The Catholic Defender: Happy 4th Of July

I want to speak for all of us here at deepertruth, all the writers, supporters, the Rosary Patrol, the Divine Mercy, everyone, that we pray you have a safe and blessed 4th of July celebration. I pray for all those traveling this weekend that your travels be safe and you get to your destinations.
From CDR (Ret) Kelly Strong:

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.
I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers' tears?
How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of taps one night,
When everything was still
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That taps had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.
I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.

May the love of God keep you close to himself. The Rosary Patrol will meet on a different evening this week, will let everyone know. Please have a great weekend and pray for the Nation, but this 4th of July is a great opportunity to be thankful! Please enjoy the video:

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Make love, not idols...

I am having a bad day, so I thought I might as well get into trouble with a blog post; let's talk sex! Wave the kiddies off from this one, folks. It's R-rated in the very first sentence, I'm warning you.

But first, for clarity's sake, my working definition of the word idol: an object, person, or thing that takes the place of the True God.

We are doing it wrong!

When I was an unrepentant heathen I bought the contraceptive mentality that says sex is for entertainment then suffered being used as a means to an orgasm. I did my fair share of objectifying in those days, so don't think I'm playing the victim card here. I was merely a victim of my own stupidity and pointing out the "been there, done that" street cred on this point. Not that credibility is needed to see the point, but most people in our sex saturated culture are so lulled by the pretty blondes straddling the corvettes while hawking a Diet Pepsi that most of us do not even notice that women have became more objectified in our culture after the Sexual Revolution than they ever were before. (If you don't believe me, google the phrase "objectification of women" and enjoy yourself, and seriously, have you seen MTV in the last ten years or so?)

Now that I'm repentant, struggling against my social conditioning, and a little on the outside of the usual Christian circles by way of my Catholicism and by way of the place I converted from, I have a weird little insight I'd like to share. Our hedonistic culture and certain Christians/Catholics have the same idol--the male urge.

"What?!" thinks the average nonCatholic reader, "I thought only Catholics had idols!" 

"What?!" thinks the average Cafeteria Catholic, "I'm not interested in reading about anything that doesn't affirm me in my quest for..." <---that's as far as those folks are going to get before they drop off the radar by clicking off to another page in the endless search for the infallible evidence that they are indeed, the center of their own universe.

"What?!" thinks the average reader of this blog, "I don't get it yet, but at least it's not another recipe." 

"Interesting," thinks the average, open-to-life, NFPer. "I think I know where she's going with this one."<---please not that I am talking about a specific type of Natural Family Planning practitioner here. More on that later.

American Idol

The Male Urge Idol is not just worshiped in our post-Sexual Revolution Culture, but in the bedrooms of straight-laced, upright Christians. The idols are cast from the same mold, the contraceptive mentality, and both reduce a woman to her serviceableness. In other words, both mentalities reduce Woman to a tool.

Him, the Tool Man

Men compartmentalize their brains. It's how they work. In a 2009 National Geographic Daily News Article , researchers were shocked (shocked, I tell you) to find that men activate the "tool section" of their brains when seeing pictures of scantily clad women. They were further surprised (stunned and amazed) that the social sections of the brains were not also activated, stating that

 This means that these men see women "as sexually inviting, but they are not thinking about their minds," Fiske said. "The lack of activation in this social cognition area is really odd, because it hardly ever happens.

Do I need to mention that Fiske is a woman? Named Susan? Or did you guess that by the "hardly ever happens" line there? You could probably also guess that it hardly ever happens that I giggle while reading National Geographic articles, but it's even rarer for me to outright guffaw. It was fun, so I am not complaining. Just pointing out that it "hardly ever happens..."

Hold on a minute...

...while I take a brief sojourn into the daisy-petaled universe envisioned by science fiction? researchers wherein men behold women in beachwear and think rational, language-ladened thoughts such as, "Gosh, that bikini clad gal has a smokin' hot mind. I want to grasp her and wield her and name her Susan!"

I'm back now...thanks for the moment. Where were we?

Ah, the tool thing. Yes, well, men can forget all about the person in the bikini and the color of the bikini all while starting fixedly at the bikini. We women, on the other hand, are so relationship oriented that we can see a near-naked man on a car and wonder is that trunk is big enough for a trip to Costco and the grocery store because it would be nice not to have to pile the bulky stuff into the backseat, and wow that's smooth, did he shave his chest for this ad, do men get razor burn on their chests or would they wax, that's gotta hurt, you know this floor could use a coat of wax, but I really should strip it first and I don't have time for all of that with the kids out of school, so what happened to my resolution to do spring cleaning this year, oh I don't know anyway, when do I have the time for extras when I'm already so stressed and I really wish the kids would help out more and I bet that guy knows how to hit the hamper with his speedo unlike somebody who seems to think the floor is just fine for his dirty laundry but see if I care if that pile rots in the corner because I'm not picking it up this time. We forget that men don't make the connection between near naked people in advertising, laundry, and the next big spousal argument unless we women make it for them. They're funny like that.

While Fiske may be surprised that men see women as objects (tools), most other women and men on the planet are not. The evidence is all around us. What surprises a lot of unmarried people, and sadly, a lot of married people, is that mature men...don't. They've stopped the process in several ways. When it comes to his wife, he has learned to love her, the entirety of her and not just the parts of her, even when he is making love to her, and his mind becomes just as eagerly involved in the sexual union as his body does, making the act a uniting of two persons and not just the interlocking of two well-fitted parts. What I'm describing is the mind-blowing sex described in Theology of the Body (if you have a few hundred years or so) and other places (look here, too) that is the ultimate result of a committed, marital relationship, and a bonding hormone called oxytocin. Men produce oxytocin much later in a relationship than a woman does, if he has not lost the capacity to produce it through actions that sustain a state of perpetual adolescence such as  masturbation, porn addiction, or promiscuity before and after marriage.

So now this is where the Christians come in, and this is where people are going to get mad at me. We think we have sex safely corralled into marriage. Give a man enough sex and he won't sin sexually. We women shall be open and available at all times and smile nicely and even if we are not in the mood, we'll get there eventually, or maybe next time. Use it or lose it, ladies. C'mon now, hop into bed anytime he asks and you both will be fulfilled.

Except for one little detail. No one should be used by another, and this sounds dangerously close to the "tool man" mentality we were laughing about a few minutes ago.

I'm not laughing now because encouraging your husband to sin is serious. Take me seriously for a minute. Look at those rare and unmentionable feelings you may have had once or twice of disappointment and unease after a romp, if you've ever had them, and wonder for just a moment if maybe it was because you may have felt a little used? You are not alone if you've occasionally been left alone on a pillow moments afterwards without even a kiss. It happens sometimes. That's when it is obvious and that's when a talk that starts out, "Hey, honey, you know last night when...well..." can usually fix it.

What's harder to fix are the subtler manifestations of tool use. When he asks you to risk the cancers and blood clots of oral contraception because it is easier to risk your health than to deny himself sex on the three nights of the month that you are fertile. Learning NFP is such a bother anyway and who cares if it works if I'm horny right this moment and you are insist on being fertile.

Or the flip side...

...could look an awful lot like being open to life and accepting the babies that God gives you, experiencing the joys of a large family. That all sounds great, even pious, but not if he forgets to mature in his manhood. In some married Christian men, this type of rhetoric is not so much about openness to life and God's Providence as it is a lack of a desire to control sexual urges long enough to be appropriate. Some men won't even wait to get home first. Fundamentally is there a difference between a good Christian husband or a Neopagan hedonistic husband who asks his wife to have sex in her mom's bathroom during a big family Thanksgiving Dinner? That's a true story and since it will illustrate my point about making an idol out of sexual urges, I'm not telling you if it was a Christian or a Neopagan wife who shared it with me. I'll just let you ponder on it awhile.

Continue pondering while I stretch the story out of truth and into rhetorical fiction and change the time frame from a few hours of waiting to 72 hours during a weekend trip. Still obviously a case of tool use, right? Although there is a bit less of the hedonist showing in the Christian man's demeanor. Well, how about handing the wife a pregnancy induced heart attack with her last two children? Let's change that 72 hours from a weekend trip crowded with family who are going to know the couple just coupled to 72 hours of fertility a month. Can you see the tool use behind a husband insisting that sex is his prerogative even if her life is at risk. Can you see how his urge just might be his idol in that situation? He still may be coming at it from a purely saintly perspective of "trusting God with his sexuality" and with his wife's life, but such cases must be rare given the general state of humankind in the last few millennia.

Since this post is way longer than a blog post is supposed to be, how about we make a deal: if  I concede the point that the male urge to sex is sometimes given by God, will you concede my point that sometimes it isn't? Our emotions are a part of the symphony that make up human existence. Sometimes they are tied to biology, as in the case of oxytocin bonding a couple to each other and to their child, sometimes they are tied to a desire to love and serve the family by growing it, and sometimes they are tied to human frailty. As many Christian/Catholic men are weak and sinful as the nonChristian men. Women, too. I've said it in as many ways as possible, the only real difference between a Christian and a nonChristian is Christ. We Christians seek to be forgiven our shortcomings and frailties through Christ. We try not to pretend they don't exist.

Let's not pretend that this idol does not exist in our culture either. Even the Christian culture. Instead, let us put God on the throne of our lives, and let He who gave us Free Will remind us that we are not meant to be a slave to anything, even a God-given impulse to procreate. We serve God, not our passions.

In the economy of God, Woman is the pinnacle of creation and as such, she is the servant of the man. Jesus was the Perfect Man and served the world, so of course a wife is to honor a husband and be submissive. In  his way of reflecting Jesus, a husband is to lay his life down for her and sacrifice himself as Christ sacrificed Himself for the Church so that he can present his bride holy and unblemished before God (If this isn't sounding familiar it's the bit in Ephesians 5 that is after the "wives be subordinate to your husbands"). That doesn't sound like the type of man who won't make himself wait a few hours for sex or even a  few days. Nor does she sound like the type of creature who is to be reduced to nothing more than a glorified bodily fluid receptacle. If you read all the way to the end of Ephesians 5, you see some wonderful imagery. Just imagine! A wife is a treasure you will present to God and so she should be the best gift you have to offer. You might want to start thinking of her in those terms--a cherished gift you have both received and will give.

She is not a tool to be used. She is a treasure. Put her in the treasury of your heart and you will never find her again in the toolbox of your mind.

And wives? If he begins to treasure you, be a treasure and be treasured. It's nice.

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Blood on a pew

I just finished reading Blood on a pew by William Gaines. Bill and I played together briefly in a league team in the 1980s. The highlight for me coming on September 20th, 1986 when we beat my older brother's team 40-0.

Bill's son was given a scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh at the same time as Larry Fitzgerald. The two soon became friends. Fitzgerald would later become the best college receiver in the nation and almost gave the Arizona Cardinals a Super Bowl victory.

If it was Fitzgerald that was known for his size, hands and great leaping ability, it was Billy Gaines that was known for his remarkable toughness and speed. Incredible speed... sick speed.... world class speed.

At a combine at Penn State University, Billy Gaines was clocked at a jaw-dropping 4.22 in the 40. You read that right...four-two-two. That is Darrell Green speed. That is Deion Sanders speed. That is Michael Vick speed.

Tragically, Billy Gaines fell through the roof of Saint Anne's Catholic Church to his death on June 18th, 2003. I was living in Jackson, New Jersey when I got the news.

Blood on the pew is the story of a family's journey through despair and anger to forgiveness and discovering Our Lord in the storm. This, and other tragedies, would test this poor family to it's limit. I recommend it and have invited Bill onto our show.

Bill is a protestant but with a heart after God. To be sure, there are members of the Church I love that have some culpability for Billy's accidental, but preventable, death. These questions deserve to be explored as we search the great mystery of a Holy Church whose members do not always act in the holiest manner.

I invite all of you to buy the book, pray for Bill and his family and tune into the show if and when it airs.

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Sola Scriptura show notes

These notes are intended to be used in conjunction with the Blog talk radio program on this subject.

Opening statement:

The father of protestantism, and, thus, the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, had this to say in the prologue to his commentary on the Gospel of Saint John;

"We are compelled to concede to the Papists that they have the Word of GOD,
that we received it from them, and that without them, we should have no
knowledge of it at all."

Martin Luther was correct in saying this. It is an undeniable historical fact that it was the Catholic church that created the Bible and, if not for the Catholic Church, no one would have a Bible today.

I say this not as a gotcha argument but as something on which I would ask you to prayerfully reflect. For, when the Catholic Church set about the task of sorting through all the books that would purport to be Scripture, it was no small task, even if only by the sheer volume of works She had to sort through. For example, there were about 50 gospels that were eliminated, leaving us only the 4 we have now. Further, many of the books of the Bible do not record the authors in the text and how are we to know in which order the chosen books go?

This task speaks to authority. Before we can even begin a discussion of what are the best translations of Holy Scripture or what are the best interpretations, we must first be able to arrive at what is and is not Scripture, and to provide an index of how the books should be bound together in a single volume. Absent an infallible path for reaching these ends, we have no hope of looking to the scriptures for God's truth. This is argument #1 of how Sola Scriptura is untenable.

Imagine if the New Testament canon was given to us with the caveat that only 24 of the 27 books were inspired but the church had no idea which were the uninspired 3. If you went to 70 people in your church, how many different combinations of 3 books would you get?

About the second century BC, the Jewish leaders faced a simple problem. Since Greek was the universal language, they sought to create an Old Testament Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Seventy of the best Scripture scholars were employed for the task. They worked in isolation but when their work was complete all had miraculously translated all the same books exactly the same, word for word.

This translation became known as the Septuagint or LXX which both mean Seventy. This refers to the number of scholars, not the number of books.

Some of the books in this sacred translation were later removed by Luther and the first protestants. Two books that barely missed being cut were the epistle of James and the Book of Revelation. Luther referred to the Epistle of James as an epistle of straw, stating further that he should like to throw Jimmy into the stove. Luther described the Book of Revelation as having ;

".... no marks of an apostolic or prophetic character... Everyone may form
his own judgment of this book; as for myself, I feel an aversion to it, and to
me this is sufficient reason for rejecting it."

Most protestants would be scandalized at the prospect of a Bible missing James or Revelation but Luther would not have stopped there. He also wanted to remover Esther, Hebrews, and Jude. This is in addition to the 7 that he did remove. So, I ask you. If Luther did not have the authority to remove Esther, Hebrews, Jude, James and Revelation, how can we then assert that he had the authority to remove Baruch, Maccabees and the others?

Imagine the temerity of a man who admits that were it not for the Catholic church, he should have no knowledge of the scriptures, now setting forth to reset the Bible canon by his own authority.

Argument #2- Translation.

Once we have arrived at an acceptable canon of scripture, placing the books in a categorized and indexed order, we must set about the task of translation.

This, also, makes Scripture alone impossible.

Mark 15:34 tells us that Jesus cried out from the cross Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachtani. That is Aramaic. Mark translated it to Greek. In the 4th century, Jerome translated it to Latin when he produced the first Bible, the Vulgate. It wasn't until 1609, and the Douai Rheems, that those words were first translated to English in a Bible. Aramaic to Greek to Latin to English.

In addition to a genuine cry of anguish, Our Lord's words were a quote of King David, in Psalm 22. Those words were translated from Hebrew to Greek to Latin and then to English.

Yet, both passages are rendered correctly in English: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

The translation of scripture is something that must be guided by the Holy Spirit whether the translation is a literal- by the letter of the text- translation or a dynamic-by the spirit of the text-translation. When you look at all the Bible translations that have been made, in all the languages they have been made in, the opportunity for translation error is monumental. Sometimes this error is the innocent result of some linguistic, grammatical or punctuation subtlety in one of the languages. However, other times, it is the result of the translator allowing his or her bias to influence the text. Examples of this are the King James Version's rendering of Genesis 3:15 and Luke 1:28, The New International Version's insertion of the word 'Woman' into Luke 11:27-28 and New World Translation which tries to eliminate Christ's Divinity out of John 1:1

All of these examples refute Sola Scriptura because they prove that the translation of the Scriptures must be safe guarded by a trust worthy authority.

My 3rd argument speaks to the historical untenability of Sola Scriptura. Since we hold that Jesus died in 33 AD, we can say that the church survived for about it's first 17 years without even one of the New Testament books having been written. In fact, it is entirely possible that the Epistle of James, that Luther despised so much, was, in fact, the first New Testament book written circa 50 AD. The next 26 would be written over about the next 50 years, most likely ending in about 100 AD with John's gospel and His 3 Epistles. It would be about another 300 years before these 27 specific books would be chosen as our New Testament at the Councils of Hippo and Carthage and another 1000 years from there to the invention of the Gutenberg press.

In other words, the Christian church was about 1,450 years beyond the death of Jesus before the idea of Sola Scriptura could have even been suggested as a plausible, practical possibility. Further, there is no evidence, whatsoever, that any historical person had ever suggested the Bible alone as authority prior to Luther in the 16th century.

The 4th argument, and most important, which nullifies this doctrine is the fact that it is explicitly refuted by the very text it purports to uphold. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 tell us that we are to obey all that is handed down to us- Oral AND written. 2 Timothy 3:15 tells us that the Church, not the Bible is the pillar and foundation of all truth. Matthew 18:17 tells us that the Church is the final arbiter on a dispute over sin. Matthew 18:18 tells us that what the Church binds on earth is bound in heaven. Luke 10:16 tells us that who HEARS, not reads mind you, HEARS His apostles hears Him and he who rejects them, rejects Him. Romans 13 tells us that he who rejects the earthly authority God has put in place, risks Judgement.

The word Church appears more than 100 times in the New Testament, the word Bible 0. This is because the Church gave us the Bible, not the other way around.

Finally, the Bible itself tells us in John 21:25 that the whole teachings of Jesus could not be contained in all the books contained since the foundation of the world.

The Bible tells us that Scripture is inspired, infallible, profitable for reproof, correction and training in righteousness. Inspired, infallible and profitable. We agree. However, we are not arguing that. What we are arguing is the practical sufficiency of Scripture and nowhere in Scripture is that even suggested.

In fact, as we have said, it is explicitly refuted. 1 Peter 1:20 tells us that no scripture is a matter of personal interpretation and 2 Peter 3:14-16 tells us that Paul's letters, and all the other Scriptures, are written according to the wisdom implanted in the writers, with which the unstable and ignorant will twist to their own destruction.

Sola Scriptura is untenable Logically, Historically, practically and Biblically. Finally, it has been proven unworkable in practice by the splintering of Christendom into more than 33,000 different denominations. The Bible says a House divided against itself cannot stand. Sola Scriptura creates exactly such a house.

Rebuttals of expected arguments:

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Expected argument:

2 Timothy 3 says;

16 All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Answer: Profitable for every good work and sufficient for every good work are two different things. The preceding verses are key

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

The scriptures are important but as important are who Timothy learned the Scriptures from. Here Paul is telling Timothy directly that the Scriptures are subject to the Church. Further, these were the Scriptures learned from Timothy's childhood, when no New Testament books had been written, to now, when only some had been written including only 2 of the Gospels.

Expected argument: The Bible says "Do not go beyond what is written" (1 Corinthians 4:6).

Answer: Of course we are not to go beyond what is written but that does not mean that we are not subject to the authority of who wrote it! In this very same chapter, Paul tells the Corinthians that he became their spiritual father through the gospel and is sending Timothy to teach them. Paul threatens to return with a rod if he must.

Expected argument: Do not add to, or subtract from, God's Word.

Answer: Again, going above or below God's Word is not the issue with regards to Sola Scriptura. The issue is who decides where that line actually is and who is crossing it. When one is using this angle, they are making a circular argument. In saying that going beyond God's Word necessitates going beyond Scripture, they are stating an unsupportable premise. Direct revelation can very clearly be seen in scripture.

Matthew 16:

17 And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

The Bible shows us that Jesus gave the Church the Keys to the Kingdom and He told His disciples to go forth and preach. He told not one of them to go forth and write. In fact, only 5 of the original 12 wrote at least one book making the NT canon.

Expected argument: 2 Timothy 2

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Answer: We are indeed to study, including the study of Scripture. But what is the basis of that study?

Acts Chapter 8
29 And the Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and join this chariot." 30 So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" 31 And he said, "How can I, unless some one guides me?"

Proverbs 3
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

These verses very clearly tell us that Scripture is subject to a teaching authority and study means studying what has been revealed, not trying to figure it out ourselves.





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Sola Scriptura- True or False?

Tonight- July 1st, 2011 at 7 PM Eastern / 6 Central / 5 Mountain / 4 Pacific, there will be a debate between John of Deeper Truth and Sister Judy of The Bible Speaks. If you are looking for a bombastic quarrel, you are going to be deeply disappointed. This is going to be a respectful, civil debate between 2 people who love God and are seeking to serve Him fully. Tune in and hear an edifying discourse on this foundational doctrine that divides Protestantism and Catholicism.

The show can be heard live on our blogtalkradio show. If you would like to call-in, the number is 646-595-2071 and we will do our best to get your questions in!

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The Catholic Defender: Rely upon His Mercy

"Jesus said, "Go and learn the meaning of the words, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners" Matthew (Matthew 9:13).

Something I could not helpbut think about on reflecting on these words, "I did not come to call the righteous but sinners", something just hit me. Jesus had healed a man born blind so that he could now see.

Jesus asked him, "Do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered and said, 'Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, 'You have seen him and the one speaking with you is he'. He said, 'I do believe, Lord,' and he worshiped him" (John 9:35-36).

This is very important as Jesus continued, "I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind".

Jesus does call sinners to himself and offers us mercy. "Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, 'Surely we are not also blind, are we?' Jesus said to them, 'If you were blind, you would not have no sin; but now you are saying, 'We see', so your sin remains".

We strive to see, but we must see with our heart and not with our eyes.

We need to sharpen our eyes of faith so that we can truly see the Lord and follow him as did the Blind Man who was healed.

We definitely do not want to stay in the crowd of the Pharisees who claim to see and whose sin remains!

Get rid of them! Go to Confession so that you can be free of sin.

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*BEST OF DTB #93* The Catholic Defender: Risk Factors

For just about anything we do there are constant risk factors.

Whether we are talking business, safety, or health issues. They can certainly be job related.

Risk factors are a part of life to some degree or another.

In the case of a business, risk factors can be those issues that might cause a windfall on profits. Can cause you to lose money.

People take risks hoping that something will sell, or an idea will take off that will make their business prosper.

Health has many risk factors.

The Medical Dictionary states, a Risk Factor is "a characteristic statistically associated with, although not necessarily causally related to, an increased risk of morbidity or mortality, e.g., smoking as a risk factor for heart disease".

There are many health risks that have risk factors: Premarital sex can increase the risk of a Sexually Transmitted Disease. Abstanance is the only true protection against STD's.

Diet can impact health as well. Some things that might reduce risk factors in the area of health is to stay physically fit. To have a good work out program. Eat a well balanced diet, never smoke or quit if you do smoke.

In the Army, there are always risk factors that concerns safety that affects any Command when performing any mission. We always had to put together a "Risk Assessment" so that the risk could be reduced when conducting a mission. Marching Soldiers could have high risk factors such as marching across a road with on coming traffic. You reduce the risk by using "Road Guards" that takes a potentially high risk into a low risk classification.

By conducting and putting in place certain precautions, we can have a positive outcome in the management of health and safety in our lives.

In the area of business, our business management tools can help us become more successful in a very competing world.

With this in mind, I was thinking about identifying risk factors that affect our faith. Today, many people's faith are affected by many risk factors.

Hosea warns us that many are destroyed due to the lack of knowledge. So the lack of knowledge is a high risk factor.

How can this be reduced?

By taking the initiative to know your faith. Studying the Catechism, the bible, reading about the lives of the Saints, reading spiritual books and other publications that increase our understanding. To become better informed in our faith greatly reduces the problem with knowledge.

Catholic Answers, Defenders of the Catholic Faith (DCF) and deepertruth are just three examples of keeping oneself informed on the many topics of our faith.

Jesus warns that a person who is "lukewarm" will not make the grade either.

Apathy, laziness, indifference, compromise with the world, these things attack the very core of faith.

To counter these risk factors, you need to discipline yourself, to commit yourself to follow God's will.

Sin has many risk factors that leads people astray. St. Paul warns on many occasions that those who live in Mortal sin will not inherit the Kingdom God. Mortal sin leads people away from the Catholic Faith. Leads them away from God.

To reduce these risks factors we would need to avoid the near occasion of sin, to frequent the Sacraments such as Confession often. To be aware of the dangers of sin, and avoid sin.

To follow the teachings of the Catholic Faith is the only true way of surrending to God's will.

We respect other who may disagree with the Church, but we must be mindful of Christ and His Church.

There are many risk factors that we can identify that lead people astray.

As a CCD teacher for several years, I can tell you that it is noticeable to see children who are simply dropped off for CCD.

Yet at home very little leadership is done to lead these children to a closer understanding of their faith. Many of them abandon the faith later on and will demonstraight hatred towards it. I see this very often.

Many times I come in contact with them and by this time they are already entreanched in heresy.

If Mom and Dad are not being faithful to their marriage vows, it is very difficult on the children.

What is the solution?

How do we rectify this as a Church, a people, a nation?

Is their a risk assessment that can be applied to help in this area?

I cringe when people tell me that they don't go to Mass because they were "forced" to go growing up. Or that the Mass is boring, that is problematic especially because many people have to be fed energy. They have very little patience with contemplation.

The risk assessment here would be to teach children from an early age the importance of meditation and prayer, especially the Mass.

When children see Mom and Dad living their faith at home in a real way, that helps reduce some of the risk factors giving children a firm foundation.

It is important to note that sometimes, people will turn away from the faith regardless of Mom or Dad.

Peer pressure can be a huge risk factor, so can culture when it is pushing sin. It is important to develop some good "Risk Assessments" to counter this threat.

What might work for one family might not be what is needed for another family. It is important to know the threats and to rely on faith and prayer. Remember St. Monica, she used patience and commitment along with trust in the Lord.

Doctrinally, morally, spiritually, some will fall away. Can we diagnose and detect early warning signs that might help prevent a prodigal journey?

Can truth be hidden from view when it is right in front of you?

What prevents you from seeing? These are questions that need answers, the risk assessments need to be applied to reduce the risk factors. Remember one important proverb: "The family that prays together, stays together"!


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* BEST OF DTB #92* Faith and Love

I’m a mom, so I know a few secrets about love.

#1 Love isn’t an emotion—it’s a decision.

Love is a day to day, minute to minute decision to serve, to put another person’s needs above your own. That is why it is easier to understand love once you are a parent, once you are required by the helplessness of your child to step up to the altar of self-sacrifice and inconvenience. It’s partly why the intensity of the love is so evident in that relationship—because it is often one-sided, thankless, and physically grueling.

#2 Love doesn’t have to be requited to be true.

Every once in awhile, I’ve had one of the little loves of my life look me right in the eye and scream, “I don’t like you!” My love doesn’t waver one little bit as I put them into their timeout spot. I don’t need them to love me back in any given moment in order to love them. I do it anyway.

I’m a foster mom, so I know a few more secrets about love, too.

#1 That stuff about love not being an emotion is really true.

Love has to be put into action or it does not exist. When a mother tells the court, “I love my child,” and yet she will not seek medical care because the ER is too boring, buy food because she wants the money for Saturday night, or stay away from a child abuser because the sex is good, it’s evident to all within earshot that she really doesn’t. We can delude ourselves, but we all know deep down that love is a decision to serve the beloved or it is nothing.

#2 Love is not a biological imperative either

The idea is ludicrous on it’s face. Wives do not love husbands because of any genetic bonds. I do not love my children because of common genes . I love them because I love them. I was not related to my parents physically (I'm adopted) and I am not related to my adopted daughter genetically, but watch the mother bear in me come out when she is threatened. I’ll show you love in action, then.

Now go back and reread all of that in light of your relationship with God. Do you love Him? Do you serve Him? Do you remember the words, “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:17)

Do you see where I am going? You must love God. You must serve God. The two are the same. My conversion was a gift directly from God, yes. All faith is God’s to give, but you either accept it or you do not and then you either act upon it or you do not.

Like that mom in court will we say, “I love my God, but visiting the sick is too boring” or “I love my God, but I don’t have to give to charity to prove it” or “I love my God, but sex is too fun to wait for marriage!” Think God understands? He does. He knows what you are really saying.

Love Himself knows what Love is. It is a verb. We all fail Him in this. Me in my way and you in yours, but God’s love is like a mother's in the face of a toddler’s “I don’t like you!” The mother forgives, she knows and hopes for better. God sees the potential for more than we are in this moment.

I’ve been given faith and I’ve been given talents. So have you. You see, in part, what I do with my gifts here in this blog. I write, I ask questions, I point out Truth. What shall you do with yours? Bury them in the dirt and say, “God loves me and that is enough!” Who else shall do God’s work on earth but you? You who have been given the gift of Faith and a gift of talents, my fellow faithful servant, return it a thousand fold!

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The Catholic Defender: Friend like you

Here at deepertruth, sometimes the days go by and we just kind of glide right on by.

This coming July marks the 1 year anniversary with my joining up with deepertruth and I have enjoyed every minute of it.

To see the effects from all over the world knowing that we have people visiting us and following us as we continue to move forward in our journey of Faith.

I know that I have been enriched tremendously as a result of doing the Lord's will.

The Holy Father has made it clear that the Church should be visible even on hyberspace.

I want to take this opportunity to say "Thank You" for your continued support and prayers.

May the next coming year be as challenging and fruitful as this past year. Most importantly, may our faith always continue to grow.

If we have shared anything that has helped any one of you, the praise and glory goes to the Lord! We are family no matter where we are planted.

I pulled out an old video I wanted to share today and I hope that you all will enjoy it. May God continue to bless you all!

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The Catholic Defender: A Message from Donna Cori Gibson

Pope Benedicts General Intention for the Month of June: "That priests, united to the Heart of Christ, May always be true witnesses to the caring and merciful love of God.

His Missionary Intention of June: "That the Holy Spirit may bring forth from our communities many missionaries who are ready to be fully consecrated to spreading the Kingdom of God".

This is the heart of our Mission Statement here at deepertruth.

Basically that we know our faith, love our faith, and spread our faith. Donna Cori Gibson will be giving her story of faith in Jesus Christ through his Holy Catholic Faith here on deepertruth. It all starts at 1900 (7:00 P.M. Eastern) 22 June 2011. Here is a message from Donna!

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Not Exactly Catholic: My Son Has a Super Power

You simply have to read this post by the Attack of the Redneck Mommy blogger. Her son has a super power: invisibility. He is disabled. His disability is visible, so he is unseen.

I want to drag into the glare of honest criticism as a mom of a special gift like my son a few points.

1- You can use any excuse to laugh or rail at the disabled. The more shallow of you use the fact that the child's looks or sounds or drools makes you exempt from being decent. The more subtle of you use the fact that mommy is an annoying Republican as your excuse. When you laugh at the Trig jokes, mothers like me hold our children a little closer. We are protecting them from the likes of you because we know how easy it is to delete the word "Republican" from your excuse and insert any other word--for me it might be "Catholic" or "blogger" or even just "annoying." Once you cross the line of decency, it's crossed. It isn't funny. Not even when the mommy is.

(You may want to brace yourself for this one, folks. It's a hard truth.)

2 - It has always been a capital crime in our societies to be disabled in some way. We used to expose our special children. Our more modern and enlightened evolutionary impulses insist we abort them before they are born. We who have given our special children a stay of execution for various reasons (for some, yes, it was a mere matter of timing) know, deep inside, that the world is appalled at us. Your laughter stirs a fear in us mothers that is directly related to this unacknowledged knowledge.

3 - My son is singing the Kyrie in this moment. In this very moment when I am very near tears at the heartlessness of the world toward him, he sings in Latin, "Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy." It is one of many reasons he is such an incredible gift to me and to you, ugly world. My son who will always struggle, who is the ultimate outsider, who is such a gift, he gives me hope for you and yours.

From The Attack of the Redneck Mommy (go thou hence and read)

My son has a superpower.

He is invisible.

Most disabled people are, you know

They are born with it, alongside twisted limbs or broken minds.

My son, he can’t walk, or talk, or eat

He can’t hear and he will never fly. But

He is invisible.

You may not have seen him. But he saw you

He smiled at you. A smile

Bright as a ray of light shining through a cracked window.

He looked at you.

Hoping you would see past the invisibility tattooed on his skin, cloaked around his wheelchair.

He stood beside his siblings

His cousin and he smiled. For you.

You didn’t see him.

Or you wouldn’t see him.

Was it the drool on the side of his mouth which

scared you off?

Was it the twisted way he held his hands?

Or the way his head flops slightly to the left?

He smiled still

As you overlooked him, tossing pieces of candy into the bags

Other children held out.

His bag, empty

Invisible.

He smiled still as his aunt explained why he sat at the bottom of your stairs.

“His legs don’t work.”

He smiled when you refused eye contact with him and handed a piece of candy to me to give to him.

Refusing to touch him.

Refusing to come out of your warm bright homes to see him.

My invisible monkey boy, he smiled for you.

I stood beside him, willing you to see him

Wanting my pride, my love for him to be a beacon for your eyes.

Wishing for your eyes to land on him and see his value.

To see him.

For him not to be invisible.

House after house

We tried.

Door after door, princesses, vampires, Spidermans

 they all wished they had super powers as they begged for treats

My boy,

he tricked them all.

He still smiled

even when you didn’t see him,

couldn’t see him,

wouldn’t see him.

Everybody should have a superpower.

Nobody should be invisible.

If I could pick a power

I’d use it to shine the light on every person with disabilities,

I’d make you see.

My son. He is NOT

Invisible.

I see you, kid.

You might also like:

A Life Worth Living

Mommy

Into the Silence

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Friendship

When I was an unrepentant heathen I thought I'd be happiest following my own will. What happened, naturally, was that I became more and more willful and less and less happy.

Now that I am trying to become who I was made to be and not reacting to my every whim, I am much happier. As much improved as I am, I had a longer way to come than most, so I am well aware, most of the time, that I follow God's will imperfectly and am apt to need redirection in unexpected moments. God has blessed me with the type of friends who are willing to help me in this regard. They won't let me get away with pettiness and smallness without gently calling me to something better. I'm happy to report that this is not a frequent occurrence.

Being so close to my old habits of sinfulness, it's usually me who has benefited from spiritual redirection from my friends. Not so the other day when I heard: "Why do people like that even come to retreats?"

Whoops. In that split second, I was tempted to let the comment pass. What if she got mad at me? Is it really that bad? Since it smacked of pride and since I knew she'd do the same service for me, I took a breath and dove in. "We're all 'people like that,'" I reminded her. She readily agreed, corrected herself, and added, "They're just not sinning my sins." No big deal. We continued on, discussed the nature of sin, large and small, and in doing so bettered ourselves a bit, or at least bolstered our resolve not to backslide on our backsides. I was glad I braved the subject.

We're all falling so short of perfection that we need almost continual redirection, so I am grateful that I have this woman for my friend. Not only is she trying her best to serve God, she's ready to stand corrected if she doesn't. She is cheerful about it all and much more gentle in her redirection of me. I wish all the world had such a treasure.

Happiness is often found in a true friend.

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Ed Hara on Deeper truth

Ed Hara will be our guest tonight on Deeper Truth to tell us his story of conversion from Calvinism to Catholicism. Don't miss it! If you want to call in and be on the program, the number is 646-595-2071

The show kicks off at 7 PM Eastern/ 6 PM Central

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The Catholic Defender: Congressman Anthony Weiner

The news recently have been reporting the story of Congressman Anthony Weiner, Democrat from New York.

He told the Nation for several days that he was innocent of any wrong doing and that someone hacked into his twitter account.

After more information came forward Congressman Weiner has come out admitting that he has lied to the American people.

He did send out pictures of himself to a number of women across the country. He currently vows that he will not resign his office.

I was just watching an interview with former Congressman Mark Foley who was on the Show, "Hannity" discussing his resignation for actions unbecoming of a Congressman.

A question Sean Hannity asked Former Congressman Foley was if he thought it was a jail offense for sending such explicit sexual material to minors.

I was stunned when Mr. Foley said "No". He still clings to Republican ideals, not sure where he stands on the Traditional family. I pray that he moves closer to the Lord's teaching.

The news have recently reported the adultery of former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, this on top of the current issue with Congressman Weiner, reveals a terrible truth about the morals in our Country.

Where is the higher standard that our elected officials should be demonstrating?

With the case of Mark Foley, he claimed he was molested by a Catholic Priest when he was 11 years old.

I think that anyone who is elected to public office, they should have undergo a background check along with training.

I know that many Diocese of the Catholic Church are doing background checks along with mandatory training for Priests, leaders, anyone who is serving at any capacity in the Church.

Our elected officials need to do something similar. I thought Sean Hannity's question to Mark Foley was a good one.

If someone was sending such pornographic material to a minor, that should be a crime. That should be reason enough to impeach if they refuse to resign. Our Nation is in the middle of a culture war that reveals how many are abandoning their Christian heritage.

Athletes and politicians specifically seem to be vulnerable to the temptations that go with fame.

St. Paul warns, "Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor sodomites nor thieves nor greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the Kingdom of God" 1 Cor 6:9-10).

That means we are not to tolerate this kind of behavior among our elected officials, our religious leaders, and our families. Congressman Weiner was reportedly raised in a nominal Jewish home, it is believed he might have converted to Islam for his marriage to his wife, Huma Abedin.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was raised a Catholic, but his liberal agenda places himself against the Church. Mark Foley seems to have received help and forgiveness for what he had done found in the public eye.

It is our prayer that all our public officials, political, religious, and sports, will work to clean up these horrendous acts.

Our young people need good role models to emulate. As we pray for our Nation, please keep in mind the need of repentance for our people to God's holy Word.

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