Call To Apostacy
Since the post first came out one of CTA's "deaconess" Ashley Reynolds left a comment at Vivificat.
"I, Ashley, believe in our One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I believe in Apostolic succession, the primacy of Peter, the Blessed Virgin, and the Creeds. I, Ashley, believe that women can image Christ, that homosexual love is good and holy, that Jesus lived nonviolence, and that Jesus did not cast out disciples and apostles who had doubts."
Jesus did not cast out those who doubted, though he did call them forward from their doubt. When Jesus and the Apostles were at sea in the storm and Jesus calmed the storm he did not praise them for having doubted. John Henry Cardinal Newman said "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt." There is also a great difference between a doubt and rejection of parts of the faith. Jesus not exactly have kind words for those who rejected his teachings. The Pharisees, Sadducees, and others were not exactly praised for doubting Jesus was the Messiah. When Jesus preached on the permanence of marriage, the Apostles did not reject his teaching - they wondered how it was possible since they did not yet have a full understanding of the graces in a sacramental marriage. CTA though does not doubt Jesus teaching on marriage - they outright reject it.
They also do not doubt Jesus' teaching on marriage being between a man and a women, once again they outright reject it and call homosexual acts good and holy. It only makes sense that since they have no problems with homosexual acts that they also have no problem with contraception and also of course abortion. Yes social Justice means being able to kill the purely innocent in the womb. The slaughter of the innocents continue long past King Herod's death.
In the most recent development:
Nicole Sotelo, codirector of national Call to Action, said her organization intends to mount a letter-writing campaign to Lincoln, Neb., Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, with copies to Bishop William Skylstad, bishop of Spokane, Wash., and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The letters will protest Bruskewitz's refusal to comply with the bishops' conference policies on child abuse by clergy, she said. Asked about the timing of the campaign, just after an announcement that the Vatican has upheld the excommunication of the Lincoln chapter of Call to Action, she said it would counter Bruskewitz’s "attempts to silence" the organization. "Justice cannot be silenced," she said [Via Diogenes ]
When Bishop Bruskewitz first excommunicated the various groups he received national coverage and thousands of letter. He said at the time very few were negative and were overwhelmingly supportive of his action.
Dad29 replies to this action by saying:
OK. After CTA's actual membership (all 78 of them, nationwide) writes their letters, then what?
Does anybody remember CTA's 1996-1997 petition drive for the "We Are Church: A Catholic Referendum" petition. They strived for over a million signatures by placing their petitions throughout parishes nationwide and it included the typical progressive laundry list of how the Church must change to fit their agenda. It was also a total flop receiving what I remember to be around 80 thousand signatures. The only thing this letter writing campaign will be sure to produce is a hearty laugh by Bishop Bruskewitz and also not a few prayers for the members of CTA.
One of the megatrends that John Allen Jr. should be following in his new book is the continuing dying out of progressive orders and organizations. CTA, FutureChurch, and others will be holding their meetings in retirement homes in years to come. Progressive religious orders will continue to shrink while vibrant orders who faithfully embrace the teachings of the Church will continue to grow.
Case in point is Sister Joan Chittister, OSB who in her latest column actually compares the Church's treatment of women to Sharia law - though they never explain the Church's veneration of the Blessed Mother and all of the women saints. She also says such stupid things as:
After all, women are the majority race. If God doesn't like girls, S/he certainly made a lot of them. And they're beginning to figure it out.
Women are a separate race? As dumb as I am I though they were part of the human race. Or maybe she thinks women are actually from Venus. This type of stupidity leads her to use the term s/he in referring to God which I consider down right impolite. The Holy Spirit went to a lot of trouble inspiring the writers of the Old and the New Testament and how we are to address the most Holy Trinity, the relation among the three divine persons, and our relation to them; and to have it ditched in favor of some PC term is just plain dumb. If you ask someone to call you by your first name and they then call you by some other name instead would you thing this is right - yet this is exactly what they do.
Known as 
I attended one Call to Action meeting, and this comment between two old men, aging hippies both, was "peace, love, and tie-dye, man!"
Do they realize how pathetic that seems to the JPII generation of Catholics?!
I haven't worried much about them since then, they're a dying breed, and their influence, while in key places in this Church, is waning.
Thank you for the crosspost, Jeff! :-)
-Theo
Joan Chittister sounds nuttier every time she opens her mouth. Can't believe anyone takes her seriously.
I'm constantly amazed that these "deaconesses" and other CTA people who claim to have the same training as legitimate priests actually don't know the Bible at all. Or Catholic teaching. Or any grasp on reality whatsoever. They are just making up a religion as they go.
And as far as doubters...well, no, Jesus didn't kick anyone out...but He DID let them walk away. In droves. And He didn't go after them, He didn't mince words, he didn't change his teaching. He simply let them go, realizing that they chose the world rather than the saving grace he had to offer them. CTA is no different than those who left Jesus 2,000 years ago. And God is a gentleman for he will not infringe upon our free will. CTA has freely chosen to distance themselves from the Church. Let them go. Wave goodbye...but NEVER mince the Gospel teachings.
Buh-bye, CTA...don't let the door hitcha where the good Lord splitcha!
Incidentally how exactly is one supposed to say "S/he" in spoken English? Are you supposed to stutter? It would seem to me that if "s/he" is supposed to be combination of "he" and "she" then you would also need to capitalize the first letters of both when talking about God. It needs to be "S/He".
Also, even if you are one of the looney folks who wants to play PC word games, you still have to remember that "s/he" is not normally used to refer to one particular person. It is meant as a generic gender-neutral term applicable to all people. Such as in the sentence: "The reader may not know what s/he is to make of this PC crap." Here, the "s/he" refers to whoever may be reading with the presumption that members of both genders will want to subject themselves the writer's gutless mincing of pronouns.
It seems with origins like this "s/he" would be deemed completely inappropriate to use on a single all-powerful unified entity. At the very least, its application seems rather arbitrary. Like some students were just talking at Starbucks:
"Now that God's a woman too, how do we refer to Him, I mean Her, I mean Them, oh you know what I mean!"
"Well, in my deconstructionist paper on Tristan and Isolde, I used the gender-neutral 's-slash h-e'."
"Oh! Let's use us that one, shall we?"
Because everyone knows regardless of your gender, the Good Lady/Lord will not fault the believer for thinking of her/him as the man or woman s/he probably is. What's important is for a believer to accept his/her doubts about her/him but still let her/him into his/her heart. It's not like s/he endowed us with the intellectual capacity to use masculine pronoun with the understanding that it is gender-neutral. C'mon! What's next, hippopotamuses?
"After all, women are the majority race."
Another gem. Here we see that what lies at the heart of this gender-friendly PCBS -- it is not a fight for equality. It is a fight for superiority. "Sister" Joan, like so many of the femzi theologian spinsters, wants nothing more than to ignite some kind of bizarre conflict pitting men against women so that the two groups may experience some sort of major rift.
Then all the gender-disenfranchised women can live on Mary Daly's proposed all-woman continent where it will be a lot easier to play the field now that those nasty men are out of the way. (Oh, by the way hardly anyone seems to point out the majority of these wackos are so very gay.)
Thanks StubbleSpark.
I need to send Bishop Bruskewitz a thank you card. Makes me want to move to Nebraska. (Never thought I'd write THAT while sober.)
I've also seen s/he used (mostly in blog com-boxes) like this:
"Stubblespark posted a good explanation for usage of the term 's/he', but s/he missed the fact that it is sometimes used when referencing a specific commenter in a comments thread whose gender is not made specific by his/her signature."
Yes, I'm an anal-retentive (female) grammar fanatic.
I'm with Mr. Steinlage, I'll be writing a letter to Bishop Bruskewitz praising his action too.
Those organizations have been told time and again to repent yet they keep refusing to do so. They've been warned enough, time to cut them off.
Maybe we should pronounce the gender-neutral pronoun as it is written: s/he/it! Sorry, but more and more I see how inclusive language is just the opposite--it's clearly exclusive and clearly excludes males. What confounds me is that so many of those who promote such language, including changes to the liturgy, are parents of SONS. How can they exclude and/or neuter their own sons?
I was reading a story to my children and found that I had to add male gender to some personified objects/creatures because in the entire tale, there were only shes and its...
"The letters will protest Bruskewitz's refusal to comply with the bishops' conference policies on child abuse by clergy"
They are so stupid, they claim he is the only Bishop against their indoctrination programs, and dont even realize that other Bishops are against the "Talking About Touching" program as well.
http://www.wf-f.org/06-2-Inside.html
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/nov/06112802.html
Also be aware of the connections of CTA with SNAP (I always suspected these SNAP people to be subversives at best)
http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/2006_statements/120806_nebraska.htm
and dont even realize that other Bishops are against the "Talking About Touching" program as well.
Sadly, Boots, I disagree. They know it very well. They just don't want anyone on the outside looking in and reading the information / article to realize it.
But they know.
C'mon! everyone knows StubbleSpark is guy's name.
I'm a dude! Here, look at my hips! Do those look like a woman's hips to you? Don't answer that. Just ... trust me.
StubbleSpark/StubbleSparkette,
Femzi...
That's funny! Never heard that used before. Combination of feminist and Nazi? Doesn't matter, I'm adopting that term from here on out.
Thanks for the postings. They were enjoyable to read as well as factual.
Tito
If God doesn't like girls, S/he certainly made a lot of them.
God made at least 1000 ants for each human. He (or she??) must love them even MORE!
Where is St Scolastica when she is needed.