Against The Grain

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'Against The Grain' has moved!
2009-12-15 07:03:00
At long last, Against The Grain has relocated to a new blog address: christopherblosser.blogspot.com The move was occasioned in part by Haloscan's announcement that they had been bought by JS-KIT and that they were giving all users two weeks to either pay for an "upgrade" [or] download their comments, subject as they were to impending deletion. Some are taking the news rather badly. As for myself, while I certainly don't fault a company for trying to survive (there's no such thing as a free lunch, and Haloscan couldn't survive indefinitely as a free host) I think JS-KIT was a tad overbearing with today's threat notification. Personally, I don't need all the bells and whistles of JS-KIT and it's ability to "turn my static pages into a real-time stream of diggs, tweets, comments, and more. " A basic commenting system is enough for me, so I've taken this as an opportunity to graduate my 'classic' template to the New Blogger. Hopefully y'all -- what few readers I have -- wi...

"Drawn to Catholicism"
2009-12-15 05:55:00
A new blog discovery: saintos [a.k.a. Owen, i.e. me] is the author/illustrator of drawntocatholicism which is a comic diary by a Catholic convert / husband / father / artist / perish catechist / urban cyclist / dog lover…Check it out.Keep this blog alive - Help Chrisopher get a new computer!
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'Nuff said.
2009-12-14 02:56:00
Matt Talbot, Vox Nova:I wish Catholic priests and laity would stand up more often against this sort of thing. Kurt (in response):I really have better things to do that stand up against the fact I could drive around in a densely populated urban area and see my country’s flag every five minutes.Keep this blog alive - Help Chrisopher get a new computer!

First anniversary of the passing of Avery Dulles
2009-12-12 19:09:00
Fr. John Zuhlsdorf reminds us:It is a long tradition to pray for the dead on the 3rd day after death, 30th day and 1st year. Say a prayer for the late Avery Card. Dulles, who died one year ago today. Related Remembering Avery Dulles, by Robert P. Imbelli (Commonweal) Keep this blog alive - Help Chrisopher get a new computer!
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Which is scarier?
2009-12-10 07:19:00
Orrin Hatch's "Eight Days of Hannukah" John Ashcroft's "Let the Eagle Soar". "MC [Karl] Rove" Keep this blog alive - Help Chrisopher get a new computer!

How much has really changed over the years?
2009-12-09 08:09:00
Never before in the history of the world was there so much knowledge; and never before so little coming to the knowledge of the Truth. Never before so much straining for life; never before so many unhappy lives. Never before so much science; never before was it used so for the destruction of human life.-- Bishop Fulton Sheen, 1933.Keep this blog alive - Help Chrisopher get a new computer!
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Wanted: Part-Time Work
2009-12-09 06:00:00
So here's the deal -- my financial situation is somewhat tight at the moment (much like, well, 90% of the country?). Donations would be appreciated, but I'm really not the type to bleg for handouts w/o offering something in return, and given my technical skills I'd like to contribute something to the exchange. I do web design and am fluent w/ HTML, CSS and Photoshop. I love to build blogs and/or websites -- you can see the examples of a few by the banners in the margin, and of course there's the Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club. Most of these blogs I've turned out in the space of 2-3 days. If you're looking for help w/ a website and/or would like somebody to fix you up with a blog (Blogger or Wordpress), with graphics customized to your taste, or if you just need a blog-header or banner advertisement, I'm your man. Rates are negotiable. Interested? -- Email me at blostopher "at" gmail.com. Keep this blog alive - Help Chrisopher get a new computer!
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New Online Journal: "The New Jesuit Review"
2009-12-06 20:47:00
[From the website]: The New Jesuit Review has as its goals the recovery of Jesuit spirituality from its authentic sources and reflection by contemporary Jesuits on its significance for their lives. The writings of St. Ignatius and the First Companions, the lives of Jesuit saints and martyrs, and classics of Jesuit spirituality are examined in the spirit of Perfectae Caritatis, the Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life of the Second Vatican Council:It redounds to the good of the Church that institutes have their own particular characteristics and work. Therefore let their founders' spirit and special aims they set before them as well as their sound traditions -- all of which make up the patrimony of each institute -- be faithfully held in honor. (Perfectae Caritatis, 2)Keep this blog alive - Help Chrisopher get a new computer!
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Saul Alinsky and Jacques Maritain
2009-12-02 07:32:00
Following the manifold scandals involving the Catholic Campaign for Human Development comes a twofold discussion by the blog Cosmos, Liturgy, Sex -- the first getting to the root of the problem, the second on the "spiritual paternity" of Saul Alinsky and Jacques Maritain (the latter post engaging Alinsky's son in the comments). An excerpt:... But herein lies the troubling question of Maritain’s Catholic alliance with Alinsky, which would serve as a model for the post-conciliar Church in the U.S. and which should call the whole socio-political strategy of the post-conciliar Church in America into question. How could Maritain not have seen that Alinsky’s community organizations, his “buffers,” were in fact ordered to becoming functionaries of the State, its repressive arms of authority? Like all American agitators whose work operates in the trajectory of Marx’s nihilism, Alinsky awaited the day when a fully socialist political power would reign in the nation’s capitol. Th...

Kierkegaard on Luther
2009-12-01 09:50:00
Lutheranism is a corrective, but a corrective made into the norm, the whole, is eo ipso confusing in the next generation (when that which it was meant to correct no longer exists). And as long as this continues things get worse with every generation, until in the end the corrective produces the exact opposite of what was originally intendedAnd later:Luther: your responsibility is great indeed, for the closer I look the more clearly do I see that you overthrew the Pope and set the public on the throne[!]-- Journals of the Danish philosopher Soren KierkegaardKeep this blog alive - Help Chrisopher get a new computer!

"The Debate is about Authority"
2009-12-01 09:31:00
Witnessing the continued implosion of the Anglicans and the ELCA over matters of Christian morality, I am intrigued by the way present circumstances have inspired renewed consideration of tradition, authority and obedience. As I wrote a few months ago ("On the troubles within the ELCA" American Catholic September 7, 2009): "What is interesting, at least from this Catholic perspective, is the extent to which the critics of recent decisions recognize the seeds of their present troubles woven into the very fabric of their tradition." In a recent post to First Things' "On the Square", Rusty Reno described the crisis of those experiencing "the agony of mainline Protestantism" thus:One either recommits oneself to the troubled world of mainline Protestantism with articulate criticisms, but also with a spirit of sacrifice, as he so powerfully evokes. Or one stumbles forward-who can see in advance by what uncertain steps?-and abandons oneself, not to “orthodoxy” or “true doctrine” ...
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InsideCatholic's Double Standard
2009-12-01 08:18:00
InsideCatholic readers are well aware of their standard guidelines for commenting, clearly posted a the bottom of every article:1. No name calling or personal attacks; stick to the argument, not the individual. 2. Assume the goodwill of the other person, especially when you disagree. 3. Don't make judgments about the other person's sinfulness or salvation. You are not the Inquisition. ... One has to wonder why certain authors themselves are exempt from such rules?Keep this blog alive - Help Chrisopher get a new computer!
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Abortion, capital punishment and war -- One of these things is not like the
2009-11-29 04:00:00
[Cross-posted to The American Catholic] Ed Stoddard of Reuters' religion blog Faithworld carries a roundup of the skirmish between Congressman Patrick Kennedy, the son of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, has claimed that Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin. In conclusion, Stoddard asks:This leads to a question about the consistency of views in the U.S. Catholic Church leadership. The Church opposes abortion and therefore liberal politicians who support abortion rights risk being refused communion. The Church supports a healthcare overhaul that would make the system more equitable. So does a conservative Catholic politician who opposes this reform risk being denied communion for ignoring the Catholic social teaching that justifies it? How about support for capital punishment, which the Vatican says is unjustified in almost all possible cases, or for war? In the build-up to the Iraq war, Pope John Paul was so opposed to the plan that he sent a personal envoy to Washington to argue again...
More About: Abortion , Things , Punishment

Paul J. Griffiths on Rowan Williams and "Ecumenical Obedience"
2009-11-28 17:03:00
Catholic theologian Paul J. Griffiths pens a good response to Rowan Williams on the Catholic-Anglican divide:This past Thursday (19 November 2009), Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, gave an address at the Gregorian University in Rome as part of an event celebrating the centenary of the birth of Cardinal Willebrands, the first President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. In it, he made a distinction between first-order theological understandings of the Church, on which he thinks that there has been considerable convergence between Anglicans and Catholics since the Second Vatican Council; and second-order questions, the answers to which still divide, but consensus about which, he thinks, is not as “vital for its [the Church's] health and integrity” as is that about first-order questions. He distinguishes three putative second-order topics: the question of authority in the Church; the question of Petrine primacy; and the question of the relations bet...

Here and There
2009-11-28 16:34:00
An eclectic mix of posts and articles that captured my attention recently -- perhaps yours as well?"What? Me Pray?" - A commentator by the name of "unagidon" @ Commonweal:If you have a group of Catholics over for a dinner party, and they’ve stayed a bit too late but you don’t want to be rude by pointedly winding the alarm clock in front of them, one thing that always works to clear the room is to bring up in conversation the efficacy of prayer and people’s individual prayer lives. We all believe that people should pray and we may even believe that everyone does pray. And probably no one would deny that the question of opening channels of communication to God is “a very important thing”. But nothing makes people start looking at their watches faster than bringing up prayer in conversation. For those of you who have stayed with me to the end to the end of the last paragraph, let me try to tantalize you with this. For a full 35 years, I didn’t think that I could pray. ...

Self-Indulgent Scott Hahn Rage-Fest!!!
2009-11-28 09:07:00
Arturo Vasquez is seething, SEETHING! -- the author positively enraged over "paying $10, being told to park in an unconvenient/borderline unsafe location, and sitting in bleachers all to be in the wonderful presence of Scott Hahn and sit through a 'Catholicism is Scriptural, now let’s all cheer ourselves' pep rally." As a commentator pointed out:I wouldn’t expect Hahn to lecture on the nuances of Aristotelian metaphysics re. Transubstantiation, to what is essentially a lay audience. You really need to relax, this type of even was not meant for people like you. Why you went there to begin with is beyond me. He has much more serious "events" like the “Letter & Spirit Summer Institute."Keep this blog alive - Help Chrisopher get a new computer!
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Eliot on Pascal
2009-11-28 01:13:00
"The majority of mankind is lazy-minded, incurious, absorbed in vanities, and tepid in emotion, and is therefore incapable of either much doubt or much faith; and when the ordinary man calls himself a skeptic or unbeliever, that is ordinarily a simple pose, cloaking a disinclination to think anything out to conclusion. Pascal's disillusioned analysis of human bondage is sometimes interpreted to mean that Pascal was really and finally an unbeliever, who, in his despair, was incapable of enduring reality and enjoying the heroic satisfaction of the free man's worship of nothing. His despair, his disillusion, are, however, no illustration of personal weakness; they are perfectly objective, because they are essential moments in the progress of an intellectual soul; and for the type of Pascal they are the analogue of the drought, the dark night, which is an essential stage in the progress of the Christian mystic. A similar despair, when it is arrived at by a diseased character or an imp...
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Fr. James V. Schall on reading "Great Books"
2009-11-27 17:30:00
I have no doubt that what are called the “great books” should be read. I read Plato and Aristotle every semester with increasing awe. But the reading of great books does not do the trick, if I might call it that. What does the trick are books that tell the truth. And usually these books are very difficult for a student to come by. They are “notes from the underground,” to steal a phrase from Dostoyevsky. Thus, Another Sort of Learning contains many book lists. Most of the works recommended are relatively short. It is not all that difficult to get at the truth, once you know where to begin. Universities are not a total waste of time, but most graduates earn degrees while remaining confused about the ultimate things. About these latter things, little is to be found in most universities. Still, graduates have their whole lives ahead of them, if they can read.Fr. James V. Schall on "Another Sort of Learning" (The Catholic Thing October 9, 2009 )
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"Biggest Shopping Day of the Year"
2009-11-27 12:00:00
"It's not enough.I need more.Nothing seems to satisfy."
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"The Manhattan Declaration"
2009-11-27 08:36:00
Joe Carter (First Things) - What is "The Manhattan Declaration "?:The Manhattan Declaration is a 4,732-word statement signed by a movement of Orthodox, Catholic and evangelical Christian leaders who are collaborating around moral issues of great concern. Its signers affirm the sanctity of human life, marriage as defined by the union of one man and one woman, and religious liberty and freedom of conscience. The Manhattan Declaration endorses civil disobedience under certain circumstances.You can read the document here; you can append your signature here. Related The "Manhattan Declaration": The Manifesto That's Shaking America, by Sandro Magister (Chiesa). "It's been endorsed by Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox leaders, united in defending life and the family. With the White House in the crosshairs. In Europe, they would've branded it political "interference" by the Church."

"ClimateGate"
2009-11-27 00:18:00
Global WarmingGate: What Does It Mean?, by Charlie Martin (PajamasMedia November 22, 2009):Late on the night of of November 19, news broke on PJM and elsewhere that a large amount of data had been stolen from one of the major climate research institutions by an unknown hacker and made available on the Internet. The institution is the University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit, home institution for Dr Phil Jones and one of the world’s centers of research into anthropogenic global warming (AGW), or “climate change.” The hackers released about 172 megabytes of data, and we can be sure examining it closely will take some time. But after a few days, certain things are beginning to become clear. The data appears to be largely, perhaps entirely, authentic.The emails are incendiary.The implications shake the scientific basis for AGW, and the scientific reputations of some of AGW’s major proponents, to their rootsWhat? -- Manipulating data in wholesale subservience to their poli...

Great News for Fans of "Bloom County"
2009-11-26 21:26:00
Not subscribing to a newspaper I rarely have occasion to read the comics these days -- but my childhood and teenage years were spent devouring "Calvin and Hobbes", Trudeau's "Doonesbury" and Berkley Breathed's "Bloom County " (circa 1980-1989). For those who don't recognize the latter, IDW Publishing has announced the launch of The Bloom County Complete Library -- "a five volume collection featuring every daily and Sunday strip in chronological order, many reprinted for the first time."The Bloom County Library will also contain a series of "Context Pages" sprinkled throughout the volumes, providing perspective for the reader and presenting a variety of real-life events and personalities that were contemporary at the time of original publication.In a recent interview with Los Angeles Times' "Hero Complex", Breathed describes the circumstances that led to his decision to relenquish cartooning:“When you’re young, you miss things, you just don’t see them,” said the 52-year-ol...
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Happy Thanksgiving!
2009-11-26 17:55:00
Jay Anderson gives us a history lesson on "The First Thanksgiving ":Every gradeschool boy and girl in the U.S. will confidently tell you that their history books say that the very first Thanksgiving on American soil took place in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621 when the English Pilgrims who had arrived the year before and the Patuxet Indians shared the food from their respective harvests in one great big happy feast. As is often the case, however, the history books are wrong on this account. ...The Maverick Philosopher engages in a thanksgiving reflection:We need spiritual exercises just as we need physical, mental, and moral exercises. A good spiritual exercise, and easy to boot, is daily recollection of just how good one has it, just how rich and full one's life is, just how much is going right despite annoyances and setbacks which for the most part are so petty as not to merit consideration. ...How Private Property Saved the Pilgrims -- When the Pilgrims landed in 1620, they esta...
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Capture most wanted terrorist -- Rewarded with a court martial?
2009-11-26 17:15:00
Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist FoxNews November 25, 2009: Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com. The three, all members of the Navy's elite commando unit, have refused non-judicial punishment — called a captain's mast — and have requested a trial by court-martial. Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named "Objective Amber," told investigators he was punched by his captors — and he had the bloody lip to prove it.
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The Cult of Ayn Rand
2009-11-14 18:35:00
Neither God nor Devil -- Daniel J. Flynn (City Journal) reviews two revealing biographies of the founder of "Objectivism": Anne C. Heller's Ayn Rand and the World She Made (Nan A. Talese, October 2009), and Jennifer Burns' Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right Oxford UP, October 2009).:The man most responsible for making the Objectivist movement adopt a cult of personality was Nathaniel Branden, so devoted to Objectivism that he incorporated Rand’s last name into his own. Libertarian moralizers, such as Branden, unconsciously adopted some of the uglier qualities of the extreme collectivists whom they railed against. While purporting to be the antitheses of Hitler and Stalin, Objectivists conducted star-chamber trials, demanded that followers denounce relatives, and imitated Rand’s aesthetic tastes (smoking, Mickey Spillaine: good; mustaches, Shakespeare: bad). “A slip of the tongue by an Objectivist who liked Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho or secretly didn’t...
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Singing Pontiffs
2009-11-13 14:57:00
Catholic News Agency reports that Pope Benedict XVI will release an album, featuring him singing chants and reciting prayers to the accompaniment of classical music:The new album, titled, “Alma Mater, Music from the Vatican,” features eight pieces of modern sacred music with recordings of the Pope speaking and praying in Latin, Italian, Portuguese, French and German. The Pope’s voice is accompanied by the choir of the Philharmonic Academy of Rome, directed by Msgr. Pablo Colino. The music was performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London. During the press conference presenting the new CD, Father Lombardi said the idea to make the CD came from Giulio Neroni, who brought the proposal to the Vatican Secretary of State. St. Paul Multimedia agreed to produce the album, with the assistance of Vatican Radio for the recordings of the Pope.More from Rachel Donaldson @ The First Post:Sadly, it seems the Pope's debut album, Alma Mater, is likely to disappoint both his arden...

20 Years Ago: The Fall of the Berlin Wall
2009-11-11 03:57:00
On November 9th, 2009, the world's leaders commemorated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (New York Times report; see also Wikipedia). I was 15 years old then -- just old enough to grasp the significance of the occasion; youthful (and perhaps naive, in retrospect) enthusiasm captured in the popular Jesus Jones' MTV hit "Right Here, Right Now" a year later. How time flies! "20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall - Man and evil, Christ and redemption" Opening with an observation from Lech Walesa ("The victory over communism came thanks to the shipyards and thanks to the Holy Father. But now, nobody mentions the Holy Father"), Rorate Caeli draws our attention to some pertinent passages from Pope John Paul II's Centesimus Annus). "Tear down this wall!" - Also drawing from Lech Walesa ("When talking about Ronald Reagan, I have to be personal. We in Poland took him so personally. Why? Because we owe him our liberty. ..."), American Catholic's Donald McClarey l...
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Sounds like a plan.
2009-11-03 06:10:00
"We should all pray … and often … to/through the intercession of Mother Teresa for the conversion of [Christopher] Hitchens."-- A First Thoughts reader, in response to Hitchens' latest pathetic diatribe against Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
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Not the wisest name-change in the book.
2009-11-03 05:34:00
We consulted at length with a brilliant friend of mine, one of the nation’s leading experts on branding. Her advice was direct and powerful: ”Nobody knows what the ‘next majority’ will look like. Maybe President Obama will be re-elected and your hopes of building a new modernized Republican majority will go unrealized for a long time to come.” In any event, she continued, whether Republicans return to majority or remain in minority status, the world of internet political commentary is a world built around individual personalities. Think DrudgeReport, HuffingtonPost, AndrewSullivan.com, Breitbart.TV. Her advice: Put my name on the thing.- David Frum, on changing the name of his blog to 'FrumForum'.* * *Frum (Yiddish: פֿרום; [frum | frim]), from the German fromm, meaning "devout" or "pious", is a Yiddish word meaning committed to be observant of the 613 Mitzvot, or Jewish commandments, specifically of Orthodox Judaism. This appellative is used especially in reference ...
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Here and There
2009-11-03 04:36:00
"The Thomistic Tradition" - Part I | Part II -- a brief survey of the history of Thomism from John Capreolus to John Haldane, with a summary of the main schools of thought, from Dr. Edward Feser. At What's Wrong with The World, Edward Feser also alerts us to two new books on contemporary conservative philosopher Roger Scruton. "Decline is a Choice: The New Liberalism and the end of American ascendancy" (Weekly Standard 10/19/2009, Volume 015, Issue 05) adapted from his 2009 Wriston Lecture delivered for the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in New York on October 5. (Watch the speech). Paul Zummo (The Cranky Conservative) is blogging an ongoing commentary on The Federalist Papers - "I absolutely believe that an understanding of the Federalist Papers is essential for understanding the U.S. Constitution and, therefore, understanding America." From the Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club, an extensive roundup of discussion and commentary on Pope Benedict's encyclical Caritas in Verit...