Why Are Liberals So Condescending? Reaching back into my left-liberal days in grad school, I recall many cocktail party conversations with my fellow-travelers. The target of our ire was the entrenched "white male dominated culture of western values" in the academic study of literature. Of course, this bled over into our politics as well. Unfortunately, we chose to adopt various versions of deconstructionism and Marxist ideology to uproot these scalawags. Though we often differed on the details of how to carry out our Utopian revolution, we never argued over one essential point: conservatives were beyond stupid; they were evil.
Fisking the pro-abort hysterical overreaction to the pro-life Tebow Superbowl ad. Can you say "clueless"?
As an academic, a philosopher-in-training, I thrive on discussion. It's just what we do. When it comes to ecumenical dialogue, I'm all for it. Talking to other religions and other Christian bodies is not only a good idea, it's a moral duty. However, Cardinal Kasper's latest idea is a really, really bad one: the Ecumenical Catechism. I have visions of the CCC being replaced on seminary bookshelves all over the world. Talk about the rise of an alternative magisterium!
Should Catholic Charities be in the business of providing a needle exchange for heroin addicts?
The Boy Scout Handbook: the most conservative book published in America? With sources in virtue ethics and Stoicism, just maybe. Though I think "conservative" is the wrong label here.
The mind of Ratzinger and the heart of Roncalli: Italian Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture. John Allen profiles one of the Vatican's rising stars. (H/T: New Advent).
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I think Cardinal Kasper's idea has a lot to commend it. Dialogue is all very well and it is easy to say that talking to other Christian bodies is a moral duty, but there comes a time when action is needed. No good continuing to shout at each other from our fixed positions. A little movement is needed or full unity will never be achieved.
ReplyDeleteFragrance,
ReplyDeleteFrom the Catholic side of things, full union is a rather simple matter. Come to Rome. Unity achieved. The ecumenical movement as it stands is generally an attempt to negotiate away those elements of the Catholic faith that offend non-Catholic sensibilities. This is not true ecumenicism. Progressive Catholics with a reforming agenda for the RCC often use ecumenical bodies to challenge doctrines and positions that they do not like within the Catholic Church. This is party why the movement has produced so little good fruit. They are dialoguing in bad faith.
wow. that's the first time I've seen the commercials....
ReplyDeleteall I can say is
WOW.
maybe I should follow the link for the full Tebow story to find the source of ire?? but somehow I doubt it'd be there either.
wow.
oh and give me a break! I get tackled about like that on a daily basis....and I have a picture at the top of my blog of the pigpile that subvet deals with!!!
"My duty to God and my country."
ReplyDeleteBoy Scouts:
Motto: Be Prepared.
Slogan: Do a good turn daily.
Law: A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.
First: God
Faith, Hope, Love.
Fortitude, Justice, Prudence, Temperance.
I was a scout in the early 1960's. Nearly every one in our troop served during the Vietnam War, a number (Paul, Bill, Dave) gave their lives RIP. My three sons were also scouts.
Hey, Padre, thought you might find this article amusing: http://chronicle.com/article/Well-Naturally-Were-Liberal/63870/.
ReplyDeleteSo how do you get the other churches to come back to Rome?
ReplyDeleteNo wonder the Vatican has been "brainstorming" - it seems an impossible situation.
Fragrance,
ReplyDelete"Coming back to Rome" is an individual process. In my experience as a Protestant for many years, the individualist impulse makes wholesale community conversion difficult. "Church-splitting" is all too common phenomenon in Protestant circles--the Episcopal Church is suffering through this process rather dramatically right now.
BXVI's Anglican initiative is unique in the history of the Church in that it invites whole parishes/dioceses to come into the Church largely intact. I really don't see that happening for other ecclesial communities.