David McHan

test everything, retain what is good.

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

Friends, in the movie “Fury,” a group of soldiers—men who have been at each other’s throats—face a crossroads when their tank breaks down: Will they fight or flee?

Brad Pitt’s character, the leader of the group, decides to stay and fight. And remarkably, despite the desperate situation before them, one by one the other men decide to stay with him. There is a beautiful scene in the tank where the men move beyond their differences and bond before the battle ensues.

How did this happen? As I see it, they got over their resentments because they accepted a common mission.

When you’re clear on your mission, you realize your life is not about you and let go of your ego. You are liberated to get on with the business of your life!

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

Friends, it was a delight to sit down with @TheoVon for an episode of “This Past Weekend.”

We had a wide-ranging discussion about the Catholic faith in today’s culture, finding purpose in an increasingly artificial world, and the connection between faith and love.

I invite you to watch our conversation below.

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

Friends, for the wokeist philosophy that dominates today, empathy—feeling the feelings of the other and not harming those feelings—is treated as a supreme value. But while empathy is perfectly good and decent, the Bible teaches that love, not empathy, is the supreme value. And love does not mean, primarily, feeling the feelings of the other or not hurting those feelings; it means willing the good of the other—and that can be, as Dostoevsky said, “a harsh and dreadful thing.”

[G. K. Chesterton @GKCdaily]

America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence; perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also theoretical politics and also great literature.

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

The horror film “Obsession” is a surprise hit at the box office this summer. Made for around one million dollars, it has already grossed over a hundred and fifty million. But it's not only a financial success; it's also a spiritually quite interesting film. What drives the plot is a young man's ardent desire to be loved by the woman whom he loves. Seeking a gift for Nikki in an occult store, Bear finds a device that advertises itself as “One Wish Willow.” If you break the stick and make a wish, it will come true. In his desperation, he follows the instructions, and it works like a charm. The previously diffident Nikki becomes totally devoted to the delighted Bear. All his dreams, it seems, have come true. Then things go, shall we say, south. I won't spoil any more of the plot. Suffice it to say that Nikki proceeds to devour the young man and push him toward despair.

Throughout this film, I kept thinking of Oscar Wilde's famous line: “the only thing worse than not getting what you want is getting what you want.” The spiritual issue here is one that the masters have recognized for centuries and one that stands at the very heart of Biblical revelation: if you tie your deepest desire to anything or anyone other than God, you will find, not satisfaction, but destruction. This is the moral teaching behind the great Shema prayer: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is Lord alone.” Jesus reiterates this when he says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your strength.” The psalmist affirms it when he sings, “Only in God will my soul be at rest.”

During the rite of Confirmation, I ask the young people a series of questions, the first of which is “do you renounce Satan and all his works and empty promises?” Up and down the ages, Satan has made the same empty promise: I will give you something less than God and it will make you happy. In point of fact, it will ruin you, and the more you seek to acquire it, the unhappier you will become. What becomes clear in the course of “Obsession” is that the owners of the occult shop where Bear bought the fateful wish-willow are in fact involved with very dark spiritual powers. In my conversations with exorcists, I hear over and over again that those who get ensnared by the devil commence by dabbling in the occult.

“Obsession” is a good horror movie. If you like the genre, and you're not too squeamish, go see it. For it won't just scare you; it will offer some important spiritual truths.

[Tod Worner @ThinkerCatholic]

What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.
—Flannery O’Connor

[Alcuin Press @AlcuinPress]

“We laugh at honour, and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”

—C.S. Lewis

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

A recent statement by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez illuminates the Marxist ideology which continues to take hold of American politicians. Here are my thoughts.

[David McHan @mccurmudgeon]

@Perry_smitgil Possum

[Three Year Letterman @3YearLetterman]

If the Bible was written in English, there’s no reason the Super Bowl halftime shouldn’t be as well

[David McHan @mccurmudgeon]

@KTSmithFFSN All the naysayers acting like winning a championship is like delivering a pizza to the right address.

[David Burge @iowahawkblog]

The invasions will continue until the Nobel Peace Prizes are granted

[James Lindsay, anti-Communist @ConceptualJames]

What will we call them? Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia seem like bad choices for some reason.

[Ray Padgett @rayfp]

Bob Dylan writes about Willie Nelson in a new New Yorker profile

(Bob also says before this, "It’s hard to talk about Willie without saying something stupid or irrelevant, he is so much of everything")

[Madoc Cairns @MadocCairns]

"It has become increasingly common to drag the language of faith into political battles, to bless nationalism, to justify violence...Believers must actively refute, above all by the witness of their lives, these forms of blasphemy that profane the holy name of God"

Pope Leo XIV

[Steven Pinker @sapinker]

From my appearance on 60 Minutes:

Me:
Research works. If you want to freeze society where it is, then cripple the research enterprise.

Bill Whitaker of 60 Minutes:
Is that whole idea being lost in the harsh rhetoric by the administration?

Me:
The attack on universities is a tragic blunder. For all the foibles of universities, and there are many, and I pointed them out, universities' research makes life better, massively so. Why would you want to cripple it? It's something that the United States does really, really well.

[Alex Kozora @Alex_Kozora]

Darnell Washington vs the Bengals defense. #Steelers

[David McHan @mccurmudgeon]

@gunsnrosesgirl3 Hello!

[Catholic Frequency @CatholicFQ]

“Don’t let the algorithm write your story! Be the authors: use technology wisely, but don’t let technology use you.”

- Pope Leo XIV

[David McHan @mccurmudgeon]

@gunsnrosesgirl3