The Christian Vanguard

For some reason, I have lost a friend again, but this time, not as serious. My friend posted up a political post on her Facebook account, I politely questioned the wisdom of said post, and she promptly deleted me. And you know what, I took that pretty hard. This person was a reader of my blog, a supporter of my decision to leave the ICOC, and my sister in the Catholic Faith. Last time something like this happened, I wondered what a relationship would look like if one continued to love the other, even if that love is not reciprocated. I want to revisit that here. While I questioned whether love is still real even if not reciprocated, I wonder whether friendship can still exist even if it is not reciprocated. I think the general conclusion I drew was that yes, you could still love this person, even if it had to go through some type of transformation, but I don't know that the same could as easily be said about friendship. If we say that these people are friends, we generally und

The most common argument against us in the #NeverTrump movement is that if we do not vote for Trump, then we are voting for Hillary. This is a ridiculous argument. It also follows that if I do not vote for Hillary, then I am voting for Trump. So, which is it? My refusal to vote a vote for which candidate?  And why is it that when this counter-argument is presented to me, it is done in a sarcastic way? "Have fun electing Hillary then!" "You're going to be so proud when Hillary destroys this country." Why do they insist on lacking grace? Do they layer their arguments with haughtiness and snark to compensate for the lack of thought that went into this? Perhaps. But maybe it is because the gracelessness of the person they are supporting has rubbed off on them. I don't know and I'm not a psychologist.  But there are two more important philosophical issues that I want to draw attention to. First, it conflates ones choices with its consequences, which

The following is a reply to a text message that I received. My reply is too long and too thorough for it to be in a text message, so here it is on my blog, which I intend to send as a simple link. The issues are Marian virginity, sinlessness, and mediation.