Imagine that the White House suddenly were to close. Sure, the President handily could dispatch the nation's business from the Executive Office Building or some other place, but powerful symbolic value would be lost. Ditto if we were to lose the Capitol. It is on this order of symbolic magnitude that the closing of a cathedral assaults the psyche of believers: particularly when the cathedral is beautiful and stretches back to 1722!
As an alumna of Brown University in Providence, and a former rector in the Diocese of Rhode Island, Anglicat is particularly sorry to see the Cathedral of St. John snuffing out its last candle. Nonetheless, it should come as no surprise. As far back as the late 1980s, the Cathedral was heavily dependent on the services of two non-salaried deacons who worked full-time and then some, to keep the Cathedral humming smoothly. Even to the most casual observers, the appointment of the Rt. Rev. David Joslin (former rector of St. Stephen's, Edina, here in Minnesota) as Interim Dean at the Cathedral should have made the likely future even clearer. Known as a tight-control, Organization Man rather than a charismatic visionary or community-builder, no one could have been hired more likely than he to nail the coffin.
So, what's a soon-to-be-Cathedral-less bishop to do? Without the cathedral, she loses her cathedra, another important symbol, out of which a bishop speaks officially. The Rt. Rev. Geralyn Wolf commented that the cathedral's closing would provide the opportunity for other uses in fulfilling the mission of the Diocese of Rhode Island. Let's see--if not to house liturgical services, what could those uses be? Shall the building host an art gallery or theater? Condos for the wealthy grey hairs who still can afford to visit the sinking L'Elizabeth's for their sherry and scones?
Seriously, Rhode Island is the second Episcopal Diocese (after Delaware, last September) to announce the closing of its cathedral, but it will be the first actually to do the deed on April 22. Sadly, given the rocky financial situation of so many Episcopal Dioceses, this is not likely to be the last Episcopal cathedral to be repurposed.
What positive lesson can be drawn from this sad news? Here it is, ready to be ignored: drifting from its core purposes is killing the Episcopal Church. How much farther behind can the United States be, as we continue to twist and stray from our Constitution?
Friday, February 24, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Good Bye, Student Loan Forgiveness for Clergy
How do we encourage people to undertake low-paying and frequently high-stress jobs that serve the common good? Back in 2007, federal legislation was passed providing that people who worked in 501(c)(3) corporations for ten years while making their student loan payments would be forgiven all debt remaining after the 120 months of payments. Seminarians of all faiths rejoiced as their financial aid officers counseled them about this new benefit.
Unfortunate for seminarians relying on that legislation, the Obama administration last month issued interpretive guidelines specifically excluding workers whose duties "are related to religious instruction, worship services, or any form of proselytizing." You can view this outrageous exclusion on page 2, HERE. It's a classic case of regulatory over-reach, with the White House creating consequences never intended by the legislature. It's also a case of financially-targeted religious discrimination.
Summarizing an observation made by the Rev. George Conger, a student can graduate from seminary and pay towards his or her student loan debt for ten years while working for Planned Parenthood, and all remaining debt will be wiped away. Should that student wish to work for a church, instead, all debt remains intact.
The rulemakers clearly were not very circumspect in drawing up the guidelines. How about military chaplains? Under the guidelines, as military, they are specifically included in the benefit. BUT, their duties include conducting worship services, so the rule specifically excludes them. Brilliant (not).
The Huffington Post of all sources included an interesting story about the effect of these stupidly-drawn rules on a young rabbi undertaking "tikkun olam", a Hebrew phrase meaning "repair of the world." Religious people of all faiths must unite in opposing yet another of Obama's widespread assaults on conscience and religious belief.
Unfortunate for seminarians relying on that legislation, the Obama administration last month issued interpretive guidelines specifically excluding workers whose duties "are related to religious instruction, worship services, or any form of proselytizing." You can view this outrageous exclusion on page 2, HERE. It's a classic case of regulatory over-reach, with the White House creating consequences never intended by the legislature. It's also a case of financially-targeted religious discrimination.
Summarizing an observation made by the Rev. George Conger, a student can graduate from seminary and pay towards his or her student loan debt for ten years while working for Planned Parenthood, and all remaining debt will be wiped away. Should that student wish to work for a church, instead, all debt remains intact.
The rulemakers clearly were not very circumspect in drawing up the guidelines. How about military chaplains? Under the guidelines, as military, they are specifically included in the benefit. BUT, their duties include conducting worship services, so the rule specifically excludes them. Brilliant (not).
The Huffington Post of all sources included an interesting story about the effect of these stupidly-drawn rules on a young rabbi undertaking "tikkun olam", a Hebrew phrase meaning "repair of the world." Religious people of all faiths must unite in opposing yet another of Obama's widespread assaults on conscience and religious belief.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Registering Tom Brady to Vote: Early and Often!
Walk in to your local clinic, and you will have to show a photo I.D. before receiving medical care. Need to cash a check? Make sure you have your driver's license with you. Want to use your credit card in some stores? Cautious merchants ask for photo I.D. Your kid wants to play in a regional soccer tournament--you guessed it: a birth certificate is necessary to establish that the player kicking that ball is exactly who he says he is. After the game, if the player wants to bring a girl from another school to his high school's dance--she, of course, will have to show I.D.
BUT--want to register and vote? No I.D. is necessary in Minnesota! This video clip--totally undoctored--shows how it is possible even to register multiple third parties to vote, all without any I.D. or even signing before a notary! These officials were ready to allow a registration for Tom Brady to vote: voting scam . Even worse, it is just as easy to obtain and execute an absentee ballot.
Back when Anglicat was doing charitable work in Mexico, she was asked, at times, to produce her voter I.D. card. I was stuck explaining in detail that the United States does not issue voter I.D. cards. Officials there were incredulous that a country as sophisticated as the United States would allow its elections to go unprotected from unscrupulous phony voters.
Voting is a sacred privilege for citizens of the United States. It is not too much to require citizens to prove that they are who they say they are, by producing a simple I.D. card, just like they have to do for countless other activities, both mundane and important. With Voter I.D. legislation passed, we could rest assured that election results were not padded with votes cast by deceased, incompetent, or fictitious "voters."
[In case the link, above, does not work for you, here is the citation for you to cut and paste: http://www.wewantvoterid.com/2012/02/james-okeefes-project-veritas-examines-minnesotas-voter-registration-and-absentee-ballot-systems/ .]
BUT--want to register and vote? No I.D. is necessary in Minnesota! This video clip--totally undoctored--shows how it is possible even to register multiple third parties to vote, all without any I.D. or even signing before a notary! These officials were ready to allow a registration for Tom Brady to vote: voting scam . Even worse, it is just as easy to obtain and execute an absentee ballot.
Back when Anglicat was doing charitable work in Mexico, she was asked, at times, to produce her voter I.D. card. I was stuck explaining in detail that the United States does not issue voter I.D. cards. Officials there were incredulous that a country as sophisticated as the United States would allow its elections to go unprotected from unscrupulous phony voters.
Voting is a sacred privilege for citizens of the United States. It is not too much to require citizens to prove that they are who they say they are, by producing a simple I.D. card, just like they have to do for countless other activities, both mundane and important. With Voter I.D. legislation passed, we could rest assured that election results were not padded with votes cast by deceased, incompetent, or fictitious "voters."
[In case the link, above, does not work for you, here is the citation for you to cut and paste: http://www.wewantvoterid.com/2012/02/james-okeefes-project-veritas-examines-minnesotas-voter-registration-and-absentee-ballot-systems/ .]
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
On Defending the Constitution
During swearing-in ceremonies, new members of the U.S. military make the poignant pledge to defend the Constitution of the United States. Nowadays, that pledge might call them to some surprising places, such as the inner chambers of the United States Supreme Court.
No less than a Supreme Court Justice herself was quoted disparaging the document that has brought a higher level of personal liberty to citizens than any nation in history. “I would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012,” said Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
What, exactly does she find unsatisfactory in the U.S. Constitution? Academics such as David Law and Sanford Levinson cite its minimalist list of basic rights, lacking guarantees for food, health care, and education, but quaintly guaranteeing the right to bear arms. Ginsburg doesn't herself say directly in this interview, only inferring that our Constitution is deficient in its establishment of "basic human rights." South Africa, she opines, does a better job. Would that she would move there, and open a seat on the bench for someone who truly understands the U.S. Constitution and the nature of reality. It is an amazing thing to be guaranteed the pursuit of happiness. Only nations headed for bankruptcy attempt to guarantee its attainment.
No less than a Supreme Court Justice herself was quoted disparaging the document that has brought a higher level of personal liberty to citizens than any nation in history. “I would not look to the United States Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012,” said Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
What, exactly does she find unsatisfactory in the U.S. Constitution? Academics such as David Law and Sanford Levinson cite its minimalist list of basic rights, lacking guarantees for food, health care, and education, but quaintly guaranteeing the right to bear arms. Ginsburg doesn't herself say directly in this interview, only inferring that our Constitution is deficient in its establishment of "basic human rights." South Africa, she opines, does a better job. Would that she would move there, and open a seat on the bench for someone who truly understands the U.S. Constitution and the nature of reality. It is an amazing thing to be guaranteed the pursuit of happiness. Only nations headed for bankruptcy attempt to guarantee its attainment.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Forcing Against Conscience
A couple of years ago, Target learned that it could not require its Islamic grocery workers to handle fully-sealed packages of bacon. That seemed incomprehensible back then: if you don't want to handle pork, why apply for a job where it is sold?
Fast forward to 2012: President Obama signed a Health and Human Services ruling that, if not nullified, will require all Roman Catholic institutions to provide and pay for insurance coverage that includes contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization procedures. This ruling requires every Roman Catholic institution to violate its most basic theology. So much for freedom of religion.
How can we reconcile the absurdly inconsistent notion that we need to protect an Islamic grocery clerk's religious scruples, but not those of devout Roman Catholics?
To their credit, Roman Catholic bishops have come out swinging against this extreme incursion of government into what should be the sacred territory of personal conscience and religious freedom: across America, priests from the pulpit urged their parishioners to write their Congressional representatives about this horrendous decision made by a power-hungry president. Everyone who values our Constitutional rights should support this protest.
If this ruling is not reversed, the Roman Catholic Church will be forced to bow to government ideology, pay exhorbitant fines in the millions of dollars, or shutter the doors to all the tens of thousands of medical, educational, and charitable institutions it runs for the overall benefit to humanity.
Which basic right will we lose next?
Fast forward to 2012: President Obama signed a Health and Human Services ruling that, if not nullified, will require all Roman Catholic institutions to provide and pay for insurance coverage that includes contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization procedures. This ruling requires every Roman Catholic institution to violate its most basic theology. So much for freedom of religion.
How can we reconcile the absurdly inconsistent notion that we need to protect an Islamic grocery clerk's religious scruples, but not those of devout Roman Catholics?
To their credit, Roman Catholic bishops have come out swinging against this extreme incursion of government into what should be the sacred territory of personal conscience and religious freedom: across America, priests from the pulpit urged their parishioners to write their Congressional representatives about this horrendous decision made by a power-hungry president. Everyone who values our Constitutional rights should support this protest.
If this ruling is not reversed, the Roman Catholic Church will be forced to bow to government ideology, pay exhorbitant fines in the millions of dollars, or shutter the doors to all the tens of thousands of medical, educational, and charitable institutions it runs for the overall benefit to humanity.
Which basic right will we lose next?
Monday, January 23, 2012
JFK: 50 Years Later
This past week-end saw the 51st anniversary of the inauguration of John Fitzgerald Kennedy as President of the United States. Among the many reflections on his truncated life was an unusual one by columnist Jason Lewis that focused on his physical disabilities. According to Lewis, who relied on liberal biographer Richard Reeves for much of his research:
JFK was secretly hospitalized in dozens of instances, was given last rites three times, and was essentially kept alive "by complicated daily combinations of pills and injections." There were massive amounts of cortisome injections to fight off Addison's disease, a life-threatening ailment at the time, more steroids for a pre-war back condition that resulted in spinal fusions and botched surgeries (he was wearing a back brace the day he died); a chronic stomach condition, most likely ulcerative colitis, that kept Kennedy in agony and battling debilitating bouts of diarhhea, painkillers, hormones, stimulants, sleeping pills, and a cholesterol count somewhere around 400."
JFK endured all this, while his spin doctors worked with an obliging national press, to project the image of a vigorous, outdoors-loving, young knight in shining armor.
His daughter's denial notwithstanding, JFK's legacy as conservative or liberal is unclear. He enjoyed the company of Barry Goldwater, pushed supply-side tax cuts, hand-delivered a re-election check for $1,000 from his father to Richard Nixon, whom he considered brilliant, rejected quotas, demurred on civil rights issues, and was opposed to withdrawing US troops from Southeast Asia. That his little brother Teddy pushed the liberal agenda perhaps makes us tend to view JFK's ideology as leaning more in that direction than is warranted. Pragmatism was always a big consideration.
Personal escapades aside, a formidable strength of character may be JFK's most amazing legacy. To face his duties, day after day, despite great physical suffering, may make him more of a hero than even the portrait of a brave survivor of PT-109's sinking. Pity for the morale of all handicapped persons that JFK could not share the extent of his own physical limitations.
JFK was secretly hospitalized in dozens of instances, was given last rites three times, and was essentially kept alive "by complicated daily combinations of pills and injections." There were massive amounts of cortisome injections to fight off Addison's disease, a life-threatening ailment at the time, more steroids for a pre-war back condition that resulted in spinal fusions and botched surgeries (he was wearing a back brace the day he died); a chronic stomach condition, most likely ulcerative colitis, that kept Kennedy in agony and battling debilitating bouts of diarhhea, painkillers, hormones, stimulants, sleeping pills, and a cholesterol count somewhere around 400."
JFK endured all this, while his spin doctors worked with an obliging national press, to project the image of a vigorous, outdoors-loving, young knight in shining armor.
His daughter's denial notwithstanding, JFK's legacy as conservative or liberal is unclear. He enjoyed the company of Barry Goldwater, pushed supply-side tax cuts, hand-delivered a re-election check for $1,000 from his father to Richard Nixon, whom he considered brilliant, rejected quotas, demurred on civil rights issues, and was opposed to withdrawing US troops from Southeast Asia. That his little brother Teddy pushed the liberal agenda perhaps makes us tend to view JFK's ideology as leaning more in that direction than is warranted. Pragmatism was always a big consideration.
Personal escapades aside, a formidable strength of character may be JFK's most amazing legacy. To face his duties, day after day, despite great physical suffering, may make him more of a hero than even the portrait of a brave survivor of PT-109's sinking. Pity for the morale of all handicapped persons that JFK could not share the extent of his own physical limitations.
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