I had heard of the messianism surrounding Barack Obama, but I didn’t think anyone would start an actual church. Then a friend tuned me into Sing for Change. According to their website:

Sing for Change chronicles a recent Sunday afternoon, when 22 children, ages 5-12, gathered to sing original songs in the belief that their singing would lift up our communities for the coming election. Light, hope, courage and love shine through these nonvoting children who believe that their very best contribution to the Obama campaign is to sing. . . .

What we accomplished in a few hours on a Sunday afternoon embodies the nature of the Obama campaign: its grassroots inspiration, its inclusiveness, its community building. People pitched in quickly for a cause that resonated with them. There were not many conditions: “Think this is a good idea? Want to help? Great. Sunday at 12:00.” At the heart of the project were 22 children and their music. The willingness of all involved to come together for them was a testament to our hope, unity, courage, joy and belief in the future represented by these children.

Here’s their homemade gathering song:

I liked the old messiah better.

The Dominicans at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in New York have announced a series of lectures on theology for the coming months. Those in the area might be interested in the offerings:

To believe well one must first reason well. This is the lesson of St. Thomas Aquinas. Consequently, faith becomes a challenge when reason fails to fulfill its prior duty, which is to separate truth from error. This lecture series is aimed at answering modern challenges to faith by examining the fundamental questions that rise naturally from human experience. When we think through these questions correctly, separating fact from fiction, we discover the rational foundation upon which the act of faith can be confidently made.

Free and open to the public, each lecture will begin at 7:00 PM in the St. Vincent Ferrer Church Hall.

I. The Question of God
October 6 - God’s Existence and Nature
October 20 - The Meaning of Creation
November 3 - The Meaning of Providence

II. The Question of Man
November 17 - A Being of Matter and Spirit
December 1 - The Gifts of Intellect and Will
December 15 - The Gift of Freedom

III. The Question of Jesus Christ
January 12, 2009 - Who is He?
February 9 - The Meaning of the Incarnation
February 23 - The Meaning of the Paschal Mystery

IV. The Question of Worship
March 9 - The Christian Culture of Worship
March 23 - The Meaning of Sacrifice
April 6 - The Sacramental Principle

V. The Question of Good and Evil
May 11 - Spiritual Warfare
June 1 - The Meaning of Law: Eternal and Natural
June 22 - The New Life of Grace

Church of St. Vincent Ferrer + 869 Lexington Avenue (at E. 66th St.)
212-744-2080 + www.csvf.org + www.csvfblog.org

Here’s some troubling news from the Wall Street Journal:

In a striking shift, Pfizer Inc. will abandon efforts to develop medicines for heart disease, as part of a broad research reshuffling it announced Tuesday.

Pfizer will be leaving a field that includes its cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor and other medicines that fueled the company’s dominance of the pharmaceutical industry for more than a decade.

The beleaguered New York pharmaceutical giant also is exiting therapies for obesity and bone health, to focus on more-profitable areas, such as cancer.

Of course, increasing efforts to find treatments and cures for cancer is a good thing. But I wish we didn’t have to stop developing medicines for America’s number one killer in order to do so.

It is my privilege to share workspace with a soon-to-be-distinguished student of history, Ryan Sayre “Prayers” Patrico. Like other advocates of civilization, Ryan is shocked and dismayed by the almost total ignorance of history among young Americans. The only consolation I can offer him is that this is not simply a case of American barbarism.

This past weekend I had a great conversation about politics with a lively and intelligent seventeen year old. At some point I mentioned, in passing, the fall of the Berlin Wall. He interjected, “When was that, around 1997?” This would have been depressing enough coming from an American, but my young interlocutor was a European exchange student. And by “European” I mean born and raised in Frankfurt.

O tempora, o mores!

With Muslim head-scarves banned in French schools, and religion forced out of the public square, Muslim parents have been enrolling their children in Catholic schools. Interesting to see, yet again, how the laîcité that was designed to prevent the abuse of religion–chiefly by the Catholic Church–ended up restricting religion, so that Muslims who want to educate their children in an environment friendly to religion turn to religious schools–chiefly those run by the Catholic Church.

P.J. O’Rourke at the Los Angeles Times offers a hilarious yet meaningful reflection on his encounter with cancer and how the experience has given him a healthy appreciation of death:

I looked death in the face. All right, I didn’t. I glimpsed him in a crowd. I’ve been diagnosed with cancer, of a very treatable kind. I’m told I have a 95 percent chance of survival. Come to think of it—as a drinking, smoking, saturated-fat hound—my chance of survival has been improved by cancer.

I still cursed God, as we all do when we get bad news and pain. Not even the most faith-impaired among us shouts: “Damn quantum mechanics!” “Damn organic chemistry!” “Damn chaos and coincidence!”

I believe in God. God created the world. Obviously pain had to be included in God’s plan. Otherwise we’d never learn that our actions have consequences. Our cave-person ancestors, finding fire warm, would conclude that curling up to sleep in the middle of the flames would be even warmer. Cave bears would dine on roast ancestor, and we’d never get any bad news and pain because we wouldn’t be here. . . .

Death is so important that God visited death upon his own son, thereby helping us learn right from wrong well enough that we may escape death forever and live eternally in God’s grace. (Although this option is not usually open to reporters.)

Now available online for your listening pleasure: First Things features editor R.R. Reno interviews two authors featured in our October issue, Bruce D. Porter and Gerald R. McDermott, on their answers to the question “Is Mormonism Christian?”

Both interviews can be heard below, and the original article is free for viewing as this month’s bonus article.

Robert T. Miller’s observations in Friday’s Daily Article about the need for intervention in times of market panic remind us of an important truth. The fact that markets are usually the most effective and efficient mechanisms for creating incentives for wealth creation, as well as for matching resources to needs, does not mean that they are always effective.

By my reckoning, the great, unifying feature of modern ideology has been the belief that some mechanism or method or formula will miraculously deliver ideal results without fail. This has been the dream of modernity: to replace judgment with calculation, wisdom with technical knowledge.

Because America is nothing if not modern in sentiment, American conservatism is always tempted by libertarian and free market ideologies. But true conservatism is not ideological at all. It wishes to preserve the religious and moral and cultural resources that train us to make wise judgments–especially the wise judgments necessary to know when to intervene into dysfunctional free markets, not in order to overturn or replace them, but so as to ensure their continuing contribution to the common good.

I hated Jack Kerouac’s On The Road when I read it in my early teens. I expected a carefree romp that would glamorize and endorse antinomian adventures such as I hoped to have. Instead I found a disorienting and melancholy book–all hangover and no high.

In “The End of the Road” (October 2008) our features editor, R.R. Reno, suggests that it is precisely this note of melancholy that reveals the greatness of the book. I’d tell you more about his intriguing line of thought, but I’d rather you read for yourself.

In addition to my article on Secretary Paulson’s plan to bailout the credit markets, ROFTERS looking for further guidance on these issues may want to watch the video from a panel several of my colleagues and I at the Villanova Law School did on the crisis earlier this week. The speakers included (in order of appearance) Dean Mark Sargent, Prof. Richard A. Booth, Professor Jennifer O’Hare, me, and Prof. John Murphy.

I’m a twenty-two year old with a job and a few considered opinions, but it is arguably unwise to let me vote. To grant the suffrage to the demographic that enriched Britney Spears is to court disaster.

Kalaupapa doesn’t fall on the standard Hawaiian tourist circuit. It’s not known for its pristine beaches, however fine they may be, nor for its tropical cuisine or music or ambiance. It is, however, a place of history and pilgrimage, particularly now that Fr. Damien’s canonization is expected later this year.

Only a hundred people still call Kalaupapa home, but, between 1866 and 1969, this Hawaiian peninsula was home to over 8,000 exiled lepers, who, torn from their families, fought for a meager existence on the wild terrain. Fr. Damien wasn’t the first caregiver to come to the island, but unlike his predecessors who didn’t dare do more than leave medicine on a fencepost, he looked on the lepers as a family–his family. Yesterday’s Washington Times describes the heroic man, still loved as a father by the two dozen elderly lepers remaining on the island:

Damien, born in Belgium as Joseph de Veuster, stood out because he stayed and put no barriers between himself and the patients. He built homes, constructed a water system, and imported cattle. He had no medical training, but he did have a medical book and a bag, and he made rounds washing and bandaging patient’s sores. . . .

He shared his pipe with patients and ate from the same bowl. Even before he contracted Hansen’s disease, Damien began his sermons saying, “We lepers.”

Damien was diagnosed with leprosy 12 years after he arrived at Kalaupapa and died four years later, at age 49.

If you haven’t seen them already, check out our two Daily Articles on the FT homepage today: Fr. Neuhaus’ continued reflection on the First Amendment and freedom of religion, and Prof. Robert T. Miller’s “Conservative Case for the Paulson Plan.”

This month we’ve heard Amanda Shaw and Ryan T. Anderson expound on the benefits of Catholic education. Never one to shy away from a good conversation, Pope Benedict XVI offered his two cents on the topic yesterday during an address to representatives of Italian Catholic educational centers:

“The Catholic school is an expression of the right of all citizens to freedom of education, and the corresponding duty of solidarity in the building of civil society,” said the Pope, quoting a document of the Italian episcopate.

“To be chosen and appreciated, it is necessary that the Catholic school be recognized for its pedagogical purpose; it is necessary to have a full awareness not only of its ecclesial identity and cultural endeavor, but also of its civil significance,” he explained. This “must not be considered as the defense of a particular interest, but as a precious contribution to the building of the common good of the whole society.”

In this connection, the Pontiff called for equality between state and Catholic schools, “which will give parents the freedom to choose the school they desire.”

No one should trivialize the current economic crisis, which poses a real threat to the well-being of people around the world. But “crisis” quickly moves from being an unpleasant fact that we must face to a poisonous climate of anxiety that we breathe. In order to maintain perspective, I’ve shut myself off from the unremitting commentary, speculation and polemic generated (especially in the blogosphere) and turned to the writings of Benedict XVI.

As far as I know, Benedict has not said much about our present troubles, but in The Yes Of Jesus Christ he suggests that the periods of intense panic that occasionally wash over us are symptoms of the godless modern worldview.

The essence of modernity is that man now pledges to rely only on his own resources. He will accept and trust only what he can control. Since he cannot live without some form of hope, he needs some assurance that his future will be good. Without a gracious, provident God to rely on, this assurance must take the form of fideistic belief in progress. Modern man must think that, in his own efforts to control his future, he is only cooperating with the god called History, whose divine plan is sure to culminate in utopia. Within this new religion, the theological virtue of “hope” consists in an ideological optimism to be maintained in defiance of any contrary evidence.

Of course trust in the immanent mechanisms of history is irrational. At moments of crisis like this, when it seems our god has failed, we sharply and suddenly lose our modern “hope.” Benedict writes:

Optimism is only the facade of a world without hope that is trying to hide from its own despair with this deceptive sham. This is the only explanation for the immoderate and irrational anxiety, this traumatic and violent fear that breaks out when some setback or accident in technological or economic development casts doubt on the dogma of progress.

Doubt is very much in the air. If, heaven forbid, things get much worse, we will see whether it is in God or in Western prosperity that we have really placed our trust.

As you already know, the current issue of First Things features a fascinating exchange between Bruce D. Porter and Gerald R. McDermott on whether Mormonism is Christian. Equally fascinating is this interview from the Zenit News Agency in which Mormon physician Dr. Joe Stanford describes the encyclical Humanae Vitae as a “prophetic statement”:

For a non-Catholic, Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae is not important because it is the Church speaking, but rather because it offers a compelling argument, says Mormon physician Dr. Joe Stanford. . . .

“I first read Humanae Vitae in 1991 and several times since then. I think it is an inspired document. I think it captures fundamental aspects of human nature. He [Pope Paul VI] really hits the nail on the head regarding the dark side of contraception, sterilization, and abortion and their effects on society.”

Earlier this month, Anne Barbeau Gardiner wrote in her article “A Lesson in Deep Ecology”:

Deep ecologists reject anthropocentrism, according to which human beings have irreducible value because they are made in the image of God; instead they embrace ecocentrism, according to which “an endangered plant species . . . has a direct claim to moral attention” and “the culling of an overabundant mammalian species in the same ecosystem may not only be morally justifiable, but obligatory to the extent that it would serve the integrity of the biotic community.” That “overabundant” species might well be us, for deep ecologists go beyond animal advocacy and hope to resolve conflicts between man and animal with “no special consideration to the interests and lives of rational, sentient, verbal Homo sapiens.”

For those of us who were skeptical that such a theory could be taken seriously and put into practice, Ecuador has given us a concrete example. This Sunday, the country will vote on a constitutional referendum which would grant rights to nature. Here’s an excerpt from the proposal:

Persons and people have the fundamental rights guaranteed in this Constitution and in the international human rights instruments. Nature is subject to those rights given by this Constitution and Law . . . Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognitions of rights for nature before the public organisms.* The application and interpretation of these rights will follow the related principles established in the Constitution. [*The word "organisms" means government bodies and courts.]

Astonishingly, the L.A. Times can’t decide whether giving rights to plants might be problematic:

In some ways, this makes sense for a country whose cultural identity is almost indistinguishable from its regional geography–the Galapagos, the Amazon, the Sierra. How this new area of constitutional law will work, however, is another question. We aren’t ready to endorse such a step at home, or even abroad. But it’s intriguing. We’ll be watching Ecuador’s example.

(via Wesley Smith)

There has been much talk recently about the possible introduction of requirements that medical students learn to perform abortions and that Catholic hospitals administer the morning-after pill. And, as anyone in a medical profession knows, these are only a few of the times when a healthcare provider is asked–or compelled–to act against his conscience. Soon, such coercion and discrimination may be illegal.

A law professor and friend writes in with this plea:

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced a rule that would protect the ability of healthcare providers to refuse participation in those things that they believe to be immoral, such as abortion, the morning-after pill, and other emergency contraception. It is important that all citizens who support such protection contact DHHS by Sept. 26 and express that support. The full announcement from DHHS is here, including the following instructions:

1. Electronically. You may submit electronic comments on this regulation to www.Regulations.gov or via e-mail to consciencecomment@hhs.gov. To submit electronic comments to www.Regulations.gov, go to the Web site and click on the link “Comment or Submission” and enter the keywords “provider conscience”. (Attachments should be in Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, or Excel; however, we prefer Microsoft Word.)

2. By regular, express, or overnight mail. You may mail written comments (one original and two copies) to the following address only: Office of Public Health and Science, Department of Health and Human Services, Attention: Brenda Destro, Hubert H. Humphrey Building, 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Room 728E, Washington, DC, 20201.

3. By hand or courier. If you prefer, you may deliver (by hand or courier) your written comments (one original and two copies) before the close of the comment period to the following address: Room 728E, Hubert H. Humphrey Building, 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201.

Please write to HHS today, and ask your prolife contacts to do so as well.

Forty Days for Life, a community-based pro-life group, kicks off their campaign of prayer, fasting, and presence today. According to the group’s website:

Forty Days for Life takes a determined, peaceful approach to showing local communities the consequences of abortion in their own neighborhoods, for their own friends and families. It puts into action a desire to cooperate with God in the carrying out of his plan for the end of abortion in America.

The 40-day campaign tracks biblical history, where God used forty-day periods to transform individuals, communities . . . and the entire world. From Noah in the flood to Moses on the mountain to the disciples after Christ’s resurrection, it is clear that God sees the transformative value of his people accepting and meeting a forty-day challenge.

(via Amy Welborn)

A news report has just announced that John Cornwell has changed his mind about Pius XII: “‘Hitler’s Pope’ Author Modifies Views.”

Can I have one moment of gloating? I was right, and he was wrong. I was right, and he was wrong. Na-na-na-na-na!

Ah, well. Now back to our regularly scheduled programing.