Author: SDG

Waiting For Potter

To those of you, like me, who are eagerly anticipating the latest in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling (to be titled Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and released on July 16), you can find all the latest Potter updates at The Leaky Cauldron.

As an aside: Am I the only Potter fan who thinks it would have been better in keeping with the series to date to have titled the book The Mudblood Prince? I wonder why mudblood, the epithet used for wizards of mixed ancestry, was changed to half-blood. I really hope it wasn’t political correctness.

To those of you, unlike me, who are unsure of the Potter phenomenon, I recommend reading John Granger’s Looking for God in Harry Potter. You can also visit Granger’s website HogwartsProfessor.com. Also, fellow JA.org blogger Steven D. Greydanus has an article on Potter, which you can read here (the editorial sidebar to Greydanus’s article can be read here).

BETTY FRIEDAN TO NUNS: “Wear your habits!”

Author Helen LaKelly Hunt’s interview about her book Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance has some nuttiness in it — such as scolding the Pope for "narrowness" in his approach to feminism — but it is also interesting to see secular feminists grappling with religion.  This anecdote was particularly amusing:

"With Betty [Friedan], she was never against religion. She was always frustrated that feminists projected that. In fact, of the seven people who founded NOW [National Organization for Women], two of them were nuns. And when they had their first press conference, Betty said, ‘Wear your habits.’ And the nuns said, ‘We don’t want to wear our habits because we are here to start a social movement—it’s not about a religious thing.’ And Betty said, ‘No, I want you to wear your habits for this.’ And they said, no, they wouldn’t. And finally Betty said, ‘Dammit, wear your habits!’"

GET THE STORY.

Mommy Guilt

Mommy Guilt — guilt for being a mother with a career — is not something I currently experience because I’m not married or a mother (although I do hold out hope).  But since I do one day hope to be a wife, mother, and writer, this post by a romance novelist on a romance novel blog was of some interest to me.

"Sometimes, I even have to shut the door and say, ‘Mommy’s working’ in the . . . EVENINGS. Or, worse, WEEKENDS. Can we say slimy, guilt-ridden mother???

"So here’s the deal. I’m going to try to feel less guilty. Because I still believe it’s really cool to teach my kids that Moms can have wonderfully fulfilling jobs, too. I’ll even let the emotion inform my writing. And I’ll stock up on supplies for the next galaxy I have to help build at midnight."

Is it just me or does it sound to anyone else that this is simply saying, "I know something’s wrong here; I’ve even got my finger to the pulse of what’s not working.  But rather than fix it, I prefer to revel in the guilt"?

Like I said, I’m not a working mom, so I don’t have suggestions for this working mom.  But I don’t think the solution is to use Mommy Guilt to "inform writing."  Kids are kids but a short time.  On your deathbed, are you going to be glad you used your Mommy Guilt to pen a bestseller, or are you going to wish you set aside the copyedits to help build a miniature galaxy with your child? 

I read this post and I started hearing Harry Chapin singing "Cat’s In the Cradle."

When The Chosen People Go Marching In

So, you say the plain-and-simple meaning of the Bible just ain’t plain and simple for you?  You hear of Stephen being stoned and wonder what he was tripping on?  (No kidding, apparently some people wonder just that.)  Fear not, for behold there is a new Bible translation available just for you:

"For readers of the Bible confused by its archaic language, such as its use of the term ‘stoned’ for a form of execution rather than the effects of smoking dope, help is at hand.

One of the world’s most widely read Bibles, the New International Version, has been modernised by a team of 15 American and British scholars and is published today [March 15].

"Gone is the word ‘aliens,’ which the academics thought was invariably associated in the minds of the younger generation with extra-terrestrials. It is replaced with ‘foreigners.’

"Even the term ‘saints’ is deemed to be too ‘ecclesiastical’ and has been banished, to be replaced with ‘God’s chosen people.’ The Virgin Mary is no longer ‘with child’; she is ‘pregnant.’

Uh, how can the Virgin Mary be pregnant if she is not with child?  I guess that will be a question for the translators of the next edition of this Bible.

GET THE STORY.

Persona a persona

As someone who does freelance editing and who writes business letters in the course of my daily work, there are few things that tick me off more as an editor and writer than a poorly-composed business letter.  A well-composed, thoughtful letter can persuade; a sloppy letter can close hearts and minds.

SAMPLE BUSINESS LETTER.

As a grumpy editor and writer, I picked out about five stylistic points that would have had me winging this letter back to its composer with marks for change.  However, I’ll grant bragging rights to the commenter who can spot the number-one error in this letter that is intended to plead a very important case.

Two hints: One, it’s not a matter of content.  Two, check out the title of this post.

(Nod to Bill Cork of Ut Unum Sint.)

Chronicler of the Culture of Death

I am not a fan of horror fiction because I figure that the front-page of my local newspaper is scary enough, thanks.  However, work sometimes compels me to flip through factual horror books.  Case in point: Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America by Wesley J. Smith, a lawyer and opponent of the euthanasia movement.  After scanning through several chapters, I marched over to see a friend and told her that if I ever was unable to speak for myself she was to tell anyone and everyone that I wanted to live.  The horror stories Smith recounts are scarier than anything Stephen King could envision.

Smith has a blog titled Secondhand Smoke.  Check it out! 

PVS SURVIVOR: “I was just like Terri!”

Terri Schiavo’s execution is still on schedule for this Friday, March 18.  A "persistent-vegetative-state" survivor, whose attorney husband saved her life, has come forward to testify to the experience of starvation by tube removal:   

"Struck down in 1995 at the age of thirty-three by a rare double brainstem stroke, Kate [Adamson], then a mother of two young girls, was completely paralyzed; she was unable even to blink her eyes. Like Terri Shiavo, the medical staff treating her questioned the merit of continuing granting Kate the most basic human right of food and water.

[…]

"Frequently described by medical authorities as a humane way to die, Kate — now as vibrant and beautiful as before her stroke — testified before the crowd of Terri’s family and supporters that this form of legalized execution was ‘one of the most painful experiences you can imagine.’ Unable to respond or to indicate awareness, Kate Adamson asserts, ‘I was just like Terri … but I was alive! I could hear every word. They were saying "shall we just not treat her?" … I suffered excruciating misery in silence.’"

GET THE STORY.

(Nod to Bill Cork of Ut Unum Sint.)

Introducing Sinbot

A new product in the Curt Jester‘s ongoing line of Jesterware.

"Due to an amazing new breakthrough in technology using cranial nanobots and an associated software program you will soon be on your way to having a sinware free MOS [Moral Operating System]. Introducing Sinbot Search & Destroy 2.0! Install Sinbot S&D on your computer, swallow the included vial of nanobots, and connect the receiver via the USB (Universal Sinners Bus) your computer. Run Sinbot S&D and follow these simple instructions."

GET YOUR SINBOT TODAY.

First Comes Confession

From our Restating-The-Obvious Department:  John Paul II reminds priests that those aware that they are in mortal sin cannot go to Communion.

"In keeping with Church teaching, John Paul II issued a reminder that no one who is aware of being in a state of mortal sin can go to Communion.

"The Pope confirmed the traditional teaching of the magisterium in a message published by the Holy See on Saturday. The message was addressed to young priests who attended a course last week on the "internal forum" — questions of conscience — organized by the tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

[…]

"Only someone who is sincerely conscious of not having committed a mortal sin can receive the Body of Christ," states the papal message, recalling the doctrine of the Council of Trent. "And this continues to be the teaching of the Church also today."

GET THE STORY.

Memo from Cardinal to U.K. Yahoos:

"[R]eligion and politics do mix." –Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor (Archbishop of Westminster)

"Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor ensured that abortion would play a greater part in the coming election than any other by praising the Tory leader’s call for a cut in the legal abortion limit from 24 to 20 weeks.

"The Archbishop of Westminster went on to admit that Labour was no longer the natural party of choice for the UK’s six million Catholics.

"His views could be particularly significant in marginal constituencies with large Catholic populations such as the West Midlands, the North West and parts of London."

I can’t wait to see the country map following England’s election and find out where the red and blue counties in England lie.

GET THE STORY.