Phyllis Schlafly Takes On The Judges

She is well known in Washington.  Phyllis Schlafly has been a conservative activist for a long time. She is the mother of six children and almost single handedly stopped the ERA from becoming the law of the land.  And now she is taking on “supremacist” judges.  Her book, The Supremacists: The Tyranny of Judges and How to Stop It is now available in paperback.  I came upon a recent interview of her at the SCOTUSblog.  The interview is posted in two parts (part 1, part 2.) 

 

She makes the point that judges need to interpret the law and if they do, then party affiliation in not important.  However as judges assume policy making decisions, then the case can be made that the people have a right to elect them to office.  She likens the judges to baseball umpires.

The baseball analogy is a good one, and I used it in my book and speeches before Chief Justice Roberts used it. Nobody disputed that the Cardinals won the game that put them in this year’s World Series against the Tigers when the umpire ended the game with a called third strike. But if the umpire had called the batter out after two strikes, the fans would not have tolerated it because the umpire cannot change the rules of the game.

What is Truth?

Hugh Hewitt had the most remarkable interview that I have heard on his show last night.  He was interviewing Andrew Sullivan, self described conservative, Catholic and homosexual, who has written a new book entitled “The Conservative Soul.”  Here is the audio link (August 25, 2006) and here is the transcript.  If there was ever a more judgmental author, I do not know.  From the start, Hugh’s softball questions provoked a firestorm of accusations about the “Inquisitions” and the like.  And things just got worse from there.  But to listen to Andrew, one would be lead to believe that being a Catholic means being guided first and foremost by one’s conscience.  One would believe that Vatican II abrogated previous Church teaching. 

HH: No, I just was asking…for your self-identification as a Catholic, which leads me to my next question. Do you consider yourself under the authority of Benedict, or before him, John Paul II?

AS: What do you mean under the authority? I’m not legally under his authority, no.

HH: No, under a moral authority.

AS: As I say in the book, I am obliged, as all Catholics are, to take his teachings extremely seriously. But the truth of the Church is based on three things, and you’re not a Catholic, so you may not know this. But the Second Council said quite clearly that the authority that we are under as Catholics is both the Pope, secondly tradition and scripture, and third, what Catholics call the Sensus Fidelium, which is the sense of the faithful, the experience of faith in everyday life. It’s the tripartheid way in which Catholics understand their faith. And you’re not a Catholic, are you.

HH: But an ordinary orthodox Roman Catholic Church would assent to the idea that Benedict as Pope has teaching authority over their lives, and that bishops can, in fact, interpret scriptures and issue orders which ought to be followed by the faithful. That’s a…

AS: No, you’re wrong. You’re completely wrong. The Second Council was very clear, and I’ll say it again. They absolutely should respect and listen to carefully, as I have done, and as you know, the Pope, this Pope’s first encyclical I greeted with great delight, and explained and wrote about, and supported, and thought was quite beautiful. We have every duty to listen with great respect to what the Church teaches. But we are also supposed to listen and read the Gospels, and the tradition of the Church, and we’re also supposed to look for God in our own lives, and understand how God impacts our actual lives. So there’s three authorities for Catholics, not just the Pope. That’s the first Vatican Council, which I know you regret. But the Second Vatican Council said something very different, and that’s what’s now the Catholic faith.

The Second Vatican Council was a pastoral council and did not change any of the Church’s teaching on the authority of the pope or the magisterium.  Perhaps the most interesting was Andrew’s reference to Jesus standing before Pilate.

AS: I’m saying that the part of that book that I’m talking about is how truth…I mean, what is…and the great question that Pilate asked, what is truth? The truth is not quite as easy and as simple as we sometimes think it is.

The point is that Pilate was standing before Truth and he refused to acknowledge that Truth.  He was willfully ignorant to the authority that was Jesus because of His divine nature.  It really was “black and white.” 

I believe that Andrew views everything through the prism of gay glasses.  All religion and politics are measured against this standard and Andrew needs to bend and distort even the truth of his Catholic faith to sooth his soul.  So when the Church is clear in its teaching on sexual matters (and particularly homosexuality) Andrew needs to mitigate the authority by suggesting that the individual conscience prevails on such matters.  It is not about submission to the truth, it’s about condemning the Truth, like Pilate.

The entire interview is worth the read and listening really enlightens one to the nature of the man.

Answer the Call!

The Catholic Men’s Fellowship of Northeast Ohio is hosting a Catholic Men’s Conference Saturday December2, 2006 at Archbishop Hoban High School in Akron, Ohio.  I’m linking a .pdf of the conference materials here.  This has been a great conference in previous years and looks great for this year as well.  I would encourage all to attend.

Here’s Rich on the Treadmill

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Madam, May I Piss In This Stall?

Move over gals.  It doesn’t matter that you may have to wait in line to get into the bathroom. Things are going to get a bit more crowded.  You see, the New York City Transportation Authority has deemed that transvestites may use any bathroom they damn well please.  Here’s a link to the story.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed to allow riders to use MTA rest rooms “consistent with their gender expression,” the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund announced yesterday.

The group filed a complaint against the MTA on behalf of a 70-year-old telephone repair technician who was arrested for using the women’s room at Grand Central Terminal.

The technician, who is assigned to the terminal by Verizon, was born Henry McGuinness but now goes by Helena Stone.

“I’m a 24-hour woman,” Stone declared proudly. “I just feel like a woman and I like to wear women’s clothes.”

You see, the progressive liberals, who practice human secularism as a religion, are incapable of denying this man(?) his “rights.”  In a religion where radical individualism and “tolerance” are two of the great virtues, the left are powerless to admit this man’s(?) perversion and deny his request.  They are obligated by their faith to accept his perversion and gender confusion as normally as one might accept some sort of fashion preference.  Hence, they certainly cannot make this man(?) uncomfortable regardless of the fact that thousands of real women may be uncomfortable or inconvenienced.

And for goodness sake, could someone call the fashion police?  The outfit that Hank (I mean Helena) is sporting is just awful, even for a working man (or gal.)

Methodists Flock to Jewish Shepherd

I am amazed at the level of theological confusion seemingly present in the mainline Protestant churches today.  I’ve blogged in previous posts about things such as gender neutral references to God (because such masculine references lead to wife beating), ordination of openly gay clergy, etc.  Today I found an article that confirms the deep state of disorientation in these churches.  The headline reads: “Methodists hire rabbi as spiritual guide.”

That’s because they are led by a Jewish rabbi, part of an unconventional effort to bring to the conference what church officials admit is a much-needed infusion of spiritual renewal. Rabbi Joshua Martin Siegel was hired in September to be the conference’s “rabbinic adviser” to provide spiritual guidance from a traditional Jewish perspective to conference staff, pastors and congregants.

“Much of what is American Methodism has become more cultural than anything else,” said the Rev. Roderick J. Miller, the conference’s programming director. “We want to go beyond that. To be a Christian means to go deeper and wider in furthering our knowledge of God and in living it out. Rabbi Siegel can help us recover some of the spirituality that has been lost here.”

So let me get this straight.  The Methodist church has become “cultural” [read apostate] and the Reverend wants “to go beyond that.”  Go beyond what?  You are lost.  The correct move is back to ancient Christianity for you guidance, not to reinvent the Methodists as one of the lost tribes of Israel. 

For goodness sake, is this not obvious?  Christianity is not about being spiritual; it’s about binding oneself to Christ and hiding in His wounds.  Yes the Jews are God’s chosen people and we can learn from them.  But Christians are not Jews.  We accept Jesus as the Messiah and this enlightens and informs our readings of the Old Testament.

The rabbi informs us that:

“…Christianity is really just “Judaism for the gentiles,” and he feels comfortable providing spiritual support to Christians. “God gave his wisdom to the Jewish people within a certain tribal structure,” said Siegel, 73. “If he truly is the God of the universe, it makes sense that he would need to express himself in different ways to different people.”

I would love to hear the explanation that ”Christianity is Judaism for gentiles.”  I’m sure that all this makes sense to the Methodists.

More Gay Whining

It seems that the US Catholic bishops are preparing a statement regarding guidelines for the ministry to gay Catholics.  We can only pray that the effort exceeds that which accompanied the pastoral letter “Always Our Children” several years past.  This statement was rebuked by several faithful bishops after its release.  The current document is quoted:

The document explains the Catholic view of same-sex attraction as “disordered,” emphasizing that sexuality was given as a gift from God to draw men and women together to marry and have children. Gay relationships “violate the true purpose of sexuality,” as does adultery and contraception, the authors wrote.

The document also responds to criticism that the church’s position is unjust.

Catholic teaching is based on “objective moral norms,” not prejudice, the authors wrote. Western societies don’t recognize this reasoning because they generally embrace “moral relativism,” while promoting “hedonism” and “an obsession with the pursuit of pleasure,” the document states.

On the topic of therapy to change same-sex attraction, the proposed guidelines state that there is no scientific consensus on whether the counseling is effective, so there is “no moral obligation to attempt it.” However, gays should learn to live chastely and celibately, the drafters wrote.

Of course there is the usual indignation from the subversive gay elements within the Church.

Sam Sinnett, president of DignityUSA, which represents gay and lesbian Catholics, said it was clear the document was prepared “by none of us for whom it is intended.”

“They speak in willful ignorance about people in same-gender families. They speak in willful ignorance about homosexuality – sexuality in general,” Sinnett said. “They are continuing to discriminate against us.”

You see, it’s all about “us” in the gay subculture.  Everyone is “ignorant” or bigoted if they cannot embrace a gay lifestyle.  For the love of Pete, have the intellectual honesty to admit that since you cannot embrace the teaching of the Church (all of them, not just the easy ones) you are not Catholic.  There area plenty of Protestant churches bleeding members (because of their liberal social theology) that would love to have new worshipers.

Is Germany Awakening?

 

 

Seems that there may be some movement back to the Christian roots in Germany (HT Closed Cafeteria)

So some may be surprised at the receptivity in Germany this week to visiting Pope Benedict XVI’s message: Europe needs to rethink the thesis that secularism and economic progress go hand in hand. Coincidentally, some of Europe’s stalwart secularists are challenging the idea that religious reasoning inevitably retreats from the public sphere as countries modernize.

Germans themselves are modeling a growing acceptance of religion’s role in shaping society:

• Head of state Angela Merkel – the daughter of a Protestant minister – this month renewed calls to include a specific reference in the EU constitution to Europe’s Christian heritage.

• There are more theologians in the German parliament than in any other Western parliament, including the US Congress. And when the last government cabinet was sworn in, nearly every member – instead of the usual 50 percent – opted for the religious version of the inaugural oath, according to Karsten Voigt, coordinator of German-American relations at the foreign ministry.

• In a recent survey gauging the perceived credibility of different professions, pastors were ranked in the Top 5.

• German students must take either ethics or religion classes, though Berlin recently made ethics compulsory, and religion optional. Mr. Voigt reports that “more and more” high schoolers in the state of Brandenburg are opting for religion too.

• Church attendance is no longer declining, and in one state the number of young churchgoers is going up, says Voigt.

Judas Iscariot

The Vatican Information Service posted B16’s recent comments concerning Judas and the mystery of salvation.

JUDAS ISCARIOT: MYSTERY OF DIVINE PLAN OF SALVATION

VATICAN CITY, OCT 18, 2006 (VIS) – During today’s general audience, Benedict XVI dedicated his remarks to the figure of Judas Iscariot, and to his successor in the group of the twelve Apostles, Matthias. The audience was held in St. Peter’s Square in the presence of more than 30,000 people.

  “The name of Judas Iscariot,” said the Pope, “always appears last in the lists of the Twelve … [which also] recall the fact of his betrayal as having already been accomplished.” However, he added, the evangelists do emphasize Judas’ status as an Apostle “to all effects.”

  “We ask ourselves why Jesus chose this man and put His trust in him. … Even more uncertain is the mystery concerning his eternal fate.” However “it is not for us to judge his gesture, putting ourselves in the place of God, Who is infinitely merciful and just.”

  “Why did he betray Jesus?” the Holy Father asked. “Some people highlight the question of his greed for money. Others favor a messianic explanation: Judas was disappointed to see that Jesus’ plans did not include the political-military liberation of his country.”

  Benedict XVI pointed out how the evangelists explain Judas’ betrayal “going beyond the historical reasons,” and attributing it to “the personal responsibility of Judas who miserably submitted to a temptation of the Evil One. … Jesus treated him like a friend but, in His invitations to follow Him, … did not force people’s will or protect them from the temptations of Satan, respecting human freedom. Truly, there are many ways in which the human heart can be perverted. The only way to obviate them is … to be in full communion with Jesus.”

  Judas’ repentance “degenerated into desperation and thus became self-destruction. For us, this is an invitation never to despair of divine mercy.”

  Even Judas “negative role” is part of God’s mysterious plan of salvation, said the Pope, explaining how “God takes Judas’ inexcusable gesture as an occasion for the total donation of the Son for the redemption of the world.” Judas was replaced by Matthias “of whom we know nothing more, save that he was a witness to the entire earthly teaching of Jesus, remaining faithful to Him unto the end,” his election “almost compensating the betrayal. Here,” said Pope Benedict, “is a final lesson: if even in the Church there is no lack of unworthy and false Christians, it is up to each of us to counterbalance the evil they commit with our own clear witness of Jesus Christ.”

  At the end of the audience, the Pope made reference to yesterday’s accident on Rome’s underground railway system in which one person was killed and 236 were injured. “At this painful moment,” he said, “I am especially close to those affected by this tragic event. To them I express my affection and give assurances of a special recollection in my prayers.”

Jesus Beat His Wife

This is just too much.  For the love of Pete.  How can the Anglicans be so wrong so often?  Here is the latest:

Church of England leaders warned yesterday that calling God ‘He’ encourages men to beat their wives.

They told churchgoers they must think twice before they refer to God as ‘He’ or ‘Lord’ because of the dangers that it will lead to domestic abuse. ¼br /> In new guidelines for bishops and priests on such abuse, they blamed “uncritical use of masculine imagery” for encouraging men to behave violently towards women.

They also warned that clergy must reconsider the language they use in sermons and check the hymns they sing to remove signs of male oppression.

The recommendation – fully endorsed by Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams – puts a question mark over huge swathes of Christian teaching and practice.

It throws doubt on whether the principal Christian prayer should continue to be known as the Lord’s Prayer and begin ‘Our Father’.

That settles it.  Jesus was married and beat his wife.  Is there any doubt that Anglicans have become a parody of themselves?Š