Punditry

(National Catholic Reporter) The vast majority of U.S. women religious are not complying with a Vatican request to answer questions in a document of inquiry that is part of a three-year study of the congregations. Leaders of congregations, instead, are leaving questions unanswered or sending in letters or copies of their communities’ constitutions.

“There’s been almost universal resistance,” said one women religious familiar with the responses compiled by the congregation leaders. “We are saying ‘enough!’ In my 40 years in religious life I have never seen such unanimity.”

The Vatican initiated the study in January, saying its purpose is to determine the quality of life in religious communities, given the decline in vocations in recent decades. From the outset, the women have complained they were never consulted before Vatican officials announced the investigation and there is no transparency in the process. Some have called the effort demeaning and intrusive.

NCR contacted more than a dozen women religious familiar with the responses. Almost no one would allow her name to be used, citing fear of reprisal against their congregations and the desire to have the apostolic visitator receive their letters before word of the actions became public.

She said women religious have been virtually unanimous in spirit that they have been living out their missions, as directed by the gospels and by the Second Vatican Council…
“Vatican II took us out of the ghettos and into ecology, feminism and justice in the world,” she said. “The Vatican still has a difficult time accepting that…” [reference]

Some sources have said that only on percent of these religious communities replied to the questionnaires. Not sure how no answer is going to do anything other than to show exactly why the Apostolic Visitation was needed in the first place. Rampant disobedience does not exactly show that there is not rampant disobedience. Though if they had answered the questionnaires truthfully they would have the same problems. But if they really believe that there way is the truth than they should not have a problem responding. The martyrs died for their faith, can’t even one of these dissidents standup up for what they believe is the truth? Trying to hide behind canon lawyers and other tricks is in no way a sign of obedience. Their actions are the actions of a guilty party who know that they are not on the right side. They are not the actions of innocents being guided by the Holy Spirit.

The Catholic Church, which heavily influenced and even authored language of the anti-abortion language in the health care bill in the House, in clear violation of the constitution, has escalated its war over the separation of church and state by barring Rep. Patrick Kennedy from receiving communion by Catholic Bishop of Rhode Island Thomas Tobin.

Tobin’s barring of Kennedy was the result of Kennedy’s criticism of the church for threatening to oppose health care reform unless it contained tighter restrictions on abortion.

Now just how many things can you get wrong in an article? Well this reporter is going for a world record. Clear violation of the Constitution? Gee the part about religious group not being able to speak up about legislation in not in my copy of the Constitution. The author goes on to talk about Thomas Jefferson and his famous phrase. Gee I was also unaware that Jefferson’s letters were part of the Constitution. Though of course his letter to the Danbury Baptists on the wall between Church in state was about the government not being able to interfere with the churches, not vice versa. But liberals can’t be troubled by facts when popular myths are all they need.

The reporter also did not find out that the letter to Rep Kennedy by Bishop Tobin is actually sent in 2007, so it was not a result of the Healthcare Debate as it is being framed in so many stories. The Boston Globe reports:

Bishop Thomas Tobin divulged details of his confidential exchange with Kennedy after the Democratic lawmaker told The Providence Journal in a story published Sunday that Tobin had instructed him not to receive Communion. The two men have clashed repeatedly in the past few weeks over abortion.

Kennedy did not say where or how he received those instructions. He declined to say whether he has obeyed the bishop’s request.

“The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion,” Kennedy told the paper in an interview conducted Friday.

,,Tobin said in a statement Sunday that he “has never addressed matters relative to public officials receiving Holy Communion with pastors of the diocese.”

If Bishop Tobin had told his pastors not to give him Communion two years ago surely the story would have leaked out. So I wold say that Rep. Kennedy is not being honest about that part. Though if the Bishop did indeed write this letter in 2007 I wish that he would also have instructed his pastors about this.

It looks like Bishop Tobin was doing the same thing that Archbishop Joseph Naumann did in regard to Gov. Sebelius who was told not to present herself before Communion, but that priests were not instructed to deny Communion if she went forward.

Being only an armchair bishop I have wondered why if you instruct a person to not receive Communion why you wouldn’t instruct priests, deacons, and EMHC to not give Communion to those persons if they put themselves forward. Though maybe it is not necessary if the person does not go forward for Communion. Rep. Kennedy will not say whether he has followed the Bishop’s instructions or not.

Being that the fast forward button on my DVR is my friend I don’t see many commercials, but I saw this one. This commercial could be the dictionary entry for relativism.

86 the rules, you do what just feels right.

Ah, the very meaning of Christmas. Christ was born into the world so that we could just do what feels right. Hey I feel like beating up the producers of this commercial, think they would mind?

Of course any mention of the made up holiday by a convicted torturer (aka Kwanzaa) annoys me, but now we even get Solstice added to the list. As if when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is most inclined toward or away from the Sun has anything to do with shopping at the Gap. Or is it that Solstice Claus will come this year on the 21st of December. How many children will wake up disappointed with their tilt of the earth gifts.

This commercial by trying to be multiculturally sensitive become culturally insensitive. So often attempts at inoffensiveness become offensive.

We have heard of “God of the Gaps” arguments, well these commercials are evidence that there is no God in the Gap stores, just smarmy multiculturalism.

Deacon Greg Kandra posts asking Is the Gap ad anti-Christmas? and reports that some of now boycotting Gap because of the commercial. Is the ad anti-Christmas? Well it was certainly not meant to be so. Relativism is never really anti-anything in theory – just in practice. Though really all commercializations of Christmas are to some extent anti-Christmas in that they totally miss the point that a savior came into the world to save us from our sins.

I was wondering if there would be a 2009 Tossmas and sure enough there is.

The above video by RealCatholicTV makes some claims that it fails to bring facts to in what CCHD is supporting such as prostitution. It mainly points out connections between George Soros, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and people involved with CCHD and other Soros sponsored groups. Certainly it says a lot that people who headed CCHD were also involved in Obama excuse making groups. It certainly seems to me that many associated with CCHD are more than just sympathetic to Alinsky style community organizing and the types of groups that Moveon.org founder George Soros would support. It also is no surprise that many working within the USCCB have been inclined to supporting the Democratic Party. The joke that the Bishops conference is the “Democratic Party at prayer” certainly had some merit – though not as much as it once did. Catholics being reflexively part of any political party is not what it once was.

Though while I don’t see the above video being as damning as it intended. I certainly see a real scandal within the CCHD that needs much more of an overhaul than so far planned. Though to be honest if the CCHD in its present incarnation was to disappear entirely I would not shed a tear.

With the collection coming up tomorrow it is unfortunate that the “Currently Funded Projects” page for CCHD at the USCCB sites is now “Not Found.” It could actually be a server order, but the disappearance is rather timely.

Though the list off 2008 grants is available. Since before I came into the Church ten years ago I was aware of the scandal surround CCHD and that they were funding groups that were well outside Catholic truth. Long before ACORN came to the front in the nation’s attention I had known to some extent that were more an arm of the Democratic Party than a group that was really making inroads into helping the poor and of course the stench of voter’s fraud has been around them for years. It was not until I looked at the above list that I saw the full extent of the problem.

Bishop Morin had some very strong words about critics of the CCHD and said “The subcommittee report cited three cases — out of 250 funded groups during the last year — in which funding was terminated and the groups were asked to repay any grant funds that were spent.” This certainly makes it sound like the problem is limited to a couple bad apple groups and it might even be true that the majority of these groups are not themselves supporting abortion, contraception, homosexual marriage, etc – at least not publicly as part of their mission.

But as Gibbons J. Cooney pointed out the other day one of the funded groups “The San Francisco Organizing Project (SFOP)” not only gives out so-called emergency contraception. It did not take me but a minute to determine that they are also involved in “Family Planning/Reproduction Health services.” Does anybody believe that they are teaching married couples NFP and being open children? Or that the “Confidential/Sensitive services for youths ages 12 to 21” falls into advice anywhere within magisterial teaching. So contrary to what Bishop Morin said it certainly appears that that the CCHD is still funding groups that in their day-to-day business deny Catholic truth.

Though what shocked me the most when going over last years list is that out of 250 organizations there was really not even one that I would consider giving money to or supporting myself. The briefs for these groups so often include buzz words right out of the far left’s lexicon and of course call themselves nonpartisan and multi-about-everything. The main business seems to be training people about victimology and leader training which seems to be geared towards creating even more leaders in the community organizing effort. The reason the President never bragged about his time as a community organizer is that the communities he organized were just as disorganized as when he started helping them. What are the success stories of the community organizing movement? Since the sixties exactly what are the neighborhoods they have transformed? I would certainly think the MSM would have said something about such a marvelous achievement if it had happened. Much has been said about Saul Alinsky the Communist/ Marxist founder of the community organizing movement. It appears more to me to be about community agitation for political purposes than really helping the poor. They talk a lot about root causes of poverty, but don’t seem to have an actual clue as to what they are other than it is somebody else’s fault.

Now maybe some of these groups listed actually do some good – well God can bring good out of evil and even community organizing! It is just that the approach taken by almost all of these groups really does not appear to have much similarity with Catholic social teaching. They all seem to be on the far left of the political spectrum and I just can’t see any of these groups having so-called religious or social conservatives on their boards. They call themselves non-partisan, but none of the groups supported fall anywhere within a conservative answer to helping the poor. But then again politicization is not what we need – weed need to help our brothers and sister among the poor and I don’t see how these groups are actually doing this. Like the Great Society of LBJ it is pretty much a total failure.

That the CCHD does not give any money to specifically Catholic groups helping the poor is rather strange. Plus of course not one dime goes to Emergency Pregnancy Centers. The St. Vincent dePaul Society does great work at the parish and diocesan level and actually interact with and help the poor, yet they don’t receive one dime either.

When I first read the following statement I found at And Sometimes Tea I thought it a bit harsh. Matthew Vadum at The American Spectator says:

The charitable arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, CCHD has never provided direct relief to the poor. That’s not its purpose.

CCHD is an extreme left-wing political organization that was created to feed and foster radical groups, but most Catholics are blissfully unaware of its true mission. CCHD says right on its website that it aims to support “organized groups of white and minority poor to develop economic strength and political power.”

After looking over the list I think it is all to true. In my opinion Blessed Mother Teresa would not have been given funding by the CCHD.

So even if all the groups CCHD was giving funding to stopped the intrinsically evil things that some of them do indeed support, I would still not give the CCHD a dime. On a prudential level I think the groups they are supporting are not directly helping the poor and I would much rather give directly to groups that are and that see the poor not as victims, but neighbors.

Some of the links I used were borrowed from And Sometimes Tea which had an excellent post on this subject.

Here are two things we learned from the Bishop’s meeting this week.

1) Homosexuality had nothing to do with the fact that the overwhelming percentage of priestly sex abuse victims were post-pubescent boys. These abusers I guess were equal opportunity abusers and would have been willing to abuse girls as equally as boys and it was just a target of opportunity thing doncha know.

CCHD is just fine and any grumblings and facts otherwise are just “outrageous claims.” Rest assured CCHD gives no money to groups involved in the Culture of Death or other things at odd with the truth of Church teaching. I feel so much better now and so relieved I can finally support CCHD. Hey just because the problematic groups they did finally drop was due to outside pressure and reports from an outside group means nothing. Just because they did nothing to investigate the groups they contributed to and had for years given money to groups that supported abortion, contraception, homosexual marriage is no big deal and again if you hear otherwise it is an “outrageous claim.”

It is I guess an outrageous claim that CCHD still gives money to groups not sympathetic to Church teaching like L.A. Community Action Network, Women’s Community Revitalization Project, San Francisco Organizing Project, Preble Street, Faith in Community, People Organized for Westside Renewal, Coalition L.A., Justice Overcoming Boundaries in San Diego County, Nuestra Casa, San Francisco Organizing Project, Time for Change Foundation (a.k.a. All of Us or None). Just drop your money in the basket this weekend for CCHD, because there is no problem – just move along.

Remember a couple of years ago it was shown Catholic Charities was giving money to one group that was promoting and distributing contraception and the official replay was pretty much denial.

When the South American bishop’s complained to the Canadian bishops conference to stop giving money to groups in South America that supported the Culture of Death we got a reply from an angry Canadian bishop complaining about bloggers.

Nice to know there is a siege mentality within bishop’s conferences and Catholic organizations that can’t even manage a sly wink and say “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Aren’t you confident that every thing is being done to prevent future problems?

One of the strangest features of the decline in Religious life in many areas of the Western Church – at least to those who are strangers to the study of social pathology – is the tendency of its representatives to deny that anything is wrong at all. The facts, however speak for themselves in that those Orders and communities which actually ing and recruit -in the United States, France and elsewhere – have taken precisely the opposite road from the kind of “renewal” Carey describes. They are brotherhoods or sisterhood (or in some cases double communities) where the heart of Religious life is taken be the invitation to love God with peculiar directness; where a classical identity based on the historic sources and norms of monastic and Religious lie is explicitly and unembarrassedly maintained; where a strong community life pertains, complete with common ritual practice, and where consecration (simply being a Religious) is prized as well as mission (what a Religious does).

That was written 10 years ago in “Christendom Awake” by Fr. Aidan Nichols, O.P. and it is perfectly said and quite apt in consideration of the reaction to the Apostolic Visitation of American women’s religious orders.

There have been so many denials of anything being wrong from these struggling orders and the usual suspects of National Catholic Reporter, Commonweal, America Magazine, and the statement issued by California bishops. How this happened shows a fail of leadership on almost every level. The Orders themselves let it happen or joined in, the local Bishops turned a blind eye, till it was left to the Holy See to finally respond long after much of the destruction had ever occurred.

The denials of there being a problem in the first place remind me of a couple of things. First the Black Knight scene in Monty Pythons Holy Grail where the Knight has all his limbs hacked off only to in the end admitting to a draw. That scene is a comedic masterpiece, but what happened to religious life in so many areas is not funny at all. The loss of so many religious is certainly akin to having all your limbs removed and those that stayed decided to enable even more flesh wounds.

It also reminds me of Baghdad Bob’s assertions “We have them surrounded in their tanks” and “There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!” This is no different than all the whines about the Apostolic Visitation and framing it as a persecution or new inquisition. Rampant dissent with orders following a phony feminism and worship of creation without a mention of the creator. A social justice mission that is not a whit different than what is done by a county social worker.

For them the cure is worse than the disease. They can hardly fail to actually see the lessons of the vibrant religious orders that are faithful to the Church. Or maybe they see the growing of these Orders as some kind of punishment from God for their orthodoxy. They started by jettisoning the habit, but they did not stop there and jettisoned much of their faith. The path to repentance begins with the acknowledgement that we have sinned. These Black Knight denials are so very sad because of this.

Here’s a real pastoral question to consider: What place is there for the adulterous person in the Catholic church? With the warning from the archdiocese of Washington, D.C., that it would pull out of social services in the city rather than accede to a bill that would afford benefits to adulterers, a question, too long neglected, arises for the whole church: What is a adulterous Catholic supposed to do in life?

Imagine you are a devout Catholic who is also an adulterer. Here is a list of the things that you are not to do, according to the teaching of the church. (Remember that most other Catholics can choose among many of these options.) None of this should be new or in any way surprising. If you are adulterous, you cannot:

1) Love. You can not have fulfilling love with one or more adulterous partners. From their earliest adolescence many, anticipate, dream about, hope for, plan about, talk about and pray for having sex with multiple partners. A lifelong abstinence from sex with people other than your spouse and a call to be chaste within your married life.

2.) Marry. The church has been clear, especially of late, in its opposition to divorce and remarriage. Of course, you can not marry your adulterous partner within the church. Nor can you enter into any sort of civil, oppisite-sex unions of any kind. They are beyond the pale. This should be clear to any Catholic. The Catechism even claims: ” Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law. It claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other till death. Divorce does injury to the covenant of salvation, of which sacramental marriage is the sign. Contracting a new union, even if it is recognized by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery”

3.) Adopt a child. Despite the church’s warm approval of adoption, you cannot adopt a needy child. You can not leave your family to start a new family with another person despite how needy the child.

4.) Enter a seminary. If you accept the church’s teaching on chastity for married, and feel a call to enter a seminary or religious order, you cannot–even if you desire the celibate life. In fact no only does the Church deny the priesthood to adulterous males, it extends the ban even to married men who are not part of the adulterous lifestyle.

5.) Work for the church and be open. If you work for the church in any sort of official capacity it is close to impossible to be open about your adulterous lifestyle. You can not brag about your sexual conquests among your co-workers. Laypeople have even been fired as principles of Catholic schools and other positions for having adulterous affairs.

At the same time, if you are a devout Catholic who is attentive both to church teachings and the public pronouncements of church leaders, you will be reminded that your actions are a “grave offense against the natural law” and “a deviation from God plan for marriage.”

Nothing above is surprising or controversial: all of the above are church teaching. But taken together, it raises an important pastoral question for all of us: What kind of life remains for these brothers and sisters in Christ, those who wish to follow the teachings of the church? Officially at least, the adulterous Catholic seems set up to lead a secretive life. Is this what God desires for the adulterous person?

Except for my obvious substitutions this is pretty much Father James Martin S.J. article “What Should a Gay Catholic Do?” This was a parody on his post which in turn was a parody on Church teaching.

This bit of propaganda tries to make pastoral issues trump the fact that homosexual acts are indeed intrinsically disordered. It totally leaves out “Go and sin no more” and the universal call for holiness. Certainly same-sex attraction is a very heavy cross, but we must all pick up the cross daily if we are to grow in holiness as we grow closer to Christ. As sinners we certainly do not need priests making excuses for our sins. It is not an act of charity in anyway to make the Church teaching on God’s plan for sex only between a husband and wife to seem like a sequence of negatives.

Fr. Martin has pounded only on negatives and makes no mention of what our brothers and sisters in Christ with same sex attraction can do. No mention of Courage and other Catholic apostolates to help people with same-sex attraction. Plus while father mentioned that those with deep-seated homosexual tendencies can no enter the seminary, it also certainly is not true that all people with some level of same-sex attraction fit that category. There is a lot in our culture that confuses people on the most basic of things making them think that if they have some level of same-sex attraction that they must give in to it. Fr. Martin does not mention that we are all called to chastity. Those that are not married must be celibate. The person who has attraction to the opposite sex must be just as chaste as those who have attraction to the same sex.

No doubt Fr. Martin writes this with the best of intentions. But undermining Church teaching to excuse sin is simply evil. That marriage is only between a man and a women and is indissoluble is part of God’s plan. To say otherwise is to oppose God.

It is also rather ridiculous to frame those who actively live the homosexual lifestyle as being a devout Catholic. I am not speaking of those with same-sex attraction who do not fall into sin. An active fornicator or adulterer is not a devout Catholic, they are a Catholic who has fallen and needs to repent and confess their sins. What Fr. Martin has written will help no one who currently follow the homosexual lifestyle to repent. He ends up preaching Christ without the Cross and does a disservice to those suffering. I wonder if he has ever been to a Courage meeting and if he would describe those attending as leading a lonely, loveless, secretive life? One of the priests of my parish runs the local Courage apostolate and he is doing more for our brothers and sisters in Christ than anybody who makes excuses for sin.

I don’t write this as an attack on Fr. Martin, I am a fan of his book “My Life with the Saints” and some of what he has written. But of course he identified himself in the progressive camp in the New York Times and this bit of homosexual agitprop just further shows this.

There is also the story of the former “gay” youth leader with a dramatic conversion story. When he announced this two years ago there was such a negative outcry from those he knew that he went silent for two years. Yes the irony was that they wanted him to return to the closet about this.

Since then he says he has “relied on God, and God alone.” “I have enjoyed living a relatively ‘normal’ life,” he said. “I go to church. I’ve dated girls. And, I continue to understand the ramifications of the homosexual sin in increasingly deep ways, as I encounter others in the grip of this sin, learn more about human nature, and watch my own experiences – comparing them to the way I might’ve responded or acted in certain situations just a few years ago.”

‘Letter from the Archdiocese of Chicago Office of Peace and Justice and the Campaign for Human Development:

‘The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) is the domestic social justice, antipoverty program of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Its goal is to break the cycle of poverty through empowerment initiatives and justice education. Throughout its 40-year history, CCHD has given thousands of people in the Archdiocese of Chicago the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty and live in dignity.

‘Recently, CCHD has come under attack from certain groups whose motivations and objectives are rooted in partisan politics, rather than faithfulness to Catholic teaching and concern for the poor.

Well not exactly. The criticism about CCHD had almost entirely come from Catholics faithful to the Magisterium upset about money supporting organizations which have a dim view of actual Catholic teaching. The criticism has not been coming from any political groups, but individuals consisting of Catholic bloggers and others. The fact that the Democratic party is so-linked with the Culture of Death and thus any criticism gets linked linked to partisanship instead of faithfulness to the Church and her mission. It is our faithfulness to Catholic teaching that makes us upset when CCHD funds go to organizations supporting abortion, contraceptions, and homosexual acts. We want money to actually go to the poor and not groups that will used it for culture of death advocacy. We have an equal love for the poor and it is quite uncharitable of you to assume we don’t and to frame our faithfulness to Church teaching as playing politics.

These groups have gone so far as to call for the elimination of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, making erroneous and inflammatory statements about the program, its supporters, and the projects it funds. Despite efforts on the part of the CCHD staff to reach out to these critics and respond to their concerns, anti-CCHD rhetoric has only become more fervent and hateful, and the time has come to rally in defense of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

So where is the mention of the report that lead to the withdrawal of funding for multiple groups CCHD has been supporting for years? If we did not raise our voices CCHD would still be materially cooperating with that evil. Besides some groups still receiving CCHD funds are beyond problematic. It was only recently that money to ACORN was stopped after years of support even though ACORN’s legal problems are nothing new.

‘As members of the Catholic community and followers of Christ, we are impelled to protect the poor and vulnerable of our society. We are called to pursue not only charity but justice, and to ‘set at liberty the oppressed.’ (Lk 4:18) Those who are trying to destroy the Catholic Campaign for Human Development deny the legitimate and pressing need for a faithful response to poverty in our communities. We must not allow the deceitful cries of these detractors, whose partisan agendas supersede their faith, to weaken our commitment to living out the message of Christ and the ideals of Catholic Social Teaching.

And I can do all of that without contributing one dime to CCHD. My parish has a soup kitchen and there are plenty of local Catholic organizations actually helping the poor that I can contribute to. I don’t have to have my money funneled via CCHD to dubious organizations to help the poor. CCHD has shown very poor judgment over the years and I can’t see a single reason for it to continue to exist. The fortress mentality instead of admitting some of the major problems does not advance the cause of promoting the CCHD. Maybe that argument can be made, but I haven’t heard it yet.

On November 21-22, the annual collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development will take place in parishes across the Archdiocese of Chicago. The money collected during that weekend will go directly to funding projects in impoverished communities throughout the city. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that we counter the lies being spread about CCHD. Take a stand against injustice; break the cycle of poverty; support the Catholic Campaign for Human Development!

‘In Christ’s love,

‘Rey Flores, Program Director, Catholic Campaign for Human Development

‘Nicole Wooldridge, Program Assistant, Catholic Campaign for Human Development

‘Nicholas Lund-Molfese, Director, Office for Peace and Justice Adrienne Curry, Program Director, Catholic Relief Services

Once again we get the vague “lies” without pointing to something being said that is factually incorrect. If there are actually lies being told, please inform us of the truth.

I would also like to know why the issues on your web site include the economy, capital punishment, war, housing and other aspects of Catholic social teaching and not a word on the greatest threat of our times of abortion? How in the world can this be left off your list? And please don’t tell us – well the Respect Life Office handles that part. At the least include abortion on your list and link it to the Respect Life Office of the diocese. As long as the social justice offices treat the pro-life cause as the relative they don’t want to talk about, then don’t be surprised when we are dubious of your efforts.

Matt C. Abbott has replies from ALL and HLI on this.

Site: Reform the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

It is an attempt to establish a theocracy to take charge of our politics and our legislation. It is an attempt to make the legislative power of this country subordinate to the church. It is not only to unite Church and State, but it is to put the State in subordination to the dictates of the church.

And another quote.

I expect political hardball on any legislation as important as the health care bill. I just didn’t expect it from the United States Council [sic, it’s “Conference”] of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Who elected them to Congress?

The first quote is from enator Stephen A. Douglas (D., Ill.), on March 14, 1854 in regards to an anti-slavery petition. The second is from Rep Lynn Woolsey (D, Calif.).

Via The Corner

Mark Shea on the excuse making for the murderous Muslim officer.

…And it means we are absolute idiots to go on ignoring the fact that a) Islam has plenty of room in its body of doctrine for this sort of brutal violence; b) Islam has plenty of people who approve of this kind of violence and are in various stages of readiness to commit it; and c) Radical Islamic ideologues often emit glaring warning signals. We are even greater fools to tiptoe around those Muslims whose first reaction to such crimes is to blame everybody else but their tradition and to demand victimhood for themselves.

We want very much to believe that Violent Islam is a perversion of the Islamic tradition and Wise and Benevolent Islam is the Real Islamic tradition. But the reality is that Islam is an invented human religion that borrows from fragments of Judaism and Christianity, mixes in Mohammed’s own delusional (or lying) claims of revelation, and completes it with a dash of conventional wisdom from seventh-century Arab culture. It is not a magisterial faith with some adjudicating body that defines what is and is not the orthodox reading of the Koran. It is whatever its various adherents say it is.

That means that if you are looking for a sanction for violence in the Koran, you can find it, because it’s there. So is the wisdom, almsgiving, and peace stuff, if you want that. So Muslims who commit these heinous acts with such frequency are not “betraying Islam” when doing so out of self-described piety. They are, in fact, implementing one possible interpretation of the Muslim tradition (and often slaughtering a great many other Muslims in the process). Westerners who lie to themselves that these monsters are “not real Muslims” are simply self-deluded fools. They are as Muslim as Mohammed, as are their Muslim victims. There is no Islamic Magisterium to excommunicate them. They don’t speak for all Muslims, but they most certainly do speak and act for the disturbingly large percentage of Muslims who either applaud them, remain silent, or complain about being victims of suspicion and distrust by the victims of terror instead of complaining about the thugs who commit the terror in the name of Islam.

Quite well said along with the rest of his article. The media wants to call the violent Muslims as radical when really they are closer to their founder than the so-called moderates. People also talk a lot about Islam needing it’s own reformation. Yeah just what we need a return to early Islam where you marry children and invade cities around you as their “prophet” did. Mark also makes great points on the fact that as a human religion and one that was like a blender taking bits and pieces of other religions along with Mohammed’s own contribution people can just focus on the parts they like. This is no surprise since look at people have done with actual scripture. It is just with the Koran you don’t have to twist passages to justify violence – it is there in the text in in the “lived experience” of the first adherents to Islam.