America is running an editorial called "Repeal the Second Amendment." Although I feel confident that any such repeal, via the procedures set out in the Constitution for amending the Constitution, is and will remain extremely unlikely, and although I am inclined to think that law-abiding, healthy people do and should have a "right" to own (subject to reasonable regulations, etc.) at least some firearms (although I do not own one), I commend the editors for their candor in calling for "repeal" rather than for legislators, officials, or judges to ignore or incorrectly interpret the "embarrassing" provision. If, in fact, the Second Amendment (like, say, part of the Seventh) is an anachronism or (like the Eighteenth) a mistake, a duly ratified process exists for an appropriate response.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
America Magazine on Repealing the Second Amendment
Douthat & Linker, abortion & violence
In the wake of what the killings at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, two familiar arguments/charges have resurfaced and circulated widely: The first is that those in the pro-life movement share responsibility for the killings (and other uses of violence against abortion providers) because of what is said to be the irresponsible use of inflammatory rhetoric (e.g., "baby parts"). The second is that those who claim to be pro-life do not really believe what they say they believe because, if they did, they would not condemn such violence but would instead regard it as justified (at least sometimes) and would support its use (at least in some cases).
It is, as I see, very important for those of us who are pro-life to speak to others, about others, and about what abortion is in a way that is truthful and at the same time worthy of the cause and in a way that makes it possible to hear and embrace the Gospel of Life. This can, at least for me, be a challenge. But, I reject the suggestion that, somehow, the killings in Colorado Springs can be blamed on those who have exposed and publicized the truth about what Planned Parenthood does. As for the second resurfaced argument, this 2009 post, by Michael Scaperlanda, strikes as (still) a good response. (And here's one by me, from about the same time.)
With all that said, I recommend spending some time with this exchange between Damon Linker ("The Deeply Irresponsible Rhetoric of the Pro-Life Movement") and Ross Douthat. I have had and appreciated some entirely civil and productive private e-mail conversations about this matter with Linker but, in my view, Douthat's position is the stronger one.
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Prayers After Shootings Now a Partisan Issue?
In The Atlantic, Emma Green reports on Democratic and Republican reactions to the San Bernardino shootings, and how a noticeable number of liberal/progressive commentators are "shaming" people who've expressed the sentiment that "our prayers are with those affected." For example, she quotes a Think Progress editor and pretty aggressive atheist named Zack Ford, who tweeted, "Stop thinking. Stop praying. Look up Einstein's definition of 'insanity.' Start acting on gun violence prevention measures." Green thinks there's a developing pattern here indicative of the changes in religion and politics:
There are many assumptions packed into these attacks on prayer: that all religious people, and specifically Christians, are gun supporters, and vice versa. That people who care about gun control can’t be religious, and if they are, they should keep quiet in the aftermath of yet another heart-wrenching act of violence. At one time in American history, liberals and conservatives shared a language of God, but that’s clearly no longer the case; any invocation of faith is taken as implicit advocacy of right-wing political beliefs.
I certainly hope that the "shamers" are in the minority; I hope that for the sake of the left, which (to say it for the umpteenth time) has no hope of making progress in America if it divorces itself from religious inspiration. I'd hope that many of those who attack prayer alone as insufficient, and want action, are reflecting something of the attitude of the prophet Amos (see 5:21-23, NRSV):
I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies....
Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
If you are impatient with unaddressed matters of justice, and you think that religion can throw up pious distractions from those matters, you have the Biblical prophets on your side. As Green points out, praying and acting are far from inconsistent. See the familiar list of social-justice movements the left commends, from abolition to women's suffrage to civil rights, that have been inspired by preaching and prayer. I think that most Americans on the left still recognize that--although unfortunately, Green is likely right that more and more do not.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Notre Dame's Core Curriculum Review Committee releases Draft Report
It is available here. I think the report will be of interest to, and should be read by, everyone who is interested in the project of Catholic higher education (as I hope all MOJ readers are!). There has been, over the last year, a lot of coverage in various quarters of Notre Dame's curriculum-review process and a great deal of interest in the question whether the University would use this process to water down or wander from, or to deepen and enhance, its distinctive Catholic character and mission. My own sense after a first read is that we came much closer to the latter. (Here's a graphic summarizing some specific proposed changes.) But, see for yourselves.
Here's just a bit:
Many excellent universities and colleges begin assessments of their curricula and the undergraduate educational experience with uncertainty as to the underlying purposes of that education and that experience. But even as Notre Dame has become more diverse, welcoming students and faculty from many different religious traditions and none, the aspiration for a superb Catholic liberal arts education appears more widely shared than ever by University faculty, students, and alumni.
This unity of purpose should remind and encourage us that we begin our process of core curricular assessment and improvement with notable advantages. The committee saw its primary task as discerning ways in which we can further advance this shared vision. In his 1990 apostolic exhortation Ex Corde Ecclesiae, St. John Paul II urged “continuous renewal” upon Catholic universities—both as “University” and as “Catholic”—and this warning against complacency seems to us even more prescient a quarter century later.8 In response, this committee recommends: a renewed commitment to distinctively Catholic dimensions within the liberal arts, an enhanced commitment to a broad liberal arts education, and the introduction of curricular innovations that foster the integration of disciplines. . . .
Here's more:
As central threads in the Catholic intellectual tradition, theology and philosophy have played and should continue to play a central role in Notre Dame’s core curriculum. Theology integrates academic inquiry through its disciplined reflection on ultimate questions. It achieves this from the perspective of God’s self-disclosure, particularly as known through the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures and their reception and interpretation in the Tradition of the Church. In placing theology at the core of its Catholic liberal arts education, Notre Dame is not merely adding another discipline to the existing educational paradigm. Instead, it embraces a paradigm of the intellectual life that posits the complementarity of faith and reason. Catholicism has always elevated reason and thus endorses the enduring value of philosophy, which brings reason to bear on issues beyond the resources of empirical disciplines, matters such as the existence and nature of God, the destiny of human persons, the actuality of free will, the nature and scope of knowledge, and the centrality of ethics. The examination of such questions makes philosophy a necessary partner in the quest for the integration of knowledge across disciplines. Philosophy is furthermore a partner as it helps our students become acquainted with, and able to address, the intellectual challenges raised for theism in a secular culture. The educational mission of the Congregation of Holy Cross has consistently emphasized the importance of preparing “citizens for society” as well as “citizens for heaven.”10 This impulse derives from an underlying commitment to the dignity of the human person and is echoed in Ex Corde Ecclesiae, where St. John Paul II writes that a Catholic university is called to study contemporary problems ranging from “the dignity of human life and the promotion of justice for all” to a more equitable “sharing in the world’s resources.”11 Finally, Notre Dame’s mission statement has long recognized that Notre Dame should be a place where “the various lines of Catholic thought may intersect with all the forms of knowledge found in the arts, sciences, professions, and every other area of human scholarship and creativity.” The University’s hiring strategies and investments to build faculty strength in intellectual areas consonant with the traditions of Catholicism—from Dante to global health, from impact investing to sustainable urbanism, from Hebrew Bible to Latino/a studies—reflect a remarkable institutional commitment, one that should have more resonance in core curriculum requirements.
Here's hoping the Cardinal Newman Society notices . . .
UPDATE: The CNS did notice. Story here.
Monday, November 30, 2015
Women and Work at the Vatican
MOJer Lisa Schiltz and I will be at a conference in Rome this weekend, sponsored by the Pontifical Council of the Laity-Women's division. Lisa will be among the 15 speakers from around the world (and I among the 80 participants). Lisa is on a panel discussing how to reconcile work and family commitments. Helen Alvare and Endow Founder, Terry Polakovic, are also speaking from the US. Other papers include discussion of neurological and psychological research on the differences between the sexes, women in leadership, care ethics, and educating girls. My favorite title is: "Women Work and They Have Always Done So," offered by the married Italian economists Stefano and Vera Zamagni.
Arthur Brooks at Faith Angle Forum
Was happy to spend a couple of hours listening to Arthur Brooks and John Carr each present and then answer media questions at EPPC's Faith Angle Forum event earlier this month. Though I have yet to read Brooks' new book, The Conservative Heart, I am now more anxious to do so.
Brooks' focus on issues of poverty from a conservative perspective is deeply needed today. The premise of his talk--and book, I believe--is that globalization, the free market and entrepreneurship--when properly confined by the rule of law and property rights--are the forces which have brought billions out of poverty across the world. He is less sanguine about solutions for poverty at home, but his analysis of the state of things seems to me true: for the last several decades, including in debate about welfare reform in the mid-90s, both sides of the aisle have talked about the poor as though they were "liabilities to be managed," not "assets to be developed." Brooks asks: how do we "add value" to those who can be (who are) valuable? How do we help people develop themselves as persons with dignity? His answer is to find ways to help the poor develop themselves such that through their work, they can be needed. "There is something inherently human about becoming necessary to others through your work." More here.
Remi Brague on "The Impossibility of Secular Society"
It's a few years old, but worth re-reading. Here's Remi Brague's First Things essay, "The Impossibility of Secular Society." A bit:
. . . Our intuitive sense of the outer boundaries of living memory and concern finds expression in the field of law. One hundred years, what is known as the tempus memoratum, constitutes the longest possible duration for a contract. For example, the longest possible land lease holds good for ninety-nine years. Beyond that, one enters the field of the “immemorial,” rights held not by natural persons but by legal entities such as monasteries, universities, civic organizations, and of course the state itself. In a certain brocard, or common saying of ancient French law, “He who has eaten of the king’s goose gives back a feather a hundred years later,” which means that for crimes against the state there is no temporal limit. The king remembers forever.
What does all this have to do with the idea of a “secular” society? A great deal. The French language possesses two different adjectives meaning “secular”: on the one hand séculier, on the other séculaire. Séculaire means what lasts for more than one century—say, a tree, or a custom. Séculier originally designated a “secular,” a cleric who, as we have seen, doesn’t live according to the rule of a monastic or religious order but instead pursues his vocation in the world as a diocesan functionary. In the modern era, as Mill recognized and imported into English, it acquired the added meaning of an outlook, a person, or a body of people that renounces the transcendent. . . .
Thursday, November 26, 2015
E.J. Dionne, Yuval Levin, and Ecclesiastes on Gratitude
Here. The money quote is Levin's: “Ecclesiastes 9:11 should be stamped on luxury cars and Harvard degrees.”
Happy Thanksgiving!
McConnell on refugees and religion
As a follow-up to (and big improvement on) my post, a few days ago, on the Syrian-refugee question, check out Michael McConnell, here, who says "Yes, We Should Consider Refugees' Religion: It's Not Only Fair, It's Written Into Law":
Americans have heard a lot of nonsense in the past week about the role of religion in our refugee policy – from both sides. Senator Ted Cruz has been derided, mostly justly, for saying that no Muslim refugees – but only Christians – should be admitted to this country from the killing fields of Syria and Iraq. But President Obama’s angry reaction that use of a “religious test” for evaluating asylum seekers would be “shameful” and “not American” is even more wrongheaded. “That's not who we are,” he said to an audience in Turkey, apparently in response to Cruz. “We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.”
Except we do. It’s in the law.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which governs these issues, defines “refugee” as someone who has fled from his or her home country and cannot return because he or she has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of “religion” – as well as race, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. This certainly doesn’t let us use a religious test to filter otherwise-eligible immigrants out. But it does mean that when we’re deciding who to admit as refugees, religion matters.
So, when we think about religious refugees from the war-torn parts of the Middle East, who are we talking about? Right now Christians who are being singled out for religious persecution – beheadings, beatings, rape, forced conversions, enslavement. So also Yazidis, Mandaeans, and a few other smaller groups. Many Muslims are also displaced and suffering, but the Islamic State is not systematically targeting them for being Islamic. Our refugee policy should take that into consideration. This is not a “religious test.” It is a persecution test. . . .
Read the whole thing.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Trump "Might Just Get Around to You..."
"... You'd better hope there's someone to help you [then]." This new John Kasich ad gives Trump everything he deserves for his shameful litany of bigoted statements.
Recent Posts
Categories
Monthly Archive
StatCounter
PageViews
Since February 19, 2008
