Issues
After the Disaster: Back to the Family and Localism
The rules of capitalism are being re-written. Banks are being nationalized. Governments are pouring money and incentives into the economic system. Interest rates are being lowered towards zero. Consumers are being asked to buy more in order to re-start the cycle of consumption-driven production, while Barak Obama gets on with saving the planet. Writing in the Guardian in August, Tory adviser Philip Blond explained succinctly that “the crisis of contemporary capitalism results from the congruence and culmination of three dominant trends:… READ MORE >
Politics
After Obama: Why Catholics should open a ‘second front’ in the Democratic Party
I have a commentary in this week’s National Catholic Register entitled “What Now? Will New Voters Refashion the Democratic Party?” I argue that the election had a silver lining for Catholics: the same voters who turned out in large numbers for Obama—blacks and other minorities—voted strongly for California’s Proposition 8. I cite that example to make the case that it’s time for Catholics to appeal to disenfranchised socially conservative Democrats, and open up a political ‘second front’ on behalf of a… READ MORE >
Politics
Sarah Palin Meets Woody Allen, Across the Great Divide
If you’re feeling down about the ever-widening gap between blue-state and red-state America (and the even wider gap between blue and red Catholics), you can find hope in Sarah Palin. Ironically, the woman who’s been blamed for single-handedly re-igniting the culture wars is showing signs that she can appeal across the cultural divide. This past weekend she pulled off a smooth performance on Saturday Night Live, and now she’s inspired Radar Magazine to put together a video mash-up of Palin and Woody Allen, with scenes from Annie Hall,… READ MORE >
Business
Alan Greenspan, Ayn Rand and the Libertarian God that Failed
In today’s NY Times, Peter Goodman’s excellent profile of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan confirms what I’ve been writing, that it was a specific “structure of sin”—financial speculation—rather than mere human greed (or bad home loans) that created the credit crisis. I’d always wondered how a rigid anti-government libertarian ideologue like Greenspan—an Ayn Rand disciple, no less—managed to get appointed to the most powerful economic post in the world. If he had been running the Food and Drug Administration,… READ MORE >
Business
Thinking Catholic: European leaders blame crisis on “speculative capitalism”
Europe’s financiers were seduced by the lure of easy subprime mortgage profits, just like everyone else, and they’re suffering now, just like everyone else. But give Europe credit for one thing: Thanks to its Catholic roots, Europe’s leaders understand that the financial crisis wasn’t caused by some vague form of “greed”; it was caused by greed purposely channeled into useless financial speculation, rather than into productive investment. This difference was clearly recognized by European leaders when they met Saturday to deal… READ MORE >
Politics
Politics and Words
Image Journal’s website features a blog by Brian Volck on the slippery nature of words; more specifically, the language of this election season, and key words like “change.” Both parties claim to be the agents of change. What does it mean? How does a word or expression change in a given context? In politics, are words used to clarify or obfuscate? Can spin doctors contort and distort words to a shadow of their former meaning? “Perhaps that’s one reason,” Volck observes, “why the political silly season… READ MORE >
Books
The Archbishop of Canterbury Reads Dostoevsky
Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, has recently written a book about Fyodor Dostoevsky, author of Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. The book—Dostoevsky: Language, Faith, and Fiction—has drawn some controversy, not so much for its content, but for the question of whether it should have been written in the first place. Some object to Williams taking time off his duties as Archbishop (when the Church of England faces difficulties on its home turf) to pen his reflections on a long-dead Russian writer. Why bother about… READ MORE >
Movies
Waugh’s Unlikely Champions
In the New York Review of Books, Daniel Mendelsohn demonstrates a supple understanding of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited—its themes and ambitions. Many have criticized the latest film version of the classic Catholic novel for playing fast-and-loose with the source material, but Mendelsohn is one of the few critics to analyze with depth and clarity (and with reference to the novel’s deep-seated Catholicism) exactly why the new film fails. The reason has less to do with faithfulness to the original story (or lack thereof)… READ MORE >
Issues
The Right’s Hypocritical Crusade against Wall Street
I almost never agree with First Things on economic policy, but Robert T. Miller was right last week when he warned that “those on the political right need to make sure that the Republicans in Congress do not through ignorance or stupidity misunderstand conservative economic principles and so lead us into economic disaster.” Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Republicans in the House did today when they tanked the President’s $700 billion financial bail-out bill and sent the stock market plunging to its biggest one day loss ever.… READ MORE >
Issues
They’ll Believe in Anything: Study says atheists are more irrational
A new Gallup study, “What Americans Really Believe,” suggests that if anti-religious crusaders Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins want a more rational, less superstitious world, they should encourage people to go to church. A recent Wall Street Journal article reported that, according to the study… “…traditional Christian religion greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of astrology. It also shows that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations,… READ MORE >
Culture
Tom Stoppard, Freedom Fighter
Tom Stoppard, the witty British playwright most famous for his mind-bending twist on Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, is the feature of an Observer article on human rights. Stoppard’s plays are like Samuel Beckett by way of Oscar Wilde, with detours to Bardland—postmodern riffs on Big Themes like love and death and liberty, but with Wilde-worthy one-liners. This might make him a curious choice for a conversation about human rights, except for the fact that Stoppard’s personal history and literary preoccupations… READ MORE >
Culture
Adam and Eve make a stand in California
You connect the dots: A California couple refuses to submit to the state’s new “gender-neutral” marriage license that replaces bride and groom with “Party A” and “Party B.” Buried within a Scientific American article on storytelling and the brain (cited by John Murphy below) is a fascinating discovery made by “literary Darwinists” about the universality of romance and sex roles: “The idea of romantic love has not been traditionally considered to be a cultural universal because of the many societies in which marriage… READ MORE >
Science/Tech
Secrets of storytelling
Having just read a collection of masterful short-stories by Tobias Wolff, the issue of what makes storytelling such an intrinsic, necessary part of the human condition has been at the forefront of my mind. An article in the most recent issue of Scientific American approaches this age-old question from a left-brained perspective: “Popular tales do far more than entertain. Psychologists and neuroscientists have recently become fascinated by the human predilection for storytelling. Why does our brain seem to be wired to enjoy stories?… READ MORE >
Culture
Vatican Searching for Next Raphael. Or Roy Lichtenstein?
The Catholic Church used to be Western Civ's pre-eminent patron of art and architecture. But the past few hundred years have seen the Vatican slowly transition from commissioner to collector, safeguarding the long and luminous tradition of Church art. Tantalizing signs of change are looming, however. Newsweek is reporting on the Vatican's recent plans to reach out to the modern art world and reignite the dialogue between Church and artists: "This fall, the Holy See hopes to revive its cultural side by searching for artists willing… READ MORE >
Culture
#110 Stuff White People Like
The Atlantic has an interesting commentary on the popular blog site, Stuff White People Like (also now a New York Times bestselling book). The website features mini-essays by Christian Lander, a PhD dropout now famous for skewering the tastes and mores of ‘White People’—alternately called ‘bourgeois bohemians’ and the ‘educated elite’—that curious class of soi-disant progressives that vote Democrat and pursue ‘personal happiness’ as the highest good while attempting to define “themselves… READ MORE >
Politics
The Democrats are Blowing the Election—and the Catholic Vote
The best thing about how the Democratic Party is kicking away what should be an easy victory in the November presidential election is that it might force them to finally reassess their support for abortion and gay marriage, positions that are unpopular with working class voters, their natural constituency. A subplot here is how the Dems were actually making inroads among faithful Catholics fed up with George Bush—until Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden opened their mouths in public about Catholic moral theology. A front pagearticle in today’s… READ MORE >
Business
The Church on the financial meltdown: Usury and speculation are to blame
If there’s anyone in the mainstream media willing to listen to the Church these days (I doubt it), they’ll discover that centuries of Catholic teaching about the sinful practices of usury and financial speculation can explain why Wall Street is tumbling down. (For the best technical explanation, read The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash, by Charles Morris, a Catholic, and frequent contributor to Commonweal). Put very simply, usury is lending money at punishingly high interest rates,… READ MORE >
Culture
David Foster Wallace, postmodern moralist, dead at 46
The apparent suicide of David Foster Wallace, the prodigiously talented author of the novel Infinite Jest, is a sad, stunning end for a writer whose best work burst with unflagging energy and propulsive imagination. Though often lumped with postmodernists like Thomas Pynchon, Wallace's fiction had a deeply-felt humanity and breadth-of-scope that could recall Dickens at his wild-and-wooliest. Though Infinite Jest, a roughly thousand-page doorstopper, will no-doubt prove Wallace's literary legacy, some of his best writing was bite-sized:… READ MORE >
Politics
David Brooks explains the Republican Party’s Catholic problem
In a NY Times column today called “The Social Animal,” David Brooks pinpoints exactly why so many Catholics hold their noses every four years as they vote Republican for president merely because of the party’s stance against abortion and gay marriage. As any Catholic who’s watched a Republican convention knows, the GOP is about individualism—“the stout pioneer crossing the West, the risk-taking entrepreneur with a vision, the stalwart hero fighting the collectivist foe,” as Brooks describes it. We’ve heard… READ MORE >
Movies
Alfred Hitchcock: Mistaken Identities
The Times Literary Supplement just ran two reviews of recent books about Alfred Hitchcock, the iconic filmmaker whose morbid Catholicism bled into the edges of such classics as Vertigo, I Confess, and Shadow of a Doubt. His movies—popular entertainments in their own time, snubbed by critics and award-givers—have since become the subject of exhaustive theoretical analysis, picked over by feminists, queer theorists, postmodernists, Catholics, and students of film. Paula Cohen, the reviewer, writes: “He (Hitchcock) was able to make… READ MORE >
Politics
Pro-Life vs. Family Values? Is Newsweek’s Jacob Weisberg promoting eugenics?
The culture war is back, stronger than ever, with the liberal media completely flummoxed over how to handle Sarah Palin. But what’s really thrown them is Bristol Palin’s unwed teen pregnancy, and the Republican Party’s surprisingly warm-hearted, non-judgemental response to it. How else to explain Jacob Weisberg’s bizarre column, “Whatever Happened to Family Values” in the latest Newsweek (a slightly different version is on Slate.com). In the column Weisberg accuses conservative Christians of hypocrisy… READ MORE >
Faith
Christian Witness in the Aftermath of Hate
I was ordained a priest on May 23rd. My life now is bound more intensely than ever to the central Mystery of our faith, the Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. I never imagined that so soon in my priestly life would I see the Eucharist attacked so publicly. You may have seen these stories in the press. On June 29th, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Webster Cook, a student and member of the student government at the University of Central Florida, took the Eucharist “hostage” in order to protest the use of University money to… READ MORE >
World
Gained in Translation: Lessons from a visit to a Mexican orphanage
A few months ago, I traveled with eighteen other Catholic singles to Casa de Elizabeth—an orphanage in Imuris, Mexico, a region in the state of Sonora, about two hours south of Tucson. It is an area marked by small rivers that flow west from the Sierra Madre, where many of the residents sell their wares, like handmade tortillas, in the middle of the roads. There are about one hundred children at Casa de Elizabeth, ranging from infants to teens. Some have lost both parents and have no other relatives. Others have been victims of violence… READ MORE >
Politics
Abortion in Britain: The Case for a New Approach
Britain’s lawmakers have voted to extend scientific research on embryos to allow the mixing of human and animal egg and sperm, to allow lesbians to create children through IVF without the need for a father, and against lowering the 24-week legal limit for abortions The promises of brave-new-world cures for diseases swung Members of Parliament behind the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Religious objections were parodied as unjustified interference in the lab. But the debate on lowering the abortion limit last week merits careful… READ MORE >
Science/Tech
Emancipate the Embryo! Britain set to enter ‘brave new world’
British Members of Parliament must decide this month on a vast range of ethical issues contained in the Labour Government’s most far-reaching shake-up of fertility and embryology legislation in almost 20 years. The awesomely complex ethical issues raised by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Bill will be hotly contested when its body parts are voted on at the end of this month. On Monday, the bill passed successfully through the Commons after three hours of heated – but also thoughtful – discussion, but many of the MPs… READ MORE >
Politics
Beyond Left and Right: Awaiting the Pope’s Next Encyclical
G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “The whole modern world has divided itself into conservatives and progressives. The business of progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.” The tired categories of Left and Right, which we associate with Liberal (or Progressive) and Conservative, originated in the French Revolution, and have long outlived their usefulness. They are way too clunky to capture the complex political opinions that most of us make up as we go along,… READ MORE >
Faith
Meeting the War Wearied with Christ
“eternally scourged…” Plate 3 Miserere et Guerre—Georges Rouault (1871-1958) One day last week I stood in front of St. Stephen Martyr Church in D.C. with a young religious sister and the pastor of the parish. The scene would have made for a typical beginning to a joke, “A priest, a nun, and a friar, were…” We were talking, laughing, and enjoying the sun; a diocesan priest in black, a Franciscan sister in brown and a Dominican in white. A young lady with olive skin, black hair, and black eyes approached us. Her accented voice… READ MORE >
Faith
Gazing Upwards: The Pope’s Homily at St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Although I’d followed Pope Benedict from event to event during his visit to the U.S., one of the most moving moments for me was watching him on TV as he delivered what I believe was his most personal statement, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. As pastor of the Universal Church, the Pope is most at home with the Eucharist and the liturgy. His homily, characteristic of his writing in general, was both understated and profound. Using the architecture of St. Patrick’s as his springboard, Benedict offered a beautiful… READ MORE >
Faith
After the Pope: Time to Hit the Books?
It’s going to take a while for all (or any) of us to absorb the significance of Benedict XIV’s first apostolic visit to the United States. Unlike his predecessor, the larger-than-life John Paul the Great, who from the first displayed an actor’s genius for what one observer described as “the symbolic gesture”, Benedict’s public demeanor is that of a mild-mannered intellectual with a professorial penchant for pedantry. He gives speeches before roaring thousands much the way one suspects he used to give… READ MORE >
Faith
Valedictory to Pope Benedict XVI
What made me weep, as I watched television coverage of Pope Benedict’s visit, was the simple act of the pope giving communion to people. The news media relayed many over-the-top comments about what the pope’s visit meant: “It’s like Jesus coming to America.” I wrote a panegyric myself about Benedict’s gifts. But Pope Benedict’s leadership and his teachings and all the pomp and circumstance of the visit would have meant nothing if it were not for the Body and Blood of Christ that unites us to God and to one another. … READ MORE >
Culture
‘The Father of the World’—The Pope at the U.N.
As I listened to the Pope’s U.N. address, while driving through Manhattan with Godspy editors John Romanowsky and John Murphy, and my son Gianni, on our way to videotape among the crowds at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, just outside U.N. headquarters, I thought to myself—what could I possibly write about the Pope’s astonishingly deep and complex address to the world community? Fortunately, later that night, the task was done for me by Simon Fung, a talented, young Catholic graphic designer who works for Grassroots Films. As we stood… READ MORE >
Faith
Following Christ in the Footsteps of Peter
I am not a morning person, but this morning I extracted myself from the warmth of slumber at 4:30. I dragged myself to the shower and groggily went out into the chill. My destination was Annunciation Parish in Northwest Washington. There a happy party of about 100 waited to board buses to go to the residence of the Vatican nuncio. We were going to see the Holy Father off, to thank him, wish him well, and simply to be with him. Love is about simply being present to the other. As we waited the church lights went on and a group hurried in… READ MORE >
Faith
Reflections on the Pope as he is about to speak at the United Nations
When I first heard that Cardinal Ratzinger had been elected to the papacy, my reaction was, “Good. We’re going to stick it to the liberals!” There had been so much discussion following John Paul II’s death about whether the Church would now accommodate herself to the secular city via women’s ordination, etc., that I could only breathe a sigh of relief that the Tradition was once again safely in the hands of a traditionalist. Then I started actually reading the works of the newly-elected Pope Benedict XVI. I… READ MORE >
Faith
With the Pope at Nationals Park
1:30 p.m. I’m just back to St. Stephen Martyr from the Pope’s mass at Nationals Park. Without a ticket to get inside the stadium, I watched the mass on a giant TV screen set-up just outside the security gates. (My homemade sign reading “Prayers for a Ticket” didn’t land me any supernatural luck – just what I get for trying to use prayers as a bartering tool.) It was an interesting scene: a teeming crowd huddled together beneath the screen, cheering when the popemobile made its appearance, waving to the pope when he waved, and… READ MORE >
Faith
How the Media is Missing the Pope’s Radical Critique of American Religion
I sometimes think that Catholic theology operates on a super high frequency that just doesn’t register on some people’s hearing. That’s the conclusion I came to when I read veteran NY Times Vatican-beat reporter Alessandra Stanley’s summing up of the papal visit so far. Comparing it to Prince Charles’ second wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles, (in contrast to JPII’s more Princess Diana-like “extravanga” visits) was clever, but trite. Has the trip, for her, really been about “seamlessly binding together the thorniest Vatican… READ MORE >
Faith
Close to Benedict at the Basilica
9:30 pm. I’m beat and a more than a bit sunburned after a day spent in hot pursuit of the popemobile through Washington D.C. This afternoon I was on the campus of Catholic University, where Pope Benedict arrived at around 5:30 to attend Vespers and address the US Catholic bishops in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. As with Pennsylvania Ave earlier today, the air thrummed with excitement over the pope’s imminent arrival. Mobs of college-aged youngsters assembled on the green lawn of their campus singing… READ MORE >
Faith
The Pope’s Birthday Party
11:50. am In roughly fifteen minutes the popemobile will pass by. I walked down Pennsylvania Ave. towards the White House this morning and the mood is electric. Thousands of people line the sidewalk behind the barricades, holding aloft the Vatican flag and chanting “Viva il Papa!” Praise music is the soundtrack (and lots of ‘Happy Birthdays’): every block showcases strumming guitars, tambourines, bongo drums, and a circle of dancers. The crowds are as diverse in age and ethnicity as the universal church, but I’m also sensing… READ MORE >
Beyond Politics at the White House: What the Pope said, and what he didn’t say
As I listened to Pope Benedict XVI’s speech at the White House this morning, I thought of a very wise statement about God: “He loves us just the way we are, but he loves us too much to let us stay that way.” All popes follow this method, the one established by Jesus: Communicate unconditional love specifically to every person and nation, highlighting whatever is good and true in their history and ideals, while withholding particular criticisms. And boldy issue ethical and religious challenges in general terms, with the hope that… READ MORE >
Faith
Open Doors at St. Stephen Martyr
I’m comfortably settled in DC at the church of Saint Stephen Martyr on Pennsylvania Ave, and my particular thanks go to Br. Hugh Vincent Dyer (a fellow Godspy contributor) for his generous hospitality. As I entered the parish office I received a warm welcome from Msgr. Filardi, the pastor, but could sense that my arrival was a shade anticlimactic. For just as the door closed behind me, I saw another arrival on a nearby TV screen: Pope Benedict was strolling across the tarmac towards President Bush, whose hand was outstretched in welcome.… READ MORE >
Faith
America: Encounter the Pope
The Pope is coming to America. I’ll be with the crowds in D.C. and New York this week, live-blogging my experience of the pope’s visit, and the experiences of the pilgrims and bystanders around me. Secular media coverage has positioned America front-and-center of the trip. I’d like to do the reverse. In my mind, the pope isn’t just coming to America; this is a chance for Americans to come to Benedict XVI-to engage him, encounter his message, listen, absorb, pray, reflect. The pope arrives in Washington DC later… READ MORE >
Faith
Beyond Benedict, ‘the American Pope’
Time Magazine’s recent cover story about Benedict XVI’s upcoming visit had two headlines: “Why The Pope Loves America,” and “The American Pope.’ Neither title was accurate. It’s hard to imagine the soft-spoken, intellectual, Mozart-loving pontiff as somehow quintessentially American. But is it true that he loves America? Sure, but in the unconditional, fatherly sense—not, as the authors of the Time magazine story claim, because “he sees us as the world’s best example” of a faith-based society. The story pieces… READ MORE >
Issues
Driving a Wedge into the ‘Evangelical Center’ on Gay Marriage
Why is it taboo within the cultural left to “privilege” marriage in any way? Several years ago I came across a snarky little news item in New York Magazine titled: “The Smug Marrieds Head Underground: Pro-marriage propaganda to invade subway.” What sort of propaganda was this? They were subway billboards produced by an abstinence advocacy group called Campaign for Our Children. The ads featured happy-faced couples and headlines like “‘Marriage works.” “Married people earn more money.” “Kids of married parents do better… READ MORE >
Life
An Easter Homecoming for Jimmy
Easter marks the dawning of a new and eternal day. The Church commemorates the Resurrection day of Christ as an octave; eight days of rejoicing as if it were a single day. The preface for the Eucharistic prayer in these days speaks in the present tense “on this Easter day”. The Beatles sang of needing love eight days a week and of a longing for a space in which love could overflow even beyond eight days. God’s superabundant Love is manifested in this the highest of octaves. Throughout Christendom baptismal fonts, the womb of the… READ MORE >
Politics
JFK, Barak Obama and the role of religion in American political life
When Democratic presidential nominee Barak Obama spoke in mid-March about race, the speech was hailed as a watershed moment in American politics. Laudatory comparisons were made to John F. Kennedy’s speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12, 1960, where he addressed head on the question of whether a Catholic could be considered for the nation’s highest office. Though his speech focused on the issue of race itself in American politics, what received less attention was Obama’s reflection and defense of traditional… READ MORE >
Spirituality
Well-Springs of Belief: An undiscovered contemporary classic
As Holy Week began and I reviewed my slack observance of Lent—that is, as I reflected on “things done and left undone”—I found I had wasted my soul more than anything through needless distraction. Pascal pointed out how kings have their minstrels and courtiers and fools to ward off the possibility of self-reflection, as he diagnoses how divertissement keeps everyone from confronting the mystery of his life. This past penitential season, I had let Hardball, CNN’s The Situation Room, and innumerable panels led by Brit Hume on Fox… READ MORE >
Faith
Easter and the Problem of Evil
This Easter I waited for the usual Newsweek, Time or U.S. News magazine cover story about “Why Jesus Really Died,” or the “Lost Christianities” the Church has supposedly suppressed in centuries past. Mercifully, I didn’t notice any (I did find a very respectful photo essay on Ireland’s religious orders in Newsweek). Could it be that mainstream media editors have figured that the recent glut of “new atheism” books by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and others has made debunking Christianity passé? Magari!… READ MORE >
Politics
What the Presidential Election Reveals About the American Soul
With the death this week of Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare movement, the passing of the generation that founded the lay movements and greatly influenced Vatican II is accelerating. St. Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei, died in 1975, and Servant of God Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement, died in 1980. Within the past three years, three founders—Msgr. Luigi Giussani (Communion & Liberation), Fr. Marcial Maciel (Regnum Christi), and now Lubich—have passed away. Lay or “ecclesial” movements are the… READ MORE >
Politics
God, Government and Freedom—A Response to ‘None of the Above’
When we discuss the role of government in protecting the common good, especially the poor and the weak, Catholics can and do have differences, as evidenced by Angelo Matera’s recent article and its comments. I’d like to lay out a few principles in order to take a somewhat different tack. There’s no doubt that capitalism is the greatest force for wealth creation the world has ever seen. It accords with Catholic social teaching in respect to the right to private property, and personal freedom. We are meant to be co-creators… READ MORE >
Politics
None of the Above: The Only Vote Worth Casting in November?
As I listened to John McCain’s victory speech Tuesday night, spelling out the themes of his general election campaign—no apologies for the Iraq war, fight the “global war on terror” like it’s World War IV, keep taxes low, and global markets free—in other words, stay the course, the harsh reality of having to choose between him and Obama/Clinton this November began to hit me. On the one hand, despite Obama’s hope-filled rhetoric, I don’t see the Democrats moving away from their pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, anti-school… READ MORE >
TV
HBO’s The Wire: Dignity or Despair?
HBO’s The Wire finales this Sunday at 9 p.m.., and the themes of this fifth and final season—centered around the newsroom of the Baltimore Sun, where the show’s creator David Simon once worked as an editor— have been integrity and honesty, or as Simon says—“just how far you can go on a lie.” A Sun reporter who fakes quotes, a cop who drinks too much and fabricates evidence about a serial killer so he can get the resources he needs to go after drug dealing, a mayor fighting for his political life, a senator accused of misappropriating… READ MORE >
Faith
Looking at the Pew Study: Danger Ahead?
What are we to make of the negative Catholic headlines last week from the Pew study of religious affiliation? “Catholicism has experienced the greatest net losses as a result of affiliation changes” … “Approximately one-third of the survey respondents who say they were raised Catholic no longer describe themselves as Catholic” … “Roughly 10% of all Americans are former Catholics.” It’s not entirely clear, at least based on the analysis of the Pew Study released Friday by CARA, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate… READ MORE >
World
Alan Wolfe and the Taming of Religion
Europeans routinely scratch their heads in puzzlement over the eagerness with which the American regime, unlike the modern French state (until Nicolas Sarkozy?), invites religion into the public square. How can the most progressive nation on earth have such a hankering for such a medieval mixing of Church and State? In a recent interview with Newsweek, Alan Wolfe—one of the media’s most popular commentators on the meaning of America’s “culture wars”—argues that our puzzled friends across the water are actually getting things… READ MORE >
Life
A night with the gang
It was my third night at the parish welcoming a group of homeless men for a wonderful meal, which tonight was cooked up by a lovely couple whose chili, both a vegetarian and meat version, was outstanding. I am getting to know some of the men. They spend their days in a center in midtown New York where they can’t spend the night. For Lent I decided to sign on a bunch of times, including on Good Friday, and might even spend the night one of these Fridays. There is nice fellowship, too, with the other volunteers. It’s a good feeling… READ MORE >
Issues
Letting Bill Clinton Off Easy
When I saw the popular YouTube clip of pro-life protestors from Franciscan University of Steubenville interrupting Bill Clinton’s speech at a campaign rally in their town this week, my first reaction wasn’t the satisfaction that was registered all over the Catholic blogosphere—at either their audacity or Clinton’s cherry-faced loss of aplomb. Instead I felt chagrin, tinged with sadness for a lost opportunity. I’m sure the protestors were well-meaning. Given their university’s reputation for doctrinal orthodoxy… READ MORE >
Issues
Bill, the Times They are a Changin’...
I could hardly process the thoughts and images that flooded my mind as I watched Bill Clinton angrily chastise a group of pro-life student protesters from Franciscan University in Ohio this past weekend. After all, this was the same Bill Clinton whose political aspirations were forged during the antiwar protest years of the sixties, the same man who personally led student demonstrations at home and abroad. It was he and his generation who called for change so radical that much of the “establishment” in Washington could neither understand… READ MORE >
Life
Get Married! The Case for Tying the Knot Early
I enjoyed reading Lori Gottlieb’s funny and insightful “Marry Him! The case for settling for Mr. Good Enough, in the March issue of The Atlantic. At 40 years of age, Ms. Gottlieb finds herself an attractive, intelligent, successful woman whose marriage prospects are plummeting like a skydiver without a parachute. She made the seemingly brave choice to have a child by a sperm-donor, thinking she would find her soul mate afterwards, only to find that she now wants her son to have a great dad, which has multiplied Ms. Gottlieb’s own… READ MORE >
Spirituality
The Joy of Nada—Doing Nothing for Lent
Pascal said “the sole cause of man’s unhappiness” is that he doesn’t know “how to stay quietly in his room.” That suggests something you can do for Lent—nothing. It’s not too late. If you’ve forgotten how, “All Nothing, All the Time,” a travel article in today’s New York Times, can help. “Aggressive inactivity,” says the article’s author, is an ”art form… that deserves a guide every bit as detailed as a Fodor’s or Bradt.” He’s right about that (see the links within this post).… READ MORE >
Science/Tech
Sunny Anand and the Hidden Pain of the Unborn
Annie Murphy Paul’s “The First Ache,” which appeared in last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, is the perfect companion piece to Austen Ivereigh’s “A Question of Empathy.” Both articles show how science is changing the terms of the abortion debate by “personifying” the unborn. In Paul’s fascinating article, she zeros in on the question: When does a human being begin to feel pain in the womb? I was shocked to learn from the article that until recently doctors believed that infants couldn’t feel pain because their nervous… READ MORE >
The Healing Love of Lourdes
One hundred-fifty years ago Our Lady visited Lourdes, France, a place that looms large in the Catholic imagination. Long before Poland Springs became popular, Catholics had their own brand of bottled water. It was well known that if you were sick, Mrs. Murphy or Mrs. Gimminiani or any number of women in the neighborhood would have a bottle of Lourdes water for you. We knew also that the word “grotto” was exclusively associated with Lourdes. Once after watching the movie, The Song of Bernadette, my father remarked that Jennifer Jones,… READ MORE >
Issues
Sharia Controversy: A Storm in a Teacup
One of the alarming things about the furor over the Archbishop of Canterbury’s lecture at the Royal Courts of Justice is how a call to “think a little harder” about a complex and important issue in our society has resulted in the exact opposite: a lot of people thinking less and shouting louder. The newspapers and other media have led the way, with their insatiable desire for more blood in the water, and as a result no one has had the time to sit, read, and study before their judgment is sought on the latest cause celebre. This is… READ MORE >
Issues
Defending the Archbishop: It’s All in the Details
My defense of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s proposals for Britain to accommodate sharia law omitted to mention that the devil is in the detail, as an excellent Reuters report points out, and as Dr. Williams himself indicated. But the recent press, calming now after the storm, confirms the point I was making: as Tom Heneghan, religion editor for Reuters, notes, “the archbishop clearly stated in his speech on Thursday” that he ruled out barbaric punishments such as those visited on hapless Saudis, and “only wanted… READ MORE >
Issues
No, Accommodating Sharia Law Would be a Mistake
When I read Austen Ivereigh’s provocative essay, “Why the Bearded One Is Right About Sharia Law,” defending the recent speech by Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, I was compelled to respond. With all due respect to Mr. Ivereigh, I believe that he and Dr. Williams have erred in their judgment that accommodation of sharia law would benefit British (or Western) culture. The Judeo-Christian ideas of human dignity, the natural law, and God as the Author of Reason… READ MORE >
Issues
Why the Bearded One is Right about Sharia Law
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is an unusually courageous and thoughtful man, one of the few leaders in Britain willing to risk public outrage in order to point up uncomfortable truths. His lecture yesterday in the Royal Courts of Justice was exactly what is needed in the UK now: a challenge to the Positivism which is in gradual steps sweeping away the British tradition of pluralism. The truth he gently points to is revealed in the reaction of British press and politicians. After he suggested that there should be accommodation… READ MORE >
Issues
Church & State & Sharia Law
The leader of the Anglican communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams, is advocating that the UK accommodate the sharia law of Islam. While counseling that sharia law must never be allowed to trump basic human rights, the Archbishop believes that in “some cultural and religious settings” Muslims should be allowed to resolve some disputes, such as divorce cases, apart from the greater British legal system. In typical Anglican fashion, the Archbishop is trying to find a middle way between opposing principles. He imagines… READ MORE >
Issues
Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dies
Over on his Tumblr, Radar Online Editor Alex Balk takes a moment to note the passing of former secretary of agriculture Earl Butz. First, he lauds fellow blogger Daniel Radosh for being willing to print what the papers won’t, namely, the actual quote that eventually led to Butz’s booting. The NY Times wrote: “he described blacks as ‘coloreds’ who wanted only three things — satisfying sex, loose shoes and a warm bathroom — desires that Mr. Butz listed in obscene and scatological terms.” Guess what? The original quote is… READ MORE >
Faith
GodSpy 2.0: Engaging Secular Culture
After a lengthy hiatus, today—Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent— we resume publishing GodSpy in a new daily blog/magazine format. It’s never been our style at GodSpy to do much public navel-gazing about what we’re doing. We prefer to let individual writers have their say, and focus on what’s happening in the outside world. So forgive me for not explaining more, in this first blog entry, about the thinking behind these changes. With our new format, every day you’ll see easy-access links to news… READ MORE >
Faith
Fasting: Hunger in the Service of Communion
Lent is traditionally described as a season of “self-denial.” So we find ourselves thinking about what to give up. We may give up chocolate, or beer, and find ourselves lamenting over them before Lent is over. Others object, and speak instead about “doing something positive” for Lent. Rather than giving something up they advocate taking something up. Denying self and doing good works is laudable. But by themselves, these practices miss the deeper opportunity of Lent. In these weeks before Easter, Christians will be exhorted to… READ MORE >
Faith
Being Human
I grew up in Los Angeles in two opposed worlds. I was the son of an evangelical minister who led a mega-church of 12,000 members. I was also the child of my time and place, the counter-culture of the late 1960s. The drive from our church in the San Fernando Valley to Sunset Boulevard and rock clubs like the Troubadour and the Whiskey crossed boundaries of thought, feeling, and imagination at a greater distance than the Southern hemisphere. I should have grown up to be, in my way, Billy Graham’s Franklin, Robert Shuller’s son… READ MORE >
Issues
The Pope, the ‘La Sapienza’ Protests, and the Death of Irony
The sad irony of the recent protests at Rome’s La Sapienza University that kept Pope Benedict XVI from speaking there was that they were based entirely on a mistake. Not only was the source of the protests—a 1990 quote about Galileo lifted from a speech given by then Cardinal Ratzinger—taken out-of-context, the statement wasn’t even made by Ratzinger at all. The Cardinal was quoting someone else. And when you read the entire speech, it’s not only clear that the Cardinal didn’t say it, he disagreed with… READ MORE >
Politics
Why Huckabee makes evangelicals nervous
Before Mike Huckabee became a serious challenger for the Republican presidential nomination, I was asked by a powerful businessman, someone well-connected in Republican politics, why Huckabee wasn’t being endorsed by prominent evangelical leaders. Although I’m a Catholic, I grew up as an evangelical and know that world, and I had to wonder the same thing. I remembered watching one of the early TV debates where Huckabee was asked whether his beliefs as an evangelical Christian would influence how he would govern. Huckabee said… READ MORE >
TV
Did anyone miss the Golden Globes show?
The Golden Globes awards were awarded last night, but without the usual glitzy televised gala, thanks to the Writer’s Guild strike. This prompts the question—how essential is the show anyway? Sure, we get to rubberneck on the red carpet thanks to first-hand reporting from second-hand personalities like Joan Rivers and that embarrassing Bush cousin. It’s like being a bystander at the parade of animal pairs walking up the gangplank into Noah’s Ark. We get to armchair quarterback the choice of starlets’ dresses and accessories.… READ MORE >
Movies
Good Movies, Bad Religion
In the past week I had the privilege of seeing two amazing films: There Will Be Blood (bit on the long side) and the uncut version of Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander (a whopping five-plus hours that fly by). Interestingly, coincidentally, both stories are set about a 100 years ago and both feature a very dark religious figure—a money-hungry pretending-to-be charismatic preacher in the American west, and a Swedish Lutheran bishop who is outright evil. On the surface, it’s easy, if trite, to point at the pernicious, hypocritical… READ MORE >
Issues
Catholic Bishops in England and Wales take on secularism
The Catholic Church in England and Wales is moving into political high gear. On Wednesday last week Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor hosted a meeting of 25 Catholic MPs in preparation for the forthcoming parliamentary battle over the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill – provoking the ire of secularists. “The church is at it again,” complained one commentator, “trying to interfere in the laws and government of this secular state.” (In fact, the British state is not secular. Unlike the US, there is no formal separation of… READ MORE >
Issues
Michael Massing: An Inconvenient Truth Teller
Two years ago for GodSpy I interviewed press critic Michael Massing about his Columbia Journalism Review essay that criticized the New York Times for ignoring public concern about the harmful effects of pop culture on children. In an interesting twist, Massing in the New York Review of Books this week cites a GodSpy interview in an essay he’s written on the “hidden human costs” of the Iraq War. Massing’s essay reviews several books written by participants in the war, each of which reveal the brutal impact the war has had on innocent… READ MORE >
Culture
Norman Mailer, subversive conservative
Since Norman Mailer’s death two weeks ago there’s been an outpouring of eulogies about the “passing of the sixties generation.” As a Catholic, I’ve always been attracted to Mailer because he perfectly embodied the contradictions of that era. Part drunken orgy, part moral crusade, the sixties at times was like a distorted, bizarro version of the Gospels. We tend to forget the religious fervor behind much of it. The very traditional Catholic historian Christopher Dawson once observed that the Catholic person is essentially erotic—driven… READ MORE >
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