The Anchoress

“There is no man so good that if he placed all his actions and thoughts under the scrutiny of the laws, he would not deserve hanging ten times in his life” - Michel de Montaigne

Me - speaking only for myself and what I know of me - sometimes I think more than ten.

I woke up with that quote by Montaigne in my head - I have no idea why - but it seems like a good lead-in to a round up of what’s new and noteworthy out there.

Deacon Greg looks at Peggy Noonan’s latest column wherein she wonders if St. Ronald Reagan would be a “good enough Christian” for those in the GOP who have seem to think that the office of the president needs to be filled by a preacher.

Christian conservatives have been rising, most recently, for 30 years in national politics, since they helped elect Jimmy Carter. They care about the religious faith of their leaders, and their interest is legitimate. Faith is a shaping force. Lincoln got grilled on it. But there is a sense in Iowa now that faith has been heightened as a determining factor in how to vote, that such things as executive ability, professional history, temperament, character, political philosophy and professed stands are secondary, tertiary.

But they are not, and cannot be. They are central. Things seem to be getting out of kilter, with the emphasis shifting too far.
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I wonder if our old friend Ronald Reagan could rise in this party, this environment. Not a regular churchgoer, said he experienced God riding his horse at the ranch, divorced, relaxed about the faiths of his friends and aides, or about its absence. He was a believing Christian, but he spent his adulthood in relativist Hollywood, and had a father who belonged to what some saw, and even see, as the Catholic cult. I’m just not sure he’d be pure enough to make it in this party. I’m not sure he’d be considered good enough.

I’ve been saying for quite a long time that some - not all - on the Christian conservative side have been overplaying their hands by demanding “purities” of their candidates. The presidency is a pulpit of sorts, but one from which he speaks for and to the entire nation - not just the Christian part of it - and the whole world, not just the democracies. His message is supposed to be about liberty, justice, honor and truth. While I understand where some will say that a “man of faith” is the best person to deliver and embody that message, I can’t help but remind folks that Jimmy Carter is a man of faith, and he was not particularly adept at those messages. For that matter, George W. Bush is a “man of faith” (and arguably the most pro-life president ever) and he has been solid in delivering those messages, yet he still has not been “good enough” for many conservative Christians.

There are no perfect Christians, and no perfect people. I don’t much care whether my president is a “good Christian” or a very faulty one - or even a non-Christian…I frankly anticipate any person in that office to be a faulty person, since none are perfect save Christ and all fall short. I just want him to be someone who I can believe; if he says he’s going to do something - or not do something - I want to know he means it. Everything else comes after that.

Jacques Chirac: “[The Kyoto Protocol] the first component of an authentic global governance.”. I can’t even look at Al Gore anymore - if he doesn’t look smug, he looks ready to blow his top. Either way he looks nuts. Egad, and once upon a time I was glad Clinton had brought him onto the ticket!

Read WSJ’s editorial - The Delta House Congress - the most accurate analogy I’ve yet seen on this miserable failure of a congress.

In the movie “Animal House,” the fraternity brother known as Otter reacts to the Delta House’s closure with the classic line, “I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.” To which Bluto, played by John Belushi, replies, “We’re just the guys to do it.” The movie ends by noting that Bluto becomes a Senator, so perhaps this explains the meltdown among Democrats on Capitol Hill.

As they careen toward the end of their first year in charge, Congressional leaders seem capable of nothing but futile gestures. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid failed once again to get enough votes for an energy bill, having refused to remove a $21.8 billion tax increase on energy that President Bush has promised to veto in any case. Mr. Reid was vowing to try again as we went to press.

Julie at Happy Catholic
They Come Back Singing: Finding God With the Refugees by the Jesuit Gary Smith. She’s saying it’s a total winner.

As he is immersed in ministering to this pilgrim people who have suffered what seem unsurvivable hardships and sorrows, he also is lifted up by their complete trust in God’s loving kindness. In a country where the people are displaced, every family has lost a minimum of two children, where the lack of three dollars can mean the difference between medicine and death, one does not expect to find perpetual joy in God’s presence and plan for them. Yet it is always there. This also is a continual witness to Smith’s own experience of God’s loving kindness which he sees expressed through the people and through his own sufferings in this place of privation.

The book comes out in February and it really sounds like perfect Lenten reading.

Speaking of books, Fr. James Martin, another Jesuit, and editor of America Magazine, (and author of last year’s “instant Catholic Classic” My Life With the Saints”) has another winnner out - I was lucky enough to get a galley proof and it’s really very good - A Jesuit Off-Broadway - which is about his experiences working as adviser to a theater troupe who were putting on a new play about Jesus and Judas. Very insightful. Loyola has prepared a kind of “trailer” for the book, which you can watch here.

Bill Clinton may - may - end his relationship with Yucaipa Funds because it might - might - constitute a conflict of interest, what with his wife’s presidential ambitions - or it at least suggests that perhaps - perhaps - the Clintons are simply awfully beholden to an awful lot of people who will demand access to and acquiescence from the Clintons once they’re back in the White House.

Isn’t anyone in any position of power worried about voter fraud? Seems to me they should be.

Brits at their Best wonder why Brown has signed on to scuttle the Magna Carta. A good read.

Jay is wondering if Fred Thompson is the GOP’s Comeback Kid? Seems a little early, for me.

Are you wondering why Catholics use purple and rose during Advent and Lent? A good explanation here.

Maggie’s farm reminds us that The Metropolitan Opera in HD is on the rise

The President is correct - steroids are ruining a perfect game.

Sr. Mary Daniel, O.P. Celebrates her diamond jubilee 60 years at prayer.