Pandemics and Extremism

 A Washington Post article today explored the historical ties between pandemics and extremism.

"Since ancient times, pandemics have spurred sharp turns in political beliefs, spawning extremist movements, waves of mistrust and wholesale rejection of authorities. Nearly a year into the coronavirus crisis, Americans are falling prey to the same phenomenon, historians, theologians and other experts say, exemplified by a recent NPR-Ipsos poll in which nearly 1 in 5 said they believe Satan-worshipping, child-enslaving elites seek to control the world....The United States was not the only country affected: A British study found that the pandemic boosted radicalization globally, as people found more time to delve into extremist arguments....New insecurities and fears loosed by the pandemic fed into an existing erosion of trust in leaders and institutions, according to those who have studied how people react to rampant, uncontrolled disease."

The Fourth Wave?

According to the NYT database new cases of the virus have been steadily falling -until the last few days when they have either plateaued or are reversing themselves.  Will we have a fourth wave based on the variants which are more resistant to the vaccine? 

The Coronavirus Is Plotting a Comeback.

 Here’s Our Chance to Stop It for Good.

Hopefully the NYT is allowing access to this article for everyone. Nevertheless I have excerpted and unlined the key points to facilitate discussion

Americans will win against the virus and regain many aspects of their pre-pandemic lives, most scientists now believe. Of the 21 interviewed for this article, all were optimistic that the worst of the pandemic is past. This summer, they said, life may begin to seem normal again.

But — of course, there’s always a but — researchers are also worried that Americans, so close to the finish line, may once again underestimate the virus.

So far, the two vaccines authorized in the United States are spectacularly effective, and after a slow start, the vaccination rollout is picking up momentum. A third vaccine is likely to be authorized shortly, adding to the nation’s supply.

But it will be many weeks before vaccinations make a dent in the pandemic. And now the virus is shape-shifting faster than expected, evolving into variants that may partly sidestep the immune system.

The road back to normalcy is potholed with unknowns: how well vaccines prevent further spread of the virus; whether emerging variants remain susceptible enough to the vaccines; and how quickly the world is immunized, so as to halt further evolution of the virus.

But the greatest ambiguity is human behavior. Can Americans desperate for normalcy keep wearing masks and distancing themselves from family and friends? How much longer can communities keep businesses, offices and schools closed?

Bernie: On the Future of the Democratic Party

 The main points of Bernie's E-mail Today  I think Bernie is on the right track in calling for what I think of as an FDR working class Democratic Party. Unfortunately the Democrats are now dominated by elitists, and Bernie has difficulty getting his message across because of his misbranding himself as a Democratic Socialist for so long. Of course he probably thinks of FDR as a Democratic Socialist rather than as a Working Class Democrat.

Jack -

The next four years will determine whether our country continues as a democracy or whether we elect another president like Donald Trump who permanently puts us on the path towards authoritarianism. This will in part be decided by how well the Democratic Party, with control of the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate, does at enacting policies that make a difference in the lives of working people.

It is also dependent on building a Democratic Party that can truly speak to the working class of our party — Black, white, Latino, Native Americans and Asian Americans. The party must reach out and organize all Americans who believe in the principles of economic justice, racial justice, social justice, and environmental justice. It must be a party that has the courage to stand up to the powerful special interests who have so much control over the economic and political life of our country. Finally, it must be a party driven by grassroots activism, not one that serves the interests of well-paid political consultants.

During this unprecedented moment in American history, we must make it clear that we will not return to the same old establishment politics. We cannot continue to ignore the needs of tens of millions of working families. And we cannot accept government policy which enables the very rich to get much richer while a majority of Americans live in economic desperation.

Our one-fewer-car experiment

For the past month, we've been down a car.  So far, it's nearly been working out.

Two pandemics

 Kevin Williamson, a conservative writer with National Review and other outlets (and who also happens to be Catholic) remarks from time to time that the experience of the pandemic has not been consistent across social and demographic classes.  In this week's edition of his weekly e-newsletter, The Tuesday (which arrives on the day of the week one would expect), he makes a few observations along these lines, from which I'd like to excerpt.

Prayer, fasting and abstinence

 This is my homily for today, the First Sunday of Lent, Cycle B.  The readings for today are here.

Lent and the Pandemic UPDATED

 

Perpetual Lent The pandemic is already a period of mourning.

I don't know if this Commonweal link will be accessible to everyone.  However if it is a brief article that raises an important question even though not giving a very satisfying answer.

How does one enter a time of fasting, weeping, and rending of hearts when you feel like you’ve already been in one for so long—when COVID-19, racism, xenophobia, political drama, ecclesial division, and the Capitol insurrection have kept us in a state of mourning and weeping for the past year? 

As I’m bombarded with reminders on social media that Lent is upon us, I’ve observed a spiritual disconnect. The way that our Catholic institutions are inviting us to enter this season makes it sound like it’s liturgical business as usual

Church leaders cannot blithely ask hard-hit communities to consider fasting and almsgiving as unemployment rates rise and families struggle to meet expenses and put food on the table. 

So what is to be done? This Lent presents us with an opportunity to examine the desert that we have been living in for the past year. If Church leaders and institutions wish to lead us in our Lenten spiritual journey, it is imperative that they unequivocally acknowledge the seriousness of the times and the horrors the pandemic has wrought. They need to provide opportunities for people to unpack the traumas of lost livelihood, lost loved ones, racism, and xenophobia

When Lent invites us to enter the desert—to return to God with our whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning—it is actually an invitation to recognize that we are already there, because there is suffering and injustice somewhere

I guess I see the question it raises and the need to face the present situation as important observations. I am not sure I know how to go about doing that, though I agree with her last observation. This Lent may hit home for almost everyone, however surely past Lents have hit home for the many people who live lives of perpetual suffering and injustice every Lent.  So maybe there is something wrong if Lent is the only time we face these issues?

I forget to include my post from the PrayTell blog back in 2011:

Remote Learning Circa 1937

 I just thought this article was interesting. I hadn't been aware that remote learning had been done in the polio outbreak of 1937. Of course the internet hadn't been invented yet; it was done via radio.

From the article:

... And it's gone: US bishops disband their "working group"

National Catholic Reporter is reporting that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has disbanded an unprecedented special committee set up to handle relations with the Biden Administration.  Christopher White has the story:

Less than three months after the formation of a controversial working group to deal with President Joe Biden, the nation's Catholic bishops have disbanded the group, which produced a public rupture among the U.S. hierarchy in its approach toward the nation's second Catholic president.

According to two bishops familiar with the process, the work of the group is now complete and the group's proposal to produce a document on the question of Communion will be addressed by the U.S. bishops' Committee on Doctrine.

Chieko Noguchi, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, declined to comment.

How the decision to disband came about, who made the decision, and whether the Holy See had any input into the decision, is not reported in White's story.  But it seems a fair guess that the manifest division among American bishops regarding the proper stance toward the pro-choice Catholic president's administration hasn't been resolved.

Ashes this year

Getty Images, via Allure.com

No thumbs touching foreheads this year.

A Center-Right Party Without Trump?

 Did any of you see this article on Jim McCrea's email thread?

"Days before former president Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial began, more than 100 former GOP officials reportedly hopped on a Zoom call. The topic: how to best rally whatever anti-Trump momentum is left in the party."

From the article:

Joe Biden and Catholicism in the United States

 

A Catholic scholar weighs Biden’s future with Vatican and US bishops

The Vatican may be breathing a sigh of relief on Joe Biden's election. But the second Catholic president faces significant headwinds from American bishops, writes Massimo Faggioli in a new book. 

This is an interview by RNS; my comments in italics

You describe Joe Biden as a kind of liminal figure, caught between the 20th and 21st century. Explain what you mean.

He is a cradle Catholic, born and raised in a world shielded from pluralism, much more than today. So he was born in one world and reached the highest office in a very different world and a very different church.

What’s fascinating about his Catholicism is that he embodies an attempt to bring back a Catholic identity that doesn’t need other adjectives. Today, there’s always an adjective qualifying “Catholic”: a liberal, conservative, traditionalist and so on. This is the phenomenon of branding. But that’s not Joe Biden. His Catholicism is co-essential with his life and identity.  

Two images of Biden dominate my imagination: rosary praying (traditional) and Eagles Wings (Vatican II) Is that a conscious attempt to appeal to all Catholics?

The Problem of Evil

Commonweal has a good article this time, titled All Will Be Well, and subtitled "Julian of Norwich, David Hume, and the problem of evil", by Denys Turner.  It also brings in discussion of Duns Scotus, and contemporary Calvinist theologian, Alvin Plantinga.  It is a longish article, but worth reading. The problem of evil touches on our discussion in Anne's thread of the meaning of intercessory prayer. It's only fair to point out that it's not going to answer our questions, but shows that people through the ages have kicked around the same dilemmas. 

I have posted some excerpts from the article here:

What are we doing when we pray?

 I have mentioned more than once that I find the concept of intercessory prayer to be very challenging. The conventional definition (that God intervenes in the natural order at the request of a saint intercessor that someone has prayed to) doesn't line up with my concept of God as being equally loving to every person  created. I don't see God doing favors for me because I pray to St.  Somebody to intercede and get my son a job or save the life of my friend. God doesn't play favorites.

The Shalem blog quotes Howard Thurman and Walter Wink who provide better understandings of intercessory prayer

Good News on the Vaccine Front

There are now nine COVID 19 vaccines in use worldwide.  

You have probably heard that the Russian Sputnik V vaccine recently got good peer-reviewed ratings. 

Stay tuned for a brief discussions of the vaccines already out there, and a couple which are likely to be approved in the future.

More Opinions on Denying Communion

 

Bishop McElroy warns against ‘weaponization of Eucharist’ by denying Joe Biden Communion over abortion

"I do not see how depriving the president or other political leaders of Eucharist based on their public policy stance can be interpreted in our society as anything other than the weaponization of Eucharist and an effort not to convince people by argument and by dialogue and by reason, but, rather, to pummel them into submission on the issue," Bishop McElroy said.

"It would be very destructive. It would also cast the [U.S. bishops] conference more significantly into the role of being partisan, as being associated with one party rather than the other."

It seems to me that weaponizing the Eucharist is just the logical corollary to weaponizing the abortion issue by making it the "pre-eminent issue" which is another way of saying it is the only issue that matters.  Bishop McElroy was unable to get the bishops to back off that position before the election when he attempted to include language from Pope Francis which would have included other issues.

However another participant in this symposium made a better point. 

"Denying Communion -- there is a reason why throughout history the church hasn't done this. Why it isn't done around the world. Why almost no Catholic dioceses do this. It seems to me to be logically inappropriate, a disaster and counterproductive," Carr said.

He illustrated a situation: "You try to keep your kids close to the church your whole life, you try to get them to Mass and Communion and (they) say, 'If President Biden can't go to Communion because he's pro-choice, I can't go to Communion. ... I'm not going to church.' This is not where we want to draw this line."

Yes do we really want people who practice contraception or believe that women should be ordained priests decide that they can't go to communion and therefore there is little reason for them to go to church.  Of course many conservative Catholics may think that such people shouldn't go to communion and should find a church that agrees with them. I think those Catholics are essentially sectarian and schismatic, that is they want a church of only people like themselves, the "saints" rather than the church of sinners that Christ came to save.