Rob's post, Getting Real About Realism, raises this question for me: Did the realist project undermine the foundations of belief in the law leading to the crits even though the realists themselves believed in law in the same way that the Enlightenment project undermined the foundations of belief in truth leading to postmodernity even though its adherents believed in truth?
Friday, February 16, 2007
Realism and the Law
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Getting Real About Realism
Is the dominance of Legal Realism an obstacle for the Catholic legal theory project, or does Legal Realism simply represent a more accurate portrayal of law-making than the formalist alternative? Brian Tamanaha tries to set the record straight about Realism by contrasting the Realists with the Crits. Here's an excerpt:
There is a fundamental reason why is wrong to see the Realists as early day Crits: the Realists believed in the law (keeping in mind that this was an amorphous and disparate group). Their goal was to improve the law. Llewellyn professed his love for the law and his pride in being a lawyer. One could hardly be more un-Critly (to coin an ugly neologism) than that. No Crit would have drafted the Uniform Commercial Code to match business practices—which Llewellyn did with great satisfaction. Moreover, while several Realists were New Dealers, their overarching emphasis on enhancing the efficiency of law and on making the law conform more closely to ongoing social behavior had a deeply conservative thrust—again, most un-Critly.
More on "24"
The World: Round and round it turns, where it stops, nobody knows ...
Some news from my home town of Atlanta:
New York Times
February 15, 2007
Religion Today
Many in the 350-member Atlanta congregation say they don't plan to let the Rev. Bradley Schmeling leave the pulpit on Aug. 15, as ordered last week by an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America disciplinary committee because he is in a gay relationship.
Defying the order could end Atlanta's oldest Lutheran church affiliation with the ELCA, cutting off the small church and its members from the large denomination's resources, including community service programs, hymn books and access to synod officials for guidance on legal, financial and spiritual matters.
St. John's members hope it doesn't come to that. They want the denomination to change its rules about sexually active gay clergy at its biennial churchwide assembly Aug. 6-12 in Chicago, just days before Schmeling is set to be removed from the clergy.
''We are not an activist church, even though we can stand for issues of justice,'' said Charles Fox, who occasionally assists Schmeling at Sunday worship. ''He exemplifies the kind of love and empathy I envision Christ to have had.''
The committee, which basically served as the jury in a closed-door trial, found Schmeling guilty of breaking the denomination's rules for having a same-sex relationship. However, the committee also called those rules ''at least bad policy,'' and recommended changing them, which the ELCA could consider at its biennal meeting.
St. John's -- a congregation that gathers in a 1914 Tudor-style manor in one of Atlanta's historic, mansion-lined neighborhoods -- now finds itself in the middle of a campaign to allow sexually active gays to be pastors in the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S.
''It hasn't been a problem to explain Brad or his relationship to our children as much as what the church wants to do,'' said Fox, a married father of a 10-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl.
The ELCA, which has 4.9 million members, allows openly gay clergy, but only if they are celibate. Still, many Lutheran churches support ordaining partnered gays and perform same-sex blessing ceremonies despite the policy. The same debate over how biblical verses on gay relationships should be interpreted is tearing at many mainline Protestant groups.
Schmeling told both his bishop and congregation about his sexual orientation before he was chosen pastor in 2000; at the time he was not in a relationship. Last year, when Schmeling told Bishop Ronald Warren of the Southeastern Synod that he had found a lifelong partner, Warren asked the 44-year-old pastor to resign. Schmeling refused and Warren started disciplinary proceedings.
Much like a trial, a closed-door disciplinary hearing committee of 12 ELCA members, both lay and clergy, heard evidence for nearly week in January. Seven of them felt the rule as stated left them no choice but to defrock Schmeling. But the committee also wrote that, if not bound by the church's rules, they ''would find almost unanimously that Pastor Schmeling is not engaged in conduct that is incompatible with the ministerial office'' and would order no discipline.
Further, the committee suggested the ELCA remove its rule and reinstate gay clergy who were removed or resigned because they were in a same-sex ''lifelong partnership.''
At the ELCA's last national meeting in 2005, a proposal to allow synods to decide if they would accept a pastor in a same-sex relationship failed after getting nearly half the 1,000 votes, short of the required two-thirds majority.
St. John's members and gay rights groups hope Schmeling's case will provide the final push for change.
''We could have dodged the bullet for St. John's and Brad, but the gun would have remained loaded for every other gay and lesbian pastor in a committed relationship, and there's lots of them,'' said Emily Eastwood, who assisted in Schmeling's defense and heads Lutherans Concerned, a national group that fights for full inclusion of gays in the church and is drafting a policy change to propose during the upcoming biennial meeting.
The largest ELCA synod in the U.S., which includes Minneapolis and has more than 225,000 baptized members, already supports sexually active gay clergy. Its members voted for the national resolution in 2005.
''What we like to believe is that it's up to us to find ways to utilize the gifts of all people,'' Bishop Craig E. Johnson said.
Laura Crawley, the president of St. John's 10-member council, said the council ultimately will have to decide whether to defy the order or not, but support is strong for the pastor.
''The biggest thing is for us to just be St. John's, and then the ELCA decides what it wants to be,'' church member John Ballew said after Sunday's service.
Schmeling has until the second week of March to decide if he wants to appeal the committee's decision. However, he's optimistic that he will still be leading the church on Aug. 15, which also would be his seventh anniversary at St. John's. Until then, he doesn't plan any particular activism.
''The best thing I can do for this issue is to be the best pastor I can be in this place,'' he said.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
"Leftish Catholic blog"
That is how MoJ is described in this post (about the Edwards-anti-Catholic-blogger fracas). I feel chastened!
Topic Ideas for that Next Article
From Garner's Usage Tip of the Day:
Quotation of the Day: "What are the good and useful themes? Even, often, the great themes? First, I should list the unsolvable problem of evil. . . . Second, man against himself, which is, au fond, the root of all problems: the mature, the emotionally secure, the psychologically healthy don't need the compensatory behavior mechanisms of prejudice and hate. Third, man's relationship with God, which is but a projection of his relationship with himself, greatly idealized. Fourth, the eternal warfare of the sexes, with its fitful, biologically induced truces." Frank Yerby, "How and Why I Write the Costume Novel," in Writing in America 125, 136 (John Fischer & Robert B. Silvers eds., 1960).
The first three seem to be the main themes of MOJ discourse. The fourth is perhaps an appropriate topic for reflection today, in particular. Happy Valentine's Day!
The Times, They Are A-Changin'
New York Times
February 14, 2007
The Greatest Generation Learns About Great Safe Sex
By COREY KILGANNON
The sex educators had come to a Queens housing complex to discuss condoms and foreplay and sexually transmitted diseases.
Those assembled were told that their demographic was showing increases in sexual activity and an accompanying rise in promiscuity, homosexuality and H.I.V. infection.
As the teacher, Monique Binford, delved into an unexpurgated discussion covering issues from vaginal dryness to Viagra, one student’s cane clattered to the floor, another student adjusted his hearing aid and a third fidgeted in her orthopedic shoes. By the time Ms. Binford got around to describing a safe sexual act involving Saran Wrap, a woman shouted, “Enough, already!” and the room erupted in laughter.
The sex educators had news for this class of 40 people in their 70s and 80s, just in time for Valentine’s Day: Older folks are friskier than ever, and it’s never too late to learn about safe sex.
Sexually speaking, said Norm Sherman, who organized the presentation, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
The class last Wednesday, for residents of what is known as a “naturally occurring retirement community” at the Queensview and North Queensview co-op complexes in Long Island City, was run by Selfhelp Community Services, a nonprofit agency that provides services for the elderly across New York City.
The group’s leaders said they started sex-education courses in January after noticing an increase in sexual activity among their elderly clients, something they attribute to the popularity of Viagra and testosterone supplements as well as women shedding the idea that sex is shameful. Along with the increase in sexual activity at senior residences, nursing homes and assisted living facilities, there are increased complications because of lack of knowledge, said Becky Bigio, another of the educators.
A recent survey of people 45 and older, conducted by AARP, reported a sharp increase over the past several years of men using sex-enhancing drugs, and observed a corresponding “re-awakening” among women, who said their own sexual satisfaction had been enhanced. The study concluded that health care providers and patients were in need of sex education.
Indeed, not one of the students raised a hand when Ms. Binford asked who had been to a class before where someone had demonstrated how to put on a condom.
Ms. Bigio said many older people experience problems when resuming sexual activity after a long layoff, as when widows begin new relationships after long marriages that had perhaps slowed down sexually. Then there are sexually transmitted diseases spread by newly promiscuous Viagra takers, often undetected by doctors presuming that older patients are not sexually active.
“We feel this is getting to be an area you can no longer ignore,” Ms. Bigio told the group. In her presentation, Ms. Binford said she had also seen an uptick in homosexual activity among the elderly, and that more and more older people were being diagnosed with H.I.V., citing the recent case of an 82-year-old woman in the Bronx.
{To read the rest of this interesting article, click here.]
Onward, Christian Fascists, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before…
Thanks to Rob for his posting “Christian Fascists on the March!” I followed the link he provided and read in its entirety Chris Hedges’ brief essay The Rise of Christian Fascism and Its Threat to American Democracy. The Hedges’ essay makes a legitimate point that religious belief can be manipulated by persons interested in dominating society. But to suggest that Christian movements today are the equivalent of National Socialism is misplaced. While the modern media can be used by anyone to convey a message that offers hope and the promise of a better future, to argue that conservative Christian organizations have a monopoly on these persuasive tools is mistaken. Why is it, then, that a number of prominent American politicians are beginning to amass enormous sums of money for the Presidential bid of 2008? For media time that will likely have some influence on the American public and electorate, methinks. These contenders for high public office and their media consultants know the importance of the media—as do commercial enterprises, as do sports figures, as do entertainment celebrities... The media can surely influence voters and the viewing public in a powerful way, as can televised evangelists, as can popular musicians, as can anyone with the resources who can find access to sending a message to tens or hundreds of millions of people. But to suggest that conservative Christians are the only groups doing this with success is out of place.
Moreover, to argue that the influence of conservative Christians constitutes an “unchecked rape of America” is an extraordinary and, I suggest, implausible claim. For those skeptics who may question my view, may I suggest that they look at today’s television news or internet news services to witness the powerful competition that conservative Christians have in influencing—I’ll put aside the raping element suggested by Hedges—American and other societies. If the United States were facing a real threat from a conservative Christian hegemony, I am confident that the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, to mention but a few guardians of American autonomy, would be leading their own counter-crusade and without the cross of Jesus going on before as their banner. To label conservative Christians as “the most dangerous mass movement in American history” is an extraordinary claim. But it is unsubstantiated, and I wonder why it is being made? If one finds tiresome or tedious the Christian message carried on the airwaves, satellites, cables, or the internet, one only need switch the channel or website for relief. But if this Christian message is eradicated, what will be left? As Rob asks, “Who’s the fascist now?” RJA sj
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Subjectivism & Suffering
Jonathan Watson responds to my posting of the Richard Rorty quote connecting Christianity to a Nietzschian view of truth:
I believe that I see the connection that Rorty is making - that an insistence on the pragmatic relief of physical suffering as opposed to an other-wordly philosophy could lead (and in many cases has lead) to subjectivism insofar as the means that lead to relief of suffering are often categorized as “good” to the extent that suffering is relieved thereby. Indeed, this is certainly a pragmatic or utilitarian, ends-based, philosophy. (It connects in, I think, with a feeling-based judgment of actions, whereby outcomes that we feel ought to be better are judged as “right,” even if the means used to reach those outcomes often tread the fine line between licit and illicit.)
I would argue that this has most often occurred when the founding scriptures for social justice, especially in the Catholic movements based on social justice, are taken only in the most reductive sense. With no firm foundation in scriptural interpretation, Christ’s emphasis on relief of the brother’s suffering becomes simply a means of decreasing physical suffering, rather than a spiritual basis. I theorize that the disconnect between the need to minister to the poor in all manners (spiritual as well as physical) may result in a reductive reasoning in any such project, whereby the project itself becomes spiritually impoverished, disconnected from the right reason and conscience that holds the Natural and / or Revealed Law as the normative basis, thereby attaching itself to the only normative thinking left to it, the will to power. What results thereby is a thinking that doesn’t take thought for the eternal, but confines itself to the immediate, and thus, pragmatic or utilitarian. It often gets the questions right, but often for the wrong reasons.
Christian Fascists on the March!
I'm not sure where the line is between a healthy skepticsm toward the role of Christianity in politics and a Christian-phobic paranoia that leads to a total disconnect from reality, but author and former New York Times reporter Chris Hedges has found it. An excerpt from his essay, The Rise of Christian Fascism and Its Threat to American Democracy:
The radical Christian right, calling for a "Christian state" -- where whole segments of American society, from gays and lesbians to liberals to immigrants to artists to intellectuals, will have no legitimacy and be reduced, at best, to second-class citizens -- awaits a crisis, an economic meltdown, another catastrophic terrorist strike or a series of environmental disasters. A period of instability will permit them to push through their radical agenda, one that will be sold to a frightened American public as a return to security and law and order, as well as moral purity and prosperity. This movement -- the most dangerous mass movement in American history -- will not be blunted until the growing social and economic inequities that blight this nation are addressed, until tens of millions of Americans, now locked in hermetic systems of indoctrination through Christian television and radio, as well as Christian schools, are reincorporated into American society and given a future, one with hope, adequate wages, job security and generous federal and state assistance.
OK. So our first step to protect ourselves against "the most dangerous mass movement in American history" is to "reincorporate" those who are currently in Christian schools and end the "indoctrination" of Christian media? Who's the fascist now?
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