The TSA and Sexual Immodesty
I know this is a religious blog, focusing mostly on the application of the new evangelization to parish life, but I am so enraged about the hideous sexual immodesty of the bureaucrats at the TSA and their new procedures. I believe that this government has gone way too far in its pursuit of perfect safety and security.
sweet bumper-sticker
Actually, I don't believe the gov't cares one bit about our safety or security, but rather that these machines are just another part of the Military-Industrial-Gov't Complex. After all, the former head of the TSA who got the ball rolling on these machines in US airports is now the head of the company that makes them! (State-Corporatism)
So, when you go through security and they think your pants or skirt is too baggy, or if you set off the metal detector twice in a row, the TSA will either a.) subject a person to a x-ray scan that takes a nude photograph of them or, b.) you can opt-out of the porno-scan for an invasive groping.
Confession and God's Loving Generosity
Recently I was blessed with the opportunity to speak to the parents of children who are preparing to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. As I prayed and thought about what I would say, I decided to implement one of my fancy new evangelization approaches. I would situate my catechesis on Confession and it's importance for the family within an all-out kerygmatic evangelization.
I wanted to go beyond a catechesis on the purpose and practice of Reconciliation. I wanted to break open the whole drama of humanity to give people a renewed vision of the gravity of sin, the immensity of forgiveness, the power of mercy, and the eternal depths of reconcilation with God.
Pro-Life Work and the New Evangelization
The New Evangelization of the nations and the renewal of pro-life work go hand-in-hand, for at their core is what we must call the primacy of the individual human person. The person is everything. Win over just one person to Christ and you have won the world. Too often today, probably as the recycled leftovers of a tired and disgraced Marxism, we all tend to focus on what I call the primacy of Bigness, where aggregation and collectivism looses sight of the individual person for the sake of the group. As far as I can tell, this is the milieu previous pro-life work operated in and this is what cost us the so-called culture war.Here is the still point of my website's thesis: I believe we already lost the culture war. But not all is lost! There are moral and spiritual principles that we need right now that can bring about both the New Evangelization of the world, and the revitalization of pro-life work right here at home. This website will layout Catholic pro-life moral principles and consistently apply them to four main life issues: abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty and warfare.
Systematic Catechesis and Evangelization
Fulton Sheen addressing the Knights of Columbus in 1975Jesus asks us to become great evangelists and disciple-makers, not just amazing keynote presenters. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen once said that proclaiming the Christian life consisted of "First come then go." Only those who first come and sit at the feet of the Master again and again can be properly formed to "go, go" out into the world and not only preach the gospel, but to "go and make disciples".
When speaking about disciple-making, we need to cover the topic of systematic catechesis.
Systematic does not mean boring, mechanistic, or rote memorization. In fact, systematic catechesis demands creativity from every catechist as well as coherence.
So let's dive into the teaching of popes John Paul II and Paul VI on evangelization and catechesis is order to respond faithfully and take seriously the call to "go and make disciples" through being systematic in our catechesis.