John Kerry's "Catholicism"

A dead-on column by James Gannon at (yes) USA Today, June 2:

.... Now, 44 years later, another Catholic is about to become the Democratic nominee for president. I wish I could be as proud and enthusiastic about that as I was in 1960. Instead, I am embarrassed. Given his beliefs and his voting record, I wish John Kerry professed another religious faith or none at all. I would rather have an agnostic or an atheist in the White House than a person who proclaims himself a Catholic but tosses overboard those parts of Catholic doctrine that are politically inconvenient....

As a Catholic who takes the church's positions on abortion and same-sex marriage seriously, I wonder how Kerry can toss aside these "personal beliefs" so easily. Kerry seems to wear his Catholicism like a sports coat that he puts on for Sunday Mass but takes off when going to work. I don't trust a man whose supposedly deep inner convictions can be checked in the cloakroom of the Senate chamber, or cast aside at the door of the Oval Office....

Kerry is consistent in voting in line with liberal Democratic orthodoxy: against abortion restrictions, against restrictions on gay marriage, against capital punishment and for social-welfare legislation such as the minimum wage. This is his true religion, based on his voting record.

John Kennedy didn't face this dilemma. He lived and died before Roe vs. Wade, before the idea of gay marriage, before the Democratic Party became a hostile environment for devout Catholics who won't check their beliefs at the door. John Kerry has made his choice on these matters. He is not one of us. I wish he would stop pretending that he is.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 06/04/04 06:57:56 PM
Categorized as John Kerry & Religious.

"History Is Useful"

Unless you are Democrats trying to defeat your political opponents in the upcoming general election, in which case history is harmful.

John Keegan provides some desperately needed historical perspective, at the London Telegraph, June 1:

History is useful. That, at any rate, is the theme of Alan Bennett's new play, The History Boys. History gets you into a good university. History gets you a good job. History is a key to cracking the secret of life.

Or is it? I have been a dedicated history boy for 50 years but these past few months I have begun to wonder if history is any use at all. Britain and the United States have got into a difficult situation in Iraq and the entire Western media are reacting as if an unprecedented disaster is about to overwhelm their armed forces and governments....

See also these:

• So, What Good is Intelligence, Anyway?
• Why Were the Pundits So Wrong?
• "This is Not Vietnam - the Allies Are Well on the Way to Victory"

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 06/04/04 06:24:54 PM
Categorized as International.

Mike S. Adams vs. Higher Academia

Prof. Mike Adams (University of North Carolina - God help him - Wilmington) has published a few connected articles at TownHall in the past two weeks, very informative and revealing. First, Summer reading:

In January of 2003, I made a New Year’s resolution. I decided I was going to spend less time reading about current events and more time reading classic literature. I had been through a classic literature kick about nineteen years earlier, which focused on classic English novels (by Dickens and Hardy), Russian novels (by Dostoevsky and Tolstoy), and American novels (by Faulkner and Hemingway). This time I decided I was going to adopt a reading list that would force me to read some authors I hadn’t yet read. I also wanted to spend more time on “modern” classics....

Second, Fear and loathing in faculty recruitment:

I usually get angry when people call my house during dinner. But the other night I was delighted when I got a call from David Horowitz. David has been doing a lot of research recently on the issue of political affiliation among college professors and administrators. Most of his research has come from surveys and archival data. Because he has little access to anecdotal evidence, he asked me to write an article describing the hiring (and promotion) process from an insider’s perspective. As soon as he asked, I threw my TV dinner in the garbage and started writing this column. You are reading the finished product right now....

Third, English for lesbians, feminists, queers, and communists:

Recently, I wrote an article called “Summer Reading,” which was intended to motivate my readers to take some time to read classic literature over the summer. While mostly apolitical, it did close with the following line, which was deemed offensive by one of my readers: “(Go out and) pick up a great work of classic literature and enjoy the reading. You know, like the kind they used to assign in college when English professors taught English instead of homosexuality and feminism.” ....

Last, Liberals miss entire point, details at eleven:

Yesterday, I ran a polite article entitled, “English for lesbians, feminists, queers, and communists.” The article began with a reference to a previous article that had offended a liberal reader. And now it appears that yesterday’s article has offended yet another liberal. In fact, it appears to have offended several liberals. Here’s what just one had to say after I wounded his inner child: ....

He also has a website, where he shows off his hate mail.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 06/04/04 05:38:19 PM
Categorized as Social/Cultural.

Holy Spirit Interactive

Vide.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 06/04/04 07:35:32 AM
Categorized as Religious.

"Church's Ability to Evangelize Is Diminished"

Really, your eminence?

Lege.

Confer "I come not to praise Caesar, but to bury him" (part 1, part 2) and I come not to praise Caesar, but to bury him.

I am reminded of something I wrote a couple of years ago:

I concluded last time with Bernard Cardinal Law’s perplexing detachment from the situation he himself had helped to create, as reported in the Boston Globe, Mar. 10:

In his response at the end of the convocation, Law said, “In my most horrible nightmares, I would never have imagined that we would have come to the situation in which we find ourselves.”

Foreboding is added to my perplexity upon re-reading the article, which also contains this revealing notice:

“For more than two months, we have been inundated by the media with details of that awful history,” Law said. “It has left us sad, it has left us angry, and it has robbed us of that trust which a short while ago we took for granted.”

Excuse me, Cardinal Law: neither the media nor the reports of an “awful history” have robbed Boston’s faithful of the trust they had taken for granted: you yourself, personally, have done so by being partly responsible for some of the egregious “details” of that “awful history”.

As reported, Law speaks as if he had been standing in a crowd next to a street when he was suddenly struck by a car veering off the road. Actually, he is more like a passenger who had been telling the driver how well he was handling the car as it barreled down the sidewalk....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 06/04/04 07:26:48 AM
Categorized as Religious.