Sunday, November 30, 2008
Minor revelations
On this first day of advent I took up briefly a search that's come up for several years. Namely, to find the origin, music, and lyrics to a song we sang during Advent as kids at Church. We knew it simply as "The Jesse Tree Song". Well, I just mentioned it to my sister (as I probably have every year) only to find out that she discovered it has never been published and that it was in fact written by Norm Wahl, the music minister at St. James Parish on Bailey avenue where we grew up. Now, it's good to know where it came from and even more heartwarming to know that this special song was unique to our little community. But, it's a bit frustrating not to have the modern convenience of being able to go online to quickly find a recording of the song. One of these days I'll have to try to track Norm down to see if he's ever distributed it in anyway. It was kind of folky as I remember it (hey it was the '70s) but even if it might not completely fit today's liturgical sensibilities it would be a great song to teach kids through advent even as we're being bombarded by too early Christmas music. The lyrics we can remember (presumably the chorus) went like this:
Sitting with my brothers,
Sitting with my sisters,
Sitting by the Jesse Tree.
Waiting with my brothers,
Waiting with my sisters,
Waiting by the Jesse Tree.
Why are you waiting boys?
Why are you waiting girls?
Who are you waiting for?
Stand up and sing!
Here comes the King!
Here comes the Lord of Lords.
That's who we're waiting for.
posted by JTC 2:56 PM
Why Social Justice is wrong..
There are many in the Church and among all Christians, particularly those of a conservative bent, who cringe each time they hear the phrase. The first, and most obvious reason is that many associate Social Justice activities with Socialism. Sadly, they are occasionally right. Today while visiting a parish out of town I stumbled on an item in the parish bulletin advocating state legislation to provide rental assistance to needy families. This item came from the Social Justice ministry of the parish.
So first, is this Socialism? I believe the answer is a resounding yes. In this particular instance the goal is to take money from one group of people involuntarily (through taxes) and redistribute it to the the needy to achieve the admirable goal of of providing shelter. This is objectively wrong on at least two counts. First, it strips the responsibility of caring for those in need from the individual, the family, the neighborhood, the Church and places it in the hands of government. This diminishes the dignity of individual persons on both sides of the equation and by placing the government between those who are in need and those who can help them further disconnects them from each other. Second, in confiscating money from one group of people involuntarily this activity is essentially stealing, in violation of God's commandment.
So it's socialism, but is it just? Well in my opinion Justice is an irrelevant concept here, at least in the way the term is used. I believe that referring to forced redistribution like this as just implies a sort of entitlement. I don't believe that entitlement is consistent with traditional Christian teaching. Let me be clear, the Church, as God's representative, commands each of us who claim to be Christian to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick, visit the imprisoned and bury the dead. Though most of us fail miserably at the task we mustn't ever forget to try harder and do more lest we face the Lord one day and here him say: "When I was hungry you did not feed me, when I was homeless you turned me away". But, though God demands that these works of mercy of us may the poor demand them of us? My answer is an emphatic no! If we fall upon those hard times may we demand the aid of others? Certainly we may ask but even if we are turned away are we not called as Job was to say: The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, Blessed be the Name of the Lord". Truly, whatever we have belongs to God and is His to use as he pleases even to our very lives.
I believe that those in so called Social Justice movements often misunderstand and misrepresent the Church's teachings in these matters. Certainly from Rerum Novarum to Centisimus Annus the Church reaffirms the demands upon every Christian spelled out in the Corporal Works of Mercy. In that way the Church does call for a Just society. But she does not demand that we hand that responsibility over to the state and in doing so advocate for an atheistic society in which each person is considered simply a component element of a larger social entity. This is the Socialism that John Paul the Great and his predecessors condemned as evil.
Here in our own country we have a difficult situation to face. Even as the Church and others throughout the world rightly call us to task for our rampant materialism and greed I believe that many Americans and most foreigners fail to understand the nature of how our nation was meant to work. We ought not look to our government to solve problems but remember the Church's teaching on subsidiarity and look to the adage of one of our greatest founders, John Adams, who tells us that "We have no government armed in power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." Mr Adams effectively tells us that we must act in a Christian manner if our nation is to succeed because the government is simply not capable of taking up the slack.Labels: catholic, church, corporal works of mercy, evil, social justice, socialism
posted by JTC 11:44 AM
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
An alternate Conservative take on Obama from the American Thinker
posted by JTC 10:59 PM
Saturday, November 22, 2008
This is fun..
posted by JTC 2:42 PM
Politics
I had intended to write something, actually quite a bit, about the election and the economy by now. But, I just don't have the energy for it. From where I sit it looks as if the whole world has gone mad. So some recommendations: Study the founders and what they had to say and for heaven's sake read Milton Friedman. Meantime, fasten your seat belt, it's going to be a bumpy ride.
posted by JTC 2:38 PM
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Are you sure your schools aren't indoctrinating your children?
posted by JTC 6:24 PM
Friday, November 07, 2008
This just had to be blogged....
posted by JTC 2:31 PM
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Today I weep and mourn for the loss of my country. There is little sense in writing more right now.
posted by JTC 9:19 AM
Monday, November 03, 2008
Voters outnumber adults in 24 of 82 counties in state of Mississippi
Maybe they're taking lessons from Chicago.
posted by JTC 6:54 PM
More on Obama and coal
posted by JTC 6:12 PM
Is it too late?
With just a day to go more Obama news of frightening proportion is making the rounds. The obvious question is: why now? Are these just last ditch efforts of a conservative minority to derail Obama's election? That would be plausible if the two major stories weren't so easily confirmed by reviewing Obama's own speeches. Could the main stream press be trying to cover their collective asses after spending the past year crowning Obama king of the world? Have they suddenly realized that they've helped bring us to the edge of the abyss? Who knows? It's hard to tell if even these stories will matter now. In any event here they are:
1st
Move over Patriot Act, step aside Department of Homeland Security, if you thought those atrocities were bad now we have Obama's Gestapo. At approximately 16:50 into this video Obama calls for the establishment of a National Civilian Security force as large and well funded as the US military. What? The FBI, US Marshalls, ATF, Secret Service, Capital Police and who knows how many other armed federal agencies weren't enough!?
and just to fuel your suspicious nature, consider that the official transcripts of this speech as published in the Wall Street Journal and Denver Post, do not include those lines.
2nd
Coal. Now, in this context I don't really care what you think of coal power. The issue at hand is the deceptive pandering that Obama and Biden have engaged in on this subject. On one hand Obama is telling the San Francisco Chronicle he will bankrupt the coal industry. (transcript here)
On the other hand his campaign is running commercials expressing his solidarity with Illinois Coal miners and promising them he'll pursue clean coal technology.Labels: bailout congress senate house despicable conservative, barrack, coal, deception, democrat, gestapo, obama, president, republican, socialist
posted by JTC 5:00 PM
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Thomas Sowell says the big meltdown could be coming......
posted by JTC 10:28 AM
