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Nothing hinders one act from having two effects, only one of which is intended, while the other is beside the intention. Now moral acts take their species according to what is intended, and not according to what is beside the intention, since this is accidental … . Thomas Aquinas, (Summa Theologica, Secunda Secundae Partis, Q. 64)
The Associated Press has a story about a child in Morocco who killed herself after she was forced to marry her rapist. Amina Filali was raped when she was 15 and was 16 when she took her own life. She had complained to her mother that she was being beaten during her five-month marriage and we’re told that the mother counseled patience. Here’s the top of the story:
There are, of course, no references to religious faith in the recent Atlantic Monthly business section report that ran under this promising headline: “Europeâs Real Crisis — The Continentâs problems are as much demographic as financial. They wonât go away soon.”
As we traded messages the other day, your GetReligionistas enjoyed a casual discussion about the heavy load of cyber-traffic that we direct in our endeavors for this media critique weblog. I noted that, in two years of writing for GetReligion, I had accumulated 2,890 e-mail threads in my GR story possibilities folder. (That’s just the ones left undeleted.)
Several things are becoming clearer here in Beltway-land, as coverage continues of the clash between Father Marcel Guarnizo and the Buddhist-Catholic-artist-gay-activist Barbara Johnson. Before addressing a few key themes, here’s the top of the recent Washington Post article that covered the latest development in the case.
When Pat Robertson said on his show recently that he supported the legalization of marijuana, some of us didn’t blink twice. He has said things like this before, so it didn’t seem like news. But when the New York Times picked it up, people treat it like breaking news.
Perhaps this is the rare GetReligion post that should begin with a biblical reference. Grab that Bible off your newsroom reference shelf and turn to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16, verse 18. Catholic readers are encouraged to quote this from memory:
So we’ve been chronicling a few of the problems with the media coverage of President Obama’s mandate that requires employers, including religious organizations, to purchase insurance that covers contraception, abortifacients and sterilization, even if one or more of those things violate their religious beliefs. Our January posts on the matter are here and here. Our February posts are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. The March posts are here, here, here and here.
