- Saints of Google. It’s funny how Google unwittingly promotes the communion of saints. Christians believe that the communion of saints is the spiritual bond of the faithful on earth, the souls in purgatory and the saints in heaven. In the bigger picture, there is life after death – with a connection to the living. Google delights in celebrating the birthdays of their favorite humanist and liberal icons. But why celebrate the 287th birthday of Jan Ingenhousz if he is no more? Commemorating his greatest achievement (discovering photosynthesis) should probably be tied to the date of the discovery, not his birth date. But that’s not how Google does it. Old Jan does live on – and not just because Google dedicated a Doodle to him. Perhaps a little more reflection by the Googlers on where their dead heroes ended up after death might lead them to put real saints in the Doodles.
- Time to Put Down Grandma? People have always loved their pets, but they euthanize them without a second thought. Nobody would suggest there is any redemptive value to Rover’s suffering. But people are different. No matter how much Grandma is suffering, most people would have serious qualms about directly ending her life. Why? It’s a strange thing called natural law. We instinctively know that to take Grandma’s life is markedly different from taking Rover’s life. In our hearts, we know Grandma has to complete her walk of life, without being pushed off a cliff. And so compassion for Grandma is the opposite of compassion for Rover. But as the line begins to blur between people’s love for their pets (which has become a kind of insanity) and their love for their family (which has become detached indifference to an impermanent group of self-centered individuals), is it no wonder that people are seeking to perpetuate their pets through cloning and rid themselves of their grandmothers through euthanasia?
- Think of the Children. As the family is redefined without reference to the needs of children, the national debt becomes both an anchor and a bludgeon for future generations, religion in America becomes merely a banal habit at best and a diabolic tool at worst, and our culture morphs from respectful restraint into salacious sensuality, does anyone think future generations will have it better than past generations? There was a time when progress meant hope – penicillin, air travel, even computer processing. Now progress means despair – sex change operations, abortion pills and internet pornography. Culturally, my kids aren’t likely to inherit a better world. But spiritually it’s still possible. Nearly 50 years of the “spirit of Vatican II” is building an inexorable force behind the faithful. When the dam breaks, the conflict between the culture and the faithful will bring many spiritual benefits. The coming generations just have to hang on through it all and stand like a rocky outcrop in the rushing waters – their souls cleansed and freed by the deluge.
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