The infant Jesus we encounter in scripture is a serious and inspiring source of interpretation and celebration. I am not a Biblical scholar, but I am aware of the litany of approaches to the interpretation of scripture, from those that rely primarily on tradition and past authority to those that take a more modern historical approach. I reject none of these out of hand, but I am of course limited to what I know. The text I am using is the New Jerusalem... Read more
There are people like Michael Moore who are taking consolation in the fact that Hillary won the popular vote. For one, this isn’t exactly true. The only winner of the popular vote was the usual, perennial winner: the apolitical protest non-vote of the disaffected masses, who always don’t vote at rates of 40 to 60 percent. Of the 50 percent or so who did vote, Hillary pulled a marginal majority. This uninspiring majority has led a number of internet geniuses to... Read more
Patheos Catholic has widely reported on Fr. Frank Pavone’s recent stunt where he used the naked human corpse of a late-term abortion as a prop for a photo op and video on the Priests for Life Facebook page. In this case I strongly reccomend not finding the source material. This was a human body placed on an altar with candles lit around it in a last minute attempt to rally votes for Donald Trump — all orchestrated by a Roman... Read more
I graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville in May 2005. The commencement speaker was perhaps the most drastic drop from quality to garbage one can experience. The scheduled speaker was originally Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger who had recently become unavailable, occupied by his recent election to the seat of Peter. The substitute for Ratzinger — the replacement for a Pope who I believe will one day be a Doctor of the Church, the best my university could do to replace Benedict XVI —... Read more
I came into political consciousness during the 90s. Rush Limbaugh’s moral testimony against the character of Bill Clinton made an enormous impression on me. In July I wrote a lengthy account of the development of my political conscience where this is detailed in full. This formation led me to consider myself part of the “moral majority,” an idealism that led me to reject George W. Bush in favor of writing in Alan Keyes in my first ballot. While many think my politics have... Read more
Last night’s presidential debate was, by comparison, a moderately composed portrait of Trump. The comparison, of course, is to the GOP primary debates where, among other things, he made reference to the size of his penis. Anyone who saw those debates was not surprised last night by Trump’s lack of focus and reasoning ability, his inability to hear and answer a question, his lack of detail and poor command of policy, his childish facial expressions and repetitions, his tired refrains,... Read more
pic.twitter.com/O8E13GTifn — Sam Rocha (@SamRochadotcom) September 2, 2016 Read more
Mark Shea is a convert to Catholicism who has spent nearly thirty years as an apologist, author, speaker and, in the digital age, blogger and online commentator. We used to call this type of person a public intellectual, and that is what I consider Mark to be. The classic public intellectual is not like today’s version that, like me, takes refuge in an academic institution of some kind. A public intellectual lives on the back of their pen and, above... Read more
If one takes the view that morality is more than utilitarian, if you take the word “moral” to mean something beyond the reach of classroom ethics, into the realm of what is soulful and life-giving, if what is moral is opposed to nihilism, philistinism, and technocratic reductions to relativized objectivity, if what is moral is worth anything anymore, if we are not totally demoralized, if there is something more than an exercise in petty logic and economic calculation to... Read more
Yesterday’s post on White privilege produced some thoughtful exchanges with readers and a key criticism emerged, accusing me of not knowing or understanding what “White privilege” is. I think it is a bit wrongheaded to talk about the concept of White privilege as a thing or an object, since it is really nothing more than an idea distilled from a short essay by Peggy McIntosh in the late 1980’s. How that essay ever became dogmatic is a mystery to me, but I... Read more
Sam Rocha
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In