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.)