Month: March 2004

The vocation of art

Marvin Olasky’s Christian newsmagazine WORLD has a cover story on art and culture, and makes an interesting point about art as a divine vocation:

“Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded.” And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work (Exodus 35:30-36:2).
This is the first text of Scripture that directly teaches the doctrine of vocation: Bezalel has been “called by name.” Bezalel, also the first to be described as having been filled with the Holy Spirit, is given a task by God, who has called him not into some prophetic office, but to work with his hands, to serve God and his neighbors by being an artist.

Hats off to Mrs. MacFarlane

Via Vociferous Yawpings: Bai MacFarlane is fighting the divorce in court, God bless her.
The story of how the couple met isn’t on his web site CatholiCity any more, but Google’s cache still has it.
It’s hard to imagine these two very public Catholics being eligible for a declaration of nullity, and I presume Mrs. MacF. will make the case against that too if it comes up.
What the heck went wrong?

I’m not a real countess, but I play one on the Web

When you register for American Airlines’ frequent-flier program, they give you a choice of about 200 salutations, including “Admiral” and “Vice President” and titles of nobility. I could not resist — no longer am I a mere commoner. As you can see by this envelope, I am…
Countess Eric M. Johnson

Published
Categorized as Amusements

Agenda? what agenda?

Massachusetts’ highest court once again rules that old obstacles to free sexual expression must be swept aside.

BOSTON (AP) The state’s highest court ruled Monday that the state’s law against incest doesn’t apply to stepparents and said it was up to the Legislature to enact a ban.
Ruling in the case of a 60-year-old man accused of having sex with his teenage stepdaughter, the Supreme Judicial Court said under the current law the incest prohibition applies only to natural or adoptive parents.

A law professor observes that the court wasn’t willing to construe the word “parent” broadly here, although in another case, it’s certainly been willing to construe “marriage” broadly:

Wendy Murphy, a professor at the New England School of Law, said she appreciated the court’s ruling ”in a technical sense,” but she questioned why the justices didn’t recognize the role of stepparents in modern families when they have recognized the changing nature of families in other cases.
For instance, the SJC noted the ”changing realities of the American family” in its landmark decision in November that found it was unconstitutional to ban gay marriage in the state.

Aren’t we lucky to have such wise judges?

Newman’s Challenge by Fr. Stanley Jaki

Here’s a recommendation for those who wish to engage Newman at the heart of his Catholicity – unapologetic orthodoxy rooted in the supernatural. Buy it for yourself or for a mamby-pamby liberal Catholic you know who trots out Newman to justify their view of the development of doctrine or the crappy implementation to date of Vatican II. Maybe you know an Anglican or Anglo-Catholic who clings tenaciously to the Church of England. They, too, would do well to read this book.