The Prophet of Hyde Park (Secrets of a Streetcorner Apologist)

One brisk, gray afternoon in London, I stood on a corner of Hyde Park with one of Frank Sheed's old friends.

"That's the spot where he used to stand and preach," she said with a wistful smile. Now an elderly widow, in the 1940s and 1950s she had worked in the London Catholic Evidence Guild with Frank and his wife, Maisie.

It was easy to imagine the scene: a portly, smiling, middle-aged fellow, who looked a lot like W.C. Fields, evangelizing anyone who stopped in front of his speaker's platform.

— By Patrick Madrid —

Over afternoon tea, Sheed's friend described what it was like to watch Frank manage the crowd. He worked on hecklers and skeptics and scoffers the way a chiropractor works on a bad back-probing, searching for the tensed-up muscle, finding it, and going to work on it with precision. He massaged the minds of his audiences, breaking down hardened prejudices against Catholicism, kneading the "God does not exist!" arguments until they crumbled, and showing atheists the folly of their denials. He made countless converts on the stump.

Frank Sheed was one of the 20th-century's greatest apologists. Some-especially those who knew him personally and saw him in action-say he was the greatest Catholic apologist of the last 100 years, maybe longer. One thing is certain: Few people of any era have been endowed with his unique, powerful combination of gifts-including a rare talent for expressing complex theological concepts, such as the Trinity or the Hypostatic Union, in words that were understandable and compelling to the average reader. His style was clear and luminous; it had the power to persuade as well as to inform.

Sheed was also an accomplished speaker. He preached the Catholic faith under the open sky to any and all who would listen-often in unforgiving and even hostile locations, such as New York's Time Square and London's Hyde Park (stomping ground of Communist firebrands, Protestant preachers, and agitators for every kind of cause and "-ism").

He believed the Catholic faith to his core, and that belief impelled him to share the gospel with all those around him. For many of us, his "taking it to the streets" approach to Christianity might seem extreme or fanatical. But it shouldn't. Frank Sheed understood that for Christians, public testimony about Christ should be the norm. "You are the light of the world," Christ told us. "A city set on a hill cannot . . . (continue reading)

Try to Imagine a "Nationwide Katrina Event." It Could Happen.

A few months ago, I read Dr. William Forstchen's new novel, One Second After, in which he describes in Tom Clancey-esque style what could happen if the United States were crippled by an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) caused by a "rogue nation" like North Korea or Iran detonating a nuclear warhead in the atmosphere over the United States.

His thesis is as chilling as it is simple: A container ship parked out in international waters in the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific or the Atlantic could launch a cheap but effective Scud-type missile with a cheap but effective nuke payload (according to the info he presents, it wouldn't have to be a significantly large one) up into the atmosphere above the U.S., where it detonates. Boom. The resulting EMP would be enough to take down our nation's electrical grid. And if that happened, he argues, the U.S. would be hurled back into the 18th century, technologically speaking, and daily life here would become a true nightmare with folks just trying to find (or steal) enough food to say alive. Check it out.

Physical Graffiti: A Catholic Perspective on Tattoos, Piercings, and "Body Art"

Every day across the United States — indeed, throughout the world — men and women, boys and girls, get themselves tattooed and pierced. And not just their ears. They are participating in the modern fad of “body art,” which has its origins in antiquity, but which in recent decades as developed into some extreme forms that are often quite disturbing.

— By Deacon Robert Lukosh, Envoy Magazine —

The intentional marking or mutilation of the human body under the guise of “body art” goes beyond simple tattoos or ear-piercing as adornment for women. For many, it is a personal expression of solidarity with a social cause, a trend that attracts predominately young people, driving them to ever wilder and more shocking expressions of what some term “personal mutilation” that includes: total-body tattoos, pierced eyelids, lips, noses, tongues, foreheads, and even disfigurement of the genitalia, in a never-ending quest for the most “outrageous” form of self-expression through what is commonly known as “body art.”

These forms of personal exhibition have spread rapidly throughout contemporary Western society, resulting in a secondary wave of participants (namely, the children of those who engaged in radical body art during 70s and 80s) who, like their parents and role models, are disfiguring their own bodies irrevocably, claiming as their justification “personal freedom” and a right to unlimited self-expression.

In earlier generations, garish tattoos and unusual piercings were found almost exclusively only among members of social groups and subcultures that lurked at the fringes of mainstream society. Aside from your relatives who served in the military (which is definitely not a fringe subculture), chances are, neither of your parents nor any of your grandparents, aunts, or uncles — in the case of those born before 1950 — have tattoos or unusual piercings. But look around today and you will see a massive number of people — especially young people — who have become enamored of extreme tattoos and unusual piercings.

This modern fad of body art permeates American society, affecting virtually every industry, age group, race, sex, and religion. Since many of these people occupy leadership and mentoring roles in the lives of children and young adults, such overt displays have an additional rebound effect by providing tacit justification sufficient to overcome the doubts of those who are unsure if they want to dabble in the body art fad themselves, resulting in yet a third generation of pierced and tattooed bodies. . .

(continue reading this article in PDF form).

Report Claims "Community Organizer" Shills Are Busy in Catholic Parishes in OKC

The flyer is simple but informative. “Community Organizing at St. Charles.” Sounds innocuous enough. But upon closer inspection, it appears to be further attempts by ACORN-esque organizers to infiltrate well-meaning parishioners in the Catholic Church in the Oklahoma City area, among other places.

The flyer reads: “Come to a special training in community organizing for Catholic parishes, presented by Oklahoma Sponsoring Committee and hosted by Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish.”

Not much could be found about the Oklahoma Sponsoring Committee, other than a Grace Presbyterian Church flyer online that notes that “the OSC is a congregation-based community action group that equips churches to better meet the needs of their communities through training and support.”

It also said seven Catholic churches are part of 27 churches in Oklahoma City that are getting involved with this community-organizing activity.

The corrupt group ACORN, which had been active in Oklahoma City until late last summer, is believed to be connected to this action considering it's past links, as noted in this 2003 National Housing Institute article. Red Dirt Report was given an exclusive peek into a recently-abandoned ACORN office in south Oklahoma City last October. That report can be found here.

The event, scheduled August 8 from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. is not being held at St. Charles Borromeo, rather at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in their Connor Center at 32^nd and Western.

Among items on the “program” at this “community organizing” event, includes “interactive community organizing training based on the first five chapters of Nehemiah with attention to the concepts of subsidiarity and solidarity, by Kris Ausdenmoore, lead organizer, Oklahoma Sponsoring Committee.”

Ausdenmoore, it turns out, according to a 2008 article in the Sooner Catholic, was the lead organizer for the Oklahoma IAF. IAF stands for Industrial Areas Foundation. They are located throughout the United States and have chapters in Canada, England and Germany, according to www.industrialareasfoundation.org. And they deal with not only Christians but Muslims, Jews and others as well.

“The leaders and organizers of the Industrial Areas Foundation build organizations whose primary purpose is POWER – the ability to act – and whose chief product is social change. They continue to practice what the Founding Fathers preached; the ongoing attempt to make life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness everyday realities for more and more Americans.” . . . (continue reading)

Social Commentary Through Pie Charts & Venn Diagrams

And whoever created this next one calls it: "The Only Flowchart You'll Ever Need." You'd be amazed how many people follow this basic philosophy of life. Alright, you probably wouldn't be "amazed," because we all know at least three people who live according to this flowchart, but still . . .

Catholic congressman: I'd rather save my soul than vote for the health care bill

New Orleans, La., Aug 3, 2009 / 02:06 pm (CNA).- Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, (R-New Orleans), the first Vietnamese-American congressman and a Catholic, announced this past weekend that, because of the “stealth mandate” for abortion still present in the Health Care bill, he prefers to “save his soul” rather than vote in favor of it.

Cao, the only member of the Louisiana House delegation who had not weighed in on where he stands on the health reform bill, told the Times-Picayune on Saturday that he cannot support any bill that permits public money to be spent on abortion.

“At the end of the day if the health care reform bill does not have strong language prohibiting the use of federal funding for abortion, then the bill is really a no-go for me,” said Cao, who spent time in formation to be a Jesuit priest.

“Being a Jesuit, I very much adhere to the notion of social justice,” Cao said. “I do fully understand the need of providing everyone with access to health care, but to me personally, I cannot be privy to a law that will allow the potential of destroying thousands of innocent lives,” he explained to the Louisiana newspaper.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced that Cao will be one of seven Republican members of Congress targeted with radio ads that will play on radio stations with largely African-American audiences, urging him to support Obama's health reform efforts.

“I know that voting against the health care bill will probably be the death of my political career,” Cao said, “but I have to live with myself, and I always reflect on the phrase of the New Testament, ‘How does it profit a man's life to gain the world but to lose his soul.’”

Cao is the first native of Vietnam to serve in Congress and the first Republican to serve in his district since 1890. He won in a district that usually votes overwhelmingly Democratic. . . . (continue reading)

The Epitome of a "Close Call"

What in the world are they constructing their buildings out of in Turkey?

Flashback: Brent Bozell's 1994 Comment About Mitt Romney

What Would God's Facebook Page Look Like?

Probably not like this, but I have to give an A for effort and creativity to the folks who come up with stuff like these fake Facebook pages:

Here's another:

Mashable.com blogger Pete Cashmore comments on these hijinks:

With over 250 million users, Facebook is a social networking behemoth. The site is host to thousands of celebrity fan pages and has been taking steps to make these more appealing to self-promoters. On Saturday Bill Gates revealed that he’s not a Facebook user, and many other famous names are notably absent from the site. Which leads us to wonder…what might those pages look like? Fortunately, some of the web’s most creative minds had the exact same thought, and below we bring you the very best fake Facebook pages. . . . (continue reading)

Building the Magic Kingdom: Time-Elapse Footage of Disneyland's Construction

"John sends us "Rare and unseen footage of Disneyland's construction narrated by Imagineers. Includes some amazing new footage of Walt Disney walking the site before construction even started and some never-before-seen timelapse footage of the park from groundbreaking until opening day. This film was on the way to deep storage and was found by a curious employee, otherwise there's a good chance we'd never get to see this."

"This is just fascinating -- a look into the raw bones beneath one of the most polished created environments we have. The narration, from Tony Baxter, Ed Hobleman, and Walter Magnuson, is great. And I'm in heaven over the glimpses of the original Tomorrowland, another top time-traveller destination for me once I develop my Tardis.

"Be sure to click through to see the whole thing; this is just part one of five . . . . "

The Myth of Overpopulation Debunked Quickly and Easily

The Population Research Institute has a timely message for our society: "The idea of a world with no room or food is terrifying, but all it takes is checking the facts see how silly the whole thing is. We hope this video will do that for people."

Be sure to see this LifeSite article for more information about this ad campaign.

Would You Like to Have Dinner With Archbishop Charles Chaput?

You can! Be sure to save the date: October 8, 2009.

You are cordially invited to a gala dinner along with special guest speakers George Weigel (author of The Courage to Be Catholic and Witness to Hope), Joseph Bottum (publisher and editor of First Things Magazine), Father John Corapi (via video), Carl Anderson (Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, via video), and hundreds of grateful Catholics who will come together to honor the faithful and courageous leadership of Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Denver, author of the international best-selling book Render Unto Caesar.

Come and meet the Archbishop on October 8, 2009, as he is presented with the Envoy of the Year Award.

Please click here for more information in PDF format.

Date: October 8, 2009

Location: Hilton Charlotte Center City

222 East Third Street, Charlotte, NC 28202

(704) 377-1500 Fax: (704) 377-4143

www.envoyinstitute.net

For personalized service and to reserve your place at the table,
please call Mrs. Joan Bradley: 704-461-8009 or e-mail her at joanbradley@bac.edu

Tables are filling up quickly. Please reserve your spot as soon as possible.

If you are interested in sponsoring a table in your name or in the name of your organization, or if you would like to sponsor priests, religious, and college students who wish to attend this event,
please contact Mrs. Joan Bradley: 704-461-8009 or e-mail her at joanbradley@bac.edu. Thank you.

An Untraditional Wedding Procession

I have never seen or even heard of anything like this. Wow.

(Muchas gracias to Mr. H. for bringing this to my attention.)

Is Texas Heading Quietly Toward Secession?

It happened before, yes, but come on. Could it realistically happen again? Lots of folks would say no, it couldn't. But given all the weird stuff happening and all the unravelling going on in this country lately . . . a story like this takes on new and unsettling connotations.

Last time it happened was in 1861, and the burning issues of the day back then were states rights and slavery. Today, the new burning issues are, among other things, states rights, abortion, and "health care."

Yes, yes, I agree that it's far-fetched to imagine that, in this day and age, there could ever be a serious bid on the part of a state to break away from the U.S. And yet . . . I think that most of you would agree with me that there are plenty of really bad things going on these days that, 50, 30, or even just 10 years ago, would have seemed preposterously far-fetched. Am I wrong?

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry, raising the specter of a showdown with the Obama administration, suggested Thursday that he would consider invoking states’ rights protections under the 10th Amendment to resist the president’s healthcare plan, which he said would be "disastrous" for Texas.

Interviewed by conservative talk show host Mark Davis of Dallas’ WBAP/820 AM, Perry said his first hope is that Congress will defeat the plan, which both Perry and Davis described as "Obama Care." But should it pass, Perry predicted that Texas and a "number" of states might resist the federal health mandate.

"I think you’ll hear states and governors standing up and saying 'no’ to this type of encroachment on the states with their healthcare," Perry said. "So my hope is that we never have to have that stand-up. But I’m certainly willing and ready for the fight if this administration continues to try to force their very expansive government philosophy down our collective throats."

Perry, the state’s longest-serving governor, has made defiance of Washington a hallmark of his state administration as well as . . . (continue reading)

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