Religion
To some extent, I’m probably out of sync with the perceptions of the general public, on this one, but I find this sort of thing astonishing: In a televised forum that was by turns casual and bitter, the two leading Democrats vying for US Senate were both heavily critical of the Catholic Church during a…
Four points, on the continuing discussion spurred by Congressman Patrick Kennedy’s statement that a true pro-life position requires the Catholic Church to support a healthcare plan that includes public funding for abortions:Cribbing a large dose of Robert George’s exposition on philosophy and theology (Backfill: By which I mean I’m doing some cribbing from Robert George,…
Bishop of Providence Thomas Tobin and Rhode Island First District Congressman Kennedy are offering two different versions of the latest consequences resulting from Congressman Kennedy’s public statement that a true pro-life position requires the Catholic Church to support a healthcare plan that includes public funding for abortions (h/t commenter “Tim”, who pointed to this Ray…
A fair number of people who might be said to lean right — libertarians and moderates and such — would do well to consider a review of the current standing of Catholic charities by Archbishop Charles Chaput, of Denver: When we look closely at Church-state conflicts in America, we see that they now often center…
Fr. John Kiley makes an excellent point in an RI Catholic column that is, for some reason, not online: And it is not just television that demeans men. Catholics would be surprised how often a priest goes to another parish to celebrate Mass only to find all the male pronouns penciled out of the Sacramentary…
One aspect of the controversy between Congressman Patrick Kennedy and Bishop Thomas Tobin with a broader application is Kennedy’s misunderstanding of religion’s place in life: U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy said he was “not going to dignify with an answer” Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin’s public comments that Kennedy could not be a good Catholic…
There can be no doubt that our society is better off with religious leaders who consistently urge against heated discord than who use their influence to rally factions against each other. I worry, though, that this level of disposition to unite with other religious leaders against impliedly barbaric masses comes at the cost of any…
In an essay in the current issue of The RI Catholic, I attempt to link my conversion from nihilism to Catholicism with the impossibility of truly separating church and state by way of introducing my heretofore monthly column in the publication: Faith-filled or faithless, no such existential philosophies can be sopped off the skin like…
If you’re of a mind to direct your thoughts away from the particulars of the day — shootings and bombs and recession and government expansion — David Goldman’s essay on the use of rhythm and expectation to imbue a sense of the sacred into music is worth your time. There is a point, though, where…
Perhaps it’s peculiar, given my Jewish heritage, or perhaps it’s entirely predictable, given my progression from atheism to Catholicism, but I’d never thought to explain anti-Semitism in the way that Meir Soloveichik describes here: As Stanley Hauerwas notes, Berkovits fails to understand that “societies putatively founded on values of ‘universal validity’ cannot help but interpret…
