Atheism: Arriving the Long Way Takes a Lifetime

Dick McKenna’s had lost his faith. All the guys were talking about it. He’d even been to the rectory to talk to Fr. Jerry. Kids in eighth grade didn’t lose their faith. Not at Sacred Heart Elementary School, where Benedictine nuns taught. Yet Dick had lost his, and at the time, I was sure his…

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Humanism, A Simple Pathway to Follow

Humanists were the bad guys while I was in college. I graduated from St. John’s University in 1961, and throughout my (MN) four years as an undergrad, humanists were the adversary. Godless. Arrogant. Self-centered. A haven for atheists. They were a threat to Christianity. Nobody knew how to be Christian better than Catholics. Nobody knew…

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Catholicism Asks A Lot, Especially When You Are Young

Growing up Catholic was tough. Maybe not so much today, but in the middle of the twentieth century it was. You’re a kid. You don’t know any better. Lots of rules. Lots and lots of stories from the Old Testament and the New. It’s what your parents and other adults believe. It must be real.…

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Poet Robert Lax – Michael N. McGregor’s Powerful Biography

Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax by Michael N. McGregor is a powerful biography of a poet who only recently has been recognized for his contributions to the evolution of contemporary poetry. The book succeeds on several levels. Lax was born to immigrant parents in Olean, New York in 1915. The middle class…

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Catholic Growiing Up — Doubtful Growing Old

#catholic #religion #mass #catholiceducation #childabuse I was raised Catholic. I look back in amazement to my boyhood when reasoning, educated adults imposed pointless regimentation on children in the name of religion. The Church, gratefully, has changed over the years. But in the early and mid-twentieth century, adults often invoked faith to justify the harsh treatment…

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