Sex And Marriage

“Traditionally, sex has been a very private, secretive activity. Herein perhaps lies it powerful force for uniting people in a strong bond. As we make sex less secretive, we may rob it of its power to hold men and women together.”

-Thomas Szasz (1974)

Beware Of Pity

I am only about half way finished with it, but with every chapter I finish, I can sense that Beware of Pity is creeping higher and higher on my list of favorite novels. It is presently up in the realm of Stoner and Strangers on a Train and might finish beside The Road and Till We Have Faces.

A Conversation With My Daughter About Keeping A Diary

“Camilla: My new diary arrived in the mail today.

Gibbs: Before you start this diary, I’m going to lay down a few rules for how it can be kept.

Camilla: What are the rules?

Gibbs: First, your diary will not be a secret diary. I might pick it up and read it whenever I choose. Secret diaries encourage the worst and darkest sorts of thoughts a person has. Secret diaries are often filled with complaints, insults, and grievances with others. Why? A secret diary needs a reason to be secret, which means you will fill it with the sorts of thoughts you don’t want other people hearing, which either means confessing your own sins or the sins of others. A diary is no place to confess your sins, though, because a diary can’t forgive you. And it’s no place to catalogue the sins of others.”

-from my latest for CiRCE

Virtual Church Attendance Does Not Count

At this point, “I attend church virtually” means “I don’t attend church.”

It is the responsibility of reasonable Christians everywhere to make sure that “virtual” church attendance does not become a socially acceptable substitute for regular, actual church attendance.

The problem with virtual church attendance is not that virtual things don’t count, for if it is possible to sin online, it is possible to be virtuous online, as well. The issue, rather, is making things virtual which could be actual with just a little effort, just a little suffering.

To do something online which cannot be done in person is one thing, to do something online which can just as easily be accomplished with a brief car ride is another. If a husband could kiss his wife on the lips, but preferred to kiss her image on a Zoom screen instead, he wouldn’t be much of a husband. Nonetheless, virtual attendance at a church which is no less than fifteen minutes away is fast becoming an acceptable substitute for appearing physically to sing and pray. That foolishness has to be quashed, no matter how feelings get hurt in the process.