Recent Discussion of Brett Kavanaugh's Jesuit Prep-School "Man for Others" Training: Ambiguity of Jesuit "Band of Brothers" Ethos

John Gehring, "Improper Formation? Kavanaugh & the Prep-School Culture": 

Quote for Day: "Liberal Christians Often Pay Lip Service to Many Politically Radical Christian Thinkers and Activists While Lining Up Behind the Political and Economic Forces That They Fought Against"

At Religion Dispatches, Daniel José Camacho responds to a recent article at the same venue by Ruth Graham which argues that liberal Christians could, if they so chose, position themselves to retrieve the designation "party of God" under Hillary Clinton's leadership: Camacho demurs for the following reasons,

From Nuns on the Bus Town Hall Meeting in Little Rock: Rev. Wendell Griffen on Radical Revolution of Values

I recently blogged about the town hall meeting the Nuns on the Bus held in my community of Little Rock on 13 September, which my husband Steve and I attended. The video above is our friend Wendell Griffen talking about the needs of our community in response to a question the Nuns on the Bus asked each table to discuss among ourselves. In Wendell's view, the "radical revolution of values" from profits and property to people, to which Dr. King was pointing American society at the time he was murdered, remains the most imperative need of our society today.

Abby Zimet on How "Fabulous Media Success" of "American Sniper" Story Highights America's Moral Failings

On Tuesday, I linked to Chris Hedges's powerful statement about how "American Sniper" lionizes what is worst in American culture — "the gun culture, the blind adoration of the military, the belief that we have an innate right as a 'Christian' nation to exterminate the 'lesser breeds' of the earth, a grotesque hypermasculinity that banishes compassion and pity, a denial of inconvenient facts and historical truth, and a belittling of critical thinking and artistic expression."

Chris Hedges on "American Sniper": "Lionizes the Most Despicable Aspects of U.S. Society"

In case you're wondering what Chris Hedges thinks of Clint Eastwood's new film "American Sniper," wonder no more:

Translating the News: Police Officers Spout Off About Threats to "Caucasian Christians" — Ferguson Is About the Fear of Many White Americans That "We" Are Losing Control"

At Talk to Action and the Political Research Associates website, Rachel Tabachnick reports that new video documentation has surfaced about St. Louis police officer Dan Page, who shoved CNN's Don Lemon in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 18 and was placed on leave for this action. Page has been making the rounds of right-wing talk radio circuits to promote what he calls his "Caucasian Christian" ideology. As various video clips presented by Tabachnick indicate,

Kathleen Reardon on Syria: Why Should We Believe Them This Time?

Kathleen Reardon asks another very important question about the current round of cowboy war-mongering in D.C.: Why should we believe them this time? As she writes,

As U.S. Is Poised for Another Cowboy War, Need for Expedited Action Remains Entirely Unexplained

Steve Benen at Maddow Blog on what Huffington Post's lead headline* this morning is calling the next in line of America's "cowboy wars":

Blake Hounshell on the Moral Arc of the Universe and Syria: "It Bends Toward Targeted Airstrikes"

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward targeted airstrikes on a limited subset of Syria's military infrastructure."
— Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) August 28, 2013

American Memorial Day: War Machines, the 1%, and Religious Right's False Claims of Martyrdom

American Marines Urinating on Enemy Corpses: Jerry Lembcke's Moral Analysis

The conclusion to Jerry Lembcke's thoughtful and morally sensitive analysis at NCR of the photos circulating online, showing U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban members they had just shot:

Blackwater Settles with Families in Iraqi Killings: Keeping Moral Focus Honest in 2012 U.S. Elections

Here's another of those pictures from the Iraqi war that I cannot allow myself to forget, once having seen it.  It's a picture of Ali Kinani, who was murdered in Baghdad on 16 Sept. 2007 by the U.S. hired mercenary firm Blackwater.  As Common Dreams reports, Blackwater (which subsequently took the name Xe and now Academi) reached a settlement last week with families of those killed in the 2007 incident and another in 2004.

The Military in Skinny Jeans: Mr. Obama's "Slimming" Down of Military Expenditures

Mike Luckovich's cartoon at Truthdig, commenting on Mr. Obama's recent announcement that he's slimming down the military, is spectacular.  

Michael J. Iafrate's Theological Reflections on Militarism and Discipleship

Michael J. Iafrate

And as a companion piece to Mike Lofgren's statement about which I've just blogged, which notes the pronounced bellicosity of one of the major political parties in the U.S., I'd like to recommend another rich essay this morning.  This is a theological essay by Michael Iafrate entitled "Destructive Obedience: US Military Training and Culture as a Parody of Christian Discipleship."  The essay has just appeared in  Conrad Grebel Review 29,2 (Spring 2011), and is online.