About America's bankrupt morality

This is a quote from "America's Bankrupt Morality" by Thomas Frank -- in The Baffler, Mar. 29, 2012 -- on Salon.com

"And as we serve money, we find that money wants the same thing from us: to push everyone it beguiles in the same direction. Money never seems to be interested in strengthening regulatory agencies, for example, but always in subverting them, in making them miss the danger signs in coal mines and in derivatives trading and in deep-sea oil wells. You can have a shot at being part of the 1 percent, money tells us, only if you are first committed to making the 1 percent stronger, to defending their piles in some new and imaginative way, to rationalizing and burnishing their glory, to exempting them from regulation or taxation, to bowing down as they pass, and to believing in your heart that their touch will heal scrofula."

I share his grief

Friends recently sent me copies of this piece. It is by John Chuchman, a pastoral bereavement educator. I would be an utter hypocrite if I pretended that I did not share his grief.
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I'm Grieving, You're Grieving, We're Grieving!

Fifty years ago at Vatican II
the world's Bishops gave Our Church Hope.

They reaffirmed Freedom/Primacy of Conscience.
Today’s hierarchy says it must conform to their pronouncements.
We grieve.
 
A church governed in loving Collegiality was promised;
We’ve been dealt a Feudal Monarchy.
We grieve.
 
The Sharing of Power with local Synods of Bishops Representing the People
was foretold.
Power, instead, has been consolidated in the chief hierarch.
We grieve.
 
Lay Leadership of and in the Church was mandated.
Rather, the laity have been re-delegated to less-than-clergy.
We grieve.
 
Ecumenism was seen as essential to the future of
Catholicism, Christianity, Religion.
Instead, the walls have been raised.
We grieve.
 
We all got excited about Renewed Liturgical Practice
honoring local Artists, Musicians, and Traditions.
In a show of power, the hierarchs imposed
new archaic liturgical language and rituals.
We grieve.
 
The Council launched Intellectual Debate with Respect for Theologians.
With the silencing of hundreds, Dialogue is Dead.
We grieve.
 
The Church of Vatican II was to Heed the Signs of the Times.
Rather than a Church of and in the twenty-first century,
we’re told to revert to the Fifteenth (15th).
We grieve.
 
The Bishops of the world correctly saw the Church as the People of God.
Instead the Pyramid has been preserved with the people of God the base.
We grieve.
 
A Deeper Spirituality was promised,
seen as the essential mission of Church.
The corporate hierarchy of today has no clue.
We grieve.
 
True Biblical Scholarship was encouraged.
Today, Fundamentalism pervades.
We grieve.
 
Respect for and Protection of Young people
was deemed essential to the Future of Church.
Instead, Young people are abused
with their abusers protected.
We grieve the alienation and loss of the Young.
 
Liberation Theology was valued.
Rather, It has been undermined, squelched, stifled, silenced.
Latin America grieves.
 
The promise of a Christ-like Church with Christ-like Leadership
excited us all.
Yet, It is nowhere to be found.
We grieve.
We grieve.
We grieve the loss of all that Church is meant to be.

 

Limbaugh

When Rush Limbaugh unleashed his "slut" and "prostitute" diatribe against Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke last week, I wrote this on Twitter:

"If anyone ever doubted that Limbaugh had a sick, sick, sick mind, yesterday & today removed even the tiniest room for doubt."

Well, he has apologized -- in a way. But then he continued his rant., even blaming "the leftists" for what came out of his filthy mouth. (Today he even had the gall to talk about "morals.")

More than 12 million people listen to Limbaugh spewing his poison over the air. For this, he rakes in more than $50 million a year.

But companies like AOL, Quicken Loans, Sleep Number, Citrix Systems, Carbonite and LegalZoom are pulling out of Rush country and taking their advertising dollars with them. This just might snowball. And what a lovely outcome that would be.