In The Morning Sun, a Central Michigan newspaper, frequent PowerBlog contributor Bruce Walker discusses the connection between the Charleston shootings and the recent papal encyclical:

The Charleston shooting rampage is a terrible reminder that very real evil manifests itself in this world, presumably performed in the name of all that is malevolent. The sickness that devalues innocent human lives over something as arbitrary as pigmentation to the point the violent taking of those lives somehow makes sense can be only credited to something demonic, a force that would’ve most likely wrought evil es even without legally purchased firearms or Confederate flags.

The real tragedy of Charleston, of course, was the loss of lives, but a (far) smaller tragedy was the lost opportunity to fully discuss Laudato Si the following day. True, much ink had been spilled and pixels disbursed about the first papal encyclical to embrace human-caused climate change as fact from the moment a previous draft was leaked earlier in the week. Analysis of the final copy, however, had to wait until later – pushed back for many journalists and thought leaders because of the Charleston massacre, as well the slog of reading such a lengthy and often tedious encyclical.

Read the full post “On Charleston and Climate Change” at The Morning Sun.