Friday, August 05, 2011

University Faculty for Life Newsletter

The University Faculty for Life, an organization dedicated to the scholarly exploration of life issues in support of the Culture of Life, has appointed me editor of their quarterly newsletter. The first issue comes out in October.

Here's a post about it on our blog, which you might want to consider reading to keep up on issues in pro-life scholarship. There a posts on a variety of disciplines, including philosophy, law, theology, medical and biological sciences, and literature.

My former fellow blogger at Heart, Mind and Strength, Dr. Kevin Miller, also posts on that blog.

"My" commentary on the current economic crisis

"For though the fig tree blossom not nor fruit be on the vines, Though the yield of the olive fail and the terraces produce no nourishment, Though the flocks disappear from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, Yet will I rejoice in the LORD and exult in my saving God. GOD, my Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet swift as those of hinds and enables me to go upon the heights" (Hab. 3:17-19).
From today's morning prayer.

Thursday, August 04, 2011

Leah Darrow

Leah Darrow is a former New York Model and current chastity speaker. Here is a National Catholic Register article about her by Jim Graves. Some nice quotes:
“Modesty is more than just the length of a hemline,” she explained. “It’s about our conversations, how we treat people, and how we love others. Modesty protects our purity and the mystery of a person. In our society, it gets a bad rap. It’s actually quite attractive.”

“There is modesty of feelings as well as of the body. It protests, for example, against the voyeuristic explorations of the human body in certain advertisements or against the solicitations of certain media that go too far in the exhibition of intimate things. Modesty inspires a way of life which makes it possible to resist the allurements of fashion and the pressures of prevailing ideologies.”

I especially like this. "In fact, for her personally, she has resolved that the only romantic kiss she will share with a man will be with her future husband." She gets it. It reminds me of the wonderful children's book, The Princess and the Kiss, by Jennie Bishop. I just found out that there is a companion book called The Squire and the Scroll. I haven't read it, but would love to.


Home School

I was looking for a book by Evelyn Waugh in the library and ran across a sequel to Charles Webb's The Graduate called Home School. Naturally, I was interested, since it was about home schooling. I also saw The Graduate when I was in college.

After having read a couple of reviews of the book and read about Webb's very strange biography, I can affirm something we all know anyway. The home schooling movement is very broad based. Webb home schooled his two children in the 1970s, illegally in California. He also managed a nudist camp at one point, according to the internet sources.

Here is a quote from the book.
Underlying the education of the children was Benjamin and Elaine's [the main characters from The Graduate besides, you know, Mrs. Robinson] conviction that a child's natural learning impulse must be allowed to develop freely, unfettered by direction from above any more than is strictly necessary, and that if this freedom is permitted, innate curiosity will guide the child to the objects of greatest interest and relevance to its life, resulting in an absence of those inhibitions derived from forced institutional learning that can stamp various kinds of psychologically damaging behavior on the emerging personality of the traditionally schooled child. So it was not out of the ordinary the next morning that the family found itself in the back yard to discuss the possibility of Jason constructing a guillotine behind the house.
I haven't read the book, nor do I have any particular desire to do so.

Now, where is that Waugh book?

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Direct and indirect abortion

In case you've ever wondered, here is the distinction between direct and indirect abortion, according to the U.S. bishops. Direct abortion is not a human option under any circumstances.

Monday, August 01, 2011

I'm a scientific expert!

I just noticed that someone considers me a scientific expert on "dehumanization." See the list to the right here.

I'm not sure that this is a good thing. :)