As we find ourselves in the midst of another discussion of sex abuse by priests within the Church, and the covering it up or mishandling of it by our bishops, one of the things we have yet to explore in its fullness is the role social structures as they exist in and outside the Church have had in this problem. This is not to say there has been no discussion on this point, but what we have mostly seen is a defensive posture by bishops and their defenders, where they look out to the world and point out how the same evil found within the Church exists in the world. Those who reject this see it as an excuse; they point out that although this might be true, it should not be used as a way to forgo reformation in the Church. The Church is expected to be better because it is the bearer of God’s grace into the world. It is in this light it is being judged and criticized, as it should always be judged and criticized when it fails to follow what God would have of it. Peter said that the Church should be judged first, not second: “For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1Peter 4:17).
We are to be the light of the world. When we are engulfed in our own darkness, we cannot sanctify the rest of the world. It is for this reason we must always be reforming ourselves. When the darkness has come into the Church, we must expel it — not make excuses for it. But to expel it, we must understand how it got there, and we must understand what it is we can do to help prevent it from coming back.
A FRONTLINE investigative report set to air on PBS, October 13, gives a rough sketch of the Pentagon’s new thinking on counterinsurgency. In so doing, it manages to dramatize a window’s view of how this approach is being enforced in Afghanistan.
While U.S. strategy has been marketed as people-centric, it appears in practice to be somewhat different. What the report reveals is an abstract, top-down, military-centric approach aimed at controlling the behavior of a population. The tactics that are used fail to flow naturally out of the day-to-day decisions made by a community of indigenous people. They are imposed. Thus they are guaranteed to lack legitimacy.
If this report is true, America’s new approach to counterinsurgency is thoroughly wrong-headed. It makes success contingent upon the ability of the the U.S. military to implement a policy of control over the behavior of the Afghan people. It transforms U.S. counterinsurgency operations into a contest of wills with the very people we are trying to help.
Yet tactical control over the Afghan people and their tribal traditions cannot be realistically anticipated. It is an impossible task. It places far too much reliance on the practical ability of the American military to exercise control over the hearts and minds of a population. It gives only faint recognition to the imperatives of Afghan history and traditions. The lynchpin of success rests too heavily on an ability to control the people’s behavior. Such hubris is almost certain to be the Achille’s Heel of the new American strategy.
Dick Armey, the former Republican Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, is now Chairman of an organization called Freedom Works. This group uses large industry donations to fund “Tea Party” and Anti-Health Care Reform rallies around the country, such as the 9/12 march in Washington, DC last week.
Bill Moyers explains how Armey and Freedom Works use deliberate lies and disinformation to manipulate the fears and passions of ordinary Americans. Their aim is to accumulate power and wealth for themselves and pursue a political agenda that, if successful, would deny reliable health care coverage for all Americans.
Meanwhile, health insurance companies are busy refusing payment to those who already have health care coverage. Why? Because individuals have what has come to be known as “pre-existing conditions”. And just what are “pre-existing conditions”? The list is long but pregnancy, an intention to adopt children, acne, hemorrhoids, bunions, chronic tonsillitis, and varicose veins are among them.
Profit and health care are contradictory notions. It seems as though in the “war of ideas” corporate profit is struggle mightily to defeat health care. Let’s hope justice prevails for the American people.
Frank Schaeffer offers a penetrating look at the devolution of the modern day Republican Party. Please don’t use the comment box to demonize him. Confine your remarks to his analysis.
“Oh, God! That boy moves in a very exceptional way. That’s the greatest dancer of the century.” – Fred Astaire
“I didn’t want to leave this world without knowing who my descendant was. Thank you Michael!” Fred Astaire (shortly before his death)
“The only male singer who I’ve seen besides myself and who’s better than me — that is Michael Jackson.” Frank Sinatra
Michael Jackson died unexpectedly on Thursday, June 25. The suddenness of his death came as a source of shock to all.
Some have used the occasion to present a contemptibly narrow view of his personal struggles. But as the months and years roll by, it is the contribution of his musical genius that will be written permanently in the hearts and minds of people everywhere. Even now, the greatest of his peers have recognized him as one of the most gifted and accomplished musical artists of the last century. Read the rest of this entry »
Abu Ghraib is an epitome of torture and abuse. Its very mention awakens passions of horror, anger, and sorrow. It brings to mind a tragic affair in which the United States: 1) failed to uphold its commitment to the dignity of the person; 2) reneged on its constitutional and living obligations to civil liberties; and 3) acted in a willful manner to contravene the Geneva Conventions.
Indeed, Abu Ghraib stands as a shameful chapter in our national history. It will long be etched in the world’s memory as a time and place in which fear tore the fabric of American principle, tradition, and law, and drove the U.S. to enlist expediency as a rationale to forsake solemn international covenants. Abu Ghraib deserves to be lifted up as a symbol of evil and renounced as such by all succeeding generations.
Just as troubling, however, are the affronts to personal dignity oftentimes committed by U.S. soldiers in the field. Such abuses have been especially widespread in operations located in and around the urban centers of Iraq.
Until recently, stories about the terrifying treatment of Iraqi civilians by U.S. military personnel have gone unreported or been hidden from public scrutiny. It is as though such acts did not exist or that they did not matter. But now they are coming to light. What they reveal is an emotional intoxication and a pattern of callous behavior that flows necessarily from the logic of urban warfare. These acts, aside from being ethically flawed, call into question the essentials of America’s war-fighting strategy in Iraq. Read the rest of this entry »
On May 31, Dr. George Tiller was gunned down while serving as an usher at the Reformation Lutheran Church he attended in Wichita, Kansas. Dr. Tiller, who ran an abortion clinic that performed late term abortions, had been the target of violent extremists for many years. On August 19, 1993, he was shot in both arms by Shelley Shannon. She received an eleven year prison sentence for the crime. This past Sunday he was killed.
Frank Schaeffer, along with his father (the late Francis Schaeffer), Pat Robertson, the late Jerry Falwell, and Dr. C. Evert Koop (Surgeon-General in the Reagan Administration) helped found the Religious Right. One of the hallmarks of this movement became the radicalization of speech.
In 1982, Frank’s father (Francis Schaeffer) wrote a book called A Christian Manifesto in which he called for the use of force if all other means of stopping abortion failed. He compared the United States and its practice of legalized abortion to Hitler’s Germany and argued that whatever means might have removed Hitler could be used to stop abortion here. In 1984, Frank Schaeffer wrote A Time for Anger in which he argued the same point. His book became a national best seller with the help of the evangelical movement. Dr. James Dobson alone gave away 100,000 copies.
In an interview with Rachael Maddow on June 1, Mr. Schaeffer discusses the radicalization of language in the culture wars and the part it played in the pro-life movement. “Words have consequences,” he says. As language becomes more extreme, consequences become more extreme.
Schaeffer admits his own culpability in the death of Dr. Tiller and urges other leaders in the Religious Right to come forth and do so too. His comments follow:
III – Mechanistic Strategies and Research Methodologies: An Indifference to Spiritual Interiority
Immediately after World War II, the principle threats to the health status of America’s youth came from infectious diseases. Polio, diphtheria, measles, chicken pox, and whooping cough – each struck fear in the hearts of parents. But over time those threats receded. Polio is gone. Diphtheria is gone. Measles, chicken pox, and whooping cough are at an all time low. Indeed, for all practical purposes, yesterday’s battles have been won. But, they could well have been lost had we not identified the root cause of those diseases and developed vaccines that could prevent their occurrence.
Today, America’s youth faces an entirely new set of health threats: emotional distress, suicide, violence, substance abuse, and risky sexual behaviors. Youth violence is especially troubling because of the highly-charged attention it has received.
Yet, having developed over the years a myriad of programs to treat the consequences of such behaviors – analogous to the treatment of infectious diseases prior to the development of preventive vaccines – we still know very little about their root cause. This explains why we have been unable to develop an effective national strategy to prevent them. Effective prevention depends on a knowledge of root cause. Read the rest of this entry »
II — The Critical Juncture: An Indifference to Spiritual Interiority
Indifference or reconciliation. The choice is ours to make.
Yet, such choices are often perplexing, ranging as they do through the murky depths of the human psyche. They easily befuddle the most astute observer and tend to dishearten those inclined to reconcile.
But apart from presenting confusion and discouragement, what makes an understanding of this choice so difficult is the use of the term indifference. To most, indifference implies a moral deficiency relative to another person, such as a want of concern or caring for them.
Not surprisingly, most parents would deny any such assertion. Few would admit they are indifferent toward their children. Most parents have strong feelings of love for them and this love is a powerful testimony against any allegation of indifference. Given this, it would seem that the disjunctive proposition — indifference or reconciliation — holds little, or no, promise for deepening our understanding of the causal dynamics of youth violence.
But before dismissing the term indifference altogether, it is well to remember that it has a logical meaning which transcends the moral sensibility and commitment to caring. Read the rest of this entry »
At 11:10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 20th, 1999, gunshots rang out from Columbine High School killing twelve students, a teacher, and both assailants. This act reverberated across the land like a mighty thunderclap. It sounded a terror-laden warning. It awakened in countless individuals, families, and communities a truth forgotten, a vulnerability denied, and an anguish concealed. Time stopped as hearts and minds resonated with the harsh moments of that mournful event.
No doubt. Columbine sent tremors of fear across the nation. Like a peaceful sunlit meadow suddenly overrun by a raging mountain storm, the tranquility of trust was replaced by the wrenching uncertainty of distrust. Existential angst seeped into our national consciousness. We asked with uncertain expectation what dreadful journey led Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to tear the social fabric and tear it so hideously. We became fearful of what was going on in our own neighborhoods, in our own families, and with our own children. We became suspicious of our children’s actions and our children’s friends. We became frightful of the tribute that might accompany their attendance at school. We wondered about our children’s exposure and our powerlessness to intercede on their behalf. We worried about the unknown and the brutal forces that range beyond our control. We asked “what next?” as we braced ourselves for another round of violence. Read the rest of this entry »
In Philadelphia today, Senator Barack Obama delivered what is perhaps the most important political speech on race since Martin Luther King gave his I Have A Dream speech on the Mall in Washington, D.C. 45 years ago.
Obama’s speech is entitled A More Perfect Union. Watch it:
“When Senator Obama’s preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father — Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer — denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr.
“Every Sunday thousands of right wing white preachers (following in my father’s footsteps) rail against America’s sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is complicit in the “murder of the unborn,” has become “Sodom” by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They say, as my dad often did, that we are, “under the judgment of God.” They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. By comparison Obama’s minister’s shouted “controversial” comments were mild. All he said was that God should damn America for our racism and violence and that no one had ever used the N-word about Hillary Clinton.
Derrick gained national attention the other day when he responded to a reporters question about why he supported Barack Obama. The reporter’s original intent was to show Obama’s supporters as dreamy and without substance. But Derrick confounded the reporter. Instead of gushing emotion, Derrick elaborated in great detail the respective positions of Obama and Clinton on health care, setting forth why he favored Obama’s plan over Clinton’s.
Now Derrick has posted his own video on YouTube to explain what the presidential election means to him as an immigrant coming from West Africa. His story is a powerful illustration of what America means to people around the world.
Since coming to the US, Derrick has become a naturalized American citizen. His comments are a good reminder of the love and esteem the world holds for this country. Even with our failings, America is still the “world’s dream.”
Francis August Schaeffer (1912-1984), an American Evangelical Christian theologian, is most famous for his theological writings and the establishment of the L’Abri community in Switzerland. But in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was a major catalyst that sparked a return to political activism among American Protestant evangelicals and fundamentalists, particularly in relation to the issue of abortion.
His son, Frank Schaeffer, helped broker an alliance between his father (Francis) and Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson and other religious leaders. This alliance came to be known as the Religious Right.
Frank has since concluded, however, that these tele-evangelists “stars” were intellectually inferior and theologically sleazy, referring to them archly as “cobelligerents.”
In his book, Crazy for God, Schaeffer concludes that, “We will never find a ‘good’ solution to the question of abortion.”
In an editorial published only yesterday, Schaeffer explains why he is pro-life and pro-Obama.
Obama had an impressive run last night. I suspect he’ll be able to capitalize on the momentum factor in the weeks ahead. It’ll be interesting to watch. As he said last night: “We’re the one’s we’ve been looking for!” — an old Hopi Indian phrase. People are beginning to believe he just might be right. “Yes, we can!”
Maryland and Washington, D.C. are up to bat very soon, as is Virginia (Nov. 12). The TV spots have been running for days.
Since South Carolina, Hillary appears reluctant to use the traditional Clinton “break the kneecap with a ten pound hammer” style politics. Perhaps the Clinton team feels they’ve been outed in that department. Yet that’s her strength — nasty politics. Hmmmmm! One wonders. Maybe Obama has already begun to change her? Where’s that fire breathing dragon? Has her brand of politics taken a hit? Is she a victim of her own “politics of fear”?
Pat Buchanan this morning said McCain would make Cheney look like Ghandi! Rather poignant statement. McCain has a big ego and temper. From an advisor’s perspective, I would take that to mean he’d soon become isolated in the White House. Not good for McCain. Not good for America.
Obama seems willing and able to exchange ideas and strategies. To me, that’s everything. The secret of compromise is that it allows dialogue to enrich the final concrete outcome. Inability to compromise indicates a detachment, an abstraction, from reality. Ideological politics reduces everything it touches to ideological engagement. Problems remain unresolved. Passions dominate.
Ideological politics is what we’ve been living with since McGovern took over the Democratic party and the Fundamentalists took over the Republican Party beginning with the rise of Newt Gingrich. Hopefully, the pragmatic center is seeing its own resurrection. I’d like to see the day when the terms “conservative” and “liberal” have died a peaceful death. For too long they have been mere slogans overburdened with emotive content. Intrinsically, both terms are meaningless. Let’s once again address problems pragmatically and do it against the backdrop of a sound vision for America.
Caroline Kennedy, writing in the New York Times, has endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President. In an article entitled A President Like My Father, she said:
“I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.
“I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.”
Obama’s campaign calls the American people to rally behind a “change we can believe in.” But already, he is bringing change to America. Since announcing his candidacy a year ago, Obama has gently reminded us that there is a better way than what we’ve become accustomed to over these many years. He urges the American people to a higher destiny, a higher aspiration than self-interest.
Nearly a half century ago, in speech after speech, Kennedy cried out with a staccato-spoken voice: “I think we can do better.” He believed we could. And in thoughtful moments so did we. Today, Obama echoes that same cry. He urges us to to the great challenges ahead. He says: “Yes, we can! Si, se puede!“
On April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. released an open letter written from the city jail in Birmingham, Alabama. This letter was in response to a public statement issued by eight white Alabama clergymen on April 12, 1963 entitled “A Call for Unity.” In their statement, they agreed that social injustices were being committed but emphasized that the battle against racial segregation should be fought in the courts and not taken to the streets.
King responded four days later. He said that without direct action the goal of civil rights could never be achieved. “Wait“, he argued, has almost always meant “Never.” He further argued that civil disobedience is justified when a people are confronted by unjust laws. Indeed, “one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” … “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
On this day, a day which is dedicated to the memory of Dr. King, I have decided to publish his Letter from Birmingham Jail in its entirety. The text follows after the break:
Lee Atwater was a Republican political strategist who advised President Ronald Reagan and President George H.W. Bush. He was the political mentor and a close friend of Karl Rove. He has been characterized as the “happy hatchet man” and the “Darth Vader” of Republican party campaign politics. He built his power base by designing many of the techniques that have since become common in American political life, including the design and promulgation of “reputation-destroying rumors.”
Atwater died in 1991 at the age of forty from a brain tumor. Shortly before his death, he converted to Catholicism through the assistance of a Jesuit priest, Fr. John Hardon, S.J. As part of his process of repentance, Atwater released a number of public apologies and wrote letters to individuals whom he hurt throughout his career.
In an article for Life Magazine in February 1991, Atwater wrote:”My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what was missing in me: a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The ’80′s were about acquiring — acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn’t I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn’t I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don’t know who will lead us through the ’90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.”
It is the corrosive influence of Lee Atwater and his protege Karl Rove that Senator Barack Obama is attempting to efface from America’s political scene. He has vowed never to use such techniques in his presidential campaign. Whether he wins or loses this contest, one can hope that he succeeds in inspiring other political aspirants to take the same stance against negative politics.
The politics of fear is destructive of the common good. Only a politics that struggles to enhance the dignity of the person, individual freedom, and human solidarity is worthy of the American people.
Recently on NPR Radio’s All Things Considered [Trusted Advisor Recounts Obama's Evolution], David Axelrod, chief strategist for Senator Barack Obama, was asked whether Obama was ‘tough enough’ to win the presidency. Echoing doubts about Obama’s toughness, the show’s host, Michelle Norris, said: “Success in politics sometimes, in fact often, means having to close your eyes or even hold your nose and do something you might not like to do but have to do if you keep your eye on the ball.”
Axelrod replied: “Well, that’s an interesting question. Maybe we’ll test the proposition.” … “I believe he [Obama] has the ability to make a very tough case on behalf of the things he cares about, and he’ll fight very hard for them. You’re asking a different question, though, which is: Does he have the ability to be underhanded, will he pull the trigger on the gratuitous negative shot you often see in politics. The answer to that is probably no.”
“I don’t think that [being underhanded] is toughness,” Axelrod said. “I think that’s something he’s committed not to do. The question is: What does the country want right now? Do they want to continue the kind of politics we’ve had that’s led us to the morass we’re in? Or, do they want someone who can really lift us, bring us together and, as Lincoln said, fulfill the better angels of our nature and move this country forward? We’ll soon find out the answer to that question.”
David Axelrod’s comments are right on the mark.
Obama does not have to sell his soul to get ahead in politics. No one does. Indeed, the deepest truth of politics is quite the opposite from what is too often presumed to be so. Politics is not dark and dirty by nature. It is what we choose to make it. But only a noble soul can unleash a noble politics.
Corrupt ideas underlie most problems facing America today. We are informed and guided by ideas that not only debase the human spirit but corrupt our relations with other persons, nature, and God. Being so enslaved, spiritual alienation and its effects are destined to strike at our efforts to forge an integral human existence.
The mythology of the self-contained, autonomous individual is one such idea. This myth shapes much of American culture, including its socioeconomic and even religious life. But if the truth be told, the notion of the autonomous individual is only a mask that enshrouds an inner emptiness and aloneness. It is the same mask worn by Citizen Kane whose lust for power denied him the fulfillment he sought. It is the mask worn by Tom and Daisy in The Great Gatsby. It is a truth that permeates the paintings of Edward Hopper and the photographs of Robert Frank. It is the cry of anguish that radiates from the spirituals of the cotton picker, the painful stories of the rural and urban Blues artist, the social voice of 1960s R&B, and the modern prophet crying out from the wilderness of the street, the poetic artists of Rap and Hip Hop.
Neither power, nor wealth, nor reputation can free a man from his existential aloneness. Lurking behind every Horatio Alger story is a human tragedy waiting to unfold. Every person reels under the weight that disaffection lays on their soul.
No one in America, or so it seems, can escape the ubiquitous impact of cynicism and distrust, violence and fear, intemperance and injustice, and the isolation and aloneness that ravages so much of our national life. Statistics on homelessness, substance abuse, youth violence, corruption within the family, and the litany of social and economic inequities have long told this tale but only through numbers.
Yet lurking in the shadows lies the specter of the autonomous individual. Anthropological atomism is embedded in American culture, and it acts as the wellspring of a spiritual alienation that rages unabated like a firestorm across the land. Its alluring dynamic fragments and distorts the nation’s institutions. It corrupts the lives of present and future generations. In every respect, its impact constitutes a serious intellectual, moral, and cultural challenge to an integral America.
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Vox Nova
"In their patriotism and in their fidelity to their civic duties Catholics will feel themselves bound to promote the true common good; they will make the weight of their convictions so influential that as a result civil authority will be justly exercised and laws will accord with moral precepts and the common good."
Second Vatican Council, Apostolicam actuositatem 14
Posted by Henry Karlson 
