Some things are disturbing and funny or just disturbingly funny.
Case in point:
Southern -Fried Catholicism calls it Hail-o Mary. Well she is Cat-tholic. Other cultural mash-ups of Mary from a French artist that would make riot the French embassy if I didn’t have a disturbed funny bone.
Looking through my RSS feeds I spotted the headline “Was There a Mrs. Christ? Probably Not”.
Then I saw the article was from Father James Martin S.J. at America Magazine. My first charitable thought was that maybe this was headline editing and didn’t match the story. No in his article he states:
But does this mean that Jesus was married? Probably not.
Though maybe a “probably not” is as strong of a defense we can expect from some quarters. He follows this up with another muscular statement:
It is more likely that Jesus was celibate.
He then engages in a little scriptural apologetics in regards to the question.
And what do the Gospels say? For one thing, the Gospel of Mark describes Jesus, who had settled in the town of Capernaum, on the Sea of Galilee, as receiving a surprise visit from his family, who had come from his hometown, Nazareth. “A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ ” Why no mention of a wife?
Not bad, but it isn’t like this is the only example you could give. The total lack of a mention of a wife in the New Testament or any subsequent mention in historical texts from the Church Fathers and others just might be a clue. Please Father put the Dan Brown novel down and come up with a defense for this ridiculous assertion stronger than “probably not.”
Now I am no hater of Fr. Martin as I actually enjoyed a couple of his books, but this is not even his first apologetic fail. An article he did last year on Five myths of Christmas also was a weak-tea defense of the faith and even stated that it was a myth that Jesus was an only child. While you could nuance that statement to some extent relying on Joseph having been previously married – he only added to the confusion.
When Spanish octogenarian Cecilia Giménez botched the restoration of a famous, century-old mural by painter Elías García Martínez, she hardly expected the “restored” image (which at present looks sort of like a teddy bear, or a very hairy monkey) to become a meme that would blow up on reddit, 4Chan, and Twitter. But ever since late August, Ecce Homo has become a tourist attraction, bringing scores of Internet jokers to the Santuario de Misericordia Church in Borja, Spain. These tourists are bringing all of their euros, and now Giménez, who earlier claimed she was having anxiety attacks from allthe press coverage, wants a cut.
According to the northern Spain newspaper El Correo cited by TechDirt(which was tipped off by Twitter user @sinkdeep), tourists started flocking to the church, but weren’t leaving any donations. So to prevent the disruptive hordes from overtaking the church, the Santi Spiritus Hospital Foundation, which owns the sanctuary, started charging a fee to visitors wanting to see Ecce Mono, or Behold the Monkey as it’s now jokingly dubbed. In just 4 days, the Foundation made €2,000, (or about $2,600).
El Correo says this has angered Giménez and her family, and they’ve sought lawyers to win royalties for her work, which epically ruined a prized fresco of Jesus Christ. It seems the Santuario de Misericordia Church intends to defend its earnings as well, and has retained lawyers. Luckily, though, Giménez is not charging the millions of Internet users who have shared and spoofed her painting all over the world with copyright abuse.
Via Ars Technica
I am shocked by the story of the 4th century papyrus which refers to Jesus’ wife. Shocked I tell you. Shocked that the story wasn’t released just before Christmas or Easter. Oh well I guess this gives the History Channel some lead time for a new documentary for Christmas or Easter.
Really if Jesus had a wife she would never have allowed him to go out all night with the boys at the Garden of Gethsemane.
Plus I can imagine fictious conversations if Jesus had a Jewish wife.
“What you fed 5,000 people and you couldn’t come home with something to eat?”
“No you are not going to Caesarea Philippi wearing that. Do you know how long it took me to weave that seamless garment?”
The subject does make me wonder about future archeology. I can imagine some archaeologist digging up a book scrap that mentions “Abe Lincoln Vampire Killer” and inferring he was a Presidential version of Van Helsing.
Thomas L. McDonald The Gnostic Noise Machine and the “Wife” of Jesus
Yes it is Talk Like a Pirate Day once again and the Ironic Catholic has released a new translation Psalm 42, New Revised Pirate Version.
As one of my favorite Psalms here is a taste of the translation.
1 As th’ jolly roger longs fer streams o’ water,
so me soul thirsts pants fer ye, me God.
2 Me soul thirsts fer God, fer th’ liv’n God.
When can I go an’ meet wi’ God?
3 Me tears have b’n me burgoo day an’ night,
while people say t’ me all day long, “Where be your bleedin’ God, bucko?”
To join in the fun I tweeted:
How does a Pirate become a Catholic? Via ArrrCIA
— ➡️Curt Jester⬅️ (@CurtJester) September 19, 2012
What do you call a Pirate who rejects the humanity of Christ? An Arrrian.
— ➡️Curt Jester⬅️ (@CurtJester) September 19, 2012
What language is used for the Pirate translation of the Bible? Arrramaic.
— ➡️Curt Jester⬅️ (@CurtJester) September 19, 2012
"What is truth?", Talk like a Pilate Day
— ➡️Curt Jester⬅️ (@CurtJester) September 19, 2012
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — Two national groups are throwing their support behind a former parochial school teacher who claims she was fired for trying to get pregnant using in vitro fertilization.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the American Civil Liberties Union filed friends of the court briefs Monday supporting Emily Herx.
Herx sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend in federal court in Fort Wayne in April, claiming she was discriminated against for a disability when her teaching contract wasn’t renewed. Herx suffers from infertility, which is protected under federal law.
She underwent in vitro fertilization, which is banned under Roman Catholic doctrine. When news of Herx’s treatment came to light, diocesan officials decided not to renew her contract. The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission ruled in her favor in January. [Source]
This is such awesome news I am stealing Phil Lawyler’s post in full.
If you aren’t excited about this news story, you probably don’t understand it. This is big. This is huge. This is exciting!
Have you been frustrated, over the years, with the political statements issued by the US bishops’ conference? If so, prepare for a welcome change. Have you wondered why the bishops never seem to listen to reasonable arguments by conservative Catholics? That’s about to change, too.
When John Carr retired from the staff of the US bishops’ conference, after helping to shape the bishops’ statements on political issues for more then 25 years, we wondered whether his departure signaled a shift in USCCB policy. Today we have our answer: Yes, it does.
Jonathan J. Reyes, who will be taking Carr’s post in December, will be coming to Washington from Denver, where he was head of Catholic Charities. His work there, and especially his involvement in projects like “Christ in the City,” testify to his belief that Christian charitable work is inseparable from evangelization. In other words he sees charitable work as a witness to faith, not a call for government support.
The resumés of these two men provide a vivid contrast. Whereas John Carr was hired by the Carter administration, and worked for the White House Conference on Families. Reyes was hired by Archbishop Chaput, and worked for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. Carr sat on the board of the leftist Center for Community Change; Reyes is co-founder of the Augustine Institute. Carr will be taking a post at Harvard’s Kennedy School; Reyes is a former vice-president of Christendom College.
Carr’s background, interests, instincts, and alliances tied him closely to liberal Democrats. Reyes, on the other hand, moves easily in conservative circles. This does not mean that Reyes will be a political partisan, or that the USCCB will suddenly begin endorsing Republican legislative proposals. But it does mean that for the first time in decades, the staff of the US bishops’ conference will not swing reflexively into line with the latest liberal rhetoric. Gaudeamus igitur, and chill the champagne!
This is easily the first time I have cheered the head of a Catholic Charities branch be appointed to anything much less the USCCB. Hopefully this is the end of the narrowed view of social justice that focused on a segment of social justice while ignoring others. Too long there has been a schism in social justice at many levels and especially the USCCB.
The Obama campaign’s new video directed at Catholics.
“The American people should know this: In a changing world, my commitment to protecting religious liberty is and always will be unwavering. As America’s religious diversity grows, we have the chance to reaffirm the pluralism that has defined us as a nation. A pluralism that is expansive enough to protect the rights of all to speak their minds and to follow their conscience.”
That is directed at Catholics who have no idea that they are under attack and that the President cares as much about religious liberty as he does about the massive debt. Though to be fair he might have some care about the political ramifications of the debt that get in the way of him being reelected. You can follow your conscience just as long as it is an Obamafied Catholic Conscience that is formed by the Culture of Death and where the Magisterium might be a cool band name, but nothing else. His idea of pluralism is “We force you to pay for contraception, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs and you will like it because not everybody is Catholic.” A pluralism that ignores actual God-given rights and replaces it with mock-rights. When you pick losers and winners when it comes to rights – you are doing it wrong.
Surely the President is trying to be funny by producing this irony-ladened video – though I’m not laughing.
Via Thomas Peters
* Poster is from my post Recruiting posters for the Church Militant
On September 13, All Girls Allowed (AGA) sent out a press release with the bold title, “Chinese Government Bans Forced Abortion.” We wish we could agree with our colleagues at AGA. Unfortunately, this time, we cannot.
AGA’s claim that “the Chinese Government issued a document to Family Planning offices that bans forced abortion and sterilization” is based on links to two Chinese documents and a call to a family planning official in Chonqing City. The press release states, “What the officer in Chonqing said was incredible. Not only did they ban forced abortion, but the change came from the top down: “Earlier the government issued a document to all family planning committees,” he said. “Everyone has received it.” The AGA press release touted this statement as “a major change” and stated, with respect to the One Child Policy, “its days are numbered.”Women’s Rights Without Frontiers has no doubt that forced abortions continue to happen at this very moment in China. When the message goes out that this is no longer happening, it undermines the movement to stop it.Considering the facts set forth in the AGA press release, WRWF reaches the opposite conclusion: The Chinese Government has NOT BANNED forced abortion. Until proven otherwise, we believe that any rhetoric generated by the Chinese Communist Party ostensibly banning forced abortion is propaganda designed to deflect the heat generated by the notorious forced abortion at seven months of Feng Jianmei in June 2012.
LifeNews.com goes on to detail why the situation has not really changed.