The Day of the Triffids

The most dangerous people in the world are not those who knowingly commit evil, but those who convince themselves that their actions are noble despite evidence to the contrary. I’m amazed at the number of people I’ve encountered over the years who are capable of rationalizing the most ridiculous, the most hypocritical, and even the most illogical actions. Maybe its narcissism. Maybe it’s ignorance. I don’t know. But one thing I do know is that it’s frightening.

Case in point: We live in a world where with each passing year human life is further cheapened. Western society not only refuses to reject abortion, but seeks to spread its availability to developing nations. Assisted-suicide and euthanasia exist in Europe and are making inroads in the United States. Civil wars across Africa have killed millions, and now tens of thousands of Christians have been murdered by Hindus in India.

Yet, what is on the minds of the Swiss: plants rights.

According to the Wall Street Journal (“Switzerland's Green Power Revolution: Ethicists Ponder Plants' Rights”) Swiss scientists who genetically modify plants must now ensure that they are not “trampling on a plant's dignity”. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122359549477921201.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

Stop laughing.

Believe it or not the Swiss Parliament created a panel of various “experts” from a collection of disciplines—including philosophers, lawyers, geneticists and theologians—to “establish the meaning of flora's dignity”. Among the examples given by the panel of immoral behavior towards plants is “decapitation of wildflowers at the roadside without rational reason”.

Would that be a mortal sin or a venial sin?

After all if a young man is going to risk eternal torment for pulling a flower out of the ground to give to the woman he loves, he should at least be warned ahead of time.

Think the Swiss’ nuttiness ends here? Not quite. Here are a few other gems:

“Last month, Switzerland granted new rights to all ‘social animals.’ Prospective dog owners must take a four-hour course on pet care before they can buy a canine companion, while anglers must learn to catch fish humanely. Fish can't be kept in aquariums that are transparent on all sides. The fish need some shelter. Nor can goldfish be flushed down a toilet to an inglorious end; they must first be anesthetized with special chemicals, and then killed.”

Too bad the Swiss don’t have the same regard for the dignity of humans, as witnessed by their sanctioning of abortion and assisted suicide.

Perhaps the pro-life movement in Switzerland should change its approach: instead of arguing that a fetus is a human life, they should argue that it is a form of plant life. They’d receive more sympathy.

Donald Tremblay

Christ is Above All- Including His Own Teachings

Mark Shea, senior content editor for Catholicexchange.com, wrote an interesting commentary for the Oct 5 issue of the National Catholic Register. (http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/16062/) “Denver’s Partisan Theology” is primarily a criticism of the Democratic Party’s pro-abortion platform. However, at the end of the essay while questioning the methods of anti- death penalty crusader Sister Helen Prejean, Shea explains the dangers of taking “a particular aspect of Church teaching and expand[ing] it into the entire faith.” As he correctly points out history is replete with instances of this.
For ex., “Expanding predestination into the Whole Faith got us Calvinism”. Here is a useful definition of Calvinism and predestination as provided by http://www.religioustolerance.org/calvinism.htm :

"Unconditional Election." This is the concept of predestination: that God has divided humanity into two groups. One group is "the elected." It includes all those whom God has chosen to make knowledgeable about himself. The rest will remain ignorant of God, and the Gospel. They are damned and will spend eternity in Hell without any hope of mercy or cessation of the extreme tortures. God made this selection before the universe was created, and thus before any humans existed. The ground or grounds that God uses to select the lucky few is unknown. What is known is that it is not through any good works on the part of the individual. It is not that he extends knowledge to some in order to find out who will accept salvation and who will not.
Another example given by Shea is that of exalting love of the poor: “Expanding the love of the poor into the Whole Faith led some misguided Catholics to embrace communism.” Who can forget the misguided disaster known as liberation theology?

“Impatience and a desire for results has led certain Christians, despairing of every other method, to turn to what they call "marxist analysis. . . . Let us recall the fact that atheism and the denial of the human person, his liberty and rights, are at the core of the Marxist theory. This theory, then, contains errors which directly threaten the truths of the faith regarding the eternal destiny of individual persons. Moreover, to attempt to integrate into theology an analysis whose criterion of interpretation depends on this atheistic conception is to involve oneself in terrible contradictions. What is more, this misunderstanding of the spiritual nature of the person leads to a total subordination of the person to the collectivity, and thus to the denial of the principles of a social and political life which is in keeping with human dignity.”

(Instruction on Certain Aspects of "Theology of Liberation" - Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, August 6, 1984 http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_df84lt.htm)

As Christians we must resist the temptation to elevate Christ’s teachings above Christ Himself. Christ was not Confucius. He was not simply a sage who developed a social philosophy for men to live in harmony. He was, and is, the Son of God:

“For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him.” (John 3: 16-17)

And there is not a beatitude or commandment that takes precedence over this.
So by all means try and adhere to all of Christ’s teachings to the best of your ability . . . but remember: it is the Son of Man who gives those teachings their authority, and not the other way around.

The Religious Atheist

Bill Maher’s Religulous received mixed reviews from movie critics around the nation. Some newspapers such as the New York Daily News and the New York Post loved it, while others like Newsday and The Boston Globe ripped it. The New York Daily News gives the film four stars and states, “What he [Maher] does do finally in this funny, refreshing movie is assert how unrestrained religiosity could guarantee the ‘end days’ many of his subjects admit to looking forward to.” (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2008/09/30/2008-09-30_oh_god_religulous_features_bill_maher_in.html)

Similarly, the New York Post describes the film as a “religious experience” while granting it three stars. (The Post’s favorable critique isn’t surprising, however, considering that the writer of the review believes that “[n]o defender of any religion could withstand five minutes of cross-examination from a junior varsity debater”.) (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2008/09/30/2008-09-30_oh_god_religulous_features_bill_maher_in.html)

Kudos to Newsday and The Boston Globe for exposing Maher’s hypocrisy. Maher criticizes religious supporters as fanatical; yet he is as rabid in his atheistic views as the very people he denigrates and mocks.

Newsday’s Rafer Guzman labels the film “a nasty, condescending, small-minded film, self-amused and ultimately self-defeating.” He also adds that “[Maher’s] routines are often vulgar: Whenever homosexuality comes up, Maher resorts to sniggering anatomical jokes. After the interviews are wrapped, director Larry Charles (‘Borat’) uses the editing room to have the last laugh. At one point, the film visually compares a well-dressed black pastor to a flashy black pimp.” (http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/wednesday/partii/ny-etrelig5864082oct01,0,6930563.story )

This vulgarity should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Maher’s previous works. A juvenile sense of humor is his trademark.

The Boston Globe’s Wesley Morris describes the film as follows:
“As an exchange of ideas, this is a hopeless project, since Maher's doubt is as immovable as his interviewees' certainty. As entertainment, it's entirely a matter of whether of you find Maher's superiority complex a laughing matter. He's a committed skeptic, and those who aren't must be stupid.” (http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2008/10/03/maher_happily_makes_a_mockery_of_religion/)
Maher’s subjects are purposely not theologians or biblical scholars, a point raised by Morris later in his review: “Many of the faithful Maher interviews are underprepared or exposed as naïve, misinformed, or possibly fraudulent.” But let’s give Bill a break; it’s difficult to mock those who can defend themselves.

In the film Maher contends, “I’m only asking questions.” But anyone familiar with his modus operandi is well aware of the disingenuousness of this statement. Ridicule is his motive, as Morris summarizes in the final paragraph of his column:

“Mostly Maher is content to riff, rant, opine, judge, reduce, and preach - zealously, I might add. Early in the film, he meets with a group of American men in their tiny church, and speaks from an elevated pulpit, requiring them to look up at him. One of the men doesn't appreciate Maher's tone, excuses himself, and exits. He knows that Maher is not looking for answers. He's looking for targets.”

Maher’s dirty, little secret is that he is as zealously religious as any Christian fundamentalist. The only difference is that his religion is atheism.

Donald Tremblay

Another Prodigal Son

Another Prodigal Son

I have a prediction: Sometime in the next 10-20 years Bill Maher will announce that he has found religion. That’s right. The juvenile, not-particularly-funny comedian will emerge from his spiritual wasteland and become a believer. Many will read my prediction and laugh. They may even call me an idiot or naïve. I accept that, but let me explain why Maher isn’t as far from God as most people think.

“And to the angel of the church of Laodicea, write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of the creation of God: I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.” (Rev 3: 14-16)

As can be inferred from the scriptural passage above, indifference is the one emotion that prevents the Holy Spirit from working His grace in an individual. How can this be? The Lord does not force Himself on anyone. A person who doesn’t care about the Lord’s existence is like one who ignores a persistent knock at the door. The visitor may continue knocking, but he is not going to force himself in.

Contrarily, a person who hates God, or is cold to Him, is like someone who hears a knock at the door and yells at the visitor to go away. In order to demand that the visitor leave, the person has to first acknowledge that someone is knocking at the door. Similarly, in order to hate God or to argue against His existence, one has to acknowledge God. Love Him or hate Him, your soul has responded to Him, which leaves an opening for the Holy Spirit to instill Grace in your soul.

Maher can be called many things, but lukewarm is not one of them.

Maher’s film Religulous opens in theaters this weekend. Apparently it is 100 minutes of Maher insulting and mocking Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The Associated Press reports that “Maher meets with priests at the Vatican, chats with rabbis and Muslim scholars in Jerusalem, encounters street preachers in London, and hangs out with the performer who plays Christ in a crucifixion enactment at the Holy Land Experience theme park in Florida.” (http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/01/film.religulous.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest)

Anyone who has read or heard Maher knows his vitriol toward religion knows no boundaries, particularly when concerning Roman Catholicism, the religion of his childhood. Below are just a few of the disgraceful insults he has leveled against the Church, courtesy of the website www.firebillmaher.com :


March 2002:
· "Before puberty, I would say nobody caused me more pain than the Catholics... I apparently was not attractive enough to be hit on [by priests]."
May 2003:
· Maher had a limited run on Broadway with a show titled "Bill Maher: Victory Begins at Home." In it he included these pieces of scripted "humor": "The problem is they drill religion into your head when you are very young. Well, when you are four years old, you believe in Santa Claus, too. Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, the Virgin Birth, sure! When you're a priest everyday spewing this bulls--- about the apple and the snake, etc., you can see him just saying, 'Ah, f--- it, just blow me, kid!'""Come on, it's so gay, the Church! With the robes and the smoke and kneeling in front of the priest with your mouth open eating God."

January 2008:
· "You can't be a rational person six days of the week and put on a suit and make rational decisions and go to work and, on one day of the week, go to a building and think you're drinking the blood of a 2,000-year-old space god. That doesn't make you a person of faith ... that makes you a schizophrenic." "...UFOs are a lot more likely than a space god [that] flew down bodily and you know who was the Son of God and you know had sex with a Palestinian woman..."

Maher is the child who, in desperate need of attention, continues to push the envelope merely to shock people. Why else would his “comedic” routine be obsessively littered with references to pedophilia, gay sex, and male genitalia? His comments are similar to those overheard in a schoolyard among teenage boys.

I would not be surprised to learn that at some point in his life Maher felt abandoned by God and responded by lashing out against the Almighty as a child would rebel against his father. Ask any man who has been at odds with his father and he’ll confirm that his rage knew no limits. But just as a child matures and reconciles with his father, so will Maher mature (spiritually) and reconcile with God. It’s an old story that has been relived many times. (See “The Prodigal Son”)

In the meantime although we should pray that Maher finds his way, we as The Mystical Body of Christ have a responsibility to point out the error of his ways and prevent him from leading others astray. Tomorrow I’ll review some of the critics’ comments about Religulous.

Donald Tremblay

Greed

The Associated Press used a term today that aptly defines the corporate greed that sustains today’s Wall Street culture: casino capitalism. (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gOZTtahVNy4kICgeQueTNyWQybJAD93H9HL80) Simply put it is the practice of accepting whatever risks necessary, short of breaking the law, to earn substantial profits. It is an unfettered game of craps.

"The managers of big business took huge risks out of greed," said President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, whose economy is highly dependent on U.S. trade. "What happens in the United States will affect the entire world and, above all, small countries like ours."

In fairness it’s not just the U.S. who is at fault here. As the AP points out, big business across Europe is guilty of the same carelessness and greed:

“It's harder for European leaders to point the finger directly at the United States since many of their financiers participated in the recklessness. London was home to the division of failed insurer AIG that racked up huge losses on credit-default swaps, and many reputable European banks disregarded risk to load up on higher yielding subprime assets.”

Swaps, derivatives, you name it. All were recklessly created to bring big returns for investors. But there’s one thing about greed people forget: it cannot be sated. The more it gets, the more it wants. It is a ravenous beast.

Capitalism is the best economic system that Man has developed to-date. However, there are fundamental flaws with it. It is a lot like Nature in that when acts it doesn’t discriminate between good and evil, right and wrong. Free-market defenders will argue that the system works because as was the case with Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers, the market weeds out inefficient, unprofitable companies. And macro-economically speaking, they are correct. But at what cost is this done? “This Survival of the Fittest” mentality leaves financial carnage in its wake, and the victims usually are those who have nothing to do with the questionable business practices.

I remember studying economics when I was younger and reading that a company’s stock value rises after it lays off workers. I understood the math behind it: Fewer salaries means lowers costs which in turn translates into a better bottom line. But my first thought was that there is something wrong with a system that rewards a company for sending its workers to the unemployment line.

I still feel that way today.

Donald Tremblay

The king and The King

When most people think of Elvis Presley they envision the 1957 teen who revolutionized music and sent girls swooning with his gyrating performances. Few of these people know how spiritual “The King of Rock-n-Roll” was and how he struggled daily to be closer to the “King of Kings”. Gospel was Elvis’ greatest musical love, which is fitting since despite his multitude of number #1 hits, he never won a Grammy Award until 1967 for “How Great Thou Art”.

Catholicexchange.com (http://www.catholicexchange.com/2008/09/27/113998/) has posted an interview with Dolores Hart, the actress who starred with Elvis in Loving You and King Creole before leaving Hollywood to become a cloistered Benedictine nun. Among the stories she tells is that of her and Elvis during the filming of King Creole:

When we were making King Creole, he had so many people after him — you couldn’t walk through the streets in New Orleans. It was like a circus. You would not believe the crowds. Policemen were everywhere. We had to go to hotel rooms to wait in between scenes. When we finally got to the site, we were ushered into the elevator, [and] in the hotel rooms. There would be boards built from one hotel to another. We crossed over to another hotel and would go down the elevator and enter another room. They’d bring us sandwiches. Elvis would open the Gideon Bible, as that was the version placed in the hotel rooms. Whatever passage he’d open it to, we would talk about it. He would ask me, “What do you think of this passage?”

In the estimation of many, including myself, Elvis was the greatest ballad singer in history. When he sang ballads (and gospel) his spiritual hunger for God shone through in his voice, his mannerisms, and his passion. It was as if a portion of his soul was spent with each note, each lyric.

Society idolizes celebrities. They are royalty. They are larger than life. Elvis’ life de-mythologizes that “Cult of Personality”. He was an incredibly gifted performer who brought joy to many. Yet he was also a sad, flawed individual desperate to be re-united with God and suffering the pains of that separation.
In other words, he was like you and I.

Spinning Stalin

As George Santayana once said, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.”
21st century Man is quick to portray itself as evolved. We argue that more money than ever is donated to humanitarian causes, and that “Save the planet” is the mantra most-heard today. Yet it is important to remember that we are no different as a species than we were just 60 years ago during WWII. Within the past 20-25 years we’ve witnessed Man’s- inhumanity-towards-Man on a scale equaling the brutality inflicted by Nazi Germany. Genocide erupted in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. In Iraq the former “president” of the country gassed his own people. And let’s not forget the Islamic terrorist who flew planes into the World Trade Center. Why is it important to remember this generation’s evil deeds?

On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal published an article that indirectly supported Santayana’s warning. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122229545606472921.html) Recently the Kremlin and the Russian state media created an online poll asking their countrymen to select the nation’s top historical figure. The contest’s purpose is to strengthen national pride. To the dismay of many the man who repeatedly appeared at or near the top of the list was none other than mass murderer Josef Stalin.

Alleging that hackers had used automated voting in an effort to start trouble, RTR “corrected” the “inaccuracies”, which dropped Uncle Joe’s supporters from two million to one million (as of last week). Did hackers really inflate the numbers, or was it merely a case of a citizenry longing for mythical “better” times? Who knows? But one has to wonder if the RTR “corrections” were enacted solely to avoid the embarrassment the Kremlin would face globally if the tally was acknowledged as accurate. How many other Russians agree with Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who said earlier this year “that Stalin, if alive, could solve Russia's problems ‘in one day.’”

Last October I traveled to Moscow to promote a boxing match between Evander Holyfield and Sultan Ibragimov. The company I work for represented Holyfield. It became apparent quickly that the country was split according to the haves and the have-nots. You were either wealthy or poor . . . and clearly there were more of the latter. Many elderly women could be seen begging for money or hustling trinkets to foreigners. Yet, the hotel we stayed in during fight week regularly costs guests $800 per night. (We did not pay this) This year Forbes magazine announced that Moscow is the most expensive city in the world.

Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany at least in part because of the dire economic conditions in post-WWI Germany. When you are forced to spend your life savings on a loaf of bread it becomes very easy to embrace the person who promises you the quickest solution.
The Russian people are demoralized. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the majority continue to live a meager existence. Stalin murdered an estimated 20 million people; yet, he transformed the Soviet Union into a major superpower. When you no longer have to worry about watching your family carted off in the middle of the night by the secret police, it’s much easier to forget history. One worries whether Russia is doomed to repeat its errors.

Donald Tremblay