Monday, October 31, 2005
How cool! Anne Rice comments on my blog!
She writes:
Sounds like a serious piece of work to me. As I already have said, I'm going to check it out. Thanks for writing! I'm always amazed to find out who reads this thing.
She writes:
Make what you will of this novel, but know that for me it was serious from the beginning. I believe in Him. I wrote it for Him. This is where my life, novels and all, has led. It's the book I never found; the book I want to read; the book I want to give. It's the Jesus of the gospels in time and space. If I make you think of Him for the first time in your life as real, then I will have succeeded. If I make you feel you were there for a little while, then I have succeeded. If I make you believe in Him as the Son of the Virgin Mary, visited by shepherds who saw angels, and Magi with gifts, then I have done all right. It's worth the risk. I don't want to make a mistake for all eternity. I want to get it right. Anne Rice, Nashville hotel, on tour for Christ the Lord.
Sounds like a serious piece of work to me. As I already have said, I'm going to check it out. Thanks for writing! I'm always amazed to find out who reads this thing.
Christianity Today interviews Douglas Gresham
C.S. Lewis' stepson, in case you don't know.
This is Part One of two, convering the man Lewis. Tomorrow's Part Two will cover the film.
C.S. Lewis' stepson, in case you don't know.
This is Part One of two, convering the man Lewis. Tomorrow's Part Two will cover the film.
A reader asks
Actually, it's pretty simple. Jesus doesn't refer to himself as Petra--ever. In addition, he doesn't actually refer to Peter as Petros. That's because Jesus spoke Aramaic (though he may have known Greek too). What Jesus actually said was "You are Kefa" which is Aramaic for "Rock". The earliest New Testament documents transliterate this into "Cephas" (that's how Paul routinely refers to Peter). However, when the gospels were written, they translated the Aramaic "Kefa/Cephas" into the Greek "Petros" (You can actually see John doing it in John 1:42). That's not because there's some subtle claim that Peter is a pebble, but because "Petros" is masculine and "Petra" is feminine. It's same reason we don't call Paul "Pauline".
Heard an evangelical preacher on radio. Spoke against RC basis for papacy thusly: Christ referred to himself as PETRA (rock), but to Peter as PETROS, which this guy said meant a fragment of a rock, something much less substantial/consequential than PETRA. Any light you can shed on this?
Actually, it's pretty simple. Jesus doesn't refer to himself as Petra--ever. In addition, he doesn't actually refer to Peter as Petros. That's because Jesus spoke Aramaic (though he may have known Greek too). What Jesus actually said was "You are Kefa" which is Aramaic for "Rock". The earliest New Testament documents transliterate this into "Cephas" (that's how Paul routinely refers to Peter). However, when the gospels were written, they translated the Aramaic "Kefa/Cephas" into the Greek "Petros" (You can actually see John doing it in John 1:42). That's not because there's some subtle claim that Peter is a pebble, but because "Petros" is masculine and "Petra" is feminine. It's same reason we don't call Paul "Pauline".
Hundreds of People of No Particular Religious Inclination That You Should Notice Have been Rioting for Two Days in Paris
I just hope none of those damned Methodists and Jews hurt any of the Youths Without Any Special Religious Affiliation That You Should Notice.
No doubt the whole thing was started by Catholics.
I just hope none of those damned Methodists and Jews hurt any of the Youths Without Any Special Religious Affiliation That You Should Notice.
No doubt the whole thing was started by Catholics.
A reader asks:
Permit me to use a passage from my forthcoming Mary book in answer. The context is a discussion of the Immaculate Conception of Mary:
The point of this is that Mary is intended to show us who we really are. Every person saved by Christ is going to experience what Mary already has been given: complete salvation from sin (not from their humanity) and complete beatitude in their full humanity. In short, the opposite of "human" is not "God". The opposite of "human" is "sin".
Zat makes sense?
Mark, would you please explain what you mean by the "grace to become fully human as Christ is". "Fully human" are the terms that I don't understand, as the word "human" has a negative connotation for me, meaning the results of original sin, my lower nature, etc. Of course I don't/can't relate to Jesus having this kind of nature. This is not the first time I've heard this usage from good people like you, and I just don't "get it".
Permit me to use a passage from my forthcoming Mary book in answer. The context is a discussion of the Immaculate Conception of Mary:
When I had insisted, despite the lack of biblical evidence for her sinfulness, "She's human so she must be sinful" I had been saying ...that sin is what constitutes our humanity. But the whole point about Christ is that His Godhood has enabled Him to be fully human. In other words, the Incarnation means that the more human you are, the more you will be like the fully human Christ, Who is without sin.
This can be a surprise, even for some Evangelicals to hear, due to an unfortunate mistranslation of Paul and a tendency in some sectors of Christianity to identify nature (especially human nature) with sin. Many Evangelicals are now used to speaking of the "sinful nature" or (worse still) the "sin nature" of human beings since some biblical translators have opted to translate the Greek word "sarx" ("flesh") that way. Because of this, the idea has taken root among many Evangelicals that sin is what constitutes our humanity: that to be human is to be essentially sinful. But, in fact, to speak of a "sin nature" is like speaking of a donut composed only of the donut hole. It is sensible to speak, as Paul actually does, of "the flesh" as a good thing made by God that has become corrupted by the fall and by our weakened will, disordered appetites and darkened mind so that it is at odds with the Spirit. But it's never sensible to speak as though a nature can be essentially composed of sin itself. For God is the Author of all nature and therefore all nature, no matter how corrupted by sin, remains rooted in the goodness of the Creator. If it were not, it would cease to exist since existence itself is a good. In short, evil is always parasitic. It cannot create. It can only twist and distort what God has created.
This does not mean that sin is unreal. It does not mean everybody is saved or Hell is impossible. Indeed, it is precisely because creatures have real choices and real power gifted to them from God that they are capable of really and truly damning their own souls by wilfully rejecting God's grace if they choose. But despite this fact, the most basic fact about man is that, in the person of Jesus Christ, he has penetrated Hell, conquered death, and ascended to Heaven. Jesus, not Adam, is both the first and the last Word about who and what we really are. So something had to give in my insistence on "if human, therefore sinful", or I inevitably wound up insisting that Jesus, being the most human person Who ever lived, was also sinful.
The way out of this impasse was to recognize that creation is not corrupt. Corruption is corrupt. Sin is the norm for the human race because it infects the whole fallen human race. But it is never natural. Indeed, sin is always anti-natural: It does not constitute our humanity, but destroys it. The most sinful people who ever lived have not ended as "fully human" persons. Instead they typically end as hollowed-out shells of themselves, desiccated remains of a human being. Conversely, the saints, in becoming holy, have become more human like their Master, the most human person Who ever lived. All the Immaculate Conception means is that Mary was the most fully human creature ever saved by Jesus.
The point of this is that Mary is intended to show us who we really are. Every person saved by Christ is going to experience what Mary already has been given: complete salvation from sin (not from their humanity) and complete beatitude in their full humanity. In short, the opposite of "human" is not "God". The opposite of "human" is "sin".
Zat makes sense?
Scalito Happiness!
What a happy way to start the week! Not only do Professor Bainbridge and Southern Appeal like him (complete with cartoon summing up the mood of The Base), but equally fun, the Left is coming totally unhinged as only the Left can do.
My readers have complained from time to time that I spend what appears to be a disproportionate amount of time remonstrating with conservatives about this and that. The delightful hysteria of the Left over Alito is perhaps a clue as to why this is. The simple fact is, this sort of kookery is getting louder and shriller precisely because these people know they are going the way of the Triceratops. The salient thing to note in that little compendium of quotes is this: "This may sound stupid.. but what the hell can the Democrats do?" Just so, monsieur. All they can do is sit there and fulminate in open anti-Catholic bigotry and make clear that The Only Thing they care about is not qualifications for the job, but a "Catholics Need not Apply" test of religion. it will be so *fun* to watch the Left freak out over this. As hilarious as the elections last year. But as much as I enjoy the schadenfreude of a year that has delivered not only the Great Leftist Panic of November 2004, the election of Pope Monstro the Evil One, *and* the Great Leftist Panic of November 2005, I have to remind myself and my readers of the Spiderman Principle:
With great power comes great responsibility.
"We're not Leftist Lunatics" is not a sufficient basis for governing. So when the Right, which holds most of the cards, proposes stupid or evil things ("stupid" as in "the nomination of Harriet Miers" or "evil" as in "trying to figure out ways to justify torture") I will continue to be a pain in the derriere about the weaknesses of the right.
Just doing my dooty!
But, for now, well done, Mr. Bush! An excellent penance!
What a happy way to start the week! Not only do Professor Bainbridge and Southern Appeal like him (complete with cartoon summing up the mood of The Base), but equally fun, the Left is coming totally unhinged as only the Left can do.
My readers have complained from time to time that I spend what appears to be a disproportionate amount of time remonstrating with conservatives about this and that. The delightful hysteria of the Left over Alito is perhaps a clue as to why this is. The simple fact is, this sort of kookery is getting louder and shriller precisely because these people know they are going the way of the Triceratops. The salient thing to note in that little compendium of quotes is this: "This may sound stupid.. but what the hell can the Democrats do?" Just so, monsieur. All they can do is sit there and fulminate in open anti-Catholic bigotry and make clear that The Only Thing they care about is not qualifications for the job, but a "Catholics Need not Apply" test of religion. it will be so *fun* to watch the Left freak out over this. As hilarious as the elections last year. But as much as I enjoy the schadenfreude of a year that has delivered not only the Great Leftist Panic of November 2004, the election of Pope Monstro the Evil One, *and* the Great Leftist Panic of November 2005, I have to remind myself and my readers of the Spiderman Principle:
With great power comes great responsibility.
"We're not Leftist Lunatics" is not a sufficient basis for governing. So when the Right, which holds most of the cards, proposes stupid or evil things ("stupid" as in "the nomination of Harriet Miers" or "evil" as in "trying to figure out ways to justify torture") I will continue to be a pain in the derriere about the weaknesses of the right.
Just doing my dooty!
But, for now, well done, Mr. Bush! An excellent penance!
What a fun weekend!
I'm informed in my comments boxes below that even as my crie de coeur was smacking the underside of the heavens, pleading with God that I too might be dubbed a sinister convert, somebody named Vivian was obligingly declaring me a "wolf in sheep's clothing" over on Amy's blog in an increasingly deranged thread on anti-semitism. I hope this won't shock you, but Viv's a member of the Rad Trad Brigade. The chance to indulge a little paranoid anti-semitism just brings those guys out like hornets at a sausage festival. What fun!
Anyway, I missed all that that because I was busy doing cool stuff this weekend. On Saturday morning, I met the impressively tall Carl Olson, another sinister convert who, along with proven Jewish infiltrator, Sandra Miesel, is co-author of one of the best remedies to the lies, posturing, bad prose, and twaddle served up by Dan Brown: namely, The Da Vinci Hoax. Carl was speaking at a parish just up the road from me, so I popped up and listened to several talks delivered by him and Tom Curran, a terrific lay Catholic evangelist who lives here in the Seattle area.
Then, on Sunday, we had friends over to carve punkins and, in the evening, went to a free talk on the UW campus by George Weigel on "Pope John Paul II and our Debt to Poland". The talk was great and the atmosphere joyous due to a large contingent of Chicago Poles taking credit for the World Series victory.
A lovely weekend!
I'm informed in my comments boxes below that even as my crie de coeur was smacking the underside of the heavens, pleading with God that I too might be dubbed a sinister convert, somebody named Vivian was obligingly declaring me a "wolf in sheep's clothing" over on Amy's blog in an increasingly deranged thread on anti-semitism. I hope this won't shock you, but Viv's a member of the Rad Trad Brigade. The chance to indulge a little paranoid anti-semitism just brings those guys out like hornets at a sausage festival. What fun!
Anyway, I missed all that that because I was busy doing cool stuff this weekend. On Saturday morning, I met the impressively tall Carl Olson, another sinister convert who, along with proven Jewish infiltrator, Sandra Miesel, is co-author of one of the best remedies to the lies, posturing, bad prose, and twaddle served up by Dan Brown: namely, The Da Vinci Hoax. Carl was speaking at a parish just up the road from me, so I popped up and listened to several talks delivered by him and Tom Curran, a terrific lay Catholic evangelist who lives here in the Seattle area.
Then, on Sunday, we had friends over to carve punkins and, in the evening, went to a free talk on the UW campus by George Weigel on "Pope John Paul II and our Debt to Poland". The talk was great and the atmosphere joyous due to a large contingent of Chicago Poles taking credit for the World Series victory.
A lovely weekend!
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Speaking of Sinister Converts...
Secret Agent Man has a jolly time wading with cudgel and sword into the vast throng of Katelyn Sills attackers. He despatches oodles of stupidity with alacrity.
Secret Agent Man has a jolly time wading with cudgel and sword into the vast throng of Katelyn Sills attackers. He despatches oodles of stupidity with alacrity.
Culture Wars Appears to be Circling the Rad Trad Drain
The latest issue goes after sinister convert Bill Cork. In the midst of it, we learn important facts like Sandra Miesel is guilty of having "Jewish ancestry".
They're not weirdly obsessed with Jews or anything though.
I just don't get the spectacle of Catholic caring about a convert's ethnic background. Have these guys learned *nothing* from St. Paul? What part of "There is no Jew nor Greek in Christ Jesus" do they not get?
When do *I* get to be a sinister convert? I'm getting mighty impatient watching the Blossers and Bill Cork and Scott Hahn get to be sinister converts and I just sit here like a wallflower. It makes a fella feel unappreciated!
The latest issue goes after sinister convert Bill Cork. In the midst of it, we learn important facts like Sandra Miesel is guilty of having "Jewish ancestry".
They're not weirdly obsessed with Jews or anything though.
I just don't get the spectacle of Catholic caring about a convert's ethnic background. Have these guys learned *nothing* from St. Paul? What part of "There is no Jew nor Greek in Christ Jesus" do they not get?
When do *I* get to be a sinister convert? I'm getting mighty impatient watching the Blossers and Bill Cork and Scott Hahn get to be sinister converts and I just sit here like a wallflower. It makes a fella feel unappreciated!
Congressoids Laboring to Kill as Many as Possible
I feel much safer when a rapidly de-Christianizing culture votes itself dramatically increased powers to kill undesirables. What could possibly go wrong?
I feel much safer when a rapidly de-Christianizing culture votes itself dramatically increased powers to kill undesirables. What could possibly go wrong?
From our Bulging "Show me a Culture that Despises Virginity and I'll Show you a Culture That Despises Children" File
One way to knock down that "taboo" against child sex (besides, of course, referring to it condescendingly as a "taboo") is to use the tried and true "use hard cases to make bad law" strategy. Tug at peoples heart strings with "Romeo and Juliet" scenarios of Innocent Passion Cruelly Punished by an Unfeeling World.
"Do remember you are there to fuddle the creatures, Wormwood. From the way some of you young fiends talk, anyone would suppose it was our job to teach!."
One way to knock down that "taboo" against child sex (besides, of course, referring to it condescendingly as a "taboo") is to use the tried and true "use hard cases to make bad law" strategy. Tug at peoples heart strings with "Romeo and Juliet" scenarios of Innocent Passion Cruelly Punished by an Unfeeling World.
"Do remember you are there to fuddle the creatures, Wormwood. From the way some of you young fiends talk, anyone would suppose it was our job to teach!."
Disputations is Just So Good
That blog is so much more worthwhile than mine. Make it part of your daily diet.
That blog is so much more worthwhile than mine. Make it part of your daily diet.
Poland Fails to Buy EU Dogma that Homosexuality is the Source and Summit of All that is Noble, Good and Beautiful
Warns Poles that they will not be allow to tie their schooner to the rail of their shiny new Titanic.
Poland, having faced Stalin and Hitler, fails to be intimidated by cubicled Western European bureaucrats.
Warns Poles that they will not be allow to tie their schooner to the rail of their shiny new Titanic.
Poland, having faced Stalin and Hitler, fails to be intimidated by cubicled Western European bureaucrats.
Three Indonesian Girls were beheaded walking to school
Three guesses as to the religious affiliation of their murderers:
A) Opus Dei Blood Cult
B) Baptist Alliance to Keep Women Barefoot and Pregnant
C) Muslim
If you answered A or B, you may have potential to work for a major northeastern media organization and keep your eye out for phantom threats from non-existent theocratic Christians. If you answered C, you have the sense God gave a goose.
Three guesses as to the religious affiliation of their murderers:
A) Opus Dei Blood Cult
B) Baptist Alliance to Keep Women Barefoot and Pregnant
C) Muslim
If you answered A or B, you may have potential to work for a major northeastern media organization and keep your eye out for phantom threats from non-existent theocratic Christians. If you answered C, you have the sense God gave a goose.
Hurricane Katrina Afford Aging Baby Boomers a Little Preview of What to Expect When our Health System Becomes Overburdened with Them
Abortion culture claims its next victims crying, "Death to the inconvenient!"
Abortion culture claims its next victims crying, "Death to the inconvenient!"
American Media News Flash! Catholics Drink Alcohol!
A reader writes:
Wait till the Da Vinci Code fans discover that the whole "pagan Christ parallels" thing was pretty thoroughly gone over a century ago.
A reader writes:
It never ceases to amuse me how far behind the times the press can be.
An AP article published all the U.S. (and beyond) today informs readers "So, these two priests walk into a bar ... No joke. A Roman Catholic parish has booked four talks at a local bar in an effort to reach out to 20- and 30-somethings who don't go to church. Alcohol will be served."
I saw it in the express edition of the Washington Post.
The irony, of course, is that "Theology on Tap" is already a staple in Arlington, Virginia, and other places in the DC metropolitan area.
It really shouldn't be breaking news to the Post, nor to many of the major city publications in which the article ran. The Theology on Tap campaign started nearly 25 years ago.
Still, I guess it's a good thing word is getting out, however late....
Wait till the Da Vinci Code fans discover that the whole "pagan Christ parallels" thing was pretty thoroughly gone over a century ago.
Attention Canada! This is urgent!
Here's your chance to fight to keep your country from becoming the Netherlands of the North American continent! But you have to act fast!
Fr. Tom Dowd writes:
Here's your chance to fight to keep your country from becoming the Netherlands of the North American continent! But you have to act fast!
Fr. Tom Dowd writes:
Don't know if you know about the latest goings-on up here, but there is
going to be a debate next week in the Canadian national parliament regarding
assisted suicide (and, by extension, euthanasia). Yep, the Culture of Death
marches on.
I've written up a post regarding it, but there has been very little buzz
about the question within the Catholic world. We need to wake our people
up. If you could help "unleash the power of the blog" to wake us sleepy
Canadians up, that would be great.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Canada: Land of the Gentle Moleskin Jackboot
Fortunately, all the gov't funded crude bigotry is directed at Catholics and pro-lifers, so no harm done. They were undoubtedly asking for it.
Fortunately, all the gov't funded crude bigotry is directed at Catholics and pro-lifers, so no harm done. They were undoubtedly asking for it.
Carrie Tomko Just Lost Her Uncle
If you can spare a minute, please drop in and give her your condolences.
If you can spare a minute, please drop in and give her your condolences.
A reader writes:
I haven't been following this, but it sounds like it's worth making noise about.
I thought maybe you would like to post this about the dissenter who is teaching the USCCB how to write their pastoral letter on marriage.
I wrote this letter to their Committee on Marriage and Family
Dear Committee on Marriage and Family,
I am concerned that a dissenter from Catholic teaching is leading a colloquium to assist bishops in writing a pastoral letter on marriage. I received this information here.
Could someone please enlighten me as to why someone who dissents from Catholic doctrine on marriage, cohabitation and divorce was chosen to lead this? It is my opinion that someone who's agenda is to show how remarriage after divorce (i.e. adultery) can be condoned should not be influencing our Church's shepherds. The Catechism clearly says what this theologian is advocating is wrong (CCC 2384-2386).
Divorce used to taken seriously be Catholics. Now it is not. This article states that "Even among religious conservatives, Protestant or Catholic, only about one-third say divorce is sinful. Protestants are more likely than other groups to get married, but they are no more likely to stay married. About half of Americans see cohabitation as acceptable. Although the traditional nuclear family continues to be prized, only 19 percent of families fulfill that ideal (non-divorced parents with children). And 48 percent of Americans live in households "that depart dramatically from the ideal."
The Marriage Manual by Rev. George Kelley states that many dioceses (this book was written in the 1950s) required Catholics who were filing for a civil divorce to sign a document stating that they were filing for purely legal reasons (e.g. to collect child support, etc.) and they were not doing it to dissolve their marriage. The Catholic filing for divorce was also advised to tell their friends and family that they were filing for purely legal reasons in order to avoid scandal. Canon law still requires Catholics to seek the permission of their local ordinary if they are wanting to file for civil divorce. This is ignored by U.S. bishops even when a Catholic seeks advise about filing for divorce or separation. Bishops have a responsibility to speak the truth about marriage and divorce. St. John the Baptist and St. Thomas More lost their heads for doing so. Mr. Lawler is not encouraging them to do that.
Sincerely,
I haven't been following this, but it sounds like it's worth making noise about.
Peg Noonan Again Makes Me Think of Scripture
Particularly of the "covenant curses" of Leviticus 26. Even more, she reminds me of something John Paul says which I discovered while working on the Mary book. John Paul taught that the mark of original sin was the loss of the apprehension of God as Father. When a culture is dominated by original sin and gives in to the abandonment of God, they don't get nothing--they get the apprehension of God as Master. This applies to believers and atheists alike. The great 19th Century atheists were all working very hard to not believe in God. They weren't at all working to disbelieve in Loki, Apollo or Quetzlcoatl. But instead of banishing God, they simply succeeded in approaching him as Master and Oppressor. We're in increasingly the same bind today. We are busily rejecting God as Father and finding ourselves doomed to face him has Judge and Master. And so the subtext of fear and chaos increasingly undergirds all our daily doing. The apprehension of judgment, rather than fatherly love, increasingly dominates our minds. That's not because God has changed. It's because we are changing into a people who are forgetting our vocation to be human and instead increasingly embracing a false vision of ourselves as clever beasts, tools, cogs, slaves, and masters. It is fitting then, that our enemy is a religious tradition that likewise sees our relationship with God as fundamentally that of Master and slave.
It does not have to be this way, of course. The Christian revelation is clear that repentance is always possible. But it must really be done. So far our culture gives little sign of seriously desiring this. If experience is any teacher, the human capacity to believe that the trillionth experiment in sin will finally yield the happiness without God that we have sought since the garden is unabated. Even a world war only drove a generation to its knees. Their children, the Boomers, became the most self-absorbed generation of Narcissists the world has ever seen.
Nonetheless, grace happens and the bottom line is that just because we are foolish enough to insist on relating to God as Master instead of Father does not mean that God is satisfied with that arrangement. He's forgiven billions of sin. He will not change. But we had better do so or the fear we're feeling will only increase--and justly so.
Particularly of the "covenant curses" of Leviticus 26. Even more, she reminds me of something John Paul says which I discovered while working on the Mary book. John Paul taught that the mark of original sin was the loss of the apprehension of God as Father. When a culture is dominated by original sin and gives in to the abandonment of God, they don't get nothing--they get the apprehension of God as Master. This applies to believers and atheists alike. The great 19th Century atheists were all working very hard to not believe in God. They weren't at all working to disbelieve in Loki, Apollo or Quetzlcoatl. But instead of banishing God, they simply succeeded in approaching him as Master and Oppressor. We're in increasingly the same bind today. We are busily rejecting God as Father and finding ourselves doomed to face him has Judge and Master. And so the subtext of fear and chaos increasingly undergirds all our daily doing. The apprehension of judgment, rather than fatherly love, increasingly dominates our minds. That's not because God has changed. It's because we are changing into a people who are forgetting our vocation to be human and instead increasingly embracing a false vision of ourselves as clever beasts, tools, cogs, slaves, and masters. It is fitting then, that our enemy is a religious tradition that likewise sees our relationship with God as fundamentally that of Master and slave.
It does not have to be this way, of course. The Christian revelation is clear that repentance is always possible. But it must really be done. So far our culture gives little sign of seriously desiring this. If experience is any teacher, the human capacity to believe that the trillionth experiment in sin will finally yield the happiness without God that we have sought since the garden is unabated. Even a world war only drove a generation to its knees. Their children, the Boomers, became the most self-absorbed generation of Narcissists the world has ever seen.
Nonetheless, grace happens and the bottom line is that just because we are foolish enough to insist on relating to God as Master instead of Father does not mean that God is satisfied with that arrangement. He's forgiven billions of sin. He will not change. But we had better do so or the fear we're feeling will only increase--and justly so.
Interesting Interview with an Australian Priest-Convert From Anglicanism
Brings back very fond memories of both the Catholic and Anglican communities I hung out with when I was there a year ago.
I particularly enjoyed his discussion of the incoherence of those who try to split the Church into a pre- and post-Vatican II Church. It's silly. Of course, I expect Progressive Dissenters to do it because they are essentially Protestant and hardly even bother to hide the fact. But the real weirdness is the More-Catholic-Than-the-Pope Traditionalist Dissenter who makes essentially the same argument and yet never seems to realize that he is thereby making himself a Protestant in the effort to "save" the Church.
It's nice to see Progressive dissenters and Traditionalist dissenters reconciled, at least. How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity.
Brings back very fond memories of both the Catholic and Anglican communities I hung out with when I was there a year ago.
I particularly enjoyed his discussion of the incoherence of those who try to split the Church into a pre- and post-Vatican II Church. It's silly. Of course, I expect Progressive Dissenters to do it because they are essentially Protestant and hardly even bother to hide the fact. But the real weirdness is the More-Catholic-Than-the-Pope Traditionalist Dissenter who makes essentially the same argument and yet never seems to realize that he is thereby making himself a Protestant in the effort to "save" the Church.
It's nice to see Progressive dissenters and Traditionalist dissenters reconciled, at least. How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity.
One Detects a Whiff of "South Park Conservatism" here
The site has lots of rude and gross stuff, but the blunt directness of this particular offering reminds me a lot of the "Spare me the PC BS" attitude of our favorite crass cartoon.
The site has lots of rude and gross stuff, but the blunt directness of this particular offering reminds me a lot of the "Spare me the PC BS" attitude of our favorite crass cartoon.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Record Profits for Oil Companies
Supply and demand my eye. So they were gouging us after all. It's a comfort to know that my kid's school money is going to line these guys' pockets.
Supply and demand my eye. So they were gouging us after all. It's a comfort to know that my kid's school money is going to line these guys' pockets.
One of the things that puzzles many people is why the secular West--
which allegedly hates Christianity for being violent, authoritarian, patriarchal, and obscurantist--appears to be bending over backward to accomodate Foaming Bronze Age Islam.
If one takes a purely materialist or secular ideological approach it makes no sense whatsoever. However, if one takes seriously the Christian revelation, everything snaps pretty easily into focus. It's this:
If we clear our minds of the cant that the real struggle of our age is America vs. Terror, or The West Against the Rest, or The Wealthy Class Against the Underclass, or Womyn vs. Patriarchy, or all the rest of that crap and simply bear in mind that the real struggle--the only real struggle--there is or ever has been is between the Church of Jesus Christ and the forces of hell, then all of a sudden things start to make sense. The devil is not choosy: he will attack the Church with Marxist claptrap and uber-feminist rhetoric and, if that doesn't do the trick, will drop it for high-octane Islamic lunacy. The key is always: what opposes the progress of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So don't look for any consistency in the world but that. You're not up against flesh and blood.
which allegedly hates Christianity for being violent, authoritarian, patriarchal, and obscurantist--appears to be bending over backward to accomodate Foaming Bronze Age Islam.
If one takes a purely materialist or secular ideological approach it makes no sense whatsoever. However, if one takes seriously the Christian revelation, everything snaps pretty easily into focus. It's this:
For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. - Ephesians 6:12
If we clear our minds of the cant that the real struggle of our age is America vs. Terror, or The West Against the Rest, or The Wealthy Class Against the Underclass, or Womyn vs. Patriarchy, or all the rest of that crap and simply bear in mind that the real struggle--the only real struggle--there is or ever has been is between the Church of Jesus Christ and the forces of hell, then all of a sudden things start to make sense. The devil is not choosy: he will attack the Church with Marxist claptrap and uber-feminist rhetoric and, if that doesn't do the trick, will drop it for high-octane Islamic lunacy. The key is always: what opposes the progress of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So don't look for any consistency in the world but that. You're not up against flesh and blood.
Elephants Confront the Mystery of Death, Scientists Confront the Mystery of Tone Deafness
When I read stories like this, I can't help feeling that a Kalihari Bushman would have a better understanding of this mystery in a fairy tale about The Elephant Who Wept for His Mother than the scientists who seem oddly out of touch with what it means to be alive, much less human. There's a peculiar deafness to fundamental realities here in the attempt describe it all in the sterile language of the materialist observer.
I reminds me of a TV show I saw 30 years ago or so with Richard Leakey, standing in front of some gorgeous Paleolithic art at Lascaux or Altimira. With a straight face, he looked into the camera and asked, "Who were these people? Why would they do such things?" I suddenly had the distinct impression that he would have asked the same question standing in the Louvre. It wasn't that there was something strange about the cave painters. It was that there was something very strange about Richard Leakey. He didn't seem to really grasp that he himself was homo sapiens sapiens and that human being like to paint pictures and do art. I've never quite looked at allegedly "scientific" approaches to the human person the same way again. And I suspect something of the same thing obtains when it comes to the rest of God's critters too. There are different ways of knowing, and science is but one.
When I read stories like this, I can't help feeling that a Kalihari Bushman would have a better understanding of this mystery in a fairy tale about The Elephant Who Wept for His Mother than the scientists who seem oddly out of touch with what it means to be alive, much less human. There's a peculiar deafness to fundamental realities here in the attempt describe it all in the sterile language of the materialist observer.
I reminds me of a TV show I saw 30 years ago or so with Richard Leakey, standing in front of some gorgeous Paleolithic art at Lascaux or Altimira. With a straight face, he looked into the camera and asked, "Who were these people? Why would they do such things?" I suddenly had the distinct impression that he would have asked the same question standing in the Louvre. It wasn't that there was something strange about the cave painters. It was that there was something very strange about Richard Leakey. He didn't seem to really grasp that he himself was homo sapiens sapiens and that human being like to paint pictures and do art. I've never quite looked at allegedly "scientific" approaches to the human person the same way again. And I suspect something of the same thing obtains when it comes to the rest of God's critters too. There are different ways of knowing, and science is but one.
I think the the kid is wrong *and* the University is Draconian
Bottom line: the kid should not have used the word "subhuman". However, the university's punishment is over the top (and typical of coercive utopians).
However, if I were the kid I would *happily* accept the punishment they are meting out to him. Think of it: "Miner is also supposed to write a 10-page paper on homosexuality in the Catholic Church." What a golden opportunity! You could write a lean, completely truthful paper, not only about what the Church *actually teaches* but about the baleful harvest the Church has reaped by listening to academic ninnies and brownshirts who insist that homosexuality is the source and summit of all that is noble, good and beautiful. There wouldn't be enough *room* to chronicle all the acts of utopian coercion, physical violence, abuse and even murder done in the name of the Love That Cannot Shut Up. And when you were done, you could turn it in *and* submit it for publication in some conservative journal who would gleefully run it, with a brief intro explaining the genesis of the article.
I think Miner's blowing a major opportunity here. And I think Dusquesne is dodging a bullet thereby.
Bottom line: the kid should not have used the word "subhuman". However, the university's punishment is over the top (and typical of coercive utopians).
However, if I were the kid I would *happily* accept the punishment they are meting out to him. Think of it: "Miner is also supposed to write a 10-page paper on homosexuality in the Catholic Church." What a golden opportunity! You could write a lean, completely truthful paper, not only about what the Church *actually teaches* but about the baleful harvest the Church has reaped by listening to academic ninnies and brownshirts who insist that homosexuality is the source and summit of all that is noble, good and beautiful. There wouldn't be enough *room* to chronicle all the acts of utopian coercion, physical violence, abuse and even murder done in the name of the Love That Cannot Shut Up. And when you were done, you could turn it in *and* submit it for publication in some conservative journal who would gleefully run it, with a brief intro explaining the genesis of the article.
I think Miner's blowing a major opportunity here. And I think Dusquesne is dodging a bullet thereby.
A reader writes
I'm writing hoping that you will join me in getting the word out about the unethical behavior of the company, Acu-Gen, makers of the Baby Gender Mentor. There have been articles written about this in Newsweek and the Boston Globe, but they haven't covered the fact that this company is telling parents that their test was wrong because their child suffers from a defect of some kind--diagnoses which they are medically and legally unable to make. I've blogged about it at my blog.
Gerry Matatics officially announces he's in schism from the Catholic Church
Sorry to see it happen. Keep the guy and his family in your prayers.
Sorry to see it happen. Keep the guy and his family in your prayers.
Good Guys Fight to Keep Christ in Christmas
I want more. I want to keep Mass in Christmas. Otherwise it's just a matter of time before you lose Christmas altogether.
The Prophet Chesterton explains it all:
Exactly the same thing can be said for ideas which are still accepted by custom in our culture, yet for which we have long ago destroyed the metaphysical basis in our wanton rejection of the Catholic tradition. So, for instance, our faith in racial and gender equality is slated for the chopping block sooner or later. So is our faith in "freedom of choice" if we ever begin to really take seriously the materialists who tell us that "mind" is simply one more manifestation of blind chemical forces at work. And, of course, "Christmas" goes for similar reasons. Having ejected "Mass" from Christmas it's only a matter of time till the heirs of that particular act of Protest ask themselves why they shouldn't protest the other half of the word. Dan Brown is one of those heirs. He wants to get rid of the Christian intrusion on the Winter Solstice altogether. And so we find ourselves in our current cultural predicaments. It will be interesting to see what comes of it. I suspect the anti-Christmas forces will succeed--for a time. But their great misfortune is that heresy is always stupefyingly dull, in addition to being false. So I expect the children of the PC generation to bring Christmas back with a roar.
At any rate, the Sheas will keep Christmas with all the trimmings and, just to tweak the powers and principalities that have added the spice of menace to the Christmas story ever since Herod, we'll sing Belloc's cheery "Lines for a Christmas Card":
Not exactly in keeping with "Love your enemies" I admit. But rousing, cheery and festive nonetheless. Take it in the spirit of a football cheer and you've pretty much got it.
I want more. I want to keep Mass in Christmas. Otherwise it's just a matter of time before you lose Christmas altogether.
The Prophet Chesterton explains it all:
The fact is this: that the modern world, with its modern movements, is living on its Catholic capital. It is using, and using up, the truths that remain to it out of the old treasury of Christendom; including, of course, many truths known to pagan antiquity but crystallized in Christendom. But it is NOT really starting new enthusiasms of its own.... Every great heretic had always exhibit three remarkable characteristics in combination. First, he picked out some mystical idea from the Church's bundle or balance of mystical ideas. Second, he used that one mystical idea against all the other mystical ideas. Third (and most singular), he seems generally to have had no notion that his own favourite mystical idea was a mystical idea, at least in the sense of a mysterious or dubious or dogmatic idea. With a queer uncanny innocence, he seems always to have taken this one thing for granted. He assumed it to be unassailable, even when he was using it to assail all sorts of similar things. The most popular and obvious example is the Bible. To an impartial pagan or sceptical observer, it must always seem the strangest story in the world; that men rushing in to wreck a temple, overturning the altar and driving out the priest, found there certain sacred volumes inscribed "Psalms" or "Gospels"; and (instead of throwing them on the fire with the rest) began to use them as infallible oracles rebuking all the other arrangements. If the sacred high altar was all wrong, why were the secondary sacred documents necessarily all right? If the priest had faked his Sacraments, why could he not have faked his Scriptures? Yet it was long before it even occurred to those who brandished this one piece of Church furniture to break up all the other Church furniture that anybody could be so profane as to examine this one fragment of furniture itself. People were quite surprised, and in some parts of the world are still surprised, that anybody should dare to do so.
Exactly the same thing can be said for ideas which are still accepted by custom in our culture, yet for which we have long ago destroyed the metaphysical basis in our wanton rejection of the Catholic tradition. So, for instance, our faith in racial and gender equality is slated for the chopping block sooner or later. So is our faith in "freedom of choice" if we ever begin to really take seriously the materialists who tell us that "mind" is simply one more manifestation of blind chemical forces at work. And, of course, "Christmas" goes for similar reasons. Having ejected "Mass" from Christmas it's only a matter of time till the heirs of that particular act of Protest ask themselves why they shouldn't protest the other half of the word. Dan Brown is one of those heirs. He wants to get rid of the Christian intrusion on the Winter Solstice altogether. And so we find ourselves in our current cultural predicaments. It will be interesting to see what comes of it. I suspect the anti-Christmas forces will succeed--for a time. But their great misfortune is that heresy is always stupefyingly dull, in addition to being false. So I expect the children of the PC generation to bring Christmas back with a roar.
At any rate, the Sheas will keep Christmas with all the trimmings and, just to tweak the powers and principalities that have added the spice of menace to the Christmas story ever since Herod, we'll sing Belloc's cheery "Lines for a Christmas Card":
May all my enemies go to hell!
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel!
Not exactly in keeping with "Love your enemies" I admit. But rousing, cheery and festive nonetheless. Take it in the spirit of a football cheer and you've pretty much got it.
Boston Globe Wages Purely Objective Journalistic Campaign to Punish Church for Failing to Acknowledge that Homosexuality is the Source and Summit of All that is Noble, True and Good
Fr. Carr provides fisk.
Fr. Carr provides fisk.
Interesting discussion of the dead ends of proselytism and relativism over at Clayton's blog
I agree with him about the distinction between proselytism and evangelism. Many post-moderns make no distinctions between the two and the result is often funny. For the post-modern mind, Everything is About Power. Leftist post-moderns therefore tend to perceive all attempts to share one's faith as an act of aggression. Christians who understand evangelism know this is not true. But unfortunately even many Christians don't understand evangelism. For many Christians are right-wing post-moderns who *also* believe, at bottom, the evangelism is fundamentally an exercise of power and that people have to be brow-beaten into submission to a Master God. Indeed, not a few in the Apologetics subculture (a culture that spans both Catholics and Protestants) seem to have the notion that they are engaging in "evangelization" when in fact they are simply washing down the decks with testosterone and doing their best to Defeat the Enemy, not introduce anybody to Jesus. Mark Brumley's invaluable book How Not to Share Your Faith is a fine antidote for the whole "Evangelism as Power Trip" thing.
It's not all about power. Or at any rate, about earthly power as post-moderns conceive of it:
I agree with him about the distinction between proselytism and evangelism. Many post-moderns make no distinctions between the two and the result is often funny. For the post-modern mind, Everything is About Power. Leftist post-moderns therefore tend to perceive all attempts to share one's faith as an act of aggression. Christians who understand evangelism know this is not true. But unfortunately even many Christians don't understand evangelism. For many Christians are right-wing post-moderns who *also* believe, at bottom, the evangelism is fundamentally an exercise of power and that people have to be brow-beaten into submission to a Master God. Indeed, not a few in the Apologetics subculture (a culture that spans both Catholics and Protestants) seem to have the notion that they are engaging in "evangelization" when in fact they are simply washing down the decks with testosterone and doing their best to Defeat the Enemy, not introduce anybody to Jesus. Mark Brumley's invaluable book How Not to Share Your Faith is a fine antidote for the whole "Evangelism as Power Trip" thing.
It's not all about power. Or at any rate, about earthly power as post-moderns conceive of it:
For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds. (2 Cor. 10:3-4).
Uh Oh
I hope this isn't a harbinger of things to come from the Roberts Court.
Last week, in a one-sentence order in the case of Crawford v. Roe, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated an abortion rights ruling by U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple. Judge Whipple's decision required the Missouri Corrections Department to transport a pregnant prisoner to a clinic where she could (and eventually did) obtain an abortion.
I hope this isn't a harbinger of things to come from the Roberts Court.
One of the tropes about Halloween is that it's an "ancient pagan festival"
This is usually included in the normal Wiccan blah blah narrative of history which sees all of pre-christian pagan Europe as a paradise of goddess worship until evil Christians stamped out these pan-European cultures and replaced them with their feast.
Yet, in fact, Halloween is an almost entirely American phenomenon that has only recently been making inroads into Europe, much to their chagrin. My understanding is that its present configuration is mostly thanks to some Irish customs that took root here. They may well come from paganism. But the notion that all European pagan were some sort of monolith who all celebrated some feast at the start of November is moonshine. Europeans, in fact, resent the holiday for reasons very similar to American Christians (and because it's yet another American cultural influence).
This is usually included in the normal Wiccan blah blah narrative of history which sees all of pre-christian pagan Europe as a paradise of goddess worship until evil Christians stamped out these pan-European cultures and replaced them with their feast.
Yet, in fact, Halloween is an almost entirely American phenomenon that has only recently been making inroads into Europe, much to their chagrin. My understanding is that its present configuration is mostly thanks to some Irish customs that took root here. They may well come from paganism. But the notion that all European pagan were some sort of monolith who all celebrated some feast at the start of November is moonshine. Europeans, in fact, resent the holiday for reasons very similar to American Christians (and because it's yet another American cultural influence).
Nigerian Churches Tell West to Practice What It Preached on Gays
Speaking of liberal racism and its discontents, you haven't lived until you've seen an enlightened member of one of the Protestant mainlines, such as the ECUSA's Frank Griswold, pat those darling funny little Africans on their cute little heads and tell them to run along while the adult White People talk about the glories of anal sex.
God bless the Africans and liberate them soon from the oppression of their ninny colonial overlords.
Speaking of liberal racism and its discontents, you haven't lived until you've seen an enlightened member of one of the Protestant mainlines, such as the ECUSA's Frank Griswold, pat those darling funny little Africans on their cute little heads and tell them to run along while the adult White People talk about the glories of anal sex.
God bless the Africans and liberate them soon from the oppression of their ninny colonial overlords.
Leftist Racism in Chemical Purity
You won't believe your eyes. The ghost of Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the KKK, hovers over the dumpsters and ditches where the moonbats of the Far Left meet to plot the next excrescences of their mad ideology.
You won't believe your eyes. The ghost of Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the KKK, hovers over the dumpsters and ditches where the moonbats of the Far Left meet to plot the next excrescences of their mad ideology.
Wacky New Technologies Are All In Good Fun!
Nobody would ever *dream* of exploiting this for a sinister purpose.
Malthus used to preach about the growth of populations outstripping their food production. It gave a big boost to social elites in 19th Century Europe looking longingly to population control (ie. extermination) of the underclasses and non-preferred races as the solution (one might even say the Final Solution) of the problem. However, to the Malthusians great disappointment, food production went way up anyway. It's almost as though God loves humans and like to see more of them.
Nonetheless the itch among the Powerful to dominate the weak remains unchecked. That's because the *real* disproportion is not between people and nature. It's between our monkey clever ability to control nature (including human nature) and the snail's pace growth of our moral sense. The technology, once perfected, will be a classic example of "What could it hurt?" followed soon after by "How were we supposed to know?"
Nobody would ever *dream* of exploiting this for a sinister purpose.
Malthus used to preach about the growth of populations outstripping their food production. It gave a big boost to social elites in 19th Century Europe looking longingly to population control (ie. extermination) of the underclasses and non-preferred races as the solution (one might even say the Final Solution) of the problem. However, to the Malthusians great disappointment, food production went way up anyway. It's almost as though God loves humans and like to see more of them.
Nonetheless the itch among the Powerful to dominate the weak remains unchecked. That's because the *real* disproportion is not between people and nature. It's between our monkey clever ability to control nature (including human nature) and the snail's pace growth of our moral sense. The technology, once perfected, will be a classic example of "What could it hurt?" followed soon after by "How were we supposed to know?"
The Onion Somehow Manages a Pitch-Perfect Ability to Sense the Tenor of the Time and Make you Laugh
I can't help but be reminded of the covenant curses of Leviticus as I watch the shadow of fear creep over the US:
Speaking of the Onion, what's up with this? Is the White House really that petty?
I can't help but be reminded of the covenant curses of Leviticus as I watch the shadow of fear creep over the US:
I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues. 37 They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues; and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. (Leviticus 26:36-37)
Speaking of the Onion, what's up with this? Is the White House really that petty?
YESSSSSSS!!!!!
Okay! Mission Accomplished! Now, Mr. President, go and find a *serious* nominee.
Thanks, Ms. Miers, for having the grace to let somebody competent do this job. It's a difficult thing to give up such a plum, but it was the right thing to do.
Okay! Mission Accomplished! Now, Mr. President, go and find a *serious* nominee.
Thanks, Ms. Miers, for having the grace to let somebody competent do this job. It's a difficult thing to give up such a plum, but it was the right thing to do.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
A reader tells me that even the die-hard Miers supporters are starting to bail after this piece
I certainly hope so. If Bush persists, I hope he gets spanked hard for this atrocious nomination.
I certainly hope so. If Bush persists, I hope he gets spanked hard for this atrocious nomination.
Now I can fight vampires while rockin' out!!!
The disturbingly funny Curt Jester has way too much fun.
Also check out the Dominican Pod People and how they grow. Is there a more sinister reason that green is the liturgical color for ordinary time?
The disturbingly funny Curt Jester has way too much fun.
Also check out the Dominican Pod People and how they grow. Is there a more sinister reason that green is the liturgical color for ordinary time?
Making a Desert, Calling it "Peace"
In the wacky world of American public policy and religion, the radical secularists solve the problem of religious pluralism by pursuing a Scorched Earth Policy. Recently some Muslims petitioned a school district asking for a Muslim holiday to recognized. In response, the school district cancelled recognition of all religious holiday, including Christmas.
Of course, if you look at the calendar, you discover that "winter holidays" is still right there from December 18 to January 1. So Christmas isn't *really* cancelled. But the school district feels it important to make sure we all realize that they are on the side of the White Witch of Narnia and that they desire it to be always winter and never Christmas.
Of course, we all know, students would bitterly resent having to take off a couple of extra days for Ramadan or whatever the holiday is. And it would be a disaster of the highest order if students from different religious traditions actually learned about each other. No. The far wiser approach is to keep all religious traditions in complete ignorance of one another, the better to induce fear, simple-minded prejudice and mutual enmity. And if non-religious students can be kept completely in the dark about the differences between various tradition, so that they have no comprehension about the history behind our current cultural clashes, all the better. Ignorance is bliss!
In the wacky world of American public policy and religion, the radical secularists solve the problem of religious pluralism by pursuing a Scorched Earth Policy. Recently some Muslims petitioned a school district asking for a Muslim holiday to recognized. In response, the school district cancelled recognition of all religious holiday, including Christmas.
Of course, if you look at the calendar, you discover that "winter holidays" is still right there from December 18 to January 1. So Christmas isn't *really* cancelled. But the school district feels it important to make sure we all realize that they are on the side of the White Witch of Narnia and that they desire it to be always winter and never Christmas.
Of course, we all know, students would bitterly resent having to take off a couple of extra days for Ramadan or whatever the holiday is. And it would be a disaster of the highest order if students from different religious traditions actually learned about each other. No. The far wiser approach is to keep all religious traditions in complete ignorance of one another, the better to induce fear, simple-minded prejudice and mutual enmity. And if non-religious students can be kept completely in the dark about the differences between various tradition, so that they have no comprehension about the history behind our current cultural clashes, all the better. Ignorance is bliss!
How Conversation in Cyberspace Works
You publish some hard facts like this (by the way, "OGA"="Other Government Agency"="CIA" in this report):
However, you then note that the source of the facts is the ACLU and corroborated by other sources.
Result: Large percentage of Combox commentariat completely ignores the facts and says things like, "Hey! The ACLU is a bunch of liberals!" and "Oh, so you trust the MSM!" The apparent idea at work here is that the death by torture of these various people doesn't count if the ACLU or an MSM source reports it. And when you note that the Bush administration (you remember, the people who told us they care about Life Issues) is currently fighting to preserve the right of the CIA to go on torturing, then people start wondering why you've suddenly become a "Bush hater" (meaning "somebody who thinks the President's attempt to justify torture is gravely immoral, as Gaudiem et Spes and Evangelium Vitae clearly teach). Nobody asks why the Bush Administration is justified in seeking the power to torture and (given the results) commit murder. You gotta break a few eggs to make that ideological omelette.
Simply amazing.
Two updates: First, it turns out I am mistaken about corroboration from the MSM. The news article I link is simply based on the ACLU report. That said, there is no particular reason to doubt the facts detailed in the ACLU report.
Second, despite attempts by reader to make that case that the Administration is not really trying to exempt the CIA from prohibitions against torture, but is really concerned about hidden clauses in the law having nothing to do with torture, the fact is that's not so. Cheney's proposal is straightforward: he wants to exempt the CIA from prohibitions on torture, just in case we happen to need them. Just read the article I linked the other day. It's really quite clear.
You publish some hard facts like this (by the way, "OGA"="Other Government Agency"="CIA" in this report):
An Iraqi detainee (also described as a white male) died on January 9, 2004, in Al Asad, Iraq, while being interrogated by “OGA.” He was standing, shackled to the top of a door frame with a gag in his mouth at the time he died. The cause of death was asphyxia and blunt force injuries. Notes summarizing the autopsies record the circumstances of death as “Q by OGA, gagged in standing restraint.” (Facts in the autopsy report appear to match the previously reported case of Abdul Jaleel.)
* A detainee was smothered to death during an interrogation by Military Intelligence on November 26, 2003, in Al Qaim, Iraq. A previously released autopsy report, that appears to be of General Mowhoush, lists “asphyxia due to smothering and chest compression” as the cause of death and cites bruises from the impact with a blunt object. New documents specifically record the circumstances of death as “Q by MI, died during interrogation.”
* A detainee at Abu Ghraib Prison, captured by Navy Seal Team number seven, died on November 4, 2003, during an interrogation by Navy Seals and “OGA.” A previously released autopsy report, that appears to be of Manadel Al Jamadi, shows that the cause of his death was “blunt force injury complicated by compromised respiration.” New documents specifically record the circumstances of death as “Q by OGA and NSWT died during interrogation.”
* An Afghan civilian died from “multiple blunt force injuries to head, torso and extremities” on November 6, 2003, at a Forward Operating Base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. (Facts in the autopsy report appear to match the previously reported case of Abdul Wahid.)
* A 52-year-old male Iraqi was strangled to death at the Whitehorse detainment facility on June 6, 2003, in Nasiriyah, Iraq. His autopsy also revealed bone and rib fractures, and multiple bruises on his body. (Facts in the autopsy report appear to match the previously reported case of Nagm Sadoon Hatab.)
However, you then note that the source of the facts is the ACLU and corroborated by other sources.
Result: Large percentage of Combox commentariat completely ignores the facts and says things like, "Hey! The ACLU is a bunch of liberals!" and "Oh, so you trust the MSM!" The apparent idea at work here is that the death by torture of these various people doesn't count if the ACLU or an MSM source reports it. And when you note that the Bush administration (you remember, the people who told us they care about Life Issues) is currently fighting to preserve the right of the CIA to go on torturing, then people start wondering why you've suddenly become a "Bush hater" (meaning "somebody who thinks the President's attempt to justify torture is gravely immoral, as Gaudiem et Spes and Evangelium Vitae clearly teach). Nobody asks why the Bush Administration is justified in seeking the power to torture and (given the results) commit murder. You gotta break a few eggs to make that ideological omelette.
Simply amazing.
Two updates: First, it turns out I am mistaken about corroboration from the MSM. The news article I link is simply based on the ACLU report. That said, there is no particular reason to doubt the facts detailed in the ACLU report.
Second, despite attempts by reader to make that case that the Administration is not really trying to exempt the CIA from prohibitions against torture, but is really concerned about hidden clauses in the law having nothing to do with torture, the fact is that's not so. Cheney's proposal is straightforward: he wants to exempt the CIA from prohibitions on torture, just in case we happen to need them. Just read the article I linked the other day. It's really quite clear.
Remember when Christianity was evil because it was the enemy of Science and Progress?
Back in those golden days, we were evil because we burnt Galileo at the stake (or something like that), destroyed the Library at Alexandria and (according to impeccable researcher, Dan Brown) had Copernicus murdered.
But that is sooooo 20th Century. In the new Millennium, it turns out that the *real* reason Christians are evil is because they are the champions of Science and Progress. Humans are... a disease, Mr. Anderson. And bizarre Canadian academics are the cure.
Hat tip to the inimitable Kathy Shaidle for finding this weird stuff.
Back in those golden days, we were evil because we burnt Galileo at the stake (or something like that), destroyed the Library at Alexandria and (according to impeccable researcher, Dan Brown) had Copernicus murdered.
But that is sooooo 20th Century. In the new Millennium, it turns out that the *real* reason Christians are evil is because they are the champions of Science and Progress. Humans are... a disease, Mr. Anderson. And bizarre Canadian academics are the cure.
Hat tip to the inimitable Kathy Shaidle for finding this weird stuff.
Thinking Like Chickens
One of my favorite bits of dialogue in Chicken Run is as follows:
Ginger: We die free or we die trying.
Babs: Are those the only choices?
I'm reminded of this sort of chicken brain thinking when I read:
Babs and I are on the same page.
One of my favorite bits of dialogue in Chicken Run is as follows:
Ginger: We die free or we die trying.
Babs: Are those the only choices?
I'm reminded of this sort of chicken brain thinking when I read:
I would rather hear of an unviable fetus being aborted than hear of a mother who drowns her children.
Babs and I are on the same page.
I know the most interesting people
Take, f'rinstance, Imelda Franklin Bogue:
If you live in the Seattle area and have always wanted to see a one-woman cabaret show that's a fusion of opera and stand-up comedy, Imelda's your gal.
It's all happening this weekend at the address on the poster. The advance-ticket hotline is down, but everything else is in order. Email here for more info.
Take, f'rinstance, Imelda Franklin Bogue:
If you live in the Seattle area and have always wanted to see a one-woman cabaret show that's a fusion of opera and stand-up comedy, Imelda's your gal.
It's all happening this weekend at the address on the poster. The advance-ticket hotline is down, but everything else is in order. Email here for more info.
Like Amy...
I simply haven't been following the whole Plamegate thing. In my case, it's simply because the thing seems incredibly convoluted and dull and I have no idea what is going on. I realize this reflects poorly on my status as a Bush hater who will stop at nothing to attack the President, but there it is. Perhaps I will now hear from a new segment of my readership, complaining that my conservative biases are blinding me to the staggering corruption of the administration and causing me to give them a pass when a *real* American would be speaking out and now the mask is off me, etc. blah blah.
Sorry, there's only so many hours in a day. I can't offend everybody, no matter how hard I try. In the meantime, if somebody could summarize what this whole thing is all about so I at least can follow conversations about it, that would be appreciated. I gather that Cheney and Rove are in some kind of hot water, but that's about it. I also gather that some people (apparently Lefties salivating over mid-term election) are shouting stuff about treason while Righties are saying it's all a teapot tempest. Whatever. Could somebody just explain what it's all about?
I simply haven't been following the whole Plamegate thing. In my case, it's simply because the thing seems incredibly convoluted and dull and I have no idea what is going on. I realize this reflects poorly on my status as a Bush hater who will stop at nothing to attack the President, but there it is. Perhaps I will now hear from a new segment of my readership, complaining that my conservative biases are blinding me to the staggering corruption of the administration and causing me to give them a pass when a *real* American would be speaking out and now the mask is off me, etc. blah blah.
Sorry, there's only so many hours in a day. I can't offend everybody, no matter how hard I try. In the meantime, if somebody could summarize what this whole thing is all about so I at least can follow conversations about it, that would be appreciated. I gather that Cheney and Rove are in some kind of hot water, but that's about it. I also gather that some people (apparently Lefties salivating over mid-term election) are shouting stuff about treason while Righties are saying it's all a teapot tempest. Whatever. Could somebody just explain what it's all about?
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
The reviews Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt sound very promising!
I'm so glad to see this! Sounds like a good Christmas present.
I'm so glad to see this! Sounds like a good Christmas present.
Rapture Theology and Understanding the Da Vinci Code!
Yet another cool event for Western Washingtonians this weekend featuring two of my favorites: Dr. Tom Curran and Carl Olson. Don't miss it if you can!
Yet another cool event for Western Washingtonians this weekend featuring two of my favorites: Dr. Tom Curran and Carl Olson. Don't miss it if you can!
A chance to do a good deed today
Katelyn Sills tells the full story of the courageous woman (her mom) who notified Bishop Weigand that a teacher in her Catholic High School was also a stooge for Murder Inc. Naturally, the open-minded apostles of peace and tolerance are flooding this young woman's combox with amazingly vicious hate mail. She's going to face a lot of heat at her school. Drop her a note in the combox and let her know she's not alone in this fight.
Katelyn Sills tells the full story of the courageous woman (her mom) who notified Bishop Weigand that a teacher in her Catholic High School was also a stooge for Murder Inc. Naturally, the open-minded apostles of peace and tolerance are flooding this young woman's combox with amazingly vicious hate mail. She's going to face a lot of heat at her school. Drop her a note in the combox and let her know she's not alone in this fight.
French Prepare to Vote Themselves into Dhimmitude
The goddess of Democracy once again prepares to let down her votaries.
The goddess of Democracy once again prepares to let down her votaries.
George W. Bush: Fighting to Preserve Our Fundamental Right to Torture
Spin this how you will, the bottom line is that the Bush Administration is working with might and main to keep torture open as an option for these United States.
Spin this how you will, the bottom line is that the Bush Administration is working with might and main to keep torture open as an option for these United States.
Moving piece by John Mallon
A friend told me that when it became clear in the conclave that Cardinal Ratzinger was the next Pope, Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne wept. He is reported to have said that this election finally meant the end of the Second World War. A priest who was present at Pope Benedict XVI¹s visit to the synagogue in Cologne during World Youth Day reported on EWTN that he was sitting next to an elderly Jewish woman, a Holocaust survivor, who was weeping. He asked if she was all right and she said, ³Yes. This means for me that the Second World War is finally over.
The ghost of Mengele stirs in his grave, Voices in Berkeley chant over the Ouija Board and summon the spirit of Eugenics
Hitler begins the conquest of California.
Hitler begins the conquest of California.
A reader writes:
Actually, the Church does not preach "zero tolerance". "Zero tolerance" is one of those catchphrases we Americans like to coin in order to substitute for thought in approaching the human person. Zero tolerance has been a gold mine of stupid policies in our school system. Zero tolerance for sexual harrassment has resulted in the prosecution of six year olds who jump out of the tub naked and run to the front yard to wave goodbye to the school bus (I am not making this up). Zero tolerance for school violence has resulted in students being expelled for drawing Star Wars blasters doodles in the margins of their notes. Zero tolerance for "hate speech" has resulted in mass campus protests over use of the word "picnic" (which some ignoramus decided was "racist"). Zero tolerance is an incredibly bad way of dealing with the complexities of human life--which is why the Church's moral theology never employs the term.
We have a perfectly functional system for dealing with criminals. It's called the "the police and the courts". I, for one, favor the jailing of criminal priests and those who protect them. But I vehemently oppose the notion that the Church needs to take a "zero tolerance" attitude toward sinners. That's an extremely quick way to destroy the village in order to save it. Priests who commit grave sin, particularly against children, should be handed their walking papers and (where a crime has been committed) handed over to the cops. But life isn't so simple that all sins are crimes, nor that all sins are worthy of defrocking. And the point, after all, of the gospel is the redemption of the most vile among us. Zero tolerance knows nothing of that. Dragging it into the gospel is a classic example of the temptation to replace Sacred Tradition with the traditions of men. Seems like a good idea at the time, but it will play absolute havoc with the gospel down the road.
As I listened to the last Sunday's gospel, "Render to Cesar the things that are Cesar's, and to God the things that are God", I wondered why we the Church continue to tolerate those who protected homosexual priests. Are we the Church comfortable with relying on the statute of limitations? I don't find any reference in the Bible to the statute of limitations.
We expect our government to charge those who commit crimes or who are complicit in committing crimes. The Church preaches "zero tolerance" when it comes to abortion, divorce, and other sins. It's the height of hypocrisy for we the Church, after all that has happened over the past several years, to fail to adopt the same zero tolerance for homosexual priests and those who protected them, as we do for abortion and divorce. How do we the Church end this criminal practice?
Actually, the Church does not preach "zero tolerance". "Zero tolerance" is one of those catchphrases we Americans like to coin in order to substitute for thought in approaching the human person. Zero tolerance has been a gold mine of stupid policies in our school system. Zero tolerance for sexual harrassment has resulted in the prosecution of six year olds who jump out of the tub naked and run to the front yard to wave goodbye to the school bus (I am not making this up). Zero tolerance for school violence has resulted in students being expelled for drawing Star Wars blasters doodles in the margins of their notes. Zero tolerance for "hate speech" has resulted in mass campus protests over use of the word "picnic" (which some ignoramus decided was "racist"). Zero tolerance is an incredibly bad way of dealing with the complexities of human life--which is why the Church's moral theology never employs the term.
We have a perfectly functional system for dealing with criminals. It's called the "the police and the courts". I, for one, favor the jailing of criminal priests and those who protect them. But I vehemently oppose the notion that the Church needs to take a "zero tolerance" attitude toward sinners. That's an extremely quick way to destroy the village in order to save it. Priests who commit grave sin, particularly against children, should be handed their walking papers and (where a crime has been committed) handed over to the cops. But life isn't so simple that all sins are crimes, nor that all sins are worthy of defrocking. And the point, after all, of the gospel is the redemption of the most vile among us. Zero tolerance knows nothing of that. Dragging it into the gospel is a classic example of the temptation to replace Sacred Tradition with the traditions of men. Seems like a good idea at the time, but it will play absolute havoc with the gospel down the road.
The Web Elves Keep Us Informed about the the Latest Draconian Suppressions by the Compassion Gestapo in the Anglican Communion
I love the Web Elves. Orthodox Pixies of the Counter-Insurgency.
I love the Web Elves. Orthodox Pixies of the Counter-Insurgency.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Whenever I Hear Devotees of the Cult of Democracy Speak Reverently of the Wisdom of the Voters...
...I always hear a great crowd of voices crying as one, "May His blood be on us and on our children."
The Wisdom of the Voters is still baying for innocent blood.
This is why I agree with Chesterton when he says that saying "My Country, Right or Wrong!" is exactly like saying, "My Mother, Drunk or Sober!" When mom's habitually plastered, you don't affirm her in her okayness. You confront the lies and addiction and you labor with prayer and hard work to help her sober up.
My country that I love is getting sicker by the day, drunk on the blood of children and (very soon) on the blood of saints and martyrs. I would be a poor son indeed if I didn't say something.
PS. I do not mean I reject democracy. I still think its the best system devised for preserving subsidiarity. I just don't have the widespread American religious faith in its power to cleanse from sin, to redeem the world, and to sanctify the nations. It can be corrupted like all other human systems.
...I always hear a great crowd of voices crying as one, "May His blood be on us and on our children."
The Wisdom of the Voters is still baying for innocent blood.
This is why I agree with Chesterton when he says that saying "My Country, Right or Wrong!" is exactly like saying, "My Mother, Drunk or Sober!" When mom's habitually plastered, you don't affirm her in her okayness. You confront the lies and addiction and you labor with prayer and hard work to help her sober up.
My country that I love is getting sicker by the day, drunk on the blood of children and (very soon) on the blood of saints and martyrs. I would be a poor son indeed if I didn't say something.
PS. I do not mean I reject democracy. I still think its the best system devised for preserving subsidiarity. I just don't have the widespread American religious faith in its power to cleanse from sin, to redeem the world, and to sanctify the nations. It can be corrupted like all other human systems.
Killjoy writes Opus Dei FAQ
Turns out OD is not full of Ninjas for Bush and brain-washed Albino Assassins covering the secret of the Code. Instead it's all lay people pursuing holiness and love. Happily, the average Dan Brown reader is not deterred by facts or impeded by the thought process, so for many people, mere statements of reality will not slow the productive work of believing the biggest lie about a religion since the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.
If you are one of those tiresome people who wants to actually deal with reality rather than buy lurid lies that confirm your sense of superiority to deluded Catholics, check out the OD FAQ. But be warned: learning to think could lead to unpopularity.
Turns out OD is not full of Ninjas for Bush and brain-washed Albino Assassins covering the secret of the Code. Instead it's all lay people pursuing holiness and love. Happily, the average Dan Brown reader is not deterred by facts or impeded by the thought process, so for many people, mere statements of reality will not slow the productive work of believing the biggest lie about a religion since the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.
If you are one of those tiresome people who wants to actually deal with reality rather than buy lurid lies that confirm your sense of superiority to deluded Catholics, check out the OD FAQ. But be warned: learning to think could lead to unpopularity.
Ya gotta love a Catholic student blog called the Cornell Society for a Good Time
That's a very Chestertonian and Dominican name.
I think their motto should be "The glory of God is a human being fully alive! - St. Irenaeus of Lyons"
That's a very Chestertonian and Dominican name.
I think their motto should be "The glory of God is a human being fully alive! - St. Irenaeus of Lyons"
Voice of the Fuddled Does Self-Diagnostic, Completely Misses the Obvious
Start with wrong questions, get answers that lead you further into confusion. Fr. Bob Carr is on the case.
The ultimate culprits here, however, are not the victims of Stockholm Syndrome in Voice of the Fuddled. It is their teachers: the corrupt clergy and religious educators who traded their birthright for a Pot of Message instead of the true gospel of Jesus Christ in the Catholic Faith. When you are busy laboring to celebrate Homosexuality as the Source and Summit of all that is noble, good and beautiful, as well as doing whatever you can to cover up the crimes that tend to flow from that beautiful subculture, you don't have time to tell people about Jesus. So they blindly adopt whatever trendiness you foist on them and, when you get hauled off in liturgical orange, they latch on to whatever the cultural mood has to offer in order to react. Voice of the Fuddled is what you get when well-meaning people try to "fix" the Church without the slightest understanding of what the Church is. Heart-breaking to watch really.
Start with wrong questions, get answers that lead you further into confusion. Fr. Bob Carr is on the case.
The ultimate culprits here, however, are not the victims of Stockholm Syndrome in Voice of the Fuddled. It is their teachers: the corrupt clergy and religious educators who traded their birthright for a Pot of Message instead of the true gospel of Jesus Christ in the Catholic Faith. When you are busy laboring to celebrate Homosexuality as the Source and Summit of all that is noble, good and beautiful, as well as doing whatever you can to cover up the crimes that tend to flow from that beautiful subculture, you don't have time to tell people about Jesus. So they blindly adopt whatever trendiness you foist on them and, when you get hauled off in liturgical orange, they latch on to whatever the cultural mood has to offer in order to react. Voice of the Fuddled is what you get when well-meaning people try to "fix" the Church without the slightest understanding of what the Church is. Heart-breaking to watch really.
A reader writes:
Thanks for your encouraging word! We at Catholic Exchange aims to please!
Thank you for your podcasts. For a 25-year old catholic in this world, they are a true relief and joy to listen to. I've passed on knowledge of their existence to all of my friends. God bless.
Thanks for your encouraging word! We at Catholic Exchange aims to please!
The St. Catherine of Siena Institute is hiring
They're Catholic, which means they're far too poor to cover the cost of a move. But if you live in thearea of Colorado Springs and you want to be involved in one of the coolest apostolates in the Church, check it out.
They're Catholic, which means they're far too poor to cover the cost of a move. But if you live in thearea of Colorado Springs and you want to be involved in one of the coolest apostolates in the Church, check it out.
DEVELOPMENT OFFICER Catherine of Siena Institute, a national Catholic ministry. 30 hrs/wk. Skills required include donor solicitation, public relations, excellent writing, verbal communication. Competency with Access database desired. Must have knowledge of the Catholic Church and be personable, organized, accurate, detail-oriented, and able to work independently. $25k. Resumes to: CSI PO Box 26440 Colo Spgs CO 80936.
Sensitivity Gestapo Prosecutes Five-Year-Old Boy with Dangerous Picture of Jesus
The Face must not be seen! The J word must not be spoken or the country's done for!
If you like you can write the loony school district and the administator, Jeanne Dangle. Some variation on, "Are you people out of yer freakin' minds?" seems appropriate.
The Face must not be seen! The J word must not be spoken or the country's done for!
If you like you can write the loony school district and the administator, Jeanne Dangle. Some variation on, "Are you people out of yer freakin' minds?" seems appropriate.
Muslims Beat People Up--Yet Again
This time its Copts. Happily, they are just Christians, so it doesn't really matter. Besides they probably had it coming. Christians always do.
This time its Copts. Happily, they are just Christians, so it doesn't really matter. Besides they probably had it coming. Christians always do.
Harriet Miers Tells us Not to Read Too Much Into Bush's Claims to Care about the Reform of the Judiciary or Roe v. Wade
Message received, Harriet. You're coming in loud and clear.
Message received, Harriet. You're coming in loud and clear.
Edinburgh University Makes its Contribution to the Suicide of the West
The happy news in this article is the courage of the Stirling students. Christians of the UK, unite! You have nothing to lose but the disdain of the Chattering Classes!
The happy news in this article is the courage of the Stirling students. Christians of the UK, unite! You have nothing to lose but the disdain of the Chattering Classes!
Opus Dei Assassins! Eek!
This Madsen guy was in the news a couple of years ago as I recall. Something about claiming the Pope thought Bush was the antichrist if I recall. So you can see he's a sober journalist. One minute, the Pope is the Voice of Godly Authority going up against Bushitler. Next minute, the Pope is the Fuehrer in charge of an elite team of SS operatives in cowls, bent on World Domination.
It's easy being a journalist when the Voices tell you what to write.
This Madsen guy was in the news a couple of years ago as I recall. Something about claiming the Pope thought Bush was the antichrist if I recall. So you can see he's a sober journalist. One minute, the Pope is the Voice of Godly Authority going up against Bushitler. Next minute, the Pope is the Fuehrer in charge of an elite team of SS operatives in cowls, bent on World Domination.
It's easy being a journalist when the Voices tell you what to write.
Victor Davis Hanson vs. Elizabeth Anscombe
Anscombe kicks his butt worse than she once kicked C.S. Lewis' butt in debate.
Anscombe kicks his butt worse than she once kicked C.S. Lewis' butt in debate.
Speaking of which...
another addition to our bulging "Show me a culture that despises virginity and I'll show you a culture that despises children" file.
This also demonstrates Shea's Law of Ratcheted Perversion. This law states that once one form of sexual license is granted, the culture unmoored from the Christian tradition will always liberalize a logical consequence of the license rather than go back and repent the initial rejection of Christian morality. So, for instance, rather than rethink abortion, we legalize euthanasia. Here, rather than rethink our glib attitude toward heterosexual statutory rape, we simply make our attitude toward homosexual statutory rape equally glib.
another addition to our bulging "Show me a culture that despises virginity and I'll show you a culture that despises children" file.
This also demonstrates Shea's Law of Ratcheted Perversion. This law states that once one form of sexual license is granted, the culture unmoored from the Christian tradition will always liberalize a logical consequence of the license rather than go back and repent the initial rejection of Christian morality. So, for instance, rather than rethink abortion, we legalize euthanasia. Here, rather than rethink our glib attitude toward heterosexual statutory rape, we simply make our attitude toward homosexual statutory rape equally glib.
I'd Never Heard of "Happy Tree Friends" Till This Article
The producer sounds to me like a one man argument for the return of certain forms of public corporal punishment such as stocks, flogging, or tarring and feathering. The one redeeming feature of this news story is that it has opened the eyes of a WaPo writer to the reality of the Culture War and the culture of death which hates children with a satanic passion.
The producer sounds to me like a one man argument for the return of certain forms of public corporal punishment such as stocks, flogging, or tarring and feathering. The one redeeming feature of this news story is that it has opened the eyes of a WaPo writer to the reality of the Culture War and the culture of death which hates children with a satanic passion.
Our Courts: Increasingly Becoming the Weapons of the Powerful Against the Weak
If things keep going as they are, it will be just a matter of time before the powerful will be using the courts to kill the weak--I mean even *after* they've been born.
If things keep going as they are, it will be just a matter of time before the powerful will be using the courts to kill the weak--I mean even *after* they've been born.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Anne Rice: Apostle to the Vampires
Lacking more info, I will rejoice over her conversion, but proceed with caution. The tendency in the United States, with our Protestant heritage, is to assume every conversion is an instant and complete one. We get this from a cartoon image of St. Paul: knocked from his horse and instantly suffused with a deathless faith and perfect grasp of Christ Jesus and him crucified.
The reality is far more complex. It took at least a decade for Saul to be made into Paul. And that took more than a (highly amenable to Protestant American Rugged Individualist mythology) time out in the desert, thinking things over. It also took intensive immersion in the liturgy of the Church at Antioch and the sacrament of ordination (note the gesture that goes with Paul's sending forth in Acts 13, the laying on of hands). Only after all this does Saul really start to come into his own as Paul.
But our culture believes deeply in the Instant Transformation. So when a Bob Dylan announces himself "born again" we expect him to have the instant spiritual maturity of the Apostle Paul and, if he's famous, we claim his scalp as a new convert and shove him out there as an advertising shill for Jesus Brand[TM] religion. Sometimes the convert sticks with it (and if they are smart, almost immediately fade from the public eye so they can get their bearings). A lot of times, the new convert dies on the vine, or is only half-converted to some mixture of an emotional experience and a bunch of trendy junk. So, for instance, Jane Fonda now considers herself a Christian (her sincerity I do not doubt at all) yet she is, one must say it, stunningly ignorant of anything approaching orthodox Christianity and full of the latest Dan Brown claptrap about goddess worship and all the rest of trendy gnosticism.
In Rice's case, I'm a bit more hopeful because she's returned to the Catholic faith. But as we all know, it's anybody's guess how she defines the Catholic faith. The transformative power of the sacraments is not to be sneezed at, but it makes me a bit nervous when I read of a relatively new convert starting an ambitious series of novels that seek to get inside the psychology of our Lord. It is a trade hazard of writers that we can build idols out of characters. All the more dangerous when the character is our Lord. Pride makes it easy to mold him to our preferences and then worship the fictional Jesus rather than let him mold us to his as we worship the real Jesus.
Still, as I say, I'm not the Holy Spirit and I don't know what he's up to in Ms. Rice's life. Life is mysterious and she may create great art out of her renewed relationship with Jesus. Certainly, I have to admire her guts in risking the alienation of her fans. May our Lord take the honest offering of her heart and turn it toward her sanctification and our good. And may we do what we can to support a sister in Christ with love and welcome, and avoid unrealistic expectations and an exploitive attitude.
Lacking more info, I will rejoice over her conversion, but proceed with caution. The tendency in the United States, with our Protestant heritage, is to assume every conversion is an instant and complete one. We get this from a cartoon image of St. Paul: knocked from his horse and instantly suffused with a deathless faith and perfect grasp of Christ Jesus and him crucified.
The reality is far more complex. It took at least a decade for Saul to be made into Paul. And that took more than a (highly amenable to Protestant American Rugged Individualist mythology) time out in the desert, thinking things over. It also took intensive immersion in the liturgy of the Church at Antioch and the sacrament of ordination (note the gesture that goes with Paul's sending forth in Acts 13, the laying on of hands). Only after all this does Saul really start to come into his own as Paul.
But our culture believes deeply in the Instant Transformation. So when a Bob Dylan announces himself "born again" we expect him to have the instant spiritual maturity of the Apostle Paul and, if he's famous, we claim his scalp as a new convert and shove him out there as an advertising shill for Jesus Brand[TM] religion. Sometimes the convert sticks with it (and if they are smart, almost immediately fade from the public eye so they can get their bearings). A lot of times, the new convert dies on the vine, or is only half-converted to some mixture of an emotional experience and a bunch of trendy junk. So, for instance, Jane Fonda now considers herself a Christian (her sincerity I do not doubt at all) yet she is, one must say it, stunningly ignorant of anything approaching orthodox Christianity and full of the latest Dan Brown claptrap about goddess worship and all the rest of trendy gnosticism.
In Rice's case, I'm a bit more hopeful because she's returned to the Catholic faith. But as we all know, it's anybody's guess how she defines the Catholic faith. The transformative power of the sacraments is not to be sneezed at, but it makes me a bit nervous when I read of a relatively new convert starting an ambitious series of novels that seek to get inside the psychology of our Lord. It is a trade hazard of writers that we can build idols out of characters. All the more dangerous when the character is our Lord. Pride makes it easy to mold him to our preferences and then worship the fictional Jesus rather than let him mold us to his as we worship the real Jesus.
Still, as I say, I'm not the Holy Spirit and I don't know what he's up to in Ms. Rice's life. Life is mysterious and she may create great art out of her renewed relationship with Jesus. Certainly, I have to admire her guts in risking the alienation of her fans. May our Lord take the honest offering of her heart and turn it toward her sanctification and our good. And may we do what we can to support a sister in Christ with love and welcome, and avoid unrealistic expectations and an exploitive attitude.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
I'm outta here till Monday
Tomorrow I'm blasting off for beeyootiful Pittsburg (pronounced, "Picksburgh") PA to speak on Saturday at the Total Catholic Education Conference. Last time I was there I met Greg Popcak, as well as having an absolutely hilarious dinner with various members of the OSV editorial staff, Mike Aquilina and assorted others. There's a really great line-up of people a lot more interesting than me at this years conference and I hope I get to catch some of 'em. I also hope I can catch a meal with various old friends. However, I arrive on Friday night, do the talk on Sat. morning and then I'm on a plane mid-afternoon to get back home. So it'll be catch-as-catch-can.
Anyhow, I'll see y'all Monday and if you can catch the conference in Pittsburgh I hope we can connect!
You kids don't put no beans up your nose while I'm gone!
Tomorrow I'm blasting off for beeyootiful Pittsburg (pronounced, "Picksburgh") PA to speak on Saturday at the Total Catholic Education Conference. Last time I was there I met Greg Popcak, as well as having an absolutely hilarious dinner with various members of the OSV editorial staff, Mike Aquilina and assorted others. There's a really great line-up of people a lot more interesting than me at this years conference and I hope I get to catch some of 'em. I also hope I can catch a meal with various old friends. However, I arrive on Friday night, do the talk on Sat. morning and then I'm on a plane mid-afternoon to get back home. So it'll be catch-as-catch-can.
Anyhow, I'll see y'all Monday and if you can catch the conference in Pittsburgh I hope we can connect!
You kids don't put no beans up your nose while I'm gone!
Attention Seattleites, Western Washingtonians, and You Other High Falutin' Greeks!
Don't miss this evening's inaugural meeting of the Seattle G.K. Chesterton Society for the 2005-2006 Academic Year:
See you there!
Don't miss this evening's inaugural meeting of the Seattle G.K. Chesterton Society for the 2005-2006 Academic Year:
Thursday, October 20 at 7:30 PM, Falcon Lounge, Seattle Pacific University
Brian Glenney, University of Southern California, School of Philosophy, “Finding Jesus Christ in a Post-Christian World: The Case of G. K. Chesterton”
G. K. Chesterton is one of the greatest Christian apologists of all time, and an inspiration for the conversion of C. S. Lewis and many others. But what inspired Chesterton himself to embrace Christianity? A discussion of Chesterton’s road to conversion by a leader of the Southern California Chesterton Society.
See you there!
Dead Theologians Society
This is cool. A reader writes:
Sounds great! Let's see more!
This is cool. A reader writes:
The Diocese of Baker (Yay Bishop Vasa!) is starting this group up as the high school youth group in as many parishes as possible. I attended the initial meeting last night at our parish, and was very happy and impressed. The meetings start with social time for the kids, go into a solemn and holy lesson and activities, followed by food and more social time. Kids received a finger rosary blessed by Pope Benedict, brought back by our leader who had just returned from Rome!
The kids were quiet and attentive during the meeting, but for me the clue to the result was in the social time afterwards. They stayed to eat heartily, and were cheerfully and excitedly talking about everything that concerned them (not just the meeting.) This wouldn't have happened if they hadn't had a good experience.
I am SO hopeful about this. DTS nurtures a truly holy and Catholic sensibility, and more people should know about it.
Sounds great! Let's see more!
Pediatrics Journal: Pointing the way for future generations of American doctors to Do the Full Canadian on American parents
Backward American parents keep insisting they should have a say in the lives of their children. Thankfully, American medicine is applying the full might of science to this problem and find way to keep parents from driving a wedge between pliant children and their medical Masters. We can only hope the day will come when meddlesome parents can jailed for such unwanted interference.
Backward American parents keep insisting they should have a say in the lives of their children. Thankfully, American medicine is applying the full might of science to this problem and find way to keep parents from driving a wedge between pliant children and their medical Masters. We can only hope the day will come when meddlesome parents can jailed for such unwanted interference.
Women are from Venus, but Swedish feminists are from Deep, Deep Space
More Leftist totalitarian hijinx from the people who brought you the Vikings. Perhaps it's a sick attempt to atone for the destruction and terrorization of Europe for centuries.
Or maybe it's just the effects of too much ABBA on a whole generation of Swedish brains.
More Leftist totalitarian hijinx from the people who brought you the Vikings. Perhaps it's a sick attempt to atone for the destruction and terrorization of Europe for centuries.
Or maybe it's just the effects of too much ABBA on a whole generation of Swedish brains.
Great Interview with Barb Nicolosi over at Godspy
As Sherry Weddell says, "She so gets it, she is rapidly becoming one of my heroes."
Way to go, Barb!
As Sherry Weddell says, "She so gets it, she is rapidly becoming one of my heroes."
Way to go, Barb!
The Redoubtable John Mallon writes:
Here's a sample of John's work. If you can see your way clear to helping a brother in Christ, that would be very good of you.
I have been a bit under the weather recently and haven't written much. This is a problem because writing is my main and usually only source of income. The clerical sex scandals of 2002 have created a crisis for many of us doing lay apostolic work. People have not only stopped giving to their dioceses and parishes, but to lay run non-profits as well. This is ironic because lay apostolates--at least the orthodox ones--are the ones addressing the problems in the Church structure that led to the scandals.
I don't like to ask, and seldom do, but if my articles are helpful or useful to you and you would like to make a donation to support my work, you may do so by clicking on the PayPal donation button here:
To anyone who contributes I will email a pdf file of my collection of all my Sooner Catholic editorials and columns entitled, For the Real World, Volume I: Essays and Commentaries on Being Catholic at the 2nd Millennium's End.
God bless you, and Thanks,
John
Here's a sample of John's work. If you can see your way clear to helping a brother in Christ, that would be very good of you.
The Left's Hatred of Children is Given Voice in Almost Chemical Purity by Mark Morford
Mr. Morford, I have four boys. We will bury you.
Mr. Morford, I have four boys. We will bury you.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Soviet Canuckistan: Picture Stalin in Your Mom's Apron and Sensible Shoes
Oh sure, our Neighbor to the North *wants* to be a repressive tyrannical utopian state. But do Nice People really have the cojones to jail and shoot the number of people necessary to make such a system work? I think after a few years of this resurgent secular Puritanism there's going to be a revolt. Something in the blood rebels at this absurd nannyism.
Oh sure, our Neighbor to the North *wants* to be a repressive tyrannical utopian state. But do Nice People really have the cojones to jail and shoot the number of people necessary to make such a system work? I think after a few years of this resurgent secular Puritanism there's going to be a revolt. Something in the blood rebels at this absurd nannyism.
Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves
Good thing those barbaric Muslims aren't doing this or it would be evil.
Good thing those barbaric Muslims aren't doing this or it would be evil.
Parents of High Schoolers Fail to Acknowledge Homosexuality as the Source and Summit of All that is Noble, Good, and Beautiful
Sadly, re-education camps are not yet in the budget. But the Forces of Social Progress are laboring toward the day such thoughts will be classifiable as Hate Crimes and punishable by law. Then our children will be safe to think as they are told.
Sadly, re-education camps are not yet in the budget. But the Forces of Social Progress are laboring toward the day such thoughts will be classifiable as Hate Crimes and punishable by law. Then our children will be safe to think as they are told.
I have a Doppelganger!
Apparently, there's another Mark Shea out there and he's *also* written a book that looks exactly like my By What Authority?. I conclude this, based on a review of the book at Reformed Catholic. Whoever this other Mark Shea is, he appears to have written quite a number of things that my By What Authority does not contain.
Not that this other Shea is totally dissimilar. Apparently, he also writes in an autobiographical style that "forces one to make a more subjective and sympathetic view of Roman Catholicism than is absolutely necessary." (Yes, it's always important to be on guard against extending any more sympathy to a fellow Christian than is absolutely necessary.) But there are also many features to his book that I can't find in mine.
For example:
Apparently this other Shea claims that there is some sort of monolithic unity among Evangelicals, to the degree that his experience and theology is absolutely uniform with all other Evangelicals. I would have to disagree with that other Shea, which is I why I never claimed any such thing in my book and have, on multiple occasions made clear that there is no such thing as Protestantism, but only Protestantisms as diverse as the number of Protestants. Yes, there are common features in different groups (and my group displayed features commonly known as "Evangelical". But I never claimed to speak for All Evangelicals. I simply recorded my broad experience of Evangelicalism.
This, again, is rather puzzling since the book *I* wrote is primarily dealing with the reality of Sacred Tradition (a reality as widely acknowledged among the Orthodox as among Catholics). I spoke of the authority of bishops and said, if memory serves, not a word about the particular office of the bishop of Rome (beyond mentioning that Irenaeus traced its succession). Yet, apparently this other Mark Shea wrote something like Steve Ray's Upon This Rock, a ringing defense of the authority of the papacy. My book wasn't concerned about the papacy or the authority of Rome per se. It was about the authority of sacred tradition. That's why it got a cheery review from an Orthodox reader in Touchstone. Since this is so, I can only assume the other Mark Shea must have included quite a lengthy discussion of the Petrine office. After all, it couldn't be that the reviewer wasn't rightly considering my arguments and was, in fact, fore-armed against any consideration of them by an anti-Roman prejudice so strong that he wound up arguing against a phantom that is not even present in the pages of my book.
Again, this must be a response to the other Shea's book. In my book, I specifically said that discovering the validity of Sacred Tradition did not automatically prove the Church's case. Rather, I said, it necessitated going back and re-assessing the Church's case in light of the validity of Sacred Tradition and finding out if any of the Church's teaching was actually anti-biblical. I end the book by saying that I couldn't find anything anti-biblical and so became Catholic. But I don't tell the reader "Since sacred tradition is real, you'd better knuckle under to the Pope right now, buster." Rather, I suggest that we should find out whether the Church's teaching is contrary to Scripture. In short, the book is an invitation to further exploration, not a command to come Home to Rome.
Once again, this other Shea seems to have made a number of extraordinary claims that I would never make. The idea that Sacred Tradition somehow excuses the Church's leaders of all error and sin is intriguing. I'd like to meet this other Shea and set him straight on that. I'd also like to meet the mysterious League of Roman Catholic apologists who deny that Catholic leaders have ever sinned or erred. I know quite a number of them, and all the ones I know would laugh heartily at this notion. I agree that apologists for the Catholic faith do sometimes talk as though Protestants are all fools, second class citizens or scoundrels. But I don't recall doing that in my book. In fact, I began the book with a long paean of praise for my Protestant roots. So I assume again that the reviewer is speaking about something the other Shea wrote.
The review then continues with a brief discussion of the Church's need to take responsibility for ill-treatment of Protestants, a call for the Catholic Church to be more humble, and then this conclusion:
I quite agree that humility is never unbecoming the Bride of Christ. Unlike many Catholics, I deeply appreciated the prolonged act of penance that Pope John Paul II performed in apologizing for the various sins committed by Catholics (including Catholic popes and bishops) in the past Millennium. The Pope recognized that sins committed in the name of Christ are grave indeed. I can only assume that the reviewer is not familiar with John Paul's actions in this regard. But I'm glad he is aware of Benedict's ecumenical efforts. Unhappily, the other Mark Shea seems to be wholly unaware of them. However, on the bright side I am aware of them. Moreover, my book goes out of its way to affirm in common with Evangelicalism what can be affirmed while making clear, as charitably as I can, where Evangelicalism diverges from apostolic teaching. Given that Dominus Iesus--the letter on the relationship between the Catholic Faith and other religious traditions--likewise affirms what can be affirmed in common with other traditions, while refusing to pretend that we're all really saying the same thing, I trust that, should the reviewer ever get a chance to read my book he will discover that its apologetic for Sacred Tradition (not for the Petrine office) is rooted in current Magisterial teaching.
If the reviewer wants a free copy of *my* book I will be happy to send it along.
Apparently, there's another Mark Shea out there and he's *also* written a book that looks exactly like my By What Authority?. I conclude this, based on a review of the book at Reformed Catholic. Whoever this other Mark Shea is, he appears to have written quite a number of things that my By What Authority does not contain.
Not that this other Shea is totally dissimilar. Apparently, he also writes in an autobiographical style that "forces one to make a more subjective and sympathetic view of Roman Catholicism than is absolutely necessary." (Yes, it's always important to be on guard against extending any more sympathy to a fellow Christian than is absolutely necessary.) But there are also many features to his book that I can't find in mine.
For example:
There are evangelicals who will resonate (and probably have) with Shea's presentation. But others like myself won't and many will be left wondering exactly where the exceptional arguments for Roman Catholicism are in the book. The truth is that evangelicals are at least as incredibly diverse as their Catholic brothers and pretending that the experience of Shea ought to be relevant to even a large part of evangelicals would certainly be misleading.
Apparently this other Shea claims that there is some sort of monolithic unity among Evangelicals, to the degree that his experience and theology is absolutely uniform with all other Evangelicals. I would have to disagree with that other Shea, which is I why I never claimed any such thing in my book and have, on multiple occasions made clear that there is no such thing as Protestantism, but only Protestantisms as diverse as the number of Protestants. Yes, there are common features in different groups (and my group displayed features commonly known as "Evangelical". But I never claimed to speak for All Evangelicals. I simply recorded my broad experience of Evangelicalism.
For some of us, the standard popular Roman Catholic apologetic arguments don't work and won't work--not because we won't rightly consider them but because they just aren't convincing from our point of view and they don't apply to our understanding of the matters at hand. In general, these sorts of arguments are largely irrelevant.
For example, argue all you like that Rome has apostolic authority. Many of us here are quite ready to grant that Rome still has apostolic authority (whether for the sake of argument or in reality) and some even go so far as to say the Pope has a legitimate role in governing the Western Church. The question we put forward to Mark Shea and other demanding Roman Catholics in this regard is simply: So what?
This, again, is rather puzzling since the book *I* wrote is primarily dealing with the reality of Sacred Tradition (a reality as widely acknowledged among the Orthodox as among Catholics). I spoke of the authority of bishops and said, if memory serves, not a word about the particular office of the bishop of Rome (beyond mentioning that Irenaeus traced its succession). Yet, apparently this other Mark Shea wrote something like Steve Ray's Upon This Rock, a ringing defense of the authority of the papacy. My book wasn't concerned about the papacy or the authority of Rome per se. It was about the authority of sacred tradition. That's why it got a cheery review from an Orthodox reader in Touchstone. Since this is so, I can only assume the other Mark Shea must have included quite a lengthy discussion of the Petrine office. After all, it couldn't be that the reviewer wasn't rightly considering my arguments and was, in fact, fore-armed against any consideration of them by an anti-Roman prejudice so strong that he wound up arguing against a phantom that is not even present in the pages of my book.
Having that sort of authority doesn't automatically mean that we are necessarily to be a part of Mother Church as certain Roman Catholic apologists would have us believe nor does it necessarily follow that as a result of her authority her word is unquestionable on matters where we disagree.
Again, this must be a response to the other Shea's book. In my book, I specifically said that discovering the validity of Sacred Tradition did not automatically prove the Church's case. Rather, I said, it necessitated going back and re-assessing the Church's case in light of the validity of Sacred Tradition and finding out if any of the Church's teaching was actually anti-biblical. I end the book by saying that I couldn't find anything anti-biblical and so became Catholic. But I don't tell the reader "Since sacred tradition is real, you'd better knuckle under to the Pope right now, buster." Rather, I suggest that we should find out whether the Church's teaching is contrary to Scripture. In short, the book is an invitation to further exploration, not a command to come Home to Rome.
Having this authority also doesn't excuse her errors and immorality in the past. If anything it makes Rome even more responsible than has been previously argued (or admitted to by certain Roman Catholic apologists) and we put forward a hopefully light-hearted analogy that illustrates a decisive challenge for Roman Catholics to consider. In order for us to feel like it's safe for us to come home, we need to have assurances that we won't be treated like the red-headed stepchild some apologists think we evangelical or Reformed Christians are.
Once again, this other Shea seems to have made a number of extraordinary claims that I would never make. The idea that Sacred Tradition somehow excuses the Church's leaders of all error and sin is intriguing. I'd like to meet this other Shea and set him straight on that. I'd also like to meet the mysterious League of Roman Catholic apologists who deny that Catholic leaders have ever sinned or erred. I know quite a number of them, and all the ones I know would laugh heartily at this notion. I agree that apologists for the Catholic faith do sometimes talk as though Protestants are all fools, second class citizens or scoundrels. But I don't recall doing that in my book. In fact, I began the book with a long paean of praise for my Protestant roots. So I assume again that the reviewer is speaking about something the other Shea wrote.
The review then continues with a brief discussion of the Church's need to take responsibility for ill-treatment of Protestants, a call for the Catholic Church to be more humble, and then this conclusion:
However, I believe in large part this sort of Christlike use of her authority is happening especially with the advent of Pope Benedict XVI and other men committed to a proper ecumenism devoid of the old partisan apologetic intent. I believe it signals that popular Roman Catholic apologetics is in serious need of an update (as well as corresponding evangelical and Reformed apologetics towards Rome) and that the days of the validity and usefulness of Mark Shea's and similar approaches are certainly numbered.
Of course, the most ironic thing to me about this book is that it doesn't fit with what the current crop of leaders from the top down are doing in terms of ecumenism and their work with other Christian groups. In large part, in my view it works against the current authority in place in today's Roman Catholic Church and it makes me wonder just how important legitimate ecclesial authority is to the author and the other Roman Catholic apologists on the Internet or elsewhere that make similar claims.
I quite agree that humility is never unbecoming the Bride of Christ. Unlike many Catholics, I deeply appreciated the prolonged act of penance that Pope John Paul II performed in apologizing for the various sins committed by Catholics (including Catholic popes and bishops) in the past Millennium. The Pope recognized that sins committed in the name of Christ are grave indeed. I can only assume that the reviewer is not familiar with John Paul's actions in this regard. But I'm glad he is aware of Benedict's ecumenical efforts. Unhappily, the other Mark Shea seems to be wholly unaware of them. However, on the bright side I am aware of them. Moreover, my book goes out of its way to affirm in common with Evangelicalism what can be affirmed while making clear, as charitably as I can, where Evangelicalism diverges from apostolic teaching. Given that Dominus Iesus--the letter on the relationship between the Catholic Faith and other religious traditions--likewise affirms what can be affirmed in common with other traditions, while refusing to pretend that we're all really saying the same thing, I trust that, should the reviewer ever get a chance to read my book he will discover that its apologetic for Sacred Tradition (not for the Petrine office) is rooted in current Magisterial teaching.
If the reviewer wants a free copy of *my* book I will be happy to send it along.
Sheehan Jumps Shark Completely out of Dem Tank
They made her. Now they will break her. Her utility is over.
They made her. Now they will break her. Her utility is over.
A reader writes
Meanwhile, Clayton Emmer is writing from the latest Ground Zero for the Scandal.
Since Amy's comments are down, I am sending this to you. I read Amy's post about the UCCB agenda, so I called the UCCB office Washington to ask if this were true. The president's secretary told me that the agenda has not been set. She asked what was I interested in, and I told her Philadelphia and Los Angeles. "What about Philadelphia and Los Angeles?" "The Philadelphia grand jury report and the Los Angeles document dump on clergy abuse" "Well, there's alot going on in Philadelphia and Los Angeles."
I told her to read the NCR piece, that it all over the internet, and that if Philly and LA are not on the agenda and discussed at the meeting, "things could get ugly".
If anyone wants to contact the UCCB call 202-541-3000
Meanwhile, Clayton Emmer is writing from the latest Ground Zero for the Scandal.
Reader Sydney Carton Tries to Figure Out Reader Chris Sullivan's Claim that Islam and Christianity are Perfectly Reconcilable
There's no figuring it out, because Chris is in error. They cannot ultimately be reconciled, any more than 2+2 can be reconciled with 5. Islam agrees with the other two great monotheistic traditions in that it insists there is one God. It agree that this God is the God of Abraham. So far, so good. Morally, it insists upon a few key things like our duty to the poor, our duty of hospitality, the goodness of fasting, and a few other features of the biblical tradition, including reverence for Mary and a belief Jesus will return at the end of time to judge the world. But it's rather a spot of bother if you try to get a Muslim to confess Jesus as God or mention his death on the cross. You might get your tongue cut out for your trouble. Chris, the cockeyed optimist, has some clever way of trying to square this circle, but for the rest of us, it's a tough sell.
There's no figuring it out, because Chris is in error. They cannot ultimately be reconciled, any more than 2+2 can be reconciled with 5. Islam agrees with the other two great monotheistic traditions in that it insists there is one God. It agree that this God is the God of Abraham. So far, so good. Morally, it insists upon a few key things like our duty to the poor, our duty of hospitality, the goodness of fasting, and a few other features of the biblical tradition, including reverence for Mary and a belief Jesus will return at the end of time to judge the world. But it's rather a spot of bother if you try to get a Muslim to confess Jesus as God or mention his death on the cross. You might get your tongue cut out for your trouble. Chris, the cockeyed optimist, has some clever way of trying to square this circle, but for the rest of us, it's a tough sell.
I Suspect the Teacher was a Human Toothache
Catholic teacher gets fired for refusing to display the flag. I think the notion that flags are "aggressive" is silly. And I think the notion that the supranationality of the Church *cancels* the duty of patriotism is flatly false. Put in plain English, this is exactly the same as saying that the duty to love God cancels the duty to love our neighbor. Patriotism is simply one manifestation of the love of neighbor. Catholics, so far from being exempt, are bound to love their country.
By itself, this silly notion hardly seems like a firing offense. But people with silly notions like this often have a large backlog of annoying behaviors and things like this simply constitute the last straw.
Catholic teacher gets fired for refusing to display the flag. I think the notion that flags are "aggressive" is silly. And I think the notion that the supranationality of the Church *cancels* the duty of patriotism is flatly false. Put in plain English, this is exactly the same as saying that the duty to love God cancels the duty to love our neighbor. Patriotism is simply one manifestation of the love of neighbor. Catholics, so far from being exempt, are bound to love their country.
By itself, this silly notion hardly seems like a firing offense. But people with silly notions like this often have a large backlog of annoying behaviors and things like this simply constitute the last straw.
More Cool Stuff at Blessed Sacrament for all you Western Washingtonians
Come hear Fr. Ed White, a newly-ordained priest, on fire with love for the Church! He'll be addressing the relationship between humanity's creation as an image of the Trinity and how that image is corrupted through contraception. The talk will be at Blessed Sacrament Church in the University District (www.blessed-sacrament.org) on October 29 at 10 a.m. in the Parish Hall, and there will be ample time for questions and answers. Don't miss this opportunity to hear from one of our diocese's new priests!
Following the talk and q&a (which will take about an hour), we'll have refreshments.
Here are a few words by Fr. Ed about himself:
"I was ordained June 11, 2005 after 4 years of Theology at Mundelein Seminary, Chicago. Previous to seminary I worked in two parishes in Seattle as a Pastoral Associate, and have a BA in Religious Studies from Seattle University. I helped found the Helpers of God's Precious Infants with Matt Ulrich in Seattle, as well as ProLife Hike and Western Washington ProLife Network (www.prolife-network.org). My
current assignment is as Parochial Vicar, St. Charles Borromeo in Tacoma. I enjoy hiking in my free time."
Mark your calendars, and we hope to see you on the 29th! If you know of others who might be interested in this talk, feel free to forward the information along.
Articles that should be read back to back
This, then this.
One of the weirdnesses of the post-Reformation era was the odd spectacle of Catholic monarchs allying themselves with Protestant forces in battle to make war on other Catholics. I can't help but be reminded of this as a semi-messianic faith in Democracy as the cure for sin leads many Catholics to say "Oh well, gotta break some eggs to make an omelette" as the Chaldean Catholic Church faces the real possibility of destruction.
This, then this.
One of the weirdnesses of the post-Reformation era was the odd spectacle of Catholic monarchs allying themselves with Protestant forces in battle to make war on other Catholics. I can't help but be reminded of this as a semi-messianic faith in Democracy as the cure for sin leads many Catholics to say "Oh well, gotta break some eggs to make an omelette" as the Chaldean Catholic Church faces the real possibility of destruction.
This looks interesting
Dear Mark:
I've been going through the Catholic blogosphere for a couple of weeks, and it's been suggested by a couple of bloggers that I make contact with you. Since I am one of those backward-looking Catholics (with semi-apologies to Edward Bellamy and other socialists), I started at the alphabetical end of the list of Catholic blogs that I could find, and finally worked my way into the Cs. I started my journey hunting for people who might be interested in a project some friends and I put together to revive the fiction of Robert Hugh Benson.
That was the intent, anyway. The effort has slowly been transformed into trying to introduce people to the "Just Third Way" of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice ("CESJ"). CESJ has developed what Father Matthew Habiger, O.S.B., Ph.D., former head of Human Life International (and current member of our board of counselors) calls a pro-life economic agenda. By the way, if you are favorably inclined to Culture Wars magazine, edited by Dr. E. Michael Jones, please be advised that Dr. Jones and his economic advisor, Dr. Rupert J. Ederer, Ph.D., have decided that CESJ (and I) are subverting Catholic social teaching, as Dr. Ederer made clear in his article in the May, 2005 issue of the magazine. We are also, apparently, closely connected with the International Jewish Conspiracy, and Dr. Ederer has privately referred to me as "The Smoke of Satan" -- apparently CESJMFT -- CESJ Means Fine Tobacco.
Anyway, our current project is a proposal to finance the rebuilding of the areas affected by Katrina and Rita in a manner consistent with Catholic social teaching and without putting everything on the backs of the taxpayers:
The proposal is based on principles detailed in our book, Capital Homesteading for Every Citizen, available as a free download from the web site. Capital homesteading is derived from the social doctrine of Pius XI, particularly as found in Quadragesimo Anno and Divini Redemptoris, and the economic justice ideas of Louis Kelso and Mortimer Adler in their books, The Capitalist Manifesto (1958) and The New Capitalists (1961). Despite the latter titles, what Kelso and Adler discuss is the antithesis of both capitalism and socialism. Some people have described CESJ's "Just Third Way" as a 21st century distributism, but we differ from Chesterton and Belloc's distributism in two important ways. One, we focus on access to the means of acquiring and possessing future, uncreated wealth, rather than on redistribution of existing wealth. Two, we advocate that business enterprises be of appropriate size, neither small nor large just for the sake of smallness or argeness.
I invite you to look over the material on the web site. If you have any
questions, please feel free to e-mail either me or Dr. Norman G.
Kurland, CESJ's president, at thirdway@cesj.org.
Yours,
Michael D. Greaney
Director of Research
Center for Economic and Social Justice
www.cesj.org
Chris Sullivan Thanks God for Answering Your Prayers
He writes:
He writes:
Dear Sister and Brothers in Christ,
Peace be with you.
Thank you so much for your prayers for my Dad and those caring for him which have certainly been answered.
Dad had a very bad day Friday and Saturday. But was much better Sunday morning when he wanted to come to mass with us (he's a very lapsed Catholic and used to believe that the Catholic Church was the greatest con job out). He received Holy Communion and said it changed his attitude and was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to him.
He moved into a rest home Monday where he is getting the 24/7 care he needs. Interestingly, his room overlooks our Church.
God bless you and all your good work
Chris
My Latest at Catholic Exchange
Speaking of which, I have a Praise Report.
As several people have remarked, I've been out of sorts lately. I hadn't quite understood why and hadn't really known what to do about it. But a combination of sitting in front of the Eucharist ("spiritual radiation therapy") and reading the Psalms has been helpful. I sat by the Eucharist the other evening after Perry Lorenzo's talk and the thought popped into my head "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you." I've been rather slow in this department of late, so I thought I had better try. That was all for the evening, except that the evening got rather darker after that. A gloom and a pall fell over me and I felt considerably more depressed.
I think that was the unpleasant sensation of blood returning to the numb limb--a good thing. Because last night, when I read Psalm 23 and came to the words "surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life" it hit me: I've been feeling depressed ever since I finished the Mary book.
And I think I know why. I'm very pleased with the Mary book. In many ways, it felt, while I was writing it, like my life had been leading up to this book. Getting this book *right* was crucially important to me and I didn't want to blow it. But there's a down side to that. Because if you feel deeply that your life has been leading up to something and then that something if over--then what?
I share the general Shea tendency (a very Irish tendency, I suspect) to say, "The Golden Days are over. The happy times are behind you. You're getting older and you've outlived your usefulness. The aches and pains are only going to get worse and you're only going to slow down more. So thanks for your invaluable service. Now here's your gold watch, a quick round of applause from your co-workers for a job well done, and off you go to oblivion." This is aided and abetted by the fact that a number of people very close to me have, in the normal course of life, been forced to move out of state due to jobs, etc.--a blow that felt like losing both my legs. One sustains oneself as one can, but the wound never fully heals. And one of the sustaining things is, of course, work. But when a big work project is over, one again feels the loneliness (coupled with a "You're past your sell-by date" feeling come crowding in).
Partly it's the sin of idolatry. Instead of serving God as Father, I fall into the trap of serving him as Employer. Employment ends. Sonship doesn't. And that's why the verse from Ps. 23 hit me. The gloom I've felt has tempted me to believe the lie "Oh, all that joy of salvation you felt in your younger days was just youthful high spirits. That's all crap and it's fading into the harsh light of day. All the hope and promise you used to feel was just a delusion to get good job performance out of you. Now that you've done your bit, there's no point in bothering with your needs and feelings anymore. See that your desk is cleaned out and lock the door behind you when you leave."
But that's not what "surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life" means. The Love that made and redeemed us is about infinitely more than Job Performance. It deeply reassured me that this whole silly scenario that has been playing on my weakness and fear is another little lie from old Scratch. I don't know what God has in store for me next. But the virtue of Hope is ultimately aimed at a lot more than this. Ultimately, our Hope cannot be satisfied by this Universe. We are bigger than the world. I thank God for getting through to me on that point and I ask your prayers that I could repent this sin fully, learn this lesson completely, and follow him more nearly.
Speaking of which, I have a Praise Report.
As several people have remarked, I've been out of sorts lately. I hadn't quite understood why and hadn't really known what to do about it. But a combination of sitting in front of the Eucharist ("spiritual radiation therapy") and reading the Psalms has been helpful. I sat by the Eucharist the other evening after Perry Lorenzo's talk and the thought popped into my head "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you." I've been rather slow in this department of late, so I thought I had better try. That was all for the evening, except that the evening got rather darker after that. A gloom and a pall fell over me and I felt considerably more depressed.
I think that was the unpleasant sensation of blood returning to the numb limb--a good thing. Because last night, when I read Psalm 23 and came to the words "surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life" it hit me: I've been feeling depressed ever since I finished the Mary book.
And I think I know why. I'm very pleased with the Mary book. In many ways, it felt, while I was writing it, like my life had been leading up to this book. Getting this book *right* was crucially important to me and I didn't want to blow it. But there's a down side to that. Because if you feel deeply that your life has been leading up to something and then that something if over--then what?
I share the general Shea tendency (a very Irish tendency, I suspect) to say, "The Golden Days are over. The happy times are behind you. You're getting older and you've outlived your usefulness. The aches and pains are only going to get worse and you're only going to slow down more. So thanks for your invaluable service. Now here's your gold watch, a quick round of applause from your co-workers for a job well done, and off you go to oblivion." This is aided and abetted by the fact that a number of people very close to me have, in the normal course of life, been forced to move out of state due to jobs, etc.--a blow that felt like losing both my legs. One sustains oneself as one can, but the wound never fully heals. And one of the sustaining things is, of course, work. But when a big work project is over, one again feels the loneliness (coupled with a "You're past your sell-by date" feeling come crowding in).
Partly it's the sin of idolatry. Instead of serving God as Father, I fall into the trap of serving him as Employer. Employment ends. Sonship doesn't. And that's why the verse from Ps. 23 hit me. The gloom I've felt has tempted me to believe the lie "Oh, all that joy of salvation you felt in your younger days was just youthful high spirits. That's all crap and it's fading into the harsh light of day. All the hope and promise you used to feel was just a delusion to get good job performance out of you. Now that you've done your bit, there's no point in bothering with your needs and feelings anymore. See that your desk is cleaned out and lock the door behind you when you leave."
But that's not what "surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life" means. The Love that made and redeemed us is about infinitely more than Job Performance. It deeply reassured me that this whole silly scenario that has been playing on my weakness and fear is another little lie from old Scratch. I don't know what God has in store for me next. But the virtue of Hope is ultimately aimed at a lot more than this. Ultimately, our Hope cannot be satisfied by this Universe. We are bigger than the world. I thank God for getting through to me on that point and I ask your prayers that I could repent this sin fully, learn this lesson completely, and follow him more nearly.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
From our "Gee, for a Fat Lady You Sure Don't Sweat Much" Dept.
A few years ago my father-in-law was visiting his brother in Texas. Saturday evening rolled around and he was starting to think about trying to locate the nearest parish for Mass. So he called to the neighbor over the back fence (his brother was gone) and asked where the nearest parish was.
The guy, a very friendly and neighborly man, furrowed his brow, thought, and replied, "Well, I'm sorry, sir, I'm afraid I don't know. We're all Christian around here." My father-in-law chuckled about it and said he was as cheery and friendly as could be. There was obviously no intent to insult. He just didn't have a clue.
I think of that story as I read this perky and upbeat story on the new Mary "idol" in Chicago. It's written utterly without guile and with no intent to insult in the world, like the child's "compliment" in the headline of this entry.
But it does make you shake your head at the level of ignorance among journalists when it comes to covering religion.
A few years ago my father-in-law was visiting his brother in Texas. Saturday evening rolled around and he was starting to think about trying to locate the nearest parish for Mass. So he called to the neighbor over the back fence (his brother was gone) and asked where the nearest parish was.
The guy, a very friendly and neighborly man, furrowed his brow, thought, and replied, "Well, I'm sorry, sir, I'm afraid I don't know. We're all Christian around here." My father-in-law chuckled about it and said he was as cheery and friendly as could be. There was obviously no intent to insult. He just didn't have a clue.
I think of that story as I read this perky and upbeat story on the new Mary "idol" in Chicago. It's written utterly without guile and with no intent to insult in the world, like the child's "compliment" in the headline of this entry.
But it does make you shake your head at the level of ignorance among journalists when it comes to covering religion.
Fr. Rob writes:
I'm relieved to hear this. I'm not a nuke science guy so I was disturbed by the link in the Lickone letter. Chalk it up to another urban legend, I guess.
Question to those who are persuaded I "hate Bush" and will stop at nothing to attack him: please explain why I published the above letter instead of just round filing it.
I have a friend who has Ph.Ds in both nuclear physics and computer engineering (he's also a faithful Catholic who taught himself Latin in order to read St. Thomas in the original). He spent a number of years at JPL and the Lawrence Livermore Labs working on SDI related research for a Nameless Government Entity. He used to keep a fairly large (baseball sized) exotically-machined lump of depleted uranium on his desk. The DU is metallurgically identical to its more dangerous relation and is used for design and testing purposes in the fabrication of nuclear weapons. The point: it is about as dangerous as keeping lump of lead on your desk.
As one commentor pointed out, the uranium is _depleted_. It has much _less_ radioactivity than raw uranium ore, which is itself not considered radiologically hazardous. Uranium has to be highly processed and enriched to be useable as fuel in a reactor, and even more highly processed to be weapons-grade.
A man I know well is a nuclear reactor Operating Engineer (and before that a reactor officer in the Navy), and he says essentially the same thing. The fact is, you could sleep with a lump of DU under your pillow for the rest of your life and the only ill effects you'd suffer are bruises from knocking your head on the thing.
I'm sure Mr. Lickona is well-meaning, but in this case I think he's been had.
Oh, and the protesters? Protesting peacefully is one thing, but the blood-pouring stunt is vandalism, and they should be prosecuted for it. The blood-pouring thing and the language they use leads me to suspect these people are of the same moonbat species to be found wasting their time protesting the School of the Americas.
I'm relieved to hear this. I'm not a nuke science guy so I was disturbed by the link in the Lickone letter. Chalk it up to another urban legend, I guess.
Question to those who are persuaded I "hate Bush" and will stop at nothing to attack him: please explain why I published the above letter instead of just round filing it.
I'm not trying to be an adversary, honest
It's just that, when the GOP owns both Congress and the White House, there's little point in discussing what irrelevant liberals are up to. My position on the war is not new. I've been making it clear that I thought it was unjust for quite a long time. And it's not true that I "seize on every stick" to beat Bush with. I took a post down the other day because I thought it was unfair to Bush. Nor do I think Bush does everything wrong. However, I do think Bush has bollixed up some extremely important things. When my team no longer holds two branches of government and the power to appoint judges to the third (a situation they are laboring to bring about) I will happily talk about the resurgent Dems. But, at present, the GOP owns the headlines and the Dems can only react and look for weaknesses.
That said, I do take to heart the complaint about my sharp tongue. It's a failing of mine and I shall try to amend it. Prayers would be appreciated.
It's just that, when the GOP owns both Congress and the White House, there's little point in discussing what irrelevant liberals are up to. My position on the war is not new. I've been making it clear that I thought it was unjust for quite a long time. And it's not true that I "seize on every stick" to beat Bush with. I took a post down the other day because I thought it was unfair to Bush. Nor do I think Bush does everything wrong. However, I do think Bush has bollixed up some extremely important things. When my team no longer holds two branches of government and the power to appoint judges to the third (a situation they are laboring to bring about) I will happily talk about the resurgent Dems. But, at present, the GOP owns the headlines and the Dems can only react and look for weaknesses.
That said, I do take to heart the complaint about my sharp tongue. It's a failing of mine and I shall try to amend it. Prayers would be appreciated.
"It's just fiction"
Greg Krehbiel reminds me of a point I was thinking about. Greg notes that he occasionally gets nastygrams from people for a bad review he gave Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. When I read people say this, I can only conclude that they have never given any serious thought to the labor involved in writing a book. A fiction author, perhaps even more than a non-fiction writer, has to put intense amounts of work into creating a coherent world. For every page you read, there are countless hours of careful deliberation that go into creating it. Even an author who really really sucks--like Dan Brown--has not just dashed off his book in an afternoon. A huge amount of architecting, care and (in Brown's and Pullman's case) malice aforethought has gone into constructing the world and the argument they are making. Writing a book often takes months or years of work.
And we're supposed to believe that "they meant nothing serious by it" and dismiss it all since it's fiction? If you think that, I have a bridge to sell you.
Greg Krehbiel reminds me of a point I was thinking about. Greg notes that he occasionally gets nastygrams from people for a bad review he gave Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. When I read people say this, I can only conclude that they have never given any serious thought to the labor involved in writing a book. A fiction author, perhaps even more than a non-fiction writer, has to put intense amounts of work into creating a coherent world. For every page you read, there are countless hours of careful deliberation that go into creating it. Even an author who really really sucks--like Dan Brown--has not just dashed off his book in an afternoon. A huge amount of architecting, care and (in Brown's and Pullman's case) malice aforethought has gone into constructing the world and the argument they are making. Writing a book often takes months or years of work.
And we're supposed to believe that "they meant nothing serious by it" and dismiss it all since it's fiction? If you think that, I have a bridge to sell you.
Because it's October, one of the most poetic months of the year in my book...
Here's two by Hopkins:
AS kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I do is me: for that I came.
Í say móre: the just man justices;
Kéeps gráce: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—
Chríst—for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
*******************
and perhaps the most Octoberish of his poems:
Hurrahing in Harvest
SUMMER ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks arise
Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour
Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-wavier
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?
I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes,
Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour;
And, éyes, heárt, what looks, what lips yet gave you a
Rapturous love’s greeting of realer, of rounder replies?
And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding shoulder
Majestic—as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet!—
These things, these things were here and but the beholder
Wanting; which two when they once meet,
The heart rears wings bold and bolder
And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off under his feet.
Here's two by Hopkins:
AS kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I do is me: for that I came.
Í say móre: the just man justices;
Kéeps gráce: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—
Chríst—for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
*******************
and perhaps the most Octoberish of his poems:
Hurrahing in Harvest
SUMMER ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks arise
Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour
Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-wavier
Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?
I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes,
Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour;
And, éyes, heárt, what looks, what lips yet gave you a
Rapturous love’s greeting of realer, of rounder replies?
And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding shoulder
Majestic—as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet!—
These things, these things were here and but the beholder
Wanting; which two when they once meet,
The heart rears wings bold and bolder
And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off under his feet.
Disputations is refreshingly plain-spoken
Evil. Yes, that's the word I was looking for.
Oh, and please note that, contra our emotive culture, Tom is not writing to "call names" or be emotionally incontinent. He is, as he puts it, limiting himself to what can be objectively demonstrated. The guy is cool as a cucumber, like St. Thomas. He habitually prefers light to heat. If I were Diogenes I would tremble at this assessment, go home, and rethink my life.
Evil. Yes, that's the word I was looking for.
Oh, and please note that, contra our emotive culture, Tom is not writing to "call names" or be emotionally incontinent. He is, as he puts it, limiting himself to what can be objectively demonstrated. The guy is cool as a cucumber, like St. Thomas. He habitually prefers light to heat. If I were Diogenes I would tremble at this assessment, go home, and rethink my life.
Tom Hoopes of the National Catholic Register writes me:
I haven't followed the controversy over the Register's editorial position on Miers and so this note was a small bolt from the blue. FWIW, I think they take a legit position, though not the one I'd take. I respect their "wait and see" approach, but my heart is with the guys with the clubs.
We're taking some heat for our Harriet Miers editorial, which is now online at www.ncregister.com (which is a much better website now than it used to be, by the way, though still under construction). So I wanted to send it to you with the little rebuttal I've prepared to the charges I've been hearing.
For those who follow such things, no, the National Catholic Register isn't blindly for whatever Bush does. We have always parted ways on war and the death penalty (which unfortunately causes great consternation to many of our readers who hold other acceptable positions), and here are the stances some of our recent editorials took:
June's "Betrayal" asked, "Are Republicans bidding farewell to pro-life supporters?" then cited evidence that might indicate that Frist and Co. are doing just that. "If they are," we wrote, "then many Catholics will be bidding farewell to the Republican Party."
From a July list of "Myths and Facts of Roe v. Wade": "Myth: Democratic appointees to the Supreme Court are pro-Roe; Republican appointees oppose it. Fact: It is true that the Democratic appointees on the court can be counted on to protect the basic Roe v. Wade ruling. But most pro-Roe justices were appointed by Republicans. Ford appointed John Paul Stevens, Ronald Reagan appointed Anthony Kennedy and O'Connor and George H.W. Bush appointed David Souter."
In September, "The Careful Lawyer" trained a critical eye on John Roberts for his loving words about Griswold and Casey.
After the last election, "Make Them Earn Catholic Votes" we noted that "The Republican Party and President Bush conducted an unprecedented outreach to Catholics in their last campaign. We warmly support that effort, insofar as it makes the GOP more friendly to Catholics, and not just vice versa. ... Ask a Catholic why she's Republican, and she'll tell you it's the party that favors life, is better for Catholic education, is more likely to enforce decency standards in media and schools, and is more willing to give faith a voice in public places. Yet Republican presidents gave us a pro-abortion Supreme Court majority, and Republican Congresses have passed only a few pro-life bills. Republicans have all but eliminated voucher proposals from education plans. The party's rising stars are prominent secularists like Arnold Schwarzeneggar, Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain."
Among the things we vowed "We Won't Forget" about the Terri Schiavo case: "When Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed legislation to save Terri, we rejoiced - but what we remember now is the disappointment we felt when the state of Florida did nothing to enforce its own law. When a midnight session of Congress sent legislation to President Bush to save Terri, he signed it in his pajamas. But what we remember is the deep frustration we felt as Congress allowed its action to be ignored."
We find it unfortunate that the White House didn't follow our advice when Sandra Day O'Connor retired, which was summed up in another editorial's headline: "Pryor, Brown or Owen for Supreme Court!" But we aren't ready to be part of the gauntlet that is forming to greet Harriet Miers with clubs on her path to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room.
Read the editorial. Disagree with it, pillory us as the "elite anti-elite" for it, call us short-sighted ... but don't say it's just another example of us bowing to Bush and the GOP. Whatever it is, it's not that.
I haven't followed the controversy over the Register's editorial position on Miers and so this note was a small bolt from the blue. FWIW, I think they take a legit position, though not the one I'd take. I respect their "wait and see" approach, but my heart is with the guys with the clubs.
Next: Jim Nabors named top male vocal stylist by Britons
When Chomsky and Dawkins are in the top three, what's left to be said about the English intellectual tradition? It's compost for sharia by the end of the century.
When Chomsky and Dawkins are in the top three, what's left to be said about the English intellectual tradition? It's compost for sharia by the end of the century.
In other news, Chertoff vows to hold back the waters of the Niagara in the palm of his hand and knock each and every raindrop out of the sky with a BB gun
You have to admire the sheer quixotic hubris of the promise.
You have to admire the sheer quixotic hubris of the promise.
A friend sends along this disturbing letter from Tom Lickona, father of Matthew Lickona
Polls now show less than half of Americans support the war in Iraq. Recently, four members of Ithaca Catholic Worker-Daniel Burns (age 45), sisters Clare Grady (46) and Teresa Grady (40), and Peter DeMott (58)-went on federal trial in Binghamton for their civil disobedience in opposition to the Iraq war.
The U.S. attorney's office is charging them with "conspiracy to impede a U.S. officer" because of their actions at a Lansing military recruiting office on St. Patrick's Day, 2003, two days before the U.S. invaded Iraq. If convicted, they face up to six years in prison and fines of $250,000 each. The St. Patrick's Four have stated that their action was taken to protest "the crime of pre-emptive war," which they and many others believe violates international law. (For background and daily updates on the trial, see www.stpatricksfour.org).
Clare Grady explains what she and the other members of the "St. Patrick's Four" did: "In full view of friends, family, and the press, we began to carefully pour our blood on the walls, windows, and floor in the entrance area of the center. After pouring our blood, we knelt and read our statement, which began with a quote from St. Patrick, 'Killing cannot be with Christ.'"
Their statement read in part: "All life is holy. We come here today with pictures of Iraqi people-mothers, fathers, children . . . We come with love in our hearts for the young U.S. service people, also victims of war making."
In a subsequent column for The Ithaca Journal, the St. Patrick's Four wrote: "Blood is the sacred substance of life. As Catholics, when we receive the Eucharist, we acknowledge our oneness with God and the entire human family. We went to the recruiting center using what we have-our bodies, our blood, our words, our spirits-to implore our country away from the tragedy of war and toward God's reign of peace and justice."
Civil disobedience-breaking a law in the name of a higher law-has always been controversial, but it has a long and honored history. Harriet Tubman ran the illegal "underground railroad" to help slaves escape to the North. Susan B. Anthony was arrested for casting a vote. Rosa Parks started the 1960s civil rights movement by refusing to go to the back of the bus. Many Americans, including Catholic clergy and laity, have been arrested for non-violently blocking abortion clinics to protest the shedding of innocent blood.
Pope John Paul II vigorously opposed the onset of the Iraq War, reminding us that the suffering caused by war is always beyond our imagining. One especially horrific but under-reported consequence of the Iraq war has been the radioactive poisoning of densely populated areas of Iraq.
This radioactive poisoning has been attributed to U.S. use of weapons made of depleted uranium, beginning in the Persian Gulf War and continuing in the current war. Doctors in Iraq report that adult cancer and childhood leukemia rates are soaring. There are Iraqi babies born without heads or limbs, sometimes covered in a white film, sometimes with gaping holes in their torsos ( www.web-light.nl/VISIE/extremedeformities.html).
All of us have to answer to our conscience and to God for the actions of our government done in our name. As Catholics and as citizens, we must not shrink from confronting the question, Is this a just war? Is there not another path to peace?
A chance to help a brother in Christ
Daniel Mitsui is one awesome artist. But he recently lost his job. He's not in trouble, and should be employed again soon, but since his heart is now set on applying for architecture school (first choice Notre Dame, of course), a few big sales or commissions could really help him pay his existing educational debt and cover his expenses in the meantime.
Also, he's about to mail out many portfolios and thought my readers might know some parishes or publishers or organizations that would be interested in commissioning original illustrations.
Check out his work!
Daniel Mitsui is one awesome artist. But he recently lost his job. He's not in trouble, and should be employed again soon, but since his heart is now set on applying for architecture school (first choice Notre Dame, of course), a few big sales or commissions could really help him pay his existing educational debt and cover his expenses in the meantime.
Also, he's about to mail out many portfolios and thought my readers might know some parishes or publishers or organizations that would be interested in commissioning original illustrations.
Check out his work!
Bio-Scientists Continue to Explore Weapons of Mass Destruction...
...of children. But it's okay because it could result in firm buttocks and rosy cheeks for Baby Boomers.
...of children. But it's okay because it could result in firm buttocks and rosy cheeks for Baby Boomers.
Monday, October 17, 2005
C.S. Lewis on Diogenes
Lewis writes in his little classic Mere Christianity:
It's difficult for me to avoid thinking of that passage when I read Diogenes, one of those people so brimming with the love and hope of Jesus that he can read a story about a Muslim leader who is laboring to get his people to turn away from violence, who speaks respectfully to Christians, and who donated $100,000 for Katrina relief--and who can only put the darkest construction on it.
Lewis writes in his little classic Mere Christianity:
Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or
not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one's first feeling, "Thank God, even they aren't quite so bad as that," or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally, we shall insist on seeing everything -- God and our friends and ourselves included -- as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred.
It's difficult for me to avoid thinking of that passage when I read Diogenes, one of those people so brimming with the love and hope of Jesus that he can read a story about a Muslim leader who is laboring to get his people to turn away from violence, who speaks respectfully to Christians, and who donated $100,000 for Katrina relief--and who can only put the darkest construction on it.
The perfect Christmas gift for the switched-on Leftist obsessive for whom the personal is the political
When it's All About Power, then even your own children are simply billboards made out of meat.
I'd like to see a line of baby clothes from these people with logos like "I'm luckier than my siblings: My mother let me live!" or "Wouldn't I look better chopped up and injected into a vain woman's cheeks?" but I suspect that the enthusiasts for this shirt:
...dislike being reminded that they support such things.
When it's All About Power, then even your own children are simply billboards made out of meat.
I'd like to see a line of baby clothes from these people with logos like "I'm luckier than my siblings: My mother let me live!" or "Wouldn't I look better chopped up and injected into a vain woman's cheeks?" but I suspect that the enthusiasts for this shirt:
...dislike being reminded that they support such things.
Show me a culture that despises virginity and I'll show you a culture that despises children
Down below, one of my readers is chewing me out for thinking that the fall affects even capitalists. (He's responding to this post.)
Thanks to Dale Price, I rest my case.
Down below, one of my readers is chewing me out for thinking that the fall affects even capitalists. (He's responding to this post.)
Thanks to Dale Price, I rest my case.
Attention Western Washingtonians!
Monday night at Blessed Sacrament Church!: Perry Lorenzo on von Balthasar
Tonight, the ever-interesting Perry Lorenzo, who is in charge of the education department of the Seattle Opera, will be giving the second in a three part series of lectures on the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar. Those of you who have already heard Lorenzo speak know what a fine teacher he is. Those of you who haven't should, if at all possible, carve out time from your schedules to come to the lecture at Blessed Sacrament parish in the University District in Seattle, Monday night, October 17 at 7:00. The address is Blessed Sacrament Church, 5050 8th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105. It's a freebie, but there is a suggested donation of $10 if you can see your way clear. Contact Jesson Mata, our religious ed guy, for more information.
Best Review "Rock Solid" has gotten so far
"It's like a cross between Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and a really kick-ass Sunday school class."
If you haven't done so yet, make a habit of checking for your daily update of "Rock Solid". The show's host is married to my wife and I've known him most of my life.
"It's like a cross between Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and a really kick-ass Sunday school class."
If you haven't done so yet, make a habit of checking for your daily update of "Rock Solid". The show's host is married to my wife and I've known him most of my life.
A reader writes:
Here's where the St. Catherine of Siena Institute can come in awfully handy. Their insights into the Church's magisterial teaching on charism and vocation (including charisms like "administration") as well as the Church's teaching on lay and ordained collaboration in governance are vital in navigating these difficult questions. By all means, schedule them to offer a "Called and Gifted" weekend for your parish (or parish cluster) ASAP. I guarantee you will benefit from it.
Our diocese is planning to announce the need for parish clustering. I understand this to be sharing of parish administrators, priests, facilities and programming. To some extent the economies of scale will be a good thing. However, I am concerned that there will be a disintegration of leadership at the parish level. The sheep need a Shepard. How can committees of lay personnel or 'banks' of priests fulfill our human desire for a good leader?
Here's where the St. Catherine of Siena Institute can come in awfully handy. Their insights into the Church's magisterial teaching on charism and vocation (including charisms like "administration") as well as the Church's teaching on lay and ordained collaboration in governance are vital in navigating these difficult questions. By all means, schedule them to offer a "Called and Gifted" weekend for your parish (or parish cluster) ASAP. I guarantee you will benefit from it.
I love getting letter like this one:
Dear Mark,
This little note comes to thank you for the words of encouragement and support you had given me almost a year ago when I was looking for material to use on Holy Spirit Interactive (HSI) On-Line. If you recall, you had told me that I could use your "Sheavings" and had blogged my letter as an example of what was happening in the "Islamosphere".
HSI has since then grown to become a huge ministry. In addition to the web site, we have an Outreach Program that uses dance, drama and music to reach out to people. We have a Discipleship Program which helps people be witnesses to the world by living like Christ. We have a Scripture Study Program, Youth Ministry, Kids Ministry, Music Ministry and much else. While much of it is undoubtedly because of God's blessings, it also would not have been possible without your help and I am truly grateful.
You are one of the most popular writers on the HSI web site and have helped a lot of Catholics - both learned and otherwise - learn more about their faith. To quote somebody very high up - and I do mean high up - in the Vicariate of Arabia: "I never quite understood indulgences until I read the article by Mark Shea on HSI."
I am off tonight to Bombay and Goa on the first leg of a tour that ends in Canada this year. I know that you travel quite a lot too and I hope that at some point our paths will cross so that I can thank you personally. Until then please let this letter serve as a sincere expression of my gratitude.
Blessings and love,
Aneel (Aranha)
........................................................
Founder - Holy Spirit Interactive
May the Spirit be with you
Loyalty Uber Alles
Bush's friends contend that it is the conservative elite, not the President, who miscalculated and that self-righteous right-wingers stand to lose their seats at the table of power for the next three years. "They're crazy to take him on this frontally," said a former West Wing official. "Not many people have done that with George Bush and lived to tell about it." If a Justice Miers eventually takes her seat on the court, vocal critics can only hope the Bush Administration handles the punishment of the treasonous as poorly as it is currently promoting one of its most loyal subjects.
Abu Ghraib Torturers Went By the Book
It's a comfort to know that our torturers aren't a bunch of freelancers. They followed the CIA Instruction Manual closely. After all, if a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing right!
It's a comfort to know that our torturers aren't a bunch of freelancers. They followed the CIA Instruction Manual closely. After all, if a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing right!
Interesting observations from George Weigel
What recently happened in New Orleans was widely exaggerated by agenda driven media. Still, the simple fact is that there were 100,000 people who were incapable of basic civic responses. The first thing that the religious community should have been saying about this is not: "Where was the government?" The first thing the religious community says is: "How have we not dented this community, how have we not converted these people?"
The reason why Evangelicalism has been successful in Latin America not only has to do with the more warm, fuzzy, emotive dimensions of that kind of Christianity and its worship, it also has to do with the fact that it changes behaviours. It pretty well changes male behaviour. When men stop drinking their salaries, stop beating their wives, start saving money, work seriously, they suddenly find: "Hey, I am in the middle class all of a sudden." That is a powerful reinforcement to the conversions. The Catholic church did this for immigrant populations in the US for 150 years. Most of the Catholics who came to the United States were what we would today call the underclass. It was the church, Catholic education, the network of Catholic social services, all of these ordered to empowering people, to getting people to be what the Catholic church is today: essentially the largest middle class and indeed upper middle class collection of practising Catholics in the history of the church. That is what we need to rediscover in terms of the underclass in the US today.
Madonna Converts to Gnosticism
It's a step up from her former ruthless, sleepless, unsmiling concentration on Self, but it could still stand rather a lot of improvement.
It's a step up from her former ruthless, sleepless, unsmiling concentration on Self, but it could still stand rather a lot of improvement.
Turns out Phillip Pullman stil hates Narnia and God
The author Lifesite News never seems to have heard of in their Harry Potter-persecuting zeal continues to wield his little trident. He's the go-to guy when reporters need to bring "balance" to the "controversy" over Narnia. You'll be hearing a lot more when they bring His Dark Materials to the screen.
The author Lifesite News never seems to have heard of in their Harry Potter-persecuting zeal continues to wield his little trident. He's the go-to guy when reporters need to bring "balance" to the "controversy" over Narnia. You'll be hearing a lot more when they bring His Dark Materials to the screen.
Kudos to the Principal!
I was particularly amused by the senior who said this action "didn't solve anything."
It would appear that it solved the problem of prom night bacchanals quite nicely. It's true that it doesn't solve the problem of parental idiocy, but you can't have everything.
I was particularly amused by the senior who said this action "didn't solve anything."
It would appear that it solved the problem of prom night bacchanals quite nicely. It's true that it doesn't solve the problem of parental idiocy, but you can't have everything.