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Leroy Huizenga is chair of the department of theology and director of the Christian Leadership Center at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota. His personal website is LeroyHuizenga.com.

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RE: Against the RSV

From First Thoughts

I think the RSV — in whatever edition, including Ignatius’ 2nd Catholic Edition — is better than MBD gives it credit for. It stands in the grand tradition of English Bibles, beginning with Tyndale, it’s accurate and readable and dignified. The ESV is based on the RSV, but it has . . . . Continue Reading »

Our Creative Minority Moment

From Web Exclusives

Barack Obama’s victory has crushed conservatism, ended the Republic, and ushered in a thousand years of darkness. Or such was the mood last week among many political conservatives, who saw this election’s results as the sign of the death of our free republic, the people surrendering the risks and rewards of liberty for the certain thin gruel of a dole. And many traditional Christians spoke about the reelection of our American President in even darker, apocalyptic tones, as if the man were Nero redivivus… . Continue Reading »

The Christian Conscience and the Common Good

From Web Exclusives

David D. Kagan, the Bishop of Bismarck and thus my bishop, had a letter on conscience and citizenship read at masses throughout North Dakota last weekend. Well-written, informed, and informative, it was supposed to be under embargo until then, but, being delivered to parishes ahead of time, it was leaked to a North Dakota state senator who perceived in it subtle politicking… . Continue Reading »

Miraculous Witness

From the November 2012 Print Edition

Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts by Craig S. Keener Baker Academic, 1172 pages, $59.99 On October 13, 1917, seventy thousand Portuguese witnessed the sun dancing in the sky at Fátima, the conclusion of a series of visitations of the Virgin Mary to three shepherd children. In . . . . Continue Reading »

Church, State, and Conscience

From First Thoughts

A brouhaha is brewing in the Great State of my beloved North Dakota at the moment. Bishop David Kagan, my ordinary here in Bismarck, and also apostolic administrator of the vacant Diocese of Fargo, has composed a letter concerning conscience and citizenship as Catholics in North Dakota prepare to . . . . Continue Reading »

Coming to Grips with Vatican II

From Web Exclusives

“What about Vatican II?” I asked my Catholic friend, in response to his assertion that Catholic doctrine is stable while the Church’s understanding thereof develops. We were in college together, young bucks full of vim and vigor, passionate about our common Christian faith, even while we stood on opposite confessional sides of the Reformation divide… . Continue Reading »

Nostalgia Is A Sin

From First Thoughts

But a love for tradition is not nostalgia. I’ve been teaching Flannery O’Connor in an online course, The Catholic Imagination , and in her gruesome story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” the characters of the grandmother, Red Sammy, and the Misfit indulge in nostalgia, the . . . . Continue Reading »