Thursday, June 09, 2005
Schumer and Ratzinger
Last night I began reading The Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, and counldn't help but think of Charles Schumer, the senior senator from New York. Now that might strike one as odd, but let's take a look at the new Pope's words and Senator Schumer's recent comments on the floor of the Senate.
Ratzinger/Benedict wrote: "The man who puts to one side any consideration of the reality of God is a realist only in appearance. He is abstracting himself from the One in whom we 'live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28)"
and
"Even the decidely atheistic, materialistic systems create their own forms of cult, though, of course, they can only be an illusion and strive in vain, by bombastic trumpeting, to conceal their nothingness."
When you compare that to Senator Schumer's attack on Judge Brown, it is apparent Schumer falls into the pseudo-realist camp (although I would not label him as an atheist as I have absolutely no idea whether or not he is a practicing Jew). Yesterday, I heard a clip from Schumer on the radio in which he attacked Brown for arguing that there is a higher law than the Constitution, namely God's law. Perhaps I am wrong, but I don't remeber the good senator getting upset about the Supreme Court's reliance on international law in one of its recent rulings. It seems that the senator is much more interested in the cult of the law of men that is not influenced in any way by God than any system that might remotely reflect the idea that God has some role in our society. Of course the latter idea is more in line with the Founding Fathers vision of law and society. Schumer's idea of law seems to be more in line with that of the A.C.L.U. and the United Nations.
Ratzinger/Benedict wrote: "The man who puts to one side any consideration of the reality of God is a realist only in appearance. He is abstracting himself from the One in whom we 'live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28)"
and
"Even the decidely atheistic, materialistic systems create their own forms of cult, though, of course, they can only be an illusion and strive in vain, by bombastic trumpeting, to conceal their nothingness."
When you compare that to Senator Schumer's attack on Judge Brown, it is apparent Schumer falls into the pseudo-realist camp (although I would not label him as an atheist as I have absolutely no idea whether or not he is a practicing Jew). Yesterday, I heard a clip from Schumer on the radio in which he attacked Brown for arguing that there is a higher law than the Constitution, namely God's law. Perhaps I am wrong, but I don't remeber the good senator getting upset about the Supreme Court's reliance on international law in one of its recent rulings. It seems that the senator is much more interested in the cult of the law of men that is not influenced in any way by God than any system that might remotely reflect the idea that God has some role in our society. Of course the latter idea is more in line with the Founding Fathers vision of law and society. Schumer's idea of law seems to be more in line with that of the A.C.L.U. and the United Nations.
