More Devastating Facts about the Puritans!

Darn those Puritans!  Just when you think you know everything about them, they come back to bite you in the...  I was blog browsing and wondering how other blogs portray Puritans.  Much to my surprise, Tim Challies wrote an interesting article about Puritans and sex.  Take a drink from your hard cider, because the image of Puritans having sex may disturb you.

According to Challies, the Puritans rejected the long standing sexual dualism in Catholicism.  Catholics believe sex is a loving act between a couple, but stress that all sex be open to reproduction.  Throughout the centuries, however, the Catholic church valued celibacy over married life. Stressing Paul's message in            1 Corinthians 7:9, "But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion." Puritans, however, believed that sex was good and should be thoroughly enjoyed between husband and wife.  Just take another sip of hard cider.  I promise it will help!

http://www.challies.com/quotes/the-puritans-and-sex

Muslim and Catholic Kinship

Have some tea and relax.

 Last night I was reading the Progressive Catholic magazine Commonweal and stumbled upon an interesting blog excerpt from Paul Moses.  Moses's blog "Wrong Then, Wrong Now,"  explores the similarities between the Anti-Catholicism of the 19th century with Islamophobia today.  Researching old newspapers, Moses stumbled upon several incidences of Anti-Catholicism that eerily compare with today's current events.

In 1880 William R. Grace, a Catholic, was running for mayor of New York City.  Protestant clergy across the city were warning that if Grace became mayor, New York would be controlled by the Vatican and democracy would perish.  Sound familiar?  Just turn on the radio or television and you will hear similar ideas about Islam.  I love our great country, but it is time we become more secure in our identity and not be so threatened by other cultures and religions.  Vive l'Etats Unis.