The imam behind the proposed Islamic cultural center near ground zero in New York says the Islamophobic backlash over the project rivaled, if not exceeded, the anger felt toward the Muslim community after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 — and that, if given the choice to do it over again, he would have never proposed building it near ground zero.
In an interview with Christiane Amanpour that aired Sunday on ABC’s "This Week," Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf said that he never expected the proposed mosque to become engulfed in controversy.
“I would never have done it,” he said when asked what he would have done had he anticipated what would happen. “I'm a man of peace. I mean the whole objective of peace work is not to do something that would provoke controversy.”
Rauf said that developers were still deciding whether they would relocate the proposed mosque, but that he feared moving it could cause an uproar in the Muslim world.
"My major concern with moving it is that the headline in the Muslim world will be Islam is under attack in America, this will strengthen the radicals in the Muslim world, help their recruitment, this will put our people — our soldiers, our troops, our embassies, our citizens — under attack in the Muslim world and we have expanded and given and fueled terrorism," he said.
Rauf's remarks come a day after a Sept. 11 anniversary marked by protests for and against the proposed cultural center, which would be situated blocks from the site of the attacks.
Rauf also responded to the threat by a Florida pastor to burn Qurans if the mosque weren’t moved by saying: “You can't equate the two. ... How can you equate burning of any person's scripture with an attempt to build interfaith dialogue?”
“There’s alive and there’s dead, and there’s a worse place in between them that I hope you never know nothing about.”
Felix Bush was “just going through the motions” of life for forty years. These words are his from the new movie Get Low, a gripping, raw, beautiful story of grace – a movie about the liberation that comes from confession and forgiveness.
Get Low is inspired by the life and legend of a Tennessee hermit named Felix “Bush” Breazeale who died at the turn of the 20th century. The movie is not explicitly Catholic. But no Catholic should walk away from it without a refreshed appreciation for the lifesaving gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
While the world will make of freedom what it may, we know true freedom is in Christ, made possible through His extraordinary mercy.
In Get Low, Hollywood seems to have a clue, too -- and with an all-star lineup, in fact, starring Robert Duvall and co-starring Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek.
The only mystery to me about Get Low is why friends aren’t urging – even begging – one another to see it. At another point in the movie, Duvall’s character heartbreakingly admits: “I was always restless. I didn’t go nowhere on purpose because I did something I was ashamed of. Something I could never fix.”
If he only knew he didn’t have to fix it himself! That he isn’t alone. Do we know this, ourselves? We forget, don’t we?
Likewise, during a dramatic graveyard scene that begins to reveal the depth of the prison Felix has let sin keep him in, he recalls the advice he’s frequently given: “They keep talking about forgiveness. ‘Ask Jesus for forgiveness.’”
He shakes his head in indignation masking a dangerous and deep flirtation with despair. “I never did nothing for him,” Felix protests in the voice of one desperately in need of God's mercy.
There are men like Felix Bush in your life who feel the same. There are mortal sins the world takes seriously and mortal sins the world tolerates, approves of, encourages, and outright revels in. Yet maybe even in that latter category, a man feels shame, even today, and even in the most sordid of contexts. Maybe he goes to church and sits in the back. Perhaps he overhears a preacher on radio now and again, catches EWTN late at night. But it makes no difference. He still keeps going through the motions in a life that isn’t quite lived in any way that would give him any sense of fulfillment, any sense that he is made for a greater purpose than the pain he now experiences. For him, forgiveness isn’t anything he deserves, so he will never seek it.
I don’t think I’ve met the person who has never hesitated to ask forgiveness because he did not deserve it. After all, we can never do for our Lord what He has done for us. But that’s the point -- that’s the glory of His extraordinary love, and that’s why we give our lives to Him. That’s why we seek His mercy always and live to be guided by His love. Anything less would be going through the motions -- maybe not as dramatically as in the life of Felix Bush, but to pretend that it’s all that different is delusion.
The movie revolves around Felix’s “living funeral,” an event he plans himself. As the preacher at the “funeral” says: “We like to imagine that good and bad and right and wrong are miles apart. But the truth is very often they are all tangled up with each other.” There’s more Felix Bush in most of us than we might care to admit.
Get Low isn’t the first movie I’ve seen in the past year that made me walk away checking Confession schedules. A little remarked-on moment in the movie The Blind Side was a beautiful example of the practice of examination of conscience. Sandra Bullock’s character turns to her husband and asks if she is a good person. She’s not looking for affirmation. She wants to make sure that her intentions are pure. And, as St. Teresa of Avila tells us time and again -- on nearly every page of her autobiography, it can seem like -- she knows the importance of having competent help in such a routine examination, a spiritual guide. Granted, The Blind Side isn’t a sacramental how-to, but the point of this scene is not far off from where we need to be every moment of our lives.
“I wish you peace from the burdens of your mind and heart, I wish it for us all,” says the Get Low preacher at the end of the movie. Through the sacramental prism of the Church’s liturgy, I heard: “Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. For the Kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.”
Hollywood taps into something much bigger than the box office in Get Low. Grace certainly does abound.
(see the Kresta in the Afternoon interview with Robert Duval below)
Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor-at-large of National Review Online and a nationally syndicated columnist. She speaks frequently on faith and public life.
A commission established by the Church in Belgium to investigate clerical abuse issued its report on September 10, documenting 475 allegations received this year.
“Almost every institution, every school, particularly boarding schools, at one time harbored abuse,” said Peter Adriaenssens, the commission’s director. The report found that two thirds of the victims were male, that abuse peaked in the 1960s and 1970s, and that 13 abuse victims had committed suicide.
On September 11, Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who has admitted he had abused his nephew, announced he would depart from a Trappist monastery where he had lived since his April resignation. “As of today, I will contemplate my life and future somewhere hidden, outside the Diocese of Bruges.”
Asking forgiveness and admitting his guilt “to our Church, to society, and all people marked by the suffering,” he added, “My remorse has increased now that I see how much evil happened, partly because of me.”
MSNBC anchor Contessa Brewer openly admitted Friday that she wants "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" nixed soon, lamenting that "justice delayed is justice denied" for gay soldiers. Just reporting the news?
CatholicVote.org has released its first video in a series of new commercials by the CatholicVote.org Education Fund designed to educate, inspire, and mobilize the Catholic vote this November.
Talking about the "things that matter most" on Sept. 13
4:00 - Preconceived bigotry: Response to Anne Rice media shorthand
Anne Rice, author of the popular “Vampire Chronicles” and two novels about the early years of Jesus, announced recently that she was leaving the Catholic Church. In a series of postings on her Facebook page, she explained that she was leaving because: “In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life.” Rice’s confusing pilgrimage is her pilgrimage. She has obviously gotten lost along the road. She needs prayer, not a lot of ad hominem attacks. But the troublesome part of this personal business, says our next guest, has been how her rhetorical flourishes have been exploited by the media meat-grinder. All the assorted stereotypes about Catholics were burped up in Rice’s public explanation. She unfortunately fed more fuel to a media caricature that has nothing to do with the reality of the faith lived. The public issue isn’t Anne Rice. The public issue is how the chattering classes in the media have used her statement to reinforce their own stereotypes of Catholics. Bob Lockwood makes his case.
4:30 – Affirming Religious Freedom: How Vatican Council II Developed the Church's Teaching to Meet Today's Needs
Vatican II adopted an approach to religious liberty based on affirming the human dignity of the religious believer. This new emphasis was reflected in the title of its declaration on religious freedom Dignitatis Humanae which means "On Human Dignity." In it the Church, speaking through the Council, teaches that "the human person has a right to religious freedom." What is entailed by this right is "that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of every human power in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, within due limits." Ken Whitehead is here to look at the implications of this new emphais on what the Church has traditionally held and taught, but which has not always been well understood.
5:00 - An Historic Look at the Catholic Church and Culture
The Catholic Church. It began as a small band of supporters following the teachings of an itinerant preacher in an outpost of the Roman Empire. From there, the church expanded both its size and its importance in the grand scheme of Western history. Today, the church is the oldest continuously active organization on Earth and one of the most influential institutions in the world—a force capable of moving armies, inspiring saints, and shaping the lives of a billion members. Dr. William Cook has done a teaching series on “The Catholic Church: A History” and today joins us to talk specifically about the history of the Church and Culture.
Talking about the "things that matter most" on Sept. 10
4:00 – New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy
With the incredible popularity of recent books championing agnosticism or atheism, many people might never know that such books almost completely ignore the considerable evidence for theism uncovered in both physics and philosophy over the past four decades. Fr. Robert Spitzer responds to these glaring omissions. From universal space-time asymmetry to cosmic coincidences to the intelligibility of reality, Fr. Spitzer tackles a wealth of evidence. He considers string theory, quantum cosmology, mathematical thoughts on infinity, and much more. This fascinating and stunning collection of evidence provides solid grounding for reasonable and responsible belief in a super-intelligent, transcendent, creative power standing at the origins of our universe.
4:40 – “The Lord’s Prayer” Fr. Robert Barron of Word on Fire Ministries and the Catholicism Project is here for his bi-monthly segment. Today he addresses the “Lord’s Prayer.”
5:00 – Finance Friday Part 1 of 10:
Architects of Ruin: How big government liberals wrecked the global economy
Today we begin an estimated 10-part series intended to fully explore the practical, political, moral and philosophical underpinnings of the financial meltdown of 2008. Our guide will be Dr. Max Torres and each “Financial Friday” we will be using as a base of discussion, one book written on an aspect of the financial crisis. Today, we being with Peter Schweitzer’s Architects of Ruin.
Talking about the "things that matter most" on Sept. 9
4:00 – An Historic Look at the Catholic Church and Culture
The Catholic Church. It began as a small band of supporters following the teachings of an itinerant preacher in an outpost of the Roman Empire. From there, the church expanded both its size and its importance in the grand scheme of Western history. Today, the church is the oldest continuously active organization on Earth and one of the most influential institutions in the world—a force capable of moving armies, inspiring saints, and shaping the lives of a billion members. Dr. William Cook has done a teaching series on “The Catholic Church: A History” and today joins us to talk specifically about the history of the Church and Culture.
5:00 – Catholics Come Home
It is clear that our society is in the midst of a culture war. More than ever, people need God, but sadly, many have lost sight of the treasures of the Catholic faith. We can see the reality of our fallen-away brothers and sisters not only in our nation as a whole, but even in our own families and neighborhoods. The evidence is shocking. Catholics Come Home, Inc. combines the effectiveness of mass media outreach, with the ease of Web-based fulfillment, to create a highly effective Catholic evangelism effort never before seen…and the results are astonishing. Founder and President Tom Peterson joins us.
5:30 – “Ave Maria Strong”
Ave Maria University has been privileged to host Senator Rick Santorum, Dr. Francis Beckwith, Dr. Michael Waldstein, Francis Cardinal George and others as speakers for the Formal Academic Convocations in the recent past. This years Fall Formal Academic Convocation was last Friday afternoon, September 3. The speaker was Anne Hendershott and she talked about the responsibility of a Catholic University to train the new “soldiers” for the Church. She gives us a review.
Talking about the "things that matter most" on Sept. 8
4:00 – Kresta Comments – TIME Cover Photo
TIME Magazine recently published a very disturbing photo on their cover. The editorial page defended the publication of the photo as necessary to tell the truth of what was really happening. They said that children may be disturbed, but the truth should not be hidden. They said that in the midst of a lot of political rhetoric and hyperbole, sometimes the human toll gets lost and forgotten. Were they talking about a photo of an unborn baby destroyed by abortion? Al has a commentary.
4:20 – The Biblical Roots of the Mass
As a Catholic, do you ever wonder why Jesus is referred to as “the Lamb of God” or why the “Body and Blood” of our Lord distributed at Communion time still look and taste like ordinary bread and wine? If the biblical story of the Mass did not begin at the Last Supper, where did it begin? Answers to these and many more questions will be provided in EWTN’s exclusive new 13-part series, “The Biblical Story of the Mass,” which will air 5 p.m. ET Sundays (with a re-air at 2:30 a.m. ET Fridays), beginning Aug. 29. Co-host Tom Nash is here to discuss it.
4:40 – Providing Spiritual Nourishment to Soldiers on the Front Lines
The Frontline Faith Project delivers compact MP3 players preloaded with spiritual content, especially as it pertains to military service, to members of our armed forces currently deployed or returning from deployment, with special emphasis on injured troops and troops stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan. The FRONTLINE FAITH Players include an audio rendition of the Mass (Provided By EWTN); various homilies; prayers just for those serving, including a recitation of the Rosary; Christian music; prayers from children; and testimonies from soldiers about the struggles and victories of their faith journeys. We talk with the founder of the project, Cheri Lomonte
5:00 – Preconceived bigotry: Response to Anne Rice media shorthand
Anne Rice, author of the popular “Vampire Chronicles” and two novels about the early years of Jesus, announced recently that she was leaving the Catholic Church. In a series of postings on her Facebook page, she explained that she was leaving because: “In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life.” Rice’s confusing pilgrimage is her pilgrimage. She has obviously gotten lost along the road. She needs prayer, not a lot of ad hominem attacks. But the troublesome part of this personal business, says our next guest, has been how her rhetorical flourishes have been exploited by the media meat-grinder. All the assorted stereotypes about Catholics were burped up in Rice’s public explanation. She unfortunately fed more fuel to a media caricature that has nothing to do with the reality of the faith lived. The public issue isn’t Anne Rice. The public issue is how the chattering classes in the media have used her statement to reinforce their own stereotypes of Catholics. Bob Lockwood makes his case.
5:30 – Affirming Religious Freedom: How Vatican Council II Developed the Church's Teaching to Meet Today's Needs
Vatican II adopted an approach to religious liberty based on affirming the human dignity of the religious believer. This new emphasis was reflected in the title of its declaration on religious freedom Dignitatis Humanae which means "On Human Dignity." In it the Church, speaking through the Council, teaches that "the human person has a right to religious freedom." What is entailed by this right is "that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of every human power in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, within due limits." Ken Whitehead is here to look at the implications of this new emphais on what the Church has traditionally held and taught, but which has not always been well understood.
Kurtz Asks TIME Editor Why He Doesn't Have Any Conservative Columnists. If only I believed his answer. How about a pro-life columnist. How about an orthodox Catholic columnist. Then we would REALLY have diversity of world-view.
Talking about the "things that matter most" on Sept. 7
4:00 – The Social and Political Thought of Benedict XVI
Covering the entire trajectory of his religious life, “The Social and Political Thought of Benedict XVI” identifies and analyzes the foundations of political and social order in the philosophy of Pope Benedict XVI. Author Thomas R. Rourke explains Benedict's belief in the value of the Christian tradition's contribution to a contemporary politics of reason. He joins us.
4:30 – September 7, 1774: Official Prayer Opens First Continental Congress
On this day in 1774, an official prayer opened the First Continental Congress. On this occasion we take a look how our country was forged in faith. Based on meticulous research into the correspondence and documentation of the founding fathers leading up to and encompassing the crafting of the Declaration of Independence, Rod Gragg sheds light on how the Judeo-Christian worldview motivated America’s founding fathers, influenced national independence, inspired our foundational documents, and established the American nation.
5:00 – Kresta Comments
5:20 – The Birth of Mary
Tomorrow is the feast of the birth of Mary. The origin of this Feast is sought in Palestine. It goes back to the consecration of a church in Jerusalem, which tradition identifies as that of the present basilica of St. Ann. As we know, the Gospels have not transmitted to us anything about the birth of the Virgin Mary. Their attention is completely centered on the mystery of Christ and His salvific mission. The birth of Mary is recounted by the Protevangelium of James (5:2), an apocryphal writing from the end of the 2nd century. Subsequent tradition is based on this account. Steve Ray is here to expound on this feast.
Citing “restructuring,” the University of Notre Dame has fired Bill Kirk from his position as associate vice president for residence life. David Solomon, a university philosophy professor and the founder and director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, linked the firing to Kirk’s public opposition to the university’s decision to award President Barack Obama an honorary degree in 2009. Kirk worked for the university for almost 22 years.
In addition, Kirk’s wife served as faculty advisor to the pro-life club and to NDResponse, the student group that opposed the honor for the president.
Some charge that “Bill Kirk’s enforcement of Notre Dame’s disciplinary code was too harsh and that his insistence that Notre Dame athletes be subject to the same rules as other Notre Dame students was responsible for our repeated failures on the athletic fields,” notes Solomon, who has been at the university for 42 years.
“The larger role played by Bill Kirk and his family at Notre Dame and in the local community also raises questions about the wisdom-- indeed, the fairness-- of severing him from this community,” Solomon adds, noting:
"At the time Bill took part in the NDResponse rally, many people commented on the courage it took for him to stand with his wife and other witnesses to this protest of Notre Dame’s decision to award President Obama an honorary degree. I personally discounted these worries, believing that the Notre Dame administration would admire him for his principled stand on a matter so close to the Catholic heart of Notre Dame, even if they disagreed with his particular action. The administration welcomed President Obama’s sharp dissent from and attack on central Catholic teaching on life. It seemed only reasonable that they would equally welcome dissent from university policy by such a loyal Catholic and member of the Notre Dame family as Bill Kirk-- especially when his dissent was made in the name of the Catholic principles at Notre Dame’s heart and in the company of his bishop. Perhaps, alas, there was reason for Bill Kirk to be worried about his participation in NDResponse after all …
"It is, however, the callousness and the brutal insensitivity with which Bill and Elizabeth Kirk were effectively severed from the Notre Dame community that has had the greatest impact on those of us who regard them as personal friends. And here I must speak very personally. The Kirks’ house has been an oasis of hospitality for faculty, students and administrators at Notre Dame, as well as for their countless friends and acquaintances in the larger South Bend community and from around the world. It is perhaps their own penchant for hospitality and welcome that makes their treatment by Notre Dame seem so appalling. The parents of two young adopted children, Bill and Elizabeth Kirk were in the process, as Bill Kirk’s bosses well knew, of adopting a third child at the time he was fired."
Professor David Solomon joined us on "Kresta in the Afternoon" today to discuss the firing. Watch the webcam segment below.
A well-known Australian Muslim cleric has called for the beheading of Dutch anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders, a newspaper said on Friday.
Wilders' Freedom Party scored the biggest gains in June 9 polls and is currently negotiating to form a new minority government with the Liberals and Christian Democrats. Polls show Wilders would win a new election if one were called now.
Wilders demanded to know why he had learnt about the threat from the newspaper and not from Dutch authorities who are guarding him after a film and remarks he made angered Muslims around the world.
De Telegraaf, the Netherlands' largest newspaper, led its front page on Friday with a story on the speech by Feiz Muhammad.
The Sydney-born Muhammad has gained notoriety for, among other things, calling on young children to be radicalized and blaming rape victims for their own attacks.
The paper posted an English-language audio clip in which he refers to Wilders as "this Satan, this devil, this politician in Holland" and explains that anyone who talks about Islam like Wilders does should be executed by beheading.
De Telegraaf did not say when the speech was given but said it and the Dutch secret service both had copies. According to his website, Muhammad is based in Malaysia.
Wilders told Reuters it was "really terrible news" and that he was taking it seriously.
"I will ask for clarification from the Dutch minister of interior/justice why the secret service and anti-terrorism unit NCTb have not informed me before and what the consequences will be for me," he said in an email.
A spokesman for the Dutch secret service referred inquiries on the threat to the NCTb. A spokeswoman for the NCTb was not available to comment.
Wilders is currently on trial in the Netherlands for inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims.
The Freedom Party leader made a film in 2008 which accused the Koran of inciting violence and mixed images of terrorist attacks with quotations from the Islamic holy book.
Wilders was also charged because of outspoken remarks in the media, such as an opinion piece in a Dutch daily in which he compared Islam to fascism and the Koran to Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf."
Of late he has been in the news for plans to speak out against a planned mosque in New York City on September 11, the ninth anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
But his views have also made him extremely popular with a segment of the country uneasy about the Netherlands' commitment to multiculturalism.
The college vote is up for grabs this year — to an extent that would have seemed unlikely two years ago, when a generation of young people seemed to swoon over Barack Obama.
Though many students are liberals on social issues, the economic reality of a weak job market has taken a toll on their loyalties: far fewer 18- to 29-year-olds now identify themselves as Democrats compared with 2008.
“Is the recession, which is hitting young people very hard, doing lasting or permanent damage to what looked like a good Democratic advantage with this age group?” asked Scott Keeter, the director of survey research at the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan group. “The jury is still out.”
How and whether millions of college students vote will help determine if Republicans win enough seats to retake the House or Senate, overturning the balance of power on Capitol Hill, and with it, Mr. Obama’s agenda. If students tune out and stay home it will also carry a profound message for American society about a generation that seemed so ready, so recently, to grab national politics by the lapels and shake.
All those questions are in play here in Larimer County, about an hour north of Denver, for the more than 25,000 students at Colorado State University.
Larimer, like much of Colorado, was once solidly Republican but went Democratic in the last few elections and is now contested by both sides. It is seen as a signal beacon for an increasingly unpredictable state.
Kristin Johnson, 23, like many other students interviewed here in recent days, said that a vote for Democrats in 2008, however passionate it was, did not a Democrat make. But she bristles just as much at the idea of being called a Republican.
It's no secret that Chris Matthews once flirted with the idea of running for Senate in Pennsylvania, but since he didn't throw his hat into that race, the Hardball host, on Thursday night, did everything he could to help Joe Sestak beat Republican Pat Toomey. He tells Sestak "I Hope Your Party Gets Organized and Wins This Thing!" WOW!
