Around the blogs today

By Domenico Bettinelli, Jr. ( articles - email ) | Dec 01, 2003

Here's what's new and interesting on Catholic blogs today:

• Mark Shea notes that while the creators of the Lord of Rings movies have created what many call a masterpiece adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's book, they reveal themselves to completely misunderstand his beliefs by concluding that the message is that the notion of good is subjective. Mark also remarks on a newspaper article about Democratic presidential candidates' stumping for the votes of religious voters.
• Victor Lams discusses a judge's statements in Michigan that said a public excluding clergy with an "anti-gay" from a Diversity Week meeting viewpoint troubles him.
• Jeff Miller comments on a news story about the Church trying to be exempted from a law mandating coverage for contraceptives in employee health insurance. He notes the ACLU's hypocrisy.
• Fr. Rob Johansen finds a commentator who thinks Thanksgiving is about celebrating ourselves, not thanking God.
• Leon Podles finds a Miss Manners quote that supports the idea that applause in church is a bad habit.
• Secret Agent Man finds that the Arab news network Al Jazeera's anti-American reporting mirrors much of what you already find in the mainstream US media.
• Fr. Jim Tucker laments the loss of Latin in the Mass and proposes that the monopoly by those who prefer a "contemporary" form of the Mass be broken to allow for those who prefer classic forms of the Latin rite.
• Athanasius discusses why the early Church fathers seemed so concerned with the integrity of the faith even on small matters of doctrine, contrasted with most bishops of today who do little to stem the tide of heresy/dissent.