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Christian Witness

Reflection for Trinity Sunday 2025

Christian Witness

Reflection for Trinity Sunday 2025

Christian Witness

Reflection for Trinity Sunday 2025

Current Events, Perspective

Muslim reliance on reason

From the AP via the Buffalo News: Turkish Lawmaker Compares Pope to Hitler:

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s ruling Islamic-rooted party joined a wave of criticism of Pope Benedict XVI on Friday, accusing him of trying to revive the spirit of the Crusades with remarks he made about the Muslim faith. A Turkish lawmaker said the pontiff would go down in history “in the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini” for his words.

Don’t forget to add Atatí¼rk to that list.

Salih Kapusuz, a deputy leader of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party, said Benedict’s remarks were either “the result of pitiful ignorance” about Islam and its prophet, or a deliberate distortion.

I prefer to think the Pope had complete understanding. Mohammed added nothing. He simply took a lot of Orthodox Christianity, some Judaism, and twisted it into a new ‘faith.’ He was the Joseph Smith of his day, and Islam was the Mormonism of its time.

“Anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence,” [Pakistani] Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

I like that – we’re not intolerant – and we’ll riot and kill if you say we are. Oxymoron!

“What he has done is that he has quoted very offensive remarks by some emperor hundreds of years ago,” she added. “It is not helpful (because) we have been trying to bridge the gap, calling for dialogue and understanding between religions.”

Aslam said Muslims had a long history of tolerance, adding that when the Catholic kingdom of Spain expelled its Jewish population in 1492 they were welcomed by Muslim nations such as the Turkish Ottoman Empire.

Yes, yes, Islam is tolerant, like Saudi Arabia where practicing Christianity is outlawed (you will be sentenced to death for doing so, or for even owning a Bible), like Pakistan where churches are regularly bombed and Christians are shot dead in their churches, like Turkey and Turkish controlled Cyprus where the Ecumenical Patriarchy is held captive, priests are killed, Christian women are harassed by Muslim gangs, Christian schools are closed, and Churches are seized and converted into mosques?

Media, Perspective

Could I have exhibited insight?

Father Jake Stops the World has an interesting post on the future of the Episcopal Church (TEC). In Will a “Two Church Solution” be Traded for Invitations to Lambeth? he quotes an article by Ruth Gledhill in the Times: Clergy seek ‘two-church solution’.

Ms. Gledhill makes an observation concerning the end of TEC as a member of the Anglican Communion and a possible union between TEC and Utrecht, observations that coinside with my own. In her blog, Ruth Gledhill —“ Articles of Faith, she makes very similar observations to ones I made. Specifically in Love in the Ruins (updated) she says:

…it is not beyond the realm of possibility that TEC could itself decide it has had enough and seek communion with another body, such as the Old Catholic Church of Utrecht. This church is in communion with Canterbury, and is liberal on women and gays. I can imagine a scenario where, should the whole thing become a much looser federation, enabling the Methodists among others to come on board, the Old Catholics could end up part of the wider Communion in any case.

Maybe it would just then become The Communion, TC, with separate bodies such as the Episcopalians, the Anglicans, the Methodists, the Old Catholics, the Lutherans and numerous others all included.

In Possibilities for the Episcopal Church (June 20, 2006) I said:

In my estimation the stage is set for TEC to break from the Anglican Communion. They have created a sort of union of the left and liberal. They have also set the stage to become the money and the power behind a ‘new’ union (see we’re doing a new thing).

I find it very interesting that Bishop Joris Vercammen, the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht, presided at the convention’s June 19 Eucharist, ostensibly in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the Bonn Agreement. Utrecht has already substantially adopted the ‘ordination’ of women and is well on the way to blessings of same sex unions.

In October 2005 when Utrecht met with the Abp. of Canterbury there was much discussion on the issue of overlapping jurisdictions. There are Anglican Bishops in locales under the jurisdiction of a Utrecht Bishop. Since Utrecht and the Anglican Church are in full communion there should only be one Bishop per jurisdiction.

Utrecht used a made up, far less serious excuse to eject the PNCC from the Union (not that the PNCC wanted to remain in union with Utrecht based on Utrecht’s liberal positions).

Could TEC become the new ‘Rome for the liberals’? Could Utrecht align with the TEC? Could Utrecht disavow their relationship with Anglicanism in general and join with TEC, the IFI (who have been in on and off discussions with Utrecht for years), the ELCA and the UMC in a sort of liberal, anything goes movement?

Wow, did I scoop the Times? Did I exhibit foresight? Hey, you never know…

Thanks again to the Young Fogey for the pointer to this.

Everything Else

The kingdom is, but not yet…

You scored as Amillenialist. Amillenialism believes that the 1000 year reign is not literal but figurative, and that Christ began to reign at his ascension. People take some prophetic scripture far too literally in your view.

Amillenialist
100%

Moltmannian Eschatology
65%

Postmillenialist
65%

Premillenialist
35%

Preterist
35%

Left Behind
5%

Dispensationalist
0%

What's your eschatology?
created with QuizFarm.com

Note the big zero in Dispensationalist.

Tip ‘o the biretta to Ben Johnson at Western Orthodoxy.

Perspective

No excuse!

Bush steps on us

The photo highlighted by Daithí­ Mac Lochlainn, a 9/11 survivor, in Worth a Thousand Words…

I’ve been to Auschwitz, Pearl Harbor, Arlington, Gettysburg, and the WTC site. In each of these you walk carefully, faced with the enormity of what the place represents. You stand there overwhelmed by the sense of man’s sinfulness. This man is disrespectful at best. From a President of the United States there is no excuse. We are no more than a doormat for his whims.

Christian Witness,

Calling out Hans Kueng

From Reuters: Pope tells overworked priests even he can’t do all:

Prominent dissident theologian Hans Kueng told German broadcaster NDR he had not altogether given up hope of reforms under Benedict.

“With time, he must see that if he constantly disappoints people he will land himself in difficulty,” Kueng said. “His predecessor made parishes desolate and just asked and prayed for more priests for 27 years with no success.”

In a later interview

Prominent God, God told the world that he had not altogether given up hope for reform and conversion in Hans Kueng’s heart.

“With time, he must see that if he constantly disappoints Me he will land himself in difficulty,” God said. “He’s made parishes desolate by a lack of faith and prayer and just asked for his personal wishes to be fulfilled, with no success.”

In a related note, Marketplace had a report this morning on the lack of people in the engineering field in Germany. They noted that engineering is only the 7th most sought after profession and is behind pastors and teachers as an ideal profession.

Pastors, in Germany!?! Let’s see: not much work, a cool gothic building, and a government stipend. Mmmmm, ok.

Current Events, Media

Hot news day

Pope ticks off Muslims: It appears that the Pope’s lecture at Regensburg University has stirred Muslim anger. So what’s new? The pope calls on people to use reason in discourse and instead of reading and understanding Muslim leaders react by instigating violence.

Poland to supply troops: Poland will supply an additional 900 troops for the NATO mission in Afghanistan. The Polish politicians still think that generosity and cooperation will garner them friends. As former Polish President Kwasniewski found out at the White House —“ Too bad, so sad; thanks for the help, now shut up.

Polish workers held in “concentration camps”: Chasing the almighty dollar or Euro can get you into trouble —“ or get you killed.

Kimveer Gill, goth, blogger, gamer, killer: The usual stuff will follow as to how games and the Internet are all at fault. No one will look to his upbringing nor to his experiences with bullying in school (how does that mesh with Canada’s liberal ideals) which, while not an excuse, certainly didn’t help.

Saints and Martyrs

Solemnity – Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

The cross is Christ’s glory and triumph

We are celebrating the feast of the cross which drove away darkness and brought in the light. As we keep this feast, we are lifted up with the crucified Christ, leaving behind us earth and sin so that we may gain the things above. So great and outstanding a possession is the cross that he who wins it has won a treasure. Rightly could I call this treasure the fairest of all fair things and the costliest, in fact as well as in name, for on it and through it and for its sake the riches of salvation that had been lost were restored to us.

Had there been no cross, Christ could not have been crucified. Had there been no cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree. And if life had not been nailed to it, there would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ’s side, blood and water for the world’s cleansing. The legal bond of our sin would not be cancelled, we should not have attained our freedom, we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life and the gates of paradise would not stand open. Had there been no cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled.

Therefore, the cross is something wonderfully great and honourable. It is great because through the cross the many noble acts of Christ found their consummation —“ very many indeed, for both his miracles and his sufferings were fully rewarded with victory. The cross is honourable because it is both the sign of God’s suffering and the trophy of his victory. It stands for his suffering because on it he freely suffered unto death. But it is also his trophy because it was the means by which the devil was wounded and death conquered; the barred gates of hell were smashed, and the cross became the one common salvation of the whole world.

The cross is called Christ’s glory; it is saluted as his his triumph. We recognise it as the cup he longed to drink and the climax of the sufferings he endured for our sake. As to the cross being Christ’s glory, listen to his words: Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in him God is glorified, and God will glorify him at once. And again: Father, glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world came to be. And once more: —Father, glorify your name—. Then a voice came from heaven: —I have glorified it and will glorify it again—. Here he speaks of the glory that would accrue to him through the cross. And if you would understand that the cross is Christ’s triumph, hear what he himself also said: When I am lifted up, then I will draw all men to myself. Now you can see that the cross is Christ’s glory and triumph.

— A discourse of St. Andrew of Crete from today’s Office of Readings.

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