Miscellaneous Meanderings on the signs of the times
Dr. Mark S. Latkovic
April 1, 2015 (Otherwise known as “April Fools’ Day”)
{Some of these “Miscellaneous Meanderings” appeared on my Facebook status updates and on Twitter in March 2015, but appear here often in a slightly revised form}
~Two liberal and two conservative Catholic newspapers have collaborated on a statement that calls for the abolishment of the death penalty (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/capital-punishment-must-end-catholic-publications-unite-in-rare-joint-statement-26420/. An excellent critique of it can be found here: https://canonlawblog.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/okay-what-about-catholics-and-the-death-penalty/). Its emphasis is on human dignity. But there are different aspects of human dignity that need to be taken into account when we discuss the death penalty. There is the very real dignity that all of us have – one that cannot be forfeited or extinguished because it’s intrinsic – by virtue of God creating us in his image and likeness (cf. Gn 1:26-27). But there is another kind of dignity – also intrinsic, but that can be lost through our own morally bad choices, i.e., sins. This is the dignity that we give to ourselves when we make morally good choices or the dignity that we harm when we make morally bad ones. It is the dignity that grounds praise and blame, reward and punishment – even the kind of punishment involved in the death penalty.
~Hillary Clinton’s March 4, 2015 speech to Emily’s List spoke of the Republicans’ “old trickle-down” economics (see http://time.com/3731163/hillary-clinton-emilys-list/). But as Thomas Sowell has written, this theory is a myth (See his “‘Trickle Down’ Theory and ‘Tax Cuts for the Rich,’” http://www.tsowell.com/images/Hoover%20Proof.pdf, 2012). “No such theory has been found in even the most voluminous and learned histories of economic theories, including J.A. Schumpeter’s monumental 1,260-page History of Economic Analysis [1954]. Yet this non-existent theory has become the object of denunciations from the pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post to the political arena.”
~Here’s a relevant thought for the fight against radical Islam: “This…is the great religious obsession spun into all of [Irving] Kristol’s political writing: the belief that secular liberalism breeds a valueless individualism that necessarily progresses toward moral disorder and even nihilism. Kristol feared that without religion, society would witness a growing discontent with what democratic capitalism can realistically provide.” ~Tom Wilson, “Irving Kristol’s God” (http://www.firstthings.com/article/2015/03/irving-kristols-god). We in the West had better get to work providing a Christian religious vision to counter radical Islam before more of our young people go off in search for “meaning” to fight for ISIS.
~Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, has been living up to his namesake lately. Besides banging the drum for communion for the divorced-and-remarried with fellow German Cardinal Walter Kasper, he now questions the term “New Evangelization” (see http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=24234), claiming it suggests a “restoration” of Catholic influence. And in his mind that’s not such a good thing. He said that some people who use the term “think that most of Christianity’s history is behind us and what lies ahead is an uncertain and distressing future. It could be mistaken for a model for a spiritual reconquest, as if the aim was to regain lost ground [Hey, that wouldn’t be such a bad idea!]. It is not, however, about restoring or repeating what existed in the past, but rather, a new start, a new approach, a new situation.” Well, of course it is; that’s why we call it the new evangelization!
~A man was arrested after calling 911 to inform police his wife stole his cocaine (see http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/man-arrested-after-calling-911-to-say-wife-stole-his-cocaine/ar-AA9sEdp). To say he’s a “stupid criminal” is an understatement. He’s in a class all his own.
~In an interview with OSV Weekly discussing a Vatican conference on secularism (https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/ByIssue/Article/TabId/735/ArtMID/13636/ArticleID/16939/The-role-of-secularism-in-society-the-Church.aspx), the celebrated Canadian Catholic philosopher Charles Taylor seems to call into question the notion of moral absolutes: “the Church can’t simply be an ideological bastion where a whole set of decisions have already been made about what human life is about, and unless you accept those, you’re not really part of us. That has got to change.” Of course it depends on the nature of those decisions about human life. Are they prudential matters on which reasonable people can disagree or are they matters that involve the more inviolable aspects of human life?
~Detroit Free Press columnist, Rochelle Riley is commenting (http://www.freep.com/story/news/columnists/rochelle-riley/2015/03/07/riley-berg-sevier/24580823/) on the recent non-fatal shooting of a federal judge on his porch steps in Detroit and she trots out the usual so-called root causes – “…frustration and need…” – to explain crime, even while, in fairness, she recognizes other real reasons. Like the poor, however, “root causes” we will forever have with us. My in-laws grew up in Hitler’s Germany and they would have never used poverty or hardship as a reason to turn to serious crime.
~Over 40 years ago, my late father used to buy my brother and me baseball cards from Charlie Lupica’s grocery store on Lorain Ave, in Cleveland, OH. As I was thinking about those days, I decided to Google Charlie’s name and see what became of him and his store. I first came up with an obit that appeared in the December 29, 2002 NYT (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/29/sports/charley-lupica-90-dies-fan-who-sat-on-flagpole.html). It turns out that Mr. Lupica was quite a Cleveland Indians fan back in the day. As the Times put it, he was “a Cleveland grocer who became something of a national celebrity when he perched atop a flagpole for 117 days in the summer of 1949 hoping to inspire his beloved Indians to win the American League pennant…” What I’d give for a chance to go back to just one of those days in 49’ or 69.’
~The piece by the AP’s Mike Stobbe, “Health officials perplexed by vaccination skeptics” (http://www.freep.com/story/life/wellness/2015/03/07/vaccination-skeptics-reasons/24453099/) seems fairly balanced to me. I note this because balanced stories on the question of vaccines are often hard to find. Another fair one, featuring myself and three other Catholic experts, can be found in the March 18, 2015 OSV Newsweekly here: https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/Article/TabId/535/ArtMID/13567/ArticleID/17150/Catholic-experts-weigh-in-on-vaccine-debate.aspx.
~San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has proposed changes to the faculty handbook at four Catholic high schools (see http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/catholics-supporting-archbishop-cordileone-on-school-identity-feel-silenced-pressured-89858/) that would clarify Church teaching in the areas of abortion and sexual ethics. And he and his supporters are experiencing quite a backlash. Just another example of how the “good guys” have become the “bad guys” in the culture war, seemingly overnight.
~The Catholic psychologist Sidney Callahan is writing about the “transgendered body” (http://americamagazine.org/content/all-things/new-theology-transgendered-body) and calling for a “new theology” to deal with the phenomenon. However, she argues, “Christians do not have to wait for scientific consensus to understand and affirm religious truths. We know that God commands us to treat each human life with justice and love. In particular we must protect the vulnerable and relieve suffering.” All true, but then this: “Moreover, the embodied person’s whole identity, deeds and character are more important than gender identity.” But isn’t gender identity highly relevant for what Christians (among others) call the unity-in-complementarity that is marriage? Continuing, Callahan says she is grateful to God “that Christians value and protect every stage and condition of embodied life. We value embryo, fetus, infant, child, adult, aged, disabled and the dying. And we’ve been promised the gift of transitioning to resurrected life as members of Christ’s body.” Again, all true and good, but then this: “Can we hope now for an expanded theology of the body and person, to better understand gender and transgendered persons?” I’m all for a deepened “theology of the body and person,” but an “expanded” theology of the same sounds geared not so much to “better understand” but to normalize such understandings of gender and transgendered persons that Callahan and all too many others, Catholics included, are proposing.
~Some days it seems as if too many Catholic schools are defending the radical gays who reject Church teaching (see http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/2014/09/27/ihm-nuns-marian-pregnant-gay-teacher-dismissal/16350225/) and throwing under the bus the faithful teachers who accept it – including the gays who want to live chaste lives according to that teaching – as witnessed in the awful case of NJ high school theology teacher and married mother, Patricia Jannuzzi (see http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/catholic-school-asks-n-teacher-anti-gay-rant-article-1.2146904).
~The University of Notre Dame philosopher Gary Gutting is more than wrong in his NYT’s blog column on sex and natural law – he is delusional when he writes: “The courageous uncloseting of many homosexuals has revealed them as people like most everyone else, searching for and sometimes achieving a fulfilling human life through rich and complex relationships. Since the official church, under Pope Francis, is more than ever open to this sensible view, the time is overdue for a revision of its philosophical misunderstanding of homosexual acts.” (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/unraveling-the-church-ban-on-gay-sex/?_r=2#more-156179. He concludes: “More generally, the church needs to undertake a thorough rethinking of its teachings on sexual ethics, including premarital sex, masturbation and remarriage after divorce. In every case, the old arguments no longer work (if they ever did), and a vast number of Catholics reject the teachings. It’s time for the church to realize that its sexual ethics are philosophically untenable and theologically unnecessary.” Robert P. George and John Finnis respond to him in Public Discourse (http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/03/14635/). As I would expect, they demolish his argument. But I just have to ask: Why is this guy teaching philosophy at Notre Dame? Maybe the Church needs to rethink Notre Dame’s Catholicism?
~The liberal NYT columnist, Nicholas Kristoff, writes (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/opinion/when-liberals-blew-it.html?ref=opinion&_r=0) about how liberals failed in their response to the “Moynihan Report,” issued 50 years ago in March 1965. The report, known officially as The Negro Family: The Case For National Action, decried the increase in children being raised in single-parent families as a cause of poverty among blacks (You can read the report here: http://www.dol.gov/dol/aboutdol/history/webid-meynihan.htm). But liberals weren’t the only ones, he argues: “Conservatives shouldn’t chortle at the evidence that liberals blew it, for they did as well. Conservatives say all the right things about honoring families, but they led the disastrous American experiment in mass incarceration; incarceration rates have quintupled since the 1970s. That devastated families, leading countless boys to grow up without dads.” But how many lives were saved by taking these criminals off the street? And how many boys (and girls) were spared an abusive and/or drug dealing dad as a “role model”? Both of these questions need to be asked before we fault conservative policy.
~The news that an elderly Indian nun had been gang-raped (http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/indian-nun-raped-in-convent-attack/ar-AA9LoXh) gives me occasion to note that if it is likely that that nun or other nuns – who take vows of chastity – are endangered of being raped, it would be legitimate to argue that they could use some form of protection to defend themselves against the rapist(s). Not having freely chosen to engage in sexual intercourse obviously, and regardless of their age and fertility status, the nuns’ action would not constitute an act of contraception, but rather self-defense.
~With the Health Police waging a “war on bacon,” I think that the new civil rights front will be to defend the rights of the BLT community.
~In a VICE News interview (Here’s the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81HNYTixPYM), Pres. Obama confesses he is “embarrassed” for the 47 Republican Senators who wrote directly to the Iranian Ayatollah, “Who,” he says, the Republicans “claim is our mortal enemy.” Who they claim? Well, isn’t Iran our mortal enemy?!
~The gay Italian fashion designers and former romantic couple, Dolce & Gabbana, have sparked an outcry in their affirmation of the traditional family and in their opposition to gay marriage and use of IVF and surrogacy to enable gays to have children (see http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/family-is-not-a-fad-dolce-gabbana-spark-firestorm-in-backing-traditional-marriage-45042/). They have even pissed off Elton John – always a good thing – on Instagram (see http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/15/elton-john-leading-lgbt-groups-dolce-gabbana-boycott). It’s always welcome when you have persons who you think would line up ideologically on the other side, surprise you and support your side of the argument.
~My daughter and I got behind a driver with the bumper sticker “don’t text and drive.” Of course, he was texting and driving.
~The megachurch pastor, Creflo Dollar, caused controversy for a campaign asking for $65 million in donations to buy a private plane – the “Jesus jet” – to continue, he says, spreading the Word around the world (see http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/16/opinions/posner-creflo-dollar-gulfstream/). With the last name Dollar (It just had to be!), it shouldn’t surprise us when there are financial scandals surrounding this guy.
~One Saturday evening at Mass, I noticed how my wedding ring was sparkling. I couldn’t help but think that’s the way a couple’s marriage should always be – sparkling.
~A fascinating ultrasound study indicates that “fetuses” react to their mothers’ smoking by touching their faces and mouths more often than the fetuses of mothers who do not smoke (see http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ultrasound-study-reveals-fetuses-react-smoking-moms/story?id=29896418). The study’s co-author said, “Technology means we can now see what was previously hidden, revealing how smoking affects the development of the fetus in ways we did not realize.” Doesn’t this same technology also reveal the humanity of the “fetus” as well? Later in the article, Dr. Marjorie Greenfield, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at University Hospitals Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Cleveland, said she “was intrigued by the study but said she wants to see more evidence connecting the extra movement in the fetuses to any health effects after birth.” She added, “There isn’t any mom who wants to hurt their kids. They feel like they can’t manage without the cigarettes.” There is no such mom out there? Really? Is she referring to “kids” who are born or unborn? The abortion stats indicate that there are at least some moms willing to “hurt” their unborn kids by aborting them and some moms willing to “hurt” their born kids by either abusing them or killing them. Dr. Greenfield is also obviously unaware of the horrifying story of the 35-yr-old Detroit mom who tortured and killed two of her four children –ages 9 and 13 – and then kept their frozen bodies stored for a year in a freezer in the living room of their apartment. The Detroit News reports (http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2015/03/26/mom-scalded-son-strangled-daughter-froze-bodies-detroit-report-says/70489682/) that these actions contradict “the image she projected on her Facebook page, where she wrote ‘Loyal to my babies,’ and posted a picture with the message ‘there is no greater blessing than being called Mom.’” She’ll be called something else now. Yes, another m-word, but this one having nothing to do with giving life – only its taking.
~In the opening paragraph of Brian Stewart’s interesting review of Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s new book, Heretic, we get this: “One day while perusing the New Testament, Thomas Jefferson decided to take a razor to its pages and strip away the passages that promoted wickedness, bigotry, or superstition. This effort to cull the distilled essence of ‘the life and morals of Jesus of Nazareth’ left the Good Book considerably diminished in length but immeasurably enhanced in quality. Ever since, it has been known as the Jefferson Bible.” [My emphasis] (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/415920/needed-islamic-reformation-brian-stewart). And what criteria (besides the Holy Spirit’s inspiration!) could Stewart use to affirm that the NT has been “immeasurably enhanced in quality”? I guess I never realized just how much wickedness, bigotry, and superstition there was in the NT. It took Jefferson to improve Jesus.
~There’s an interesting interview with Beaumont Health Systems’ retiring President and CEO, Gene Michalski, in the Detroit Free Press (http://www.freep.com/story/money/2015/03/28/beaumont-ceo-retirement-interview/70480970/). But only the print edition for March 29, 2015 (on 2C) includes his comment about the “strategic shift” he has observed in medicine over the years “properly so – from correction [in the 70s] to detection, and now prevention.” That, to me, is a good summary of where we’ve been and where we’re at. Now if only we Americans could eat better and exercise more.
~A Detroit Free Press story on “Same-Sex Marriage In Michigan: 1 Year Later” (http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/03/22/michigan-couples-reflect-sex-marriages/25148831/) reveals just how accepting newspapers have become of the “marriage language” for gay couples. Gay couples are now married, they are a family, they are husband and husband or wife and wife. Actually, you rarely, if at all see husband or wife linked in that same-sex way. Maybe, we can hope against hope, that it simply sounds absurd even to secular reporters.
~This will be my second year participating in the annual Professional Interview Day for the juniors at Allen Park High School. It’s a chance for the students to get what all of us wish we had at age 17: an opportunity to be “interviewed” by various professionals in different fields. And it provides us adults with a chance to meet and get to know some interesting students.
~In light of the protests over IN’s recently passed RFRA (http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2015/03/31/gov-mike-pence-hold-news-conference-clarify-religious-freedom-law/70712968/), shouldn’t Republicans like Gov. Mike Pence have been better prepared to defend their own law when it came under attack – as they should have known it would? That’s the problem with Republicans in general: a lack of articulation.
~Welcome to Spring 2015. It’s already April. Contrary to T.S. Eliot, I don’t think April is the “cruellest month,” but it does tend to be one of the rainiest.
~Although it’s April Fools’ Day (see http://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/smart-living/no-joke-14-april-fools-day-facts/ss-AAa0PL7?ocid=U305DHP#image=15), I promise that none of my meanderings involve practical jokes.