Once again I have neglected this blog for far too long. Why? There isn’t one reason really. It’s a bit of this and that. MS fatigue. Work. Writers block.  Plain lazy.

But more than anything else, I am fed up and tired with the growing anti-intellectual noise rising from our culture. There are fewer and fewer people who provide reasoned arguments any more.

I don’t, for example, expect everyone to agree with orthodox Catholic arguments. Really.  But is it too much to ask that those in disagreement try to learn what the Church actually teaches and why, and then provide reasoned arguments?

Instead we get shrill sound bites that fit on bumper stickers. “War on Women”. “ Vatican beats up Nuns”.  Catholics are: stuck in the middle ages, brainwashed idiots, anti gay, anti women. Yada, Yada, Yada.

Oh and the zinger that is supposed to really sway me: Catholic priests rape children.

Certainly there are respectful reasonable voices out there. But they are few and far between. In the aging and dying main stream media they are downright nonexistent. Even mild mannered Deacon Greg, who used to work in the MSM, is asking MSNBC, What the hell is wrong with you?

The good thing about the blogging world is that one can choose to visit the more rational and civil sites on both sides of a given issue. But then you have to watch out for the comment section. Deacon Greg has closed comments (I hope it is temporary) on his site, because it was getting too difficult to moderate.

I am getting that urge to run off to a hermitage again.  But I can’t.  Jesus calls us to live in the world, and to make disciples. He never promised that it was going to be easy.

So am I going to attempt to keep this blogging gig going?  Yes. God has made it pretty darn clear that it is one of the things that he is calling me to do. And he hardly ever makes his will for me clear.

Well maybe he does, but I don’t listen.

Anyway, if I have any followers of this blog left, please pray for me that I have the resolve to face this keyboard at least once a day—except on weekends.

Related:  Msgr. Pope on the coarseness of our culture.

Good News: One of the most reasonable Atheists on the internet, Leah Libresco, is considering becoming Catholic, and she is in RCIA.  Please keep her in your prayers.

A ray of hope: Rebecca Hamilton is a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, a pro-life orthodox Catholic, and a (gasp) Democrat. If I lived in her state and district she would have my vote. Check out her blog!