Category: Theology

Beyond Vietnam: A time to break the silence

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

There’s a reason why Martin Luther King Jr., the great man whose birthday we celebrate today, was such a threat to the establishment. Not because of the soft-and-fuzzy, non-threatening MLK the media so loves, cherry-picking his legacy to leave only the pacifism, but because of his radical views on social and economic justice. (As he said, “I take the gospel seriously.”)

It saddens me that so many young people seem to have no real understanding of who he was, or why he was so revolutionary. To them, it’s just a day off from school, or a day taking part in public service. But why? And why do so many political pretenders claim his legacy while shunning the hard work of justice? Only the Occupy movement echoes the same moral voice as King’s.

“Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break The Silence” might be the greatest speech of our generation. I can think of nothing that comes close.

Dr. King attacked the military-industrial complex, calling the U.S. government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” He said war was the enemy of the poor. He was right then. Sadly, he still is.

If you listen to the entire speech, you’ll see how very little has changed since he made it.
Continue reading “Beyond Vietnam: A time to break the silence” →

Morning Reads: Pope Francis’s Populism Rattles GOP; Debtors’ Prisons Return

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Pope Francis on Trickle Down Economic theory

Morning Reads: Pope Francis’s Populism Rattles GOP; Debtors’ Prisons Return (via Moyers & Company)

Good morning! Only 364 shopping days left until Christmas! Before working on your list, take a look at some of the stories we’re reading on this slow holiday news day… He’s freaking them out –> Katie Glueck reports for Politico that Pope Francis…

Continue reading “Morning Reads: Pope Francis’s Populism Rattles GOP; Debtors’ Prisons Return” →

Pope Francis drives the wingnuts batty

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

And Charlie Pierce is loving it:

In case you missed the latest from Pope Central — every Republican politician, every conservative economist, and every wingnut pundit of the past 30 years either already is in H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks, or is on the way down the greasy slope in that general direction. Pope Krugman speaks.

“In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world,” he said. “This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting.”   

“Trickle-down.” The SOB actually used the phrase? In an official document? Classic. Faith in markets has “never been confirmed by facts”? Okay, right off the top, any time this guy wants space on the blog, it’s his. I keep waiting for him to give me the Latin for “zombie-eyed granny starver.”

“Crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power”? Neil Cavuto just had a stroke.

I know, I know. St. James. “Faith without works” and all. (And the ideas on abortion in the same document are tough and ought not to be enshrined in law.)  But one thing to remember is that the Church is still producing seminarians, and the new ones are going to be trained in obedience to this guy’s ideas. That was how we wound up with a great generation of progressive priests during and after Vatican II. The problem came when John Paul II, a theological reactionary, got elected and spent more than two decades rolling back the achievements of those priests, particularly in the oligarchical tyrannies of places like Central America. Popes can transform the Church without noisily transforming its doctrines. We can hope (and pray, if you’re so inclined) that historical precedent is not ironclad.That may not seem like much, all things considered, but I hope Paul Ryan, good Catholic boy, has made his nine First Fridays because this is a papacy with his name on it.

 

Pope to rich: Share the wealth

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

Boy, I like this pope. More than ever, I can see that we’re going to have to pray for his safety:

Pope Francis has attacked unfettered capitalism as “a new tyranny”, urging global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality in the first major work he has authored alone as pontiff.

The 84-page document, known as an apostolic exhortation, amounted to an official platform for his papacy, building on views he has aired in sermons and remarks since he became the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years in March.

In it, Francis went further than previous comments criticising the global economic system, attacking the “idolatry of money” and beseeching politicians to guarantee all citizens “dignified work, education and healthcare”.

He also called on rich people to share their wealth. “Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills,” Francis wrote in the document issued on Tuesday.

“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”

The pope said renewal of the church could not be put off and the Vatican and its entrenched hierarchy “also need to hear the call to pastoral conversion”.

“I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security,” he wrote.

Bush to help convert Jews, speed end of days

~ odd man out ~ 5 Comments

From yesterday’s Guardian UK:

Some people think George W. Bush did as much as he could to bring about Armageddon with his earlier interventions in the Middle East. But not the man himself, apparently. He has signed up for a fundraising event for the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute, an organisation which aims to promote the second coming by converting Jews to Christianity, and will speak today at their fundraiser in Irving, Texas.

The idea is that Jews must be converted in order to trigger Jesus Christ’s return to the Holy Land for the Last Judgment. So it is written, somewhere. It’s deep stuff and Christian fundamentalists wouldn’t expect us heathens to understand.

Laugh if you will, but Christians have made great strides toward tolerance over the centuries. Sure, there were the pogroms and the Inquisition and they were not nice people during the Holocaust, but that’s ancient history. The new pope is cool and even the Christian primitives — the Baptists and such — are much better behaved, especially when the end is nigh.

Yes, support for Israel is conveniently in tune with the foreign policy goals of American right-wingers, but the fact that a great Christian thinker like Dubya is eager to convert Jews rather than slaughter them is progress, don’t you think?

Your daily pope

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

Interesting:

NBC News: “Pope Francis is shaking things up again. The pontiff with a penchant for surprises is making new waves by launching a survey of his flock on issues facing modern families — from gay marriage to divorce. Very specific questions are being sent to parishes around the globe in preparation for next year’s synod of bishops, a grassroots effort that experts say is unprecedented. … Vatican watchers say Francis’ polling attempt is extraordinary on two levels: first, because it seeks input from rank-and-file Roman Catholics and second, because it touches on issues that might have been considered off-limits in past papacies. … The document sent to every nation’s conference of bishops notes that the ancient church and its members are grappling with ‘concerns which were unheard of until a few years ago.’ Same-sex unions, mixed marriages, single-parent families and surrogate mothers are all mentioned in the prelude to a list of questions that get into the nitty-gritty of 21st century life.”

A Sampling of the Qs:

“What pastoral attention can be given to people who live in these types of [same-sex] union?”
“In the case of unions of persons of the same sex who have adopted children, what can be done pastorally in light of transmitting the faith?”
“Do [the divorced and remarried] feel marginalized or suffer from the impossibility of receiving the sacraments?”
“In cases where non-practicing Catholics or declared non-believers request the celebration of marriage, describe how this pastoral challenge is dealt with.”

I can’t help it

~ susie ~ 5 Comments

I really do like this pope:

Speaking at daily Mass last Thursday, Pope Francis warned Christians against turning their faith into a rigid ideology.

“The faith passes, so to speak, through a distiller and becomes ideology,” he said, according to Radio Vatican. “And ideology does not beckon [people]. In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid.

“And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements.”

“The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of the people,” Francis added. “But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new, eh?”

He said Christian ideology was the result of a lack of true prayer.

An interview with Pope Francis

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

Boy, I’ll bet the right-wing Cardinals’ heads are exploding over this:

What kind of church do you dream of?

We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.

The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently …

We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel. The proposal of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow.

I say this also thinking about the preaching and content of our preaching.

What should be the role of the Vatican’s various departments (or congregations)?

They are instruments of help. In some cases, however, when they are not functioning well, they run the risk of becoming institutions of censorship. It is amazing to see the denunciations for lack of orthodoxy that come to Rome. I think the cases should be investigated by the local bishops’ conferences, which can get valuable assistance from Rome. These cases, in fact, are much better dealt with locally. The Roman congregations are mediators; they are not middlemen or managers.

What should be the role of women in the church?

I am wary of a solution that can be reduced to a kind of “female machismo,” because a woman has a different makeup than a man. But what I hear about the role of women is often inspired by an ideology of machismo. Women are asking deep questions that must be addressed. The church cannot be herself without the woman and her role. The woman is essential for the church. Mary, a woman, is more important than the bishops. I say this because we must not confuse the function with the dignity. We must therefore investigate further the role of women in the church. We have to work harder to develop a profound theology of the woman. Only by making this step will it be possible to better reflect on their function within the church. The feminine genius is needed wherever we make important decisions. The challenge today is this: to think about the specific place of women also in those places where the authority of the church is exercised for various areas of the church.

If encountering God is a journey, then we can make mistakes?

If one has the answers to all the questions — that is the proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a false prophet using religion for himself. The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt. You must leave room for the Lord, not for our certainties; we must be humble.

… Our life is not given to us like an opera libretto, in which all is written down; but it means going, walking, doing, searching, seeing. … We must enter into the adventure of the quest for meeting God; we must let God search and encounter us.

… If the Christian is a restorationist, a legalist, if he wants everything clear and safe, then he will find nothing. Tradition and memory of the past must help us to have the courage to open up new areas to God. Those who today always look for disciplinarian solutions, those who long for an exaggerated doctrinal “security,” those who stubbornly try to recover a past that no longer exists — they have a static and inward-directed view of things. In this way, faith becomes an ideology among other ideologies. I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person’s life. God is in everyone’s life. Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else — God is in this person’s life. You can, you must try to seek God in every human life. Although the life of a person is a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow. You have to trust God.

‘Grow up’

~ susie

Well, yes:

Christians in Britain and the US who claim that they are persecuted should “grow up” and not exaggerate what amounts to feeling “mildly uncomfortable”, according to Rowan Williams, who last year stepped down as archbishop of Canterbury after an often turbulent decade.

“When you’ve had any contact with real persecuted minorities you learn to use the word very chastely,” he said. “Persecution is not being made to feel mildly uncomfortable. ‘For goodness sake, grow up,’ I want to say.”

True persecution was “systematic brutality and often murderous hostility that means that every morning you wonder if you and your children are going to live through the day”. He cited the experience of a woman he met in India “who had seen her husband butchered by a mob”.

Lord Williams’s years as archbishop of Canterbury were marked by turbulence over the church’s stance on the role of gay priests and bishops; gay marriage; and homophobia in the wider Anglican communion – with many members of the church expressing disappointment at a perceived hardening in its position on homosexuality.

Asked if he had let down gay and lesbian people, he said after a pause: “I know that a very great many of my gay and lesbian friends would say that I did. The best thing I can say is that is a question that I ask myself really rather a lot and I don’t quite know the answer.”