Christmas Gifts Ideas | Christmas Decorations | Christmas Ornaments

We were all taught in school that our forefathers left England to escape religious dictatorships. Okay, there was a lot more to it then that, but it was a big enough deal that they made sure it got honorable mention in our rulebook. They clearly made the point that we were to have freedom of religion here in America. They also used the word "God" in some of their formal paperwork and even on our money. I don't want to argue politics here, but rather semantics. They didn't say "freedom of Christi...
Read More »

Dying From Vacation (From the book Spider's Night on the Boom) by Gary E. Anderson www.abciowa.com My parents visited from Oregon this summer, and we saw more of Iowa than we'd seen in all the years since our own arrival. It was a perfect excuse to visit places we'd been meaning to see, but somehow had never gotten to. But the pace began to take a toll on my kids and yesterday my son began to complain. In my "philosophical father" voice, I said, "Just relax and enjoy yourself. We're on vacation....
Read More »

"In the Fullness of Time..." "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to a dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." --Macbeth, Act V, Scene v. One's weltanschauung is determine...
Read More »

Can Christians Be Capitalists? by A K Whitehead For reasons of space, we have to be very concise in this article. By Christian we mean people who put Christ first in their lives as their guiding principle. These are not those who call themselves Christians but who live independently of the Body of Christ. What Is A Capitalist A capitalist is one who owns capital. From an economics perspective capital is not money or finance. Capital is what is used to produce goods or services: machinery, tools,...
Read More »

Catholic Audio for Kids Catholic Music Spotlight Interview with Gerald Montpetit, Cat.Chat by Lisa M. Hendey What do you get when you mix the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Bible, the Communion of saints, papal encyclicals, and a talking cat? No, this isn't some bad joke in the making - it's the recipe for Cat.Chat, a Catholic audio show for families aimed at children ages three to eleven years of age. From my own review of the Cat.Chat CDs, however, I'd have to say that the appeal of Mo...
Read More »

God in America, R.I.P One of the great mysteries that's plagued me is the existence of 'God'. I admit to referencing God in my columns and sometime praying to a higher power for guidance when the path before me is unclear and clouded. But still, I often find myself wondering; what is God? And why are so many people going out of their way to keep him out of courtrooms, school houses, town meeting halls and government. God must surely have torqued off several institutions and people to warrant su...
Read More »

This article was written in 1993. At my home congregation, we recently viewed the video series called "Children At Risk" by Dr. James Dobson and Gary L. Bauer. There is a companion book by the same title which is available at local Christian book stores. The subtitle is "The Battle for the Hearts and Minds of Our Kids." I highly recommend this book and video series to anyone who has the same concerns for our nation as I do. As I set there and listened to Dr. Dobson and Mr. Bauer talk about the e...
Read More »

A Change of Priorities: Witness by A K Whitehead Brought up an active Catholic, a number of things went wrong in life shortly after being married. Nothing to do with the relationship between my wife, Iris, and myself. But I blamed God, either directly or indirectly for what happened. Of course, blaming God for things soon turns into doubt about God, and doubt is then the second step into unbelief. So for the next twenty-plus years I found myself without any real belief in God. I was not an athei...
Read More »

My computer was recently hacked and infected with a virus. This virus caused some files to continuously write to my hard drive using up all of my free space. The computer would suddenly freeze and I would get a low disk space message. Since this only occurred when certain programs were started you can imagine my frustration. I am not a computer expert and it took me several days to figure out the problem. Then I spent several hours deleting the infected programs and several more hours restoring...
Read More »

Growing to Know and Love Mary from a Worldwide Perspective Author Interview with Ann Ball, The Other Faces of Mary by Lisa M. Hendey Many of us have an 'image' of Mary that comes immediately to mind when we offer prayers to the intercession of the Blessed Mother of Jesus. In my mind, Mary looks a lot like a younger version of many of the important women in my own life. For many, images of classic Madonnas by Rafael or sweet holy card remembrances are the face of Mary. Despite her 'look', worldwi...
Read More »