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wilson teachers college in washington d c one of the precursors to today s university of the district of columbia colorado state college for education in greeley and stanford university he visited the major cities of the united states and spent time in europe on his journey home on his return to egypt qutb published the america that i have seen he was critical of american abject materialism individual freedoms economic system racism brutal boxing matches poor haircuts superficiality in conversations and friendships restrictions on divorce enthusiasm for sports lack of artistic feeling animal like mixing of the sexes which went on even in churches and strong support for the new israeli state this american experience was for him a fine tuning of his islamic identity he himself tells us on his boat trip over should i travel to america and become flimsy and ordinary like those who are satisfied with idle talk and sleep or should i distinguish myself with values and spirit is there other than islam that i should be steadfast to in its character and hold on to its instructions in this life amidst deviant chaos and the endless means of satisfying animalistic desires pleasures and awful sins i wanted to be the latter man qutb noted with disapproval the sexuality of american women the american girl is well acquainted with her body s seductive capacity she knows it lies in the face and in expressive eyes and thirsty lips she knows seductiveness lies in the round breasts the full buttocks and in the shapely thighs sleek legs and she shows all this and does not hide it his experience in the u s is believed to have formed in part the impetus for his rejection of western values and his move towards islamism upon returning to egypt resigning from the civil service he joined the muslim brotherhood in the early 1950s and became editor it is qutb s puritanical thinking that is housed within moslem law or the sharia which would see the world as a muslim theocracy as a legal system the sharia law covers a very wide range of topics while other legal codes deal primarily with public behavior sharia law covers public behavior private behavior and private beliefs of all legal systems in the world today islam s sharia law is the most intrusive and strict especially against women whether radical jihadists do this by the barrel of a cut the blade of a knife or a baby s cradle this is the threat that looms largely over the world horizon as a member of the muslim faith in indonesia during his adolescent surely obama knows all these facts is this what explains his struggle to communicate his thinking to us or is it something even deeper and perhaps more sinister posted in uncategorized tags islamism saddem hussein sayyid qutb shia sunni wahhabism the cross and the flag december 9 2015 1 comment in the november wake of 9 11 i bought a small lapel pin at the st patrick cathedral gift shop in new york city it depicted a small cross and an american flag leaning on each other at a 45 degree angle the pin beautifully linked these two revered symbols in a vital union that captured the country s intense emotional feelings that had loudly resonated for those two past months later that week i accidentally happened on the tail end of a requiem mass for one of the 332 fallen firemen of that terrible day in september with his rich baritone voice officer daniel rodriguez the singing policeman was ending the mass with his powerful rendition of julia ward howe s the battle hymn of the republic his operatic marriage of cross and flag reinforced the underlying meaning of my pin months later i wore my pin to our parish s men s bible study one of our new members shook his head when he saw my pin he said it made him feel uncomfortable to see a cross and a flag joined in such a public way i was more stunned by his reaction had it been a crescent and a flag i might have agreed with him his objection did get me to question the moral relationship between faith and patriotism all catholics should ask themselves whether they are american catholics or catholic americans the difference is much greater than mere semantics the words are not hyphenated like irish american or african american where there is a pretense of equality not preference in american catholic the primary word is the noun catholic with its attendant modifier american the noun designates one s essence while the modifier merely describes accidentals such as a smart or devout catholic catholic american identifies american as the primary meaning not catholic an american catholic is one who generally will choose the cross of faith above his love of country while the catholic american will usually hold the flag of man high over his church when there is a deep moral conflict the real problem for catholics revolves around many of the country s democratic principles and institutions under the extra constitutional rubric of separation of church and state catholics have been browbeaten into believing that they must stow their religion and more importantly its moral teachings in their closets at home for diehard secularists religion is an article of clothing that should only be worn in the privacy of one s home in the public square catholics have also been conditioned to believe in free and absolute choice and equality for all without consequence when applied to traditional morality this absolute freedom to do whatever one wants especially with regards to sexual morality easily trumps church teachings on chastity modesty and the threat of moral confusion or what the church used to call scandal i wonder just how many catholic americans parents think nothing of encouraging their daughters to use birth control cohabit with their boyfriends and if the situation dictates abort their own grandchildren another good example is the celebrated case of terry schiavo the brain damaged though not terminally ill woman in florida many years ago catholics who sided with the civil rights of her husband in his insistence of her duty to die apparently left the church s teachings on suffering and the sanctity of life on the bathroom floor the list is too long to address all the catholic american politicians who consistently oppose church teachings on a host of moral issues especially abortion the same may even be said of liberal priests nuns and teachers whose public positions often create a feeling of moral confusion among their flocks given the attitudes of so many catholic americans in the public eye is it surprising that countless catholics ignore and even actively oppose church teachings on homosexual marriage the ordination of women and embryonic stem cell research in a society that has lost touch with its religious underpinnings is it surprising that american catholics have been pushed to the sidelines for their social intolerance isn t it high time american catholics pushed packed back posted in uncategorized streets of greed december 9 2015 1 comment the constant turmoil on wall street is an apt subject for personal meditation it should give most americans pause to think seriously about their financial and material situations this kind of meditation is sure to include a consideration of the many economic political accusations and controversies that cloud our futures when investments go bad and the economy periodically falters taking with millions of lucrative jobs the automatic reaction is to lay blame on someone in power s doorstep since the 1940 s the easy targets for the public s venom have been the fat cats on wall street the 1987 movie wall street added a provocative phrase to the american lexicon that provided an extra layer of support for these accusations during persistent days of economic and financial uncertainty one of the supporting characters gordon gekko played admirably by michael douglas said in all positive sincerity that greed is good on its surface it seems like a selfish thing to say but like most things in the bible its truth resides in the interpretation as one financial observer asked rhetorically is not greed just another word for self interest his comment was not far removed from adam smith s classic the wealth of nations that taught about the importance of the divine hand which he defined as people s self interests coalescing to support an economic structure those blessed with clarity of vision can easily recognize god s providence in this when thinking about wealth from a catholic perspective the first thing that comes to mind is the biblical allusion to the eye of the needle this story was treated in all the synoptic gospels especially matthew 19 23 24 where jesus said it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven again i tell you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god there are a myriad of interpretations for this citation but i think they all share a common thread in that wealth brings with it a proportionate number of responsibilities that require greater attention and concern for our fellow man than we might expect to find from people who live in closely guarded gated communities for catholics wealth is always a mixed blessing by its nature wealth is purely neutral it can be used for good or evil the dangers of wealth revolve around its corresponding power it can be used to build a hospital or an abortion clinic it can be used to clothe the naked and feed the hungry or it can be used to buy a closet full of shoes or furs or stuff oneself with caviar and champagne that s what free will is all about the 2 nd century teacher clement of alexandria wrote a treatise called who is the rich man that shall be saved in order to explain that neither poverty nor wealth are sinful nor righteous of themselves what matters is how people respond to their relative riches or penury rich christians should know the companion verse in luke 12 48 and unto whomsoever much is given of him much shall be required and to whom they have committed much of him they will demand the more according to authors mike aquilina and james l papandrea book s seven revolutions clement s treatise as well as other church documents favored a symbiotic relationship between wealth and penury god gave riches to some with the hope that they would give to those in need the poor have a corresponding responsibility to pray for the souls of the wealthy jesus discouraged his disciples in thinking that wealth was earth bound instead he wanted them to understand that true spiritual wealth transcends riches and treasures and it can easily be shared with others on earth the fact that gordon gekko has become a stock character in the debate on economic inequality and equality points to the underlying prejudice against wealth that has been with us for several generations i sometimes wonder where the catholic church would be without the generosity of its wealthier members i think all catholics should examine their consciences and their attitude toward those who have much more than they do catholics should also remember that while excessive greed can be harmful to one s soul it is a two way street that can easily lead even poor people into sin those who covet the material possessions of others even to the extent of stealing them are also guilty of greed a more complicated sister version of greed is what psychologists call schadenfreude it means literally taking pleasure from the misfortunes of others especially the wealthy the 2009 crash and its historically long recovery with its attendant bankruptcies social and economic displacements have provided more than enough temptation for this sin the christian response to the vexing problems of wealth is that we all should pray for the scions of wealth that they use their financial blessings to foster the kingdom of god help the poor and advance the teachings of christ to do anything else especially to play the blame game is to engage in a practice that is nearly as culpable as those of the greediest billionaire posted in uncategorized time flight december 9 2015 leave a comment i love watches i must have over 30 watches ever since my grandfather taught me to tell time when i was seven years old i have loved keeping time my mother taught me to be punctual for appointments and dates i was always early and spent a good deal of wasted time waiting on street corners for my habitually late friends it is a characteristic that still shapes my life i think time awareness dominates american life everything is measured in hours minutes and maybe even seconds lawyers keep precise track of their billable hours because time really is money to them plumbers and electricians all charge by the hour in sports we keep records of who had the fastest time most professional sports except baseball tennis and golf revolve around a clock and its timekeepers i think that s why baseball is no longer the true national pastime because it doesn t move fact enough we all love fast foods instant breakfasts and glance at papers which measure world events in terms of sentences paragraphs and not columns working mothers talk of spending quality time with their children marriages have broken down because the couple never had enough time for each other some other commitment or interest had a greater hold on them than their marriage vows we have i pods blackberries and all time saving devices that paradoxically take too much time to learn to operate we have become virtual prisoners of our own devices as i get older i find that i do not like to wait for anything whether in a movie line traffic or the grocery store instant gratification is not quick enough for me i wont even buy green bananas part of this arises from the fact that i am not getting any younger i am in the inevitable stage of what the late sports announcer jack buck used to call playing the back nine time has become a subject for my personal meditation i think of all the time i wasted as a child when the poet john milton lost his sight he wrote a memorable line in one of his poems that said when i consider how my light has been spent while he measured his life in its light i find that time has been the literal measure of my life one of the real facts of life is that time waits for no man or woman it is not how much of the world s wealth i may have amassed or how many honors i might have received but what good i might have done with the nearly 38 millions or so minutes i have used since my birth in 1943 i am sure god will have his accounting on just how i spent my time amidst his generous gifts being an only child i always seemed alone and bored i regret having wasted so much precious time as child i guess that s what george bernard shaw meant when he said youth was wasted on the young as an adult i painfully recognize how really short life on earth is to squander even a precious moment seems sinful when there is so much we could be doing reading praying giving of ourselves or just enjoying this beautiful ...
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