All A-Twitter

In Psalm 121, the weary psalmist makes an anguished plea: "From where does my help come?"

In the present-day persecution of conservative thought and speech on "social media," potential help is coming from a most unexpected source. The innovative billionaire, Elon Musk, is making a grab for Twitter. His fearless and creative moves against the ruling class of Big Tech censors is causing hysteria among the left-wing elites who fancy themselves the rightful dictators of online discourse. Good! It's about time someone took on these bullies against freedom of speech.

The Twitter board of directors refused his offer--so much for fiduciary responsibility to shareholders. Even if nothing comes of his attempt, which I don't believe is anywhere near finished, Musk has fully exposed the phony purveyors of "moderated content"--which, of course, is a euphemism for censorship. The tech and media moguls are terrified of losing their iron grip over what information people can access. Why would they fear seeing differing viewpoints expressed online? Because their Marxist ideology is bankrupt. But to use a mob analogy (which is quite appropriate in this case), they will go to the mattresses to conceal the fact that their positions are indefensible.

It's often said that the Lord works in mysterious ways. Perhaps in our present-day prison of creeping leftist tyranny, Elon Musk is a Big Tech Moses of sorts. I quit Twitter after they suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop scandal. If Musk is successful in his bid to buy Twitter, I'll be among the multitudes lining up to reactivate my account.

First Amendment to the United States Constitution

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The Four Last Things

I heard about the Four Last Things many years ago, and I must confess that I've thought about them quite often ever since.

Today being Good Friday, it's an appropriate time to discuss these end-of-life issues. The Four Last Things are as follows: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell.

As to the first item, well, we're all aware of it. Every human being will die. Even Jesus Christ did. In a world of subjective "truth" and ever-shifting relativism, death is what one is compelled to identify as an objective fact.

From that point on, opinions diverge widely. Our modern secular world, even many religious philosophies, would disagree with the other three things. It's considered almost quaint, perhaps even foolish, in our modern world to believe we will be held accountable before God for our actions in this life. But Catholics believe that each of us will be answerable to God for our sins. Can you think of a more daunting scenario? This particular Catholic cannot.

Then there's the question of heaven and hell. In the Gospels, Jesus talks about hell more than any other person in the Bible. If you don't believe heaven and hell exist, you won't think or worry about them. But going back to objective fact--what if heaven and hell are real? What if each of us is going to spend eternity in one or the other state of being? I know where I want to be, but I have no assurance that I actually will make the cut. That's where faith comes in.

The Four Last Things, by Fr. Martin Von Cochem, addresses all these sobering topics in detail. It is not light reading; I wouldn't recommend it at bedtime. But it is an important book, underscoring the spirituality inherent in the universal experience of death and the inevitable realities that Catholics believe will follow.

One Vicious Circle

In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

~ Judges 21:25

This year I've been following Fr. Mike Schmitz's daily podcast, "The Bible in a Year." I've always wanted to be more literate in the Old and New Testaments, the foundational documents not only of the major world religions of Judaism and Christianity but also of Western civilization. While it's still early in the year, so far "The Bible in a Year" has been quite an education.

This week we finished the Book of Judges. The last line of Judges is quite striking in that it describes the very situation America finds itself in today. "There was no king in Israel" made me think of the questions surrounding Joe Biden's ability to act as our president; "every man did what was right in his own eyes" appears to be the condition in which our culture is currently mired. It was chilling to hear words that are thousands of years old so accurately describing the here-and-now.

Since the beginning of the year, I've listened to horrific tales of war, cruelty, murder, torture, rape, mutilation, betrayal, and completely selfish, uncaring, immoral behavior. I'm not referring to stories in current news reports; the stories are straight out of the ancient pages of the Bible.

My certainty that human nature does not change is reinforced with every episode of The Bible in a Year. The difference between good and evil cannot be discerned by people who "do what is right in their own eyes." I see no evidence that history is automatically bending in the right direction. People build history. It is up to each individual to forge that righteous bend, as best we can in our own life and time. 

Now It's Time To Say Goodbye

Bye-bye, Woke Disney!