George Will Hits the Nail Right on the Head

In one sentence, George Will zeroes in on what is wrong with yesterday's SCOTUS decision:

But "unconstitutional" is not a synonym for "unjust" or "unwise," and the Constitution is not a scythe that judges are free to wield to cut down all laws they would vote to repeal as legislators.

Another sentence also zeroes in on another crucial aspect:

By what has been called "semantic infiltration," seemingly bland language stealthily permeates discourse with ideology.

Oh, yes, indeedy.

(Thanks, Mark.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 06/27/03 10:14:44 PM
Categorized as Political.

"A Story Worth Sharing"?

A friend sent along this e-mail today, wondering if it's legit.

A story worth sharing...

An unreported story worth sharing... At a recent Soldiers Breakfast held at Redstone Arsenal, AL, Sergeant Major of the Army Jack Tilley shared the following story. (The vignette was captured by James Henderson, Association of the U.S. Army Redstone Huntsville Chapter Chaplain) He (SMA Jack Tilley) described one such recent visit to our wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington that I (Chaplain Henderson) will never forget.

The Special Forces soldier had lost his right hand and suffered severe wounds of his face and side of his body. As SMA Tilley described, how do you honor such a soldier, showing respect without offending?

What can you say or do in such a situation that will encourage and uplift? How do you shake the right hand of a soldier who just lost his? Finally he told how he acted as though the man had a hand, taking his wrist as though it were his hand and speaking encouragement to him.

But he said there was another man in that group of visitors who had even brought his wife with him to visit the wounded who knew exactly what to do. This man reverently took this soldier's stump of a hand in both of his hands, bowed at the bedside and prayed for him. When he stood from praying he bent over and kissed the man on the head and told him he loved him.

What a powerful expression of love for one our wounded heroes! And what a beautiful Christ-like example! What kind of man would kneel in such humility and submission to the Living God of the Bible?

It was George W. Bush, President of the United States and Commander in Chief of our Armed forces, a man who understands and follows his chain of command, a leader God has given us.

Snopes says, as of May 31, that the status of this story is "undetermined"; Truth or Fiction says, as of June 5, "A spokesperson for the Association of the U.S. Army's Redstone Huntsville chapter said Chaplain Henderson's story is true. We have contacted Sgt. Major Jack Tilley for confirmation of the story as well and will post his reply."

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 06/27/03 09:59:00 PM
Categorized as War.

SCOTUS and Christianity

Two worthy blogs on yesterday's SCOTUS decision striking down the Texas anti-sodomy law, from a Christian perspective.

First, from Mark Shea at Catholic and Enjoying It!

.... American Christians are rapidly being put in the position of saying to their countrymen, "You have now enshrined in law as a 'constitutional right' two sins which, in the biblical tradition, cry out to heaven. How long do you think you can continue to speak of 'America: the Light and the Glory' and vaunt our obvious 'right' to defeat the scourge that comes against us?"

I think it would behoove Americans to stop speaking ever more loudly of our superiority and start getting on our knees before God. Israel was, in a certain sense, superior to the entire pagan world. She possessed gifts that no other nation was granted. In betraying those gifts, she became more subject to judgment since those to whom much is given, much will be required.

We have been given much. If we piss it away, we'll be more blameworthy in the eyes of God than the most ignorant Bronze Age Fanatic.

Second, from Bryan Preston at Junkyard Blog:

.... Most churches today frown on the homosexual lifestyle. Where the Bible addresses homosexuality, it condemns it, and most churches rightly take their moral cues from the Bible. It is Christianity's foundational text. This week's ruling, because it is so sweeping, will open the door to lawsuits aimed at ending churches' "discrimination" against practicing homosexuals. Here's the form I expect it to take. A young man will graduate from a mainstream, well-respected seminary, probably in a conservative, evangelical denomination. He will be gay, but in the closet throughout his time in seminary. Upon graduation, he will apply for a job in a church, probably not as pastor (young seminarians tend to hit the lower ranks first) but as minister of music or youth pastor, or maybe associate pastor in a mid-sized or larger church. He will be qualified in every way -- except that he will have also come out of the closet during the interview process. The church will not hire him, and he will sue it for discriminating against him. He'll lose, but that won't matter. He will have sent the church's denomination a message, and cost the local church a fortune (the ACLU or Human Rights Campaign will pick up his tab). The local church, if it is small enough, may close down as the case drags on and saps its funds. The denomination's hierarchy will look at its bylaws at the behest of its lawyers to see if there are ways to prevent future liability. More liberal denominations will change their bylaws and allow practicing homosexuals to enter its ministry force. In so doing they'll remove their legal liability, but at the expense of doctrine. More evangelical churches -- those most hated by the gay rights lobbies -- will not change, and will be sued repeatedly. It will take just one victory and the gay rights movement will have conquered the Christian church in America....

P.S. Also, from Fr. Rob Johansen at Thrown Back:

.... By locating it's argument in the ever-expanding "penumbra" of the so-called "right" to privacy, the Supreme Court has decreed that henceforth, no community has any right to define for itself any standards of what it considers moral conduct. It has decreed that no community has a right to express moral censure on any behavior in any meaningful way.

The logic of this decision, if its trajectory is unchecked, will lead inevitably to state recognition of homosexual marriage. After all, it is strictly a matter between "consenting adults" and the state cannot discourage the arrangements made between people. The logic of this decision opens the way to the decriminalization of child sex-abuse: all you have to do is redefine "consent" (there are people working on that already) and then the way is open. Any legislative attempt to criminalize or discourage any behavior because it is simply wrong cannot stand under this new judicial reasoning: unless the moral judgment so enshrined in law is one our Robed Masters happen to agree with.

This will also open the way for gay activists to force Churches or other religious organizations to recognize homosexual unions and/or be compelled to hire homosexuals. I foresee in the not-too-distant future a challenge to the "moral turpitude" clauses contained in many teacher's contracts: Your parish's school could be forced to hire an openly gay teacher because, under the logic of Lawrence (yesterday's SCOTUS decision) together with other anti-discrimination laws, the "right to privacy" will preclude any organization from making "discriminatory" judgments on the basis of individuals private "lifestyle choices." ....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 06/27/03 03:38:37 PM
Categorized as Social/Cultural.

From "The Heart of Christ"

By Rev. Ronald Knox, June 17, 1956.

A sermon preached at St. John's Church, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester.

.... When all is said and done, we find it hard, don't we, to get God into our mind-picture? His glory dazzles us; we are confused by the thought of the enormous gulf which lies between him and his creatures. We know that his Providence extends over all his works; he caters even for the sparrows, and yet... he is so great, and we are so small! Even our sins — just an unkind word said about a neighbour, and we tell ourselves that we have offended God; think of the scale of the thing, our little lapse, and his infinite existence, put side by side! And then we think of the Sacred Heart, and all at once the thing becomes vivid to us. Jesus Christ in heaven, taking an interest in our tiny needs, as he took an interest in so many tiny needs on earth. Jesus Christ hurt by our sins, as he was hurt by so many slights and disappointments up and down the villages of Galilee. The echoes of our prayer no longer seem to die away in infinite distance; they strike a chord in the Sacred Heart, and become vocal to us, real to us....

The statues, the holy pictures represent our Lord in one particular attitude, as he revealed himself to Sister Margaret Mary; an attitude of tender abasement, of mournful pleading with mankind. And, as I say, people from outside who come into our churches look at it and are scandalized. Is this all your Christ, they ask, this weak, womanish figure, in a posture of sentimental appeal? Is your religion all sugary sweetness, all variations on a minor key? Has it stopped still with the seventeenth century; has it no message for today? And to that we answer, No, you have got it all wrong. The Sacred Heart is the treasury of all those splendid qualities with which a perfect life was lived; is the repository of all those noble thoughts which mankind still venerate in the gospels. It was the Sacred Heart that burned with anger when the traders were driven out of the temple; it was the Sacred Heart that loved the rich young man, yet would not spare him; it was the Sacred Heart that defied Pilate in his own judgment-hall. It is strong and stern and enduring; it hates prevarications and pretences. The perfect flowering of a human life, not on this occasion or that, but all through, all the time, the utter sacrifice of a human will — that is what the Sacred Heart means, and there is no picture, no statue on earth that can portray its infinite beauty.

[Pastoral Sermons and Occasional Sermons, ed. Philip Caraman, S.J., pp. 485f.]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 06/27/03 12:56:27 PM
Categorized as Religious & Speeches and Suchlike.