The Practical Parson

 20 days ago a young man was assassinated in front of his own children and a crowd of several thousand people on a college campus in Utah.  Almost spontaneously, our "progressive" brethren broke out in thunderous celebration for the death of this man; posting fictitious quotes attributed to him and calling him every manner of slander the left is capable of summoning as an insult against their opponents.  One of the more fascinatingly ironic facts of that phenomena for me personally, was a massive increase in downloads of/ internet searches for the song "no One Mourns the Wicked", from the titled movie "Wicked" which was released just a year ago.  The lyrics proclaim that the wicked die alone, the wicked's life is lonely, etc.; much to the delight of the liberals who played the song in celebration.   However the irony of them playing this song as a celebration of that man's death is overwhelming to those of us who have seen the movie and know the st...

 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 ...

 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...

 Recently, I was in town.   The town nearest my home is in many ways the epitome of small town America; a town in the shadow of a former manufacturing plant for Tobacco, with a community that isn't the smallest, but where everyone still seems to manage to know most everyone and everything going on in town at a given time.   Indeed, it was even a stop for country music star Justin Moore almost a decade ago when he was on his "Small Town USA" tour.   I have lived here for my entire life, and know intimately the community and many of the people; all good sincere people who have always had a place in my heart.   Judge my shock and dismay as I have borne witness over the last 3 years, as my hometown community has been forced into a situation that I am reliably well-informed, is not unique; given the current political and economic climate of our nation.  There have always been poor people in our community, our Lord himself said "the Poor you h...

 This week, the governments of Spain, Ireland, and Norway announced their joint decision to recognize a "Palestinian State", with the present Palestinian Authority as its legitimate government.  While on the surface there is the thinnest of a veneer of civility, this action demonstrates just how much hatred and animosity many still hold for Jews and the State of Israel as a whole.  The facts of the matter are simple, yet everyone who wants to be a 'social justice warrior' seem to have forgotten, so let us review: The modern state of Israel was established in 1948, following a failed attempt by the Arab nations of the Middle East to destroy the Jewish population of the British "mandate of Palestine", following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.  This attempt to wipe out the Jews in the Middle East failed, and as they retreated; the Arab authorities encouraged, coerced, convinced, and forced non-Jewish citizens to leave their homes in the area that is Israel,...

  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 ...

 Cardinal George Pell of Australia passed away in Rome this past week, and the media has shown its typical classless act of condemning his soul and memory to hell; because he was a Roman Catholic Bishop.  I must preface my opinions on this by reminding the reader that, as a survivor of many forms of abuse myself at the hands of evangelical Christian abusers when I was young; I have a particular insight into the matters at hand in this story.  That being said, here's my take on the BS that has surrounded the liberal outrage and delight on this poor man's passing into the next life: Cardinal Pell was the principle figurehead of the Australian Catholic Church for many years, before he was called to answer on trumped up charges of sexual abuse of 2 choir boys which allegedly occurred in the 1990's, in 2017.  He was convicted, and spent 404 days in solitary confinement before the charges were dismissed completely upon appeal.  Now when you take those facts in isolati...