Recent Posts

Most Used Categories

Category: Current Events

You are Here :
Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective, Political,

Publish a Bible – you die

At least that’s the way it is in Turkey – the long time EU aspirant, that touts its facade of democracy and its religious freedom, but does nothing to engender those values in its people or national consciousness. From the LA Times and elsewhere: 3 killed in attack on Bible publisher in Turkey:

Five youths — all with notes that say, ‘They are attacking our religion’ — are held at the scene.

ISTANBUL, Turkey — In a gruesome attack that sent shockwaves through Turkey’s tiny Christian community, assailants Wednesday slit the throats of three men at a publishing house that distributes Bibles and other Christian literature.

Five youths were detained at the scene in the conservative eastern city of Malatya, Turkish authorities said. One news report said the suspects carried notes indicating their motive was right-wing nationalism.

Turkey’s sometimes hostile stance toward its own religious and ethnic minorities has been a persistent source of concern to Western governments as the country presses ahead with its campaign for European Union membership.

Although the government officially preaches tolerance, it historically has failed to rein in virulent ultra nationalist groups. Authorities were accused of ignoring repeated death threats against Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian newspaper editor who was gunned down outside his offices in Istanbul in January. Prosecutors later said a teenager confessed to the shooting.

At the Zirve publishing house in Malatya’s city center, police discovered the three victims bound hand and foot and tied to chairs with their throats cut. Two were dead; the third died later at a hospital…

And speaking of freedom, the Young Fogey points to an article on our country’s efforts in Iraq and how our “Christian” President has brought pain and suffering to the Christians of Iraq.

From Asia News: Islamic group in Baghdad: —Get rid of the cross or we will burn your Churches—.

In the Dora quarter threats continue to be made against Christians. In the last two months Christian parishes have been forced to give in to extremist pressure, only the Church of Sts Peter and Paul has withstood so far. A fatwa forbids the practice of Christian ritual gestures.

—Get rid of the cross or we will burn your Churches—. This is the threat aimed at the Chaldean Church of Sts Peter and Paul, located in the ancient Christian quarter of Baghdad, Dora. Local sources say an unknown armed Islamic group is behind the threats which are inseminating terror in the capital. The Arab website Ankawa.com and Aina news agency speak of a campaign of persecution in act in the area. Even Mosul, a Sunni stronghold, the Christian presence is being gravely threatened.

Msgr. Shlemon Warduni, Chaldean auxiliary bishop of Baghdad, tells AsiaNews —in the last 2 months many Churches have been forced to remove their crosses from their domes—. In the case of the Church of St. George, assira, Muslim extremists took the situation into their own hands: they climbed onto the roof and ripped out the cross…

Well maybe they’re just not his kind of Christians…

The Young Fogey also points to the following LRC Commentary: Does Anybody Care About the Christian Arabs?

Short answer, NO!

If you are a Christian in the Middle East, whether in Israel or the Muslim lands, you may not practice your religion.

Any Christians proselytizing Jews or Muslims in Israel proper? Nope, forbidden.

Anyone reading bibles, wearing crosses, or praying in public in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt? Nope, forbidden.

Have a Church and want to keep it, sorry, forbidden – it is being converted into a mosque (most especially in Turkey and the Turkish controlled areas of Cyprus.

Israel – allies and friends? Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey – partners? Iraq – bastion of freedom and democracy?

Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective,

It’s a start

From The State: Justices affirm ban on partial-birth abortions:

The Supreme Court Wednesday broke new ground in upholding federal restrictions on abortion, with President Bush’s two appointees joining a court majority that said Congress was exercising its license to —promote respect for life, including the life of the unborn.

—The court’s 5-4 decision upholding the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act passed by Congress in 2003 marked the first time justices have agreed a specific abortion procedure could be banned, and the first time since the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that justices approved an abortion restriction that did not contain an exception for the health of the woman.

—The government may use its voice and its regulatory authority to show its profound respect for the life within the woman,— wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy. He said the ban on the controversial method of ending a midterm pregnancy was valid because other abortion procedures were still available to a woman. It provides an exception to save the woman’s life…

While it isn’t a panacea for the ills that have been created since Roe v. Wade, this is the beginning of some kind of common sense.

The most interesting comments I’ve heard are from the abortion fanatics out there, pandering by saying women’s health will be put at risk.

I’m wondering, how? Is Doctor Kildare still delivering babies? You mean we can’t save a mother and a 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 month old baby?

I really do not believe anything these folks say about health. They simply want to use dead babies as score sheets. Twenty dead in the last hour, twenty victories.

The key is that a baby can’t be killed when medical technology has shown us that many, if not all of these infants can be saved.

You’re giving birth by one or another means to a child and killing it just as it’s partially born, a child that, if placed in an incubator and properly cared for under today’s technology would live. I’d wonder, why make the choice to kill?

Now to me all life is sacred, from conception onward, but even if you’re a complete dolt, and can’t reason beyond the obvious, you have to see that this is nothing more than murder for the sake of murder.

More on this issue from the Pro-Life Action League and Priests for Life. A lot more screaming elsewhere.

Blogged with Flock

Current Events, Perspective,

…and the proposed solutions would be wrong

All over the place, but this from Reuters: Gunman kills 32, self, in worst U.S. college massacre.

Gun control, people control,
parent beratting, immigrant rating,
liberal baiting, education failing,
fault of religion …or not.

If and until we all come to the conclusion that it is indeed the fault of each and every one of us, that it is our weakness and the dispossesion with which we regard each other that lies at the heart of such crimes, there will be no end in sight.

Our only hope lies in One who sees past what we are to what we can be.

Lord Jesus, grant them eternal rest.
Grant healing to all those affected.
Fill our hearts with contrition.
Have mercy on us in our sinfulness.
Do not delay any longer.

Current Events

Aloha, to the genuine Ho

I was just taking a look at this morning’s paper and a saw a front page blurb about the passing of Don Ho.

You can read more in Entertainer Don Ho, Hawaii’s best ambassador, dies at 76 from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Take a look at the article’s listing of all the television shows he performed on. I recollect seeing just about all of them. I also saw him during a trip to Hawaii with my family back in 1978.

Don Ho was the consummate entertainer. For all the alleged kitchiness of his shows, he was the genuine article.

Aloha, Don Ho. Eternal rest grant onto him O Lord.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Media, Perspective,

Imus, Ima, Imum

A little Lingua Latina humor from my college days.

Frankly, as far as I’m concerned, fire every shock jock, talking head, conservative, liberal, doctor, or anyone with an opinion from every radio and television station. These people make my skin crawl.

People who listen to them fall into two categories.

  1. Those who need affirmation in their beliefs.
  2. Those who are looking to have their empty heads filled with something.

I grew-up listening to WKBW-AM radio in Buffalo. These guys had enough broadcasting wattage to reach Virginia. They had music, family safe humor, the news and weather. That’s what radio should be, even AM radio.

But its come to this, the airwaves filled with mindless blather by people who like to hear themselves talk – and get paid a lot for it. Need ratings? Blather. Need more ratings, insult someone.

On the Imus issue I found Al Roker’s commentary on the issue to be not all that enlightening – what else could he say – but I did find the com-boxes disturbing.

Why?

Because many of them touted out the old lines: “I’m not a racist but…” ; “I love you but…” ; “What he said is wrong, and I’m no racist, but…” ; “I have a lot of black friends, but…”

Everyone needed to couch their language and their commentary just in case someone might think ill of them.

I’d ask everyone there, everyone with a comment, how do you live? What do you do in your day to day in dealings with people? Are you fair, honest, and trustworthy? Do you treat everyone with dignity? Are you so unsure of your own actions and lifestyle as to apologize before you even begin talking?

It’s time to take a step back.

Live a life that exhibits dignity, and treat people with human dignity. That DOES NOT mean you have to agree with their lifestyle choices, or in any way support what they believe in. It simply means that you must accept and preserve their humanity before all people. It means that you see yourself in them, in their eyes, in their souls regardless of color, creed, orientation, or membership in a terrorist organization.

Yep, even the ‘bad guys.’ We torture them, we torture ourselves.

Folks like Mr. Imus never got that. No one has dignity, not his peeps, not even the reflection he sees in the mirror. That’s the sad part. No firing will fix that. Only grace can fix that.

God help us to see the humanity of all our brothers and sisters. Help us to see your reflection in them.

Current Events, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, , ,

Miscellaneous political lunacy (NY Style)

Some things that have passed through my thoughts in the past month or so:

New York – Bastion of Stupid People

I guess our Legislators consider us to be so stupid that they have to put forward all kinds of weird legislation in order to protect us from ourselves. To wit from TechNewsWorld:

New York pedestrians could find themselves on the wrong side of the law just for crossing the street while chatting on a cell phone or listening to an iPod if state Senator Carl Kruger gets his way. The New York lawmaker plans to introduce legislation to make it illegal to use portable electronic devices such as a BlackBerry Get the Facts on BlackBerry Business Solutions or PlayStation Portable game console while crossing the street.

The legislation comes after the deaths of two pedestrians in Sen. Kruger’s Brooklyn district within the past five months. “iPod oblivion,” the lawmaker said, has become a term used nationwide to describe the state of compromised awareness that is a result of the huge popularity of electronic devices among users of all ages.

“You can’t be fully aware of your surrounding if you’re fiddling with a BlackBerry, dialing a phone number, playing Super Mario Brothers on a Game Boy or listening to music on an iPod,” Sen. Kruger claimed.

…

“This is an avoidable tragedy,” Sen. Kruger added. “If you’re so involved in your electronic device that you can’t see or hear a car coming, this is indicative of a larger problem that requires some sort of enforcement beyond the application of common sense.”

Here’s the Bill he submitted. It applies to persons in cities with a population of one million or more.

Funny thing is that there’s only one city of more than one million persons in New York, and that is New York City. The rest of the state is so economically dead that anyone who can leave does. At least they’ll get hit by a bus while listening to their iPod in warmer climes, while holding down a good paying job, and paying little if anything in taxes.

As to other moments of legislative brilliance:

I’ve already commented on Law and attempted Laws to ban trans fat and foie gras in this blog. We’re all ignorant of educational efforts promoting good eating and better health. As such good health has to be forced on us. I can’t wait for the next government hiring initiative. A cop for every citizen. You will walk that treadmill, you will do it now!

On the heels of all that is inattentive driving legislation. Put down that coffee (then they get you for driving while drowsy), cigarette, sandwich, comb, or shaver.

What really amazes me is that our elected leaders wish to protect us from ourselves in every way possible but can’t muster the courage to protect the unborn (yes, New York is rushing headlong into funding embryonic stem cell research – which doesn’t work).

They can promote so called ‘gay’ marriage, but can’t reform a corrupt legislative process wherein all state laws are agreed to behind closed doors by an oligarchy of the Governor, Assembly Leader, and Senate Majority Leader.

The New York Sun carried an article on legislation being considered which would offer an apology for slavery, and reparations. See Albany Mulls an Apology for Slavery: Reparations Study Is Being Sought.

Oooooh white guilt. I get to pay because someone in New York once owned a slave.

Wasn’t me, my family, or really anyone I’ve met. I have no guilt over slavery. My people fought against slavery in Europe, Haiti, and the United States.

When someone talks to me about their guilt over treating Polish immigrant coal miners as slaves – in the 20th century, the nativist movement, their guilt for selling Poland to the Soviet Union, or their snickering at Polish jokes, then we’ll have something to discuss. I’d also like to see a formal apology from all the states where the Klan actively targeted (and still does target) Catholics with the necessary reparations being paid to various Catholic Churches.

And a technical question. If the citizens of New York are apologizing for slavery does that mean its African-American citizens are apologizing to themselves?

Of course to answer that question you would have to understand the whole concept of citizenship.

I think rather that the people who promote such drivel and no more than self-serving stooges. They’re the ones that the family had to place in politics in order to prevent their bringing the family fortune to ruination (aka George Bush I and II).

Then, of course, NY stupidity extends overseas

See: Settlers launch first drive in U.S. to sell homes from Haaretz. One of those Americans who actually went through and bought a home in Israel’s occupied territories is Dov Hikind. He bought a home in Shomron. As one commentator on a blog said, he should make aliyah now. I agree and that’s his right, especially if that is where his heart is.

Why stupid? Because Mr. Hikind is fermenting continued bloodshed over land Israel has no right to occupy (unless of course you’re a dispensationalist) and he’s doing so as an elected representative of the people of New York.

That’s right, Mr. Hikind is a New York State Assemblyman representing the 48th District. You know, sworn to serve this country and this state.

Oy, he could have had a nice place in the Catskills with no problem.

Current Events, Perspective

The spirit of the age

Just when you thought that the spirit of the age was only infecting Episcopalians and the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. you run across the following from the AP via ABC News: Some Polish Jews Embrace Liberal Worship

Some Polish Jews Turn to Liberal Worship As They Embrace Their Roots

WARSAW, Poland – Ludmila Krzewska abandoned Judaism after enduring anti-Semitic childhood taunts, and warnings from her parents that it wasn’t safe to be Jewish in Poland.

The 25-year-old biology student decided to reclaim her heritage five years ago in the face of declining anti-Semitism. But she met a different kind of rejection. She was discouraged from joining Warsaw’s Orthodox Jewish community by one member because her husband isn’t Jewish, she recalled.

So Krzewska turned to Warsaw’s fledgling Progressive Jewish community, becoming one of a growing number of eastern European Jews embracing a modern, liberal stream of Judaism amid a larger rebirth of a Jewish community, once Europe’s largest, that was devastated by the Holocaust.

Many are drawn to Progressive Judaism known in the U.S. as Reform Judaism because they consider it more in tune with modern life, and say it allows them to remain more a part of the non-Jewish world.

“There’s been a tremendous resurgence of (Progressive) Jewish life,” said Rabbi Joel Oseran, vice president of international development with the World Union for Progressive Judaism in Jerusalem. “We see young people searching for Jewish meaning, people who have come anew to their own Jewish identities. And Poland is the best example of that.”

It is tricky to live an Orthodox life in this staunchly Roman Catholic country of 38 million, where there are perhaps 30,000 Jews, according to some estimates. Pork sausages and other non-kosher foods crown most menus. There’s only one kosher butcher in the entire country, in Bialystok, 110 miles northeast of Warsaw. Sundown comes at 3 p.m. in the deep of winter, meaning Jews who observe the Sabbath must cease work in the middle of the work day on Fridays not an option in most jobs.

Unlike the Orthodox, Reform Jews travel on the Sabbath, sit with the opposite sex during services and don’t necessarily adhere to all dietary laws.

“It gives you more independence and a spectrum of choice,” said Krzewska, whose husband eventually converted. “And it makes it easier to have non-Jewish friends, homosexual friends, people who are different.”

Before World War II, Poland was home to a vibrant Yiddish-speaking Jewish community of nearly 3.5 million. Following Nazi Germany’s invasion in 1939, most were murdered in Nazi [German] -run death camps, such as Auschwitz, that dotted the land that had been their home for a thousand years.

Of those who survived, many fled in reaction to anti-Semitic violence or repression under communism. Those who remained often turned their backs on the faith though their last names sometimes prevented them from hiding their heritage and many intermarried with the Roman Catholic majority.

But now, with post-Cold War democracy nurturing a new tolerance and security, many Jews are increasingly returning to their roots, in many cases discovering only very recently they have Jewish ancestry.

Reform Judaism was founded in 19th-century Germany, but came to maturity in North America, where it has grown into the world’s largest Jewish denomination. It faces challenges in other countries, particularly Israel, where religious life is dominated by the Orthodox.

Liberal Jews in central Europe face a similar struggle for acceptance from the Orthodox, some of whom hold that they aren’t real Jews because they reject some of the 613 Jewish mitzvot, or commandments.

That offends people like Emil Jezowski, a 17-year-old whose father was born Jewish but whose mother was raised Protestant.

He was raised Protestant but converted along with his mother and three of his five siblings last summer. He was circumcised in a Warsaw hospital with a group of adult males from Beit Warszawa, Poland’s only progressive community and celebrated his bar mitzvah on Saturday.

“I am who I think I am I am Jewish,” said Jezowski.

Another problem for Polish Progressive Jews is that the state only recognizes the Orthodox community, which it inherits synagogues and other communal Jewish property seized by the Nazis, taken over by the communists and now being slowly returned.

The Orthodox community worships in the Nozyk synagogue, the only one to survive the war in the capital. Beit Warszawa’s members meet in a modern house in the city outskirts, filled with abstract art and Ikea furniture.

Basically social Jews. The bling of Judaism with few if any obligations (like keeping kosher, full observance of the Law) and the added fun of being exotic, out there, and ticking off grandma and grandpa.

That’s the real spirit of the age, religion (as opposed to faith) as an accessory.

Current Events, Media, Perspective

Just in time for Holy Week

From WorldNetDaily: Pastor: Idea Christ died for sins ‘insane’

Calls Easter message ‘repulsive’ —“ makes ‘God sound like a psychopath’

Church of England traditionalists, wearied by the battles over homosexuality in the church and the clergy, are about to take it on their spiritual chins once again when a leading “gay” cleric will tell listeners to BBC Radio 4 that Christianity’s traditional teaching on Christ’s crucifixion for the sins of mankind is “repulsive,” “insane” and makes “God sound like a psychopath…”

What’s left to say to the folks who own a Church’s message to the extent such theological amateurs do. It’s not even the ‘gay’ thing. It’s the whole idea that any god would forfeit their lofty throne to become human, with all the requisite suffering inherent in humanity, and why?

And once a god commits to such an undertaking, wouldn’t he wish to free those whose suffering he shares in? Would he not only wish to free them, but also wish to give them hope? And, should he suffer an ignominious death, wouldn’t he wish it (being a god and all) to be meritorious.

Thankfully such a god exists, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I guess some folks, trained in seminary and all, just can’t connect those dots. Of course, you need faith. Otherwise, you fashion for yourself a god who is a psychopath (or you’re a gnostic).

Current Events, Media, Political,

Dancing with the… political humor?

Ok, I don’t really watch much TV at all. I’ll watch the local news from time to time. Living in the state capital makes for some interesting news. That being said, my wife and I are big fans of American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.

I have my favorites and I cast my votes, but that’s not what this post is about.

Tonight, Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron made a hilarious comment – and I caught the subtle message therein. He was doing the whole bit on making sure you vote for your favorites when he said (I’m paraphrasing):

With what’s going on in the world you feel as if your vote doesn’t count, as if no one’s listening? Well we listen to you, cast your vote.

The sad part is that he’s right. The majority of American want out troops home, and actually voted that way. But, let’s see, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran next! Yep, I’d agree. Only Dancing with the Stars and American Idol listen. At least Edyta is still dancing and Melinda is still singing.

Current Events, Political

Well, we had to offend someone…

The Christian Newswire reports: NJ School Mocks Christians with Columbine-Style ‘Mock Hostage Drill’ – Offends Students and Parents

Bob Pawson, National Coordinator of the Scriptures in Schools Project, responds to reports that Burlington Township High School in NJ staged a mock school shooting and hostage drama — complete with anti-Christian bigotry. After school was dismissed, scores of Christian students went home and informed their parents of this vile outrage.

The mock terrorist attack was carried out by police detectives portraying two angry Christian men armed with handguns. They invaded the school’s front door; pretended to gun down several students in the hallways; and then took ten students hostage while barricading themselves in the school’s media center.

The fake gunmen were described as “members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the ‘New Crusaders’ who don’t believe in separation of church and state.” The mock-Christian terrorists “went to the school seeking justice because the daughter of one had been expelled for praying before class.”

The best line is attributed to the School Superintendent

Before the Thursday, March 22, 2007 exercise, Superintendent Chris Manno said, “We need to practice under conditions as real as possible…”

As real as possible, but only insofar as it doesn’t offend anyone who would be, well, offended to the point of violence.

Got to leave it to a school bureaucracy to come up with this one. Next quarter we’ll use the (pick one):

  • Fundamentalist Polygamist Mormons for Monogamy
  • Zionist Conspirators for Palestine
  • Homosexuals Opposed to ‘Gay’ Marriage

    • Nah, we’ll just use the Christians who Hate Jesus and Love Violence.

    The original story was carried by the Burlington County Times.

All Right Reserved © 2005 - 2023