Antiquitopia

The NYTimes reports that American Bishops and the Vatican take diverging approaches to President Obama. While American Bishops have been vocally adversarial (particularly on abortion rights), the Vatican has sought common ground on issues of the poor, redistribution of wealth, and so forth. These are the issues emphasized in the newest encyclical Caritas in Veritate, something which might highlight the differences between the Vatican and American Catholic leaders. July 10, 2009 U.S. Bishops and Vatican View Obama Differently By LAURIE GOODSTEIN Ever since he took office, President Obama has been given a cold reception by some Roman Catholic bishops in the United States who have repeatedly emphasized their church’s differences with him on abortion, birth control and stem cell research. But Mr. Obama is likely to receive a much warmer reception in the Vatican on Friday when he meets Pope Benedict XVI for the first time, experts on the church say. Both the pope and the president recogni...

According to the NYTimes , Obama told human rights activists that he is ruminating over the idea of preventative detention. What is "preventative detention"? It is what it sounds like. It is the incarceration of suspects, who, it seems, as of yet have not done anything (or we cannot prove they have done anything) who cannot be tried. This sounds eerily like the movie "Minority Report" with its concept of "pre-crime," but without all of the psychic stuff. The two participants, outsiders who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the session was intended to be off the record, said they left the meeting dismayed. They said Mr. Obama told them he was thinking about “the long game” — how to establish a legal system that would endure for future presidents. He raised the issue of preventive detention himself, but made clear that he had not made a decision on it. Several senior White House officials did not respond to requests for comment on the outsiders...

Obama's overturning of Bush-era restrictions on stem-cell research has had an interesting religious response according to AP . The interesting aspect of it is its complexity and ambivalence. Firstly, the divide is largely between killing innocent life and the importance of alleviating suffering (all quotations from AP): The embryonic stem cell research debate is steeped with religious arguments, with some faith traditions convinced the research amounts to killing innocent life, others citing the moral imperative to alleviate suffering, and plenty of religious believers caught somewhere in between. The expected Catholic response of opposition came from Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia: Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, called Obama's move "a sad victory of politics over science and ethics." "This action is morally wrong because it encourages the destruction of innocent human l...

Most people probably realize by now that President Obama gave his first televised interview as President to a major Arabic television network, Al Arabiya. Here is an article from NYTimes : January 28, 2009 Obama Signals New Tone in Relations With Islamic World By ALAN COWELL PARIS — In an interview with one of the Middle East’s major broadcasters, President Barack Obama struck a conciliatory tone toward the Islamic world, saying he wanted to persuade Muslims that “the Americans are not your enemy.” He also said “the moment is ripe” for negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. The interview with Al Arabiya, an Arabic-language news channel based in Dubai, signaled a shift — in style and manner at least — from the Bush administration, offering what he depicted as a new readiness to listen rather than dictate. It was Mr. Obama’s first televised interview from the White House and the first with any foreign news outlet. In a transcript published on Al Arabiya’s English language Web si...

I have been reading Amy-Jill Levine's, The Misunderstood Jew , and toward the end where she gives some ideas of Jewish-Christian dialogue, she talks about public prayer. I thought it would be appropriate given the recent discussions of prayer, especially Rick Warren's prayer , at Obama's inauguration : A similar situation prevails with public prayer. Some Christian ministers resort to a watered-down, generic invocation that satisfies few. Some insist on praying in the "name of Jesus," which prevents Jews and other non-Christians from saying "Amen." Atheists are ignored in any case. More cynical biblical readers, finding dissatisfactory public prayer from high-school students gathered around flagpoles to senators representing the American people in Washington, might cite the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus states: "Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners [and arou...

From Newsweek : Erasing Bush With a call for 'relentless' diplomacy, Hillary further obliterates W's legacy. Michael Hirsh Newsweek Web Exclusive After Inauguration Day, departed presidents usually become footnotes pretty quickly. What we are witnessing now is far more dramatic. It's closer to a liquidation, or a cauterization. George W. Bush is being turned into an unperson, like a character out of Orwell. It's been only two days, and there is scarcely a trace of not only his personal presence, but of his policies. Or at least that is the impression Barack Obama would like to convey. The process of erasing the last eight years from American history began with President Obama's inaugural address on Tuesday. Between condemning torture and expressing a willingness to talk with enemies, the new president began eliminating Bush even as the former president sat listening behind him. Then, on his first work day, Obama signed executive orders reversing the Bush adminis...

My friend Liam at Sententiae et Clamores has some good pictures of Obama action figures. One action figure is more of a karate-style figure with two swords. The other is a Luke Skywalker type, fighting it out with Vader. As he says, "Why not?"

One of the things I have emphasized as one of the major common threads in ancient literature is the power of speech. Words are strange things, and their power is highly ambivalent. They can build up or tear down. They can deceive or enlighten. They can find great resource in ambiguity and double-speak. People can manipulate speech and manipulate by speech for a multitude of ends, whether positive or negative (or even determine what is positive or negative). One type of speech among these is the speech-act. The speech-act emphasizes that speech DOES something. In particular, speech can be tranformative. Often, or in fact usually, this speech-act is highly formulaic, the formulae based upon particular social developments or contexts. The transformative speech-act based upon formulae is recognized in so-called "magic." In this case, for the speech--the spell--to have effect, to have efficacy, it must be said just right. Again, its power is ambivalent--such a speech-a...

The NYTimes reports largely positive responses from around the world, as people throughout the globe hope that this change in power will mean a major shift in U.S.-Foreign Relations, particularly toward a more diplomatic (rather than shoot 'em down) approach. Other responses have been a bit more subtle, such as China censoring the parts of Obama's speech in which he referred to Fascism and Communism as ideologies defeated not just by missiles and tanks, but by enduring convictions. They did not just object to being considered a defeated ideology, but lumping Communism with the much-reviled Fascism. At the same time, there is skepticism about the Obama policy toward the middle east--basically with the historical situation that no matter who is in office the U.S. policy never really changes much--these were sentiments expressed in Lebanon and Egypt. Even in such skepticism, however, hope mixes with doubt . Europeans seem more optimistic, excepting Putin, who sees positive sig...

NYTimes has a transcription of Obama's inaugural address along with crowd responses (chants, applause). I did not envy Elizabeth Alexander who had to speak after Obama--he's a difficult act to follow. Here was my favorite part: At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: "Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it." America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words; with hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come; let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upo...

Since I blogged about the controversy that had surrounded the choice of Rick Warren giving the inaugural invocation, I guess I should comment on the actual prayer. First, the controversy surrounded having someone who gave some rather ridiculous comparisons to gay marriage (like comparing it to pedophilia). Then the issue was whether or not he would mention Jesus or not. Would he represent his particular brand of religiosity, or in an event for all Americans represent all Americans. On that issue, I came down on the side that the most "American" thing to do is just be yourself and not try to water things down to vague generalities. If it were a Hindu giving the invocation, I would expect an invocation of Vishnu, Siva, or whatever god or goddess to which that particular person was devoted. If an imam, I would expect something on Allah. And so on... One objection was what would happen if Warren completed the prayer by "in Jesus' name we pray," in which the ...

First the issue was the fact that Warren, a staunch opponent to gay rights, was even chosen at all. See here . Now, at issue, is whether he will refer to this first-century Jewish dude from Nazareth, whom some people worship as the Son of God and the second person of the Trinity. From the Associated Press : Warren's inauguration prayer could draw more ire By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll, Ap Religion Writer Tue Dec 30, 9:35 pm ET President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation drew one kind of protest. Whether the evangelical pastor offers the prayer in the name of Jesus may draw another. At George W. Bush's 2001 swearing-in, the Revs. Franklin Graham and Kirbyjon Caldwell were criticized for invoking Christ. The distinctly Christian reference at a national civic event offended some, and even prompted a lawsuit. Warren did not answer directly when asked whether he would dedicate his prayer to Jesus. In a statement Tu...

Some people were worried when Obama and McCain appeared at Saddleback Church for their first public meeting on the same stage months ago during the Presidential campaign...it seemed then mostly due to separation of church and state issues. Now people are upset that Warren is offering a prayer at Obama's inauguration...not because of separation of church and state issues (there is ALWAYS a prayer at these events), but because of Warren's positions on abortion and same-sex marriage. While I personally differ with Warren on these issues also, there are a few things to make clear. Warren is NOT like Dobson or other evangelical leaders. He does not incite divisiveness in the way they do, although he's made some rather crude analogies vis-a-vis gay marriage lately. He does try to create coalitions with people who differ with him on many issues: thus he has been effective working on issues of poverty and HIV/AIDS with people who oppose him on other social issues. Although h...

After Obama's victory, different European countries are now facing a grim fact: that they, themselves, are far away from a French or an Italian Obama-like figure; that they, themselves, have deep-seated problems with racism and can no longer claim that at least they are better about it than the U.S. Or, so says an article from the NYTimes .

I have seen references to this posting for a few days now and I finally got around to reading it. You can see the full post by David Ker at Lingamish . It is scathing, and it is right on the money for the most part. Here is a sample of his righteous ranting: The dust has settled and the earnest sister who believed that Mike Huckabee would score a divine victory on Tuesday has now switched her sights to the book of Revelation and Obama’s landslide as definitive evidence of the beginnings of the Great Tribulation. On our trip out to Wyoming I listened to the program on Crosstalk Radio where they allowed callers to tell who they were going to vote for and why. Almost every single one said, “I’m voting for McCain because I’m a Christian.” Well guess what, folks, I voted for Obama because I’m a Republican and a Christian. The most hilarious caller was a rabbi from New York who really let loose with one of the funniest fuselages of rhetorical afflatus that I’ve ever heard including the cry,...

Here are some headlines from papers around the world, beginning with an article in the New York Times about the reactions from around the world! ;) "Election Unleashes a Flood of Hope Around the World" ( NYTimes ) The London Times speaks of America's capacity for self-renewal in "Barack Obama's Victory is Head-Spinning Stuff" Le Monde reports: "La victoire de Barack Obama porte un nouveau rêve américain" (Barack Obama's Victory bears a new American Dream). You can go to these sites and see the many other articles and reader responses from the other side of the pond.

Jon Meacham has a nice article in the NYTimes about what different Presidents in the past have preferred for their reading material. What fiction and non-fiction literature they prefer. While some of the titles differ and some of the same between Obama and McCain, Meacham notes a similarity between their choices in terms of a "tragic sensibility." I was happy to see some titles from Columbia's Core Curriculum, in which I teach Literature Humanities, on Obama's list...such as King Lear, which definitely fits that "tragic sensibility." See the article here .

There have been a lot of misuses of the term socialist by the McCain campaign with regard to Obama. I think true socialists are appalled that people are giving the ultimately capitalist underpinnings of Obama's economic package such a lofty and advanced title! Let's take the bail-out of Wall-Street as an example. True free-market capitalists are perhaps uneasy about the GOVERNMENT intervention into the capitalist system that Wall Street represents. Socialists are uneasy about the government intervention into the CAPITALIST system that Wall Street represents. The Bail-out, in the socialist view, ultimately reaffirms the capitalist system rather than truly developing a socialist system. It is one thing to distinctly disagree with your opponent's economic policies--that is part and parcel of Presidential debate and politics--but it does not excuse fear-mongering by mislabeling (this particular label, I don't particularly see as a negative one, but a great deal of Americ...

It isn't often that you find a newspaper article written in Latin, but Maureen Dowd, with the help of Gary Farney, associate professor at Rutgers, has written about the issues of the current state of the U.S., particularly the campaigning, in LATIN!!! I am going to quote in full for all to see, but here is the link anyway. October 12, 2008 Op-Ed Columnist Are We Rome? Tu Betchus! By MAUREEN DOWD With modernity crumbling, our thoughts turn to antiquity. The decline and fall of the American Empire echoes the experience of the Romans, who also tumbled into the trap of becoming overleveraged empire hussies. As our sand-castle economy washes away under the tide of bad gambles and debts, this most self-indulgent society lurches toward stoicism (even bankrupt Iceland gives us the cold shoulder and turns to a solvent superpower). It’s going to require more than giving up constant infusions of stocks, Starbucks and Botox. As Seneca, the Roman Stoic who advised treating the body “somewhat st...

Repeatedly tonight in the second Presidential debate, John McCain said we need a "steady hand at the tiller." So, I guess that means Obama is the better candidate based upon McCain's own statement, since, as far as I can tell, McCain has been much more unstable in recent weeks. I got the distinct impression that this was a debate for the Presidency of fantasy land...since it didn't really match realities on the ground, but I did feel that Obama approached reality more often than McCain did. To be fair, though, all groups and especially national identities are somewhat imaginary...so the America they were talking about (the one that is the greatest nation in the world, and so on and so forth) exists in imagination. Imagination is important! The "idea" of what America is is a two-edged sword, however. The image of America is something that has suffered in the world, it makes it dangerous for US travelers to other places, and it makes it difficult in diplomatic...