Up the mountain

Not surprising that a column titled "Gay marriage not a moral issue" starts off with:

A long time ago while a student in a theology class at a Catholic college, I learned something that stuck with me.

The professor related to the class an old Hindu proverb. The gist of it was that there were many paths leading to the top of the mountain. If you spent all your time trying to get others to abandon their paths and follow yours, you’d never reach the mountaintop.

It’s a statement of religious tolerance and a suggestion that focusing on one’s own spiritual beliefs is more productive than focusing on the spiritual beliefs of others.

The old joke goes that there is nothing guaranteed in life but death and taxes. Another guarantee is that an article that starts of with "raised Catholic" or "while at a Catholic college" are sure to end badly and this one is no exception and drones on about plurality and tolerance.

Well this mountain metaphor is often used to defend this notion, so I will explore it a little further. While there might be many paths that lead up to the mountain, there are also many that lead down from the mountain. Some paths will circumnavigate the mountains and will get nowhere. Syncretism is the belief where any path is just as fine as another. While God's mercy does not preclude a crooked and meandering path from ending up with him in eternity, this does not mean that we should take such a path and hope for the best. A mountain climber will carefully study a mountain well in advance. There might be multiple paths, but there will only we be one that is both the surest and the safest. Our lifelong search for truth requires that we abandon some paths that did not lead where we expected them to. Our ascent has to be revised based on what we learn to be true. Sometimes we have been on one path for so long that even though we have come to disbelieve in its getting us to our destination, we also have become comfortable in following it. The idea of jumping to another path unnerves us.

One of the things I love about the Catholic faith is that there are serious answers to serious questions. The question of who will be saved is of paramount importance. Especially the question of will I myself be saved? I am not too concerned with the population statistics of hell, only that I myself might not be filling out a census form there on some later date. Some have distorted the doctrine of no salvation outside of the Church into a rigorist perspective of only those who are physical members of the Catholic Church can be saved. That a membership form is more necessary then mercy by this idea. The Church has always taught that there are those who are invincibly ignorant of the true faith and yet guided by their lights as best they know them may one day participate within the beatific vision. We also must remember that for who much is given, much is expected. The message of going out into the whole world to proclaim the Gospel is so that fewer and fewer would be invincibly ignorant.

While again many may end up at the top of a mountain without having the benefit of climbing boots, rope, pick axes, piton, and other equipment - it is much better to attempt the climb with them. This is what God's grace and the sacraments are to our faith. The very tools that will make a difficult climb both surer and safer. We should never brag that we have some tools that other climbers might not have, but only pray that they may receive them also. We must also remember that even an experienced climber with the latest tools may fall before reaching the top, while another climber without the same benefits will safely reach the apex. It is always good to remember that we can fall at any time and that only through cooperating in grace will our pilgrimage end at the top. Sin is also never a private affair. We are climbing to the top with our family and friends attached to us by rope. Our fall can also pull them down with us. This should not provide discouragement but only to remind us to seek God's will in everything and not to trust to our own devices or mountain climbing techniques.

Gift Card

With the advent of Advent it is now that time of year again when everybody from soap operas to sit-coms do some variation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It is also the time of year when Christian bloggers rant about the commercialization and materialism that Christmas has become for many. Advent traditionally has been a penitential season and with Christmas shopping the tradition continues. Modern society has become a kind of funhouse mirror when it comes to Christian Holidays. The image of Christ coming to us as a new born babe and starting the journey that seemed to end at the cross is distorted in the reflection of societies mirrors to something quite warped. The words Holy Day and Christ Mass were compressed to Holiday and Christmas first for ease though the meanings were not lost. Now Holiday is synonymous with vacation or days off and great feasts of the church have been supplanted by the highest secular holy days of "three day weekends." And Christmas has become a banned word that must be avoided an replaced with season or winter solstice wherever possible.

The thought of Advent as being penitential is at first hard to grasp. Reflecting on of the incarnation and of the joy at his arrival of the Christ child seems to blunt and move towards a Lenten style fast. Last year I also wrote about the variousreasons for the season that we are to take to heart. The message in the majority of the Holiday fare breaks down to being nice and how important family is. While there is much truth in this, Christmas does come down to a family - the Holy Family. Its need also originates in the first family: Adam and Eve. While some theologians have mused that perhaps that incarnation might have occurred if Adam and Eve had not fallen into sin - the fact is that they did and we have continued the family tradition. Every year we gather around the Christmas Tree and see the gift given us by our relatives Adam and Eve - original sin. Yes the reason for the season is sin - one size fits all. Fed-exed to us via the Holy Spirit and Mary's fiat we received a gift wrapped in swaddling clothes. He came that we may have life and have it abundantly. That our life becomes supernaturally fruitful into eternal life with him. The gift first presented to us in swaddling clothes moved on to exchange them for a bloody shroud to redeem us from our sins.

Bearing this in mind can we not work to prepare ourselves a bit for such a gift? God continuously give us grace. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. Jesus promised to always provide us an escape from sin. That in turning to him and cooperating in grace that we are moving towards further sanctification. God gives us a gift card of grace and like regular gift cards if they sit in your drawer and our never redeemed that they become worthless. No matter the value charged to the card it will not be applied to us unless used.

The question becomes what gift shall we give Jesus on Christmas? Will it be another crown of thorns? Or will it be packaged in a nice box secured with ribbons and bows - a humble and contrite heart?

Chained in a Manger

CHICAGO -- On the Saturday morning after Thanksgiving, a group of carpenters and tradesmen donated their time and energies to construct a one-of-a-kind display honoring the birth of Jesus Christ in downtown Chicago.

It's "one-of-a-kind" because all others in the world famous Daley Center Plaza annual holiday display fail to mention whose birthday Christmas celebrates.

Every year, the "God Squad," a group of volunteer tradesmen, erect one of the world's largest nativity scenes around Thanksgiving and take it down on the last day of December.

The God Squad, headed and financed by retired businessman and Catholic activist Jim Finnegan of Barrington and business owner and founder of the Walsh Forum radio program Dick Walsh, have had to make a few changes in their project's construction.

Several years ago, someone stole the Christ Child out of the creche's manger, launching a citywide search. The next day, following an anonymous tip, the baby was found in a Greyhound bus station locker.

Now the Christ Child is securely chained to the manger and instead of angels protecting the baby, Chicago Police stand guard. [Source] [Via Matt C. Abbott]

Chained in a manger,
Attached to his bed,
The little Lord Jesus,
Anchored there instead

The links prevent some guy,
Remove Jesus where he lay
The Little Lord Jesus,
Fastened securely today

They rattle and jangle,
Chains surely wont break,
And Little Lord Jesus,
Some Scrooge will not take

I chain thee, Lord Jesus
Security apply,
And stay by my side,
A bolt through your thigh

Be near me, Lord Jesus,
I ask thee to stay
Alarm system manger,
Tripwire in the hay

The extra loud siren,
Screams through the night air
The Little Lord Jesus,
Electrified - so beware!

American Vocation

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- A group of Midwestern bishops is concluding a visit to Vatican City, where Pope John Paul the Second told them he's worried about the declining number of U-S priests.

He told a group of visiting American bishops on Friday that the challenge can't be ignored.

The pope is calling for a national day of prayer for priestly vocations, as well as new ways to recruit priests.

I have seen the normal responses by self-identified progressive Catholics that the solution is of course women priests and married clergy. They never seem to remember that the Church had up to the 1960 not had a vocation crisis and did not require the change of a discipline for celebrate clergy or abandoning a constant teaching of the Church as regards a male priesthood. It is rather funny to watch many diocese with a progressive bent continue to lose vocation while those identified as throwbacks who are stodgy, old fashioned and and un-yielding to modern culture such as Bishop Bruskewitz and Bishop Chaput not only have burgeoning vocations but have had to build new seminaries. The foibles of the modern Catholics who do everything to make the church more relevant and accessible to everyone while at the same time have declining Mass attendance and religions vocations would be funny if it wasn't so destructive.

I think they should make a comedy about this.

In the movie "American Vocations" Chevy Chase plays Bishop Griswold a bumbling bishop that just can't do anything right. We watch as he reads and implements the latest suggestions from the National Catholic Reporter and America magazine. He strives to build the perfect American parish accessible to everyone and finds that it is really accessible with no one going to Mass.

We watch the laughs as he:

• Introduces Self-centering prayer - perfect for self centered lay people.
• Leads bible study by introducing the neon black highlighter. Scriptural passages that are difficult to follow or contrary to your conscience can be highlighted in black.
• Adds species inclusive language - no more of the man and women or brother and sister terminology that excludes others of God's species from actively participating in the Mass and feeling left out with human specific phrasing.
• The book "I'm OK, your OK" is carried in procession to the altar.
• Develops the automated confessional that is voice actuated and gives the absolution message "I affirm you" when the affirmed stops speaking.
• Not only is first communion always before first confession, but since children 12 and under could not possibly commit a sin - height indicators such as those used in amusement parks are placed in front of the confessionals.
• New catechetical texts are introduced into the parish RCIA program such as the "I love you where your at - Jesus Coloring Book."
• Rap and Heavy Metal Masses are celebrated where the proper response is Yo! or Dude! The choir director is replaced by a DJ.
• To emphasize that the Mass is a communal meal a drive-thru window is added next to the altar so that communicants can receive the Precious Body and Blood of Christ and even to have fries with that.
• Liturgical texts now include the Gospel of Thomas and The Da Vinci Code.
• Classes on Vatican II are taught weekly. Classes are free since no actual Vatican II documents are required by the students.
• Pro-abortion politicians are given head-of-the-line privileges at Communion
• Religious sister's habits are standardized with a uniform and consistently ugly brown pant suit
• The diocese becomes welcoming and open minded to include everybody (except orthodox Catholics.)
• Parish churches are built with only one very narrow and real long pew. This ensure both that nobody can attempt kneeling and that everybody must get into the communion line.
• Spirituality includes the enneagram, raki, and just about anything taught by someone just as long as their name is not prefixed by Saint and especially Doctor of the Church

The laughs build as the introduction of every new idea results in the exact opposite intent and the frustration builds for poor Bishop Griswold who just doesn't understand why his enlightened approach will not work.

I also think that Bishop Gumbleton would be the perfect advisor for this movie - just tell him that it is a biography and not a comedy.

Coming soon to a parish near you!

Catholic and Taking a Break

First Mark Shea does blog fasts during Lent. Then he took time off for some other writing work and now he is going on a blog holiday until he finishes writing his latest book. What's the big idea? Putting support of your family ahead of your blog readers? Well I do wish Mark God speed on this project literally. May God speed him through so that I may again have a daily dose of his wit, sarcasm, and the ability to annoy people by taking the Gospel and what the Catholic faith teaches seriously. I will be looking forward to his new book Behold your Mother: An Evangelical Discovers the Blessed Virgin Mary.

So after much thought and prayer, I have decided to suspend this blog till that project is well and truly done. I don't know how long that will take, but I firmly believe it is what the Holy Spirit has been bugging me to do for some time and I have been avoiding doing.

My reasons for avoiding it are not especially noble. Cranky as I can be here, I value the companionship of my readers. The life of a writer consists of sitting in a room by oneself. For an extrovert like me, that's solitary confinement and a lonesome business. The blog has been a way to avoid that to a degree and I've been loath to give it up.

I can sympathize with that struggle. Blogging can become quite time intensive and you have to watch carefully to keep it from infringing on your responsibilities. Unlike Mark though I am not an extrovert. More like a gregarious introvert, but I do enjoy the contacts and friendships that have developed via blogging and I would be sore to have to give it up.

Super Savior

Image during constructon via roadsidearmerica.com

When motorists on I-75 see the 62-foot statue of Jesus alongside the highway, many have the same reaction, News 5's Emily Longnecker reports.

"It just makes you, it's like 'Wow,' " said Stephanie Nevels of Fairfield.

Tiffany Williams has been hearing about the statue since it was put up outside Solid Rock Church.

"It kind of took my breath away. I was just like, 'Oh my goodness,' " Williams said. "I had no idea it would be that big."

The giant messiah is gaining giant attention from newspapers and magazines across the country. One travel website calls it "Super Savior."

Church officials say the styrofoam and fiberglass Jesus is the largest one in America. And people are flocking to see it, says Mike Trent, who works at the BP gas station down the street. [Source]

My impression of this statue is "quick throw me a rope! I am drowning in quickgrass." I also think it is pretty ironic that "Solid Rock" church would build a hollow Jesus statue out of styrofoam and fiberglass. Though, after all the abstract Jesus statues - in comparison - this one is not too bad.

A good point

Thomas of Catholicae Testudines observes:

A billboard that said something to the effect of "Love God, not religion? VirtualChurch.com"

What if someone were to erect one that said "Love women, not relationships? VirtualMarriage.com"?

See what I'm getting at?

Holy Shrine of Syncretism

With a simple rhythmic chant, 14 people from the Shrine of Holy Wisdom exited their sacred meeting space in Danelle Plaza in Tempe and set forth on a "walking meditation" that took them full circle around the aging business complex.

On that Christ the King Sunday, marking the close of the church year calendar, the Rev. Jorge Rodriguez Eagar assigned five to carry icons of holy exemplars such as Mary Magdalene, St. Francis of Assisi, St. George the Dragon Slayer and the Dalai Lama. Others carried flowers, candles on tall stands, ornate crosses or a censer emitting incense across the quiet parking lot. Everyone bore something that was integral to the rite.

...On this Sunday to mark "the great solemnity of Christ the King," the priest led a liturgy of the "Cosmic Christos — a metaphysical liturgy that honors the divine radiance of all created forms."

No it is not a Catholic church thankfully, but instead part of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch.

Seven are chartered in Arizona. The churches are described as "progressive, non-dogmatic, non-creedal, non-fear-based, mystically oriented, Christ-centered spiritual fellowship of followers of the Spirit." Eager touts the Shrine as a community "dedicated to the study and practice of the inner teachings of the Christos," or Christ. Eager started it in November 2001 and originally named it "Christ of Divine Light." Its board adopted the current name last summer. The Shrine’s five points of ministry are an emphasis of the inner quest; embracing diverse sacred traditions; celebrating the earth and its cycles; honoring the divine feminine; and valuing the transformative power of ritual. [Source]

In other words - bells and smells with no talk about hell.

And here a story of the schismatic Old Catholic Church and the world's smallest cathedral.

HIGHLANDVILLE, Mo. - The guest book shows that visitors come from all over the country, and even the world, to this tiny hamlet in southern Missouri.

It's not a glitzy destination like Branson, which is less than 30 miles south on U.S. Route 65.

No, it's in Karl Pruter's back yard. There, nestled under the shade of a large oak tree, is the world's smallest cathedral.

Pruter, a bishop since 1967 in the little-known offshoot of Catholicism known as Christ Catholic Church, is the architect and caretaker of Highlandville's claim to fame. Officially recognized by the Guinness Book of Records in 1984, it draws as many as 3,000 visitors a year.

They've come from California, Texas and Florida. And Australia, Mexico and Venezuela. And on and on.

All to see the Cathedral of the Prince of Peace, a converted wash house that measures 14 feet by 17 feet and -- sizewise, anyway -- looks more suited to be a tool shed than a place of worship. With only four pews for the congregation, and those pews measuring just 4 feet long, it seats only 12 people. [Source]

Cheesus Part II

Fr. Jeffrey Keyes of The New Gasparian had remembered a post I had done previously about a a group called the Artotyritae who thought that the sacramental elements consisted of bread and cheese and thought the following essay might be a good follow up. With the recent e-bay auction of the Virgin Mary Cheese Sandwich the parody essay "The Holy Toast of Florida Biblical and Liturgical Roots" is pretty funny.

What's in the flask Father?

A Catholic priest has run afoul of the law in Colorado Springs, Colo., after being caught with an open container of sacramental wine while performing Mass outside an abortion clinic.

The Rev. Bill Carmody was warned by a police officer after the cop asked him what he was holding.

"The police officer asked me what's in the flask," he told the Colorado Springs Gazette. "I really didn't know what to do."

Carmody has asked the Colorado Springs City Council for a variance, allowing him to legally say Mass outdoors.

"I do not want to break the law. I'm simply asking for a variance," Carmody told the City Council on Tuesday. "This is a religious ceremony."

According to the Gazette, city ordinance 2.5.704 prohibits drinking in any street, alley, sidewalk, avenue, park – even public stairways. [Source]

While I have great sympathy for what this priest is doing I also don't think that the celebration of Mass outside an abortion clinic is a decent place.

From Redemptionis Sacramentum

1. The Place for the Celebration of Holy Mass

[108.] “The celebration of the Eucharist is to be carried out in a sacred place, unless in a particular case necessity requires otherwise. In this case the celebration must be in a decent place.” [197] The diocesan Bishop shall be the judge for his diocese concerning this necessity, on a case-by-case basis.

Happy Thanksgiving

...to you and to your families.

Thanks be to God for sustaining and nourishing us.

Here is a post a wrote a couple of years ago of why I am thankful to be able to be thankful.

The article below shows that the first Thanksgiving was actually celebrated in St. Augustine, Florida on September 8, 1565. This was the first community act of religion in the first permanent European settlement in the land and it also included both Spanish and natives. This article originally appeared in my diocese magazine. I am just sparing you looking through the pdf file for it.

When on September 8, 1565 Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and his 800 Spanish settlers founded the settlement of St. Augustine in La Florida, the landing party celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving, and, afterward, Menéndez laid out a meal to which he invited as guests the native Seloy tribe who occupied the site.

The celebrant of the Mass was St. Augustine’s first pastor, Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, and the feast day in the church calendar was that of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. What exactly the Seloy natives thought of those strange liturgical proceedings we do not know, except that, in his personal chronicle, Father Lopez wrote that “the Indians imitated all they saw done.”

What was the meal that followed? Again we do not know. But, from our knowledge of what the Spaniards had on board their five ships, we can surmise that it was cocido, a stew made from salted pork and garbanzo beans, laced with garlic seasoning, and accompanied by hard sea biscuits and red wine. If it happened that the Seloy contributed to the meal from their own food stores, fresh or smoked, then the menu could have included as well: turkey,venison, and gopher tortoise; seafood such as mullet, drum, and sea catfish; maize (corn),beans and squash.

What is important historically about that liturgy and meal was stated by me in a 1965 book entitled The Cross in the Sand: “It was the first community act of religion and thanksgiving in the first permanent [European] settlement in the land.” The keyword in that sentence was “permanent.” Numerous thanksgivings for a safe voyage and landing had been made before in Florida, by such explorers as Juan Ponce de León, in 1513 and 1521, Pánfilo de Narváez in 1528, Hernando de Soto in 1529, Father Luis Cáncer de Barbastro in 1549, and Tristán de Luna in 1559. Indeed French Calvinists (Huguenots) who came to the St. Johns River with Jean Ribault in 1562 and René de Laudonnière in 1564 similarly offered prayers of thanksgiving for their safe arrivals. But all of those ventures, Catholic and Calvinist, failed to put down permanent roots.

St. Augustine’s ceremonies were important historically in that they took place in what would develop into a permanently occupied European city, North America’s first. They were important culturally as well in that the religious observance was accompanied by a communal meal, to which Spaniards and natives alike were invited. The thanksgiving at St. Augustine, celebrated 56 years before the Puritan-Pilgrim thanksgiving at Plymouth Plantation (Massachusetts), did not, however, become the origin of a national annual tradition, as Plymouth would. The reason is that, as the maxim holds, it is the victors who write the histories.

During the 18th and 19th centuries British forces won out over those of Spain and France for mastery over the continent. Thus, British observances, such as the annual reenactment of the Pilgrims’ harvest festival in 1621, became a national practice and holiday in the new United States, and over time obliterated knowledge of the prior Spanish experiences in Florida, particularly at St. Augustine. Indeed, as the Pilgrims’ legend grew, people of Anglo-American descent in New England came to believe that Plymouth was the first European settlement in the country and that no other Europeans were here before the arrival of the Mayflower– beliefs that are still widespread in that region.

In recent years, Jamestown, Virginia has enjoyed some success in persuading its Anglo-American cousins in Plymouth that it was founded in 1607, thirteen years before the Pilgrims’ arrival, and that there were regular ship schedules from England to Jamestown before the Mayflower’s voyage of 1620. Furthermore, Berkeley Plantation near Charles City, Virginia, has convincingly demonstrated that it conducted a thanksgiving ceremony on December 4, 1619, nearly two years before the festival at Plymouth. Thought to have been on Berkeley’s menu were oysters, shad, rockfish, and perch. Along the old Spanish borderlands provinces from Florida to California an occasional voice is heard asserting that this site or that was the first permanent Spanish settlement in the United States – a claim often made in Santa Fe, New Mexico which was founded in 1610 – or that it was the place where the first thanksgiving took place. An example of the latter claim appeared last year in the New York Times, which, while recounting the colonizing expedition of Juan de Oñate from Mexico City into what became New Mexico, stated that celebrations of Oñate’s party in 1598 “are considered [the Times did not say by whom] the United States’ first Thanksgiving.”

The historical fact remains that St. Augustine’s thanksgiving not only came earlier; it was the first to take place in a permanent settlement. The Ancient City deserves national notice for that distinction.

Perhaps most of New England is now willing to concede as much, though that was not the case in November 1985, when an Associated Press reporter built a short Thanksgiving Day story around my aforesaid sentence of 20 years before in The Cross in the Sand. When his story appeared in Boston and other papers, New England went into shock. WBZ-TV in Boston interviewed me live by satellite for its 6:00 p.m. regional news
program.

The newsman told me that all of Massachusetts was “freaked out,” and that, as he spoke, “the Selectmen of Plymouth are holding an emergency meeting to contend with this new information that there were Spaniards in Florida before there were Englishmen in Massachusetts.”

I replied, “Fine. And you can tell them for me that, by the time the Pilgrims came to Plymouth, St. Augustine was up for urban renewal.”

The somewhat rattled chairman of the Selectmen was quoted as saying: “I hate to take the wind out of the professor’s sails, but there were no turkeys running around in Florida in the 1500s. But there may be a few loose ones down there now at the University of Florida.” So there! Within a few days of the tempest a reporter from the Boston Globe called to tell me that throughout Massachusetts I had become known as “The Grinch Who Stole Thanksgiving.” Well, let’s hope that everyone up north has settled down now. And let’s enjoy all our Thanksgivings whenever and wherever they first began.

Dr. Michael V. Gannon is a Distinguished Service Professor of History at the University of Florida. He has had a long interest in the early Spanish missions of Florida about which he has written extensively. Two of his books, Rebel Bishop (1964) and The Cross in the Sand (1965) treat of the early history of this state.

Playing God

A PHARMACIST refused to sell the morning-after pill to a mother-of-two because of his Catholic beliefs.

Kerrie Gooch, 24, who has a nine- week-old baby and a two-year-old was forced to go to a clinic.

She plans to sue if she falls pregnant. Furious Kerrie asked yesterday: "What gives him the right to play God?"

She added: "Everyone is entitled to an opinion but I don't want someone making a decision like this for me. [Source]

That is pretty funny coming from someone who is willing to conduct chemical warfare on God's plan for human sexuality. Nice of her to allow others to hold an opinion just as long as they don't get in her way.

Beer for Baby Jesus

ADELAIDE, Australia - An Australian brewing company is offering six cases of beer to anyone who returns a statue of the baby Jesus stolen from a nativity scene earlier this week, brewery officials said Thursday.

The South Australian Brewing Company offered the reward after thieves swiped the statue from the company's traditional nativity display earlier this week.

Managing Director Mark Powell said security footage showed a man scaling a fence and lifting the baby Jesus from his manger.

"We are very concerned about the well-being of baby Jesus and we are calling for his swift and safe return," Powell said.

A reward of six cases of beer would be given to anyone who returns the statue, he said.

Well maybe it was a Christmas tradition rigorist that took it. In Catholic tradition it is custom to only place the baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas Eve. So if they return it on Christmas Eve we will know the truth. I myself am in favor of this tradition as with the continuing daily celebration of Christmas up to the Epiphany. Not only does this give me a good excuse for not putting away the Christmas tree and decorations yet, but also allows me to continually listen to traditional Christmas music.

Now the idea of rewarding somebody with Australian Beer for kidnapping the infant Christ will only lead to more El Nino-nappings. Giving them some domestic American beer would serve as a more fitting punishment.

"That said, you would have thought that the incentive of a guaranteed exit through the right door after purgatory would be enough of an incentive in itself," Powell said. [Source] [Via CaNN]

That certainly is a theologically confused statement. There could figuratively be only one possible door to exit after purgatory and returning the baby Jesus figure could result in no guarantee. Just what kind of theologians are beer companies hiring now-a-days? Though at least he believes that Purgatory didn't go out with Vatican II.

Finally Dan

I find it rather funny that the day after CNN picks Jonathan Klien as it's new head Dan Rather finally resigns. Mr. Klien was the one previously to remark on Ra^thergate by saying

"Bloggers have no checks and balances . . . [it's] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas."

So I seriously doubt that any real overhaul of CNN will occur under his watch. Sure we will see some sets, hairdos, and personnel change and yet the CNN we have come to know will keep on sliding downhill in the ratings. Maybe some pajama-clad researches are what they need.

Power of Prayer

Here is a nice article from a Binghamton, NY newspaper on the Rosary and it's effect on peoples daily lives.

..."You are really studying the Scriptures," Endwell resident Marie Magill said about praying the rosary. "People think it is a rote prayer. It's really meditating on the Scriptures."

...By praying the rosary, Catholics are led to help others through parish ministries, said Mary Wright of Endicott.

"It does bring about a relationship that you have with the Lord," said Wright. "Prayer is what strengthens us and tells us who the Son of God is and what he has planned for us, and what the fruits will be."

Young and Catholic

Tim Drake has started a new web site and blog to go along with his book Young and Catholic. The book and blog provides a snapshot into the future with stories of young Catholics responding to the faith. I am not generally an optimist and yet from what I have read and seen I am rather optimistic about what young Catholics are bringing back to the Church.

Now Tim when you get around to Middle-aged and Catholic - ring me up.

Spreading the Gospel

This site is dedicated to spreading the Gospel in the werewolf and furry communities. It is my hope that many trans-species people will accept Jesus as their Savior through this ministry. I will explain the etymology of this website's name. I got the idea from Werewolf Tobias' tradition of calling a werewolf stronghold a House. Well, I'm a dragon, so my ideal stronghold would be a Castle. And since this is MY website where I am MASTER, I call this my Castle. [Via Christdot and Relapsed Catholic]

Well what about spreading the Gospel to other mythical creatures. I can imagine getting a vampire to convert to Catholicism would be a tough sell. They come into the Church and dip their fingers into the Holy Water and promptly scream as their fingers start to burn. Just performing the sign of the cross would also be quite an ordeal, but they might have quite an affinity to the Precious Blood. Though many vampires would probably feel fine in many of our crucifix free churches today. One of my favorite movie lines is from Roman Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers where the hero pulls out a crucifix and the Vampire says "that won't work I'm Jewish." Now as for werewolf conversions I guess they could get a blessing in their human state and then come back at a full moon for a blessing of animals.

Thinking about Hollywood and horror movies you wonder just what they would do without the Catholic Church? There have just been so many horror movie plots that involve a Catholic Church in some way or at least a scene in a traditional Catholic Church. Just how many bad plots with secret Catholic orders protecting some evil apparition from coming into the world are there? You never see end of the world plots with giant demons coming out of the floor in some Protestant mega-church. You also never see any of these plots take place in one of the more modern Catholic Churches - they almost always have high altars and altar rails. So if church architecture continues to slide we can always watch a horror movie to see more traditional church architecture.

By one vote

Chicago, Nov. 22 (LifesiteNews.com/CWN) - Embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) supporters were stunned by the recent defeat of a bill granting state endorsement to ESCR in the state Senate. After an emotional debate which was concluded by a tear-jerking email plea from the late actor Christopher Reeve, the chamber voted 28-29 against the measure. [Source]

The new Angels of Death

Captains Quarter's reports on an exhibit by Josef Mengele the notorious Nazi doctor and pulls out one statement which measures his self-delusion.

Of his own actions in "selecting" whether victims at Auschwitz were to live to work or to be experimented upon, or to be dispatched in the gas chambers, he wrote: "I gave life in Auschwitz, I did not take it."

This creepy statement got me to thinking about a modern context to this statement. How many doctors doing embryonic stem-cell research have the exact same attitude. That the mythical benefits of ESCR will give life not take it. That the deliberate destruction of a human being in the process should be ignored in favor of the potential benefit. The embryo is the modern equivalent of the Jew - after all with this attitude neither are "really" persons deserving of protection. And if products such as soap or miracle cures can be made of them so much the better. Josef Mengele spent the last years of his life in hiding from the authorities for his crimes. We are much more enlightened now. A doctor of his caliber could have instead received a grant and moved to California to be funded by taxpayer money in ESCR.

Reversing headlines

SoDakMonk takes Chesterson's advice to to take a current phrase or tag an reverse it to see which one makes more sense. He applies this guideline to some current headlines to good results.

There's something about Mary

Credo has an good post on Marian catechesis and effective ways to teach children on Marian dogmas. He also includes some example of this fruit that his students wrote on this topic. Accompanying this post is a graphic that he created titled "there's something about Mary."

Though I think Credo needs some help and prayers since he also includes a laudatory psalm of praise for Powerpoint. I think this might require an exorcism to excise those Microsoft slide show demons that must reside within. One of the ways to explain hell to a modern generation is to tell them that it is like a Powerpoint presentation that never ends.

Goddess of something

RightWingSparkle has an interesting account from protesting an abortion clinic.

A couple of interesting things. There was LOTS of media. One cameraman started kind of following me around. I guess because I was speaking to many of the people and he wanted a good shot of something, because nothing exciting was going on. I spoke to a Hispanic grandmother who had been praying the rosary. She pointed to one of the policemen on a horse and said "That is my nephew." She smiled at him and did a little wave. He kinda smiled back and shook his head. "I kid him that one day he will have to arrest me." she giggled. I smiled. "You do this often?" I asked. "I come every Saturday and silently pray the rosary." she answered.

Scary stuff. These people.

Then a very strange thing happened. Suddenly from the 2nd story balcony of the abortion clinic they brought out a 9 foot purple paper mache woman. Her arms were attached with elastic and they had sticks glued to the back of her hands so she could wave back and forth. Some woman from the balcony shouted that she was the goddess of something ( I couldn't understand her and I never found out what goddess, seems the reporters there weren't that interested in finding out) I turned to the cameraman that had been following me and said, "Aren't you going to film that???" He looked reluctant..."I guess so" he said. "YOU GUESS SO???? THIS isn't newsworthy???? THIS isn't interesting enough for the local news????" I said.

He filmed it, but I never saw it on any news station or written up in the newspaper. It occurred to me later that the station may have told him to only film that which made the pro-lifers look nutty, not the other way around. I just can't explain it any other way.

Clinton Contest

At the recent Clinton Library opening Sen. Clinton said:

The building is like my husband: It's open, it's expansive, it's welcoming, it's filled with light.

Dawn Eden is sponsoring a contest to come up with some other endings to The building is like my husband: ___________________________.

The building is like my husband:

• Since it also did not have sex with that women.
• In that it has many interacting exhibits and BIll the exhibitionist allowed many women to interact.
• Since in a library you can't judge a book by their cover and with my husband - cover ups to keep judges from getting him booked.
• At 20,000 square feet it closely matches his ego.
• The exhibit within are just as accurate and truthful as anything he has said.

The library also includes a collection of Clinton's favorite books which includes Thomas a Kempis' - The Imitations of Christ. Funny by his administration I would have thought it would be the "Elimination of Christ." This collection of books seems to be missing such books as the Kama Sutra and issues of Playboy.

Subjective Ecumenism

Fr. Kenneth Allen notices part of a article in the USCCB site's news section.

"The texts of our respective scriptural revelations, Biblical and Qur'ânic, complete in divine terms what reason begins in its human quest for perfection."

He goes on to say in response:

The reason this statement bothers me on the Bishop's site, is that it implies that our texts are of equal value in terms of Divine Revelation.

But the Koran explicitly denies the Divinity of Jesus Christ, as well as the virgin birth. So how can we possibly view them as equal?

I agree that is phrasing is nothing but subjective terming. The Qur'an is not a revelation since the term is used for what has been revealed by God. There are truths in the Qur'an since parts adhere to natural law and the fact that Islam is truly a heresy that took parts of Christian teaching intermixed with other beliefs. To say that the Qur'an "complete in divine terms" is just plain crap since it is not a completion but a perversion of revealed truths.

During the week the Bishop's rejected a proposal yesterday to develop a pastoral statement on how Catholics should study the Bible. So on one had the Qur'an is raised up to seemingly equal standing and on the other plans for a pastoral statement are scrapped. The reason for the scrapping is that some Bishop's argued that we did not need another statement from the Bishop's to do something that the Church has always promoted and is specifically recommended. The Catechism quotes St. Jerome's statement "ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ." I am rather partial to the argument made by some in the Bishop's conference about a mountain of statements that are never read and ignored and that this pastoral letter was not needed. I just wish that this silly statement on the Qur'an had been subjected to the same restriction and had never met printer's ink.

The statement on the Midwest Regional Dialogue Of Christians And Muslims Meets also mentions "The participants welcomed Fr. Francis Tiso, associate director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to his first meeting at ISNA headquarters." This appears to be the same Fr. Francis Tiso who is a Tibetan Buddhist scholar and who also said after investigating claims about a a Tibetan lama's body disappearing seven days after death.

Fr. Francis said that the meaning of the Rainbow Body is beyond that of a yogic attainment. It is ultimately a manifestation of compassion, of a real bodhisattva's ability to show people that the path is worth taking, that the sacrifices are worth it, and that their endeavor has universal power to reach out beyond the confines of the body or time.

Fr. Francis encountered writings of early fathers of the Christian church and in the early Buddhist canon that described humans as originally beings of light. He says that this and the Tibetan experiences suggest that the doctrine of resurrection of the body might refer not to a fleshly but a luminous reality, an interpretation that agrees more with the descriptions in I and II Corinthians. He said that the Rainbow Body shows the possibilities inherent in the human body, which seems to be a distillation apparatus into which all the energies of the universe flow in the direction of enlightenment.

A new age site speaks favorably of Fr. Tiso's book CHRIST IN BUDDHA NATURE: TWO WORLDS-ONE HEART

If you have ever struggled with the dilemma of reconciling Buddhist philosophy with Christian theology, you will find yourself quickly absorbed in this rich and informative conversation with Father Francis Tiso, scholar, poet, artist, musician, botanist, alchemist, exorcist, mystic and gourmet cook - a Renaissance man in the truest sense of the term.

So if this information on Fr. Tiso is accurate is it any surprise that with him and others of like minds directly working for the USCCB that such subjective news releases get written?

Call me skeptical

Somehow the words "suitably chastened" and Arlen Spector to me don't go together. I guess time will tell.

Sen. Harry Reid the new minority leader who has been reported as being pro-life starts out by warning Republicans about a rule change to a simple majority on cloture instead of the sixty vote super majority now used. So the first act of a pro-life Senator is to warn against changing the rules that so far have prevented pro-life judges from reaching federal courts and especially circuit courts of appeal. We will just have to wait to see which one wins out - pro-life sympathies or party loyalty.

Christmas Music

Dawn Eden has an interesting op-ed in today's New York Post called "The Grinch Who Stole Messiah." She discusses the modern censorship or overtly religious music during Christmas. You know your getting old when you can remember singing Christmas music in a public school without the appearance of ACLU storm troopers jumping in. When the Christmas concert was actually called the Christmas concert and not just as holiday or seasonal music. People have become so thin-skinned now that to hear anything other then their particular world view sets them off into a tizzy. With the advent of tolerance less is now tolerated. With multiculturalism people are exposed to less cultures. Now I was an avowed atheist in my public school days and I loved singing traditional Christmas Carols over the secular replacements. This was not because I agreed with the theology or concepts if the lyrics, but because I recognized that the music was beautiful and thus both good to sing and to hear. Yet now the beautiful must be subjugated to the mere mundane. Being exposed to the concept that some people have beliefs different then yours should not bring your world crashing down. I remember in school where one of my Jewish classmates gave a talk to the whole school on the meaning of Hanukah. Just hearing this did not make me want to convert to Judaism. But it did help me to understand something more about her beliefs. In the modern school if a student told the assembly about the true meaning of Christmas you can imagine how many people would be offended and the complaints made to the school.

In high school we performed Fiddler on the Roof (where I played the Rabbi) and as part of the preparation for this we had a Jewish Rabbi come and speak to us about the history surrounding the events portrayed and a bit about Judaism. Again I found the information he presented to be interesting. I would not have even imagined the concept of being offended and exposed to someone else's religious beliefs. Modern secularism has made people and our culture smaller. The same people who believe in Darwin's survival of the fittest will also shrink and complain at the mere mention of someone's religious belief. It is no wonder that people are now seeking therapy after their candidate loses an election. The mere thought that people might disagree with you and that it even might even be a majority will send you running in disbelief and shock. They become open minded to everything but the fact that they have become very close minded. Public schools shouldn't be indoctrinating any particular religion or philosophy - though they also should not be dumping gallons of white out all over our cultural heritage.

Eternal Rest Grant Him

Gerald Serafin of A Catholic Blog for Lovers passed away this morning due to his failing heart. He will be sorely missed for his obvious love for the Church and his always charitable posts.

The Embryo Jihad Continues

(AP) — Illinois senators are debating whether to encourage stem cell research here by giving the state's official stamp of approval to the work that raises touchy ethical questions.

The legislation, which could be considered by the full Senate on Thursday, would make it official state policy to permit stem cell research. It also would require that patients at fertility clinics be told they could donate unneeded embryos for research, and it would ban cloning for the purpose of reproducing people.

Unlike a measure approved in California and a proposal in Wisconsin, the Illinois legislation would not provide any public funding for embryonic stem cell research.

The Senate Executive Committee voted 7-5 for the bill, dubbed the Ronald Reagan Biomedical Research Act because the late president had Alzheimer's disease and his wife, Nancy Reagan, supports stem cell research. [Source]

What a slap in the face of Ronald Reagan's beliefs and legacy.

Joe Garagiola

Here is an article on the Catholicism of Joe Garagiola who was a Major League Baseball player and "Today Show" co-host.

He also recalled the long lines in front of "Father Lupo's" confessional because the priest didn't speak English.

Joking about being a "big venial sin guy" in the old days, Garagiola attended St. Ambrose School and St. Mary's High School in St. Louis. He credited his seventh-grade teacher with his good penmanship on autographed baseballs.

One day, he said, while trying to get a laugh out of a nun in religion class, he answered the question "What was St. Paul's vision on the way to Damascus?" by writing "20/20" and thought, "You're a genius, Joe!"

Many times during his speech, Garagiola stressed that the lessons he learned from the nuns and priests in school remain with him today. For instance, he recalled a priest explaining to him that "it's not easy to be a good Catholic, but the fact that you are a Catholic makes it easier to be strong."

Garagiola talked about his devotion to the Blessed Mother.

" If you ever want anything, go to the Mother," he said, adding that her month of May is his favorite month. He recited his favorite prayer, from childhood, called "To Our Lady," that begins "Lovely lady, dressed in blue." He said that when he dies he wants to hear Jesus say, "Yeah, my mother told me about you." [Source]

I liked the line about St. Paul's vision on the road to Damascus and people going to confession to a priest that couldn't understand them is also funny. Though I do wonder about the validity of Father Lupo's confessions for those who did not share his native language. One of the requirements for a valid confession is to complete a penance assigned to you. The priest determines the penance based on the sins confessed and whether a mortal sin was confessed. If he was unable to understand the penitents confession he could not determine an appropriate penance. Another factor would be the contriteness of the penitent. If a priest believes that the person is not contrite or was holding back on the sins confesses then he has a duty to refuse absolution.

Atonement Baby

London, England (LifeNews.com) -- A British girl who triggered a national controversy after she had an abortion without her mother's knowledge is pregnant again. But this time, student Melissa Smith intends to keep the baby.

Her mother Maureen told the BBC, "She's 15, she made her own mind up. She was hell-bent on replacing the one she lost, basically."

Maureen also told the BBC, "Me and my family are supportive 100 percent. We'll be there for her -- like we said previously."

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the pro-life group known as LIFE, Rachel Heath, said, “It is not uncommon for women who have an abortion to become pregnant again soon after.”

"Many women find the pain of their abortion difficult to bear and go on to have an ‘atonement' baby. This is often by the same father," Heath said.

"I hope this time the school health worker leaves (the girl), her boyfriend and family alone to prepare themselves for the birth of their child," Heath added. [Source]

Michael Moor

A reader sent me these two pictures.

The first picture is just too implausible. This is ridiculous I just can't see him holding an American flag, at least not right side up or not on fire. The rest of the picture accurately captures the man who said "'The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win.'' Just before they blew Margaret Hassan's brains out I am sure she asked them first. "Are you more like George Washington or Thomas Jefferson."

Politicians say the darndest things

A Catholic priest at St. Augustine Parish in Andover has asked state Representative Barbara A. L'Italien to step down as cantor and leader of the children's choir because of the legislator's support for abortion rights and gay marriage.

''He said because of my views, he did not want to have me on the altar at church anymore," L'Italien said yesterday, adding that she had refused the request from the Rev. William M. Cleary nearly two weeks ago.

L'Italien has been attending Wednesday night children's choir practices and plans to act as cantor again during the holidays, unless she receives a written order from Cleary, she said.

''I'm trying to be a good Catholic," L'Italien said. ''But this should be a separate issue. Church should be a sanctuary for me and my faith and not have anything to do with my work." [Source]

This attitude is really not so surprising. First we had the false dichotomy of church and state with the alleged wall of separation to prevent you from actually voting based on your faith. Now we have the separation of work and church. Her comment is just so laughable and devoid of reason. Would her excuse also go for a professional robber? "Hey I only rob people while working, my being in the choir is a separate issue." Well maybe - after all most politicians also force money out of your pocket with the treat of force so maybe this example argument wasn't sufficiently ad nauseam.

I can imagine a last judgment scene with Jesus separating the sheep from goats. "Excuse me Mr. Christ. I think there has been some mistake! I am suppose to be with the sheep. Jesus replies 'whatever you do to the least of them you did to me.' Just a second -are you referring to my support for abortion? If you are then that is where the mistake was made. That was done at work. Hey what do you mean depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire. I already told you that was at work."

Contraceptive Perfumes

Dawn Eden posts on the variety of goods disguised to appear as food or fashion accessories to promote Planned Parenthood. I have covered some of these items in a post about two years ago where I also described a suggestion for a talking pro-choice doll called Cliché Cindy, for "Children's Dr. Josef Mengele Lab Kit" and the "Visible Aborted Child Anatomy Kit."

She links to this story.

Australian women are to trial the world's first spray-on contraceptive before Christmas.

As easy as putting on perfume, the fast-drying spray would be applied to the inner side of a woman's forearm once a day, ending the need for pills, implants or injections, say researchers.

And suggests some french perfume names for the new product.

• Eau de Baron
• L'emté Woeum
• Feuille Tu Conceive
• Sans Fruites
• Madame Noövary
• Sterile Été
• Spéede

My own suggetions might be a line of contraceptive perfumes by Unchristian Dior.

• Forn eau Cate
• Fetus Adieu
• Conscience Carte Blanche
• Enfant Terrible
• Faux Amour
• All About Moi
• Bon Voyage Le Bébé
• Amour der

They also have available Condom Lollipops which on the back of the package has a link to www.teenwire.com.

So obviously they are not marketing this as a novelty item for adults, but as a way to drive up new business. After all the market share of children is slowly decreasing and thus the pool of future adults so they must saturate the market to maintain their current profits. I wonder what products might be next? Tie Me Up Elmo? Penis shaped pacifiers? A little black bag with scissors so children can play abortion doctor?

The flavored condoms are available in Raspberry, Honey Dew, and Strawberry. What no mint? Haven't they ever heard of a condom mint?

Tacky Tabernacle

Matt C. Abbott sent me this link to a rather unique tabernacle.

Bread Basket Tabernacle

The design of this tabernacle is not really to my tastes. Though I guess there are advantages. No time spend shining and polishing. Thieves breaking in to steal a gold tabernacle will pass this one right by. Possibly a hungry vagrant might steal it thinking he will have a meal for later. To be fair though, this tabernacle was designed with the 51 Claretian Martyrs in mind. They sometimes hid consecrated hosts among the breakfast bread. No tabernacle no matter how beautiful can accurately reflect the beauty of the Eucharist.

This does make me wonder if the pastor keeps the Church funds in one of those fake books in the library or the keys to the church in one of those fake bricks laying in the garden. Possibly funds are given to the poor in Chinese puzzle boxes. If they can open them they can have the money inside.

How to Address a Dissenter

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs is taking aim at what it calls a renegade church in Black Forest and asking its members to return to the fold.

In a letter to about 60 households, Bishop Michael Sheridan said Servants of the Holy Family is not part of the Roman Catholic Church, despite what church priests tell them.

“I entreat you to separate yourself from the Servants of the Holy Family and return to full communion with the Roman Catholic Church,” Sheridan wrote in his letter. “No one can claim to be authentically Catholic if he or she is not in communion with the diocesan bishop and the Pope.”

Sheridan said the separation nullifies some Catholic sacraments such as marriage and reconciliation, also called confession or penance.

FROM BISHOP SHERIDAN’S LETTER TO PARISHIONERS:

“I entreat you to separate yourself from the Servants of the Holy Family and return to full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.”

Former members claim that Servants of the Holy Family is out of sync with the Catholic Church in other ways, too, saying the church is as much a personality cult as a place of worship.

Sheridan and the diocese can’t take action against the church, just urge members to leave.

Servants of the Holy Family is a church and seminary of 100-150 congregants at 8025 Maverick Road.

Maverick Road? Now that is pretty funny and perfectly fitting. One of the uses of Maverick is "One that refuses to abide by the dictates of or resists adherence to a group; a dissenter." I think this would be useful to rename streets around other known dissenters.

• National Catholic Reporter - 666 Heretic Ave
• Hans Kung - E. Communicated Street
• Joan Chittister - 1 Known Dissent R.
• Call To Action - No 1 Under Sixty Lane
• Bishop Gumbleton - 4 Undermining Doctrine Ave.
• Fr. Richard McBrien - Where's My Coll R.
• Frances Kissling - 44,000,000 Moloch Lane
• Minneapolis' St. Joan of Arc parish - 2 Schism Road
  

Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, Supplication and Biceps

WEST SPRINGFIELD - One of several speakers at a local meeting of Roman Catholic women yesterday offered some unconventional advice:

Combine daily prayer with bicep curls.

Lynn Ann Covell, an exercise guru from Fox Run, Vt., addressed a gathering for the annual meeting of the Springfield Diocese's chapter of the National Council of Catholic Women.

As she stalked up and down the carpets of a conference room at the Best Western Sovereign Hotel, Covell extolled the benefits of regular exercise for staying spiritual.

"It's like there's a giant magnet pulling us toward calamity, and it doesn't leave us time to take care of ourselves. We need to keep the temple fit," said Covell, a return speaker at the 10-year old event. [Source]

Gee, I wonder if she saw my post here.

Worth noting

The Lady In the Pew in her monthly columns takes on the idea of certifying everyone to be a minister of something. Great column!

I have also been remiss in not previously linking to this hilarious post by Andrew of Shrine of the Holy Whapping that has a dialog between a modern liturgist and God in an Old Testament setting.

Jack Chick-fil-A

"In I attended the opening of a Chick-fil-A this fall in Evansville, Indiana as part of our Customers First package on exemplary service, I couldn't help but notice how much Christianity is a part of the culture. More than once during the all-night event, Chick-fil-A president and chief operating officer Dan Cathy led employees and customers in prayer, reminding everyone that the company's mission is not merely to serve a lot of chicken, but 'to glorify God.'

"The chain, which is closed on Sundays, as a day of worship, has a strong Christian following. In Evansville, a group of teens held an impromptu Bible-study meeting in the parking lot following a game of touch football..." [Source] [Via Relapsed Catholic]

Chick-fil-A's CEO is S. Truett Cathy. With a last name like that it reminds me of Johnny Cash's song "Boy name Sue."

As a CEO, Mr. Cathy views his leadership role within the Chick-fil-A family as one in which he strives to demonstrate good leadership. He is not afraid to ask hard questions, re-evaluate situations that have not gone as planned, and asking for his staff's input. Personally, Mr. Cathy says he does not consider himself religious. "We must continue growing in our spiritual life. It is a daily walk; always learning; always seeking more of God's instructions."

And here is their corporate statement of purpose:

"to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A."

I am certainly glad this Christian man started this franchise instead of some others.

What if the notorious anti-Catholic Jack Chick had started a fast food chain? Can you imagine a Jack Chick-fil-A? No Shoes, No Shirt, No Papists - No Service. Which each unhappy meal you would get a Chick Tract to color. Maybe also included would be a Whore of Babylon Pope Action Figure. Above the french fry fryers would be a sign - this is what happens to Catholics. A fish sandwich would be available everyday except Fridays in Lent. You can't order a sandwich with the works since his theology denies that you can get a sandwich through works. You must have faith and a couple of bucks. There would also be the doctrine of Sola Menu - only what is on the menu can be ordered. The menu is sufficient to order by and no menu items that were invented at the time of Constantine are available.

I don't think the G in this case stands for God

"It makes me smile because this is typical of what the world wants to do, make money on everything," said Debbie Stone, a manager at Spencer Gifts. "Why not make money on Jesus?"

Visit a Spencer Gifts or on-line novelty store and you're sure to find Jesus on just about any trinket you can think of.

"Action figures, bobble heads, you name it we've got it," Stone said.

There's "Hope on a rope" a Jesus-shaped bath soap, a perfect to cleanse the body and soul.

"Actually, these have sold better than the devils," Stone said. "So, that's a good thing."

Or, how about a dashboard Jesus? Enlightenment on a spring. You can buy "Jesus freak" flying discs, cocktail coasters Or a "God is groovy" t-shirt for the family pet.

And celebrities such as Ben Affleck and Jessica Simpson have been spotted sporting a "Jesus is my homeboy" t-shirt.

But the most controversial spiritual merchandise may be a Jesus g-string available on the internet for $15.

"In my opinion, it is definitely poor taste," said Brian Jones, Henderson Hills student pastor. "Yeah, it blasphemes because that's not what Christ stands for. Christ on the panties or on the shower curtain. That takes Christ and cheapens who he is."

Manufacturers say it's impossible to create an object without offending someone. And this may just be the beginning: a movie that grossed more than $600 million elicits "passion" in many to capitalize on the image of Christ. [Source]

One odd item I saw a couple of weeks ago coming out of Mass was a Confederate Battle Flag rosary. This was in a P.T. Cruiser decorated with the Marlboro Man motif and this rather odd rosary was hanging from the mirror. The flags on it to mark in between the decades were about one inch in size. Now I for one do not automatically equate the use of the Confederate flag with racism and that in some instances it is seen by the user to represent Southern pride. Regardless I think it is in pretty poor taste for a rosary and I think that even a American flag used the same way would be inappropriate.

I guess I should be happy that the Jesus hope on a rope is outselling the satan soap. And if you are interested you can buy Pope On A Rope for $9.95.

The Folly of the Cross

Lida of Veritas. Quid est veritas?posts:

So... something interesting happened last night. The business manager for our a cappella group was contacted by the organizer for our next event, which is a sort of "sing-off" between different a cappella groups from Cal and Stanford, as a precursor to the Big Game. It's a thoroughly secular event, and our director was initially a little queasy about participating, but the rest of us held firm.

It turns out that some of our audience at one of last week's performances were "offended" by some of our lyrics. Just what were those lyrics?

You poured out all Your blood
You died upon the cross
You are my Jesus who loves me.

This is so irritating, especially in light of the fact that Berkeley just celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement. We had Howard Dean come and give a speech and everything. (Wheee.)

Why is free speech allowed everyone except for those who don't agree with the liberal ideologies that so permeate this campus? Maybe I'm exaggerating. After all, the event organizer certainly didn't kick us out or anything. She just suggested that she was "concerned" about our repertoire, which made our director even more worried than usual.

This type of response really mystifies me. Even more that more than one person actually took the time to complain that they were offended about the lyrics. I would be curious to see the playlist in their MP3 players as to what music they listen to that simply hearing about Jesus's death and love for us could cause their neurons to fire off an offended response. Even in my most militant atheist days religious lyrics never bothered me. I saw it as just another aspect of cultural mythology. It now comes to the idea that free speech can be confined to free speech zones. It is easy to be tolerant of ideas you mainly agree with and that is what tolerance has come to mean today. Multiculturalism as long is it isn't western culture. Freedom of religions just as long as it isn't Christianity. You can hold and practice any idea on sexual morality just as long as it isn't traditional sexual morality.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the reaction to the lyrics about the cross. What St. Paul said is still very true today.

...but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

Exhibit tells story of nuns in America

WASHINGTON - Nearly a half-century ago, Dolores Hart was a blue-eyed, blonde actress starring next to Elvis Presley in the film "Loving You." In a switch of biblical proportions, she's now the Rev. Mother Dolores Hart, prioress of a Roman Catholic abbey devoted to prayer and a 400-acre farm in Bethlehem, Conn.

Her unusual story is among those in an exhibit titled "God's Women: Nuns in America" on view at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, across the street from the Catholic University of America.

"The overreaching theme of the exhibit is one of joy, particularly the joy these women have in their vocations - in their impact on this country and its culture," said Penny Fletcher, the chief operating officer at the center.

The story of nuns in America begins in 1694 with Lydia Longley, who as a child was carried off by Indians raiding her New England village. The Indians sold her to their allies in French-ruled Canada, who sent her to the Congregation of Notre Dame in Montreal. There she converted to Catholicism, became a nun and died as one. Organizers of the exhibit know of no record that she ever returned to New England.

The exhibit also tells of three American women who have become Roman Catholic saints:

_Elizabeth Ann Seton, a New York socialite of 200 years ago who founded the first new U.S. religious community for women, the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's.

_Frances Cabrini, an Italian immigrant who founded schools, orphanages and hospitals in major U.S. cities. Most of her work was done in New York, Chicago, Seattle and New Orleans, but she also founded institutions in Europe and South America.

_Katharine Drexel, who in 1891 established a community of nuns to work with American Indians and blacks: the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, with headquarters in Bensalem, Pa. [Source]

Whenever two or three gather in my name - make sure to get a permit first

ANN ARBOR, MI —The Thomas More Law Center has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Fort Myers, Florida, and several of its officials for policies and practices curtailing the free speech rights of pro-life sidewalk counselors to pray and handout pro-life informational literature.

The Law Center filed suit on behalf of Judith Minahan, Edward and Marilyn Melone, and John Vetter, all of whom are Christians motivated by their faith to expose the evils of abortion. They seek to pray on the public sidewalk outside a Fort Myers abortion clinic and counsel expectant mothers in a non-confrontational manner to find alternatives to abortion.

The City of Fort Myers and its officials, however, require pro-life advocates to obtain a permit before more than two of them may engage in such activity. They are also prohibited from approaching people and distributing informational literature. As a result, if three pro-life advocates pray on the public sidewalk without a permit and hand out literature, they are subject to arrest.

According to Edward L. White III, the Law Center attorney handling the case, “Our clients simply want to peacefully pray and present a pro-life message on a public sidewalk without fear of arrest. We are seeking relief from the federal court to allow them and other pro-life advocates to do so freely without being subject to further violations of their constitutional rights.” [Source][Via AMDG]

Generosity Index

Michelle Malkin links to and also reformats to display the Generosity Index that ranks states by their charitable contributions. No shock here that blue states are ranked towards the bottom. The methodology used is really unfair thought since it doesn't count liberal charitable giving by proxy - that is via the upper one percent of tax payers.

One interesting thing about the generosity index is that it is counter-intuitive to factors you might consider such as per capita income. This Per Capita State Ranking using 2000 data shows Mississippi as dead last yet in the generosity index they are number one. And Connecticut which is number one for Per Capita Income only ranks number 44 on the Generosity index. For the most part this trend plays out for most states and out of the top ten most generous states all but three are in the bottom ten of the income listing and the other three were in the bottom twenty.

This trend also seems to bear out in Democratic presidential candidates. President Clinton itemized used underwear that he gave to charity.

Like Al Gore, who donated a miserly $353 to charity as vice president in 1997, John Kerry may be a serial cheapskate.

During the early 1990s, with no apparent presidential aspirations, Kerry contributed the following amounts: $0 in 1991; $820, 1992; $175, 1993; $2,039, 1994; and $0, 1995. Last year, however, after media attention, he gave $43,735 [Source]

Post-election selection trauma

At the time I thought the reaction of liberals to the 2002 election was pretty funny. When Michael Moore took down his predictions of the vast gains in the congress that turned out to be partially true - just not for his party. How many pundits has said that the midterm election would be a referendum on "selected not elected" President Bush and how the Democratic base would turn out in record numbers. The excuse given for the losses was that their message was not adequately communicated to the American people. The message that their message was and continues to be the problem is the reality that is still denied.

Now the 2004 election fallout has reached strange heights that surprised even me. The story about people seeking therapy for "post-election selection trauma" reported by The Boca Raton News is just another indicator. This time we have even more mentions of people wanting to leave the Country rather then to be in a Country governed by President Bush. They had my hopes up before, though I didn't fall for it this time. It reminds me of the lyrics from Metal Church CD The Human Factor and the song The Final Word. Being a head banging conservative I was surprised at the many conservative themes on this CD.

Why don't you find a worthwhile cause to channel your energies?
Like finding a solution to starvation and disease
I know that you're concerned about your First Amendment rights
But don't you burn our flag to make your point, that's just not right
If you think you're better off in a different country
Why don't you pack your bags right now
Here's your ticket
It's on me

I've been around this whole wide world and found no better place
And no one's gonna start a fire in my homeland's face
We have a tendency to take our freedom for granted
We have some problems, yes I know
Look at the seed you've planted

I know that you're aching to be heard
What gives you the famous final word?
To think that your opinion is preferred
What gives you the famous final word?

Here's your ticket, it's on me is a theme that conservative answer to this threat. I have been following politics for a while and I remember first my disbelief in Presidents Clinton's first election and then his reelection. For his second election I remember disbelieving the poll and thinking there is just no way after all of these scandals that they could be true. I was in denial by projecting my thoughts onto the electorate. I as at sea on work ups and I watched attentively what little election coverage we were able to get. The election result angered me and many of my shipmates. We had just gone through four years where the military was cold-shouldled in the White House and yet our missions and time at sea were increasing because of cut back in both ships and personnel. I can't remember ever hearing or reading one reaction by a conservative that they intended to leave the country rather then to live or serve under a Clinton Presidency. I must admit on my last reenlistment during Clinton's second term that the part where I swore "I will obey the orders of the President of the United States" came out at little harder then in previous reenlistment, but the oath was just as true.

In the past efforts by some Libertarians to move to New Hampshire and to change the size and scope of government there has be roundly mocked in the MSM. The same goes for efforts by some Christian groups to do something similar in the state of South Carolina. Yet now we have MS-NBC's Lawrence O'Donnell call for secession. The idea of a Democratic succession is fertile ground for comedy and parody. In fact I have long wished that there was a state that totally ran on principles set forth by the modern liberal. Where concepts of running the government were applied to every facet of life. Where a job flipping burgers at McDonalds entitled you to 40k a year with full medical insurance. Where when you buy a burger the price is based on your ability to pay. Upper one percent Big Mac only $10,000 while most others get their burgers for free. There would be free healthcare for everybody though all the doctors would either leave the state or retire due to all the malpractice lawyers living in one state. But hey if you can find a doctor your covered. Medicines would be free also. The only problem is because of price controls all the pharmaceutical in their state went belly up or they gave up on expensive research and development into new drugs. As they slowly abort and contracept themselves into oblivion they develop city limit signs that slowly count down the population - kind of like those prevalent rain forest countdown signs. But then again this is a plus for their attitude since it is messy humans who destroy the environment so the perfect liberal state would only have endangered species and other animal and insects.

Another fun exercise is to imagine a liberal succession along the lines of the Civil War.

Liberal Battle Flag

The positive thing is that we would not have the loss of lives like what occurred at Gettysburg. Unarmed pacifists would certainly provide some good laughs to our marines. Though they will have to have some new classes at the War College to come up with adequate tactics in the face of such threats as coordinated chanting of "Hey, Hey, Ho Ho ...." People chaining themselves to buildings. People threatening to dialog with you. The constant barrage day and night of ambassors trying to appease you. Kumbaya played through speakers demoralizing the troops. Or the ultimate threat of them parading around naked spelling out intimidating phrases - oh the horror. We could even call it the Civil-Union War.

Captain Ed of Captain's Quarters also had some interesting thoughts on this subject.

I have a theory that Democrats are secretly thrilled to have lost this election to George Bush, and this report confirms it. Nothing makes a Leftist happier than to belong to a victim class, and now they have created one that may exceed any that came before. It makes them feel more complete than even an official apology would. Next up, of course, is forcing employers and health-care providers to recognize it as a disability under ADA.

Vatican to promote the use of painkillers

When I saw the headline I was thought it might be in relation to those faithful suffering from liturgical wackiness at some parishes. Enough painkillers and many modern liturgical hymns might be bearable. Alas no.

Restating its opposition to any form of euthanasia, the Vatican yesterday said that painkilling drugs should be used in order to help dying patients live out their days to a "natural end".

Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, Pope John Paul II's spokesperson on health care issues, was responding to a question about living wills at a news conference.

"We must preserve life from its beginning to its natural end," he said. "Life doesn't belong to us. Life belongs to God."

The Vatican is holding a conference this week to promote the use of painkillers for chronic pain suffers and terminally ill patients [Source ] [Via WIred Catholic].

Theology of the Body

Dawn Eden provides some interesting insights on John Paull II's Theology of the Body, her own expereiences and a sermon by a rabbi who preached along similar lines. In one section she says:

While the feminists of the world rage against sexual harassment and media depictions of women as sex objects, their No. 1 political goal is "choice," a k a "reproductive freedom"—the right to have sex with whomever they want to, without physical consequences. Yet it is this very "right" that ensures that women, as well as men, are exploited and enslaved.

I not so sure that modern feminists rage against media depictions of women as sex objects. While there is a debate within the feminist community as to whether pornography can degrade women and encourage violence against them - these voices seem to be mute against the predominant messages made. Feminist constituents like the American Library Association have done all they could to not have filters on library computers. Feminist friendly groups like the ACLU have argued to protect pornography and even animated child p o r n. Hollywood which is infested with radical feminist ideology has worked overtime to further devalue women as sexual objects. The destruction of the family which further impoverishes women is no bright light in modern times

If I was the classic male chauvinist pig (MCP),I could not wish for anything better then modern feminisms. Abortion, contraception, sex outside of marriage, sexual licence - I mean was is there that a MCP would not like? More access to sex, less responsibilities or problems due to messy children getting in the way. I mean this is a win-win situation for MCPs. Contraception and backup contraception (abortion) are MCP enables.

New minority leader?

With Tom Daschle loss there has been much talk about his replacement being Nevada Senator Harry Reid. He has a 55 percent pro-life rating according to the National Right to Life Committee which according to NRO: The Corner notices that during the 105th, 106th, and 107th Congresses that Reid received a higher rating then Senator Specter. So this would be quite a positive step in the right direction in the Democrat's leadership to have someone that doesn't automatically kowtow to Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocates.

The only problems is is that I am highly skeptical that this will actually come to pass. I expect a bait and switch where pro-life hopes are lifted and then a same old pro-abortion Senator will be the minority leader instead. Just as many pro-lifers are upset at the idea of Arlen Specter heading the judiciary committee I just can't see the predominately pro-abortion Democrat senators going along with this. I would love to be wrong about this and supposedly he already has firm support from 30 members including some very pro-abortion ones. Again even if he does take a leadership role I am not that optimistic about just how pro-life he will be since he met with Kate Michelman, leader of the National Abortion Rights Action League. If NARAL doesn't come out against this then you know he gave them some assurances.

Some bloggers on Democratic Internet sites on Wednesday questioned Reid's charisma level, saying he's a nice enough guy but the party might need a more dynamic leader who can come across well on television.

"Let's face it. Reid is not the Democratic Tom Selleck," Washington political analyst Stuart Rothenberg said. [Source]

This from a party that went from Al Gore to John Kerry? I didn't realize that charisma was any kind of requirement lately. Though after Tom Daschle who had the charisma of a wet wash rag hanging in the shower - Harry Reid has to be a gain in that direction.

Governor McGreeveys farewell speech

The following is a part of the text of Governor McGreevey's farewell speech.

I am not apologizing for being a gay American, but rather, for having let personal feelings impact my decision-making and for not having had the courage to be open about whom I was.

...You see, today I stand before you as a changed man. Aeschylus said, 'In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.' Like the psalmist of old, I have asked God to 'create in me a clean heart' and to 'renew a right spirit within me.' I stand before you as a man who has experienced the freedom that comes with the truth -- claiming that promise, 'the truth will set you free.' Just as Lincoln said that house divided against itself cannot stand, so it is true with a person. A divided self is not an integrated self. And so as I have been preparing for this day I have been doing some mending in my soul. I so want the words of my mouth and the actions of my hands and the thoughts of my heart to be one and the same thing. That brings proper alignment, something true and whole.

...With these thoughts then, I begin my own new journey as an American who just happens to be gay and proud. I don't look back with bitterness, anger or sorrow. I look forward to seeking knowledge, a journey of self-discovery and finding ways to contribute my gifts to those to whom they could be helpful. I won't dwell on what might have been and instead have been focused on what's possible. You see, as Kipling said, '... I have met with triumph and disaster' ... and as he hoped, I realize that those two impostors are just the same. So I will dare to dream, but this time, not let the dream by my master.

His speech was full of biblical references and references to his soul though of course one statement he attributed to Lincoln was originally said by Jesus. It is sad that his personal reassessment does not include a reevaluations of the trap of identifying yourself by a sexual attachment.

He came into the headlines before the scandal that caused him to resign broke out when The Most Rev. Joseph Galante said that McGreevey could not receive Communion because of his remarriage without annulment and the fact that he supports abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, and other issues. To his credit McGreevey said that he would not receive Communion, though he made statements critical of the Bishops calling his statement a "profound disservice to the faithful."

Some in Illinois Pick Catholic Health Plan

PEORIA, Ill. - Federal employees in part of Illinois now have the option of enrolling in a Catholic-run health insurance plan that does not cover abortion, contraceptives or fertility treatment.

Enrollment opened Monday for the plan, which officials said was the first of its kind to be offered to federal workers.

"I see it as allowing the individual government employee to exercise their moral judgment and to follow their moral conscience in terms of how they want their benefit dollars spent," Philip Karst, executive director of the Illinois Catholic Health Association, told the Chicago Tribune.

The insurance is offered by Peoria-based OSF HealthPlans to 4,000 eligible residents of 27 counties of central and northern Illinois, not including Chicago. It is administered by a company owned and operated by an order of Roman Catholic nuns, the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis.
Click here!

Karst and other proponents of the plan, which offers low-cost, high deductible coverage, say it allows subscribers to select coverage that is in keeping with the moral position of their faith.

Opponents see it as a move to extend religious influence.

And then of course we have the mandatory rebuttal by Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood.

"It's inappropriate for federal dollars to subsidize a plan that is blatantly designed to foster one religious point of view," said Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "This is just another part of the Bush administration's attacks on access to family planning and birth control."

And just exactly why is a pro-choicer against choice in a instance where this insurance plan is only one of 249 plans available? Oh I forgot - any threat to PP 's abortion money pot is a threat against the religion of Moloch.

Red, White, and Blue Mass

The Most Rev. Edwin F. O'Brien, archbishop of the American Archdiocese for the Military Services, quoted St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine Sunday as he defined the term “just war” for Catholic and Christian members of the military and their families at the 13th annual Mass for military personnel at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

The Mass, celebrated by the Most Rev. Michael R. Cote, bishop of Norwich, was celebrated in honor of U.S. National Guard members and reserves from all branches of the military.

Whether in Iraq or Afghanistan today, or in past wars, St. Augustine's philosophy of “benevolent severity” is as necessary now as it was in the early centuries of Christianity, O'Brien said. The idea behind the phrase is that goodness can come, and at times can only come, out of violence that is used as a last resort to defend and protect others.

In his homily before a congregation of hundreds, O'Brien imagined what the Good Samaritan's response might have been to the person he later helped, had he arrived 10 minutes earlier, while the victim was still being beaten.

“Would the Good Samaritan have had the option, and the obligation, to do what was necessary to put an end to that unjust oppression? To put an end to that threat?” O'Brien asked. [Source]

That is an interesting question on the parable of the Good Samaritan that I had not heard before. In other news, please play for our troops as the battle in Fallujah (Phantom Fury) has begun.

Pete Vere interview

Here is an interview with Canon Lawyer Pete Vere on his new book he co-authored with fellow canonist Michael Trueman called Surprised by Canon Law: 150 Questions Catholics Ask About Canon Law. [Via Matt C. Abbott]

When parody meets reality

CLAMART, France (AP) - Yasser Arafat's wife lashed out at his top lieutenants Monday, accusing them of traveling to Paris with plans to "bury" her husband "alive." [Source]

And yesterday Scrappleface had this story:

Specter Backs Partial-Burial Abortion for Arafat

(2004-11-07) -- U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, R/D-PA, today said that to resolve the condition of Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat, who is "hovering between life and death," he favors a procedure which critics call "partial-burial abortion."

"Of course, it's Mrs. Arafat's right to choose," said the future chairman of the senate judiciary committee, "But to end her inconvenience, I would recommend what physicians call an INX, which stands for interment and expiration."

If Mrs. Arafat chooses this option, her husband's body will be lowered feet-first into the grave. When only the head remains above ground, a surgeon will use a pair of scissors at the base of his skull to remove his brain.

"The beautiful thing about his procedure," said Mr. Specter, "is that since Chairman Arafat wasn't really alive, it won't make him a Muslim martyr. Plus, it pro-actively fulfills the requirement of Islam for burial within 24 hours of death."

Changing Minds

Here is an article by Matt C. Abbott about The Womens Center, a pro-life crisis pregnancy center located in Chicago.

Clergy Unions

TORONTO - They work for God, but say workplace conditions too often are wretched. A group of United Church clergy in Ontario and British Columbia, therefore, have taken the first steps toward unionizing the 4,000 pastors in Canada's largest Protestant denomination.

Citing psychological and physical abuse, bad working conditions, sweatshop wages and a corporate church that responds to their problems inadequately, a group of 30 clerics in Ontario and a similar number on the West Coast have invited unions to step in and organize the church.

Physical abuse has become such a problem for clergy that in England, the giant Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union, which represents 1,500 Anglican priests and a few rabbis, has made available tae kwon do martial arts defense courses rather than insist its members turn the other cheek.

"People are sometimes angry at God or religion or at life, and the clergyperson represents that," said the Rev. David Galston, pastor of Eternal Spring United Church in Hamilton and one of the leaders of the unionization movement. [Source]

Unions among priest and religious are nothing new. In fact St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Aviala and many other priest, religious, and laity have been involved in union with God or the local chapter of the Transforming Union.

Catholics in the Public Square

The members of the group blog Catholic? Kerry Watch with the advent of the election results are now being refocused into another group blog called Catholics in the Public Square. This blog will focus on both the positive and negative actions of public Catholics and will be directed more generally. Christopher Blosser started out with an introductory post:

• The election may be over, but the debate over "CINO" politicians -- Catholics who openly proclaim themselves "pro-choice" and endorse legislation at moral odds with the teachings of their church -- continues.

  This November, we will be waiting for the results of Cardinal McCarrick's long-overdue "committee report" on the subject of how Catholic bishops ought to deal with the scandal created by politicians in a state of obstinate sin who openly receive communion. It was the Catholic debate over this subject which prompted the creation of CatholicKerryWatch in April 2004, and we will be addressing this issue in the months to come.

• With the election of President Bush and a majority in the house and the senate, it is important to broaden our perspective to focus on the key issues and figures in the Church's struggle to establish a culture of life.

• On the horizon is the prospect of several Supreme Court appointments, and with it the absolute necessity of appointing a strong appointee with a clear moral vision that aligns with the Church. Catholics must gird for a major fight in the media over the appointment of that candidate.

• In the wake of the election Democrats have insisted on the need for "unity" and "reconciliation." While the editors of this blog agree on the need to maintain a civil dialogue between parties, we must refuse any demand for Catholics to relinquish their moral principles and forsake the demands of their faith. To John Kerry and his fellow Democrats, we insist that there can be no "unity" where one side recognizes the value of human life from conception until death, and the other side insists upon a "constitutional right" to murder an unborn child.

• Likewise, we will offer critical commentary on the Gov. Pataki's and Schwarchenegger's who are trying to subvert the GOP, to "broaden the tent" at the cost of jettisoning the pro-life values of the Republican Party. At the same time, we offer our support to organizations like Democrats for Life engaged in a battle for the soul and moral renewal of their own party.

My fellow editors are:

Earl E. Appleby (Times Against Humanity)
Oswald Sobrino (Catholic Analysis)
David Schrader (Catholics for Bush)
Christopher Blosser (Against The Grain)

I would also like to thank those readers that sent me and the other editors of CKW links to articles and suggestions for topics to post about.

Never Mind

Dennis of Vita Mea funny piece of blogger comedy the other day using the old Saturday Night Live's Gilda Radner and her rant against gay onions got me thinking about doing a similar bit.

Chevy Chase: Weekend Update recognizes its obligation to present responsible opposing viewpoints to our editorials. Here to reply to a recent editorial, is Emily Litella.

Emily Litella: With the recent election results I just can't believe the hypocrisy of President George Bush. He supported the passage of the Federal Marriage Amendment and has also been supportive of state bans on same sex marriage. Yet shortly after he won the election he said he has a man date. How can he be against same-sex relationships and then date a man? What does Laura think of this relationship and does she actually approve of his dating a man? Also I have not heard of any denouncements by the Christian right when he announced that he had a man date. Where is Pat Robertson and Jerry Fallwell now? And what is even worse in his re-election acceptance speech he said "I want to thank you for your hugs on the rape lines." Really now, lining up people to rape in lines and then thanking them for their "hugs" is dispicable!. These are the values that American's voted for?

Chevy Chase: Miss Litella?

Emily Litella: Yes?

Chevy Chase: The editorial was on President Bush receiving 52% percent of the vote and whether he had a "mandate" - which means a a clear authorization from the American people for his agenda. And that was rope lines not rape lines.

Emily Litella: Oh. I'm sorry. Never mind.

Body and Soul

I went to a Mass of reparations last night as part of a vigil for the Alliance of the Two Hearts. These are held each first Friday and one of the things I like about them is that they have confession open for about an hour and a half before Mass and it seems like everybody that attends also avail themselves of confession first. After Mass they expose the Blessed Sacrament and people remain there praying until the 7:30 Mass in the morning of the following day. The only thing I don't like about organized Eucharistic adoration is that often the organizers feel that every minute must be filled with people reading out loud spiritual reflections and passages from the Bible. I like this to some extent, but I also prefer some time before the Blessed Sacrament trying to meditate. I am not always successful though there is always a peace in praying quietly during Eucharistic exposition.

During the homily our pastor reflected on the passage about the unfaithful servant and how he was more cunning then the children of light. He related this to the election and the Catholic vote and decried the fact that the Catholic vote to some extent is still willing to support radically pro-abortion candidates. One of the comparisons that he made I thought was most interesting. He compared some issues like the economy, health care, etc to the body. He went on to relate issues like abortion, contraception, ESCR to the soul. That we must vote the soul first since without the soul the body is lifeless. Martyrs are willing to be killed first rather then to denounce their faith or to formally cooperate in evil. While the body is a good, our soul takes precedence

"Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?"

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell

\For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?

I thought this was an interesting and fruitful delineation of issues.

A close brush with the presidency

Tim Drake posted the funny parody below and asked me if I could provide a graphic to go along with it. So I created this graphic to try to accompany his over the top Veggie Tale parody. The sequence is based on the Newsweek article as reported in this NRO: The Corner's post. The only quibble I have with Tim's parody is how can you have a song about a hairbrush without John Edwards chiming in. I could just imagine the battle occurring with John Kerry to try to get a hair brush away from John Edwards.

Reading Newsweek's account of Kerry's meltdown over his lost hairbrush, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself recalling VeggieTales famous Silly Songs with Larry, "Oh Where is My Hairbrush."

This was just too good to pass up. Here are my alternate lyrics - Silly Songs with Kerry (the Pickle).

yrics: The Hairbrush Song Album
Lyrics: From Episode 3--Are You My Neighbor

Narrator: "Our curtain opens as Kerry, riding in a van on his way to his Time Magazine cover-photo shoot, is searching for his hairbrush. Having no success, Kerry cries out.."

Kerry: "Oh, where is my ****'in hairbrush? Oh where is my ****'in hairbrush? Oh, where, oh, where, oh, where, oh, where, oh, where, oh, where, oh, where, oh, where oh, where ... is my ****'in hairbrush?"

Narrator: "Having heard his cry, Marvin Grape enters the scene. Shocked and slightly embarrassed by Kerry's language, Marv regains his composure and reports ..."

Marv: "I think I saw a hairbrush back there!"

Kerry: "Back there is my hairbrush. Back there is my hairbrush. Back there, back there, oh, where, back there, oh, where, oh, where, back there, back there, back there ... is my hairbrush?"

Narrator: "Having heard his proclamation, Teresa the Prune enters the scene. Shocked and slightly embarrassed at the sight of Kerry's $1,000 coif, Teresa regains her composure and comments ..."

Teresa: "Why do you need a hairbrush? It's never out of place anyway!"

Narrator: "Kerry is taken aback. The thought had never occured to him. Never out of place? What would this mean? What will become of him? What will become of his hairbrush? Kerry wonders ..."

Kerry: "No hair for my hair brush. No hair for my hairbrush. No hair, no hair, no where, no hair, no hair, no hair, no where back there, no hair.. for my hairbrush."

Narrator: "Having heard his wonderings, Dave the Tomato enters the scene. Shocked and slightly embarrassed at the sight of Kerry fuming, Bob regains his composure and confesses ..."

Dave: "Kerry, that old hairbrush of yours ... Well, you never use it. You pay others thousands of dollars to cut and brush your hair. You don't really need it. So, well, I'm sorry ... I didn't know. I gave it to Tom Turnip, a homeless man. Here, you can use mine!"

Narrator: "Feeling a deep sense of loss, Kerry stumbles back and laments.."

Kerry: " I'm not using your brush. Not fair! Oh, my hairbrush. Not fair! My poor hairbrush. Not fair, not fair, no hair, not fair, no where, no hair, not fair, not fair, not fair! My little hairbrush!"

Narrator: "Having heard his lament, Tom Turnip enters the scene. Both Kerry and the Turnip are shocked and slightly embarrassed at the sight of each other. But recognizing Kerry's generosity, the Turnip is thankful ..."

Turnip: "Thanks for the hairbrush."

Narrator: "Yes, good has been done here. The Turnip exits the scene. Kerry smiles, but, still feeling an emotional attachment for the hairbrush, calls out ..."

Kerry: "Take care of my hairbrush. Take care, oh my hairbrush. Take care, take care, don't dare not care. Take care. Nice hair. No fair. Take care, take care ... of my hairbrush."

Narrator: "The end!"

Censoring Saint

A C of E school has been told to drop the word "saint" from its name in case it offends other religious groups.

The practice of calling schools after saints or bishops alienates people from other faiths and non-believers, say officials and councillors in Islington, north London.

Head teacher John Stewart: 'There is no reason why we should change our name'

The row is over the name of the first Church of England secondary school to be built in the borough, which lost control of education five years ago after Ofsted found it was running some of the worst schools in the country.

Yesterday there was the story of the new British reality show of watching a human body decompose. I thought this was also an accurate metaphor for British culture. We have been watching for years the decomposition of British society where increased secularism have advanced the moral decay. When the word saint can be deemed offensive you don't need to count the maggots and pupa castings to see that British morality is rotting away.

Good stuff

The Ignatius Insight site has some good articles.

Part 1 of Did the "Catholic Vote" Really Count?

This interview with NRO editor Ramesh Ponnuru about his convesion to the Church and other matters.

Traveling with Walker Percy by Carl Olson.

There they go again

This laughable article from the National Catholic Reporter again goes after Catholic Answer's voting guide and Karl Keating in particular.

I will admit that I do not lead a Catholic apologetics and evangelization organization, so I may lack some of Mr. Keating’s sophistication in these matters. But “chang[ing] the face of American politics” seems like a very strange goal for a Catholic apologetics and evangelization organization. I readily can understand a desire to win souls or to stop abortions by winning souls. I have a bit more trouble understanding why the things of Caesar -- “the face of American politics” -- occupy such expensive real estate in Mr. Keating’s world.

It is not a choice between stopping abortion and changing American politics to value all life. Political actions have to match personal efforts to advance the culture of life. Legalizing abortion created a greater demand for abortion and by government endorsement it made it easier for people to more blindly seek an abortion.

But perhaps the better answer is that we do not need him -- or, to be more precise, his organization -- at all because the universality of the church must admit to more than one political perspective. This is why even Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has described “proportionate reasons” for supporting candidates who happen to be pro-choice. This also is why the church has inveighed against mixing politics with the faith since the earliest period of Christianity. We must not allow the view of our ultimate goal to become clouded by the temporal and obviously partisan cares of this world.

The universality of the church does not admit to more then one perspective on divorce and remarriage, abortion, ESCR, homosexual marriages etc. It is universal because truth is universal and applies to all equally. Cardinal Ratzinger must blanched every time someone used his words to justify voting for a pro-abortion candidate when there is one that is not Then also notice the "who happen" to be pro-choice. He betrays his earlier sentence about stopping abortion by using pro-abortion rhetoric.

At the start of the article he asks: "I have a question for Karl Keating: Why do we need you?"

A better question is for the National Catholic Reporter: Why do we need you? We don't need a anti-Catechism that is more like a bizarro world version of Catholic theology. We also don't need a paper that is just an outlet for dissident voices in the Church. We don't need collarless priests preaching the gospel of modernism nor dour religious sisters bemoaning that they can't be priests.

While Catholic apologetics will still be around long after Karl Keating or Catholic Answers have passed on, they have done extremely valuable work. I have heard and read about many people who thank Catholic Answers for helping them to either return to the Church or to convert to it. I have never heard or read of anybody that after reading the NCR decided to convert. They will only learn how the Church still has not conceded to modern times and allowed women priests and the wonders of homosexuality. NCR provides no joys of the truth of Catholicism, but only wishful thinking that one day the Church will see it as they do. The exception to prove the rule seems to be John Allen's column Word from Rome.

Thanks alot

PHILADELPHIA -- The Republican expected to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee next year bluntly warned newly re-elected President Bush today against putting forth Supreme Court nominees who would seek to overturn abortion rights or are otherwise too conservative to win confirmation.

Sen. Arlen Specter, fresh from winning a fifth term in Pennsylvania, also said the current Supreme Court now lacks legal "giants" on the bench.

"When you talk about judges who would change the right of a woman to choose, overturn Roe v. Wade, I think that is unlikely," Specter said, referring to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. [Source]

Now what was Senator Rick Santorum saying about needing a Republican plurality to be able to advance the culture of life? Senator Santorum and President Bush both supported Senator Specter reelection and of course in gratitude he waits all of one day to slip the pro-choice knife into their backs. This is what happens when you try to rationalize support of pro-abortion politicians - you never get the effect you desired. I would rather have had Specter's pro-abortion opponent Joseph M. Hoeffel win. It would still have been a pro-abortion Senator but he would be a freshmen in the minority party and would not be chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee. There is much to respect about Senator Rick Santorum but this move was pure blunder.

Collect them all

James Preece has put together a set of spirit cards in a parody of Magic: The gathering card game. These graphics are beautifully done with both the picture and bible and CCC quotes.

How to really annoy liberals

Since many liberals said that Bush stole the first election and that they had to work to re-defeat Bush - I propose we go along with them. Four years from now we have President Bush run again since he first four years were an electoral mulligan.

Obligatory Thoughts

As another sleep deprived blogger I am mandated by the bloggers code to remark on the election. First off congratulations to President Bush for winning the election. Congratulations to John Kerry by gracefully conceding and not putting our country through another election hibernation period. Being in Florida I am especially thankful for the decisive win here with no mention of chads, butterfly ballots, Palm Beach, etc. I also wonder just how accurate the term Main Stream Media is. Despite the Democratic hack type reporting of the news and the parading of anti-Bush authors on CBS. Despite fraudulent memos, fraudulent stories, and fraudulent stories on the impending draft. Despite months of coverage of the prison torture scandals and misreporting of the final 9-11 commission report. Despite foreign billionaires spending money in 527 to influence the American people and foreign newspapers letter writing campaigns. Despite constant polling and way-off exit polling. Despite media reportage of how badly Bush lost the debates. I guess Bush lost the first debate so badly that he was able to use the Kerry's global test message repeatedly in the campaign. Hugh Hewittt was right when he said Kerry received body blows from that first debate that hurt him afterwards. So what exactly is mainstream about the mainstream press and who believes that they hold the same values as the majority of the American people?

With all elections there are winners and losers. The big losers were embryos in California. I wonder how many people woke up there realizing that they had just passed a law allowing the cloning and killing of people? People considered this the eng lightened position and who can be against progress. This is similar to the French in the enlightenment. Soon after the Englishmen began the lines to the guillotine began and the heads began to roll. In enlightened California we will have no grisly public executions, but executions in private labs not done by men with hoods but people wearing lab coats. And again we had a Catholic politician leading the charge to begin the slaughter.

“I’m a Roman Catholic,” Schwarzenegger said (I quote from memory). “I go to mass every Sunday. But that doesn’t mean I’m against progress. I mean, why not?”

Many have mentioned that the Bishops dodged a bullet in having a pro-abortion President receive communion. Unfortunately this will probably be the attitude when we actually more then ever need to be consistent in the teaching of the faith and when necessary rebuking those Catholic Politicians who are the ground troops in the culture of death.

Here in Florida I am happy that I am finally represented by at least one pro-life Senator Mel Martinez. We also overwhelmingly passed into the states constitution a parental notification law for children wanting an abortion. This at least is a step in the right direction. I am only too aware that this will not be an impediment to many teens seeking abortion. There are far too many parents that are willing to help out in the destruction of their grandchildren.

Other positive news is that homosexual marriage was resoundingly rejected in the eleven states that had it as a ballot initiative. But I also remember that at one time states had abortion as being illegal until the Supreme Court trumped them all with Roe v. Wade. It will be interesting to see in the next four years how many Supreme Court justices actually step down. I wonder if the more liberal members might wait until a possible Democratic president before stepping down? Regardless Republican presidents have a horrible track record in appointing non-activist justices. So the ball is firmly in President Bush court to appoint someone who will actually interpret the Constitutions as it is written and not those who take foreign laws into consideration. I am quite pessimistic that this will happen unless the Senator Frist finally pushes to remove the current super majority vote required to approve justices.

President Bush needs our prayers in that he will continue to advance the culture of life in his administration and in those areas that he is weak on this that he be strengthened. Sen. John Kerry also needs our prayers that he doesn't become as embittered as Al "You betrayed our country" Gore. Also pray that he might make some Holy Flip-Flops in support of life.

Another good thing is that stupid superstitions such as the Redskins home game before an election have fallen. Though the presidential candidate from Massachusetts has again been defeated. Edward Kennedy, Michael Dukakis, and now John Kerry presents a proud tradition of extreme liberal losing the presidency. I also really want to give a shout out to Terry McAuliffe who is no doubt the greatest leader the DNC has ever had, at least if your a Republican. It will be sad to see him go.

American Daughter - Moral Values Triumph.
Captain Ed of Captain's Quarters - Our Very Short National Nightmare Is Over
Michelle Malkin - NEW, NAUSEATING PHRASES OF THE MOMENT

The Mighty Barrister An Open Letter to President George W. Bush

Church Militant Day

With all the ecclesiastic powers invested in my blog, I hereby declare today Church Militant Day. On November first we celebrated All Saints Day to honor the Church Triumphant. Then we celebrated All Souls Day where we prayed for those in Purgatory in the Church Suffering. So I think it follows for today to remember the Church Militant. Too often we are the Church Pacifist or the Church Apathetic when it comes to spiritual warfare. We deny that there is evil and we cease to fight against our own sins. Like pacifists we become isolationists in that we don't worry about sins that don't seem to personally affect us. That we can bring inner peace through spiritual diplomacy - where we compromise with the world to get along. Spiritual appeasement is even more dangerous then normal appeasement. To lose your life from aggressors is one thing and losing your mortal soul is quite another.

We forget that we are on a pilgrimage and that the world and its allures are not our final end.

O GLORIOUS St. Joseph, you were chosen by God to be the reputed father of Jesus, the most pure Spouse of Mary, ever Virgin, and Head of the Holy Family. You have been chosen by Christ's Vicar as the heavenly Patron and Protector of the Church founded by Christ. Therefore, with the greatest confidence I implore your powerful assistance for the whole Church Militant. Protect, in a special manner, with true fatherly love, the Sovereign Pontiff and all the bishops and priests in communion with the See of Peter. Be the protector of all who labor for souls amid the trials and tribulations of this life; and grant that all the nations of the earth may submit with docility to that Church out of which there is no salvation.

Dearest St. Joseph, accept the offering I now make of myself to you. I dedicated myself to your service, that you may ever be my Father, my Protector and my Guide in the way of salvation. Obtain for me great purity of heart and a fervent love for the interior life. Grant that, after your example, all my action may be directed to the greater glory of God, in union with the divine Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and your own paternal heart. Finally, pray for me that I may share in the peace and joy of your holy death. Amen.

Here are some suggestion I wrote for a Church Militant Boot Camp before.

Everybody experiences Purgatory today

Today being All Souls Day and Election day is quite an interesting parallel. Election day is certainly purgatorial and I just hope that we get out of election purgatory earlier then the last presidential election. As we pray for the dead today we also pray that the dead aren't voting in some counties. When G.K. Chesterton said "Tradition means giving a vote to most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead." I don't think he referred to federal elections. The parody story the other day of a blogger's head exploding just doesn't seem as funny today.

Well I have voted and it is no surprise to my readers that I have voted for Senator John Kerry. Hopefully my vote will help him to remain a senator. If we are going to have to have a liberal Senator from Massachusetts then we might as will have John Kerry. Sure he votes the liberal party line but he is also expertly efficient in not bringing about his own legislation. So please vote to keep John Kerry as the senator from Massachusetts.

I was in and out to place my vote in only twenty minutes and it didn't appear that voting was heavier then normal. Jacksonville and Duvall county is overwhelmingly Republican especially since we have a large active and retired military population here so it was no surprise to see only Bush bumper stickers on cars at the polling place.

Regardless of the election result we know that Christ is still King despite the recall effort from a portion of our society.

(Image courtersy of Christopher Blosser)

By the way I voted for the one in the middle.

Obligatory Rant

Today being All Saints Day is a Holy Day of Obligation. Well actually for most in the United States it is a Holy Day of kinda-sorta-come-if-you-like-since-it-is-encouraged-obligation. Since Monday is too close to Sunday we wouldn't want to impose on Catholics to actually have to go to Mass two days in a row. Pick up the cross daily unless it falls to close to a Sunday. Besides Sundays there are only six Holy Days of Obligation and the Ascension is almost always celebrated on Sunday so that leaves only five. Ash Wednesday which is not a solemnity manages to obtains crowds despite people having to work so I don't understand the excuses used to do this. It wouldn't exactly kill American Catholics to go to Mass an extra couple of days and the opportunity to receive Christ in the Eucharist isn't exactly a hardship.

The Mass I went to today had a higher attendance then the normal daily Mass and our pastor took the opportunity to again correctly explain voting our faith after he explained the reason for today's celebration. This day reminds me of being a Freshman at the end of the year and seeing the Seniors all dressed up and receiving their diplomas to graduate. At that time another three years seemed like forever but to see that people made it through to receive their reward was heartening. I look on the saints in the same light. Our pilgrimage on earth is a trial and seems to go on and on. But we can look at the examples of the saints, especially the ones that appeal to us, to guide us and to remember the purpose of the journey.

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Phil 3-14

Always our mistresses

I have watched with interest our culture developing over the last thirty years as one cultural taboo after another fell to our modern society. Much progress has been made yet there is still one behavior that is still stigmatized. Those of us who suffer from Multiple Partner Attraction are still mocked and ridiculed and while we are partially accepted we are still the scorn of many. I wish to come out hiding from the bedroom closet and announce myself as a proud adulterous american. I take this brave step knowing that I will be attacked, but I do it so that future generations of adulterers can proudly take to the streets and bedrooms of our country without being branded with the scarlet A as if it was morally wrong.

There is an unreasonable hatred to those with adulterous tendencies and I term it stray-from-home-aphobia. Too long have us adulterers suffered violence at the hands of husbands and wives. There are so many movies and shows where we are spreading our love to those and need and their unrational angry partner returns home and kill us. Is there shock at this discrimination? No, in fact the murder of adulterers is even seen as justice being served. This is totally hateful and uncaring to those of us with adulterous tendencies. Where are the social action movies-of-the-week that proclaim love and acceptance of your spouses temporary partners. This movies incite violence towards adulterers and yet there is no outcry. We are forced to sneak in and out of bedrooms instead of freely being able to walk in and out. Is it any wonder the suicide rate among adulterers is so high? That we are always suffer from nervousness and concern about some husband with a shotgun perforating our backsides?

If you leave your family to take up with your next soul-mate you are hated by your ex-spouse and children. Yet if you do the same thing and marry someone of the same sex you are allowed to become an Episcopal Bishop. There is such a double-standard in today's society that embraces one group but distances itself from the other. Our whole language uses words that show adultery in an unfavorable light. Harsh terms like "caught" in adultery as if we should be shamed of our natural tendencies. Our children as a result of extra-marital proclivities are ostracized and labeled bastards instead of being freely accepted as a bonus to their families by varying their gene pool.

Argument from nature: In the animal kingdom we don't see this irrational prejudice against animal who mate with multiple animals. Nature shows emphasized that the strongest male gets their picks and how this both helps and protects the community. Why is a behavior that is so prevalent among the animals of the earth not accepted by the thinking animal? Why is what God has made the natural instinct for so many shunned by humans?

We are born this way: Some of us have a genetic predisposition to the wondering eye. Common sense observations will show you that very early people start noticing the opposite sex. They do not latch on to just one to think about, but will often try to date as many as they can. This is a natural proclivity and it is only outdated society mores that force relationships into seeming monogamy. Many couples on the outside appear to be forced into this model but privately live outside of it. This shaming of individuals just forces them to lie and to live a hypocritical life instead of openly living out how they naturally feel. Currently there is no medical research proving this to be true - regardless it is true.

Hate Speech: The language used towards adulterers is very judgmental and negative. Our actions are portrayed as cheating, cuckold, backdoor man, playing around, infidelity, unfaithfulness. These words enforce a negative stereotype and incite hate when discovered. Even when we leave one spouse and start another family we are still called such things as serial adulterers. The fact is we have nothing against marriage and in fact are willing to have more then one. If you feel differently please keep your morals off my body.

Equal Access: If your mistress is injured and you go down to the hospital to see them - often you are barred by the staff for not being close family. This hateful attitude is extremely cruel during these difficult times Even if you are allowed in you are sneered at by other family members as if you are not a valid part of their extended family. What is worse is that most insurance plans will not cover your mistress and her medical plan will not cover you. This is just pure discrimination of adulterous relationships.

Live your own life: If you feel that you want to be with only one partner for your whole life, then that is fine for you. But please don't enforce your values on me and making me stay home and to be faithful to my spouse and committed to my children. This is something that is just not possible for us to do - so why force us into your lifetime fidelity mold.

Throughout the centuries: In previous times adulterers have been murdered, stoned to death, mutilated, and imprisoned. This still happens today in some countries. In modern times society has become more advanced and reduced many of these society enforced penalties, yet vigilante justice still occurs and people will look the other way just because the person had a wandering eye.

Organized Religion: Religion has been used time and time again as an excuse to oppress adulterers. People who are unable to keep their spouse from straying blame the third party instead. They should thank us instead for providing a valuable service and indicator of the strength of their marriage. Some people will ask about seemingly scriptural passages that condemn adultery.

The Ten Commandment proscription against adultery is obviously passed. We are living in the new testament so that Old Testament stuff can be safely ignored since they also proscribed the eating of shrimp.

King David was punished by God not for adultery but for murder. If adultery had been accepted he would not have felt it necessary to kill Bathsheba's husband. God punished him but he was allowed to retain her in his house.

Jesus said in reference to divorce "but from the beginning it was not so." Well obviously if there is only Adam and Eve it was not possible to commit adultery. So it might have been easy enough for them but there is a larger pool or resources now.

Jesus prevented a violent stoning of the women caught in adultery. Many people confuse Jesus's admonition "go and sin no more" as directed towards adultery. Actually this was just a general warning against sin and not specifically adultery.

The many references of Jesus saying do not commit adultery should be taken in the spiritual sense. The Old Testament unfairly used adultery as a parallel to not being faithful to God. There is only one God so we truly can't commit adultery with another God. So just remember that biblical adultery is only a reference to faithfulness to God not an actual condemnation of human forms of adultery.

We must work to bring our faith communities into the modern world and to live behind these vestiges of dark-ages prejudices. The Roman Catholic Church is the worst of them all in their flexibility on adultery. They actually want people to se it as a disorder and a grave sin and force people to admit their natural proclivities in the confessional. Progress has been made but the embedded Church hierarchy is still hateful towards adulterers.

We are all God's children and beloved by God so why all this venom directed towards us.

What can we do to change attitudes: I suggest that we organize adultery pride parades. That we march down the street with our various mistresses showing just how well-adjusted we truly are. We can march naked, wearing leather, or dressed up like nuns. This approach is counter intuitive in that you would think it would have a negative affect on paraded viewers. The opposite has been born out as true and the more decadent you appear the more likely you are to have another parade next year.

We should all meet yearly in Orlando and announce a Disney Adultery Days. Possibly the date could be set to February 16, 2004 President's Day since many presidents were also secretly and not-so-secretly part of our group. We could put pressure on Disney to give Mickey other choices then just Minnie.

Petition Bravo, Showtime and other channels to portray adulteress characters not as stereotypes but as sympathetic and likeable characters. This will go along way to modify societal prejudices against adulteress persons. Many plots involve adultery and yet it is rarely favorable. Too often we have movies like Fatal Attraction that displays adulterers as vindictive psychopaths. We would like to see husbands interrupting a tryst and apologizing for invading their privacy. Children should be shown that the extra adult visiting at times not as something shameful but perhaps as a source of gifts and other benefits.

We must rebuff and show as unscientific all attempts at reparative psychology that tries to force us into monogamous relationships. Adultery is not a defect but is a perfectly valid lifestyle.

In our faith communities we can educate families and friends of adulterers to encourage acceptance since we all all God's children. We can remind them about casting the first stone and that they shouldn't be judgmental. By informing them about how we have been mistreated in the past by the institutional church they will realize that the church needs not to be against societal progress but open minded and welcoming. Sufficient dialog will enable appreciation of the value of adulterers to society.

We must not lose heart but remain strong. If someone thirty years ago had proposed to me that I come out of the bedroom closet, I would have said they were crazy. Progress on the societal front has encouraged me to come out and to help destroy this vestige of society prejudice. When we all are free to cavort as we want then all will be free.

News roundup

Lane Core Jr brings us the "2004 Democratic Voting Rules and Regulations ". And if you think some of it is over the top - well last week I saw a picture of a protester wearing a shirt that said "Plant's can't vote so we must"

In others news here is an article on abortion activist attorney Pamela Hayes who is part of the Bishops National Review Board.

Fr. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Parish in Chicago, has once again hosted a prominent pro-abortion politician at his church. In his outreach to the black community he only reaches out for those who are pro-abortion and this time he selected Democratic senatorial candidate Barack Obama. The chance of someone like Alan Keyes being hosted at St. Sabrina brings the words "cold day in hell" to mind. Fr. Michael Pfleger in his The Power in Voting message crouches itself in seamless garment rhetoric.

We might, for example, vote for a candidate solely on the basis of his pro-choice or anti-abortion stance.

Notice how he not only gives pro-choice as an option for single issue voter but then uses the pro-abortion wording of anti-abortion instead of pro-life.

Recognize that no one candidate will agree with all of the issues you find important.

I guess he must have read my Voter's Guide for Cafeteria Catholics since he uses the subjective phrase "issues you find important." No messy dogma to get in the way there. Progressives have become quite tricky in their parsing of words. They always throw in some terms making it seem like they are against abortion, but this is always nullified by what come afterwards.

Election Novena (Day 9)

Psalm 31:15-16, 20
My times are in thy hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors! Let thy face shine on thy servant; save me in thy steadfast love! In the covert of thy presence thou hidest them from the plots of men; thou holdest them safe under thy shelter from the strife of tongues.

Holy Mother of God,
hear the prayers of the Church
for all mothers,
especially those wearied by life
and overcome by the suffering
they bear for their children.

Hail Mary...

O Mother of the Word Incarnate,
intercede for them
from your place in heaven,
that the mercy of your divine Son
might lighten their burden
and give them strength.

Hail Mary...

Glory to the Father....

Our Lady of Sorrows
We end as we began nine days ago: with Mary, weeping silently beside the cross. Weeping for the innocent child so violently taken. Weeping for the nation which has let him die. Weeping for her child and for ourselves, we place them both in her arms.