www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish

"'The president scowled and walked away in disgust."'

I am not the greatest Andrew Sullivan fan. I tend to share Mark Shea's appraisal about the pole-star of Mr. Sullivan's journalism. While I sympathize with his struggle regarding his faith and his homosexual activity, I do not believe this should excuse him from exercising prudence and fortitude in his journalism.

Having said that, however, I need to give credit where credit is do. He's right about the President's position on rendition. The media should bring questions regarding it to the foreground. The American people deserve a straight answer. We need it so that we can intelligently debate just what we are prepared to do to defend our society.

As Roman Catholic Americans, we must witness to our countrymen the truth that is Jesus Christ. In the context of the War on Terror, We can be certain that Christ is not present in situations in which authorities choose to torture. Why? The Magesterium has declared torture to be intrinsically evil. That's the same catagory that rape and abortion fall under. Turning to torture is turning from Christ. Rendition appears to be the outsourcing of torture.

Unfortunately, the Foolables can appear, in political terms, to the right as well as to the left. Certain conservative catholics long for the Church to just be reasonable about living in the real world with regards to fighting the islamofacists. Others attempt to nuance it, prudentialize it and just plain reject the clear teaching of the Church on it. Some twist the teaching so that it appears to support their views. Still others ask the leading question of "what is torture", as though pushing the line of interrogation techniques to right before the level of torture were a legitimate Catholic stance instead of the manifestation of minimalism that it is. The only way in which such catholics differ from their liberal catholic complementors is the particular political sacred cow in which they hold. The effect is the same: Political ideology comes first. Roman Catholicism second.

Fools need to speak up on this. If we wish to survive as a society, we need to depend on God beyond our borders as well as within. Otherwise, we may well go the way of every other superpower that depended upon its military instead of its God.

Hat tip to Eve Tushnet for the link