Okay. Now I'm outta here.

Have a splendid Thanksgiving!

When you behave contrary to the will of God

...you have to do violence to language in order to justify that. Linguistic violence has a tendency to lead to real violence. Hence the prevalence of gay brownshirts. Here's a little sample of linguistic violence directed at one person who spoke the obvious:

Andrew Sullivan finds me "vile," "ugly," and full of "bile." To my old friend W. Scott Thompson, I am driven by "fear, blinding anger, and hatred." To Franklin E. Kameny, I am a "two-bit little homophobic bigot." To Matthew Rubenstein, I am a "Neanderthal in drag" who cannot tell "the difference between an argument and a cross-burning." To Yaakov Levado, I "play the game of anti-Semites," while George Jochnowitz reminds me that Jews repent on Yom Kippur of "the sin of causeless hatred." Then, having put on this little demonstration of what lies in wait for anyone who opposes the gay-rights movement, its proponents go on to claim that it won because it has better arguments.

An assignment for my readers (since I gotta get to work)

Help this guy!

I am the Cubmaster for my son's Cub Scout Pack. We are gathering the boys this Saturday at the Naval base movie theater to watch a movie this Saturday. The theater permits private parties to rent the facility for $25, choose from their vast movie archives, and eat all the theater junk food they care to pay for (the renters are free to provide their own food and not pay for any theater food, too). We're making the "admission price" one gift for the Toys for Tots program, and are having a couple of Marines come in the collect the toys from the boys in their dress uniforms and combat fatigues.

Anyhow, I'm looking for a suitable Christmas movie to show. I initially proposed "A Christmas Story," the one with Ralphie and his efforts at obtaining a Red Rider BB Gun. I watched it this past weekend, however, and had forgotten that it's got a fair amount of mild profanity in it, e.g., "you betchyurass," "sonuvabitch," and bastard -- and not just from Darren McGavin's "The Old Man". I'm now a bit reluctant to show it to the boys, the youngest being only six-years old.

I've asked for suggestions from the den leaders, but the best they've come up with is Jim Carrey's Grinch movie. Er, thanks, but no. I pointed out some of your criticisms to one of the parents and his response was, "I don't read reviews. I mean, what does Hollywood know except porn and related stuff these days?" This, from a very smart and successful businessman.

So-o-o-o, how about you, Mr. Mark P. Shea's Visual Media-guy? Any good recommendations that the boys will most likely enjoy, and perhaps even the parents, too?

As an aside on a completely different subject, a fella from the office is wearing his Mason belt buckle today. Another worker asked him about it, and he immediately started trumpeting the Catholic Church's objections to the group, pooh-poohing it as mere sour grapes. That is, he claims that the Popes were all members up until 1752 when the Masons decided to let non-Catholics in, thus taking away the Church's control over the group. Sounds like a bunch of hooey to me, but I'm at a loss as to where I can go or info to refute his historical claims. I believe the Catechism has some verbiage on the prohibition for its members, but I don't think it gets into the history of the group and/or the Church's relationship to the group. Can you give me a steer as to where I can educate myself?

Very briefly:
Movie: Why not an old classic like "Fantastic Voyage" or "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad"? Anybody else got any ideas?

Office mate's claims: Your response should be, "Documentation please?"

Your resource for stuff on Masonry: New Advent or Catholic Answers.

Christmas vs. Advent

A reader asks:

One thing I would love to see discussed on your Blog is whether I'm the only one out there who battles not only cultural Catholics, but even orthodox Catholics about the true meaning of Advent and the true meaning of Christmas and the fact that they are NOT the same! I refuse to play Christmas carols until Christmas Eve. In my neighborhood, Christmas trees are out for trash pickup on December 26th! I continue playing carols until the Christmas season is over. Am I all alone in this?

I'm not a stickler about Christmas carols, but I try to keep Advent in a Adventish spirit, which is typically pretty fun at Chez Shea since I don't necessarily think penance and preparation for the birth are the opposite of fun. And I'm a big one for celebrating the Twelve Days.

More people in need of Insensitivity Training

And another thing! How come we call jacks "male" and "female"? Why don't we call them "jacks" and "jills"? And what about the rape imagery inherent in the term "plug n' play"? O the humanity!

The more comfortable a culture becomes, the more it is has to concoct imaginary struggles in order to compensate for the fact that it has no real ones.

Basically, Steve's right, of course.

However, remember that the Church's moral theology specifies three things necessary for grave sin: grave matter, sufficient knowledge, and freedom. Merely supporting abortion does not necessarily put you out of the Church, because you may do so because you are an uneducated idiot, or because something in your background might be so traumatizing ("I watched my mother be raped by the KGB. She aborted that baby. Are you telling me she's in hell?") that a person doesn't have the interior freedom to consider the Church's teaching clearly. In our culture, I think there's a huge amount of ignorance and also a great lack of freedom (think of every young girl ever pressured by boyfriends and parents to abort). So while support for abortion is certainly contrary to Catholic teaching, there are probably lots of cases where Catholics are, at best, material heretics, not formal ones.

This, among other things, is why we are commanded not to judge. Non-Catholic *ideas* should be rejected with great force. The people who hold them should be presumed Catholic if they call themselves Catholic. It's the bishop's task to excommunicate, not ours.

"Never attribute to malice what can be sufficiently explained by stupidity." - Mark Twain

Unleash the Power of the Blog!

Encourage bishops as they begin to do the right thing about pro-abort politicians

Contact information of members of the USCCB new task force that will address (?) pro-abort Catholics.

= = =

1) Most Rev. John H. Ricard, SSJ, DD, PhD
Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, FL
PO Drawer 17329
Pensacola, FL 32522
Phone: 850-432-1515
Fax: 850-436-6424
Web: www.ptdiocese.org
Email: chancellor@ptdiocese.org

2) His Eminence Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, PhD, DD
Diocese of Washington, DC
5001 Eastern Ave.
PO Box 29260
Washington, DC 20017-0260
Phone: 301-853-4500
Fax: 301-853-5346
Email: chancery@adw.org

3) Most Rev. Joseph A. Galante, DD, JCD
Diocese of Dallas, TX
3725 Blackburn
PO Box 190507
Dallas, TX 75219
Phone: 214-528-2240
Fax: 214-526-1743
Web: www.cathdal.org
Email: ccfcdal@cathdal.org

4) Most Rev. Thomas Wenski
Diocese of Orlando, FL
PO Box 1800
Orlando, FL 32802
Phone: 407-246-4800
Fax: 407-246-4942
Web: www.orlandodiocese.org

5) Most Rev. Donald W. Trautman, STD, SSL
Diocese of Erie, PA
St. Mark Catholic Center
PO Box 10397
Erie, PA 16514
Phone: 814-824-1111
Fax: 814-824-1128
Web: www.eriecd.org

6) Most Rev. Bernard J. Harrington, DD
Diocese of Wiona, MN
55 W. Sanborn St.
PO Box 588
Winona, MN 55987
Phone: 507-454-4643
Fax: 507-454-8106
Web: www.dow.org
Email: diocese@dow.org

Powerful Toxins at Work in Palestinian Culture

and reminders that not all Palestinians are Muslim fanatics, nor has Israel somehow acquired the Church's charism of infallibility, much less impeccability.

As the West focuses on the really crucial issues such as Michael Jackson...

Obviously John Gibson has not seen "American Beauty"

Any red-blooded American male must meet middle age by imploding in selfish Baby Boomer narcissism and an orgy of adolescent self-destruction. Domestic happiness is so bourgeois. Doesn't he realize the point of life is to have as many failed marriages as the average New York Times writer or Hollywood suit? Gibson probably doesn't even know any repressed psycho military types or utterly stable gay couples who are the model of joy and life. What a sheltered life!

The Thanksgiving Resistance Movement: A Brief History

I want one on my forehead and right hand!

The Left Demonstrates Shea's Law

Sin makes you stupid. In this case, really really stupid.

Normal people begin to look on the Left with horror, even as it look on itself with swelling pride.

The Media Blitz Continues

Current estimates place the gay population in the United States at over 200 million. That's why the media talk about nothing else.

In Kristof's world, it's "reactionary"...

to say the body is made for committed monogamous love and committed monogamous love is made for the body.

to say that the best way to avoid AIDS is to avoid promiscuous sex.

to say that no epidemiologist in his or her five wits would *ever* engage in "safe" sex with an HIV+ partner, unless he or she had a death wish.

to say that Russian Roulette tends to kill people.

The New York Times: arbiter of cultural wisdom for people who only have time to read the newspapers.

A Statue Catholics Won't Pray to...

...though, God willing, we will pray about.

Never Again!

My Latest at Catholic Exchange

I give you thanks, O Lord!

Something many of us can empathize with at times

Theory

and

Practice

Maybe the Stupid Party isn't so Stupid

One enterprising blogger has put up what looks to me like a spoof of the most over-the-top idiot leftist blog you could imagine: BlameBush. It's almost credible as an effusion of leftist hysteria, full of all the normal "conservatives are nazis/destroy Rush Limbaugh blah blah--until it starts blaming Bush for solar flares. Then you start sensing that you've been had. A fun read if you enjoy parodies of looney leftist rhetoric. However, the problem is that it often so hard to tell these days since lefties are frequently parodies of themselves.

To whoever writing it: please fulfill a dream of mine and write a hysterical screed indicting Bush for doing nothing to stop continental drift.

Hey! Listen up!

A reader writes:

I spent my childhood on the receiving end of very serious physical, emotional, and, yes, sexual abuse. I often puzzle over the mystery of why some of us who have lived through this are able to experience considerable (never total - our hope is resurrection, not returning to some kind of pre-abuse innocence)healing and that our nightmare childhoods no longer dominate our life. It is rather like a fading memory that wakes when I confront events like this.

When it does wake up, what is most apparent is how relatively little power those wounds have over my life today. I sometimes try to imagine who I would be if it had never happened but quickly realize that is simply romantic day-dreaming.

Who I am today is a result of the years of struggle to find God's grace, healing and forgiveness and the extraordinary help I received from some remarkable people. I remain intensely grateful to God for this grace. I will *never* take my ability to function as an adult at a high level for granted - it is too hard won.

I often get discouraged when I compare my lack of zeal and devotion to those of the saints but one particular teaching of our Lord I can speak of with total confidence: the transforming power of forgiveness.

Without forgiving my enemy, mere healing would never have set me free. It took about 10 years :-} but when it was done, it was done! When I forgave and actually could bring myself to bless my enemy, I ceased to be a victim. I was not longer bound by what was done to me and I began to grow like a weed.

C.S. Lewis pointed out something in his forward to the Great Divorce that I have found very true: redemption works backwards. Opening ourselves to God's grace in the present can eventually encompass our terrible pasts and even the ones who made our lives a living hell.

You know what the real opposite of being a victim is? It's being free and whole enough to wholly desire and work for the healing and redemption of one's enemy. It is beyond our imagining when on the journey but if we journey with Christ, it is the place for which we are bound.

And now, I'm outta here

Back to work, Shea! Crack!

"My Kingdom is not of this world"

This passage has been much on my mind since Mass this weekend (it was the gospel reading, for you non-liturgical folk). One of the hazards of spending too much time reading the news and following the day by day power struggles in the Church and the world is that you can start believing the lie that the power struggles are Where It's At.

That is a lie.

Ask most people where the headquarters of the Church is and they will tell you "Rome". That's false too. The headquarters of the Church is Heaven, because the Church, in the Ascended Christ, is already there, far above all dominion, authority and power. Mark that, Christ *is* the Church. He is the soul of the Church by his Holy Spirit. Because he is fully human, humanity has *already* ascended to heaven. That is why Paul can tell us in Ephesians that we are seated with him in the heavenlies.

Are. Not "will be". One consequence of this fact is that the Church exists before it has any members. We get to participate in the Church by grace, we don't tag along after the Resurrection and "start" the Church in "response" to Jesus as a sort of "Resurrection Memorial Society". Jesus, the head of the Church, starts the Church and then graciously adds us to it. That means that the new covenant, unlike all previous covenants between man and God (in Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David) is incapable of failure because the man making the covenant is not fallen but is the Incarnate God himself, who cannot sin. The failures of the Church's members can be forgiven and the Church can remain spotless precisely because the Church is not its members, but is Christ. It depends on the Head for its life, not on us. And the Head is not *going* to Heaven. He's already there. So the victory of the Church is not so much assured as it is already accomplished.

For this reason, Paul tells us sagely to set our minds on heavenly things, not on earthly things. If we allow *any* earthly thing to cause us to despair, it is a certain sign that we have taken our eyes off the heavenly truth of Christ ascended that we should be contemplating. And the remedy for that is to put our eyes back on that Truth and to remind ourselves of the fact that he is the Truth. The sliminess of bishops, the sins of priests, the machinations of politicians, the meanness of men, our own pathetic sinfulness: these are not the Ultimate Reality. Christ crucified, risen and ascended is.

And he is still able to save. His kingdom is not of this world. It is more, not less, real than that. Don't lose sight of that.

Neumayr on Brooks

Some people resist the Stupid Party's Dalliance with becoming Evil Party 2.0.

Am I the only one who wonders...

how this guy, having endured what he endured, could then decide to spend several years defending the diocese and opposing other victims? Something about this guy doesn't add up to me. But then, I'm not an abuse victim and don't know the strains and cross currents it puts on the psyche.

It is frustrating to see his diocese admit he's a victim (at least, it looks that way to me) and then say, "Sorry Charlie. Statute of limitations is past." In the words of Kathy Shaidle, "Someday they'll all be dead."

In the meantime, I keep in mind the very hopeful assessment my friend Sherry Weddell of the Siena Institute gives of the priests who are in the pipeline right now but will not be seeing episcopal ordination for a few years. She's seen a *lot* of the Church in the US and is very optimistic that serious reform will come. And I trust her judgment.

So hope remains, even in the American Church's "November".

The KKK: Working to Take Supreme White Genes Out of the Pool

KKKlassic.

The Vanishing Case for War

At least, for the war in Iraq (though that's water under the bridge now).

Interesting piece on the Kennedy Funeral

One of the blessings of belonging to a cold dead stiff formal Church of rote prayers and rituals is that when times of trauma strike, you don't have to extemporaneously compose prayers and whomp up an entire psycho-emotional coping mechanism ex nihilo. The rites and prayers already exist and you can step into them. They hold you erect when everything has gone numb.

My mother-in-law, God bless her, has forgotten her own children. But she still knows how to pray to her Father in heaven because the Our Father is written on her heart. Likewise, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be. There's something to be said for "dead" religion. It seems to outlast what many take for living religion and which often turns out to be a mere effusion of feelings, as ephemeral as the flowers.

The Dems May Finally Have a Winning Strategy

I just want to affirm Mark of Minute Particulars in his wrongness

I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.

It wasn't me!

Even though Barb's dead wrong about the LOTR films, I think the world of her. I am, however, praying for fervently both for her and Amy.

It's finally happened...

My computer is officially Old. When I got this thing (back in October 1998, when Pangaea was breaking up), it was top o' the line. 450 Mhz processor. A total rocket.

Since then, of course, I've been aware of the decay of age and the rapid succession of younger spritelier upstart systems. But my good old Pentium has remained serviceablea and still done everything I needed it to. I even felt competent when I installed a CD burner.

But now, the latest edition in the Myst saga--Uru--is out. It requires an 800 Mhz processor! O the humanity!

I am Burgess Meredith, the Obsolete Man!

Gay Brownshirts on the March!

WE'VE been hacked! Little old CaNN! The site was apparently renamed-- blush-- [F***you.com]. The honours and accolades just keep piling up. First the DDOS-attack, and now this! They love us-- they really love us! Our Tech Dep't has things under control. Word to the Cowardly Custards-- what are you afraid of? Rest of the story might get out? Then you'll just have to hack every single like-minded website planetwide, because the story keeps getting out, and more websites keep springing up, and new Blogs and e-mail lists keep passing things on. Blow us up, and ten more would come to replace us. God bless you, then-- and yes, we forgive you! ...(FYI)

A point of clarification for the hypersensitive. Contrary to agitprop, I do not call all gays "brownshirts". I call gay brownshirts "brownshirts". One achieves brownshirthood not by being gay, but by engaging in brownshirt tactics such as the one mentioned above, or by otherwise muzzling or attempting to stifle free speech, or by threatening or inflicting physical violence or other forms of intimidation (including judicial intimidation). Sooner or later, even the hypersensitive will perhaps figure out this elementary point.

O Lord, how many are your works. In wisdom thou hast made them all!

Just another reason to love my hometown!

My heart swells with regional pride!

Another satisfied Cat in the Hat viewer

A reader writes:

I made the mistake of taking Clarissa and Emma (and my dear mother-in-law) to the Cat in the Hat movie this past weekend. I presumed that since the book is for 3-8 year olds that the movie would be perfect for the girls who are 5 and 3 but I was very sadly mistaken.

Nothing in this movie apart from the characters (the cat, Conrad and Sally, the fish, their mother, thing 1 and thing 2) and the theme of messing up a house has ANYTHING to do with the wonderful book by Dr. Seuss. The movie is an affront to Asian women and is laden with sexual innuendoes and cut off expletives. Unfortunately, I was remiss in researching the rating of this movie (which turns out to be PG) because I was silly enough to think that a movie based on a book for 3-8 year olds would not have sexual jokes and expletives..mea culpa.but it will never happen again.

Universal Pictures and the Estate of Dr. Seuss should be ashamed of allowing such a travesty of a beloved children's book to be produced. Please do not add to the profits of this movie (as I did) and discourage all your friends (who you think might take their children to it) from going.

Here are just some of the many things that happen in the movie:

In the first scene in which he appears, the cat in the hat (Mike Myers) leers at a picture of the mother (Kelly Preston) that is in a frame.as he picks up the frame the picture drops out like a centrefold picture and the cat groans "who is this?".to which Conrad and Sally reply "our mother"..the cat then looks to the audience and jokes "talk about awkward moment"

Conrad and Sally's baby-sitter is a large Asian woman who promptly falls asleep as soon as the mother closes the door to leave. Throughout the entire movie this woman is asleep and her body is mocked in every possible way - from the cat who sits on the couch where she is lying and bounces up and down on her and complains how lumpy the couch is; in another clip her large body is apparently the only thing they can find in the ENTIRE house that is suitable to weigh down the lid of the magic box that the cat needs to keep closed; the most disgraceful point of the movie happens when the children and the cat enter the cat in the hat's world and need something to ride on and (you guessed it) they sit on this sleeping woman's body and take what looks like a water slide ride out of a theme park. [at this point I noticed an Asian lady and her 7 year old daughter walk out of the cinema.which I would have done myself but we were in a middle section and I was with my 3 and 5 year old daughters and my Portuguese mother-in-law and I had no idea how to communicate to my dear mother-in-law that I wanted to leave. I also did not want to punish my young daughters because luckily for me the sexual innuendoes were well above their heads. But I will do all I can now to prevent this from happening to other families.]

Acronym for cat in the hat's car is SH**

Alec Baldwin says "what the F***", "son of a B****"

Cat says that really burns my a**

One of cat's options for dealing with the annoying neighbour (Alec Baldwin) is murder.

One scene that was not over the heads of my daughters unfortunately was when the cat in the hat, in an attempt to go undetected at a children's birthday party, pretends to be the piñata. Of course the scene that follows is a bunch of children beating the cat with baseball bats while he screams (the children in the movie cannot hear his screams but mine cringed at them). Finally when the children at the party realize they cannot 'break' the cat in the hat, the children step aside and a large boy with a huge bat takes a really nice whack at the cat who screams in pain.

I hope I can prevent others from making the huge mistake I did.

Toldja it was loathsome.

Okay. Now I'm really gone.

And now, back to work Shea!

From the "Don't Stand So Close to Me" Dept.

The creature who drew this:



gives a big wet sloppy Kiss of Endorsement to Howard Dean. To the amazement of all, Dean does not scream for Security and beg aides to bring him a disinfectant. Instead, he seems to be happy with the endorsement as are many of his loopy supporters.

One more illustration of how utterly clueless the Left is. Bush is going to win in a walk.

Brilliant!

I don't know who Marianne Thompson of Fuller Theological Seminary is, but I'd love to shake her hand.

(Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

A reader asks:

Mark, this article really hit the nail on the head in regards to the persecution of Christians that I fear is coming. I realize that we are already being persecuted, but I fear the time is coming when this persecution will be much more direct for those of us who will strive to remain faithful. Maybe even concentration camps.

I'm wondering what your thoughts are on this subject?

My thoughts: "“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day." - Matthew 6:34

Not very original, but still quite serviceable.

Another whiner complains about Rome's "authoritarian violence"

The guy fails to explain how he can get articles like this published if Rome is so all-fired authoritarian and violent.

"But do they dare to talk about you like that?" said Lucy. "They seemed to be so afraid of you yesterday. Don't they know you might be listening?"

"That's one of the funny things about the Duffers," said the Magician. "One minute they talk as if I ran everything and overheard everything and was extremely dangerous. The next moment they think they can take me in by tricks that a baby would see through - bless them!" - C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

SAFE FROM HARM

Suppose that in the sacristy the devil puts on priestly robes
So what? The devil too believes in God, but hates Him
(The missionary atheist is worse than hell that holds him
Therefor condemnation and the millstone)
If Satan abhors God still the flesh and blood appear
Though the devil may consume it to destroy

Intending to destroy - but God is indestructible -
Everything veers toward Him, even hell is drawn
Puts on the robe, holds the chalice and the paten
Says the consecrating words intending to defile
Plugs the universe inside the swollen belly
But not God - only fire falls there, burning block

Robes hang on the hook, the meal of consecration
Flesh and blood before the Fall when all was sacred
Now in noble yet debased, debasing form lies there
Innocent material indifference lets the garments down in folds
Toward the passive ground, toward the center of the world
In wordless bland repose, things, vessels, means of work

But even there the flexing energy of God
And what is done has come to mind from ages old,
Blessing, blessing purifying what was godless and defiled
With holy grace, twice blessed: creation, sacrifice
So that the bread can speak and wine can sing in hymns
And those who can consume do both, they are anointed

Safe from harm

- Pavel Chichikov

Wouldn't that be a refreshing act of revolt?

The legislature and Gov. Mitt Romney should ignore the court, defy the order and submit to Massachusetts voters a constitutional amendment declaring that marriage is between a man and woman, as God and nature intended.

David versus Goliath

Consumerist Americans Hope to Consume their Young for the Crime of being the Wrong Sex

Fortunately, God is on the side of the West, so we don't have to expect any big judgments for things like this.

Evil Party Representative to the Family: "Ve will bury you!"

Stupid Party Representative to the Family: "We're kind of with you. Sort of. But probably not for too long."

The Tithe Revolt that Wasn't

Meanwhile, LifeSiteNews analyzes the Willing Executioners of the Family who are at work in the current media campaign to normalize the permanently abnormal

Media
unleashes
Pro
Gay
Marriage
Campaign

I particularly like the article that compares the Gay Marriage Onslaught to the Underground Railroad that rescued slaves and sent them to Canada. Nothing like ham-fisted agitprop for a Monday morning.

Where do these people come from?

Another attempt to attack the Church via judicial fiat

This boils down to an attempt to say that adherence to the Church's moral teaching is punishable by US law. Like most attempts my liberalism to destroy the Church or ordinary human morality, it is not being pursued by democratic means, but by judicial tyranny.

Episcopal Spine Alert!

A reader asks:

I have been wondering a little about this today and I was wondering if you had the answer. Is it a bad thing that natives on some Pacific Islands don't wear much or any clothes? Now I know that it is not for "sexy" reasons that they do it. They live in an entirely different world than we live in. But once they become Catholics, should they be required to were more clothes? And if so, why? Our first parents didn't wear clothes in the Garden of Eden before they sinned, therefore nudity can't be intrinsicly evil. But we live after the Fall. What conclusion can be drawn from that with regard to indigenous peoples?

I think one of the more dangerous pieces of mischief to infect Christian missionary efforts has been the temptation to equate "Christian" with "European" or "American". The ridiculous attempt to impose starched collars on "the natives" in the Congo a hundred years ago was, I think, simply wrong and I think similar attempts today in some tropical climate are simply wrong as well. Revelation calls us to be "modest". It does not prescribe any micromanaging theory of clothing for that. All such things must be measured according to the culture. In Victorian England, the sight of an ankle was immodest. A few centuries earlier, a busty serving wench in a low cut dress was not immodest. Similarly, the practically naked bush people of the Kalihari have standards of modesty, but they are not Euro standards. It is important that these standards of modesty be respected and affirmed. But it is not important that they start wearing levis just so some American or European Christian with a confusion between his faith and his culture will feel that they are doing their Christianity the "right" way.

IMO, of course.

Press disappointed to discover archeaology does not disprove gospels

Apes with overdeveloped cerebral cortex get loose in God's laboratory, screw around with things they barely understand, think they are way clever

A spokesman for the Amok Apes Association said, "Hey! What could it hurt?"

Go Jeb!

The man continues to impress me.

Here's a hopeful sign:

The Boston Catholic Philosophical Forum

The BCPF is an emerging platform of discussion tangent to issues both philosophic and theological relative to the Roman Catholic Church. It is a tribunal of reason, as well as common sense, before which latent elements in current issues concerning the laity and Religious alike are openly and critically examined through the canons of reason and in light of the authentic Magisterium of the Church.

The Forum is in full accord with, and is totally committed to, the Magisterium of the Church.

A polite request which will be followed by swift action if not heeded

Please refrain from all "The Jews are tunnelling under the foundations of our culture!" suggestions on my blog. If you wish to discuss apostate Jews or secular liberals (that is, Jews who are as Jewish as Madonna is Catholic), you should just forget the category "Jewish" altogether (as I forget the category "Catholic" altogether in discussing Madonna's baleful effect on our culture). But to suggest that the mere ethnicity of some religion-hating Hollywood type is germane to the discussion is to invite kooks and anti-semites on to my blog and I will not have it.

Serious Jews such as Michael Medved and Rabbi Daniel Lapin will be the first to acknowledge that for a great many American Jews, the real religion is liberalism (as it is for a great many American Catholics), and that such folk are as hostile to serious Judaism as they are to Christianity. Since that is so, please do not clutter up the discussion by referring to such acolytes of secularism as "the Jews" since they are, in no real or living sense, Jews but merely devotees of the same ruinous secular messianic and hedonistic project that occupies so many liberal Protestants and Catholics as well. For every Weinstein, there's a Scorcese and a Dan Brown as well.

A reader asks:

There has been a lot of discussion recently on your blog about the Jesuits. . . what do people think of Loyola University in Chicago? Is it somewhere where an orthodox, devout Catholic could feel comfortable?

Dunno any specifics, but my "wise as serpents" instinct is to be wary of any Jesuit institution. Anybody know anything about Loyola?

A reader asks:

We all know it's not an overwhelmingly popular choice for married people to abstain from sex before marriage and not to cohabitate, although it has been the norm in Western Civilization for most of history. But it still happens, probably more commonly that we'd know watching prime time TV. Even among those who don't succeed at one or both of those things, many recognize it as a goal, and ideal they SHOULD live up to.

I wonder if that's true for gay partners who wish to marry. If gay marriage is legalized, will a substantial percentage of gay couples abstain from sex and cohabitation before marriage? Will any? I truly wonder if abstinence is even a part of gay dating the way it is for so many heterosexual daters.

I honestly don't know the answers to those questions, but if gay marriage is unthinkable without sexual activity and/or cohabitation first, it would suggest a radically different view of the role of sex in a relationship. For traditional marriage, sex is an important, even necessary or defining component of the marriage covenant. But given that most heterosexual married people through history in Western Civilization have married never knowing whether the sex will be good, bad or indifferent, never even knowing if the other person puts the cap on the toothpaste or not, it seems there are other elements of marriage that are even more important than sex. I am honestly curious whether that's the case with gay partners who desire marriage.

I highly doubt gays want to marry in order to abstain from sex in preparation. Even most straights don't bother with that formality. I think the push has much more to do with economic benefits (a small issue) and (the main issue), the insistence that fallen human nature has on trying to dominate. The demand at the back of this is not for "tolerance" (which gays already have). It is for approval and for the stamping out of any voice that says, "I think homosexual behavior is sinful and contrary to nature." In short, it is part of a larger cultural campaign (captained, as we are assured by Ephesians 6:12) to stamp out the voice of the Holy Spirit. The simple fact is that the flesh and the spirit are as much at war now as they were when Paul said they were at war in Galatians. We are assured of the final victory, but there can be real setbacks along the way. We are in the midst of one now.

Live Snakes Still Can Bite

And now, as is my new mantra, back to work!

Today is also the Feast Day of St. Jack Lewis

As a Catholic, I often invoke his intercession when I write. I hope to meet him someday, but I fear that, if I make it to heaven at all, I shall be too far up in the nosebleeds and he too close to the Throne for us to ever shake hands through the press of angel, archangels, virgins, martyrs and all the company of heaven. But if we do, I intend to thank him for all that his work has meant to me. Problem is, there will be several million people ahead of me in line! No wonder God's given us eternal life. It'll take that long just to give adequate thanks to all the creatures whom he used to bring us to Him.

May all who have died on this day find the happiness of heaven through the intercession of St. Cecilia, whose feast day this is. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Question for people over 45

Where were you at this moment 40 years ago? I was with my mom at the commissary at Paine Field AFB near Everett, Washington. Mom bustled home to watch the news after the radio in the back room said the president had been shot. Being five, I did not much notice the news of the assassination. What I remember was the pervasive gloom of the weekend (odd how children can have "feeling memories" that are more pungent than "event memories") and I remember being very angry the next day that all the cartoons were cancelled and it was nothing but news, news, news. Like I say, I was five.

You?

Mending Fences

Longtime readers of my blog will know that there has been bad blood in the past between myself and Joe D'Hippolito both here and on other blogs. However, to his great credit, after a recent flareup of hostilities on another blog, Joe mustered the moxie to say "I was wrong" and to apologize. This seemed like a good opportunity to try to do some reconciliation on my part as well.

So let me take this space to say "I was wrong" as well for needlessly fighting with Joe, for attacking him personally, and particularly for cluttering up other people's blogs with that animosity. As we both agree, we have certain disagreements about both ecclesial and political matters which are simply irreconcilable. However, it was wrong of me to allow those disagreements to descend into a personal feud. So I ask his forgiveness (and the forgiveness of the various innocent bystanders in the blogosphere who have had to put up with it) and I extend my forgiveness to him for whatever wrongs he has done me.

I hope we can move on from here as better disciples of Christ.

I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!

The same cretins who decided to destroy The Grinch(TM) Who Stole Christmas have gotten their stupid filthy mitts on the Cat in the Hat(TM) and turned it into a bloody bloated montrosity pointlessly sprinkled with adolescent sex jokes. I hated the Grinch with all the passion my soul could muster. An outrageous defacement of childhood goofiness by soulless Hollywood suits. Now they've compounded the crime.

The Seuss Estate should figure out a way to get out of their contract with these grubby little slimes who care nothing for childish whimsy and who only know how to laugh at their own coarse high schools sophomore gags.

The Great Enema Continues

Okay. Now I'm really gone.

And now, back to work

Argue amongst yourselves about gay rights, Israeli Walls, toxic Palestinian culture (also a reality), feeding pigs to sheep, and, just for spice, the merits of the vastly superior DVD edition of the Two Towers over the badly edited theatrical version. If you aren't sure who's right and who's wrong just ask yourselves a simple question, "What Would Mark Say?" and the Light of Truth and Goodness will dawn.

Toodles!

Meanwhile, the tragedy of the Evil Party is nowhere more clearly expressed than in the fact that...

...the highest act of moral courage a Dem can muster is to not criticize somebody for intervening to prevent a cold-blooded act of judicial murder.

Pigs Protest Animal Right Activists

The Stupid Party, Accomplishing the Absolute Bare Minimum and Treating it Like a Huge Moral Victory

The majority of Americans polled agreed with the ban. Yet it took nearly the entire Bush first term to end the madness. That’s clear evidence that the Conservative Movement has lost its punch, and maybe its passion as well.

The Stupid Party is trying to figure out a way to insure a secure future by not alienating all those tasty voters out there in the Death Party. Easy: be a fiscal conservative and social liberal and tell people that the goal of life is to be rich as Midas and as laissez faire about your sex life as your TV says you should be. Throw in a dollop of Big Government "compassion" and "homeland security" with large, ill-defined goals and means (such as shutting down strip clubs in the interest of "national security" or searching lactating mothers from Lake Wobegon for terrorist weapons at the airport) and you have a winning formula for all sorts of mischief. With luck, we'll avoid too much silliness. But luck doesn't always hold.

Interesting Look at Bush's Peculiar Appeals to England's Protestant Heritage as the Basis of our Common Bond with the Brits

I think Bush is drawing on some reality here. There is a peculiar cultural and religious affinity between the US and the UK. But I also can't help but wonder how the rapidly apostatizing UK looked at this rhetoric. I highly doubt there is much flutter in the English breast over Tyndale, Wesley and Booth these days. These are names that create much more excitement in Colorado Springs than in London.

Derbyshire can turn a nice phrase

Does it not occur to you...that by purging all sacred images, references, and words from our public life, you are leaving us with nothing but a cold temple presided over by the Goddess of Reason -- that counterfeit deity who, as history has proved time and time and time again, inspires no affection, retains no loyalties, soothes no grief, justifies no sacrifice, gives no comfort, extends no charity, displays no pity, and offers no hope, except to the tiny cliques of fanatical ideologues who tend her cold blue flame?

Now, let me ask you: would you ever expect to walk into *any* Norwegian Church and hear a "fiery sermon" about anything?

Scandinavia continues to make the gospel taste like lutefisk.

A reader writes:

Please consider plugging this website on the blog. This is an American Christian couple, Marthame and Elizabeth Sanders, have traveled the Holy Land extensively over the last couple of years, visiting the various Christian communities. Though they are Presbyterian, they are very ecumenical, especially towards Catholics. (Actually, I think the Palestinian Catholics have had quite an impact on them.) Their website is great and gives much insight to what its like for Christians living under the Israeli occupation. The Sanders in Zababdeh.

Reason to Homeschool #3439882043204230922853

Why not take all the money given to CCHD and give it to a Catholic Charity?

...or a charity that supports Catholic values such as Human Life or Mercy Corps?

Spent the Day at Grandpa's 80th Birthday Yesterday

A bittersweet affair since Grandma is struggling with Alzheimer's. Strange moment of lucidity and then long fugues of confusion and word salad. Prayers for them would be appreciated.

Now I'm really behind the eight ball workwise, but it was important to be there. Prayer for that would be good too.

Blogging will be terse.

Bush Revealed to be Anti-Semitic Israel Hater

Doubts wisdom of Apartheid Wall.

Okey doke! Back to Work!

Incommunicado till tomorrow

Yikes! A Warning to PayPal Subscribers

Why I Don't Get it When People Arguing for the Iraq War Appeal to UN 1441

Either international law matters or it doesn't. Make up your mind.

What Scientists With Way Too Much Time on Their Hands Do for Fun

Religion of Peace Burns Nigerian Churches

Authorities are still not sure whether this was done by Muslims or simply by American Episcopalian members of the Gay Sturmabtielung aiming to bring African churches to heel.

Exquisite

Sometime CAEI reader and well-meaning guy jcecil3 goes to bat against the formidable author of Disputations on the question of "inclusive language". Much hilarity ensues as jcecil pursues his big-hearted but wrong-headed notions based on the popular leftist thesis that "It's all about power" (read the comments boxes attached to the blog entry). My favorite moment is when the wise and witty Peony Moss exults: "So since I'm a woman who feels excluded by so-called "inclusive" language, I'm therefore a sexist and didn't even know it!

I feel so empowered!"
Memo to jcecil: It's not all about power. Lose the Marxist paradigm and you'll take a step closer to reality.

Interesting Profile of Soloviev, An Orthodox Thinker Who Sought to Mend the East/West Schism

C.S. Lewis' definition of evolution: Progress = "Whatever Comes Next"

Another Nominee for Parent of the Year Award

Thomas knew Ridgway was a suspect in the Green River case, but she says she let her son play with his child because the killer wasn't targeting young children.

The winner gets a free sleepover at Michael Jackson's ranch.

Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bishop Grahmann Wonders What the Point of Background Checks on Michael Jackson Would Be

Actually, the most mystifying thing about this pathetic man is why any parent in their right mind would allow him within a hundred feet of their kid.

Secret Agent Man Has Returned from His Top Secret Mission in Asia

Special Encrypted Message for Agent Hannah: Take, Eat: this is my book.

The Left Continues to Impress

You know, we have our disagreements on this blog. But they generally strike me as disagreements between reasonable people trying to operate within a civilized and humane tradition of thought. I become all the more appreciative of youse guys when I read the foamings and rantings of those who have rejected that humane tradition of thought in favor of the Deep Thought of the typical leftist cerebrum.

To wit, this story (on the possibility of letting Reagan assassin wannabe John Hinckley out of jail). The story (amazing enough) is nothing compared to these warm sentiments from our deep-thinking and humane representatives of The Better Way Than Christ:

Futomara69 says, "If he had taken out Reagan then, Saddam Hussein would never have gotten those chemical weapons from the Reagan admin, Al Qaeda would never have been formed by CIA blowblack from Reagan admin's meddling in Afghanistan, The whole nightmare of neocon / Bushkrieg wars in the Middle East would never have happened, Reagan would not now be soiling his diapers and drooling on himself, Crappy actors could not be elected governor of California again."

This guy goes on to say, "Please introduce him to Bush/Cheney. Where are guys like John Hinckley when you need them?"

Prof-Anarky says Hinckley belongs on Mt. Rushmore.

rushtheblohard says, "Hinckley to visit GW and Cheney ... we can only hope"

And then twomorecents writes, "Give him an AK47 and a BUsh schedule. That would be the right thing to do"

Fortunately, these people do not have sinful hearts full of murder and hate and they are in no need of a savior. They're beyond all that. They live in a Higher Paradigm.

The Episcopalian Tolerance Regime Consolidates Power, Stifles Free Speech, Smashes Wrongthink

Crushes Dissent

Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed.

Welcome to the New World. It's a good thing God is on our side because under other circumstances, our culture is rapidly declaring "good" things that the Catholic tradition calls "sins that cry out out to heaven."

If Eisenhower Had Given the Gettyburg Address

I haven't checked these figures but 87 years ago, I think it was, a number of individuals organized a governmental setup here in this country, I believe it covered certain Eastern areas, with this idea they were following up based on a sort of national independence arrangement and the program that every individual is just as good as every other individual. Well, now, of course, we are dealing with this big difference of opinion, you might almost call it a civil disturbance, although I don't like to appear to take sides or name any individuals, and the point is naturally to check up, by actual experience in the field, to see whether any governmental setup with a basis like the one I was mentioning has any validity and find out whether that dedication by those early individuals will pay off in lasting values and things of that kind.

Well, here we are, at the scene where one of these disturbances between different sides got going. We want to pay our tribute to those loved ones, those departed individuals who made the supreme sacrifice here on the basis of their opinions about how this thing ought to be handled. And I would say this. It is absolutely in order to do this.

But if you look at the overall picture of this, we can't pay any tribute -- we can't sanctify this area, you might say -- we can't hallow according to whatever individuals' creeds or faiths, or sort of religious outlooks are involved about this very particular area. It was those individuals themselves, including the enlisted men, very brave individuals, who have given this religious character to the area. The way I see it, the rest of the world will not remember any statements issued here but it will never forget how these men put their shoulders to the wheel and carried out this idea.

Now frankly, our job, the living individuals' job here, is to pick up the burden they made these big efforts here for. It is our job to get on with the assignment -- and from these deceased fine individuals to take extra inspiration for the same theories for which they made such a big contribution. We have to make up our minds right here and now, as I see it, that they didn't put out all that blood, perspiration and -- well -- that they didn't just make a dry run here, and that all of us here, under God, that is, the God of our choice, shall beef up this idea about freedom and liberty and those kind of arrangements, and that government of all individuals, by all individuals, and for the individuals, shall not pass out of the world picture.

Nope. I didn't write it. Some genius wrote this in 1957. I've alway loved it and since this is the 140th Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, it seemed an auspicious time to run it.

Eve Tushnet Gives Snippets of my Latest in National Catholic Register on Dead Tree

Okay. And now I'm *really* gone.

Utterly priceless

Only a man with a heart of stone could read "We celebrate our oneness with Akron, Summit County and beyond" without laughing till his breath failed him.

A perfect synthesis of all asinine fatuity. A shining cataract every content-free platitude ever minted by vacant, well-meaning, empty-headed liberal religion in search of a secular messianic program of day care centers, warm feelings, and Marlo Thomas recordings of "Free to Be You and Me" as the summum bonum of human existence. I enjoyed every word of it.

And now, it's back to work for me.

Huge projects loom between now and year's end. Not much time to gab. Sorry!

(This, by the way, also explain my terse and inadequate responses to the various questions about war in Iraq. There's just not enough of me to go around at present. My apologies!)

Professor Bainbridge on the Judicial Usurpation of Democracy Parallels...

...between Roe v. Wade and the fresh assault on the family from the Massachusetts Court.

Dale Price is just so fun to read

The Mencken of the Blogosphere has a go at Garry Wills. A comic prose stylist without equal.

Memo to Dale: Publish, dammit!

A reader responds...

to this blog:

Background: Currently, I am working on my master's thesis for the completion of the degree requirements for my M.A. (theology). My thesis focuses on John Paul II's Theology of the Body and the Church's teaching on homosexuality. The best argument I can begin to come up with for a discussion of homosexuality and homosexual marriage is really from the work of John Paul II. I believe the fundamental key he offers us is through the same personalism he uses to discuss the nature of marriage and men and women. The basis of personalism comes from a reformed version of the Kantian maxim ....that is not treating others as a means to an end. but rather as ends in themselves. mind you this is not an easy argument to make in anyway. but moving from such a basic doctrine...you can begin to build the idea of the nature of the human person...in which we can not "use" a human person. I would then move into a discussion of the biological nature of the human body. As much as some Catholic theologians attempt to dismiss these arguments, the biological nature of the body not only gives an obvious clue about the body itself...but indeed it serves as a sign of something deeper. .....moving from stuff like this...one must then start using natural law...this is where thomism continues to have a big influence in Church doctrine. What are the characteristics of marriage? hetereosexual, procreative, exclusivity, and permanence . From here one must then begin to explain these characteristics of marriage and what they mean for the human person and marriage.

I hope I am making some sense. These areas are not well discussed and much theological writing needs to be made in these areas. Still I am working out my own thoughts ont hese subjects. If I can be of any help in the future, let me know.

Just a reminder. Please use the comments boxes in the future. I'm buried in work and can't post every email in response to other people's questions.

John Derbyshire on the Last Christian Nation

The ordinary American continues to be splendidly out of step with the Chattering Classes.

My Latest on Catholic Exchange

It's almost Christmas, and so the media will again awake to notice that Jesus is missing and they must find him. To those of you who have to be subjected to the media's chin-stroking on the "real Jesus", just remember: Forewarned is forearmed.

A reader asks:

The recent news from Georgetown is part of a much larger and troubling issue: the state of the Jesuit Order. As a Fordham grad, I am honestly perplexed.

Please pose this question to the troops:

Will the real Jesuits please stand up?

The Fordham Jesuits, exemplified by Cardinal Dulles?

The Georgetown apostasy-in-place Jesuits?

The St Louis Jesuits, including the Jesuit university prersident who was the first university president to die of AIDS?

The aggressively homophile San Francisco Jesuits, with their campy web site and their hostility to Great Book learning?

The equally and persistently homophile America magazine, still in its 60's time warp?

The Father Fessio Jesuits, in their 1s and 2s scattered and cut off?

Then there is the New Jesuit North American (Canadian) Martyr - not Brebeuf , Jogues etc but Fr. Martin Royackers of Ontario , killed by gangsters in a Jamaican slum a couple of years ago.

(Fr. Royackers S.J.should be well on his way to saithood. He has already performed a miracle. One of the Toronto papers reported that, while still in Canada, he demanded that a co-habitating Yuppie couple coming to him to be married first live as brother and sister for 6 months. Imagine the conversation in Heaven as Himself turns to his Mother and says: "Hey Ma, check this out - this Canadian Jesuit who got 2 yuppies to stop canoodling. Now there's a real miracle. Kind of neat." "That's right Son, it right up there with your loaves and fishes thing.")

JP II allegedly intervened in the early 80's and brought them to heel.

Is he simply waiting for the 60's generation to pass away?

What's the story? Do you or anybody have ther answer?

Discuss, class.

You can't help but admire the bluntness of the Russian Orthodox

In the spirit of St. Nicholas punching out Arius as Nicaea, our Eastern brethren club Episcopalian apostates with some handy mammoth tusks and tell them to get a frickin' clue.

Andrew Sullivan Hails the Great Rosy Dawn of the Millennium

Eugene Volokh meanwhile worries that the Massachuetts supreme court has implicitly legitimized not only polygamy but incestuous marriages.

Hey, but who cares if thousands of years of common sense and millions of years of biology are cast aside, just so long as the One Obsession of Andrew Sullivan's journalism is given the unfettered right to pursue its adventures no matter how much social wreckage it leaves in its wake.

David Morrison responds to Tom Fox at the National Catholic Reporter

David is one of my heros.

Attention Seattleites and Others in the Seattle Area! Big Doings Tonight!

The G. K. Chesterton Society Presents:

"The True King: Tolkien and the Medieval"

A Lecture by Brad Birzer, Ph.D., Department of History, Hillsdale College

Gazebo Room
Student Union Building
Seattle Pacific University
Wednesday, November 19, 7:30 PM

All attendees are invited to enjoy refreshments (pizza and pop) after the lecture and discussion.

Dr. Birzer is the author of J. R. R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-Earth.

Birzer to Be Interviewed on KUOW!

Tune in to FM 94.9 to listen to Dr. Birzer discuss The Lord of the Rings on KUOW's "The Beat" at 3 PM, November 19.

Attention, SPU Students! This event is eligible for CFE (Christian Faith Exploration) credit.

Attention, everyone! Fr. Robert Spitzer, beloved former SU professor, current president of Gonzaga University and a favorite Chesterton speaker, will be speaking this Saturday in Seattle. Details here.

Remaining Chesterton Meetings
Jan. 28, 7:30, Casey Commons, Seattle University .
Jeffrey Cain, Ph.D., Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
"Can a Conservative Be an Environmentalist?"

Feb. 25, 7:30, Casey Commons, Seattle University .
Tracy McKenzie, Ph.D., Department of History, University of Washington.
"An Examination of Some Common Myths about the Civil War"

April 14, 7:30, Casey Commons, Seattle University .
Joseph Koterski, S. J., Department of Philosophy, Fordham University.
"Laws of Men and Laws of Nature"

May 19, 7:30, Casey Commons, Seattle University .
Perry Lorenzo, Director of Education, Seattle Opera.
"Music of the Spheres: Musical Interpretations of Dante"

***

We welcome your feedback! Please let us know what you thought of previous meetings. We'd also like to hear your suggestions for topics or speakers.

The G. K. Chesterton Society sponsors lectures and discussion aimed at facilitating a Catholic perspective on issues of interest to current students. For more information, call or write Phillip Goggans (206-281-2080; pgoggans@spu.edu.

First Snow!

Snow is such an uncommon thing in Washington that I never tire of the wonder of it! We went to bed to howling winds and pouring rain last night and this morning... Behold! Snow!

The kids were squirming with ecstasy, of course, and even Jan and I felt a bit like Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig on Christmas Eve. Jan made me a nice cup of Lemon Zinger with honey and that soothed my annoying post-nasal drip throat that I decided to head out into the dripping to have a snowball fight with Peter and Sean. They were good sports and we each gave as good as we got. Then it was time to break out the slidery plastic snow dishes and toboggan down the side hill.

Splendiferous! In a bit we will say our morning Rosary and homeschool will start an hour late due to Snow. So far we haven't managed to get that announced on the radio.

A reader writes:

I am presently trying to defend the church's opposition to gay marriage in front of some secular and non-believing friends of mine, and having a bit of a tough time coming up with something persuasive. Especially when it goes through arguments (such as the essentialness of the procreative nature of sex) that they definitely aren't going to be receptive to. I'm being asked, how does someone's gay marriage hurt me? Has anyone run across a good apology for traditional marriage suitable for a non-Christian audience? Or does anyone have any good ideas?

That settles it! I'm going to see Master and Commander!

Something to Support for Christmas

A reader writes:

The Spirit of America is a grassroots, non-governmental collaboration between Americans serving in Iraq and those at home to directly address needs of Iraqis that change their lives immediately, generate great good will, and make Iraqis less susceptible to the lure of the radicals. It would be encouraging for your readers who might want very much to make a difference in Iraq this Christmas.

Some Good News: The Al-Quaeda Attacks on Saudis Appear to have Backfired

They may be losing the mushy middle in Islam. That's very good news indeed. We need to welcome this.

Nazi Juggernaut Rolls Over Netherlands, Now Poised to Crush Britain

It took a little doing, but Hitler is finally winning.

The most profound victory is not to triumph over your enemy. The most profound victory is to make your enemy think like you. By this measure, Hitler is slowly winning the war.

A reader writes...

concerning this blog:

My grandparents lived in one of the nicer neighborhoods in the New York City suburbs. They apparently had a fair amount of this stuff in the local schools. The 12-year-old daughter of a neighbor hanged herself and left a note saying that the world was environmentally doomed and that she didn't want to be part of the environmental problem.

The people who sell this nonsense really ought to start with themselves.

May God have mercy on her poor confused soul.

Judges Rule Citizens of Massachusetts Unfit to Deliberate on the Common Good

The judiciary takes control. Again. Sully, that champion of American democracy in Iraq, will naturally be thrilled that democracy has once again been crushed at home. The ends do, after all, justify the means.

Rod Dreher is in Fine Fettle This Morning

Bishops really are amazing creatures. You can learn all there is to know about their ways in a month, and after a hundred scandals, they can still surprise you.

I hereby award Dreher the prestigious first Shea Prize for Satirical Religious Journalism.

Caption Contest



A pert Australian sends along the following captions for the moment when the Prophet Gene received his mitre from his boyfriend.

1. I was going to get a you a Bible, but I knew you'd never use it

and my personal favorite (suggested by a senior priest in my diocese)

2. Well bugger me, a new hat!

Feel free to add your own.

Happily, it's the Dutch Reformed who have caught the dork bug (or should I say, "Doork Bug"?)

Catholics breathe a sigh of relief and get back to producing quality schlock like "Anthem".

Veggie Tales Gets Some Competition

Small addendum

Some of my readers are still tempted to try to read my mind. Somebody last week had a theory that I was eager for God's judgment to fall on the US. Today, somebody read animal entrails and decided they could tell I was "disappointed" that there might be evidence of link between Saddam and Al-Quaeda.

Just to clarify. I'm not disappointed. If it turns out that Iraq was in league with Al-Quaeda, I shall rejoice as much as any normal person that an ally of Al-Quaeda has bitten the dust. I shall not, however, think that the reason we went to war in March was because we knew we were there to defeat an ally of al-Quaeda. We were there, we were told, because Saddam had WMDs and we had to act this very instant. I think we are discovering now that this was not true. I say the discovery of (possible) links to al-Quaeda is serendipitous for defenders of the war because, in our historically amnesiac culture, it will be the work of a few night's news broadcasts to make the public believe that we went to war because we knew all about the Saddam-Al Quaeda link. Much as we went to war to free the slaves in 1861 or to liberate the Jews in 1941, even though that's not why we went to war.

Finally, in response to this entry, somebody asked, "The peace of totalitarianism is preferable to a temporary disruption while striving for a just society. Is that what you're saying, Mark?" No. I'm saying that our confident projection of the message "Mission Accomplished" was rather full of hubris, judging from the steadily rising casualty rates, and that we are a very long way from being done with war in Iraq. I am suggesting that the hubris which characterized our belief that the Mission would be accomplished on the abbreviated timescale we projected is also a hubris we should re-examine as we confidently announce that the Seeds of American Democracy are soon going to push through the barren soil of Iraq. I certainly hope they do. But I have a congenital desire to deal with reality and not my preferences.

For you to chew on since I'll be scarce today

Here are two pieces, one pro-Iraq War, one dubious re: the Iraq War. Here's the pro-Iraq War piece, sent me by a reader who writes:

I've been watching the debate on Iraq and have been following it less and less because this debate does not really fit into a War by Comment Box. I've tried to put my thoughts down in an organized fashion. This is certainly too long for a comment box, and perhaps even to long for you to read.

DISTURBING BACKGROUND

Laid out here is my thoughts on why the US has followed the policy it has since the attacks of 9-11. I suspect, but do not know, that this is the reasoning behind the administration's policy. Take it for what it's worth, but keep in mind that the Middle East tends to present policy makers with the choice of lesser evils, rather than in the choice between white and black.

State-sponsored terrorism has been government policy in the Middle East for an entire generation. From the attacks on the Munich Olympic Games, to the World Trade Center, the Arab governments have used murder and threats of murder to try and coerce others into supporting their goals. At Munich, it started with hostagetaking; it progressed through the murder of small numbers of people; continued on with the destruction of a loaded 747 over Lockerbie; and reached the scale of mass murder at the World Trade Center. This policy has received the support of both the governments in the Middle East and many prominent Islamic religious leaders.

The second thing to remember is a curious twist of Islamic scientific interest. Arab countries play no role in modern science, have no engineering, and no manufacturing. The main source of wealth in the Middle East is oil. Even there, Arab governments are content to hire foreign experts and buy foreign equipment. There is one exception: Nuclear Physics. Despite large oil reserves, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan have had large atomic programs.

Pakistan is the first certifiable, Third-World-Basket-Case to develop nuclear weapons. They are very proud of their "Islamic Bomb" and see it as a counterweight to the Zionist Entity. This, despite the fact that Israel is a long, long way away from Pakistan. A great many Pakistanis consider a young man's education complete when he has memorized the Koran and can recite it from memory, front to back. A young woman's education is complete when she has learned to cook. This combination of nuclear physics and obscurantist religion does not bode well for the future.

Have no doubt that there are many faults to find with American foreign-policy. Still, something beats nothing. If the Bush Plan is inadequate, what is to replace it? Any replacement plan must into account three things:

1) The Islamic policy of state terrorism,
2) The persistent interest of Muslim governments in nuclear physics, and
3) The theology of Jihad preached by many of Islam's leaders.

THE WAR ON TERROR

To understand the decision to go to war against Iraq it is necessary to go back to how the world looked in the days after the attacks of 9-11. The threat of terrorism had gone from nuisance attacks to catastrophe. The World Trade Center had 50,000 people in it when the first airplane struck and the Financial District was shut down for the better part of a week. In Washington, the Pentagon was partially demolished. The plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was also heading for either the White House or the Capitol building. This was clearly a decapitation strike aimed at the American government and the American economy. Quite rightly, George Bush decided to tear-up terrorism root-and-branch.

The first target was Afghanistan. Afghanistan was the only country that could be tied directly to the attacks of 9-11. The Tailiban gave host to al-Qaida, but at the insistence of the Pakistani government, with Saudi Arabian money, and recruits from all over the Arab world. The destruction of the training camps in Afghanistan was a necessary first step, but would only strike at the periphery of the problem. Saudi money, and Arab governments could shift their bases to other areas on the periphery of the Muslim world: the Sudan, the Horn of Africa, or the remoter islands of Indonesia.

The next American strike had to be at the core of the Arab world. This was the real causus belli. Until the foreign policies of the Middle East -- in place for an entire generation -- changed, terror attacks such as 9-11 are a constant threat.

The problem is that these three régimes maintained a "plausible deniability" for any individual terrorist attack, even the attacks of 9-11. They put in money, supplied organization and directed eager young Arabs into various stateless organizations such as al-Qaida, Islamic Jihad, the PLO, and other lesser-known organizations. These organizations could take credit for any particular attack because there were no bases for the West to strike at. It was politically impossible to strike at their sponsors, because there would be no trail leading from any particular attack back any particular sponsor. One of the best demonstrations of this was after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Although it was finally pinned on Libya, there remained strong suspicions that one of the other Arab countries might have born the final responsibility for it.

The result was that there is a need to strike at the core the problem, not the terrorist organizations themselves, but the states that sponsor them. The most prominent of these have been Iran, which pioneered suicide bombings and maintains an atomic program; Iraq which supported terrorism with money and organization, and also maintained an atomic program; Syria, which did a very good job of maintaining plausible deniability yet was the most open in using terrorism as a matter of state policy. There was also Saudi Arabia, a newcomer to the field of terrorism, but using the House of Saud's money to advance terrorism and radical Islamism around the world. Unfortunately, Saudi oil is needed by the world economy if it is not to plunge into a deep recession.

IRAQ IS CHOSEN

For various military and diplomatic reasons the White House chose Iraq to be the first target. It was the most bellicose and perhaps the strongest of the state sponsors of terrorism and Mesopotamia has been a strategic location for all of recorded history. Iraq has long land borders with the other three countries that were the big supporters: Iran to the East, Syria to the West, and Saudi Arabia to the South. Saddam Hussein had already struck at Iran, and seriously threatened Saudi Arabia, in part because of his position at the center things.

Once Iraq was chosen a particular causes belli was needed. Because of the policy of plausible deniability, it was difficult to trace terrorism directly to the Iraqi régime, at least strongly enough to justify an invasion.

Saddam Hussein, being the loose cannon of the Middle East, left a number of other options open. He openly flouted the UN cease-fire agreement that ended the first Gulf War, he constantly attacked American aircraft in the no-fly zones, he had a firm history of attacking his neighbors, and so was a perennial threat. Over the previous 10 years it had become apparent, for a variety of reasons, that he had to go if there was to be peace in the Middle East. A UN resolution, the preferable route, would have been straightforward if we had not been thoroughly double-crossed by the French and the Germans.

There was also the threat of WMD. He was clearly hiding some sort of program, and given his history observers were inclined to the more pessimistic interpretations and feared the worst. Prior to the war, there seemed to be general agreement between American, British, French, and German intelligence that his weapons programs were proceeding at full speed, especially his nuclear program.

With the collapse of the American position at the UN, the WMD were chosen as the strongest argument, probably the only one that gave the US a strong enough unilateral reason to do it alone.

The fundamental decision was based on the War on Terror and the lawyers and diplomats were told to sell in on the WMD, an issue that the West's intelligence services had wrapped up.

MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACKING

Now that the smoke has cleared, the question for the Monday Morning Quarterbacks is, Did we make a mistake by invading Iraq? The answer is NO.

Looking back with hindsight, what do we know? The WMD program was much smaller than thought, but it did exist. There was minor activity in germ warfare, but the program was there. The poison gas was clearly the most advanced. Sadaam had apparently destroyed all his stocks, although the timeframe in which he did that is unclear. Nonetheless -- and this is key -- he maintain the industrial base which he needed to put them back into production. He could have done this very quickly after the end of sanctions. The thought of Sadaam, released from sanctions, giving Sarin to terrorist to release in the Times Square Subway Station or major domed stadium is not one to be scoffed at. "When you strike at the King, you must kill him."

The nuclear program was the biggest surprise. Although apparently stockpiling special tubes and other supplies he would need for a genuine atomic program, it was mostly dormant. Nonetheless, there were indications that Sadaam maintain an active interest in this. He was actively pursuing a method of making atom bombs using Red Lead. In the realm of physics, this is much like using leeches to cure cancer. Destined to fail, but the intent to develop the weapons was clearly there. There is no reason to believe that once the sanctions were ended and he realized this wouldn't work that he would not go back to reactors and centrifuges.

Aside from the weapons programs, the biggest surprise to the casual observer was the human rights situation in Iraq. The children's prison, the mass graves, and the torture centers came as a surprise to many people. Students of the régime expected all this, but the end of this is at least a side benefit of the invasion. It was at least a minor point in President Bush's argument for the war.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: Iraq was put out of the terrorism business. Unfortunately, I forget their names but several big-name terrorists were either killed or captured in the war. In addition, one of the largest sources of funding for the terrorists was ended. Sadaam had been giving generous subsidies to the Palestinians, Islamic Jihad, and even the Syrian government. With the fall of Saddam Hussein, one of a larger supporters of terrorism is now out of the picture. This is the main, and most important, effect of the invasion.

THE FOREST VERSUS THE TREES

Most of the attention has focused on the lack of WMD's in Iraq. This is certainly a diplomatic problem and a major embarrassment to the US. It was important, but only one reason for invading Iraq.

This will certainly cause trouble the next time the U.S. tries to take action against terrorism, and maybe cynically exploited by tyrants to launch invasions of their neighbors. In the real world, foreign policy is not immaculate.

It is not really a moral problem, in that the intelligence estimates were made in good faith and acted on in good faith. In addition, one of the reasons that Iraq was chosen was that Sadaam was a bad actor and had given plenty of reasons why he should be deposed. Most importantly, the solid and real issue for the invasion of Iraq stands untouched: a prominent and large supporter of terrorism has been removed and the United States is now in position to threaten the remaining terrorist states.

An interesting analog might be the fall of Al Capone. He was not brought to trial for murder, bombings, rum running, or bribery. He was brought to trial for tax evasion. The government knew that he was guilty of all of that, but couldn't prove it to a jury. They could prove tax evasion, and hunted him down on that. The larger cause of Capone's fall was that he was the country's biggest mobster. The official cause was the tax code.

THE INTELLIGENCE FAILURE

The intelligence failure is the most serious failure of the past two years. Unfortunately, it is not unprecedented. During World War II, the German refugees at work on the Manhattan Project were certain that Germany had the ability to develop an atomic bomb and was almost certainly working on one. They turned out to be mistaken.

The result is the now lack the confidence in our intelligence needed to act against Iran, which has boasted of its enrichment facilities and is completing a plutonium breeder reactor, or even North Korea, a psychotic state boasting of its nuclear program.

This has almost certainly ended the policy of preemption and will result in "Paralysis by Analysis" in the future. As the scope of the failure became clear over the summer, all talk of action against Iran and North Korea ended. For now, we are waiting for the mushroom cloud.

THE CURRENT STRATEGIC SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The most important effect is that one of a largest supporters of terrorism is no longer supporting terrorists.

Iraq is now the Electric Bug Zapper of the Middle East. Al Qaida terrorists, and other young bucks, interested in Jihad are heading for Iraq to meet the Infidel there, not following the example of Osama bin Laden and carrying out massive strikes in the US.

In Saudi Arabia, a low-level civil war has broken out. This appears to be between the remnants of al-Qaida and the Saudi government. It is unclear what is happening, or where it will go, but the House of Saud and Al Qaida, once bedfellows, are now at each others' throats.

Not everything has gone well. Iran and Syria have not taken the proper warning from the destruction of the Iraqi régime. Iran continues with its nuclear program, and Syria seems to be actively encouraging terrorist to go to Iraq to fight Americans. This is where the strategic location of Iraq is important. American armies are now on the borders of both Iran and Syria. If there is another outrage like 9-11, US will be able to move quickly and certainly against either or both of them.

Some of the political deadlock to the Middle East also appears to be breaking up. The Catholic Church is now confident enough to talk about the persecution the Christians in the Middle East. The threat of a prosperous democracy in Iraq is also likely to put the region's despots on the defensive.

Overall, things have shifted in our favor. The terrorist states have been badly weakened, young Muslims are attacking heavily armed American troops in Iraq, not office buildings in the US, and there is a real chance that democracy and prosperity may gain a foothold in the Arab world.

There is certainly a very real chance of failure in Iraq, but failure in Iraq would scarcely put us into a situation worse than that of the morning of September 12, 2001. There are still many forces sliding out of control in the region. they may yet have the upper hand. At worst the invasion of Iraq has put a brake on the slide, and at best may help to reverse it.

And here is Mark at Minute Particulars, saying better than I could yesterday why the alleged discovery of a Saddam link to al-Quaeda, while a happy bit of news if true (happy in the sense that it would mean al-Quaeda lost an ally), it simply not germane to discussions of the justice of the Iraq War.

Oh, and as a bonus, just because you were very good while I was gone, here is the immense Eve Tushnet Roundup on the whole Saddam-al Quaeda thang. Eve disappoints many in cyberspace by not issuing dogmatic opinions in a vacuum of actual knowledge. Does she know nothing of blogging? :)

My main puzzle in the midst of all this is "What is the sense of saying Saddam was an ally of al Quaeda but had nothing to do with 9/11, as some of my readers seem to do? I don't get it."

A reader writes:

With the holidays approaching, readers in the blogosphere may appreciate some ideas for vittles here. The chipmunk, possum, and skunk dishes are sure to be hits at all sorts of festive occasions.

For some reason, that reminds me. Did you know there's actually a town called "Possum Kingdom, South Carolina"? I think that is so cool.

Humans...are... a disease, Mr. Anderson. And we... are... the cure.

My suggestion to such people is "Think globally. Act locally. Here's a noose. Start with yourself." Somehow they never regard themselves as being the Surplus Population.

Garry Wills to the Church: Be Remade in My Image and Likeness or Thou Art Doomed!

Seattle University's Promise to You, Sucker: "We treasure our Jesuit Catholic ethos and the enrichment from many faiths of our university community."

Check out the Vatican Library Art Collection link on my left rail

Nifty stuff from the folks at Art Creations!

Meg Quinn, the Perky Papist, is On the Air

Check out the girly girl colors! Manly Men (such as myself) eschew all that for the solid and sensible blacks, greys, and whites.

She does, however, have fun content.

At the sound of the word "Abstinence"...

... a member of the UK Chattering Classe Press Corps stares wordlessly for several beats. He slightly raises one eyebrow, says "Quite", and for the rest of the article somehow makes it clear that Colin Powell is more fantastic and utterly unreal than a fabulous griffin.

Seattle University: Providing the Illusion of a Catholic Education to Benefactors

...and Jesus Seminar BS and Queer Legal Theory Crap to young skulls full of mush.

Still waiting for the Vatican to open inter-religious dialogue with the Jesuits.

"From the heart of the Church" my eye.

Natan Sharansky on Anti-Semitism

Karl Stern, an Orthodox Jewish convert to the Catholic Faith who escaped the Holocaust one said that his rabbis told him that Jews were hated because they were the bearers of the Messianic idea. I think there's something to that.

I think attempts to explain the mysterious hatred directed toward the Jews in political or social or financial terms are always going to ring hollow. At the end of the day, we are faced with the "mystery of evil", a demonic hatred that runs deeper than merely human explanations can account for. I also think (as Edith Stein did) that, in the end, the hatred directed at Jews is a hatred that is trying desperately to get at Christ. In short, I think the Holocaust was a dress rehearsal for a far more bloody demonic attack on the Body of Christ. All the more ironic and horrible then, that so many Christians acquiesced to the Jewish Holocaust, because they were only helping to facilitate the working of the spirit of Antichrist in the world.

The mystery of evil, like the mystery of grace, is not soluble to our little rationalist systems of order. It is as far below reason as grace is infinitely above it. Reason can perceive little things, but not the Big Ones. Attempts to "explain" the Holocaust, like attempts to explain the Resurrection, are therefore doomed. Reason cannot seen either pitch darkness, nor the Fullness of Light.

Can't see! Eyes Rolling too Hard!

If there's anything likely to make me cringe more, I can't think of it.

Rumblings of Possible Connections between Saddam and Al-Quaeda

We'll see. If so, it will be the lucky break the Administration has needed. However, there is still the need to be clear. Sully writes, in his typically truth-fudging way, "today's 20/20 critics seem eager to claim that, even after 9/11, the administration should only have acted against Saddam if it had proven beyond any reasonable doubt that he was indeed in league with al Qaeda."

To which I reply, "reasonable doubt" is in fact a normal standard in courts of law, so I don't quite know why Sullivan employs such contempt for people who wish to hold to such standards--unless of course he believes that civilized standards must be suspended in order to sacrifice all to the goddess Victory. However, the reality is that, at the time we went to war, even Bush was saying there was no evidence of a link between Saddam and al-Quaeda. If it turns out after the fact that there was, that certainly is serendipitous for war advocates, but it doesn't improve the case for the justice of the war. It merely means that God has been gracious to us. The lesson we really ought not take away from this is "Therefore let us do evil that good may result" and that is a very tempting thing to conclude. Indeed it is, whether people realize it or not, exactly what people are in fact concluding whenever they say, "Who gives a shit whether the war met some abstract canons of Just War theory that only theologians care about. The fact is, we won and we got rid of a Bad Guy!" for in saying that, they are saying "The ends justify the means", a principle universally condemned by Christian moral teaching.

So while it will be a very fine thing if, in fact, a support of Al-Quaeda is out of the way. But it will be a very bad thing if, in tradeoff for that, we transform ourselves into a nation which says the ends justify the means. The question that still needs to be attended to is the justice of the war as it was when we launched in it in March when Bush said there was no connection between Saddam and Al-Quaeda.

Memo to Planned Parenthood: Don't Mess with Texas

Here's one example of what the laity can do! I love it!

Art is Dead

Just as a reminder....

Judaism, like the Catholic Church, is not a monolith. Here, for instance, is a peculiar find I was not aware of: Neturei Karta, a group of Ultra Orthodox Jews (and not the only ones) who oppose Zionism.

Their reasons for doing so are theological: they believe that a Jewish state can only be set up by Messiah, not by some secular entity. As a Catholic, I would disagree with them for two reasons. First, of course, because Messiah has already come and the kingdom he has brought is the Davidic and Eucharistic one known as the Church. Second, I would say (as I already have) that Jews have a natural right to a home, like any people. However, other natural rights (such as the natural right of Palestinians to a home) also enter in.

Just a snapshot of the odd ways in which theology and politics can collide.

Ex-Security Chiefs Turn on Sharon

Who knew there were so many "self-hating Jews" in the Israeli Gov't? Odd how when East Germany or South Africa settle on these policies, it's bad. But when Israel does it, it's above question.

Please. Before you write a syllable to tell me how it's all completely and totally the fault of the Palestinians and Israel is pure as the driven snow, remember that I've got friends who actually know Palestinian Catholics and can assure you that there's a problem on both sides. Which is, of course, exactly what Sharon's ex-security people are pointing out.

Mike Schiavo Creeps out Ann Coulter

Rich People Seek Ways to Cull the Herd. Dumb Catholics Play Along

Human history Summarized

Step One: Hey! What could it hurt?

Step Two: How was I supposed to know?

Mark Windsor on War in Iraq

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Matt Mauney
(202) 276-5982
mmm39@georgetown.edu

November 12, 2003

Georgetown University Student Government Condemns Catholic Cardinal for Pro-family Speech

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a stunning blow to Georgetown University’s religious heritage, the student government of America's oldest Catholic university turned its back on a normally routine resolution thanking Nigerian Archbishop Francis Cardinal Arinze - thought by many to be next in line for the papacy - for his commencement speech last spring.

In his speech, Cardinal Arinze stood up for traditional Catholic teachings on the family and sexual morality, saying, “In many parts of the world, the family is under siege. It is opposed by an anti-life mentality as is seen in contraception, abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. It is scorned and banalized by pornography, desecrated by fornication and adultery, mocked by homosexuality, sabotaged by irregular unions and cut in two by divorce.”

Cardinal Arinze’s commencement address ignited a firestorm on campus that has continued in the current academic year. Theology Professor Theresa Sanders and several students walked out during the graduation speech on May 17th, 2003. Nearly 70 faculty members followed up with a letter to College Dean Jane McAuliffe to protest the address. Then, in October, the Georgetown University Faculty Senate passed a resolution prompted by the Arinze speech which called on the university to reaffirm its commitment to an “inclusive, pluralistic community.”

On November 4, 2003, the student government—known as the Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA)—debated a resolution sponsored by junior representative Matt Mauney that thanked Cardinal Arinze for an “appropriate and meaningful commencement address in keeping with Catholic teaching and the Georgetown University mission.” It also called on teachers and students who protested the speech “to affirm their commitment to an inclusive community.” GUSA rejected the resolution 3-11.

Mauney denounced GUSA’s actions saying, “By rejecting this resolution, the student association has said that the expression of Catholic faith is unwelcome at perhaps the most important university event for students. In doing so, it has pitted Georgetown’s Catholic identity against tolerance, implying that faithful Catholics, indeed the whole university, are bigoted.”

Nicholas Lizop, a GUSA representative who voted against the resolution, commented that “[I] would expect to be able to go through Georgetown without having to hear Catholic doctrine.”

“Unfortunately, there are many people on campus who are ignorant of Catholic teachings and Georgetown’s tradition,” Mauney said. “No one is compelled to agree with the Catholic Church, but as a non-Catholic, it is unconscionable to me that people who freely chose to come here are so hostile to the intellectual and moral tradition that founded this university. This decision undermines the 200-plus year tradition of America’s oldest Catholic university, and the students who opposed the resolution should be ashamed.”

GUSA’s actions have caused some students to reflect on whether conservative and traditional Catholic voices are really welcomed on campus. Jack Ternan, the chair of the student association and a Catholic, commented, “I can’t count the number of times I have been called a racist, sexist, homophobe, etc in an attempt to discredit or silence me.”

Baghdad "now is a more dangerous place than before the invasion."

All part of the Greater Strategy since Mission Accomplished.

Fascinating glimpse of the Nice-ification of America's Religious culture

Evangelicals get the rough edges buffed off:

"Many committed born-again Christians believe that people have multiple options for gaining entry to Heaven," explains firm president George Barna. "They are saying, in essence, 'Personally, I am trusting Jesus Christ as my means of gaining God's permanent favor and a place in heaven--but someone else could get to heaven based upon living an exemplary life.'"

But even atheists are going squishy:

Perhaps the biggest surprise in Barna's survey is that half of atheists and agnostics believe that people have souls and that there is life after death. "One out of every eight atheists and agnostics even believe that accepting Jesus Christ as savior probably makes life after death possible," says Mr. Barna, who considers this to be "further evidence that many Americans adopt simplistic views of life and the afterlife based upon ideas drawn from disparate sources, such as movies, music and novels, without carefully considering those beliefs."

Stuff I don't know. Stuff I do know.

A reader sends along this link and comments:

The most interesting thing to me was the bit about Vatican II not mandating the altar facing the people. If that's true, how can we get this made right. I was born in 1974, so I've only known the priest facing the people. (Other than one time when I deliberately went to a Tridentine Mass for the experience.) Once my grandmother explained to me why the priest used to face away, it became so clear that's the way it should be. Amazing the stuff my generation doesn't understand.

I'll take Johnston's word for it that the Council didn't mandate turning the altar around. However, I'm not as quick as my reader to assume that the turning around of the altar was therefore not promulgated by legitimate authority and that the "right" way of celebrating the Mass is with the priest's back to the people. My assumption has always been that this revision came in with the Paul VI Mass and is therefore promulgated by legitimate authority, but I don't really know if I'm right. I assume so, since even the Pope celebrates facing the people.

Why mention this? Because it's very easy for us to fall into Da Vinci Code conspiracy thinking ("an evil cabal has kept the Truth from us!") when the reality is rather more prosaic. The way the Mass "should" be celebrated is that way in which the legitimate authority Christ has placed over us says it should be celebrated. If Paul VI turned the altar around, then that also is a legitimate way in which the Mass may be celebrated. That does not mean the Tridentine rite is wrong. But it does mean that those who are tempted to pit the two rites against one another and demand we choose are wrong.

Belated Episcopal Spine Alert!

New blog!

The Great Thing about Having Comments Boxes...

...is that many heads are better than one!

Case in point: a reader writes:

I've read your blog for quite a while now and seen the instances you've shared with "major" media and their anti-Catholic bias. (To a lesser extent, up here in the soon-to-be frozen tundra of Wisconsin, we've our share of bias in our local paper as well.)

My question, if I may, is this: other than praying for change, how could we (meaning orthodox Catholics, i.e. those of us who are Catholic - not those of us who go to a Catholic church) influence and/or change the media's voice to become more objective? Letters to the editor can only go so far.

I know the theories why the media is so slanted - being an ex reporter myself I've seen firsthand how liberal they are. BTW, another reason, I believe, is that most of the reporters I've worked with are incredibly narcissistic. That selfish behavior is the antithesis of what "good" Christians are taught. That attitude, and the overall invasive nature of the field, are the main reasons changed fields (and the fact I have a face made for radio!).

Things are seemingly becoming worse. Any ideas?

Discuss, class.

The Abortion Party Eats its Young

Back from South Carolina!

Had a lovely time and all you comments box folks were exactly right: Charleston is a beautiful town! It was spared the ravages of the Civil War for the most part, so there's a lot of antebellum architecture still around, as well as stuff from the colonial period. I stayed on Sullivan's Island with friends William and Mary Durst, who are the souls of southern hospitality and graciousness. They are converts to the Faith and spent a number of years living in Jerusalem (part of their conversion is due to having met the Palestinian Catholic community there).

Their house sits right on the beach and looks out over the harbor so that a Civil War buff like me could have the thrill of waking up on Friday morning and seeing, perfectly framed in the window, Fort Sumter, where the open shots of the Civil War were fired. Amazing.

I gave my conversion story ("How I Got This Way") on Friday night and then taught Making Senses Out of Scripture all day Saturday. On Friday, I got squired around town by William and met Fr. Greg Wilson (another convert) at the cathedral and we went to lunch ("The Crab Shack", not the Crab House. Sorry!) and swapped conversion stories. Then padre showed us around the cathedral and I gathered up dirt (according to my sworn oath to my son) from the parking lot next door. (I'm always supposed to bring back dirt from my travels. Matthew's a different kid.) I chose the parking lot dirt because (till the Fire of 1861) there had been a building on that spot which was the site of the meeting where South Carolina voted to be the first state to secede from the Union. So this was, you see, *historic* dirt. After noon mass, I asked padre for the sacrament of anointing since I have a bad cold and needed my voice for the weekend. He graciously obliged and my voice held firm through two days of yakking, thanks be to God.

Went to Mass Saturday night at Stella Maris, the local parish on Sullivan's Island. Beautiful, beautiful old wooden parish with German stained glass windows, built in the mid-19th century. It's withstood the fury of Hurrican Hugo in '89 (which essentially annihilated the island and obliterated my host's first house. Mass was very restful!

After that it was party time. So we all went back to the Durst's and did what Catholic do best: ate, drank, and made merry. Got to meet a bunch of lovely people and make a bunch of lovely new friends. Thanks, Lord!

Flew home yesterday, dead exhausted with this cold and had the exquisite pleasure of seeing Jan and the little guys at the top of the escalator at Sea-Tac. Came home and watched a reasonably fun dinosaur movie and collapsed into happy unconsciousness on the couch with the kids all cuddling against me during the scary parts. Bliss. Now I'm playing catch up on all the mail!

Before I go, one quick message to youse guys (and you know who you are)

Well done, thou good and faithful servants!

Attention: Anybody in the area of Charleston, South Carolina

I'm headed your way this weekend. Here what I'm up to:

November 14, 7:00 p.m. How I Got This Way: Confessions of a Double-Jump Convert
and
November 15, 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM Making Senses Out of Scripture: Reading the Bible as the First Christians Did
Where: Stella Maris Church Hall, Stella Maris Catholic Church, 1204 Middle St., Sullivan's Island, SC 29482. Contact persons: William Durst at (843) 849-9599/ Ext. 315, WDurst@aol.com, Nettie Taylor (843) 883-9040, jimmie@usit.net

A good time will be had by all. In the words of Samuel Goldwyn, "Don't miss it if you can."

Everybody else: blogging will be light till Sunday. Oh, and you really need me to come to your parish or diocese or conference and speak.

The very sensible Two Sleepy Mommies on the Pronoun Formerly Known as "He"

The whole inclusive language in the Liturgy thing is so early 90s. Let's just junk it and go back to biblical usage. I don't have a problem with inclusive language in the horizontal dimension ("Brothers and sisters"). I have huge problems with it in the vertical dimension since God is, in relation to humanity, utterly masculine. I also fiercely resist things like "In the name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sanctifier" since this narcissistically refers God to us rather than reveal him in the inner relationships between the Persons.

Haloscan Screeches "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" and then passes out

No word on when it will return

God or Mammon? God or Mammon?

The NY Comptroller makes his choice:

NY Comptroller: State Could Save $489 Million Per Annum Through Emergency Contraception

Emergency Contraception=Abortifacients

The sleekness of our system is that millions of victims are not shoveled into mass graves to be uncovered later by enemies and paraded on the evening news. We dispose of our victims one at a time through the individualized community-minded efforts of reg'lar folk, all working in harmony for a Common Cause. As always, it's a much neater and efficient system than a centralized economy. We've got it down to a science. That's why God is on our side. Or at least, Mammon is.

I hope Atheist Nat Henthoff has the Grand Surprise of Waking up in Heaven on the Day He Dies

Then the atheist will say to the King, "Lord, when did I see you being murdered by thirst or in the womb and speak out to save you?"

And the King will say to him, "Inasmuch as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me."

The Left Stirs in its Torpor, Dimly Notices They are Out of Touch, Goes Back to Sleep