Suppose I asked, “Are there any circumstances when it would be okay for the president to order an interrogator to crush a nine-year-old boy’s testicles?” What would you answer? If you are a normal person and not John Yoo, the man who, from 2001 to 2003 was employed as the Justice Department’s legal advisor … Read more
I have a lot of sympathy for New Age folks. Not sympathy with their ideas (if one can use such a strong word as “idea” for the quicksilver emotionalism and muddy mixture of suburban folk religion that is the New Age), but sympathy with the elemental movements of the heart that seem to animate much … Read more
As we noted last week, the Catholic tradition of catechesis has tended to break up Exodus 20:17 into two commandments. The ninth commandment bids us not to covet our neighbor’s spouse; the focus of the tenth commandment is on coveting his stuff: You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet … Read more
In this Crisis Magazine classic, Mark Shea lays out the case for the bodily resurrection of Jesus. You may be surprised how strong it is. “Jesus came to give us moral guidance, and to prove he meant business, he let himself be killed and seen after death, so we would listen and be good.” Not … Read more
As we come to the Ninth Commandment, we again arrive in disputed territory. As you will recall, the Ten Commandments can be and have been split up differently so as to yield ten and not eleven commandments. Some Protestants break apart the First Commandment (yielding what I call the 1.5 Commandment against graven images). The … Read more
It is a curious fact that the same book of Exodus that informs us of the command, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (20:16) begins with the story of a good solid practical lie: Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and … Read more
"You shall not steal," says Exodus 20:15. Once again, the Decalogue faces us with an injunction that seems like common sense (and is), but which is also fraught with all sorts of difficulties and distinctions. Consider, for instance, the fact that a Catholic writer like me has the obligation to never write an … Read more
Our culture pretty much winks at adultery these days. It winks sort of like Maurice Chevalier, lecherously ogling "girls, girls, girls" in some old musical number. Adultery is sold as a charming but lovable fault, as with that adorable rascal Bill Clinton. Or else it is sold as exciting and sexy, as with Brangelina. … Read more
It’s a simple-sounding proposition: "You shall not kill" (Ex 20:13). And some people, such as pacifists, are absolutists in understanding it to mean that all killing is forbidden. But, in fact, that is not what the commandment means. In Hebrew, the Fifth Commandment forbids the taking of innocent human life. Both war and the … Read more
With the Fourth Commandment ("Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you" [Ex 20:12]), we begin to enter into territory that is closer to what we call "natural law." Basically, the command to honor your father and mother is one … Read more
Some time ago, a bumper sticker appeared urging us to "Support your labor union: the people who brought you the weekend." The folks who dreamed up the ad campaign seem never to have heard of the Third Commandment. For, of course, it was God who invented the weekend. The idea of a Sabbath rest … Read more
"Exodus" is the Greek name for the second book of the Bible. In Hebrew, it is called the Book of Names. That’s because, like Catholic encyclicals, the Hebrew books of the Bible are titled by the opening words of the book: "These are the names . . . ." It is fitting that … Read more
The tricky thing about the Ten Commandments is figuring out how to break them up. The original Hebrew text refers to them as (pedantry alert!) the “Ten Words” but doesn’t do all that tidy stuff with the tablets and the Roman numerals clearly delineating where one commandment leaves off and another starts. As a … Read more
The other day, one of my readers sent me a hilarious note: Hey, Mark, you may get terrific questions as a Catholic author/speaker, but as a Catholic high school teacher, I get terrific answers. My current favorite: Q: Name the seven capital/deadly sins. A. (among the others): Sluttony I have to say … Read more
If I were asked to summarize the typical cultural narrative of Christianity to which the average Westerner holds, it would be something like this: “Jesus was a good man who taught us to love each other, but tragically he was killed (nobody really knows why, but it probably had something to do with “religious conservatives” … Read more
On January 11, my family went to noon Mass at Blessed Sacrament parish in Seattle. It was being celebrated by our visiting priest, but after he processed up to the altar, we were astonished to see that Father Tom Kraft had taken a seat beside him. Father Tom is one of the sweetest and holiest … Read more
Last week, startled by the vehemence some Catholics expressed against Israel on her blog in the wake of the attack on Gaza, Dawn Eden noted a vital point about magisterial guidance when it comes to thinking about Israel’s right to exist: As a Jewish convert to Catholicism who desires ardently that everyone, especially my loved … Read more
Israel’s 13-day war in Gaza endeavors “to teach Hamas a lesson” and to defend southern Israel against its missiles. It’s highly unlikely the Israeli bombing and ground attack — which has resulted in nearly 700 dead, including 300 civilians — will achieve these objectives. Why? Because it has been tried before, and it failed. In … Read more
Recently, Rod Dreher posed a question about what a Catholic is to do when he thinks a magisterial authority has made some error of fact concerning, say, science, politics, or economics. Dreher’s post concerns the question of whether some bishops are mistaken to think morning-after pills are abortifacient, but it could just as easily pertain to … Read more
It is customary this time of year for the Human Toothache Brigade to break out the ol’ secular-humanist signs and try to dampen Christmas spirit, while oversensitive culture warriors overreact with “War on Christmas!!” hyperventilation. It’s all good fun, but I find myself less and less moved by either side of it. If uptight, … Read more