My World of Religion, Politics, Entertainment and Social Issues

Dear Blog Visitors: For those who follow my blog on a regular basis, I may have left the impression that I spend most of my time challenging policies of the Roman Catholic Church.   While this has indeed consumed considerable time and energy, I have also found myself returning to one of my life’s biggest challenges, which is an attempt at solving what can perhaps be best described as the seven largest mysteries/challenges of the New Testament. While the Books of the New Testament provide a valuable window to the life and teachings of Jesus, there are missing pieces that have caused biblical scholars to spend countless hours in libraries in search of answers.   In conjunction with this, there have been numerous conferences, whereby scholars gathered for the purpose of discussing and debating theological and historical issues surrounding all available information pertaining to Jesus, and thereby pondering what is yet left to be discovered. I have formulated what I consider...

Dear Blog Visitors: We have seen numerous gun-related incidents receive media attention in recent weeks.   Whenever such events occur, it is common to report the grim statistics that characterize the violent climate in America.   While numbers can be debated, a safe estimate is reported to be approximately 70,000 shootings and 14,000 deaths resulting from these shootings in 2011. When I ran for public office in 1983, I had the endorsement of local members of the National Rifle Association, because I supported, and still support, the Second Amendment, which grants the right to bear arms.   However, a question continuously begs to be asked:   How do we curb gun violence in the United States, without jeopardizing the Second Amendment? It is very important to state that when the framers of the Constitution and Bill of Rights gathered, guns that existed were primarily single-shot muskets.   The right to bear arms was granted so that average citizens would have ...