The Practical Parson

 This past week, Hurricane Helene beat her way across the southeastern United States; causing death and destruction not seen here since 1916, a little over 100 years ago.  Cleanup and salvage works are already underway; and many citizens are still left stranded in areas without food, without electricity, and without aid of any form.  Almost a week after the storm hit, amid cries and outcry that the government was dragging its feet in response of sending aid to the region; the president of the United States arrived in North Carolina.  While such a visit should be seen as a means of assuring the public of the strength of our communities, the promise of building back, the assurance of assistance in an hour of need; our president decided to take this opportunity to lecture the citizens of my home state that this storm was caused by climate change and that we all need to acknowledge that fact.  I'm sorry, come again?   You are here in the elected capacity w...

 Yesterday a surprise hit piece from CNN (and subsequent media outlets) accused the Republican candidate for Governor here in North Carolina of making crude, sexual, and racist comments on pornography websites 10+ years ago.   It's hardly surprising that a hit piece would come out at about this time in campaign season, as it is the last day that candidates are able to drop out of the race and have their names removed from the ballot; and also the start of early voting here as well.  Needless to say, the crude, inflammatory and preschool grade level of 'research' that went into the report from CNN is indeed designed and intended to help sway the outcome of our gubernatorial election in favor of the Democrat candidate instead.  One hopes that CNN and their media assistants have registered their donation to Josh Stein's campaign after this story, because that is exactly what it is.  The basic accusation Robinson faces is that someone using his photo, claiming ...

 Imagine you live in one of the smallest countries in the world, surrounded by larger nations who have repeatedly vowed to destroy you and your country.    Imagine groups of people who violently assault you and members of your family on a consistent basis; while claiming YOU are the one who is committing a crime.  Imagine your children being burned alive; your sisters and mothers brutally raped and butchered; your family and friends mutilated and dragged into the dirt streets and left for dead; your neighbors beaten to death while their children watch, then having the children either kidnapped and held hostage or raped and videos of it sent to family members.  Imagine your country finding its footing and launching a defense against people who want you and everyone like you dead; to protect the innocent and eliminate terrorists who prey on the innocent.  Imagine the same terrorists using innocent women and children as human shields so that when you wipe...

 This morning I woke and read of a sudden, violent assault in the land of Israel; coming out of the eternally problematic Gaza strip.  Of course the media is currently obsessing over what Israel did to supposedly prompt Hamas to attack; an outlandish and bizarre philosophy that leftist politicians and reporters have enforced for many years.  Essentially they would like us to believe that Hamas (a globally recognized terrorist organization) would NEVER attack anyone unprovoked; and then spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to come up with explanations when Hamas orders unprovoked attacks on Israel.  This latest unprovoked onslaught comes at the conclusion of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot; proving that the terrorists had planned to attack people of the Jewish faith, making this not only a terrorist attack against Israeli citizens- but an assault on people of the Jewish faith.   Thousands of rockets, missiles, and dozens of heavily armed terrorist mili...

  In light of the current President's administration and their ongoing insistence that sanctuary lamps in chapels of Catholic Hospitals are a "Fire danger" and need to be extinguished and removed; I have designed and hereby Christen the new Resistance Flag for Sacramental Churches:  

  Recently, the Saint Francis healthcare system in Oklahoma was the subject of visitation from a representative of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS), in order to make sure they are in compliance with current Presidential administration policies.  The Catholic Hospital system which comprises 2 hospitals, also has 2 chapels; where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, which means there are also two sanctuary lamps that herald the presence of Christ in the tabernacle. Following the inspection, the CMS representative sent letters to the hospital demanding they extinguish the sanctuary lamps, which he claimed were a "naked flame" which was a threat to fire safety at the hospitals.  A Sanctuary lamp.  Lest the imagery be lost on you, know that the aforementioned lamps consist of a candle inside a glass shell, which is placed inside a red glass candle shade, which is attached to a solid metal base, the shade is then enclosed with a metal lid; to prevent the f...

  The sitting President of the United States of America made an unscheduled and highly secretive visit to Kyiv, Ukraine this past weekend; to announce that he was allocating an additional half a billion dollars of American Taxpayer money to aid the Ukrainians.  This is NEW spending, on top of the money that was previously agreed upon in the cursed "omnibus" spending package which the congress approved in December.  While there are many who may be truly sympathetic to the plight of innocent Ukrainian citizens in the ongoing war with Russia, it is worthwhile to point out that, for a country not actively engaged in a war ourselves; the United States seems to have quite a few lines in the water there in terms of spending: and by spending, I mean an international hemorrhage of taxpayer money.  The American people have been made to pay dearly for the war in Ukraine; a war for which we have no cause to be involved, and for which we have invested much and received ...