Religion and Geopolitics Review: Saturday, June 11

by Dr. David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CHURCH

POPE SETS UP MECHANISM TO REMOVE BISHOPS - A TRUE REFORM: His official statement (motu proprio) As a Loving Mother.

What is seismic about this is that findings of negligence can be grave cause for removal. No doubt the  Francis skeptics will miss this true breakthrough. The pope has made a significant policy initiative and Michael Winters has a good overview. But we must be on guard. Since the 1980s, homosexual-friendly bishops and priests have continually worked themselves onto the oversight committees of "child protection" to ensure those committees would never really uncover and punish the clergy corruption at the heart of the scandals. That is why it is a very good internal move that there is no overall commission but established dicasteries who will carry out these removals. It is also of great practical importance that this is not a penal act but removal from office which will let things happen much faster. We have argued that a true penal system is necessary for the Church to reform the clergy but that must not slow the more immediate goal of getting bad priests out of the parish and negligent bishops out of the chancery. Prudentially it is important there there are no new definitions of crimes or law here.  Thus there can be no ex post facto claims that removals can be effected only for negligence after 2016.

PUTTING GOD FIRST - LEARNING FROM AFRICAN CHRISTIANS: Catholics urged by African Cardinal Sarah to turn toward God in liturgy. Methodists heavily influenced by growing African congregations reverse their support for Abortion Roe Decision and abortion advocacy group.

METHODISTS, MRS. CLINTON, AND AFRICAN CHRISTIANS: The Methodist General Assembly has voted to withdraw from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights. The worldwide Methodist church is in a great battle between traditional Methodists in America allied with African members against white American progressives who aligned the Church with an aggressive pro-abortion group under a religious mantle. The story here.

MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS - THE REAL STRATEGY IN RELIGION: Muslims converting to Christianity.

THE CATHOLICS AND ORTHODOX: A primer on the oldest split in Christendom by Aidan Nichols O.P.

RICH ATHEIST INDIVIDUALISTS VS. THE RELIGIOUS HUMANITY: A convincing demographic communal argument. Nietzsche is dead, but God is still around; and Africa knows it even if Europeans are clueless.

II. GEOPOLITICS AND NATIONS ROUND-UP

NATIONS, RELIGION AND FASCISM: A very negative article about Russian thinker Ivan Ilyn but plenty of information makes it worthwhile to read. There is a growing intellectual and moral sloppiness among the Western elite to equate a vigorous defense of religion and nation as Fascism. Nationalism is not Fascism - and it is nationalism that is rising (by George Friedman of Stratfor).

PHILIPPINES - THE CATHOLIC DRAMA IN ASIA: The new President of the Philippines is a
"cross between Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump." In this most Catholic of all Asian nations he professes "a belief in God but not religion." Several bishops opposed him and he wasn’t shy in blasting their interference. He is an enthusiastic proponent of capital punishment, and comes to office as a man who cleaned up the notorious crime-besieged Davao City. He also is a man who was sexually abused in the Jesuit high school where he was educated. He may see clerics who commit capital crimes, and then say they are against capital punishment, as more special pleaders than moral prophets.

From Foreign Policy (the magazine) daily briefing a few quotes remind us that soon an International Court will rule against China by applying international law of the sea to territory China has claimed historically as China. See our Map on Monday: the South China Sea for a discussion of important distinctions. Two quotes.

“All the islands, where we are doing reclamation, are Chinese islands, are Chinese territory,” Wang Xining, a deputy director-general at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a recent interview.

“The Philippines maintains that the decision of the tribunal, once rendered, will be legally binding and should be accorded due respect by everyone, including China,” said Jose Cuisia, the Philippine ambassador in Washington, told FP.

IF BRITAIN EXITS THE EU - ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, WALES WILL CONTINUE TO SEEK THEIR COMMUNAL IDENTITIES: A talk on the the Christian roots of England by Aidan Nichols O.P. He refuses to reduce the Church in the secular world as an advocate of certain issues. He quotes Christopher Dawson and reminds English Catholics that England herself is a Christian entity. He does not advise taking an anti-Anglican or anti-throne position. They too are breakwaters against the modernist secular tide. I have read Fr. Nichols before but I didn’t understand what a METAPHYSICAL resource he is. He swims in the deeper waters where we must navigate to present anew Christianity and the nations. An excerpt:

"In the second chapter of The Realm I argue that England is historically inseparable from Christianity. Here my chief witness is St Bede, whose History of the English Church and People shows how the genesis of the idea of England is inseparable from the conversion – even if the English nation had not yet acquired its own State form, an event usually dated to the dynastic union achieved under King Athelstan in 927. To put it rhetorically, England was born in the waters of Baptism. It came to natural life, sociologically, as it entered supernatural life, sacramentally. The inability to disengage the identity of England from its ecclesial context – the covenant community of Baptism –means that a memory of the metaphysical will always haunt the English soul."

INDIA, IRAN,  AND AFGHANISTAN - THE ALLIANCE TO TEMPER PAKISTAN: How the great game is played by Iran and India.

IS THERE A US STRATEGY FOR THE MIDEAST IN SIGHT? Bacevich says no.

MILITARY SECURITY INDUSTRY COMPLEX: From 'Foreign Policy Daily Report':

Recently retired U.S. Army General John Campbell might not be commanding American and NATO forces in Afghanistan any more, but he has been appointed to the board of directors for defense behemoth BAE Systems. In a statement, Michael Chertoff, chairman of the company’s board of directors - who is also founder of the Chertoff Group, a D.C. advisory firm, senior counsel of mega law and lobbying firm Covington & Burling LLP, and former secretary of the Homeland Security Department - said Campbell’s “knowledge and perspective on the U.S. military’s needs around the world will be highly valuable.” BAE employs over 32,000 people in the U.S., UK, Sweden, and Israel, and had sales of over $10 billion in 2015.

ISRAEL AND RUSSIA: Keep paying attention to these growing signs of cooperation. What will also be striking is how neo-con journalists are going to suddenly be open to Russia now that they see a green light from Israel.

III. SEXUAL ORDER: THE CULTURE OF LIFE, CULTURE OF PROTECTION

WOULD SPORTS TEAMS BE STRONGER IF THE GIRLS PLAYED? Australia’s top women soccer team vs. boys under fifteen. You don’t want to know what happened.

CHURCHES AND FEMALE CONSCRIPTION: When Washington DC Cardinal Donald Wuerl (successor to Cardinal Ted McCarrick) was asked if the new policy to let homosexuals serve openly in the US military was a problem for Catholics, he said: "That will have to be worked our politically. The Catholic Church has no position on that." The Catholic Church has a most relevant history in allowing an all-male brotherhood to be inundated with homosexuals. Neither Wuerl nor McCarrick should be expected to be very eloquent about that problem. Why the Church should oppose female conscription.

Failure by Design by Anthony Esolen. The best writer on God, human nature, and sexual differences and gender roles is Mr. Esolen. Here, he reminds us why men and women are homosocial in so many of our most natural interactions.

IV. R&G ROUND UP

TRUMP REFORMING THE REPUBLICANS - A PARTY FOR THE WORKERS:
I (Joshua Green of Bloomberg BUSINESS WEEK) asked Trump what he thought the GOP would look like in five years. "Love the question," he replied. "Five, 10 years from now—different party. You’re going to have a worker’s party. A party of people that haven’t had a real wage increase in 18 years, that are angry. What I want to do, I think cutting Social Security is a big mistake for the Republican Party. And I know it’s a big part of the budget. Cutting it the wrong way is a big mistake, and even cutting it [at all]."

It used to be considered very responsible to look for entitlement reforms (especially delaying the retirement age of social security) as a place to fix the budget. The retirement age of social security is a much more important issue to men who work with their hands than those who push the pen. There are plenty of places to fix entitlements without exacerbating the discrepancy of aging for physical laborers and white-collar jobs. Like open immigration for manual laborers, the issue looks different from the perspective of Mitt Romney vs. a non college-educated male.

MUHAHAMMED ALI - HE WAS THE GREATEST - RIP: This video with the article catches a lot about the best heavyweight boxer of the century. From a LA news article in 1984:

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 2— Muhammad Ali, the former heavyweight boxing champion, who endorsed the Rev. Jesse Jackson's unsuccessful run for the White House, has announced he is switching to President Reagan. Asked to elaborate on his endorsement of Mr. Reagan, Mr. Ali told reporters, ''He's keeping God in schools and that's enough.''