The Hall of Fire

Yeah, celibacy is a really attractive option, particularly within marriage. :P See how well it worked out for the Catholic priests? I know many Catholic priests who are very happy in their celibate lifestyles. I can link you to reams of material on this subject, if you are interested. My cousin wil...

The need for silence is something that we ignore too much in modern life. How often do people have the opportunity to just 'be still'? This came up in, of all places, Oprah's show this week: Reflection on Silence and Prayer . I do recognize the irony of posting a video of people talking about the ne...

I am against abortion and the death penalty and war and euthanasia and sterilization, so I think pro-life is a good term for that, especially since the reason I'm against all of that is because I am for the dignity of human persons. And while I am being opinionated - Mith, I would argue that allowi...

You can either call people by the labels they choose for themselves (in this case, pro-life and pro-choice) or you can make up your own labels for them. I am against abortion and the death penalty and war and euthanasia and sterilization, so I think pro-life is a good term for that, especially since...

But nowadays, the pilgrims arrive by tour bus ;). Being a 'tourist' visiting churches/cathedrals is an uncomfortable feeling. I'd much rather be a pilgrim than a tourist. Before I went to Italy, a priest told me to drop some coins in the poor box in every church I went into. Seeing as how it was Hol...

Oh, come on. All the terms are politically charged. One side is "keep abortion legal" and the other side is "overturn Roe v. Wade". Nobody is pro-abortion, in that they think abortion is a good thing. It's supposed to be a necessary evil, not a wonderful idea. No one is encouragi...

I literally cannot imagine... I'm sure a lot of that time was a blur (severe dehydration and injury will do that to you), but knowing you are trapped and dying, and having that awful feeling hanging over you for *weeks*...you could make a horror movie out of that. I am very glad he was found, and I ...

Woo hoo for the Saints! Finally, something good for New Orleans. Mardi Gras begins now :D Here's the ad, for those of you in the US: http://www.hulu.com/adzone/watch#50032762 I don't see anything remotely controversial about a mom talking about how she worries about her son for 30 sec. To hear "...

Quel chance! I just found out about this an hour ago, too. Via Facebook, of all places....

Well, yes. What was it, something like 10% of people polled in a certain poll identified the Battle of Helm's Deep as a real life battle and a similar number labeled the Battle of the Bulge a fantasy battle (or something like that)? I just want to point out that in polls, you have a certain amount o...

Proposition K would neither have legalized nor regulated the prostitution...business. I do not see how that makes it safer or rarer, nor how it would protect the women from (even more) exploitation, as nel pointed out in her opening post. All it seemed to do was to make police turn a blind eye, whic...

Lidless , what you quoted from me was from a paragraph expressing my personal aversion to prostitution. The "I'm sorry, but no" comment was about how *I* wouldn't want to do that, and in fact couldn't even wrap my mind around that. I went on to discuss the (potential) involvement of the p...

I would turn that around and say that someone who didn't believe in God wouldn't be seeking out a church. So, it's not that they cannot find/join a group that acts on that premise....but that the group wouldn't want to call itself a church. It would call itself something else - whether social, chari...

Well, yes, Jesus is an important reason! And as you requested specificity - Jesus in the Eucharist. Praying in a church, and receiving communion, is just different than saying prayers at home. And I would say that a good deal of charitable work is still done through the churches, though of course th...

I will point out that we have an abortion thread in this forum already. If people want to discuss this (highly charged) issue, I suggest we make use of it. This thread was supposed to be about the 30 second Superbowl ad with Tim Tebow that none of us have seen. I've been trying to think about what c...

I think the point is that any insurance company (whether private or gov't provided) will use such studies as an excuse not to cover 'unnecessary' tests. Of course, it makes sense to invest in preventative measures and early screening, even from a business standpoint. It's even more reasonable than p...

I'm with Frelga - there are some awful things in the world, but being miserable about it isn't actually doing anything to help. Merry's (somewhat playful) jibe at Frodo that looking 'shocked and sad' wouldn't actually change anything is true. Not that we can't be shocked or sad or sickened or fright...

I know who Focus on the Family is. Certainly, they are a pro-life group. But they do also offer a lot of programs and support for..families. Parents who are raising kids (ie, after any reproductive choices have been made). It's all very much Christian and Biblically based (TM) and all of that, so it...

Superbowl ads aside, contemplating an abortion goes both ways - the woman could decide to have it or not to have it. Either way, that decision ends up being part of her story later on. A Hope in the Unseen tells the story of a boy who grew up in Anacostia (one of the worst neighborhoods in DC) and w...

NBC rejected this ad last year: Life: Imagine the Potential presumably for the reason mentioned. If CBS is letting this one by the censors, it's possible that what is actually in the ad isn't nearly as controversial as people are making it. I mean, for all we know, she's just going to mention that d...