Volume 1.2
April 2003Robert Blair Kaiser: A Letter from the Editor
THE CHURCH COMES OF AGE
Jim Bowman: How to Preach
José Ignacio González Faus, SJ: Memoria Subversiva, Memoria Subyugante: Présentación de Jesús de Nazaret (Español)
Subversive Memory, Captivating Memory: Presenting Jesus of Nazareth (English)
Bea Scott: Archbishop Oscar Romero: A Saint for the Rest of Us
José Ignacio González Faus, SJ: Memoria Subversiva, Memoria Subyugante: Présentación de Jesús de Nazaret (Español)
Subversive Memory, Captivating Memory: Presenting Jesus of Nazareth (English)
COMPANIONS
IN MEMORIAM: BOB HOLSTEIN
Robert Blair Kaiser: Rest in Peace
John Baumann, SJ:
Homily (English)
Homilía (Español)
Robert M. Holstein, Jr.: Message from Holstein
John Lounibos: About HolsteinINTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE
Paolo Dall'Oglio, SJ: In Praise of Syncretism
John D. Gerken: Priests: So Many Then, So Few Now
MEDIA AND CULTURE
Donn Downing: A Very Small Obsession & Just Who is Walter Ong?
Graciela Ramsay: Movie Review: The Crime of Father Amaro
Gaston Roberge, SJ: The Globalization of Terror and The Terror of GlobalizationPAPACY
Eugene C. Bianchi: If I Were Pope
POETRY
Louis Miles: communal farming
H.R. Stoneback: "Shock and Awe"
ROME DIARY
Robert Blair Kaiser: Rome Diary Index
Latest Chapter
SEX
Thomas Monteleone, Jason Berry, Geoff Cahill, Jack Florence: Four Responses to "On Addressing Sexual Abuse"
Paul Kelly: A Paul Kelly File
And for a subtle reminder where the Vatican stands on all this, click here
VITAL SPEECHES
Daniel C. Maguire: The Voice of the Faithful in a Clergy-dominated Church
WAR AND PEACE
Leonardo Boff: Guerra massacre (Português)
Guerra masacre (Español)
War as a Massacre (English)
Brian Coyne: Is This the Big Religious Question of Our Time?
José Ignacio González Faus, SJ: De «Occidente» al «Lejano Oeste»: Réquiem por la Razón (Español)
From the West to the Far West: A Requiem for Reason (English)
Robert Blair Kaiser: War's Holy Rhetoric
Bruce Kent: Christianity is not about power...
“Shock and Awe”
(on the First Day of Spring 2003)
Beyond all the TV screens
blazoned with fiery skies
backdrop of dinnertime television
where we search for basketball coalitions
as the troops take the Tigris
Marines move on the Euphrates
Beyond all BDAs and KIHAs
we partake of our rations
embedded within the Divisions of History
Battalions of Bombast
Regiments of Protest
Platoons of Poetry
Beyond the ancient chill of air-raid sirens
it sounds almost like some silly
post-modernist aesthetic axiom
coined by some English-major-turned-
colonel-wargames-strategist:
"Shock and Awe"
(or maybe just some farmer's ceremonial
wonder at the growth of his corn)
Between body-counts & basketball scores
falls the Final Four
Between March Madness & NCAA hoops
support the troops
Between jumpshots from 3-point range
runs regime-change
Between Notre Dame, Duke and UK
and all precision-guided play
(Oh the global positioning of the heart,
lasered flesh and satellite-soul)
Between the missile and the bomb
falls the poem
Between Tomahawk and Patriot-thud
sinks the Scud
Between the Predator and the Drone
sounds the tone
Between the Shock and the Awe
comes the call
(To prayer in the crowded air
of the dreamgreen night that we own)
Between the marches and the protests
footfall of Special Ops finesse
Between Notre Dame & Saddam Hussein
targets-of-opportunity & blame
Between boycotts, wine and cheese
and Jacques Chirac on his knees
Between MOABS & Daisy-Cutters
and death-drones in the gutter
(Basketball, Shock & Awe, meat & salad:
TV chants the Mother of all Ballads)
H.R. Stoneback
Webpage Editors:
ecumene.org
Ingrid H. Shafer, Ph.D.
Robert R. Rahl
Posted 1 April 2003
Last Revised 27 April 2003
