Religion of peace not

Please remember that when you hear that muslim is a religion of peace, that just doesn't make any sense in the real world of actions.

People talk about "moderates" as if only orthodox or fundamental muslims hack off hands and shoo away Christians. Well I don't know where the moderates are do you? Maybe San Francisco.

So here's a country we must court since they are allies at the moment, and oh yes, they happen to have the bomb.

Anyone wish to rub shoulders with these folks multi-culturally? Better not.. they have the law of the land on their side, as do all muslim nations. Pakistan, and so many others.

Bad stuff. Bad places. Bad idea.

link

Kotri: Pakistan (AsiaNews) – April 27, 2007. A mob of Muslims tortured a Catholic man on April 13 in Kotri, Sindh province, accusing him of writing blasphemous words against Muhammad. When the Police intervened, it arrested the tortured man. In prison he was tortured again in order to get him to “confess.” He was supposed to get married the following day.

In piecing together the events that led to the arrest of the two Masih, APMA found that it all started when a group of Muslim men came to Sattar Masih’s house with a piece of paper that had Masih’s picture on it and blasphemous words written against Muhammad in the Urdu language. Although Sattar Masih rejected the allegations, his accusers did not believe him but still they went away.

Later that day Imam Mulana Umer announced during Friday prayers that the mosque had found a sacrilegious paper against the prophet Muhammad in the donation box. The imam then showed the paper to worshippers with Sattar Masih’s photo and address.

Many Muslim worshippers were enraged and marched on Sattar Masih’s house, stormed it and tried to kill him. But before they could act the Kotri police intervened and took Sattar into custody. In jail he was charged with blasphemy and tortured

Limbo mumbo jumbo

How exactly does the Church get away with junking limbo? By saying nothing new.

Limbo was not a doctrine, just the best idea people had. We still have no clearer idea, but have loosened the boundaries for disscussion.

link

In a long-awaited document, the Church's International Theological Commission said limbo reflected an "unduly restrictive view of salvation."

Yes it was, maybe.. we can only hope.

"The conclusion of this study is that there are theological and liturgical reasons to hope that infants who die without baptism may be saved and brought into eternal happiness even if there is not an explicit teaching on this question found in revelation," it said.

In writings before his election as Pope in 2005, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger made it clear he believed the concept of limbo should be abandoned because it was "only a theological hypothesis" and "never a defined truth of faith."

Let me share with you some private thoughts I have had on the subject for some time now. Just private thoughts. not beliefs.

Second Chance:

It could be that God is not mocked. That all the abortion little souls get a 2nd chance, or any number of chances at a longer lived life. In fact, that idea could extend to all children's deaths.

How?

By reintroducing the little one's soul into another conception. I know the Church teaches that the soul is created at conception. This creation happened the 1st time. And for God's good Justice, a slight tweak on that teaching for abortion, and tragic young deaths, and that soul could finally find circumstances where a full life could be lived.

I have to wonder at all the spontaneous abortions the body naturally performs when the early child is not forming well enough to sustain life. Where do all these souls go?

Or...

Purgatory:

You know, this could be Purgatory.. another poorly understood concept. I for one have a deep feeling that I did not start at zero as a child, but carried something from before. Either the sins of the ancestors or, perhaps a previous not-so-good life.

Just a deep feeling, but imagine the communion of saints implication. To me, people seem a lot easier to love when I realize that we are all on our journey to heaven. More compassion comes if I think we may be on our 2nd or 3rd try. And it does tend to explain why 2,000 years have passed and we are still waiting for Christ's coming.

Those not judged unto hell given a chance to try again still under the jeopardy of heaven or hell. Very merciful of God don't you think?

Or...

Fallen Angels:

Maybe we're them given another chance at salvation. No wonder the Devil hates us so. It would sure explain his interest in our demise starting with Adam.

Without understanding the Devil and his role, not much of what goes on makes sense at all. Yet, it is still hard to find the reason for the Devils's work ethic. What drives him against us so?

If as long as we are alive we are in jeopardy of salvation, and we used to be wholly his, and there is still a chance to keep us, it makes some sense.

And..

Fairness:

Isn't there a feeling of most of us for the mystery of an all loving God allowing tragedy and suffering? What if just before conception, God were to lay the circumstances of our future life before us and ask us "Do you accept?"?

Since to be here now, under whatever "unfair" circumstances we find ourselves, is the result of our having said "I accept", all issues of unfairness disappear. We said OK, and so here we are.

Disclaimer:

I know these are ideas in the rough, and may be complete trash. But I ponder them, and find consolation.

Protestants:

Heh, they have no issues at all. Jesus did all the work, and their salvation is assured. Such a plain and uninteresting drama. Doesn't ring right I think. Quite a soothing balm, but in no way does it satisfy the deepest resonance to Truth. But hey, they said "I accept" too.

ho ho ho and a bottle of rum

Now I know what the pirates were talking about.

What? This guy had like 358,000 viewers, and all of the sudden we're upset? Nope, all of a sudden we're cowards. Imus didn't change, we did.

What? Both CBS and NBC had talks with their employees and heard a resounding teary eyed "fire him"? Nope, the sponsors were pulling out, and in case you hadn't heard, business is about money.

But hey, what's Catholic about Imus? Nothing. He's just an old guy doing comedy which we liked to listen to. Comedy, not something serious. Funny stuff.

Thomas Paine thought that “He who dares not offend cannot be honest.”.

I bring this up because it dawns on me that a Catholic liberal still has one foot back in the 60's. Still fighting for feminism. Still rebelling against authority with their privately derived new ideas that are oh so old.

But the public liberal of the 60's has disappeared. That liberal used to mean free speech if they meant anything. Have you heard any free speech liberals coming to Imus' aid? Nope. They're all near retirement and too achy to move on this.

Liberal has come to mean socialism pure and simple. Clinton's village. Speech laws. Hurt feelings.

And judging from the near complete lack of defenders of Imus' free speech rights (including Imus himself) it's social pressure we're seeing. It would be in the courts if it could be, and maybe one day will be. This is real enforced niceness. The kind of niceness never mentioned in the bible.

Poor Imus would be in much better position if he had simply said "opps, that didn't sound too good". And in addition "f*** (see how well I'm trained?) you if you can't take a joke".

But he got into the feelings excuse, which was probably a play he thought long and hard about to no avail. A weepy I'm SORRY~~~~.

So really, we have a new type of liberal social experiment. And the worst part is that there is no counter-pressure from conservatives or 60's liberals.

It's called piling-on like on the playground. It's a juvenile attack by just about everyone.

Just watch. We will find some tie-in to Imus and Global Warming, the Duke case, and that Imus has an undue influence on rap music.

It is not pretty... about as ugly as Imus' joke. But it's real, and the joke was.. well, it was a joke.

Out of 188 people surveyed, 97 responded "yes"

Oh boy. Still some Catholic-confused out there. I thought maybe they had stopped that.

...

ChristiaNet.com, the world's largest Christian portal with twelve million monthly page loads, asked participants in a survey, "Are Catholics Christians?"

Out of 188 people surveyed, 97 responded "yes" to the question. These readers overall seem to agree that the Catholic religion has many members who are Christians. Some of the controversy spoken of by participants with Catholics is that there are still some who revere other Saints including Mary, the mother of Jesus, over Christ.

...

Others feel that Priests do not have the power to forgive sins as is portrayed through some organized denominations, but God who forgives through Christ, as He is the one who gave His life for all people, and it is only through His shed blood that anyone can be forgiven.

Forty-seven participants responded "no" to the question. Many feel that the Catholic religion teaches dogmas and rituals that are false and contrary to the teachings of the Bible. One Believer in this group wrote, "Catholics are under Vatican City which brings slavery to my country and oppression to my people. Christianity is not oppression but instead gives life."

Though many in this group were adamant about the false doctrine within the organized church, others felt that there were Christians within the denomination.

Forty-nine readers seem to be unsure about the Catholic religion. Some felt that there seems to be some non Biblical teaching in this denomination. Does the Bible teach that purgatory exists and that someone who is dead can be prayed into heaven? One participant said, "They pray for the dead to go to heaven out of purgatory when there isn't any such place."

...

Do you know anyone who revere Mary or the Saints over Christ? I don't.

...

It is the Priest who must decide if the sinner has the correct disposition to be forgiven. He then affirms that it is God who forgives through Christ. But I admit this is a touchy subject. Most Catholics can not find the humility or the awareness of sin necessary to get to Confession. So I guess I can't blame the non-Catholics for feeling the same way.

...

The oddest thing is the 49 folks who think Catholics are not Christian. I mean, come on!

...

"...the Catholic religion teaches dogmas and rituals that are false and contrary to the teachings of the Bible." Rituals are bible contrary? Some Catholic dogmas make us non-Christian? Needless to say.. I doubt it.

...

Of course in these non-Catholics blurbs, here comes Purgatory. Assured Salvation with cleansing fire. Sounds merciful to me.

...

The Catholics have 2,000 years of holy thought on the subject. These folks have the bible and the 20 year experience of their preacher. Not much time for dogma there. Good luck.

...

link

Reap what you don't sow

It was great fun for young Nazis to harass and beat Jews I think. A less human class that to them was more fun than kicking a dog.

We kill babies and old folks. I guess the homeless are simply another sub-human class. Who can predict the next sub-class? It will be a surprise. Perhaps children, perhaps the disabled.

If we don't sow morals mainly through religion, but feed them mass media, they will not be very nice folks.

link

"Homeless people are the newest minority group in America that is 'OK' to hate and hurt," he said. "It's as though, somehow, they're viewed as less deserving, less human than the rest of us."

It was a balmy night, the sort that brings the homeless out from the shelters, when the police were summoned to America Street. On the driveway of a condo, just a few paces from the gutter, lay a man. A dying man.

Before being rushed to the hospital, where he died of his head injuries, the man, August Felix, described his attackers. Young fellows did it, he whispered to the officers who got to him first. Kids.

Within three months, two 16-year-olds and three 15-year-olds had been charged with second-degree homicide in the March 26, 2006, attack. The motive? "I don't think there was a motive," Sgt. Barbara Jones, a police spokeswoman, said, "other than, 'Let's beat someone up.'"

That high-schoolers had turned — allegedly on a whim — into executioners brought pause to city officials and advocates for the homeless, not just because the killing was unprovoked, but because it fit into a trend larger than Orlando: a nationwide surge in violence largely by teenagers and young adults against some of America's most vulnerable citizens.

A 2006 report by the National Coalition for the Homeless found 142 attacks last year against homeless people, 20 of which resulted in death — a 65 percent increase from 2005, when 86 were violently assaulted, including 13 homicides.

In its most recent study, "Hate, Violence, and Death on Main Street USA," the coalition documented attacks against the destitute in 62 communities last year alone, in 26 states. Since 1999, such violence has occurred in 44 states and Puerto Rico, and in 200 communities nationwide.

An overwhelming majority of the attackers — 88 percent — were 25 or younger; 95 percent were male. No less than 68 percent of those accused and convicted in attacks were between the ages of 13 and 19.

Orlando, home of homosexual-too-friendly Disney.

Something new in history

In the history of occupation, or liberation as you may prefer, is there any example of destroying the existing administrators and security?

This was the USA's biggest blunder.

Whatever the reasons for going to war, this whole thing seems to have been planned by an inept committee.

link

"The corroded and corrupt state of Saddam was replaced by the corroded, inefficient, incompetent and corrupt state of the new order," Ali A. Allawi concludes in "The Occupation of
Iraq' newly published by Yale University Press.

The U.S.- and British-educated engineer and financier is the first senior Iraqi official to look back at book length on his country's four-year ordeal. It's an unsparing look at failures both American and Iraqi, an account in which the word "ignorance" crops up repeatedly.

First came the "monumental ignorance" of those in Washington pushing for war in 2002 without "the faintest idea" of Iraq's realities. "More perceptive people knew instinctively that the invasion of Iraq would open up the great fissures in Iraqi society," he writes.

What followed was the "rank amateurism and swaggering arrogance" of the occupation, under L. Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which took big steps with little consultation with Iraqis, steps Allawi and many others see as blunders:

• The Americans disbanded Iraq's army, which Allawi said could have helped quell a rising insurgency in 2003. Instead, hundreds of thousands of demobilized, angry men became a recruiting pool for the resistance.

• Purging tens of thousands of members of toppled President
Saddam Hussein's Baath party — from government, school faculties and elsewhere — left Iraq short on experienced hands at a crucial time.

Some ado about nothing

The 80/20 rule seems to apply to so many things.

Regarding Catholics in the pew, I wouldn't be surprised if the figure was 10% committed and 90% fuzzy, but perhaps it is 20% after all.

So to look at young Catholics and find that 20% at that tender age are serious about their religion is very good news. You would think from the article that things were falling apart.

Nope, that's the way it is. Just be sure you're in the 20% group before it's too late.

link

One of the main results of the new survey was to confirm and reinforce earlier findings that younger adult Catholics tend to have a looser, more tenuous relationship with the church than their older counterparts. The younger Catholics are less likely to accept church teachings on issues of sex and marriage or to consider the church's teaching role important in such matters, for example, and they are less likely to attend Mass regularly or to consider Mass attendance important for being a good Catholic.

"The long-term trend in the level of Catholics' commitment to the institutional church from 1987 to 2005 was moderately downward, and, on the basis of generational differences, we can predict a continued downward drift in the future," the study says.

This is always where the experts sound like know-nothings. "we can prediect".. oh sure. I'm betting they never sat in a pew for weeks on end and tried to make sense of their situation. But they do know how to draw a line on a graph and predict demise. This compared to Jesus' promise that there would never be demise.

"As long as they believe in God, Jesus' incarnation and resurrection and Mary as the mother of God and as long as they do whatever they can to love their neighbor, they do not feel obliged to attend Mass every week, go to confession every year, or even marry in the church," it adds.

"Many young adults feel they were never taught the basic truths of the Catholic faith. ... They do not understand their faith enough to explain it to their children," it says.

"Other young adults are troubled by the discrepancy between church teachings on sexual and reproductive issues and their own views on topics such as artificial birth control, abortion, homosexuality and the ordination of women and married men," it says.

"It is unlikely that the church will change its views on these issues any time soon," it adds. "Nor are ... Catholics (in the generations born 1960-78 or since 1978) likely to change their views. Thus, young adults -- more than older Catholics -- are faced with participating in an institution that does not reflect their worldview. The church also is confronted with ministering to young adults who disagree with many of its policies and practices. ... These tensions pose serious problems for both young adults and the church."

Yes sure. These tensions are what life's all about. Nothing new here, or ever.

In one recent survey "just over half of American Catholics said that young adults' lack of participation in the church is a serious problem," the 205-page book says. That concern was reflected not just by older Catholics, but even by nearly half of the younger adult Catholics surveyed, it says.

D'Antonio and Hoge are fellows of the Life Cycle Institute of The Catholic University of America, Davidson teaches sociology at Purdue University and Gautier is a senior research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

The new book is titled American Catholics Today: New Realities of Their Faith and Their Church. It was co-authored by William V. D'Antonio, James D. Davidson, Dean R. Hoge and Mary L. Gautier.

The new book... I think now we can guess why the survey tries to be controversial. Book sales.

"A sizable minority of young adults are very spiritual and highly religious," it says. "As Colleen Carroll has shown in her book, 'The New Faithful,' a sizable number of young adults -- we estimate about 20 percent – attend Mass and go to Communion regularly, go to confession occasionally, think of themselves as 'orthodox' Christians and read the Scriptures whenever they can. ... They see themselves as the future of the church and are quite naturally offended when others describe young adults as the problem."

Despite that minority, the evidence suggests that most young adults "are only loosely tethered to the church," it says.

Despite that 'minority'. Thank goodness for that constant minority.

Non-Catholic liturgy

When you are something other than Catholic, how do you see yourself on Sunday?

This Aussie's blurb is a nice window.

This is why in the service I attended we began with a “caring and sharing” session in which we were prompted to share anything from a birthday to a terminal diagnosis. This is Christian worship captive to pastoral care; the needs of the people take centre stage rather than the worship of God. The result is oozingly sentimental.

The one message is that God loves us no matter what. While this may be true, it is a truncation of the Gospel imperative that while we may be accepted as we are, it is not expected that we remain as we are. Surely our hope is to be transformed into His likeness. However, we have been taught that it is not pastoral or popular to make demands on the congregation so we leave out the hard bits.

Churches that pride themselves on their creativity, making it up as they go along, inevitably fall into sentimentality or manipulation. Those that erase hundreds of years of faithful church tradition, insisting only on the Bible, in a distortion of what Luther was about, will end up with thin liturgies or no liturgies at all, Sunday worship becoming an extended Bible study or an exercise in community building.

Maybe I shouldn't think so poorly about some Catholic liturgies that I witness. They tend to stretch the limits, but still can usually go only so far. It is still possible to tune out Father's theatrics and agenda as he eventually returns to the rubrics. Even when he changes the liturgy wording with his great creativity, I can repeat to myself from memory or read in front of me what the real words are.

I guess it's fresh in my mind how some Holy Thursday hymns this year have replaced 'Him' with 'God', adding to the Priest's same habit during the Gloria and at other places. A feminist agenda long after the feminists have won.. at least 20 years too late.

And the theatrics? What ya gonna do? I am getting quite good at ignoring it. Something like a kid with an abusive father. I make believe it is not happening.

link

Giuliani is not good. Let's not pick the best of the worst.

There is a feeling afoot that the Republican presidential candidates are so bad, it's time to pick the best of the worst.

...

This simply can not be. We have 250+ million folks, and there must be one honest leader among them willing to sacrifice and become President.

...

If not, we're finished.

...

But if so, let's not lower our expectations to the best we can hope for. It still has something to do with doing the right thing to get the right end.

...

Prayers are in order.

...

link

...

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told CNN Wednesday he supports public funding for some abortions, a position he advocated as mayor and one that will likely put the GOP presidential candidate at odds with social conservatives in his party.

...

"There must be public funding for abortions for poor women," Giuliani says in the speech that is posted on the video sharing site YouTube. "We cannot deny any woman the right to make her own decisions about abortion."

...

"I'm in the same position now that I was 12 years ago when I ran for mayor -- which is, personally opposed to abortion, don't like it, hate it, would advise that woman to have an adoption rather than abortion, hope to find the money for it," he said. "But it is your choice, an individual right. You get to make that choice, and I don't think society should be putting you in jail."

...

Regarding Southern Baptist Convention leader Richard Land's recent criticisms of Giuliani's three marriages, the former New York City Mayor said, "I've made mistakes. I've had a rocky road. I regret them. But they are between me, God, my conscience and the people involved. I wish I had led a perfect life. I keep striving, I keep trying to learn, I keep praying for help.

...

[between me, God, my conscience and the people involved] Oh yeah! That's empty heart talk. That's a committee mentality. A leader is based on something. A committee member is based on nothing.

...

He's not good. As he says he's still striving and trying to learn. We'd better pass and wait to see if he ever gets there.

Just kill me

We all know that this group was very good at euthanasia. We know the doctors that participate in euthanasia are about as trustworthy as doctors who participate in abortion.. it's just a strange field of specialization.

I have made it a point of avoiding Oregon these many years since they voted themselves the right to kill anyone who could sign the form. Looks like California will be off my itinerary options also.

The shame is that the article can probably rightly claim that "this is another issue of individual choice where the overwhelming majority of Catholics have a different perspective than the official position of the church.”

Little Catholics in the pews. Pew sitters with their own enlightened opinion. Just sad.

And you know where these people are headed? Yup, to the Parish Council to share their Time, Talent and Treasure. Just wrong.

link

Cardinal Roger Mahony is urging Catholics to fight a proposed bill that would legalize assisted suicide for the terminally ill in California.

"Assisted suicide is totally unnecessary — not only is it against God's law, God's plan, we simply don't need something like that," said Cardinal Mahony during a noontime Mass on Monday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, reported The Associated Press.

The Cardinal-archbishop of Los Angeles said Catholics must put pressure on legislators to vote against “this attack on life."Cardinal Mahoney also fiercely criticized the Legislature's most prominent Democrat, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. The Catholic politician recently met with the Cardinal to discuss the proposal.

Nunez, he said, “somehow has not understood and grasped the culture of life but has allowed himself to get swept into this other direction, the culture of death.”

An Assembly committee last week approved the bill, which would allow patients, found by two physicians to have no more than six months to live, to request a drug to end their lives when they choose. The patient would have to administer the drug, which he or she would have to request in writing and orally. A physician could require the patient to have counseling before receiving the drug.

Isn't it strange that the "Indian Catholic" is the only source this morning carrying the story?