Outside The Asylum

It's rare, but every once in a while I run across a cool site for Software Engineering.   97 things every programmer should know   is a resource to turn any code monkey into a professional

My wife and I recently went to a couple's retreat to try to improve our marriage.  While there, I learned a very interesting definition of what a man needs to be a man: a Challenge An Adventure A woman to die for. I was reading this upcoming Sunday's readings , and it occurred to me that the Gospel reading, the encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the Well, is Jesus Christ's moment of becoming a man. Bear with me.  Let's go through each of the above criteria: A Challenge.  Jesus Christ was both man and God.  Which means the God side was continually, in his brain, having a dialog with the man side.  What a challenge for a first century Jew, raised in a tribal society- to enter Samaritan Territory, and sit at this well. An Adventure.  Once he sat at the well, after the adventure of getting there at all (travel in those days for a poor man like Christ was on foot- slowly) the thirst kicked in.  All human adventure is linked to our needs; and ...

The problem of refugees has come to the forefront due to Donald Trump.  But the one place I've had a problem with Church teaching, is in the unreasoning allowance for human migration. Thinking about where I differ with Donald Trump, I think my problem with this teaching is a severe cultural problem that has happened with white American Catholics in my generation.  We've lost our roots, we were denied teaching about our culture in the 1970s and 1980s, and we're only now getting it back. When you have no culture yourself- multiculturalism is a threat.  Everybody else is allowed culture, but white people are not.  Why?  Because our culture is evil.  Our culture is supposedly that which conquored the world- but now must be denied. But what if we start taking a different approach.  What if, in forming "Sanctuary Chuch" policies, we not only feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, protect the criminal ( for a time, and to reconcile the crimi...