Dear AOC, please stop

   Alexandria Occasio Cortez considers herself Catholic.  Okay, fine.  I'd make the argument that a bad Catholic is still a Catholic.  That being said, I really wish she would stop doing things like supporting the porn industry, and the so called "sex worker" industry.  

    Let's be honest, doing those things for money is prostitution.  It doesn't matter if there's a camera there or not.  It's prostitution.  

    And sometimes though, there's not much of a difference between politics and prostitution.  I believe it was Ronald Reagan that said something among those lines.  

    In all seriousness, when the porn industry is THANKFULLY going through lawsuits like with "Girls do Porn", and the like, this is progress in the right direction.  People should be SHAMED for looking at porn.

    I would actually have no problem outlawing porn (yes, I said it), but, what I think would be more effective, is having to show an ID to buy, rent, use, or look at porn.  

    I have to show an ID when I order a beer at a restaurant (I am 32, in a jurisdiction where the legal drinking age is 21), I had to show an ID when I signed up for Parler, I used to smoke cigars and I had to show an ID to do that.  

    I don't agree that porn is protected speech.  It isn't.  The US does have obscenity laws, and the US Supreme Court has ruled that they are, in fact, constitutional.  Not sure why we don't enforce them.  

    I also find it kind of odd that, to do those things for money, it's against the law.  Unless a camera is there.  So, why does recording it make it legal?

    And here's the thing, even with that provision, there are still illegal things being done.  Underage children being exploited, (as a New York Times article recently touched on).  Porn being legal, and having consent laws is not going to stop this.

    Jesus says, as recorded in The Bible, that those who cause children to sin deserve to be drowned. (Matthew 18:6,  Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2) 

    Yeah, that's pretty series.   

    I feel as though AOC is just trying to get  a rise out of her opposition.  She might actually believe the absurdly stupid things she says.  

    After all, she is a socialist, and socialism has a history of failure.  Oddly though, pornography is usually something socialist regimes, you know, ban.  I think I have to agree with them on this.  

    "Democratic socialism", is still socialism.  But, that is a blog post of another day.  

    Look, AOC and I are approximately the same age.  We were the first generation to grow up on the internet.  We were also the first generation to grow up with easy access to pornography.  

    And I think it's warped her mind because of it.

    FYI, the average age a child first looks at porn, is 11.  We need to make it harder to access, if nothing else.

    If you'd like to learn more about this (and learn my taste in Podcasts), check out here, AOC Praises PORN and Sex Work

REACTION: "The Children of PORNHUB" Article 

#385 – Fighting Pornhub and the Scourge of Pornography

I haven't touched on the topic, but I will, I have to keep my content PG, so I kind of have to circumvent it, somehow, and if you're curious, my own podcast can be found here, Adam Charles Hovey Podcast

Here, Adam Charles Hovey Podcast,

and here, Adam Charles Hovey Podcast

    Y'all, porn is a scourge.  

We need to talk about suicide

     For those that don't know, a priest who resided in my diocese, seems to have committed suicide. 

    Suicide, by the way, is one of the hardest things for me to talk about, right up there with my dad's death when I was nine.

    Now, I actually have a suicide in my family.  My maternal uncle (my mom's younger brother) killed himself.  

    And I have a history of self-harm.  

    Now, let's get this out of the way:  Do people who commit suicide go to hell?

    Maybe.  Here's what the catechism of the Catholic Church says about it: "

Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide."

       This is important to note, because it seems to be the case in this situation.

        He was taking medication to treat symptoms of COVID-19.  And one of the side effects is delusions.

         Y'all, pray for his soul.Litany of the faithful departed  

          For those of us on earth, remember these words:

            "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted"-Matthew 5:4Matthew 5:4 RSVCE

        Repose en paix, mon père  Grief feels like fear

Our biblical illiteracy

      "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path",(Psalm 119:105)  these words, from the authorised version of the Bible, are words that I know well.  In fact, it used to be, most of Christendom knew them.  But it seems to me, that we have forgotten the Christian foundations of our culture.  

    Now, I have never been a Shakespeare fan (though, I do appreciate his use of puns), but, one thing about him, is that his works largely consisted of biblical allusions.  (According to Joseph Pearce, Shakespeare may have secretly been a Catholic, and provides pretty good evidence to that point, just an aside).  One who knows a little Shakespeare knows at least a little bit of the Bible.  

    I bring this up, because the alleged "president elect" (that's not how that works), Joseph Robinette Biden, referred to the Psalmist as the "Palmist".  Hear more about that, here.Biden's palmist

    Now, to be fair to Biden, a Palmist IS a real thing, just not the thing he's thinking of.  It's also something that I am pretty sure the Bible prohibits that 1 Samuel 28 RSVCE.

    And I feel like that IS the issue.  Biden should know how to say "Psalm".  It's not something he can blame on a childhood stutter, that magically reappeared.  (Side note:, as a lifelong stutterer, I find that accusation offensive).  For we Catholics, the Psalms ARE the prayer of the Church.  It is something that we are very thankful for the Jewish people for blessing us with.  

    You'll note, I started this with the Psalms.  Yeah, because it's one that a lot of people know.  God's word IS the foundation for the western world.  

    Now, when I say "God's word", I do not just mean The Bible.  Catholics LOVE The Bible, and we follow its precepts, and we believe it is God's written word.  We do not detract from The Bible by saying "God's word in The Bible".

    Obviously, when God spoke some of those words (like when God spoke to Moses, like in Exodus 3:4), it had to be spoken BEFORE it was written down.

    Back to the point I was making.  How many people these days know "an eye for an eye", is from The Bible?  (Leviticus 24:20)  How many people know that, whilst it exists in other cultures, the reason western culture knows "Do unto others", is because of The Bible?  (Usually as a paraphrase of Luke 6:31, though, there are other examples of it it both the Old and New Testaments)

    Then we get to the opposite problem.  Things that AREN'T from the Bible that we think are Biblical.      An example of this is "God helps those who help themselves", which is often attributed to Benjamin  Franklin, but comes from Algernon Sidney.

    If we knew our Bibles, like even people in the Middle Ages knew them (an illiterate society that was still biblically literate), we would not make these mistakes.  

    If, during the Middle Ages, you went to Mass daily, saw passion plays, and paid attention to the stained-glass scripture, you would know your Bible multiple times over. 

    The hyper reliance on Scripture alone, instead of LOVE of Scripture, is what, I would argue, lead to a scripture illiterate society.

    It's why Biden can say "Palmist".  It's why he can openly support the murder of unborn babies.  It's why my country (The United States) is in the mess it's in.

    A nation cannot be governed without the Bible and strong morality.    

    And one that quotes The Bible, that calls himself a "Devout Catholic" (Which I find arrogant), one would think, would able to quote the Book of The Bible read at every Mass.  

    Read your Bible, learn history, learn scripture.  

    Oh, and saying two Corinthians is a completely acceptable way to say 2 Corinthians.   

As Christmas approaches, let's celebrate the gift God gave to us

   2020 has been a crazy year.  With a woke Pope (no offense to Pope Francis, but PLEASE find out what BLM supports), an election whose results we're not supposed to question (because making sure an election is fair is a threat to DEMOCRACY, you see, just ask the people that believe in SCIENCE, because, you know, it's not like scientists ever change their mind, it's not like they ever believed in social darwinism or anything).  It's not all bad.  We've seen some of the world's fastest medical work, and the death rates of COVID 19, don't seem to be as bad.  Our economy (at least here in the United States) actually got a boost from the vaccines (not, contrary to popular belief, a Biden "win", economics doesn't work that way).  But, y'all know something?  I even went to the cinema (for more on that, see here Faith, Fatalism, and Spies: The Tenet Review)No matter what crazy policies politicians support (contrary to the protestations of a certain "reporter", that seems not to know the meaning of the word "politician"), we always have Jesus.  

And this is especially important, because we are called to a relationship with Jesus(which is, as I have stated before, a RELIGION,  Don't call yourself a Christian if you have a problem with the word "religion")

 Jesus calls his followers "friend", John 15:13-14, Jesus is our brother (not in a Mormon way, but follow the logic, God is our Father, via our Baptism, Jesus is the Son of God, this would make Jesus our brother), these are things that require a relationship.  

For Catholics and Orthodox, we receive Jesus, physically, in the Most Holy Eucharist, which is, WHO is, the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:23-32) .

    In fact, one of the titles of the Blessed Virgin Mary is "Mother of the Eucharist".  Because she is.  She herself is like a tabernacle, in the sense that the presence of God dwelt in her.

    I feel like this is what Protestants are missing out on.  It's not that they don't have that idea (Lutherans do, to at least some extent), but, because many have this either/or idea when it comes to religion.  Either tradition or scripture (not both, for some reason, even though scripture IS a tradition), either Mary is the Mother of Jesus or the Mother of God (Luther himself really did not have a problem calling the Virgin Mary the Mother of God).

    Mary is the Mother of God, BECAUSE she is the mother of Christ.  The Eucharist really is the body and blood of Christ, because Jesus said so.  Now, there's too much to get in here, but, for more on sacraments, see here, PART TWO THE CELEBRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERY SECTION TWO THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH CHAPTER ONE THE SACRAMENTS OF CHRISTIAN INITIATION 

And also, here, PART TWO THE CELEBRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERY SECTION TWO THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH

    Y'all, what I am not saying is that Protestants don't have a relationship with Jesus, I would not make that claim.  What I am saying, is that it's hard for me to understand a Jesus, that you can accept into your heart, but can't receive physically.

    Happy Advent, y'all.  

    Come, O Come, Emmanuel.