DogfightAtBankstown

that wasn't a footy match

That was a burial.

Geelong   163
Port          44

Sweet.

this is the reason

Why we are being bombarded with government ads on TV at the moment. Constantly. Even at the most ridiculous times of the night.  Paid for by me and you.  It's why there hasn't been an election called just yet.

Aah, nothing like the 80s.

And if you are South Australian, you would know why tomorrow I am supporting the Cats.

watching

One of the peculiar features of reading blogs is that sometimes you find yourself witnessing the deterioration of another human being.

Given that I have been graced with the visit of one convicted felon, imposter and liar - the pseudo-Rev Jim Sutter - on this blog, it might be amusing - or even tragic - to note his latest diatribe about the International Criminal Court - discussed here.

Amusing because this guy is obviously delusional.

Tragic because this guy needs help and is unaware of it; instead he continues to spiral off into some parallel universe, leaving a web of slander, lies and deceit in his wake.

But also dangerous because of that.  He has already attempted to shut down other websites and slander other bloggers (not that it worries sorts like CAIR; truth is neither their strong point nor their goal) and while most have treated him as a nuisance, he is nevertheless, perhaps, a danger to others if not himself.

Sure, I am on the other side of the globe, but this guy also has neighbours and interacts with others face-to-face to some degree   

Makes one think what, if anything, does one do with nutters like Sutter. 

suffer the innocent

Here is another reason why I believe not all cultural or religious practices   deserve equal respect or even any respect or protection:

The Carleton University student who was sexually assaulted this month while working in a lab late at night wants to set the record straight: She was not raped.

The 24-year-old woman, who does not want to be identified, made the clarification this week through the Ottawa Hospital's sexual assault unit in an effort to save herself grief as an unmarried Muslim woman. In certain Islamic countries, victims of rape are considered "unclean" to potential future husbands.

"As part of her culture, being a virgin is very important, and, if, all of a sudden, everybody looks at her and says she's not a virgin, she's a lot less desirable as a wife," said Christine Baker, a sexual-assault examiner at the Ottawa Hospital who has been keeping in touch with the victim.

Yes we are talking Canada here. And of course the local Muslim association supports her decision:

"Who are we to judge somebody else, especially if a person is innocent?" asked Mumtaz Akhtar, president of the Ottawa Muslim Association.

He acknowledged that in some Muslim countries, especially in smaller villages, people do hold the belief "that victims of rape are unclean."

"They despise the person who has been a victim of rape, even if it is their own daughter. But it is not like that here. People are more educated."

He said she shouldn't worry about that connotation, adding that people are likely to be more sympathetic because it was not her fault.

Absolutely no concern that the woman will be denied true justice should the perpetrator be caught and charged with a lesser crime.  And absolutely no desire at all to reeducate the Muslim community to give up their unjust and barbaric practice of punishing the victim.  No desire to restore the victim's dignity: no they will despise her for being a victim.  As if rape or assault wasn't enough of an outrage against her.

Shame on every Muslim in Ottawa, every Canadian, every human being for even supporting such a disgusting and perverse sense of mercy and justice.

headline doozy of the day

Boston Herald :"A look at nation's name change from Myanmar to Burma"

Try Burma to Myanmar you dorks.

gloria

The inspirational story of a little girl who died this week after a four year battle with cancer.

Her faith in Christ, and that of her parents, her prayers for herself and others moved many readers and even the journalists who covered the story:*

Tom Curran, a family friend who runs a Catholic ministry, has helped the Strausses throughout this process. To understand their beliefs, he says, one must look at this journey as an ongoing relationship between Jesus and the family.

"The key phrase, which Doug has used before, is that Jesus isn't just the healer," Curran says. "He is the healing. This is an intimately and profoundly relational thing."

To nonbelievers, it is an abstraction. To believers, it makes sense. But Doug and Kristen never demanded for God to follow through on a promise. They simply chose to trust, believe in what they hoped God meant and bend to his will.

"It's not going to make sense to people who are not in the relationship," Curran says. "It appears like a contradiction. It seems like, at the end, somebody just pulled a rabbit out of the hat. But that's not how God has been involved."

Lux aeterna.

*links to the series and journalist notebook on article sidebar. Via GetReligion

aspinall eats his own words

Just another comment on the ECUSA before I track down the last of my unholy trinity - Benny Hinn.

I noted that the friend of Spongbob Hereticpants - Archbishop Aspinall, Bishop of Brisbane and the Anglican Primate of Australia - didn't seem too impressed with the ECUSA despite his own personal liberal bent.

Aspinall asked, “What good is your vote? How do we trust you?”

Now there is lots of spin and reaction to the ECUSA bishops' statement following the meeting in New Orleans, but the general consensus is this: it's a bunch of weasel words orchestrated to maintain the status quo in the Anglican Communion (with the ECUSA just going off and doing it's own thing as it always has), except that the Global South and other conservative bishops around the Communion are not buying it.

Still, the process didn't please all the intransigent, particularly the presence of bloggers on the ground who posted real time reports from New Orleans and even got their own interviews.

The Bishop of Newark for example, (Newark being the former diocese of Spong, which nose dived during Spong's tenure as bishop), responded in this manner:

There were a remarkable series of dynamics in play at the just concluded House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans. For starters, there was the dynamic between the Episcopal Church (increasingly identified as TEC by the rest of the Anglican Communion)– represented by the House of Bishops; and the rest of the Anglican Communion – represented by the Archbishop of Canterbury and several leaders of the Anglican Consultative Council (the ACC).  The Archbishop and the representatives of the ACC presented to us a rather united front in their disdain/concern/anger at TEC for getting out ahead of the rest of the Anglican Communion in our actions over the last three years (the more gentle presentation) – or abrogating our commitment to the Communion and the Gospel (the more harsh presentation).  We later learned that the ACC position may not have been so united – in that some of the ACC members present, who represented different views, were not given the opportunity to speak to us.  It was also troubling to learn that an edited version of the most ardent presentation was on the internet within an hour of it being presented to us.

The most "ardent" presentation was not that of Aspinall - he certainly has more sympathy with the ECUSA heresy - but a genuine and heartfelt address by Archbishop Mouneer Anis (Bishop of the Episcopal/Anglican Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa, and Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal/Anglican province of Jerusalem and the Middle East) 

Another dynamic in play was the sense I had that we are dealing with more than one house of bishops.  The primary house is comprised of the vast majority of bishops who stayed through the whole meeting – and who worked hard, and well, to build bridges and create solidarity in the midst of diversity.  It appears to me that an ancillary or adjunct House is made up of a small group of dissident bishops who left the meeting as soon as the Archbishop of Canterbury did.  Their media champions stayed – and seemed to have versions of our work – with their own unique commentary on it, out in public before we even finished that work.

The "dissident" bishops were actually a group of conservative bishops who want to maintain Anglican orthodoxy and left as they had indicated well beforehand - because they knew there was nothing more they could say or do. "Their media champions" were bloggers.

Aspinall himself has also issued an initial statement which is put in context over at Stand Firm - an Anglican group blog who had bloggers on the ground in New Orleans - and where Aussie resident David Ould reports:

1. Before he left, Aspinall gave an interview to the ABC here claiming that the vast majority of the Communion want to see a compromise. He was spinning before he even got on the plane.
   
2. I'll leave it to you all as readers to assess his statement that the TEC Bishops have "responded positively ... to the substance [of the Primates' requests]". Frankly, as I read those words it puts him alongside Bruno in terms of duplicitousness.
   
3. Someone here commented to me "He appears to have taken onboard all the US spin". I think it would be more accurate to say that Aspinall contributed to building the TEC bishops' boat.

In other words, given what he said before, what he formally said to the House of Bishops, what he didn't say, and what he said afterwards,  Aspinall merely played the politician.

The reason why gets interesting: is it because there are more Aussie Anglicans then in the entire ECUSA, but some dioceses aren't too happy with the ECUSA or the lack of discipline in the wider Anglican Communion? The largest diocese, Sydney, has already threatened to break with Canterbury and join the Global South to form a new communion or federation.   The bishop of the Murray would probably rather be a Catholic.  And on it goes.  And that weakens the Anglicans considerably in Australia and is not a good look for Aspinall who would rather follow Spong over the cliff.

As I expected, Aspinall's own words will now come back to haunt him: even though the Primate's role in Australia is primarily representative and ceremonial, he is still a primate and also a bishop.  How much does he actually care about faithfulness to the faith preached by the Apostles, attested by the Martyrs, embodied in the Creeds and expounded by the Fathers?  What good are his vote and his words? How do Aussie Anglicans trust Aspinall?

what the hell is wrong with the brits?

Is it the water that has turned so many into a bunch of girlie men?

Does history hurt your feelings? Then make it up!

So that no-one gets left out.

A Brit with balls responds in the comments (and actually all the comments are worth a read):

Like most of my countrymen I am getting fed up and ashamed at these blatant attempts to rewrite our past by a set of Baboons with a frontal lobotomy, who wouldn't know a history book if it jumped up and bit them in the arse. What next will I be hearing, that Stonehenge was build by Arab engineers because we were too privative at the time and that they had imported slave labor from Africa to do the job because the ancient Britains couldn't understand the poetic Arabic in the instruction booklet that came with the construction kit. The only influence I can think that the Arabs had on our culture was the naming of many pub “The Saracens Head” most likely due to some English Crusader bring one back as a souvenir and hanging it outside to attract trade. It is a pity it is not like that now, we had one mosque in Britain in 1926 and that was one too many. Idiots like this must think we are F*****g mad with all this bullshit and sensitivity training. If there is any training to be done it should be desensitivity training of these t**ts, and only then when it has been clinically established that they have a brain between their ears.

the myanmar junta

Proves its brutality once again:

"Shots were fired by the security forces, first in the air, then at the demonstrators," French diplomat Emmanuel Mouriez told France's radio RTL.

"We cannot know if many people were injured but we can be sure that blood was spilled."

There have been deaths, injuries and mass arrests.  Troops have been deployed around major monasteries on top of a curfew, and a pro-democracy politician has been arrested.

And this time the whole world can see.

The U.N. goes into emergency session on the back of U.S. imposed sanctions, also backed by Britain and the EU. But really, it is China which has the most influence in Myanmar and the U.S. has been rightly pushing the Chinese to apply pressure on the Burmese.

Some apparent behind the scenes gestures but I expect to see little else. The Chinese have no interest but self-interest.  So let's go for a Beijing boycott as well.

While the whole world can see.

Update: Mr E has a list of useful blogger and online links - however some are overloaded.

Christian churches and ministers in Myanmar - who don't get the best time of things anyway - have also been told not to hold services and have been "visited" by local council members and security forces.

Update 2: The Age picks up on the risks bloggers are taking to get pictures and news out from Myanmar.

circus

I just switched the TV on part way through Dateline's report on Palestinian on Palestinian violence. Just in time to see part of one of those whacky Palestinian security forces training demonstrations - this time I think by Fatah. I haven't handled a gun in years and years, and modern automatic weapons would probably flummox me, but I would still trust myself with a gun more than I would those goons.

Hamas, Fatah, they are all the same. Holding every resident of Palestine hostage to their hate.

there's plenty to say about the ecusa

Especially given events in New Orleans in this past week which may have global repercussions on the Anglican Communion. 

But before I get around to posting about that - or rather pointing to the best news which has been on blogs instead of the mainstream press -  I need to point to this priceless gem via Still on  Patrol.  It gives a perfect picture of the cancer that has beset many in the ECUSA:

Baby Blue is in New Orleans, too, and picked up a copy of the Song Book for the "Community of Bishops 2007."  (So now we call them COB instead of HOB?  No, I won't go there; not until the next novel, anyway.)  Rumour has it that the song books are printed on ZigZag rolling papers.

Two of the hymns she has shared with us are as follows:

Mothering God

Mothering God,
you gave me birth
in the bright morning of this world.
Creator, source of every breath,
you are my rain, my wind, my sun.

Mothering Christ, you took my form,
offering me your food of light,
grain of life, and grape of love,
your very body for my peace.

Mothering Spirit,
nurturing one,
in arms of patience hold me close,
so that in faith I root and grow
until I flower, until I know.

And,

All creatures of the our God, sing praise,
with thankful hearts your voices raise
O sing praises! Alleluia!
O Brother Sun with golden beam,
O Sister Moon with silver gleam!

Dear Mother Earth, who day by day
unfolds our blessings on our way
O sing praises! Alleluia!
The flow'rs and fruit that in you grow,
let them God's glory also show!

All hail Gaia goddess.  Spong has prevailed. 
Not just Spongbob Hereticpants - it's the church of Bob Brown.

Update: Yes it can get worse. Reformed Pastor:

It isn’t often that someone in a clerical collar and pectoral cross is caught in a flat-out, bold-faced, demonstrable whopper. Such, however, was the fate of Los Angeles Episcopal Bishop Jon J. Bruno at a press conference in New Orleans last night. Here’s the exchange between Bruno and a New York Times reporter:

NYT: How is the [Dar es Salaam] communiqué different from the desires of conservatives who wish for you to reverse course on sexuality issues. Doesn’t the communiqué ask you to reverse course in the same way. How can you distinguish between what the conservatives want you to do and the Communique asks you to do?

Bruno: You have asked whether we will continue the process of General Convention. The fact is that we have never authorized same sex unions.

NYT: it happens on the diocesan level all the time.

Bruno: Not in my diocese. It does not happen with my permission.

NYT: But it happens in many dioceses on a private level. How do the questions of the communiqué differ from what conservatives want?

Bruno: I’ve answered it as best I can. If I were to answer it any more clearly we would break the promises we made in the house.

The Times reporter was probably really baffled by this response because of something that appeared in her paper on Sunday:

Robert Walter Stanley and Robert Karl Marohn celebrated their union yesterday at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills, Calif. The Rev. Gabriel Ferrer led the commitment ceremony. The Rev. Maryetta Anschutz, also an Episcopal priest, participated.

This is only the latest, of course. StandFirm this morning offers a whole slew of public same-sex blessings that have taken place in the Diocese of Los Angeles, including one in which Bruno himself participated:

On May l6, 2004, Bishop Bruno of Los Angeles blessed the union of Malcolm and Mark Thompson in a ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral, on the 20th anniversary of their life partnership. Mark, former cultural editor of the Advocate newsmagazine, is a therapist, photographer, activist, editor of “Long Road to Freedom: the Advocate History of the Gay and Lesbian Movement,” and author of a famed trilogy: “Gay Spirit,” “Gay Soul” and “Gay Body.”

It is not know whether Bishop Bruno gave himself permission to take part in this blessed event. It is certainly possible that, like all the others happening in his diocese, this one was a rogue operation by an out-of-control cleric.

More at MCJ ("With "morality" like this, it's baffling why Episcopal churches aren't full to bursting every single Sunday"),  Stand Firm, Still on Patrol, and T19. 

At some stage I will get around to blogging about the ECUSA bust up, but it seems even the Anglican Primate of Australia - Philip Aspinall, the squidgy fudge friend of Spong -  nearly wrung himself out over the ECUSA in New Orleans out last week:

From all reports, this morning’s session was a surprisingly candid exchange of information between the members of the House, the Archbishop and the invited guests from the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) and the Primate’s Council. The Rt. Rev. Dr. Phillip Aspinall, Archbishop of Brisbane Australia, spoke to the House, telling them that they must reassure the Communion that they will live into the resolutions passed at General Convention last year. He asked what the rest of the Communion was to think when they vote to refrain from authorizing same sex blessings and 14 bishops quietly (but publicly) authorize rites to be used in their diocese and give permission to their clergy to perform same sex marriages as a pastoral care issue. Aspinall asked, “What good is your vote? How do we trust you?”

There are a few Anglicans in Australia asking the same questions about their own bishops.

Update 2: Terry at Get Religion surveys the press coverage of events in New Orleans and notes the best report he has read to date, was from *gasp* the New York Times.  That would be the same Neela Banerjee, who is the "NYT" in the interchange above and who was noted by bloggers on the ground as one of the few journalists asking good questions.  I hope she follows up with a piece on Bruno's bold-faced lie.

a return

To my three pet fascinations about all things American: CAIR, ECUSA and Benny Hinn.

Why those three? Well apart from their almost surreal machinations which makes for great amusement and parody, I think they also represent the three worst - and perhaps most dangerous - aspects of American religous life: creeping dhimmitude under the god of Islamism, and the subjugation of Christianity to the gods of secular humanism and mammon.

I have noted several times that I suspect these three movements will converge in some way and signs of such continue to emerge - representatives of the so-called religious left getting into bed with the theocratic mullahs of Iran.

First up today is CAIR. And an update on one of its most insane episodes: posting the slanderous drivel of the tax evading convicted felon, imposter, fraudster and pathological liar Rev Jim Sutter on its website in an attempt to shut down Robert Spencer's sites. And maybe worse. 

Now CAIR, which has been exposed as a front for the Muslim Brotherhood in America (ironically during a trial for a Muslim charity acting as a front for terrorism funding), has decided to get picky about its bedfellows.

Like I said, it would be hilarious if it wasn't also so dangerous. 

And damage has been done.

Lies posted on the web tend to circle the globe like Chinese whispers on crack and are as difficult to kill as a plastic turkey.

tear jerker

I'm reading a book i borrowed from a library the other day.

Every time I turn a page, I sneeze.

I don't think anyone's read this one for a while.

myanmar

The muted protests over petrol prices last month have now morphed into pro-democracy rallies.

They started small - with a few hundred Buddhist monks - encouraged by dissidents - marching daily to a designated spot, chanting prayers for fifteen minutes, then dispersing.  Civilians have joined in their daily marches as each day has passed. Some reports have indicated a few thousand, some say as many as twenty thousand across the country.

The Washington Post editorialises:

FOR YEARS, jaded diplomats and academics have rebuffed Burma's democracy activists with one question: Why don't the people of Burma rise up? For the past month, they have been doing exactly that, against unimaginable odds and with unimaginable courage. So now a different question arises: Is the world -- its leaders, diplomats, academics and others -- going to stand on the sidelines or offer some help?

Yesterday, more than 1,000 Buddhist monks marched peacefully along the rain-soaked streets of Burma's largest city, with thousands of spectators encouraging their protest. At the head of the procession a monk carried an alms bowl turned upside down, symbolically refusing to accept any more support from the military regime, one of the world's most repressive. In an overwhelmingly Buddhist Southeast Asian nation of 50 million people, this was a withering rebuke. The echoes of the last great uprising, in 1988, must be alarming the country's corrupt ruling generals -- the roots in economic discontent and the slow stirrings from students to monks to the general population and from the capital to smaller cities across the nation.

The regime -- so frightened of its own people that it had already transplanted its capital in the dead of night, to a desolate inland spot, on the advice of an astrologer -- has responded in some ways more desperately than it did in 1988. Though the monks have for the most part not been blocked, virtually every student leader is in prison, many tortured. Cousins, siblings and even children of demonstrators have been swept up, too. Anyone with a camera is suspect, as the regime seeks to block news of the protests from traveling. Yet brave Burmese with cellphones continue to relay photographs, and brave unarmed civilians continue to interpose themselves between protesters and regime vigilantes.

Burmese blog Ainmet Diary has a few photos - one wishes one could read Zawgyi in order to work out where they were taken. Some shots indicate several hundred civilians at least, escorted this group of monks.

Source

The question that remains of course, is if the army will react eventually: they are used to going up against students and other civilian protesters, but may be reluctant to oppose monks and so ignore any orders. Then again, the junta itself may not issue any order given the monks can block one's path to Nirvana. But other reporters are indicating the army is well disciplined and the junta is expected to revert to type, and start using force.

I thought too, that oppressing and starving your own people wouldn't exactly earn you brownie points to some state of self-actualization, no matter how many times you twirled your prayer wheel.

Indeed, the regime itself has been building itself a fortress in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw, using 80,000 bedraggled workers who are virtually building roads by hand.  Sounds as if they don't need monks - even those close to the regime - to tell them how much bad karma they've incurred.

Military parade at Nay Pyi Taw. Image: Reuters

A story to watch.

Update 25/9: The numbers of protesters are swelling, but the Minister of Religious Affairs has threatened action if senior Buddhist clerics don't pull the protesters into line.

The U.S. is pressing ahead with its own sanctions as well as calling for restraint by the Myanmar junta and increased U.N. sanctions against Myanmar by the international community.  Both Britain and France (gasp) have called for political reform and voiced support for the protesters.

Naturally Russia and also China (which has the most influence in Burma) are refusing to go along with any U.N. sanctions against Burma. There's gas in them there hills. 

And here's the deal: if the junta gets toppled, who rushes into the power vacuum? Are they up to the task of reforming an ailing economy and preventing widespread social disaster?  And is anyone considering the plight of those in Myanmar who are not ethnic Burmese and are officially second class citizens under the current regime?

adieu

Marcel Marceau 1923-2007

May his memory be for a blessing.

oh dear, what's this

Mild Colonial Boy, Esq. has a timely public service announcement for the fair sex.

Wild and dangerous.

pussification

So said Dave in Texas in the comments.^[1] I'm thinking something else:

Brides in Stockholm who want their fathers to walk them down the aisle are likely to be told it can’t be done, as some pastors are refusing to allow the practice they say is sexist, a pastor said on Friday.

“In Sweden we have worked hard in many different ways to eliminate everything that is unequal,” a Lutheran Church vicar in the Stockholm region, Yvonne Hallin, told AFP.

She said she would not allow the custom in her parish, and noted that Stockholm’s bishop issued a recommendation in 2003 that pastors discourage it.

Yes the vicar is a woman and the Lutheran bishop of Stockholm is...google...google...Caroline Krook.  A woman.

Look, I have more than a soft spot for the gals, but let's face it: the feministas amongst them really are some of the most destructive individuals out there, and no more so when they infiltrate the church - any church. 

How ironic that the women who whinge the loudest about paternalism are the most paternalistic.  No, make that autocratic:^[2]

Since my fifteenth year, the year of my baptism, I have been a communicant   member of the Church of Sweden. I have gone to communion regularly for 45 years   in what I thought was the real Church.

During these years I have lived with and through all the changes that have taken place: I have seen them being prepared, have heard the arguments, seen the campaigns, and encountered the propaganda, threats, false promises, and lies with which they were frequently implemented. I have seen how the church has been occupied and taken over from both the outside and the inside. I have seen how those who stood up for the traditional Christian faith were marginalized and even eliminated from the church.

The issue of women’s ordination is both pivotal and illustrative. “Those who do not approve of the ordination of women must leave the Church of Sweden,” Bishop Caroline Krook of Stockholm announced in a newspaper interview, and the political and religio-political establishment and the mass media, with few exceptions, echoed her.

Typical was an editorial by Ulla Johansson for the Christian Socialist magazine Broderskap (Brotherhood): “Throw out the church hooligans. . . . The Church of Sweden has to stop talking drivel. It goes without saying that those who cannot think of working together with a woman or ordain a woman should not hold an official office in the Church of Sweden.” In an interview in a diocesan magazine, Rolf Forslin, a deacon and leading church politician, was equally blunt: “If it doesn’t suit them, let them start their own business; one has to be hard on those opposing the ordination of women.”

Never mind Forslin's "start their own business", cop the effrontery of this Krook.

I guess too, it never occurred to the likes of Krook and Hallin and co., that the church - the people of God - lives and serves on the basis of vocation, not rights. 

Bishop Caroline Krook
trying to be a man More irony: equal rights makes people interchangeable and therefore expendable.  Vocation recognizes our interdependence, and each person's uniqueness and gifts without which, others would be impoverished.

In this case, it seems men are expendable. Fathers especially. Gays are still allowed.

And more than ironic, to be expected: since its disestablishment, brought on largely by the machinations of theological liberals like Hallin and Krook, and which only served to entrench them in the church hierarchy, the Church of Sweden has gone into a bigger downhill slide. 

Why not? If the gospel is nothing more than a reflection of culture then why not stay in bed on Sunday morning? 

And if the gospel is going to be subjected to some political agenda, why be a bishop or a vicar? Unless of course, like many bishops and vicars in, say, the ECUSA, you want to turn church into a political party instead^[3].

In which case you might as well tell people to go and pray to Gaia. Oh wait, Earth mother Gaia had offspring.

Make that Bob Brown.

[1] Hat tip: Hot Air
[2] Unabridged article here.
[3] Heh, elsewhere William Tighe describes Krook as 'Spongian'

here is

The full text of Pope Benedict XVI's speech to the Executive Committee of Centrist Democratic International yesterday:

Mister President,
Honourable Members of Parliament,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am pleased to welcome you during the conference of the Executive Committee of Centrist Democratic International, and I extend cordial greetings to the Delegates present from many nations throughout the world. I thank your President, the Honourable Pier Ferdinando Casini, for the kind words of greeting he has offered to me on your behalf. Your visit gives me an opportunity to bring to your attention some of the values and ideals that have been moulded and deepened in a decisive way by the Christian tradition in Europe and throughout the world.

Notwithstanding your different backgrounds, I know that you share several basic principles of this tradition, such as the centrality of the human person, a respect for human rights, a commitment to peace and the promotion of justice for all. You appeal to fundamental principles, which, as history has shown, are closely interconnected. In effect, when human rights are violated, the dignity of the human person suffers; when justice is compromised, peace itself is jeopardized. On the other hand, justice is truly human only when the ethical and moral vision grounding it is centred on the human person and his inalienable dignity.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your activity, inspired by these principles, is subject to increasing challenges today due to the profound changes taking place in your respective communities. For this reason, I wish to encourage you to persevere in your efforts to serve the common good, taking it upon yourselves to prevent the dissemination and entrenchment of ideologies which obscure and confuse consciences by promoting an illusory vision of truth and goodness. In the economic sphere, for example, there is a tendency to view financial gain as the only good, thus eroding the internal ethos of commerce to the point that even profit margins suffer. There are those who maintain that human reason is incapable of grasping the truth, and therefore of pursuing the good that corresponds to personal dignity. There are some who believe that it is legitimate to destroy human life in its earliest or final stages. Equally troubling is the growing crisis of the family, which is the fundamental nucleus of society based on the indissoluble bond of marriage between a man and a woman. Experience has shown that when the truth about man is subverted or the foundation of the family undermined, peace itself is threatened and the rule of law is compromised, leading inevitably to forms of injustice and violence.

Another cause highly esteemed by all of you is the defence of religious liberty, which is a fundamental, irrepressible, inalienable and inviolable right rooted in the dignity of every human being and acknowledged by various international documents, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The exercise of this freedom also includes the right to change religion, which should be guaranteed not only legally, but also in daily practice. In fact, religious liberty corresponds to the human person’s innate openness to God, who is the fullness of truth and the supreme good. An appreciation for religious freedom is a fundamental expression of respect for human reason and its capacity to know the truth. Openness to transcendence is an indispensable guarantee of human dignity since within every human heart there are needs and desires which find their fulfilment in God alone. For this reason, God can never be excluded from the horizon of man and world history! That is why all authentically religious traditions must be allowed to manifest their own identity publicly, free from any pressure to hide or disguise it.

Moreover, due respect for religion helps to counter the charge that society has forgotten God: an accusation shamelessly exploited by some terrorist networks in an attempt to justify their threats against global security. Terrorism is a serious problem whose perpetrators often claim to act in God’s name and harbour an inexcusable contempt for human life. Society naturally has a right to defend itself, but this right must be exercised with complete respect for moral and legal norms, including the choice of ends and means. In democratic systems, the use of force in a manner contrary to the principles of a constitutional State can never be justified. Indeed, how can we claim to protect democracy if we threaten its very foundations? Consequently, it is necessary both to keep careful watch over the security of civil society and its citizens while at the same time safeguarding the inalienable rights of all. Terrorism needs to be fought with determination and effectiveness, mindful that if the mystery of evil is widespread today, the solidarity of mankind in goodness is an even more pervasive mystery.

In this regard, the social teaching of the Catholic Church offers some points for reflection on how to promote security and justice both at the national and international levels. This teaching is based on reason, natural law and the Gospel: that is, principles that both accord with and transcend the nature of every human being. The Church knows that it is not her specific task to see to the political implementation of this teaching: her objective is to help form consciences in political life, to raise awareness of the authentic requirements of justice, and to foster a greater readiness to act accordingly, even when this might involve conflict with situations of personal interest (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 28). In this her mission, the Church is moved only by love for humanity and the desire to work together with all people of goodwill to build a world in which the dignity and inalienable rights of all persons will be safeguarded. For those of you who share a faith in Christ, the Church asks you to bear witness to that faith today with even greater courage and generosity. The integrity of Christians in political life is indeed more necessary than ever so that the “salt” of apostolic zeal does not lose its “flavour”, and so that the “lamp” of Gospel values enlightening the daily work of Christians is not obscured by pragmatism or utilitarianism, suspicion or hate.

Your Excellencies, I thank you once again for this welcome opportunity to meet with you. Wishing you success in your respective missions, I assure all of you of a remembrance in my prayers, that Almighty God may bless you and your families, and that you may receive the wisdom, integrity and moral strength to serve the great and noble cause of human dignity.

Now get ready for the spin from the media as they subjugate this message to their political gospel.  Oh and the usual melee from the followers of the Religion of Perpetual Outrage.  Hindu nationalists better also be careful lest they be asked to explain their recent activities.

Oh and  Scientologists and Benny Hinn need not apply. We are talking genuine religious expression here, not marketing and money laundering.

fjordman

Sets the record straight on Islam, the Greeks and the Scientific Revolution:

I have written a couple of essays regarding the Greek impact on the rise of modern science, and why the Scientific Revolution didn't happen in the Islamic world. I find this to be an interesting topic, especially since there are so many myths regarding this perpetrated by Muslims and their apologists today, so I will explore the subject in some detail.

And for that detail, you need to read.

just with a religious cloak

Back in...er...2005 I posted about the Shi'ite Muslim practice of sigheh or muttah. Since then I have posted from time to time about its spread - usually under another name or slightly different form - in Sunni communities, while others, particularly Muslim women, have opposed it.

Now comes Egypt.

Update:  It may seem like a contradiction, but to me it is just a natural alliance: social progressives and those advocating an extreme Muslim agenda.

Germany's latex-and-leather glamour-puss politician, Gabriele Pauli has called for legislation to automatically dissolve marriages after seven years:

Gabriele Pauli, 50, was unveiling her family policies in a wild-gamble bid to be elected leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) of Bavaria and successor to Edmund Stoiber, the Bavarian premier she helped topple this year.

Pauli, who heads the local authority in Fuerth county, northern Bavaria, said, "In future, marriages should only be contracted for seven years at a time." Partners would have to both consciously say "yes" to prolong the union.

She said this would save the trouble and expense of divorce. She attacked leading politicians in her centre-right, Catholic-dominated party for "assuming a super-intact idea of marriage."

Statistics show that nearly 38 per cent of Germans marrying today are likely to end up divorced later.

Pauli, who has had two husbands, posed earlier this year for a German glossy magazine, Park Avenue, which showed her in long black latex gloves associated with kinky sex, or stretching herself on a massage bench.

After months under attack from CSU officials, she appeared drawn and nervous as she spoke to reporters.

She had not previously been given any chance of winning the party leadership against two stronger male candidates, Erwin Huber and Horst Seehofer. Her marriage proposals were expected to cripple her candidacy.

Stoiber said the expiring marriages idea was so contrary to the party line that she did not belong in the CSU. A spokesman for the Catholic archdiocese of Munich said temporary marriage was a "contradiction in terms."

Temporary marriage sounds a bit like sigheh to me.

What is ironic here is that the CSU was founded in 1946 by various Catholic and Protestant groups. It operates exclusively in Bavaria, which is predominantly Catholic. Its sister party, the CDU, operates in the rest of Germany and is lead by Angela Merkel, the current chancellor of Germany. While both parties' policies are presented as socially conservative, the CSU tends to be more so. It's political platform is based on free enterprise, federalism, and a united Europe operating under Christian principles.

The CSU has practically owned Bavarian state politics since it formed.  Nevertheless, those with more socially progressive policies, like the SPD, make strong showings at the local level - for example local councils. 

While Pauli herself may have killed off her last chances to lead the CSU, Seehofer, one of the other contenders, isn't looking too good after the 58-year-old father of three was found to be having an affair with a much younger woman who has just had his child.  I wonder if he will now espouse polygamy or polyamory to justify his moral failings.

It seems, despite the party's history, name and traditional policies, the term "Christian" should be dropped from the CSU's name. 

Even so, and even from this distance, I think it is becoming increasingly difficult to to define German political parties in terms of "social conservatism" or otherwise. The same can be said about the major political parties here.  What's more, "social conservative" and "social progressive" are somewhat meaningless terms to me. 

I would have thought that if you are devaluing and undermining the most socially cohesive relationship in our society - marriage - you are better off calling yourself socially destructive.

i think all of us

Were thinking this would be the sad outcome.

All eyes now on the Americans for help with locating Nai Xin Xue.

He has a few questions to answer.

camille paglia

Only Religion Can Save the Arts. 

Well, the arts in America at least.  But some of her criticism could apply in other parts of the West, even though I don't think issues are as polarised elsewhere in the West as perhaps they are in the U.S.

She begins:

At this moment in America, religion and politics are at a flash point. Conservative Christians deplore the left-wing bias of the mainstream media and the saturation of popular culture by sex and violence and are promoting strategies such as faith-based home-schooling to protect children from the chaotic moral relativism of a secular society. Liberals in turn condemn the meddling by Christian fundamentalists in politics, notably in regard to abortion and gay civil rights or the Mideast, where biblical assumptions, it is claimed, have shaped US policy. There is vicious mutual recrimination, with believers caricatured as paranoid, apocalyptic crusaders who view America's global mission as divinely inspired, while liberals are portrayed as narcissistic hedonists and godless elitists, relics of the unpatriotic, permissive 1960s.

A primary arena for the conservative-liberal wars has been the arts. While leading conservative voices defend the traditional Anglo-American literary canon, which has been under challenge and in flux for forty years, American conservatives on the whole, outside of the New Criterion magazine, have shown little interest in the arts, except to promulgate a didactic theory of art as moral improvement that was discarded with the Victorian era at the birth of modernism. Liberals, on the other hand, have been too content with the high visibility of the arts in metropolitan centers, which comprise only a fraction of America. Furthermore, liberals have been complacent about the viability of secular humanism as a sustaining creed for the young. And liberals have done little to reverse the scandalous decline in urban public education or to protest the crazed system of our grotesquely overpriced, cafeteria-style higher education, which for thirty years was infested by sterile and now fading poststructuralism and postmodernism. The state of the humanities in the US can be measured by present achievement: would anyone seriously argue that the fine arts or even popular culture is enjoying a period of high originality and creativity? American genius currently resides in technology and design. The younger generation, with its mastery of video games and its facility for ever-evolving gadgetry like video cell phones and iPods, has massively shifted to the Web for information and entertainment.

I would argue that the route to a renaissance of the American fine arts lies through religion. Let me make my premises clear: I am a professed atheist and a pro-choice libertarian Democrat. But based on my college experiences in the 1960s, when interest in Hinduism and Buddhism was intense, I have been calling for nearly two decades for massive educational reform that would put the study of comparative religion at the center of the university curriculum. Though I shared the exasperation of my generation with the moralism and prudery of organized religion, I view each world religion, including Judeo-Christianity and Islam, as a complex symbol system, a metaphysical lens through which we can see the vastness and sublimity of the universe. Knowledge of the Bible, one of the West's foundational texts, is dangerously waning among aspiring young artists and writers. When a society becomes all-consumed in the provincial minutiae of partisan politics (as has happened in the US over the past twenty years), all perspective is lost. Great art can be made out of love for religion as well as rebellion against it. But a totally secularized society with contempt for religion sinks into materialism and self-absorption and gradually goes slack, without leaving an artistic legacy.

Yep, I doubt anyone would remember, oh, what was her name?  Gosh I even blogged about her recently.

Paglia ends:       

For the fine arts to revive, they must recover their spiritual center. Profaning the iconography of other people's faiths is boring and adolescent. The New Age movement, to which I belong, was a distillation of the 1960s' multicultural attraction to world religions, but it has failed thus far to produce important work in the visual arts. The search for spiritual meaning has been registering in popular culture instead through science fiction, as in George Lucas' six-film Star Wars saga, with its evocative master myth of the “Force.” But technology for its own sake is never enough. It will always require supplementation through cultivation in the arts.

To fully appreciate world art, one must learn how to respond to religious expression in all its forms. Art began as religion in prehistory. It does not require belief to be moved by a sacred shrine, icon, or scripture. Hence art lovers, even when as citizens they stoutly defend democratic institutions against religious intrusion, should always speak with respect of religion. Conservatives, on the other hand, need to expand their parched and narrow view of culture. Every vibrant civilization welcomes and nurtures the arts.

Progressives must start recognizing the spiritual poverty of contemporary secular humanism and reexamine the way that liberalism too often now automatically defines human aspiration and human happiness in reductively economic terms. If conservatives are serious about educational standards, they must support the teaching of art history in primary school--which means conservatives have to get over their phobia about the nude, which has been a symbol of Western art and Western individualism and freedom since the Greeks invented democracy. Without compromise, we are heading for a soulless future. But when set against the vast historical panorama, religion and art--whether in marriage or divorce--can reinvigorate American culture.

Read the in between. 

Somehow though, I don't think secular humanists can have it both ways.

google what?

A number of Oz bloggers have picked up on the news of the Google Australia election site (here).

To tell you the truth, it looks positively boring. Like one great big clearing house for election ads.  Why on Google earth would you want to give feedback to parties about the spin in their election videos? We're bloody sick of the constant ads on TV as it is.  And what sort of democracy does that encourage?

- Here's my policy.
- Oh that is shit.
- Thank you for your feedback, here's my policy.
  I've just put a bit of a different bit of spin on
  it this time.

Some of the long-standing psephological blogs have already got good write ups of seats and candidates for the real boffins.  Some even have pretty maps.

Maybe the real election tragics will add the Google gadgets to their blog for something and somehow generate revenue or hits for someone, somewhere, I dunno. 

New gadgets can be added to users' Google.com.au homepage, enabling them to search the latest news from any House of Representatives seat, browse election-related videos on YouTube and search Parliamentary records and MP homepages to see what particular MPs have said on a range of issues.

Although the Daily Telegraph in the UK spins one of the features this way:

Google's Australian-developed election site includes a feature called "On the Record", where users can type in a politician's name, along with an issue of their choosing. It then scours parliamentary transcripts and the politician's personal website to find any statements on the issue, allowing voters to check whether their representatives are being consistent.

I am not sure how valuable that would be without the ability to also scour news sites, TV and radio transcripts and other media as well.  And judging by Google searches that  find this blog, more people would be interested in posting a photo of Lucas Neill's girlfriend on their website.

What's more, the nature of issues change, policy changes, so this tool runs the risk of people comparing apples with oranges and adding more mud to the murky waters of spin.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see if this is a big hit. Or a big flop.

Given the general ennui about all things election, it may be the latter. 

the archbishop of canterbury

In a rare interview:

He goes on: "Outside my front door in Lambeth I see a society    so dramatically different from across the river or in Canterbury.  There is a level of desolation and loneliness and dysfunctionality which many people have very little concept of. If you sense that the world you live in is absolutely closed, that for all sorts of reasons you are unable to move outside, if nothing gives you  aspirations, there is an imprisonment in that, there is a kind of resentment that comes with that and a frustration that can boil over in violence and street crime."

Inequality is, in his view, just a symptom of a wider moral vacuum. "I don't think that the huge wealth of some is the cause (of the problems), it is more that society just wants to reward business success and celebrity. If you're a teenager in Peckham neither of those are easily accessible."

Indeed, he is horrified by the triviality of modern society.  "We are too celebrity obsessed, we have got into a dangerous cycle where fame is an objective in itself."

His children are 11 and 19. "I sometimes sit with them and watch The X Factor and it is heartbreaking to see people who plead with judges to get through because they just want to be famous so  intensely," he says.

Broadcasters, he argues, are contributing to the moral decline. "There is a gladiatorial streak in the entertainment business now where increasingly humiliation is the way forward. That worries me, there is a kind of sadism that can't be good for us. It is the building-up and the pulling-down of contestants, it is pushing people into situations where they expose their vulnerability, encouraging a culture of shamelessness."

The interview continues with some reflections on how modern society is damaging children, and I couldn't help thinking that in a few days, he will face the most damaged, petulant, destructive, shameless and self-centred group of children one could hope to meet within the church: the ECUSA's House of Bishops.

But more on that later.

shiny new suppositories

We know Pallywood, we've seen Hezbollywood, now comes the first French farce feature from the Sadr City Film Festival.

Très avant-garde. 

Et bien instructif.

(via Tim Blair)

Update: Yep it's on. Ace of Spade has the correction you have, when you're not having a correction. And Hot Air has a round up - other bloggers have picked up the Sadr City Film Festival tour and Brian at Snapped Shot seems to have found evidence of another Flat Fatima ruse.

holy pecs

Now it's shirtless Mormons.

The Church of the Latter Day Saints discovers that sex sells (and I will also concur with See-Dubya on "the supremely creepy quote from the gay Catholic priest.")

Seguing on the theme of public nudity the See notes:

Why is there an assumption that more acceptance of public nudity is a healthy thing, or that the abandonment of social codes that evolved over thousands of years is “growing up”? Putting aside serious conservative concerns–like the importance of modesty as a bulwark value of the traditional family–as we’ve seen in unforgettable photos at several Bay Area protests, there’s See Dub’s Iron Law of Public Nudity: people most interested in exposing themselves are almost always the people with the least justification for doing so.

Indeed.

It's a bit like Saint's Law of Sex: people most vociferous about keeping others out of their bedrooms are almost always the most vociferous about telling others about what goes on in theirs and their right to view what goes on in others'.

riding the waves

I am headed to Amish country today with a bunch of Orthodox men for a kind of old-fashioned guy’s day out adventure — various bonding rites planned, including something involving hot-rod tractors and lots of noise. However, I will keep my reporter’s hat on and I’ll let you know if I meet any Amish people who are speaking in tongues. OK?

Terry Mattingly on the pentecostal wave in the Amish community.

It seems, Benny Hinn has competition.  But with such a small community - the largest Amish community is at Lancaster with some 25,000 members - and a potential to tithe in soy beans and corn, I don't think he'd much care and just wave them off.

Although as Terry notes, this could potentially be a wave goodbye for the Amish.

heh

Funny.

this one, is for all who quiver

At the mention of the 'religious right':

Helsinki, Sep. 12, 2007 (CWNews.com)  - Europe's first Islamic political party has formed in Finland.

The Finnish Islamic Party plans to collect 5,000 signatures in order to qualify for official registration by the end of the year. Counting on support from the 55,000 Muslims living in Finland, the party anticipates some success in next year's municipal elections as well as in the 2011 parliamentary elections. Party spokesman Abdullah Tammi acknowledged to reporters that to date the party has enrolled only a few dozen members.

The Finnish Islamic Party platform supports a ban on alcohol sales, the option for Muslim children to be excused from school music classes and outings to swimming pools, legal status for ritual animal killing and male circumcision, and the eventual introduction of shari'a law in Finland. Tammi added that the purpose of Sharia law was to prevent crime.

The Helsingin Sanomat has much the same report.

Yeah right. Music classes and excursions to swimming pools for kids "go against the Muslim faith." 

Too bad if they might be good or even fun for kids.

Just remember, it's from little seeds that big trees grow.  Either that, or a pile of toxic weeds.

there you go

It only took a day  or so. The beginning of the clawback.

The promise from Mr Howard means, if re-elected, he will spend his final months as a politician on the back bench, far from the high profile he has had throughout his 30 years in public life.

No it doesn't.  It means Howard has no intention of giving up the Prime Ministership unless he gets voted out - either by his party or the electorate.

right back at ya, dude

Ruth Gledhill has a corker of a post highlighting one of the funniest (and best) things I have ever heard from a U.S. Televangelist.

From WorldNetDaily:

WASHINGTON – An American television evangelist has turned the tables on al-Qaida terrorist leader