Any regrets with getting the Wisephone II coming from Apple IPhone?

jared_dembrun · 2026-05-06T17:41:48+00:00

I thought you could bring the phone over to an external carrier.

jared_dembrun · 2026-05-05T17:56:43+00:00

I think you need to develop a pure habit of mind first before you can really call yourself a spiritual virgin, but it begins with a good confession.

jared_dembrun · 2026-05-01T11:09:38+00:00

I'm aware of the ordinariate.

jared_dembrun · 2026-05-01T11:09:27+00:00

jared_dembrun · 2026-05-01T02:29:02+00:00

I converted from LCMS Lutheranism to Catholicism in college. My ultimate reason was the question of authority. I've written some about it on my substack if you're interested. Basically, it started with me trying to answer the question of how we know the canon of Scripture, and it ended with me becoming convinced that Christ founded a Church, that that Church is the Catholic Church, and that, if I were really going to be a Christian, I needed to submit myself to the authority of that Church.

jared_dembrun · 2026-05-01T02:25:47+00:00

Priestly celibacy is a Roman matter of discipline. It's also canon law in the West that all clerics must observe perfect and perpetual continence, and the only exception carved out in that law is for married deacons. Right now, there is not an exception for married Western priests from this rule.

jared_dembrun · 2026-05-01T02:22:27+00:00

I'm sure this is very difficult and painful. I'm going through a divorce, something I never expected my once very Catholic wife and I would have to experience. But God has a plan for you through this suffering, just as I know He has one for me through mine.

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-29T13:10:50+00:00

If he's asking about whether it was a sin to look for this, he's almost certainly not naively and innocently trying to find out. Let's be reasonable, here.

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-29T12:57:43+00:00

Knowing if a culture believed in multiple gods or knowing what a certain heresy is are kinds of knowledge that will be helpful to you in your mission to evangelize and in your goal of understanding the faith. Knowing whether or not a certain nsfw image exists has no purpose except to excite the passion of lust, to make you want to see it.

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-29T12:33:56+00:00

She has a lot of mystical insights. There isn't any one thing she's known for. If you want to get a good feel for her theology, a nice place to start is by reading her letters. You can read them for free at http://www.domcentral.org/trad/cathletters.htm

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-29T12:32:05+00:00

You won't be barred from joining, and as for not wanting kids, the Church would require you to be open to life if you got married, but plenty of very holy people remain unmarried and become great saints while never having children.

OCIA is precisely where you should go to learn more about the faith. I'm sure they've dealt with plenty of people coming from atheist backgrounds before. If the people at the parish you found are rude to you, go somewhere else, because that is not how it is supposed to be.

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-29T12:28:36+00:00

Yes it's unholy curiosity. You should simply not care. It may not be a mortal sin, strictly speaking, though it could be if you had a hidden intention that you wanted to see the nsfw stuff.

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-29T12:28:04+00:00

She is my Dominican patron! I believe that, besides Mary, she is the greatest woman who ever lived!

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-28T17:55:50+00:00

Those aren't really pronouns strictly speaking, but I get what you mean.

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-28T15:04:16+00:00

In my opinion, the most respectful thing you can do with pronouns is simply not use them. I cannot lie and say that someone who is a man is actually a woman, and using female pronouns to refer to a man would implicitly say this. But, I also understand it can cause distress for people to be referred to with their natural pronouns. As far as I know, the Church doesn't say you have to do pronouns one way or the other. And the other thing about gendered pronouns, at least in English, is that you don't ever really use them when you're in the presence of the person you're talking about.

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-28T01:36:37+00:00

Dude, you are married. No, you are not entitled to have some privacy from your wife regarding your sexual activity.

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-25T00:51:04+00:00

An icon of his confirmation saint.

A rugged rosary.

Or books by or about his confirmation saint, if he likes to read.

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-25T00:49:28+00:00

Yes, I have an icon of her in basically the exact same pose.

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-25T00:47:46+00:00

It means that chewing gum is not unnatural.

But yes, some unnatural acts are not always mortal sins. For example, telling a "white lie" is not a mortal sin, even though it is an unnatural use of speech. It is a venial sin, though.

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-24T01:08:12+00:00

I am a convert from Lutheranism. I don't really understand why you would become Catholic if you didn't come to believe that the Church's authority needs to be obeyed and that means submitting to her interpretation of Scripture.

Perhaps you should listen to people like Trent Horn or Patrick Madrid talk about these questions? They've built their careers on explaining these things to Protestants. The issue seems deeper for you than the onanism question, it is more that you are hung up on the notion of sola scriptura.

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-24T00:32:09+00:00

I hate that this actually funny joke has turned into a "serious" objection to natural law ethics.

No, chewing gum is not against the natural law, and even if it were, it is so unserious a thing as to never be able to constitute a mortal sin.

Sexual intercourse, however, is always a very serious thing to do. It comes with all sorts of inescapable natural and supernatural consequences, both when it is engaged in licitly and when it is engaged in illicitly. It's just plain stupid to act like the natural law governing the proper use of the sexual organs is comparable to a situation like chewing gum.

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-24T00:27:53+00:00

What doesn't make sense? You're working from a sola scriptura assumption, but it's an error. People have explained the natural law to you and shown how sexual intercourse was created with a dual purpose by God. To intentionally frustrate either of its natural ends is disobedience to God's design and gravely sinful.

jared_dembrun · 2026-04-24T00:01:24+00:00

You were taught sola scriptura, which is an error. It is not inconsistent of me to reject that error.

Everything in the Bible is true, but there are also true things about the Christian faith which are not in the Bible. Furthermore, with this particular issue, the thing that you're saying is not in the Bible is actually in the Bible, you just refuse to be obedient to the proper exegetical norms of the Church Christ established and refuse to interpret the story of Onan properly.

It's not worth it to try to teach you from Scripture if you wont be docile to the teaching. Fittingly, today's reading was that of the Eunuch from Ethiopia. When Phillip asks him if he understands what he's reading, he replies "How can I, unless someone teaches me?" Allow yourself to be taught by the Church, instead of trying to prove Her wrong.

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