James 2:14-26
]]>An Everson man who impregnated a preteen girl and forced her to have an abortion must serve a six-year prison sentence, then leave the country.Luis Gonzalez-Jose, 31, raped the girl at a home in rural Whatcom County while her mother was in the shower, according to charging documents filed in Whatcom County Superior Court.
How comfortable are you that this man will actually be deported?
Immigration and Customs Enforcement will ensure that Gonzalez-Jose is deported upon his release. For now, he’s locked up at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton.
Yet another example of how far down the rabbit hole we have gone. Did you ever think a PRE-teen girl could walk into a tax payer supported clinic and get an abortion without so much as parental consent? Did you ever think you had reason to wonder if our government would really deport a pedophile or if they actually did, that they could keep him from coming back?
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A new analysis of the 2011 census shows that a decade of mass immigration helped mask the scale of decline in Christian affiliation among the British-born population – while driving a dramatic increase in Islam, particularly among the young.
It suggests that only a minority of people will describe themselves as Christians within the next decade, for first time.
Meanwhile almost one in 10 under 25s in Britain is now a Muslim.
The proportion of young people who describe themselves as even nominal Christians has dropped below half for the first time.
Initial results from the 2011 census published last year showed that the total number of people in England and Wales who described themselves as Christian fell by 4.1 million – a decline of 10 per cent.
But new analysis from the Office for National Statistics shows that that figure was bolstered by 1.2 million foreign-born Christians, including Polish Catholics and evangelicals from countries such as Nigeria.
They disclosed that there were in fact 5.3 million fewer British-born people describing themselves as Christians, a decline of 15 per cent in just a decade.
At the same time the number of Muslims in England and Wales surged by 75 per cent – boosted by almost 600,000 more foreign born followers of the Islamic faith.
While almost half of British Muslims are under the age of 25, almost a quarter of Christians are over 65.
So what might this mean for a future Britain? How about this:
The flag of St George will not be flying over Radstock any time soon after town councillors decided it was inappropriate because of its links with campaigns against Islam hundreds of years ago.
The town council decided to not to buy a St George’s flag after a discussion about repairs to the civic flagpole to ensure a Union Jack could be flown on Armistice Day.
Councillor Eleanor Jackson (Lab, Radstock), a university lecturer and teacher, said its use during the Crusades of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries could mean the English national flag could be seen by some as offensive.
She added: “My big problem is that it is offensive to some Muslims but even more so that it has been hijacked by the far right. My thoughts are we ought to drop it for 20 years.”
Or this:
A disturbing story of child sex abuse has been gripping the people of Oxford, England.
Seven local men have been found guilty of rape, trafficking and arranging a child prostitution ring.
The convicted men are of Pakistani and North African backgrounds.
Their victims were as young as 11-years-old.
The abuse had apparently been going on for eight years.
Along with the police chief, members of Oxford’s Muslim community are doing some some soul searching of their own wondering how the abusers were able to commit their crimes for so long.
Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Talat Ahmed, chair of the Social and Family Affairs Committee of the Muslim Council of Britain.
Ahmed hopes her group will discuss child and sex exploitation with the Muslim community and why “boys and men look at women in such a degrading manner.”
Or this:
There are “hundreds” of Europeans now fighting in Syria, some of whom are with groups linked to al Qaeda, the Home Office told MPs.
The British-born jihadis are said to have joined the fight with Jabhat al-Nusra, the country’s most militant al-Qaeda gang.
The fighters have come from range of ethnic backgrounds include young Asians, converts to Islam and men from north African backgrounds.
Some are said to have fought in conflicts elsewhere while others waging war for the first time.
Officials warned of the risk to Britain and other European nations posed by foreign fighters now gaining military experience in Syria.
You get the idea.
]]>This is the sort of thing that would have made the Founding Fathers apoplectic, and ought to scare the living daylights out of conservative American Christians and other upholders of traditional morality.
]]>That’s the question inevitably raised by this action by the state assembly, reported by Political Outcast:
Parents, how would you feel if you found out that your junior or senior high school daughter was showering with a boy at school? Then how would you feel if you were told by the school that there is nothing they or you can do about it?
Last week, the California Assembly (same as House of Representatives in most states) passed Assembly Bill 1266 by a 46-25 vote. Currently, there are 54 Democrats, 25 Republicans and 1 vacancy. All 46 votes for the bill were Democrats as no Republicans voted for in favor of the measure.
AB 1266 states that public schools cannot discriminate in any way concerning the sex of the student. Both sexes are to have equal access to all offered courses, counseling and athletics. Any student can try out for any sport, regardless of their sex.
But the kicker is this statement contained in the bill:
“SECTION 1. Section 221.5 of the Education Code is amended to read:”
“(f) A pupil shall be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and facilities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.” [Emphasis added.]
In other words, any boy who claims he is a girl, even though he is anatomically still a boy, would be allowed to use the same locker rooms and showers that the girls use. On the opposite side, a girl claiming to be a boy but is still anatomically a girl would be allowed to shower with all the boys. They don’t even have to be undergoing any form of sex change therapy, just say they are the opposite sex from what they really are and they can parade around in all their glory in either locker room or shower.
Yes, this makes perfect sense. Any 15-year-old boy has only to say, “well, I’m really a girl on the inside,” (even as he snickers up his sleeve and assures his astounded friends that this is really only a dodge to get in the girls locker room), and voilà, instant access to something even better than porn. “Gender identity,” remember, is something that is essentially unknowable except by the individual involved, and there’s nothing in the bill mandating a psychiatrist’s examination or anything like it to determine whether an adolescent real is “trapped inside the wrong body.”
And here’s perhaps the most laughable thing about this travesty: the assemblyman who sponsored this invitation to chaos (not to mention rape, voyeurism, child abuse and who knows what else), a gay San Franciscan (who’d a guessed?), thinks this is all about equality:
“There’s no trampling of other people’s rights. There’s a recognition that other people have the same rights that you do. It’s also important to protect our children from prejudice.”
California: falling into the Pacific Ocean, one law at a time.
]]>The Christian bishops, chiefs, commanders, clergy and people of Sudan declared, on May 16, 1983, that they would not abandon God as God had revealed himself to them under threat of Shariah Law imposed by the fundamentalist Islamic government in Khartoum.
Until a peace treaty was signed on January 9, 2005, the Episcopal Church of the Province of the Sudan suffered from persecution and devastation through twenty-two years of civil war. Two and a half million people were killed, half of whom were members of this church. Many clergy and lay leaders were singled out because of their religious leadership in their communities. No buildings, including churches and schools, are left standing in an area the size of Alaska. Four million people are internally displaced, and a million are scattered around Africa and beyond in the Sudanese Diaspora. Twenty-two of the twenty-four dioceses exist in exile in Uganda or Kenya, and the majority of the clergy are unpaid.
Only 5% of the population of Southern Sudan was Christian in 1983. Today over 85% of that region of six million is now mostly Anglican or Roman Catholic. A faith rooted deeply in the mercy of God has renewed their spirits through out the years of strife and sorrow.
On July 9, 2011, South Sudan became the world’s newest nation, separating from the Islamist state in the north. Development remains slow, with spotty infrastructure, primitive to non-existent health care, tribal tensions in some regions and other challenges common to the developing world.
One member of the Sudanese diaspora, Moses Joknhial II, spent several years with us here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and inspired Rebuilding South Sudan Through Education. I am honored to serve on its Board of Directors.
The project is focused on Moses’ home village, Pajut, in Panyang Province, South Sudan. The provincial school is built and serving 900 students. Fresh water wells and power grinding mills free girls from hours of labor so they can receive education.
Our current effort is the completion of the village Medical Clinic, Women’s Center and sustainable electricity and light. All gifts are appreciated and go directly to the construction work. You can give at the website or via a PayPal option at the Rebuilding South Sudan Through Education Facebook page.
Moses, a U.S. citizen and licensed pilot, just graduated from South Dakota State University with a degree in Aviation Engineering. He’s been hired by a company in Duluth, MN. Sadly, on the day of his commencement, word came that his father died in Pajut. Please pray for Moses in this time of loss, but also for God’s continued blessing on his labors, his upcoming marriage, and for all God’s people of South Sudan.
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His latest post lit me up. I think that last Sunday’s lesson (RCL) from Acts is one of the Bible’s best for preaching the liberating power of Christ. It is a passage that even progressives should find inspiring on several levels.
+ Luke expresses the dehumanization of the woman prior to her exorcism. She’s been reduced, by demonic oppression and human exploitation, to labels and functions. She’s just “slave girl” and “her owners’ hope of making money.” The name of Jesus releases her from all that.
+ The slavers retaliate on the apostles by appealing to public intolerance. “These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.”
+ There’s violation of human rights and dignity as the apostles are publicly stripped, beaten and jailed.
+ When God intervenes to rescue Paul and Silas, the jailer is ready to kill himself, since he would be executed for losing his prisoners. But Paul and Silas stay in his custody, preach Christ to his household, and choose brotherhood over enmity by baptizing his family. The jailer is set free from both temporal and eternal death sentences, by apostles willing to set aside their own temporal freedom to help him.
Obviously, the unifying message is that the apostles are sharing the life and work of Jesus, down to the most humiliating details of his passion and up to the glory of his power.
But whether one chooses to preach the apostolic gospel or go with the more limited application of the good we are to do in Jesus’ name, it is a rich text from which to work.
Unless you are the Presiding Bishop, who sees the complete opposite. Instead of liberation, there is confinement. Instead of Christ’s glory, there’s just squalor.
“But Paul is annoyed, perhaps for being put in his place, and he responds by depriving her of her gift of spiritual awareness. Paul can’t abide something he won’t see as beautiful or holy, so he tries to destroy it. It gets him thrown in prison. That’s pretty much where he’s put himself by his own refusal to recognize that she, too, shares in God’s nature, just as much as he does – maybe more so! The amazing thing is that during that long night in jail he remembers that he might find God there – so he and his cellmates spend the night praying and singing hymns.
“An earthquake opens the doors and sets them free, and now Paul and his friends most definitely discern the presence of God. The jailer doesn’t – he thinks his end is at hand. This time, Paul remembers who he is and that all his neighbors are reflections of God, and he reaches out to his frightened captor. This time Paul acts with compassion rather than annoyance, and as a result the company of Jesus’ friends expands to include a whole new household. It makes me wonder what would have happened to that slave girl if Paul had seen the spirit of God in her.”
Some spirit has me channeling Christopher Johnson - “I got nuthin’.”
]]>The verdict has been released and Doctor Kermit Gosnell has been convicted of the grisly murder of newborn babies who will only ever be known as Baby A, Baby C, Baby D and Baby E. He was also found guilty of the drug overdose of a Bhutanese immigrant, Karnamaya Mongar. We mourn this tragic loss of life, as well as the pain and loss Dr. Gosnell has caused countless other women and families.
Although justice has been served – a murderer has been convicted and tougher regulations and inspections enforced in Pennsylvania – this case has become the latest battlefield in the abortion debate, but it is unclear why.
Gee, I can’t imagine. Could it be that it revealed the culture of laxity surrounding enforcement of laws and regulations of the abortion industry? No, that couldn’t be it. Could it be that it raised questions about why the killing of children five minutes after birth and five minutes before birth should be treated differently, either morally or legally? No, I don’t think so. Could it be because groups like Planned Parenthood and NARAL have taken the opportunity afforded by this trial to make the stupefying argument that the Gosnell trial shows there should be less regulation of abortion clinics? That certainly can’t be it. Could it be that many people have, for the first time, had to actually come to grips with what abortion does to children? Heavens, no.
I’m stumped.
Both those who oppose abortion and those who support it find the illegal and immoral actions of Dr. Gosnell reprehensible. The biblical teachings of the 10 Commandments is quite clear: “Do not murder.” (Deuteronomy 5:17) What he did was not just against the United Methodist Social Principles; it was against the basic laws of this country and edicts of humanity.
Christians should not use this case as an opportunity to point fingers or cast stones at one another. Rather, all members of The United Methodist Church must take seriously our shared responsibility for the sanctity of all human life – at all stages of life. Each of us must give an account to God for what we do (or do not do) for our fellow brothers and sisters.
The Spirit of God is calling us to put down our stones and get busy doing the hard work of transforming the world for Jesus Christ.
Considering that this statement comes from an agency that spends most of its time pointing fingers at various miscreants (corporations, conservatives, the Religious Right, “climate deniers,” Republicans, etc.), that’s funny.
And that brings to mind a story:
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For a number of our faith communities, this will now provide them the opportunity to provide to all of their members who desire to make a life-long, covenant relationship and to be legally married in the state of Minnesota to do so. The Church’s expectation for the couple is the same as for opposite-gender couples.
Other of our faith communities may not find this calling among their membership, within their context, or in culture — and will not be providing such services.
This represents the diversity and the comprehensive nature of who we are as Episcopalians and Anglicans.
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Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, was found guilty Monday of first-degree murder in the deaths of the babies who were delivered alive and killed with scissors.
In a case that became a flashpoint in the nation’s abortion debate, former clinic employees testified that Gosnell routinely performed illegal abortions past Pennsylvania’s 24-week limit, that he delivered babies who were still moving, whimpering or breathing, and that he and his assistants dispatched the newborns by “snipping” their spines, as he referred to it.
Prosecutors agreed to two life sentences without parole, and Gosnell was to be sentenced Wednesday in the death of the third baby, an involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of a patient and hundreds of lesser counts.
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty because Gosnell killed more than one person, and his victims were especially vulnerable given their age. But Gosnell’s own advanced age had made it unlikely he would ever be executed before his appeals ran out.
Gosnell has said he considered himself a pioneering inner-city doctor who helped desperate women get late-term abortions.
]]>]]>I have come to the place where I believe it is time to relinquish the responsibilities of the Bishop Diocesan, and permit the Diocese to consider and chart its future mission under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I herewith submit my resignation effective May 31, 2014. Please proceed with the canonically appropriate next steps.
This is the way we go about retiring from the Episcopate in our Church. But I want to take this opportunity to thank one and all for the gracious way you have received me and Diane, and our whole family, over these last twenty-plus years.
The decision to retire is not easy, but it is right for me at this time.
Diane and I will continue to live in the Diocese of Dallas.
She made false charges against specific people.
When her lies were exposed, she was sued by those she’d maligned. She’s never paid them, and, with interest, her responsibility grows toward 1/2 million dollars.
So what’s up with Tawana Brawley these days? She’s made a short trip out of hiding to rake in some funds from… from…
Anti-Semites - Leonard Jeffries, the master of ceremonies for the event… said “rich Jews” financed the slave trade…
Racists - ...whites are violent, cruel “ice people.’’
Scofflaws - The camp’s annual fund-raiser is usually held at the Cotton Club in Harlem — but couldn’t be there this year because Glenda Brawley [the liar’s lyin’ mom] still has a warrant out for her arrest over procedural charges related to the infamous hoax.
Church folks - One supporter, the Rev. C. Herbert Oliver, gave a “very substantial donation,” a source said. And an older woman said she gave some of her pension.
Yes, it’s OK to make false accusations in court. It’s also OK to ridicule, say, law abiding gun owners as maniacs while throwing fundraisers for sociopaths and the racist wingnuts who love them. Only its not racism, because only those who have “privilege” can be racists, according to the good whites (liberals).
Oh, by the way, the funds raised are not to pay those she wronged by her false witness.
...as they stuffed envelopes full of cash for her. Brawley, 40 — whose claim that she was raped by six men was revealed to be a fake 25 years ago — beamed as she and her mother, Glenda, were hailed for surviving society’s “lies since 1987.”
If you haven’t read it yet, please check out David Ould’s fine post on New Testament justice - it speaks to these kinds of stories.
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Minnesota, about 1/2 hour to my left flank, is in the process of legalizing “marriage equality,” meaning a few nice shindigs in Minneapolis. The big city has ample downtown gay clubs, an Episcopal cathedral, and the University of Minnesota formerly-Golden-now-Rainbow Gophers.
As MN resident John Hinderaker of Powerline puts it, “Who Cares About Unemployment When We’ve Got Gay Marriage?”
Today the Minnesota Senate passed a bill authorizing gay marriage which will be signed into law by our governor, Mark Dayton. That is the context for this text, which my oldest daughter sent me a few minutes ago:
“If I had a dollar for every #time4marriage hashtag on my feed I’d be rich. Someone should start a #time4jobs trend, seeing as there are approx. twice as many unemployed Americans as gay Americans.”
She was being conservative, it is actually more like five times as many, if you count the people who have given up. Maybe if our young people stay unemployed long enough (my daughter, happily, has a job) they will start to catch on.
But probably not at a Minnesota brewery. In addition to raising the top income tax rate to an anticipated 12%–on top of a federal rate of 39%, plus 3% for Medicare–our Democratic legislature is contemplating a 600% increase in the tax on beer…
He includes a statement by a Minnesota brewery, appropriately named Surly,
– Minnesota’s beer taxes are already 81 percent higher than Wisconsin, 33 percent higher than Iowa, 20 percent higher than South Dakota, and 22 percent higher than North Dakota – even BEFORE this proposed increase.
A 600 percent tax increase is bad for business, no matter how you slice it, and this proposal comes at a crucial time for Minnesota craft beer. …
At Surly, as we continue to expand, we will soon outgrow Minnesota’s small brewer excise tax exemption. If this tax is increased 600 percent, as proposed, it will deal us a serious blow while we try to make more beer. It will affect how much you pay for your beer. We realize that ultimately no one likes taxes but this proposed increase punishes growth and success, and a 600 percent increase is just plain unreasonable.
Unreasonable? How dare those surly Surly people say such a thing about a state government so invested in the pursuit of justice for the Minneapolis elite. Stupid Joe Six Pack plebes. Go home to your dumpy little towns and shut up.
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James2:3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
Here is James’ basic ethical instruction- have no favourites (see also 2:1). When we discriminate amongst people we “become judges with evil thoughts”. It is not judging per se that is the issue - we all need to make judgement on all sorts of things all the time - but judgement with evil thoughts that is wrong. The evil thought, of course, is that one man is more deserving of special treatment than another. All of that, of course, is a denial of the grace we have been shown. Besides, there is only one truly deserving of honour; Jesus. And so James deliberately calls him “the glorious Lord Jesus Christ”. He is glorious, but everyone else is a recipient of His grace if they are to be accorded honour.
If we are, indeed, judges with evil thoughts then the great irony is that we will fit in well to the next courtroom that James points us to:
6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?
It’s a brilliant rhetorical flourish. When we side with the rich we end up siding with the very ones who drag us into court. This was, by all accounts, a real problem for the early church. Not just that, the language of the rich exploiting the poor is resonant with a repeated Old Testament theme…
Lev. 19:15 Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbour fairly.
Amos 5:12 For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.
James’ charge becomes, essentially, equivalent to that of the Prophets - the people of God are not treating the poor amongst them correctly.
And so we move to another courtroom.
James 2:8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.
Now we enter the royal courtroom of God Himself and hear His law read to us. By God’s holy standards, already alluded to and now seen clearly, we can not stand. As James will go on to argue, it is useless saying “but I get so many other areas right, why does this one matter?” The royal law does not wipe away the detail of the Torah but, instead, shows it’s full effect. All the various laws in the OT that regulate our interaction can be summarised in this one pithy but deeply searching demand - Love your neighbour as yourself.
So why are we so busy judging one another with evil thoughts (v4), acting like those who take us unfairly to court (v6) when we ourselves are condemned law breakers?
And so to the last of the four courtrooms.
James 2:12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
There is a better way and a better law in a better courtroom. There is a “law that gives freedom”. James has already shown us this law:
James 1:25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
that law has been previously written about this way:
1:18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth ... 21 ...humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
This perfect law is the saving life-giving word to which the royal law points. It is the word that exposes us for who we really are, sinners (James 1:22-24), but also speaks of the life-saving sinner-redeeming mercy found in Jesus.
And it teaches us to therefore act according to that freedom-giving law. We will be judged by that law and found to be righteous, not because we are good or glorious, but because there is mercy. So we ought to treat those we think less glorious in the same way. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Four courtrooms, but one gospel argument that changes the way we treat others.
]]>It’s a wonderful example of a sustained debate on the topic of homosexuality. But more than that it exposes the paucity of Bell’s argument. Watch carefully how he avoids clear answers, has no comprehensive unitive biblical theology, avoids specific exegesis of the text, appeals to the Lord’s Supper as a “cover-all” unitive act, and then finally gets angry and swears when he realises he actually doesn’t have an answer that will allow him to maintain his self-description as an orthodox Christian. That last point is key, friends, time and time again liberals get really really frustrated when they get exposed as “giving up an orthodox position” (as Brierly, the show’s presenter, puts it).
On a related note, Where Are Rob Bell’s Glasses?
]]>The jury in the murder trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell returned a verdict and found him guilty on three of the four first-degree murder charges he faced.
Gosnell was found guilty of killing Baby A, Baby C and Baby D and found not guilty of killing Baby E. He was also convicted on hundreds of lesser charges ranging from infanticide to running a corrupt organization.
The guilty verdict on these three counts subjects the abortion “doctor” to the potential he will face the death penalty when a second jury considers his sentencing on the convictions.
Gonell was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of patient Karnamaya Mongar, who died after a botched abortion. And he was found guilty on most of the more than 200 counts of violating Pennsylvania’s informed consent law.
One local reporter covering the trial indicated Gosnell “heard verdict passively, with small bitter faced smiles.” A Fox news reporter added, “Our Fox producer in the courtroom says Gosnell looked mad when the verdicts were read.”
Yeah, Charlie Manson was mad when they convicted him, too.
Now, it’s on to sentencing, and to the inevitable excuse-making and butt-covering by the abortion industry and their conscienceless allies in the government, academia, media, entertainment, and the mainline churches.
UPDATE: Right on cue, we have Planned Parenthood missing virtually the entire point of this trial:
Planned Parenthood @PPact
A just verdict. The jury has rightly convicted #Gosnell for his appalling crimes, ensuring no woman is victimized by him ever again.
UPDATE: And from NARAL, which seems to forget that Gosnell operated with the blessing of the state of Pennsylvania, which did nothing to stop his killings even when complaints about the conditions were brought to the attention of the Health Department:
Justice was served to Kermit Gosnell today and he will pay the price for the atrocities he committed. We hope that the lessons of the trial do not fade with the verdict. Anti-choice politicians, and their unrelenting efforts to deny women access to safe and legal abortion care, will only drive more women to back-alley butchers like Kermit Gosnell.
From the lack of funding available for low-income women to access abortion services, to the sharp decline of reputable providers in Pennsylvania, to the gross negligence of authorities to enforce the law after complaints were filed against Gosnell, each aspect of this case must be a teachable moment for lawmakers: until we reject the politicization of women’s medical care and leave these decisions where they belong — between a woman and her family and her doctor — women will never be safe. The horrifying story of Kermit Gosnell is a peek into the world before Roe v. Wade made legal a woman’s right to make her own choices.
NARAL Pro-Choice America’s annual Who Decides? publication has given Pennsylvania an ‘F’ grade precisely because it has passed medically unnecessary laws that restrict access to safe and legal abortion care. It is my sincere hope that the women in Gosnell’s clinic did not suffer in vain and that Pennsylvania, and every state, will step up and join us in making the protection of women’s ability to get, safe, high quality, and legal abortion care a top priority.
Yes, this is precisely the message of the Gosnell trial: less regulation and oversight is necessary, not more. God help us.
]]>Pope Francis canonized more than 800 Catholics in Saint Peter’s Square Sunday – the largest number to be elevated to sainthood at once in the history of the Catholic Church.
The choice of some of the new saints was also striking, touching on the already-fragile relationship between Christianity and Islam.
The new saints included hundreds of laymen from the southern Italian port town of Otranto who were slain in the 15th century by the invading Ottoman Turkish army after they refused to convert to Islam.
In 1480, after conquering Constantinople – modern day Istanbul - the Ottoman Sultan Mohammed II planned to invade Rome, and Otranto became his army’s port of entrance into Italy.
The local population fought back in a week-long siege, putting up a brave but hopeless resistance. When Ottoman soldiers finally overrun the town, they were ordered to kill every man over the age of 15 who refused to convert to Islam.
More than 800 resisted, locking themselves up into the town’s Cathedral. Their ringleader, local shoemaker Antonio Primaldo, was first to be beheaded. According to local legend, his headless body remained standing until the last of his fellow townspeople was killed.
Since then, Primaldo and his townsfolk, who chose to die rather than betray their Catholic faith, have been hailed as martyrs. Their bones and skulls – proudly on display behind glass walls in the Cathedral of Otranto – are well-known Catholic relics and a popular pilgrimage destination.
But the choice to highlight their sacrifice may put a strain on the already fragile relationship between the Catholic Church and Islam.
Ever since his election, Pope Francis has called for greater dialogue between Christianity and other religions, in particular Islam. And so far, he has acted on that promise. He washed the feet of a young Muslim woman jailed in a juvenile prison on Holy Thursday, and reached out to the many “Muslim brothers and sisters” during his first Good Friday procession.
So why risk creating yet another inter-faith row with a celebration which some in the Muslim world may be [sic] seen as a provocation?
Please note: no where in this article is there any evidence that anyone in the Muslim world even knows about this ceremony, much less takes it as a “provocation.” That is purely the imagination of the reporter, Claudio Lavanga, at work. It’s almost like the reporter wants to see demonstrations, riots, and who knows, maybe even a scattered assault on an American consulate to protest this latest outrage by the West.
The answer is that it wasn’t Pope Francis’ choice in the first place. The decision to canonize the hundreds of Otranto martyrs was rubber-stamped by his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, on Feb. 11 - the same day he announced his resignation.
It was an uncomfortable parting gift for his successor, who now faces an uphill struggle to rekindle ties with Islam.
And here the reporter demonstrates that he doesn’t understand the canonization process. He apparently thinks it’s some kind of political show, so that the Vatican can send subtle diplomatic messages to the home countries (or in this case, killers) of the saints. The recognition of saints in the RC church isn’t about politics, it’s about acknowledging that certain individuals are now in heaven. You can approve of that process and conclusion or not (and certainly I disagree with the theology behind it), but it is about theology, not who may or may not like it (just ask Jews about the canonization of Edith Stein if you doubt me).
Tell you what, NBC. I’m not Catholic, so no one could question my essential objectivity. How about sending me to Rome to cover the Vatican? I understand the Catholic Church, and could report on their activities and pronouncements on their own terms, instead of seeing everything through the lens of politics. I certainly couldn’t do any worse than your man in Italy.
UPDATE: Right after posting this, I had another thought (unlike the reporter). Do you suppose it ever occurred to Lavanga to wonder why Muslims might consider this a “provocation”? After all, Muslims have been flogging their grievances about the Crusades for centuries. Here’s an example of a historically verified act of Muslim atrocity, undertaken in the course of a war of aggression. The Catholic Church has chosen to recognize, not a political statement, but an act of religious faithfulness on the part of some of its own members in an incident that took place over 500 years ago. Why should Muslims have a problem with that? Or why, if they do, should it not be pointed out to them that this is in small part a matter of balancing the historical scales a bit? Or why not just tell them to suck it up and get over it? Instead, Lavanga is worried that “some” Muslims might get their panties in a bunch over something that, at its heart, doesn’t concern them. Why is that even worth speculating about?
]]>“Faced with the potential of a draconian sentence which our federal judges think is appropriate in every case involving ‘child pornography,’ Don made a decision to accept a plea agreement that will assure that he will return to his great work in media production and his involvement in charitable and civic causes sooner,” Luciano’s attorney, Alan Ross, told us. “He has learned a valuable lesson and hopes that he will continue to have the support of so many friends and colleagues.”
Draconian? You decide how trival his actions were:
]]>The filing states that the defendant’s “sexual interest in children were accompanied by (his) frequent use of cocaine,” and that the two traded child pornography via Yahoo! IM and that “Luciano preferred images of the rape and torture of little children,” and that he was only interested in images of boys.
The Clergy Letter of Encouragement begins with this paragraph:
The Church of England recently issued a report entitled, “Men and Women in Marriage”. We have read this report and will commend it to the members of our own churches. We are grateful for the theological grounding of marriage and especially the reaffirmation of Christian marriage as a sacramental act between one man and one woman.
It is right to be grateful for the reaffirmation of Christian marriage contained in the first 45 paragraphs of “Men and Women in Marriage” but it is wrong to commend it to our churches.
Up to paragraph 45, the authors clearly and forthrightly articulate the biblical doctrine of marriage, presenting heterosexual marriage as the exclusive God-ordained venue for the physical expression of human sexuality. If the authors had stopped there, I would be happy to commend their work.
But they didn’t. The paper begins well but ends quite badly. Paragraphs 46-50 open up the well worn distinction between “teaching” and “practice”. The authors suggest that there is more flexibility in dealing with homosexual relationships on the pastoral level than the biblical principle articulated in the first 45 paragraphs might suggest. The authors draw an analogy between the practice of receiving people living in civil unions and the acceptance of remarried couples and the reception of polygamous converts in Africa. In both cases, the authors point out, the doctrinal standard for marriage was upheld but was applied “flexibly”. The analogy suggests that the church, in practice, need not require repentance and separation from homosexual partners in order to maintain doctrinal integrity. Thus, the penultimate paragraph reads:
The meaning of such pastoral accommodations can be misunderstood, as though the Church were solving pastoral difficulties by redefining marriage from the ground up, which it cannot do. What it can do is devise accommodations for specific conditions, bearing witness in special ways to the abiding importance of the norm. Well-designed accommodations proclaim the form of life given by God’s creative goodness and bring those in difficult positions into closer approximation to it. They mark the point where teaching and pastoral care coincide.
Three points:
1. If remarriage/polygamy are sinful then allowing them “in practice” is not “flexibility”. It is abdication. Being “flexible” about sin hurts the very people the church is called to heal.
2. But the bible does not teach that remarriage is “always” sinful. It is sinful in the case of a divorce without biblical cause (adultery or abandonment by the non-believing spouse) or for the guilty party in a divorce for cause. Moreover, even in cases where someone has remarried after an unjustified divorce, there is good reason not to demand a second divorce. God designed men and women to be together in covenant bonds. Even second marriages are capable of meeting that intention. Additionally, such an act would represent an attempt to remedy the sin of divorce by committing a second divorce. It would only compound the sin.
A similar case can be made in the circumstance of an already existing case of polygamy in which men become Christians after marrying more than one woman. Demanding divorce in such a case only adds something that God hates (divorce) to an already imperfect situation, not to speak of the economic deprivation and social humiliation that would be visited upon the divorced women in most of the cultures in question.
3. Homosexual relationships are not of like character. Living in a condition of regular unrepentant sexual engagement with a person of the same sex is, according to 1 Cor 6:9-10, damnable. The best thing, the only thing, to be done is to repent, break off the relationship, and turn to Jesus Christ. For the sake of those engaged in this sin (and those who are tempted by it) there can be no pastoral or practical accommodation.
It shouldn’t be difficult to see why Giles Fraser welcomed “Men and Women in Marriage.”
They are winking at people like me saying ‘be creative’ – it is a classic Anglican fudge…In effect what it is saying is you can do it as long as you don’t say that is what you are doing – call it something different, be as imaginative as you can.”
He’s right. The paper represents a significant step toward placing same sex couples on the same ground remarried heterosexual couples occupy.
The Clergy Letter of Encouragement expresses gratitude for Men and Women in Marriage as a “first fruit” of Archbishop Justin Welby’s ministry.
“We are also thankful for this early fruit of the ministry of the Archbishop of Canterbury. As someone new in the office, he surely needs our prayers and goodwill for the Anglican Communion. He has them.”
The new Archbishop of Canterbury does need our prayers and he has them along with our goodwill. This is true.
But if this is, indeed, a first fruit of the new Archbishop’s ministry, it is not one for which we ought to be thankful. It is the camel’s nose in the tent.
And if we look back at what Archbishop Welby has said and done before and after his enthronement, it is par for the course. It is, indeed, the sort of middling, compromising, reconciling “fruit” we might expect.
The Letter ends with this note:
“We are in different contexts and we face different realities, but we also pray that our existing links between the Anglican Church in North America and the Anglican Communion can be strengthened and enhanced.”
I do pray that the existing links can be strengthened and enhanced. But there are two requisite conditions that must be met first. The Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada, if they remain unrepentant, must be removed from the Communion and, for the love of the souls given to our care, homosexual sin must not be tolerated either in principle or practice. If these conditions are not met, I pray that the ties and links between the ACNA and the CofE continue to weaken and ultimately sever. The spiritual health and well-being of the flock of God is our most pressing concern not institutional unity with the Church of England.
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