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Complicity

Posted October 29, 2021 By John C Wright


From Lifesite News: Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò releases to the public an October 23 letter sent to to Cardinal Luis F. Ladaria S.J., Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and to Archbishop José Gomez, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as to all the bishops of the United States of America. This letter is printed below, in whole, without comment.

Your Eminences, Your Excellencies,

I address you, Archbishop Gómez, as President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and to you, Cardinals Ladaria and Müller, for your competence, some serious considerations related to the so-called vaccines against Covid-19.

I believe there are some aspects of the question that now allow for a more complete evaluation of what these drugs are and what effects they cause; this evaluation ought to lead to a collegial stance, in conformity with the Magisterium of the Church and not influenced by biased information or by erroneous news spread by the producers of these drugs or by the media.

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Guest Column by Milo Yiannopoulos 

Posted July 15, 2021 By John C Wright
I wanted to share this column by my old boss with my readers, only to discover that it seems to have vanished from its original spot (which, for the record, is here: https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/milo-it-was-always-about-the-kids).
At the risk of a breach of Internet etiquette, I here reproduce the whole, unedited, to preserve a copy, just in case. If it reappears on Church Militant, read it there, along with the illos, and peruse their other offerings.

It Was Always About the Kids

by Milo Yiannopoulos  •  ChurchMilitant.com  •  July 8, 2021

“You think that we’ll corrupt your kids if our agenda goes unchecked. Just this once … you’re correct. We’ll convert your children, happens bit by bit, quietly and subtly. We’ll convert your children, reaching one and all. There’s really no escaping it. We’re coming for your children! We’re coming for your children! We’re coming for your children!”

Creepy or what? You’re probably wondering where I found this terrifying threat. An early episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? The trailer to Blumhouse Productions’ latest horror blockbuster, perhaps? A dream journal lifted from an insane asylum?

Nope. These are song lyrics from an organization more sinister and frightening than any scary movie you had in mind: the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (SFGMC), a crying circle for Bay Area pederasts.

It’s what happens when clerical sexual abuse meets soullessness, joylessness and tunelessness.

The song, which keeps disappearing from YouTube because even leftists are shocked by its accidental truthfulness, cannot be unseen.

Musically, it is terrible, and of course boring — because ideas this ugly cannot be expressed in beautiful words or melodies. The singers look haunted — because they are. The message is unvarnished, explicit, unequivocal: It was always about the kids.

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Medieval Roots of Classical Liberalism

Posted May 25, 2021 By John C Wright

A reader with the alphanumeric name of dgg3536 writes the following. I repost the whole as a guest column, with no further comment from me, save for a silent ovation of agreement:

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Arianism nearly swallowed the Church, then it disappeared. Heresies burn themselves out with time. Protestantism is certainly sputtering at this point, but at the same time, more and more Protestants are becoming Catholic, where they aren’t apostatizing. One often finds green shoots among the ashes.

But on the issues of Classical Liberalism and Marxism, I think the situation is a bit more of a tangle than it first appears. As someone mentioned, the nominalism of the Late Middle Ages certainly contributed to the genetic makeup of the Left, but if we’re looking for concrete precedents, then Machiavelli’s The Prince is a prime example.

There you have utility as virtue, the will to power, stability as government’s first end, and the all-powerful secular state. And it circulated in manuscript form before Luther nailed up his Ninety-Five Theses.

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Funeral of a Great Myth by CS Lewis

Posted April 23, 2021 By John C Wright

A reader with the twice saintly name of Andrew Philips writes:

Liberalism is a dead end. The humanist “enlightenment” was a bad idea. Humanist anything is a bad idea, for man is not the measure of all things. Man is not even the measure of himself. Maximizing freedom for its own sake has given us clown-world. What matters is the Good, and laws that promote the Good. Letting each man define the Good for himself is modernist nonsense. We should repent of it.

My comment: Amen. As a once-staunch defensor infidei, so to speak, of the Enlightenment values of humanism and all that laicist humbug, I would like to say a eulogy over its corpse, and consign the undead spirit into the soil.

But a wiser man than I, who, like me, in his youth was lured by the siren-song, and woke only later, has already done so. I repeat the eulogy in full, without comment. It was written in 1944, and published in 1967, posthumously.

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Today’s Recommended Reading

Posted March 25, 2021 By John C Wright

I recommend this 2016 essay by our generation’s G.K. Chesterton, our own beloved Tom Simon:

‘You’re No Good’

It begins with a discussion of a rhythm and blues song, moves onto the horror of plastic knives at picnics, and dives into the deeper waters of discussing the goodness of mosquitoes, the Human Extinction Movement, and other matters of import.

Here is one paragraph from the second half, to whet your curiosity to read more:

A rather saintly German pastor, who had suffered terrible things at the hands of the Nazis, was once brought before Hitler himself. When asked what the Führer looked like, he said, ‘Like any man; that is, like Christ.’ He was capable of seeing the image of God even in his most dangerous enemy. He would not have said to Hitler, ‘You’re no good’; he would have been more likely to say, ‘You have a great capacity for good; why don’t you use it?’ It probably would not have averted the war or the Holocaust, because Hitler was convinced that these things actually were good; but it would at any rate have left the door open for a miracle.

.

Years later, another visitor came away with a hauntingly human image of Hitler. Siegfried Knappe, a young Wehrmacht officer (he was twenty-eight when the war ended) who was briefly the youngest divisional commander in German history, was in Berlin during the final agony of 1945. His superiors sent him to Hitler’s bunker to deliver some bad news, fearing (with justification) that he would do drastic things to them if they delivered it personally.

By all means, read the whole thing.

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A Homily Worth Hearing

Posted March 9, 2021 By John C Wright

Of late, my Church has kept shameful silence on matters of eternal consequences. From time to time, however, one of the shepherds of the body of Christ speaks with authority, not like the Pharisees.

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Five Deaths of the Faith

Posted March 2, 2021 By John C Wright

We are pleased to present a guest column from the great G.K. Chesterton, whom a wart-nosed gypsy witch, known to be reliable about such things, told me once was my pre-incarnation from a former life.

Her words were confirmed by a flock of sardonic ravens, whose ominous motions and croaks were interpreted by a scholarly augur of sterling repute.

Myself, I can only report that I do not believe in the stuff and nonsense of reincarnation. Unlawful necromantic interviews with the ghosts of my past selves have lead to too many discussions of unneeded theological complexity.

Just the matter of indulgences and purgatory for sins committed in the current life while priors shades of the same soul suffer in the flames lead to bewilderment.

Worse still, being visited by the foreshadows of subsequent selves from years yet to come, asking me to help arrange the meeting and marriages of ancestors foretold to give rise to incarnations of myself yet unborn, is disquieting. Legal quarrels about wills, trusts and estates for lives not yet in being also become vexatious, when I try to leave my own property to myself.

Better to have each man live once, and after, face judgment.

So while I would like to resemble Mr. Chesterton in wit as I do in weight, for the nonce, I can only quote him.

The text is taken from THE EVERLASTING MAN, Part 2, Chapter VI, “The Five Deaths of the Faith.”

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A Psalm for Lent

Posted February 18, 2021 By John C Wright

Psalm 94: The Lord Will Not Forget His People

O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.

Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.

LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?

How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?

They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage.

They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.

Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.

Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?

He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?

He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?

The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law;

That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.

For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.

But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it.

Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?

Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.

When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.

In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.

Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?

They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.

But the LORD is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge.

And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off.

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A Comment Worth Repeating

Posted January 14, 2021 By John C Wright

I was haunting the blog of Larry Correia, who is a bestselling author that I highly recommend, especially his brilliant Hard Magic series, his rollicking Monster Hunter Series, and his hilarious Tom Stranger Interdimensional Insurance yarns, and his most exceptional Saga of the Forgotten Sword series, which is his best work yet.

I came across the trenchant remark below, by one of his readers, which I repeat in full.

Tis from an man codenamed Archer, who describes himself thus: “In no particular order: Cynic, thinker, husband, father, tinkerer, Christian, conservative with libertarian tendencies, gun owner, freedom activist, IT guy. No, I will not fix your computer.”

His website is here: http://notonemoregunlaw.blogspot.com/

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Halloween: A Christian’s Last Stand

Posted October 17, 2020 By John C Wright

A guest column from Nancy A. Tefft, BA, LGA Homeschool Mom whose wisdom, has been, or so I suspect honed by motherhood, the hardest and most rewarding job in the world. Hear her: 

Every fall two camps emerge to debate the issue of Halloween.  There is an Evangelical camp that condemns Halloween as Satanic and evil.  There is a Roman Catholic camp that offers a rebuttal.  This is not that debate.  They are both correct.

Halloween, short for All Hallows (Holy) Eve, is and has always been a Roman Catholic feast celebrating All Saints Day much the same as Christmas Eve celebrates Christmas.  Halloween has been hijacked by those who mock Christianity, and in some cases should be celebrated with Fall Festivals to shelter children from the mockery that can ensue.

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Why the Past Matters

Posted June 19, 2020 By John C Wright

Words every man in Christendom should hear. Surprisingly, there is no foul language in this video:

Arise, men of the West. Your heritage is being taken from you right before your eyes. Let not your eye be dimmed by fear, nor you tongue be still. Let not your pen be mute. Let your sword not sleep in its scabbard.

Let not your hearts be troubled.

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Not Tired of Winning Yet CXXVI

Posted June 18, 2020 By John C Wright

Again, while this is not, technically, and example of a campaign promise fulfilled by Mr. Trump, is it, in my judgment, a brilliant example of an awakening out of decades of sloth-induced self-deception, which the Trump himself is no more than the firstfruit and firealarm.

Mr. Damani Felder described himself as follows: Founder of YouTube’s The Right Brothers. MAGA. Texas A&M. Christian. Wordsmith. Opinions are my own.

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The Anti-Teacher Movement and George Floyd

Posted June 5, 2020 By John C Wright

A reader brings this to my attention. His friend, Chenyuan Snider, was raised in China, and she witnessed events parallel to the rioting and looting the Establishment is currently orchestrating here in America and overseas. I reprint it here with her permission. The words below are hers.

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The Virtue of Victorian Theologians

Posted May 19, 2020 By John C Wright

A reader sends along this comment, which I wanted to share and applaud.

As for the Anglicans, I think you’d like some of the “liberal” Anglicans of the Victorian era, such as the academics-turned-bishops Westcott and Lightfoot. When the excesses of German higher criticism were raging across continental Europe applying their universal acid of skepticism to virtually every historical and authorship claim of the church in relation to scripture, these Anglicans stood up to the critical theories and in my opinion really exposed them for the piles of straw that they were. Westcott in his commentary on John defended John bar-Zebedee’s authorship of the fourth gospel, and Lightfoot worked towards establishing authenticity of the Ignatian epistles and collating a lot of patristic works.  As far as I understand things, their arguments were never refuted, only bypassed and now dismissed as “dated” or “Victorian”. They knew how to formulate an argument, put forth evidence, and weigh competing claims.
They also are for me models of how devotion, scholarship, fidelity to scripture, being open-minded (hence “liberal”) but not so much that you’ll believe any stupid fad or theory, carefulness, precision, etc can all be melded to form the perfect synthesis of faith and reason. You can compare their writings and thinking with what comes out of mainstream seminaries today, and if you’re like me you’ll find many of our moderns frivolous by comparison. The Victorians wrote simply and clearly, yet confidently conveyed powerful evidence-driven arguments. They had hair on their chests, so speaking. They were not worried about virtue-signalling to other theologians how with-the-times they were, but they were simply worried about where the evidence leads, and they stood up against a tidal wave of liberal theology and out-of-control “scientific literary criticism” and held off the dragon for a few decades. Unfortunately, in the end, the liberals won anyway, but this seems to me to be a function more of the changing intellectual culture than in any deficiencies in conservative argumentation.

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Roger Scruton: Conservatism and the Conservatory

Posted January 13, 2020 By John C Wright

Brilliant aesthetic philosopher and conservative thinker Roger Scruton is no longer with us. I first came across his work in a BBC documentary, Why Beauty Matters, which is well worth watching:

To honor his memory, I reprint in this space one of his more celebrated essays:

CONSERVATISM AND THE CONSERVATORY

by
Roger Scruton

 

The observation is often made that political conservatives do not have anything much to say about the arts, either believing, with the libertarians, that in this matter people should be free to do as they please, or else fearing, like the traditionalists, that a policy for the arts will always be captured by the Left and turned into an assault on our inherited values. Of course, there is truth in both those responses; but they are not the whole truth, and in my view one reason for the precarious state of the arts in our public culture today is that conservatives — who often come out near the top in fair elections — have failed to develop a clear cultural policy and to understand why, philosophically, such a policy matters.

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