2012

  • Abortion, Newtown, and the Feast of the Holy Innocents

    Today, on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the church remembers the thousands of Jewish male infants killed by kingly decree “in the days of Herod.”   In the weeks after the massacre at Newtown, those of us living in… Continue reading

  • Guns for the Common Good?

    Those of us talking about guns have been asking the wrong questions. Rather than asking whether certain gun control laws “work,” that is, keep us safe, I think we should first ask this same question about guns.  Is it actually true,… Continue reading

  • On the Killing of Children

    “Blessed the one who seizes your children and smashes them against the rock.” — Psalm 137:9 “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’”… Continue reading

  • Confirmation is not “Baptism of Believers” for Catholics

    The most recent controversy concerning punitive denial of sacraments on the basis of political views is this heartbreaking story: the parents of a teenager in Barnesville, MN were told that he would not be confirmed, and that the family could no… Continue reading

  • Sheriff Joe’s Got to Go: Arizona’s Unfinished Election

    Here in New York, concerns about a fair and accessible voting process in this past Tuesday’s election revolved around after effects of Superstorm Sandy, which took a severe toll on infrastructure along the mid-Atlantic coast. In the face of ongoing… Continue reading

  • Catholics Come Home?

    Why the church of their birth doesn’t feel like home to many Catholics Continue reading

    Catholics Come Home?

  • What Does Dialogue Take?

    (from a friend of the blog who wishes to remain anonymous) When I was in college, I took a class with a scholar who was—and remains—very influential in inter-religious dialogue circles. He had chaired several of his polity’s national committees… Continue reading

  • Halloween Costuming: Some Feminist Basics

    Women’s choices about how to present their bodies are so severely restricted to the point that it is difficult, even impossible to know whether I would ever be able to tell whether I would ever want to wear a sexy… Continue reading

  • A Church That Does Body Counts: The Immorality of Unmanned Drone Strikes

    Today, the Stanford International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic (IHRCRC) in conjunction with the Global Justice Clinic (CJC) at NYU School of Law released a report entitled “Living Under Drones: Death, Injury, and Trauma to Civilians From US Drone… Continue reading

    A Church That Does Body Counts: The Immorality of Unmanned Drone Strikes