Human Rights and the Greatest Evil?

Tim J. Clark Uncategorized , , , ,

Bill Maher Reveals Why He’s Harder on Dems Today...and It Was Something, Matt Vespa, Townhall

“The comedian didn’t hold back about his feelings on the recent shift within the Democratic Party. Until they address this problem, he’ll keep criticizing his own side of the aisle. If you go on Maher’s show believing that Israel is the greatest evil of all time, he will tear you apart. This New Rules segment makes it clear: if you share that view, you’re historically illiterate in the extreme (via RealClearPolitics):”

Transcript

And finally, new rules since yesterday was Israel’s birthday. Having become a nation on May 14th, 78 years ago, everyone must either wish her a happy birthday or admit they’re anti-Semitic. Now, it’s everyone’s right in a free country to be anti-Semitic, but enough with hiding behind Israel or Zionism or Netanyahu.

If you think, as so many do now, that when it comes to human rights, Israel is the monster country of all time, you either don’t read or you don’t care about your own hypocrisy. Because there are so many worse places. But that’s where we are these days.

No Jews, no news. Ha ha. But China, Russia, Sudan, Iran, Myanmar, Haiti, the Congo, North Korea, all way worse.

And that’s how you know it’s anti-Semitism. It’s the inconsistency. People talk about Jews these days like something out of Stormfront, except it’s not Stormfront.

It’s an editor from the American Prospect, which is a venerable liberal publication that launched the careers of journalists like Ezra Klein. And yet no one blinks when one of their editors says, Israel is a brainwashed, psychopathic death cult that might need to be nuked to save the human race. Uh-huh.

People say the left and the right can’t agree on anything these days. Well, there is this one thing they agree on. Right-winger Tucker Carlson has Nick Fuentes and Holocaust deniers on his podcast and wonders along with them, who really was the bad guy in World War II?

And the New York Times has on their podcast super leftist Hasan Piker, who they call a progressive mind, and who says Zionists should be treated the same as Nazis, which I assume means hung at Nuremberg. That’s what progressive is now? I guess so.

The kids are sure into it. They went nuts last year at Coachella for Kneecap. That’s the name of an Irish rap group, as if Ireland hasn’t suffered enough.

Their stage set is a sign that says, f*ck Israel. And then they send a beach ball around the crowd. Again, ha-ha.

Because again, Israel is the only country in the world doing anything bad. I see why the Meathead Manosphere and the Code Pink people are on the same page. Because they both went to high school in America and they don’t know anything.

So we… So we really could someday soon have the tiki torch Jews will not replace us crowd and the queers for Palestine people working together to elect the next Hitler. There’s a North Carolina teenager who’s been charged with plotting to drive through a synagogue to fulfill her life goal of killing as many Jews as possible.

Because a kid’s got to have a dream. I’m just asking why in the world would this be the dream of some kid in North Carolina? Why is it the dream of Dan Bilzerian, who’s running as a Republican to win a House seat in Florida?

Who’s Dan Bilzerian? Well, he’s a professional douchebag who’s attracted 30 million followers by doing this all day and posting it. Yes, he’ll fit in fine with the current Congress.

And Dan is fairly typical of the guys in the Manosphere when he says the only real battle in the world today that I see worth fighting is f*cking, you know, exterminating Israel. I mean, I would sign up tomorrow to go f*cking put boots on the ground and go f*cking kill Israelis. Why?

Why is this a**hole’s life about two things? Getting more Viagra and exterminating the Jews. Israel was founded on the idea that anti-Semitism made a Jewish state unnecessary because Jews would never be safe without one.

Can you honestly listen to this rhetoric and not see why that turned out to be true? If you don’t have the right-wingers on your side, if you don’t have the progressives, what do you have? What’s more progressive than college, where professors now say things that would make Kanye wince?

Osman Umarji calls Zionists bloodthirsty animals. Who’s he, the leader of ISIS? No, he’s a professor right here in California at UC Irvine.

And Candace Owens agrees with his assessment of Jews as animals because she says wherever they go, they bring their filth with them. Another professor, Hamid Dabashi, says of Israels, they have a vulgarity of character that is bone-deep and structural to the skeletal vertebrae of its culture. These are the kind of statements Goebbels would have read and said, no notes.

I mean, where are the Jewish space lasers when you need them? Now, there are absolutely horrible things said about Muslims, too. That should also be, of course, roundly condemned, like Republican Congressman Randy Fine saying, if they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.

That’s awful. But it’s not the same as they need to be nuked and let’s exterminate them. This is why Jewish people here and in Europe now say they sometimes hide their identity, afraid that the Star of David will get them attacked, as has happened in almost too many places to mention lately.

Leave your Star of David at home. But the keffiyeh? You can wear that anywhere.

You can wear it to Fiddler on the Roof and you’ll get applause. Jew hatred isn’t just acceptable now, it’s cool. Celebrities love it and make it trendy.

It’s the new Che Guevara T-shirt. The Islamophobia is just as bad argument is simply a false equivalency. Can you name a Jewish professor who talks about Muslims the way they get talked about?

No. Anti-Jewish crimes, hate crimes, now outpace anti-Muslim hate crimes 9 to 1. It’s not a contest, and I’m certainly not saying do more of the other.

I’m just saying these are the numbers, the facts, the reality. There is a frothing anxiousness for the literal extermination of this one group. And Democrats, where are you?

If any other minority group was being talked about this way, you’d break out the kente cloth and have ten benefit concerts. But because you see that so many of your brainwashed-by-TikTok constituents now have an unfavorable view of Israel, you indulge them when you should be correcting them. You don’t tell your woke idiots Israel isn’t a colonizer or an apartheid state or committing genocide, and that if you brats had to spend a week anywhere in the Middle East other than Israel, you would understand what liberalism is not.

All the people likely running for president now on the Democratic side want it known they don’t take money from AIPAC, the Israeli lobby, a stanch which gives permission to actual anti-Semites to say, see, we’re right about Israel. That’s dirty money from a dirty country. Oh, please, you take money from crypto and factory farmers and big tech from Diddy and Weinstein and Epstein, but AIPAC is too far?

Let me just say this to all who ask me. Why are you harder on the Democrats than you used to be? Until you fix this whole issue, stop asking me.

I’m out.

Catholic Latin Mass Explained

Tim J. Clark Uncategorized
OREMUS: The Traditional Latin Mass Explained
The Traditional Latin Mass is not a relic of the past, it is the living heartbeat of Catholic tradition.  

In this powerful interview, Michael Matt and Father Gregory Pendergraft, FSSP, explain:

Why the Mass is in Latin

Why the priest faces the altar

Why Catholics receive Communion on the tongue How to follow and pray the ancient Roman Rite

Why the Latin Mass continues to grow around the world Discover the beauty, mystery, and reverence of the Mass that formed the saints.  

If you’ve ever wondered what makes the Latin Mass so powerful, this is the video to watch:

Strategic Coherence: Aligning Global Religious and Political Interests

Tim J. Clark Uncategorized , , , ,

In Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus outlines a specific process for addressing disagreements within the community—moving from private dialogue to communal involvement. In the world of Quality Management, this mirrors the effort to resolve “variation” before it compromises the integrity of the whole system.

Marco Rubio’s meeting with the Pope on May 7, 2026, and the Political Responsibility of Catholics underscores the interrelationship between Christianity and Citizenship. The disconnects can be explained by an unconscious awareness and understanding of variation that can be developed through the application of the quality improvement principles, methods, and some tools.

Rubio’s broader objective in achieving a more ideal outcome, as identified by Bepi Pezzulli | in his article, Marco Rubio In Rome: Vatican Symbolism And Strategic Friction,” is domestic as much as diplomatic:

  • reunifying the Christian electorate—evangelicals and Catholics alike—around the civilizational language of the West, order, and religious continuity.
  • If the Church is to retain a political role at all, in his view, it should be as custodian of Western civilization rather than as chaplain to militant third-worldism disguised as moral universalism.“

Alignment: Christianity, Citizenship, Quality Management

Christianity. God is Love. Love is an action – willing the good of others in thoughts, words, and actions. Perfection is described as all needs being met, thereby reducing the harm caused to people by unmet needs. Consequently, continuous improvement is a moral imperative.

  • Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
  • In a commercial sense, any product or service provided to a customer is intended to meet a need. Needs include the physical, mental, psychological, and spiritual aspects that contribute to well-being.Indirectly, every business and every employee can be in support of God’s plan to improve the lives of others.

Citizenship. The U.S. Constitution was designed to enable We the People (top management) through checks and balances on power, to work together in working towards “a more perfect Union.

Quality Management. The aim of quality management is to reduce variation – the gap between the ideal (more perfect) and the actual situation. The Taguchi Loss Function reinforces that the closer any product or service gets to the ideal or target, the higher the quality and profitability, and the lower the cost to the customer and society.

Just as variation in manufacturing leads to loss for society, a lack of ‘strategic coherence’ between religious values and political action creates a societal cost—what Rubio identifies as the weakening of Western order.

Marco Rubio In Rome: Vatican Symbolism And Strategic Friction

Rubio’s Rome message was not conciliatory, but disciplinary, by Bepi Pezzulli | May 12, 2026, The American Thinker

  • The meeting was not about reconciliation, but for realignment. It reflected the Secretary of State’s understanding of a broader ecclesiastical and political transition inside the Catholic Church.
  • Rubio, himself a practicing Catholic, approaches the issue with conceptual clarity. When the Pope speaks as spiritual shepherd, he commands respect as a religious authority. When he speaks as a temporal sovereign advancing geopolitical preferences, he enters ordinary political debate and weakens the universal nature of his office.
  • Rubio’s broader objective is domestic as much as diplomatic: reunifying the Christian electorate—evangelicals and Catholics alike—around the civilizational language of the West, order, and religious continuity. If the Church is to retain a political role at all, in his view, it should be as custodian of Western civilization rather than as chaplain to militant third-worldism disguised as moral universalism

. 

Frameworks for Action: Faithful Citizenship

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB): Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship

The Catholic bishops of the United States are pleased to offer once again to the Catholic faithful Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship (en Español), our teaching document on the political responsibility of Catholics. This statement represents our guidance for Catholics in the exercise of their rights and duties as participants in our democracy. We urge our pastors, lay and religious faithful, and all people of good will to use this statement to help form their consciences; to teach those entrusted to their care; to contribute to civil and respectful public dialogue; and to shape political choices in the coming election in light of Catholic teaching. The statement lifts up our dual heritage as both faithful Catholics and American citizens with rights and duties as participants in the civil order.

Ultimately, achieving “Strategic Coherence” is not just a task for diplomats; it is the work of every “Faithful Citizen.” To help bridge the gap between the ideal of the Gospel and the reality of political life, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) provides a robust framework in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.

By treating these teachings as a guide to “reducing variation” in our own civic lives, we can better align our actions with our values.

How do you see the principles of quality management—specifically the reduction of variation—applying to your own roles as both a person of faith and a citizen?

Learn More

Read Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States (en Español), which provides a framework for Catholics in the United States. (English PDF | PDF en Español)

As a complement to Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the bishops also approved six new bulletin inserts (en Español) to help the Catholic faithful put their faith into action.  

Marco Rubio: the Catholic Roots of America

Tim J. Clark Uncategorized , , , ,

Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivers virtual address at CIT’s Conference, Endowed by Their Creator: Catholicism, the Declaration of Independence, and the American Experiment at 250

On Thursday, April 9th, Catholic Law’s Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, together with Notre Dame’s Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government and Catholic University’s Carroll Forum for Citizenship and Public Life, co-hosted a symposium celebrating the nation’s semiquincentennial. The day brought together leading scholars and public intellectuals from across the country to explore the relationship between the Catholic intellectual tradition and the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and to reflect on how both Catholicism and the Declaration continue to shape America’s experiment in constitutional self-government, 250 years after its founding.

Marco Rubio on Catholicism:

In 1895, Pope Leo XIII penned an encyclical to the Catholic Church in the United States. 

“All intelligent men are agreed,” he wrote, “that America seems destined for greater things. Now, it is our wish that the Catholic Church should not only share in, but help to bring about this prospective greatness.” 

But, as the Holy Father noted, the Church had already been here from the start. Four centuries prior, one Catholic explorer ventured out into the great unknown and returned home with the story, as he wrote in one letter, “of a land more richly endowed than I know or am able to say.” 

Few moments in history have carried more consequence. Christopher Columbus renewed the West’s confidence in itself and launched that great age of discovery, exploration, and expansion from which America was born. 

Some have claimed that the Catholic faith is a foreign import to our country. Only one of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence was Catholic—Charles Carroll of Maryland, for whom one of this conference’s hosts is named. Just two Catholic names appear on our Constitution itself. 

But the Catholic faith has always been part of the American story. The first Christian service on our soil was a Catholic Mass. The oldest permanent settlement in the United States is the town of St. Augustine, planted by Spanish Catholics on the coastal sands of my home state of Florida. 

Catholic saints were martyred on American soil well over a century before the Revolution began. In missions and settlements, wilderness forts, and trading posts stretching from the first colonies to the distant frontier, Catholic explorers, soldiers, priests, and pioneers consecrated this new world to their ancient faith and christened its land with Catholic names—Maryland, St. Louis, San Francisco, Santa Fe. Almost every region of what is now the United States was first explored and mapped by Catholics. 

This is no coincidence. Christianity taught the West to think in continents and centuries, rather than villages and seasons. The Church calls us, as Christ told St. Peter, “to duc in altum,” to put out into the deep. Catholics across time have answered the call—from the forests of pagan Europe to the wilderness of North America—to bring new worlds to Christ. 

This is the inheritance which has shaped our pioneer nation: the spirit of expansion and discovery which would conquer continents, unlock the mysteries of the universe, and eventually transcend the limits of Earth itself. It is the same spirit that led 56 Americans to pledge their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to each other in the cause of independence two and a half centuries ago. 

Catholics in the colonies flocked to join them, enlisting to fight for the patriots at a rate far exceeding their share of the population. In 1790, George Washington wrote to the Roman Catholics of America to thank them personally “for the patriotic part which you took in the accomplishments of the revolution.” 

It is popular today to claim the founding was merely a brainchild of the Enlightenment, but the Revolution was not a radical rupture with the past. It was a renewal of an older inheritance fitted to the unique experience of a free, Christian people in the new world. 

That inheritance draws upon the ancient liberties of the English Constitution and common law, but it roots these traditions upon a fixed and unchanging moral order governed by the laws of nature and nature’s God. This fundamental truth endows man with not just rights, but with duties. It conceives of freedom and virtue as inseparably linked. 

We see this in the structure of our political order itself, built not to sanction license, but to restrain passion, check ambition with ambition, and secure the common good. 

It is true, of course, that most of the men who wrote our founding documents were not Catholics themselves, but the system they gave us belongs to the same civilizational tradition that produced the towering cathedrals of Rome and the philosophy of Augustine and Aquinas. 

America was a gift where the Church and the civilization it made was reborn, discovering itself anew in the wilderness. It is at once modern and ancient. The men who settled and founded our country were the architects of a great rebirth, renewing the deferred dreams of the old world and the possibilities of a virgin continent. 

It has been 250 years since a new people declared themselves to the world. At the time, less than 2% were Catholic, but the nation they built would come to serve as one of the proudest and most enduring testaments to the eternal truth of our faith. 

To look upon the history of this golden land is to see the face of God. 

Variability within the Christian Faith Community

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One of the differences (variation) between the Catholics and Protestants is Sola Scriptura.

  • Sola Scriptura is a Latin term meaning “Scripture alone,” which asserts that the Bible is the sole infallible authority for Christian faith and practice. This doctrine was a key principle of the Protestant Reformation, emphasizing that all necessary truth for salvation is found in Scripture. Wikipedia

Catholic Evangelization

GEMINI: What is “Apostolicam Actuositatem”?

Apostolicam Actuositatem (Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity) is a significant document from the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), promulgated by Pope Paul VI on November 18, 1965.

It serves as the definitive guide on the role of laypeople (non-clergy) within the Catholic Church’s mission. While earlier church focus was often centered on the hierarchy, this decree emphasizes that the laity have a direct and necessary role in the “apostolate”—the work of spreading the Gospel and sanctifying the world.

Key Themes and Principles

  • The Lay Vocation: It teaches that the call to be an apostle does not come from a special appointment by a bishop, but from Baptism itself. Every Catholic is called to participate in the Church’s mission.

  • Sanctifying the Secular World: A unique aspect of the lay apostolate is its focus on the “temporal order.” This means laypeople are specifically called to bring Christian values into politics, family life, professional work, and social structures.

  • The Role of the Family: The document highlights the family as the “domestic church” and the primary place where the faith is lived and transmitted.

  • Collaboration: While asserting the independence of lay initiatives, it also stresses the importance of working in communion with the Church’s hierarchy.

Why It Matters Today

As seen on the Epistles about page, the document continues to inspire personal apostolates and digital ministries. It provides the theological foundation for “lay movements” and encourages individuals to take personal responsibility for the moral and spiritual health of their communities, rather than viewing the clergy as the sole actors in the Church.

Why It Was Revolutionary

Before Vatican II, the Church was often viewed through a “top-down” lens where the clergy were the primary actors. Apostolicam Actuositatem shifted this perspective, describing the Church as the whole People of God. It empowered laypeople to take personal responsibility for the moral and spiritual health of their communities rather than being passive recipients of the faith.

To understand how Apostolicam Actuositatem (AA) changed the landscape for laypeople, it is helpful to compare it to the “Pre-Vatican II” model of the Church. For centuries, the Church was often viewed through a strictly hierarchical lens—sometimes jokingly referred to as the “pray, pay, and obey” era for the laity.

Here is a breakdown of the fundamental shifts introduced by the decree:

1. From “Assistants” to “Apostles”

  • Before: The laity were often seen as “helpers” to the clergy. Their role was to assist the priest in his mission if he asked for it (a concept known as “Catholic Action”).

  • After (AA): The decree clarifies that the lay apostolate is a right and duty that comes from Baptism, not from a mandate by a bishop. Laypeople don’t just “help” the Church; they are the Church in the world.

2. The “Secular” as a Sacred Space

  • Before: Holiness was often associated with retreating from the world (monasticism or priesthood). The secular world (politics, business, labor) was seen as a distraction or a “lesser” sphere of spiritual importance.

  • After (AA): The decree argues that the “temporal order”—the everyday world of family and work—is the specific domain of the laity. It is their job to “infuse the Christian spirit” into these areas. A politician or a parent isn’t just living a secular life; they are performing a religious mission by seeking justice and love in those roles.

3. The Source of Authority

  • Before: Authority and mission flowed strictly from the top down. The Pope told the Bishops, who told the Priests, who told the Laity what to do.

  • After (AA): While maintaining respect for the hierarchy, AA emphasizes the “Charisms” (spiritual gifts) given to individuals by the Holy Spirit. It encourages laypeople to take the initiative and act on their own “right and duty” to spread the Gospel, rather than waiting for a specific command for every action.

4. The Church as “People of God”

  • Before: The Church was often defined by its structure—the institution and its laws.

  • After (AA): The document views the Church as a communion or the “People of God.” This shift in language suggests that every member, regardless of their rank, shares in the three-fold mission of Christ: as priest, prophet, and king.

Comparison Summary

Feature Pre-Vatican II View Apostolicam Actuositatem View
Primary Role To receive the sacraments and obey. To act as a primary witness to Christ.
Mission Field Supporting the local parish. Transforming the world (politics, work, etc.).
Identity “Non-clergy” (defined by what they are not). “Apostles” (defined by their Baptismal call).
Involvement Passive/Reactive. Active/Initiative-taking.

A breakdown of how this decree differs from the Church’s earlier views on the laity.

Justice Thomas: America’s Founding Ideals

Tim J. Clark Uncategorized , , , ,

Justice Clarence Thomas urges a return to founding ideals in speech marking America’s 250th anniversary  Justice Clarence Thomas described progressivism as a threat to the nation’s founding principles during a speech at UT Austin, and urged younger generations to stand up for their principles. (Credit: C-SPAN)

Gemini: What has Justice Thomas identified as America’s ideals?

In a special lecture at the University of Texas at Austin marking America’s 250th anniversary, Justice Clarence Thomas identified several core ideals rooted in the Declaration of Independence as the foundation of the American experiment.

He emphasized that these principles are not merely “academic playthings” or “esoteric philosophy,” but are intended to be a practical way of life for all citizens.

Core Founding Ideals

Justice Thomas highlighted three primary principles from the Declaration that he considers the “North Star” of the republic:

  • Universal Equality: The belief that all people are created equal in the image and likeness of God 15:03Opens in a new window. He noted that this equality is inherent and cannot be diminished or granted by any human government 15:13Opens in a new window.
  • Unalienable Rights: Natural rights—specifically life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—that precede and transcend governmental authority 16:45Opens in a new window.
  • Government by Consent: The principle that government derives its legitimate power solely from the consent of the governed, with the primary purpose of securing these pre-existing rights 22:37Opens in a new window.

The “Indispensable” Final Sentence

Justice Thomas argued that the most critical part of the Declaration is often the most overlooked: the final sentence where the signers “mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor” 23:51Opens in a new window.

  • Courage as an Ideal: He defined courage not as the absence of fear, but as the assessment that these principles are more important than fear 24:34Opens in a new window.
  • Devotion: He stated that without the “last full measure of devotion”—a willingness to sacrifice personal comfort, popularity, and security—the Declaration is just “mere words on parchment paper” 25:07Opens in a new window.

 Challenges to These Ideals

Thomas issued a warning against Progressivism, which he identified as a “retrogressive” movement that opposes the founding ideals 51:06Opens in a new window. He argued that Progressivism:

Justice Thomas concluded by urging citizens to “take ownership” of their country and to defend these ideals daily—whether by speaking up in a classroom or running for a local school board—rather than sitting on the sidelines 01:31:20Opens in a new window.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Delivers Special Lecture at UT Austin

The University of Texas at Austin · 11K views

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Delivers Special Lecture at UT Austin. To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence …Opens in a new window

 

Book: Electoral Instability

Tim J. Clark Uncategorized , , , ,

Unstable Majorities Continue: The Trump Era

By: Morris P. Fiorina

The United States is experiencing a period of electoral instability unprecedented in our history. Neither of the two major political parties reflects the political will of the majority of Americans, who must choose between candidates holding positions more extreme than those of the typical voter. With no true centrist party, Republicans and Democrats take turns as the party in charge.

Unstable Majorities Continue: The Trump Era examines the current pattern of volatile party control that, from a historical perspective, is very unusual. It follows the author’s 2017 book Unstable Majorities, which identified this trend in analyzing the 2016 election.

In contrast to the relatively stable party majorities that characterized preceding eras, since 1992 the country has experienced a period of unstable institutional majorities, where presidential candidates have earned relatively narrow margins of victory and control of the House and Senate has fluctuated. For several decades now, the verdict from the voting electorate has often been one of no confidence in whatever institutional pattern of control prevails.

Why have American politics changed so dramatically? Fiorina states that the current nature of the country’s political conflicts is misunderstood. After reforms, societal changes, and political coalition-building, the Republican and Democratic parties of today are much different organizations from those that operated in the past, becoming more homogeneous internally and more distant from each other—and from the public—in policy and ideology. The parties have polarized; the electorate has not.

There are no indications that the 2024 elections have ended the era of unstable majorities. While the rise of populism contributes to present conflicts, it is a consequence more than a cause, with economic conditions ranking near the top of factors affecting party fortunes.

By examining data and voting behavior on abortion, gun control, environmental regulation, and other issues, Fiorina argues that voter positions have largely stayed moderate over time. He dispels the commonly held belief that American voters have become politically polarized, creating a “Divided States of America.”

About the Author

Morris P. Fiorina is the Wendt Family Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution. His research focuses on public opinion and elections and how they relate to democratic representation.

Conscience and Truth: The Reality of Goodness

Tim J. Clark Uncategorized , , , ,

Conscience is a Window to Truth, More on Pope Benedict’s work and its reception by Gen Z by D. W. Pasulka

  • My Non-Denominational Christian, Catholic Experience.  Is Christian Life Based on Belief in Things Unseen and only Hoped For? Actually, No. by D. W. Pasulka
    • “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 NRSV
    • Spe Salvi (In Hope We are Saved), BENEDICT XVI
      • “Benedict says that faith is not merely subjective conviction, but the real presence of what is hoped for. And not just that, but more precisely, through faith, what is hoped for is already present “in embryo”… as substance within us. “
      • He reveals how Martin Luther’s translation shifted the meaning in a way that was not authentic to the early Church. Benedict’s translation is from the original Greek: “Faith is the hypostasis of things hoped for; the proof of things not seen.

Excerpts

Ratzinger describes conscience as a window, an opening through which the human person encounters a truth that is not self-generated. Conscience is a “window through which one can see outward to that common truth which founds and sustains us all, and so makes possible through the common recognition of truth, the community of needs and responsibilities.” It thus establishes one’s obligations and duties.

Ratzinger taps into the tradition that holds that conscience is not something we invent; it is something we discover. He retrieves Socratic anamnesis—that there is in the human being a memory of the good and an orientation toward truth that precedes conscious reasoning. We recognize truth, he suggests, not because we create it, but because something in us resonates with it. This is why conscience can accuse us, disturb us, even wound us. Ratzinger says that the feeling of guilt is not a defect but a sign of health—the signal that we are still in contact with reality. When that signal disappears, when a person no longer feels guilt, this is not moral maturity but a kind of spiritual deadness.

This portion of Ratzinger’s essay reminds me of the work of philosopher Hannah Arendt, especially her book The Life of the Mind. Arendt was Jewish and had escaped Nazi occupied France in 1940 and eventually became a professor of philosophy in the United States. In The Life of the Mind, published posthumously (she was working on it when she died), her central question is: why do some people choose to do evil? One of the answers (there are a few) she arrives at is based on her observation that good people have regrets. Evil people do not. “The most dangerous people are not those who choose evil with anguish, but those who do not think, and therefore are not disturbed by what they do.” Evil people sleep well at night, she writes, and they do not have what good people have, which is an inner conversation about their actions in the world.

Guilt, or, having a guilty conscience, is a step toward the recognition of, and what Ratzinger calls us to see—the reality of goodness. Goodness calls us to align ourselves with it.

Love, Chapter 13, I Corinthians

Tim J. Clark Uncategorized

Teachings Of The Monk Of Skye. And: America Learns Its War Lesson, Again; Thank God For White Liberals  by Rod Dreher

Excerpts

This, I think, is what St. Paul meant in the famous chapter 13 from I Corinthians. You probably know this chapter, but to read it after reading McGilchrist opens it up in new ways:

If I speak in the tonguesof men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

In the interview, Iain discusses how the most profound things cannot be known directly, but indirectly. This is why poetry matters more than prose. He speaks of how “extraordinarily important” the liturgy is, and why it’s a very big mistake to muck about with changing the liturgy.