Universalis, your very own breviary in pixels...

Monday 13 July 2009

USAToday, Bringing you the Obvious Since 1982

USA Today, or at least someone to whom they have given a platform, seems surprised that very few care about the soon-to-be Catholic majority on the US Supreme court.

"No one seems to care that [Sotomayor's] appointment would give Catholics a stranglehold over America's highest judicial body."

Why would they? Is there any indication her Catholicism colors her judgements, or impacts on her view of justice?

I know to your average un- or casually-churched commentator, thinks that, let's say, Scalia's "voting his Faith, " (in the sense of defying the rule of law in favor of the rule of canon law, or valuing his current spiritual adviser's principles over those, er.... enshrined in the Constitution,) is a given, right?
But Kennedy is never so accused, to my knowledge.

So is it only those with whose decisions we disagree whom we do not want to be influenced by their religion?
It seems so sometimes.

And then there's this tid-bit:"Two recent books about U.S. Catholicism refer to anti-Catholicism in their subtitles as 'the last acceptable prejudice.' Not so.... anti-Catholicism is dead here both ideologically and institutionally."

Bravo Sierra.
(The man seems not to be able to differentiate between believers... well, I can't think of a single word to take the place of the phrase "those who self-identify with a words that means they believe something or practice something but are really suffering from inertia, nostaliga, or lack of an eraser to untick the box on forms.
Trying observing the reaction to someone who is so gauche as to practice it, in many circles, academic, theatrical, corporate .... and I'm not talking about introducing the subject oneself, but merely answering the "why are you dressed up?", "where've you been?", "why won't you stay out later this Saturday?" questions -- more respect would be shown to the information that one was a dedicated Phrenologist.)

I find it hysterical that he seems to think Episcopalians might have mourned loss of "their" seat -- Heaven's Gate adherents aren't doing much complaining either, nor do members of the Illuminati or Dunkards expect a seat on the court, so far as I know.

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