The Practical Parson

You hear the call to arms from the liberal progressives every day: free food, free housing, free healthcare, etc.  Free?  Is anything in life ever truly Free?  The answer, much to the chagrin of our liberal neighbors, is sadly not.  Nothing in this world is ever free; not even the gift of salvation is truly free, since the price of salvation was borne by our Savior.  Yes we receive it at no cost to ourselves; but the price has been paid and most dearly, by someone else, somewhere else.   This is the answer to the great myth of the "free" anything.  There is nothing in life that does not come without cost, however you try to frame it.  The only thing one can do is to try to mitigate the appearance of the costs, and usually by transferring it to another person, and also usually another person as far removed from ourselves as possible.   In the secular state, 'free' programs are funded by taxpayer investment; which rise and fall accord...

They forced your businesses to close; but we have no kings. They forced you to stay home; but we have no kings. They forced you to mask; but we have no kings. They forced on you the so-called vaccine; but we have no kings. They forced on you social distancing; but we have no kings. They forced on you quarantine; but we have no kings. They forced your children out of school; but we have no kings. They forced you to sit by while radicals burned their cities; but we have no kings. They forced you to sit by while they arrested anyone not staying home; but we have no kings. They forced the elderly and infirm to die alone without family; but we have no kings. They forced the closure of houses of worship; but we have no kings. They forced the banning of family gatherings; but we have no kings. They forced clergy to stay out of hospitals comforting the sick; but we have no kings. They forced families to stay away from their departed loved ones; but we have no kings. They forced the closure of ...

 

 Recently, the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Charlotte, NC has taken it upon himself to fully implement the Motu Proprio "Traditionis Custodie" of the late Bishop of Rome.  Apart from banishing all adherents of the Latin Mass to a single parish as of July 8th, which won't even open until late in the Fall; an even more disturbing document was leaked from the bishop's office this week.  In the letter that Bishop Martin had planned to issue to the diocese, he makes a multitude of uninformed and personal liable claims against traditional liturgy and people who worship in that manner; as well as theological arguments which have no basis in Catholic teaching, and would be more at home in a Baptist church than a sacramental one.  He has a desire and plans to ban every semblance of tradition from all parishes in the diocese: From banning altar rails, to telling priests they cannot cross their stoles or say vesting prayers for specific vestments (which he claims cau...

 Yesterday the news broke that the US Episcopal Church had refused to assist in the resettlement of 59 refugees from South Africa.  Of course the media and the church are making an incredibly big fuss over the situation in general, and there is no headline about the refugees that fails to mention that they are WHITE South Africans.  My first gripe with the situation is that this is the only time in the entire saga of refugees BS over the last 10 years that the Media have been not at all discreet in labeling an ethnic group of refugees entirely by their skin color.  Can you imagine the outrage if they had reported articles over previous years about "Black Haitians", or "Latino Mexicans" as refugees?  The liberal world's heads would have exploded in fury.  But yes, because the South African group are ethnically pale-skinned, the press has no qualms at all about just labeling them "white".   Secondly, I hesitated responding to the Episcopal Church's ...

 The state of Washington today instituted a new law which claims to seek protection for victims of child abuse; however in reality is a bill that seeks to compel clergy to violate pastor-penitent privilege in order to gain information.  On the surface, and indeed according to the supposedly Catholic governor of Washington state; it would seem a noble thing that there is now a law which requires clergy to break the seal of confession to report any and all instances of abuse brought to the confessional.  In reality though, such a law not only violates federal law ensuring free practice of religion; it also violates the constitution of the United States, which ensures a separation of church and state and also freedom of religious observance.   The long and the short of the sacrament of confession is this- no matter what sins may be uttered, what horrors of a past life divulged; the sins that are brought to the foot of the cross in confession do not belong to the pr...