My next opportunity to be world-famous: I have written the best screw-in-a-light-bulb joke ever.
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Lenten sadness: It seems more and more certain that this sans-TV thing is a go. I would appreciate it if all my secret admirers out there would send me reading material for Valentine's Day.
Tentatively, per week we're allowed three hours of TV, one video, and (for me) two games of Madden 2000. I am uncertain what we will do with all this newly discovered free time. Perhaps we will find a vaccine for the common cold or for hatred.
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Catholictivity: After a conversation about Catholicism at a church function on Sunday, I now strongly suspect that fewer than ten percent of American Catholics actively believe in transubstantiation; most, I would guess, believe in something akin to Missouri Synod Lutherans' consubstantiation. In fact, I suspect most U.S. Catholics are closer in dogma to the average mainstream-to-liberal Christian church (like Lutheran ELCA) than the beliefs stated in the Catholic Catechism: I'd guess more than half of Catholics are for female and married priests, I'm sure more than half have no problem with typical birth control measures (other than abortion), and I think there are few, if any, ELCA beliefs that they'd find distasteful. (Liberal Christian churches have the advantage of a shorter list of necessary beliefs.)
Why do they continue as Catholics, then? A few reasons:
a) Most Christians, including Catholics, don't care about the specifics of their dogma other than the Biblical basics.
b) Most Christians, including Catholics, attend the church of their parents without considering other alternatives; given (a), there's no impetus for change.
c) They like their individual church.
d) They like the methodical manner of the Catholic Church: the pattern of the Rosary, the never-changing order of mass, the consistent melody of the mass parts, the chance to sneak out after communion.
e) They want their children to attend a church, and they don’t much care which one.
I happen to believe (d) is especially important to many people, so a thought: why isn’t there a Catholic knockoff church that retains the ornamental aspects of Catholicism but puts forth a different belief system – perhaps a general “No creed but Christ” doctrine?
oh so lovingly written by
Matthew |
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
