William R. Herzog II says he wrote a book about Jesus’ parables after puzzling about the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. My dad once told me how he felt about that very parable. It wasn’t just. The landowner should not have paid laborers who worked all day the same wage as those who only worked one hour. I could easily understand. Dad was a banker; financial doings were important to him. My response, which I don’t remember after... Read more
The Union of Concerned Scientists Says it Doesn’t and should be Scrapped A virtual-reality simulation asks: Should I launch an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) counterforce in response to a perceived Russian nuclear attack? The London Guardian Newspaper last December tells what it would be like for a president faced with this decision: Our Early Warning System has detected what appears to be the launch of 299 Russian missiles aimed at our ICBM deterrent force in silos across the Western Plains. Someone from... Read more
This post traces the development of Catholic Church teaching on the morality of nuclear weapons. In particular, it looks at the nuclear powers’ strategy of deterrence. Following that strategy Russia and the U.S. keep their nuclear weapons at the ready to deter each other from using them first. For a while conditionally accepting deterrence, the Church now officially condemns even the possession of nuclear weapons. The immorality of nuclear weapons use A philosophy prof at Catholic University in the 1960’s... Read more
Seventy-seven years ago the United States unleashed the power of the atom against two population centers in Japan. Since then practically all the typical American heard about the morality of these acts was how necessary it was to end the war and prevent even more killing. Contrary voices, including those of religious figures (see this post), scientists, generals, and other military advisers were missing from the history that I and most Americans learned in school. It was an “end justifies... Read more
It’s been 77 years since the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare. On August 6 and 9, 1945, the United states dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I’m returning to a subject I treated previously. This post will begin a series on “Nuclear Weapons, the World, and the Church.” Four posts in this series will cover these topics: Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the conscience of World War II victors ... Read more
The year of the Lord’s favor – that’s what Luke says Jesus preached in Nazareth to begin his public ministry. He was reading from a scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and both Isaiah and Jesus were referring to the Jubilee Year. That’s the 50th year, when those who had increased their wealth and accumulated property (through foreclosures) and even persons (as debt slaves) were to forgive debts, free slaves, and return ancestral lands to their original possessors. After 49 years... Read more
Debt is a major part of economic behavior in the modern world. That hardly distinguishes modern economics from the medieval or even ancient varieties. According to Michael Hudson, debt in ancient Near Eastern societies gave rise to money rather than vice versa. (… And Forgive Them Their Debts, p. 268 et al.) That debt was what peasant farmers owed after obtaining at planting time not money but seed on credit. And that was happening as long ago as the third... Read more
The Minneapolis City Council in March approved a resolution to allow the public broadcast of the Muslim Call to Prayer. It became one of the few U.S. cities to do so, and the largest, so far. The Middle East Eye quotes the resolution: Muslims have been a part of the fabric of America for over 400 years since the first Muslims in America arrived as slaves… and Minneapolis has become home to one of the largest populations of Somali and East... Read more
Thinking about Debt with Michael Hudson Jesus, a non-believer in trickle-up economics, chases the money lenders out of the Temple in illustration on cover of “… and forgive them their debts” by Michael Hudson. (Image credit: michaelhudson.com) Almost all of the new money the American economy has produced in four decades has gone to the wealthiest people. We’ve been living with this trickle-up economics ever since Ronald Regan introduced the phrase “trickle down” in his 1980 presidential campaign. Long... Read more
Why do we kneel during the Communion Rite? A small change in liturgical procedure at my parish church stimulates a reengagement with the meaning of the posture of kneeling. I’ve also written about postures in the liturgy here. I’m thinking now not of whether we stand or kneel while receiving Communion but of kneeling in our pews throughout the Communion Rite. That is the new thing that my parish is doing. Previously we sat until the usher got to... Read more
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