| | | The Stream 💨How Are You, Really? Confronting the Other Pandemic | | Annemarie McLean | January 26, 2021 | How are you, really? I ask the question simply because it needs to be asked — both of others and myself. Like so many, my mind is preoccupied with an abundance of concerns. Like the one about my 70-year-old friend who is on day eight of COVID seclusion, having his food delivered outside his bedroom door by his wife. Or my 15-year-old daughter’s question playing on repeat in my mind regarding when, or even if, she’ll ever be able to go to high school without a mask. She said she misses seeing her friends’ faces. I said, “Be glad you’re even in school.” Add my grocery store encounter yesterday to the list. I made eye contact with a fellow shopper across the aisle and smiled at them. I was immediately hit with, “Did they know I smiled? Could they read the smile through my eyes? They certainly couldn’t see it through the mask!” Compound these fleeting thoughts with a hundred others each day exacerbated by our current realities. Together, they suggest that we’re in the midst of a mental health pandemic of epic proportions. The weight of these realizations, along with a sense of selfless duty that “we all need to bear our own load” made me feel very alone in my thoughts. Chances are I am far from alone in feeling alone. Continue Reading... |
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| | | | | | Be Subversive — Get Married! | | Dwight Longenecker | January 27, 2021 | Part of my job as a pastor is to counsel young couples preparing for marriage. We discuss what marriage means for Christians — the depth of meaning it holds, the power of true love and how the sacrament of marriage communicates God’s grace. Then I give them a challenge, “Why don’t the two of you do something really weird?” They glance at me with sudden surprise. I’m a priest. I’m not supposed to be counseling weirdness. They’re bewildered. “What’s that? What do you mean?” I say, “Do something really subversive. Get married in church. Have lots of kids. Home school them or put them in church school. Most of all, stay married. For life. For better or for worse.” Continue Reading... |
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| | | | | Speaker Pelosi, Stop Pretending to Be Faithful | | Jennifer Hartline | January 27, 2021 | Speaker Pelosi, You are accustomed to preaching your own gospel from atop your throne of power and privilege, I know well enough. You sell your counterfeit version of Catholicism with an authoritative air, knowing the secular media will be there to publish your words with due applause and deference. You do not worry about correction or resistance from Catholic hierarchy since you know you’re unlikely to get much. You fret not about the consequences of your public scandal since you have never really suffered any repercussions for the damage you have caused. Your remarks to Hillary Clinton recently on her “You and Me Both” podcast were intolerably smug, cruel and grotesque. Who do you think you are, Mrs. Pelosi? Continue Reading... |
| | | | | A Message for Democrats | | George Janek | January 26, 2021 | This is a message for Democrats. Not progressives, or socialists, or communist sympathizers, but real, old-school, Democrats. The kind that love the United States of America and only differ from Republicans because their vision of government is as a benevolent entity meant to help our fellow human beings. Your party is gone. The party that took over the White House on January 20th is a very different party, and if you don’t get wise to it soon, it will be too late. The violence of January 6th has led various pundits and politicians to use the word “insurrection.” That word is allowing the Democrat party to usurp power and destroy freedoms at an unprecedented rate. Even if you don’t believe that the election was stolen through massive voter fraud, you have to be able to see the power grab these miscreants are engaged in. They’re not being subtle. It is blatant. Continue Reading... |
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