Don’t you think one’s location would make a big difference here? I mean, San Francisco’s public libraries probably aren’t going to lose homosexual materials requests, but a small town library somewhere else in the country might. I dunno ‘bout getting Catholic stuff “95% of the time”, tho’…
Not at my library. “New Books” is well supplied with homosexual material. Their newest prize is a autobio by first gay player in the NFL. Library doesn’t put in on the shelf but highlights it on the top of the case. There it sits for weeks and weeks. So do others. Then there is the usual run of the mill New Age material, feminist tracts, Howard Zinn type history and books on the Holocaust–including those which attempt to blame Catholics for Nazism. Try finding anything truthful on the Soviet Union and American communism in my library. It has one volume from Yale’s Annals of Communism series. Usdin, Radosh,Yakovlev, Klehr, Rayfield, Haynes and others who have written on revelations since the fall of the Berlin Wall are no where to be seen. We get revisionist history such as put out by Zinn, Foner, Duke, Fitzpatrick, Thurston and Reiber–the same material the left was putting out at the height of the cold war.
If you don’t like the selection in your town, don’t blame the Library Association. Someone selects and orders the books. It’s not the ALA. Those who have enough interest and energy become involved in the process. It sounds like some have done just that. And some haven’t.
Spoken like a true 17-20 year old. I probably would have agreed with you when I was your age.
That’s not really the Catholic attitude. It’s the attitude of a relatively small group of Catholics. Oher Catholics are perfectly willing to entertain various views. A simple example is Seton Hall, which is a Catholic University. This discussion itself shows the vast divisions that exist within the Catholic population; we see Catholics publicly attacking other Catholics. From a sociologic perspective, there no longer exists a Catholic view on social issues. This means there is no dominant view among the Catholic population.
I agree with your assessment of the film, but is Seton Hall not Roman Catholic? It seems like the protestors are a minor but vocal group whose aim is to see any depiction of a lifestyle at odds with their own squelched. Most cases, such fanaticism is the exception, not the rule.
You’re right! They ought to ban any media or book that depicts anything other than single, celibate Catholics or married, chase Catholics.
Um. Okay.
Ha! And here I was feeling pretty spunky this morning for almost 36!
More accurately many folks who are Catholic fail to inform their consciences correctly. Prudential judgements are needed, but political propaganda and academic nuance do not equal truth. They may relate a snapshot of “opinion” but that are not the foundation of a critical intellect.
You mean it means individual Catholics, with varying degrees of understanding, hold opinions that may or may not be consistent with Church teaching.
Exactly correct. I make a distinction between the members of an organization and the official policy of the organization. Self-identified Catholics have a variety of opinions on social issues. Some are in accord with the official Church policy, others are not.
This quote from the USCCB summarizes exactly how I felt about the movie. Sure if Ennis and Jack lived in a different era, the story probably wouldn’t have been so tragic. I believe that if you are well-grounded in your faith, you should be aware of what’s happening in pop-culture. Pop-culture affects society so greatly. Sure you can be ignorant of it and go on living, but when you try to make an arguement against something (like Brokeback or Da Vinci Code) you lose all credibility if you haven’t seen it. It’s like when the Passion of the Christ came out. How would we have felt if people say it sucked, it was full of lies and wrong on so many levels and then they admit they never saw it - we would want them to see the movie and then come back for a debate. Yes this is a Catholic University showing this movie- but university students are adults and to be a well-rounded adult Catholic, they should learn to view and read differing view-points from our religion in order to develop their critical thinking.