RIP Richard John Neuhaus

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The great former Lutheran pastor and Catholic priest Richard John Neuhaus has passed away and gone to his reward. He was the founder of First Things, the great journal/magazine discussing religion and the public square.

               

Charting a New Course in the New Year

“Out with the old, in with the new!”

Rarely have those words been uttered with more enthusiasm than at the beginning of 2009.

2008 was an historic and unsettling year.  Our economy imploded, the President abandoned free market principles “in order to save the free market system,” and government assumed an unprecedented role in financing our economy.  Business magnates, from bankers to automakers, pleaded for a bailout—and got one from Uncle Sugar.  Gas prices took a roller coaster ride, soaring, then plunging in the second half of the year.  Political and celebrity scandals abounded, from John Edwards’ and Eliot Spitzer’s infidelities to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s pay to play scandal to Britney Spear’s meltdown and resurgence.  Things were so chaotic on the domestic front that some almost forgot that there was a war going on.  Not surprisingly, Americans voted for “change” and elected their first African-American as President.  The Democrats took control of both houses of Congress and Republicans were kicked to the curb.

But rather than dwell on the best and worst of 2008, it may be a better use of our time to look ahead to what’s in store for our country in the new year.

The dawning of a new year is always an exciting time.  We celebrate it by popping corks on champagne bottles, lighting sparklers, and watching the big ball drop in Times Square.  We get together with friends and loved ones and count down the hours, minutes, and seconds until the new year.  The celebration is important, for the advent of a new year is a symbol of what is to come, of new beginnings, resolutions, renewal, and the hopes of all to be better and to live better in the year to come.

This new year provides us with a new opportunity to improve on the sorry state of politics and the economy in our country.  Our culture’s character was on display during 2008.  We paid a high price for the lack of it and we have a chance for reform in 2009.

The new year provides us with the opportunity to reinstitute the notions of virtue and moderation as important guideposts in the conduct of our business and financial affairs.  For far too long, the marketplace has been viewed as a virtue-free zone—a place were “self-interest” operated free of moral restraints.  This attitude has turned something good (a free market economy) into a system where the interests of others were irrelevant to our economic decision making.  As a result, radical self interest and unrestrained greed characterized many of our transactions.  The housing debacle provides a good example.  Home buyers bought more house than they could afford, unhesitatingly misrepresenting their financial capacity to repay their loans.  Lenders encouraged irresponsible loans in exchange for handsome up front fees because they expected to pass the risk to downstream institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who, in turn, packaged the bad loans as securities and sold them to investors who were looking for unprecedented returns.  All the way along the line, the participants were looking out only for themselves.  They were unconcerned for the welfare of any other party to the transaction.  This lack of virtue and restraint was commonplace in the broader markets and resulted in a financial meltdown, the likes of which haven’t been seen since The Great Depression.

Aristotle showed great insight into the nature of man when he said, “The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.”  This moderation (or restraint) which is necessary for a flourishing free market economy has been virtually absent in the business practices which led to our current economic calamity.  All of us would do well to adopt it in the new year.

How often have we been tempted to buy something we couldn’t afford?  To keep up with the Joneses?  To regard entertainment as more important than responsible behavior?  The new year provides us with an opportunity to reclaim financial responsibility not only for our own interests, but also for the interests of others.  Perhaps we will once again realize that our financial decisions impact others, that personal responsibility is good for all people, ourselves included, and that thrift and savings do not merit scorn and derision.

What has been true in the economic arena has been no less true in the political arena.  Virtue and moderation have been anything but the hallmarks of American political behavior in the last year.  A spirit of hyper partisanship has fostered a continuation of the politics of personal destruction.  The smallest amount of blood in the water resulted in a veritable feeding frenzy as each party sought to capitalize on the political peccadilloes of their opponents.  The conduct of Ted Stevens, William Jefferson, and Rod Blagojevich were emblematic of public servants who had lost their way and put their own interests ahead of the interests of their constituents.  Hopefully, the excesses of the last year will point out the need for a recovery of virtue and moderation in the political arena in the coming new year.

Indeed, this new year presents all of us with the opportunity for the renewal of virtue and restraint in our political and economic affairs.  Two thousand years ago, the apostle Paul exhorted his co-worker Titus: “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.” (Titus 3:1-2 NIV)  Paul’s advice is as good now as it was then.  We will all do well to take his instruction to heart and to pursue these virtues in every dimension of our lives in this coming new year.

Ken Connor is an attorney and co-author of “Sinful Silence: When Christians Neglect Their Civic Duty”  He is also Chairman of the Center for a Just Society. For more articles and resources from Mr. Connor and the Center for a Just Society, go to www.centerforajustsociety.org.

               

Year End Review of American Christianity

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2008 is over.

The most important event on the religious landscape of America was the presidential election. The Democratic party reinvented itself as “religious” and the Republicans lassoed former Baptist minister and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Mormon governor Mitt Romney stepped up the plate, as well. John McCain suffered a slight setback for snuggling too close to John Hagee, a card-carrying anti-Catholic. McCain then chose Sarah Palin, an Pentecostalesque evangelical who was denounced as a “creationist” and “fundamentalist”. Who can forget the Saturday Night Live skits mocking Palin.

Then there were the Pastor Rick Warren interviews, which were very civilized and enlightening–perhaps the highlight of the entire campaign. Barack Obama shocked everyone by saying that decisions over abortion and the moment with life begins were “above his pay grade.”

We elected Barack Obama, a professed Christian whom a majority of practicing Christians voted against. Barack Obama’s greatest moment of unpopularity centered around his pastor Jeremiah Wright’s racist comments about Whites, Jews, and the infamous “God damn America” sermon. Obama promised America that he had not heard the Reverend Wright say anything prejudicial in his twenty years of attending Wright’s Trinity United Church in Chicago. Obama withdrew his membership at Trinity United and the rest is history. Obama won the election but Proposition 8 passed in California with the support of Catholics, Evangelicals and Mormons.

Pope Benedict XVI made his first visit to the United States and celebrated Holy Mass in Washington, D.C. and New York City where he visited Ground Zero. Most notably, the Holy Father met with victims of priestly sexual abuse and offered apologies.

As a former Anglican clergyman, I followed with great interest the crisis in the Anglican Communion and the related fallout in America’s branch-the Episcopal Church USA. After a meeting in Jerusalem, conservatives around the globe rallied together in their affirmation that homosexuality is a grave sin and contrary to the Sacred Scriptures. In the meantime the American Episcopal denomination continues to fracture and splinter. Perhaps 2009 will see the formation of a new denomination.

Did I miss anything? If so leave a comment.

               

Catholic monarch stripped of veto power over euthanasia

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This is very interesting. The Grand Duke of Luxembourg is about to lose his veto power because he has threatened a bill legalizing euthanasia.

“Grand Duke of Luxembourg Will Lose His Veto”

Luxembourg’s parliament looks ready to strip the Grand Duke of his last lawmaking power as a controversy over euthanasia comes to a head. One of Europe’s last royals with political sway may lose his formal veto by taking a stand against a law legalizing euthanasia.

The Grand Duke of Luxembourg, who has said he would interfere with a decision by parliament, will likely be stripped of his veto in a historic decision after a heated showdown over a bill to legalize euthanasia.

Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg protested the bill and threatened to kill it next week by refusing to sign it into law.

Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg will refuse to sign a euthanasia law for “reasons of conscience.”

Since parliament is expected to pass the bill, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said the Grande Duke has overstepped his role. Juncker personally opposes the euthanasia bill but says he will propose a change to the constitution to deny the Grand Duke his veto. His role by the end of 2008 could be reduced to rubber-stamping parliamentary decisions, instead of deciding whether to approve them.

“That means he will only technically enact laws,” Juncker said, according to Reuters.

The euthanasia bill passed a first vote by parliament in February. It looks set to pass a second and final vote next week, but the Catholic Grand Duke announced on Tuesday — in a closed-door meeting with leaders of Juncker’s ruling Christian Socialists — that he would refuse to enact the law.

His position tipped the tiny nation into the worst constitutional crisis in its history. The Luxembourg royal house has tried to block a decision by parliament only once before, when the Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide refused to sign an education bill in 1912.

“I understand the Grand Duke’s problems of conscience,” said Juncker, “but I believe that if the parliament votes in a law, it must be brought into force.”

The euthanasia bill has been controversial since 2001. It would let patients with “grave and incurable” conditions die at the hands of a doctor if they ask repeatedly to be euthanized and earn the consent of two doctors and a panel of experts. Medical and physician groups have opposed the bill, though, and so have many citizens of this traditionally Catholic nation.

It follows similar laws in the Netherlands and Belgium, where King Baudouin — Henri’s uncle — abdicated for a day in 1990 to avoid signing a Belgian abortion law. The current Belgian king, Albert II, has signed Belgium’s recent euthanasia and homosexual-marriage laws over his private Catholic beliefs.

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a constitutional monarchy, and the Grand Duke is its head of state. He has indicated that he won’t stand in the way of any change to the constitution.”

The full article can be found at: Spiegel Online.

               

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