Category: Uncategorized
Persons versus Things: The Dangers of Dehumanizing Political Rhetoric
If you need any more insight into the depravity of the current administration, or if you want additional motivation to believe the worst about them, that they are (literally) heathens in Christian clothing, I suggest you consider these remarks by Stephen Miller at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service: Our enemies cannot comprehend our strength, our determination, our resolve, our passion. Our lineage, and our legacy … Read More Persons versus Things: The Dangers of Dehumanizing Political Rhetoric
Samaritans and Levites, Part 2
Late last month, the Texas Supreme Court issued its opinion in Paxton v. Annunciation House, the El Paso case discussed here a few months ago. To refresh your memory, Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General (and now candidate for the United States Senate) sought to shut down Annunciation House, a refugee assistance facility operated by the Catholic Diocese of El Paso, because it had the temerity to … Read More Samaritans and Levites, Part 2
Samaritans and Levites, Texas Style
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has a lot of time on his hands these days. For a couple of years, he seemed to spend more of his workday defending himself than defending the state. He faced state security charges, he was the subject of a whistleblower lawsuit by fired OAG employees, and he was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives. Now, he’s been acquitted of … Read More Samaritans and Levites, Texas Style
‘Tis the Season
This week, in many Christian traditions, is not only part of the Christmas season, the period between December 25 and the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6. It is also a week when we remember people who died for the faith. December 26 was the Feast of St. Stephen, whose act of voluntary martyrdom is told in the 6th Chapter of Acts. (Notice the … Read More ‘Tis the Season
Justice Alito’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Month
Juvenal said that it is very difficult not to write satire. As its 2022 term came to a close, the United States Supreme Court proved his point. Take Justice Samuel Alito. Arrogant has its etymological roots in the Latin rogare: to ask. It shares that root withinterrogate (to question), prerogative (which, literally, means “ask first”) and rogation (hence the special period of petitionary prayer known as Rogation Days.) Arrogant, then, … Read More Justice Alito’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Month
Redeeming the Past
The names “Plessy” and “Ferguson” are linked, seemingly forever, in American legal history. Homer Plessy, a resident of New Orleans, bought a first-class ticket for a train from New Orleans to Covington. He sat in a car reserved for White passengers. The conductor ordered him to move to a different car because he was of “mixed descent:” 7/8 “Caucasian” and 1/8 “African,” as the … Read More Redeeming the Past
Richard Hooker, Humanist Saint
Wednesday was the feast day in the Anglican Communion for the author Richard Hooker. Not the author of the novel MASH, but of The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, which (the last time I looked) has not been made into a movie or television series. But perhaps it should. Richard Hooker the theologian has a good deal to say to us. Hooker lived in a time … Read More Richard Hooker, Humanist Saint
Fright Night at the School Board Meeting
William F. Buckley Jr. once said of socialism something like “everyone knows that it doesn’t work, but when did it get so creepy?” (The emphasis, as I recall, was his.) This phenomenon, of regarding ideas as not just intellectually suspect but threatening or sinister, is all too common these days. Socialism, which originally was simply an economic theory, continues to occupy a high position on this … Read More Fright Night at the School Board Meeting
Is There a “Higher”Law?
The Ken Burns film on the life of the boxer Muhammed Ali, which ran on PBS a few weeks ago, returns time and again to Ali’s battle with the federal government to stay out of the Vietnam War. Drafted into the United States Army, Ali refused induction, claiming that as a Muslim he was opposed to all wars save those declared by Allah or … Read More Is There a “Higher”Law?
Suffer the Little Children
Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Mississippi inmate Brett Jones share more than their first name. They both have incidents in their past that have followed them since. Justice Kavanaugh got a second chance. Jones, in part because of Kavanaugh, apparently will not. Justice Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion in Jones v. Mississippi, released earlier this week. In 2004, Jones, fifteen years old, killed his grandfather … Read More Suffer the Little Children
Fanfare for the Common Man (and Woman)
Everyone seems to have adopted a pandemic project: learn to bake scones, run a marathon on a treadmill (assuming you have a treadmill, because good luck buying one), write a novel, teach yourself Greek or Gaelic, clean out your closet or your inbox. One of my projects, given that Anne makes Texas’s best scones and we don’t own a treadmill, is to read all … Read More Fanfare for the Common Man (and Woman)
justice and mercy 