Tag Archives: courage

Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause. “The Lord is my strength and my song.” “In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Notable News in Science

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Since one of Funky’s regular commentators here has diabetes, I thought
that he and
other readers would be interested in this
article on a promising research on Type I diabetes.

She calls
attention to the
fact that Type I diabetes is really an autoimmune disease, and the lack
of insulin
is really a symptom of the body’s attack on insulin producing beta cells
in pancreas.
Keep an eye on this one!

A Diabetes Researcher Forges Her Own Path to a Cure

Dr. Denise Faustman thinks she has a shot at curing diabetes. She has published one significant scientific paper after another on the disease. She has succeeded in curing it in mice, something no one else has accomplished.

But when Dr. Faustman, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, went looking for money to finance the next stage of her research, testing the ideas with diabetes patients, she could find no backers. Pharmaceutical companies turned her down. So did the Juvenile Diabetes Research Association.

Also, speaking of science resources, check out the
Public Library of Science, an organization that publishes
peer-reviewed scientific
journals that are free to the public and entirely online.

Intolerant Family

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Unfortunately, I’ve experienced some of the familial anti-Catholicism this blogger
describes. My mom is a bitter ex-Catholic and we often get into nasty arguments
over religion. Compared the following situation, I’m quite lucky, though. My mother
and I have a loving relationship filled with plenty of healthy communication. A
good friend of mine had it worse when he converted from Judaism to Evangelical Christianity
and then to Catholicism.

Dilemma

How discouraging it was for me to learn today that not only is my mother-in-law
displeased with our conversion to Catholicism, she honestly believes we’ll be going
to hell if we persist in it.

Bold Voice

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Teen
Punished for Speaking Against Homosexuality Wants Apology
By Jim Brown
April 29, 2004

“(AgapePress) – A Christian student is asking his Boone, North Carolina, high
school to apologize for censoring his opposition to a pro-homosexual event on campus.”

Unfortunately for this lad, court precedent says that a public school has the right
to enforce dress codes. His shirt could be construed as being in violation of his
school’s dress code. Besides, the message was a bit harsh. We’re not likely to win
back too many homosexuals to right living by telling them they’re going to hell.
Yes, homosexuality is a sin, but we’re all guilty of sins and some are pretty nasty.
And unless we’re saints, we’re not confessing them all (privately or publicly).
I like the kid’s idea though. Someone should stand up for Christian sexual ethics.
If gays can “speak” their minds during the Day of Silence, we should be
free to “speak” ours, through t-shirts or other means. The trick is to
do so compassionately.

Calling Real Men

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Where
Are God’s Warriors and Wild Men?
Doug Giles

Have you ever asked yourself, “Self, why do churches today look more like
the lingerie department at Wal-Mart, than a battalion of men poised to plunder the
powers of darkness?” Why do men avoid going to church, and what can be done about
it? Certainly, the lack of men in church is not at all difficult to see. Just open your eyes any Sunday morning and go to church. Then, count the number of ladies in the pews, and the number of men. The result: you’re slapped in the face with the low grade gin-like reality that men are avoiding church like a psycho avoids reality.

I don’t know about hiring “a pastor who throws off a good John Wayne vibe”, but “Bishop” Gene Robinson certainly isn’t
the answer. BTW, this isn’t a new problem. G.K. Chesterton talked about it.

“…certain phrases in the Epistles or the marriage service, were said by the
anti-Christians to show contempt for woman’s intellect. But I found that the anti-Christians
themselves had a contempt for woman’s intellect; for it was their great sneer at
the Church on the Continent that ‘only women’; went to it.”

One Tough Man

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Does this make Kennedy a tougher guy than FDR?

Files depict JFK’s life of pain

US President John F Kennedy took up to eight different medications a day to deal with the terrible pain resulting from numerous ailments, newly disclosed files have shown.

America’s youngest president was suffering from more conditions, was in greater pain and was taking more medications than the public knew at the time, according to a new biography to be published next year.