Discernment/Separating Truth from Dross

Obama is gradually revealing his real values, for those who "have eyes to see and ears to hear."

Discernment, known to Catholics as a mystically bestowed gift in the sacrament of Confirmation, may be what Our Lord was referring to here. The above quote, found in Matthew's Gospel, is near Jesus' description of society, "This peoples mind has become gross; their ears are dulled, and their eyes are closed."

It's an interesting quality, the ability to see beneath the surface, separating the wheat from the chaff. To paraphrase Michelangelo, "I do not create the sculpture, I remove the stone that does not belong to reveal what was there all along." The truth is always present, but there is dross to be removed. and that requires discernment. Judging by the thousands of Obama "groupies," following the piping media, it's a quality sorely lacking in today's political climate.

I heard a local radio personality call Obama the "pied piper of chiches," that pretty much sums it up, and yet, hundrends of thousands, including the fixated media, bow at the altar of his charisma. This is dangerous.

He smoothely, almost imperceptively, trashed our country, with his reference to torture, and made global warming and terrorism roughly equivalent, adroitly pointing out our "imperfections," not only to appeal to his audience, but also, because this is his "comfort zone." After all, Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers and Michelle Obama, all come from the "trash America mindset."

The only thing that can save an individual, or a society, from a charasmatic, relatively adept, rhetorician, is the interior antennae Our Lord referred to... discernment. It requires a sensitive intellect, a spiritual/psychological integration and a moral compass, to emerge from such external influences unscathed and rationally intact, not simply a part of the mob. In the end, it may all converge in the gut.

Compare BO's plagiarized cliches, to the substantive writing and speeches of historically great men...Abraham Lincoln, for example. When Abraham Lincoln, who, paranthetically, had a rather high pitched un-arresting speaking voice, delivered a speech, he was not reading off a teleprompter. He was not "lifting" language from others, he was speaking from the heart, a crucified and suffering heart, who had lived through the pain involved in wrenching self-sacrifice. His words were his own, and they "dripped" with the dignity of truth and moral passion.

Such men value truth above everything. Thus, they easily discern the difference between the wheat and the chaff, doggedly chipping away mere stone to reveal the truth that was always there.

May God give us the gift of discernment now, eyes to see and ears to hear...

The Great "I AM"/Mysticism of Common Sense

God is a mystery. While we are wayfarers through created time, this will always be the case. Still, there are truths about God we can explore. So, what are they?

Perhaps it is safest to start from the most basic fact at our disposal and, using common sense, extrapolate from there. Arguably, the most basic fact about God is His name, “I AM,” spoken to Moses on Mount Horeb.

There are some revealing logical conclusions which can be drawn from this alone.
“I AM” means, I exist. The present/future tense takes us to being itself. “I” takes us to person, person takes us to communion and communion takes us to freedom. Notwithstanding the fact that books have been written about the ontology of being, still the humble heart can discern what God is telling us through Moses, he is Being Itself. Well, that’s not quite right; he is the hypostasis of the Father.

Ok, we’re still in the realm of common sense here. Hypostasis is a wonderfully descriptive term derived from the first theologians.

The early church fathers, St. Basil, for example were called to wrestle with and explain the theological implications of what it means to have One God, three Persons. It all gets very complicated, but one thing they determined was that, to say God is “Being Itself” kind of gives one a sense of some “substance” called “being,” which could mean a lot of things, Aristotle’s “unmoved mover” for example.

But, if God is Trinitarian, then where do the three persons come into the picture? This is where the term hypostasis helps out. Basil and later St. Maximus developed a way of explaining the Trinitarian God by saying,

“God, the one God, and the ontological “principle” or “cause” of the being and life of God does not consist in the one substance of God but in the hypostasis, that is, the person of the Father. The one God is not the one substance but the Father, who is the “cause” both of the generation of the Son and of the procession of the Spirit. Consequently, the ontological “principle” of God is traced back, to the person.” Furthermore, “Being does not exist in a ‘naked state,’ that is, without hypostasis.” (See Being As Communion, by John D. Zizioulas, Vladimir Seminary Press.)

So, we have…being, (life,) personhood, (personableness,) communion and freedom, all in a name. We have something else as well. The Jewish tradition put great significance in a name. A name held inherently the very essence of one’s being. To give ones name is to give oneself, to surrender to the other, to give oneself in covenant.

Mystical love, a spousal relationship, Agape.

We have reached the mountain top with a little common sense and His name. Yes, God is a mystery, but the mystery is a love story.

“Ehyeh asher ehyeh”

Obama and our loss of liberty/Remembering Elian

#1)Elian Gonzalez is now a member of the young Communist Union, pledging loyalty to Fidel and his brother.

Dennis Prager made a good point on his syndicated radio show today, namely, if this had happened during the late 1930's or 40's when Hitler was raising up young Germans into the Nazi youth organization, would the United States Justice Department have duplicated Janet Reno's violent seizure of a six year old, only to send him to a father who was a Nazi?

Great job Clinton administration! Elian's mother loses her life trying to rescue her son from a totalitarian regime and the very country to which she was fleeing in an attempt to give him a shot at liberty, turns around and sends him back to a father steeped in Fidel's oppressive brain-washing.

I hope you are all proud of your absurd actions now! God Bless Elean's mother who gave up her life for her son, she is the hero, the saint...the rest of you, God knows. "And whoever causes one of these little ones, who believes, to stumble, it would be better for him, if with a heavy millstone placed around his neck, he were cast out to sea."

Of course, to the Left, communism is not so bad. I agree with Dennis here, I don't think we would have done the same for a child whose mother lost her life trying to escape Hitler's fascism.

#2) All the while the Left is screaming about losing civil liberties accusing the Bush Administration of illegal wire tapping, retaining terrorists without due process, etc., the truth, and irony is, that it is the Left which is moving through the liberal courts to strip Americans of their freedoms.

Their "nanny society" moves every day to control our most mundane decisions, whether it's to smoke a cigarette, cigar or let our children play "dodge ball" on a school playground.

Just this week an elementary school in Portland, Oregon, banned the Pledge of Allegience from its end of the year assembly because it mentions God, and the Principle doesn't want to offend Muslims.

And, of course, the courts will decide if "gay marriage," abortion or habeas corpus is allowed for unlawful enemy combatants. Does anyone seriously think "the people" have any say over public policy anymore? Sorry, "the people" just are not sufficiently "enlightened." And, until they "wise up" the un-elected judges will set the rules.

Yes, Obama, and the Left he represents, are certainly for change...his change...will truly strip the rights of Americans. And, unfortunately, the public education system and the media are enabling these Leftists. Our children are not learning to love and protect the exceptional nation they have inherited, they are being brain washed in radicalism, whether it's the environmental "crises" or "baby has two mommies," reading material in the "media center."

As I volunteered one day in a middle school classroom, I heard the "English" teacher say to the kids, "yeah, that sucks." No, lady, what "sucks" in your vernacular, is your behavior in the classroom! The same day she belittled and mocked letters the class had received from the President of the United States, George Bush.

Parents, you have no control whatsoever, though your taxes support this beleaguered, politically corrupt institution; on the contrary, you have to go through bureaucratic hoops to give your child an aspirin during school hours, but in more and more public schools, your children can get information on birth control, even abortion, totally without your knowledge, not to mention your approval.

Yes, Obama, we're really looking forward to your "changes!"

One thing that can't be "googled"/Wisdom

We live in the "information age."

In this sense, we are the most fortunate generation.

I've been told, my grandfather would spend the last few hours of every day upstairs in his study, reading the dictionary. It must have relaxed him at the end of a long day in his dental office. Perhaps, as his hand turned one page, then another, meditating on the structure, beauty and meaning of each word, he felt he was internalizing something of the mystery of the civilization from whence he came.


I can visualize Abraham Lincoln doing something like that, given the fact, that as a child he considered it a high privilege to own a book


However, in our own age, information is ubiquitous, bombarding us every minute of every day, so much so. that sometimes we have to make a concerted effort to turn off the spigot just to catch a breath!

But there is a tragic irony in our situation. While we have unmitigated access to all the information in the world, a privilege unimagined by our ancestors, we suffer from an excruciating lack of wisdom! Oddly enough, we hear psychologists tell us, that our society is struck by an ailment called ennui or "boredom!" I found it enlightening to learn that ancient languages have no word for "boredom," it's a modern invention. When I shared this fact with a friend recently, his response was, "they had no time for boredom, they were busy just trying to survive!" Good point!

Oh, but we have ways to relieve our boredom...reality shows, American Idol and then there's always shopping!

But, does the situation in which we find ourselves have serious ramifications? Notwithstanding the enormous spiritual, ethical and philosophical implications for western civilization; confining ourselves to American politics, and in that regard, after reading Thomas Sowell's latest piece on Obama and McCain, (read it here,) I would say unequivacally, yes, dire ramifications!

Why? Because, one can possess all the information in the world but if that information is not processed with wisdom and discernment, the consequence can only be disintegration, personally and publically. We cannot afford a global disintegration of values and purpose right now; Iran is revving up to destroy this very western civilization, which our universities, for the last 40 years, have so cavalierly dismissed.

Peter Kreeft, (Three Philosophies of Life,) states the following: "Folly cannot detect itself, only the wise know folly, fools know neither wisdom nor folly. Just as it takes wisdom to know folly, the light to know darkness, it takes profundity to know vanity, meaning to know meaninglessness."

When I see the crowd in Rev. Wright's and Obama's church of 20 years, pulsing and cheering rhetoric that is pure unadulterated and dangerous folly, when I hear Obama making speeches that in substance are nothing but deceit and foolishness, while the crowd gives itself over to emotional obcession, it is like getting a good solid punch in the stomach!

Where is the wisdom? Where are the fundamental questions of life? Where is the discernment to decipher substance from dribble?

Kreeft, in another passage, reflects on what the writer/philosopher of Ecclesiastes might say were he alive today to see modern culture:

"If this philosopher were alive today and knew the reigning philosophy in America, pop psychology, with its positive strokings, OKs, narcissistic self-befriendings, panderings, patronizings, and bland assurances of 'Peace! Peace!' when there is no peace, I think he would quote John Stuart Mill that it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; and William Barrett: "It is better to encounter one's own existence in despair than never to encounter it at all.""

If Western Civilization, doesn't wake up fast, start appreciating the God-given gifts which are its legacy, and somehow acquire the guts to stand up and fight for it in the schools, in the public square and in the world...then it is despair that lurks beyond the next turn in the road...

A penny for your prayers....

Obama, Jeremiah Wright/"You are known by the friends you keep"

"You are known by the friends you keep."

How many of us heard this from our parents as we were growing up? How many of us have said this to our own children, as they entered adolescence, when temptations abound and peer pressure can be so destructive to the impressionable?

The 20 year membership in Jeremiah Wright's Church, including a $26,000 donation in 2006, leaves absolutely NO doubt as to Obama's world view. No one gives that much money to a church, remains a member in good standing for 2 decades, exposes his most precious possession (his own children) to its liberation theology, and seals his marital covenant under its rafters, when he disagrees with its world view.

Sorry, Barack, we "red state" intellects are not that dull. No, the middle America, who provided thousands of truly courageous men, who lost their lives in WWII, so you could have the privilege and "audacity" you so blithely flout, were not that dull either, nor are we bitter or racist, nor are we addicted to the "opium of God."

What we are addicted to, is truth! You and your "ilk, ie., Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Resko, etc., are transparent to us. The irony is that it is the radical leftest and political opportunist who is, in fact, dull.

As "bombastic" as your friends are, they hold no captivation, neither intellectually nor morally; they are bankrupt spiritually...and it takes no more than the earthy purity in heart of a child to see it.

You will not be elected President of this great and "exceptional" country, because, in the end, it will be that very common sense humility and "eye for truth" which will defeat you.

The Public Square/The Case Against Google

Zachary Gappa has a good article on Townhall posted here.

He confronts the sinister and pervasive religious discrimination against Christians in the public square, all done in the name of "secularism."

A lawsuit against Google in the UK makes his point explicitly. Basically, Google refuses to run ads pertaining to religious views on abortion while it freely accepts pro choice, abortion clinic ads, etc. Rather than making the editorial decision not to run any ads dealing with abortion, it has only restricted the opportunity for pro-life ads to pop up, when "abortion" shows up in the search window.

Unfortunately, the media is hopelessly shallow and/or agenda driven, to acknowledge and dissect, what is going on here in the cultural debate; additionally, our public education system is hopelessly incapable, and for the most part unwilling, to teach the necessity of integrity in public discourse. Therefore, the entire colloquy continues, incessantly, devoid of the very foundational prerequisites of honest debate, ie., logic, veracity and authenticity. The entire exercise is based on a lie.

What is going on is blatent religious discrimination against one sector, Christians.

Many, in the religious community, fail to stand up against this discrimination because, in a sense, they have accepted the premise. Part of the blame must be attributed to the Church itself, in that, its own attempts at catechesis have been inexplicably narrow in terms of how it defines "faith." Faith, is not believing some set of ideas, for which there is no empirical evidence! Faith, is the actuating, underlying reality, which allows us to operate intellectually, psychologically, volitionally, even physically.

Perhaps every Christian should read the Christian existentialist, Paul Tillich's book, "The Dynamics of Faith." In a few pages it completely changes one's paradigm in regard to what "faith" is.

Tillich's explantion comes much closer to the true nature of "faith" than what is taught in most churches.

As Gappa describes it in his article, "faith" is simply the framework through which one views reality. An atheist makes certain presumptions upon which he bases all the rest of his opinions, including those made in the public arena. Notwithstanding the fact that individuals may never acknowledge or investigate their own existential presumptions, never the less, their lives are lived in obedience to them.

If one had no "framework" through which to view reality, he would be a completely disintegrated personality. We call degrees of that, mental illness; we call a complete lack of such a structure, insanity.

So, whether one believes there is no God, or whether he is operating on Pascal's wager, or, whether he is existentially committed to the, "Thou," his framework of "faith" will inevitably shape his opinions as he participates in the "public square."

The acknowledgement of this embarrassingly simple fact is almost entirely absent from our consciousness. In practice, what this amounts to, is barring the Christian point of view from the discussion. It is a lie and it is sinister. For public schools, the media, the judiciary and any other public institution to inculcate this view is unconscionable.

Christians must first take upon themselves the self-reflective task to examine the nature of "faith" itself, then, we must courageously engage the battle to restore our rightful place in the "public square."

It appears The Christian Institute in the UK has engaged the battle, against Google!

TRUTH-Benedict's words this week...a fragment from text of speech to youth at Yonkers, New York.

"The second area of darkness – that which affects the mind – often goes unnoticed, and for this reason is particularly sinister. The manipulation of truth distorts our perception of reality, and tarnishes our imagination and aspirations. I have already mentioned the many liberties which you are fortunate enough to enjoy. The fundamental importance of freedom must be rigorously safeguarded. It is no surprise then that numerous individuals and groups vociferously claim their freedom in the public forum. Yet freedom is a delicate value. It can be misunderstood or misused so as to lead not to the happiness which we all expect it to yield, but to a dark arena of manipulation in which our understanding of self and the world becomes confused, or even distorted by those who have an ulterior agenda.


Have you noticed how often the call for freedom is made without ever referring to the truth of the human person? Some today argue that respect for freedom of the individual makes it wrong to seek truth, including the truth about what is good. In some circles to speak of truth is seen as controversial or divisive, and consequently best kept in the private sphere. And in truth’s place – or better said its absence – an idea has spread which, in giving value to everything indiscriminately, claims to assure freedom and to liberate conscience. This we call relativism. But what purpose has a “freedom” which, in disregarding truth, pursues what is false or wrong? How many young people have been offered a hand which in the name of freedom or experience has led them to addiction, to moral or intellectual confusion, to hurt, to a loss of self-respect, even to despair and so tragically and sadly to the taking of their own life? Dear friends, truth is not an imposition. Nor is it simply a set of rules. It is a discovery of the One who never fails us; the One whom we can always trust. In seeking truth we come to live by belief because ultimately truth is a person: Jesus Christ. That is why authentic freedom is not an opting out. It is an opting in; nothing less than letting go of self and allowing oneself to be drawn into Christ’s very being for others (cf. Spe Salvi, 28). "