Recommended Reading at American Catholic (a Roundup)

"Honestly, I'd rather be reading the American-Catholic"

• Should Catholics Own Guns?, by Ryan Harkins. How are we, as American Catholics, to understand our Second Amendment rights? As the Constitution of the United States is a document made by man, it is subject to errors, and has contained notable ones in the past. Could it possibly be that the “right to bear arms” itself is a mistake?

• "Preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words.", by Donald McClarey. Self-avowed atheist Penn Jillette of the Las Vegas show, Penn & Teller, is well known for his antipathy towards Christianity. But something happened to him just recently in an encounter with a practicing Christian after one of his shows.

• Does a Profit-Driven Business Model Corrupt?, by DarwinCatholic. One of the big criticisms of free market economics is that markets are driven by greed. “Why would you want to allow markets to set the price of [health care, wages, basic housing, food, education, etc.],” the argument goes, “when that means subjecting a basic humanitarian necessity of the dictates of unfettered greed?” This represents a basic misunderstanding of how markets work.

• Torture in the News, by Christopher Blosser. Practically buried in the news in the wake of the corruption scandal of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was the publication, on December 11, of a report by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) — the culmination of an 18-month long investigation into the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.

• Lead Us Into Temptation: American Materialism Eric Brown considers the questions: Why are we so materialistic? and Why are we so unwilling to acknowledge and explore what seems to be one of the central aspects of modernity?

• "It Is Better That One Man Should Stand In For The People" John Henry asks Vox Nova's Morning's Minion (regarding his penchant for lambasting evangelical Christians), "Do you think it is legitimate to cite one unflattering example as a stand-in for millions? If so, do you think Ms. Pelosi should be cited as a pretext for dismissing leftist Catholics? Archbishop Chaput for all Catholics?"

• Freedom as a Political Good, by DarwinCatholic. In the moral sense, the Church does not hold “freedom” in the sense of simply doing whatever you want to be a good. Rather, the Church holds doing the good to be the good, and freedom to be the means of achieving that. However, let us look now at the political question of freedom ...

• The Return of Gregorian Chant, by Tito Edwards. This past Summer a conference took place on the shores of Lake Michigan on reinvigorating the use of Gregorian Chant in our liturgies. The Reform of the Reform continues.