- Obama Administration execrable on religious freedom.
- Tea Party/Occupy Wall Street Venn Diagram.
- Elizabeth Warren again.
- Religious tests for the Presidency.
- Waging Class Warfare.
- Knowing the Beautiful God.
A member of Obama’s faith-based and neighborhood partnerships, the Rev. Dr. Nancy Wilson (of the Metropolitan Community Church) takes to the pages of Huffpost Gay Voices to advocate forcing Catholics out of faith-based charity and neighborhood partnership, dismissing the universal historic male-female component of marriage as “Catholic dogma.” (HT Thomas Peters)
I believe she also outright lies when she suggests that Catholic charities would “refuse shelter to homeless gay youth.”
Although I don’t think anyone higher up “put her up to this,” her position is consistent with the Administration’s underlying theme: in virtually any conflict between the sexual revolution and religious freedom, sexual freedom will, in the eyes of this Administration, come out of the constitutional shadows and trump explicit constitutional provisions on religious freedom.
79% Of Americans Missing the Point Entirely
(James Sinclair at How Conservatives Drove Me Away, who cites the Onion headline)
(HT Rod Dreher)
The only reason I can see why authentic conservatives should be up in arms against Elizabeth Warren is that that she has a “D” after her name, and Ds have been, by some accounts, less sincere when they say sane things than are Rs when they say sane things.
I’m not endorsing her. I’m saying that the criticisms have been from people practicing what fellow blogger Doug Masson tweets as “the world’s second oldest profession:” telling rich people what they want to hear.
Just to prove I’m one of the savvy people, I hereby affirm that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormons, is neither orthodox Christianity nor Orthodox Christianity. I’ve given my reasoning here more fully than anywhere else I can recall.
The bottom line is “history counts.” I don’t think a religion born 200 years ago in a private revelation to yarn-spinner Joseph Smith, who supposedly was told how bad all the Churches of his day were and then vouchsafed the antidote with golden tablets and magic spectacles to interpret the same, has its historic chops in order. That said, I’m with Kathleen Parker in my admiration of the civic virtues of the average Mormon, and of the dignity and sobriety of Mitt Romney and John Huntsman.
I also am skeptical of Christian traditions born 500 or fewer years ago, even if they’re vouchsafed the same Scriptures as the historic Church, because they interpret those Scriptures idiosyncratically. I have made myself tedious making that point in more colorful ways in the past, and I won’t go back there. The current crop of GOP Presidential hopefuls who adhere to such traditions come across as bomb-throwers compared to the “cult” candidates.
(I’m more than a bit of a bomb-thrower myself, but I’m not asking for anyone to make me Commander In Chief.)
Turning from religious kerfuffles to class warfare, Rod Dreher calls out Kentucky Senator Rand Paul as the snot calling the sniffle green. (HT Jason Peters for that neologism) and points out that class warfare is The American Way of politics.
Rod identifies The Culture Wars as central, but predicts that economic collapse could change that. I beg to differ: we’re driving at the economic cliff at 120 mph and in my mind, economic sanity has already moved way up in the ranks. Republicans who says they’re pro-life (even if they’re consistent about that domestically) are likely to send me scurrying for a third party candidate if they think all is well on Wall Street, Too Big to Fail is just fine, and that there’s nothing wrong with the world that a Trillion more cans of American WhupAss can’t cure.
We prove God’s existence by worshiping him and not by advancing so-called proofs. We have here the liturgical and iconographic argument for the existence of God. We arrive at a solid belief in the existence of God through a leap over what seems true, over the Pascalian certitude. According to an ancient monastic saying, “Give your blood and receive the Spirit.”
Paul Evdokimov in The Art of the Icon: A Theology of Beauty
…
God is a living God and not an idea that we can “grasp.”
(Father Stephen Freeman in Knowing the Beautiful God)
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Bon appetit!
If it’s “too big to fail,” break it up into harmless little pieces.
“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
(To save time on preparing this blog, which some days consumes way too much time, I’ve asked some guy named @RogerWmBennett to Tweet a lot of links about which I have little or nothing to add. Check the “Latest Tweets” in the upper right pane or follow him on Twitter.)
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 