Punditry

Lately there been a couple of articles on the lengths that text book publishers have been going to sanitize history and to put in politically correct pictures and to eliminate anything that could cause offense. I now realize that this is not anything new at all The effort has become more comical, but our text books have long been perverting history or presenting it from a specific view point.

Since my initial conversion I have been reading a lot deeper into history. I am not any kind of scholar, yet what I have found out has made me feel like Neo from the movie Matrix. What I had been taught in pubwick skool about human history and the progress of it to modern times was a totally simulated reality devoid of any connection to the real world and the development of historical events. The total lack of information on the Church would be somewhat akin to someone writing a history book on the last century and not mentioning the United States at all.

The only mention of the Catholic Church in history was always negative. That the church worked to stomp out scientific progress -Galileo. Never a mention of the fact of the many scientists that were in fact lay or ordained Catholics. I learned about genetics and Gregory Mendel, but no mention of the fact that he was a monk and did his experiments in the pea garden at his monastery. No mention that both the University and the Hospital were Catholic developments. No mention of the monasteries that through their painstaking duplication of ancient writings that we even now have them to this day.

Initially when public education came about in the United States it had a very Protestant view point so it is no surprise that the the Inquisition and the crusades were put in the most negative light. But even these events had already been taken out of text book when I went to school back in the 70s. All that I knew about these events were mainly from Monty Python movies and Mel Brooks “The History of the World Part 1.”

Church history is much like Old Testament Church history – we sin, we fall away, we repent, we sin, we fall away, we repent, we sin, we fall away, we repent – well you get the idea. This cycle has been repeated countless times and will continue to the end of the world. Christ has guided his Church through history, so even with the mistakes and the stunning lack of prudence that has occurred at times from members of his Church – Western Civilization is very much a byproduct of the Church.

I was surprised to find out how much the Church was involved in the various kingdoms by mediating disputes and speaking out against injustices. The prayers and example of the various saints that has indeed changed history. The efforts of the Church and it’s members through what became the Magna Carta and developed into representative government as we know it now.

Hardly any of the Church’s influence whether good or bad has made it into modern text books. History has been presented only as some key individuals influencing events either through political means or through science. The philosophical beliefs and reasons of these people have been omitted and everything has been replaced by a meaningless concept of an unmeasurable progress.

I have no idea how we could change this trend. Our pluralistic government schools will go on working either to present their secular view of history or will change things to avoid law suits or the ultimate human crime of someone possibly being offended. A good start would be that we as parents teach the truth and hopefully also that our Catholic Schools and Universities would also do likewise- wrinkles and all.

“Ever since the Reformation, the attack on the Faith has been principally conducted on the field of history…The time has come for us to take the counter-offensive; for, with the expansion of historical knowledge, history is now with us. Truth confirms truth.” — Hilaire Belloc

“An institute run with such knavish imbecility that if it were not the work of God it would not last a fortnight.” — Hilaire Belloc

I found this on an obscure site called the Drudge Report.

DUBLIN, Ireland – Sinead O’Connor says she plans to teach religion after quitting the music business this July.

“I am retiring because I want to train to become a religion teacher of primary school children,” the 36-year-old Irish singer said in a letter published Thursday in Dublin’s Evening Herald newspaper.

“This will take some years as I also want to raise my own children, so it may be over 10 years ’til I qualify but I intend to make a start.”

O’Connor, who has two children, said she also plans to work as a “visiting” church singer, “where I can hide and not be looked at. And maybe sing with a choir. Hire myself out for services. NOT WEDDINGS! Don’t believe in them!”
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I wonder just exactly what religion she wants to teach. Here is something from an article published in 1999.

(CWN) Irish pop star Sinead O’Connor – who once famously tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II at a concert in New York– has been “ordained” to the priesthood by a renegade Catholic bishop.

O’Connor– who has two children by two different fathers– was given the name “Mother Bernadette Mary” during last Thursday’s ordination ceremony at the Marian shrine of Lourdes in France.

The ceremony was carried out by Irish Bishop Michael Cox, a former policeman who was ordained a bishop of the schismatic sect based in Palmar de Troya in Spain. Bishop Cox recently formed the “Latin Tridentine Church” with dissident priest Father Pat Buckley. Buckley, who was suspended from the priesthood by the former head of the Irish Catholic Church, Cardinal Cahal Daly, was last year illicitly ordained as a bishop by Bishop Cox.

But the two bishops fell out over a gift of IR�150,000 by Sinead O’Connor to Bishop Cox. The pop star said she gave Bishop Cox the money to set up a “healing center” for travellers (gypsies) in the Irish midlands. She also offered to pay for a hernia operation for the bishop.

Bishop Buckley said the donation was “disturbing” and he would be very worried “if the money was attached in even the slightest way to the performance of a sacrament.” He said he had no difficulty with the ordination of a woman, but he was concerned that O’Connor had been ordained after only six weeks of theological study.

I remember seeing this before and thought at the time it was pretty strange for a Latin Mass traditionalist to be “ordaining” women. But it is even stranger that his qualms were about her limited theological training and
the simony involved.

And here is another story on her temporary abstinence.

“I failed miserably,” Sinead O’Connor confessed to Irish television on November 4, reports Agence France Presse. “I meant well by doing the celibacy thing but it doesn’t work for me because I need love and affection …”

The Irish songster vowed a commitment to chastity last April when she became a priestess of the Latin Tridentine Church, a maverick Catholic splinter creed. Irish rebel bishop Michael Cox performed the ordination, rechristening the singer with the nunnish-name of “Mother Bernadette Mary.”

Leaders of the Christian right are thinking of bolting the Republican Party in 2004. Such a move would deal a severe blow to President Bush�s re-election effort.

Though Christian voters played a pivotal role in electing Bush in his razor-thin victory over Al Gore, NewsMax has learned that major figures in the evangelical movement, including James Dobson, are talking about withholding support from the Republican Party.

Conservative religious activists cite the latest insult: the Republican Party�s failure to rally behind Sen. Rick Santorum, whose comments about the upcoming Supreme Court case on consensual homosexual acts triggered a national firestorm.
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This is just plain stupid. The Republicans in office might be spineless political hacks, buy hey! there our spineless political hacks. As the Democrats continue to be the abortion party and the majority of Libertarians also firmly behind abortion we have no where else to truly turn to. OK so the Republicans have been slow on pro-life and moral issues, but the alternative is political parties that will firmly advance the culture of death.

ALAMEDA — Just a stone’s throw from Encinal High School on this island town’s western end sits the once-bustling but now-shuttered Alameda Naval Air Station. The proximity is not merely physical: The school’s athletic teams are the Jets, its newspaper is the Jet Blast, and its mascot is a smiling cartoon plane.

But the harmony between school and armed services is under strain now as a small group of Encinal’s teachers and parents attempts to bar the return of a retired Marine Corps jet to a display on the school’s front yard.

…David Olstad, a volunteer who assists on technical support issues at the school, said, “I’d just as soon see a .357 Magnum blown up and put on a pedestal. I mean, there’s no difference to me. It’s glorifying violence.”

Janet Gibson, a school board member and Alameda resident since 1973, said she’s long considered the jet an inappropriate emblem for Encinal. “I would think there is a better symbol for the school, something that might reflect education and intelligence,” she said.
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If this school is like most government schools then maybe an appropriate symbol to put up is a large brain full of mush or maybe a globe of the world with the countries misnamed.

I have the distinct pleasure to announce that our Governor, the Honorable George E. Pataki, has accepted my offer to join our fraternity and become a Master Mason.

On the cover of the next issue of the EMPIRE STATE MASON will feature him accepting my invitation at our meeting on June 6, 2002. Pictured also will be Brother Kurt Ott, Convention Chairman and Brother William Hetzler, both members of Schiller Lodge in the 9th Manhattan District. Brother William Hetzler is also the Assistant to the Governor for German Affairs and it was through his effort that the meeting was arranged and the Governor agreed to be a member of our beloved fraternity.
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From an article by Catholic Answers.

The Church has imposed the penalty of excommunication on Catholics who become Freemasons. The penalty of excommunication for joining the Masonic Lodge was explicit in the 1917 code of canon law (canon 2335), and it is implicit in the 1983 code (canon 1374).

Because the revised code of canon law is not explicit on this point, some drew the mistaken conclusion that the Church’s prohibition of Freemasonry had been dropped. As a result of this confusion, shortly before the 1983 code was promulgated, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement indicating that the penalty was still in force. This statement was dated November 26, 1983 and may be found in Origins 13/27 (Nov. 15, 1983), 450.

Peppermint Patty posts some statistics about deaths caused by physicians compared to gun deaths. I can’t speak to the veracity of the statistics (she got them from an email, author unknown), but if they are true then maybe I will open up an internet store and sell a line of “Doctor Locks” and steel “Doctor Safes” and a “Malpractice doesn’t kill people, Doctors do” bumper stickers.

And of course we need to get cheap Saturday Night Doctors off the streets, maybe we can have annual “doctor turn- ins” where people turn in doctors to their local police stations. Give them $25 bucks for a general practitioner and $50 bucks for a surgeon.

We could put up signs around schools for “Doctor Free Zones” and add harsh penalties for anybody caught brandishing a doctor within these zones. To reinforce these ideas with our children we would also ban all plastic stethoscopes and little doctor bags.

And if a doctor just happens to look more menacing then another doctor we can classify him as an “Assault Doctor” and totally ban them. Anybody that complains that we are tramping over Constitutional rights we would just call a right wing “Doctor Nut.” We also need to crack down on medical trade shows. How could we just allow anybody to go there and hire a doctor without a background check? Another problems is concealed doctors. Would you feel safe talking too someone and you were not sure if they might have a doctor hidden somewhere on their person. What if you had a heated debate and he pulled a doctor our and threatened to heal you. Doctors driving around in cars is another major problem since some are semi-auto or even more dangerously fully auto.

What an ideal opportunity for Charleston Heston who just stepped down from the NRA. He could represent the AMA and Michael Moore could totally misrepresent him in a doc-umentary.

First we have:

Presidential candidate Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) likes to tell audiences that his father drove a milk truck.

“He was a Teamster,” Gephardt said in a speech last January to kick off his campaign in Iowa. “He told me every time … we were at the dinner table that we had food on the table and clothes on our back because he was represented by a union that could bargain and get him fair wages for his work.”

Gephardt’s father, Louis, who died in 1984, had a variety of jobs, among them selling real estate and life insurance. Even so, his nine years on a milk route have given Gephardt the most mileage with organized labor.

But according to Gephardt’s brother, Don, their father hated driving a milk truck. “My father was in the Teamsters, but that’s because he had to be to get the job,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“I don’t recall him talking much about the union, how great it was. He prided himself on being a Republican. He hated Harry Truman. He had the feeling you had to make it on your own, that any kind of welfare program would just raise taxes.”
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And during the last presidential election:

Gore had told the story Monday night in Las Vegas, in accepting the Teamsters’ endorsement. “I still remember the lullabies I heard as a child,” Gore said, singing a bit to the delight of his audience.

The Republicans jumped on that, saying the song, “Look for the Union Label” hadn’t been written when he was a child. More evidence, they said, that he can’t be trusted, along with his recently revised story about his mother-in-law having to pay more than his dog for the same arthritis medicine.

I wonder if this is part of the checklist for being a democrat and running for president. Step 1. Make up some homey sounding lie about unions and relate it to your parents.

Previously I had posted the story about Archbishop Harry Flynn forbidding a gay rights activists from speaking at a Catholic Church.

Here is a letter from the Pastor of St. Joan of Arc parish:

I continue to receive expressions of support for my homily responding to the Archbishop’s banning of Rev. Mel White’s speaking at St. Joan of Arc. Consistently, parishioners appreciate that we have chosen a path that seeks to avoid both confrontation and caving in. We are seeking a third way following the principles of active non-violence. As Thomas Merton wrote, “Nonviolence has great power, provided that it really witnesses to truth and not just to self-righteousness.”

What in the world does non-violence have to do with anything? Well I guess I am glad that weren’t planning on lynching the Bishop or going to Rome to surround the Vatican lobbing missiles until the Pope gives up and changes the Cathechism and Cannon Law.

In my homily I stated that we cannot just walk away from the issue and pretend it never happened. We as a parish are committed to following up. The Parish Council has written a letter to Archbishop Flynn asking to meet with him to discuss the basis for his decision.

Secondly, we have to commit ourselves to pursuing Satyagraha or Soulforce-the demanding process of waging a struggle for justice in which we seek, not to exterminate the opponent, but through love and a willingness to suffer, if necessary, to create a just resolution of conflict refocusing the conflict from persons to principles.. This is a demanding spirituality which draws us beyond anger and confrontation, to a new inner strength and freedom.

I must have missed that RCIA class that discussed Satyagraha and Soulforce. It must have been the class titled “Using Ghandian terms to confuse the heck out of your opponents.”

Finally, we must find new ways to commit ourselves to being a welcoming, compassionate community, especially to our gay and lesbian sisters and brothers. I think our Holy Week liturgies helped to do this.

I thank you all for supporting me in pursuing a path that moves beyond “being right” to seeking the truth and learning through this painful experience.. Even though there is still much healing to be achieved, let us stay true to our course.

Also on this page is a heading titled “Gym Liturgies.”

And a coming event is:

A May Day Parade, to honor the people, the animals and the land that have suffered through the violence of war, will be held Sunday, May 4 at 12 Noon. It is sponsored by In The Heart of the Beast Theatre. Masked and robed mourners will walk the parade carrying images of the dead.

The Heart of the Beast Theatre performs puppet and mask shows. One of these shows is called seed.

Through lyrical storytelling, science, original music, and humor, Seed explores the magic and wonder of this tiny but powerful life force, and examines the ominous undercurrents of genetic manipulation and potential global control of the world’s food supply. Join us as we journey into the mysterious secret life of the seed.

Too bad my kids our grown up, I always wanted to be able to take them to a puppet show on the dangers of genetically modified crops.

Women’s rights groups are lobbying furiously against several of President Bush’s female nominees to the federal bench, charging that they are nothing more than “Scalia in a skirt.”

Scalia in a skirt is a word image I will definitely try not to picture.

…”A group of well-qualified women and minorities are nominated to the court, but they’re not women enough or minority enough,” said Don Stewart, spokesman for Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican. “That borders on racism and bigotry.””
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He is mistaken there, it is not about race it is just simply a case of them not being liberals and bowing at the idol of abortion.

Last spring a Brooklyn mother named Jeanne
Heifetz noticed something fishy on New York state’s standardized high-school
English exam: an excerpt from
a book she’d once read had been altered. Her curiosity piqued, she gathered
10 exams from the past three years and discovered that most of the literary
passages had been expurgated. References to race, religion, sex and other hot
topics had been removed or softened. A "fat" boy had become "heavy," a "gringo" was
now an "American," and a childhood memoir about visiting "the
Negro section of town" had been stripped of racial content. Elie Wiesel’s
declaration that "Man, who was created in God’s image, wants to be free
as God is free" had been reduced to the lifeless slogan: "Man wants
to be free."

Faced with public outrage and mocking headlines ("The Elderly Man and
the Sea?"), state officials quickly promised to end
the practice. But nothing about the episode surprised Diane Ravitch. As she
notes in "The
Language Police," the educrats in Albany were just following the rules
of their trade. Like test-makers and textbook publishers everywhere, they had
subjected their exams to the scrutiny of professional "sensitivity reviewers." The
mandate of these red-pencilers? To "eliminate, delete, remove, replace,
revise–that is, censor–offensive material."

On the theory that a proper K-12 education should upset
no one and affirm all, elaborate protocols now exist for the content of classroom
materials.
Ms. Ravitch, the country’s soberest, most history-minded education expert–and,
in this case, a whistle-blower extraordinaire–fills her book with one outrageous
example after another (sometimes, alas, to the point of repetition). Especially
useful is her appendix titled "A Glossary of Banned Words, Usages, Stereotypes,
and Topics." Printed in single-spaced small type, it goes on for 32 startling
pages.
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Story]

Here are some other suggestions:

Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Northerner in Unelected Ruler Arthur’s Court

Leo Tolstoy’s Master of Men and Women

Leo Tolstoy’s Peace and Peace

Herman Melville’s Moby Richard

Ernest Hemingway’s The Geriatric in dire need of free prescription
drugs and the Sea

Fyodor Dostoevsky’ Crime and Rehabilitation

James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Developing Adolescent