Tuesday, January 08, 2013

A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.

I think National Review's trying a rethink:


"Meant to be together forever" -- sounds like a Bieber joint, yes? This Jesus cover boy, Christopher West, goes in for the usual Anti Sex League ordnance -- he counsels "infinite bliss" over rim jobs, and asks leading questions like "can’t we see that such a notion of choice is actually the negation of freedom?" But he has a softer, daisy-strewing  side, too, and rhapsodizes that "art is the language of the heart." Kathryn J. Lopez asks him if there's any art around now that he likes; he replies,
I’m not an art critic. I can only speak to what moves me personally. And I’d have to say that today, in the specific sense of right now, I am stunned by the artistry expressed in the movie adaptation of the musical Les Misérables. I saw it three times in its first week of release. Treat yourself and go see this movie.
Roger Scruton he ain't. Instead of having to beg change all the time ("National Review is not a non-profit — we are just not profitable"), NR should just convert to a pictoral format a la Tiger Beat.

UPDATE. Commenter Montag2 directs us to this intriguing 2009 item at the Catholic News Agency:  "Christopher West’s ideas on sexuality ignore ‘tremendous dangers,’ Alice von Hildebrand says." Excerpt:
The news segment showed [West] calling for Catholics to complete “what the sexual revolution began.” He also described “very profound” historical connections between Hugh Hefner and Pope John Paul II. 
West spoke to CNA on Friday, claiming the report somewhat sensationalized his views. He also denied several characterizations conveyed by the news story, explaining that he believed Hefner to be right in rejecting “the disease of Puritanism” but radically wrong in beginning the “pornographic revolution.” 
He had told ABC that Hefner had a "yearning," an "ache" and a "longing" for love, union and intimacy.
Well, clearly Hef's a fan of marriage. I expect after this scare West went and sinned no more, or he'd never have gotten close to K-Lo's inbox. True, he's responsible for provocative titles like The Love That Satisfies, but the Theology of the Body Institute West serves as a "research fellow" seems to have no hot tubs or encounter rooms. Still, his theology stirs some controversy -- for example, there was
the argument between Dr. Scott Hahn and Christopher West on the set of “Franciscan University Presents” which turned Dr. Hahn into a “closet critic” of West and his theology after West disagreed with Hahn when Hahn said the proper response if he was to see his colleague's naked wife's would be to turn his eyes away.
 His colleague's naked wife's what, I'd like to know. Maybe it was something innocent, like a tax-exempt contribution.

UPDATE 2. Oh wait, they explain further down:
... [Dr. Scott Hahn] told West that if he were to see a friend’s wife [the friend being fellow panellist Dr. Regis Martin] naked, it would be his responsibility to look away. West responded, ‘No, it would be to not lust.’ [Hahn] and West took turns repeating themselves until the moderator called for a break in the program.
You gotta admit, it beats This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

Also from that same report: "James J. Simons, who by his own admission listened to West over 100 times... argued that it is right to baptize people naked in front of an entire church so everyone can see them and it is right for women to read in church topless." Next time a conservative starts going off about wacky liberal arts courses, I'll bring this up.

UPDATE 3. "And, as if on cue," comments Alexander von Humbug, "Sullivan quotes West approvingly." Looks like there's a big PR push for West among the sort of people who would like him, and I wonder why, as they could disseminate the book as effectively by just handing out copies at David Brooks' parties. It's not like normal people will ever give a shit.

78 comments:

  1. reallysmall fish9:28 AM

    He also gave a big thumbs up to Thomas Kinkade, painter of light.

    ReplyDelete
  2. coozledad9:40 AM

    Needz mor dog collar.

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  3. Halloween_Jack9:44 AM

    They are never ever ever going to be together.

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  4. montag29:51 AM

    K-Lo's quest to use NRO as a platform for spiritual self-help (hopefully, maybe, perhaps leading to wedded sexual bliss) has always been apparent, but maybe she should have consulted the Catholic News Agency first before launching this interview. The god-botherers there seem to think West is something of a libertine.


    Still and all, is this not simply a continuation of a theme first introduced in The National Review by William F. Buckley? That Catholicism and conservatism are the best of fuck-buddies because that's the natural order of things?


    Aside from that, what else is West but another huckster, selling sex to Opus Dei wannabes?

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  5. Uncle Kvetch9:58 AM

    I am stunned by the artistry expressed in the movie adaptation of the musical Les Misérables

    So, when the inevitable arrives and he's arrested at a Motel 6 somewhere in Florida with an underage rent boy and a 6-month supply of crystal meth, which NR hack will be assigned the task of explaining how it's all Obama's fault?

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  6. Uncle Kvetch10:02 AM

    maybe she should have consulted the Catholic News Agency first before launching this interview

    OMG, I got out of the boat. Those are some of the most terrifying mangoes I've ever laid eyes on.

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  7. montag210:07 AM

    Sorry, I suppose that link should have come with an advisory....

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  8. Uncle Kvetch10:09 AM

    You know, I'm a recovering Catholic myself, but my altar boy days are far enough behind me that I can easily forget just how creepy that shit is. I mean, West is actually being taken to task for promoting a vision of sexuality that isn't sufficiently suffused with shame and dread. It just boggles the mind.

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  9. Leeds man10:23 AM

    The first words are "Renowned Catholic thinker". Warning enough.

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  10. Mr. Wonderful10:27 AM

    “Choice,” in fact, has come to mean “any choice is a good choice.” Really? Does anybody believe that?


    (slaps own face, grimaces, rolls eyes) Now just tell me one thing. WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE FIRST BASEMAN?

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  11. Tybalt10:27 AM

    Look, I've had a few discussions like this myself around a refectory table or in the sacristy, where you use the professional jargon as a shorthand. But in the real world, who _talks_ like that? Even a National Review reader isn't going to be convinced by this.

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  12. Duncan195110:30 AM

    Some are born eunuchs, some are made eunuchs by men, and some becomes eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven. He that is able to receive this, let him receive it.

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  13. sharculese10:46 AM

    If you're someone who wants to believe that his decision to deny himself what he wants out of life isn't just a moral sacrifice, it's somehow the best option available, then yes, you will find yourself convinced by that.


    But no, it doesn't work on normal people. Contrary to wingnut belief, 1984 was not an instruction manual.

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  14. sharculese10:50 AM

    I have a sneaking suspicion this is really just about reassuring one particular National Review reader who happens to exercise a certain amount of editorial control over their online content...

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  15. montag210:51 AM

    Oh, I don't think this is an attempt to convince. This is K-Lo's idea of public indecency, her soul in a raincoat.

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  16. sharculese10:52 AM

    Feigning political aggrievement, gay-bashing as a form of faux-macho posturing, general dickishness... I am going to say Nordlinger.

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  17. paleotectonics10:57 AM

    AAAIIIEEEE!! MY BRANEZ!!!


    Beautifully messed up, sir!

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  18. sharculese11:01 AM

    The news segment showed him calling for Catholics to complete “what the sexual revolution began.” He also described “very profound” historical connections between Hugh Hefner and Pope John Paul II.


    What?

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  19. zencomix11:08 AM

    "In other words, the union of the sexes is meant to point us to heaven. Sexual morality, in this sense, is all about making sure that it does."

    I thought they were trying to explain to Maggie Gallagher that babies come from fucking, but not all fucking leads to babies.

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  20. That's the sickest thing yet.

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  21. Leeds man11:30 AM

    "her soul in a raincoat"



    Nunc Dimittis, motherfucker!

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  22. Origami_Isopod11:48 AM

    So God is on top?

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  23. John Borrego11:54 AM

    Christopher West: "Today freedom has come to mean license to do whatever one chooses. 'Choice,' in fact, has come to mean 'any choice is a good choice.'" I'll have to disagree with Mr. West. My choice to read this idiotic interview, for example, is one that I profoundly regret.

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  24. Derelict12:28 PM

    This coming on the heels of this morning's post on sexuality might make some wonder about this blog's fixation.
    I would put both K-Lo and Maggie G. as the poster people for a series of public-service announcements that too much sexual shame leads to severe mental troubles.

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  25. Halloween_Jack12:57 PM

    The mugging of the guy in the dog suit with the Bo Diddley guitar makes me laugh.

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  26. Halloween_Jack12:59 PM

    it is right to baptize people naked in front of an entire church so everyone can see them and it is right for women to read in church topless


    ...say, what church is this, again?

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  27. Uncle Kvetch1:09 PM

    K-Lo's inbox


    Please, Roy, no more. I'm begging here.

    ReplyDelete
  28. tinheart1:26 PM

    "James J. Simons, who by his own admission listened to West over 100
    times... argued that it is right to baptize people naked in front of an
    entire church so everyone can see them and it is right for women to read
    in church topless."

    Perhaps by "topless" he really meant "hatless" with regard to I Corinthians 11:6. (I bet he meant topless, though. Turn to the Page 3 Girl in your Daily Hymnal.)

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  29. Roy T.1:34 PM

    Yeah, but how many angels can dance on the lap of a pinhead?

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  30. whetstone1:35 PM

    "he counsels "infinite bliss" over rim jobs"

    This reminds me of a story one of my teachers told me about getting in trouble in high school. When told "don't let an hour of pleasure lead to a lifetime of pain," he raised his hand and asked "how do you make it last an hour?"

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  31. redoubt1:50 PM

    I expect after this scare West went and sinned no more, or he'd never have gotten close to K-Lo's inbox

    I see what you did there.

    Meanwhile, somewhere in the world, a man who was roundly criticized for "lusting in his heart" picks up a hammer/pen/telephone and goes to work. . .

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  32. Well, you see, sharculese, back when Karol Wojtyła and Hugh Hefner were roomies in college, wacky hijinks ensued.

    ReplyDelete
  33. which NR hack will be assigned the task of explaining how it's all Obama's fault?


    I'm guessing they'll all volunteer, as usual.

    ReplyDelete
  34. [Dr. Scott Hahn] told West that if he were to see a friend’s wife [the
    friend being fellow panellist Dr. Regis Martin] naked, it would be his
    responsibility to look away. West responded, ‘No, it would be to not
    lust.’


    "... which isn't as difficult as it sounds. Have you seen Regis' wife?"

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  35. BigHank532:00 PM

    How much money d'you think it would take to get the staff of the NRO in fursuits?


    I mean, I know it'd be a lot less than you'd first expect, but how much less?

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  36. sharculese2:00 PM

    'Choice,' in fact, has come to mean 'any choice is a good choice.'


    Fucking hell it does not. Sexual freedom is not some infinite buffet of libertinism where we're all paralyzed, unable to choose between the Amsterdam Red Light Weekend and the double wetsuit 18-80 scat party. It's a general directive that you should be able to do what gets you off* without having to worry about creeps like Christopher West tut-tutting through a crack in the blinds.**


    *some restrictions apply; get consent, don't endanger anyone, don't be an asshole (unless your partner(s) have made it clear they're into that)


    **unless that's what you (and your partner(s) want)

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  37. But he has a softer, daisy-strewing side, too

    Tune in next week, when Chris, Hef, and Karol misinterpret the sorority note as an invitation to a daisy strewing.

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  38. aimai2:13 PM

    This appears to be the only bible verse Duncan knows--and the fact that its apposite here is proof positive that even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally.

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  39. aimai2:14 PM

    Backs slowly away after the "double wetsuit 18-80 scat party" comment.

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  40. aimai2:15 PM

    Oh my god, that was so worth logging on for. I find my children are still young enough to laugh uproriously at very old jokes, having heard them for the first time. Now I'm discovering that, old though I am, I'm in the same boat.

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  41. Origami_Isopod2:18 PM

    Add a few pairs of handcuffs and you've got yourself a Baptist weekend retreat.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Origami_Isopod2:20 PM

    How much money do you think it would take to buy all of the commentariat here sufficient brain bleach?

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  43. "asks leading questions like "can’t we see that such a notion of choice is actually the negation of freedom?""


    Somebody get a generator set down to Orwell's grave - he's gotta be spinning so goddamn fast that we could light a town with him. :)

    ReplyDelete
  44. smut clyde2:31 PM

    How much money would it take to get them out of fursuits?

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  45. Spaghetti Lee2:31 PM

    it is right to baptize people naked in front of an entire church so everyone can see them and it is right for women to read in church topless.



    They're really going to town with this 'bring lapsed Catholics back to the church' thing, aren't they?

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  46. Yeah, but how many angels can dance on the lap of a pinhead?

    Brilliant. Sir, you are a theologian cum laudly.

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  47. Chief Wiggum: "Yeah, well, the Bible says a lot of things."

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  48. He says from the cockpit of a B-52 and wearing a cowboy hat in place of a bone-dome helmet...

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  49. I would guess any one where the term 'skyclad' is part of the doctrine.

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  50. smut clyde3:09 PM

    The "blind squirrel" method of self-castration is reliable but slow.

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  51. I saw "God, Man, Sex" and thought it was like "Wow, Man, Donuts!" So when I got to the actual NR article I was a little disappointed. My fault for misreading.

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  52. God, Man, and Sex at Yale: Inside the Divinity School's "Laying on of Hands"

    by William F. Bucknakedly, Jr.

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  53. even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally.


    And vice-versa.

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  54. the church of the torpid connery.

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  55. They really do hate us for our freedom.

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  56. smut clyde5:05 PM

    SKWIRREL!!!

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  57. parsec5:27 PM

    The DVR for whatever reason randomly records the Franciscan University and one time who should show up to help chew the fat but K-Lo! But the priest and two perfessers gasbagged most of the time away leaving K-Lo to bleat a few unmemorables about journalistic responsibility and leave the viewers with the impression she writes commentary on Catholic dormitory rules.

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  58. Bitter Scribe5:40 PM

    I don't see who could be offended by this guy's airy-fairy generalities, except people who prefer logic and meaning in their writing. But that excludes 99% of NR's readers.

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  59. aimai7:50 PM

    Well, only if they are aiming at the 14-15 year old lapsed catholics. Because if they are welcoming back older folks...ew.

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  60. aimai7:51 PM

    I'd like to make wild monkey concupiscience with this comment.

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  61. In other words, the union of the sexes is meant to point us to heaven.


    "Roll over, honey. It's supposed to point to heaven."

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  62. aimai7:56 PM

    I, too, got out of the boat. It was one of the saddest things I've ever read. Not even kidding. I often feel that way when I read Catholic theology because its so..dry and cold and cruel. The widowed theologian who thinks there was no sex in the garden of eden rather than no shame. Who thinks that Jesus was sacrificed on the cross and it didn' tmake a bit of difference. The two of them convinced that sainthood, though not for everyone, is really the highest goal of each individual and that sexual love is or should be profoundly not enjoyed for its own sake.
    Jews be crazy and when I go on a kick reading the Pirke Avot or any commentaries I generally leave shaking my head and vowing to have nothing to do with my own people. But on matters sexual? Its a god damned mitzvah to make love with your spouse. Bringing pleasure to your spouse is a positive duty. So much so that you *must* use birth control (if you are a Jewish man) and pregnancy or childbirth would endanger your wife. So much so that making love on the Sabbath is enjoined upon you as another mitzvah.


    aimai

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  63. fiftyseven min of begging babybabybabyplease

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  64. Alexander von Humbug8:53 PM

    And, as if on cue, Sullivan quotes West approvingly.

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  65. Brett Kensington8:53 PM

    The repetition of the word "concupiscence" began to work upon me through the article. For some reason it evoked the image of chocolate ice cream melting and flowing over warm smooth flesh...mmmn.

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  66. If you get very, very, very, far down in the weeds and follow all those links you come to the heart of it. Mr. West's error was in postulating that marriage and sexual love are very important to the way g-d wants the world to be organized. But that doesn't leave enough time for other people to worry about death and resurrection. Anything that takes away from the contemplation of death? Not orthodox. Rather, leading to a spirit of rupture.


    aimai

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  67. Jeffrey_Kramer12:16 AM

    I suppose the fact that I gave more "ups" to these comments than any other recent set shows what a dirty mind I have. (And the fact that you're just now deciding which of five possible "up" jokes to make says the same about you.)

    ReplyDelete
  68. AGoodQuestion12:21 AM

    "James J. Simons, who by his own admission listened to West over 100 times... argued that it is right to baptize people naked in front of an entire church so everyone can see them and it is right for women to read in church topless."


    There's aggressive marketing and then there's that.

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  69. I don't appreciate the accusation, so I just went down on your comment.

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  70. Jeffrey_Kramer10:59 AM

    Oh yeah, well up yours.

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  71. Let me guess--his previous career was at a Topless Woman Carwash?

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  72. "In his heart, he knows your wife!"

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  73. I concede the field.

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  74. gocart mozart2:28 PM

    "he'd never have gotten close to K-Lo's inbox."
    That better GODDAM not be a double entendre Roy or else. Just saying.

    ReplyDelete
  75. "No wait, hear me out. Our hook is that we only handle convertibles, right? And it'd be a female-owned business. So why not call it Women's Topless Carwash?"

    ReplyDelete
  76. Sean_P3:30 PM

    Yes, we must never speak of this again.

    ReplyDelete
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