http://www.bustedhalo.com/bustedblog At the intersection of faith and culture... we all stand in awe knowing that something is bigger than we are. Sat, 23 May 2009 14:06:03 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Hello friends of Bustedblog!  (I recognize that might be seven people, but you're an awfully nice seven people, and that's all that really counts I think.  Advertisers might think otherwise however). At any rate, I'll have sporadic access to e-mail for a while now, but I'd like to ask all of ... http://www.bustedhalo.com/bustedblog/hello-from-syria So I'm often told the same story: "I used to be proud and doubt like you, but now I know the Church is true." Here's my response: There was a period in my life when I was terrified of nuance and realizing that the world is complicated and lacking simple answers. ... http://www.bustedhalo.com/bustedblog/what-i-say-to-people-who-tell-me-im-motivated-by-pride-to-question-the-church Look, they're a lot more conservative than I am.  But they are Catholic, through and through.  They are the opposite of the Republican shrills with which they are often associated, and articles like this go to show it. http://www.bustedhalo.com/bustedblog/why-i-love-first-things Two interesting bits here: (1) Republicans seem to care a lot less about same-sex marriage than they used to.  (2) Catholics are apathetic about this as well, if not outright opposed to what their Bishops and leadership is saying about it.  I think that this has a lot to do ... http://www.bustedhalo.com/bustedblog/catholics-and-republicans-on-same-sex-marriage-and-public-reason As Spector (for various and certainly not all laudable reasons) leaves the Republican party, I read this in the LA Times: In most cases, former Catholics who are now unaffiliated said they were dissatisfied with the church's teachings on abortion, homosexuality, birth control or treatment of women. Change can happen from within ... http://www.bustedhalo.com/bustedblog/please-dont-leave-the-catholic-church all my friends are in serious relationships.  We're all either married or, more likely, in long-term relationships that resemble marriage.  This weirds me out.  Does this weird anyone else out?  I love my girlfriend, don't get me wrong, but I'm still a little surprised by how few single people I ... http://www.bustedhalo.com/bustedblog/so-being-28 Thanks to JB for her comments on Susan Boyle, and I think I often do need a good beating-up for too often beating my self up.  Although I still think I'm right about this Boyle thing, at least for me, but I don't want to put that on anyone else.  ... http://www.bustedhalo.com/bustedblog/on-overthinking-and-susan-boyle So I'm really, really interested in this.  And I'll admit my ignorance, so I ask for the advice of you readers.  How did it happen that John Courtney Murray SJwas silenced for his advocacy of certain political mechanisms but then later redeemed while Gustavo Gutierrez (now OP) got in trouble ... http://www.bustedhalo.com/bustedblog/how-heresy-becomes-theology Or, if you want to be all historically accurate, I guess you could say it's that talking to communists is like talking to Catholics.  Still, the similarities are striking.  Really, this is true for anyone with a certain ideological purity, and the same could be said for libertarians, or intense ... http://www.bustedhalo.com/bustedblog/why-talking-to-certain-catholics-is-like-talking-to-communists Hey friends of the Bustedblog, Sorry about a lack of posts recently.  You should all be aware that, first, I am in the middle of finals, and second, I will be in Damascus, Syria starting in the very beginning of May and I won't be back until late August.  As a ... http://www.bustedhalo.com/bustedblog/changes-to-the-blog