Jamiroquai!!! What an amazing couple of albums they had in the late 1990s. Halfway through the astrology on Tiktok essay, I wondered whether something from the musical "Hair" was going to be invoked. But I must remind myself that nobody knows pop culture references from the early 1970s any more. Jamiroquai's Traveling Without Moving . . . yes. Or David Bowie, or. . . the list could go on. Astrology is this paganist/naturalist religion practice that will seemingly never die. It shows up (disparagingly) in the Summa. It shows up in Aristotle (indifferently). For all our supposed 'modern' notions of self, this is one of those ciphers for human desire and insight that makes you realize there are fundamental religious factors of our lives that we just can't shake. The need to feel some kind of connection with creation is one of them. Astrology, batty as it is, seems really human to me.
That Chesterton quote is true: “When you take away man’s belief in God, he won’t believe in nothing but will believe in everything.” I’ve met many intelligent secular people really into astrology.
It doesn’t help that it’s mainstream popular/influencer culture now along with tarot cards and crystals. Anthropology started pushing that occult stuff years and years ago. Newspapers and fashion magazines two decades ago always had horoscopes and numerology, but there was still enough Christianity hanging about to combat it to a degree. Now not so much.
On another note, I look forward to Ed’s rants every Friday. When the Friday post comes out, I get excited and skip to the end eager to figure out what Ed ranted about this time. I’ll actually get to the news with the Pillar TLDR later.
Whereas I, with the dutiful deliberativeness of one trying to make an ice cream cone last as long as possible, steel myself to read the TLDRs while I wait with anticipation for the sweet, sweet rant at the end 😂
I have been reminded by several sources (Starting Seven among them) that today is the memorial of St Francis de Sales, and then I have reminded other people in turn to not stop with the Intro to the Devout Life, but to go on to read his Treatise on the Love of God.
(I think I had better read TotLG also since I do not see any marginal notes in my ebook copy: *did* I read it after downloading it? I have no idea. If I did *not* read it why do I have the impression it is important and/or worth reading? I have no idea.)
You and JD have consistently expressed doubts, as recently as this week's Tuesday Pillar Post, whether the pro-life activists would be pardoned. When POTUS does it on the fourth day of his presidency, rather than acknowledge that your misgivings may have been mistaken, you criticize that the pro-life pardons were not at the top of the list.
The husband of pardoned pro-life activist Bevelyn Williams said on Monday that he received word that Bevelyn would be pardoned soon. I think the reason it was held for three days is simply due to the symbolism of doing it on the eve of the March for Life. Yes, the Mexico City Policy hasn’t been reinstated yet, but POTUS signed an executive order on Monday to pause all foreign aid for 90 days to reevaluate and realign aid to the administration’s objectives. I think it is quite likely the Mexico City Policy will be reinstated by the end of that period.
Today, POTUS (via video), VP Vance, Speaker Johnson, and Senate Majority Leader Thune are all speaking at the March for Life — the biggest power-players in DC. I think skepticism and caution of the GOP’s abortion stance is warranted given last year’s campaign rhetoric, and it is certainly important for pro-lifers to exert pressure, but I think you both are letting other biases influence the way you view this.
Edit: President Trump has now reinstated the Mexico City Policy.
I just upgraded my subscription to paid expressly the respond in agreement to this comment.
We are but four days into this new administration. It seems *a bit* premature to be despairing about what they may or may not accomplish.
On Tuesday, JD wrote something to the effect of “May I suggest that the pro-lifers will be on the list of pardons?”
They’re pardoned 2 days later and now Ed is saying, “Ok, that’s great, but I don’t see any movement on the Mexico City Policy.”
I know it’s urgent but days are only 24 hours long! Let’s continue to pray, speak up, and not fall into handwringing and despair because a day 4 administration hasn’t done EVERYTHING we think they should or could.
Avi and Grace, I had the same sentiments myself but tossed them aside until I read both of your onpoint comments. Thanks for bringing these thoughts to everyone's attention!
I specifically came here to cancel my subscription. I am not supporting yet another media outlet that will not give credit where it's due to President Trump and doesn't seem to understand or grasp what happened on J6, or over the past 4 years.
Yes I just saw that. So he’s been in office now 5 days and he’s done both of the things JD and Ed bemoaned as unlikely. I’m not even a Trump fan but can we acknowledge these things?!
Yes, let’s celebrate(with eyes open) these pro life victories, small as they might be, brought about by Trump being elected. Not a time for churlishness.
Don't expect an apology, Avi. The Pillar's utter inability to offer so much as a hint of well-wishing to Trump is hardly surprising, since they not only clutched their pearls, came down with the vapors, and retreated to the fainting couch at the thought of voting for him, but openly expressed their contempt for him. Having refused -- with no little pride -- to put on their big-boy pants and support him, they now have the gall to belittle him for not fighting bravely or expeditiously enough the battles they want him to fight. Gratitude is a virtue, guys. Try it sometime.
Yes, this is really poor behavior. He hasn’t even been in office a week and first they were complaining about everything he hadn’t yet accomplished. After 1 and 4 days, respectively. Now he’s done both. I’d love to see them cover that. I know they won’t. Kind of embarrassing.
I don't think it's right to say that "if we really believed and understood and appreciated what is happening in abortion clinics as they do, we would have been there blocking abortion clinics and going to prison with them."
There are lots and lots and lots of horrible things happening in the world that I am not called to leave my primary vocations to go and combat. I'm not going to prison for blocking abortion facilities for much the same reason as I'm not leaving my family to go serve the poor suffering in (pick a troubled spot in the world) or taking every homeless person in my city into my own home. Not everyone is called to be on the front lines of every fight, and I owe my own children a present father and a safe home more than I owe my witness to another cause, however good that cause may be.
I understand the sentiment, but I think it underestimates the degree to which pro-lifers do really understand that abortion is a tragedy.
This is a good point with which i agree. I admire the pro-lifers, and I think they can do it because of their particular state in life, etc. The same way my fatherhood prevents me from any number of other competing goods.
In the midst of this conversation I can’t help but recall those Catholics who lived or are living under the boot heel of tyranny, such as _______ (fill the blank with any of them). They are faced with submission or martyrdom. Since 1917, the first 3 things done by communazis when they get in power are: censor the press, confiscate guns, and outlaw religion (especially Catholicism).
Sometimes Catholics must retreat to catacombs, so to speak. Thankfully not here. Here in the U.S. we’re free to respond and react as each of sees fit - but how each chooses to do that is up to each to discern in Christ. My responsibility, indeed ‘mission’, was primarily to my family - especially my children. That conditioned a lot of my moral choosing in the practical order.
Yes. I admire them for their prophetic stand (and may God raise up more such prophets!) but I don't think most are called to this. Leaving my children without a father because I'm in prison wouldn't be a prudent use of my life. But who knows, once my kids are grown that changes the equation.
I wonder if this really answers Ed’s point, though.
Yes, some of us have vocations/stations in life that prevent us from certain types of witness to the Faith - say, becoming hermits, or taking in every homeless person we might see, because that would be incompatible with our duties (such as to look after our children/spouse/dependants).
But, surely, literally everyone is called to try and prevent actual murder happening in front of us or down the street - even at great personal cost?
This very much indicts me too: I fail to even witness to the tragedy of abortion in many circumstances (say, at work, because doing so would offend prevailing liberal pieties and I fear for the consequences I might suffer as a result).
But I *think* Ed’s point is that, had I more faith and understanding and appreciation for what abortion is, I would view it precisely as any other form of murder happening before my eyes - something I am compelled to try and stop regardless of consequences.
As someone “who was there” in our society when Roe v Wade was anti-Constitutionally judiciated down America’s collective throat, and who has argued publicly against the slaughter when I could, I think Ed missed the mark in criticizing us for apathy in the face of the pro-death onslaught. By extension he could claim the same about past and current Catholic victims of totalitarianism (Soviet, chicom, Naziagua, Cuba, Venezuela, National Socialism in Germany, and etc, etc, etc - all the way back to Nero) for whom giving any sign of disagreement results in an almost immediate ‘post-birth abortion’ (i.e., execution).
There were, of course, those Catholics who did just that. They’re called martyrs.
Prudence is a virtue. And it sometimes directs non confrontational witness.
Courage is a virtue. And it sometimes directs confrontation.
Wisdom is a gift that allows us to discern if / when to suffer the fury of hell - like Fr. Kolbe in Auschwitz. Or to confront evil by storming a beach at Normandy and fighting like Heaven against the powers of hell.
Those graced with the luxury of freedom and peace never faced with such a situation should thank God for that, and humbly thank Him for those who were.
> say, at work, because doing so would offend prevailing liberal pieties
If the liberally-pious have invested in DEI or diversity training, it's pretty simple. Your stance on abortion is a religious belief and therefore part of diversity. I do not bring up the topic but when it comes up I do not let people get away with imagining that everyone thinks the same way they do. There are always other people who were afraid to say anything (as I used to be), so I am basically the stalking horse or coal mine canary or whatever. The majority behaves differently when they know they are in mixed company. This is a key tenet of DEI (make everyone slightly uncomfortable by knowing they need to be polite, rather than make a majority comfortable and a minority very sad and afraid to say so) and it depends on people who are willing to be the visibly different person.
A lot of people in the comments section are suffering from the fallacy of the excluded middle: 1. Currently if I were imprisoned my dependents would have literally no one to care for them. 2 Therefore I can't protest abortion.
Everyone here (barring those who are unable to go to a US clinic) absolutely can protest abortion outside a clinic. Do it without breaking any of the goofy laws about how close people are allowed to be. Do it without standing in someone's way. Does it make a difference to pray outside a clinic *visibly* and not just at home? - Yes it does. The clinic hates it because it causes people to turn around and rethink what they are doing before they get close enough to be physically "escorted" inside. Organizations have anecdotes and numbers. A team in which some people pray peacefully and others hand out information cards on *who can help you in your crisis pregnancy* (eliminating the perceived need for what the clinic provides) without breaking any goofy laws can save lives. So why are so few people doing it? Why isn't there larger turnout in 40 Days for Life season? Why doesn't everyone who posts on the internet about how to fight demons get off the internet and onto the sidewalk to fight demons? I am asking these questions because I need to reevaluate my own life (I have been off of the sidewalk for nearly a year now and maybe could get back on.)
Everyone here can contact government people to say "FACE Act is unconstitutional, or stinks for other reasons, and must be destroyed like Carthage". If we could get this removed then the old school form of protesting to provoke media coverage by the optics of arresting a swarm of little old ladies would be back on the table (whether this is wise or not, IDK, but more of the little old ladies would have the option).
If nothing else, everyone here can tell one other person about Let Them Live.
I think the objections were specifically because of the statement "if we really believed and understood and appreciated what is happening in abortion clinics as they do, we would have been there blocking abortion clinics and going to prison with them".
Which attempts to remove the legitimate prudential aspect of deciding *how* we fight something, by saying that all decisions to not go to the extreme are due to an insufficient appreciation for the gravity of the evil. The comments are objecting to Ed excluding the middle.
Other than that, everything you said is fantastic.
While I did want to point out the excluded middle, I do not actually disagree with Ed's statement: if we did, then we would. We have intellectual knowledge of the gravity (and I do not deny that) but not experiential knowledge. As a straw man: None of us have had a vision (nor I assume have the protesters) of souls falling into hell and if we did we would act very differently.
I'm going to play your two statements off each other.
The reasonable response to a full appreciation of souls falling into hell is demonstrated quite well by a number of different Saints. There are the Fatima children who actually saw it: they reacted with prayer and sacrifice, in their normal state of life. There is St. Paul, who responded with evangelization, St. Augustine, who responded with study and teaching. There are the many monks and nuns in contemplative orders who respond with dedicating their lives to prayer and sacrifice in a particular way. Christ went to the cross, but there is nothing recorded that he protested the systematic murder in the Roman Empire. The urgency and gravity of the matter did not result in every Saint dropping their obligations to stand on street corners with "The End is Nigh" signs. You can't win souls by going against God's particular will for you.
In a normal accounting, winning souls is more essential than saving lives. Therefore the first obligation is in fact to do what is God's will for one's self specifically, not to drop all obligations in favor of the most extreme methodology. The fact that some are called to more extreme methodologies doesn't mean everyone is: that's emotionalism, not docility to the Holy Spirit.
I used to know someone who couldn't pray at abortion clinics, much less do counseling, because she couldn't do anything but cry when she was there. So she didn't go (at least not while I knew her). There is no kind of knowledge of the gravity of abortion that leads inexorably to blocking abortion clinics and going to prison.
You are right; the necessary response is not specifically to block doors and go to prison, but rather to surrender one's entire life to God for Him to dispose of as He wishes, which is somewhat more radical than Ed indicates, and, as you indicate, it will result in a diversity of outward appearances (all of them, though, insane by the world's standards.)
If I knew this person, I would want her to know that prayer is not a matter of words spoken aloud (such as a group rosary) or even words spoken silently. It is entirely possible to pray while crying (in the winter it would be very unpleasant because of the chill from the moisture on the face, but in other seasons, not so bad as long as a person brought water and stayed hydrated). But she would need to ask God, all the same, whether this is what He wants her to go and do. We look at something and say "I don't think I am *made* to do this because of the way that I *am*" (this is different from "my station in life precludes it" such as a cloistered nun) but we ought to give Him the chance to agree "yes this isn't what I made you to do " or the chance to say "but, my child, my power is made perfect in weakness."
Yes! The biggest problem with Ed's statement is that it isn't radical (or diverse) enough!
She might have done that discernment, although I didn't know her very well. But yes, it definitely is a necessary thing to do. Discernment via "but it's hard" doesn't go so well.
Except the problem is that if someone intends to commit murder and is physically prevented from doing so by blockaders they are still guilty of murder in the sight of God according to the Sermon on the Mount. So to save her soul one must change her mind without interfering with her free will.
Let's consider the case of someone depressed who is about to commit suicide due to despair: generally if you stop them and they get through the crisis, they no longer want to kill themselves but want to get help to go on living although it is a real challenge. Similarly, most people who want to kill someone (themselves or another person; and I am setting aside *hired killers* for the moment) do not see another way out of the matter in that moment or they would take a different way. But yes, someone also has to present them with alternatives when they are thinking a little more clearly, and someone has to accompany them along the way when they are afraid and about to fall into the same trap again.
Returning to the subject of hired killers (guilty of murder many times in the past and guilty of intending to murder again), sometimes these also do not see another easy way forward, and the enemy would like them to think they "have to" keep doing what they are doing and "have no choice" (and that what they have done is either not a sin, or is an unforgivable sin), so it is also important for someone to inform people who work in an abortion clinic that we care about them and that there is an organization that will help them to find a different job (and that they can repent). I do not know the best way to do this. I think, though, that there's actually a better chance for them (who are not rich and who have somewhat-unpleasant somewhat-dishonorable jobs) than for high-ranking politicians (who have riches and honors and pride and wash their hands of what they claim are other people's decisions.)
It was better and worse than I expected. After daily Mass and confession I came home and two of my dependents were still asleep (the other was up and starting a project) so having no reason not to go out, I armed and armored myself like a hoplite which is to say that I was wearing about five layers and a couple of blankets (it was 25 F) and had a breviary and a Latin/Greek New Testament and a black metal hip flask that says HOLY WATER on it in large letters (which one of my kids got for me as a joke from the Halloween store, two Octobers ago, and which I assume was intended by its makers to be filled with "spirits" in the material sense; however on receipt I immediately filled it with holy water from a gallon jug in the cabinet under the sink, which she thought was very funny). My general intention was to pray a couple of hours of the breviary since (on my own) the Liturgy of the Hours is probably the most high-powered thing at my disposal, possibly read the prologue from St John in Greek, and then bail out home because it is cold. So then I drove downtown and parked in the nearest garage and broke out a pack of handwarmers. Then I exited the parking garage by the stairs (looking out the window and not seeing any escorts I suspected it was closed today), crossed the street and went half a block, immediately observing that the clinic was definitely closed for the day and that men were jackhammering in front of its immediate neighbor, which was probably why. I prayed Office of Readings for the conversion of St Paul with one hand over one ear (the armed and armored hoplite did not bring disposable earplugs, although I do have a jar of them, and I guess I will put some in my backpack), and sang the Te Deum, and made the sign of the cross with holy water on the edge of the window that I can reach without crossing The Line, and bailed out. The thing is, though, that my job (before I took about a year off) is to fend off demons and when the clinic is closed *there are no demons there* (it feels like any other closed storefront on the block which is a relief, vs. I am not sure how to describe what it is like when it is open and anyhow I don't want to (and probably ought not to) think about it.) So what did I do this for? I don't know ("just following orders" as they say). I guess I will email the usual suspects and let them know that I can come (erratically and for shorter intervals) on Saturday mornings again.
It was really interesting to read an interview of Lauren Handy, who specifically doesn’t own any assets nor has a family so that she can do the work she does, and she knows she will be in and out of jail her whole life.
I agree that we should take what is happening in clinics extremely seriously, but some people genuinely have a vocation to frustrating abortion clinics and abortionists directly, if we’re to look at what Lauren is doing.
The star children section reminds me of Our Lady of Guadeloupe. When she spoke to the indigenous people in image, she showed herself in front of the sun and over the moon-figures who the people worshipped and to whom they offered sacrifice in hopes of making meaning in the apparent senselessness of seasons/war/etc.
You wrote, "The great dynamic force of our lives and relationship with God is not fear but love," and to me, this speaks of Mary, whose gift of 'fear' (the desire to please God and run away from that which does not please him, so a type of love) from the Spirit led to the birth of Jesus, whose *perfect love drives out fear.* Even 500 years later, her mission to proclaim the free availability of that perfect love is still relevant to all of us who dwell in the Americas.
I didn’t list “the MAGA version of truth” (for the simple reason that there is no such thing). For your information, the definition of truth is ‘conformity of the mind with reality’. Truth, therefore, is independent of any political party.
So, statements can only be true if what is stated conforms to reality. Again, this is independent of any ‘party’.
My previous post referenced the trustworthiness of the two main political parties: and, while I am not a member of ANY political party, I find the current, so called, “MAGA” party more worthy of my trust than the party that butchers babies, advocates for the sexual mutilation of children, and lies about God.
Wrong again - there is no such thing as "MAGA version of truth".
The Democrat party is vehemently in favor of those actions (abortion, sexual mutilation of children [= trans crud], and they lie about God [saying He approves of killing babies and mutilating children].
Very good points with the astrology section. People are looking for answers and they find these "drugs" that provide answers (and I bet a fair amount actually believe it). Christianity isn't just another drug, it's something deeper, something to take a person deeper into the heart of God.
I enjoyed the reflection on astrology. I think there's another dynamic at play as well that in some way affirms what you're saying Ed, and also adds some complexity and counterpoint to it. I have a sense that there's another hunger that folks are seeking to fill with things like astrology, and it is, in some capacity, a (correct) aesthetic hunger. One of the devestations that materialism, determinism, and positivism have wreaked on our society is the death of a universe that is *beautiful*. Sure, we admire the visual beauty of distant space objects and animals and the like, but that's a very sense-based definition of beauty. What is lost--and what I think people seek in astrology--is the sense that the universe is beautifully harmonic, that all its parts interconnect and influence and relate to another in ways that are not explainable through empiricism. That the slow but sure harmonies of the planets (something the medievals were acutely aware of, calling it "musica universalis") would mystically mold and shape our births, our temperaments, etc.--there's something beautiful (albeit misguided) about it. It makes it all feel so *intentional*, in a way--a sort of nod to a Creator. That the planets just drift around up there and that a generic force called gravity is responsible for their rhythms and there's no other meaning to that, and we're born down here because of zygotes and hormones and there's no real relation to the universe other than that we need to eat it not to die is just such an *ugly* way to account for reality--but that's what we have been effectively taught for over a century.
To me, the resurgence of interest in astrology, whether earnest or as a sort of kayfabe, speaks of a heart-driven rebellion against materialism and positivism, a yearning for a universe that is beautiful and mystical. But of course, astrology offers a weak and low-commitment alternative to the Truth, and it can never actually satisfy.
Happy Feast Day of St. Francis DeSales. Doctor of the Church. Patron of the Deaf, Journalists. Author of the Treatise on the Love of God and the Introduction to the Devout Life.
That contact by +Fernandez is amazing news! If it were me, I would fear I was having dream of fantastical efficacy. God bless, bless, bless this dialogue!
"the platform [Tik Tok] are getting millions of views from Gen Z users and, I read in The Times this week, apps combining AI with NASA data and astrology content have tens of millions of users."
-This is just insane. I get all my astrology predictions from Weird Al.
What the country needs is an amendment to the Constitution which states that the term person in this document refers only and completely to a human being from the moment when sperm and egg unite until the moment of natural death.
"death isn’t answered, it is overthrown."
Amen. Always grateful for the Pillar and the mix of these reminders with the news.
The news, with the Good News mixed in.
Jamiroquai!!! What an amazing couple of albums they had in the late 1990s. Halfway through the astrology on Tiktok essay, I wondered whether something from the musical "Hair" was going to be invoked. But I must remind myself that nobody knows pop culture references from the early 1970s any more. Jamiroquai's Traveling Without Moving . . . yes. Or David Bowie, or. . . the list could go on. Astrology is this paganist/naturalist religion practice that will seemingly never die. It shows up (disparagingly) in the Summa. It shows up in Aristotle (indifferently). For all our supposed 'modern' notions of self, this is one of those ciphers for human desire and insight that makes you realize there are fundamental religious factors of our lives that we just can't shake. The need to feel some kind of connection with creation is one of them. Astrology, batty as it is, seems really human to me.
Hey, some of us still get those references! Even those like myself who weren't alive yet but whose parents made those references all the time.
I grew up near Cleveland. Same for me. My father used to tell me "get your own music" Alas, his was better.
That Chesterton quote is true: “When you take away man’s belief in God, he won’t believe in nothing but will believe in everything.” I’ve met many intelligent secular people really into astrology.
It doesn’t help that it’s mainstream popular/influencer culture now along with tarot cards and crystals. Anthropology started pushing that occult stuff years and years ago. Newspapers and fashion magazines two decades ago always had horoscopes and numerology, but there was still enough Christianity hanging about to combat it to a degree. Now not so much.
On another note, I look forward to Ed’s rants every Friday. When the Friday post comes out, I get excited and skip to the end eager to figure out what Ed ranted about this time. I’ll actually get to the news with the Pillar TLDR later.
Whereas I, with the dutiful deliberativeness of one trying to make an ice cream cone last as long as possible, steel myself to read the TLDRs while I wait with anticipation for the sweet, sweet rant at the end 😂
I have been reminded by several sources (Starting Seven among them) that today is the memorial of St Francis de Sales, and then I have reminded other people in turn to not stop with the Intro to the Devout Life, but to go on to read his Treatise on the Love of God.
(I think I had better read TotLG also since I do not see any marginal notes in my ebook copy: *did* I read it after downloading it? I have no idea. If I did *not* read it why do I have the impression it is important and/or worth reading? I have no idea.)
You and JD have consistently expressed doubts, as recently as this week's Tuesday Pillar Post, whether the pro-life activists would be pardoned. When POTUS does it on the fourth day of his presidency, rather than acknowledge that your misgivings may have been mistaken, you criticize that the pro-life pardons were not at the top of the list.
The husband of pardoned pro-life activist Bevelyn Williams said on Monday that he received word that Bevelyn would be pardoned soon. I think the reason it was held for three days is simply due to the symbolism of doing it on the eve of the March for Life. Yes, the Mexico City Policy hasn’t been reinstated yet, but POTUS signed an executive order on Monday to pause all foreign aid for 90 days to reevaluate and realign aid to the administration’s objectives. I think it is quite likely the Mexico City Policy will be reinstated by the end of that period.
Today, POTUS (via video), VP Vance, Speaker Johnson, and Senate Majority Leader Thune are all speaking at the March for Life — the biggest power-players in DC. I think skepticism and caution of the GOP’s abortion stance is warranted given last year’s campaign rhetoric, and it is certainly important for pro-lifers to exert pressure, but I think you both are letting other biases influence the way you view this.
Edit: President Trump has now reinstated the Mexico City Policy.
I just upgraded my subscription to paid expressly the respond in agreement to this comment.
We are but four days into this new administration. It seems *a bit* premature to be despairing about what they may or may not accomplish.
On Tuesday, JD wrote something to the effect of “May I suggest that the pro-lifers will be on the list of pardons?”
They’re pardoned 2 days later and now Ed is saying, “Ok, that’s great, but I don’t see any movement on the Mexico City Policy.”
I know it’s urgent but days are only 24 hours long! Let’s continue to pray, speak up, and not fall into handwringing and despair because a day 4 administration hasn’t done EVERYTHING we think they should or could.
Avi and Grace, I had the same sentiments myself but tossed them aside until I read both of your onpoint comments. Thanks for bringing these thoughts to everyone's attention!
I specifically came here to cancel my subscription. I am not supporting yet another media outlet that will not give credit where it's due to President Trump and doesn't seem to understand or grasp what happened on J6, or over the past 4 years.
JD is Good Cop and Ed is Bad Cop, did you not know this?
And the Mexico City Policy was reinstated today in honor of the March...
Yes I just saw that. So he’s been in office now 5 days and he’s done both of the things JD and Ed bemoaned as unlikely. I’m not even a Trump fan but can we acknowledge these things?!
Yes, let’s celebrate(with eyes open) these pro life victories, small as they might be, brought about by Trump being elected. Not a time for churlishness.
Don't expect an apology, Avi. The Pillar's utter inability to offer so much as a hint of well-wishing to Trump is hardly surprising, since they not only clutched their pearls, came down with the vapors, and retreated to the fainting couch at the thought of voting for him, but openly expressed their contempt for him. Having refused -- with no little pride -- to put on their big-boy pants and support him, they now have the gall to belittle him for not fighting bravely or expeditiously enough the battles they want him to fight. Gratitude is a virtue, guys. Try it sometime.
Yes, this is really poor behavior. He hasn’t even been in office a week and first they were complaining about everything he hadn’t yet accomplished. After 1 and 4 days, respectively. Now he’s done both. I’d love to see them cover that. I know they won’t. Kind of embarrassing.
I don't think it's right to say that "if we really believed and understood and appreciated what is happening in abortion clinics as they do, we would have been there blocking abortion clinics and going to prison with them."
There are lots and lots and lots of horrible things happening in the world that I am not called to leave my primary vocations to go and combat. I'm not going to prison for blocking abortion facilities for much the same reason as I'm not leaving my family to go serve the poor suffering in (pick a troubled spot in the world) or taking every homeless person in my city into my own home. Not everyone is called to be on the front lines of every fight, and I owe my own children a present father and a safe home more than I owe my witness to another cause, however good that cause may be.
I understand the sentiment, but I think it underestimates the degree to which pro-lifers do really understand that abortion is a tragedy.
This is a good point with which i agree. I admire the pro-lifers, and I think they can do it because of their particular state in life, etc. The same way my fatherhood prevents me from any number of other competing goods.
In the midst of this conversation I can’t help but recall those Catholics who lived or are living under the boot heel of tyranny, such as _______ (fill the blank with any of them). They are faced with submission or martyrdom. Since 1917, the first 3 things done by communazis when they get in power are: censor the press, confiscate guns, and outlaw religion (especially Catholicism).
Sometimes Catholics must retreat to catacombs, so to speak. Thankfully not here. Here in the U.S. we’re free to respond and react as each of sees fit - but how each chooses to do that is up to each to discern in Christ. My responsibility, indeed ‘mission’, was primarily to my family - especially my children. That conditioned a lot of my moral choosing in the practical order.
Yes. I admire them for their prophetic stand (and may God raise up more such prophets!) but I don't think most are called to this. Leaving my children without a father because I'm in prison wouldn't be a prudent use of my life. But who knows, once my kids are grown that changes the equation.
I wonder if this really answers Ed’s point, though.
Yes, some of us have vocations/stations in life that prevent us from certain types of witness to the Faith - say, becoming hermits, or taking in every homeless person we might see, because that would be incompatible with our duties (such as to look after our children/spouse/dependants).
But, surely, literally everyone is called to try and prevent actual murder happening in front of us or down the street - even at great personal cost?
This very much indicts me too: I fail to even witness to the tragedy of abortion in many circumstances (say, at work, because doing so would offend prevailing liberal pieties and I fear for the consequences I might suffer as a result).
But I *think* Ed’s point is that, had I more faith and understanding and appreciation for what abortion is, I would view it precisely as any other form of murder happening before my eyes - something I am compelled to try and stop regardless of consequences.
As someone “who was there” in our society when Roe v Wade was anti-Constitutionally judiciated down America’s collective throat, and who has argued publicly against the slaughter when I could, I think Ed missed the mark in criticizing us for apathy in the face of the pro-death onslaught. By extension he could claim the same about past and current Catholic victims of totalitarianism (Soviet, chicom, Naziagua, Cuba, Venezuela, National Socialism in Germany, and etc, etc, etc - all the way back to Nero) for whom giving any sign of disagreement results in an almost immediate ‘post-birth abortion’ (i.e., execution).
There were, of course, those Catholics who did just that. They’re called martyrs.
Prudence is a virtue. And it sometimes directs non confrontational witness.
Courage is a virtue. And it sometimes directs confrontation.
Wisdom is a gift that allows us to discern if / when to suffer the fury of hell - like Fr. Kolbe in Auschwitz. Or to confront evil by storming a beach at Normandy and fighting like Heaven against the powers of hell.
Those graced with the luxury of freedom and peace never faced with such a situation should thank God for that, and humbly thank Him for those who were.
(you mean Ed). carry on.
Ooops. Low caffeine glitch.
> say, at work, because doing so would offend prevailing liberal pieties
If the liberally-pious have invested in DEI or diversity training, it's pretty simple. Your stance on abortion is a religious belief and therefore part of diversity. I do not bring up the topic but when it comes up I do not let people get away with imagining that everyone thinks the same way they do. There are always other people who were afraid to say anything (as I used to be), so I am basically the stalking horse or coal mine canary or whatever. The majority behaves differently when they know they are in mixed company. This is a key tenet of DEI (make everyone slightly uncomfortable by knowing they need to be polite, rather than make a majority comfortable and a minority very sad and afraid to say so) and it depends on people who are willing to be the visibly different person.
A lot of people in the comments section are suffering from the fallacy of the excluded middle: 1. Currently if I were imprisoned my dependents would have literally no one to care for them. 2 Therefore I can't protest abortion.
Everyone here (barring those who are unable to go to a US clinic) absolutely can protest abortion outside a clinic. Do it without breaking any of the goofy laws about how close people are allowed to be. Do it without standing in someone's way. Does it make a difference to pray outside a clinic *visibly* and not just at home? - Yes it does. The clinic hates it because it causes people to turn around and rethink what they are doing before they get close enough to be physically "escorted" inside. Organizations have anecdotes and numbers. A team in which some people pray peacefully and others hand out information cards on *who can help you in your crisis pregnancy* (eliminating the perceived need for what the clinic provides) without breaking any goofy laws can save lives. So why are so few people doing it? Why isn't there larger turnout in 40 Days for Life season? Why doesn't everyone who posts on the internet about how to fight demons get off the internet and onto the sidewalk to fight demons? I am asking these questions because I need to reevaluate my own life (I have been off of the sidewalk for nearly a year now and maybe could get back on.)
Everyone here can contact government people to say "FACE Act is unconstitutional, or stinks for other reasons, and must be destroyed like Carthage". If we could get this removed then the old school form of protesting to provoke media coverage by the optics of arresting a swarm of little old ladies would be back on the table (whether this is wise or not, IDK, but more of the little old ladies would have the option).
If nothing else, everyone here can tell one other person about Let Them Live.
I think the objections were specifically because of the statement "if we really believed and understood and appreciated what is happening in abortion clinics as they do, we would have been there blocking abortion clinics and going to prison with them".
Which attempts to remove the legitimate prudential aspect of deciding *how* we fight something, by saying that all decisions to not go to the extreme are due to an insufficient appreciation for the gravity of the evil. The comments are objecting to Ed excluding the middle.
Other than that, everything you said is fantastic.
While I did want to point out the excluded middle, I do not actually disagree with Ed's statement: if we did, then we would. We have intellectual knowledge of the gravity (and I do not deny that) but not experiential knowledge. As a straw man: None of us have had a vision (nor I assume have the protesters) of souls falling into hell and if we did we would act very differently.
I'm going to play your two statements off each other.
The reasonable response to a full appreciation of souls falling into hell is demonstrated quite well by a number of different Saints. There are the Fatima children who actually saw it: they reacted with prayer and sacrifice, in their normal state of life. There is St. Paul, who responded with evangelization, St. Augustine, who responded with study and teaching. There are the many monks and nuns in contemplative orders who respond with dedicating their lives to prayer and sacrifice in a particular way. Christ went to the cross, but there is nothing recorded that he protested the systematic murder in the Roman Empire. The urgency and gravity of the matter did not result in every Saint dropping their obligations to stand on street corners with "The End is Nigh" signs. You can't win souls by going against God's particular will for you.
In a normal accounting, winning souls is more essential than saving lives. Therefore the first obligation is in fact to do what is God's will for one's self specifically, not to drop all obligations in favor of the most extreme methodology. The fact that some are called to more extreme methodologies doesn't mean everyone is: that's emotionalism, not docility to the Holy Spirit.
I used to know someone who couldn't pray at abortion clinics, much less do counseling, because she couldn't do anything but cry when she was there. So she didn't go (at least not while I knew her). There is no kind of knowledge of the gravity of abortion that leads inexorably to blocking abortion clinics and going to prison.
You are right; the necessary response is not specifically to block doors and go to prison, but rather to surrender one's entire life to God for Him to dispose of as He wishes, which is somewhat more radical than Ed indicates, and, as you indicate, it will result in a diversity of outward appearances (all of them, though, insane by the world's standards.)
If I knew this person, I would want her to know that prayer is not a matter of words spoken aloud (such as a group rosary) or even words spoken silently. It is entirely possible to pray while crying (in the winter it would be very unpleasant because of the chill from the moisture on the face, but in other seasons, not so bad as long as a person brought water and stayed hydrated). But she would need to ask God, all the same, whether this is what He wants her to go and do. We look at something and say "I don't think I am *made* to do this because of the way that I *am*" (this is different from "my station in life precludes it" such as a cloistered nun) but we ought to give Him the chance to agree "yes this isn't what I made you to do " or the chance to say "but, my child, my power is made perfect in weakness."
Yes! The biggest problem with Ed's statement is that it isn't radical (or diverse) enough!
She might have done that discernment, although I didn't know her very well. But yes, it definitely is a necessary thing to do. Discernment via "but it's hard" doesn't go so well.
Except the problem is that if someone intends to commit murder and is physically prevented from doing so by blockaders they are still guilty of murder in the sight of God according to the Sermon on the Mount. So to save her soul one must change her mind without interfering with her free will.
Let's consider the case of someone depressed who is about to commit suicide due to despair: generally if you stop them and they get through the crisis, they no longer want to kill themselves but want to get help to go on living although it is a real challenge. Similarly, most people who want to kill someone (themselves or another person; and I am setting aside *hired killers* for the moment) do not see another way out of the matter in that moment or they would take a different way. But yes, someone also has to present them with alternatives when they are thinking a little more clearly, and someone has to accompany them along the way when they are afraid and about to fall into the same trap again.
Returning to the subject of hired killers (guilty of murder many times in the past and guilty of intending to murder again), sometimes these also do not see another easy way forward, and the enemy would like them to think they "have to" keep doing what they are doing and "have no choice" (and that what they have done is either not a sin, or is an unforgivable sin), so it is also important for someone to inform people who work in an abortion clinic that we care about them and that there is an organization that will help them to find a different job (and that they can repent). I do not know the best way to do this. I think, though, that there's actually a better chance for them (who are not rich and who have somewhat-unpleasant somewhat-dishonorable jobs) than for high-ranking politicians (who have riches and honors and pride and wash their hands of what they claim are other people's decisions.)
For the curious (curiosity is a vice)
It was better and worse than I expected. After daily Mass and confession I came home and two of my dependents were still asleep (the other was up and starting a project) so having no reason not to go out, I armed and armored myself like a hoplite which is to say that I was wearing about five layers and a couple of blankets (it was 25 F) and had a breviary and a Latin/Greek New Testament and a black metal hip flask that says HOLY WATER on it in large letters (which one of my kids got for me as a joke from the Halloween store, two Octobers ago, and which I assume was intended by its makers to be filled with "spirits" in the material sense; however on receipt I immediately filled it with holy water from a gallon jug in the cabinet under the sink, which she thought was very funny). My general intention was to pray a couple of hours of the breviary since (on my own) the Liturgy of the Hours is probably the most high-powered thing at my disposal, possibly read the prologue from St John in Greek, and then bail out home because it is cold. So then I drove downtown and parked in the nearest garage and broke out a pack of handwarmers. Then I exited the parking garage by the stairs (looking out the window and not seeing any escorts I suspected it was closed today), crossed the street and went half a block, immediately observing that the clinic was definitely closed for the day and that men were jackhammering in front of its immediate neighbor, which was probably why. I prayed Office of Readings for the conversion of St Paul with one hand over one ear (the armed and armored hoplite did not bring disposable earplugs, although I do have a jar of them, and I guess I will put some in my backpack), and sang the Te Deum, and made the sign of the cross with holy water on the edge of the window that I can reach without crossing The Line, and bailed out. The thing is, though, that my job (before I took about a year off) is to fend off demons and when the clinic is closed *there are no demons there* (it feels like any other closed storefront on the block which is a relief, vs. I am not sure how to describe what it is like when it is open and anyhow I don't want to (and probably ought not to) think about it.) So what did I do this for? I don't know ("just following orders" as they say). I guess I will email the usual suspects and let them know that I can come (erratically and for shorter intervals) on Saturday mornings again.
Thank you for the reminder that this is a simple, powerful way to save lives!
It was really interesting to read an interview of Lauren Handy, who specifically doesn’t own any assets nor has a family so that she can do the work she does, and she knows she will be in and out of jail her whole life.
I agree that we should take what is happening in clinics extremely seriously, but some people genuinely have a vocation to frustrating abortion clinics and abortionists directly, if we’re to look at what Lauren is doing.
The star children section reminds me of Our Lady of Guadeloupe. When she spoke to the indigenous people in image, she showed herself in front of the sun and over the moon-figures who the people worshipped and to whom they offered sacrifice in hopes of making meaning in the apparent senselessness of seasons/war/etc.
You wrote, "The great dynamic force of our lives and relationship with God is not fear but love," and to me, this speaks of Mary, whose gift of 'fear' (the desire to please God and run away from that which does not please him, so a type of love) from the Spirit led to the birth of Jesus, whose *perfect love drives out fear.* Even 500 years later, her mission to proclaim the free availability of that perfect love is still relevant to all of us who dwell in the Americas.
good to see that
"freeing 23 pro-life protesters imprisoned for years for witnessing to life".
But your other remarks about the pardons highlights the leading course of the next 4 years of our Federal Government.
We are now participating in the MAGA Republican Federal Government Reality Show. Its byline is : truth is what the MAGA republicans say is truth.
“truth is what the MAGA republicans say is truth.”
______
Yeah, and according to to the other party, “Truth is:
- Slaying children in the baby butchering bigotry of the neo-nazi holocaust of abortion is women’s health”
- biological sex isn’t biological, it’s whatever you fantasize”
- burning down cities, destroying businesses and murdering people is a mostly peaceful protest”
- Catholic students from Covington are racists”
- Biden is NOT hopelessly demented, and IS Catholic”
- Kamela is brilliant and articulate”
- Pelosi does NOT take bribes and IS Catholic”
- Israel is wrong”
________
I “fact check” all sides when possible. If I can’t, then I’ll take the MAGA version, thank you.
Thank you for listing the MAGA version of truth.
I didn’t list “the MAGA version of truth” (for the simple reason that there is no such thing). For your information, the definition of truth is ‘conformity of the mind with reality’. Truth, therefore, is independent of any political party.
So, statements can only be true if what is stated conforms to reality. Again, this is independent of any ‘party’.
My previous post referenced the trustworthiness of the two main political parties: and, while I am not a member of ANY political party, I find the current, so called, “MAGA” party more worthy of my trust than the party that butchers babies, advocates for the sexual mutilation of children, and lies about God.
again, just the MAGA version of truth.
"... butchers babies, advocates for the sexual mutilation of children, and lies about God."
Wrong again - there is no such thing as "MAGA version of truth".
The Democrat party is vehemently in favor of those actions (abortion, sexual mutilation of children [= trans crud], and they lie about God [saying He approves of killing babies and mutilating children].
Or are you just trolling this site?
Very good points with the astrology section. People are looking for answers and they find these "drugs" that provide answers (and I bet a fair amount actually believe it). Christianity isn't just another drug, it's something deeper, something to take a person deeper into the heart of God.
Re Tik Tok as s “noxious spigot of triviality and falsehood.” Great descriptive turn of phrase. Love it!
100%
I was devastated that the country could not even go 24 hours without it. Not even 24 hours!
I enjoyed the reflection on astrology. I think there's another dynamic at play as well that in some way affirms what you're saying Ed, and also adds some complexity and counterpoint to it. I have a sense that there's another hunger that folks are seeking to fill with things like astrology, and it is, in some capacity, a (correct) aesthetic hunger. One of the devestations that materialism, determinism, and positivism have wreaked on our society is the death of a universe that is *beautiful*. Sure, we admire the visual beauty of distant space objects and animals and the like, but that's a very sense-based definition of beauty. What is lost--and what I think people seek in astrology--is the sense that the universe is beautifully harmonic, that all its parts interconnect and influence and relate to another in ways that are not explainable through empiricism. That the slow but sure harmonies of the planets (something the medievals were acutely aware of, calling it "musica universalis") would mystically mold and shape our births, our temperaments, etc.--there's something beautiful (albeit misguided) about it. It makes it all feel so *intentional*, in a way--a sort of nod to a Creator. That the planets just drift around up there and that a generic force called gravity is responsible for their rhythms and there's no other meaning to that, and we're born down here because of zygotes and hormones and there's no real relation to the universe other than that we need to eat it not to die is just such an *ugly* way to account for reality--but that's what we have been effectively taught for over a century.
To me, the resurgence of interest in astrology, whether earnest or as a sort of kayfabe, speaks of a heart-driven rebellion against materialism and positivism, a yearning for a universe that is beautiful and mystical. But of course, astrology offers a weak and low-commitment alternative to the Truth, and it can never actually satisfy.
This is a beautiful and I think astute observation.
Happy Feast Day of St. Francis DeSales. Doctor of the Church. Patron of the Deaf, Journalists. Author of the Treatise on the Love of God and the Introduction to the Devout Life.
Live + Jesus.
That contact by +Fernandez is amazing news! If it were me, I would fear I was having dream of fantastical efficacy. God bless, bless, bless this dialogue!
"the platform [Tik Tok] are getting millions of views from Gen Z users and, I read in The Times this week, apps combining AI with NASA data and astrology content have tens of millions of users."
-This is just insane. I get all my astrology predictions from Weird Al.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPvyrWYutDQ
What the country needs is an amendment to the Constitution which states that the term person in this document refers only and completely to a human being from the moment when sperm and egg unite until the moment of natural death.