Ladies and gentlemen, poison doesn’t always come in bottles. And it isn’t always marked with the skull and crossbones of danger. Poison can take the form of words and phrases and acts: the venom of racial and religious hatred. Here in the United States, perhaps more than ever before, we must learn to recognize the poison of prejudice and to discover the antidote to its dangerous effects. Evidences of racial and religious hatred in our country place a potent weapon... Read more
It has been clear for some time now that EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo supports torture. Let me rephrase – he supports torture when conducted by the US and when dressed up in Orwellian euphemisms. There was the infamous exchange with Fr. Sirico a while back, when Arroyo and Sirico made jokes about waterboarding, and defended torture if conducted by a competent authority and in case of a “ticking bomb scenario”. Recently, Arroyo invited Marc Thiessen – one of the most public and notorious torture-supporters in the United States – onto... Read more
Four years ago I mentioned the release of a new Jesus film called Son of Man which resituates the Jesus story in contemporary Africa and portrays Jesus as a nonviolent revolutionary. At the time I mentioned how the film could provide an alternative to the hysteria- and piety-surrounded (and decidedly apolitical, unless you count its anti-Jewish undertones) Mel Gibson film The Passion of the Christ. It took a while, but Son of Man will finally be released on DVD in... Read more
Before bringing out the drums for war, people need to make sure the reports they hear from the government and sources which have long desired for war are legitimate. And even then they must be careful and not assume that if what they hear is correct, it really gives cause for war. Back at the time of the first Gulf War, so many things said about Iraq and its actions turned out to be false — propaganda created to get... Read more
I will post more on this story and the striking piece of evidence it carries, but, first, it would be interesting to begin with a quiz. Read the questions, try to fill in the blank, and then click to find the source. As you will see, all questions are selected verbatim from the mystery-flier available for download at the end of the quiz. Please don’t take this as anything but an experiment I cannot resist to try-out. I don’t intend... Read more
While not a Catholic commentary on politics and culture, I thought this short video was rather interesting. There is something in it which rings true. But I also think we are even more like Nixon than the video suggests; we are recording ourselves on youtube; we are spying on each other through the internet; we are looking for conspiracies and scandals which we believe are there. If we don’t expose them now, they will hurt us in the near future.... Read more
Little did I know that when my intentions were to try to sketch-out an uncertain methodology for political discourse that I would be confronted by larger questions of logic, metaphysics, and theology. I am delighted that things turned out this way since I have been avoiding the bigger questions in order to try and give something more concrete. As it turns out, there seems to be a genuine desire for this kind of topic so I will try to present... Read more
Just imagine if the internet existed in the third and fourth centuries. You hear about a Christian who submits himself to Emperor Diocletian, asking to be taken in as a soldier. Diocletian had known the young man’s father and is pleased to take in the new recruit. The man quickly finds himself advancing in rank and by his late 20s, he becomes a Tribune stationed with the Emperor in Nicomedia. Remember, this is a Christian man who was to have... Read more
From Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin (from a speech in 2004): “People expect different things from the Church in society. Leaders want to use religion…Lady Thatcher insisted the Churches should tell people they should work harder. After nine-eleven in the United States, society turned to organized religion, but there was a sense in which it was to solemnly sing “God bless America”, rather than “Holy God, we praise your name”, to worship God even in times of distress. When I... Read more
Here is yet another example of misconduct by a u.s. soldier for those who criticize my views on the military for being based in “stereotypes” or “abstractions.” This one is reported by BBC News; you don’t need to dig very hard to find this stuff. A US soldier has been charged with assault after allegedly waterboarding his four-year-old daughter, police in the state of Washington have said. Sgt Joshua Tabor dunked the girl’s head in a sink full of water... Read more
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