Fr. Dwight Longenecker Blog
78 FOLLOWERS
Welcome to Standing on My Head! Find the newest blog posts as well as fourteen years work of archived blogging content by Fr. Longenecker. He is a Pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Greenville. Fr. Longenecker stated this website as a simple blog back in 2006 and it has grown to become a center for all his ministries, both online and in person.
Fr. Dwight Longenecker Blog
1w ago
Sola Scriptura is the foundation of the Evangelical Bible Christian religion. The Bible Christian says he believes only what is in the Bible and he eschews "man made traditions." However, when it comes to the Christmas story, the typical Bible Christian actually believes lots of man made traditions, and St Matthew's story of the Magi ..read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker Blog
1w ago
Those who are familiar with Biblical scholarship are aware that the majority belief about the St Matthew's story of the Magi visiting Bethlehem is that it is a fanciful legend to show that Jesus was a very special guy and that it was cleverly concocted to show how Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. Check out ..read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker Blog
2w ago
We do, in fact, know where Jesus Christ was born. The textual, archeological and historical record is pretty conclusive. The New Testament tells us Jesus was born in the little village of Bethlehem in Judea about six miles from Jerusalem. If you visit Bethlehem today the centerpiece of the town is the ancient Church of ..read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker Blog
2w ago
Before Christmas I met a young man in California who said, with a joyful smile on his face, "I'm a revert. I came back to my Catholic faith last year." "Wonderful" I said, "What brought you back?" "Listening to Jordan Peterson." It is interesting how God uses laymen as evangelists. In the mid twentieth century ..read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker Blog
2w ago
Most of our mental imagery about Jesus' birth in Bethlehem is grounded in the culture and conditions of medieval Europe. Our creche tableaus are rooted in the first stable scenes set up by St Francis in the thirteenth century and feature a European type stable-barn-cattle shed. The "inn" is a typical European tavern, inn, rustic ..read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker Blog
1M ago
The news is buzzing this week with reports of UFOs buzzing around New Jersey. UFOs are certainly among the most puzzling paranormal phenomena. BTW I like Jimmy Akin's distinction between "paranormal" and "supernatural". Paranormal refers to phenomena that are beside or outside normal experience. "Supernatural" refers to phenomena "above" the natural. In other words, paranormal ..read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker Blog
1M ago
As a convert from Anglicanism I remember important conversations among my fellow Anglican clergymen about the "validity" of the sacraments. Pope Leo XII famously judged Anglican orders to be "null and utterly void", but what does that mean and what do Catholics mean about "validity"? Most people would associate validity with authenticity, value, goodness and ..read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker Blog
1M ago
I think it was Fulton Sheen who said something like "There are not a hundred Americans who hate Catholics, but there are thousands of Americans who hate what they think the Catholic Church is." It expresses in a nutshell the problem of anti-Catholicism not only among the general population, but also amongst our non Catholic ..read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker Blog
1M ago
Those who have read my 2017 book The Mystery of the Magi--The Quest to Identify the Three Wise Men will be familiar with my proposal that the Magi were, first of all historical figures--and not (as mainstream Biblical scholarship supposes) a fanciful legend. Also, they were not from Persia, but from Jordan--more specifically from the Nabatean ..read more
Fr. Dwight Longenecker Blog
2M ago
I was brought up in Pennsylvania in an independent Bible Church. Our church building was a large auditorium designed for people to listen to Bible-based sermons. At the front was a big central pulpit and behind the preacher were some pews for the choir. Behind the choir was a recessed baptismal pool, and on ..read more