I agree, Frederica, when you say today that Jesus was speaking to an oppressed minority, citizens of an occupied country, when he told them to love their enemies and turn the other cheek. One thing that follows from this is that his advice does not directly translate into policy prescriptions for . . . . Continue Reading »
According to the Zenit news service (linked here in the Daily Dispatch for July 30, 2006), Pope Benedict XVI used a Sunday Angelus message to call for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon. "In the name of God," Benedict said, "I appeal to all those responsible for this spiral of . . . . Continue Reading »
Robert, you quote in your First Things post today a line from Hassan Nasrallah that epitomizes the mysterious and frustrating thing about dealing with this culture. He’s being blankly honest. They aren’t expecting to win, militarily; they are fighting to achieve “honor” and . . . . Continue Reading »
Beer Blessing From the Rituale Romanum (no 58) Bene+dic, Domine, creaturam istam cerevisae, quam ex adipe frumenti producere dignatus es: ut sit remedium salutare humano generi: et praesta per invocationem nominis tui sancti, ut, quicumque ex ea biberint, sanitatem corporis, et animae tutelam . . . . Continue Reading »
As an Englishman living in America, I keep a watchful and often wistful eye on events in Britain, lamenting the decline of my country as it sinks in sin and cynicism. Take, for example, Tessa Jowell , the UK government’s secretary of "Culture," whose official "Christmas" . . . . Continue Reading »
I generally agree with the comments so far emphasizing Israel’s right to defend itself, the necessity of using force against evil men, and the danger of applying “turn-the-other-cheek” logic to affairs of state. (As Robert T. Miller rightly points out, governments are not human . . . . Continue Reading »
In his posting on First Things earlier today, Ross Douthat writes "justice is rarely served by folly"¯a phrase that gives nice shape to an appealing notion: Israel’s decision to attack Hezbollah, like the U.S. decision to invade Iraq, was morally justifiable, but these wars have . . . . Continue Reading »
For years, critics of the idea of same-sex “marriage” have made the point that accepting the proposition that two persons of the same sex can marry each other entails abandoning any principled basis for understanding marriage as the union of two and only two persons. So far as I am . . . . Continue Reading »
Responding to my doubts about the prudence of recent war making (the United States in Iraq, Israel in Lebanon), Jody points out ¯ quite rightly¯that nobody can know to a precise degree of certainty whether a war will be successful before it is waged, and that blunders in the course of a . . . . Continue Reading »
It strikes me, Ross, that you’re digging yourself into terminological difficulties here , primarily because you’re trying to make the justice of the war match the chronology of your thinking about the war. A person might have thought Israel’s attack on Hezbollah was just when it . . . . Continue Reading »
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