The Christian Vanguard

I've wondered what it means to be in love. What does it mean to say, "I'm in love"? There is a popular understanding of it, which is, "I have romantic attractions about this person" but I've been trying to square that with my understanding that love is the willing of the good for the other person. When we say "I'm in love", according to this popular understanding, we are only saying something about ourselves. We aren't saying anything really about the other person. And that seems to be a problem, since willing the good for the other, the traditional definition of love, and excluding them in the popular definition, are at odds. So, maybe we can understand "being in love" in this way: willing the good for the other (basic def.) but believing that you are that (or a) good for the other. 

A friend from the ICOC has forwarded this link from one of his (very few) teachers. I haven't talked about the issue much, so I suppose this will be a good brushing up. Douglas Jacoby thinks it is permissible to use contraception. Let me begin by saying that I haven't listened to the podcast, but I read through his notes (it's faster to read than to listen). I will assume there isn't much left out, or at least, nothing important left out, so my response should suffice.  So, the relevant portion of scripture here is Genesis 38. Jacoby claims that the reason that God killed Onan was because of his failure to fulfill his duty. I have written about this particular interpretation , so I will just copy the relevant portion. 

Friends know that I used to play chess competitively. You want to know what the most stressful part of chess was? It was waiting. Probably not the waiting a non-player associated chess with. There is never a dull moment in competitive and tournament chess, especially when you have $100,000 on the line. There are lots of things to wait for. You wait to see who will make the first mistake. You wait for your opponent to fall for your trap. You wait for your enemies time to run out so you can claim a victory. You wait for your opponents next move after calculating seven moves deep in seven different variations for his most likely seven moves (343 different positions total), only to be surprised by a novel move, trashing the time you spent crunching moves in your mind. It's a lot. It is this waiting period that really wears a player out. Well, wore me out at least.  It's a power play. In life as it is in chess. It's a demonstration of power that we can make people wait on u...

I have this friend, call him Fred. Fred is a good friend. Smart guy. I had a lot of people rooting for me to convert him to Catholicism because of our mutual beginnings in a previous protestant society. I would see Fred at Catholic get togethers, BBQ's, Christmas parties, etc. You know, whatever good Christians do. Anyways, Fred got with this girl, and they look like they're enjoying each others company. It's nice to see, because that's something I would like. I thought maybe Fred was doing what is sometimes called a "Dip and Date" where you low key want to baptize (or convert) someone just for the sake of dating them. It does not seem to be working. She, apparently, is a leftist, and has changed him in a mere few months.  Fred, a brother in the good fight, created a bit of scandal when he posted a photo of himself and his girlfriend at a Gay Pride Parade wearing a tee shirt that read, "Stand With Planned Parenthood".  I'm heartbroken an...

You've heard the dating cliche that like attracts like. I used to think this was silly. It could be true or it could be false, but they were true or false in ways that didn't matter, as in personality. But I think I've changed my mind, or at least, I'm willing to agree with this in a very serious way.  The way we are, the way we act, how we carry ourselves and the spirit that we own, we are responsible for this. It is also true and known to most people that good people tend to associate with good people, and that evil tend to associate with other evil people. So, in this way, maybe I agree. But since this can be extended to romantic relationships, then the cliche holds true, but not because it is romantic, but because in general people tend to associate with like minded people.  This is serious because this tells us about our moral character, which is vitally important when it comes to romantic relationships. Now, consider the situation, which I seem to be in, ...