Occasional reflections on religion, culture, politics, and anything else that comes into my mind...
THERE ARE REASONS FOR
POOR CHURCH MUSIC
Rare is the parish that’s free of complaints about music at Mass.
Whether it’s the screechy-voiced soprano in the choir, or the under-rehearsed guitar group, or the too-frequent repetitions of “Lead Me, Lord” — there’s usually something about which somebody has a gripe.
Unfortunately, the dissatisfaction is often justified.
WHAT THE ELECTION
IS REALLY ALL ABOUT
It can be edifying to go back and reread commentaries from a few years past. They refresh the memory about issues debated and battles fought.
Sometimes they can surprise by showing how little has changed. More often, they reveal the beginnings of ideas and themes that would infuse later arguments.
During the run-up to 2016’s Presidential election, author and television writer Shalom Auslander penned an op-ed for the Washington Post in which he explored the comparison between Adolph Hitler and The Donald then becoming a popular anti-Trump rant. Auslander wasn’t fond of the comparison, and actually felt that it belittled Hitler…
“Hitler was a megalomaniacal psychopath who should burn in Hell for eternity,” he wrote. But at least der Führer was someone “who actually believed in something. There’s a difference. Trump is a two-bit con man. He’s playing the fools.”
The “fools,” of course, were us — which was Auslander’s main point. He wanted to show that Donald Trump could have gotten to where he was a genuine contender for President of the United States only because We The People were so irredeemably weak minded …
MEGAN KELLY COLLIDED WITH
A PAINFUL POP CULTURE IMAGE
The uproar over Megan Kelly’s remarks about white people in blackface demonstrates once again that there are certain issues so emotionally charged that it’s all too easy to give unintended offense when addressing them.
Megan made a very odd assertion that when she was a kid, blackface was okay at Halloween, as long as you were dressing up as a particular “character.” That comment raised questions, not only about what “characters” might have been acceptable in those days, but about the kind of neighborhood in which she did her trick-or-treating.
Nevertheless, video footage of her “Today Show” discussion shows clearly that she was not unaware that blackface is considered offensive. Rather, she was attempting to draw a distinction between being sensitive to other people’s feelings and being crushed under the arbitrary dictates of political correctness.
That someone with her media savvy and cool presence did it so awkwardly shows how delicate such a task can be.
CONSIDERING AN UP-SIDE
TO ONLINE NASTINESS
The shared experiences of a society tend to reveal the attitudes of individuals within it.
For example, if you’ve ever watched film footage of the Nazi era in Germany — especially the great propaganda epics created by Joseph Goebbels and Leni Riefenstahl — you’ve probably been struck by the genuine enthusiasm of the crowds.
To be sure, the shots featured were selected and edited to demonstrate broad support for Hitler and his movement. But the overwhelming numbers of enraptured faces recorded on film leave no doubt that large portions of the German population were swept up in a collective frenzy.
Those folks would feel differently by the end of World War II, when Germany was in ruins and enthusiasm had turned to anguish. But at Nazism’s rise, many people opened their hearts to der Führer, embracing his promises as their own personal hopes.
Today we’re watching the attitudes of individuals reveal themselves in the unique confluence of politics and social media.
REFLECTING ONCE MORE ON
THE IMPACT OF COLUMBUS
It must have been the distraction of Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation brouhaha, but this year we’ve been largely — and blessedly — spared our annual agony over how the discovery of America ushered in the greatest of injustices and suffering.
Even Indigenous People’s Day, about which so much was made in 2017 when it received official status in Los Angeles, has gotten little attention.
CHARLES AZNAVOUR WAS
THE UNKNOWN SUPERSTAR
My Ave Maria Radio colleague, Al Kresta, is host of the daily talk show, “Kresta In the Afternoon,” heard on about 400 radio stations.
Al once made a wry comment about his situation of being widely known within the limited universe of Catholic Radio…
“It’s hard being famous when nobody knows who you are.”
The line is classic Kresta, reflecting both his quick wit and his honest self-awareness.
Charles Aznavour faced Al’s problem, but with a twist. Based in France, he was a true international superstar, a singer-songwriter known around the world, but recognized and followed by only a narrow audience within the United States (the world’s single largest music market).
That must have been a frustration for someone who had written more than 1,300 songs, some of which became standards in the U.S.
I discovered Charles Aznavour in the early 1970s, and I found his music deeply affecting. But whenever I’d mention him, the common response would be…
“Who?”
My simple answer was always…
“The guy who wrote ‘Yesterday, When I was Young.’”
At which point I would hear…
“Oh…you mean Roy Clark’s song.”
EMOTION OUTWEIGHS ALL IN
THE CONFIRMATION DISPUTE
The Democrats have certainly shown they’re great at planning ahead.
After silently lining up accusers to tar Brett Kavanaugh with a colorful variety of sex-abuse allegations — of which Christine Ford’s is only one — they’ve got their next argument ready for his confirmation vote…
His extreme emotional reaction to Ford’s charge shows he lacks the proper “judicial temperament” to sit on the Supreme Court.
If you haven’t heard that notion yet, you will soon.
But preparations don’t stop there. Lefty media mouthpieces are already announcing the strategy for blocking the assault on Roe v. Wade they assume would follow Kavanaugh’s ascension to the Court.
As reported by Breitbart News, Terry Moran, chief foreign correspondent for ABC, laid it all out during coverage of the committee hearing…
WORKING AROUND SOME OF THE
STUMBLING BLOCKS TO FAITH
A recent Pew Research Center survey reveals that young people who list themselves as having no church affiliation (the “nones,” as they’re called) usually have a very simple and obvious reason for not coming to the Church or for deciding to leave it.
And it’s not the poor quality of the music, or the supposed irrelevance of the preaching, or the unfriendliness of the congregation, or the ineffectiveness of the youth ministry, or other such concerns, discouraging as all those may be.
The bottom line for most disaffected young people is that they simply don’t accept the Christian story. As reported by Fox News…
A NEW SYSTEM FOR PICKING
SUPREME COURT JUSTICES
So…the Democrats have dug up another Anita Hill — a politically motivated woman who suddenly remembers some dastardly act on the part of a Supreme Court nominee years after the time it’s alleged to have happened.
Goes to show how powerful are the psychological forces that can suppress traumatic memories until just the moment when their reemergence hinders the plans of a Republican President.
Amazing.
History does repeat itself.
I, for one, think this is for the best, because it lends support to an idea I’ve been mulling over about a better system for staffing the Supreme Court.
“INSIDE RESISTANCE” IS THE
HOT ANTI-TRUMP MEME
The latest salvo in the war on Donald Trump is an op-ed commentary in The New York Times purportedly from a member of the White House “inner circle.” This writer, whom The Times refuses to identify, claims to represent “inside resistance,” a group of staffers devoted to keeping the President from following his most erratic impulses.
The question that comes immediately to mind is…
Does this person actually exist — which is to say, Is this really a Trump minion? — or has The New York Times perpetrated a hoax?
CAN WE EVEN CALL IT
WHITE SUPREMACY?
As if we descendants of European immigrants weren’t self-conscious enough about the social privileges we’re alleged to enjoy, now we must be on guard against suspicious gestures.
An attorney and close associate of Judge Brett Kavanaugh was outed as a secret White Supremacist because of the positioning of her arms during the opening day of congressional hearings for Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.
Seated immediately behind him, Zina Bash, who is on his confirmation prep team, was caught by TV cameras unconsciously resting her right hand on her left forearm with fingers in a pattern some interpreted as a representation of the letters “W” and “P,” standing for “White Power.”