Seems about time to delve into the Great Quotes file again:
"God himself, sir, does not propose to judge man until the end of his days." –Samuel Johnson
Who was Samuel Johnson?
If you like this quote and are eager for more Johnsonian wisdom, check out The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page.
Browsing through the site, I found another gem of Johnson’s:
"A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself."
St. Augustine of Canterbury, as distinguished from his more famous predecessor, may have supposed that however bad the state of religion had become in England that at least the Brits were no longer pagan.
If so, he’d be wrong.
St. Augustine of Canterbury, pray for them:
"Cloudy skies, dense fog and spurts of rain did not seem to dampen the energy of smiling revelers who bobbed and swayed to cheerful beats with arms outstretched and shouts of ‘Feel the solstice!’
"About 19,000 New Agers, present-day druids and partygoers gathered inside and around the ancient circle of towering stones [of Stonehenge] to greet the longest day in the northern hemisphere as the sun struggled to peek out against a smoky gray sky at 4:58 a.m. …
"’This is the nearest thing I’ve got to religion,’ said Ray Meadows, 34, of Bristol, England. The solstice ‘is a way of giving thanks to the earth and the universe.’
"Meadows, wearing a wreath of pink carnations over long pink hair-wrapped braids, identified herself as a fairy of the Tribe of Frog."
"A fairy of the Tribe of Frog"? Just how exactly does one become a Fairy of the Tribe of Frog? Is one born a frog and become a fairy? Is one adopted by a tribe of fairy frogs? Inquiring minds want to know.
An agnostic has learned the hard way that thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God (Matt. 4:5-7).
"A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal’s enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.
"’The man shouted "God will save me, if he exists," lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions,’ the official said.
"’A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery.’"
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Now….
Anyone know how I can nominate this guy for a Darwin Award?
Socialite Kathy Kane has a secret. No, not that she’s alive after the world thought her dead for a quarter-century. No, not even that she is also known to Gotham City as Batwoman. Now she is ready to let the world in on her secret:
Batwoman is a lesbian.
"Years after she first emerged from the Batcave, Batwoman is coming out of the closet. DC Comics is resurrecting the classic comic book character as a lesbian, unveiling the new Batwoman in July as part of an ongoing weekly series that began this year.
"The 5-foot-10 superhero comes with flowing red hair, knee-high red boots with spiked heels, and a form-fitting black outfit.
"’We decided to give her a different point of view,’ explained Dan DiDio, vice president and executive editor at DC. ‘We wanted to make her a more unique personality than others in the Bat-family. That’s one of the reasons we went in this direction.’"
Homosexuality is "a different point of view"? And here I thought that Straight America was supposed to believe that homosexuality was an inalterable genetic trait like skin color and hand dominance. If it’s merely a point of view, doesn’t that imply that it could change?
Homosexuality: Viewpoint or identity? Someone page The Riddler. We have a conundrum for him to unleash upon Gotham City.
I really, really do not like Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter. I mean REALLY. (Did I say "really"?)
But in THIS CASE he may have been Arlen the Semi-Friendly Specter.
The issue at hand was whether a constitutional amendment banning homosexual "marriage" in the United States should receive a floor vote in the Senate.
Specter–and the majority–voted that it should, though he seems opposed to the amendment himself.
He was–at least–willing to let the measure be considered by the broader senate.
Which is what prompted a shouting match between him and Democratic Senator Russ Feingold.
After shouting with Specter, Feingold left the meeting in a huff and Specter pronounced "Good riddance!" on him.
By signalling his opposition to true (i.e., heterosexual) marriage, I can only conclude that Feingold doesn’t want to be president of the United States in 2008.
Despite rumors of his current plans to run.
There is no way in hades that the nation will be willing to elect a president who is openly pro-homosexual "marriage" in 2008.
In fact, the nation will say "Good riddance!" to any such candidate.
It’s nice to have these things pointed out early.
Some time ago, an apologist in This Rock mused about the secular world’s penchant for tossing out Catholicism and adopting paler images of what had been tossed:
"G. K. Chesterton famously observed that when you stop believing in God, you don’t believe in nothing; you believe in anything. Similarly, in the absence of the Catholic Church, you get (before Christ) things that anticipate it or (after Christ) things that are a cheap imitation of it. For instance, Ebay is the modern world’s unwitting testament to the Catholic theology of relics. People who laugh over ‘primitive’ medievals and their interest in the true cross will lay down big bucks to own a pair of John Lennon’s shoelaces. Likewise, what is Oprah but a sort of video testament of the need of the human soul for a mother?"
GET THE STORY. (Scroll to Item 6.)
Lest you think the apologist was exaggerating, take a look at this: In an article titled "The Divine Miss Winfrey?" La Oprah is hailed as "a spiritual leader for the new millennium, a moral voice of authority for the nation."
"She’s no longer just a successful talk-show host worth $1.4 billion, according to Forbes’ most recent estimate. Over the past year, Winfrey, 52, has emerged as a spiritual leader for the new millennium, a moral voice of authority for the nation.
"With her television pulpit and the sheer power of her persona, she has encouraged and steered audiences (mostly women) in all matters, from genocide in Rwanda to suburban spouse swapping to finding the absolute best T-shirt and oatmeal cookie.
"’She’s a really hip and materialistic Mother Teresa,’ says Kathryn Lofton, a professor at Reed College in Portland, Ore., who has written two papers analyzing the religious aspects of Winfrey. ‘Oprah has emerged as a symbolic figurehead of spirituality.’"
Catholics have the Blessed Virgin Mother; hip materialists have Mother Oprah. The comparison by Professor Lofton between Mother Teresa and Mother Oprah was especially interesting. Mother Teresa once said "I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness." For what do the disciples of Mother Oprah pray?
That rumbling you hear is the grave-spinning of all of Spain’s Catholic kings and queens. Or should they now be called Spain’s Progenitor As and Progenitor Bs?
"Spain has taken another step in its journey from conservative to liberal bastion by creating new birth certificates to avoid discrimination against same-sex couples.
"According to an announcement in the Official Bulletin of State ‘The expression "father" will be replaced with "Progenitor A," and "mother" will be replaced with "Progenitor B."’
"The head of the national Civil Register, Pilar Blanco-Morales, told the newspaper ABC that the change took account of a new law on same-sex marriages passed by the socialist government in July."
No matter what Spain decides to call fathers and mothers, even legislative fiat won’t change the biological fact that two Progenitor As and two Progenitor Bs cannot create a child without the biological material of the opposite Progenitor. In other words, there still must be a Progenitor A and a Progenitor B to make a Baby C.
Truces are good things. Right?
I mean, "Blessed are the peacemakers" and all that.
Well, while peace is desirable and to be worked toward–as the Church has pointed out so often in recent times–a mere absence of conflict is not sufficient for the kind of peace that is worth having.
Said another way: Some truces are wrong.
Like "the Truce of 1968," in which Pope Paul VI attempted to settle things down after numerous theologians rebelled against the teaching of Humanae Vitae. Rather than disciplining the malefactors, he let them get away with their dissent, and we have been suffering from the effects of that ever since.
Who know? He may have signed Europe’s death warrant by confirming it in its downward population growth death spiral.
Now Fr. Richard John Neuhaus worries that we may be facing a new, equally disastrous truce–the "Truce of 2005."
He sees this truce as potentially as decisive for Benedict XVI’s papacy as the Truce of 1968 was for Paul VI’s papacy.
He writes:
And so it is that we are faced with what may be a defining test of the pontificate of Benedict XVI. As all who know him can attest, he is in personal relations a gentle man and averse to unpleasantness. He cannot relish the prospect of a direct confrontation with major institutions such as the Society of Jesus. Early on in his pontificate, John Paul II made an effort to bring the Jesuits into closer alignment with church teaching and authority, and ended up with little to show for it. As is his custom, the father general of the society, Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, remains publicly aloof.
With this pope, as with all popes, there is the fear of schism. That was a great fear in 1968. . . .
In 1968, an effort was made to hold accountable those who are solemnly vowed to the service of the Church. And then Rome caved. We are still living with the unhappy consequences of the Truce of 1968. Of course the Church will survive. We have Our Lord’s promise on that. But no one who cares about this pontificate and the integrity of the Church’s ministry can contemplate with equanimity the consequences of a Truce of 2005.
What is this prospective, fearful Truce of 2005?
Have you ever seen cars with Christian outreach bumper stickers that say things like "Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven"? (Here’s one site that sells such stickers.) I’ve often thought I should keep some copies of Pillar of Fire, Pillar of Truth handy in my car to tuck under the windshield wiper of cars that sport such stickers. I’ve also thought there’d be a good market among Catholics for Catholic riffs on the standard Christian evangelism stickers. If anyone decides to print some up, here are my contributions to get them started:
Please add your contributions to the combox.
There is a fine line between the expectation of respect for the sensitivities of religious people and a none-too-subtle attempt to stifle religious expression.
When I went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the group visited the Western Wall, believed to be the remnant of ancient Israel’s Temple and Judaism’s holiest site. While there I had no problem with the suggestion by the priest leading the group to remove our crosses, crucifixes, and other Christian emblems before visiting the Wall. I tucked mine under my shirt and the priest, who was wearing a baseball cap with a Jerusalem cross, opted not to go down to the Wall.
That is the kind of accommodation for the sensitivity of others that is reasonable. What I find unreasonable is the report that follows:
"A British airline banned its staff from taking Bibles and wearing crucifixes or St. Christopher medals on flights to Saudi Arabia to avoid offending the country’s Muslims.
"British Midland International also has told female flight attendants they must walk two paces behind male colleagues and cover themselves from head to foot in a headscarf and robe known as an abaya, the Mirror newspaper of London reported. […]
"Airline officials, who have sparked outrage, the paper says, explain the Islamic kingdom’s strict laws — enforced by religious police — prohibit public practice of Christianity….
"BMI spokesman Phil Shepherd said: ‘In providing air services people want, demand and use, we have an obligation to respect the customs of the destination country.’
"An airline employee who asked not to be named told the Mirror: ‘It’s outrageous that we must respect their beliefs but they’re not prepared to respect ours.’"
Forcing employees to abandon their own religion’s emblems and spiritual comforts while traveling on business for the company is bad enough and outrageous in and of itself. But going beyond that to force employees to take on the customs of another religion (e.g., the abaya), one which they do not profess, is even worse.
In past centuries, the jihadists within Islam attempted to conquer the world through armed conquest. To the extent they succeed in this day and age, it will likely be through the collaboration of the PC Police.