A Propagation Meditation
by American Phoenix | February 4, 2010
I spent my Tuesday afternoon driving my college roommate, who became a nun with the Little Sisters of the Poor, to her family’s home in Stockton for her annual family visit. This is the one day out of the year where I get a good hour or two to have my own visit and I look forward to it. I’m always feted very well, because her parents love me with a home cooked Italian meal. Her dad is the only person who cooks eggplant that I will eat - besides my own mother. That’s about the highest food compliment possible, as eggplant is so NOT on my favorite food list. Her mother says she’s an atheist, but she goes to church every Sunday and prays to our Blessed Mother for intercession. We always disagree on politics, but she always listens to me because she knows that I will always give her a honest and truthful assessment of the state of “it” - whatever it is. I enjoy our friendly repartée. But I digress.
On the drive home, I tuned in Immaculate Heart Radio, KSFB, out of San Francisco, CA. I was then at the junction of Interstate 5 and Highway 4. I should say I tried to tune it in. The signal to noise ratio was quite low, and I could barely make out the voices that I heard. I knew it was Fr. Benedict Groeschel and that he was saying the rosary with another person, but that was about all I could make out. It reminded me of that passage in I Kings in which God speaks to Elijah in a whisper.
It struck me that this was almost a metaphor for life. How often do we try to tune in God? And even when we make the effort, how often do the many distractions in our lives act as noise - a distraction from the message? I strained to listen, despite the fact that I am undoubtedly spiritually lazy. I could hear enough of the rosary to say the responses at the right time, but only just barely.
It was raining as I drove home that night. It poured as I passed through Tracy. Oddly, during one of the cloud bursts, propagation all of a sudden got very clear (a higher signal to noise ratio) for a few moments. Then it was back to the background noise almost overwhelming the signal. Likewise, it is at those most difficult moments of life that God reaches us through our suffering, not in spite of it but because of it. For it is when we suffer that we more fully understand Christ’s suffering on the cross and His love for us.
As the distance between home and the source of KSFB’s signal decreased, the signal got stronger and more clear. I was able to hear the final prayers of the rosary without too much noise. Just as throughout life, one accumulates experiences, both spiritual and otherwise, that can allow one to better hone in on the “signal.” (Or take one further away, depending on how one interprets those experiences.)
Topics: Christianity, Prayer | No Comments »
News Of Inside the Studio
by American Phoenix | January 29, 2010
Rick Sanchez apparently hasn’t set foot outside of the studio. That’s a rather poor quality in a newsman.
Had he been outside of the studio, he might have noticed this:
He might have noticed the overwhelming numbers that continue to favor the pro-life cause. But as my friend Moonage opines,
Most of the polarization in this country is illustrated by CNN’s inability to report anything positive on a political position they can’t support. They can’t have two sides to any issue. That inability to accept what they don’t like is the problem in this country right now.
It’s an inability to deal with the truth - whether it be the truth that more people showed up in support of life, or whether it be the truth that abortion kills a human person. They simply can’t handle the truth. And that’s why I - and countless others - stopped watching CNN years ago.
I wasn’t at the Washington, DC March for Life, at which some 300,000 people walked. But I was at the San Francisco, CA Walk for Life West Coast. It has been reported that there were approximately 32,000 to 35,000 people at the San Francisco walk, while there were about 200 (I saw even less than that) pro-abortion protesters.
As usual, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were there with greasepainted faces streaked and runny from the rain. They really are a pathetic and tired old bunch, pushing condoms in our faces as if sex was the only thing worth living for.
There was a protester on a bicyle yelling “spaghetti brains” at the many young people in the march, and telling them to “grow up”. I heard not a single walker respond to his taunts. Just who was the “grown up”? And also a small band of protesters chanting “Keep your rosaries off our ovaries.” It’s not about rosaries - many of the marchers were Protestants who don’t pray the Rosary. Doubtless there were walkers of no particular faith who are nevertheless informed solely by science and reason that an unborn baby is a human being. It’s not about ovaries either, since the subject of concern - a human person with all of his or her genetic material - is already implanted in the uterus and well past the ovaries.
We walked on, unperturbed, in a line that must have stretched a solid mile. Along the way there was prayer, often there was music, and sometimes there was chanting, but it was never violent. We all wound up at the Marina Green, where there was food, music and many smiles - for at last, the sun had come out.
Topics: Abortion, California, Culture of Death, Family, Law, Politics | No Comments »
When You Give Your Life to Christ, Christ Gives You Life
by American Phoenix | December 10, 2009
Yesterday I attended the Christmas luncheon of the Silicon Valley Association of Republican Women. A group of young women from Teen Challenge sang Christmas Carols and gave us a presentation on this noteworthy charity, which rehabilitates young adults addicted to drugs and alcohol. Two of the young women shared their stories, which were, to say the least, horrifying chronicles of child abuse and parental divorce leading to unplanned pregnancy, drug and alcohol addiction followed by imprisonment.
Fortunately, both of these young women found their way to Teen Challenge and their stories had a happy outcome. They have discovered both Christ and joy, and through His love have managed to conquer their addictions.
A short video was also presented, and what struck me were the before (in some case mug shots) and after photos of the program graduates. These were nothing less than magnificent, glorious transformations! The happiness and joy evident on their faces touched my heart.
Equally impressive is Teen Challenge’s success rate. Most secular drug rehabilitation programs experience a cure rate of between 1-15%. Teen Challenge has an overall cure rate of between 67% and 86% for graduates of its program. That a very impressive number! Even more impressive is that they receive absolute no funding from the federal government.
This is a very worth charity and one to which I highly recommend your donations.
Topics: Christianity, Religion | No Comments »
The Los Angeles Times is Sicker Than Polanski
by American Phoenix | September 28, 2009
Apparently, Roman Polanski still has apologists both in the media and Hollywood. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised about this. I am nevertheless outraged that there are those who think the drugging, statutory rape, sodomy of an underage girl isn’t a big enough deal to warrant justice, even if long delayed.
We live in an age that is so thoroughly post-modern that you can find an obvious literary antecedent for nearly every seamy media storyline. The same goes for the Polanski case, which is full of echoes of “Les Miserables,” the classic Victor Hugo novel about Jean Valjean, an ex-con trying to turn his life around who is being obsessively tracked and hunted down by the Parisian police inspector Javert.
Goldstein, Patrick, The Big Picture: Roman Polanski still being hounded by L.A. County prosecutors, Los Angeles Times, September 27, 2009
Really? Polanski drugged, raped and sodomized a thirteen year old girl and then pled guilty to a lesser charge. The relevant portion of the victim’s grand jury testimony can be found at Patterico’s Pontifications. Before that he seduced Nastassya Kinski, then fifteen years old. And then Polanski fled justice.
Jean Valjean’s crime was stealing a loaf of bread because he and his family were starving to death. Hugo’s novel continues to relate the story of how French society turns Valjean into an even worse criminal and then how Valjean, touched by the forgiveness and charity of a Catholic bishop, turns his life around. Either Patrick Goldstein thinks his audience hasn’t read Les Miserables, and so won’t fully understand the comparison, or he thinks these kinds of crimes aren’t a big enough deal worthy of punishment. It’s probably both. Goldstein continues:
Hugo’s story is a tragedy, as is the life story of Polanski, who was a fugitive as a boy and is now a fugitive as an old man. Whether the L.A. County district attorney office has its way or not, it is not a story that can have a happy ending. I think Polanski has already paid a horrible, soul-wrenching price for the infamy surrounding his actions. The real tragedy is that he will always, till his death, be snubbed and stalked and confronted by people who think the price he has already paid isn’t enough.
Exactly what price has Polanski paid? So far he’s spent a grand total of 42 days in jail - the kind of time one does for a non-violent misdemeanor - not child rape. Where’s the infamy? He got a standing ovation for his film The Pianist which won the Academy Award for Best Director in 2002, although Jack Nicholson, at whose home the crime was committed, didn’t look terribly pleased. Polanski has been working and living a life of luxury in France for the last 31 plus years, completely unencumbered by his crimes.
Goldstein also suggests that California’s current financial crisis and prison overcrowding problem should be reason enough not to imprison Polanski.
With the state Legislature forced to make dramatic cuts in the prison budget and a three-judge federal panel having recently ordered California lawmakers to release as many as 40,000 inmates in response to the scandalous overcrowding of the California state prison system, it seems like an especially inauspicious time for the L.A. County district attorney’s office to be spending some of our few remaining tax dollars seeing if it can finally, after all these years, put Roman Polanski behind bars.
I can’t think of many better uses of our tax dollars than to spend them seeking justice for the victims of child rapists, uphold the rule of law and to protect the public from further harm. Certainly, I wouldn’t advocate releasing child rapists over non-violent offenders.
Polanski’s victim, now in her forties, says she has forgiven Polanski. There’s no reason to disbelieve her. She wants to get on with her life. Who could blame her? Certainly the public pressure on her has been enormous and she most certainly would like it to end. But is this a sufficient reason to let Polanski off the hook? It’s true that Polanski survived the Holocaust and also the tragic murders of his wife, Sharon Tate, and their unborn child. But why should these indisputable facts somehow give rise to a “get out of jail free” card? Why should Polanski go free when so many other pedophiles have been convicted of the same charges and have done or are doing prison time? Perhaps Goldstein is suggesting this because Polanski is famous, wealthy and looks good in a tuxedo. Sadly, this is just one more piece of evidence that the current sick post-modernist culture does not value the rights of children more than the rich and powerful.
Update (September 29, 2009): Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J., with whom I agree on very little, nails it:
Imagine if the Knight of Columbus decided to give an award to a pedophile priest who had fled the country to avoid prison. The outcry would be universal. Victim groups would demand the award be withdrawn and that the organization apologize. Religion reporters would be on the case with the encouragement of their editors. Editorial writers and columnist would denounce the knights as another example of the insensitivity of the Catholic Church to sexual abuse.
And they would all be correct. And I would join them.
But why is there not similar outrage directed at the film industry for giving an award to Roman Polanski, who not only confessed to statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl but fled the country prior to sentencing? Why have film critics and the rest of the media ignored this case for 31 years? He even received an Academy award in 2003. Are the high priests of the entertainment industry immune to criticism?
Reese, Fr. Thomas, Father Polanski Would Go to Jail, Washington Post, September 28, 2009,
H/T: InsideCatholic.com
Topics: California, Classics, Culture of Death, International, Law | No Comments »
September 11, 2001
by American Phoenix | September 11, 2009
Topics: Terrorism | No Comments »
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