New Year's Advice from Benjamin Franklin

"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man."

Now's the time to decide the ways in which you want to aim to have January 2011 find you a better person.

New Year's blessings to all Anglicat readers!

Post Script: The Benjamin Franklin exhibit at St. Paul's Minnesota History Museum is great fun. You can even visit it on Tuesday nights for free!

Bodyscan those Norwegian Grandmas!

A widowed parishioner decided that this would be a good year to make her first journey back to the country of her ancestors. She clearly has been enjoying her Norwegian Christmas. Yesterday, however, she wrote, "I see I will get to 'enjoy' a full body scan coming back to the US! Not that there has ever been a terrorist act committed by a 72-year-old Norwegian-American woman!"

My friend's good-natured exasperation says it all: it is time to begin profiling. El Al has done so for years, and thereby has kept its passengers safe while minimizing the harassment and embarrassment of innocent passengers. If this means that persons with names like Barrack Hussein Obama (were they not Presidents) would automatically experience heightened scrutiny, so be it. That is the unfortunate price to be paid for Al Quaeda declaring war on us. The folks sharing the ethnic, racial, and national characteristics of terrorists are the ones that need to pay the price, not folks like elderly Norwegian-Americans.

In the name of political correctness, Mr. Obama would have us believe that the underwear bomber was "an isolated extremist." He is an enemy combatant and must be treated as such. The ambassador for Yemen says that there are hundreds more like him planning to wreak devastation. If you stop harassing Norwegian grandmothers, maybe you might catch a terrorist. And yes, Mr. Obama, the underwear bomber is a terrorist, and his bomb-attempt was terrorism, not a man-made disaster.For you , it spells political disaster.

Interpol Unleashed: Scary, Scary!

I've found something that looks to be very bad news. I'm sorry to publish this on the Sixth Day of Christmas, a day when I would vastly prefer to be inviting reflection on heart-warming incidents of God's love bursting through sin-soaked humanity. It appears that something nefarious has burst through the shield provided by our Constitution.

On December 17 of this year, while we were wrapped up with Christmas preparations and watching Democratic Senators sell their souls in Hellth Reform deals, President Obama quietly granted unprecedented leeway to operate on American soil to the international police organization, INTERPOL. Revoking the wise limitations placed by Ronald Reagan on Interpol's police powers here, Obama granted Interpol agents greater scope than our own FBI. Interpol will not have to comply with Freedom of Information requests, and if Interpol agents violate the rights of American citizens, the agents have complete immunity from prosecution. Illegal searches and seizures? Interpol gets a pass.

Why would Obama immunize an international police force from the limitations that constrain the FBI and other American law-enforcement agencies? Why is it suddenly necessary to have, within the Justice Department, a repository for stashing government files which, therefore, will be beyond the ability of Congress, American law-enforcement, the media, and the American people to scrutinize? Andy McCarthy of the National Review provides a good analysis. Read it here.

Even the mechanics by which Obama gave away our Constitutional liberties is far less than transparent. It will be hard to track Obama's order in the future, because Obama did not issue, for example, "Executive Order 666666 amending Executive Order 12425," as is the normal, honest procedure. Instead, he issued the numberless "Executive Order -- Amending Executive Order 12425." The only way, therefore to track Obama's traitorous amendment is through Reagan's original, wisely-protective Executive Order 12425. So, to the casual researcher seeking an answer to the question "Who wrote the Executive Order giving away our Constitutional protections against illegal searches and seizures?" it will look like Ronald Reagan issued this dreadful ceding of American security. That the evil twist in this amended order was added by Obama, will be lost to all but the most careful researcher.

Cherished Gifts

Jesuit author and retreat leader Matthew Linn once wrote something to the effect that contrary to popular belief, we're not too materialistic. Rather, he wrote, we value material things too little, as evidenced by our tendency to surround ourselves with many cheap, disposable goods, rather than a few, beautiful, quality items that will endure for generations. He went on to describe some beautiful bowls his sister-in-law purchased in Mexico and her search during a subsequent trip to buy some more, because she loved them so much and wanted to give some to friends and family members.

I guess the golden ring of gift-giving is to discern a gift that the recipient will truly love. I received one such gift this year: a lollapalooza, beautiful, memory-saturated treasure. As I was waxing poetic about the heirloom with which I had just been gifted, I said to my daughter who was present among the small gathering, "Some day this will be yours!" Later while driving home in the car, I wondered if maybe the gift hadn't touched her the way it had touched me. I asked her how she felt about the idea that this unusual gift, so precious to me, would someday be hers.

"Some Christmas, probably many years from today, I will be sitting around a table reminiscing about long-ago Christmases," she began. Talking about childhood Christmases, in fact, is exactly what she had listened to me do with good friends over dinner the evening before. She continued, "I will tell the story of how I came to own a lovely set of silver tableware stamped "Ladies' Guild." I will tell them all about the church it came from, all the people there, and all the things we did together."

Now which is the better gift--the delicate spoons and forks or the memories they generate that my daughter already cherishes? Truly, I am blessed. If this is materialism, bring it on! I think the love is likely to keep rippling through generations of ladies to come.

And ladies of Saint Margaret's Guild--THANK YOU more than words can say!

We May Not Pray Much but We Do Go to Church

One calcified commentator famously quipped that all the children are above average in the land of Lake Woebegon. Alas, in terms of religion, this is not the case, according to the latest research from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. We ranked 29th among the fifty states in belief in God, 31st in religion's importance in life, and a miserable 35th in frequency of praying. In church attendance, however, we do--but just barely--make it into the top 50 per cent: we finished 25th in terms of church attendance. This last statistic, by the tiniest of margins, demonstrates Minnesota's famous trait of passive aggressiveness: we may not believe in God, think religion is important, or pray frequently, but, gee whiz, we still keep going to church, you betcha.

39 Thanks

Without any reason other than a pretend urgency to pass the health reform bill, our Senators were held prisoner until this morning to cast their votes on one of the most corrupt and damning pieces of legislation ever to create glee in Hell. While their families awaited their overdue arrivals for Christmas celebrations, 39 patriots stuck at their desks in the Capitol to go down in history as opposing the bill that will cause so much pain in the years to come. We can still hope for legislative derailment after the closed-door meetings between Reid and Pelosi to hammer out a compromise between the House and Senate versions, but that hope would require the Hail Mary miracle of the century to be fulfilled. So sorry, seniors, who will suffer through the massive cuts to Medicare. So sorry, boomers who will become seniors in the next decade: you will have trouble finding primary care physicians and if you find them, they will be purveryors of medical options severely limited by medical rationing. So very sorry children and babies yet-to-be-born, who will have to pay for the irresponsible spending of the current generation. So sorry, babies who will never be born, due to the abortion coverage included in this bill. So sorry, anyone who depends on the solvency of the American economy: catastrophic collapse is a distinct possibility.

For the 60 Senators who voted for this shameful piece of legislation: shame. For anyone in the districts of these Senators, you can still let them know how unhappy you are. Reflecting the most perverse values ever to corrupt Capitol Hill, their staffers are still in their offices working away on Christmas Eve, crafting who knows what future evils.

But again, let's give thanks for the 39 patriots. Merry Christmas to you and yours. May your tribe increase in 2010.

From Whale Rider to Theotokos

Remember that delightful film about the Maori girl who wrangled with her grandfather to live into her destinty as spiritual leader of her people? Keisha Castle-Hughes brings the same numinous, ethereal quality with which she graced "Whale Rider" to her portrayal of the young Hebrew woman called to be the mother of God. "The Nativity Story" was filmed in 2006, but Anglicat only managed to catch it this year. The film takes major liberties in filling in the gaps of what is truly known about Joseph, the wise men, Mary's family of origin, and her relationship with her cousin Elizabeth. Still, the film is respectful, tasteful, and thought-provoking in the best sense of the word. Catch it if you can!

The Talmud on the Winter Solstice and Climate Change

When Adam, the first man, experienced the first winter of creation and saw the duration of each successive daytime gradually decreasing, he said, "Woe is to me! Perhaps I have sinned. It is becoming a darkened world for me, and the world is returning to a state of astonishing emptiness; and this, then, is the form that death sentence decreed upon me from heaven will take."

So at the very end of autumn, when the days were at their shortest, Adam arose and engaged in fasting and prayer for eight days. However, once he experienced the winter solstice, and then saw the duration of each successive daytime gradually increasing, he said, "It is the natural course of the world for the days to lengthen and shorten in regular cycles."

He went and established eight festival days. The following year, he established these days preceding the winter solstice and those days following the winter solstice as festival days.

He established them for the sake of heaven, but the idolaters of future generations corrupted them and established them for the sake of idolatry.

--from Avoda Zara 8a

"Avoda Zara" means "Strange Worship," and the good rabbis wrote this parable centuries ago to explain to faithful Jews how the pagan celebration of the winter solstice came to be. It applies equally well to the idolatry, or false religion, that found recent expression at Copenhagen, fortunately to little effect. The great cycles of cooling and heating are just part of the natural order of things. Cap and trade and similar socialistic strategies masquerading as green initiataives can do nothing to alter the great cycles of nature, and will only serve to beggar the west, and most especially the United States of America. According to the good rabbis, Adam learned. Can we?

Shalom to all this winter solstice!

Class Act

The doctor had his tv on in his office when the news of the military base shootings came on. The husband of one of his employees was stationed there.

He called her into his office and as he told her what had happened, she got a text message from her husband saying, "I am okay." Her cell phone rang right after she read the message. It was an ER nurse,"I'm the one who just sent you a text, not your husband. I thought it would be comforting but I was mistaken in doing so. I am sorry to tell you this, but your husband has been shot 4 times and he is in surgery."

The soldier's wife left Southern Clinic in Dothan and drove all night to Ft.Hood. When she arrived, she found out her husband was out of surgery and would be OK. She rushed to his room and found that he already had visitors there to comfort him. He was just waking up and found his wife and the visitors by his side. The nurse took this picture:


What? No news crews and cameras? This is how people with class respond and pay respect to those in uniform.

What was our current president doing while the former First Couple went to comfort the wounded? Obama was busy avoiding mention of the shooting, and then ultimately lecturing the American people not to jump to conclusions. Michelle could not be bothered to comment, let alone expend effort to personally visit the wounded. Let's not forget how during the campaign, Obama cancelled a long-scheduled appearance at a military hospital when he learned that news crews were prohibited, opting instead for a work-out at an exclusive spa.

(gleaned from the internet, and verified by Snopes)

Comrades in Copenhagen

Obama's former environmental czar, in a moment of rare candor, tipped us off that the real agenda behind green activism was changing the social order. Carrying forth the same agenda in Copenhagen, your average global warming activists clarify their message:

T.S. Eliot: Wise Words of a Senior Warden

Half the harm that is done in this world
Is due to people who want to feel important
They don’t mean to do harm ­
But the harm does not interest them.
Or they do not see it, or they justify it
Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle
To think well of themselves.

--from T.S. Eliot's "The Cocktail Party"

As Senate Democrats struggle to pass a health care bill--ANY health care bill, these words from American-born convert to Anglicanism T.S. Eliot seem strangely apt. Properly-proportioned egos would put the matter down, go home for a healing Christmas, and listen to their constituents about how harmful the legislation will be. With this bill, the bill they just passed lifting the debt-ceiling, and the ineffectual stimulus bill that succeeded only in tripling our national debt: may they pay attention to the harm. (And, yes, Virginia, Eliot really did serve as warden of his parish in London.)

Brother Lawrence: A Saint for the Season

The author of "Practicing the Presence of God" was never beatified, but he makes a perfect spiritual mentor for our busy Advent season. Born as Nicholas Hermann, he had a profound spiritual experience when he was 18 years old. Looking out upon a wintry landscape, he noted how a bare-branched, dead tree was so very like his own soul. Just as the springtime sun would green the dead-seeming tree, so God's mercy breathed life into his sin-darkened soul. It would be eight years before Nicholas joined a monastery. He took the name Lawrence, eventually to become a kitchen brother, cooking two squares a day for his brother religious.

Over time, Brother Lawrence gained a reputation for Holiness. He realized that he could learn the most about God by humbly devoting himself fully to the tasks set before him. In his own words, "People seek methods of learning to know God. Is it not much shorter and more direct to simply do everything for the love of Him? There is no finesse about it. One only has to do it generously and simply." He further discovered that maintaining a constant conversation with God kept him on track spiritually. Again, in his own words, "In continuing the practice of conversing with God throughout each day, and quickly seeking His forgiveness when I fell or strayed, His presence has become as easy and natural to me now as it once was difficult to attain."

As we go about our own tasks these last days of Advent, of whom could it be better to ask, WWBLD (What would Brother Lawrence do)? His humble spiritual practice points us continually to God, whether we're ordering presents, stringing lights, or only anticipating all the Christmas preparations waiting for our hands--and heart.

How Bishop Candidates Pattern their Lives in Accordance with the Teachings of Christ

The Epistles and the Prayer Book's ordination liturgies teach us to expect that Bishops will order their own households so as to be "wholesome example(s) for the entire flock of Christ." When it comes to honoring the needs of women (especially feminist types) it would appear that the more conservative and moderate candidates among us do a much better job. I know this will come as surprising and offensive news to the liberals among us who actually relegate their wives and families to roles purely supportive of their own vocational aspirations.

I got to thinking about this issue when Minnesota's now bishop-elect dragged his wife and teenagers through all the walk-abouts. I thought about it some more when candidate Doug Sparks announced that he likely would NOT move his family from Rochester to the Twin Cities if elected Bishop. And the issue resurfaced a third time when the Rev. David Handy speculated elsewhere in the blogosphere that second-place finisher Michael Smith probably lost votes in the Louisiana election when he said that his wife Lisa likely would not move to Louisiana with him were he to be elected Bishop there.

A high level of irony had been earlier cast on the whole issue when partnered lesbian Sally Johnson was overheard in a women's bathroom conversation at Convention disparaging then-candidate Sparks for his plan not to move his family from Rochester. The hypocrisy of Johnson's criticism reaches absurdity when one realizes that Johnson commutes/works from her Minnesota home (which she shares with her lesbian partner) while holding a job with the Church Pension Fund centered in New York.

The truth of the matter is that a Bishop's job is very demanding. To do a good job, particularly in a geographically-large diocese like Minnesota, bishops will have to spend many nights away from home. It makes zero sense to uproot and relocate a wife and family to a new community when Dad is going to be absent a great deal anyway. Better to leave the Bishop's base camp solidly in place from which it can run most smoothly without the severe stress of relocation. This is all the more true when the wives have high-profile or high-responsibility jobs such as candidate Sparks' wife at Mayo or candidate Smith's wife as vicar of her own parishes. Even as a lowly priest who does the week-end commute from my family base-camp in the Twin Cities to distant parishes in the North, it has become clear to me that I can do a better job being a priest in one location and mom in another, when I am not wearing both hats simultaneously. I know my kids are better off getting to grow up like normal kids outside the spotlight and pressures of being the infamous "PK"s or "priest's kids" every day.

We need to back off from the erroneous assumption that a future bishop can do a good job only by uprooting wife and family. We need to be supportive and tolerant of those who do move their entire households (and it's rather delightful that Minnesota's next bishop is young enough still to have kids at home). There are many ways to order a household in accordance with the teachings of Christ, and respect for children's needs and a spouse's vocation have to be the prime consideration in doing so. Wouldn't you agree, Sally?

Reinventing the Wheel

As a college freshman, I put a lot of stock in Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote to the effect that each generation must discover Truth anew. Nothing proves Mr. Emerson's point better than the new kids in the White House, although after eleven months, they shouldn't be acting so awkwardly inexperienced. The security lapse resulting in wannabes successfully crashing a state dinner at the White House is a case in point. Obama's Social Secretary Desiree Rogers jettisoned the experienced staff member who had successfully prevented lapses like these during Bush's tenure. She was sent packing to Texas, along with the security procedures that required a member of the Social Secretary's office to be at the front gate screening guests along with the Secret Service. Desiree Rogers deemed those procedures to be unnecessary--until she discovered otherwise last week. The White House shamefully refused to send Desiree for questioning about the lapse, claiming executive privilege, and setting a new low in transparency for the President who promised a new era of transparency. So now Ms. Rogers finally has seen fit to reinstate the procedures so carefully maintained in the Bush White House.

Protocol gaffes, economic bungling, explosive debt, radical czars, foreign policy nightmares to name just a few--across the board, the Audacity of Hope crowd is instituting changes that are proving unworthy to "believe in." The trouble is, Iran, the Taliban, Russia, China, North Korea, and the rest of the world will do a lot more damage in taking advantage of newbie lapses than Tareq and Michaele Salahi slipping in to the White House for cocktails and photo ops.

Keeping Warm

Old Man Winter has come to Minnesota, delivering a huge snowfall that left many schools cancelling classes, and everybody bucking the drifts caused by the last night's howling wind. Anglicat is enjoying tending the new wood stove that was installed in her workplace just a few short weeks ago.

Keeping warm with wood teaches a fair amount about life that isn't readily discernible through the effortless warmth provided through our centrally-heated homes, schools, stores, and offices. To avoid that unpleasant frozen feeling in one's toes, the pile of wood by the stove must be gradually fed to the beckoning stove. When the pile of wood by the stove is depleted, one must pull one's snow boots on and haul outside to fetch more wood. When the outside pile is depleted, one must split logs which previously have been felled from trees and seasoned, or at the very least, one must fork over a pile of cash to the local wood guy who deals in "cash only, please." The lesson is simple: no effort equals freezing cold.

Contrast the effort needed to keep warm in most of our urban and suburban dwellings. Assuming one is of an economy- and environmentally-conscious frame of mind, the automatic thermostat set low to conserve energy through the night has kicked in to provide a comfortable temperature lest anyone shiver a bit while making the morning coffee. Heat gets taken for granted when it is always there, without effort. We come to think of it as a basic right, rather than something for which we must work.

Spending a week with a wood stove would be a great way to jostle our nation from its pampered entitlement mentality. What would all those students and teachers pledging their allegiance to Obama do if faced with the alternative of building a fire or freezing? Maybe just maybe they would consider tending their own fires. Maybe they would begin to understand that spreading the warmth around works only when everyone chops, hauls, and tends.

I wish for them the delight that comes through advance preparations. A day that starts with coals still glowing from the previous night's well-tended fire is a day with an extra twenty minutes added. Tending fire is a good metaphor for tending one's life.

"Hide the Decline"

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For more: see www.M4GW.com .
And for information on the bad science behind the "hockey stick," see: Hockey stick. Hat tip to Mary Ann for suggesting this last link.