“Pregnant Man”

Heard the story? But the “man” isn’t a man. She’s a woman who had some of her bodily parts disfigured–but not all–and was taking male hormones, and stopped so that she could get pregnant. This is just evidence that there really is no such thing as “sex change.”

Religious Liberty in the Schools

A Wisconsin student was penalized for referencing John 3:16 in an art project–he was given a zero and two detentions. He was also penalized for using religious expressions in a jewelry making class. Other students who drew demonic representations were not punished. A faculty member with Buddhist and Hindu symbols in his classrooms was not punished.

A California student was penalized for wearing a t-shirt that said, “I will not accept what God has condemned” and “Homosexuality is shameful. Romans 1:27.” It was the “National Day of Silence,” and other students wore t-shirts promoting homosexuality. He was held in the office, “counseled” by school personnel, and questioned and photographed by a deputy sheriff. He was told by one school official to “leave his faith in the car” lest it offend others. The 9th Circuit Court had sided with the school, but the Supreme Court overturned their decision and sent it back.

The Alliance Defense Fund is representing both students.

Spring Things

I hate to keep rubbing it in to my friends who are still inundated with snow up north <g>, but …. Today I mowed my lawn for the first time. The marigolds are doing well, and add some nice color to the walk. The gladiolus will probably bloom in another week. The hibiscus by the door shows as a couple of flowers every day. The loquat tree is full of ripe fruit.  The herb garden is thriving this year–we had some of the fresh basil and sage with meals this weekend. Aimee and I went up to College Station this weekend, and the bluebonnets are out in force.

Catholic Relief Services vs. Catholic Teaching

Catholic Relief Services, “the official international relief and development agency of the U.S. Catholic community,” “founded in 1943 by the Catholic Bishops of the United States,” has found a way around Catholic teaching, according to Germain Grisez. It just demands that things it produces that contradict Catholic teaching omit the CRS logo. Grisez calls for an investigation.

Vatican Official on SSPX and “Motu Proprio”

Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos has reiterated that no priest needs to seek permission to celebrate the traditional Latin mass. This is a slap in the face of all those bishops who sought to impose restrictions on it.

Also, he has underscored that only four bishops of the SSPX were excommunicated–not the priests or the lay Catholics who attend mass at their churches.

The path is clear for a Traditionalist resurgence.

See also CNS.

McCain-Lieberman

A fusion ticket? McCain-Lieberman? People are wondering.

Easter Doubts

Carl Olson comments on Easter doubts of a Methodist pastor.

Wal-Mart, the Supreme Court, and an Injured Woman

Wal-Mart vs. Debbie Shank.

Matthew 24:12.

Church Fire in Wecota, SD

Immanuel Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Wecota, SD, lost its 104 year old church to fire Wednesday night. The pastor, Gregory Hinners, was one of the members of the volunteer fire department called out to fight the blaze. He’s my first cousin. Article and video. Another.

New Cathedral Dedication

The new Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart will be dedicated this week in Houston. I was at the groundbreaking, and toured it a couple of times during construction (even got all the way up in the dome), and would certainly have been attending this dedication if I hadn’t left the employ of the archdiocese last May.

Now, like you, I’ll be able to watch the dedication on TV. The local media is making a big deal about this. See the multiple articles in the Houston Chronicle (start here). The commentator for the broadcast will be Cardinal John Foley, who narrates the US broadcast of the pope’s Christmas Eve midnight mass each year.

See also Rocco Palmo’s summary.

Sounds of My Youth

I’m listening tonight to some music I first fell in love with while in high school–Lamb. It was one of the first “Messianic Jewish” recording groups. Now, I don’t want to spark a debate about that particular movement. I just love their music.

While listening to it, my mind wandered to those days of long ago, laying on the floor in my room listening to my records or the radio. I also thought about an old program that aired late at night–”Nightsounds,” with Bill Pearce. I did a little search and discovered it is still on. Better still, I managed to tune in to the last ten minutes of tonight’s program.

Then I thought of an old friend, Brad McIntyre, with whom I was recently back in touch. I stumbled on to his daughter’s MySpace page, where she can be heard singing some of his old songs with him.

Those were the days of Dallas Holm, Don Francisco, Evie Tornquist, the Imperials, Honeytree, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Barry McGuire, Bill Gaither, and a long-haired John Michael Talbot.

I became friends with Steve Varro back then. He was a young magician, working at a Christian bookstore to make ends meet (the place I bought many of the above albums). We were both members of the Rockford, IL, Seventh-day Adventist Church (he was probably ten years older). A few years later I was at Atlantic Union College and he came through town; we literally bumped into each other in the dorm lobby. He invited me to go to the Le Grand David magic show with him, and suggested I invite a friend. That was my first date with Joy. A few years later we were in Loma Linda, where he was also living, running the AV department.

Well, that’s enough reminiscing for now ….

Echoes of the Past

Scientists have deciphered a “phonautogram” made in 1860. It was intended to make a picture of soundwaves, in the hopes that sometime in the future people might be able to decipher it. What emerges is a scratchy, but recognizable, rendition of a woman singing, “Au Claire de la Lune.”

One Way Dialogue

Pope Benedict XVI will be having an interfaith meeting at the John Paul II Cultural Center in DC, but don’t expect any dialogue. This won’t be an opportunity for him to hear from Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and others about religion in America, or their relations with Catholics. Nope. Only one person will be talking, as Christopher Blosser notes at his new Benedict in America blog.

This is the meeting Sikh representatives were prohibited by the Secret Service from attending unless they shed their kirpans. This makes for a very strange sort of dialogue– “Be willing to abandon your distinctives in order to get in the room, and then sit back and listen to what we say to you.”

“Jewish Multiple Personality Disorder”

Rabbi Avi Shafran at Cross Currents on Jews’ attitudes toward other Jews, especially the anger sometimes directed at the Orthodox for daring to stand out in their dress and their Sabbath observance. Yet these same Jews can be very tolerant of others who do the same thing.

What it brings to mind is the story of the Jewish fellow who found himself seated on a plane next to a bearded man wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a long black coat. Unable to control himself, the clean-shaven gentleman gives the other one a disapproving look and a long lecture about how Jews today need not look or act like their great-grandparents, how Judaism has evolved, how we Jews should be Americans first, Jews mainly in our hearts, and so on.

With a bewildered look, the bearded passenger quietly responds: “I’m Amish.”

The lecturer turns crimson and apologizes profusely. “I want you to know,” he stammers, “that I so respect your determination to live by the ideals of your faith and your community’s traditions. It is inspiring to know that there are people who put eternal truths before society’s whims and fashions…”

“Just joking,” the beard interrupts, with a mischievous smile. “You were right the first time.”

He asks, “Why … should a Jewish person fully accept a non-Jew’s choice to honor his faith and tradition yet resent a fellow Jew’s choice to honor his own?”

There are lessons in here for others, too. I think of liberals (whether Catholic, Episcopalian or Seventh-day Adventist) who have lots to say about the importance of multiculturalism, and respect for the opinions of the Third World, and how whites in America need to shut up and listen. And that’s all well and good until those Third World voices, whether in Africa or the Caribbean, actually start speaking, and start reminding their broad-minded brethren about Biblical teaching. Then suddenly we hear all sorts of angry defensiveness about how American Christianity (of whatever stripe) needs to live by the principles of self-determination, and we can’t let the rest of the world dictate how we are to live, and we need to be prophetic … etc.

What Will Benedict Say to the US?

Rocco Palmo suggests you check out things Pope Benedict XVI and his close aides have already said to Americans.

Muslim Converts to Christianity–And Vice Versa

Mark Shea links to Sherry Waddell’s summary of arguments given by Muslim converts to Christianity. Here are some first hand accounts.

Of course, people go the other way, too. Here are some testimonies of Christian women who became Muslim. Some other accounts.

Benedict’s Strategy?

Clerical Whispers, blog of an Irish priest, posts some thoughts about the strategy of Pope Benedict XVI.

The pope is a highly educated man. He has written multiple books and is respected for his scholarship. He is the spiritual leader of more than 1 billion people. Benedict does nothing—especially when it involves altering church policy or delivering public speeches—without deep contemplation and calculation.

Few people on Earth possess as much influence or come under as much scrutiny as the pope. For a man in his position, ignorance, careless slips of the tongue or shallow thinking could do enormous damage.

The Regensburg speech; bringing down the Italian government; altering the Good Friday Prayer; and, most recently, the decision to baptize a renowned Muslim convert three days after Osama bin Laden accused the Vatican of promoting violence against Muslims—in addition to the multiple times the papacy has weighed in on issues like Sunday worship, abortion and same-sex marriage—these were strategically calculated decisions in what is looking like a grand strategy for increasing Vatican power. …

Ultimately, he sees an opportunity—of historic proportions. An opportunity to establish the Catholic Church as the savior of Europe.

Consider. These events may have angered Muslims and Jews. But they thrilled many Catholic and even non-Catholic Europeans. Why? Because the message emanating from each event was that the Vatican remains the bastion of conservatism and traditionalism, is prepared to defend Europe’s Christian heritage and is willing, even ready, to confront the war-mongering ambitions of radical Islam.

That’s a message that Europeans increasingly want to hear!

Moreover, the pope’s message will only gain greater traction in the hearts of Europeans as conditions worsen and Islam increases its belligerence.

But wait a second … these aren’t his own thoughts. He notes that they are a “contribution.” Where did they come from? The Trumpet–a publication of the Philadelphia Church of God, which continues the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong.

This is curious indeed.

C.P.E.

Oh, it’s a great experience, C.P.E. is. Lots of seminarians of lots of denominations go through it. Some of us have good experiences. Mine, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, was mostly good, because I had a very good supervisor. But others suffer through it. It seems at times and at some centers that the purpose of C.P.E. is to produce ministers who act like the woman in the video below … experts in Rogerian reflection who have forgotten that the purpose of a minister is to proclaim the Gospel.

Thanks to Paul McCain.

So, if you went through C.P.E., tell me … how did that make you feel?

Footnote: I mentioned my own C.P.E. supervisor at Walter Reed. He was a Lutheran army chaplain, LTC-P, with combat experience in Vietnam. When I, a nervous 23-year-old 2d Lieutenant, expressed my fears of my inadequacy–what could I say in situations of life and death?–he asked, “Do you believe Luther’s explanation of the third article of the creed?” I hesitated, so he recited:

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily and richly all sins to me and all believers, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will give to me and to all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true.

Animals

25,703 primates were imported into the US last year–98% of which were macaque monkeys imported for vivisection. 58% of primates imported into the US come from China, where this picture was taken.

California Court Reconsiders Homeschooling

The Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles has announced it will reconsider its decision that would have made it illegal for anyone without a teaching credential to homeschool their children. It has asked for amicus briefs from a variety of educational organizations. San Francisco Chronicle. California Catholic Daily.

The Jesuits

Back on February 20, George Weigel asked some questions of the new Jesuit general in his column for the Denver Catholic Register. Among them:

What will Father Nicolas do about Jesuits who are manifestly not obedient to the Pope or to the teaching authority of the Church? Take, for example, the case of Father James Keenan, S.J., of Boston College. Several years ago, Father Keenan testified before the Massachusetts Legislature, arguing that the principles of Catholic social doctrine did not merely tolerate “gay marriage,” they demanded it. That position is manifestly not “in communion” with the teaching of popes past and present on the nature of marriage; now what?

Father Nicolas cannot be unaware of Jesuit colleges and universities whose Catholicism — measured by curriculum, faculty, and mode-of-life on campus — is vestigial at best. Does he think it appropriate for Jesuit institutions to honor Jesuits who taught the precise opposite of what the popes have taught about abortion, and distorted the meaning of papal teaching in counseling others? Georgetown University’s Law School has an endowed chair in international human rights law named after the late Father Robert Drinan, S.J., who did more than anyone else to convince Catholic legislators that the settled teaching of the Church on the grave immorality of abortion had no bearing on their legislative work. Father Drinan gave Catholic legislators a pass on the great civil rights issue of our time, yet a Jesuit university hosts a human rights chair named for him; how does this square with the Society’s commitment to social justice and with the obedient fidelity St. Ignatius bade his followers to observe in their relationship to the Church’s magisterium and to the Bishop of Rome?

Then there is the third-rail issue in religious orders today: homosexuality. In a letter to the General Congregation, Pope Benedict suggested that there were serious problems with how some Jesuits undertook the pastoral care of persons with homosexual desires. He could have gone farther and addressed this problem within the Society of Jesus itself; it was not that long ago, after all, that the Web site of the Jesuits’ California Province featured photos of “Pretty Boy” and “Jabba the Slut” in gay drag at a novices’ party. Will Father Nicolas demand that Jesuits observe their vows of chastity, whatever their sexual preferences? Will there be consequences for those who violate those vows, or cover for those who do? Will Jesuit vocations offices and novitiates obey the 2005 Vatican instruction which states that “those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies, or support the so-called ‘gay culture’” must not be admitted to seminaries or to holy orders?

A fourth point: the tendency among some Jesuit theologians to minimize the unique salvific role of Christ. That problem is most apparent in Asia, where Father Nicolas has lived for decades; the Holy See has addressed it in recent disciplinary actions against Jesuit theologians. Does Ignatian communion with the Pope still require Jesuits to affirm the Nicene Creed, the Council of Chalcedon’s teaching on the hypostatic union, and the teaching of Dominus Iesus on Christ as unique savior of the world?

Catholic San Francisco, the official publication of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, carried a rejoinder to Weigel, written by Stephen Privett, SJ, the president of the Jesuit University of San Francisco (go to page 19 of the pdf). Privett is shocked — shocked!! – that someone would accuse Jesuits of unfaithfulness, and that the Archdiocese of Denver would publish it. How, he asks, could Weigel suppose that Fr. Keenan was arguing in favor of gay marriage? Weigel explains here.

Deal Hudson looks at the columns, and gives some more data backing Weigel here.

“Calm Down about the Headscarf”

Jill Carroll on obsession with what people wear.

An Afternoon at Congress

Roy Adams reports in the Adventist Review on a couple of Congressional hearings last month. He was there to hear James Standish and others testify on behalf of the Workplace Religious Freedom Act. He got there a little early, and managed to hear testimony before a different committee: Jamie Leigh Jones telling of her experience of rape as an KBR employee in Iraq.

The hearing room was quiet, with no swarming battery of reporters and photographers. I got home too late for the evening news that day, but I would hazard there was nothing on it about Jones and her tragedy, let alone anything about the severe hardship and discrimination cases documented by Standish and the Jewish and Muslim witnesses. The day following, however, a Congressional hearing on the use of steroids in baseball would see the media falling all over itself to cover it, with sizeable chunks of airtime on the evening news—which also featured Uno, the beagle that took Best in Show at a dog contest in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

The Georgia Catholic Bishops Oppose Human Life Amendment

In Georgia, the Catholic bishops have come out in opposition to a Human Life Amendment promoted by Georgia Right to Life. Deal Hudson has the details. The Catholic bishops and National Right to Life are against it; Georgia Right to Life and the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, are in favor of it.

“We thought the time was right to offer this challenge to Roe,” explained [Brian] Rooney [of Thomas More Law Center]. But the Catholic bishops, and National Right to Life, disagreed. “They want to continue the abortion battle within the framework of Roe; we want to fight it by repealing it.” …

“The problem with the bishops taking this position,” according to Rooney, “is that it’s being used to label pro-lifers as extremists. This was clear at the hearings where the legislators cited the archbishop’s opposition to the amendment and by the dismissive way they treated those of us testifying for the bill.”

And the bishops made clear to Catholics that they must toe the party line on this, and advocate only those positions approved by the bishops.

After Archbishop Gregory announced his opposition to the amendment, the archdiocesan pro-life office sent out “guidelines” to all parish pro-life committees reminding their members that lobbying activities on specific legislation had to be preapproved by the archdiocese: “The Pro-Life Office will communicate with lay leaders when a decision has been made to participate in a public policy effort relating to the life issues.”

The text of the proposed amendment (which has been tabled in committee):

Paramount right to life. (a) The rights of every person shall be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life. The right to life is the paramount and most fundamental right of a person. (b) With respect to the fundamental and inalienable rights of all persons guaranteed in this Constitution, the word ‘person’ applies to all human beings, irrespective of age, race, sex, health, function, or condition of dependency, including unborn children at every state of their biological development, including fertilization.

Vigilante Spying

Julia Duin of the Washington Times reports on a freelance spying group that has been trying to infiltrate mosques. I’m more worried about the actions of these vigilantes than I am about the folks they are spying on.

Chaplains

AP has a profile of some chaplains serving in Iraq.

Legalized Gambling

From the Dallas Morning News blog:

As more states turn to casinos, lotteries and other forms of gambling to fill their coffers, religious opponents of legalized wagering say their words are increasingly falling on deaf ears, reports Greg Trotter of Religion News Service.

Indeed, he says, “moral opposition to gambling might be gasping its last breaths.”

Magdi Allam as Mythic Hero

Rod Dreher sees Magdi Allam and thinks of Ronald Reagan, especially his approach to the Soviet Union. He cites “Spengler” in Asia Times.

A self-described revolution in world affairs has begun in the heart of one man. He is the Italian journalist and author Magdi Cristiano Allam, whom Pope Benedict XVI baptized during the Easter Vigil at St Peter’s. Allam’s renunciation of Islam as a religion of violence and his embrace of Christianity denotes the point at which the so-called global “war on terror” becomes a divergence of two irreconcilable modes of life: the Western way of faith supported by reason, against the Muslim world of fatalism and submission. As Magdi Allam recounted , on his road to conversion the challenge that Pope Benedict XVI offered to Islam in his September 2006 address at Regensburg was “undoubtedly the most extraordinary and important encounter in my decision to convert”. Osama bin Laden recently accused Benedict of plotting a new crusade against Islam, and instead finds something far more threatening: faith the size of a mustard seed that can move mountains. Before Benedict’s election, I summarized his position as “I have a mustard seed and I’m not afraid to use it.” Now the mustard seed has earned pride of place in global affairs.

At the heart of this is a cartoonish depiction of both Allam and Islam, of Allam as hero bravely choosing between Islam as “a religion of violence,”"fatalism and submission,” and “the Western way of faith supported by reason.”

I’ve never met a Muslim, Sunni or Shia, who would accept the characterization of Islam as a religion of violence–they see instead that some Muslims have warped the religion–just as Christians would say when confronted by tales of Church-authorized torture and crusade.

As to “fatalism”–Christianity certainly has an element of that, as well. It’s called “predestination,” and you can find it in Augustine and in Reformed Protestantism.

And this “Western way of faith supported by reason” … from whom did the West learn it? Medieval scholastics such as Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas got their Aristotelianism by way of Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Ibn Sina (Avicenna).

As to submission …? It seems to me the Bible teaches a few things about submission to God and to one another.

Here’s a suggestion–if we want to create peace in the world, especially peace between religions, why not look at examples in history and in the world today where people get along? Why not look at examples where people still have their convictions, still share them freely, and yet live peaceably as friends and neighbors? That’s what life is like here in Houston.

Contemporary Worship

Do you think your church has “contemporary worship”? Are the songs your church sings controversial? Check this out.

Iraq “Curveball”

A man known as “Curveball” was the source of the claims made by Colin Powell in 2003 before the UN. The only source. And the US never checked him out themselves–they just relied on raw information from Germany (who also didn’t check him out).

Eighteen months after 9/11 US intelligence agencies were still acting like the Keystone Kops.