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The Curt Jester

"It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it." GKC

Punditry

Bye Bye Salvage

by Jeffrey Miller August 5, 2012August 5, 2012
written by Jeffrey Miller

Back in May I wrote a post titled “Don’t feed the trolls?” regarding principally  Salvage the atheist commenter that haunts my blog.  My commenting policy has always been rather liberal and mostly will continue to be.  Though I have decided to finally ban Salvages comments.  No doubt some will get through at times, but future comments will all be deleted.

In some ways Salvage amused me in that if anything he only confirmed me in my faith.  Though it is a bad idea to let a single representative of a point of view stand for all even if they are somewhat representative of the so-called New Atheists.  The banning is due to the following reasons.

  • Almost zero engagement.  Replies are pretty much always an exaggeration on the topic and make no effort to understand the countering-position.  You can understand an opponents positions without embracing it.
  • Multiple streams of comments clogging up my comment boxes.  The spam like mentality is not an effort at a conversation, but just distraction.
  • I don’t mind opposition to what I have to say or what the Church teaches.  It is very good to learn countering-arguments and to come to a better understanding of the issues involved.  I found instead that I pretty much stopped reading Salvage’s comments.
When I started deleting his comments today he wrote.

I see you’re deleting my posts / not letting me post anymore, that’s a win for me, if means that I finally presented a fact you simply could not handle, I guess the whole thing about the woman pro-creating herself to poverty and early death put it over the edge.

That’s the end game you’re trying to create with your so-called “pro-life” nonsense.

But you don’t care about that, you have a Heaven to get into.

You’re an idiot and a coward but hey, that’s theism!

Actually his comment only proved the point of what Archbishop Socrates Villegas said. The problem with poverty is not population. Poverty is nothing new and has been with us long before the present day. The poor have always been with us. But there is a vast difference between helping the poor and helping the poor to never exist in the first place. My wife is Filipino and I have seen first-hand the extreme poverty. But I have never looked on the face of the poor and thought – if only they didn’t exist. Maybe his reply was what broke the camels back in that this is a very serious subject for me and the Culture of Death attitude is not something I take likely and I just saw no positive fruits in future engagement.

So if Salvage considers he won – fine. Just not sure exactly what he won. But I am just another idiot and coward for theism -yeah.

Now I have been praying for Salvage daily and I will not be banning him from my prayer intentions. I hope the best for Salvage and his constant angry comments on my blog were not the best for him.

August 5, 2012August 5, 2012 13 comments
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Pro-life

A mistake and not a blessing

by Jeffrey Miller August 5, 2012
written by Jeffrey Miller

MANILA, Philippines – The United Nations on Sunday expressed its support for a proposed law that would provide Philippine government funding for contraceptives and has pitted the popular president against the influential Roman Catholic church.

The bill promotes contraceptive use in a poor country with one of Asia’s fastest-growing populations. The House of Representatives plans to decide Tuesday whether to end debate on the bill and put it to a vote, reigniting acrimony over an issue that has divided Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation for years.

Catholic bishops led a rally on Saturday by thousands of followers urging the bill’s rejection and attacking President Benigno Aquino III for supporting it. An archbishop, Socrates Villegas, urged Aquino to focus on his promise to eradicate corruption and poverty and not promote “a culture of contraception” that “looks at babies as reasons for poverty … a mistake and not a blessing.” [Source]

God bless the Filipino bishops and the laity united with them in this fight.  I have other feelings regarding the UN and President Aquino who fell far from the tree of his saintly mother.

August 5, 2012 6 comments
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Punditry

Priorities

by Jeffrey Miller August 1, 2012
written by Jeffrey Miller

Dale Price posts:

To show you what the administration’s priorities really are, an employer that does not offer health insurance under Obamacare will pay a $2000 annual penalty for each worker.

But the penalty for failing to offer the pill is $100 per day per employee.

So, it’s $36,500 per year if you don’t cover an employee’s IUDs, but only $2000 if you don’t offer her anything *at all.*

Yeah, tell me how it’s all about taking care of the uninsured.

Cardinal Dolan so eloquently stated that the President had given us a year to figure out how to violate our consciences. Well that year is over as of today.

The problem with dystopian future fiction is it is not as fun as when you are living in a dystopian present.  The government forcing people to violate their consciences by the use of a hefty fine might have made good reading, but it sucks a an actuality.

“A citizen can hardly distinguish between a tax and a fine, except that the fine is generally much lighter.” G. K. Chesterton.

Well President Obama made this a distinction without a difference where a hefty fine is called a tax as per the Supreme Court.

In Cardinal Dolan’s post today he ended by saying:

Over the course of the coming year, the effort to protect religious liberty and the freedom of conscience will continue.  In the end, this is not about bishops, it is not about Catholics, it is not about contraceptives.  It is about the ideals our nation was founded upon: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.  You can’t do much better than the First Amendment to the Constitution.  The founding fathers got it right.  The HHS mandate gets it wrong.  We are fighting to correct that wrong, in order to make sure that religious freedom continues for the generations to come after us.

August 1, 2012 39 comments
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Politics

Mainstream Mormonism

by Jeffrey Miller August 1, 2012
written by Jeffrey Miller

Jimmy Akin previously wrote “To elect a Mormon to the American presidency would, to my mind, be a disaster.” In part he backed up his assertion by saying:

It would not only spur Mormon recruitment efforts in numerous ways, it would mainstreamize the religion in a way that would deeply confuse the American public about the central doctrine of the Christian faith. It would give the public the idea that Mormons are Christian (an all-too-frequent misunderstanding as it is) and that polytheism is somehow compatible with Christianity.

In other words, it would deal a huge blow to the American public’s already shaky understanding of what Christianity is.

I have some sympathy with this argument and as Jimmy lays out there are certainly prudential cases where you really need to weigh the religion of a candidate – especially for president.

Some have contrasted anti-Catholic bigotry with anti-Mormon bigotry and the unwillingness of the general population to vote for a Catholic president in the past and now a Mormon one. There are certainly some contrasts, but also a lot of distinctions to be made regarding differences.

In some ways the election of John F. Kennedy certainly mainstreamed Catholicism and pretty much removed the controversy of a Catholic running for President. Catholicism is much more accepted now or at least cultural and cafeteria Catholicism is much more accepted now.  JFK was not the only factor – certainly Venerable Fulton J. Sheen played a role in making Catholicism more acceptable.  And Mormons had Donny and Marie – yeah Catholics won that one.

Now to take a different tact on what Jimmy suggests would happen with the election of a Mormon president.  I think you can certainly make the case that the mainstreaming of Catholicism has not been all good.  This mainstreaming had an affect on Catholic identity that weakened it.  There is something about persecution that certainly brings a group closer in a shared identity leading to taking that identity more seriously.  Cultural trends among Catholics are now fairly identical to non-Catholics.

So I could almost wish the blessing/curse of mainstreaming of Mormonism leading to a disruption in Mormon culture and  practice.  I “almost wish” since I do not want to see a disruption in Mormon families, just in the adherence to this religion.  Being a blogger and not a prophet I really can’t say whether the election of Mitt Romney would be a boon or a bane (yes can’t resist political puns) for Mormonism in the long run.

Though Romney’s mormonism is not the only thing that keeps me totally unenthusiastic about his candidacy.

This is a rather crude and inexact comparison but Mitt Romney to me is like a less-than-attractive women at a bar that keeps looking better and better the more beer your drink.  President Obama is a whole ton of  beer making Mitt Romney seem attractive as a conservative.

In other Romney news a phone app has been released that will announce his VP pick.

“With this new app, users can be the first to know the second member of America’s Comeback Team.”

The free app, called “Mitt’s VP,” is available on the iPhone and Android platforms.

Hmm, I need to get busy working on and announcing my own app so you can be the first to know my displeasure at whoever he picks as VP.

August 1, 2012 15 comments
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LiturgyPunditry

Mass Roulette

by Jeffrey Miller July 30, 2012
written by Jeffrey Miller

Have you ever played Mass Roulette?

Here’s how:

  • When visiting a city
  • Use the MassTimes phone app or equivalent
  • Let it find the closest Mass by location
  • Go to that Mass

I played Mass Roulette this weekend when my wife and I were on a day trip to Orlando.  After shopping I was wondering if we could catch a Mass while there and so I pulled out my phone and using the MassTimes app found a parish within a couple of miles and a Mass starting shortly.

In my own Mass sample data over the years I have certainly found a commonality of what you would expect when visiting a parish you have never gone to before.  There is both the good and the bad to this.

The good is that over the years I have found that I encounter less and less outright liturgical abuses and such examples of these abuses that were more common are less so now.  While of course the improvisational Mass where you are never sure of what is coming next still exist, mostly you find that the texts are read as per the text.

Though around this more solid bedrock you usually find some local wrinkle or some dubious practices.  For example the  group blessing of an object where the people along with the priest bless some object.  Besides the seriously problematic fact that the priestly blessing is fundamentally different than a blessing the laity can give – just the site of a parish giving a seeming Nazi salute is disconcerting.

The parish I went to this weekend engaged in the “let us have everybody shake hands and introduce their names before Mass started” form of faux community building.   This is extended by the more common practice of the priest starting the Mass with a Hello, Good morning, ect, and ending the Mass with a “Have a nice weekend everybody”. In Persona Casual Guy.  Judging by the amount of noise before Mass, community building is not exactly the weakness that needs to be corrected.

One commonality in both Mass Roulette and probably your local parish experience is that your sacred music experience will not be optimum.  The idea that has come into play is that just as long as the text of the music is based on scripture that it automatically elevates the music to sacred music. The idea of sacred being something reserved and set apart is lost when the music itself is in the vein of so-called popular music. This is no new temptation, but a problem that has occurred throughout history.  The majority of the music doesn’t pass what I call the “Barney Test” if the lyrics are changed and then sung by Barney and it doesn’t seem out-of-place – then it does not pass the Barney Test. The Mass I went to failed the Barney Test except for the closing hymn.

One of the odder things about this parish was that a medley of hymns was sung before Mass. That was a new one on me.  Most of the hymns were at least not the common Haugen/Daas standards, but more of a contemporary Christian music flavor or somebodies idea of what a youth group would deem as worship music.  In fact one of the hyms was from “Mercy Me” with these great sacred lyrics.

I’m finding myself at a loss for words
And the funny thing is it’s okay
The last thing I need is to be heard
But to hear what You would say

Silly me and here I thought I would never be singing the word “funny” at Mass. Well since I did not sing along with this hymn I guess I kept up my end of the bargain.

Now how did I know this song was from “Mercy Me”, well that was quite easily discerned since they projected the lyrics on the back of the sanctuary with the attribution. Which brings me to the local winkle for this parish.

In the back of the sanctuary was a fairly nice stain glass window with lots of blank wall space on either side. So on each side of the window they displayed various things onto the wall via two projectors. Sacred space and sacred projection space.

Now I have seen this practice once before, but that parish had stopped it due to I think the action of my last bishop. I am of mixed-minds on the use of a projector during Mass. I am not exactly a technophobe and I am not calling for the banning of microphones and electric lights at Mass for example. I just wonder how fitting this is and if it really solves a problem that needed solving.

On the plus side it certainly makes it easy to see the lyrics of the hymn without flipping pages and in my case having to grab my reading glasses. Giant letters are rather easy to read on a wall as king Belshazzar found out. Heck I didn’t even need Daniel to interpret them – except for maybe the Mercy Me lyrics. Before Mass they displayed bulletin announcements with dancing angel animations. We have progressed from bad bulletin clipart to bad bulletin animations.

Though one thing I really need to ask is if you are going to go this route do you really need to project the “Great Amen”? Wow how am I going to memorize that one without help. Let me see off the top of my head there is an Amen, followed by I think perhaps, Amen and just possibly the use of another Amen. Really hard to come up with a mnemonic for the Great Amen.

Going back to the Book of Daniel I actually got to witness one prophecy fulfilled.

And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.

What was the desolate abomination in the sanctuary foretold. Well at this parish it was Powerpoint. Yes they were using Powerpoint for all the “helpful” slides, a fact I had conjectured upon and had proved tom when towards the end of the Mass on the back of the sanctuary was displayed the Powerpoint window along with the operating system after the last slide was shown. Now if the Powerpoint program itself being projected on the sanctuary does not fulfill this prophecy I don’t know what would top it.

Now if you are going to project the lyrics of the hymn then why not the musical notation? I can’t sight-read that well, but well enough to get a clue. It just isn’t very helpful to not have this aid for unfamiliar hymns. Though again I am not really inclined to sing along with such hymns in the first place. I really don’t want to be a hymn-snob, but I find it hard to make the banal worshipful and I need all the help I can get. I just know that a majority of modern sacred music intended for worship should be placed in a Hymnul. Hymnull since mostly the music is “undefined, empty, or of meaningless value” which the programmer in me sees as defining “null” rather exactly.

One thing I am concerned with in the use of projectors during Mass is how long until it morphs to the “Sign of Peace Cam” where they single out signs-of-peacers for the camera’s attention. I really hope I am not giving anybody ideas since some of my parodies have turned prophetic.

Oh well maybe the next playing of Mass Roulette will match up a liturgical winner. Though with the Eucharist we are always winners.

July 30, 2012 42 comments
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Where was God in Colorado?

by Jeffrey Miller July 27, 2012
written by Jeffrey Miller

Every time a senseless tragedy of violence and death occurs, such as what recently took place at an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater, many people ask the following — or a variation of the following — question:

“Why is it when there’s a terrible incident and people’s lives are taken, the survivors say, ‘Thank the Lord for watching over me.’ Well, what did he do to the ones who died?”

Matt C. Abbott asks Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, Jimmy Akin of Catholic Answers, and Father John Trigilio this question and prints their replies. Jimmy Akin has a nice response, but Father Trigilio’s response is exceptionally good as he reflects on events in his own life – a must read.

July 27, 2012 9 comments
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News

Heart of Lion

by Jeffrey Miller July 27, 2012July 27, 2012
written by Jeffrey Miller

Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of Oakland, Calif., the U.S. bishops’ leader on defense of marriage issues, has been named by Pope Benedict XVI as the ninth archbishop of San Francisco.

“I am pleased to welcome Archbishop-elect Cordileone and to assure him of our prayers, loyalty, support and cooperation, as well as our friendship and affection,” said Archbishop George Niederauer, who offered his resignation as archbishop of San Francisco upon reaching the age limit of 75.

The appointment and resignation were both announced on July 27 in Washington, D.C., by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Known for his staunch defense of marriage as well as his intercultural ministry and work with immigrants in California, Archbishop Cordileone will shepherd a diocese that contains about 1.8 million people, about 25% of whom are Catholic.

He has served on the Task Force on Cultural Diversity for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and is the current chairman of the conference’s Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.

In addition, he serves on the Religious Liberty Committee of the California Catholic Conference.
In a June interview, the archbishop-elect told EWTN News that a redefinition of marriage to include homosexual couples would be bad for children, detrimental to society and dangerous for religious freedom.

He explained that “out of justice for children, we need to do the best that we can to help them grow up with their mother and their father, married to each other in a stable relationship.” (Source)

Of course it is just totally random that the Pope has selected a bishop knows for his support of marriage and support California Proposition 8 to San Francisco. Yeah totally random.

Looking over at the headlines related to this story I am rather surprised how tame they are. I expected the ubiquitous “crackdown” to be used at least once. Having been rather disappointed at the leadership of bishops in this diocese in the past this is certainly welcome news. Pastoral practice in San Francisco (as in many places) had come to mean – ignore it and hopes it goes away. I know one thing, many at Most Holy Redeemer in San Francisco will not exactly be breaking out the bubbly in celebration of this appointment.

Being that Archbishop Cordileone is 56 he will probably be there for the long haul. He certainly has his work cut out for him. Though really this is true of any bishop in charge of the care of souls and especially those bishop who don’t want to be fitted for a millstone for headgear at judgement. Also like all our bishops we need to be supporting him in prayer as he will be meeting a lot of opposition both from within the diocese and without. No doubt he will get along swimmingly with the San Francisco City Board of Supervisors who issued a statement that would have made No-Nothings proud in its anti-Catholic rhetoric.

Now us oh-so-faithful Catholic bloggers who always know what is best are certainly lining up things for Archbishop Cordileone to do once he is installed on the Feast of St. Francis. For one we imagine that phone call to Rep. Nancy “My faith is very important to me” Pelosi. No doubt Ms. Pelosi being such a fine Patristic scholar they will have much to talk about. Though thinking of all the things the Archbishop needs to do reminds me of the wisdom of God in not making me a Bishop.

Regardless I can already hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth at the National Catholic Reporter and similar dissident rags.

July 27, 2012July 27, 2012 2 comments
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First milestone in conversion

by Jeffrey Miller July 27, 2012
written by Jeffrey Miller

The path to conversion is met with many stepping stones and looking back you can identify some of these stones as means of grace. Today I am thinking of the first milestone I can identify in my conversion from atheism to Catholicism.

In the early nineties was stationed in Patuxent River, Md I started listening to G. Gordon Liddy on the local Washington D.C. station when he first started broadcasting. One day while driving on the beltway an atheist caller called in challenging him and Mr. Liddy replied by going through the five ways of knowing God’s existence as formulated by St. Thomas Aquinas. I must admit this rather stunned me the idea of Christians using reason to defend faith in God. I had really figured that theists could only apply to authority or “holy” books. This event marked the first chink in my atheist armor that opened my up to hear more. This was a small chink though and it would be several years more until I started to seriously look at faith and reason not as foes in some battle being forever separated. Regardless I look at this event as that first step into thinking that just possibly I had it all wrong.

I bring this up because today G. Gordon Liddy is retiring at the age of 82 from talk radio. The fact that he played some role in my conversion is very surprising to me having been in High School during the Watergate scandal and an uber-liberal. Even as I came to later admire Mr. Liddy, I never did admire his involvement in this scandal and the justifications I have heard him use regarding it. Still listening to him off and on over the years I have learned much from him in his wealth of knowledge and his example as a family man. I always appreciated the way he talked about his wife, who died last year and his life-long Catholicism certainly played a role in his life beyond just a cultural thing.

So thank you Mr. Liddy for the role you played in my life and being an illustration of the tools that God can use.

July 27, 2012 42 comments
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Punditry

Going to Jail

by Jeffrey Miller July 26, 2012July 26, 2012
written by Jeffrey Miller

“I could see myself going to jail possibly at some point over the next 15 years, if God spares me, if I speak out,” said Archbishop Tartaglia, the newly appointed Metropolitan of Glasgow, speaking of “gay marriage” recently. Via Fr. Ray Blake

This reminded me of what Cardinal George also said:

“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square”

Though the considering the culture Cardinal George might be a bit optimistic in his timescale.

Considering the latest liberal beef with Chick-Fil-a and wanting to shut them down after Chick-fil-A president  talked to  the Biblical Recorder in North Carolina (which was circulated by Baptist Press) .

Some have opposed the company’s support of the traditional family. “Well, guilty as charged,” said Cathy when asked about the company’s position. “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. …

“We are very much committed to that,” Cathy emphasized. “We intend to stay the course,” he said. “We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.”

Because of course defending traditional marriage makes you instantly homophobic.  Funny how liberals go on and on about the blacklist years in Hollywood (something way overblown) and with the next breath tries to shut down anyone who oppose their view. We saw the same kind of behavior in the aftermath of the vote in California where people lost their jobs or had other repercussions for signing the petition for traditional marriage.  This is not going to get any better any time soon.  It will probably get much worse.

The natural law is being vetoed by a feel-good individualism that appeals to an emotionalism that ignores the plain facts of the natural ends of marriage. An argument you can never win because just making one brands you a homophobic bigot who just hates hates hates.  They will never hear you make any distinctions regarding same-sex affection and homosexual acts and will assign you no motive other than the most base. Jimmy Akin has a good post today on this Are You a Hater or a Bigot? Or Are You Just Intolerant?, the modern equivalent of “When did you stop beating your wife?”.

Now can you imagine if any Mayor or some religious group tried to use zoning laws to stop a business owned by people who favored same-sex marriage what the outcry would be?  This would be exactly the type of “unjust discrimination” that Cardinal Ratzinger wrote about. I’m not talking about fringe groups like “God hates …” who are condemned by everybody.

The liberal Taliban – the Tolerban – uses tolerance to force compliance. Modern liberalism has always been immune to irony.  The attack on religious freedom is scaling up to full warfare.

Since we are on the topic of Chick-fil-A, here is a parody I did before some years ago.

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.

July 26, 2012July 26, 2012 24 comments
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Interview with Peter Kreeft

by Jeffrey Miller July 26, 2012
written by Jeffrey Miller

Brandon Vogt interviews the great Peter Kreeft.  Nice interview with some solid questions.

I’ve read a good amount of Peter Kreeft, but judging by the photo of books of Kreeft Brandon has he has read more of them then I have.  I will have to fix that.

July 26, 2012 1 comment
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About Me

Jeff Miller is a former atheist who after spending forty years in the wilderness finds himself with both astonishment and joy a member of the Catholic Church. This award-winning blog presents my hopefully humorous and sometimes serious take on things religious, political, and whatever else crosses my mind.

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About Me

Jeff Miller is a former atheist who after spending forty years in the wilderness finds himself with both astonishment and joy a member of the Catholic Church. This award winning blog presents my hopefully humorous and sometimes serious take on things religious, political, and whatever else crosses my mind.
My conversion story
  • The Curt Jester: Disturbingly Funny --Mark Shea
  • EX-cellent blog --Jimmy Akin
  • One wag has even posted a list of the Top Ten signs that someone is in the grip of "motu-mania," -- John Allen Jr.
  • Brilliance abounds --Victor Lams
  • The Curt Jester is a blog of wise-ass musings on the media, politics, and things "Papist." The Revealer

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