Posted by Eric (May 9, 2006 at 1:18 pm)
You’ve heard it a thousand times before: the Church demands that you “check your mind at the door.”
The first thing that’s wrong with this phrase, and which reveals the mind set of those who employ it, is the very idea that going in or out a door has anything to do with religious faith.
Yes, I realize this is a metaphorical door, but even so it must be a metaphor for something—for the line between the religious aspect of one’s life and all the rest, all that which hasn’t anything to do with religious faith.
If you’re drawing lines like that, you’ve already checked your mind at some other door, possibly your bedroom door—you were already handicapped before you made it to the kitchen.
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Posted by Eric (May 3, 2006 at 12:08 pm)
Yesterday I dropped by the Borders in Champaign, IL after a special Divine Liturgy there to pick up Rod Dreher’s book Crunchy Cons (more on that in a future post). While roaming around the store looking for Dreher’s book I saw no fewer than three editions of The Da Vinci Code, including a thick, new “Illustrated Edition.” There were also several books on the so-called Gospel of Judas, and a number of other books purporting to tell us the “true story” of Jesus.
What all these books have in common, of course, is the consoling news that Jesus is not who the canonical gospels say he is, the Son of God who is one with God the Father, through whom the Father sends forth his Holy Spirit to transform the world. I suppose nothing so capsulizes the hubris of this age than such books, which claim to have discovered the “truth” about Jesus that was somehow hidden from his disciples and their closest friends, those who wrote the first “True Story of Jesus” books—the ones you’ll find in the New Testament.
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Posted by Eric (May 1, 2006 at 11:13 am)
There’s one more issue that I’ve got to address in Sam and Bethany Torode’s “Open Letter” repudiating the views articulated in their 2002 book, Open Embrace: A Protestant Couple Rethinks Contraception. That isn’t to say this will be my last word on the broader issues involved, but at least for now it’s my last response to the specific points raised in the “Open Letter.”
The statement I want to address here is this:
We also see honest congruity with the language of the body by saying “no” to conception with our bodies (via barrier methods or sensual massage) when our minds and hearts are also saying “no” to conception.
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Posted by Eric (April 29, 2006 at 1:24 pm)
No, this isn’t a post on cycling. But further reflection on the Torode Affair and the real difficulties of practicing NFP put me in mind of a particularly challenging climb I managed this week on my mountainbike despite feeling weak and wobbly that day.
Not only is this particular hill steep and long, but it’s rooty and rocky. The only way to manage it—and I’ve failed to reach the top as often as I’ve made it—is to focus on the trail right under the front wheel. This helps you navigate around the ruts and rocks and keeps you from being discouraged at the sight of how very, very far you have left to go.
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Posted by Eric (April 28, 2006 at 4:49 pm)
Today I was told that Sam and Bethany Torode have issed an “Open Letter about Open Embrace,” more or less recanting the opposition to contraception that they articulated in their influential 2002 book, Open Embrace: A Protestant Couple Rethinks Contraception. My first reaction on hearing this report was incredulity; I didn’t believe it until I had verified it. Turns out it’s true.
This is disappointing news on many levels. The Torodes write:
[O]ur personal experience in the past five years has shown that we had a lot to learn about NFP, and that there is a dark side we weren’t aware of. . . . [S]trict NFP reaches a point where it is more harmful for a marriage than good.
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