Currently on exhibit in China’s capital is a curious display of large placards describing the “evil deeds” of “heterodox religious cults.”
The exhibit was organized and sponsored by the Beijing Association for Resistance Against Heterodox Religions, and features descriptions of “heterodox cults” throughout the world, including quotes by cult leaders. What is most disturbing about this display is that the images of these cults and their leaders are largely depicted as what at first appears to be Catholic, even though Catholicism is not mentioned on any of the placards.
On “Placard 20,” the title, which states, “Stirring the People Into Rebellion,” is accompanied by cartoon images of Wang Yongmin, the cult leader, who is wearing a red skullcap, pectoral cross, and a red bishop’s cape, though Yongmin is not Catholic.
Placard 15 depicts a cult identified in the title as “The only ‘Holy Spirit New Testament [Protestant] Church’,” which was established in Hong Kong. This group remains notorious in China for promoting Hong Kong and Taiwan independence from the Mainland. Again, the leader is depicted wearing the clothes of a Catholic bishop, despite the fact that the group identifies itself as “Protestant.”
Placard 19 describes a Chinese cult called the “Changshou Teaching,” led by a man named Li Changshou. Again, this cult identifies itself as Jidujiao (Protestant), but Li is depicted wearing a Roman collar, red skullcap, and a bishop’s pectoral cross.
And in one odd cartoon, Li Changshou is featured next to a crucifix, though the corpus is a small version of Li himself, round glasses, red skullcap, and all. What makes these “heterodox” religions problematic according to the message of the placards is that they are critical of the current political authorities; it is concerning that this label is so visually associated with Catholicism, even if this attachment is implicit.
Well, as the Democratic National Convention also revealed, add another marquee Democrat to the list of blind faithful—a notably religious one, another former Democratic president: Jimmy Carter.
Carter has said many times, including very recently, that he can’t see how or where or why God or Scripture could ever justify abortion. That’s for sure. The Georgian Baptist has scoured his Bible on that one, and indeed found no justification for killing unborn human life. And Carter certainly never stumped for gay marriage.
And yet, there was Jimmy Carter, at the convention last week, stumping for Barack Obama, a president with a party platform that supports these things, and then some. To raucous applause from the “pro-choice” faithful, Carter gushed that Obama has given everyone an “equal chance in life,” creating a “fairer, stronger, and more inclusive America.”
The 87-year-old said he will be casting a vote for Obama “with confidence and conviction,” knowing that Obama has the “right policies” to lead America to a “better future.” [Source]
There are a lot of things that annoy me about Jimmy Carter – other than that I voted for him when I was 18. Mostly though what annoys me is the fact that he never really stood up for life in a meaningful way. He could have been the conscience of the party calling them back from the brink of full throated apologists for the culture of death. He might have been able to assert some leadership as a former Democratic President, instead he will mention that he is pro-life at times – yet it never stops him from endorsing increasingly pro-abortion candidates. This type of behavior from pro-life Democrats is pretty much the norm with few exceptions such as Rep. Rebecca Hamilton.
Now if only this type of behavior was restricted to Democrats. Unfortunately excuse making on the Republican side can be just as egregious. Often social conservatives are treated as an embarrassment and many pro-life issues are not even addressed. The issue of contraception is one that the GOP won’t touch despite the fact it is a gateway to abortion and that some forms of contraceptive are abortion-inducing. When Sen. Santorum would bring this up there was pretty much a collective shoooshing for him to be quiet about such issues. What was the last time you heard a “pro-life” politician talk about the numbers of children killed via IVF? Then there was the recent defense of the rape and incest abortion exception. Whenever it comes to fully following through on pro-life convictions it becomes more about political expediency than doing what is right. We point out the hypocrisy of pro-life Democrats voting for Obamacare and then push through a presidential candidate with no pro-life trail consisting of any action other than words. We make fun of how President Clinton focused-group everything and then make pro-life policy decisions with a concern towards polls. Certainly we can move forward incrementally in creating a culture of life – but we will achieve not even that when we compromise the protection of life and advance the fiction of the 100% pro-life politician.
It is one thing to vote to reduce evil, the problem is that we are minimizing the extent of the evil. Politics might be the art of the possible, but it is easy to forget that with God all things are possible – even being fully pro-life and supporting those that are the same.
My job is too big for one man, says Archbishop of Canterbury
Pope Benedict XVI says “Tell me more about how a church with 80 million members and shrinking is too big for one man.”
While I totally understand the Church having only those with Holy Orders deliver the homily. Sometimes though I muse on the thought of having a homilist-pinch-hitter.
Too often I run across the monotone homilist or the homilist who gives almost a total deadpan delivery. The majority of the time I have found the text of the homily to be fairly decent and that it is the skill in delivery of the homily that I find deficient.
Protestant preachers seem to have paid a lot of attention to this skill set which is understandable since the sermon is pretty much the lynch-pin of a Protestant service. This emphasis explains why the preachers name is often prominently placed on the outside of a Protestant church and not at a Catholic Church. The charism of the individual preacher model though has it’s problems it that people will go preacher-shopping looking for the most entertaining preacher. The positive thing about the Catholic parish model is that having a good homilist transfer doesn’t mean that people will then go looking elsewhere. The parish model where the Mass is the focus reduces a personality driven approach.
Still I think many Catholic homilists could learn something from Protestants when it comes to delivery. Now this does not mean that we must succumb to the idea of the homily as a piece of entertainment. I’ve discussed the use of humor in homilies before in Humorlectics. What I have seen from the limited dataset of my own experience is often really bad presentation. The joys and mysteries of the faith come across as something boring since the preacher can’t seem to lift himself up to any excitement over it. There can be quite disconcerting to hear the disparity between the material and the way it is spoken. This disparity is funny in a talented deadpan comic, for a deacon or priest, not so much. The exuberance of a Cardinal Dolan is reflective of the other end – a well delivered homily. Trying to emulate his Eminence is not the goal as this would not be natural for most speakers. The speaking skills of the homilist are certainly of some importance and I do wonder how much attention is paid to this in seminary? If they are than I am encountering too many homilists that slipped through.
Though maybe what I really need is a pinch-hitter-homily-listener since instead of working harder to pay attention to even a poorly delivered homily I allow my mind to wander and compose blog posts on pinch-hitter-homilists.
This is the 30th volume of The Weekly Benedict ebook which is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc which I pull from Jimmy Akin’s The Weekly Benedict. This volume covers material released during the last week for 8 August – 4 September, 2012.
The ebook contains a table of contents and the material is arranged in sections such as Angelus, Speeches, etc in date order. The full index is listed on Jimmy’s site.
The Weekly Benedict – Volume 30 – ePub (supports most readers)
The Weekly Benedict – Volume 30 – Kindle
There is an archive for all of The Weekly Benedict eBook volumes. This page is available via the header of this blog or from here.
Great stuff from the Ironic Catholic.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan praying at each of the conventions was something I had no problem with in contrast to what I saw as problems with the Al Smith Dinner invite. Much is being made at what he said in his prayer with this being the relevant sections. The closing prayers is something not covered by the networks and usually something that gets no coverage other than those who look for it.
Thus do we praise you for the gift of life. Grant us the courage to defend it, life, without which no other rights are secure. We ask your benediction on those waiting to be born, that they may be welcomed and protected. Strengthen our sick and our elders waiting to see your holy face at life’s end, that they may be accompanied by true compassion and cherished with the dignity due those who are infirm and fragile.
We praise and thank you for the gift of liberty. May this land of the free never lack those brave enough to defend our basic freedoms. Renew in all our people a profound respect for religious liberty: the first, most cherished freedom bequeathed upon us at our Founding. May our liberty be in harmony with truth; freedom ordered in goodness and justice. Help us live our freedom in faith, hope, and love. Make us ever-grateful for those who, for over two centuries, have given their lives in freedom’s defense; we commend their noble souls to your eternal care, as even now we beg the protection of your mighty arm upon our men and women in uniform.
I really like the turn of phase “those waiting to be born” as evoking something much more than the term the “unborn.” Classing as “unborn” is accurate, but it has a divide too much like the term “undead.” The Cardinals phrase illustrated to me my slight uneasiness with the word “unborn” and focuses more showing a person awaiting an event other than an event making the person.
Now you can always find a fringe in any political party and often it shows a feeling that is only displayed by the fringe. So the vileness of a Twitter stream relating to what the Cardinal said could be just the temper tantrum of the fringe – but boy are some Democrats reactions to a rather mild prayer vile and so full of f-bombs that they could populate every weapons warehouse in the world. I happen to think that this reaction is not just indicative of the fringe and expresses the very anti-Catholic animosity of many Democrats.
It was inaccurate when it was reported that Democrats booed God. The booing was a response to the fact that the vote taken on the amendment to add the mention of God and the Jerusalem being the capitol of Israel back to the party’s platform. This fraud on the ironically named Democrats in this instance deserved more than just booing. You can’t break down exactly the majority “no” votes as to whether the objection was to God, Jerusalem, or both – but certainly there was a majority objection and the whole event was scripted and the convention attendees forgot to follow the script. Are the majority of Democrats really against God particularly? Probably not, but there is certainly an atheist contingent of the party that is represented all out of proportion to the general public. A general idea of God can get by them, just not a personal God that actually means “Thou shalt not kill” and includes those waiting to be born. The anti-Catholicism of the party is mostly because of the particularity of God and the fact that the Church teaches those particular details that can be inconvenient. The pelvic-central nature of the convention is in opposition as the Church sees the whole person in the image of God. If the gates of hell prevailed and the Church just became the theological flavor of the month, the Democrats anti-Catholicism would disappear. But it is everything else that will disappear, before the Church stops teaching the truth.
Just read this talk that Julie of Happy Catholic gave at this years Catholic New Media Conference. Required reading for all Catholic bloggers – should be part of a terms of service for Catholic bloggers.
Sr. Simone Campbell at Democratic National Convention
TWS: On the legal question, do you think there should be penalties against abortion doctors? I mean, should it be illegal to perform abortions?
CAMPBELL: That’s beyond my pay grade. I don’t know.
Wow that seems like a very similar reply dodge. The very same one then-Candidate Obama gave during the forum at Saddleback Church. I wonder which of the other 10 Commandments are above her pay grade? Bless me Father I am not sure I sinned because it is beyond my pay grade. Plus doesn’t it seem rather odd for a women religious to be speaking in terms of pay grade anyway? Strangely it seems to me that if you are the Executive Directory of an organization that lobbies for social justice this might just possibly be within your pay grade? Really for every Catholic it it within our pray grade.
She is part of the Nuns on a Bus and somehow she didn’t notice the the President had thrown Catholic consciences under the bus.
Ironically for a Democratic convention there was a large elephant in the room that Sister Campbell studiously ignored. To rant on the Ryan budget that had no chance of going through at a convention where abortion is not only enshrined in their platform but something cheered every night of the convention. If anybody that wants to take up prudential points concerning a budget that is there prerogative – though it is rather amazing that the complexity of the Federal budget was not above her pay grade. To ignore the abortaphant in the room is another story. Giving the party of death a Catholic veneer by speaking at their convention without mentioning this is an act where usually the pay grade is compensated with 30 pieces of silver. Jesus’ request was “Not let the little children come to me – in pieces.”
I would further rant about what she did, but I think I will spend some time praying for her instead.
Article via Father Z
photo credit: Eelke de Blouw via photo pin cc