I do not have a dog in this fight. As a Catholic with a strong experience of English history, I can at best regard Anglicanism as one of those families which, having risen from dismal and even criminal beginnings, nonetheless have managed to produce a crop of likely and even outstanding heirs, and to embed itself graciously and gracefully in the ( Read more... )

There is one tremendous and widespread mistake about atheism: that is, that it is not a religion - that it somehow even opposes religion. Many of us, including many Christians, accept this claim implicitly, using the nouns "atheism" and "religion" as opposites.( Read more... )

If you are not British( Read more... )

Joanne K. Rowling and Christianity( Read more... )

You scored as Highbrow Protestant. You find "praise band" music more regretable than sinful, and you long instead for the likes of Wesley and Watts (all verses!), fancy choral anthems & descants, and organ pieces in minor keys.

Super-highbrow Protestant
85%
Highbrow Protestant
85%
Grumpy Old Fundamentalist
70%
Semi-Pagan
70%
Classic Quaker
60%
Non- ( Read more... )

You’re Tertullian!

You possess many gifts, but patience isn’t one of them. You’re tough on yourself - and on others. You’re independent, too, and you don’t like to be told what to do. You wish the Church would be a little tighter in discipline. As for the pagans, you’ve pretty much written them off. Sometimes you think the Church would be a ( Read more... )

I recently read an interesting but, to me, oddly extreme article by Frank Furedi: http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAF37.htm, in which he seemed to me to make rather too much of a number of hysterical reactions against "religion" - that is, of course, ( Read more... )

When I posted about the Muhammad cartoon controversy, I did not realize that it was becoming a worldwide affair. ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

A few months ago, I wrote an essay on the Catholic doctrine of marriage - http://www.livejournal.com/users/fpb/84324.html. Among the responses, this one by rfachir stood out for its length, eloquence and passion. Why any couple would want to be married is beyond me... ( Read more... )