieving" for "Calvin and Hobbes" would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them.
I think some of the reason "Calvin and Hobbes" still finds an audience today is because I chose not to run the wheels off it.
Today in History Posted on February 03, 2010, 4:17 PM | Margaret Cabaniss
How had I never heard the story of the Four Chaplains before? On February 3, 1943, a German submarine torpedoed the USAT Dorchester, which was serving as a transfer ship for Allied troops, off the coast of Newfoundland. Four chaplains on board -- a Methodist, a Jewish rabbi, a Catholic priest, and a Reformed Church minister -- heroically ministered to the 904 men on the ship as it began to sink:
The torpedo knocked out the Dorchester's electrical system, leaving the ship dark. Panic set in among the men on board, many of them trapped below decks. The chaplains sought to calm the men and organize an orderly evacuation of the ship, and helped guide wounded men to safety. As life jackets were passed out to the men, the supply ran out before each man had one. The chaplains removed their own life jackets and gave them to others. They helped as many men as they could into lifeboats, and then linked arms and, saying prayers and singing hymns, went down with the ship.
"As I swam away from the ship, I looked back. The flares had lighted everything. The bow came up high and she slid under. The last thing I saw, the Four Chaplains were up there praying for the safety of the men. They had done everything they could. I did not see them again. They themselves did not have a chance without their life jackets." —Grady Clark, survivor
George L. Fox, Alexander D. Goode, John P. Washington, and Clark V. Poling were all posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Service Cross -- but I imagine their reward in Heaven is greater. God bless our military chaplains!
"I suspect that this little book can do more than the most authoritative text to get you motivated to make some important, lasting, health-promoting and planet-saving changes in what and how you eat," she predicts.
I can believe it. Pollan has taken his extensive 20 years-plus research into food science, health, and agriculture and distilled it down to 64 principles in Food Rules. The book is only 139 pages and costs $11.00.
One rule I've already broken today: Eating at a table. Not your desk, not in front of the TV, not in your car. Pollan's food rules are simple, but a quick overview of them reveals just how far we've fallen from healthy eating habits.
In the back room of a theater on Beale Street, John Renken, 42, a pastor, recently led a group of young men in prayer.
“Father, we thank you for tonight,” he said. “We pray that we will be a representation of you.”
An hour later, a member of his flock who had bowed his head was now unleashing a torrent of blows on an opponent, and Mr. Renken was offering guidance that was not exactly prayerful.
“Hard punches!” he shouted from the sidelines of a martial arts event called Cage Assault. “Finish the fight! To the head! To the head!”
Renken is the founder of Xtreme Ministries, a church-slash-mixed-martial-arts academy outside of Nashville. The New York Times article calls it one of a "small but growing number" of evangelical churches to combine MMA with church services in an attempt to reach out to young men.
“Compassion and love — we agree with all that stuff, too,” said Brandon Beals, 37, the lead pastor at Canyon Creek Church outside of Seattle. “But what led me to find Christ was that Jesus was a fighter.”
This isn't a new concept, of course: Churches have tried all sorts of things to get young people in the doors, and we've had long conversations here about the need today for more manly expressions of faith. So is this idea on the right track, or is it overcorrecting for all that "compassion and love stuff"? I expect our MMA fans out there might have a thing or two to say about this, too...
Things got a little heated around here last week on 
I'm in the midst of my annual "swing" through Florida visiting various supporters of InsideCatholic.com. Here I am hitting a 4-iron to the 200 yard 9th hole on the Hills Course at Jonathan's Landing on Jupiter Island. The ball ended up in the trap on the front right of the green. I didn't get up and down, but carded a pretty good score for the day, 76. 
Michael Pollan's new book, Food Rules, is number one on Amazon and was called "the best nutrition book in 40 years," by 
