The way many people read the Holy Bible is through the erroneous assumption that what is recorded within it, as it is understood in its simplest, most literal fashion, is how God intended the Holy Bible to be read. While it is easy to see the kinds of questions one can bring to this view, (what books are meant to be in the Holy Bible? do these books suggest this kind of interpretation? do we acknowledge this only for the... Read more
Many of my dearest friends from undergrad (at Franciscan University of Steubenville) are registered Republicans and/or self-described “conservatives.” They like to tease me about my weird brand of politics and some of them suspect that I have it in for the Democrats in my heart of hearts. The latest prank was to put some Rush Limbaugh books on the coffee table to try to get my goat. These friends are like brothers to me. They would take a bullet for... Read more
One of the things I’ve never understood is the belief that I should follow, without question, what common sense tells me to do or to believe. What exactly is common sense that it has such a claim upon me? (more…) Read more
As I prepared this post, I had no idea MZ was preparing one on a similar topic! But the point I want to make is somewhat different. It is that deliberations on the value of free speech must take place through the prism of the common good. That might sound obvious, but it is anything but. In fact, we too often frame the issue as one of individual autonomy, especially the individual autonomy exalted by American constitutional liberalism. We might... Read more
In the immigration debate, platitudes rule the day on all sides. The result is that the discussion is very hard (for me) to understand. Many of the things in the discussion are taken to be magical and are held unaccountable to basic questioning. One of these things is this thing called “border.” It may seen too simple, but until “border” is demystified and made accountable to simple intuitions, I suspect that we literally do not know what it is we... Read more
At some point here, I’m going to write a further post on how “sunshine” and whatnot can in fact make many situations worse rather than always making things better. Today isn’t that day alas. While trolling the Internet, I learned that kitty porn crush videos were an essential element of our freedom. This didn’t bother me too much until I learned that it was Chief Justice Roberts offering this opinion in United States v. Stevens. (more…) Read more
In the icon of St Sisoes, the saint is looking down upon the bones of Alexander the Great. In it we are shown that even the one who built such a great empire, with its great wealth, Alexander, the greatest of the conquerors, could not overcome death. His fate is the fate of us all. No matter how great we are in this life, our life will come to an end. This is expressed through the words on the icon,... Read more
“We are a sovereign nation of laws!” So I am told. But I wonder if this statement is really true. I wonder things like: What are the requisites of sovereignty? What is “sovereignty,” exactly? Moreover, what is a “sovereign nation”? And how do “laws” follow from this “sovereign nation”? Does “law” require a sovereign nation to be fully and truly legal? These questions all seem to think that there is a special place for national sovereignty that maps out a... Read more
It’s not what you think. To quote the Phoenix Business Journal, Bishop Kicanas is advocating the law suit. The purpose? To put an end to an evil law: The Roman Catholic bishop in Tucson says the Catholic Church should join lawsuits challenging the state’s controversial new immigration law. Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson, said in a memo to parishioners Monday he is asking the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to consider joining lawsuits against... Read more
I have some really bad news. The world is sinful. Structures of sin surround us. We are socialized into that sin, leading us to form habits of sin before we fully understand what it is we are doing. In part, we know, something is not right, but we follow the crowd and get caught in the sins of the crowd. We become seduced by society, and we are blinded to its failings by being made a part of them ourselves.... Read more
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