February 2015 - To Give a Defense

Pope Francis Derangement Syndrome XI: I’m shocked, shocked to find that there is orthodoxy going on in this papacy.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • February 23, 2015 • Pope Francis Derangement Syndrome

Pope Francis Derangement Syndrome, in the secular media, has reached a critical mass where more and more poor souls are reporting themselves shocked, shocked to find that the pope is Catholic. Such gasps would trickle in before, but now they seem to be more frequent. Just this weekend there were two meltdowns in the liberal press: the first at MarketWatch, over the shocking discovery that the pope is not in favor of contraception; the second at the Daily Screech, over the shocking discovery that the pope is not in favor of gender theory.

Giordano Bruno and the truth about the Inquisition.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • February 12, 2015 • Apologetics; Church History

Context is important in these discussions. “The medieval world was not the modern world”; it seems trite and condescending to say that. But it is very important, if we are going to talk about the Inquisition, to understand the world of thought that actually existed at the time. At a time when Europe was universally Christian, religion was the one real stabilizing factor against civil unrest. For that reason, heresy was commonly accepted to be a threat to the security of the state. It was not mere religious error, or difference of opinion but treason.

Obama’s remarks on the Crusades and ISIS: some addenda.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • February 8, 2015 • Apologetics; Church History

Some, on blogs and in social media, have been urging that the outrage has somehow been made up by the right wing. It’s nothing but “noise.” Obama, they say, did not compare the Crusades and ISIS, and violence has been done in the name of Christ. Why, John Paul II even apologized for evil acts done during the Crusades! Which he did. And yet all this misses the mark. For one, the pope never apologized for the Crusades themselves, whereas the whole purpose of ISIS is nothing but barbarous murder and unprovoked aggression. Nor do we deny evil has been done by Christians.

No, Mr. Obama, the Crusades and ISIS are not the same thing.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • February 5, 2015 • Apologetics; Church History

Now, in the most kind and narrow construction you can assign those words, Mr. Obama is not altogether wrong. People have “committed terrible deeds” in the name of Christ. That is true. But. To say that that is no different than cutting the heads off of babies? To say that that is no different than torching prisoners alive in a caged inferno? No. That is wrong, ignorant, false, and vile. What Mr. Obama is saying is that we have no moral right to call what ISIS does evil. What he is saying is that we cannot fight against them and be entirely just.

On Harper Lee’s new book: Should To Kill a Mockingbird have a sequel?

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • February 4, 2015 • Literature

Go Set a Watchman may not exactly make Harper Lee look like a “fool.” That might be the self-doubt of a reclusive author talking, or the jadedness of a public that has learned to take a low view of sequels. I suspect that Lee was unwilling to publish anything after Mockingbird for two reasons: (1) she was, as she once said, more like Boo Radley than Scout Finch, and public attention did not suit her; (2) she knew that nothing else she ever wrote, however good, would be To Kill a Mockingbird. She was publicity shy and wrote a book that is just impossible to match.

Notre Dame professor Dr. Candida Moss says Jesus “wasn’t down with marriage.”

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • February 2, 2015 • Apologetics; Exegesis

Dr. Candida Moss is all wrought up over the LDS “half-hearted shuffle toward LGBT equality.” Dr. Moss prefers the mad dash over the cliff: When she says “LGBT equality,” what she means is “marriage equality,” in spite of the fact that no one, not even Dr. Moss, believes in any such thing. Would she advocate marrying your dog? a three-year-old child? the exhumed body of King Tut? So let us get this myth of “marriage equality” out of our heads from the start. To define marriage is to limit it, and the real goal is not marriage “equality” but marriage plasticity.