Catholic letter to Anglicans

The US Catholic group CALL TO ACTION has written an open letter to people in the Anglican tradition stating that they are "disappointed with the Vatican's announcement of a streamlined process for Anglican conversion to Roman Catholicism for individuals and dioceses who do not support women's and LGBT equality." The CTA director, Jim FitzGerald continues:

"We have watched and supported your struggles over the years to welcome all God's people equally to ministerial leadership. You should stand proud.

"The majority of Catholics in the United States also hope for a day when we might be able to say that we, too, have heeded the gospel call for justice within our own church leadership. Studies show that 83% of U.S. Catholics believe that it is morally wrong to discriminate against homosexuals (Contemporary Catholic Trends Survey) and 61% of U.S. Catholics believe that women should be priests (National Catholic Reporter Survey)....

"We pray for a time when our church officials will also come to know the blessings that come from living, not as a divided community, but as one people united with God."

To put it mildly, I share CTA's disappointment.

Tea-bagging in Tucson

I'm a bit late with this commentary, but anyway.....

On October 10, Tucson had its own tea party. 6,000 tea-baggers showed up. (Tucsonans will not be surprised to learn that Bushista car dealer Jim Click was there.).

The Arizona Daily Star reported spotting some of the usual tea-bagger signs, like President Obama as Pinocchio and as The Joker.

Some of the other tea creations were new to me:

Obama as one of the Three Stooges.

A T-shirt with “Tyranny Response Team”

Obama's face on a yellow bull with the words “21st century golden calf.”

A sign with “First Black President leads U.S. into slavery.”

And the crowd booed when someone mentioned that the president had won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Typical tea-bagging in a way, but apparently there weren't any of those signs portraying Obama as Hitler or as a witch doctor. And that's progress.

Obama's peace prize

When I saw on the BBC this morning that Barack Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize, I first watched his brief (and I thought very good) message. Then I looked at the many responses already showing up from around the world. The least surprising was Michelle Malkin's hissy fit. The one I like the most came from Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency:

"There is nobody today in my view who is more deserving of that peace prize than Barack Obama. In less than a year he brought a radical change in the way we look at ourselves, in the way we look at our world. He is restoring the basic core values that every one of us should live by - dialogue, respect, democracy, due process, human rights, a security system that does not depend on nuclear weapons. His dedication to these values rekindles hope that, finally, we could have a world at peace with itself."

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