Co-dependence – our societal disease.

Peanut Gallery: Co-dependence is a natural consequence of our “infinite capacity for self-deception.” We cannot look at ourselves squarely in the face of God’s truth, so we we glance at others sideways as well. It truly is a societal disease.

Rebecca Hamilton has nailed it with her definition: “Co-dependence is… the fine art of making excuses for and buying into the lies of miscreants in such a way that you help them continue misbehaving. Meanwhile, you sacrifice yourself for them and their lies.”

Why do we continue to enable other people’s bad behavior? Ask yourself – “For whom am I continually making excuses and why?” If we are honest, it’s not about them, it’s about us… lying to ourselves.

Nothing will ever change until we face up to our own complicity in perpetuating bad behavior. The definition of insanity – “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Public Catholic

Raise your hand if you have a family member or friend with drug or alcohol problems.

Are your hands at your side? If they are, think carefully.

What about that cousin no one talks about? You know the one; the family embarrassment that you haven’t seen for years but that you know is out there somewhere, tippling, shooting up, snorting or pill-popping their way to an early grave. What about your high school friend who started missing classes and ended up missing in action for life?

Now. I’ll ask again. Raise your hand if you have a family member or friend with drug or alcohol problems.

Ok. Has everybody got a hand in the air? Good. Now we can talk.

If everybody was honest, there were a lot of raised hands. There is a whole lot of drinking and drugging going on. That leads to the conclusion that there…

View original post 1,182 more words

RealClearPolitics – The Terrible End of Europe’s Nanny State

Peanut Gallery: This re-post is in the FYI category. The author’s outlook is not promising – he sees no way out for the Europeans… and for us if we continue down the road we are going. Will his prediction come true? I don’t know, but his analogy makes sense to me… and it doesn’t bode well for us.

What I don’t understand is how our own politicians can take this country down the same road when they can see what it has led to in Europe?

Please take the time to read the full post, it’s well worth it.
__________________________________

“The thing about corruption, vested interests, and so forth, is that the beneficiaries do not willingly part with their lolly. They take to the streets when it is threatened. The mere word, “austerity,” gets them out there, even before anything has been done, as we have seen in Montreal, Athens, and elsewhere. And now you need more money for the police.”

RealClearPolitics – The Terrible End of Europes Nanny State.

June 13, 2012
The Terrible End of Europe’s Nanny State
By David Warren

Austerity is the mot-du-jour almost everywhere at the moment. It reigns in Spain, for instance. (“Austeridad.”)

As Jim Flaherty said, in hailing the Spanish bank bailout, it “doesn’t solve the problem but it’s a step in the right direction.”

Let us examine that statement for the briefest moment, leaving aside such interesting but tangential questions as, whose money is bailing?

The problem is structural, not fiscal. The fiscal solution does not really get at the problem. Instead, it kicks the problem down the road.

If gentle reader managed somehow to run up a credit card debt, beyond the ability of his grandchildren to pay, the problem wouldn’t be the balance (or shall we say, imbalance) revealed in his bank statement. That would be a symptom of the problem.

Not to comment on his lifestyle; but he must be using this credit card to buy things, even if he is merely kiting his debts from one card to another. (“Financial services” count as “goods,” statistically.) At some point he presumably bought something — or some things — he could not afford.

If his bank then intervened, to raise his credit limit in return for gentle reader’s solemn sovereign promise to start living within his means, we might say the move “doesn’t solve the problem but it’s a step in the right direction.”

We can understand why the bank would be so obviously naive. The alternative is to call in the card, and cut its losses. Those losses — multiplied by the million others lured by easy credit into playing the same game — would take the bank down, today. Better that the cows come home, tomorrow. Continue reading “RealClearPolitics – The Terrible End of Europe’s Nanny State” →

Crystal Cathedral reborn as Christ Cathedral

Peanut gallery: A fresh start for the Crystal Cathedral – Christ Cathedral. May it become a beacon of hope in a broken world.

Former Evangelical Cathedral’s Future Is Crystal Clear | Daily News | NCRegister.com.

Former Evangelical Cathedral’s Future Is Crystal Clear
Robert Schuller’s ‘Crystal Cathedral’ is now ‘Christ Cathedral’
Share by ELISABETH DEFFNER 06/12/2012

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. — In Orange County, California, an iconic church of 20th-century evangelical Protestantism will no longer be called the “Crystal Cathedral.”

For the past several months, the 1.2 million Catholics in the southern California county have been calling it “our new cathedral.”

But as of June 9, when Bishop Tod Brown announced at the end of an ordination Mass that the proposed new name for the Reformed Church in America’s Crystal Cathedral had been approved by the Vatican, they are calling it Christ Cathedral.

“I wanted the name to be Christological,” said Bishop Brown. “Our cathedral can unite all Christians to share our common belief in Jesus Christ.” Continue reading “Crystal Cathedral reborn as Christ Cathedral” →

Modesty Honors Beauty – reblog

Modesty Honors Beauty – by Sarah Howell
By bryankemper

Modesty is the decision to reclaim our bodies and tell this society that we do not need to sell ourselves to one another just to feel worthy.

First, let’s get this straight: Modesty isn’t just putting on more clothes. Modesty is honoring God by acknowledging the value He placed on your body when He created you. If it were just about clothes, then Adam and Eve would have been created wearing something more than skin. Modesty isn’t about your closet, it’s about having a heart bold enough to throw aside that which society tells us, and hold on to that which God tells us: That we are a beautiful creation wrapped in the wonder and glory of the perfect artist.

Today’s world of advertising will never tell you that. Girls, you will never hear an advertisement tell you how beautiful you already are. Instead, it will tell you how beautiful you will become if you do this or buy that. And, even more disappointing, that end result of “beauty” will have nothing to do with your true self; it will have everything to do with the exploitation of your sexuality. Guys, you will rarely see an advertisement that encourages you to be a respectable man who spends his whole life loving one woman, but you will see plenty that tell you success is measured in how many scantily clad females your deodorant can attract.

Are we really so surface? Continue reading “Modesty Honors Beauty – reblog” →

She Could Have Been Me

Peanut Gallery: Human beings have an infinite capacity for self-deception. Rebecca Hamilton ably describes the convoluted self-deception surrounding the horror of sex-selected abortion.

“The greatest lies of our times are the lies we tell ourselves to justify doing things that we know are wrong. What makes it work is that the whole culture conspires with us in the doing of it.”

Augustine and Calvin talked about “original sin” and “total depravity.” Theological discussion becomes a deadly reality in the most unlikely of places… a mother’s womb. Is there no hope for us?

Hebrews 4:16 says: “Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”

Run don’t walk… to the cross.