Association Of Catholic Bloggers

I could ignore the current presidential fracas: claiming that I'm too 'spiritual' for worldly matters, or can't abide the pervasive political posturing and pandering. But that's not an option. Neither, for me, is getting "political" in the sense of declaring that, if elected, candidate A will doom us all; while candidate B is America's only hope. Those attitudes aren't new, and that's another topic. 1 This week I'll be talking about why I don't fit into current political pigeonholes: or, rather, why I fit into several. Acting As If What I Believe Matters Political Pigeonholes and the Big Picture Sex, Death, and Immigrants Hawk? Dove? Long-Term Goals Fear and Politics Love, Hope, and Making Sense More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Catholic teachings do not conform to American political labels. Not when I consider the big picture. I look at beliefs, fears, and long-term goals.)

It seems that, no matter how bad things are: they could be worse. Take Alabama's recent execution of a Mr. Smith, for example. There's been discussion of whether or not using nitrogen gas was okay, along with the ongoing capital punishment debate. But at least the State of Alabama didn't defray expenses by livecasting the execution: despite pay-per-view being a well-established part of our society. I'll be talking about capital punishment this week: along with Hammurabi's laws, the breaking wheel, and a trend that might be good news. Death Sentences: An Ancient Practice The Breaking Wheel But We've Always Done It This Way Statistics, a Little History, and Science Nitrogen Asphyxiation: Bad News, Good News Excessive Bail, Excessive Fines, Cruel and Unusual Punishment Graphs and Charts, Numbers and — Maybe — a Trend Growth Curves: Executions Go Down as Population Goes Up Acting As If Human Life Matters Responsibility and Dignity: For Everyon

I'd started writing about soliloquies in Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus...." That reminded me of film noir and the Gunpowder Plot. So today I'll be discussing Christopher Marlowe, but mostly his era: Elizabethan England. Along with European politics and whatever else comes to mind.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Daniel Lewis Lee died this morning. That's unremarkable, by itself. Roughly 150,000 people die every day. Cause of death varies. Diseases kill some of us. Others die in accidents. Civil authorities kill those who deserve death. In their government's opinion.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Mass murder at a Florida high school is in the news again. Someone has been accused of killing 17 students and staff on February 14, 2018. He's being tried and may be executed. I'll be talking about him, one of the dead students and why I think human life matters. All human life.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I'll be quoting Pope Francis quite a bit today, starting with this bit from the news: " ...Speaking on Sunday (Sept. 13) to the Argentine radio station, FM Milenium, Francis lamented those who posed as his friends to exploit him, and decried religious fundamentalism. " And speaking to Portugal's Radio Renascenca in an interview that aired on Monday, Francis put his own popularity into perspective: 'Jesus also, for a certain time, was very popular, and look at how that turned out.'... " (" Pope Francis: 'Jesus was popular and look how that turned out' ," David Gibson, Religion News Service (September 14, 2015)) David Gibson apparently paid attention to what Pope Francis said. Some other headlines, from derivative stories are — imaginative. Others perhaps show a better understanding of the Pope than displayed by the occasional outraged Catholic.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I ran into a familiar sentiment on Twitter: " Sometimes I wish I was religious so I could have an excuse for hating people. " Instead of seething with anger, I did a quick Google search. The phrase, with exactly those words, showed up about 60 times. The earliest example I found was posted by a bot on reddit.com , December 28, 2011. Without the quotes, I got roughly 35,200,000 matches. That's a lot of folks talking about religion and hate. Some agreed with the "excuse for hating people" quote, some didn't, and some were talking about something completely different. The "excuse for hating" quote hadn't been directed at me, and came from an account that Tweets a lot of platitudes and quotations. Instead of firing back a response, I started writing this post. That was on Monday of this week.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

At 2:49:43 and 2:49:57 pm EDT/18:49 UTC, April 15, 2013, two pressure cooker bombs exploded on Boylston Street near Copley Square in Boston. They were about 210 yards, 190 meters, apart; near the finish line of the Boston Marathon . Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev's bombs killed Krystle Marie Campbell, Lu Lingzi (吕令子), Martin William Richard, and Sean A. Collier. Dzhokhar said that he and his brother wanted to defend Islam from America. I think their experiences as Chechens and Avars may have been a factor, too. Don't expect a rant against Muslims, 'foreigners,' Americans, or anyone else.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .