Ezra's Essays

Category: Religion/Atheism

  • CHERISH THE CHILDREN AND/OR THE UNFATHOMABLE

    The dual titles to this essay span a period in time of more than 2500 years.  Cherish the children is a maxim from Confucius.  Unfathomable was enunciated this week in Newtown, Connecticut by Don Lemon, the indefatigable announcer for CNN on weekends.  As you may have guessed, the title has to do with the recent…

  • CHRISTMAS PONDERINGS

    This is being dictated on Christmas of the year 2012.  It is near noontime and the house where we have lived for a long time is quiet now.  The children who carry the Carr surname and their husbands and children are involved in festivities in Florida and in Texas.  So in these peaceful surroundings I…

  • MURDER IN MISSISSIPPI

    As it so happens, I finished my glorious career in the Army of the United States, not the United States Army, in the great state of Mississippi.  I use that title, “the great state of Mississippi,” because it is always used by politicians.  In August of 1945, I had returned to this country after 28…

  • MAYBE LILLIE WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG

    The Lillie in the title of this essay is my mother, to whom you have been introduced before.  Lillie was born in Pope County, Illinois on the banks of the Ohio River in a community called Lusk.  It was not a town at all.  It was simply a landing spot for the folks who traversed…

  • A PAIL OF HOME BREW

    During the period of the 1920s, there was a resurgence of thought pioneered basically by Southerners.  It resulted in the banning of the sale and use of beer.  The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol and came to be known as the Prohibition Act.  Prohibition was widely flouted.  It…

  • EZRA’S OWN 700 CLUB

    When I was a child, my parents forced me to attend a succession of churches.  First there was the Southern Baptist, followed by the Nazarenes, followed by the Pentecostals and finally the Free Will Baptist Church.  During this period in life, as I have told you on many occasions, I disliked or rather loathed church…

  • DIVINE ECCLESIASTICAL THOUGHTS

    For those of you who follow the publication of books, there is a new one that you may wish to keep track of.  It is called “The Infancy Narratives,” and it was written by none other than Joseph Ratzinger, the head man of the Roman Catholic faith.  This is the third book in a trilogy…

  • WHY DID SAVITA HAVE TO DIE LIKE THIS?

    This essay has to do with the very recent death of an Indian woman who had moved to Galway, Ireland.  Her death has bothered me greatly.  The fact of the matter is that she did not have to die.  As it turns out Savita is dead and the authorities are doing nothing about it.  During…

  • PURGATORY

    This essay about Purgatory comes about because of my insatiable curiosity.  It is not meant as a diatribe against the Catholic belief.  On the other hand, it is meant to determine what is meant by Purgatory and what we must do while we are here on Earth to enjoy the benefits or lack of benefits…

  • BAD NEWS FOR THE ULTRA PIOUS

    If my reading of the calendar is right, today would mark a very bad day for the ultra pious in our midst.  Two things have gone violently astray.  On this day the President of the United States finally ended his evolving soul searching and announced that he would no longer oppose weddings of gay people. …