A Sound of Sheer Silence

There is an excellent series of pieces on Bill Lindsey's blog about the state of things with regard to the Catholic priesthood that I would direct your attention to (and not because he says nice things about me).  In particular, he points toward a rather amazing piece in the Guardian  entitled "The War on Pope Francis," and more specifically to the following quote: "What I care about is the theory," said the English priest who confessed his hatred of Francis. "In my parish there are lots of divorced and remarried couples, but many of them, if they heard the first spouse had died, would rush to get a church wedding. I know lots of homosexuals who are doing all sorts of things that are wrong, but they know they should not be. We're all sinners. But we've got to maintain the intellectual integrity of the Catholic faith." For those who are not deeply immersed in the world of conservative Catholicism, that quote surely comes across as word sal...

One way you know that you are on-to something useful and significant is that you see it pop up all over the place.  You'll be minding your own business, doing whatever it is you do normally, and all of the sudden something will happen and you will think "wow, that's yet another example of The Thing, popping up in an unexpected place."  That's been my experience with the ideas of Rene Girard.  Every few months or so, something will come up in popular culture that is controversial or ambiguous, and my first thought is "oh, that's an example of scapegoating," or "I know exactly what Girard would say about this." That was exactly the experience I had this weekend reading a New York Times  op-ed piece by Mayim Bialik , which is a perfect example of the Girardian concept of "The Sacred."  Bialik is an actress who came into prominence as the star of the 90s TV show Blossom .  As she states in the piece, she left acting after Blossom to...

Some of you, I can confidently predict, don't like Bono or U2.  In this you are wrong, but I acknowledge that this is a reality of the world we live in.  Some people think that U2 and Bono are faux-deep and sappy, but that's because we live in a world where too many people are afraid of things that are actually deep and meaningful, and so armor themselves against the world by constantly taking an edgelord ironic stance.  I love U2, and I love the song "One,"  as I have discussed before. On last week's episode of the Inglorious Pasterds, the guys mentioned "One" in the context of the shootings in Las Vegas.  In particular, they quoted the final chorus: One love, o ne blood One life, you have to do what you should One life with each other Sisters, brothers One life, but we're not the same We get to carry each other, carry each other One One After hearing the Pasterds' podcast, I've been thinking about these lines for the last coupl...