Points to Ponder:

Government is the only enterprise in the world which expands in size when its failures increase. [Janice Rogers Brown]

On the Upcoming "Anniversary" of Roe vs. Wade and Some Upcoming Weblog Posts:

With the whole Roe vs. Wade issue coming up next week, I anticipate that a lot of pro life sorts will try and play the boogeyman approach of outlining why abortion is "harmful for the woman" which while certainly true in many ways{1} is in my mind not as effective an approach as one might think. One reason is because there is a propensity in our society to cast everything with apocalyptic overtones and after a while, it appears as saimo-saimo and people tune it out. There are other reasons too which I am not about to go into here{2} but suffice to say, this matter needs to be dealt with rationally as well as on the same turf that advocates of abortion try to use.

Among the aforementioned areas where proponents of abortion try and make their case are the following ones: (i) appeals to Supreme Court decisions which they base their premises on which are presumably "constitutional", (ii) legal precedent, (iii) procedures used to uphold said decisions, and (iv) the subject of rights and what is and is not a "right" properly conceived. In addressing these positions, care must also be taken to consider the importance of upholding all properly asserted natural rights without segregating one from the others. Your host has dealt with three of these four fronts before{3} and will reiterate those arguments again in the coming week or so in substantial form as before. However, also on tap is addressing the fourth area noted above where those who advocate abortion on demand hang their hats.

It is also possible that I may point out as I have in the past serious problems with the pro-life movement and their overall methodology but I am inclined at the moment to deal with that later in the year instead of bringing it up in the coming week. Anyway, there are several posts either already written or substantially completed that will lend themselves to those subjects and it seems appropriate to note that at the present time for those who are interested in the subject of abortion.

[Update: See this post from February 1st for a development of the themes I touch on in the present posting. -ISM]

Notes:

{1} Anyone who denies this is not being honest.

{2} Mainly that not a few "dire predictions" have been made by religious people over the centuries concerning a number of actions they viewed as morally dubious which ended up being a bunch of hooey. This is not to say that said actions are right or wrong mind you -or even that secular sorts have not made a similar batch of absurd statements of their own on various and sundry issues- only to point out what is not hard to substantiate by rational argument and needs to be squarely faced by those who would use similar tactics today on issues viewed as morally dubious by people of that outlook (such as abortion).

{3} While focusing like a laser-beam on the upholding and defending of all fundamental natural rights.

NFL Playoff Picks:

The number of teams narrow and that means the margin of error is greater too. Nonetheless, I do not anticipate anything remotely approaching last week's accuracy rating of .750 on sports stuff so I will take a stab at the two games coming up.

In the NFC there are the Bears and the Saints while in the AFC there are the Colts and the Patriots. The popular pick is Saints and Colts but I am going to go against the current and predict a rematch of Superbowl XX. The only difference is, this time the Bears do not beat the Patriots and the New England Patriots officially wrap up the "NFL team of the decade" award with two years to go.

Points to Ponder:
(On Living Life)

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do. [Pope John XXIII]

A Collection of Threads on Claude Frederic Bastiat's Theory of the Three Fundamental Rights of Man and the Role of Law in a Just Society:
(A Rerum Novarum Compilation Post)

Though a number of these threads are almost a year old if not older, it seems appropriate at this time to gather them together in one spot much as I did a few years ago.{1} Part of the reason is that this is a fundamental operative presupposition of your host and few subjects have been written on it more frequently by us in the past four odd years. Or to quote something written last year:

As time is short, some quick jottings on a few of the many items on the back burner to be worked on in the next blogging month...

A revisiting of the theory of the three fundamental rights of man prior to this election updated to account for current circumstances. The latter theory is one that though few discuss it nonetheless does not get enough play even on this weblog where we have written about seventy-odd threads on it in the past three plus years. [Excerpt from Rerum Novarum (circa September 22, 2006)]

There is also the fact that I noted if not explicitly than at least by implication in my stated resolutions for the new year that this subject will be one of renewed focus. With that in mind, here are the threads that I could find on a quick word search{1} in my archives -the ones not in the side margin are astrisked:

*On Genuine Freedom and the Use of Force --Dialogue With Nate Wildermuth (circa January 5, 2007)

On Capitalism, Economics, the Fundamental Rights of Man, Free Trade, Etc --Dialogue With Kevin Tierney (circa December 22, 2006)

On the Election, "Lost Causes", and Activism (circa December 7, 2006)

On Torture, the Limitations of Dignitatis Humanae, Logic, Etc. With Dr. Michael Liccione (circa November 14, 2006)

On Historical Revisionism Surrounding the New Deal, History Since the New Deal, the 1984 Election, Etc.--Parts I-III (circa October 28, 2006)

Miscellaneous Musings on Rights (Real or Perceived), the Problems a Lot of Non-Theistic Evolutionist Proponents Have With Logical Consistency in Claiming Certain "Rights", Briefly on Bastiat's "Three Fundamental Rights" Theory, Etc.--An Audio Post (circa September 24, 2006)

*Miscellanous Musings (circa July 10, 2006)

On Congressional Spending (circa May 8, 2006)

Miscellaneous Musings on Distributivism, Valid Theories and the Criteria Thereof, Illegal Immigration, Activism, Fundamental Rights, Etc.--A Continuous Audio Post (circa April 8, 2006)

Miscellaneous Musings on Illegal Immigration, Voting Issues, Audioblogger, Fundamental Rights, Activism, Distributivism, Valid Theories and the Criteria Thereof, Etc.--An Audio Post (circa April 8, 2006)

On the Acton Institute's Critique of Distributivism (circa March 27, 2006)

On Geopolitical Issues, the 2006 Elections, Shifting Voting Demographics, Etc.--Parts I-IV (circa March 3-4, 2006)

Briefly on Claude Frederic Bastiat, the US Constitution, and Socialism (circa December 29, 2005)

Briefly on Claude Frederic Bastiat and The Law (circa November 16, 2005)

On the Miers Nomination and Activist Conservative Agendas (circa October 10, 2005)

On Able Danger and a Potential Defense Department Coverup (circa September 21, 2005)

More on Marxists, Their Many Masks and Other Theories (circa July 8, 2005)

Points to Ponder by Claude Frederic Bastiat on the Perversion of Law Via Socialist Thievery (circa June 16, 2005)

Responding to a Blogosphere Book Meme (circa June 14, 2005)

On Terri Schiavo and the Face of Evil (circa March 22, 2005)

*On an Upcoming Weblog Series (circa March 18, 2005)

On the Terri Schiavo Situation and the Culture War in General (circa February 23, 2005)

More on Terri Schiavo, an Activist Blogosphere Effort on Her Behalf, Etc (circa February 22, 2005)

More on Terri Schiavo and the Fundamental Rights of Man (circa February 18, 2005)

For the "Anniversary" of Roe Vs. Wade (circa January 25, 2005)

Some More Notes on Dignitatis Humanae (circa December 16, 2004)

Musings on the Election and its Aftermath (circa November 24, 2004)

"Anybody But Bush" Dept. (circa October 27, 2004)

The Fundamental Rights of Man Revisited (circa September 25, 2004)

"Culture of Life and Fundamental Rights" Dept. (circa September 25, 2004)

Election Ecumenical Jihad and Voting Principles for Restoring Our Society (circa September 15, 2004)

A September 11th Confutation of Extreme Liberal Views Viz. the War on Terror (circa September 11, 2004)

On the Pro-Life Issue and the Myopic Vision of Many Pro-Life Advocates (circa September 8, 2004)

On the War, Moral and Constitutional Principles, "Supporting the Troops", Etc.--Dialogue With SecretAgentMan (circa August 20, 2004)

In Defense of Michelle Malkin's Theory (circa August 9, 2004)

On Marriage, the Supreme Court, Law in General, Etc. --Dialogue With Charles De Nunzio (circa June 2, 2004)

A Brief Digression on the "Scylla/Charybdis" Conundrum of American Political Parties, Etc. (circa May 24, 2004)

Society's Ills, the Function of Law in a Just Society, Etc.--Dialogue With Kevin Tierney (circa April 16, 2004)

On Workable Remedies For Society's Problems, Etc.--Dialogue With Kevin Tierney (circa March 31, 2004)

On the 2004 Election (circa February 27, 2004)

On the Pope, Moral Principles, the Un, and Stephen Hand --A Dialogue (circa February 5, 2004)

More on Political Theories, Etc.--Dialogue With Kevin Tierney (circa January 23, 2004)

On Church/State Conflicts of the Present in Light of the Past, Political Ideologies, Etc.--Dialogue With Kevin Tierney (circa January 22, 2004)

On the State of the Union Address (circa January 20, 2004)

*Points to Ponder on the Bill of Rights From Dr. Walter Williams (circa January 18, 2004)

*Walter Williams" Dept. (circa January 18, 2004)

Dialogue on the Death Penalty Redux With Greg Mockeridge (circa January 9, 2004)

More on the Death Penalty --Dialogue With Greg Mockeridge (circa December 16, 2003)

Commentary on the Democratic Candidates' Political Stock In Light of Hussein's Capture (circa December 14, 2003)

On Moloch Hillary and Politics in General (circa November 30, 2003)

"Ecumenical Jihad" Dept. (circa November 20, 2003)

Developing a Consistent Line of Argumentation (circa October 30, 2003)

The above threads are presented in one spot as a way of giving the readers of this weblog who may have missed them the first time around a chance to (i) see how your host approaches a whole myriad of issues and (ii) point out why consistent principles{3} are so valuable to have -particularly ones which can be applied across a broad spectrum of subjects as Claude Frederic Bastiat's timeless theory{4} on fundamental rights can.

Notes:

{1} This thread is a continuation of sorts to the following thread from October 30, 2003:

Threads on Rights, Free Speech, and Development of a Consistent Line of Argumentation for Making Progress in the Culture Wars (A Rerum Novarum Recapitulation Thread (circa October 30, 2003)

Considering how often I have written on this subject, occasionally gathering all the threads pertaining to fundamental rights that I can recall offhand into one post for easy perusal is a good idea to do. (Similar compilations have been done on various subjects from time to time by us as well.)

{2} If I stumble across any others between October 30, 2003 and January 5, 2007, I will update the above thread with them.

{3} If you learn to think in principles you learn to think logically. Principles make thinking a lot easier and one of the goals of your host is to focus as much on principles themselves as in how those principles are to be fruitfully applied. [Excerpt from Rerum Novarum (circa December 30, 2006)]

{4} [H]ere are several examples which pertain to the subject of social commentary as dealt with at Rerum Novarum --all of which are to some degree original (either in and of themselves) or in my development/refining of the underlying concepts involved.[...]

To start with, there is the renewal, further development (in some parameters), and careful application of the classical legal and economic theories of Claude Frederic Bastiat to the problems that beset society today -thereby providing a logical coherence to the authentic conservative position on these matters. The latter is a project that is an ongoing one at this weblog and...is an ambitious undertaking that has no small amount of work involved in it. [Excerpt from Rerum Novarum (circa February 7, 2005)]

It might seem like a minor matter but for the first time in over two years, a quote has been added to the side margin of this humble weblog. Joining quotes added in 2002, 2003, and 2004 respectively{1} is a recent "points to ponder" excerpt from Alexander Bickel on what should be taken into account when publishing any writing whatsoever. (I added it yesterday.)

Though I do not always agree with what is quoted in the "points to ponder" segments of this weblog, readers can be assured that if it is quoted in the side margin, then it concurs with my viewpoint 100% and in light of the problems with not only MSM misrepresentations but also some parties in the blogosphere and other alternative mediums, it is important to recall the importance of accuracy of what is written about, if publishing said writings will endanger the lives of others, for basic decencies, and also if publishing said writings would in any way contribute to the undermining of the common good of society and its just public order. These are all factors that your host takes into account at all times though obviously one of the above critiera{2} is more of a normative or subjective factor than a non-normative or objective one.

Notes:

{1} The first addition in this update that is worth noting is the new quote in the side margin. Joining the quote attributed to GK Chesterton (added August 30, 2002) and the one from Arthur Jones (added September 8, 2003) is one from Mike Mentzer. [Excerpt from Rerum Novarum (circa December 31, 2004)]

{2} I refer here to the "basic decencies" part of the quote.

Points to Ponder:
(On Banking and Investments)

Does not the social function of the bank consist in making it possible for the individual to render his money fruitful, even if only in small degree, instead of dissipating it, or leaving it sleep without any profit, either to himself or to others? That is why the services that a bank can render are so numerous: to facilitate and encourage savings; to preserve savings for the future, at the same time rendering them productive in the present; to enable savings to share in useful enterprises that could not be launched without them; to make as simple and easy as possible the regulation of accounts, exchanges, commerce between the State and private organisms and, in a word, the entire economic life of the people. [Pope Pius XII: Address to Italian Bankers (circa April 25, 1950)]

On Peace, the Role of Force, and Gaudium et Spes §80 Revisited, Plus a Bit More on Rerum Novarum Guest Editorial Policy:
(With Nate Wildermuth)

Nate's words will be in shale coloured font and any sources he cites in extra italics. For the sake of reader-convenience, I have inserted into the first paragraph of his words at different points the threads he mentions. Without further ado...

Hi Shawn,

Greetings Nate.

I responded to your thoughtful reply to my post about the soldier's prayer. I hope you have a chance to go over it.

I will give it a look over as time allows for it. Right now it looks most probable that it will be in the next blogging cycle which starts in eight days.{1}

Also, on your most recent editorial, the author said:

That is actually a guest editorial Nate. I did not write it but instead it was sent in by a reader. The criteria (to the extent there is any) for a guest editorial is viewable in a footnote I appended to the end of that editorial which was excerpted from a September 2002 post to this weblog.

If I have expanded on the original criteria at all, it would mainly be that the subject has to be one of potential general interest to the readers of the weblog but that has been implied all along in what I said previously. It also does not hurt if the subject is interesting to me too but strictly speaking it does not have to be.{2} As long as it is one of potential general interest and as long as there is evidence of (i) the writer's interest in the subject they are covering and (ii) good-faith attempts to handle it in a scholarly and ethical fashion with reasonable restraint of invective{3}, that is fine by me.

Let us stipulate that Joseph's comments about nuking Mecca et al are something less than orthodox (they are not insane or Satanic, because, as I once repeatedly and without answer pointed out to Mr. Shea, the Church does not condemn any possession of nuclear weapons as a sin, which means SOME uses of them have to be moral despite the unquestionable fact they kill civilians en masse).

Those were Victor Morton's words as quoted in the guest editorial.

This is wrong.

No it is not.

Nuclear weapons have been approved for possession in the strict context of Mutually Assured Destruction. They are never approved for use. This was a sort of practical judgment made which basically says, "Nukes are always wrong to use, but we'll hold on to them so that we don't give the Soviets a temptation to nuke us. We must work towards banning nukes."

Nate, that presumption has no shortage of rational problems to it. For one thing, it presumes that something can be okay to possess but never to use. By the very fact that it is allowed to be possessed means that (in some circumstances) it is allowed to be used. Otherwise, it could not be approved to possess at all.

And for the record, if the United States had not moved from the Mutually Assured Destruction paradigm to one where they sought to aggressively bankrupt the Soviet Union through an arms race they could not win (thus forcing them to the negotiating table), we would still have them to contend with today. In that approach, President Reagan did in reality what the two plus decades of detente coupled with hippie peacenik, antiwar marching, activist sit-ins, and nuclear freeze schtick combined could not and never could do. (Read: achieve actual and verifiable cuts in the supply of nuclear arms particularly on the Soviet side of the equation.) That is the difference between mouthing nice utopian statements and taking realistic action to actually get things done: one has a decent chance of working if the approach is reasonably firm and (in certain areas) unyielding and one never works in reality however nice it sounds in the abstract.

For the ones who endorse the approach which never works in reality have a notorious double standard generally speaking in how they approach these matters. That is not to say that one who actively seeks to encourage and promote peaceful means of resolution must necessarily{4} be duplicitous. But in my experience, that is the case a lot more often than not as a rule (unfortunately).

Nuking Mecca would be objectively evil.

No it would not. That is not to say that it would be the right thing to do of course (I am not in favour of it for various reasons) but you need to be very careful in your choice of words. Someone must not rashly characterize something in that fashion however they may personally abhor the idea. But with a lot of people that is what they do whether they realize it or not.

"Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities or extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and man himself. It merits unequivical and unhesitating condemnation." - Second Vatican Council

I have dealt in detail with the text you note above on previous occasions. There is a lot more to theological interpretation than merely quoting a passage as you have -particularly when the passage involves certain statements which are presumed apriori by the quoter of the text. The problem is that words of condemnation are to be interpreted narrowly and in the sense intended by the text which can require some effort to discern at times as such is not necessarily the same context that a person reading the words may attach to them.{5} I would recommending reviewing the arguments I set forth in this post from February of 2006 and paying close attention to this prefatory footnote from Gaudium et Spes -all emphasis is mine:

The Pastoral Constitution "De Ecclesia in Mundo Huius Temporis" is made up of two parts; yet it constitutes an organic unity. By way of explanation: the constitution is called "pastoral" because, while resting on doctrinal principles, it seeks to express the relation of the Church to the world and modern mankind. The result is that, on the one hand, a pastoral slant is present in the first part, and, on the other hand, a doctrinal slant is present in the second part. In the first part, the Church develops her teaching on man, on the world which is the enveloping context of man's existence, and on man's relations to his fellow men. In part two, the Church gives closer consideration to various aspects of modern life and human society; special consideration is given to those questions and problems which, in this general area, seem to have a greater urgency in our day. As a result in part two the subject matter which is viewed in the light of doctrinal principles is made up of diverse elements. Some elements have a permanent value; others, only a transitory one. Consequently, the constitution must be interpreted according to the general norms of theological interpretation. Interpreters must bear in mind-especially in part two-the changeable circumstances which the subject matter , by its very nature, involves. [Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes Preface Footnote (circa December 7, 1965) as quoted in a Rerum Novarum post (circa February 4, 2006)]

As I noted in the aforementioned posting, of the stuff in the second part of the text, one could probably go as high as the 72nd section and quote it with reasonable assurance for the reasons noted but even then one should do so with due care. From the 73rd section on, things are much more tenative just by the nature of the subjects covered and the contingent elements they contain which cannot be boiled down to absolutes viz. their application.

I would be more than happy to discuss the subject of atomic bombings at another time -say contemporary to the next anniversary which will be in August of this year. The reason for that is that I have already written a fair amount on this subject already and it has a way of getting under people's skin in a way few other subjects can. For that reason -and because I am tired of discussing the subject{6}- I would ask that if you want to talk about it with me to let me know around August or so when the subject of the anniversaries of those events come around again and the circumstances would be more appropriate. In the meantime, there are numerous other subjects which fall under the umbrella of war and peace which I do not mind discussing from time to time.{7} But like everything else it depends to some extent on my moods for discussing certain subjects which can differ for various and sundry reasons{8} too numerous to go over in a brief posting such as this one.

Notes:

{1} I am not sure this has ever been mentioned before but the blogging monthly cycle at Rerum Novarum runs from the 22nd of one month until the 21st of the following month. (For reasons which have nothing whatosever to do with astrology lest anybody wonder.)

{2} The guest editorial format is the one feature on this weblog where the contributor can actually post a subject matter I do not want to talk about either at all or at the particular time in which it is posted. (This has not happened yet but could conceivably; ergo I mention it here.)

{3} I say "reasonable restraint of invective" because as long as the person makes actual arguments for their position, I will give leeway in the areas of rhetorical flourish and/or what could be constituted as ad hominem. However, the latter must be of the valid sort and not the invalid sort -the difference being that valid uses of the ad hominem are utilized in addition to rational arguments used to support one position or oppose another one. (If it is used at all.) The invalid use of ad hominem is one where the latter is utilized without interacting in a rational manner in the arguments of a person or particular viewpoint. (This is why those who have accused me in the past of "mastering the ad hominem fallacy" prove that they do not know what they are talking about but I digress.)

{4} For example, I have seen nothing thus far that would lead me to conclude that you are -something I note here lest some readers presume otherwise.

{5} This is a common problem with those who without warrant interject their presuppositions into a text and thus misinterpret the intention of the text thereof.

{6} Plus, it will give me enough distance from the subjects where they can be somewhat fresh again. I went over this subject in many of its facets at seven different times since August of 2005 --three periods of two to three weeks or longer and four of a couple of days or so the last of which was in November of 2006 between the 25th and 28th of the month-- and that does not count several other private threads where it resurfaced at the initiative of other people. In short, I am burned out on it and want some time to elapse before I discuss it again apart from referring people to stuff I have already written on the matter of course.

{7} With an upcoming adjustment in Administration policy in Iraq, that makes how we are doing over there a live topic again and thus more likely to have my interest discussion-wise than stuff that has no practical bearing{6} on what the situation is now and what to do about it.

{8} On Blogging in General, What is Blogged on Subject-Wise, My Moods, Etc. (circa September 22, 2006)

Points to Ponder:

How come Bush/Rumsfeld et al are extreme, but Rafsanjani and Abbas are moderate? [Martin from VRWC]

"Signs of the Apocalypse" Dept.

Readers of this humble weblog are aware that your host has been historically accurate in his prediction patterns in non-sports matters but with sports it is inversely so. Indeed, we have even claimed over the years that those who want to make big $$$ in sports betting only need to ask us for our predictions and by going the opposite direction will win about four times out of five. We even noted it recently on this weblog which is noted at this time to deal with an anomoly that has happened this NFL offseason.

In a January 12, 2007 lunchtime chat with Kevin Tierney, he asked me to lay out my picks for the playoffs -knowing how bad my sports picking trackrecord is.{1} Here is the text from that chat -I know Kevin will not mind me noting it at this time:

Kevin: so do you turn on your team this weekend? lol
12:37 PM me: yes
they are going down
big time
:)
12:39 PM Kevin: your predictions this weekend
12:41 PM me: give me the teams and I will give you the betting patterns to reverse for big $$$
Kevin: Saints vs Eagles
Bears vs Hawks
Patriots vs Charger
Colts v Ravens
12:42 PM me: (I watched "two for the money" last night so I have sports oddsmakers on the brain)
Saints over Eagles
Bears over Hawks
Patriots over Chargers
Ravens over Colts
one of those four will be correct [Excerpt from a Chat (circa January 12, 2007)]

So far, I am 2-1 which is significantly above my average in the past twelve odd years when my sports-picking started going awry.{2} If the Pats win too, that will be a 3-1 margin which I never have anymore in sports. Be assured folks, if that happens, my next round of picks is a virtual lock to be stinkers so bet opposite them and you should win handily.

[Update: Make that 3-1 as the Patriots won after this above text was posted. -ISM 1/15/07 11:58am]

Notes:

{1} To note some recent picks, I predicted the Hawks would beat San Francisco at home after they lost to them on the road (they did not), they would come from behind to beat the Arizona Cardinals in their last division game (they did not) and that they would lose to Tampa Bay in their last game (which they won). In 2006, I predicted the Hawks would win the Superbowl (they did not), predicted in preseason that the Hawks would go 12-4 and win the Superbowl which we know will not happen now and they went 9-7 regular season. Earlier in the season, I predicted a Hawks loss to the Bears (which happened), a win over the Chiefs (which did not happen), picked the Tigers to win the World Series in 6 games (they lost to the Cardinals), a Michigan win over Ohio State (which did not happen), a USC win over Michigan in the Rose Bowl (which happened), an Ohio State win over Florida (which did not), and a Hawks loss to Dallas after I reversed my Superbowl prediction (we know the Hawks beat Dallas last week).

Those are just some of the examples I can think of offhand but the 3-10 trackrecord noted above is actually better than what my average the past ten years has been. I simply cannot recall offhand other picks but if the archives of this weblog are perused, I have no doubt I will be at about the Mendoza line or the converse of what I do with other prognosticating. (Heck, I even picked the right cardinal to be pope before the conclave which no one else did.)

{2} I used to be decent in this area -heck I picked Miami over the Bears in the regular season in 1985 which some thought was an odd pick considering how awesome the Bears were that year. I remember a game in 1989 where it was Rams vs. 49ers where my buddy Tim and I were watching and I predicted three blocked kicks in the game which Tim told me never happened (in that game it did). I also predicted the Mariners would come from behind and beat the Yankees in the 1995 playoff first round and that happened. However, earlier that year, when my pick of the Steelers to beat Dallas did not pan, that was where I think in retrospect my sports-picking fortunes started to shift.

Points to Ponder:

"Not everything is fit to print. There is to be regard for at least probable factual accuracy, for danger to innocent lives, for human decencies, and even, if cautiously, for nonpartisan considerations of the national interest." [Alexander Bickel]

On Robert Sungenis, the Jews, Moriel Ministries, the Catholic Church, and the Importance of Scholatic Integrity and Ethics in Apologetics:
(For Preserving the Historical Record)

This post was written in the form of an email and I have decided to blog it first in a slightly toned down version and then send the original version to those who wrote the tract I am responding to below.


To the Moriel Ministries:

I should note off the bat that I have no problem with you pointing out a number of the idiocies of Robert Sungenis. He poses as an expert on many subjects where he does not know much so that you want to expose his ignorance on knowing Hebrew is (of course) welcome as is your dealing with many of the problems with conspiracy theories of world Jewish domination.

However, I should note that you engage in a degree of propaganda yourself when playing the old and tired (and refutable) canard of the Catholic Church being buddies with Hitler and the Nazis and some other absurd statements made in the above thread. You make a number of such assertions and also play fast and loose with a lot of theological issues. I will deal now with some of them in passing -your words will be in fire coloured font:

Understandably, Jewish over achievement in science in contrast to Roman Catholicism's record of notorious shame which condemned Copernicus and Galileo as heretics for postulating and proving the earth revolved around the sun remains a perpetual source of embarrassment to The Church of Rome (unless you believe the sun revolves around the earth you were to be excommunicated proclaimed the popes).

Copernicus was never censured by Rome in any fashion whatsoever. And your assertion that he was condemned as a heretic is a bald faced lie. If you are going to condemn Robert Sungenis for his bald-faced lies, you need to be man enough to admit to your own or else you are no better than he is. Then there is the issue of Galileo.

Galileo was told not to teach his heliocentric as an inarguable conclusion. This is not a censure of heresy at all and I suggest you make the proper differentiations. Dr. Art Sippo has a pretty good review of a book written on Galileo (where he touches on many of the surrounding issues often not taken into consideration) which can be read here. The attempt to spin the Galileo situation as some "hatred of science" the way not a few disingenuous pseudo -"enlightenment" sorts have done is disgraceful. But obviously it is common to invent fictions as an excuse to avoid dealing with what actually happened so I am not surprised. Except (of course) that you are critical of Sungenis for doing what you yourselves are doing. The word "hypocrite" comes to mind and Jesus did not have nice things to say about hypocrites. (Want me to highlight the many passages where he spoke less than irenically about hypocrites???)

Yet right up until Pius IX, papal encyclicals against the development of modern science were being turned out (Pius IX also issued the infamous papal decree 'Quanta Curia' denouncing democracy).

Pius IX denounced certain forms of democracy, but not democracy in toto. This is obvious when you read the texts with proper scholarly care. In fact, unless you have an agenda against Catholicism akin to Sungenis' agenda against Jews, you have a responsibility to try to be accurate in what you say. Otherwise, you are no better than he is.

The reason a long series of papal encyclicals and bulls condemned science is indeed because they had to. Thomas Aquinas' explanation of transubstantiation is predicated on 'Aristotle's theory of accidents'. In the alchemy of The Dark Ages, magic and chemistry were virtually the same. They had a rudimentary view of stoichiometric or elemental chemistry but knew nothing of sub atomic physics, co-valency, ionic bonding, shells, or electron transfer between atoms. So if chlorine was added to sodium forming sodium chloride (table salt) they still thought it was plain chlorine because they could not understand chemical reactions. In the ancient world, Aristotle said for instance that the fact that it looked and tasted like salt was only its 'appearances' or 'accidents'. Aquinas was an Aristotelian. Hence the 'hoc est corpus meum' formula meant that although their eucharist looked and tasted like bread and wine, that was only the 'accidents', it is actually the protoplasm of Jesus Christ to be ingested cannibalistically and drunk in the vampire ritual of the Mass. This was done despite Jesus saying "the flesh profits nothing" when he said 'unless you eat of His flesh' (John 6: 53-63) , and despite the Apostles flatly outlawing the ritual consumption of blood (Acts 15: 29). Today most Catholics will say they accept transubstantiation by faith, but when Aquinas defined the belief, it was not a matter faith, but a matter of chemistry, a view of 'accidents used to explain what they did not grasp' now debunked by modern chemical science. Hence, too much of modern science undermines the plausibility of essential Roman Catholic dogma.

Boy, listening to you talk about Catholicism is like listening to Sungenis talk about Jews!!! Let us dissect the above rubbish bit by bit...

The reason a long series of papal encyclicals and bulls condemned science is indeed because they had to.

The Catholic Church has never condemned science in toto, only certain scientific theories propagated by certain persons as more than mere scientific hypotheses.

Thomas Aquinas' explanation of transubstantiation is predicated on 'Aristotle's theory of accidents'.

Thomas Aquinas did not come up with the term "transubstantiation", indeed it was an accepted doctrine prior to Aquinas' birth. Whatever his explanation is or is not based on is irrelevant. People explain stuff in less than ideal ways all the time. Heck, your entire tract is filled with (at best) less than ideal explanations and (at worst) downright errors and blasphemy. Moving on...

In the alchemy of The Dark Ages, magic and chemistry were virtually the same. They had a rudimentary view of stoichiometric or elemental chemistry but knew nothing of sub atomic physics, co-valency, ionic bonding, shells, or electron transfer between atoms. So if chlorine was added to sodium forming sodium chloride (table salt) they still thought it was plain chlorine because they could not understand chemical reactions.

So what??? You are making the mistake of predicating a dogma on the language used to explain it. In the realm of supernatural sciences, this has no shortage of problems -indeed one could do this with biblical accounts all day long. One either accepts when dealing with potential supernatural phenomenon that natural explanations will be to some extent inadequate or they presume that natural explanations are always adequate. The latter is essentially an excessive form of rationalism which denies the transcendant. No person of faith (no matter what their faith) can afford to do that and expect to avoid making shipwreck of that faith.

In the ancient world, Aristotle said for instance that the fact that it looked and tasted like salt was only its 'appearances' or 'accidents'. Aquinas was an Aristotelian.

Aquinas was no blind follower of Aristotle -indeed he differed from Aristotle in several areas. Your attempt to showhorn him in as a blind follower of Aristotle shows me you do not know what you are writing about.

Hence the 'hoc est corpus meum' formula meant that although their eucharist looked and tasted like bread and wine, that was only the 'accidents', it is actually the protoplasm of Jesus Christ to be ingested cannibalistically and drunk in the vampire ritual of the Mass.

Hoc est enim corpus meum as a formulary preceded Aquinas by at least eight hundred years. The idea that it was based on Aristotalean metaphysics again shows you are ignorant of what you speak. But I can tell by your vulgar use of language (i.e. "cannibalistically", "vampire ritual", etc) that you are no better than Sungenis is. You use the same kind of bigoted caricatures he does except with a different group of people.

This was done despite Jesus saying "the flesh profits nothing" when he said 'unless you eat of His flesh' (John 6: 53-63) , and despite the Apostles flatly outlawing the ritual consumption of blood (Acts 15: 29).

You are cobbling together verses out of context to support your presuppositions. Acts 15 dealt with differences between Jews and Gentiles. The theme underscoring the whole chapter was whether or not Gentiles needed to be circumcised and to keep the Law in order to be saved. This is obvious from the first lines of the chapter which reads as follows (from the NAB version):

Some who had come down from Judea were instructing the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved." Because there arose no little dissension and debate by Paul and Barnabas with them, it was decided that Paul, Barnabas, and some of the others should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and presbyters about this question.

This is the context in which the whole of Acts 15 needs to be read if it is to be properly understood. Furthermore, the line you quote requires that as well as some passages prior to it to be properly understood, namely to stop troubling the Gentiles who turn to God, but tell them by letter to avoid pollution from idols, unlawful marriage, the meat of strangled animals, and blood. This was no reference whatsoever to the eucharist so kindly stop the prooftexting.

As far as the eucharist goes, I suggest you educate yourself on these matters before speaking further on it. I wrote an essay on the subject of the real presence about seven years ago which can be read here. Covered in one of the urls of that work is a thorough exegesis of John 6 and (in short) your interpretation is so highly improbable as to be absurd.

Today most Catholics will say they accept transubstantiation by faith, but when Aquinas defined the belief, it was not a matter faith, but a matter of chemistry, a view of 'accidents used to explain what they did not grasp' now debunked by modern chemical science. Hence, too much of modern science undermines the plausibility of essential Roman Catholic dogma.

Again, Aquinas did not define the term and the belief in the real presence can be shown to have not only an ancient pedigree but also to have biblical foundations. That does not mean that certain philosophical models were not utilized to try and explain certain mysteries of the faith. Just as there was a long-standing belief in the Trinity and as Jesus being the eternally begotten Son, problems with heretics denying this belief resulted in the Church defining the term homoousian to explain the principles involved.

Homoousian was based on Greek Platonic principles. Later on, when there were questions as to the ancient biblical understanding of the real presence and just how complete it really was, the Church accepted the term transubstantiation to explain the concept. In that sense there is an Aristotelian principle in play but if you want to be critical of that, you have to deny the divinity of Jesus on the same principle since the latter was explained in the face of Arian heresy in the fourth century using pre-Dark Ages Platonic principles. Otherwise, you are acting inconsistent, arbitrary, and hypocritical.

The gist of the dogma is that Jesus is fully present in his humanity and his divinity in the sacred species at the same time. Catholics believe this because Jesus made it clear in the sixth chapter of John the literalness of his words and his words at the Last Supper were unambiguous. I went over this in the essay noted above and also in this one on the Jewish themes which permeate the mass as the sacrificial remembrance of which the Jewish Passover was a mere foreshadowing of.

Frankly, the more I read of your stuff, the more I am convinced that these concepts are beyond your comprehension. What cannot be denied is that there is no evidence whatsoever of Christians believing differently about the eucharist until the rebellion of the sixteen century and even there you had some who for the most part approached this subject as Catholics do. (See Martin Luther and King Henry VIII.)

If we are to believe you, no one understood the Bible on this matter for fifteen plus centuries. To a thinking person, that should give them ample reason to question those such as you who come along later preaching another Gospel other than that which was received and passed on from the apostles (cf. Galatians i,8-9).

Unless a Roman Catholic clung to the debunked Ptolomean astronomy with earth as the astro physical center of the universe, they were branded heretical and condemned to hell by papal anathema.

I an unaware of any Catholics branded as heretics for merely refusing to hold to Ptolomy's scientific model. And while I do not know everything about Catholicism, compared to you I am probably an expert on it.

Unless you in effect cling to the debunked physics of the Aristotelian "theory of 'accidents' " you will be branded as heretical until this very day; in other words, the ludicrous myth of transubstantiation still requires a belief in a scientifically disproved misunderstanding of physical science.

The problem with your argument is the presumption that there are not certain dogmas that all Christians hold to which are similarly explained by ancient Greek models of expression. The whole notion of Jesus as being both the Son of God and also God Incarnate is Platonic in conception. So if you are going to claim that Catholics should ditch the ancient apostolic belief in the real presence (of which transubstantiation is a technical term intended to denote greater precision) than be consistent and ditch the ancient apostolic belief in Jesus as the Son of God and God Incarnate (of which homoousian was a term accepted by the Church at Nicaea and put into that synod's profession of faith) because otherwise you are acting in a purely arbitrary and hypocritical manner.

Ironically the two things The Jews could not survive without – the scriptures and science, are the very two things Roman Catholicism could not survive with.

The Catholic Church survived for fifteen hundred plus years with the Scriptures prior to the arrival Luther and company. She reproduced the Bible through the centuries by hand, printed numerous editions from the first printing presses before Luther was even born, and has evinced a far greater respect for the Bible than any Protestant group I have come across.

As far as science goes, there have been Catholics in the forefront of scientific discoveries or appropriation of science from the very beginning of the Church's existence. It is not difficult to demonstrate this -indeed only someone ignorant of history does not realize this.

This is why the bible was placed on the papal index of banned books and why papal injunctions condemning modern science as heretical were issued by their popes.

Again, your speak of what you do not know. History amply shows that it was the Catholic church which preserved the Bible throughout the centuries and who sought above all to insure reliable translations. The texts from general councils down through the centuries are suffused with scriptural passage -often using the text of scripture verbatim on key points of doctrine.{1}

What was placed on the index were certain translations of the Bible which were either erroneous in their translations or which contained questionable explanatory notes. To claim that this constitutes "placing the Bible on the index" is pathetic and gives me about as much reason to question your fidelity to scholastic and historical integrity as I do Robert Sungenis'.

Anyone really familiar with the true world of geo-politics and global economics knows the secret Jewish conspiracy theories are anti Semitic nonsense, but Sungenis doesn't. Historians know that 'The Protocols of The Elders of Zion' is a ridiculous forgery, and it would be hard to imagine that Sungenis doesn't, but the text of his article seems to follow the same essential underlying thrust.

You do no better than Sungenis by accepting as uncritically antiCatholic smears and historical revisionism every bit as noxious as the Protocols of Zion.

As far as the pictures of Hitler leaving a church and claiming that he was "never excommunicated", you show an ignorance of the various forms of excommunications. There are acts which by their very nature incur an immediate excommunication and there are acts which have a recognized penalty to them but the penalty is inflicted by judicial sentence. Adolph Hitler as an apostate was already excommunicated by that very fact under the 1917 Code so a formal judicial pronouncement was strictly speaking not necessary. Those who presume that it was{2} show that they do not know what an excommunication is or the various ways it can be incurred.

Other pictures are similarly problematical not because of their existence but because you do not give any details as to where or when they were taken. You mention for example:

Cardinal Secretary of State, Eugenio Pacelli (later to become Pope Pius XII) signs the Concordat between Nazi Germany and the Vatican at a formal ceremony in Rome on 20 July 1933. Nazi Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen sits at the left, Pacelli in the middle, and the Rudolf Buttmann sits at the right.

The Concordat effectively legitimized Hitler and the Nazi government to the eyes of Catholicism, Christianity, and the world.

You fail to make it clear that Pacelli as Secretary of State functioned in the same capacity for the Vatican as Condoleeza Rice does for the United States. In attempts at diplomacy, there have to be personal points of contact between entities at the highest levels and (like it or not) Hitler was Chancellor of Germany and Franz von Papen was Vice Chancellor. Cardinal Pacelli in other words as Pope Pius XI's second at the Vatican was negotiating with Adolph Hitler's second in Nazi Germany.

The purpose of the Concordat was to secure for the Catholics in Germany the rights to religious freedom. The very same Cardinal Pacelli had this to say to Ivone Kirkpatrick (the British minister to the Vatican) about the reasons for the concordat with Nazi Germany:

"The spiritual welfare of 20 million Catholic souls in Germany was at stake, and that was the first and, indeed, only consideration."

Cardinal Pacelli referred to the precarious position that the Holy See found itself in when he further told Kilpatrick that the Holy See "had to choose between an agreement on [Nazi] lines and the virtual elimination of the Catholic Church in the Reich." Whatever problems one wants to note about the prudence or lack thereof in the timing of the concordat,{3} it was nonetheless a lessor of two evils approach, not the coddling up to the Nazis picture that you disingenuously seek to portray.

Among Sungenis' heroes are the late popes John XXIII, and John Paul II, who went to war torn former Yugoslavia at the behest of Catholic Croats desiring the beatification of the Ustashi Nazi Arch Bishop Stepinac. The 750,000 Serbs and Jews murdered in the Hitler aligned Ustashi Nazi holocaust were offered their lives by Stepinac if they agreed to convert to Roman Catholicism.

My word you are really ignorant! Archbishop Stepinac saved many Jewish lives. He is even on track to one day be honoured for this in a Croatian memorial of remembrance located in Jerusalem which was erected by an Israeli in 1953.

Archbishop (later Cardinal) Stepinac did what he could to help and recognized that the time of the war would be different than the time afterwards for those who converted under duress:

"The role and task of Christians is on the first place to save people. When this time of madness and wildness is over, only those will remain in our Church who converted out of their own conviction, while others, when the danger is over, will return to their faith."

I am shocked that you would find fault with a cleric doing what he could to save people from being slaughtered. What pray tell did Moriel Ministries do during the war to help people? Oh yes, you were probably not around back then. You have no historical pedigree in apostolic Christian but people should listen to you???

I have no doubts that if ever there is another situation like what happened in World War II that you will not exhibit the same concern for people not of your religion that Archbishop Stepinac did. Instead, you would play the "better join our community or you will definitely go to hell" schtick which (based on some of the stuff on your site) is an accurate description of your little cult.

Indeed, so much of Roman Catholic doctrine contradicts the plain teaching of Jesus

I have reviewed and debunked countless attempts over the years by persons such as you to prove this. Your stuff misrepresenting the "call no man your father" line as well as the typical canards on priestly celibacy and St. Paul's actual views on the matter (which are not what you think) is standard antiCatholic boilerplate drivel which any reasonably informed apologist can easily dispatch with.

Even Catholic authors like John Cornwell agree that Hitler was brought to power in coalition with the Zentrum Catholic Party of Bavaria under Hans Von Papen, the privy chamberlain to Pius XII, who perpetrated the biggest act of terrorism ever carried out on American soil prior to 9/11 during World War I at the Black Tom in New York harbor.

John Cornwall is to the history of Pope Pius XII what the Protocols of Zion are to the history of Jews. You do not do your views a service by grabbing onto every false and libelous assertion about Catholics while whining about Sungenis doing the same thing to Jews. Consistency requires that if you decry it for your allies that you likewise decry it when your friends do it.

Roman Catholics are shocked when we show them our photo collection of Arch Bishop Stepinac (who was also honored by John XXIII) giving the 'heil Hitler' salute to Hitler youth, and photos of Roman Catholic nuns marching with the Gestapo at Nazi rallies, and of Catholic priests blessing swastikas, and photos of the Franciscan Filipovitch dressed both in his cassock and in his Nazi uniform as chief of the Jasenovac concentration camp, as well as documented quotes from the Roman Catholic Bavarian Concordat with The Nazi Party (the bishops swore allegiance to Hitler).

Pictures are easily used for propagandistic purposes. Joseph Goebbels did this during the Nazi regime and apparently you have learned well from him. And then as priceless as Mastercard are your final words:

It is not our aim or delight to malign, slander, or defame Robert Sungenis. If there is any malice, it is not ours, But we cannot be accountable when someone's own published words and actions discredit them. We offer no character judgments , we only present facts for our readers to decide for themselves, and these facts are plainly irrefutable.

Your "facts" are no more "plainly irrefutable" than Joseph Goebbels' propaganda was. Even the many pictures of cardinals with Hitler are not as problematical as you presume for this reason: Hitler was the head of state in Germany and Vatican City is a sovereign state. Sovereign nations exchange dignitaries all the time; it is part and parcel to diplomacy. Ergo, if the Vatican sent someone to try and negotiate with Hitler, it would have been a curialist and with all likelihood a cardinal at that.

Your pictures of clerics at Nazi rallies are also disingenuous because you do not tell us where you get them from. The one titled Cardinal Michael Faulhaber marches between rows of SA men at a Nazi rally in Munich is a real hoot because Cardinal Faulhaber's record as a friend of the Jews was beyond reproach. He also was the primary drafter of Pope Pius XI's Encyclical Letter Mit Brennader Sorge (1937) which unequivocally condemned the racial doctrine which was at the heart of the Nazi philosophy. (Cardinal Pacelli also had a hand in drafting the text.)

Obviously you have bought into the lies of people such as John Cornwall as you list his book as a source on the Sungenis thread. That puts you squarely in the same camp as the very Robert Sungenis whose shoddy scholarship and lack of basic ethics you seek to point out as they pertain to Jewish issues. But this could be done without sacrificing your own credibility in the process. History should be respected, not treated as a propagandizing tool. It was said once that "he who tells the people revolutionary legends, he who amuses them with sensational stories, is as criminal as the geographer who would draw up false charts for navigators." And you are a criminal sir because you have shown no respect for the proper handling of facts.

One final example of note is your references to John Cornwall who tries to play with the historical record and make Pope Pius XII a Nazi sympathizer following in the footsteps of the 1963 propaganda play The Deputy. That may well be the so-called "conventional wisdom" today but those who know their history know better. For example, shortly after the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, the world mourned his death as a man of peace. In Israel, where there would be no kind words for a Nazi sympathizer, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir had these words to say about the late pontiff at the United Nations:

We share in the grief of humanity at the passing away of His Holiness, Pope Pius XII. In a generation afflicted by wars and discords he upheld the highest ideals of peace and compassion. When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for its victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out about great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace.

Scholarly treatments by Prof. Ronald Rychlak, Pinchas Lapide, and (most recently) Rabbi David Dalin only scratch the surface as I could point out numerous other scholarly sources which deal with these matters in an ethical and scholarly way -both Catholic and non-Catholic. (Of the three I did note, at least two of them are Jewish.) But I doubt it would matter. The reason??? You are evidently as untrustworthy when it comes to ethical and scholarly integrity as Robert Sungenis is.{4} As far as whether or not you are as unethical, it remains to be seen how you choose to respond to the contents of this note I am sending to you.

Do not think this note deals with all of the factual errors in your tract because it does not. There are many others which I have not gotten to but at some point, better things to do with one's time must factor into it.

But what really angers me is not that you made these kinds of errors but that apparently I should have looked closer at your site where I would have seen this before I took time out of my busy schedule to bother with any kind of a response to you:

Former Catholics For Christ

Moriel now has a web page on Catholicism and we are very interested in having your testimonies. Please pray and consider sending us your testimony to us for inclusion on our page.

Obviously your disgraceful conduct here cannot be chalked up to being well-meaning but mistaken but instead is due to a personal vendetta of sorts. Your obvious hatred of Catholicism has resulted in you sacrificing scholastic and ethical integrity in order to advance your noxious agenda of false witness. I would ask for your apostolic credentials to teach (cf. Rom x,14ff) but I know you have none. Instead, you are as illegitimate as Korah and (I trust) will suffer the same fate as he did for it if you do not see the error of your ways and repent. One does not have to accept someone's views in order to represent them fairly. But someone who is truly Christian where it counts would strive to present the views of others accurately even if they did not happen to agree with them. That is part and parcel of what the gospel teaching of in what measure you shall mete, it shall be measured to you again, and more shall be given to you (Mark iv,20-25) means. If you have ears to listen, it would be wise if you did.

Notes:

{1} To note a couple of examples, consider Trent's Decree on Justification and the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. I challenge you to show any doctrinal statements from your own paltry "Christian church" with a similar suffusion of Scripture in them and this is just two of numerous texts I could have chosen.

{2} Apart from the argument that it would have helped in the fight against the Nazis: a proposition which is controvertible at the very least.

{3} And I can think of a couple areas where it could possibly have been handled better.

{4} Your reliance on John Cornwall as one of your sources makes this call a slam dunk because no one who respects sound scholarship takes his work on this subject seriously. One reviewer of the book summarized the worth of this volume quite aptly so I will quote a bit from his words at this time:

Vatican library records show that Cornwall spent very few hours there and that he was not privy to any materials unavailable to other scholars. In short, there is little really new in Cornwall's account. And his interpretation of materials is often deeply flawed. His claim, for example, that Plus harbored a deep anti-Semitism is based simplistically on a condemnatory remark Pius made about Jewish bolsheviks. The comment may have been inappropriate, but many Jews of the time said far worse things about Jewish bolsheviks.

Cornwall presents only the evidence that suggests his predetermined view. Nowhere does he seriously engage the major scholarship on Plus that has come from such important Jewish and Christian researchers on the period as Michael Marrus, John Morley, John Conway and Owen Chadwick. Some of their works are listed in Cornwall's bibliography, but he does not seem to have used them. He does not even acknowledge Marrus's major work on the subject. Nor does he deal in any comprehensive way with the published Vatican archival material.

It is disturbing to see the attention this book has received from the secular press, including reputable journals. That publisher hype can elevate a work of deeply flawed scholarship to the bestseller list is a serious threat to responsible scholarship. No well-recognized scholar who has studied the relationship between the Vatican and the Holocaust was asked to review this volume in the nonreligious press.

Sounds like you, Sungenis, and Cornwall are birds of a feather flocking together to me!!!

A Mailbag Clarification:
(By Request of an Emailer)

Here is the text of the request I received this morning with regards to a blog post yesterday of an email from December. The writer's words will be in shale coloured font.

Shawn, having re-read the excerpt from my December email that's now on your site, I have a thought: It would be better, from my point of view, if you added my name to it.

I don't recall what my train of thought was back then, but it occurs to me that if I'm going to help make such harsh criticism of somebody else by name, I shouldn't hide behind anonymity. Besides which, much of what's said there--and I don't regret any of it, it's how I feel and I think well-founded--much of what I said there I've said in a variety of venues, just scattered about, with my name attached. (Partly, I think, back then some of my comments were still somewhat tentatively formed in my mind, but on review and with the passage of time I am confident of being able to substantiate all of its contents. And partly, I just answered you quickly without giving much more thought to it).

So if in your mind this doesn't somehow mar your presentation, I do request that you add my name to it. If you're able to do this, perhaps just adding my name in your intro with an asterisk ("I decided instead to post a note from reader Christopher Fotos*...) and another footnote saying that after initial publication I asked you to identify me.

(I don't think any other ID is necessary; many people following this dispute will be familiar with my name, and if you get any other inquries just send them to my blog where they can noodle around and find my bio).

Let me know what you think--and I very much appreciate your sensitivity regarding emails and everything else.

No problemo Chris. I take private correspondence seriously and that is why I rarely use people's names when posting to the blog of emails or other correspondence. But as per your request, I will note your blog here and attach this thread to the previous posting so your identification is known to the readers.

"Nothing Under the Sun Is New" Dept.

Courtesy of Stand Up And Speak Out via The Western Alliance...

"Our President has lied to us." "He has falsely led us into this war." "He has abused our civil rights." "He has exceeded his Presidential powers." "Americans are dying because of this war that should have never been fought."

You might have thought that I was talking about our current president, but actually, I was referring to criticism about the 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. Now considered one of our greatest presidents, Lincoln was bombarded with criticism from the press, from the Democrats, and even from within his own Republican party. Because the presidential criticism is very similar today, it is valuable to examine how the public opinion of President Lincoln has changed. [Excerpt from Criticism Of Our President(s)?]

The similarites between Lincoln and Bush viz. the respective wars they were involved in is well documented in the above thread and points out why whatever one thinks of President Bush overall, so many of the criticisms of him in the area of the war in Iraq are stupid, short-sighted, and also manifest the sort of ignorance of history which shows why the latter often repeats itself from generation to generation.

Give the whole thing a read folks as the analysis is good.

"From the Mailbag" Dept.

A few readers wondered if I planned to write a concurring commentary to the guest editorial of one Rod Serling as posted on Tuesday of this week. I decided instead to post a note from a reader who saw an early draft of the email eventually blogged on December 7th on the public and private double standards of the apologetics oligarchy. In lieu of later developments, it seemed appropriate to add a fourth footnote so I did that in this text posting. The words of the emailer words will be in shale coloured font.

That draft you appended is strong stuff.

It has been building up for a long time. Some of it has made it into the weblog -particularly in recent months{1} but it is hardly coming out of nowhere I assure you.

Let me tell you that I know very little about the Catholic apologetics establishment and have no idea how all the pieces fit together, who writes for whom, who has rank or station by reputation or otherwise, etc. I guess I want to say that I don't want to see myself in the position of yelling safely from the sidelines at somebody like you in a way that encourages harsh action, the consequences of which I will most likely never feel. We have only a slight acquaintence with each other and I'm sure I wouldn't have any undue influence on you, but I wanted to say that anyway.

No problem. Believe me, if that email is ever blogged, it will be toned down only slightly in the venom the arguments will remain the same. I am not one to generally shirk from saying what is on my mind -particularly when I see problems that perpetuate due to the negligence of those who can do something about them.

That being the case, I will briefly tell you how all of this looks to a generic and not very wonderful Catholic, that is to say, me.

You just described me XXXXX. That is what bothers me so much about this: I see people who in many cases are probably better Catholics than I am who act like such unethical and illogical idiots. I touched on it in an indirect way here and the irony of that post is that the person I was speaking to has had a beef with Mark Shea going back six years to the time we were all on Steve Ray's old message board (prior to 2003). Mark showed traces of this attitude back then but I chalked it up to his frustrations in dealing with Albert -who is someone who seeks to show a proper respect for reason and logic in his discussions. But what appeared at the time to be a rare aberration on Mark's part is now manifesting itself with greater frequency as something a lot more serious.

I first started reading Mark Shea at least around April 2002, along with some other Catholic blogs, to educate myself about the faith (I'm a cradle Catholic). I was fascinated and educated by his many posts (at the time) about the differences between Catholic and Protestant theology, some aspects of Church history, the Communion of Saints, Mary, etc. I thought this was a valuable service.

Mark has some impressive talents that is for sure. On some issues, he can explain the factors involved better than most people -I even gave five stars to his book on Tradition some time back{2} and I do not retract that review at all even if I have since come to question the depth of Mark's understanding of a subject he has often explained so well.

I won't prove, though I believe, that his blog emphasized Catholic matters per se more than any kind of running commentary of current events. I could be wrong about that.

You are not wrong about that at all. Mark used to stick to apologetics stuff and that is how he built his reputation which was well-deserved. Unfortunately, he has branched off into stuff he is not well equipped to discuss and that will be his downfall if he does not reverse course.

What I am certain of is that it was less angry. It didn't have these interminable tirades. It didn't have what another correspondent aptly has described as a "fixation" on figures like Michael Ledeen. I don't recall him posting serial misrepresentations of public figures and obstinately refusing to change his characterizations when confronted with the facts. If he was doing that a few years ago, I missed it or it was much less frequent.

Well, I remember in years past he acted this way on occasion. But very rarely. And as everyone can be an ass sometimes, it was easy to overlook both for that reason and because of the tendency towards putting the best possible interpretation on stuff that appears to do someone an injustice. That is unfortunately no longer possible to do with him anymore and has not been for a while now.

As I have said to another correspondent, perhaps copied to you, if I'd never heard of Mark Shea until this week and stumbled on his blog, I wouldn't have spent more than five minutes on it before writing Shea off as a second-rate demagogue.

Agreed. Dave Armstrong is the same way sometimes but to Dave's credit, it is less frequent than Mark. But then again, Dave is usually smart enough to stick to boilerplate apologetics stuff. I say usually because he got offtrack with me on a subject which was not boilerplate apologetics but instead had many complex factors. His attitude in dealing with them was eerily similar{3} to the way Mark has acted on the torture issue.

The personal and rhetorical errors he's fallen into are well-known so I won't repeat most of them. But I was truly amazed, at a time when I thought I no longer could be, when Mark added Fr. Brian Harrison to his enemies list, speaking of him in such a dismissive and spiteful way.

Fr. Harrison's work on this subject is his best in years.

Fr Harrison is not the Pope nor Archbishop and is in no need of being put on a pedestal. But the seriousness of his two articles and the charity with which they were offered should have been obvious to anyone who can read. That kind of step-by-step march through Church history was the kind of service I once found at Shea's site, though probably not at the same erudite level.

Most definitely not. Fr. Harrison is thorough and I appreciate that -even when I do not agree with him.

Even if you disagree with it--and I don't have the confidence to make any kind of magisterial pronouncement--it was a substantial contribution to the record available to most Catholics.

Yes.


Yet if you follow the somewhat deranged train of Mark's thought, Harrison was part of the Apologist for Satan club.

Yep.

In what scheme are Catholic apologists supposed to use such language when referring to a theologian, presumably in good standing, installed at a Pontifical University? It's shabby in any case, but surely some line has been crossed here.

Mark is over the line and needs to be reined in by someone. The question is, will Keating and Akin pull a no show as thus far they have done (and not to my surprise I might add).{4}

Mark's blog is a scandal, though I don't know exactly what can be done about it or what buttons to push. Perhaps a couple years from now we'll learn of attempts at private fraternal correction from the direction of Jimmy Akin, the kind of actions that eventually came to light regarding Robert Sungenis.

Not likely because of the double standard involved here. If Mark was an sspx supporter, all barrels would be turned on him. But as he is not, "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" is the order of the day by the apologetics oligarchy.

What I do believe with complete conviction is that Mark will not stop until he is forced to. That means being confronted by someone with power over him, or someone for whom he has deep affection. Probably the former. Usually that's the only thing that bullies notice.

Yep but in this case it gets back to what my father used to tell me when I was a kid: when in doubt, always follow the $$$. That is why Mark's lips are so firmly attached to Jimmy's butt right now whereas if you, I, or anyone else saying what Jimmy is saying would be targets for Mark's rhetorical bs.

Notes:

{1} While more could be noted in my archives of posts pointing towards a significant shift of emphasis prior to that point (indeed stuff going back over a year or more prior to that point such as this one and this one), the following is perhaps the most explicit turning point of sorts that I can recall offhand:

Some Recent and Future Weblog Additions, A Reappraisal of Site Principles, Reapplying Said Principles, and Other Applicable Tidbits (circa June 23, 2006)

From there, things get more and more explicit and that is not by accident.

{2} Via Amazon.com:

By What Authority?: An Evangelical Discovers Catholic Tradition by Mark P. Shea
Edition: Paperback
Price: $8.95

Availability: In Stock

36 used & new from $5.50


22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

*****Possibly the Best Defense of Catholic Tradition in Print... , February 23, 2000

Especially page for page. The book is not too long and it deals from a number of angles with a topic that is often difficult for even those knowledgeable about the faith to put into words: what is Tradition and how does it function? Anyone who has done apologetics with Protestants knows the common statement "when will Rome produce a laundry list of all of their traditions?" This is a statement that misses the boat because it does not look at Tradition as a living entity that simultaneously develops while maintaining its inner essence.

As other reviewers have noted already, it is in essence Mark's spiritual journey from Evangelicalism to Catholicism (or should I say spiritual completion?) as he looks at the different aspects of Tradition and realizes that the Scriptures and the Church require the Tradition to properly function. With the exception of one minor but common error (confusing the Council of Trent's solemn definition of the canon as the first "infallible" decree: most Catholics do not even understand the nuances of the Magisterium unfortunately), I was very impressed and would recommend this book to any Protestant (especially Evangelicals) to become acquainted with Tradition and learn why it is necessary for any guarantee of the truth of Our Lord's revelation. For Catholics it will help in learning to explain this topic to Protestants from someone (Mark Shea) whom I believe discusses this topic better than anyone else currently writing today.

{3} I am not going to go into how badly he fared in that exchange as it is off the point of this subject to some extent.

{4} Unfortunately, that prediction thus far has come to fruition. I noted it a bit in this posting and probably will say more on it in the coming months if things do not change on that front and soon.

Its been a while since I noted any parodies from Jib Jab. Here is one lampooning the mentality of many who frequent mega-chains like Wal-Mart, another one involving Weird Al, and a third one giving a review of 2006. After a long day, a bit of levity seems appropriate; ergo there you go.

Points to Ponder: 

He who tells the people revolutionary legends, he who amuses them with sensational stories, is as criminal as the geographer who would draw up false charts for navigators. [Ralph E. Luker]

Guest Editorial on Catholic Apologetics and Cult-Style Deadagenting Tactics Commonly Utilized By Not A Few of Its Practitioners:
(Written by Rod Serling)

The following was sent to your humble servant shortly before Christmas of last year during the self-imposed Christmas truce. The writer apparently had familiarized themselves with the protocols for presenting Guest Editorials which have been utilized on this weblog virtually from day one{1} and what you are about to read is being posted with them in mind. I decided to colour-code the text to make it easier to discern between who said what so the words of Joseph D'Hippolito have been put in blue font, the words of Mark Shea are in fire coloured font, and the words of Victor Morton are in darkblue font while the words of the editorialist are in regular blog font colour. But without further ado...

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Catholic Apologetics in the Twilight Zone

By Rod Serling

One of the regular posters in the Coalition comboxes has repeatedly called for mass murder publicly, yet nobody in the Coalition does an investigation of him, despite the fact that his ravings are far more liable to sway public opinion given that they are featured on Front Page Mag and in the Jerusalem Post...though I do think Front Page mag disgraces itself by printing maniacs like D'Hippolito and the Coalition disgraces itself by treating him as a serious "partner in dialogue"

A middle-aged man has a loving wife, four sons who make him proud and a profession that, though not very lucrative, enables him to use his talents for a cause he believes in. But something is missing. This man obsesses about somebody he's never met.

Presented for your consideration: Mark Shea, a resident of Montlake Terrace, Washington who makes his living as an apologist for the Catholic Church. His job allows him to write books and articles. It takes him around the world to lecture and has won him the admiration of many. Yet, like the Flying Dutchman, all those travels cannot relieve Mr. Shea of his albatross.

That albatross is Joseph D'Hippolito, a free-lance writer who has the audacity to think for himself and to comment publicly on the church's role in international politics. Mr. D'Hippolito and Mr. Shea have crossed swords on numerous occasions, most recently about the death penalty.

On a blog run by another apologist, Jimmy Akin, Mr. D'Hippolito challenged the church's view of capital punishment. Although Mr. D'Hippolito is outnumbered by five to one, all parties handle the intense conversation with relatively little name-calling. However, more than halfway down the conversation thread, Mr. Shea joined the fray in midstream to exhibit what can only be called a tendency to pile on. Mr. Shea begins the exchange:

One gets the distinct impression that Hippo's Bible consists of about three verses, all of them calling for death.

"I am come that they might have death and that abundantly." - The Gospel According to Joseph.

It really is an obsession for him: as though the main point of the gospel was to make sure that as many people as possible are killed and that any variation from that Presiding Goal is a disgusting perversion of the Faith.

You go, SDG!

(SDG was one of the people in the discussion. Guess who "Hippo" is?)

More from Mr. Shea:

You will find that Joe has a small treadmill of ideas (not all of them compatible) that he rehearses again and again and again. Theologically, he's an Evangelical (Arminian, Calvin is in Hell, according to Joe) who retains a Catholic attachment to the Eucharist, but who holds large portions of Catholic ecclesiology in complete and utter contempt. His main treadmill issues are political: the death penalty, which he appears to regard as one of the principle sources of revelation, lots of hatred for Islam (and corresponding contempt for Church teaching which says that Muslims worship the same God we do, albeit with grave defects), various kneejerkisms about the superiority of the American Way to the Church, various pronouncements on just who is in Hell (most notably, Pope John Paul II).[1] If you talk to him for long, you'll soon get a sense of what I mean. The main theme that comes through his writing is a deep love for death and vengeance on as large a scale as possible. Christ's mercy seems to be largely restricted to Joe and those Joe approves of. For the rest of the human race, bloodshed on a vast scale followed by eternal torment is too good for them.

(Notice that Mr. Shea, as a professional apologist, never cites any ideas, texts or even any work that he might have done on the issue to refute Mr. D'Hippolito's points, which were based on citations from the Bible, Augustine and Aquinas and the logic that proceeded from them.)

Mr. D'Hippolito responds:

Now to you, Mark P. Shea:

Don't you find it just a little bit pathetic that, as a professional apologist, the only way you can even attempt to rebut any of my points is through personalized insinuations and attacks, even to the point of stooping to the level of the crackers on this thread to make fun of my last name? Then again, what else should I expect?

Mr. Shea responds:

My apologies for making fun of your name. As to the rest of your complaint, it is completely meaningless. I attacked not your person but your (endlessly restated) views.

(Notice again, gentle reader, that Mark never really addressed Mr. D'Hippolito's views but caricatured them so that he wouldn't need to address them).

Mr. D'Hippolito responds:

Mark, your apologies have less value than Confederate money because you make no effort to change your obnoxious behavior toward me or anybody else.

Besides, vain apologies still do not get you off the hook from failing to respond to my points like an intelligent human being instead of as a terminal adolescent.

Mr. Shea's final response unintentionally reinforces what Mr. D'Hippolito said about him earlier:

Your points make no sense. Essentially, you have not given one bit of thought to anything anybody has said. You are still basically arguing that (somehow) we are obliged to execute as many people as possible. This is nonsense. You are also arguing that John Paul contradicted the teaching of the Church. This is double plus nonsense. And you are talking as though some Doctor of the Church makes it impossible for the Holy Father to say, "Try to execute as few people as possible." Triple nonsense. In all the years you have obsessed over this, that is all you have ever been saying. You position comes down to saying, "I want as many people as humanly possible executed! John Paul disagrees with me and I hate him so much I hope he is in Hell. Now I will dedicate my life to repeating this meme again and again and again throughout St. Blogs." About 1/4 of your total posts over the past few years could be replaced with that summary and nothing would be lost of the substance of your "argument".

This has not been isolated behavior for Mr. Shea. For years, he would followe Mr. D'Hippolito throughout the Catholic Internet Universe. He would intrude upon conversations that did not concern or mention him. He would argue from non sequiturs and use personal attacks. He would do everything he could to draw Mr. D'Hippolito into "flame wars" that would get him banned from these various blogs. Often, it worked.

One man who came to Mr. D'Hippolito's defense was Victor Morton, a national editor for the Washington Times. Mr. Morton, whom Mr. Shea had lied to previously and in private, posted the following on Dale Price's blog in 2004 after a typical Shea-D'Hippolito exchange:

I swore I would never again acknowledge Mr. Shea's existence, but this thread is a perfect example of why Joseph is right that he is pursuing a persecutionist vendetta.

The reader will note above that the thread, prior to Joseph's first post, had not involved Mr. Shea. Further, it had nothing to do with the war on terrorism, nuclear weapons or just war, the state of Islam or anything else remotely related to Joseph's comments. Further, that Joseph's comments did not introduce those topics.

Let us stipulate that Joseph's comments about nuking Mecca et al are something less than orthodox (they are not insane or Satanic, because, as I once repeatedly and without answer pointed out to Mr. Shea, the Church does not condemn any possession of nuclear weapons as a sin, which means SOME uses of them have to be moral despite the unquestionable fact they kill civilians en masse). Joseph did not attempt to engage Mr. Shea, did not attempt to hijack his blog, did not refer to him. So it's rather unconvincing to hear "I've spent a great deal of time avoiding you. You're like a bad penny. ... I keep running into your obnoxious and abusive crap on blogs I regularly read." Everybody has some people they don't like, or can't imagine engaging even for the sake of collegial disagreement, someone at St. Blogs whose orthodoxy they question. Tough titty....

Mr. Shea's disagreement (he is not a bishop and has no real authority in these matters, so nothing he says can ever rise above that) is not an excuse to try to destroy somebody's reputation by repetitively injecting himself wherever Joseph may go, talking about whatever subject Joseph may, and calling him Osama bin Laden or a mass murder advocate. This was NOT disagreement with somebody, but an attempt to demonize a human being, to make him anathema as such, to pursue him like a stalking siren. And Joseph is right to protest it.

Mr. Shea had even gone so far as to encourage his blog readers to pressure Front Page Magazine, a Web site operated by conservative activist David Horowitz, not to publish any more of Mr. D'Hippolito's articles after one appeared criticizing the Vatican's approach to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Mr. Shea began his campaign by reproducing a letter sent to Front Page Magazine:

[Front Page Magazine] is, of course, hardly to blame for giving a forum to this most remarkable thinker. They didn't know him from Adam and he managed to maintain a facade of sanity throughout his article (though members of St. Blogs will recognize the Same Old Monomania is not very far below the surface). However, having been alerted to some of the author's other and less sane positions on world affairs, such as the advocacy of the pre-emptive nuclear annihilation of millions of innocent non-combatants "for a higher cause" (much like his soulmate Osama bin Laden's advocacy of same), it is to be hoped that FPM does not lower itself to affording him a chance to gain respectability for his vile and monstrous ideas.

Kudos to my reader for calling FPM's attention to their blunder. If this man becomes a regular go-to guy for pro-war journals seeking pundits to make the case for some Grand End to Evil Project and to rally the troops against the Church when Just War doctrine becomes inconvenient, it will do more than any thing they could possibly do to demonstrate the bankruptcy of the Agitprop Campaign. He should not be touched with a barge pole. Only utter ignorance of his fanatical views or total desperation would explain it if he goes into editorial rolodexes as some sort of serious Catholic Pundit. And FPM is no longer ignorant.

Mr. Morton responds:

As for the "I merely posted it" defense of the Front Page letter, give thou me a break. Yes, you did just print the letter, and followed it with (the above) comment, after which I will sign off. Read them and see if this defense would be any more convincing coming from the king's musings about Thomas a Becket:

Keep Mr. Shea's attitude in mind when reading these caustic comments he recently made in defense of somebody who supports him:

Ah well. If it's *only* Mr. Comerford, then I guess a Combox Star Chamber is just fine. Pay no attention to Mr. Connelly, who was rightly repulsed by this little conclave of character assassins digging for whatever dirt they could find. Keep defending it. Nothing disturbing about that at all. Comerford is clearly an Enemy of the State and must be destroyed. The Coalition is a force for righteousness.

I'm unclear as to what necessity there is in self-appointed Inquisitors like the Coalition to be searching for dirt on him. I'm sure the Coalition would all love to have their histories equally well-researched, gossiped and speculated about, but for some reason, they've neglected to do this service for themselves.

But do keep pettifogging and making excuses for this repellent behavior. It just makes my point about the Coalition all the more clear.

The reader should know that Mr. Shea is defending somebody who supports his position against what he considers to be the torture of prisoners who might be potential terrorists. Throughout that debate, Mr. Shea has insulted and lied about people who disagree with him. In effect, he is showing more sympathy toward accused terrorists than he is toward those who disagree -- all in the name of charity.

Mr. Shea continues:

Now, to be clear: I am not advocating adopting the slimey tactics of the Coalition.

Perhaps Mr. Shea would like to explain that last statement, given the inquisitorial tactics he used in his absurd, obsessive harrassment of Mr. D'Hippolito.

Perhaps Mr. Shea would like to explain how Jesus Christ would view his behavior.

Perhaps Mr. Shea's fellow apologists would like to explain how they let him get away with behavior that not only tarnishes them all but also the faith they claim to represent.

Such is the state of Catholic apologetics and Catholic apologists in the Twilight Zone.

(du-du-du-du, du-du-du-du....)

Author's Notes:

[1] Though they are side issues and not at all germane to the substance of the arguments made by Mr. D'Hippolito, I did ask him about some of the more notorious accusations which Mr. Shea made about him. Here was what I received in response from him:

As far as hoping that JPII is in Hell, I don't recall specifically saying that (though given my white-hot anger at the pope in the final years of his tenure, I wouldn't put it past myself if I did).

I also asked Mr. D'Hippolito about a reference to the late Pope John Paul II as "Poop John Baal" which my sources informed me about. Rather than trusting Mr. Shea for a straight answer on the matter (and viewing the latter as being too biased against Mr. D'Hippolito to give a contextual reference for such comments if they actually did occur), it seemed appropriate to ask Mr. D'Hippolito straight out and this was the answer he gave me:

I made my comments about "Poop John Baal" out of frustration with the pope's policies concerning Islam, the clerical sex-abuse crisis and capital punishment. I framed the phrase like that to get the attention of the more fanatical members of his personality cult (to show them where their devotion was leading). I have since expressed public regret over that statement; even Mark knows that (though I don't recall if I expressed my regret on the same blog in which I made the statement).

As I was left wondering what the context for such statements could possibly be, I raised this question to Mr. D'Hippolito and was given this answer from him:

I did say that Karol Wojtyla will have to account to God for his flaccid response to the clerical sex-abuse crisis -- and that God's reaction might well be some time in Purgatory -- at least, it wouldn't be what his most avid supporters might think (I used the late pope's given name to make the point that titles ultimately hold no weight with God, since God is no respecter of persons). I might also have said something about the late pope having to confront the victims of sexual abuse in the Afterlife, to listen to their cries and to explain himself as part of his purgation.

Though the meat of the documentation of my article does not depend on such answers to remain sustained, I nonetheless decided to deal with these issues in a footnote. The purpose of this was to remove them from the table lest Mr. Shea (or those who support him) bring such matters up in the hopes of diverting people's attention from the substance of what I have outlined in the above editorial.

-RS

#######

Note:

{1} With regards to the "Guest Editorial" feature at Rerum Novarum, those interested in doing a guest editorial can email me HERE about it with their ideas and we shall see. I need not agree with the position taken on an issue to run the editorial. But I do reserve the right to edit any offerings for space and other considerations though of course I would run it by the person before it is posted to Rerum Novarum. The reason is because their name will be posted with it and thus they need to give concurrence that it reasonably represents their view on an issue.

All of this is to anticipate in advance the kind of litigation crap that results from people who would claim to be "misrepresented". Remember, it does not get posted in whatever form it is posted without their approval. Also, I *do* save those confirmation of content emails just in case. [Excerpt from Rerum Novarum (circa September 30, 2002)]