Peter Sean Bradley at Lex Communis has this response about my post on reparations and stuff.

Mr Bradley, however, is incorrect in thinking that I am going to lay out further arguments for reparations. The reason? I've never believed in arguments, especially when it comes to faith and morals. (I say this knowing the Catholic and Thomistic fixation of faith and reason.) If we have to be "rationally convinced" about doing the right things, then we'll never be convinced about the right thing in my view. Our desire to do the right thing then becomes based, not on moral conviction, but on better arguments. (In a course I once taught, I had the undergrads write a reflection paper after reading a couple of slave narratives. One of the more conservative students wrote his paper providing cogent arguments why slavery was wrong. I remember being stunned because, in our day and age we all intuitively know it is wrong, that's a given, we do not need syllogisms to prove that slavery is evil. But this seems to be a very Catholic thing, "show me rationally, why_____?) Again, I point out a another sad moment in American Catholic history, when there was, not infrequently, the question of baptising blacks, the concern was "if the blacks had souls?" These were perfectly cogent theological reasonings based on the theology of the day. Even Orestes Brownson, perhaps the greatest of American Catholic intellectuals in the 19th century was explicitly racist.

I'll keep harping on the question, why can't we as Catholics recognize the right thing to do at the right time, we are consistently in rear of the band wagon on progressive moral issues?

But I have chosen not to debate this issue so I'll cut off my remarks here, except that I should point out that the issue of the Bible and slavery is a little more complex than Peter Sean Bradley makes it seem. We have to remember that the NT was dealing with the Greek notion of slavery, which was a relatively humane slavery compared to the New World slavery. Slaves actually "ran" the emprire, they were the lawyers, doctors, architects, etc, and they could own slaves even while they themselves were slaves. And by the age of 30, manumission was guaranteed. So, for instance in Paul's letter to Philemon, Paul is dealing with a different kind of slavery, one in which the slave was not destined for generations to be dehumanized. And when Paul calls for the forgiveness of the Onesimus, the runaway slave, he asking for his early release also. One thing is clear, Christianity is incompatible with slavery, which was Paul's point to Philemon and also to the Galatians.

Another thing that Mr. Bradley mentions that bothers me is how he carefully parses U.S. history into different eras and argues against presenting the U.S. as one continuous entity. (Why then do we celebrate the Fourth?) I find that argument to be without credibilty. It, however, moves the discussion into the issue of statehood and what and who is the state? And it raises issues regarding the relationship of the states with the Federal government. I am not prepared to deal with these questions. I can speak of the notion of state in Catholic theology but I have no similar competence in U.S. political history. I think Mr Bradley's divisions are a convenient way to absolve the U.S. of any responsibility, which issue was the point of my Nazi example in my first post.

I did and have lost sleep over this in the past couple of days. While this for Peter Sean Bradley and Bill Cork may be an ancillary issue for reasoned debate, this issue is more of a core thing for me and I agitate myself discussing these things with people I am not convinced are sensitive to this issue, which is why I may or may not pursue the issue on this blog. For instance I stopped by this blog and encountered another flippant remark about black life in the U.S. The content was not the issue but, again, what bothers me is that Catholics, especially the more conservative ones who carry the banner of orthodoxy, can be so insensitive to the issues of many communities, especially the black community.