Don't apologize for things you didn't do, to people who don't believe in forgiveness or redemption.
Thou shalt do no murder.Dr Ron Paul makes some good points as always and is right in a legal sense but I can give the pro-life objection that having some places legalise elective abortion violates the harm principle of libertarianism (my freedom ends if I harm somebody else). Does Dr Paul approve of the existing laws against murder of the already born?
Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
We are not designed to kill each other, though the state--that criminal gang writ large--plays the devil's advocate here as elsewhere. Its military training is about overcoming this natural reluctance. It doesn't always work, of course. Many of the physically unwounded soldiers, especially those from the reserves and national guard who are forced to go, return from Iraq spiritually and mentally maimed. A startling number take their own lives. Here is just one horrific story of the sort that doesn't make the national media.- Lew Rockwell
...the main reason I am a libertarian is because the state, through its hired managers, seeks to impose meaning on the world and tell individual human beings what their lives mean. The state or the collective (such as the community or the "nation") seeks to impose value by telling you what you can live for (or what you must live for), what you can (or must) die for, and when. I have concluded that no one -- not George W. Bush, not Usama bin Laden, nobody -- has that right save me and God.- Charles Featherstone
Charles Stuart, his piety notwithstanding, was not at all shy about supporting the murder of Roman Catholics (including, among others, S. Edmund Arrowsmith) who got in the way of his political machinations.- Paul Goings
Some of us are keeping the feast of S. Martina, V.M., and perhaps invoking the intercession of the Holy Martyrs of England and Wales against the errors of protestantism and erastianism.
The very things that made my ten-year-old heart ache for those abandoned Victorians on the Mississippi now make my thirty-year-old heart ache for the men and women who thoughtlessly reject Christ’s mercy and grace. Both are neglected stories, one infinitely more important than the other, but both in many ways the same and both very much true.- Emily Stimpson
V: Domine, lux amoris tuæ fulget,
fulgens in medias tenebras;
Jesu, Lux Mundi, nobis adfulge,
libera nos per veritatem quam nunc nobis adfers.
Adfulge mihi, adfulge.
R: Fulge, Jesu, fulge.
Hanc terram gloria Patris imple.
Arde, Spiritus, arde.
Corda nostra accende.
Flue, Flumen, flue
gratia et misericordia gentes inunda.
Domine, emitte verbum tuum et fiat lux.
Daniel's church is packed with people every Sunday. The Episcopal Church is actually dwindling in size, a decline accelerated by recent controversies over sex and theology.
Put simply, a religion without a State is no danger at all...
Bush has succeeded in displacing secular moderates from Middle Eastern governments and replacing them with Islamic extremists. It boggles the mind that this disastrous result makes Americans feel safer!
Dear President Moonves, Ms. Pennington Stewart, and Dr. McGraw:I missed the episode. Did any of you see it?
We are representatives of eight autism organizations who watched the episode of “Dr. Phil” that co-featured Asperger syndrome (AS) as its topic. The January 17 airing of this CBS daytime talk show shared subject material with another diagnosis, Tourette’s syndrome, that we are unqualified to judge. But from both a medical and ethical view, we found the portrayal of AS to be disturbing. Your show reaches a huge audience. We recognize that in the past, the non-threatening demeanor and natural charm of the host, Dr. Phil himself, has allowed for much relevant change and information to reach an audience that otherwise might not have been influenced. And it is within this context of the show’s proven potential for good, that we are driven to write.
At one point in his remarks to the audience, Dr. Phil mentioned that it was the exception, not the rule, for people diagnosed with AS to display violent behavior. This is quite true. And yet everything else intimated by the show contradictorily depicted otherwise. The episode opened with the tragic Los Angeles incident in which a young man with AS killed two neighbors before killing himself. Camera angles on the episode’s young man in question (Alex) were implemented to suggest psychosis. And the parents’ fears for their safety were given great respect.
What was especially troubling was that at no time in the show was it suggested that Alex’s violent potential might be heavily, even overbearingly caused by having two parents that constantly seemed to be yelling at him. Also, Alex’s mother admitted to having said to her teenage son that she hated him. Teenagers are bound to say they hate their parents every once in a while. Yet parents that say that to their children must be held accountable for the damage they have caused, and not get to blame the problems on their child’s diagnosis.
The parents’ needs were also unmet by Dr. Phil. In a situation where parents have spun so out of control that they can become so abusive to their child, usually the problem is that they are not getting the help they need. A requisite step to this is admitting they need help themselves, and oddly enough, these parents seemed to be doing that. They seemed to be reaching out. But instead of being steered towards the serious counseling and support they clearly need, all the blame was thrown their son’s way for a diagnosis that he was born with. And the son, Alex, by contrast, seemed much more capable of improvement.
The latter is true because AS does not have to be the curse that your show portrayed it as. Not only are individuals with AS able to lead happy, productive, and often amazing lives providing they have the right supports, but also because from a medical standpoint AS is not a “mental illness” or a “disease” as the show implied. Mental illness is different than a neurological condition, and for something to be a disease it has to be something acquired - not something you’re born with. Most of the enlightened world knows that autism is at its root, genetic, and therefore by definition it is not something that can be considered “curable” or a “disease.”
We were also concerned with the highly questionable “Brain Matters, Inc.,” the company represented by Dr. Hixster (sp?) that received airtime in the episode. From our standpoint, these are most certainly not known people in the autism/Asperger world. Now just being known to us obviously does not imply good quality. But contrary to the show’s suggestions, educational and therapy-based interventions are the best hope that people diagnosed on the autism spectrum have for leading happy lives. The after-scan treatments that this company was offering to the family were vaguely presented - perhaps with good reason. Using phrases like “brain-based” and “we go directly to the brain,” Dr. Hixster suggested to that poor family that there was great hope for their outcome. We know of no such therapy that is of any proven worth. Please understand that you are dealing with a very vulnerable parent audience. You might consequently deprive them of appropriate and effective interventions. Ones we can help lead you to.
After the Los Angeles incident last year, there was a great and inspiring effort amongst the world’s media to refrain from using the tragedy to demonize people living with Asperger’s. To say from a journalism standpoint that the aftermath was “responsible” would be an understatement. The burdens of running a daily television show are those we can only imagine, but the January 17 episode of “Dr. Phil” did much to nullify the good work attempted by the majority of media giving airtime to AS and autism-related issues. In the future, we hope you will contact one or all of our signing organizations to help guide you through what can be a very complicated world. We would be more than happy to help as your show is indeed capable of enormous good.
I think it's interesting that the Orthodox Saints have often prophesied of the Antichrist sitting in churches - not just one Church in Jerusalem, but all Churches. Of course, if one lived in an Orthodox world, this would mean all Orthodox Churches, but in the geographical West, this clearly means those churches most common: the Megachurches with multimedia projection screens and stereo entertainment systems. Conveniently, it is exactly these churches that have been duped into supporting the Neocons and their Generic language.
James Bernstein, one of the founders of Jews for Jesus, is now an Orthodox Christian priest.- Josephine, northwestern US
As I understand his story, he grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home, and was converted to Christianity in an evangelical context. That was the only form of Christianity he knew about, and although he believed it was true, it was never really comfortable for him.
When he discovered Orthodox Christianity, he felt like he'd discovered the Christianity he'd always wanted. Our worship has clear and obvious connections to its roots in synagogue worship; our orthopraxy is different from Orthodox Jewish orthopraxy, but it makes sense to someone from an Orthodox Jewish background.
In fact, a friend of mine who is an Orthodox Jew now living in Israel says that the experience of Orthodox Christianity and Orthodox Judaism in the US are very similar: we have days of religious obligation that no one else observes, dietary restrictions that no one else understands, and old men in beards sitting around arguing about things that no one else cares about.
“I think that it’s nice that he went to go visit the troops and is showing his support, but I do kind of think that he’s using this as a photo opportunity,” said UW-Madison College Republican chair Jordan Smith, who added she did not think the tactic would resonate with voters because the war in Iraq was more a national issue than a state issue.Daithí in a letter to the editor:
Why the hell are there such creatures as “College Republicans” at this time?
Oughtn’t they become “Desert-Sand-Trench-Blood-Guts-and-Body-Parts Republicans” until their beloved war is over?
Hey, Jordan, please call your local military recruiting office! Here is your opportunity to show your support of George W. Bush’s foreign policy.
He has no domestic policy, so there is no need for you here!
Before Christendom was rent asunder, every Catholic society had its own unique "bestting sin" or vice that was winked at by the majority, and the same goes for individuals and factions in the Church today - even the right factions.
I want to say this about authority and obedience. It seems that there are two kinds of obedience... etymology will help... obedience comes from the Latin 'audire', to listen... adding 'ob' makes it 'to listen well'. I can voluntarily give my 'obedience' to another who is over me if we are both listening to the same 'voice'; this is genuine, human obedience... This is true obedience, while the other obedience is inhuman... and not genuine... but used to triumph over others...it is called 'blind' obedience. We all know the meaning of blind. We are NOT called to this. It is immoral, i.e. like planting turnips upside down, because 'I said so.'- Fr Michael Mihalick
Miss District of Columbia glowed orangely, her tan putting me in mind of former New York City Public Advocate Mark Green. Miss Virginia spoke of her community service: "I'm a beauty queen who hangs out at maximum security prisons. It's incongruous." Accent on the gru. Miss Texas had platinum hair and a uranium smile.Nudity in itself isn’t sexy. The evening-dress part has some potential there but the same thing happens:
Only since 1997 have contestants been permitted to don bikinis for the swimsuit competition. This year, all of them did, and it still managed to be anti-erotic. The pageant might objectify women, but it certainly doesn't turn them into sex objects. "Physiological specimens" is closer to the mark. There is an infantilizing force at work that denies standard-issue desire. Reviewing the telecast for the New Republic in 1957, Philip Roth remarked that "all those lovely legs are really girls … who, when asked what they admire most, will talk to the flesh's distraction about their brothers and their daddies."
Half a century later, nine of the 10 semifinalists flowed onstage for the evening-wear competition with their fathers at their sides and their accompanying voice-overs ripe with filial devotion. Miss Oklahoma: "I chose my daddy as my escort." Miss Virginia: "All of us here are sort of our dad's girl." How about you, Miss Alabama? "I don't know if I'm really a daddy's girl, but we do have a special relationship. ..."I see a book or at least a research paper/doctoral thesis here.
My name is Adolf Eichmann. And the Jews came every day to what they thought would be fun in the showers. People say I should have been hung. Nein. Do you recognize the whore in the middle of you--that you would have done the same if you were there yourselves? My defense: I was a soldier. I saw the end of a conscientious day’s effort. I watched through the portholes. I saw every Jew burned and turned into soap. Do you people think yourselves better because you burned your enemies at long distance with missiles without ever seeing what you had done to them? Hiroshima. Auf Wiedersehen.- Lenny Bruce
... If we would have lost the war, they would have strung [President Harry] Truman up by the balls...
That is blatant false advertising!- Otto, the stoner bus-driver
Is there one thing that Saddam Hussein did to his people that we are not now doing to someone somewhere in the Middle East?
Approximately 93% of the women who have had abortions cited they did so for social reasons.*I’m fairly sure that St Tikhon, of San Francisco circa 1900, didn’t talk about bishops in other churches that way.
I'm getting misty at all the ecumenism that's breaking out between the Left and the Right.As opposed to the real kind that’s needed as described by Huw Raphael.
There is an inherent worth in ancient liturgies. I imagine they are strange at first to anyone. If they afford some kind of soul connection that was not there before, then the new manner of worship with the physical element and the incorporation of all the senses will eventually fit as a legitimate aspect of this life that is truly apart from this world, and appreciated as transcending what is normal and regular. The worth of it, I think, is exactly because it is not normal and regular... it is a more perfect expression of a supernatural relationship.Many thanks to Laura (dormitantius).
LOOK down, most merciful Lord Jesu, our Saviour, upon the prayers and sighs of thy sinful and unworthy servants, humbly falling down before thee, and unite us all in one holy Catholic and apostolic church. Shine into our souls thine ineffable light. Put an end to religious disagreements, and grant that we thy disciples and thy beloved children may all worship thee with a single heart and voice. Most merciful Lord, quickly fulfil thy promise that there be one flock and one shepherd of thy church, that we may be made worthy to glorify thy holy Name, now and ever and unto endless ages. Amen.- Blessed Leonty (Leonid Feodorov)
Do you think I grew up knowing Marian doctrines? I grew up singing "Kumbaya" and reading catechisms that told me how much God "luved" me. The only Catholicism I really got growing up was from my simple grandparents' Mexican customs. ...to be angst-ridden over not being in the RC Church when this is the case with my entire generation is a little silly to me.- Arturo Vasquez
Salus animarum lex suprema.- St Thomas Aquinas
Just to show how pervasive disunity is, the ecumenical movement is even deeply divided. In fact, there are two distinct ecumenical efforts at work today, with starkly different objectives. The old ecumenical movement, as represented in the U.S. most notably by the National Council of Churches, has drifted far left. What unites this group is adherence to a liberal social and political agenda.The second is the ecumenism of Touchstone and more in line with Fr Paul.
Meanwhile, what's sometimes known as the "new ecumenism" brings together classical Christians from varying denominational backgrounds. This is a theologically substantive effort, built on a unifying respect for Holy Scripture and traditional biblical morality.
Why can't they be like we were,Balanced by Mike Rogers:
Perfect in every way?
What's the matter with kids today?
WHEN thou wast baptised in the Jordan, O Lord, the worship of the Trinity was made manifest. For the voice of the Father bare witness to thee by calling thee his beloved Son. And the Spirit in the form of a dove confirmed the truth of his words. O Christ our God, thou hast appeared to us and enlightened the world. Glory to thee!This is sung to the same tune that Tchaikovsky used at the beginning of the 1812 Overture (because it’s also used for the ‘victory’ troparion about the cross).
"They're calling for the overturn of Roe vs. Wade, which will lead to the slaughter of women,'' said Elizabeth Creely of the Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights, referring to fears of unsafe, back-alley abortions if the procedure were illegal. "The Catholic Church is very strong here and is working hard to erode reproductive rights.Apparently Mr Bush’s minders aren’t the only ones who have problems telling the truth. Before 1973 there was no ‘slaughter of women’; we don’t all have short collective memories, Ms Creely. Medically necessary abortions — a microscopic number of abortions done today — were legal and are allowed by the church. ‘Reproductive rights’ is merely cant for childish irresponsibility for one’s actions (pig heaven for men who abuse women as Bud Macfarlane once put it), not what 19th-century workers for women’s rights wanted! She’s given her game away: numerically most abortions aren’t done for desperate poor women — such heartbroken people don’t natter about ‘reproductive rights’ — but rather well-off ones for convenience.
I have served a little over 5 months of a 15-month sentence given to me because I developed a conscience and would no longer participate in a war that we were lied into.
...the American people were lied to by men who care for nothing but their own personal agenda and are willing to abuse the goodwill and patriotism of the American people in order to reach their personal goals. This is not what our founding fathers envisioned for this country. They did not want the elected representatives to use fear as a governing tool and they did not want the citizens to give over all of their rights to people who would let absolute power corrupt absolutely.
I, for one, believe in the Constitution when it says that the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that this country is run correctly lies with the American people and not solely with this government. While we do hire people to do the work of government it is up to us, the citizens, to ensure that they are doing this in accordance with the law of the land.
True freedom requires eternal diligence and it will take everyone doing their share of keeping watch to prevent freedom from slipping out of our hands.
The day the US military come for my daughters is the day they become my enemy.- Jeff Culbreath, who doesn’t agree with this blog’s politics
Christina RossettiThat religious, even ultimately holy people didn’t always live up to the faith is no surprise. (Evelyn Waugh went to prostitutes.) They say you can go to hell by imitating the faults of the saints. However, Gill was pretty shameless. The funny thing is his blasphemous sex pictures do work as art — but of course they’re wrong.
Festooned in confetti
Posed for nude posters
With loud Pater nosters.
It’s quite ironic that the leader of the only nation ever to drop the ultimate weapon of mass destruction on civilians, US President George W. Bush, is taking you folks on the same ride that the Japanese war-time militarists did to the Japanese public, and that lots of American folks still cheer him on.There is a place for the military and not all soldiers are like this but what Mike Rogers describes is all too common.
It’s not like China or Russia or Osama are getting their rowboats out to invade the States next Tuesday...
Acquire the spirit of peace and thousands around you will be saved.
Half the country supports the idea of domestic spying.Your rights — use ’em or lose ’em.
...and I believe that we shall be right to continue to see as one of Christianity’s greatest gifts to the world the belief that the human fœtus is to be reverenced as the embryo of a life capable of coming to reflect the glory of God whatever trials it may be going to face.- +Michael Cantuar, from an address to the Convocation of Canterbury, 17th January, 1967
At the risk of sounding even more like Cassandra than usual, I'd say that in many ways, in most places, being an Anglo-Catholic is an impossible situation. I am one of those (and an Anglo-Papalist at that!) who remains in ECUSA, but only because of a peculiar parish history, and the desire to help maintain a tradition which has all but vanished. Even so, I can look to the day when I will be packing up and moving on. Personally, I would not suggest to anyone that they should join ECUSA or become an Anglo-Catholic in any formal sense. Those who appear at my parish are welcome to participate in what we do, of course, but most of us who remain recognize that it is a transitional situation, at best.Lord, in thy mercy: hear our prayer.
