Book Review: "Made This Way" by Leila Miller & Trent Horn

Amidst our shifting cultural landscape, a plot of solid ground is valuable real estate. Made This Way: How to Prepare Kids to Face Today's Tough Moral Issues provides the terra firma that parents are seeking. And while this book brings an abundance of Scripture and Church teaching to bear on issues, its keenest strength is grounding its moral arguments in the natural law - the universal moral truths discerned by reason and known to consciences (Christian, theist, and atheist) the world over.

Trent Horn and Leila Miller are the perfect duo to craft such a book. Trent is one of the most gifted thinkers and apologists on the scene, and Leila is an outspoken mother of eight whose blog and last two books address the most pressing needs of today's children.

Miller and Horn tackle ten issues: Sex outside of marriage, same-sex "marriage," divorce, contraception, abortion, reproductive technologies, modesty, pornography, transgender identity, and homosexuality. Each is addressed via the three-pronged approach of: 1) what the Church teaches; 2) how to address the topic with young children; 3) addressing it with older children. The book is written  in Leila's melodic voice, but the brilliance of both minds is on display.

As I said, readers are given a crash course in Scriptural passages and Church documents pertinent to these issues, but most helpful for parents will be the rubber-meets-the-road examples and faultless reasoning they can bring into conversations with their children, especially their teens. An example from the chapter on transgenderism:

When a person has a body dysphoria unrelated to sex or "gender," everyone understands that the person needs help. When an anorexic looks in the mirror, she might see someone who is obese, even if she weighs much less than everyone else her age. We don't tell that girl, "That's right, you are overweight, and we will help you reach the weight that's right for you." Instead we say, "What you perceive yourself to be, well, that isn't you. In reality, you are dangerously underweight, and because we love you, we aren't going to help you harm yourself." That is the loving response.... 

....[I]f we are rightly disgusted that a doctor would amputate the healthy limbs of a person who suffers from Body Integrity Identity Disorder [or trans-ableism], then why aren't we equally disgusted by doctors amputating the healthy genitals of persons who identify as transgender? This mental gymnastics of holding both positions at once (trans-able = bad; transgender = good) is not tenable, unless we completely obliterate in our own minds that man and woman mean something objectively, as we know that healthy and disabled do. (p. 210-12)

That is powerful reasoning, one that any teen should be able to grasp and bring with her into conversations with peers of different religious and philosophical backgrounds. My favorite part of their argument on this subject, however, was when they raised the example of Rachel Dolazel, the former head of the Spokane NAACP, a caucasian woman who claims to be "trans-black":

...[I]f Dolazel had claimed she was a black man, then her "progressive" critics would have said she was half right. Yet, how can we tell a person she's wrong about her sincere sense of her racial identity, but right about her sense of gender identity - when both exist only in the imagination? There is no logic to saying we affirm your "sense" of being a man but we condemn your "sense" of being black. Your teens will see the contradiction here. (p. 211)

Yes, I dare say they will - as should anyone sincerely committed to logic and common sense.

Miller and Horn have created a resource that will be cherished by every parent looking to raise their children on tried and true, solid moral ground. Made This Way (Catholic Answers Press, 2018) has my wholehearted endorsement.

Christopher West's "Eclipse of the Body"

I have read several of Christopher West's books, heard him speak, and even had the pleasure of interviewing him once upon a time. His new release couldn't be more timely: first, our already-sex-obsessed culture is sinking, faster every month, into a swamp of confusion and lust; and second, this year marks the 50th anniversary of Humanae Vitae's release. (These two subjects are not unrelated.)

West's Eclipse of the Body makes a powerful case that  it was Christianity's embrace of contraception that unleashed the present darkness. I loved that it was a quick read, chock-full of pithy, memorable formulations of the truth. He reminds us of the meaning, the purpose of gender, and traces, step-by-step, how the sterilization of the sexual act has led to the progressive breakdown of family and society. Don't believe me? Please, by all means, pick up a copy of the book and show me where West goes astray. (I've have to warn you, though, you will also find yourself arguing with Blessed Pope Paul VI and Pope St. John Paul II.)

Even more important than showing us where we went wrong, however, is West's ability to articulate the answer: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. West deftly explains John Paul II's Theology of the Body, the most thorough exposition (to date) of God's purpose for the human body. This new book is a gift to the Church. (Speaking of gifts - I already passed my copy on to my 17 year old.)

The link above will allow you to order the paperback directly from the Cor Project ($7.95, or buy in bulk, 40 or more/$3 each), but you can also grab it on Kindle for $3.95. I don't usually put prices in my reviews, but this is a steal.  Happy reading!

Restoring Marriage Today

What is the most pressing need today? Sharing Christ's vision of marriage and the family. Here is an exciting opportunity for us to deepen our own understanding. Catholic Answers is offering a conference March 3-5, 2016, in San Diego. In addition to Catholic Answers' outstanding staff apologists such as Tim Staples, Trent Horn, and Jimmy Akin, we'll have the opportunity to hear from scholars the stature of Jennifer Roback Morse. For more information and to register, click here, or watch the trailer below.

When the Chips are Stacked Against Us - We Have to Keep Our Heads!

Osmar Schindler's David und Goliath

In several ways, the Western World seems to be losing its mind.  The culture is turning against its foundations in natural law and Judeo-Christian morality.  With the national news only a couple of hours behind us, Brennan (age 11) and I read the story of David and Goliath for the first time.  Brennan has known the story since childhood, from religious books for kids; but this was his first reading of the story from Scripture.  And there is so much there for an 11 year-old boy to love!

[David] took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine ...  David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.  So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.  David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. (1 Sam.17:40, 45-51)

What lesson do I take, do I want my son to take, from David?

1. Remember that the battles we are facing in our culture - battles which are sure to multiply in the years ahead - are not ours; they are the Lord's.
2. And because the battle is the Lord's we must engage in it always cognizant that we are His representatives.  We must avoid taking personal offense when we are attacked and misrepresented; these wrongs are ultimately done not to us, but to Jesus.  (What an honor for us to suffer for Him!)
3. Like David, we can go forward boldly, knowing that we are speaking the Truth.  It is logical; it makes sense.  (That doesn't mean it will be respected or recognized though.)
4. David did not go against Goliath using the giant's type of weaponry - sword, spear, javelin.  No, David approached him with a staff (symbolizing Christ's love, teaching, and authority) and a sling with five stones (Jesse Romero tells people they represent the Rosary with its five decades).

Christ has equipped us with more powerful weapons than David!  Because "the battle is the Lord's" we conduct ourselves, as St. Paul taught, "with innocence, knowledge, and patience, in the Holy Spirit, in sincere love as men with the message of truth and the power of God; wielding the weapons of righteousness with right hand and left, whether honored or dishonored, spoken of well or ill” (2 Cor.6:6-8).  

In the heat of the moment, don't go "losing your head" - that's a Goliath thing to do, not a David/Jesus thing.
    

Why the New Pope will be POWERLESS

Cover of Pope Fiction

- powerless to change Church teaching, that is.  

Every time a new Pope is elected, the media begins to buzz as to whether or not this new Pope will be more "liberal," and bring Church teaching up to date with the "modern" world.  We even hear it among fellow Catholics.  
Will this new Pope:

• ease restrictions on the use of contraceptives?
• recognize same-sex "marriage"?
• allow women to be ordained to the priesthood?
• change Church "rules" on divorce and remarriage?

What these questioners fail to realize is that the Pope does not have the power to change these things.  Why not?  Because they are not his policies; they are Christ's.  

The world has shown itself to be a place of opinion, not moral conviction.  Its understanding of sexuality and the meaning of marriage has morphed in the past 50 years.  But Jesus' understanding has not.  Many, many Christian groups have slowly let go of elements of Christ's teaching in this area.  But the Successor of Peter, because Christ appointed him to share His own role of acting as a Rock to the faithful, cannot. (See here, here, and here.) Take an issue such as "same-sex marriage" - it is oxymoronic to the mind of Christ and thus, must be to the Pope's as well (and honestly, to anyone who believes that Jesus' words were not just those of a man, but God). 

The Pope's ministry is to strengthen his fellow bishops and all of the faithful in living out Christ's teachings.  He has no authority to change them. 

Please keep our new Pope in your prayers; he has a tough row to hoe - but in the end God will make his work fruitful.  A couple of verses to keep in the back of our minds as we pray:
 
"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (Jn.16:33)
 
"Whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith." (1 Jn. 5:4) 

"I Know I Sound Insane ...

... to some of the people who stumble upon this blog.  Jesus being the fulfillment of our deepest needs, angels and saints, my statements regarding Christian divorce and remarriage, sexual expression, contraception, etc.  To a non-Christian immersed in today's culture these things are foreign, if not laughable.  I know I sound insane to self-described "moderate" and "liberal" Christians too.  (Not that these labels from the world of politics actually have anything to do with our commitment to Christ Jesus, the Truth.)

And honestly, they are right ... if Jesus and His promises are untrue.  Christians who actually believe everything Christ taught are the definition of "putting all your eggs in one basket."  In the first decades of our Church, St. Paul wrote:

We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength ... (1 Cor. 1:23-25)
... We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing ... The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them ... (1 Cor. 2:6,14) 

We are speaking truths about human dignity, moral absolutes, the beauty and sacredness of human sexuality that this culture and many of our brothers and sisters have closed their ears to, choosing the voice of the world over the voice of God.  It is a temptation in every period of history and in every life.  But we go on enunciating these truths because they ultimately come from the mouth of Jesus - the Way, the Truth, and the Life - and ignoring them can damage us to such a degree that we are separated from Him for eternity.  We recognize that this makes us look "backward" to some, but our vision is really focused far into the future: 

... If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.  If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Cor. 15:17-19)

But our hope in Christ is not just for this life.  This life is only the first moments of eternity, but moments where we choose our trajectory.  A little pain making for an eternity of gain:

... I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (Rom.8:18)

So we must go on living and speaking with joy, with your eyes fixed upon Jesus, our End.  We do not compromise with this age - with, for instance, the Planned Parenthoods and the agenda of handing out birth control to our teens because "their just going to 'do it' anyway ..."  We hold out the vision that we are creatures of incredible dignity, with the ability to practice self-control, to sacrifice and make an authentic gift of ourselves in love.  We will not make use of sinful means in the attempt to bring about our desired end because we Jews and Christians have understood that the path to hell is paved with the best of intentions. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death" (Prov.14:12).

So I, so all of us Christians, have to be willing to take our lumps because we believe the One Who said, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (Jn.16:33).  We have Hope, the theological virtue of Hope, that looks ahead with incredible joy to the world that is to come.

Fundamentalism - What it is, and isn't

You have undoubtedly heard someone say, "We Catholics are not fundamentalists;" and they are correct.  The problem arises when it is followed by something like, "we're not bound by the social taboos of an earlier time.  As a Catholic, I support 'marriage equality,'" and by that mean redefining "marriage" in a way completely at odds with Scripture and the Catholic Faith. (Think I heard our V.P. say something like that recently.)

When a Catholic, such as Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) says that he or she is not a fundamentalist, they do not mean that they have freedom to reinterpret the doctrinal and moral tenets of the Faith, which as Catholics they believe the truth of which is guaranteed by God.  Or to put it in shorthand:

"I am not a fundamentalist" ≠ "I can say Scripture or the Church has been wrong on a point of faith or morals"

If someone has led you to believe otherwise then he or she has done you a gross disservice.  The Church's morality, given to her by God, does not change.  The authentic Catholic understanding is:

"I am not a fundamentalist"  =  "When I read the Bible I understand that ancient authors, just like today's authors, make use of literal as well as figurative language; and it sometimes takes study to understand which is which."

In her official documents the Church has stated time and again that Scipture was written in a different culture than our own, and makes use of literary genres that we do not.  History was written under different rules.  When you read that a king reigned "X" number of years, the author may have been using a symbolic number (40 was a popular one, meaning 'fullness'), or a multiple of it - never meaning his number to be read as those recorded in the Encyclopedia Britannica. The Bible's authors used idioms and hyperbole just as we do today ... the only difference being that we are unfamiliar with theirs.  (We're like four year-olds who start to squirm when dad tells them an X-Box costs "an arm and a leg.")  And when we Catholics come at the creation accounts in Genesis 1-3, we understand that the author had no intention of writing a scientific account!  What he wrote was 100% true, but communicated in language we might characterize as a "poetic" history, as opposed to a scientific one. (We understand that man and woman were made by God, that the family is willed by God, there was a Fall from grace, etc.)  When we read Luke's account of the Resurrection on the other hand, he was making claims about what witnesses saw, and reporting history in a way familiar to us today.

When Scripture shows God saying, "Thou shalt not kill ..." it is a positive assertion, and we are bound to it.  Same with the host of biblical statements on marriage and sexual morality that a significant number of Christians today, more influenced by the world than by Scripture and 2,000 years of Christian teaching, seem comfortable ignoring and even opposing.  They misunderstand the statement "We are not fundamentalists" to mean "We do not have to be faithful to these hard teachings, these teachings that our culture has started to belittle."

The Jesus of history, the Jesus recorded in Scripture, made a bold assertion.  It should make us pause before we reject what Christianity has always proclaimed to be true:  "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels" (Lk.9:26).

 

The 2012 Democratic Platform

Direct quotes.  Extremely important passages for Christians to consider, hot off the presses:

Protecting A Woman’s Right to Choose. The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her pregnancy, including a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay. We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right. Abortion is an intensely personal decision between a woman, her family, her doctor, and her clergy; there is no place for politicians or government to get in the way. We also recognize that health care and education help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions. We strongly and unequivocally support a woman’s decision to have a child by providing affordable health care and ensuring the availability of and access to programs that help women during pregnancy and after the birth of a child, including caring adoption programs ...

Freedom to Marry. We support the right of all families to have equal respect, responsibilities, and protections under the law. We support marriage equality and support the movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples. We also support the freedom of churches and religious entities to decide how to administer marriage as a religious sacrament without government interference.

We oppose discriminatory federal and state constitutional amendments and other attempts to deny equal protection of the laws to committed same-sex couples who seek the same respect and responsibilities as other married couples. We support the full repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act and the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act. 

Wow, so states that have passed amendments, reiterating the historic definition of the marriage relationship, have acted in a "discriminatory" manner?  I wonder what that says about the Christian Faith, which has defined marriage in the same way as those states for 2,000 years, or Judaism which did so for some 1,800 years prior to that. (I notice how they "support the freedom of churches and religious entities to decide how to administer their sacraments ... " but that just seems to be a polite nod to those backward, discriminatory religious people.)

You know, people can object to various elements in the Republican platform.  (As an independent, I have no qualms doing so.)  Christians can honestly debate size of government, budgets, economic plans, student loans, etc., etc.  What we cannot do is cast a vote for a candidate who opposes God's Commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," a candidate who opposes "any and all efforts to weaken or undermine" the killing of one million unborn children every year through abortion.  There is no other issue or cluster of issues that outweighs abortion!  It is an intrinsically evil act, a mortal sin, an absolute deal-breaker.  

I am no fan of Mitt Romney, but I am unaware of any point in his party's platform that directly contradicts one of the Commandments, or that refers to the understanding of marriage shared by Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists as "discriminatory."

Does this have some bearing on why the suggestion to reinstate "Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel"  and an acknowledgment of "GOD"  into the Democratic Platform was met with boos and required three votes?   You can see it for yourself (click here):