For the weekend crowd, this is a sampling of what we’ve been reading this week.
- From CiRCE friend and longtime conference speaker, Martin Cothran:
The Wrong Way to Sell the Church’s Position on Homosexuality
“There may be a way to do things differently when it comes to a public dialogue on homosexuality, but abandoning the traditional moral categories the Church has used for centuries is not the way to do it. And if we’re going to lose the public battle on this issue, which looks likely, we might as well do it with our moral theology intact…”
- From Rod Dreher, at the American Conservative:
Why Aren’t Religious People More Creative
“In past centuries, even creative people pretty much shared the wider society’s metaphysical and religious assumptions. The core beliefs weren’t under constant assault by radical questioning, coming from all angles. Secular modernity, especially in this century, changed all that. Now the religious believer has to devote much of his energy simply to holding ground — I’m talking about within his own mind — that in ages past was not contested. It is emotionally and psychologically exhausting. Religious individuals and communities may be working so hard to hold on to what they have that they see questioning in any sense as a threat to internal and external cohesion, and thus suppress creatives within their community. And, to be fair, it may be true that for people committed to objective metaphysical and religious truth, a time of great cultural flux is not the time to embrace creative experimentation.”
- Tanya Berry, in Edible Louisville, on her relationship with her famous father:
“Trouble has come to me in my life as it does to all and I have made mistakes. The gift that my father gave me so many years ago was the knowledge that I live in his love, and if forgiveness is needed it has already been given. What greater gift could a parent give a child? Daddy has kept alive in my head — even in the worst of times and in the face of awful news — that if we actively choose it over and over everyday, we can indeed live in the world of affection and membership that he honors in his life and his stories.”
- Our friend Gregory Wolfe, from Image Journal, on the relationship between TV and Literature:
Why TV has fallen in Love with Literature
- Cindy Rollins on homeschooling
Writing: Liturgy, Habit, and Love
“There have been times in my homeschooling career when I have tried to be more Prussian about teaching and yet whenever I did that I quickly realized that no lasting learning was taking place.”
- Dyanna Herron, at Art House America on watching her brother enter jail.
“When I found out that my little brother was definitely going to prison, and probably for a long time, I started eating. Not immediately, but almost.”
