Dear Catholic Exchange:
In the following response to a reader you wrote “We as Catholics – especially those of us operating Catholic businesses – need to be “in the world but not of the world,” so staying completely “clean” is extremely difficult.
I remember the instruction to be “in the world but not of the world” to be from Sacred Scripture and a few weeks ago I tried doing a search in my computer's New American Bible, but I was unable to find it. Do you know where in Scripture I will find it?
Sincerely,
Kristina
Dear Kristina:
John 17 appears to be the source of the basic idea:
I have given them thy word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15)I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one. 16)They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
(John 17:14-16)
Blessings,
Mark Shea
Senior Content Editor
Catholic Exchange
Pro-Life or an Eye for an Eye?
Dear Catholic Exchange:
Interesting article [“Infanticidal Moms”, The Edge, Dec. 21, 2001], about how those who murder children outside the womb get such little punishment. It is a very disturbing trend. Several women's groups were mentioned which seem to come to the aid of those women who commit such murders; I wonder if they also come to the aid of fathers who do such things, or just the mothers?
The article was cohesive up until the last sentence, which was “In a just world, Melissa Drexler would not be home sipping eggnog, but in a jail cell awaiting a dance with the state executioner.”
This was immediately followed by the attribution to the author, and a note that the article was forwarded from the Pro-Life Infonet. I thought that the juxtapositioning of a call for someone to be executed, with the address of a pro-life organization, was unfortunate. Nowhere does it say that the author of the article was a member of that pro-life organization. But the positioning of the trailers would make a casual reader think so. If the organization truly endorses the whole article, maybe they could change their name to AnEyeForAnEye.org.
Sincerely,
Scott Bates
Dear Mr. Bates:
Good point. I'm sure the Pro-Life Infonet people felt that publicizing the disturbing trend of infanticide outweighed the author's call for the death penalty at the article's conclusion. This was the basis on which we decided to post the piece.
I appreciate your feedback.
In Christ,
Tom Allen
Editor & President
Catholic Exchange
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