November 05, 2007
Aargh!
(Jimmy Akin)
Okay, so I really, *really* meant to blog tonight!
I know, my life has been crazy hectic of late (the fires being only one of the reasons for that), but tonight I had a night off and I wanted to blog and then . . .
And then . . .
Just after 7 p.m. my lights flickered . . . and went out.
Then they flickered again . . . and went out again.
Blackout!
Power failure!
It's the first time in a year or two, but tonight my area of El Cajon went dark. Not even the nearby streetlights were working.
And I've spent the last three hours killing time by candlelight, bored out of my gourd.
(It's not like a hundred years ago when there were no blogs and everyone was used to candlelight and it would have been business as usual.)
I was just starting to blog this fact from my iPhone when the power suddenly came back on, and I decided to switch over to my computer (while it lasts).
Anyway, just wanted to say that I haven't forgotten y'all, and I hope to be back to blogging full strength soon.
Later!
Jimmy
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (28)
August 31, 2007
Computer Problems
(Jimmy Akin)
Tonight, and increasingly in recent days, I've had trouble or found it impossible to blog due to computer problems.
At present it appears that my hard drive may be dying, and this has been interfering with my ability to blog without untimely freezes and crashes.
Tonight I'm initiating a full-HD backup, and I anticipate that I'll be blogging from new hardware in the next couple of days.
Wanted to let y'all know, and talk with you soon!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (51)
August 25, 2007
Two New Rules
(Jimmy Akin)
Have been added to Da Rulz:
23. The following terms are pejorative and their use as actual descriptors (as opposed, for example, to quoting someone else's use of them for purposes of critique) constitutes rudeness: "Romanist," "Romish," "Roman" (when used to mean or as a substitute for "Catholic"), "Roman Church" (when used to mean the entire Catholic Church, as opposed to the Roman church sui iuris that exists within the Catholic Church), "Papist," Papistic," "Papistical," "Popish," and any cognate terms based on the terms "Roman" or "Pope."
The term to be used on this blog is Catholic, without scare quotes.
This is a Catholic blog, and Catholics are to be called Catholics on it.
24. It constitutes rudeness to make inflammatory assertions that one is not prepared to back up by anything more than hearsay (e.g., "Mother Theresa prayed to Hindu idols. I know because my friend said so.").
Inflammatory claims are those likely to inflame passions. An inflammatory claim can be true. But because of its emotion-stirring character, it requires concrete evidence (more than just hearsay) to back it up if the discourse is to be kept civil and not degenerate into an impassioned muddle.
(NOTE: I've added clarifiers to these rules based on issues that came up in the combox below. The corresponding changes have been made to Da Rulz page as well.)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (555)
August 09, 2007
That Catholic Show #7
(Jimmy Akin)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (18)
August 07, 2007
The Beckwith Chronicles
(Jimmy Akin)
Francis Beckwith has begun doing interviews on his reversion to the Catholic Church following an extended stay in Evangelicalism, which included a stint as the president of the Evangelical Theological Society.
He has yet to do an interview in a major radio or TV Catholic venue (though those are planned), but recently he granted an interview to Greg Koukl of the Evangelical radio program Stand to Reason.
GET THE INTERVIEW (MP3 DOWNLOAD).
I think Frank did very well under difficult conditions. It was mere weeks after his return to the Church, and the environment was more hostile that expected. In fact, he called Greg on the carpet for presenting a more confrontational interview than he understood would be the case, but the two men are friends and this very much showed through, with both seeking to be charitable and balanced with the other.
I thought Greg definitely engaged in "steamroller" tactics at various points (that is, he threw multiple verses at Frank without letting him have a proper chance to respond), but overall the interview was in the service of truth as the participants saw it.
Be sure to check it out.
More later.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (323)
July 26, 2007
The Most Merciful Thing In The World Goes Kablooey
(Jimmy Akin)
H. P. Lovecraft's fictional narrator begins the story The Call of Cthulhu, by writing:
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
Well, that situation has just gone kablooey.
I mean, Google has been eating away at the fact that there are so many disparate bits of knowledge that no one person can piece them all together, but then there's this:
From one perspective, this is wicked awesome--amazing!--but from another perspective it is really, really frightening (and like a good horror story, it starts normal--cool even--and gets scarier as it goes).
Somewhere, Lovecraft's narrator is screaming.
(CHT to the readers who have e-mailed!)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (34)
July 12, 2007
That Catholic Show
(Jimmy Akin)
A reader writes:
Hi Jimmy,
I don't believe you and I have ever traded emails before, but my name is Greg Willits from Rosary Army and SQPN.
I don't know if you've had a chance to see it, but my wife and I have recently launched a new online video series called "That Catholic Show."
We just posted episode 6 yesterday entitled "You Are A Priest Forever."
If you have a moment, I'd love to have you take a look at it. So far we've posted 6 episodes and they can all be seen at http://www.ThatCatholicShow.com
Below is a direct link to the latest episode, as well as a link for embedding, should you want to share it on your site. Any help you can give in getting word out about That Catholic Show would be greatly appreciated.
By the way, my wife and I will be the guests on Catholic Answers Live on August 3rd. I believe Jerry will be hosting that night.
Thanks for writing, Greg; it's nice to make your acquaintance! I've heard really good things about That Catholic Show, but this was the first episode that I've had a chance to watch. I'm very impressed, and I especially appreciate your use of humor! (Humor is kinda special to me.) Very pleased to get the word out about the show, so here's an embed of it:
Good luck on Catholic Answers Live and, BTW, if I can ever help in any way with the show, be sure to let me know!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (18)
June 21, 2007
A Last Chance & Two New Rules
(Jimmy Akin)
John has been warned repeatedly about hobby-horseism but recently posted a comment on the Spanish television set entry that was guaranteed to spin it off into a discussion about Latin and bishops and traditionalism. He is now given his last chance to avoid disinvitation to participate in the blog. If he doesn't keep discussions of Latin, the bishops, and traditionalism to entries dealing with those subjects, he's gone.
I'm also announcing the creation of two new entries in DA RULZ:
21. Commenters in the combox are to use either their real name or a (non-offensive, non-spiteful) handle that distinguishes them from others when posting comments. They are not to post comments while leaving the "Name" field blank. It's rude to expect people to interact with you and give them no way to refer to you.
22. When someone is under a warning not to ride his hobby horse, others on the blog are not to post comments tempting him to get back on the hobby horse (e.g., "I wonder what So-and-so will do to twist this thread onto his favorite topic"). That's rude because it tempts another person to break a rule when he already may have trouble restraining himself on a particular topic.
Last time I gave John a warning, he asked that others not taunt him in this way, and I agree with that sentiment. I've seen people under a hobby-horse warning get goaded into breaking the restriction, and it's not fair to them.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (27)
May 31, 2007
What Steve Dillard's Up To
(Jimmy Akin)
Steve Dillard struck the tent on his popular blog Southern Appeal a few months ago, but he isn't gone from the Internet.
Currently he's working on the web site CatholicsAgainstRudy.Com, which hasn't even gone online yet, but it's already getting attention from the press.
LIKE THIS ARTICLE.
OR THIS HARDBALL INTERVIEW (PART ONE) (PART TWO)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (17)
May 03, 2007
Things Have Been So Busy They've Been Slow
(Jimmy Akin)
Just a note to let folks know why blogging has been so slow this week. Basically, I've been getting ready for the Catholic Answers pilgrimage/cruise that will be happening during the next two weeks. This involves not only preparation for the trip itself but also getting work and other stuff done that can't wait till I get back. I've been so swamped the last few days that I haven't had time to blog.
I'm starting to get over the hump of preparations, though, and so I hope to get at least some pre-blogging done to cover the period during the trip.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (33)
April 23, 2007
An Update and a Request
(Jimmy Akin)
Our YouTube friend Mike in Michgan has an update and a prayer request concerning his journey to the Church . . .
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (29)
April 16, 2007
Mr. Crusher!
(Jimmy Akin)
A reader writes:
I don't know if you're aware of it, but your blog has been put up for Best Religious Blog on the bloggers choice awards.
http://bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/3333
However, through some sick and twisted joke of fate, fans of Wesley Crusher (why Wesley Crusher, he was the most annoying character during the most annoying years of STNG?) have for some odd reason voted Wil Wheaton's blog to the top of the category.
As an SF fan, you surely can understand the horror that this must stir in any Catholic, and any SF fan. It would be one thing if Bhuddists or Episcopalians or devotees of the Giant Spagetti Monster were winning. But Wesley Crusher?
No. It cannot be.
Please let your readers know that you've been nominated so we can get a Catholic blog back up on top instead of WESLEY CRUSHER.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (87)
March 19, 2007
Blogging for the Dark Side
(Jimmy Akin)
This weekend I got a piece of e-mail that I thought was going to be an attempt at phishing, and I opened it expecting to quickly hit the "Report Phishing" doo-dad in Gmail.
But it didn't contain a phishing appeal in the text of the e-mail itself. (You know, all those Nigeria/wherever variants on The Spanish Prisoner). Instead, it contained a link to a blog on Blogspot.
Ostensibly, the e-mail was from the pastor of a church in another country who had set up a blog and was inviting me to read it, but the e-mail still threw off phishing vibes to me even though there was no appeal for money in the e-mail itself.
So I clicked on the link and took a look at the blog.
I found what appeared to be the blog of a pastor in another country. Yet the way the thing was written and the way it re-used photographs kept my spider sense tingling and, sure enough, sandwiched in to various blog posts were appeals for financial support, and something in my brain said: "Two-step phishing routine; phishers may start sending out innocent-seeming e-mails as bait to get people to sites where traditional phishing is carried out."
Now, I don't know for sure that this wasn't legit. It may be that this really as the blog of a pastor in another country, who is innocently asking for donations.
Which is why I'm not naming the site. I don't want to falsely accuse someone who is legitimate.
But just coincidentally, later that day, I happened to run into
THIS STORY ABOUT BLOGSPOT BEING INFECTED WITH PHISHING AND MALWARE-SPREADING BLOGS.
Be careful out there, folks.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (17)
February 28, 2007
They Call Him . . . Cardinal YouTube (Part 1)
(Jimmy Akin)
Reflections for the first Sunday (Week) of Lent, from Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia . . .
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February 22, 2007
Some Changes
(Jimmy Akin)
You may notice some subtle changes on JA.O today. Last night I finally bit the bullet and started monkeying with the templates that Typepad uses to frame the site's content. This is not as easy as one might imagine, which is why I do it so infrequently, but it was time. In fact, at one point I had to circumvent Typepad's proprietary code and just use a brute force HTML technique, but now it's done.
Here's the changes:
1) NEW AWARDS! I've added the Catholic Blog Awards I won in 2007 and 2006 to the site. This year I won Smartest Catholic Blog (a new category) and Best Apologetics Blog. Last year I won Most Informative and Best Blog by a Man (categories that weren't awarded this year) and Best Apologetics.
The awards are now in the right hand sidebar (scroll down). The reason that the 2006es hadn't been added before now is long and complex, and I won't try your patience with it (though it has to do in part with the difficulty of revising the templates).
I want to say a big THANK YOU and CHT! to all who nominated JA.O and voted for it! I really appreciate it, and it means a lot to me that people would find the work I do here valuable enough to vote for it. That kind of support from readers really helps me keep going.
2) Correspondingly, I've removed the 2005 award from the banner at the top of the page. It's now down with the other awards in the sidebar.
3) I've fixed the search feature that's at the top of the right-hand sidebar. I used to use a search service that never was really spiffy and that for some time hasn't worked at all (it seems). It had gotten to the point that I had given up using the search feature altogether and was just using Google when I needed to search my archives. So now that I was fixing the templates, I decided to chuck the old search feature and replace it with Google (customized so that it searches JA.O)! This should make it a lot easier on everyone (me included) wanting to search old entries!
4) I flipped the order of the "Recent Posts"and "Recent Comments" elements in the sidebar as well. Experience showed me that I spent more time looking down at the Recent Comments than I did looking up at the Recent Posts, since comments change more often than posts do, so I put Recent Comments on top. This should also avoid people with certain screen resolutions from having to scroll down to see the comments, again making it easier on all.
So those are the changes. Hope you like them, and thanks again!
Enjoy!
P.S. Apologies if blogging is slow today due to monkeying with the templates.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (24)
February 19, 2007
CHT?
(Jimmy Akin)
Many readers ask what the CHT abbreviation that I use on the blog means.
Other blogs sometimes use HT for "hat tip" to readers or to other blogs that point things out.
I wear cowboy hats so . . . CHT.
NOTE: This will now be a permapost to try to help people find the answer quicker.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (11)
February 16, 2007
2007 Catholic Blog Awards
(Jimmy Akin)
The 2007 Catholic Blog Awards are now voting, and it seems I've been nominated in a number of categories.
Thanks for all who nominated me and who have already voted for JA.O.
May the best blogs win.
CLICK HERE TO VOTE.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (84)
February 13, 2007
Blog Week Lite?
(Jimmy Akin)
Just a note to let folks know that I'm currently having to devote a significant amount of time to a writing project (the Mormonism booklet for the publisher outside the U.S.), and blogging may be light this week.
I'll do my best to at least throw up some interesting links, though.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (3)
January 30, 2007
Googlewhacking JA.O
(Jimmy Akin)
A reader writes:
Hey, Jimmy - you're a Googlewhack!
I don't know if you're aware of the Googlewhacking phenomenon, but your blog is the only page on the Internet to feature both words 'ediacaran gerrymandered'. You're a one in three billion chance!
I can't claim credit for finding this out myself; some friends and I on h2g2 were trying to find some and yours was the first to be found.
Congratulations, and have a great day!
Thanks much! I had no idea!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (34)
January 27, 2007
JA.O Brainstorming Bleg
(Jimmy Akin)
Howdy, folks!
I thought I'd harness the power of the Internet by asking y'all if you could help me brainstorm something.
Currently my square dance club is starting a new class for beginners. We dance on Friday nights in Lakeside, California, and the thing about square dance classes is that you need to get all your new students right at the beginning. Unless someone is already an experienced dancer, it's not really possible for people to join in mid class.
Given this, we're trying to find as many new students as we can, and I'm trying to find as many new promising techniques for getting students as possible.
We're already asking friends and co-workers if they'd like to learn and leaving flyers at local businesses. Those are standard methods of finding potential students.
I thought of doing PSAs on local country music stations, posting ads on CraigsList, and calling local churches (church folks are always looking for good, clean fun--and that's exactly what we've got). Another club member thought of e-mailing our flyer to the local freebie papers.
But I'm in the market for ideas, and I thought I'd ask y'all if you had any!
The two key criteria are:
1) It has to be free (or at least very cheap) and
2) It has to be something that can be done quickly. We only have the next couple of Fridays to get new students in.
Can the ultra-intelligent readership of JA.O come through with good suggestions?
Lemme know in the combox!
BTW, I know I've got readers in the San Diego area. If y'all're looking for something FUN to do on Friday nights, come by! It's tons of fun--for singles, couples, or whole families! I'll be there, and we'd love to have you give square dancing a try! (MORE INFO & DIRECTIONS.)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (34)
January 23, 2007
About Today's Posts
(Jimmy Akin)
I know that today's posts were brief and didn't have the analysis or commentary that I usually provide, and I thought I'd offer an explanation.
There are some days when, for a variety of reasons, I'm not able to do a usual day's blogging. Last night it was because I had to preside over a 3-hour board meeting of my square dance club (you'd be amazed how much business a club's board needs to discuss!), and it took up my usual blog time.
I thought about putting up a Blog Day Off post, but I don't like leaving regular visitors with nothing new to read or discuss if I can avoid it, so I decided to do an "Instapundit Day." I figured, Instapundit can get away with running one of the biggest blogs there is (FAR bigger than mine) by providing brief entries, so--even though it's not what JA.O readers are used to--perhaps I can avoid some Blog Days Off (at least some of them) by doing brief entries like those I used today.
I hope the experiment was successful (or at least preferable to the alternative) and provided some interesting food for thought and discussion.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (13)
January 18, 2007
Blog Day Off
(Jimmy Akin)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (26)
January 17, 2007
Offering Help For Mike
(Jimmy Akin)
(CHT to the reader who e-mailed!)
The above video illustrates the way in which technology is changing evangelization.
Mike is a very thoughtful, sincere young man who is investigating the Catholic faith, and he has used YouTube to request help.
I tried logging in to leave a comment for his video, but for some reason YouTube wouldn't let me. If some who has a YouTube account could leave a comment for him pointing him to this post, I would be most appreciative.
Mike asks several questions in his video, including why converts became Catholic, why Catholics believe their faith (as opposed to the teachings of other groups of Christians), and what resources he could look to.
Here are my answers:
1) My own conversion story is online HERE.
2) HERE is a treatment of how I'd support Catholicism for someone coming from a Protestant background.
3) I would strongly recommend the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a resource offering a brief treatment of Catholic teaching in convenient Q & A format.
I'd also point out that the Catechism itself is online (Mike mentions that he's planning on buying it).
I'd also recommend going to Catholic.Com for further info, including both its online library and its forums. I'd also note that I answer many questions about the faith here on JimmyAkin.Org.
I particularly agree with Mike's statement that, in investigating the Catholic faith, there is only so much you can teach yourself, and you ultimately need to reach out to others. I've been at that point. When I was becoming Catholic, I hit the point at which I had done all I could with books and I needed input from an actual human being who was informed about the faith and who could respond to my questions. At that point there was no Internet, no Catholic radio, and it was hard going. Eventually, I found Catholic Answers, and that was an enormous help. I want to do all I can to help others who have reached the same point in their journey.
Thanks much, and God bless Mike for using the new tools of communication to help him as he pursues God's will for his life!
20
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (67)
January 10, 2007
Blog Day Off
(Jimmy Akin)
Need a blog day off today.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (20)
January 03, 2007
The Curtain Closes On A Long-Time Blog
(Jimmy Akin)
Readers of JA.O may recall a few months ago when Bill Moyers sicced his lawyers on me that I was represented by Steve Dillard, a lawyer and fellow-blogger who ran the popular Catholic blog Southern Appeal. I really appreciate Steve's help, on this occasion and others, as well as the lively blogging he and his compatriots have provided.
I was sorry to learn, just before the holidays, that Southern Appeal is closing its doors. Its proprietor, Steve Dillard, has decided for personal and professional reasons to discontinue the blog.
I know I'll miss it, and many others will, too. Southern Appeal was one of the earliest and most popular Catholic blogs, bringing faith-based commentary on a wide range of issues, particularly social and political ones.
It was also a robust group blog, with many co-bloggers from a variety of perspectives (some of them Protestant) who worked together respectfully and well.
If you've read Southern Appeal before, be sure to
In it he notes where you'll be able to read the continuing blogging efforts of his co-bloggers, as well as keep up to date on his own speaking engagements.
If you've enjoyed Southern Appeal, you might also take a moment to leave Steve and his co-bloggers a note letting them know and expressing support for their future blogging efforts.
God go with you, Steve and all. I look forward to seeing you around the Internet.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (2)
Technology For The Scrupulous
(Jimmy Akin)
There are certain subjects that I tend to handle by e-mail rather than posting them on the blog. I very much prefer (and ask) that when people e-mail me they let me post their question (in anonymized form) and its answer so that others can benefit from it, but sometimes, if the issue is especially sensitive, I'll handle it by e-mail instead.
One case where I tend to do that is when people feel that they may have done something that God will not forgive them for--something unpardonable.
The reason that I tend to help people like that via e-mail is that I don't want to stir up worries unnecessarily in other readers, who may be scrupulous. I mean, if you're scrupulous and you'd never thought that Sin X is unpardonable then why should I make your life harder by publishing a blog post entertaining the question that it is. Even if I offer sound arguments for why God forgives Sin X, you'd probably rather not have even known about the issue--at least if you're scrupulous.
I feel it's important to help people who are afraid that they have done something that will permanently damn them. It's a common worry that affects a lot of people at some point during their lives, and it's an absolutely terrifying position to be in, so I want to help people who are at that point, and I want to do so without stirring up fears needlessly in others.
Thus far my solution has been handling queries like that largely by e-mail, but this limits the potential good that the answer may do. What I'd rather do is write the answers in some kind of web-based repository where they can benefit multiple people--but without needlessly stirring up fears.
This would also have the benefit of letting people go back to the repository when they need to in order to calm their fears. I had one person write me, and I sent him material that he found helpful, and he'd re-read my e-mails to comfort himself whenever he got fearful, but then his e-mail crashed and he lost them all. (Fortunately, I was able to pull them up out of my e-mail and re-send them.)
A key element in doing that would be to break the subject up in to little chunks so that the fearful could read those chunks that applied to them and not the ones that didn't.
There are also certain chunks that I'd want to make sure that almost everyone reads (e.g., the fact that the story of the Prodigal Son was given to us precisely in order to stress the fact that you can begin as a son of the Father, then go off into horrible, horrible sin, and still come back and be forgiven, which serves as a reference point for God's mercy that has to be kept in mind when reading other passages).
The question is how to present these little chunks to the reader in the best way, and that's where I'd like advice from people.
Two plausible options occur to me. There may be others also, and if so I'd like to hear about them, but here are the two I'm thinking about at the moment:
1) The Minimally-Tagged Presentation
In this version I'd have a list at the top of the page of the things I think virtually everyone should read. I'd advise people to click on these things and read them.
Below this would be a list of answers to the particular things that worry people. The items on this list would be very brief and as non-descriptive as possible (i.e., minimally tagged) so as not to stir up needless fears. For example, many entries in the list might just be the citation of a scripture passage (Book X, Chapter Y) and nothing else. That way if you were having a fear that something in Book X, Chapter Y meant that you were irretrivable damned, you could click on that link and find out why this isn't the case.
I could then tell people to read only the entries that are actually bothering them and, if they're not sure what the reference is for the passage they have in mind, I could provide a link to a searchable Bible so that they could look up the reference and know what to click on.
The drawbacks of this approach are the facts that (a) some people may click on things that aren't bugging them (in fact, some people may have anxiety over what's under all the different links that they start clicking them just to find out) and (b) they may not be able to figure out what one that want to click on, even if I provide a link to a searchable Bible.
2) The Non-Tagged Version
This version would start out with links to the chunks that I think almost all of the fearful should read, as before, but it would not have the second list. Instead, it would have a search box, and you'd enter search terms relating to your fear and be given results you could click on to read the corresponding chunks. The idea here is that you wouldn't even see things that weren't already bugging you, and so they wouldn't raise needless fears.
The drawbacks here are (a) people might not enter the right search terms (they misspell things, use different abbreviations for biblical books, use different translations that use different vocabulary) and might miss the material was there to help them, and (b) they might generate too many results and see things that end up stirring up new fears anyway (e.g., the word "unpardonable" or "unforgivable" might show up in almost every item in the repository, and if they wouldn't the word "and" or "the" would).
The latter problem might be ameliorable if I were able to get someone to do me a custom search function that would only accept certain terms, but that could exacerbate problem (a) at the expense of curing problem (b).
So I'm not sure what to do.
I'd like to find a way to use technology to provide help for people on these points without the risk of placing greater burdens on them, but it seems like some degree of risk will be unavoidable, and it isn't clear which of these approaches (if either) is the better. There may also be a third approach that I'm not even considering.
My question for you--particularly if you are someone who struggles with these kinds of issues--is what you think. Which approach do you think would be most beneficial--and, if you think you have a better solution than either of them--what it is.
Much obliged for the feedback, folks!
BTW, I *totally* understand if folks would prefer to comment anonymously on this one. Just make up a new, temporary handle for yourself. That'll make the discussion easier than if we have a bunch of anonymous blanks.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (15)
December 27, 2006
JA Needs Your Help!
(Jimmy Akin)
No, not Jimmy Akin (this time). The other JA--John Allen. He explains:
My next book is titled "The Upside Down Church," a sort of sneak preview of Catholic history in the 21st century. I outline a series of mega-trends which I believe are turning the church on its head, especially with respect to the dominant paradigms in the 40-plus years since the close of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). In order for that analysis to hold water, however, I have to identify these mega-trends correctly.
By "mega-trend," I mean a deep impulse shaping Catholic thought and life at the universal level, a sort of "tectonic plate" whose shifts lie beneath the fault lines and upheavals of the present. I have in mind not single issues, but currents of history which cause some issues to rise in importance and others to fall. A mega-trend, by the way, does not have to be specifically Catholic, but rather something that affects Catholicism in a significant way. For example, the rise of Islam, especially its more radical forms, certainly belongs on the list.
My request is this: Read this list, and ponder it. Are there major forces I've neglected? Are there items here that don't belong? Does this list correspond with your own sense of what's happening in the church?
The items on his list (in summary form and no particular order) are:
The North/South Shift
The Quest for Catholic Identity
The Rise of Islam
The Movements
The Biotech Revolution
The Wireless World
The Wojtyla Revolution
Globalization
Polarization and Its Discontents
The Sexual Abuse Crisis
READ THE ARTICLE FOR MORE INFO ON EACH.
Of the trends that JA lists, the ones that leap out at me as having the largest impact on the next century are the North/South shift, the rise of Islam, the biotech revolution, and the wireless world. I've already commented on the blog on the impact that each of these will have, though without using JA's labels for them. Globalization will be a big one, too.
What he calls the Wojtyla revolution--basically pointing the Church away from post-Vatican II navel gazing and tinkering and instead engaging the culture--may have a large impact on 21st century Catholicism, but this depends on the course charted by future popes in a way that the other trends do not. It was the actions of recent popes that were in significant measure responsible for the situation that developed prior to "the Wojtyla revolution" (e.g., Paul VI's ineffectual response to the Humanae Vitae dissenters) and an unsteady hand from future popes could undo the gains of the revolution.
I'm less sure about the polarization and the sexual abuse crisis and whether they will play century-spanning roles in shaping the Church. Some amount of polarization in the Church has always been with us (read 1 Corinthians) and always will be with us. The kind of extreme, ideological polarization that we've seen in the last number of years, however, strikes me as something that has already begun to abate--due to the Wojtyla revolution and due to the fact that one of the major poles--liberal Catholicism--is inherently unstable.
The ideological equivalent of the Roe Effect is at work here. Religious liberalism of the kind that we've dealt with of late is and has in every context in Christendom proved itself to be an unviable in the long-term. It doesn't reproduce itself, which is why religious orders that have been infected with it are dying, while those that have resisted it are surviving or growing. One can't have a strongly polarized environment--at least one gravitating around two poles--if one pole evaporates to the point that it is no longer a serious ideological competitor to the other.
There will still be polarization, but we've already likely seen the high water mark of liberal dissent in the Church--as long as future popes keep a steady hand on matters.
As far as sexual scandal goes, I think that there is significant potential for future damage, but I suspect that it will change form somewhat. We may have (in the English-speaking world) seen the high water mark of the scandal of priests having sexual relations with minors. How widespread that problem has been outside the English-speaking world, I don't know. What I suspect is that, while there may be periodic flare-ups of scandal involving minors, that the really big scandal is one that the media has yet to frame in such a way that it reaches critical mass. That scandal will be sexual relations between priests and other consenting adults. In particular, I would anticipate three kinds of scandals that, while there are precedents, have not yet exploded the way the sexual abuse crisis did:
1) Heterosexual priests living in concubinage and fathering children, particularly in the developing world.
2) Lay ex-lovers (both hetero- and homosexual), particularly in the developed world, who finger clerical paramours (some of whom may have pressured them into having abortions)
3) Rings of homosexual clerics who have colluded to further each others' interests (as well as having sex with each other) and who have committed a variety of crimes--up to and including murder--to protect those in the ring from exposure.
None of this, incidentally, will be unique to the Catholic Church. This stuff is part of the fallen human condition, and the exact same things happen in non-Catholic churches and non-Christian religions and in secular society. But becaue of the Church's commitment to celibacy, the taste of the press for scandal (which is stronger even than its desire to promote non-traditional sexual mores), and its anti-Catholic animus, I expect to see particular attention focused on each of these three areas in the next century.
Needless to say, the quicker the Church cleans up the problems mentioned above and the sources feeding them, such as ordination of homosexuals to the priesthood, the more the effects can be blunted.
Let's keep the century ahead in prayer.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (69)
December 21, 2006
Music To Surf By
(Jimmy Akin)
A BIG CHT to the reader who recommended
Which was suggested to him by a gracious Christian lady.
It's a free, Internet jukebox that you can use while you are reading blogs--or otherwise surfing the Internet.
It advertises itself as "The best of the top 100 from the golden years of popular music," and the main section is divided into years from 1952 to 1982. When you click on a year, it generates a pop-up window with a playlist of famous songs from that year that you can listen to in the background as you surf other sites.
In addition, it has links to specialized collections, such as the "Swing Era" (before 1952), the featured artist of the week (e.g., Nat King Cole), Movie Themes, TV Themes, Christmas music, Pop Gospel, and others.
The playlists aren't (so far as I can tell) randomly generated, making it easy to pick up where you left off last time if you weren't finished with one. Just scroll down to the same song you left off on.
Enjoy.
GET THE TUNES!
P.S. I really love the fact that the 1955 playlist has the Ames Brothers' "The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane" (it's #13 on the list; scroll down and click on it). This is a song I'm used to round dancing to that presents itself as if it's naughty, but which reveals itself in the last two verses (and really the last line of the song) to be entirely innocent. Great fake-out. Good things come to those who wait.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (8)
December 20, 2006
Blog Day Off
(Jimmy Akin)
Wasn't able to blog last night.
Feel free to do your own guest blogging in the combox, though!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (44)
December 06, 2006
Mass Readings Podcast Available
(Jimmy Akin)
Zenit reports:
The daily Mass readings are now downloadable from the Web site of the U.S. bishops' Catholic Communication Campaign.
The program was prepared in association with the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine using audio recordings of the readings from the New American Bible.
Information on downloading the audio can be found on the "Daily Readings" section of the bishops' Web site at www.usccb.org/nab.
"The Internet is now a part of our lives and a medium which can help provide for spiritual enrichment," said Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco, chairman of the bishops' Committee on Communications. He said the new service "responds to the many requests for 'podcasts' of the readings."
The committee approved a $30,000 grant for the podcast project last June.
Patricia Ryan Garcia, project coordinator, noted: "Several readers, including bishops, clergy, and laity from different ethnic backgrounds, have lent their voices to the project so listeners will hear at least three different voices on any given day."
The audio recordings are accessible free of charge through several popular Internet audio content aggregators including Apple's iTunes, Feedburner and Podcast Alley.
The Catholic Communication Campaign develops media programming, public service announcements, and other resources to promote Gospel values.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (27)
December 05, 2006
Blog Day Off
(Jimmy Akin)
2 Tired. 2 Blog. 2 Nite.
Sorry.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (19)
December 01, 2006
Jimmy Akin's Store
(Jimmy Akin)
Back in the early days of the blog, I tried keeping a page of recommended resources for folks, and I meant to add to it whenever I recommended a new one. That way if someone had a question, for example, about what Bible translation or Greek study tool I recommend, they could look on the recommendations page and find out.
This proved to be impractical. Blogging software is not set up to make maintaining this kind of page easy, and it proved too difficult and cumbersome to fish the page out of the archives and add to it (and remember to do this), and so the page fell into desuetude.
Things change fast on the Internet, though, and Amazon.com has now come up with a tool that allows me to do this kind of thing much more easily. They call the tool an "aStore," and they introduced it in a beta version a few months ago, asking people to test it out and give them feedback. I tested it out, and knew immediately that it wasn't anywhere near flexible enough to be very useful, but they've now added new functionality that allows me to use it for the kind of standing recommendations page that I'd wanted early on.
In other words, I don't have to fight the software any more, trying to press it into a purpose it's not designed for. With the aStore, I can quickly and easily add products that I recommend or that I think readers may be interested in.
So this weekend I reorganized and expanded the store to include a variety of categories and products. Over time, I'll add more, as well as adding reviews for products I feel particularly strongly about.
There is one category in particular, I'd like to call attention to. This category is called In The Mail, and I'm using it for products that publishers have sent me review copies of. To try to get the word out about their books, DVDs, CDs, or what have you, publishers generally send out review copies to media outlets--magazines, newspapers, TV and radio shows, and now blogs.
So every so often I get an unexpected book or DVD in the mail with a note from the publisher saying, "We thought that your readers might be interested in this, and we hope that you'll enjoy this review copy and perhaps let your readers know about it."
And most of the time (not all of the time), the publishers are right and it is something I think readers would be interested in. I might not be interested in it myself, but I can see how others would be. A good example would be The Catholic Home by Meredith Gould. This is a book about Catholic traditions and activities for things that your family can do at different times in the liturgical year and when a family member is preparing to receive a particular sacrament. Since I don't have a family at the moment, this kind of book isn't of much use to me, but since most folks are more fortunate than I am family-wise, I can see how it would be of interest to a lot of readers.
And so, as long as I think that the product would be interesting to people and as long as a quick look at it suggests that it is "Mostly Harmless," I'm happy to go ahead and let folks know about it. So that's what I'm putting in the "In The Mail" category on the store.
As I add new items to this category, I'll also put a notice on the blog so that people will know that they are there and, in some cases, I'll add a brief (or not so brief) review of the product. If you look at the category at the moment, you'll see that I have several products there that I haven't yet put up notices for or reviewed. I plan to do that, but I'll have to do it over time because I am always concerned about maintaining the right mix of topics on the blog so that it stays interesting to people. I don't want it to be a blog about reviews of Catholic books and videos, though letting people know about Catholic (or other) resources that they may be interested in is something that I'm not opposed to.
I thought I'd explain all this so that folks would understand how this works and what purposes I'm intending to use the aStore for.
In the interest of full disclosure, I do get a (tiny) cut of the proceeds on the products sold through the aStore, which I figure will help defray the costs of maintaining the blog, which I pay for out of my own pocket. The amount of money I get from the store is not great, though I was shocked when I checked my quarter-to-date earnings report and found out that the blog may have actually paid for itself this quarter.
I know some blogs try to maintain themselves by using advertisements, and that's fine, though I've always resisted that--even when people have asked if they could advertise on JA.O. I don't like it when a blog is cluttered up with advertising--usually for products or services that the blogmasters have little or no control over. JA.O is not a commercial venture for me, and if I were in it for the money I could make a lot more by devoting my blog writing time to paying projects. The blog is something I do for fun, and it's great if it pays for itself (at least the costs I pay TypePad), but I'd rather have that happen through recommending products I think readers will actually enjoy and benefit from rather than ads from an Internet ad service.
Hope that explains matters and, if you'd like to browse some books, DVDs, or CDs that you might find of interest,
CHECK OUT THE STORE.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (8)
November 30, 2006
Torture Amnesty Day
(Jimmy Akin)
In connection with torture, people have been very forthcoming with information in the comboxes, and as a show of good faith for their willingness to share this information with us, I am declaring today Torture Amnesty Day.
People will not be tied to torture posts today.
Posts will be about other subjects entirely.
Torture may resume tomorrow, however.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (13)
November 07, 2006
One More Reason To Use Firefox
(Jimmy Akin)
As if we didn't have enough already.
My sincere apologies to everyone who experienced problems with the blog yesterday.
Something happened yesterday that caused the blog not to display with all the posts it should have on the top page for those using Internet Explorer. I was initially unaware of this--and then unable to confirm it when people pointed it out--because I don't use Internet Explorer (normally).
With the assistance of the good folks at TypePad, I was able to track down the source of the problem and correct it.
It turnsout that there was hidden code buried in the text of the e-mail from Fr. Frank Pavone that caused Internet Explorer not to display the posts below the one in which this coding appeared.
Fr. Frank may want to check with the people coding his e-mail blasts to see if they can avoid this problem and allow other people to help him get out his message.
For the rest of us, this is another illustration of Internet Explorer's inherent problems.
So once again my sincere apologies to all, and my recommendation that you get Firefox (or Opera, or ANYTHING besides Internet Explorer), Firefox being a FAR, FAR superior browser that has immeasurably enhanced the online experience of myself and countless others.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (31)
November 06, 2006
Reporter Digs, But Not Deep Enough
(Jimmy Akin)
CHT to the reader who e-mailed THIS STORY.
It's a piece written by Mollie Ziegler Hemmingway, who is a reporter in Washington, DC and a blogger at GetReligion.Org, which deals with the fact that--as their slugline says--"The press . . . just doesn't get religion."
That's certainly true, and I wish them the best in their efforts to comment on and correct news stories that don't handle the subject of religion accurately, but the post linked above itself needs some correction.
In the post, Mollie discusses a story about a Wisconsin Synod Lutheran candidate for public office from Minnesota who lefty bloggers have gone after on the basis of her religion. It's a divide and conquer strategy: The bloggers point out that the confessional documents of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) refer to the pope as the antichrist and then they try to drive Catholic voters (and other voters who like the pope) away from the candidate by painting her as an extremeist.
When asked by a radio interviewer whether her church teaches that the pope is the antichrist, the candidate denied it and said that some of her family members are Catholic.
I have a lot of sympathy for the candidate. In fact, the WELS' confessional documents do indeed describe the pope as the antichrist, but this is something that a lot of WELS members don't know, it doesn't reflect their own views, it doesn't stop them from having good relations with Catholics, and it is unfair to try to paint the candidate as an extremist in this way.
So sympathy there.
In her post, Mollie covers a story from the infamous Minneapolis Star-Tribune that covers the controversy and compliments the reporter for going beyond simply what the candidate said and checking with other sources rather than relying on the candidate's statement. Unfortunately, the reporter only quotes from a minister at a WELS church who--at least as quoted--admits that Luther viewed the papacy as the antichrist but seemed to spin what the WELS confessional documents actually say, downplaying this view somewhat.
It is praiseworthy that the reporter asked other sources, but this guy wasn't necessarily the best one. Simply Googling "WELS lutheran antichrist" turns up a WELS doctrinal statement on the official WELS web site that is titled Statement on the Antichrist. After reviewing the history of the Lutheran doctrine regarding the antichrist, the statement concludes:
Therefore on the basis of a renewed study of the pertinent Scriptures we reaffirm the statement of the Lutheran Confessions, that “the Pope is the very Antichrist” (cf. Section II), especially since he anathematizes the doctrine of the justification by faith alone and sets himself up as the infallible head of the Church.
We thereby affirm that we identify this “Antichrist” with the Papacy as it is known to us today, which shall, as 2 Thessalonians 2:8 states, continue to the end of time, whatever form or guise it may take. This neither means nor implies a blanket condemnation of all members of the Roman Catholic Church, for despite all the errors taught in that church the Word of God is still heard there, and that Word is an effectual Word. Isa 55:10, 11; cf. Apology XXIV, 98, cited above under II.
We make this confession in the confidence of faith. The Antichrist cannot deceive us if we remain under the revelation given us in the Apostolic word (2 Th 2:13-17), for in God’s gracious governance of history the Antichrist can deceive only those who “refused to love the truth” (2 Th 2:10-12).
And we make this confession in the confidence of hope. The Antichrist shall not destroy us but shall himself be destroyed—“Whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming” (2 Th 2:8).
We reject the idea that the fulfillment of this prophecy is to be sought in the workings of any merely secular political power (2 Th 2:4; cf. Treatise on the Power and the Primacy of the Pope 39).
We reject the idea that the teaching that the Papacy is the Antichrist rests on a merely human interpretation of history or is an open question. We hold rather that this teaching rests on the revelation of God in Scripture which finds its fulfillment in history. The Holy Spirit reveals this fulfillment to the eyes of faith (cf. The Abiding Word, Vol. 2, p. 764). Since Scripture teaches that the Antichrist would be revealed and gives the marks by which the Antichrist is to be recognized (2 Th 2:6,8), and since this prophecy has been clearly fulfilled in the history and development of the Roman Papacy, it is Scripture which reveals that the Papacy is the Antichrist.
What the Strib reporter should have done was check the WELS official doctrinal statements and then ask a representative of the church (preferably at its home office) for comment.
Unfortunately, what Mollie does in her commentary on the story is even worse than what the reporter from the Strib does. Essentially, she tries a tu quoque (Latin, meaning roughly "You're another" or "You're no better") strategy that seeks to make Catholics look like extremists--at least to the extent they adhere to their own confessional documents.
Here's what she says:
But if reporter Pamela Miller is going to turn this political season into a referendum on religious doctrines, I wonder how far she’ll take it. Is she covering any Roman Catholic candidates? What do Roman Catholics believe about Lutherans? It just so happens that we covered this in my church this week when my pastor read declarations of the Council of Trent (the Roman Catholic response to the Reformation), it being Reformation Day and all. Here are a few of that council’s statements:
Canon 9: If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification . . . let him be anathema.
Canon 32: If anyone says that the good works of the one justified are in such manner the gifts of God that they are not also the good merits of him justified; or that the one justified by the good works that he performs . . . does not truly merit . . . eternal life . . . let him be anathema.
In other words, if anyone is Lutheran, let him be cursed and damned to hell. The church councils haven’t exactly backtracked on those views.
I can compliment Mollie for not sticking with simply what the Strib reporter did and checking sources, but the thing about tu quoque approaches is that they (a) often distract rather than enlighten and (b) you'd jolly well better be right in what you say.
It's generally not a good idea to take things that you only just heard about from your pastor when he was criticizing other people and rush into print with them. At a minimum, and as a reporter should know, you need to check with the people in question to find out if what your pastor said accurately represents their position.
What Mollie says about Catholics is flat wrong.
The Church does not say that "if anyone is a Lutheran, let him be cursed and damned to hell." That is not the meaning of the term "anathema" as used by Trent, the mighty Dictionary.Com notwithstanding.
In fact, Mollie hasn't even read the Dictionary.Com references with sufficient thoroughness, because some of them actually get the definition of anathema in ecclesiastical documents almost right, viz:
3.a formal ecclesiastical curse involving excommunication.
1. A formal ecclesiastical ban, curse, or excommunication.
2: a formal ecclesiastical curse accompanied by excommunication
In fact, anathema was a kind of canonical penalty involving excommunication that used to be found in Church law that could be imposed for various offenses, including certain doctrinal ones. It did not take place automatically but had to be imposed by an ecclesiastical court and, since Church tribunals have better things to do than millions of trials for purposes of excommunicating every Lutheran in the world, it was never applied to more than a handful of individuals. It tended to be applied--and then rarely--only to people who made a pretense of staying within the Catholic community.
Excommunication also does not damn people to hell--it's an equivalent of disfellowshipping (cf. Matt. 18:17, 1 Cor. 5:1-2) meant to prompt the sinner to repentance (2 Cor. 2:5-8).
Further, anathema no longer exists in Church law. It ceased to exist with the release of the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
How Mollie could feel so confident as to make the sweeping statement "The church councils haven’t exactly backtracked on those views [i.e., that Lutherans are or are to be damned to hell]" is simply mind boggling.
Hello? Vatican II anybody? The Church has never taught that all Lutherans are going to hell, but even apart from that the positive tone taken by Vatican II toward other Christians should give Mollie pause.
Or perhaps she means that the Church has not backtracked on the canons of Trent, which she has misinterpreted as condeming all Lutherans to hell. It's true that the Church hasn't backtracked on the doctrinal content of the canons (properly understood), but it has clarified their understanding in a way that definitely casts matters in a very different light than the one Mollie presents us.
Mollie herself is a member of the Missouri Synod Lutheran church, and that body is not a signatory of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification that I just linked, but it is simple misrepresentation to present the Catholic Church as holding remotely what Mollie presents it as holding regarding Lutherans
In other words, Mollie is flat wrong, and as a reporter--particularly one with an interest in correcting bad press coverage of religion--she should have known better than to try a tu quoque strategy against Catholics based on what her pastor said and what she chose to get out of definitions found on Dictionary.Com and then make sweeping statements that act like the last four hundred years of conciliar and canonical history didn't happen.
Most bloggers, when caught in an error of this magnitude, are quick to make a correction, and I hope that Mollie will make one and do so--in keeping with the best journalistic practice--giving the correction equal prominence with the original mistake (i.e., a new blog post) so that her readers will not continue to be misled.
I'm writing this on Saturday, so by the time this post goes up Monday she may have already done so. I know it's been pointed out in the combox of her post that she is wrong about these matters, though I can't fault her if she doesn't keep up with everything said in her combox.
If she has not done so, I hope that she will display the journalistic and blogger integrity that I am confident she has and issue a correction post promptly.
I'd also invite her--if she has questions in the future about what Catholics do and don't believe--to contact me and I'll point her toward the right sources.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (8)
October 31, 2006
Appearance On The Hugh Hewitt Show
(Jimmy Akin)
CHT to American Papist for providing a link to where folks can hear my recent appearance on the Hugh Hewitt show.
The segment with me starts a little bit after the 10 minute mark. You can just drag the indicator to the 10 minute mark if you want to get there in a hurry.
Also, thanks to American Papist for identifing the "party cardinal" in his wicked awesome logo (i.e., the one doing the cool, hip finger move). According to AmP:
I thought everyone would like to know that the grooving prelate is Franciszek Cardinal Macharski, Archbishop-emeritus of Krakow, Poland. The Cardinal, apparently, has a tendency of hamming it up for the cameras and that day he was in fine form.
Hmmm. . . . Hugh described me as "Catholic blogger extraordinaire." I should add that to an endorsements element in the margin or something.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (4)
October 30, 2006
GodBlogCon 2006: A Brief After Action Report
(Jimmy Akin)
Last Thursday through Saturday I was at GodBlogCon 2006, hosted at Biola University in La Mirada, California (that's in the L.A. area). I found the confab very stimulating, and I met a bunch of really enthusiastic, passionate folks concerned about using blogs to promote Christian faith and values.
Speakers and attendees came from Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic backgrounds. I was the only Catholic among the speakers, though I was not the only Catholic blogger in attendance. I'll be telling you about some of them in coming weeks. After attending the event, I decided to do a series featuring individual bloggers I met and talk about their blogs. They're an interesting bunch of folks.
One thing I thought I'd mention now was something that some folks queried about last week, which was whether I'd encounter anti-Catholicism at the event.
The short answer is: I didn't. Not any.
No attempt was made to marginalize me. In fact, I was a little startled at how much my opinion was asked for, particularly in a break-out session where I planned simply to listen and not say much if anything. Not only was I treated very respectfully by everyone there, but the convention organizers went out of their way to make the point that they are interested in having greater Catholic involvement in the future.
What was most gratifying, though, was the way some of the speakers expressed themselves on Catholic matters. In talking to the audience, which was largely Evangelical, there were matter-of-fact references to "John Paul the Great" and "Benedict" and they way the two are able to articulate the "culture of life," with the unstated but clear assumption that these men are important leaders to which the audience should pay attention and appreciate. It was another illustration for me of how the pope today serves as a moral leader even for Christians who are not part of the Catholic Church.
It was an energizing event for me as a blogger, and the convention got some wheels turning in my mind about some topics I should blog on in the future.
I don't want to make this post over-long, though, so I'll close by sharing with you a photograph I took of a mural that is painted on one of the buildings on campus. Photography never seems to capture just how impressive something like this is when you turn a corner and see it for the first time, the original is quite striking.
It also contains elements of symbolism. I am informed, for example, that the shadows are meant to evoke the Trinity, and the pages of the Bible are the same color as Jesus' skin tone, reflecting the duality of the Incarnate and written Word of God.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (46)
October 26, 2006
GodBlogCon Begins!
(Jimmy Akin)
By the way, just a note reminding those in the L.A. area that I'll be speaking at GodBlogCon 2006 Friday morning (9 a.m.) and Saturday morning (10:30 a.m.).
I hope y'all'll join me and other Christian bloggers (including Hugh Hewitt and La Shawn Barber) for the event.
The bigger the Catholic turnout we can raise for the event, the better.
GET THE STORY.
P.S. I'll try to blog from the convention itself if I can!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (7)
October 23, 2006
New Authentic Interpretation: Hobby Horse Rudeness
(Jimmy Akin)
I have issued a new authentic interpretation of Rule 1, which is as follows:
UPDATE: Commenters whose interaction on the blog consists principally of discussions of the same subject over and over (e.g., the writings of John Dominic Crossan, whether the pope is the pope, or the evils of Vatican II, the current rite of Mass, or a particular political figure or party--or any other single subject) are being rude. Conversation involves an ability to talk about more than one thing, not an obsessive harping on one subject. Say your piece and move on, per Rule 2.
Individuals who continue in violation of Rule 1 as authentically interpreted by me--the legislator--will be disinvited to participate in the blog or banned, per Rule 5.
No more riding hobby horses. May I suggest riding real ones instead?
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (35)
I'm Back
(Jimmy Akin)
First, I'd like to thank all those who expressed support over the last few days and who have patiently borne the lack of blogging that ensued. I very much appreciate your kind words and understanding.
Receiving the threat of a lawsuit is a delicate matter--even when you know that you have not violated the law--and one must proceed with the utmost caution in responding.
There is an old saying that "A man who has himself for a lawyer has a fool for a client," and even people who are themselves lawyers (I am not) are wise to obtain representation when they are being threatened with legal action. Nobody--not even a lawyer--should respond on his own behalf to threats posed by other lawyers. Even those who know the law intimately need someone who has the kind of cool head and situational detachment needed to help navigate such waters.
Consequently, upon reading the letter from Mr. Moyers' lawyers, I immediately contacted my friend Stephen Dillard (who has a really cool signature) of the law firm James, Bates, Pope, and Spivey and he most graciously offered very timely assistance. I wish to thank him most of all for his effort, support, and wise counsel in handling the matter.
I'd also like to thank the other lawyers and legal professionals who offered their services in the event such were to become necessary.
As individuals have surmised in the combox, I have been advised not to comment on the matter in detail, though Stephen has examined and cleared this post for publication.
I regret that Bill Moyers did not choose to contact me privately and simply ask that I present his side of the story. As individuals have surmised in the combox, I would have been most willing to do so as a matter of basic fairness.
Such an approach would have been in keeping with the Golden Rule on my part and, on Mr. Moyers' part, it would have been in keeping with Jesus' directive to approach a brother privately and solve problems on the lowest level possible (Matthew 18), as well as St. Paul's directive to be hesitant to engage the legal system in settling matters among Christians (1 Corinthians 6). Mr. Moyers is (or has been) an ordained Baptist minister, and I wish that he had attempted such private efforts first.
Finally, I would like to thank the other bloggers and news sources who have linked the story. Though they have expressed a variety of views on the subject, or run the link without comment, they have in any case publicized Mr. Moyers denial and thus helped spread his side of the story, both among those who read the stories on their sites and among those who clicked through and generated the tens of thousands of hits on the Moyers Exchange post on mine. These blogs and news sources include:
Instapundit
Salon.Com
The Corner
Crime & Federalism
No Left Turns
Amy Welborn
The Curt Jester
The Evangelical Outpost
Conservative Bulldog
Irresponsible Journalism
PowerBlog
BillHobbs.Com
The Evangelical Ecologist
No Silence Here
Three Br0thers
Daily Pundit
Hierodule
The Boring Made Dull
Because this exchange is likely to raise in the minds of bloggers and blog commenters the question of how libel law applies to the blogosphere, I felt it would be appropriate to link an article by law professor Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit that should help others understand what the law requires. This is presented as an informational source only and not as legal advice (which I can't give, anyway):
Glenn Reynolds' paper "Libel in the Blogosphere: Some Preliminary Thoughts" [.pdf]
One final note: In the interests of fairness to both sides, I plan on covering whatever responses Dr. Beisner and the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance make public and whatever response Mr. Moyers has to them. If the responses are not too lengthy, I will endeavor to post them in their entirety. If not, I will post a relevant excerpt and a link to the originals (assuming they are presented online). If the latter approach is necessary, I will extend both parties equal space.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (21)
October 18, 2006
Blog Day Off
(Jimmy Akin)
Had to write some notes for a meeting I have Wednesday, and it chewed up my blog time after work.
See you tomorrow!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (14)
October 17, 2006
Software Query
(Jimmy Akin)
I'm looking for an application that will allow me to download the entire contents of a web site in one throw. In the old days, I would have used GoZilla for this purpose, but GoZilla seems to have fallen on hard times.
Ideally, I'd like to be able to download just the pages on a site that contain particular keywords, but the whole site would do.
Can anybody recommend an application that does this that (a) runs on Windows XP, (b) ain't spyware, and (c) is free- or shareware?
Thanks much, folks!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (26)
GodBlogCon Update
(Jimmy Akin)
I just got the final schedule for GodBlogCon 2006, and it turns out that I'll be speaking on two panels instead of one.
The first panel will be "Bridging the Christian Divide" and will focus on how Christian bloggers of different stripes (Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox) can work together to promote the common good and how they can handle their theological differences.
This panel will take place at 9 a.m. on Friday, October 27th. I'll be serving as the Catholic representative and will be joined by Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost, James Kushiner of Mere Comments, and moderator Joe Shroeder of Blogotional.
The folks involved in this panel have already been having an e-mail discussion amongst ourselves, and it has become clear that we do not take ourselves with supreme seriousness. Jokes at each others' espenses are planned, so it should be a lively and entertaining discussion.
The second panel I'm on is a Roundtable Discussion that will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 28th. This panel will focus on how Christians can make sure that their voices are heard in the blogosphere so that they aren't shut out of the broader social discussion the way they generally have been on Television and in the news media.
Big names who will be attending the conference include Hugh Hewitt and La Shawn Barber. Info on the speakers can be found HERE, along with snazzy pictures of them.
I was particularly interested to see that, right next to my picture, there is a picture of another speaker who is perhaps best known for being the seventh president of the United States. All I can say is . . . wow, he looks a lot younger than I expected.
If you'll be within spitting distance of Los Angeles during October 26-28, I hope that you'll join us for GodConBlog 2006. It'd be great if a sizeable Catholic turnout appears. Many of the organizers of the conference are Evangelical, but they're Catholic friendly, and any time our friends across the confessional aisle reach out to include Catholics in an event, it's good for us to reciprocate.
MORE INFO HERE.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (8)
October 13, 2006
A Note Of Thanks
(Jimmy Akin)
I just wanted to put up a note of thanks to all those who sent in Bible-related questions after my recent invitation for them--as well as those sending in questions on other topics.
So many folks responded that it's taking me some time to work through the questions that were sent in, but I wanted to let you know that I'm still working on them and will let you know before your question goes up on the site.
Muchas gracias, mis amigos!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (8)
GodBlogCon 2006
(Jimmy Akin)
Just a note to let folks know that I'll be attending and participating in the 2006 Godblog Conference or "GodBlogCon" being held later this month in the Los Angeles area.
The conference is devoted to the subject of religious blogging or "GodBlogs," and bigname participants include Hugh Hewitt and La Shawn Barber, as well as many others.
The convention runs from Thursday, October 26th to Saturday, October 28th and will be held on the campus of Biola University in La Mirada. (For those who may not know, Biola is a coined word meaning "Bible Institute of Los Angeles"--one of the most famous Chirstian schools on the West Coast and important in the history of American Evangelicalism.)
I'll be participating in the panel "Briding the Christian Divide" on Friday morning at 9 a.m. along with co-panelists coming from Protestant and Orthodox traditions. Specifically, there'll be
* John Shroeder (moderator; Blog: Blogotional)
* Joe Carter (Family Research Council; Blog: Evangelical Outpost)
* James Kushiner (Touchstone Magazine; Blog: Mere Comments)
* and myself
The purpose of the panel is to discuss how Christians of different traditions can and should interact as they promote the Christian faith through new media venues such as the blogosphere.
I'd really encourage anyone within spitting distance of L.A. to come to the event.
I'd also like to give a shot out to other Catholic bloggers and ask if they could consider promoting the event as well. The different Christian traditions need to work together to promote and preserve Christian culture in America and the world, and the new media tools that are becoming available will be central to that effort. The greater the participation of Catholics there can be in the event, the better for all.
So I hope to see you there if you can possibly attend! If you need any further incentive to attend, just remind yourself: It's what B16 would want you do to.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (8)
October 10, 2006
Blog Day Off
(Jimmy Akin)
Need a day off. See y'all tomorrow.
Have fun stormin' the castle!
(Ooo. There's an idea. How about a favorite movie quotes combox? Just be sure to keep it clean.)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (198)
October 05, 2006
Combox Operations Note
(Jimmy Akin)
See the image to the left? It's a composite of two elements of a screencap that I took from a recent comment in the combox.
I selected these two elements to illustrate a problem that's been cropping up of late.
I don't insist on people using the same name or handle in the combox all the time. They can uncheck the "Remember personal info?" box and comment anonymously if they want.
I don't mind this as long as it doesn't cause problems, but lately there's been a lot of it, which makes it hard for other commenters to respond if we've got multiple anonymous posters in a single combox thread.
The comment I took the screencap of is particularly noteworthy in this regard. Here we have one anonymous commenter commenting on another anonymous commenter, and that's . . . well, that's just wrong. It's also going to make it really hard for other commenters to respond to either of them.
You'll note that if you leave the personal info fields blank that the results reads "Posted by: | ". In typography, that vertical bar ( | ) is called a pipe character, so we could take to calling such anonymous commenters "Pipe," but that really wouldn't fix the problem since we might have multiple Anons and Pipes running around the same combox.
Therefore, to really solve the problem, I'm going to make a new, unofficial rule, which is this: If you don't want a particular comment to appear under your usual name or handle, that's fine, but at least put something in the "Name:" field that will let people refer to you easily.
If the problem doesn't settle down then I may have to make this an official rule and start deleting comments that don't follow it in order to prevent confusion, so fair warning.
I want to be flexible about this and let people post without their usual name or handle, but as the number of comments has been growing of late, the problem of multiple Anons has been growing worse.
So: Thanks for your cooperation, and I hope this helps make the combox experience more enjoyable for everyone.
Also, I want to reiterate Rule 1, which is that folks need to be polite in expressing disagreement. We've had a number of distinctly non-polite exchanges of late, and I've gotten complaints about it, so be nice or you may find your comment ain't there no more.
Oh, and one other combox note: You may have observed that of late the totals shown for a particular blog post [y'know, the ones that say (0) or (13) or (549) or whatever] have not been updating properly. This is a technical issue that TypePad has been having, and I'm talking to them about it. The upshot of it for practical purposes is that if you see a suspiciously low number of comments for a particular post--such as (0) when the post has been up for a while--there may well be comments there that aren't reflected in the total.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (24)
October 03, 2006
Blog Operations Note
(Jimmy Akin)
Lately I've been fielding a bunch of canon law questions. I want to make sure that--to the best of my ability--I answer the questions folks are interested in, but it's struck me that we haven't had many biblical questions lately, and I'd like to increase the ratio of them that I'm doing, if possible. I'm therefore inviting biblical questions in particular at the time.
If you have one, feel free to e-mail.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (11)
September 27, 2006
Blog Day Off
(Jimmy Akin)
Sorry, guys, but I'm suffering from a pinched nerve in my upper back right now (right in the withers) and it's keeping me offline, so I'll be taking a blog day off.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (26)
September 26, 2006
3 Mil
(Jimmy Akin)
YEE-HAW!
JimmyAkin.Org has now passed the three million mark in the number of hits (page views) it has received since moving to TypePad.
The last time we passed a million mark was in March, so we've had another million hits in about six months (a little more).
So thanks and mazel tov to all who helped make this possible, and I hereby declare today JA.O 3 Million Day!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet | Permalink | Comments (11)
September 21, 2006
Blog Operations Note (E-Mail)
(Jimmy Akin)
I just wanted to pen a note that I've been meaning to pen for quite a while.
Without using an actual pen, of course.
Here's what's on my mind: We've had a dramatic growth in the number of comments that folks are leaving since JA.O started, and I think that's just great. I enjoy reading folks' comments, watching discussions underway, etc., just as much as everyone else. In fact, in some ways moreso since the comments tell me that I'm connecting with people--that I'm writing stuff that they find interesting enough to comment on. I'm always really pleased to see it when a post gets a large number of comments, and kinda disappointed when it gets only one or two (or none). But on balance, the comboxes on JA.O have become a very active place, with many recent posts having 100-200 comments or more.
Wow! Thanks, guys!
The amount of com traffic (to borrow a Star Trek term; or is it B5?) is so great at this point that I am unable to keep up with it. Since my blog is a side project that is not part of work, I can only blog in the evenings (or during lunch or on break), which is why you see me commenting so infrequently during the day. When I get home in the evenings, though, I have to focus on writing the posts for the next day (otherwise folks'll have nothing new to read). Consequently, I can't spend a lot of time reading the comboxes. I try to skim them, but I can't do much more than that.
Now here's why I mention this: I sometimes see folks asking me questions in the comboxes or making requests or things like that. I feel bad that there are probably many people who are asking questions or making requests that I never see.
So I have my own request to make: If anyone has a question or suggestion that they want to make sure that I see, I'd ask that it be e-mailed to me.
I read and appreciate all of the e-mail I get, though--as I've noted--I unfortunately do not have time to reply to it all and I can't promise that I'll do a blog post based on any particular e-mail. Time constraints prohibit that, but I really do want to be able to know about and give attention to the questions and suggestions people have.
Of course, you can put the same question or request in the combox, too, as long as it's on topic. I often see people posting questions for me in the combox when then another reader (or readers) helpfully answer before I even stumble across the place, so the other readers are a great resource for trying to get questions answered also. Just the other day one gentleman asked for a list of good sources to turn to when trying to get official answers to questions, and I thought that the ones the other comboxers came up with were excellent. In fact, the ones I saw being recommended were the same ones I would have recommended myself, which made me really proud of what intelligent readers I have.
So thanks, and have a great day!
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Internet |