2008 January archive at Being Frank

Archive for January, 2008

Jan

War, war, what is it good for?

By The Captain 67 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

I guess I would be defined (insofar as I love being boxed into categories) as a pacifist. Although I hold dear the importance of remembering and honouring those who have fought in wars for their countries, I deplore war and everything about it. Two very significant moments from my childhood had, I think, a profound effect on my stance.

The first was a documentary I saw on the Nazi holocaust. I can’t have been older than 10, in fact I’m sure I wasn’t, so God knows why I was in a position to see such a thing – my parents were pretty careful about monitoring what we saw, but this clearly went under the radar! All I remember is hearing that people were gassed, their skin was used to make lampshades. Horrified by the reality that such evil existed, I lived in a paranoid fear about Hitler for weeks afterwards.

The second was to do with the Second Gulf War of 1990-1991. I’m fairly sure it was after Saddam invaded Kuwait and before the UN-led retaliation occurred. I’d seen an article on the news and was convinced (probably because the newscaster had said so) the Third World War was about to break out. My parents were out for dinner and my older cousin was babysitting. I went to him in tears and said I needed to call Mum and Dad to make sure they were safe. We were in real and immediate danger, as far as I was concerned.

I don’t think I’ve properly recovered from the fear that both these events instilled in me. And let’s be honest – it was a fear I manufactured! It breaks my heart to think of the millions for whom that fear is very real.

Last year, I met a number of them. Refugees from the latest war in Iraq, many described to me their lives before the US-led invasion in 2003 and their lives since. Miserable, horrible, degrading, disgusting. Why and how we can do this to each other, as human beings, is the greatest mystery to me and the first thing on my list of things to ask when I meet my maker!

In the absence of asking Him directly, I did put the question to my mother many years ago. I don’t remember her exact answer but it was along the lines of “people are unable to sort out their differences”. I thought that was ridiculous as my brother and I never used to sort out our differences, and we didn’t go starting wars! Her response to that (wise woman, my maman) was that we needed to learn to, because the wars we see today are examples of people who didn’t.

There’s been a lot of talk about so-called Just War on this blog, and I’m not interested in relitigating that. Even those who believe war can sometimes be just have admitted there is no need for war in this day in age. So while historically wars may have been about more than sorting out our differences, I see no evidence that that’s still the case.

My involvement with this blog has caused a lot of ups and downs for me, and I can safely say the biggest down has been the realisation that wars are fought over the most ridiculous of things – of a true, deeply held and I believe anti-Catholic inability to sort out our differences.

I just pray that God has mercy on us, and the damage we do to each other.

Jan

Providence

By Tuppence 2 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

I was at Parachute Music Festival on the weekend…what a fantastically hot and dusty affair indeed. The sustained temperature of early-30s from about 9am onwards made for a rather stifling heat most of the day.

Nonetheless, it was really a great weekend. Putting aside the music and all the pre-programmed occurrences, it was a rather providential affair.

On the flight to Hamilton, I met a lady planning her cycle tour around Slovenia. She turned out to be Catholic. And she’d been supporting her parish’s WYD pilgrims each week by participating in their regular post-Mass â€˜coin toss’ fundraiser. Being a Sydney pilgrim myself, we were able to have a great yarn across the aisle about how unique the opportunity of WYD is for the Church in NZ. It occurred to me later how that may have served as a witness to those around us on the flight – a middle-aged woman and a young woman speaking animatedly and enthusiastically about their faith. We are called to be signs of hope, light and joy…in the world. How often do you speak about your faith with others in a public place? It doesn’t have to be purposefully loud, but sometimes it’s hard to avoid someone overhearing your conversation – so what is your conversation about? Would those around you on the train know you were Christian by your words? (ah…that gives me haunting flashes of “And they’ll know we’re Christians by our love, by our love,”…ooh, not cool)

At Parachute itself, there was the lady I talked to who had traveled the world as a missionary with her husband and children – the Holy Spirit let me know to â€˜Listen up’ with that all over tingly feeling. I dunno, but I’ve felt that enough times while engaged in particularly special conversations to be somewhat sure that it’s the Spirit having a say.

Then there was my weekend companion who I hadn’t met before. In many ways we were very similar in the things that interested us, and in other ways, particularly divergent. Yet, we dialogued and discussed, despite our differences, and hopefully became more compassionate in the process.

I met another person who I think can help me in some of my projects, and vice versa, I have something quite concrete to offer her. “Well, this is a bit providential that you should say that because…” she said to me. We’re sure to be in touch – isn’t it great how God puts people in the right place at the right time.

On the flight home, I sat next to a Catholic father of nine…yes NINE (ah, it’s great to be Catholic)…he’s off to World Youth Day with his wife and their four oldest. I thanked God to hear of a family where the faith had been inherited so much by the children – really inspiring. No coincidence I tell you.

There were numerous other things that happened – people I met, things I saw, heard and read that I’m sure were the work of providence. Its amazing what happens when you actually deeply have faith in His capacity to work in your life, when the inside of you really knows it.

Jan

Doomsday Called Off

By The Dumb Ox 3 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

After the heat over last week’s discussion about climate change I couldn’t resist posting a documentary called “Doomsday Called Off”, it is in 5 parts and you simply need to click on each part below to watch it.

I encourage you to watch this interesting documentary, if nothing else it will make you think next time you are told that we global warming is going to be the end of us…

Part One:
[youtube]fr5O1HsTVgA&rel=1[/youtube]

Part Two:
[youtube]fD6VBLlWmCI&rel=1[/youtube]

Part Three:
[youtube]gZS2eIRkcR0&rel=1[/youtube]

Part Four:
[youtube]dIbTJ6mhCqk&rel=1[/youtube]

Part Five:
[youtube]v2XALmrq3ro&rel=1[/youtube]

Jan

Anniversary Day madness

By James the Least 11 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

I was going to spend most of this post writing about anniversaries because today (Monday) is Auckland Anniversary Day and I’m in Auckland. I was going to congratulate the city and all those who celebrate their anniversaries around this time etc etc.

But instead, I’m going to talk about this unbelievable story I just read on the NZ Catholic website. The abstract to the article sums it up pretty much:

“Cardinal George Pell of Sydney has criticised the Australian Medical Association for publishing a letter by a professor of medical obstetrics advocating a tax on children for their carbon footprints.” (emphasis mine)

…

Where to start with this one? Basically, Dr Barry Walters, associate professor of obstetric medicine at the University of Western Australia, recommendeds that the Aussie government changes their current $2,500 “baby bonus” to a $5,000 (!!!) tax on third and subsequent children!!! I am not making this up! He also reckons that this should be followed by an annual “carbon tax” of up to $800 per child to “purchase and maintain the four hectares of trees needed to sequester 17 metric tons of carbon dioxide.”

But the best (or worst) is yet to come. See, Bazza reckons that family planning clinics and hospitals should attract carbon credits because…get this….they provide “greenhouse-friendly services” such as hormonal contraceptives, intrauterine devices, diaphragms, condoms and sterilization procedures.

Just in case you think I’m exaggerating, here’s a quote straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak:

“Every newborn baby in Australia represents a potent source of greenhouse gas emissions for an average of 80 years, not simply by breathing, but by the profligate consumption of resources typical of our society. Far from showering financial booty on new mothers and thereby rewarding greenhouse-unfriendly behaviour, a baby levy in the form of a carbon tax should apply, in line with the polluter-pays principle.”

Where on earth did this guy get his degree from? Perhaps it was one of those internet downloaded dealies because I am at a loss to understand how someone with as much education and apparent intelligence as him could spout such drivel!

I’ll lay my cards out on the table – as I have previously stated on the blog, I think that the whole global warming thing is scary. I think that while there seems to be some debate over whether or not we are causing it, there can be no debate that we (be that the “need to have more stuff”-driven West or the “must catch up and make more stuff”-driven East) are having a negative impact on our environment. Be that with pollution, greed, rampant waste, 90% of wealth with 10% of people…take your pick. I really think we should be doing a better job.

So, whenever the debate turns to global warming, I’ve usually been in the camp of “well, if it isn’t man-made, at least it’s turning our attention to an area where we should be improving our wasteful, pollutive ways.” Now, good friends of mine who are anti the whole global warming movement (some of whom are on this blog) point out that the movement is actually being hijacked by…(wait a minute while I find the quote from Cardinal Pell)…”minority, neopagan, anti-human mentality” into an opportunity to peddle a whole bunch of immoral, eugenic-style family planning and abortion type messages.

I have, in the past, scoffed at this idea. But this article is making me rethink things entirely. A tax on families? To fix…what exactly? The good doctor has even identified the root cause of the problem (“…profligate consumption of resources typical of our society…”) and proposes that, rather than address this very difficult issue, we should just have less people around the place. That way, the resources won’t be as stretched – so he can still drive his luxury car, watch his big-screen TV, and eat and be merry and his conscience will be eased because once the hundreds of millions around the world who live (barely) with less die, we won’t have the problem any more because we’ll all have 1-child families. Seriously, where did you download your degree Baz?

Okay, I’m being a bit facetious, but this really riles me up. He should stick to helping babies, not writing papers on possible flawed government policy. Obviously unaware of the slippery slope which he sits atop of, Dr Bazza is not thinking of the fact that we have resources aplenty to support some 9 to 10 billion people if we do a better job of apportioning resources – something which we are unbelievably terrible at – and that the pain we feel as a globe would ease if we started addressing the core problems, not the symptoms.

So, happy Anniversary Aucklanders, and happy anniversary to those celebrating the anniversary of their birth today and may I suggest that you thank the Lord that your parents didn’t avail themselves of the greenhouse-gas friendly services of the local family planning centre instead of having you! After all, it appears that doing so would have decreased their tax liability…

Jan

Virtues

By eyeWitness 17 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

“Virtue” isn’t a word we often hear these days. Do you even know what it means in a Christian sense? A virtue is a habit that disposes you to do “good”.

They are:

- prudence;
- justice;
- temperance; and
- fortitude

I am in Wellington for the weekend. I had a very interesting conversation with some Christians who were preaching on Cuba Street in town, as I was going shopping yesterday (good on them I guess – I just think they were going about it in the wrong way). They were trying to tell me that I was intrinsically evil and no human person is “good”.

Catholics believe that divine grace is offered to the soul, because without God’s help human can’t do good on their own. This is different to the idea that many Christians now have that we are intrinsically evil (generally Protestant denominations; the idea originating from Luther’s split I think), rather than intrinsically good and made in God’s image as Catholics believe.

They were making my friends and I feel condemned. Most of the friends I was with are Christian, but if I wasn’t and people came to talk to me about my intrinsic “evilness” I think I would run a mile! Is this strategy really effective, as good as their intentions were, when preaching to non-Christians on the street? Would it not be better to approach it from a more positive, attractive perspective?

Relating this to the virtues we are called to aspire to, was this prudent? Prudence is a virtue which teaches us how to know what, when and how. Often people say things that, although true, are not spoken with compassion, charity and a love for the person they’re speaking to.

Rather they have proving a point or winning an argument as their primary motivation and end up sounding judgemental and harsh.

Prudence is basically common sense. It’s saying or doing the proper thing, at the proper time, in the proper manner. It takes time and practice. It requires thinking before acting, researching authorities such as the bible and the Catechism, and seeking the advice of people you respect.

In the end, we all have to think about prudent, loving ways of sharing our faith and living the virtues.

Jan

I will make you make you fishers of men.

By Filia Day 1 Comment

Categories: Being Frank...

This week I have been thinking a little about authentic forms of evangelisation and apostolate. My flatmate (who is not a Christian or a Catholic) made a startling discovery on Thursday night, it may not seem that big, but in her eyes it was enormous She discovered through a series of sufferings that she has been going through over the last couple of months that the human being must have a soul. As she described the way in which she came to that conclusion, it became clear that what she was describing to me was the interaction of the intellect and the will, how the intellect (when malformed) can sometimes falsely guide the will and how the senses (particularly the imagination) sometimes makes it hard for the will to go towards the good. Before that faithful night she had believed that there was a creator (that of course can be discovered through the intellect) however she couldn’t imagine how exactly she could have a friendship with God. On her discovery that humans must have a soul, her whole opinion of the matter has changed; she rationalised that since we have a soul fundamentally different from that of animals she is now beginning to look for reasons for why a Creator would give us a will and a capability to love. I hope to discuss the topic in more depth with her when we get together for a coffee but her words, “this makes a whole lot of other things possible, especially that I could be called to have a relationship with him.” I can not describe to you exactly how overcome with joy she was at her newfound understanding.

It made me think that there are so many people out there longing for the Truth and that there is somewhat of an urgency for each Christian to witness to the Truth. As Our Lord says, the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. I think that it was no coincidence then that earlier on Thursday I decided I was going to post on a document written by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith entitled, Doctrinal Note on Some Aspects of Evangelization. I just wanted to look at one particular aspect of the document in its first part.

The doctrinal note states â€˜By means of the Church, Christ wants to be present in every historical epoch, every place on earth and every sector of society, in order to reach every person, so that there may be one flock and one shepherd’. “Go out into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not will be condemned”

This is quite a challenge from Our Lord for all of us and is particularly hard in this particular historical epoch mainly because of relativistic thinking and the idea that preaching the gospel limited the freedom of those whom one preaches to. So often we are told that we don’t have a right to talk about religion or to preach the Truth (note the capital T), but as the doctrinal note points out, it is a God-given right to speak the Truth and moreover each person has a right to hear the gospel.

Now, I’m not one for getting out on to street corner and proclaiming Christ in that particular way, but I do like the way the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith puts it: “to evangelise does not mean simply to teach a doctrine, but to proclaim Jesus Christ by one’s words and actions, that is, to make oneself an instrument of his presence and action in the world”.

I thoroughly recommend everyone read the document, I wish I could go into more detail, but time simply does not permit today.

With the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul yesterday, let us ask the great evangelist to help each one of us do an effective apostolate with those around us – maybe he can give us some insight on how we can more effectively co-operate in Our Lord’s command to “put out into the deep and lower your nets for a catch”

Jan

“Every second I’m out of bed I’m burning precious calories”

By Methuselah's Beard 10 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

I’ve often wondered if I could find a job out there that was better than the one I’m currently in. Now impossible as that sounds, I think I may have found a winner. While watching the Australian Open (tennis for all you non-tennisy people) I noticed that a lot of the top players have coaches. I’ve often wondered about this too. The top golfers also have coaches too, and ‘swing doctors’. Most of the time, these coaches are people I’ve never even heard of, and can only assume they were not very sucessful ex-tennis or golf pros. If you’re one of the top golfers or tennis players in the world, do you really need a coach? How do you coach Roger Federer? “Roger, you’re at least 100 times better than I was in my prime, but here’s what you gotta do to win, hit the ball but good”

I’m sure these coaches get paid fairly well too. Plus you get to travel the world with your tennis superstar. Sounds like a great job for me! Unfortunately, I am quite out of shape. Oh and I don’t possess any tennis skill. But I think my general fitness is what holds me back.

It may be the lack of exercise, or the copious amounts of fast food consumed in my youth, but I am out of shape (despite the t-shirt that proclaims round is a shape).

Is it bad to want to look good? “WWJD?” I asked. No doubt the general fitness and conditioning of people back then was pretty good, what with having to walk everywhere and all. I joined a gym for a year awhile back. Most expensive membership fee ever I think. Ended up costing me about $100 per visit (all 3 or 4 of them). It’s not that I had no motivation, I was intimidated by the beautiful people all around me at the gym. Out of shape people must work out at home.

I looked at the Catechism to see if I could find something in there about how wanting to make yourself really really buff was in the end just vanity and bad but I couldn’t find anything. But I take solace in knowing that my life is so full that I don’t need to fill the void with mindless exercise. Ha! Take that all you buff people.

Just kidding, I have nothing but admiration for people who can exercise. The body is a temple of the Holy Spirit after all, so having a temple that’s in tip top shape is a good idea.

(Where is username Skypilot? I’ve been waiting for several weeks for username Skypilot to take more offence at my pointless Friday ramblings and come out swinging like Roger Federer on a good day.)