Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1405

Through a Veil Darkly

In which I noodle the whole ID/evolution/Thomism thing.

Judge Okays Presidential Murder Inc. Powers

If the President wants to unilaterally murder American citizens he decrees to be Enemies of the State without evidence, arrest, trial or execution, that's just ducky with this judge. If the President says somebody is a terrorist who deserves to die, that's good enough for me. If it's true this time, it will always be true in the future. Because what absolutely unaccountable despot would ever misuse such power to murder innocent people he unilaterally declares, without trial, to be enemies of the state? When has *that* ever happened in, say, the past century. Surely a state competent to put its hand down your pants and arrest you if you resist is competent to have you shot if the President doesn't think you deserve to live.

The destruction of the United States as a nation governed by the rule of law and a state accountable to the People will be done under cover of "keeping you safe from terror". And the Thing That Used to Be Conservatism will be cheering for it every step of the way. On this point, it becomes weirdly mute about Obama's EEEEEvil designs against all that is right, holy, good, and American and enthusiastically cheers as he dismantles due process and the protection of law. Health care? That's a nightmare of Soviet proportions. Granting the President a 007 against American citizens with no accountability whatsoever? We're with you all the way, Mr. Obama! As long as you make us feel safe, we will hand over our very lives to our Glorious State. Nothing is more important than saving our skins.

John Farrell Gets His Old English On

Hwaet!



More here.

A reader writes:

I have a 12-year old girl that has ravenously devoured any scifi/fantasy she can get her hands on (makes a papa proud....). I'm looking for good, intelligent scifi/fantasy for a girl her age that isn't overly sexualized. I remember most of the scifi that I read when younger (Stranger in a Strange Land!) had some of these themes and I'd like to avoid them. At the same time, I'm hesitant to look at much Christian SciFi because it ain't often pretty. To give you a flavor of what she has read: Redwall (years ago), all LOTR + Hobbit and Silmarillion, a ton of Star Wars books, Enders Game and The Martian Chronicles.

Not having a girl, I don't quite know what girls like, but I would suppose that there are recommended reading lists out there for that age group from reliable sources. Also, you might think about steering her toward other genres just to open things up a bit. She might be ready for a stab at Dickens or Louisa May Alcott. Readers, do you have some suggestions?

Human Cleverness Never Fails to Inspire Wonder in Me

My PVC Instrument, DRS Talent Show @ Yahoo! Video

My readers are so cool!

A reader informs me that there is "a mock fantasy/sci-fi novel about a Catholic lady boxer in Valhalla, written in daily blog installments." This "Catholic-safe experimental bodice ripper" should, says my reader, be famous. My reader says, "It is light, fun, clever, and simply makes me happy (and not just me!)."

Sounds delightful to me. So, ahem, let 'er rip!

Begins here (at the bottom, title "attenshun dubbleday"

the latest installment.

Friends Don't Let Chattering Class Members Do Religion

In a twofer, I plow through my mail to belatedly mention

a) the daft spectacle of the United Nations morphing into the Tower of Babel by invoking a Mayan moon goddess to help them maintain the embattled Climate Change scam. False religions need false gods, so this seems suitable to me.

b) the Curt Jester covering Dawn Eden's discovery of a nutty AP history textbook which bestows upon us the fascinating new discover that the sacraments of Holy Church are "high magic". One can't expect too much from textbook writers, I suppose. But you'd think some small effort would be made to discover from Catholic sources what Catholics think they are doing when they celebrate the sacraments. But that does take time and research is awfully time consuming, so perhaps the textbook writers can be excused for simply offering a jazz riff on how sacraments happen to strike them.

Reason to Homeschool #9832398573459853490309385039043249827432923948733

Your eighth grader will not get an X rated test from a teacher on a self-appointed mission to challenge our bourgeois conventions about sex.

Thomas Peters writes:

Papist friends,

This week I was made aware of a disturbing plan put into action by a new group calling itself "Catholics for Equality." I believe this move represents the new face of a systematic, well-funded effort to undermine the Church's teaching on issues relating to marriage and cause more dissent among Catholics in America.

Aniello Alioto, one of their founding members of Catholics For Equality, explains their group's strategic plan to undermine the Church – yes, even in the pews of our parishes (emphasis mine):

One of the most interesting aspects of this campaign is our understanding that we don't need the consent of our hierarchy to effectively mobilize our fellow pro-equality parishioners inside our churches. This Christmas we will be rolling out the Catholics for Equality line of smartphone apps, which will allow supporters to connect with each other while they're sitting in the pews or attending an after-church social. The apps will also allow them to report hostile activity in their parish or make a special contribution to the campaign as the Holy Spirit moves them.

Let's be clear about what Alioto is saying: their organization plans to encourage its membership during Christmas to bring their phones to Church and to "report" from the pew whenever a priest or bishop dares to preach about the family or issues related to marriage, and to conduct fundraising in our sacred spaces. You can read Alioto's full letter here.

It's hard to imagine a more intrusive attempt to undermine the freedom of Catholic parishes and pastors to preach what the Church teaches to Catholics who are already constantly maligned outside of Mass about their views. Catholics for Equality has decided to take their fight against the Church into the very heart of our sacred worship spaces.

Furthermore, it goes without saying that I consider the claim that the Holy Spirit will move Catholics to fund -- at Mass -- organizations explicitly set against our priests and bishops to be blasphemous and offensive; a sin against the Holy Spirit, in fact.
For those of you who want to put together the pieces, Alioto is the Political Director for Progress Now, a George Soros-funded progressive organization. Catholics for Equality is being actively funded by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest and most powerful gay lobbying organization in America. This places Catholics For Equality firmly in the family of fake catholic organizations bent on undermining the Church's identity and traditional teaching, and turning Catholic against Catholic.


So what do we do?

An attack of this magnitude, one which causes bishops, priests and Catholics to look over their shoulder before daring to proclaim what the Church believes about the meaning of marriage and family, even at Mass, deserves a vigorous response.

1. Archbishop Broglio has already stated publicly that Catholics For Equality "cannot be legitimately recognized as Catholic", I call on more bishops to echo Abp. Broglio's statement, beginning with Donald Cardinal Wuerl of Washington, DC (where Catholics for Equality is located). Gay activists are convinced this is the next stage in their efforts to foment dissent in the Church, if we do not respond quickly and firmly more damage to Catholic unity will be caused.

2. Catholics for Equality is hosting an open debate next Wednesday at Washington DC's Georgetown University Intercultural Center Auditorium, 8:30-10:00PM. I call on local DC Catholics to show up and proudly support the Church's teaching on these issues. Please help me spread the word and join this Facebook group if you can attend.

3. We haven't heard the last of Catholics for Equality, or of outside groups attempting to undermine Catholic teaching and solidarity from the inside. Please join me in watching these pages over the next week for more on what we can do to defend our Church, and defend our right as Catholics to carry on the good news of Jesus Christ about marriage and family, in and out of season, and in the face of persecution.

For more thoughts on recent news relating to marriage, read my post on the subject here.

Oremus pro invicem.

Thomas Peters

I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, Peters is perfectly right that Catholics for Equality is one of those fake Catholic groups like Catholics United for the Common Good or Catholics for a Free Choice that are simply political action front groups bent on finding a way to attack the Catholic Church and its obvious and clear teaching. The goal of gay marriage, as I have said many times, is to create a legal basis for persecuting and, if possible, legally suppressing the Catholic Church. That's the goal.

At the same time, though my reaction to any odious little Soviet apparatchik who comes to Mass to spy on, photograph and intimidate believers is "Bring it, punk!" I'm rather of the opinion that this cockamamie campaign by Catholics for Equality is only going to backfire.

Here's why:

A) When was the last time you heard a discussion of gay marriage from the pulpit?

[insert crickets sound here]

Yeah. Me too. The homophobic hate isn't exactly spilling out of the Church. So these James O'Keefes of the left are going to be mighty disappointed.

B) If some little citizen journalist jerk for CfE does wind up covertly recording some Catholics in their natural habitat gabbing about DADT or expressing the forbidden thought that marriage is supposed to be between one man and one woman, does anybody seriously think that the Stupid Pet Trick of putting such people on Youtube for a 15 Minute Hate by their fellow CfE trolls is going to win converts to their Stalinist little cause? I can't think of a faster way to alienate the average Catholic in the pew.

What this stunt tells me is that the people organizing it haven't actually set foot in a Catholic parish in years and have only the most cartoonish notions of what happens at an average Mass. The upside of that is: people who have been away from the Church for years will be coming back to Mass. It could be that some will come to spy and remain to pray.

Charity believeth all things.

Brian Visaggio...

turns out to be quite a whiz!  He's been creating this rather cool graphic novel series, all while studying for the priesthood!