The Right and Wrong of CE Columns

Dear Catholic Exchange:

In Frankenfood or Food?, Mr. Weigel presents a very conservative view, and deserves to be heard in your public forum.

Where is the “liberal” discussion?

There is so much evidence that Corporate Globalization is running roughshod over the lives of millions who cannot compete with giant commercial businesses.

The GMO debate is but one small piece of the puzzle &#0151 but it deserves fair representation on both sides.

Try, as a public media outlet, to encourage those of us who lean a little more left; we believe we are in our “right” minds!

Don McKay

Coshocton, OH

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Dear Catholic Exchange:

I would like to respond to Christine O'Donnell's article, Women of Middle Earth by saying I agree with her in the importance of the female role in Tolkien's work has been vastly underrated. I am currently writing a thesis on the “women of the ring,” and have found very little critical thinking about them. Brenda Partridge's well-known essay No Sex Please, We're Hobbits does explore the role of Shelob and Galadriel (also opposites) in some depth, though it suggests Tolkien feared female sexuality. Professor Jane Chance's work LOTR: Mythology of Power also provides an interesting interpretation of several of the female figures. However, I am excited to be writing my own analysis of the major female figures, in part to oppose the fallacy that Tolkien was misogynistic, and in part to explore the road less travelled.

Thanks for your article, which I agree, brought a necessary awareness to an often forgotten but nevertheless vital part of the Tolkien trilogy.

Sincerely,

Christine Dalessio

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Good Morning Catholic Exchange:

I have just read Judie Brown's article and I was surprised that she does not understand why we have made so little progress in overturning Roe v. Wade. Unfortunately most of the pro-life movement has, I believe unwittingly, been involved in the cover-up of the reality of abortion, just as the mainstream media, medical and education communities have. The failure to show abortion to a culture that is in denial and/or has been hoodwinked by the aforementioned has effectively kept them in the dark.

We will not change politicians until we change the public perception of abortion and we will not change the public perception of abortion until we show them what abortion really is.

If you look at the history of social reform you will find that pictures have been the one consistent medium used to change public perception of an injustice. This goes back to the issue of slavery when line drawings were used to expose the conditions that kidnapped Africans were forced to endure. This was followed by photographs used by Jacob Riis to expose the plight of American immigrants; Lewis Hine to expose the injustice of child labor; Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange working with the Farm Security Administration to expose the poverty of American farmers; and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with the injustice of segregation.

If you would like a true understanding of why we have made so little progress in the pro-life movement I suggest you contact Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life or Gregg Cunningham of The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform.

Sincerely,

Russell Edmundson

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Dear Catholic Exchange:

Thanks for the Apocalypse Now column. It is amazing how many people are caught up in looking for the “mark of the beast” or searching the Bible for passages “predicting” the latest headline stories in the New York Times. There are certainly some disturbing trends within American Christianity in regard to the apocalypse.

While there have been several books of late refuting the “rapture” doctrine, I think there is a great need for apologetics that address the peripheral issues of the current end-times hysteria. The fear of a “one world order” and a global relativist “religion” are major impediments to Catholic evangelization and true Christian unity (especially since most of the conspiracy theorists paint the Catholic Church as one of the main conspirators).

Your article is the first I've seen to address these issues even though it seems like they provide very fertile ground for many articles and books. I hope to see more writers addressing them in the future.

Thanks

Jim

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