Category Archives: Social Critique

Identity, Politics, and Stuff

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Politics is the only area of life or nature where failures seems to be consistently rewarded. The more wrongheaded a policy proves to be, the more necessary it becomes for the political class to prop it up, if for no better reason than appearance sake. (It must appear to the voters that I am “doing” something, regardless of unintended, or possibly intended, consequences.) And as a result of many years of thoughtless (and sometimes even malicious) policies, society today is saddled with failed schools, a failing foreign policy, failing criminal justice, and saddest of all a rapidly growing number of failed families, And one has only to observe the present toxic political climate to realize that no meaningful reform is anywhere on the horizon. Too many special interests have doubled down on demands to even permit rational, civilized dialogue, much less any movement towards intelligent reform. Continue reading →

Abortion: Good Faith or Bad?

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Perhaps you saw it; Sept. 12, 2016. A slick 4-color full page spread in the Denver Post (and most likely other major dailies around the country) headlined, “Abortion in Good Faith.” The ad featured an attractive business woman, a self-proclaimed Catholic, arguing passionately that public funding for abortion is really a matter of social justice. This pitch was sponsored and paid for by by the aptly misnamed “Catholics for Choice” (CFC), a pro-abortion group which, in fact, wants only to deny conscientious Catholics any real choice in having their tax dollars diverted to pay for other people’s abortions.

Not only is CFC’s strategy nauseatingly deceptive in its sophistical inversion of the term “social justice” to mean its very opposite, Continue reading →

Modern Day Aztecs

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Warning! This post contains very graphic language from which you may want to shield young or impressionable readers. .

The jagged obsidian blade glistened briefly in the dazzling sunlight before it came crashing down forcefully, tearing the terrified victim’s abdomen wide open. Eight strong arms bound this unfortunate creature to the blood-stained altar of the vengeful god of war, Huitzilopochtli. The priest, whose coarse hair was thickly matted in dried blood, showed no sign of revulsion, nor even a passing glance of pity, as he performed his grisly task. Blood bathed every pore of his bronze skin as he thrust his right arm forcibly into the victim’s gaping wound. Piteous cries of agony were rendered inaudible over the din of an enormous crowd Continue reading →

Trying To Have It Both Ways

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Even as contemporary society spirals ever downward into its obligatory culture of self worship, one absurdity constantly attempts to trump another. Consider the whole transgender uproar which vividly epitomizes the ludicrous state of the current political correctness narrative. When, for many people, rocks and trees begin to look like sensible alternatives to using a public restroom, you can be sure that someone has flipped the sanity switch to “off.”

So ask yourself this simple question. “How is it that sexual orientation is not treated as a viable “choice,” and yet choosing one’s gender is?” Continue reading →

Who am I to Judge?

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It seems these days that moral outrage is able to muster only the feeblest of responses, perhaps because outrageous behavior has become so commonplace we have come to expect it. Just recently a high profile Catholic, who also happens to be our nation’s vice-president, publicly officiated at a “gay wedding” in willful contempt of the clear and explicit teachings of his own Catholic faith. Any response from the American bishops has been largely muted if one discounts a bland, vanilla statement issued by the USCCB which passively recommended that it might not hurt to pray for our public officials. It would seem that even bishops are no longer willing to call out egregious public scandal by a prominent Catholic figure for what it is for fear of being labelled as “judgmental.”

Modern society has developed a severe case of “judgment phobia” which insists that no one is ever allowed to judge another’s actions. Continue reading →

Back to Reality

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Even as anarchy seems to spread like wildfire to every corner of the globe, the most vociferous defenders of liberal democracy seem to retreat ever deeper into abject denial. One recent example: When the mother of Columbine shooter Dylan Klebold was asked in an interview whether she believed in the existence of evil, she paused then replied, “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think I do.” But what really sent a chill down my spine watching that clip was her utter, and I believe genuine, sincerity. Obviously there had to be a disconnect from reality somewhere in her process of logic. Nor am I singling out Ms. Klebold who, I believe, is only echoing a more widespread disconnect that seems to have pervaded the entire Western society.

Headlines daily confirm the reality of existential evil at every level, and yet it seems that all the media and political classes want to do is to shift the discussion to social conditions, poverty, guns. or mental illness. The one subject that is rarely raised in any of these discussions is morality, Continue reading →

The Game of Power

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Due to last minute demands in getting my new book to press, I have been somewhat remiss since posting my last article. I apologize for this delay and hope you will all be anxious to peruse that forthcoming work titled Word Without End: The Mass ~ Splendor of the Incarnation which should be available by the end of April. The sub-script on the cover of the book, “How the Power of Love conquers man’s Love of Power” leads us directly into today’s topic. You may ask, “But what connection is there between the Incarnation and a discussion of human power?”

First I would propose that the most intoxicating substance known to man is neither alcohol, nor any drug, nor even money or pleasure. Enticing as those things can be, I still suspect that the most addictive intoxicant around is power, Continue reading →

A Mormon Odyssey ~ Final Thoughts

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My final thoughts in this series on Mormonism are excerpted from a recent letter to a young Mormon Evangelist whom I have not heard back from since posting it. Since Mormons base their apologetic on a well rehearsed and scripted narrative, any direct challenge to, or deviation from, that script is certain to evoke not robust rebuttal but generally a retreat from the debate. For the good Mormon faith is necessarily divorced from reason, or shall I say that the two things are hermetically “compartmentalized” out of fear that latter might somehow contaminate the former.

Continue reading →

Refugees in Crisis

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This column attempts to avoid engaging in political topics in order to focus on the truth of Christianity. That is why I hesitate to tread into the contentious topic of immigration which has become so politically charged lately. But there is a particular subset of immigration policy that I believe has clear moral dimensions, aside from purely political considerations, which is the refugee question.

Refugees are a special type of immigrant ~ not of their own making but forced to migrate elsewhere under the compulsion of war, persecution, even hostile governments. For that reason all Christians should have a special compassion for their plight. In fact, we must remember that Christ himself, as a mere infant, became a refugee and was forced to flee into Egypt. In that sense he became the blessed type and patron of all refugees. Continue reading →

An Advent of Peace ~ or War?

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This Advent begins a new liturgical year which Pope Francis has proclaimed to be a “Year of Mercy.” Certainly our world, beset by terrorism and frightful intolerance on many fronts, is in great need of mercy. But there is an added dimension to the pope’s plea. Quite recently the pontiff remarked that the world has already entered into “Piecemeal World War III,” a frightful prognosis, to be sure. Is the world, in fact, sliding headlong into an extended period of chaos and conflict from which only God’s mercy will be able to deliver us? And is mercy only the province of God, or do human beings also share some obligation to participate in the extending of mercy?

Civilization itself is tottering on the brink as 2016 dawns, and yet our leaders, rather than trying to pull us back from that cliff, seem content to push mankind ever closer to the precipice. Continue reading →