R.I.P. Andy Griffith

{Andy Griffith [C] with Mayberry Statue, Mt. Airy, NC}

Actor Andy Griffith, made famous for his TV role as the widowed sheriff of the fictional town of Mayberry, NC as well as Matlock, has died at the age of 86.

The Andy Griffith Show was wildly popular during its eight year television run from 1960 to 1968. Griffith left the show with a year left on his contract but served as an executive producer of the spin-off show  Mayberry, R.F.D. and appeared in a handful of episodes in its first year.

Griffith left to pursue a career on the silver screen, with less success than he hoped. Perhaps it was because he could not shake the typecasting.  When he returned to television, he partially embraced that folksy persona in the legal drama Matlock, where he played a widowed country lawyer.

President George W. Bush awarded Griffith the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 "for demonstrating the finest qualities of our country and for a lifetime of memorable performances that have brought joy to millions of Americans of all ages." So that gentile down home typecasting might not have been all bad.

While Griffith made his Democrat leanings clear with his avid support of North Carolina Governors Bev Perdue (D-NC) and  Mike Easley (D-NC) as well as a government funded endorsement of Obamacare.

That being said, Griffith never managed to ultimately polarize his public.

Griffith studied for the ministry in his youth.  This is reflected in a couple of Griffith's memorable quotes.

"I was baptized alongside my mother when I was 8 years old. Since then I have tried to walk a Christian life. And now that I'm getting older I realize that I'm walking even closer with my God."

and 

"You know when you're young you think you will always be. As you become more fragile, you reflect and you realize how much comfort can come from the past. Hymns can carry you into the future."

May his soul revel in walking closer to his Maker.

Corrie ten Boom on Adversity

What makes this pearl of wisdom so poignant is that Corrie ten Boom was an ordinary Dutch Christian citizen who survived interment in a Nazi concentration camp for hiding Jews in her watch shop.  Yet the faith of this seemingly simple soul understands some of the transcendental mysteries of life.

Ignatian Daily Examen, Busted Halo Style

Despite the hokey graphics, this one sheet effectively diagrams an Ignatian Daily Examen. It is a handy methodology for spiritual foot soldiers in the Society of Jesus to be contemplatives in action.

Another aid in doing an Ignatian contemplation of scripture is Sacred Space from the Irish Jesuits.

h/t: Busted Halo
      Fr. James Martin, S.J.

Sounding the Alarm for Religious Liberty

Eric Metaxas, the author of Amazing Grace and Bonhoeffer,  and Ruth Institute founder Jennifer Roback Morse, team up in a short but compelling video to expose the HHS mandate as not  only a threat to religious freedom but to the United States.

Some may scoff that the Obamacare qualified health plan mandate does not force individuals to go against their will in using contraception, sterilizations and abortafacients.  Besides, President Obama claims that they won't even have to pay for those services but insurance companies will bankroll the "free" services.  To add insult to injury, the same day the President announced this so called compromise in February, HHS Secretary Sebelius published the final rules that remained unchanged since August 2011. Oh, and the "free" abortions will be funded by taxing every American $2 a month for these services.

This Acton Institute video was adept at noting that it is not just insurance coverage that is repugnant to religious liberty.  The Federal Government, through the cudgel on the HHS mandate, will force Catholic Hospitals to offer services like abortion or else face crippling fines and the threat of being taken over by Uncle Sam.

Billy Graham on Freedom

This is the way America understood the First Amendment to the Constitution until the 1960s.