In lieu of my non-existent January 1st pic (see below), I’ve decided to  choose my favorite picture from 2008.

My favorite picture.

That I’ve taken.

Which is really hard.

My photographic interests include religious artworks, portraits, candids, party shots, landscapes, architecture, and travel shots.  Friends and family. But I guess when I think about one picture I took that represents the most of those categories, it’s this one:

Jeff as St. Francis

We were in Hawaii–I took a trip with my parents, brother, and sister. My friends Jeff and Cami had coincidentally booked a trip there at the same time. When Jeff & Cami got to Oahu, we met up, and they took me on an awesome adventure around the island. One of the stops was the Byodo-in Buddhist temple, a beautiful replica of a 900 year old temple in Uji, Japan. At the gift shop there you can get food to feed the koi, but Jeff quickly realized the birds flitting around the grounds were also interested. He put some in his hand, and got the birds to feed from his palm. Cami and I both took snapshots, and after this one, I exclaimed, “Jeff, you look like St. Francis!” A tour group coming up behind us laughed in recognition, and one lady said “It’s true! It’s true!”

I love the look of joy on Jeff’s face. This picture reminds me of not just the good times I had with Los Hermanns, but with my family, too, and all the beauty and happiness that filled our time in Hawaii. That sounds like hyperbole, but really, Hawaii is just that great. You feel like a grinning moron trying to explain how wonderful it is there.

If it was just a pretty picture, or a reminder of fun times, there’d be competition. But on a deeper level, this photograph also reminds me of how the symbols of our faith surround us. Even, of course, on the grounds of a Buddhist temple. For that reason, it’s my favorite of 2008.

Saddam Hussein was executed. Hung. Before it happened, I spoke big, confident words, saying that it was his due.

The video shown on the news, though, terrified me. I need not see the camera phone footage of his death itself. Seeing the noose tightened around his neck was enough. Here was a human man, afraid, about to be strangled, and I almost regretted my belief. But this was weakness. We are not as strong as our fathers. I remembered my Dante:

Truly I wept, leaning upon a peak
Of the hard crag, so that my Escort said
To me: Art thou, too, of the other fools?

Here pity lives when it is wholly dead;
Who is a greater reprobate than he
Who feels compassion at the doom divine?

We spare the lives of murderers out of compassion; it is mercy, not justice, to keep them alive. We do so in the hope that they may come to regret their sins, sincerely repent in this life and thereby share joyfully in the next one. The arguments to suspend Hussein’s sentence were all of a pragmatic nature; justice and mercy came into the debate not at all. Practicality is a poor substitute for morality. It is doubtful whether we need give clemency towards those who never ask for it. As for Hussein’s soul, it is outside human power to save. In the spirit of charity, may God have mercy on the condemned. But let His will be done, and not our weakness.

Muslims riot, murder, burn churches in protest.

Is there a better synopsis of the last two weeks than that?

I have nothing to contribute to this discussion except my disgust. The subject became a Rorschach test for world leaders and media outlets. Journalists and academics, who should particularly value freedom of expression, almost uniformly came down against the Pope—or their idea of him—without apparently reading a single word he said. Then they nonsensically misinterpreted every single following statement.

Newsweek, in particular, earns my ire, for apparently arrogating themselves the task of berating the Pope. Their three pages are devoid of any mention of violence; you’d think only some hurt feelings were the result of the Regensburg lecture. Reading the article nearly made me vomit.

As for those directly responsible for the arson and murder, my gut reaction is that they should fucking burn. But, as a Christian, my gut reaction is not the end of the story. Christ calls on us to love our enemies, and to pray for them. As he says in chapter 5 of Matthew:

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

And so I say, in all sincerity, to those who committed these crimes: I pray for you. I pray that Christ will enter your hearts. I pray that you repent your actions. I pray that you find the forgiveness that God offers all men and women, who need merely ask it. St. Paul, one of the greatest saints, persecuted and killed Christians before he was confronted by Christ on the road to Damascus. I pray that, like him, your hearts will change. And I pray that one day, by the grace of God, many years from now, I will see you in our Father’s heavenly kingdom, where we may embrace as brothers and sisters, together there with St. Paul, Benedict, and with the Martyr Sister Leonella.

D.C. prayer rally to seek lower gas prices

A U.S. Christian group has grown tired of escalating gasoline prices and is set to stage a national prayer rally to lower the numbers at the pumps.

…

In a release, the Pray Live group said many people are “overlooking the power of prayer when it comes to resolving this energy crisis.”

This was so funny, I’m almost tempted to leave the article without comment. But really: these are Christians giving Christianity a bad name. It goes beyond the simple idiocy of those involved; their actions trivialize the concept of prayer, destroy Christian credibility, and fuel the arguments of those who would disparage our faith. It is the worst kind of publicity-mongering pseudo-ministry. If you are hard hit, really truly hurt, by the rising cost of gas, please do pray. Pray for strength and fortitude, pray for His help in finding your way through the difficult times that are ahead. But don’t just pray for lower pump prices. A car-centric culture is not the same as a Christ-centered one. SUVs have nothing to do with virtue. God’s Kingdom is not made of oil.

I thought I’d missed the boat as far as commenting on the recent cartoon riots, here at Angst Dei, but this weekend’s events in Nigeria have shown the intoonfada to have an unfortunately long set of legs.

It was hard to take these demonstrations seriously, at first; their very appellation, “cartoon riots,” makes referring to them with a straight face difficult. Nothing kills a joke faster than having to explain it; but the escalating violence and increasing body count demands a deadly serious explication of the origin of the comics and the original controversy—Time does this well in its most recent issue.

This cartoon gets better with every riot.

The most absurd thing is that the reaction of these Muslim mobs—the scores of dead—have turned what could, and should, have been dismissed as a petulant, reactionary, parodical line-drawing—Mohammed with a bomb as his turban—into an increasingly trenchant, incisive, and perceptive piece of agitprop. At least it feels that way.

The riots, the burnings, the deaths, have thrown into sharp relief once again the massive cultural divide between our free nations and the illiberal states infected with Islamicist ideology. The Danish government is absolutely correct in its assertion that it will not, and cannot, apologize for items printed in a privately owned newspaper. But this position is impossible to convey to human beings who have no concept of freedom of the press.

The important lesson to draw from these events is one many of us in the West have been loathe to learn. Our beliefs here in the United States, as enshrined in our great Constitution, have always had a universalist dimension to them; now, more than ever, we must realize that dimension explicitly. We have shied away from proselytization in the past, but we cannot do so any longer. In the era of instantaneous and common global communication, there are no local beliefs. When cartoons published in Denmark precipitate deaths in Nigeria we can no longer affect the fiction of cultural relativism; Nor can we pretend to isolation. Immanuel Kant’s maxim—that we should act the way we’d want the whole world to act—isn’t just a moral imperative anymore. It’s become a simple fact of life.

Here’s one.

This one really runs with it. Pope Palpatine I

Unfortunately, I seem to be the only one who both likes the Pope and thinks he looks like Palpatine.

Well, except for these guys.

Of course, I could be wrong.

Update: I’m not the only one. Photoshop was invented for a reason.

If you haven’t caught it already, I recommend The Onion’s coverage of Pope John Paul II’s death, which in it’s surplus goes so far beyond their normal satire, I think, as to really express a kind of palpable affection. Last week:

Heaven Less Opulent Than Vatican, Reports Disappointed Pope

Pope John Paul II, Longtime Owner of Popemobile, Dead At 84

Pope-Killing Virus Claims Yet Another Victim

Papal Apartments Found Filled With Old Newspapers, Empty Pill Bottles, Mangy Cats

Then this week:

Papal Election Brings EndTo Worldwide Unsupervised-Catholic Sin Binge

A Pope Remembered slideshow

And finally, Pope Emerges From Chrysalis A Beautiful Butterfly

Habemus Papam today, and some people are already unhappy. The New York Times coverage, from the International Herald Tribune, is at best tepid in its reception. From In St. Peter’s Square, Optimism and Concern:

Many others seemed simply perplexed with a choice they saw as moving the church backward. John Paul II, they said, seemed inclined to move the church into the real world. Benedict XVI, they felt, would return to a focus on narrow dogma and doctrine.

I of course have some doctrinal disagreements with the former head of Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith, but we would agree on far more. Frankly the idea that Benedict XVI is a step backward is a ridiculous one; Ratzinger, the eminent theologian, right hand man of John Paul II, is as forward thinking as the late Pontiff. He is also precisely as “backward” thinking; the “step backward” idea is one that’s posited by people who never liked Karol Wojtyla’s orthodoxy, either.

Two reasons I think Ratzinger was a good choice:

One, Ratzinger, having been so close to John Paul, and having headed the CFD, maintains doctrinal stability and integrity at a time when a great number of people would like to turn Catholic parishes into supermarket churches, on one hand, or an extension of the major political parties (take your pick), on the other.

Two, any Pontiff following John Paul would have been under tremendous pressure to live up to his legacy; so much so that it would have been difficult to fully realize his unique pontificate. John Paul II cast a long shadow. Benedict XVI is already an old man. His papacy provides a needed buffer before the next pope.

Of course, Benedict XVI has qualities in and of himself. While he is old, he still does have several active years ahead of him. Often enough, interims become more important than the years they supposedly bridge. So we will, ahem, See.

No one comes here for timely news. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention something about this man. He experienced firsthand the worst depravations humanity was capable of, but still believed in our essential goodness. More than that; he fought for it every day of his life.

Artist, philosopher, pastor, teacher, traveler, adventurer, statesman, wisecracker. Pope. Karol Wojtyla wore a lot of hats, and looked good in them all.