Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

  When Jesus said “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone,” He was referring to a specific sin, that of adultery. You can comb through all of Jesus’ maxims, precious distillations of godly wisdom, and you will find that He was less preoccupied with “sins of the flesh” than, say, a modern professor of second wave feminism or a publisher of smut. Jesus’ only advice to the adulterous woman in danger of being stoned was to go and sin no more, a thing easy to say but hard, in the absence of the grace of God, to do. “Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you? “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Now go and sin no more.” We happen to live in an age where smut of one kind or another, pornography or politics – don’t titter; the two have much in common – are in the air we breathe, and there are some refreshing...

In his latest column, “ Maybe A Little Bible Study With John Rowland, ”  Hartford Courant columnists Colin McEnroe confesses, “As some of you know, I began going to church in April 2015.” Groucho Marx used to joke that he would decline to join any group that would have him as a member. Mr. McEnroe is not so illiberal, but he makes plain that there are conditions: “We are not Jerry Falwell Baptists. We are LGBTQ-friendly. In fact, we have more LGBTQ pastors than we have the other kind. Baptists get kind of a bad name sometimes. Elijah Craig was a Baptist minister, and some people say he invented bourbon. That's the kind of Baptist we can be proud of.”

Q: Some people think you are a misanthrope. GG: I must regretfully reject the compliment. Q: Compliment? GG: It’s no small thing being a misanthrope. You must dislike or mistrust everyone . Unfortunately, I haven’t the energy to be so democratic in my antipathies.                                                                                                                        ...

Hilaire Belloc's Advice to the Rich: "Get to know something about the internal combustion engine and remember -- soon you will die." The brief pre-Christmas homily on money, politics and Christianity found below is long overdue. I can’t be sure that the sort of millionaire who supports antagonistic politicians, always anxious to hang him with the rope he so credulously delivers, is a patriot or a scoundrel. I do know that, generally, money covers a multitude of sins. Jesus was indifferent about politics, economics and what we would call sex: He knew the road to Heaven was not paved with gold or worldly glory or condoms. He forgave the sins of the flesh readily, having first made inflexible demands upon the spirit, but the materialist itch, He intimated often enough, could be a hindrance. More than 2,000 years after God was nailed to a cross – “Were you there when they crucified my Lord? -- it still is more difficult for a rich man to pass easily into Heaven t...

Jesus, the Apostles and the Early Church By Pope Benedict XVI Publisher: Ignatius Press Price: $14.95/hardcover In Jesus, The Apostles and the early Church , we meet the same Pope Benedict whose recent visit charmed so many Americans. The Pope’s manner of writing is pastoral and deceptively simple. He writes with authority not only because of his station within the Catholic Church, but also primarily because he is a superb   theologian. In the late Middle Ages, theology was considered the “queen of sciences” because it contained all the other sciences, including what we moderns would call textual exegesis. Consider the following commentary on an incident with which most Christians would be familiar: We know that Peter, the “rock” upon which Jesus was said to have built his church, denied Jesus three times before he was taken away by Roman soldiers to be executed. After the Resurrection, a transfigured Christ appears to some of the apostles, Peter among them, on the s...

Vladimirskaya (Kondopoga) Originally uploaded by jimforest The first time I came to St. Michael's Institute on Ender's Island, I put a question to one of the women who had made several icons previously: What had I let myself in for? She said, "You are about to pray an image into wood." On my most recent return in November, I was at least not a novice. I had made one icon under the tutelage of Vladislav Andrejev's son Nikita a few years earlier. Vladislav Andrejev is a masterful iconographer who had learned his craft at the hands of Russian monks and then went on to found a school of iconography, the Prosopon School. Andrejev now lives in New York, having immigrated to the United States in 1980. He has been teaching iconography in North America for more than 15 years. His icons, faithful to the Russian-Byzantine tradition, grace churches and homes both in America and elsewhere in the world. His son looked a little bit like a Russian monk; he was tall and...