Our Broader Values

Sean Gonsalves is dead on here. The Judeo-Christian values I cherish in Scripture are not limited to one-liners to be cherry-picked for proof-texting in the latest political argument.

They are the filter through which all I encounter should be strained for its spiritual worth.

What's the Fix Mr. Buckley

The conservative icon has put his finger on my biggest hot button in recent years. Bill Buckley reports that - in spite of selective government scrutiny - the rape of public corporation coffers by cannibalistic company officers is proceeding virtually unchecked.

Bill is his surgically concise self in citing Viacom as one gross example. What he leaves completely without mention is how we check such rampant abuse.

Is it unreasonable to tie officers' compensation, at least beyond base salary, to the performance of the company?

Absolute Relativity

Barbara O'Brien says a lot of what I think a lot better than I could in her post at The American Street. Well said Barbara.

Ratzinger Rants

The papal conclave opened with a conservative rant worthy of the best American wingnut! What Cardinal Ratzinger of Germany said to rally the conservative "princes" send a chill through my more inclusive Christian heart.

In decribing what he calls a "dictatorship of relativism", he seems to indicate anyone, like me, who doesn't share his brand of absolute Truth is selfishly self-centered by definition.

This thinking seems to come from the same siege mentality that led Church leaders, John-Paul II included, to deny, hide, and cover up sexual abuse by U. S. priests to the everlasting detriment of the institution.

I use my God-given judgment to discern degrees of good, evil, right, and wrong in the procession of life's events that meet me daily. I try to look past my personal immediate gratification in seeking to do the next right thing. I think this makes my theology more personal but not necessarily more selfish.

The world has enough lines in the sand. I don't believe Christ would have true disciples out drawing more.

A Culture of Life, and Another One

I can't attribute this post as well as I would like because what got me off the dime to post again was something I caught in passing.

Pat Buchanan was on one of the cable news shows, and was asked about the extent to which Bush and the Pope disagreed on the death penalty. Pat, in comparing the Schiavo case to executions, called one the killing of the innocent and the other the killing of the guilty.

I think this sums up one problem with the culture of life fringe. They believe in multiple cultures in which they get to draw the dividing lines between them. They think they should decide where the culture of life ends and the culture of death begins, and they still don't think they're moral relativists. Go figure.