Headlines. Accurate, but misleading:

Rich Gannon throws 5 TD Passes in Super Bowl XXXVII

Anglicans Won't Censure Wings of Church

Okay, you can make an argument that both of these headlines are accurate -- Rich Gannon did have 5 of his passes end in touchdowns, it's just that 3 of them were interception returns by the Bucs.

Similarly, as this AP story by Jill Lawless uses the "Anglicans Won't Censure Wings of Church" headline and begins this way:

The Anglican Communion on Wednesday rejected an attempt by traditionalists to punish the U.S. and Canadian wings of the church for their stance on homosexuality, watering down a resolution that called for the North Americans to be suspended from all church bodies.

But that wasn't the story. The story is more accurately written by Ruth Gledhill of The London Times; who explains in her first three paragraphs:

THE Anglican Church moved closer to schism yesterday when members of its central administrative council formally asked the Churches of Canada and the US to go.

Unconvinced by the justifications offered by both Churches on Tuesday for their actions in ordaining an openly homo- sexual bishop and authorising same-sex blessings, members of the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Nottingham asked them to leave the council and its central finance and standing committees.

Although the motion invites the Churches to withdraw voluntarily, it amounts in effect to a punishing expulsion. The debate was held behind closed doors at Nottingham Univers-ity yesterday, and the motion was passed 30 to 28 by secret ballot, with four abstentions.

Some things can be spun; Jill Lawless should learn that this story isn't one of them.

I took it...

If you blog, you can too.

The theology quiz -- Spurred on by Mark Byron and Peter Sean Bradley, I have taken the theology quiz. Although my "named" results are different, my percentages are very similar to each (my results below). For example, Peter clocks in at 75% Catholic, I'm 68%. Mark is a 75% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan, Peter scores 71% there. That was my top score -- 86%. (And that subject has lead Mark to do a series, which you can see here in Parts 1, 2 and 3). I am 79% Neo-Orthodox, Peter is 71%. Yes, we have our differences, Mark is 79% on the Reformed Evangelical, I am 46%. Peter is 39% on the Fundamentalist scale, I'm 57% (Mark is 68%). And I guess, befitting an Episcopalian, I score equally high (57%) on the PoMo scale.

Interesting...

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 86% Neo orthodox 79% Roman Catholic 68% Fundamentalist 57% Emergent/Postmodern 57% Charismatic/Pentecostal 54% Reformed Evangelical 46% Classical Liberal 32% Modern Liberal 25% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Oklahoma -- I've been in Oklahoma for the past two weeks for work. I spent some time in Tulsa in the early 1980's -- it's changed a lot. I visited All Souls in Oklahoma City -- very high Episcopal (can you say more Catholic than the Pope?). I dodged a lot of tornadoes and visited places from Jay to Bartlesville (Price Tower -- ugh!) to Stillwater (Eskimo Joe's) to Norman to Ada to Ardmore and all places in between.

The folks there are still as friendly as ever.

And the Joads and the dustbowl are still a myth.

R.I.P. Eddie Albert. I am a huge fan of Green Acres, yet an even bigger fan of the actor who played Oliver Wendell Douglas, Eddie Albert. Eddie Albert Heimberger passed away on Thursday, right before this Memorial Day weekend. It's fitting to remember his service to his country. He was an actor living in Hollywood and had been acting in movies since "Brother Rat" (a Ronald Reagan movie) filmed in 1938. After the attack at Pearl Harbor, he joined the Navy and was awarded a Bronze Star with a "V" for the rescue of about 70 Marines at the battle of Tarawa.

He was a good man; may he rest in peace.

Best News of the Week: The Corcoran Gallery announced it was shelving the planned Gehry addition. You have to understand that this was to be built right across from the Old Executive Office Building, half a block from the White house. And with it's sprawling sheet metal design, with it's very dark color and shine, it looked horrible. This was sort of a sculptural variation on Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) -- I call it Darth Vader falling down a staircase.

Now, if only we could get rid of the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art.

Semi-retirement. I think I'm going to have to go into a semi-retirement.

Or as Threepio said: "Sir, if you'll not be needing me, I'll close down for awhile."

Basically, I'm having trouble getting computer time these days -- unrestricted computer time. My daughter needs the computer for school, so I defer to her. (We're doing some work on the house and the other PC's are in storage, more or less). Also, you may be aware, I'm on the road at least a week a month. In the past, that was always a good time to work -- I could usually get a connection in a hotel room and and undistracted time to write. We've had a change in policy at work however which says no blogging using any work equipment. Since I need my work-assigned laptop for these trips, that essentially means no blogging during the days I'm out of town. (And no blogging at lunch.)

I really enjoy doing this -- I like to work out problems through writing. I love the people I've met and the responses I've had.

I'm honored and humbled by the attention these thoughts have received. Folks have been very kind.

But this isn't good bye -- it really is just a powering down. I may only have 1 or w things a week. Or I may have more. Or I may have less.

And if things change, I'll be back in full. In the meantime there are a lot of good blogs out there and I look forward to reading these.

See you around.

grace and peace,

William P. Sulik

Tagged with a Meme - The Bibliotheca Virus. (Answer is in progress)

Via Peter Sean Bradley, I hve been challenged to answer four simple questions and one direction to keep the virus going. I had to laugh at what Peter said about me, however: "for the culture that the High Church tradition can bring." It ain't me babe, no, no, no, it ain't me, babe, It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe. (See my response 4(4) below.) Here are the questions which I hope to complete in the near future (watch this space):

1. Total Number of Books I’ve Owned: All books -- ever? You gotta be kidding me? I've got no way of knowing -- just the text books I've gotten rid of run in the hundreds. Put it this way, when I moved back to DC from law school in the mid-70's I shiped back over 70 boxes of books by the U.S. Mail, each one with an average weight of 50 pounds.

I'd say the number of books I own currently is more than 1,000 but less than 2,000.

2. Last Book I Bought: Hmmm. I bought 3 grocery sacks of books at the library used book sale (during the last hour each bag was just $5). Among my finds was Charles Murray & Catherine Bly Cox's Apollo Story (which I found out is now back in print -- this is the ultimate book about the Apollo project -- if you have any interest, you must go buy this book), Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz, The Burden of Proof and The Laws of Our Fathers by Scott Turow, The Gulag Archipelago (Vol. 1) by A. Solzhenizyn, Toland's Hitler, etc. Almost all my books have been purchased at book sales -- especially library book sales.

3. Last Book I Read: meaning, I guess, finished. That would be Brian Haig's Private Sector. I'm currently reading The President's Assasin by the same author and Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle. I should be finished with both by Friday.

4. Five Books That Mean a lot to Me:

This is what's going to take some time. I'm assuming these aren't desert island books (5 books I must have on a desert island) or my all time favorite books (that would include The Vicar of Christ by Walter Murphy). These are books that simply mean a lot to me and I'll tell you why.

(1) The Bible-- yes, I know it's a fairly standard answer but there's just so much there. Simple stories like the Tower of Babel or the Parable of the Good Samaritan. More complex stories like Job and Daniel. The story of Creation, the fall, the deluge, the calling of Abram, the exile, the plagues, passover, exodus, wandering; the conquest of promised land, the beginning of a nation, the struggle to live as a nation, the kingdoms, the exile, the prophets, the rebuilding. The Incarnation. The Sermon on the Mount and on the Plain. The calling, baptism, wilderness and temptations. The miracles, the parables, the questions and answers. Holy Week, from triumphant entry through Supper, arrest, judgment(s), condemnation, passion, crucifixion, death and burial. The resurrection. The Resurrection.
He Is Alive!
The road to Emmaus, Doubting Thomas, the restoration of Peter, the Ascension. Characters such as Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Saul, David, Jesus, Peter, Paul, and John. Philosophy like Ecclesiastes or Proverbs. Poetry like the Psalms or Song of Songs. Not to mention the teachings in the letters and the very mysterious Revelation to St. John. It is wonderful.

By the way, I like the Berkley Version -- it's very clear and has terrific footnotes. For example, from I Chronicles 25:4, one of those lists of who begat who the footnote indicates:

Starting with the sixt son, Hananiah, the names, when translated from Hebrew, form the following prayer of Heman about his work as a singer: [6] Be gracious, O Lord; [7] Be Thou gracious to me! [8] My God, Thee; [9] I have praised: [10] And exalted for helping; [11] Though sitting forlorn; [12] I have proclaimed; [13] Highest; [14] Visions.

Another example, in the Gospel of Matthew 6:13, from the end of the Lord's prayer, he brackets the phrase "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." and in the footnote, observes,

The words enclosed in brackets are not found in the majority of the most reliable ancient manuscripts. The may have been added to the text here to make the prayer more appropriate for use in public worship. Certainly the last sentence is compatible with Scripture. Cf. I Chron. 29:11. In Luke's account of the Lord's Prayer, Lk. 11:2-4, this sentence is omitted.

(2) Mathematics by David Bergamini. New York: Time-Life, 1963. This book was something my parents bought when I was little. I first looked at the pictures and was gradually sucked in -- what a terrific book!

(3) I guess a play can count -- it's in book form. Robert Bolt's A Man For All Seasons is something I probably quote from at least once a month. It beautifully explores the relationship between conscience, duty, faith, honor, law

(4) Green Lantern No. 61 (June 1968). "Thoroughly Modern Mayhem!" Writer: Mike Friedrich Penciller: Gil Kane Inker: Sid Greene. This is a parable of sin and falleness is 23 short pages. Interestingly, the thrust of the story is shorter than those 23 pages, yet it speaks volumes. This opens with the Hal Jordan Green Lantern and the Alan Scott (Golden Age) Green Lantern teaming up to defeat “Captain Challenge." Following that story, Scott returns home to Earth-2, flying over scenes of evil and rottenness, returning to his house and finding it ransacked by a burglar, Scott/Green Lantern orders his power ring to get rid of all the evil in the world at which point everything including Scott/GL disappears. Hal Jordan later goes to Earth-2 and finds Scott/GL and the rest of humanity frozen in a state of suspended animation in a desert. They restore everyone to their natural state and Scott learns a lesson about sin. It’s funny, but this is a story which has stuck with me ever since – while we are created in the image of God, we are all fallen and in need of saving. There were a lot of other comics I grew up with that were also modern parables. See for example, Superman Issue 236, “Planet of the Angels” which can be read on line here.

(5)


5. Tag 5 people and have them do this on their blog.

Done -- look for these folks to (possibly) follow up on this:

• Captain Yip's Secret Journal
• Paul Glenn Christian
• Bill Baar
• Ann Salisbury
• Uncle Dino, and
• Kendall Harmon
  

Revenge of the Absolutes. [Revised and extended] I saw SW: E3: RotS today -- first impression is that it's better than the last two, but doesn't approach the original triolgy. The acting is incredibly wooden, the dialogue is horrible, the storyline is still confused, and the CGI is way overdone. Still, by closing on the events which will take us to the original Star Wars movie (which I refuse to call "A New Hope."), it wraps up well.

Now for my gripes.

I'm really bugged by George Lucas' desire to take a potshot at Dubya and his supporters -- not because he's doing it; rather, because he does it so poorly, with such over reach that it doesn't make sense.

The following may be a minor spoiler, but I don't think so.

There's a scene where Obi-Wan and Anakin have a duel and Anakin says something along the lines of:

ANAKIN: If you're not with me, you're my enemy.

OBI-WAN: Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

The problem is, Lucas seems to believe this.

I believe that there are seeds of greatness here, but because Lucas is unwilling to give up his fealty to relativism and his eastern theology ("Use your feeling"), he is not able to truly develop a basis for the transformation of Anakin to Vader.

Yes, the Jedi play a minor part in pushing Anakin over to the dark side: They don't make him a master although he sits on the council, they ask him to act deceitfully, they don't let him have a girlfriend (or wife). Still, Lucas want to put the blame exclusively on the Sith (I'm being somewhat general here because of my desire to avoid spoilers). "This is how liberty dies - to thunderous applause," Padmé laments as the Senate gives Palpatine new powers.

In many respects, Obi-Wan turns out to be the greatest villian (a la Steve Maryk of the Caine Mutiny) of the sexology, because his commitment to relativism blinds him to that which is truly evil. Consider these lines from Return of the Jedi:

LUKE: Obi-Wan! Why didn't you tell me?

The ghost of Ben Kenobi approaches him through the swamp.

LUKE: You told me Vader betrayed and murdered my father.

BEN: You father was seduced by the dark side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed. So what I have told you was true... from a certain point of view.

LUKE: (turning away, derisive) A certain point of view!

BEN: Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.

(emphasis added). Perhaps, if Obi-Wan and the rest of the Jedi had been a little less relativistic -- dare I say it -- perhaps if the Jedi had been more Christ-like, the double-dealing which leads to the fall of the republic and the rise of the Empire would not have occurred.

Second, and strongly related, as you can see by the above, my respect for the Jedi have been completely destroyed by this movie. It's been declining for awhile -- in SW: E1: PM, we learn that to be a Jedi, one must be specially enhanced with the Midichlorians. In SW: E2: TAotC, we learn that the Jedi cannot be in love. In this one, it is confirmed that the Jedi believe they can lie about anything (which explains why Old Ben Kenobi lies with such ease to Luke in the original Star Wars movie [lies, by the way, which aren't really disclosed to be lies until The Empire Strikes Back]). Serious spoilers follow. Or take Mace Windu...

[Last chance -- I mean it, really serious spoiler below]

In the scene where Mace Windu goes to arrest Palpatine, they have a big fight -- Palpatine kills three [expendible] Jedi, then he and Mace have a huge fight. Near the end, Anakin walks in (the following is rough, taken from this purloined script (which has a number of inaccuracies, although this appears to be correct):

MACE pushes PALPATINE out to the edge of the ledge. As the Jedi moves closer, the bolts from Palpatine's hands begin to arch back on him. The Chancellor's face begins to twist and distort. His eyes become yellow as he struggles to intensify his powers.

PALPATINE: I can't ... I give up. Help me. I am weak ... I am too weak. Don't kill me. I give up. I'm dying. I can't hold on any longer.

MACE WlNDU: You Sith disease. I am going to end this once and for all.

ANAKIN: You can't kill him, Master. He must stand trial.

MACE WlNDU: He has too much control of the Senate and the Courts. He is too dangerous to be kept alive.

PALPATINE: I'm too weak. Don't kill me. Please.

ANAKIN: It is not the Jedi way . . .

MACE raises his sword to kill the CHANCELLOR.

ANAKIN: (continuing) He must live . . .

PALPATINE: Please don't, please don't . . .

ANAKIN: I need him . . .

PALPATINE: Please don't . . .

ANAKIN: NO!!!

Just as MACE is about to slash PALPATINE, ANAKIN steps in and cuts off the Jedi's hand holding the lightsaber.

As MACE stares at ANAKIN in shock, PALPATINE springs to life.

It is clear that Mace and Anakin could have combined to arrest Palpatine, but Mace, acting like a Jedi, sees himself above the law (or a law unto himself) and in an act of perfect relativism acts to put an end to Palpatine, pushing Anakin over to the Dark Side.

Thus, it seems that all those infected with the Midichlorians -- all those controlled by the Force -- are relativists who see absolutes as something that only the little people worry about. In that respect, the Jedi and the Sith are two sides of the same coin.

I submit that there is another way -- a way which was nicely summarized by a man who used to be called Joe, who said the following not too long ago:

We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires.

However, we have a different goal: the Son of God, true man. He is the measure of true humanism. Being an "Adult" means having a faith which does not follow the waves of today's fashions or the latest novelties. A faith which is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ is adult and mature. It is this friendship which opens us up to all that is good and gives us the knowledge to judge true from false, and deceit from truth. We must become mature in this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith--only faith--which creates unity and takes form in love. On this theme, Saint Paul offers us some beautiful words--in contrast to the continual ups and downs of those were are like infants, tossed about by the waves: (he says) make truth in love, as the basic formula of Christian existence. In Christ, truth and love coincide. To the extent that we draw near to Christ, in our own life, truth and love merge. Love without truth would be blind; truth without love would be like "a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal" (1 Cor 13:1).

History Repeats itself. The first time as parody, then as tragedy.

"I could resign, but that would be the cowardly thing to do..."

-- David Frye's Richard Nixon

Michael Isikoff will not resign.

More on Dresden. Passing through the North Platte airline terminal (of all places) I picked up a copy of Wilson Quarterly that someone had left which had an article on the bombing of Dresden. Thinking someone may return for the article -- there was a bookmark -- I left it there. The whole issue looked interesting. Unfortunately the article is not on-line.

Grieve Not the Holy Spirit. This article by Frederica on the Holy Spirit parallels a lot of my experience. More later. (title from Eph. 4:30)

Yikes! Actually, I really, really didn't like a lot of these questions....

(via Peter Sean)

Your Political Profile

Overall: 65% Conservative, 35% Liberal

Social Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

Ethics: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

How Liberal / Conservative Are You?

What is meant by Conservative or Liberal Ethics? I was most surprised by the "Personal Responsibility"score.

Not Sully. On the Huffington's Toast site, not Andrew posts:

But here goes: I’m officially an ex-Catholic. Yes, you read that correctly. Liberace has left the Cathedral. Truly, this has been the most difficult decision of my life. But how can I continue to lend my voice to Benedict XVI’s agenda of anti-gay pogroms? I love the Church; I’ll miss it terribly; but any religion that can’t tolerate my repeated intentional violations of its most basic moral precepts is no religion I want to be a part of. And while my belief in an omniscient deity whose will is unchanging is as strong as it’s ever been, I can’t help but ask myself, “Didn’t God learn anything from Stonewall?” Thus are Protestants made.

There’ll be an adjustment period, of course, but I’m already starting to feel at ease in my new home, the profoundly gay Episcopal Church. Like me, it’s an English transplant to America, and like me, it couldn’t be more enthusiastic about anal penetration.

Go read it all.

Mighty Sore. We went hiking and rock climbing at South River Falls for Mother's Day. Yesterday, I was sore, but today, I can barely move. Pictures are forthcoming.

Here's all the kids with their Mom:

That's Emilie, Joe, Debbie, Joy, and Sarah.


Perhaps I should try this?

(p.s. yes, the title of this post is a throwback -- or tip of the hat -- to this issue of Not Brand Ecch!)

Youth Sunday -- Xanga Edition (i.e. links go to xanga blogs). Sunday was Youth Sunday -- always one of my favorites (and not just because the music is better). This time, it may have included my oldest daugther's last dance (sad...) -- we'll see. Here's a picture from the dance:

And here's all four of the dancers at the end.

From left to right, it's Joy, Kristin, Lissa, and Natilie.

Oh, yeah, in the top picture, on the right hand side in the dark shirt and light tie (in the background) is the main youth minister, Abram.

Fire bombing. A long, long time ago, I had a very intemparate rant against a post on another blog regarding the droping of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In my follow-up post, here, I indicated that I found the fire bombing of Tokyo and Dresden and other cities much more troubling. Here's an interesting article on these issues. When I indicated my concern about the fire-bombing, I had no idea that it was planned in such detail. From the article:

There were cities like Berlin that did not work right. The width of the streets, the firewalls, the abundance of greenery and canals opposed the fire-injections and responded wrong. But Dresden's narrow streets, decorative old town and wooden buildings fed the fires according to plan. The carefully selected triangle between the Ostragehege park and the main railway station functioned as a "fire-raiser". The old cities, bent with age, testimonies to the distant past, were best suited to such attacks. Freiburg, Heilbronn, Trier, Mainz, Nuremberg, Paderborn, Hildesheim, Halberstadt, Würzburg: this avenue of German history shared the lot of Dresden in these months. For the allied fire bomb strategists, the study of their material composition was a science in itself.

In Watford, England, as well as in Eglin Field, Florida, and Dugway Ground, Utah, dummy towns were built complete with German and Japanese materials and inventories. This sort of thing requires thoroughness. Only real Japanese floor matting can be used, only the right number of real German toys in the German house. More woollen coats are stored in Germany than in Japan, in solid cupboards of oak, pine and beech. How many books, which curtains, what type of cushions? The German roof beams provide the crowning touch. Then the practise can start.

According to the author of this article, all the bombing at the end of the war -- the firebombing and the nuclear bombs -- were to show Stalin and the rest of the world that there was indeed a will to drop such bombs.

I think the author reads too much and too little at the same time into these decisions -- nevertheless, the article is worth reading and contemplating.

I confess that I am a troubled to learn that I am close to Curtis LeMay whom the article quotes as saying:

You only needed to walk through one of our roasted targets and take a look at the ruins of the countless tiny houses. Some kind of drill press stuck out of every pile of rubble. The entire population was involved in building aeroplanes or war munition. Men, women and children. . . . There are no innocent civilians. Nowadays you fight a people, not armed forces.

Although, as I indicated back in 2002, when I first wrote about this, my main problem is assuming that the civilians who were forced to become soldiers, sailors, and Marines when their country was attacked are expendible combatants while those who served the beligerant state in civilian costume are considered to be somehow protected or insulated from the conduct of their nation.

Anyway, those who are anti-bomb (is anyone really pro-bomb? I mean besides him) will find a sympathtic read at this article. For further reading, I recommend Dresden: Tuesday, February 13, 1945 by Frederick Taylor.

Who's the hardliner? In the past week, we've been bombarded with stories about Cardinal Ratzinger the "hardliner" and the Panzerkardinal and so on. Meanwhile, in Connecticut a true hardliner is operating and it's getting almost no coverage.

What's the case against +Ratzinger? He wouldn't let "moral" theologians teach as Roman Catholic teachers? Well they weren't. Did they suffer any hardship as a result? Via Jonah Goldberg, consider this:

As Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctine of the Faith (the Holy Office) since 1981, Ratzinger has been treated as a kind of grand inquisitor by the media. This is based on the “persecution” of a handful of theologians, most famously Hans Küng. In reality, this persecution amounted to a change of job title: Küng could no longer call himself a professor of Catholic theology, but continued to teach exactly the same things at the same university.

Similarly, in 1986 Catholic Priest Charles E. Curran was informed that he would no longer be allowed to teach Catholic moral theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Nevertheless, a tenured professor, he remained on at CU until 1991, when he was hired by SMU, where he still teaches. (It is surprising the number of news stories out there which claim he was fired. See for example, Newsday ["...Charles Curran was fired from his job at Catholic University..."]. In fact, as I stated, he remained on staff. He did bring a lawsuit against CU because he wanted to be a Pontifical scholar, but he lost at the lower court level and did not appeal.) He has never been defrocked.

[If you think about it, CU actually needed to take this action -- having Curran teach there, being held out as teaching Roman Catholic theology is a deceptive trade practice.]

On the other hand, in Connecticut, there is a real hard liner operating. Episcopal Bishop Andrew D. Smith has threatened six Connecticut pastors with "inhibition" a process which could lead to their removal from holy orders -- a defrocking -- if they don't submit to his total authority. The six are in agreement that they need to be under the authority of a bishop and have asked Smith for Episcopal oversight from an orthodox bishop. This is the rub. You see, Smith not only voted to elevate a non-celibate homosexual to a bishopric, he actually was one of the consecrators. Accordingly, Smith has turned his back on his own vows as a bishop. Smith's notion of a compromise is to delegate his "authority" over these six pastors to another heretical bishop. For Smith, it's his way or the highway...

So why is the media silent on this? Well, actually they are not. The NY Times has reported this story as a conspiracy by the six to trap Smith (Headline: "Dissident Episcopal Priests Are Called Part of a Strategy").

Ask yourself, would you rather be working for Ratzinger or Smith? Would you rather be in Curran's shoes or the shoes of the six pastors?

More on the six here (and at TitusOneNine, as always).

Good Sign

.

Books. That didn't take long -- nine of the top 21 best sellers at Amazon are authored by Joseph Ratzinger.

Papal Names. My kids have been interested by the fact that the new pope gets a new name. I point out that there's a biblical tradition for that, which Sarai and Abram becoming Sarah and Abraham, Saul becoming Paul, Jacob becoming Israel and so on.

My mother doesn't like the name Benedict, I'm not sure why. All my life, the pope has either had the name of John or Paul or both. This is the case for anyone born after October 28, 1958. Interestingly, for anyone born between February 6, 1922 and October 28, 1958, only one name is added, that of Pius. (Pius XI and XII). The prior pope, who's reign was from 3 Sepember 1914 to 22 January 1922, was . . . Benedict. Stretch back to August 4, 1903 and you find another Pius.

Therefore, there are just four names for popes for the past century: Pius, Benedict, John and Paul.

Leo XIII reigned prior to this from 20 February 1878 to 20 July 1903. (And preceding him, another Pius).

The best name never picked for a Pope? Francis. (Read the Vicar of Christ, one of the greatest novels ever written for an explanation...)

Benedict Sextus Decimus. Happy (belated) birthday to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the new Pope. I had the pleasure of watching the announcement, via webcam, in my office with my boss, who is a cousin of Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, S.D.B. My boss was able to give me the translations and we were both thrilled to be watching history in the making.

I am pleased with this choice. My own first choice would've been Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria, but, between these two it's clearly win-win.

There are some good articles out there on the new Pope Benedict XVI -- unfortunately the New Republic article by Erica Waters is not one of them. Here's a clip (via NRO's the Corner):

It's his humility, indeed his lack of desire for the job, that I find most compelling. Anyone who has seen him up close (as I have) knows the reality of the man confounds his image as an enforcer. Shy and soft-spoken, he possesses a scholar's temperament and in his youth was considered a theological innovator. He often wins over the wary after personal meetings. Many Protestant theologians in Germany and America, for example, speak warmly of him after engaging in scholarly give and take. Far from being power mad, he has for years pleaded to be allowed to resign from his office and return to teaching, but John Paul wouldn't consent.

Here's John Allen on what a Ratzinger papacy would look like. Michael Novak on the most journalist friendly cardinal.

And don't forget to check out the Ratzinger fan club.

Last, I'm sad to say, this (i.e., the name Benedict*) fits into the prophecies of St. Malachy, mentioned earlier. Specifically, the line for this Pope is "Gloria olivæ," which ties into St. Benedict and the Benedictine order.


More

Kendall Harmon recalls Cardinal Ratzinger's greeting to the Confessing Episcopalians in Plano last year. I remember I wept with joy when I heard this news.

__________
* I seem to recall reading some speculation in the past week that if it was Ratzinger, he would choose the name Benedict as there was a tie between St. Benedict (or one of the Pope Benedicts) and Germany.

[This post has been updated and slightly modified since initial posting]

Sad Day. According to Kendall Harmon, a great saint, Diane Knippers, has left us. At the parish meeting yesterday, Martin indicated she wasn't doing well and was in ICU. Still I thought we had more time. Pray for Ed Knippers and her extended family....

More.

Over the years, she has spoken a number of times from the pulpit at Truro (especially during the Seven Last Words) and these have been treasured times. Her heart has always showed a deep devotion to God, with humility and love for Him and for His creation. She will be deeply missed.

Here's a sample of her writing that I believes showcases Diane's heart. This is from her report to the 207th Annual Council of the Diocese of Virginia on the Bishop’s Dialogue Group on Human Sexuality (via the Virginia Integrity website):

You see, we dialogue partners have become friends. The dialogue group is a collection of disparate individuals – clergy and lay, male and female, young and old, parents and childless, with various racial, theological, vocational and other backgrounds. I am certain that we would not all have freely chosen each other as friends. But now, the bond is there. By now we’ve gone through so much together—births and deaths, divorces and marriages, illness and healing, job changes, promotions, travel. We’ve shared the seasons of the year, good food, quiet walks, a funny joke, a hug of condolence, and evening prayers.

Melinda, with whom I so strongly disagree, is a friend. Our disagreement is the more painful for that friendship, just as a fight in the intimacy of a family is more painful than one with a stranger. It would be an easy thing, a tempting thing, to show my love by saying “It’s OK. I will agree with you. I will accept your understanding, your vision, of what is true and right.” It is a more difficult, a more costly thing to say, “I love you, but no. You are wrong.”

Sometimes I think our sexuality group is bound together by this fierce, agonizing difference. And sometimes, I think or hope or pray, that we are bound together, in spite of our imperfections, our errors, or misunderstandings and mistakes, by Jesus Christ.

Still More

This is from an e-mail forwarded by a friend, active in the renewal of the Presbyterian Church (with a correction):

Our dear friend and colleague in renewal, Diane Knippers, died this afternoon a little before 2 p.m. She had been failing for the last several weeks and was in the midst of chemo treatments, but had weakened enough that they could not continue them. Late this morning her kidneys began to shut down and several planned procedures were canceled. Her husband, Ed, was with her, as well as her Mother and Father, Vera and Clancey LeMasters, and her brother Doug.

Diane was a dear friend and colleague and a giant among those in renewal ministry. How we will miss her and her clear, mature voice. Many of you would not be aware that Diane was on the staff here at Good News in 1981, when I came to be Executive Secretary. She helped me get settled in for that first year, helped me learn to write, and was such a wonderful help in so many ways. After a year, she and her husband, Ed, moved to Washington, D.C. He is a Christian artist and wanted to pursue his career there in the nation’s capitol. So, Diane has been a long-time friend and has remained close to the work of Good News and our RENEW Network, under the leadership of Faye Short in Georgia. She was United Methodist for many years, having been reared in a home in which her father was a UM clergyman. Some 15 or so years ago, she became Episcopalian, and was a member and a leader at Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, VA. She also served on the board of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) for a number of years. She was so widely respected across many different communions of Christ’s Church. I know we rejoice and give thanks to the Father for her faithful and fruitful life.

We will let you know about arrangements as soon as we learn what they are. Let’s continue to pray for Ed and all the family. Richest blessings on all of you.

Your friend and colleague in renewal,

Jim Heidinger

Still More

Michael Novak, writing for National Review's Corner observes:

Under her gentle but always brave leadership, IRD was very often the mouse that roared, terrifying the great grey elephants of national church bureaucracies into frantic panic. Calmly, Diane told the truth, and those who had been disguising suspect politics under cloaks of outward piety had to defend themselves in public, and often couldn't. Her sweetness of disposition was a gift of God. She now returns with it intact, enhanced by her consistent acts of courage, to restore it to her Maker and Redeemer.

And TitusOneNine has a letter from Mary Ailes to Diane, here.

Better than A-Rod? Here's a very interesting article in the NYTimes about a high school ball player on the same team with Alex Rodriguez and Doug Mientkiewicz. He was considered the best of all, yet never made it to the big leagues.

Speaking of baseball, Go Nats! It's hard to believe they're first in war, first in peace, and first in the National League [East].

Other Papabile. Tony Hendra, author of Father Joe, has this article (in .pdf format) on his website listing some of the other possible candidates to fill JP2's shoes. For example, this one should make Father Richard McBrien happy:

Belgian Jean-Paul Georges Ringaud, Cardinal Archbishop of the sprawling industrial diocese of Sprout to the east of Brussels is widely considered to be the standard bearer for the left-liberal wing of the church. Cardinal Ringaud wants to reach out to other denominations by canonizing Martin Luther and naming the first Jewish cardinal. He would make the use of birth-control a sacrament and declare a Feast of the Contraception. He sees no reason why the faithful should not be allowed to attend Mass via cell-phone or Blackberry. A Biblical scholar by training, Ringaud shares with reformist Dutch and German theologians progressive views on the interpretation of the Gospels. The most dramatic is the possibility - according to the latest biblical research - that Jesus of Nazareth was actually a woman. Cardinal Ringaud welcomes the hypothesis: as he has said: the world is ready for a ‘Ms.-iah’ He is well known in his native Belgium for leading congregations in a prayer he penned himself: The Maternostra (Our Mother). This gibes with another of his convictions: the Church has not apologized to nearly enough injured groups – for instance to all women for the existence of the penis. His first act as Pope would be to abolish the papacy.

Luring Home Schoolers? Article here.

"He was my Pope, too..." So says Lutheran Uwe Siemon-Netto here. I am in total accord with Siemon-Netto's essay -- please read it all.

Pope John Paul has given the entire Christian Church so much to reflect on -- in his actions, his example, his faith, his theology. I'm sure I wasn't the only Protestant who pulled out some of his encyclicals in the past week. My particular favorites: The Gospel of Life, The Splendor of Truth, and Faith and Reason. They are available on-line for easy reading or may be purchased for a nominal price at most Catholic bookstores.

There is truly no way to express how much this great soul meant to so many of us.

We thank God for him.

Sweet Sistine. Here are the papabile brackets. I'm not sure, but I think it's a venial sin just to view this...

I Coulda Been A Contender... As Christopher S. Johnson writes: "Since the Pope died, nobody's going to be paying any attention to ECUSA for a while." Let's face it, ECUSA is class D ball even within the Protestant community, so let's look at the interesting stuff; the big leagues.

Naturally, there's a blog out there keeping an eye on the papabile: "Dedicated to the discussion of the possible successors of our Holy Father, John Paul II. Papabile: (pay-pah-bee-lay), n., one who is considered a possible candidate to be Pope."

If you want to bet on the next pope, you can look here the current odds are:

• Francis Arinze (Nigeria) 11-4
• Dionigi Tettamanzi (Italy) 11-4
• Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga (Honduras) 9-2
• Joseph Ratzinger (Germany) 7 - 1
• Claudio Hummes (Brazil) 7-1

All odds, when posted, may be found here, at oddchecker...

If you really want to bet (I sure wouldn't), keep in mind the The Pignedoli Principle when reading the newspapers.

And, since you can't tell a player without a scorecard, here's a good place to look for the current information on who's who.

Last, don't forget about the prophecy of St. Malachy.

More...

Thumbnail bios from the National Catholic Reporter...

John Paul the Great. According to tradition, there are only two Roman Catholic popes who have been accorded the title "The Great." John Paul the Second (or Ioannes Paulus PP. II) should be known as John Paul the Great.

Now he belongs to the ages...

Update:

Father Richard John Neuhaus makes the case here.

Also, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, in the Requiem Mass for Karol Wojtyla, refers to him as "the Great."

I'm Caspian.

As Prince Caspian you are a noble, goodhearted but mischievous scallywag! Fun loving, you are admired for your easy going nature.

(via my wife, who is Tirian [I'm jealous])

A few things on Terri:

• I have read the 11th Circuit court's opinion and dissent and find the dissent much more persuasive, but then I'm biased, right? (opinion also here) Anyway, one of the most disingenuous points made by the two person majority can be found in footnote 1:
  

  Our dissenting colleague says that “the denial of Plaintiffs’ request for an injunction frustrates Congress’s intent, which is to maintain the status quo.” Dissenting Op. at __. The status quo is that Mrs. Schiavo is not receiving nutrition and hydration....

• While the Federal District Court Judge James D. Whittemore was a Clinton appointee, Ed Carnes one of the two judges on the Court of Appeals was a Bush I appointee (and blocked by the Democrats, initially, see here). The dissent was authored by Charles Wilson, a Notre Dame grad and Clinton appointee. The other Circuit Court Judge, (Ms.) Frank M. Hall, was a Clinton appointee.
  
• I recommend reading the special guardian ad litem's ("GAL") report, which can be found here. For those of us who support Terri's life, it is not favorable, but it does provide good solid background.
• Read "My Last Visit with Terri Schiavo" by Barbara Weller, an attorney who represents Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.
• Other worthy reading NRO interview with Prof. George; Peter Sean Bradley (follow the links)
• Fast for Terri, if you can -- here are some options. Or choose water only.
  

Finally, doesn't death by starvation seem really, really cruel? And, umm, unusual? I mean why not just give her a lethal injection and be done with it? Mr. Bradley addresses the active/inactive fiction that the cult(ure) of death advocates are using to wash their hands and keep their conscience clean.

You wouldn't treat a dog like this...

Heh. (via Captain Yip).

I dissent. Think of me as the nine and three-quarters justice:

BROWN V. PAYTON (03-1039)
346 F.3d 1204, reversed.

At the beginning of this month, the court in a clear case of judicial overreach, struck down all death sentences imposed on minors. Roper v. Simmons. Apparently wanting to show that he was not a cheese-eating surrender monkey (audio), Justice Kennedy, of Rubicon fame, upheld a sentence of death after the prosecutor repeatedly lied to the jurors about what could and could not be considered as mitigation in the penalty phase of the case.

Specifically, as Kennedy himself notes,

In his closing, the prosecutor offered jurors his opinion that factor (k) did not allow them to consider anything that happened “after the [crime] or later.” Id., at 68. The parties do not now dispute that this was a misstatement of law.

One must see the dissenting opinion by Justice Souter to see how persistent and egregious this "misstatement of law" was. See § II.

It could be that the jury could have come back with the exact same sentence, even if the prosecutor hadn't lied to the jury, but we will never know. For the Court today has held that a prosecutor, the agent of the state, can mislead a jury in a capital case and allow him to trick that jury into thinking it must disregard all mitigating behavior following the crime.

What is surprising is that he didn't cite to well-settled law in places such as Cuba, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.

Ahh, the sweet mysteries of life.

"They fought me at every turn." This has to be the weirdest thing yet: according to Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold the axis of evil runs squarely through my church:

Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold identified by name six Episcopalians for having detrimentally influenced the course of the primates’ meeting in remarks to the House of Bishops at their March 11-17 spring retreat at Camp Allen in Navasota, Texas.

The devil is a liar and the father of lies and the devil was certainly moving about Dromantine, the site of the primates’ meeting in Northern Ireland, the presiding Bishop said, according to accounts from several bishops who spoke to THE LIVING CHURCH on the condition that their names not be revealed. The primates were “out for blood,” Bishop Griswold told them.

The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh; the Rev. Canon Bill Atwood, general secretary of the Ekklesia Society; the Rev. Canon Martyn Minns, rector of Truro Parish, Fairfax, Va.; the Rev. Canon David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council; the Rev. Canon Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina; and Diane Knippers, president of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, were singled out for opprobrium by the Presiding Bishop for their behind-the-scenes roles at Dromantine.

Of this gang of six, two, Minns and Knippers are at Truro Church.

I told my daughter last night after picking her up from dance at Truro -- we didn't see those shady characters around -- and she and I just laughed, incredulously.

This is just so weird -- is Frank having a breakdown? Is this his strawberries moment?

("I know exactly what he'll tell you, lies. He was no different from any other officer in the ward room, they were all disloyal. I tried to run the ship properly, by the book, but they fought me at every turn. . . . But they encouraged the crew to go around scoffing at me, and spreading wild rumors about steaming in circles, and then old yellow-strain. I was to blame for Lt. Maryk's incompetence and poor seamanship. Lt. Maryk was the perfect officer, but not Captain Queeg. Ah, but the strawberries, that's where I had them, they laughed at me and made jokes, but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, with geometric logic, that a duplicate key to the ward room icebox did exist, and I've had produced that key if they hadn't pulled the Caine out of action. I know now they were only trying to protect some fellow officer . . . Naturally, I can only cover these things from memory. If I've left anything out, why, just ask me specific questions and I'll be glad to answer them one by one.")

(information thanks, as always, to Kendall Harmon and Christopher Johnson.)

I've lost my blither... Ever since I got the news from my sister about her husband leaving her, I've been in a massive funk. Yeah, work's been tough and we've all been sick, which hasn't helped things, but really, every time I write something, it rings hollow or not true somehow...

... so, I'm taking a break from posting until my writing looks better.

Until then I'll be lurking...

(...and praying...)

Hotchpot. Some things of interest...

• The WSJ had an interesting note about the remodeling of two church buildings. Surprisingly, the Episcopal stucture appears to be more faithful.
• The Boston Globe on left-wing evangelical Jim Wallis.
• Dorm Brothels by Vigen Guroian and Frederica's reaction.
• William Bennett on Bush's Mandate.
  

HOF Finalists. This years Hall of Fame finalists were announced Tuesday. Dan Marino is a sure thing. Steve Young will probably be, but I wouldn't vote for him this year. You can't have two QBs go in in one year -- there should be a rule that says that.

So who else? Art Monk (940 receptions / 12,721 receiving yards) should be there, but probably won't. Yet if Monk doesn't make it, how can Michael Irvin (750 rec./ 11,900 yds) get in? (Of course, both lapped Lynn Swann [336/5,462], but that's another story.) [stats here] .

Yeah, but what about the real players, the offensive linemen? Guards Bob Kuechenberg and Russ Grimm. I'd put 'em both in. They'd both get my vote -- the one-at-a-time rule only applies to QBs, not linemen. If I had to pick Kuech this year, Grimm next.

On defense, I'd give the nod to first year nominee Derrick Thomas who was awesome at linebacker. The other linebacker nominated, Harry Carson, was very, very good, but not great enough to tip the scale. He had the advantage of playing for a great defense, a winning team.

This is something that Cardinal DB Roger Wehrli (although he did play beside the great number 8 for a few of those years) didn't have. I would pass over Wehrli in favor of Lester Hayes, but Lester didn't make the list this year.

Then there are three defensive ends: Richard Dent, Claude Humphrey, and L.C. Greenwood. All very, very good, however, none gets my vote this year. Dent should probably make it some year; he has the same advantage Carson had, playing for a great defense, yet it could be argued that he was the one who really made it great. L.C. Greenwood played on what was probably the greatest defense of all time -- trade places with Humphrey on Atlanta and see how he would do.

My votes:
1. Marino
2. Monk
3. Derrick Thomas
4. Kuechenberg

if you give me more, it would be:
5. Grimm
6. Lester Hayes (again, not on list)
7. Dent

Modern History Lesson. Mark Byron labels himself a "Bapticostal." What would a holy-roller Episcopalian call himself? Fr. Dennis Bennett, a major tool in the hands of the Holy Spirit (regarding the Episcopal Church) called them "Charismatics." Yesterday, the Washington Times had a good introduction to one of the truly influential books on the charismatic renewal: John Sherrill's They Speak With Other Tongues, still in print after 40 years. Fr. Bennett's book Nine O'Clock in the Morning is also still in print.

Sherrill's book (along with the Cross and the Switchblade) had a huge impact on the Catholic Church beginning in the 1960's at the famous "Duquesne weekend." This led, among other things to the founding of the Word of God community in Ann Arbor, MI. Pope John Paul II has embraced the Charismatic renewal saying,

The emergence of the Renewal following the Second Vatican Council was a
particular gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church. It was a sign of a desire on
the part of many Catholics to live more fully their Baptismal dignity and
vocation as adopted sons and daughters of the Father, to know the redeeming
power of Christ our Saviour in a more intense experience of individual and group
prayer, and to follow the teaching of the Scriptures by reading them in the
light of the same Spirit who inspired their writing. Certainly one of the most
important results of this spiritual reawakening has been that increased thirst
for holiness which is seen in the lives of individuals and in the whole Church

If you're interested in more on the subject, I recommend Richard Quebedeaux's The New Charismatics (1976).

R.I.P. My daughter came to me late this afternoon and wanted to know if radio stations ever just went off the air permanently. I asked why and she said she'd turned in 99.1 and it now seemed to be playing Spanish music. For the past few weeks we've have a running battle going over 99.1 because every time she'd want to listen to it in the car, it was playing rap or hip-hop -- and not good rap or hip hop. So I said good riddance. She wanted to call the station but couldn't find the listing in the phone book. I asked what were the call letters and she said "WHFS." It was then that it hit me.

WHFS used to be a great station, but in the past few years it seemed to go downhill and I hadn't realized it was the same one as 99.1 (I know it doesn't make sense but the station and I must've drifted apart without realizing it). Anyway, she looked it up, called and didn't get an answer -- but we soon figured out that it was indeed gone -- without warning. Now it's "El Zol."

The WaPo had a nice time of rememberance on-line today -- here's the transcript.

Like I said, 'HFS had already disappeared years ago, today just confirms the reality. Still, it will be missed.

More here.

Tireblogging. Since tireblogging seems to be all the rage, I should relate my tire story. Last night, I got a call from my wife who hit a pothole and blew out the tire. I grabbed my gloves and drove out to meet her and change the tire. It's a Toyota Sienna, so the spare and tools were difficult to find (it turns out you lift one of the seats and loosen a nut to lower the spare from underneath the van). Plus it was dark and wet. But we took care of things and she took the girls home in my car, while I took her van to the shop for repair. On the way, I realized that I had taken a lot longer than I had planned and there was no way to get Joe to wrestling practice last night, so I told him that we were going to miss it.

"We had wrestling tonight?" he asked.

"Well, yeah, it's Thursday night."

"But it's Epiphany -- they have wrestling on Epiphany?"

Yeah, wrestlers don't seem to take many breaks, do they?

After leaving the van at the shop (which means this isn't really tireblogging), my wife came and picked us up. At home, she and the kids all had the rosca, which our neighbor had dropped off. In our house, we never take down the tree until after El Dia de los Reyes.

I'm hoping the influx of Mexican culture will help to give the Epiphany and the twelve feast days of Christmas greater prominence.

Best Movies - 2004. Realizing I haven't seen all the movies released in 2004 -- indeed, who has?* -- here is my list of favorite movies from the past year:

1. The Incredibles. I'm almost ashamed to admit that this beat out a fabulous movie which would've been number one in almost any other year, but it is everything a movie should be.
2. The Passion of the Christ. I know, I know, I'm a heretic to not rank this as number one, but it is so emotionally draining, that it is not a movie I want to see again and again. If this were Oscar voting or something I would rank this as number one, but I've got to give the prime spot here to the Incredibles. However, after these two, there is a steep drop off.
   
3. Peter Pan. Okay, this was released in 2003, but at the end of the year and I didn't see it until this year.
4. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Still a big drop off from Peter Pan. I might rank this as higher than Pan, but I've read the book and I know how much better the book was than the movie.
5. The Notebook. Sweet movie -- James Garner was terrific.
6. Miracle. Well, really a great story.
   
7. Umm... that's it. I did see other movies, Butterfly Effect, Spiderman II, I Robot, Troy, etc. but none of them qualifies, IMHO, for a best of 2004 list.

* Apparently, no one has. Here's an article about a flick that only showed in Grand Rapids, MI last year, despite having heavy-weight actors Joe Mantegna and Anne Archer. The film is called Uncle Nino. The good news is that its being picked up for national distribution.

Oh, and when reading the article overlook the mistake calling Spidy 2, Superman II.

Theodicy - Tsunami Edition. The problem of evil which presents a question so difficult it gets it's own word - theodicy - has come to the fore with the terrible tragedy in the Indian Ocean region. Arts and Letters poses the issue (borrowing from MacLeish): "If God is God, he's not good. If God is good, he's not God. You can't have it both ways, especially not after the Indian Ocean catastrophe." Is this right?

Interestingly, one of the best responses is in a very short essay published in the Journal of Mammon by David B. Hart who observes: "When confronted by the sheer savage immensity of worldly suffering--when we see the entire littoral rim of the Indian Ocean strewn with tens of thousands of corpses, a third of them children's--no Christian is licensed to utter odious banalities about God's inscrutable counsels or blasphemous suggestions that all this mysteriously serves God's good ends."

On the other hand, Jeff Jacoby disagrees, while arguing for God's sovereignty, says we can be angry with Him: "To wrestle with God is not to abandon Him. To protest against the unearned suffering He inflicts or permits is not to reject His message -- quite the opposite."

That little phrase "or permits" is where I think Hart, Jacoby and I agree. And I appreciate Jacoby's message because this is one of many messages of the Scriptures: God is a loving God who does allow his creation to wrestle with Him.

Some of the other essays responding to the Tsunami and the problem of God: Michael Novak, Rowan Williams, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Ron Rosenbaum, Edward Spence, and others. As always, GetReligion has a great summary of the writings on the religion pages (with links).

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, notes, in the opening of his essay: "...but what most painfully reaches our feelings is the individual face of loss and terror." Alex Beam reflects on this issue, as memorably summed up by Josef Stalin: "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." While that may be a reflection of our human limitation on grasping a million tragedies, I believe that the Lord does feel each and every tragedy. And he weeps.


Theodicy on the Web:

• Catholic Encyclopaedia
• Wikipedia
• Gottfried W. Leibnitz

More

I debated putting in a link to Simon Winchester's article on the pagan response, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry Gaia" but didn't because my link took me to the archives (and a 50 word abstract). However, I found another link that takes you to the entire article.

In addition, since I started writing this note, GetReligion now has additional entries on the theodicy question.

Welcome to Canada, eh?

Top 10 -- College Football. Without a doubt, it's SoCal -- I went to bed at halftime (like most of the eastern seaboard, I'm sure) with USC ahead 38-10. I see the final score was 55-19. Sorry Auburn, but the Trojans made their case, you're number 2. By bearly beating Va.Tech, you're lucky to be there and not number 3, which I'll give to Utah.

The rest of the top 10, in my opinion, is
4. Oklahoma
5. Iowa
6. Texas
7. Virginia Tech
8. Georgia
9. Louisville
10. Cal.

Here's the AP rankings and here are the ESPN/USAT polls.

Triple Whammy. Sorry for not being around for the past few weeks -- I got hit by a triple whammy: sick (with a lingering bad cold/sore throat -- into my third week with it), work, and a personal thing that has me not wanting to chat. Basically, my sister's husband has decided he's not happy (or in love), so he's pulling an Amy Grant and moving out. I guess he thinks by devastating my sister and their three kids, he will find happiness.

Pray for her, for the kids, and for her husband. Abandonment of one's responsibilities does not lead to happiness.

USAToday is making a mistake. Walter Shapiro's nine year run ends today -- he will be missed, but I know a smart editor will pick him up. As I noted back in 2002, he wrote one of the best columns explaining the partisan divisions in the USA in this May 1, 1998 column.

In today's final column Mr. Shapiro notes

I also cherish the dialogue, which admittedly sometimes became fractious, that I had with readers. From the moment that I published my e-mail address at the bottom of this column, my goal had been to respond to every reader comment with a personal message. As is often the case with such high-minded intentions, I sometimes became overwhelmed by the volume of e-mail that I received.

I can affirm, from personal experience, that this was the case -- I was (pleasantly) surprised to see his reply to a message I sent once.

He will be missed, but hopefully for not long.

Sgt. Rafael Peralta, USMC. This is from the Marine Corps website, in it's entirety:

FALLUJAH, Iraq (Dec. 02, 2004) -- "You’re still here, don’t forget that. Tell your kids, your grandkids, what Sgt. Peralta did for you and the other Marines today."

As a combat correspondent, I was attached to Company A, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment for Operation Al Fajr, to make sure the stories of heroic actions and the daily realities of battle were told.

On this day, I found myself without my camera. With the batteries dead, I decided to leave the camera behind and live up to the ethos "every Marine a rifleman," by volunteering to help clear the fateful buildings that lined streets.

After seven days of intense fighting in Fallujah, the Marines of 1/3 embraced a new day with a faceless enemy.

We awoke November 15, 2004, around day-break in the abandoned, battle-worn house we had made our home for the night. We shaved, ate breakfast from a Meal, Ready-to-Eat pouch and waited for the word to move.

The word came, and we started what we had done since the operation began – clear the city of insurgents, building by building.

As an attachment to the unit, I had been placed as the third man in a six-man group, or what Marines call a 'stack.' Two stacks of Marines were used to clear a house. Moving quickly from the third house to the fourth, our order in the stack changed. I found Sgt. Rafael Peralta in my spot, so I fell in behind him as we moved toward the house.

A Mexican-American who lived in San Diego, Peralta earned his citizenship after he joined the Marine Corps. He was a platoon scout, which meant he could have stayed back in safety while the squads of 1st Platoon went into the danger filled streets, but he was constantly asking to help out by giving them an extra Marine. I learned by speaking with him and other Marines the night before that he frequently put his safety, reputation and career on the line for the needs and morale of the junior Marines around him.

When we reached the fourth house, we breached the gate and swiftly approached the building. The first Marine in the stack kicked in the front door, revealing a locked door to their front and another at the right.

Kicking in the doors simultaneously, one stack filed swiftly into the room to the front as the other group of Marines darted off to the right.

"Clear!" screamed the Marines in one of the rooms followed only seconds later by another shout of "clear!" from the second room. One word told us all we wanted to know about the rooms: there was no one in there to shoot at us.

We found that the two rooms were adjoined and we had another closed door in front of us. We spread ourselves throughout the rooms to avoid a cluster going through the next door.

Two Marines stacked to the left of the door as Peralta, rifle in hand, tested the handle. I watched from the middle, slightly off to the right of the room as the handle turned with ease.

Ready to rush into the rear part of the house, Peralta threw open the door.

‘POP! POP! POP!’ Multiple bursts of cap-gun-like sounding AK-47 fire rang throughout the house.

Three insurgents with AK-47s were waiting for us behind the door.

Peralta was hit several times in his upper torso and face at point-blank range by the fully-automatic 7.62mm weapons employed by three terrorists.

Mortally wounded, he jumped into the already cleared, adjoining room, giving the rest of us a clear line of fire through the doorway to the rear of the house.

We opened fire, adding the bangs of M-16A2 service rifles, and the deafening, rolling cracks of a Squad Automatic Weapon, or “SAW,” to the already nerve-racking sound of the AKs. One Marine was shot through the forearm and continued to fire at the enemy.

I fired until Marines closer to the door began to maneuver into better firing positions, blocking my line of fire. Not being an infantryman, I watched to see what those with more extensive training were doing.

I saw four Marines firing from the adjoining room when a yellow, foreign-made, oval-shaped grenade bounced into the room, rolling to a stop close to Peralta’s nearly lifeless body.

In an act living up to the heroes of the Marine Corps’ past, such as Medal of Honor recipients Pfc. James LaBelle and Lance Cpl. Richard Anderson, Peralta – in his last fleeting moments of consciousness- reached out and pulled the grenade into his body. LaBelle fought on Iwo Jima and Anderson in Vietnam, both died saving their fellow Marines by smothering the blast of enemy grenades.

Peralta did the same for all of us in those rooms.

I watched in fear and horror as the other four Marines scrambled to the corners of the room and the majority of the blast was absorbed by Peralta’s now lifeless body. His selflessness left four other Marines with only minor injuries from smaller fragments of the grenade.

During the fight, a fire was sparked in the rear of the house. The flames were becoming visible through the door.

The decision was made by the Marine in charge of the squad to evacuate the injured Marines from the house, regroup and return to finish the fight and retrieve Peralta’s body.

We quickly ran for shelter, three or four houses up the street, in a house that had already been cleared and was occupied by the squad’s platoon.

As Staff Sgt. Jacob M. Murdock took a count of the Marines coming back, he found it to be one man short, and demanded to know the whereabouts of the missing Marine.

"Sergeant Peralta! He’s dead! He’s f------ dead," screamed Lance Cpl. Adam Morrison, a machine gunner with the squad, as he came around a corner. "He’s still in there. We have to go back."

The ingrained code Marines have of never leaving a man behind drove the next few moments. Within seconds, we headed back to the house unknown what we may encounter yet ready for another round.

I don't remember walking back down the street or through the gate in front of the house, but walking through the door the second time, I prayed that we wouldn't lose another brother.

We entered the house and met no resistance. We couldn't clear the rest of the house because the fire had grown immensely and the danger of the enemy’s weapons cache exploding in the house was increasing by the second.

Most of us provided security while Peralta's body was removed from the house.

We carried him back to our rally point and upon returning were told that the other Marines who went to support us encountered and killed the three insurgents from inside the house.

Later that night, while I was thinking about the day’s somber events, Cpl. Richard A. Mason, an infantryman with Headquarters Platoon, who, in the short time I was with the company became a good friend, told me, "You’re still here, don’t forget that. Tell your kids, your grandkids, what Sgt. Peralta did for you and the other Marines today."

As a combat correspondent, this is not only my job, but an honor.

Throughout Operation Al Fajr, we were constantly being told that we were making history, but if the books never mention this battle in the future, I’m sure that the day and the sacrifice that was made, will never be forgotten by the Marines who were there.

Come as a Child. We went down to my parent's place in NC for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time. My mother is really into sewing and embroidery -- she has these powerful machines that can embroider practically anything on cloth (even toilet paper, but that's another story). In the months prior to Christmas, she really gears up and sews all kinds of fabulous gifts for the family. She (and my Dad) also buy us gifts (as you see, they go all out); so she's always looking for an indication of what we'd like.

This year she sent out a request for wish lists from the family and added, if we didn't respond, we'd get embroidered underwear. She followed this up with several e-mails asking for our lists and then sent this e-mail out before Thanksgiving:

I have received Christmas wish lists from Ann, William and Debbie, the Gallahans, and Brian. For the rest of you this Tuesday I will be purchasing the underwear--maybe socks too! :-)

My wife told the kids about these messages, seeking to compile their wish lists for Grandma.

When we arrived at my Mom and Dad's, the two little kids went scurrying off with their bags, while Debbie and I were greeting my parents and sister (who arrived before us). Pretty soon, Emilie (age 3) and Joe (age 6) were tugging at my Mom. She leaned over to see what they wanted. They each handed her a stack of clean underwear.

Mark 10:13-16

He's Back. Chris Muir's Day by Day is back.