Intuitively responding to Rob's post on "Salvation as a Selective Incentive" (which I have not read) I wonder if Jonathon Klick explored the possibility that Catholics may have larger families and thus less disposable income in earlier years. Hmm! Could this explain increased giving in later years?
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Salvation as Selective Incentive
Thursday, January 27, 2005
A Reader Response to my post on Sr. Joan and the War
"You raise good points at "Mirror of Justice" in discussing Sister Joan Chittister's transparently manipulative column about the Iraq war and how the rest of the world viewed the recent presidential inauguration.
You might also have mentioned that the casualty figure that Sr. Chittister cites ("over 100,000 civilian dead") differs by several orders of magnitude from other figures. The web site "Iraq Body Count," for example, is no friend of the Bush administration, but it pegs the "high" estimate of civilian deaths caused by military action in Iraq at 17,723.
This, of course, is considerably less than the 100,000 figure we got from Sr. Chittister, with(conveniently) no attribution.
While pondering casualty counts in the light of just war theory, it might also help to consider the number of people that Saddam Hussein's regime had killed every month, realizing that for all the instability in Iraq at the moment, coalition forces have indisputably put a stop to that.
Best,
Patrick O'Hannigan"
One further comment: If I am reading the Iraq body court website correctly, the 17,723 civilian deaths include those who died from U.S. military action and those who have died at the hands of terrorists, including suicide bombers.
Of Acorns and Embryos
Robert George and Patrick Lee have an insightful article entitled "Acorns and Embryos" in The New Atlantis. In this essay, they critique Paul McHugh's arguments in favor stem cell harvesting of "clonates" and Michael Sandel's arguments in favor stem cell harvesting of embryos more broadly. Here is a sampling:
"Sandel’s defense of embryo-killing on the basis of an analogy between embryos and acorns collapses the moment one brings into focus the profound difference between the basis on which we value oak trees and the basis on which we ascribe intrinsic value and dignity to human beings. His analogy only makes sense if we reject the principle that all human beings possess equal moral worth—a principle that we assume Sandel wishes to uphold, not reject."
Thanks to The Seventh Age for this link.
Michael S.
Just War?: A question from the ignorant
Rob asks: "On what other basis [besides the presence of WMD tagged for use against the US] could the conflict in Iraq possibly be considered a just war?" Could the 2003 invasion of Iraq be considered a continuation of the 1991 war with the 2003 invasion caused by Saddam's failure to meet the conditions for cease fire? I don't know the answer to the question or whether, even if the answer is yes, such a move satisfies the just war criteria. Any thoughts?
Michael S.
Sr. Joan's Appeal to Emotion
Sr. Joan's NCR essay seemed more like an emotional anti-American (or at least anti-government) diatribe than a reasoned argument against the war. Just as the pro fetal stem cell research crowd used Christopher Reeve and Mary Tyler More as a ploy to appeal to the emotions of Americans, Sr. Joan uses the horrible tragedy of one 12 year old Iraqi girl and her family to suggest that the United States views the children of Iraq as our enemy and defines bravery in this war and this century as the courage to kill children and their civilian parents: "We are killing children. The children are our enemy. And we are defeating them." "My government has the courage to kill children and their parents. And I'm supposed to be impressed."
Couldn't this same picture be painted in any war? I am sure that similar tragedies occurred in the revolutionary war, the Civil War, and our war against Hitler and Nazi Germany in World War II. In short, Sr. Joan's essay might be an expose on the horrors of war or may be a partial argument in favor of pacifism, but it is not an argument against this war or even how this war is being waged.
Sister Joan does cite United Nation's statistics suggesting that the number of civilian causalities in war have risen from 15% in WWI to 65% in WWII to 75% in the mid-90's. Several questions and one observation arise from her use of these statistics. First, the observation - these statistics don't tell us anything about United States' inflicted civilian causalities in the Iraqi conflict since that conflict post-dates the statistics. Second, are these figures accurate? Third, are these worldwide statistics and do they include conflicts in which there is no U.S. presence? Fourth, do they include causalities inflicted only by Americans or by all combatants and non-combatant aggressors? Fifth, has the nature of fighting (at least by technologically advanced countrys) changed to reduce civilian causalities (i.e., guided precision bombs v. carpet bombing)? Sixth, has the nature of fighting changed to increase the potential for civilian causalities (i.e., the use of woman, children, and un-uniformed personnel as aggressors)? Seventh, does the United States do better or worse than other nations in limiting civilian causalities?
In the end, Sr. Joan's essay denigrates the acts of bravery and courage of soldiers who are being asked to put their lives on the line in the hope that Iraqis will be able to obtain political liberty.
We can argue about whether it was prudent or just to enter into this war and we can argue about the structure and speed of an exit strategy, but these issues and the consequences of the choices made are too serious for blatant play for emotion and visceral reaction.
Michael
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Fordham Conference: Strangers No Longer: Immigration Law and Policy in Light of Religious Values
Amy Uelman has organized what promises to be a wonderful conference hosted by The Fordham University School of Law Institute on Religion, Law and Lawyer's Work: Strangers No Longer: Immigration Law & Policy in the Light of Religious Values. This interdisciplinary interfaith conference should be of interest to lawyers, social workers, community activists, clergy and scholars. It will be held at Fordham University School of Law, New York, James B.M. McNally Amphitheatre Friday February 25, 2005, 8:45 am - 5:00 pm. Visit Fordham's website for more details, and I hope to see some of you there. Michael S.
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Conference: Lawyers, Faith, and Social Justice
FYI: Pepperdine's Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics will host a conference titled "Lawyers, Faith, and Social Justice: Our Responsibility to 'The Orphan, the Widow,' and 'The Least of These'" on February 4-5, 2005. Among the speakers will be MOJ blogistas Steve Bainbridge, Mark Sargent, and yours truly. For more information visit Pepperdine's website.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Conference: Maria Goretti Project at Notre Dame
If you are around Notre Dame at 7 pm tonight through Thursday you might want to attend a conference called the Maria Goretti Project, which was planned by Notre Dame students, Anamaria Scaperlanda-Ruiz and Christina Dehan. The conference focuses on a Catholic understanding of womanhood and addresses the painful realities of violence against women. Although this conference is designed as a positive statement of authentic womanhood from a Catholic anthropology, I can't help but contrast it with the very secular anthropology at play in the "Vagina Monologues."
Speakers include Teresa Collett, Tracy McGinn, Amy McInerny, Nicole Garnett, and the two student sponsors. The event will end with a prayer service on Thursday evening. For more information, see the Notre Dame Ethics Bulletin.
Signed, a proud father
Monday, January 17, 2005
Struggling to Accept Church Teaching
A letter to the editor in the January 16, 2005 edition of Our Sunday Visitor struck me as a powerful witness to all of us who struggle (or have struggled) with some aspect of Church teaching. The issue in this particular letter was the death penalty, but it could have been any number of issues concnerning faith or morals. The letter writer says that he has always supported the death penalty. "However, if the Church tells me I must not advocate the death penalty (and its not always easy to tell whether the Church has spoken or whether we're getting the opinion of a biased cleric), then I will reluctantly obey. As the editorial put it, 'we may not be able to do that with much enthusiasm' in some cases, but if that's what I'm asked to do by the legitimate representative of Christ on earth, then I'll do it."
Saturday, January 15, 2005
Consumer Reports: Rating Contraception and Abortion Methods
This item (thanks Maria) may be of interest to our readers.
*MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH*
Consumer Reports
advocates abortion
Trusted magazine analyzes condoms, refers readers to Planned Parenthood
to eliminate 'uterine contents'
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 10, 2005
11:11 p.m. Eastern
By Ron Strom
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Consumer Reports, the respected magazine that has advised Americans on
everything from new car purchases to which electric can opener to buy,
has published a list of birth-control options that includes abortion,
complete with a section describing how the procedure gets rid of a
pregnant mother's "uterine contents."
The main report, which is available in the February issue and online,
...analyzes various brands of condoms for strength and reliability.
Along with the condom report, Consumer Reports provides both a
comparative guide to other contraceptive methods and a page entitled
"Birth control: More and safer choices," ...which includes discussion of abortion.
... "There were no details of the risks of abortion like breast cancer or
mental anguish, no pro-life alternatives like adoption, nothing," reader
Marc Smulowitz commented to WND. "Just a soulless 'consumer report' as
if they were recommending the acquisition of the latest blender."
...
To see the full article, click here.
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