LOL - That got you curious, didn't it?
It's pretty likely that you don't know this author, but I know him very well, personally. He is both one of very few truly good men in this world and and an underated talent. He recently penned an interesting piece reporting on the Vatican's position on Global Warming.
I always find it interesting when science and religion can agree on something. I wonder how this will affect the Catholic vote? (Sorry - the WHITE Catholic vote, I mean! LOL)
Actually, I'm sure this will just be more fodder for those other religious 'Mercans who view the Vatican as "just another European country that hates us." Yeah - I actualy got that in an email from a [Conservative, Baptist] friend of mine back when the pope was coming out against the execution of Saddam Hussein after having condemned the US's invasion of Iraq. After a rather loud *sigh* I explained that this is, in fact, what a PRINCIPLED "pro-life" position looks like: Against abortion, yes, but ALSO against the Death Penalty and War, in general. He conceded the point, but said he still thought it was "strange."
Well, there's plenty that the Vatican gets wrong, but I'll take them ANY day over the average 'Mercan Mega-Church. It's nice to see them on the right side of this one. Maybe religion can actually do some good after all!
It is a good article.
ReplyDeleteInteresting timing, Eddie. As I was driving north yesterday, I was listening to WNYC, the New York (gulp, gasp, choke) NPR station. (Brian Lehrer show, if you're interested in finding it) My ears pricked up when I heard the John Boehner is going to be Commencement Speaker at The Catholic University of America's graduation.
(I graduated in '65, and LBJ spoke at mine. This was, of course, before Vietnam brought his Civil Rights and Great Society hopes and accomplishments down.)
My first impulse was to pull over and puke on the side of the road, but then I heard that there was a great deal of opposition. A letter, signed by 75 faculty members, protested the invitation, because the Republican campaign of class warfare is directly opposed to the Catholic imperative to care for the poor. He had one of the signers on as a guest but, unfortunately, I drove out of range in the middle of a very interesting interview.
I was happy to hear it, as I've been very depressed about the rightward tilt of CU in the last 20 years. Ed Gillespie is on the board of governors. (Ironically enough, Terry McCauliffe, who was head of the DNC while Gillespie was head of the RNC, is also a CUA grad.) It was a source of great pride to me that the CU campus was the location of the first campus protest of the '60s. Academic freedom was the cause, and the University finally silenced the prof the students were supporting a couple of years ago.
I find the Right's cries (whines) of 'Liberal Bias' on Campuses to be as pathetic and absurd (and just plain wrong-minded) as their complaints of Liberal Bias in journalism.
ReplyDeleteBecause Journalism and Academia have much the same purpose: to learn and discover new things. Now, they do this DIFFERENLTLY, of course, but both are inevitabvly going to find things that motivate change against the status quo. (If they're doing their jobs correctly anyway.) That might be "LIBERAL," but if so, it's a reason to EMBRACE Liberalism, Change, Progress and new Knowledge rather than a reason to criticise Academia and Journalism! But then.. I guess I'd probably hate institutions that were constantly debunking my dogma, proving me wrong and exposing my insidious agenda.
Thankfully I don't have those worries: I'm PROGRESSIVE. LOL. (No dogma, science on my side, and a benevolent, humanist agenda.)
You know what you call Journalism (and/or Academic Research) that only ever sings the praises of the status quo and the dogma of the powers that be?
PROPAGANDA.
(Or... you know.... FOX NEWS. LOL)
Thanks for your comment.