Category: Timely

Defining Women’s Health at Catholic Universities

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From the report, “A Scandalous Relationship:  Catholic Colleges and Planned Parenthood,” released last week by the Cardinal Newman Society, a conservative Catholic organization that works to expose “scandalous activity” at Catholic colleges and universities:

Despite the Catholic Church’s unambiguous teaching on abortion and contraception, we discovered referrals to Planned Parenthood for “health” services, internships and fellowships with Planned Parenthood, seemingly boastful disclosures of employees’ past work with Planned Parenthood, and other ties to this and other “pro-choice” organizations. The problems are spread across dozens of institutions, with occasional concentrations at highly secularized institutions like Georgetown University and Seattle University, two leading Jesuit institutions.

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Christian Movies and Representational Politics

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From Andrew O’Hehir’s review at Salon of “Soul Surfer”:

If evangelical Christians want to see their life and faith and values reflected on-screen, I guess that’s understandable. But movies are not mirrors, and the mass audiences that went to see “The King’s Speech” or “Black Swan” or “The Social Network” didn’t necessarily identify with the characters or their lifestyles. Although the prehistory of Christian cinema goes back several decades — the Campus Crusade for Christ film “Jesus” played mainstream theaters in 1979 — with the solitary exception of Gibson’s gruesome and visionary “Passion of the Christ” the genre hasn’t evolved past the most tedious stage of message-delivery and representational politics. (Insert joke here about Christians and evolution.)

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Jesus, Pop Idol: Capturing the Tween Market

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by Kristina Loew

There was a time when popular culture was a bastion of rebellion, a place where America’s youth could forge a new identity and give the middle finger to their parents. Not so these days, where purity rings have become fashionable, pop stars are giving regular shout-outs to Jesus and raunchiness is in remission. Could it be that the Christian right has finally infiltrated youth culture or is it just a new way to sell wholesomeness to a precarious demographic that is bringing in billions of dollars in business?

Using family values to sell family entertainment is nothing new. Everyone from Ozzie and Harriet to Britney Spears has employed them to market their products, their shows and themselves. Back in the late 1950’s Mouseketeer Annette Funicello was carefully marketed by Disney as the quintessential “girl-next-door,” someone who was chaste and defined the morals of the time. Even Elvis and Aretha Franklin rose up through the ranks of popular music singing gospel. Continue Reading →

Thirty Years, Bobby Sands

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At the end of The Troubles, in the Maze prison in Northern Ireland on March 1st, 1981, the second hunger strike of republican prisoners began with Bobby Sands’ refusal of food.  The protesters contested the removal of Special Category Status for prisoners convicted of IRA criminality; Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was determined to not capitulate to their demands.

Sands’ election to the House of Commons on April 9th helped raise awareness of the hunger strike.  He died on May 5th at the age of 27 after 66 days without food.  Nine more hunger strikers died after him.  Protests erupted the world over.

All these years later, with the Queen slated to visit Dublin next month, and impending Northern Ireland Assembly elections scheduled for May 5th, it is feared that there are “as many as 30 distinct groups opposed to the peace process operating across Norther Ireland” and preparing for violence during the month.

Read more here, here and here. Continue Reading →

Consumption of The Borgias: A Viewer's Guide

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by Meghan Maguire Dahn and Abby Ohlheiser

“You are so beautiful, Giulia Farnese, I would have you painted,” declares Jeremy Irons’s Pope Alexander VI in Showtime’s new series The Borgias.  It’s not surprising.  The lighting in The Borgias is sumptuous and if there’s one thing they light particularly well, it’s the desirable flesh.  It’s all positively luminous, like pigment suspended in oil.

And, really, what else would you expect?  The viewer-attracting meat of this show is its meticulously constructed tension between our understanding of Catholic virtue and our expectations for scintillating cable entertainment. Showtime is marketing The Borgias as some sort of historical Sopranos – a crime family with pretty costumes, big meals, and the juxtaposition of religion and naughty bits.  But The Borgias is a bit more complicated than that: the series is about getting and keeping absolute power, in the name of God.

Let’s be clear about God’s role here. The Borgia family – and their enemies and friends – talk about God like a Brit might talk about the Queen. God is real, but mostly ceremonial. The important action happens in the City of Man. This is not Augustine’s Catholic Church. Instead of withdrawing from worldly delights, the cardinals turn up their nose at gruel and scoff at the suggestion of fasting, carnal sacrifice be damned. Continue Reading →

Consumption of The Borgias: A Viewer’s Guide

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by Meghan Maguire Dahn and Abby Ohlheiser

“You are so beautiful, Giulia Farnese, I would have you painted,” declares Jeremy Irons’s Pope Alexander VI in Showtime’s new series The Borgias.  It’s not surprising.  The lighting in The Borgias is sumptuous and if there’s one thing they light particularly well, it’s the desirable flesh.  It’s all positively luminous, like pigment suspended in oil.

And, really, what else would you expect?  The viewer-attracting meat of this show is its meticulously constructed tension between our understanding of Catholic virtue and our expectations for scintillating cable entertainment. Showtime is marketing The Borgias as some sort of historical Sopranos – a crime family with pretty costumes, big meals, and the juxtaposition of religion and naughty bits.  But The Borgias is a bit more complicated than that: the series is about getting and keeping absolute power, in the name of God.

Let’s be clear about God’s role here. The Borgia family – and their enemies and friends – talk about God like a Brit might talk about the Queen. God is real, but mostly ceremonial. The important action happens in the City of Man. This is not Augustine’s Catholic Church. Instead of withdrawing from worldly delights, the cardinals turn up their nose at gruel and scoff at the suggestion of fasting, carnal sacrifice be damned. Continue Reading →

Consumption of The Borgias: A Viewer’s Guide

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by Meghan Maguire Dahn and Abby Ohlheiser

“You are so beautiful, Giulia Farnese, I would have you painted,” declares Jeremy Irons’s Pope Alexander VI in Showtime’s new series The Borgias.  It’s not surprising.  The lighting in The Borgias is sumptuous and if there’s one thing they light particularly well, it’s the desirable flesh.  It’s all positively luminous, like pigment suspended in oil.

And, really, what else would you expect?  The viewer-attracting meat of this show is its meticulously constructed tension between our understanding of Catholic virtue and our expectations for scintillating cable entertainment. Showtime is marketing The Borgias as some sort of historical Sopranos – a crime family with pretty costumes, big meals, and the juxtaposition of religion and naughty bits.  But The Borgias is a bit more complicated than that: the series is about getting and keeping absolute power, in the name of God.

Let’s be clear about God’s role here. The Borgia family – and their enemies and friends – talk about God like a Brit might talk about the Queen. God is real, but mostly ceremonial. The important action happens in the City of Man. This is not Augustine’s Catholic Church. Instead of withdrawing from worldly delights, the cardinals turn up their nose at gruel and scoff at the suggestion of fasting, carnal sacrifice be damned. Continue Reading →

Religion Doesn't Always Work for Mammon

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Ruben Sanchez: Religion Clause recently informed us of a court ruling that states that the United Postal Service (USPS) does not need to accommodate a Seventh Day Adventist employee’s request to have every Saturday off. The 8th Circuit held that if Saturday leave were granted, such a demand, made under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, would impose an undue hardship on the company, violate its collective bargaining agreement, or challenge its seniority system.” Continue Reading →