Views from the Outside

  “‘Now there was a day,’” murmured Bull, who seemed really to have fallen asleep, “‘when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.’” “You are right,” said Gregory, and gazed all round. “I am a destroyer. I would destroy the world if I could.” A sense of a pathos far under the earth stirred up in Syme, and he spoke brokenly and without sequence. “Oh, most unhappy man,” he cried, “try to be happy! You have red hair like your sister.” “My red hair, like red flames, shall burn up the world,” said Gregory. “I thought I hated everything more than common men can hate anything; but I find that I do not hate everything so much as I hate you!” “I never hated you,” said Syme very sadly. Then out of this unintelligible creature the last thunders broke. “You!” he cried. “You never hated because you never lived. I know what you are all of you, from first to last—you are the people in power! You are the police—the great fat, smiling men in blue a...

In all the flurry of excitement over Pope Francis making it into his second decade of Poping around in Rome, and still hurting over the death of Benedict XVI, I have been ruminating on the differences of each man. In truth, Benedict XVI was a genius, deeply insightful and a calm hand on the tiller of Peter's Barque.  But also in truth, he was a frustrating person to me at times.  He was very Christ-centric and, as odd as this may be to say about a Pope, I sometimes thought he as a bit TOO Christ-centric, to the point of useless abstraction. While it is undoubtedly true that Christ is the Answer to war and poverty and injustice, it's a bit more helpful to explain how Christ is the answer to this particular example of war or poverty or injustice.  How does Christ enter into the debate on the minimum wage, or terrorism in the Middle East or crime in the cities?  Is one side right and the other wrong or must we always acknowledge the view of both sides and split the baby...