Brutally Honest

Elderley Oklahoma tornado victim finds missing dog, live on camera

This is pretty special, coming our way via Josh Vorhees at Slate:

Let's hope there are more stories like this coming out of Moore, Okla., where people continue to pick through the rubble of their town for family, friends, and pets who managed to survive the massive tornado. In the video below you'll meet Barbara Garcia, an elderly woman who rode out the storm by taking refuge in the bathroom of her since-destroyed home. Things get good—and may just get a little dusty in your office—at about the 1:35-mark when she discovers her missing dog, shaken but seemingly largely uninjured, in the rubble.* "Well I got God to answer one prayer to let me be OK, but he answered both of them because this was my second prayer," Garcia says, partly to the camera and partly to herself.

Hope amongst the rubble.

May there be similar news for missing persons in the area.

Dear God, let it be so.

Just when we become cynical about humanity

Far too often, we're shown examples of or see for ourselves that which leaves us shaking our heads.   Here's something that might just leave you dabbing your eyes with tissue.

Via Gerard Vanderleun, proof that good abounds:

Excellent stuff.

Pass it on.

I guarantee there's someone out there who really needs to see this and who knows, perhaps it'll inspire more of it.

"To be burdened by so many rules and rituals, it's bondage"

A mother's reaction to her's son conversion. 

But wait there's more, much more... here's an excerpt but trust me when I tell you you're going to want to read the entire thing:

Stan and Crystal Galloway, both teachers in Sioux City, wondered if Ryan was going through a phase. He had been obstinate before. Crystal wondered if it was the varied religions her son had been exposed to while studying overseas in college.

But Catholic? They were deeply disappointed. "He had chosen to go against something we raised him for," Stan Galloway said.

Crystal Galloway said she raised her children to know that heaven is for believers and it was important for her to see them there one day. Catholics, she said, believe you have to work your way there, performing certain rituals and good works to earn a grace they believe is freely given to all.

"To be burdened by so many rules and rituals," she said. "It's bondage."

Ryan responded with a deep history of the Reformation, the ways of Catholicism and the Bible. While his mother took notes to make her points, she recognized Ryan was quick on his theological feet.

"It's pointless to say works are not relevant," he would say later. "But they don't want to research this."

He would quote the Bible. From James 2:24, 26: "You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only ..." He would tell them Protestants and Catholics have actually come to an agreement on justification in a joint declaration in the 1990s.

But it grew icy between them, even as Ryan and Anu settled into a life together and took jobs working for Des Moines developer and Iowa state legislator Jack Hatch. Even as they studied in Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults classes that would lead to joining the Catholic Church and to partaking in its sacraments of confession, communion and confirmation. Even as they became pregnant and took a 10-week class called Before and After the Birth to make sure they were as prepared as possible for parenthood.

Even as they filled the baby's room with a crib, rocking chair, two dressers, a floor carpet, lamp, Pack 'n Play, changing pillow, 40 washable diapers, clothes, bottles, bibs, baby monitor, stroller, baby books, toys and a bag full of all the items they needed to bring to the hospital when labor struck.

Even as Ryan made her breakfast in bed, their love for each other growing.

Anu loved Ryan for the way he was interested in life and could talk about not only the Reformation but diets or their standard pillow talk — urban revitalization. Ryan loved that she came from a family with high social standing in India yet befriended the poor of Des Moines.

They loved each other for what was growing inside, their son Ezra, "the product of our love," Ryan said.

Yet the anti-Catholic literature continued to arrive in the mail from Ryan's parents.

Stop what you're doing, read it all... there's much more about Ezra, more that will grab your heart, twist it until it hurts,  only to heal it in the end.

Read it.

Pass it on.

It's worthy.

Christ is risen, Chavez... not so much

Despite Google's in your face attempt to make this day about something else, the fact remains that this is the day commemorating the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the promise of life that resurrection brings to those who believe.

It's not about Chavez, despite the best efforts of the idiots at Google.  It's not about coloring eggs and certainly not about the bunny.  It's about, as today's Collect relays, Him who conquers death and Who unlocks for us the path to eternity.

Alleluia!  He is risen, He is risen indeed.

"... every road leads, sooner or later, to heaven or hell"

Mark Shea wrote yesterday on Spy Wednesday that there are two questions we all must face. 

Head over there and see what they are.

It's important.

The Pope's unspoken farewell homily

The Anchoress takes to a new venue to bring us Godly wisdom:

Whatever his departure meant to the rest of the world, it said to Americans and their ideals, "no one is irreplaceable; power isn't everything; not everything is your choice; sometimes bread cast upon the waters comes back soggy."

"Well", some might think, "thanks a lot, Papa, for that encouraging message."

In fact, Americans should be encouraged by it. There still resides within us the Calvinistic work ethic, the notion that one deserves because one has earned, and that one's worth is all tied up in those earnings. We feel driven to "push it" (whether it be a job, a relationship, a policy, a bottom line) from one goal to the next. There is a constant sense of striving to earn more, do more, own more, than the next guy. It is a mindset that has parents of not-yet-newborns fighting for a spot at the "best" pre-schools; parents of 13-year-olds pestering them about their eventual college essays. It is a culture that celebrates the "winner", ignores the "loser" and encourages the weird Kardashian life goal of pursuing fame for its own sake.

Still, we continue to push the limits: our powerful until they are only corrupt, our daring athletes until they are only doping apes, our rich until they are ridiculous.

All of this continual advancing doesn't leave us happy and fulfilled. This is what Jesus meant when he said "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Luke 12:34), the life of endless pursuit, ungrounded by something larger than the self, brings us only to the sort of futile emptiness that wreaks havoc on our souls and provides so much fodder for so many gossipy headlines.

And this is where Benedict's lesson comes in, because today, as he entered Castel Gandolfo, and called himself "no longer the pope … just a pilgrim", he put the lie to many American ideas and illusions and instead offered encouragement we should take to heart – particularly as our economy shudders and our leadership continues to spar rather than lead.

To those who are out of work or worried about their jobs, Benedict's move says, "what you do does not define who you are." To those experiencing "downward mobility" it says: "your trappings make you less free; do not be afraid to shed them." To those who feel like choices have disappeared, it says: "when someone else chooses for you, what you make of it is your own."

To those whose efforts are deemed inadequate by others, it says: "don't judge yourself." To those living through rejection, scorn or bullying, it says: "there is a higher and unconditional love waiting for a chance to embrace you." To lives turbulent and overly busy it says: "prayer can be peaceful productivity."

For Americans these are radically countercultural messages, and if we take them to heart, we may find that Benedict's legacy to us is a path he has culled by his own example, one that puts us on an escape route from relentless doing, to the treasure of being.

That's a beautiful, inspiring, hopeful message.

It's a Gospel message.

Thanks Elizabeth.

Did Obama use faux twitter accounts to boost his anti-gun crusade? (UPDATED)

One Texas Republican is making the charge:

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) accused Obama of trying to make support for his position look stronger than it really is by flooding Twitter with messages from people who don't exist.

"Obama's anti-gun campaign is a fraud," Stockman said. "Obama's supporters are panicking and willing to do anything to create the appearance of popular support, even if it means trying to defraud Congress," he added. "I call upon the president to denounce this phony spam campaign."

 Stockman said that in response to Obama's call for people to tweet their congressman in support of gun control legislation, he received just 16 tweets. But he said all of these messages were identical, and that a closer look at them revealed that only six were from real people.

"The other 10 are fake, computer-generated spambots," his office said in a press release. As evidence, he said these 10 tweets use default graphics and names, and have not engaged in any interaction with other people. Two of the tweets were sent at nearly the same time, and both follow just one person: Brad Schenck, Obama's former digital strategist.

It's terrible that anyone would besmirch the President in this way, a man of integrity and character and class.

What's that?  There's semi-related news on the integrity, character and class meme?

He's selling access?  To quarterly meetings?  And he's taking money from people who might actually be appointed to administration jobs and/or even ambassadorships?

No way.

He's not that in your face is he?:

MSNBC’s Chuck Todd criticized Monday the new fundraising efforts of President Obama’s dark money group, Organizing for Action, calling a scheme for high donors to meet regularly with Obama “the definition of selling access.”

...

“This just looks bad–it looks like the White House is selling access,” Todd said Monday. “It’s the definition of selling access. If you believe money has a strangle hold over the entire political system this is ceding the moral high ground.”

You know, there's only so much the American people will put up with.  I mean, when Chuck Todd is questioning his morality, who else might be getting fed up?

When Michelle Obama was introduced by Jack Nicholson most of the reporters in the media room groaned....loudly

— stevengregory (@stevengregory) February 25, 2013

WTF is Michelle doing in here? #Oscars

— Tina Brown (@TheTinaBeast) February 25, 2013

For anyone who doubted the Hollywood-Washington nexus; always happy to see Michelle Obama, but somehow, here, it's the wrong message.

— Richard Brody (@tnyfrontrow) February 25, 2013

UPDATE: Jennifer Rubin of the WaPo minced no words at the First Lady's Oscar appearance:

It is not enough that President Obama pops up at every sporting event in the nation. Now the first lady feels entitled, with military personnel as props, to intrude on other forms of entertaining (this time for the benefit of the Hollywood glitterati who so lavishly paid for her husband’s election). I’m sure the left will holler that once again conservatives are being grouchy and have it in for the Obamas. Seriously, if they really had their president’s interests at heart, they’d steer away from encouraging these celebrity appearances. It makes both the president and the first lady seem small and grasping. In this case, it was just downright weird.

It's good to know that more people are seeing these folks for who they really are though it's extremely tough not to ask... where the hell have you been?

"Stupid. Pointless. Menacing. That's what I thought of Christians and their god Jesus..."

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield's story of conversion seems most appropriate as the season of Lent begins:

The word Jesus stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk; no matter how hard I choked, I couldn't hack it out. Those who professed the name commanded my pity and wrath. As a university professor, I tired of students who seemed to believe that "knowing Jesus" meant knowing little else. Christians in particular were bad readers, always seizing opportunities to insert a Bible verse into a conversation with the same point as a punctuation mark: to end it rather than deepen it.

Stupid. Pointless. Menacing. That's what I thought of Christians and their god Jesus, who in paintings looked as powerful as a Breck Shampoo commercial model.

As a professor of English and women's studies, on the track to becoming a tenured radical, I cared about morality, justice, and compassion. Fervent for the worldviews of Freud, Hegel, Marx, and Darwin, I strove to stand with the disempowered. I valued morality. And I probably could have stomached Jesus and his band of warriors if it weren't for how other cultural forces buttressed the Christian Right. Pat Robertson's quip from the 1992 Republican National Convention pushed me over the edge: "Feminism," he sneered, "encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians." Indeed. The surround sound of Christian dogma comingling with Republican politics demanded my attention.

After my tenure book was published, I used my post to advance the understandable allegiances of a leftist lesbian professor. My life was happy, meaningful, and full. My partner and I shared many vital interests: aids activism, children's health and literacy, Golden Retriever rescue, our Unitarian Universalist church, to name a few. Even if you believed the ghost stories promulgated by Robertson and his ilk, it was hard to argue that my partner and I were anything but good citizens and caregivers. The GLBT community values hospitality and applies it with skill, sacrifice, and integrity.

I began researching the Religious Right and their politics of hatred against queers like me. To do this, I would need to read the one book that had, in my estimation, gotten so many people off track: the Bible. While on the lookout for some Bible scholar to aid me in my research, I launched my first attack on the unholy trinity of Jesus, Republican politics, and patriarchy, in the form of an article in the local newspaper about Promise Keepers. It was 1997.

he article generated many rejoinders, so many that I kept a Xerox box on each side of my desk: one for hate mail, one for fan mail. But one letter I received defied my filing system. It was from the pastor of the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. It was a kind and inquiring letter. Ken Smith encouraged me to explore the kind of questions I admire: How did you arrive at your interpretations? How do you know you are right? Do you believe in God? Ken didn't argue with my article; rather, he asked me to defend the presuppositions that undergirded it. I didn't know how to respond to it, so I threw it away.

Later that night, I fished it out of the recycling bin and put it back on my desk, where it stared at me for a week, confronting me with the worldview divide that demanded a response. As a postmodern intellectual, I operated from a historical materialist worldview, but Christianity is a supernatural worldview. Ken's letter punctured the integrity of my research project without him knowing it.

Friends with the Enemy

With the letter, Ken initiated two years of bringing the church to me, a heathen. Oh, I had seen my share of Bible verses on placards at Gay Pride marches. That Christians who mocked me on Gay Pride Day were happy that I and everyone I loved were going to hell was clear as blue sky. That is not what Ken did. He did not mock. He engaged. So when his letter invited me to get together for dinner, I accepted. My motives at the time were straightforward: Surely this will be good for my research.

Something else happened.

Something beautiful.

Read the rest.

"Catholic Health Initatives has recognized an error and has committed... to changing their course"

Media coverage was wide and breathless when news broke about a Catholic hospital's attorneys arguing that a fetus is not a human being in defending said hospital from a wrongful death lawsuit.

That hospital has now apparently had a Damascus Road experience:

“The bishops are disappointed by what happened, without a doubt...but Catholic Health Initatives has recognized an error and has committed to moving forward and to changing their course, and that really does deserve to be commended,” J.D. Flynn, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Denver, told CNA Feb. 4.

“Institutions and people make errors, but the Christian life is to take responsibility for what we've done and move forward, and so we're thankful for that.”

In 2006, Lori Stodghill and her two unborn children died at a hospital operated by Catholic Health Initiatives. Lawyers for the health system argued that Colorado's wrongful death legislation does not apply to fetuses.

On Feb. 4, the Catholic bishops of Colorado “expressed their support for Catholic Health Initiatives after the national health care organization acknowledged that it was 'morally wrong' for attorneys to cite the state’s Wrongful Death Act in defense of a lawsuit involving one of its affiliated hospitals.”

Last week, Colorado's three bishops met with four executives of Catholic Health Initiatives to discuss the Stodghill case. The bishops had pledged on Jan. 24 to review the matter to ensure faithful witness to Church teaching.

“CHI representatives acknowledged that it was morally wrong for attorneys representing St. Thomas More Hospital to cite the state's Wrongful Death Act in defense of this lawsuit,” Catholic Health Initiatives stated Feb. 4.

Catholic Health Initiatives called Colorado's Wrongful Death Act “unjust” and said that they will not use it in potential future litigation of the Stodghill case.

In addition, Catholic Health Initiatives “unequivocally affirmed CHI's strict adherence to one of the Church's most basic moral commitments – that every person is created in the image and likeness of God and that life begins at the moment of conception.”

“It is an unfortunate and regrettable point of fact that Colorado law, as it now stands, fails to adequately protect the rights of the unborn,” Catholic Health Initiatives said.

I doubt that the reversal will be reported as widely as the initial decision nevertheless, it was a much needed and necessary course correction.

Hats off to all involved.

We need a little more Iván Fernández Anayas

USA Today carries a story that's going viral:

Spanish runner Ivan Fernandez Anaya is still receiving attention for a race he lost on Dec. 2, 2012. Here's why, as told by Spanish newspaper El Pais:

He was running second, some distance behind race leader Abel Mutai -- bronze medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the London Olympics. As they entered the finishing straight, he saw the Kenyan runner -- the certain winner of the race -- mistakenly pull up about 10 meters before the finish, thinking he had already crossed the line.

Fernandez Anaya quickly caught up with him, but instead of exploiting Mutai's mistake to speed past and claim an unlikely victory, he stayed behind and, using gestures, guided the Kenyan to the line and let him cross first.

Tough decision, right? Actually, no.

"He was the rightful winner," Fernandez Anaya said. "He created a gap that I couldn't have closed if he hadn't made a mistake. As soon as I saw he was stopping, I knew I wasn't going to pass him."

Great story.  Much needed story.

Thanks Robert.