Political campaigns oversimplify issues, and this year seems no different. As a reminder that solutions to complex social problems are not typically simple or straightforward, I want to explore some of what it would take to pay...
Read MoreTwo and a half weeks ago several Catholic scholars published the document “On All of Our Shoulders,” which criticized the influence of the individualism and anti-government mentality of Ayn Rand, and libertarianism generally, on...
Read MoreSo, a comment on the thread of Vince Miller’s response to criticisms of “On All of Our Shoulders” over at America magazine confirmed a suspicion that questions of libertarianism are connected to deeper theological...
Read MoreJeremiah 31:7—9 Psalm 126 Hebrews 5:1—6 Mark 10:46—52 This Sunday’s lectionary readings are all about God hearing the cries of his creatures. In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah conveys God’s reply to his people in exile....
Read MoreJudging by the political mail I’m getting these days (today’s most hokey bad-pun specimen: “Romney Hood” who steals from the middle class and gives to the rich), the whole balance of good and evil, earth...
Read MoreThe recent quarreling over Paul Ryan and “On All of Our Shoulders” can sometimes veer close to name-calling, and worse, a kind of scandalous dismissal of fellow members of the Body of Christ (in public!). As someone...
Read MoreI have been quite critical recently of the efforts by some segments within the church to pass MN’s marriage amendment, and of the entire “culture wars” approach to engaging and forming culture in general. ...
Read MoreI grew up in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Nothing so dominated my life like television and movies. I experienced Vatican II not primarily in its texts or its teachings, nor in what it did or did not change, but mostly through a...
Read MoreIsaiah 53:10-11 Psalm 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22 Hebrews 4:14-16 Mark 10:35-45 When I was in college, the Jesuit who was in charge of the Sunday liturgies decided that lectors would no longer say “The Word of the Lord” at the...
Read MoreA good friend and I still joke about one of our first conversations when we met at a Catholic Worker house several years ago. He asked if I was Catholic. “Small-c catholic,” I told him. “So I guess that’s a no,” he responded....
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