"Happy" Friday the 13th

Anyone else surprised that a mindless slasher movie isn't being released today?

Catholic Conference of Illinois Says Leave Behind Left Behind

Speaking of shrill fundamentalism, I recently got into a theological debate with a co-worker who subscribes to a number of anti-Catholic beliefs. In order to better clarify many of the points I incoherently made to him, I loaned him Karl Keating's "Catholicism and Fundamentalism" and Paul Thigpen's "The Rapture Trap". Although the latter book is more critical in tone than apologetic, it doesn't go down the path of singling out any one particular Christian faith and characterizing it as apostate or unchristian. In return, my co-worker tried to get me to read a blatantly anti-Catholic screed called The Gospel According to Rome by James McCarthy. Needless to say, I politely turned his offer down.

In case you don't know who Mr. McCarthy is, he is a Protestant fundamentalist author/apologist who claims he used to be Catholic (for some stange reason, a lot of fundamentalists and evangelicals will regard this as a qualifying factor for making someone an expert on Catholicism). Various Catholic apologists and writers like Karl Keating in The Usual Suspects and Mario Derksen at Catholic Insight have pretty much exposed McCarthy to be an unintelligible dolt. I, myself, prefer to characterize him as a lying bigot. Anyway, I'm just glad this fundamentalist co-worker is only here for another month. Time can't go by faster for me.

Maybe He's Anti-Christ

Some of our, as Kathy Shaidle would say, "Adorable little Protestant friends" are asserting that biblical prophecy is being threatened by President Bush's road map for peace in the Middle East. (Note: the report is in audio form)

Keep an Eye on This Case

A Christian-based adoption agency in California has asked that a federal lawsuit filed against it by a lesbian couple be dropped. The lebians have alleged they were unlwfully discriminated against when they were told by the adoption agency that it preferred to place children with traditional "nuclear families".

They Just Keeps On Tickin'

Rumored retirements from the Supreme Court start to fade, and Justice Stevens countinues to provide irrefutable evidence that he is a Grade A liberal judicial activist.

Ut Unum Sint?

As an unintended consequence, this article shows that the more dedicated the American judiciary is to the principle of stare decisis the more united, and Catholic-like, it becomes. Needless to say, the author of this article, Joanne Mariner, desires to see a more "fractionalized" judiciary that, from a theological perspective, has a stark resemblance to Protestantism.

Will Martha Have a White Ford Bronco Moment?

You gotta love celebrity justice. Before all this is done, I'd be willing to bet that in some manner Martha Stewart will become the "white collar" crime version of O.J. Simpson.

Stewart arrived at the FBI's downtown office via a street normally closed to traffic. She was advised of the penalties she would face should she fail to show up in court. Typically defendants must appear in court to listen to rules and procedures and to sign paperwork.

"It's something we have done in the past. It's not unusual," a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office said of the discreet way Stewart was processed.

The spokesman said similar arrangements have been made before in high-profile cases where officials see little risk of flight. Stewart was released without having to post bail and with no travel restrictions.

A Case to Watch

A public school teacher in Montana is fighting for her right to teach an independent after-school religious class on public school grounds. The school district claims that allowing the teacher to do so, even though she would be off the clock, would result in a...wait for it...violation of the separation between church and state.