Kaziah - A Great American Hero

An An artist paints portraits of fallen soldiers for free, and sends them to parents. A great story of a great hero. Click the title above or the picture to watch this great short doc. Here is the link to her websites:
Kaziah The Goat Woman

MASS DIMENSIONS: An Extra-Dimensional Glimpse of God and the Mass

Mass Dimensions (click here) (a link to printed article with pictures) is an article I wrote in 2002 after a "vision" of the extra-dimensions of God. It wasn't a mystical vision, but simply insight that came in part from reading cosmologist and Christian apologist Hugh Ross' books on the extra-dimensions of the universe. One weekday morning at Mass my undergraduate degree in physics, my childhood hobby of astronomy, the architecture of this particular church, and my recent new understanding of the Mass -- all came together.

Of everything I've written in article form, this is perhaps my favorite. It is, admittedly, a bit esoteric and speculative, and somewhat uncovers my compulsive nature for such things. But it is, for me, still an inspiration to think about such things, and try to understand with my mind, what my heart can only hope for, and my spirit long. It is a great example of shoving Faith and Reason together at the speed of light.

Please tell me what it does for you...even if it puts you to sleep. It just might do that, and that's good. Much better listening to me droning on about cosmology, extra space and time dimensions, and Catholic theology than taking sleeping pills. I'd be honored if this put you to sleep. At least it would be doing some good. At my age, a good nights sleep is worth more than a steak dinner with mashed potatoes and caramelized carrots.

God bless,
Stan

P.S. Mass Dimensions was first published (without the pictures) in FAITH (Nov/Dec 2002), a Catholic British journal on Faith and Science

Confirmation Requirements: Best Faith Formation Practices

W. Edwards Deming

Some years ago, I was working on a video documentary for Ford Motor Company about the famous American industrial statistician, W. Edwards Deming, who is credited with transforming Japan’s industrial quality after WWII, and making the Japanese the competitive powerhouse they are today. In 1950 Deming had been upset with the quality of American products and attempted to persuade American industry to implement a statistical process control system to correct the problem. But, he was rebuffed, so he went to the Japanese who listened and turned around their quality. Today the Japanese government offers The Deming Prize to individuals, applications, and companies who excel in product quality.

In the early 1980s, when the American automobile industry led the country into a recession because Japan was taking market share, Ford Motor Company invited Deming (1900-1993), also in his 80s, to teach his methods of quality control to Ford management.

One of Deming’s famous lines, which we captured in our documentary was this: “It costs just as much to make a bad part as it does a good one. So, why don’t you make a good one -- instead of a bad one?”

He pointed out management’s error in their willingness to spend 20%-40% of the cost, fixing problems or repairing parts that were made wrong, instead of investing that same money into controlling the process through regular and precise measurements, and thus improving all over productivity and quality. Today, Deming’s measurement and testing techniques are the backbone of American industry.

Deming’s techniques also have a direct application in human resource management as many companies have discovered, including training and the education of students. In this article I will explain how Deming’s insights are only common sense, and should be the backbone for the catechesis of children and adults in the Catholic Church. But first, let me tell a true, personal, and ironic story about Deming to illustrate my point.

True & Ironic

When I first met Deming, it was 1981. He was 81, tall, slightly stooped, and particular about his diet—forget the vegetables, he loved pies. He was also particular about what kind of chair he sat in. I interviewed him on the top floor of Ford Word Headquarters, just down the hall from the chairman’s office, Donald Peterson, whom we were scheduled to interview an hour after we finished with Deming. The chairs available in the executive lounge were these lush, deep plush jobs that did nothing for the posture, but they looked great on camera. We set up our camera and lights, and when Deming came he took one look at the chair I directed him to, growled, and said to me, “I will not sit in that chair. It’s bad for my back.”

I was off to a great start. The man was tired, and still slightly bitter at being rejected by U.S. industry for 30 years. We hustled and got him a proper chair, and after a few moments began the interview. Because our audience supposedly knew nothing about his history, theories or management techniques (although I had read the manuscript of his latest yet unpublished book) I began by asking the basic questions, which I knew he had answered a thousand times before. It was an error on my part not to have briefed him on who I was and my own research. He was impatient, and considered my documentary and me a waste of his time. I started to get one and two word answers. He was miffed, and I had no idea how to fix the system I had created.

After no more than ten minutes of the scheduled 45-minute interview I asked that the camera be stopped. It was useless; we were getting nothing on tape that I could use. I thanked Deming for his time, and asked the soundman to remove Mr. Deming’s microphone.

As Deming got out of the chair and began to leave I was sad at missing the opportunity to get to know this great industrialists — one of the great benefits of making documentaries is what you learn about the people you interview and the subjects you investigate. As he left the room, I leaned over into my briefcase, and withdrew the dog-eared copy of his latest unpublished manuscript that I had read and marked up. I approached him with a pen, and asked for his signature. He paused before he took the manuscript and my pen, but immediately sat down at a nearby table, and signed his name simply but with penmanship that was magnificent. (see the picture)


His handwriting was remarkable for a man of his age, and I said something tacky like: “Mr. Deming, your penmanship is as sound and smooth as your management theories.” He looked down, paused, then said, “You know, I, ah -- could probably answer your questions a lot better than I did.”

It was one of those moments I hope I never forget. He sat back down, we wired him again for sound, and I conducted a solid 45-minute interview that made our project a huge success within Ford Motor Company.

It’s Up to Management to Fix It

That story has a moral, as you might expect—When something is wrong with the system, it’s up to management to fix it. That is also one of Deming’s themes—“The problem is at the top: the system can only be fixed by management.”

In our interview, I was the manager. I knew it was my responsibility to fix the problem, but I really didn’t know how to do it. By asking Deming for his signature on his manuscript I unwittingly demonstrated to him that I was not the regular journalist hack who had not done my homework. When he realized that I knew what he was all about, and that I deeply appreciated him, the problem was fixed. It was a lesson right out of his book.

The heart of his quality management theories is this: If you want a good product to emanate from your system, management has to continually test the system and make adjustments. If you don’t you’ll turn out bad parts as often as you turn out good ones.

Catechism Instruction

That is a concept that has everything to do with catechism instruction.

There has been enough written about the pathetic situation of Catholic faith formation and how poorly children, teens, and adults are formed in their faith, that I will not review it here. The analogy in Catholicism that parallels American industry from the 1950s to the 1990s, is that we’re turning out bad “parts” that don’t work well. That is, the products of Catholic faith formation have not generally met the requirements of being a Christian capable of defending or living their faith in the face of a belligerent society.

Taking a lesson from Deming, and applying it to religious instruction, let us review. There are four levels of instructional testing that can be administered. So far, I’ve written about one of those in an article that deals with the importance of a Level 1 Evaluation. I also provided a form catechism instructors can use when conducting that bit of research – see my Best Practices in Faith Formation web page HERE and the link titled: “CLASS SESSION EVALUATION: A Level 1 Form."

In my mind, the Level 1 Evaluation is the first test that every faith formation instructor and developer should be administering, nearly every class time. It is a test that evaluates the instructors, the course designers, the coordinators, and parents or spouses—those individuals that orchestrate the learning process and environment—Deming’s management. The Level 1 evaluates the instruction in an “affective” way. That is, it measures the instruction’s ability to engage and motivate students.

The Level 2 Evaluation

Just as important, is the Level 2 Evaluation, which tests the student's cognitive understanding of course content. In regular school courses the tests students take for their report cards are Level 2 Evaluations. Except, that in an instructional design sense, the test is as much an evaluation of how well the instructional design, the instruction itself, the instructor and the parents/spouses do -- as much as how well the student does. This gets back to the onus for good instruction falling on management, although it does not remove responsibility from the students.

So, at Mass this morning, Fr. John Riccardo (Our Lady of Good Counsel parish in Plymouth, MI) delivered a homily that I almost interrupted with cheers and cartwheels. (I didn't, for which he is thankful. But my angel was urging me on). Here is what he said, via an email he sent me later in the day at my request.

Several weeks ago I had the chance to go into our school and teach our 7th and 8th graders for four days in a row. It was supposed to be a sort of introduction to the Theology of the Body, but it really turned into a basic understanding, rooted in several key Scriptural texts, of who God is, who we are, why He made us, and how to find happiness. At one point, on the last day, I went into a quick overview of the Ten Commandments, and at least as importantly, the context of when these ten gifts were given. It was at that point that I told the 8th graders that in order to graduate this year they would need to know the Ten Commandments. Since then, I have also made it clear that all the 8th graders need to know the Ten Commandments in order to be confirmed.

Now, a bit surprising to me, this has caused no small stir, and not merely among our students, but even among our catechists and among parents. For whatever reason, in religious education, we've gotten out of the habit of demanding that kids memorize anything, even though in every other discipline, whether it's football, dance, cheerleading, math, or science, coaches and teachers make absolutely no bones about demanding that their students and players memorize things. In fact, because we often don't demand that our kids memorize anything in religious education, we give the impression that this isn't really that important. Where we demand little, little is understood to be of significance.

But I don't want kids to memorize simply for the sake of memorizing. There is great value in learning the context of the Ten Commandments. This is one of the greatest dramas revealed in the Old Testament, and in helping the kids learn the context of when God gave these, we help to shatter the mistaken and distorted image of God that is so rampant in our culture: that God is some sort of 'celestial kill joy.' In reality, the God who gave the Ten Commandments is a God who liberates and saves. If He had wanted to enslave us somehow, He would have left us in slavery in Egypt, where the Israelites had been for more than 400 years. But He wants life for us! And the God who rescued us out of slavery is the God who gave these Ten Gifts so that we could find happiness. [Stan notes: King David wrote about how he loved God's law. David understood that by obeying those laws, he was led into a life of happiness, contentment and joy.]

Jesus says in the Gospel today, "This is the verdict: the Light has come into the world but men preferred darkness to light." (John 3:16-21) My experience with the kids and the discussion of the Ten Commandments comes to mind this morning because many of our kids think that darkness is light and light is darkness. They have been inundated by a culture that calls good "evil" and evil "good," and so they are confused. And it is up to us as parents and educators to help them understand that God is a God of life and that He has laid out for us the way that leads to life, and warned us of the way that leads to death -- no matter how enticing it may appear.

Accountability

And the way for us to approach the light that both faith and reason require of us, to be happy, is to be ACCOUNTABLE and RESPONSIBLE for what it is we are supposed to KNOW. To require that students (whether children, youth, or adults) for TEMPORAL REASONS memorize, understand, demonstrate, and provide feedback successfully through a variety of mental and physical tests in order to graduate from one grade to the next, and not to require the same testing for ETERNAL REASONS , is irrational, irresponsible, and demeans and scandalizes the importance that supposedly the things of God are supposed to be in our life.

We should not have to think about this for more than a moment. Level 2 Evaluations (and even Level 3 and 4 that measure how implicitly the values of Christian living get into our life) should be the demand of every bishop, every priest, every DRE or FFD, and every religious education instructor throughout Christianity. It is not a grace to pass (and/or confirm) everyone that shows up. It is a scandal to confirm students that go through the motions but do not understand because of their lazy attitude, or more seriously because of their ambivalence. Apologist and author Dave Armstrong writes, “It is no less sensible to demand appropriate religious knowledge than for anything else. To not do this presupposes that religious matters are somehow only “private” or unimportant, or optional, or separated from the mind and common sense.”

If you are scandalized, according to a report that came out this week, that few are graduating from high school these days without dropping out or extended delays, (only 24.9% in nearby Detroit), then what would you think if only that percentage could pass an examination of faith (both cognitive and attitudinal) after years or months of religious education? We need to change this ASAP.

So, what are you doing, or what have you experienced? Let’s hear from you. Fill up the comments below. We need to compile some “best practice” illustrations of how Level 2 evaluations can be applied to revitalize Catholic catechesis.

Marxism in Michigan and Texas: Tyranny vs Freedom

Related Link: Injustice in Michigan

I'm a Catholic Christian. I'm against a lot of things, including polygamy, and the violation of state laws that are meant to protect society from moral relativism and anarchy. But I am also against tyranny—the unbridled power of government to take away our individual rights under the color of protecting children, only to subject those children to terror of a "justice."

If you've been reading my blog, you'll know that the City of Novi, MI police, in cooperation with Oakland Country Child Protective Services have, under the color of law, reigned terror on a neighbor's family. Those two agencies, in my opinion, have been maliciously negligent, and the Detroit Free Press has done a series of articles about how the their incompetence has ruined the lives of a number of families in our area.

In an effort to purportedly protect the young children of this family from sexual abuse, a claim that all the sane individuals in the case believe to be false and contrived by the police and CPA to justify their jobs, the children were subjected to abuse at the hands of police and CPA by yanking them from their mother (because the mother might influence their testimony). Unfortunately, in the process, the prosecutor, police and CPA, and even some non-profit help agencies like Easter Seals, continue to harass the family, and giving the children every reason to rebel and act out. In their blundering effort to seek justice, these government agencies have violated the very basis of subsidiarity and have imposed on this family an unrest and harassment that can only be described as a revival of Marxism.

This has to stop. The government, in such cases, is not protective when the people elected and assigned to protect let the power go to their heads, for the moment or two in the spot light, and a tainted paycheck. They have seemed to relish in trumped up charging petitions for reasons that God only knows, and they should know He will judge. Now, comes the removal of 400 kids from their parents, in an effort to look for one kid, on the basis of what may have been a prank call. Thank you law enforcement for your loyalty to justice. I no longer trust the police as I once did.

The Texas "authorities" appear to have demonstrated, once again, that power corrupts. It is much more likely that testimony of children under the duress of being ripped from their parents will prove to be much more unreliable than if their parents were coaching them what to say. I believe that a wife does not have to testify against her husband, or vis-a-versa, so why must children be coerced into doing so by prejudiced interrogators who are out to justify their jobs.

I hope that somewhere, somehow, in our "justice" system, the police, prosecutors, and CPA responsible for this transitivity of Marxism is punished.

Detroit Men's Conference

Darrin Davis (Deb's husband), Paul Gelinas (a man in Deb's RCIA class), and I had a great today at the Detroit's Catholic Men's Conference, at University of Detroit's Calihan Hall along with about 6,000 other men. Someone (I won't say who) told us it started at 7 AM.

But 7 AM was when the doors opened. We took this picture at 6:45 AM. During the day Darrin and I got to confession. Paul said the line was too long. When I came back Paul had asked me if the reason it took me almost 2 hours had anything to do with how long it had been since my last confession or something else... like the line. Actually, the line was long (over 100) but the hold up was that there were only 5 priests at first (scattered in the seats behind the screen area) and some of the guys in front, well, it was taking a L O N G time... probably because it had been a L O N G time. But then other preists came, over 20 by the time I left, and the line sped right along.

Confession is one of the greatest things about Catholicism. The New Testament is extremely clear about it, and why I never saw it in the Bible as an Evangelical can only be attributed to the total lack of honest teaching on it by Evangelicalism, and my ignorant prejudice against Catholicism. But Jesus tells the Apostles that they have the power to forgive sins or not, Matthew later points out clearly that "God gave man the power to forgive sins." We are asked to go to each other and ask for forgiveness, and there is the long history from the very beginning of the Church where confession was practiced. But the REAL proof to me is the miracle I physically feel when I have prepared well for confession (ahead of time) by a thorough examination of conscience, and then hear the priest's words: "I absolve you of ALL your sings, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." It's an amazing thing, and I am sure I visibly straighten and walk out taller. It is a great feeling that gives me confidence before God, and my faith is given a palatable boost every time. I usually go about once a month, but today it had been only 2 weeks.

The view from our seats during Fr. John's Talk. The AV support was terrific. I got to look down on the control "room" -- a little distracting. This was the first conference I've attended in decades where I wasn't directing, on some crew, or exhibiting. It was great to relax and just enjoy the speakers.

Fr. John deals with hecklers ("I expect to see you two in confession later today.") Actually we were giving him a sanding ovation and he was telling us to sit down and shut up. We did. He was terrific as usual. I don't care what Canon Law says, I'm casting my ballot for Fr. John next time they let us vote for pope.

Teresa Tomeo interviews Mike Timmis while Henry Root tries to catch some sleep. Henry is at any and every Catholic conference I've ever been at. Like some mystics I'm convinced he can bi-locate. Teresa can't get away with it, however, with that red jacket.

Leonardo Defilippis was terrific as Maximilian Kobe, and half a dozen other characters. Great drama, great sound track, and great lighting effects, Leonardo. A lot of work. Worth every minute. Five years ago I had dinner with Leonardo and a few others after a conference in Los Angeles. So, it was good to talk with him a few minutes before the conference began. Did I tell you we got there early?

Paul was busy buying Darrin a book, and so by the time we took this everyone was leaving... even Teresa.

Case for Mary's Perpetual Virginity

Here's a great post by Dr. Brant Pitre on a "newly discovered" O.T. argument supporint Mary's Perpetual Virginity, on his blog Singing in the Reign

Moral Breakdown Can Lead to Islamic Takeover

This post is from, Dr. Christine A. Mugridge, a friend in Rome working on various communication projects for the Catholic Church.

---------

I saw this article and felt it was important enough to share - perhaps it will give us insight into how far Europe is falling into its post-Christian troubles. I feel that the Netherlands are like the "canary in the tunnel" for us ... We in the US talk about tolerance and dialogue for example on our Catholic campuses - we have a false understanding of dialogue altogether. A sad example of this point is the Notre Dame president's insistence on allowing the play "The V Monologues" on campus. This is not dialogue properly understood. The Holy Father in Rome is engaged in active dialogue and scientific/theological reflection. Yet, I can't imagine the Vatican allowing a "gay club" or allowing the performance of such a play on its premises in the name of "diversity and dialogue". The issue of political "tolerance" today is too often a catch-all word to allow the legalization of immorality. As we can see from the prophetic writings of P.Paul VI in Humanae Vitae - immorality is a slippery slope which leads society to further falling into a degraded state of life, contrary to the dignity of the human person made in the image and likeness of God.

Many countries in Europe have a history of religious persecution against Christianity, against the Catholic Faith. Now, that faith is asleep and a rise of a false notion of "freedom" has dominated society and a cultural take-over of a society in a "post-Christian era" has happened already. But, peoples' hearts long for the Truth and religious definition. If the Church doesn't fulfill this need as is her mandate by Christ - there are other religious groups that long to capitalize on it. The murder of the screenwriter in the Netherlands shows us that these groups are not playing around. We need to pay attention to the downward spiral of the a-moral cultural trends circulating the world. The key point here in this article is that a Cardinal is speaking so bluntly about the topic. He's in the thick of things - he should know!

Dutch Cardinal: Moral Breakdown Has Left Holland Open to Islamic Takeover [UTRECHT, The Netherlands] November 18, 2004 (CWNews.com)

Cardinal Adrianis Simonis of Utrecht believes that the "spiritual vacuity" of Dutch society has left the Netherlands open to an Islamic cultural takeover.

"Today we have discovered that we are disarmed in the face of the Islamic danger," the cardinal told the Italian daily Avvenir. He pointed out that even some young people who were born and raised in the Netherlands have become militant Muslims. The rise of Islam, Cardinal Simonis said, is related to "the spectacle of extreme moral decadence and spiritual decline that we offer" to young people.

"Nowadays political leaders ask whether the Muslims will accept our values," the Dutch cardinal observed. "I ask, 'What values are those? Gay marriage? Euthanasia?'"

If those are the reigning moral principles on which today's society is built, Cardinal Simonis continued, he rejects them as emphatically as Islamic leaders.

The cardinal said that he did not intend to take an extreme position, insisting "fundamentalism is always a problem." But on the other hand, he said, a society must be based on a common understanding of public order and morality. "It isn't enough to learn our language," he said.

The problem for the Netherlands, the cardinal continued, is a "lack of identity." The time is long past, he observed, when Christians "would fight and die for their faith." Today Islamic radicals are prepared to fight, as was evident earlier this month when the noted screenwriter Theo van Gogh was assassinated by Muslim zealots. Cardinal Simonis added that he still holds out "hope that these tragic facts will force us to recover our identity."

Commenting on the Dutch tradition of tolerance, Cardinal Simonis observed that the notion of "tolerance" as it is understood there today is a recent development. "For three centuries, Catholics were barred from public office," he noted. The current penchant for "tolerance," he said, "came later, after a common loss of faith-- roughly 40 years ago."

Today Dutch society is known for its permissive attitude toward social issues, with laws that allow euthanasia, same-sex marriage, widespread use of recreational drugs, prostitution, and adoption by homosexual couples.

Cardinal Simonis said that the best prospect for recovery would come if the younger generation returned to Christian traditions. "That is my hope, and I do see signs that young people are rediscovering the faith," he said.

(article excerpt end)

Dr. Christine A. Mugridge
Rome, Italy
www.SacredArtsCommunications.org
Editor of: God's Call To Women

Black Genocide

Many times I have thought that had I been born in the South a few decades earlier, I would have been impelled by every fiber of my body and soul, to fight with my life for the civil rights movement. I am embarrassed with shame that blacks have been treated with the worst kind of prejudice and hatred.

And so I am numbed with disbelief by the embrace of many, many African Americans who have so readily accepted abortion as some sort of weird solution to their situation, when abortion is from it's very root a racist ploy by political and white racists to rid the earth of black people. Watch the video on the web link below.

Dr. Alvia King speaks out regularly against black genocide and here's the website that says it all. What follows is the opening text from BlackGenocide.org run by Rev. Clenard Childress. Jr. Why aren't more black ministers.... what are not ALL black ministers preaching this message?

Between 1882 and 1968, 3,446 Blacks were lynched in the U.S. That number is surpassed in less than 3 days by abortion.

1,452 African-American children are killed each day by the heinous act of abortion.

3 out of 5 pregnant African-American women will abort their child.

Since 1973 there has been over 13 million Black children killed and their precious mothers victimized by the U.S. abortion industry.

In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King said, "The early church brought an end to such things as INFANTICIDE." What would Martin Luther King say to the church today?

The Rev. Jesse Jackson once said:

"That is why the Constitution called us three-fifths human and then whites further dehumanized us by calling us 'niggers'. It was part of the dehumanizing process. The first step was to distort the image of us as human beings in order to justify that which they wanted to do and not even feel like they had done anything wrong. Those advocates of taking life prior to birth do not call it killing or murder, they call it abortion. They further never talk about aborting a baby because that would imply something human. Rather they talk about aborting the fetus. Fetus sounds less than human and therefore abortion can be justified".

Jackson's massive flip-flop on the abortion issue is further proof that his political future is far more important to him than are his principles. With 1/3 of all abortions performed on Black women, the abortion industry has received over 4,000,000,000 (yes, billion) dollars from the Black community.

Reason and Faith ON-THE-AIR

Beginning tonight, I start a radio series that deals substantially with the book I've been writing and which has been released chapter-by-chapter on Catholic Exchange.

John Kruse has invited me to be on his show every weekday (M-F) to discuss logic, fallacies, culture, movies, the debate over God's existence, evolution and intelligent design. And that's just in the first hour. (Just kidding.) We'll actually pick one sub-topic per week, or roughly speaking one chapter of my book-in-progress (Reason & Faith: Why Trying To Fly With One Wing Makes Culture Dizzy) each week. I'll be on for just 10 minutes on Mondays (about 9:47 PM), Wednesdays (9:05 PM), and Fridays (9:05 PM), but on Tuesdays and Thursday I'll be in-studio for the whole hour (9:05 PM - 9:55 PM).

The John Kruse Show can be heard on terrestrial radio (1400 AM WDTK, in the Detroit area, Eastern Time 9 PM-10 PM) or over the Internet (live streamed) by going to www.WDTKAM.COM and clicking on the LISTEN button at the top left of the page. Mac users need to click on the smaller "Mac User" button and allow the software to place a link in your iTunes application. After than you just need to open iTunes and click on the WDTK link.

WDTK is a 1000-watt, 24/7, conservative talk radio station in Detroit with nationally syndicated hosts all day and night, except for this one hour of local programming. John's show comes right after Dennis Miller, and just before Michael Savage.

You can read ahead of the show and keep pace with the book's chapters as I write and post them at www.REASONandFAITH.net. Or click on the image.

John Tesh: ALIVE music & dance

Years ago I was involved as the director of a television pilot that tried to take various artistic disciplines and incorporate them into a Christian worship experience. We didn't succeed for a matter of time and budget. But now comes John Tesh with an awe inspiring television production ALIVE: music&dance. Tesh has taken Christian worship music and married it with ballet, lyric dance, and hip hop in a benchmark production that should get all Christians (especially Catholics) to sit up and take notice.

Nineveh's Crossing is proud to be selling both the DVD and CD at lower than normal prices. The project airs on PBS, March 1, 2008, but should be a hit for home media.

We have clips and more detail about the project at our site. Click either of the images or this link: ALIVE: music&dance page.

Check it out.