Need Your Help

Still working on that research I told you about earlier. Now I need your help. If I threw out two terms to you, and you were asked to spontaneously say how they were related, what would you say when I said the two terms were: "absolute monarchy" and "direct democracy"? Go at it.

Deaniancs, Nuff Said.

The Moose has it covered, right down to the lattes. I just hope this Pew survey gets WIDE distribution. I haven't heard it mentioned over at the friendly confines of dKos, and a diary citing the report as of now received only 3 comments at MyDD.

Now, back to the discussion on the next Pope below...

The Next Pope - A Thought Exercise

This is how some of my friends, including my collegue from El Salvador, are looking at it:

The World is at war, first versus third, and the first battle of that war is one of faith. Fundamentalist, reactionary forces across denominations are intent on seeing the battle as existential and so are using the rhetoric of spirituality to recruit warriors and sway public opinion.

Caught in the middle of this initial battle are the world's poor. On the one hand, the poor offer fresh recruits to fundamentalism. On the other hand, the poor offer a vast supply of cheap labor for wealthy nations to exploit.

Only one religion, in their view, is charged with the care of the poor, and that religion is Christianity... and the Pope is its most visible leader. To end this war before it spirals out of control, the Pope, in their view, must:

1) strongly denounce the self-destruction of fundamentalism and evangelize against its rebirth,
2) firmly reject the exploitation of the world's poor by unchecked capitalism,
3) loudly proclaim that Christ's resurrection has liberated the poor from their condition

It is said these three keys are the only way to prevent a generations long struggle, ending in untold bloodshed across the globe.

If you look at the world this way, which I stipulate has a sort of martian like quality to it, who is the best candidate to serve as Christ's Vicar?

Go Heels

Not wanting to offend the basketball gods, I will say only, may the best team win (so long as its Carolina).

Thoughts on John Paul II

First, if you haven't ever read Crossing the Threshold of Hope by the late John Paul II, I recommend it. I did not grow up in or anywhere near the Catholic church, and yet, I found a great deal of the philosophy discussed to sound quite familiar. While the book isn't as in depth as it could be, or perhaps should be, the Pope is a clear thinker with an education to complement.

Second, in that book, and throughout the collected teachings of John Paul II, you will no doubt find him to be staunchly pro-life on the abortion issue. However, what most of these media tributes are forgetting is that he was also explicitly and radically pro-woman. While one has to wonder how pro-woman you can be and still resist the ordination of women, at the very least, the idea that you can be one without the other is rejected by his own argument.

Third, the Pope did not relegate his pro-life faith to just the issue of abortion, he was pro-life, all the way, straight down the road. And his anti-war and anti-death penalty views were not so much a directive of his pro-life stance as they were indeed articles of faith incumbent upon every Christian. I haven't even seen him comment on the just war hypothetical, choosing to emphasize peace instead. This is a trait which I believe will be well regarded by history, as it should be by us too.

Finally, a friend of mine from El Salvador asks that I remind people of the tension, to say the least, between John Paul II and liberation theology. While he too mourns the loss of John Paul II because: "he responsibly argued for peace" he also sees this as a moment filled with opportunity and is excited about the Catholic church, "coming home to where its seeds still prosper."

These are things to keep in mind while watching the much deserved tributes of his life. The sad thing is that he is gone, the good thing though is that his teachings will remain.