Wonderful Matters

Superstar Superactor Superhunk Super-bring-attention-to-bad-things-in-really-rotten-places-across-the-globe-guy George Clooney had his superpersona splashed all over the cover of this week's Time magazine. Inside was a full spread about him, some more of him, and a few other things about him. As I make a feeble attempt at humor here, please know that I don't dislike Clooney at all. I actually like his movies, I do think he's a fine performer, and all the rest of it. In fact, with the wife and kids out seeing the grandfolks and me with a league basketball game late tonight, I rented Michael Clayton which my wife had already seen with a friend. I haven't seen it yet but I plan to just before my game. I get the idea this is about a lawyer who gets mixed up in some kind of shenanigans that high level people get mixed up in, and he's looking for the truth that others don't want him to see, and there are some twists and thrills and all that. I also know about the tag...

The Romans are making forays into Sudan, working valiantly to cure all pain and suffering there. To see what I mean, go to The Catholicist Nation for my latest webzine piece. It's an elaboration of a thread I'd been writing about in my blog, so if you read Wonderful Matters it should look familiar.

In yesterday's Los Angeles Times there appeared a full-page ad about saving Darfur, the war ravaged region of Sudan that is truly a humanitarian catastrophe. The ad had a photograph of a shirtless male survivor of the genocidal violence, the scars on his chest from shrapnel-filled bomb injuries quite plain to see. Wow, sounds like a call for the one person who heals, who saves, who loves to come into this situation. Sounds like the ad called for Jesus. Nah. 'Course not. It called for the guy people think is better, stronger, higher. They called for President Bush. "Tell President Bush: You must do more to save Darfur" is what the ad said. Now you'd think those who truly follow Christ and know who He is would find this comical, but alas, so many of them are piled into the World bandwagon that they just don't get it. They are not getting it to such a great degree that they miss the obvious, as do all the Radical Selfists who fiercely plead with the World to end ...

Over Christmas break I was at my mother-in-law's, and during a down time browsed through a Time magazine she had from the holiday season last year , 2004. The cover story was something about the birth of Jesus, but what caught my attention was the last page essay by Simon Robinson commenting on efforts by gatherings of renowned musical artists such as Band Aid to sell original Christmas music and use the proceeds to advance African relief efforts. The previous home page piece on my website The Catholicist Nation was a critique of One.org's valiant but futile attempts to bring prosperity to Africa. (You may read that critique here ) I brought up items that were confirmed by Robinson's piece, and I just wanted to draw attention to them. He elaborates on something we should all know but don't get, that the real issue is not environmental but spiritual, it is their sin that causes the lack, not the other way around. He says, "the continent's famines are caused by ...