The Crossroads of Decisions

 I have a weird, enigmatic title for this week because a lot is going on in my mind right now.  I am starting to second-guess my career choices based on a lot of inconsistencies I have seen, and I am also looking into the possibility of a new home soon, as thankfully I was conditionally approved for a mortgage.  I am also still healing up from my recent dental work, and am getting accustomed to my dentures - they still feel like I have a wad of gum lodged in the roof of my mouth, and eating is still an adjustment, but we are getting there.  I am quite excited that I was able to eat two small pork chops last night, and a piece of fried chicken last Thursday, but I am not quite there to handle some of my favorite foods yet, such as pizza and my beloved Slim Jims - and I really miss Slim Jims at this point, as they are frankly addicting.  I want to go on a rabbit trail about that for a moment.

I have always loved Slim Jims since I was a kid, but who doesn't?   Back when I was younger, there were other flavors of them you can't find nowadays either, such as pizza, pepperoni, and a few others.  Of course, they have introduced some other gross flavors (one is dill pickle - seriously?  That makes me vomit a bit in my mouth thinking about it, as it is a major desecration of a beloved snack).  I say get rid of the dill pickle nonsense and bring back pizza Slim Jims.  One good memory I have of that was back when I was about 7 years old.  My mom used to like to do long drives, and one thing we would do on a long drive like that was snack as we rode.  The snacks were nice - longhorn cheese and pepperoni sticks from the local country stores, those foil-bagged Snyders potato chips (they had a fresh taste to them that was nice too), and other local delights.  Among those were flavored Slim Jims, including the pizza ones which came in a sort of basil-green box (the pepperoni ones came in a pine green box).  This was back in the day as well when Slim Jims were sold in aluminum cans of 24, and that is something I miss as well.  As a younger adult, there was an equally delicious beef stick called the Bridgeford 8-foot, and those were actually better than the Slim Jims - they were super-dry, and I could go through a whole 8-foot package in a relatively short time.  They unfortunately stopped making those too.  It amazes me that these dumb corporations discontinue things people enjoy, and then they introduce inferior substitutes for them.  This is another reason why the big corporations need to go. 

And that leads me to something I haven't really engaged with, but need to.  The issue under discussion is illegal immigration, and it is perhaps the biggest hot-button political issue in the US right now.  The school I work at, a private Catholic school administered by Jesuits, is all on-board with promoting this, and at times they get a bit overboard with it.  Even our fairly conservative Dominican parish had a perspective in the parish bulletin this week I mildly disagreed with - our parish priest said that in many cases the illegals are invited.  That is a fair observation, but that begs the question - who invited them?  Let me set the record straight up-front though because for those of us who oppose unrestricted illegal immigration, we often get accused of things we don't actually advocate.  For instance, many of us have no problem with legal immigration, as that is following the letter of the law.  If our Church officials are so concerned about immigrants, then why not offer them help to follow the law?  By encouraging the breaking of a reasonable law, the Church sins unfortunately, and that is not the witness we need to project to the world.  Call it "civil disobedience" if you want, but encouraging the breaking of national law is not a Christian value.  That being said, here is a second thing we are often misunderstood about.  We are not necessarily for arresting and deporting anyone who has brown skin or a Spanish accent - that is just stupid, and I don't think any decent human being advocates that.  As a matter of fact, we should definitely show compassion for them, and they can be fed, housed, and educated provided two things.  First, it cannot displace actual citizens - a nation that denies its citizens and then caters to illegals is in essence like a deadbeat parent, and that sort of governance will fail.  Second, while we help these people with fundamental needs, we also should be encouraging them to follow the legal process - being in the US is a privilege and not a fundamental right, and like every other nation, American law needs to be respected and followed too.  If there are people who genuinely are refugees from oppression, we should help them for sure, but work within the framework provided.  So, yes, be kind to the immigrant, respect them as human beings, but also let's keep in mind there are laws in place for a reason, and every other nation on the planet has similar laws.  

There is also the caliber of immigrant too - for hard-working families who can potentially enrich our nation, we should assist and provide them with opportunities to become full citizens because they will make a positive contribution to our nation and we should encourage that.  However, among all those who are sincerely seeking a better life, there are also terrorists, MS-13 gang criminals and other malcontents who do no one any good.  Those types will ruin a nation, and they do no viable service to a country.  As a matter of fact, they need to be locked away from any civilized society in a gulag somewhere because they are evil, parasites, and don't belong, and they are the ones making things more difficult for other immigrants who do have a legitimate reason for coming here.  This is why I am all for stricter immigration policies, but at the same time we do so with nuance and a level of empathy - crack down hard on terrorists and criminals, and encourage decent immigrants to pursue legal means to remain here.  That is hard for some on the political Left to digest, as they seem to encourage criminals, but it is the only viable way to handle the issue.  And that leads to something else I wanted to discuss.

I am a bit concerned, working among some very liberal Catholic colleagues, with how some things are being twisted into political statements rather than carrying the spiritual meaning they were intended to have.  What comes to mind is Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is a powerful symbol of Marian devotion.  The appearance of Our Lady at Guadalupe in 1531 had at its core one important message - the salvation of souls.  She appeared as a sign pointing 10 million Indians to the Savior of their souls, and as a result perhaps one of the biggest religious renewals in history happened.  In time, it did transform society too, but not in the way some Catholic Leftists imagine.  The typical Leftist has tried to turn Guadalupe into a political statement - it is, for them, about indigenous rights.   Honestly, this is wrong, and here is why - many of the indigenous practices of that time were demonic.  That was a time when the Aztecs were either ripping the beating hearts out of other human beings, or they were wearing the flayed skin of other victims until it rotted off of them.  The masses then were enslaved.  While there was some abuse on the part of the Spaniards, this was not what Guadalupe was primarily in response to - that became a legitimate justice issue later.  Guadalupe was about the salvation of souls, the souls of a whole continent which at the time did not have the light of Christ, and God's grace was shown through Our Lady's appearance because of John 3:16, and not because of Marx's Das Kapital.  If someone is trying to politicize something sacred like that, they are guilty of the worst kind of desecration, and the Catholic "Liberation Theologian" is no different than Antiochus Epiphanes when he desecrated the Second Temple by sacrificing a pig in the Holy of Holies.  This is why "Liberation Theology" has been rightly condemned, and should still be so.  I give all this as background information about my decisions I need to make. 

I have been starting to reassess my tenure at this particular school I work at for several reasons, with the religious liberalism being a key one but there are others too I won't get into here.  I value and cherish sound Catholic education, but I feel restrained here to carry it out because a lot of the sentiment here seems to contradict it.  I have begun putting some feelers out, and we will see where it takes us.  For those reading this who are praying people, please remember me, as I can use a lot of divine guidance on this.   It has been weighing on me for a while now, and I am just at a point where something needs to change quickly.  I was just talking with another colleague a few minutes ago who expressed similar sentiments - when a school has the potential of creating a revolving door of faculty, something is sadly amiss.  So, it may be time to explore other options but much remains to be seen.  

I think I have pontificated enough today, and as we get close to the end of this year, I will add an occasional thought here or there to supplement.  Thanks for joining me again, and will see you soon.