“Spotlight” (movie)

Apr182019 by jrcowlesNo Comments

The Question That Dare Not Speak Its Name … Must I Ask It Again?

"Boston Globe", "Life" Issues, "Spotlight" (movie), anger, awareness, betrayal, bible, bible, Character of God, Child Abuse, Christianity/Catholicism, Church, conservatism, courage, critical judgment, culture, Ethics, faith, God, monotheism, Secularity, sorrow, Uncategorized

Yeah … I guess I must … anyway … as I have said before, when I was taking both secular philosophy (ethics at a secular university) and moral theology (at a Jesuit school, Seattle University), I was taught, in different ways and in different dialects, that Knowledge plus Power equals Responsibility. I.e., if I know that a given situation is morally wrong and if I have the power to effect change, then I am morally responsible for acting so as to alter the situation and right the wrong. And, moreover, the degree of responsibility varies directly with the scope of my knowledge and my power to effect that change. E.g., there is not much I can do to alleviate the plight of Syrian refugees. Maybe all I can do is to give money. But I am obligated to do at least that much. Given how wides

Sep132018 by jrcowlesNo Comments

Child Abuse In The Church — Taking The Gloves Off

"Boston Globe", "Life" Issues, "Spotlight" (movie), activism, anger, awareness, betrayal, Challenge, Change, Child Abuse, Christian Church, citizenship, civics, conflict, conservatism, constitution, courage, Criminal Procedure, critical judgment, Episcopacy, Ethics, Evidence, faithfulness, First Amendment, God, Ideology, Incarceration, injustice, justice, law, Religion, resentment, Secularity, self-serving, separation of Church and State, sorrow, Theodicy, Theology, Tragedy, trust, Uncategorized

This is going to sound really strange coming from me, i.e., coming from someone who has been a life-long fairly radical devotee of the First Amendment, in particular, of both the Amendment’s religion clauses: the “establishment” clause and the “free exercise” clause. But the recent publication of the grand jury’s findings regarding six Pennsylvania dioceses in the matter of priest pedophilia has caused me to radically reassess my attitude toward the latter clause, especially given that two of the six dioceses in question attempted to have judges quash the grand jury proceedings. In particular, I now believe that, for the most part and because of an arguably well-intentioned but exaggerated deference toward the “free exercise” clause, the Nation has pretty much allowed the Church to r

May172018 by jrcowlesNo Comments

Nietzsche’s Children: Faith, Freud, And Fascism In Reformed Protestantism

"Life" Issues, "Spotlight" (movie), Archetype, Art, autonomy, awareness, bigotry, Calvinism, Challenge, Character of God, Child Abuse, Christian Church, Christianity, Christianity/Catholicism, Church, citizenship, civics, conflict, conservatism, courage, critical judgment, culture, Current Events, Discernment, election year, Ethics, Evangelicalism, Failing, faith, faithfulness, Fascism, Fear, Freud, Fundamentalism, God, Human Condition, Ideology, Jesus, Letters of Paul, Martin Luther, monotheism, political rhetoric, Presidency, Reformation, Religion, Sexuality, Trump, Uncategorized

Every so often, I read posts from progressive, non-fundamentalist, religiously devout people – usually Christian, but not always – on, e.g., Facebook expressing astonishment and mortification at the manner in which the conservative evangelical / Reformed Christian church (with certain conspicuous exceptions, to be sure) has slavishly rallied around the Presidency of Donald Trump. This surprise is understandable if you only pay attention to the surface rhetoric of the conservative Christian church. But focusing on the superficial, conscious, “prefrontal-cortex” part of conservative Christianity is like looking at the surface of the earth and concluding that, except for the odd volcano here and there, the earth’s core is pretty much like the earth’s surface, that is to say, pretty dull: