The following video features Fr. Robert Barron and his Commentary on Batman “The Dark Night.” Here he ponders the problem of violence and critiques the world’s notion of how to fight violence.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., once remarked that if everything is going to be an eye for an eye, then we will have a world full of blind people. He also said, “Dark cannot drive out darkness only light can do that. Similarly, hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
Fr. Barron Makes a similar point from the Christian Tradition here:
In recent months there have been a number of incidents that remind us of how politics is a field ripe with corruption and disappointment. This past week the governor of South Carolina was caught in and then disclosed his adulterous relationship. This despite a pro-family image. The Governor of Illinois was also revealed to have engaged in a kind of buying and selling of offices. Going back even a bit further there scandals involving the Governors of New York and New Jersey. And, well I haven’t even mentioned the numerous scandals involving Senators and congressional representatives. But you get the point.
And then there is Political Disappointment. Many times Catholics and other Christians pin their hopes on a certain party or individual to “bring about needed reform” or to “stop the business as usual in Washington.” We want them to be paragons of virtue and be uncompromising in their stands on moral issues only to find that they compromise, or do not actually end up changing things dramatically. Or, perhaps we agree with them on certain issues but find their stands on other issues odious.
As Americans we usually have high expectations and high hopes in politics. (I have found that many Catholics are more passionate about their politics than their faith). But in the end, politics is pretty “down to earth” and quite dirty sometimes. We need to be sober about politicians, even the ones we like. They are politicians and politics can be very compromising and sometimes just plain dirty. Even the best can corrupted by money, power and prestige.
But as usual, I go on too long. I think I’ll get out of the way and let Fr. Robert Barron take on this issue. In this video he considers political corruption from a Biblical Perspective.
Here’s another Fr. Robert Barron Video where he reviews a recent survey on religion and some of the basic trends. The first half describes the largest growing category of religious observance: “None.” If this is you or someone you know there are important insights.
The second half of the video however contains a kind of warning for the Church. Many of the Mainline Protestant denominations have lost dramatic numbers. Why? In large part because they are no longer distinguished from the world around them. Once the distinctiveness of the church experience is lost, its adherents begin to say, “Why bother going since I can get the same things from the world?” Here then is the warning for us: We have been called out of the world, to be in sharp distinction to it values and priorities. Once we lose this distinctiveness we begin to loose numbers, parishes and schools close, and we shrink away. Dinstinguish or die! We’re supposed to be salt and light! So pass the salt and turn on the lights.
One of the most powerful questions that people wrestle with is the problem of evil. Why are there natural disasters, disease and death? Why does God stand by when moral evil is committed? The struggle with this problem has made some give up on God. In the following video, Fr. Robert Barron presents the problem and wrestles with it. Please be aware, Fr. Barron does not “resolve” the problem of evil. No one ever has. But he sets out well the limits of the discussion and the limits of our vision and thereby helps us to remain humble before so great a question.
