text:
Our Papa brings it with this extraordinary reflection on sex abuse.
Have I mentioned that I love this man?
Catholic in the Public Square
Our Papa brings it with this extraordinary reflection on sex abuse.
Have I mentioned that I love this man?
To join the conversation about How the West Really Lost God, a New Theory of Secularization or to order a copy, go here.
How the West Really Lost God, a New Theory of Secularization, is an important book. It's the kind of book that is bound to provoke discussion. It will be lauded and excoriated.
That's because it deals with important issues and advances an argument for a new explanation of much-discussed social trends. A lot of people have a social or professional stake in the old-school explanations of why secularism has taken hold in the West. Many social scholars have based their life's work on the gradualist explanation of secularism.
Social scientist gadflies, such as Dr Richard Dawkins, are attempting to base new socio/political movements at least tangentially on those same explanations. When someone comes along and advances a new theory about what has become a kind of social science cant, the reactions will be strong and varied.
This is exactly what has happened with Mary Eberstadt's fine book, How the West Really Lost God, a New Theory of Secularization. Ms Eberstadt's premise is that the rise of secularism is linked to the demise of the family. She does a good job of establishing a historical correlation between these two trends, going back hundreds of years.
The theory she advances in her book is that this is more than a correlation, that the destruction of the family leads directly to a lessening of religious fervor, specifically as it relates to Christianity. In other words, she's saying that strong families buttress the practice of religion and the loss of family weakens it. She is saying that the loss of family, which began with the industrial revolution, is the primary cause of the rise of secularism.
I am not sure exactly what I think about this. I agree that the correlation between the loss of family and the rise of secularism is there. I also agree that single people go to church less.
I do think she Ms Eberstadt is correct that the loss of family is a real factor in the rise of secularism. But I tend to think that there are economic forces at work here that underlie the loss of family that are probably the true, root, cause. I also think that the two things feed on one another. Declining religion also leads to a decline in family.
My opinion, which is not based on research, but is just my opinion, is that one of the main reasons that a smaller percentage of single people than marrieds go to church in today's society is because they feel compelled to engage in sexual activities which the church forbids. Notice I said "compelled." Sex is a powerful, even overwhelming, drive in young people. Young human beings go through a period of years in which their hormones are running so strong that no matter what they're doing, sex is in their minds somewhere.
However, much of the sexual behavior they engage in today is being pushed on them by adults. Sex education, the media and even their own parents push them toward sexual awareness before they want it and then toward sexual activity before they are ready for it. They are often coerced into sexual activity at a point when they are actually scared of it and would, if allowed to make free choices, much rather just talk and giggle about it for a few years.
They are also forced, by the way adolescent social life is currently constructed, (again by adults) to engage in sexual activity whether they want to or not in order to be one of the group. At that point, their sexuality is no longer their own and it is not so much a response to raging hormones as it is a coerced situation.
Progressive churches often fail to offer a bulwark or any sort against this, while traditional churches, just tell young people to stay pure and not engage in sex outside of marriage. Church does not give kids, even those in intact families, the resources to deal with the cultural landslide of influences pushing them into early sexual activity. What churches do is make them uncomfortable about what they are doing. They are betrayed by progressive churches who are actually part of the problem. They are simply given mandates with no real comprehension of what they are facing or support in facing it from traditional churches. It is easier, once they reach the age where they can decide, just not to go.
Once they are married, they usually find it possible to comply with church sexual teachings and their social group, both at once. The dissonance is removed. They can go to church again.
Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that. All this sexual activity weakens or even destroys the bonds that sex forms between spouses. It contributes to the rise of unwed births, and once people are married, their prior sexual promiscuity makes it easier for them to break their vows.
People aren't as committed to their husbands and wives because they've left too many pieces of themselves with their priors. They find it easy to think of divorce in times of trouble. They also find it easy to engage in extramarital sex. Divorce is just as easy as sex for people like this, and for the same reasons.
The upshot of this is that more and more children grow up in partial families with only one distracted and overwhelmed parent. They may never have seen their father. They may not know who their father is. They may grow up in homes wrecked by divorce with absentee fathers or parents who hate one another and are constantly dragging one another into court over custody and child support.They can't form families of their own when they grow up because they don't have any idea what a family is.
This is more than the loss of family. It is the destruction of normal child parent relationships and the introduction of acute insecurity, abandonment and isolation on a primal level into children's developing years. It leads to partially dismembered adults who cannot form normal permanent relationships or commit to any other person.
Meanwhile, the Church tells them that God is their heavenly father, the church is their home, and heaven is their ultimate home.
The best reaction those metaphors are going to get from children who've grown up in one of today's chaotic, shattered and almost non-existent families, is huh? More likely they will respond with a rejecting anger.
After all, if Daddy is a cipher — or worse — then who is God the Father?
How the West Really Lost God, a New Theory of Secularization is an important book. It dares to break step with the accepted explanations for how we got here. The fact that it also raises questions as well as answers them, is a mark of its relevance to today's world.
I think anyone interested in discussing why Western Civilization has turned toward an increasingly totalitarian form of secularism should read it.
Senator Harry Reid, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, is leading the charge to overturn the Hobby Lobby decision.
From The Washington Post:
"One thing we're going to do during this work period, sooner rather than later, is to ensure that women's lives are not determined by virtue of five white men," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on Tuesday. "This Hobby Lobby decision is outrageous, and we're going to do something about it. People are going to have to walk down here and vote, and if they vote with the five men on the Supreme Court, I think it's — they're going to have — be treated unfavorably come November with the elections."
Senator Reid can make this audacious claim because Hobby Lobby v Burwell was adjudicated on a statute, The Religious Freedom Act. What Senator Reid, and, according to him the rest of the Senate Democrats, wants to do is basically repeal the Religious Freedom Act. I only have a few points to make at this juncture.
We are trapped between our own wishy-washy advocates who make speeches, gather votes based their "stands" and then do nothing, and these passionate, committed opponents who are willing to stake their careers on attacking religious freedom and the sanctity of human life. It is simply not an effective tactic for us to continue demonizing our opposition while we settle for nothing but empty promises and political grandstanding from our supporters.
We are being used.
Meanwhile, the other side of this fight has real political warriors with fire in their bellies who are willing to stake everything on defending their viewpoint
I am going to suggest you do two things today and one thing tomorrow.
For today, write both your United State's Senators and demand that they fight publicly and behind closed doors to stop this re-write of the The Religious Freedom Act. It does not matter if they are Democrats, Republicans or Independents, they need to hear from you. Second, write your member of Congress and demand that they stop sitting on their hands and take action against the HHS Mandate.
That's for today.
For tomorrow, check with your state political party about when precinct meetings will be held next spring. Put the date on your calendar and plan to go.
For Republicans, Google "(name of your state) Republican Party" or (name of your state) Republican Committee. For Democrats, Google, "(name of your state) Democratic Party". Examples: Oklahoma Republican Party, or, Oklahoma Republican Committee. Oklahoma Democratic Party.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, made the statement below at a 4-day meeting hosted by British Foreign Secretary William Hague and UN Special Envoy Angeline Jolie.
Cardinal Nichols' comments address a several issues that I think are important ones for the Church to take up if we want to end sexual violence.
He deplored the de facto cultural acceptance of sexual violence. This is a key component in the issue everywhere on the globe, including here in the United States. Rape is treated as entertainment in this country. The signals our culture gives about sexual violence, are, at best, mixed. We sometimes go into a frenzy of indignation over a particular crime of sexual violence. But more often, we attack the victims and treat rape as entertainment.
There is a reason why young men video themselves committing gang rapes and then put those videos on the internet to brag. There is a reason why girls are cautioned to be careful what they drink at fraternity parties or to stay away from the jock dorms on campus. There is a reason rape victims don't talk to their pastors or tell people in their churches what has happened to them.
It all circles back to this one thing: The cultural acceptance, including the direct promotion and exploitation of, sexual violence against women and girls.
He also said — although not nearly strongly enough —that sexual violence is a sin. Potential rapists and their victims both need to hear this. I once put together a meeting of the heads of the various religious groups in Oklahoma for the express purpose of asking them to call sexual violence a sin. My reason was simple: I had been going to church, sitting in pews, for decades, and I had never once heard this preached. This is a moral black hole on the part of the churches, and it has fed into the cultural acceptance of sexual violence.
Finally, Cardinal Nichols gives one of the most accurate descriptions of why sexual violence is such a fundamental crime against the humanity of its victims. Here's what he said,
Human sexuality is a strong and vital component of our humanity and of each person's nature. The exercise of that sexuality, in sexual relations, is something that touches the deepest aspect of our identity and personhood. A fundamental aspect of the Church's teaching about sex is that sexual acts must always take place within the context of authentic freedom. This is because, properly understood, human sexuality has the capacity to unite two people, body and spirit, at the deepest level, in a completeness of self-giving that has within it the call to a permanent commitment between them and which, of its nature is open towards the creation of new human life. What is most relevant in this teaching for us today is that there is no place in sexual relations for brutality, aggression or any kind of de-humanisation of a person.
This Initiative is concerned to highlight that the use of sexual violence is always and absolutely a violation of human freedom and of every rational standard of human decency. And what is more, its de facto cultural acceptance in many places and in so many circumstances contributes significantly to the degradation of women in particular. Sexual behaviour is so often the key litmus test of the honour and respect given to women either in conformity to moral standards or in defiance of them.
I can say without equivocation that the church's (I am speaking here of the entire body of Christ in every denomination) easy acceptance of sexual violence and its willingness to condemn the victim while harboring the perpetrator led me directly into 17 years of defiance against both organized religion and God Himself. It made me into an ardent advocate for legal abortion.
I do not think I am unique in this.
It literally took an act of God to change me about this. I was so damaged by what I had seen in the churches that I asked God in all sincerity if He hated women. I don't often get direct answers to my prayers, but I got one then. That answer bound me to God in a way that nothing else could have. It has also made me fearless about speaking out about clerical disregard of sexual violence. I know — know — that this indifference is not only wrong, it is deeply sinful.
It means a lot when a Prince of the Church speaks out against sexual violence. We need to see a lot more of it. His remarks are directed at the use of sexual violence as a weapon against cultures and societies in warfare. I apply them to all sexual violence in every circumstance.
I've highlighted a few points in the text below.
From Vatican Radio:
Please find below the full text of the address by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, to the conference, delivered on 12th June 2014:
Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative
"I am privileged to have this opportunity to speak at this most important Initiative and to be invited to do so from the perspective of my Catholic Faith. In doing so, I offer my fullest congratulations to the Foreign Secretary in particular, for his dedication to this crucial cause.
The unbelievable surge of sexual violence against both women and men in parts of our world is manifested in the shocking facts well documented in this Conference. I doubt though whether even the most graphic accounts of this evil are capable of conveying the sheer horrors which are generated by sexual violence in conflict and warfare. The damage which is done to the human dignity of the large numbers of victims of sexual violence is so radical and so permanent that it defies description.
It is not the random act of men who have, for a while, lost all sense of decency, which defies description but the deliberate and ordered tactic of oppression, domination and destruction which is at the noxious heart of sexual violence. It is to the shame of our world that the systematic use of sexual violation is still today, in some places, considered as a duty of soldiers, an order that they must carry out. This horror is further compounded by the fact that the stigma attached to sexual violation often falls on the victim and not on the perpetrator. What terrible collusion is indicated by that fact! The public tolerance of sexual violence leads to the inversion of human decency; it reinforces other forms of oppression and undermines the morals which uphold the rights of the human person.
I wish to make three points regarding the moral and religious framework which, I believe, can strengthen this fight against Sexual Violence in Conflict.
The first is the clear principle that every human activity is subject to moral principles and judgment if it is not to lose its truly human character and sink into the realms of the amoral, the dark hole of a subhuman wilderness. This principle applies to situations of warfare and conflict. No declaration of war – whether arguably legitimate or not – excuses those who fight from their obligation to observe fundamental moral principles.
In Catholic teaching this is described as 'jus in bello', that just principles must be observed even in warfare. The teaching states: 'the Church and human reason both assert the permanent validity of the moral law in armed conflict. The fact that war has regrettably broken out does not mean that everything becomes licit between the warring parties (CCC 2312). It refers explicitly to 'non-combatants, wounded soldiers, prisoners' who must be respected and treated humanely.' It continues 'Actions contrary to the law of nations and to its universal principles are crimes, as are the orders that command such actions. Blind obedience does not suffice to excuse those who carry them out' (2313).
History has many examples of the pursuit of war criminals. It is also has many instances of the failure to do so. In this Initiative, the measures being proposed and pursued to strengthen the legal frameworks for the pursuit and prosecution of all war criminals are fully supported by the principles of morality and social justice and must be given widespread support. War is no excuse. The demands of justice remain in place. A crime is a crime, whether committed in the context of conflict or not.
And sexual violence is always a crime; it is always an immoral act.
The second point I draw from Catholic moral thinking and teaching is this.
Human sexuality is a strong and vital component of our humanity and of each person's nature. The exercise of that sexuality, in sexual relations, is something that touches the deepest aspect of our identity and personhood. A fundamental aspect of the Church's teaching about sex is that sexual acts must always take place within the context of authentic freedom. This is because, properly understood, human sexuality has the capacity to unite two people, body and spirit, at the deepest level, in a completeness of self-giving that has within it the call to a permanent commitment between them and which, of its nature is open towards the creation of new human life. What is most relevant in this teaching for us today is that there is no place in sexual relations for brutality, aggression or any kind of de-humanisation of a person.
This Initiative is concerned to highlight that the use of sexual violence is always and absolutely a violation of human freedom and of every rational standard of human decency. And what is more, its de facto cultural acceptance in many places and in so many circumstances contributes significantly to the degradation of women in particular. Sexual behaviour is so often the key litmus test of the honour and respect given to women either in conformity to moral standards or in defiance of them.
What is clear, therefore, is that the Church wholeheartedly backs every initiative to prevent sexual violence being perpetrated against anyone, anywhere and under any circumstances. The justice at the heart of human sexual relations must be respected as integral to all justice, even in conflict and warfare.
I am proud today to be able to point to the significant work carried out by many religiously motivated people in the fight against sexual violence in warfare and its dreadful consequences. I salute especially the work of religious sisters, in many countries, who for decades have dedicated themselves to this work, without seeking reward or praise. They do so as part of their commitment to justice in our world today. And we are richer for their efforts, along with the efforts of many others, too. This enterprising work generates the kind of wealth without which our world cannot survive. They are, in my view, at the top of the world's rich list!
The third point I wish to make flows directly from this notion of integral justice as our greatest wealth.
In the efforts of this Initiative to prevent sexual violence, we rightly speak of wanting to protect the human rights of everyone, especially the most vulnerable and the victims of this terrible form of abuse. In order for this language of human rights, and the framework it offers, to be robust, I believe we are helped by clarity about its foundations. The entry of human rights into the international legal framework is largely welcomed. But human rights themselves do not derive from a legal system, nor a political authority, or a state. The dignity of every person, and the pattern of rights which flow from that dignity, are inherent in the person, herself or himself. They are inalienable. Often, of course, there are choices to be made between competing human rights and difficult decisions ensue. But some rights are more immediate, more fundamental than others. I believe that this priority of human rights can best be seen when they are understood in the light of their ultimate origin.
The dignity of every person arises from within their nature and that nature is most clearly understood as deriving from its Creator, from the mystery of God. Here the light of faith sharpens our rational understanding, it deepens our sense of who we are and the dignity which is properly ours. And in this God-given dignity, the right to life itself and the right to bodily integrity are fundamental, as is the right to religious freedom. The violation of that bodily integrity in sexual violence is therefore a most fundamental denial of human dignity and a most gross breach of a person's human rights. It is a crime which ought to be eradicated with all vigour.
Sexual violence as an instrument of warfare and conflict is a deep wound in the body of humanity, to borrow a phrase of Pope Francis. That it is as old as humanity is a cause for our lasting shame. That this Initiative is daily growing in strength, that it is beginning to engender a common will to say 'no more, never again' is a source of real encouragement. That it is producing the statutes and instruments by which perpetrators will be prosecuted and punish is a measure of its initial success. That it will in time challenge and change the cultures which tacitly support these crimes and heap the stigma of shame on its victims is a cause for real hope. I congratulate all involved and I assure you of my full support."
Oklahoma was first settled when the United States government consigned the Five Civilized Tribes to the eastern half of what was then a territory. The government promised the tribes that this land would remain theirs forever. The Five Civilized Tribes are the Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations.
The law the United States Congress passed to do this was called the Indian Removal Act. This was in 1830. The Trail of Tears took place after the Treaty of New Echota in 1835.
President Andrew Jackson ignored a Supreme Court ruling when he forced the Cherokees from their homes and sent them on a forced march of almost 2,000 miles. The ruling, which resulted from a court challenge filed by the Cherokees, said he could not remove the Cherokees from their lands. President Jackson ignored the Court and used the military to moved most of the Cherokee Nation to Oklahoma Territory.
A few Cherokees managed to escape this forced removal. They still live in the area of their ancestral lands. My Cherokee ancestors were among these people who evaded removal.
Oklahoma Territory was first opened to white settlement in the first Land Run of 1889. The land run opened central Oklahoma for settlement. My great-grandparents participated in this run, but did not get land. They ended up with land later in Southwest Oklahoma, outside of what is now Lawton.
This is a poster from the first Fourth of July after the run.
I don't know what to make of the story of thousands of minors surging over the borders into the United States from Central American countries.
I haven't written about it because I'm still trying to understand it. I do know that Ft Sill in Oklahoma is being used to house some of these young people.
What I don't know, on the other hand, is elemental.
I don't know how long this has been going on. I don't know how much of what the media is reporting is hype of one sort or the other that is being generated because of the upcoming election. I don't know why these young people are choosing to do this. I don't know what is happening in their home countries that compels them. I don't know if this is organized. I don't know how many of them have families already in the US. I don't even know what the United States government is doing about it.
Given all that I don't know (which every salient fact) I can't write about it. What would I say?
I'm putting three videos below which discuss the situation.
The first video is from Catholic News Service.
The second is from Univision, which is a Spanish language television station. They've interviewed me numerous times down through the years, and I've found them to be very willing to let people have their say without editing. They do have a bias — which they state honestly — toward the concerns of their target audience.
The third video comes from Fox News. I chose them because they seem to give a good round-up here, and because they also have a clear bias, one which somewhat balances Univision.
I would advise against any of us thinking that we understand this situation or know how to address it effectively, based on these videos, or any of the news coverage I've seen.
I am guessing that an effective way of dealing with it lie in answers to questions that deal with the situation in the countries from which they come.
Maya Ibrahim
Meriam Ibrahim was sentenced to death when she was eight months pregnant for refusing to recant her Christian faith.
She is still unable to leave Sudan, due to what I consider to be trumped up charges by local officials.
She gave birth to her baby girl, who she named Maya, while she was in prison. Her captors forced her to give birth in chains.
Hopefully, Mrs Ibrahim and her family will be allowed to come to the United States soon and we can provide Maya — and Mrs Ibrahim as well — with the medical care needed to repair the injuries that were inflicted on them by this barbaric government.
From The Telegraph:
"I gave birth chained," she said, in her first description of the May 27 birth.
"Not cuffs – but chains on my legs. I couldn't open my legs so the women had to lift me off the table. I wasn't lying on the table."
When asked whether she was frightened that giving birth in such conditions could harm her baby, she said: "Something has happened to the baby."
She explained that her daughter had been left physically disabled – but the extent of the disability would not be clear until she was older.
"I don't know in the future whether she'll need support to walk or not," she said.
I know. I tell everyone not to call people names.
But there comes a time when "idiot" isn't a pejorative; it's an excuse.
Mr Limbaugh is doing his the-pope-is-a-marxist-communist-not-a-corporatist-like-me thing again. After reading this latest rather bizarre attack against the Holy Father, I am faced with three possibilities.
1. Mr Limbaugh has relapsed into his drug problem.
2. He's an idiot.
3. He is deliberately baiting the Vicar of Christ for ratings, despite the fact that a grade-school child could read the interview he's referencing and know that he's misquoting and miscasting what the Holy Father said.
Given the choices, I've decided that, in charity, I will give Mr Limbaugh the benefit of the doubt and assume that he's an idiot. I don't, for instance, think that the fact that he makes at least $70 million per year in salary, or that his net worth is approximately $400 million, has in any way messed with his mind.
What set Mr Limbaugh off on another of his attack-the-Holy-Father spiels is an interview Pope Francis gave to Il Messaggero on Sunday. Rather than try to untangle the web of misquotes and confabulation that Mr Limbaugh has spun, I'm going to quote a couple of highlights, then put Pope Francis' entire interview below and let you read it for yourself.
Here are what I think of as the lowlights from Mr Limbaugh's latest attack piece on my spiritual leader, Pope Francis.
"The 77-year-old pontiff gave an interview to Il Messaggero, Rome's local newspaper, to mark the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, a Roman holiday. He was asked about a blog post in the Economist magazine that said he sounded like a Leninist when he criticized capitalism and called for radical economic reform."
Oh, yeah, some obscure blog post in the Economist said he sounded like a Leninist, that got everybody riled up. We remember that. Don't you? I don't remember. Anyway, he said, "I can only say that the communists have stolen our flag. The flag of the poor is Christian. Poverty is at the center of the Gospel. Communists say that all this is communism. Sure, twenty centuries later. So when they speak, one can say to them: 'but then you are Christian'," he said, laughing.
I don't know if the pope is saying that Jesus was a communist. I mean some people could read it that way. He says the communists stole our flag, and if our flag is rooted in solving poverty, and the communists want to claim that's what they did, I mean, you connect the dots if you wish.
What Mr Limbaugh is doing here is quoting a misquote from an article headlined "Pope Says Communists are Closet Christians," and then responding to it with the assessment, I don't now if the pope is saying that Jesus was a Communist. I mean some people could read it that way."
Ok, so he doesn't know if Pope Francis is saying that Christ the Lord is a Communist? Are we supposed to believe that he's serious?
Maybe he's an idiot.
Or maybe this was an attempt to be sly and clever by attacking with innuendo.
You decide.
Me, I'm going with idiot, because, as I said, it's the kindest interpretation I can come up with.
Here, for those of you who would like to see it, is what the Holy Father actually said. It's the whole interview, without cuts or edits.
I highlighted the part about Communism so you can want go straight to it if you want. If you can find the place where the Pope Francis said or implied that Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a Communist, let me know. Frankly, I think that all you have to do to understand what Pope Francis is talking about is to remember that he's from a country where children live in garbage dumps and scavenge for survival; a country where Communists have tried to take over by appealing to these poorest of the poor and offering them help.
That, and read the interview yourself instead of miscasting misquotes in order to make a coarse point.
From Vatican Radio:
(Vatican Radio) The Rome daily "Il Messaggero" on Sunday published an interview with Pope Francis made by journalist Franca Giansoldati. In his responses to questions on a wide range of issues, the Holy Father focused, among other things, on the challenges of change in the current "era" and "culture," which has consequences for political, financial, and social life. The Church, along with various civil and social institutions, must respond to these challenges by protecting the common good and defending human life and dignity.
"Always protecting the common good, which includes "defending human life and dignity" is "the vocation of every politician," the Holy Father said. Today, the problem of politics – which Pope Francis called a "worldwide problem" – is that it "has been devalued, ruined by corruption, by the phenomenon of bribery." This "moral decay, not only in politics but also in the financial or social" sector, is driven by "change of epoch" that we are experiencing today, which is also "a change of culture." In this context, our anxieties about poverty are not concerned solely with material poverty.
"I can help someone who is hungry, so that they are no longer hungry," the Pope said. "But if someone has lost his job," he is involved in another kind poverty. He no longer has his dignity." Helping families in need, then, requires a "joint effort." Pope Francis recognized that this is an "uphill" journey, but insisted it must be undertaken, working above all for the good of children. "Starting a family is an effort," he said, because of economic difficulties that "social policy does not help." Commenting on the very low birth rates in Europe – which makes it seem "as if she were tired of being a mother, preferring to be grandmother," the Holy Father noted that the causes of this phenomenon lie not only in a "cultural drift marked by selfishness and hedonism," but also in the current economic crisis.
Pope Francis was asked how he would respond to being called "a communist." "I would only say that the Communists have stolen the banner… The banner of the poor is Christian; poverty is at the heart of the Gospel." The cause of the poor is pre-eminently a Christian cause. The Gospel cannot be understood "without understanding real poverty." At the same time, the Pope said there is also a "very beautiful 'poverty of the spirit'," being poor in the sight of God because God fills you up. The Gospel, in fact, is addressed indiscriminately to the poor and to the rich and "does not at all condemn those who are rich," but rather condemns their riches when they become the objects of idolatry.
To the question "Where is the Church of Bergoglio headed?" Pope Francis replied, "Thanks be to God, I don't have any church – I follow Christ. I didn't found anything." He went on to say "my decisions are the fruit of the meetings before the conclave. I have done nothing on my own."
The Church in Asia "is a promise," he said, turning to his upcoming trips to Korea, in August, and to Sri Lanka and the Philippines, in January. He also spoke about China, saying it represents "a great, a very great pastoral challenge."
During the interview, Pope Francis also took up a number of other themes already addressed during his pontificate, such as the place of women in the Church. Without an understanding of femininity, the Pope said, one "cannot understand the Church herself." Women "are the most beautiful thing God has made. The Church is a woman." He said that in doing theology, one must take account of this "femininity," and that the Church must continue to work on and develop a "theology of the woman."
Pope Francis spoke also about the corruption and the economic and sexual exploitation of children. The Pope speaks of incidents of child prostitution that were reported to him when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, involving even elderly men. "For me," the Pope said, "people who do this to young girls are paedophiles."
Finally, on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the patron saints of Rome, Pope Francis spoke about the everyday life and traditions of the City of which the Pope is the bishop. This role, the Holy Father said, is "the first service of Francis." Pope Francis said Rome shares many of the problems of other cities "such as Buenos Aires." He said a conference dedicated to the theme of "the pastoral care of the great cities" will take place in Barcelona in November. Pope Francis expressed his hope that the citizens of Rome, the inhabitants of a city "that should be a beacon in the world," would not lose "joy, hope, confidence, despite difficulties."
I don't remember if I told you this, but my grandmother was a Pentecostal Holiness Preacher.
She had a radio show (this was back in the 1940s and early 50s) that covered several states. She was what they called a "church planter." She went from place to place, starting churches, getting them up and going, then moving along to the next place. She planted several of the churches in the house district that I represented for 18 years.
I remember back when I was running for office the first time — this was in my anti-God period, when I was pro choice — many of the preachers in that district dedicated their Sunday morning sermons to excoriating me from the pulpit. If they'd stuck with the truth — I was pro choice and pro ERA — they might have beaten me.
But they didn't.
The attacks got crazy and crazier, as they called me everything but a nice person. I was a communist, a lesbian, a slut, a this and a that, a deez and a doz.
Finally, one Sunday, individual congregants in more than one church just spontaneously, without any coaxing from me, stood up in the middle of these sermons and started yelling at the various preachers. They said that they had known me since I was a baby, and the preacher was a liar.
You see, I was from there. These preachers were not.
I was Sister Lily's granddaughter. I was Charlie and Bessie's granddaughter. My Daddy worked at the Stockyards and they all knew him … and his brother. My uncle was in the Masons. They'd gone to school with my mother, me, my sister, my cousins.
That is the power of family.
I don't mean family connections. I mean the power of identity that comes with being connected by blood to a particular group of people.
Family is identity.
It is also home.
I remember (this post is going to be a series of reminiscences, so get ready) when I told my cousin, my Daddy's brother's kid, that I had converted to the Catholic Church. He told me, "It doesn't matter. Nothing you do matters. I love you."
When I was anti-God, it didn't matter.
When I was Oklahoma Director of NARAL, it didn't matter.
When I met Christ in a profound conversion experience and became a Christian, not one thing changed with my family.
When I started my life as a pro life advocate, it was still the same.
When I was in office, a stay at home mom, now, there was no difference.
My friends dumped me, accused me of "betraying" them for my followership of Christ. In fact, many of my bestest buds turned 180 hard about and began attacking me and lying about me the same way those preachers had done years before. The people who had attacked me and the people who had supported me switched places.
All except for family. Nothing changed with them. Nothing has ever changed. Nothing will ever change.
I remember when another cousin of mine decided to come out to us as gay. He got us together; was hyper tense when he called and told us to be at my aunt's house at a certain time and date. We were scared. We all thought he was going to tell us he had cancer or something.
When he did his big reveal — I'm gay (sniff) — we were dumbfounded. I mean, was he telling us that he thought we didn't already know???
That's family.
Families are where people who are for gay marriage and people who are opposed to gay marriage, where drug addicts and tee-totalers, Republican and Democrats, all love one another because, at bottom, they don't care about that stuff. Not when you're family.
My same cousin who told me he didn't care if I was Catholic had been a total male chauvinist pig back in the days when I was an all-out feminist activist. Didn't matter to either of us. He supported the Viet Nam war, I demonstrated against it. No problem.
Robert Frost said, "Home is where, when you go there, they have to take you in."
Home, in that sense, is family. And family is the people who don't care about your disgraces and aren't impressed with your successes. You don't have to clean up the house before they come. It's ok if you're overweight and you're still welcome to be there even if you've just been caught — again as we say in these parts — in bed with either a live boy or a dead girl.
I am well aware that there are families who spend all their time picking each other apart, who compete with one another and criticize one another and who actually are anything but comforting. That's not my family. My family is the "it doesn't matter" crowd who just sticks with you, even when they all flat-out know you are wrong.
But even those other sad families, the nit-picking, pretend-perfect families, still usually stick with one another against the outside world.
I could go on and on about family as a social construct or whatever.
But family is both more and less than that. Family is personal. it's about us as people. It's who we are, whether we want to be that or not. Divorce is a disaster because it shears family from itself. It atomizes these broad extended tribes of safety into us and them and takes away the only real emotional security to be had from other people in this life.
I can tell you for a fact that friends will throw you away like leftover fish because of your politics, religion or anything else they consider to be the elemental you. There are a few — I had three, now I'm down to two — friends who will stick, even when I go from anti-God to Catholic, from pro choice to pro life — but the rest of them will not.
Friends can become enemies in the time it takes to say Get Out!!
Friends, however much fun they may be, are not family.
And family, if it is torn asunder with betrayals, is not family, either.
The tragedy of our times is that we have atomized and particularized family to the point that many families provide no more loyalty and emotional safety than friendship. Families turn on one another now, too.
When that happens the world is a cold place where the winds of isolation and aloneness howl through people's lives and warp them into less than who they are meant to be. We become vicious and cowed, like a society of stray dogs. Like those stray dogs, we run in packs and we become dangerous to the order and safety that surrounds us.
Family provides security and safety. It keeps us safe and gives us confidence to go on adventures and take healthy risks, secure in the knowledge that succeed or flop, family is there for us when we want to venture back.
People without family truly are like stray dogs. The packs they form are destructive to the larger world and straight-jacket limiting to those who run in them. No one goes on adventures or takes risks that run against the rules of the pack, because that would result in expulsion. The pack would turn on them and attack them.
That is the source of the crazy viciousness I sometimes see — and delete — in the com box commentary on this blog. It is the cause of the hive mind thinking that is driving our society to the brink of self-destruction. It is the cultural anomie of a society that has torn family from itself and is now running loose and lost in mindless packs.
Family, real family, is the antidote to all that. Family is the most freeing thing possible, because it gives you the safety to try and fail and then try again with the certainty that no matter what happens, you will have a place in this world and you will be loved.
Home is where, when you go there, they have to take you in. I've never read a better definition of family.
I'm only writing about this because my Archbishop has made a statement about it.
Every autumn here in Oklahoma, right along with the nuts that fall down from the trees, a guy who calls himself a "high priest of a satanic group" or one of his cohorts holds a black mass at the Oklahoma City Civic Center.
According to the aforesaid "high priest," this black mass is "similar to a Catholic Mass, but done in such a way that you are offering a sacrifice to Satan to receive his blessing."
He does this every year, and every year, the turnout is a wee bit less than stellar. Last year, nobody showed up at all.
This "high priest" says that "the goal of the event is to continue the satanic movement — to keep fighting for our rights for religious freedom."
It looks to me like his "rights for religious freedom" are chugging along just fine. He's managed to get the coin to rent a small auditorium at the Civic Center, which doesn't come cheap, and he's free to do his di-dos — albeit "toned down to meet the laws of Oklahoma and the rules of a government building" —to a fare-thee-well.
In their 2010 Civic Center extravaganza, the satanists' "Lord High Master" (they're pretty good at dreaming up spiffy titles for themselves) announced "We don't kill animals, we don't kill children," which, I assume was a great comfort to one and all. However, it might be a little bit less comforting if people knew that Adam Daniels, the "high priest" is a registered sex offender who has been convicted of sexual battery. Mr Daniels has a history of involvement with these satanic events going back several years.
The "Lord High Master" explained that the black "mass" was "just a blasphemy ritual."
That's nice, of course, but it does point out one tiny little thing. To have blasphemy, you've got to have God. In fact, asking "Satan to receive his blessing" kinda implies that you have a belief in the whole Bible deal, since that is where and how we know about the devil.
Given what we know about him, why do you suppose a person would want Satan's blessing? For that matter, why would they want Satan's attention?
Worshipping Satan is, among other things, stupid. Atheism, I kinda get. You don't think God exists. Fair enough. You're wrong, but fair enough.
But … worshipping Satan? That's, as we say in these parts, not too swift.
For reasons I can't quite pinpoint, I don't get as worked up about these things as most of my faith-filled friends. I guess it's because I think that anyone stupid enough to worship Satan would probably also be stupid enough to inject themselves with the ebola virus. On a spiritual level, the two actions seem roughly equivalent.
I do think that Satan is coming out from behind his many masks more and more as our society deteriorates. For generations, his ploy has been to convince people that he doesn't exist while he operated through his unaware, but willing, human disciples.
He's still operating through his unaware but willing human disciples, and he's using them for bold and bolder attacks on Christians and the Church. But now, he's also beginning to show his own face. He's still disguised by a bit of grease paint and a clown mask, but Satan is slowly coming out.
Be that as it may, his pathetic little worshippers and their pathetic little black mass are a waste of good angst. I go to the real mass on a regular basis, and I can tell you, the Presence I encounter there gives the blessing I crave and is the One I trust. I choose Christ. Always.
On a lighter note, how exactly do you clean a place after a black mass? It's a kind of dirty that Clorox and Lysol won't fix.
All I know is that I'm going to ignore this bozo and all his fellow bozos. I don't plan to be anywhere near the Civic Center when this hoedown comes down. If I do anything at all, I'll attend mass at my parish at the same time and partake of the Living Sacrifice that leads to eternal life.
Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God.
There is no substitute.
The Civic Center listing, via Fox25:
A Religious Black Mass will be conducted as a public event to help educate the public about Religious Satanism. The ritual has been toned down to meet the laws of Oklahoma and the rules of the government building. Enjoy the delights of the Devil.
Cost: Tickets should be $10 to $15.
For more details, check out Dawn Eden's excellent commentary.
Copyright 2008-2016, Patheos. All rights reserved. Terms of Service | Patheos Privacy Policy | Website Development By Patheos Labs


text:
South Korean Blogger Acquitted
A South Korean blogger was cleared Monday of spreading false information in a case that sparked debate over freedom of speech in cyberspace. Park Dae-sung used the pseudonym "Minerva" after the Roman goddess of wisdom. He predicted sharp falls in the Korean stock market and the collapse of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
NPR's business news starts with a court verdict in favor of a South Korean blogger.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: That blogger, Park Dae-sung, became quite the sensation last year when he made some dire and accurate forecasts about where the world's financial markets were heading. For example, he correctly predicted the demise of the U.S. investment bank, Lehman Brothers. Park wrote anonymously under the pen name, Minerva after the Greek goddess of wisdom. But in January, South Korean authorities charged him with spreading false information about the way the government was handling the economic crisis. Today in a development likely to add to his reputation, Park was acquitted in the closely watched case. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: Minerva was the Roman name for the goddess of wisdom.]
Copyright © 2009 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.
Related NPR Stories
Correction April 20, 2009
On the air and in earlier Web versions, we said that the blogger wrote under the name "Minerva, after the Greek goddess of wisdom." In fact, Minerva was the Roman name for the Greek goddess Athena.
You must be signed in to leave a comment. Sign In / Register
Please keep your community civil. All comments must follow the NPR.org Community rules and terms of use, and will be moderated prior to posting. NPR reserves the right to use the comments we receive, in whole or in part, and to use the commenter's name and location, in any medium. See also the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Community FAQ.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
- Songs of praise have united two of the world's oldest cultures in a remote Central Australian community. South Africa's Grammy award winning Soweto Gospel Choir has taken time out of its national tour to travel to Ntaria, home of the historic Hermannsburg mission, where they shared Sunday Mass ...Monday 21 July 2014
- The organiser of two choral events in the Alice Springs' Desert Festival says they've been cut from this year's program...but the festival says otherwise...Tuesday 5 March 2013
- 783 ABC Mornings is getting in the festive spirit and inviting local students to sing a Christmas Carol live in the studio....Monday 28 November 2011
- Even if the words seem foreign, the song will be familiar. These are the opening lines to the Christmas carol 'Silent Night' in Western Arrernte, Luritja and German....Monday 10 December 2007
Explore by Topic
Latest Choral Music stories on ABC Alice Springs
Explore ABC Alice Springs by Topic
- Arts And Entertainment
- Music
- Choral Music
- Acoustic Music
- Australian Composers
- Bands And Artists
- Big Band Music
- Big Beat Music
- Blues
- Brass Music
- Classical Music
- Composers
- Country Music
- Dance Music
- Electronic Music
- Folk Music
- Gospel Music
- Guitar
- Hip Hop
- Indie
- Indigenous Music
- Jazz
- Metal
- Music Awards
- Music Competitions
- Orchestral Music
- Percussion Music
- Pop
- Randb
- Reggae
- Renaissance Music
- Rock
- Soul
- Soundtracks
- World
- Music
Latest videos
Latest audio
- Producers pleased about increased prices fetched at Alice Springs cattle sale.
- Kiwirrkurra ranger Patrick Green says this week's bilby festival has been a success and he's pleased with the amount of knowledge that's been shared o
- Clive Phillips from the University of Queensland's Centre for Animal Welfare and Ethics says controlling livestock in other countries presents legal p
- Wally Klein from Orange Creek cattle station said the country is perfect for expanding their cropping business.
- Catherine Driver from Elkedra cattle station


text:
|[411] Marilynn - [16/7/27 10:10]
|Hi there, very good webpage you've got at this time there.
|[410] Aimchaelbype - [16/7/27 10:10]
|Viagra comprar internet physician extenders, Farmacia de guardia and lateral. Fortunately 24 hours later, Cialis online Italia the FDA stated June 10 that it will heed the ruling of Decide Edward Korman, potenzmittel rezeptfrei new adventures, freiverkaufliche potenzmittel and find the precise product you need within the Shopミ。窶墟ム漬ツュ part. I made a decision upon a profession in pharmacy after completing a work placement in the native pharmacy in the city where I grew up. sildenafil ersatz This organization serves over five million clients a 12 months, tretinoin over the counter
|[409] Charlene - [16/7/27 10:10]
|When I say develop you house cleansing firm, I imply by that that you just get into other things past home cleaning itself.
|[408] Norine - [16/7/27 10:10]
|Too dangerous that will by no means occur.
|[407] Minna - [16/7/27 10:10]
|Be skeptical of any course that promises guaranteed techniques, rapid riches or anything which seems too-good to become true.
|[406] Katlyn - [16/7/27 10:10]
|Therefore, as a way to put money into Brazil, there will be an increase in-demand for your currency.
|[405] Arnoldo - [16/7/27 10:10]
|Sometimes we think love tantric massage can be put together and used as soon as he returned from an imminent trip to Asia.
Hi, my name is Mark Brinson, Doctor of Oriental Medicine wishing you balance in your life that doesn't tend to lift you up very much, as it is, it's European.
|[404] Teodoro - [16/7/27 10:10]
|But in truth, even in case the specific Forex news is more advanced than the estimated one, the FOREX quotes down action is of 50/50 likelihood.
|[403] Adell - [16/7/27 10:10]
|All methods are not blame at His target is to raise the standard of the running platforms previously being used.
|[402] Florentina - [16/7/27 10:10]
|But now, technology continues to be produced to the degree that any individual entrepreneur can jump into the trade with the platforms that were online.
|[401] Wilmer - [16/7/27 10:10]
|Cookie-cutter experiments might struggle whereas experiments modified exactly to exactly what the mystic says he can could be successful.
|[400] adilevoqfeafi - [16/7/27 10:10]
|Sometimes dove comprare cialis generico inductions chemoprophylaxis calcification, who, suffering, discount levitra grief launched that rehabilitate obselete, levitra 20 mg gurgle coupled positions polyps sturdy levitra 20mg graduates priming; methods, outlook toes, viagra table, creeps coffee hypnosis activated buy viagra party.
|[399] Joie - [16/7/27 10:10]
|People of all ages whether old or young have been entranced into using such technology.
If one's eyes are starting to fail, maybe giving up on consoles is a good idea. After installing the app, you can choose online game and download it straight onto your device.
|[398] Joanne - [16/7/27 10:09]
|Adding blur with software application isn't really the exact same point as having a large aperture lens that can make at night or shoot indoor sports at 1/2000 sec to quit activity without making the sensor add sound and also shed information.
|[397] Darnell - [16/7/27 10:09]
|say thanks to so a lot for your web site it aids a lot.
|[396] Melaine - [16/7/27 10:09]
|When you are dealing forex, you desire all that effectiveness for varied software and your currency trading.
|[395] Scott - [16/7/27 10:09]
|He averages pips a DAY and their dealer is Palleti and it has been trading for more than 7 years.
|[394] Jeramy - [16/7/27 10:09]
|I've never requested everyone to join any agent or triggered anyone that forex is sure earn method.
|[393] Margherita - [16/7/27 10:09]
|AskNow telepathic psychics are waiting to cast illumination in shrouded locations from your life.
|[392] Regan - [16/7/27 10:09]
|When in the reading space, she starts along with a meditation through which our company picture different colors from light being available in with the leading from our heads.


text:
America's Bills About to Exceed Its Paycheck: Chart of the Day
America's bills are about to exceed its paycheck.
The CHART OF THE DAY shows U.S. government debt divided among every man, woman and child will exceed per-capita gross domestic product this year for the first time in International Monetary Fund records dating back to 1980.
The amount owed will reach $46,771 per person, surpassing the $46,750 in output, according to Bloomberg calculations using the IMF's deficit and growth projections from its September World Economic Outlook. Debt will exceed production by $8,000 per person by 2016, reversing GDP's $18,400 advantage as recently as 2007, before the world's largest economy fell into the recession and government spending surged.
"It's a milestone in an unsustainable trend," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, an Arlington, Virginia-based group that calls for a balanced budget. "What's alarming is there is no end in sight."
The U.S. government last week posted its third consecutive annual budget deficit in excess of $1 trillion for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30. A congressional committee has been tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in savings over the next decade under the terms of an August agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling.
"It just doesn't seem like the political system or the public really has come to the point where they are ready to make some basic compromises," Bixby said. "People lament the debt, but so far we have no realistic strategies for dealing with it."


text:
Skip to comments.Oregon Biology Teacher Fired Over Bible References
Posted on 03/20/2007 2:02:43 PM PDT by Diago
click here to read article
It depends on how strong a link the teacher made and what evidence he had to support it. Given media bias, I'm assuming it wasn't that wild. Had it been, the story probably would have spelled it out. Instead, we get generalities.
Additional Info:
OK, sounds like the guy was not only somewhat imprudent, but way over the line. Still, a person violating the curriculum in a left-wing or atheistic direction would not have been punished this severely.
I am going to bed now but I will address your rant tomorrow or when I have the time. There are so many strawmen and overstatements to wade through.
For now, in brief, you kept bringing up public schools as if I am for the big government public school monopoly, though I have made it abundantly clear that I am completely against the big government public school monopoly. I am for privatization which removes the choice and coercion from big centralized government control and allows parents to choose instead.
You knew this, so the only reason you kept referring to public school, public school, public school was so that you would have a strawman platform from which to launch your tirade based upon a Big Centralized Government public school environment whose existance I am not for in the first place.
This thread is about a public school teacher. You may have missed that.
I don't know why I should be expected to know what your particular hobby horse is. If it's THE EVIL PUBLIC SCHOOLS, fine. But be prepared to defend equally evil private schools. There may be a group of people out there who might want to teach things of which you could not possibly approve.
Since you seem to be bent out of shape that someone would oppose the big centralized government public schools, you must want to control those who would be adamantly against your precious big government public school monopoly. You even gave an emotional all caps evil public schools highlight. I think you do favor public schools due to the presence your immense overreaction.
By all means?
You do wear it on your sleeve and you are trying to get cute, so take a hike sonny, until you grow up.
As I said before, go to bed.
And as I said before, grow up.
Been out of the school yard long?
As you are talking about cosmology. creationism is the belief in a creator of all things and the creation of the universe out of nothing. Atheists don't believe in a creator; traditionally, they believed that the universe has always existed. Theology, at least Catholic theology, regards creationism as a theological doctrine concerning the origin of the human soul. For instance. Dr. Ludwig Ott wrote this in 1952. repprting the opinion of the Bible Commission (1909) As the sacred writer had no intention of representing with scientific accuracy the intrinsic constitution of things, and the sequence of works of creation but only of communicating knowledge in a popular way suitable to the idiom and the -prescientific development of his day, the account is not to be regardede as if it were.....
Here's the post with the alleged strawmen you're referring to. Tomorrow morning (or when you've sobered up), point them out.
To: Old Landmarks; tacticalogicOkay. I read your post. It's most unimpressive.
If you are going to teach in a government school, you have to stick to godlessness. You cannot mention God or anything from the traditional biblical perspective that has served as the underpinning of American civilization for four hundred years.
And in a government school, whose version of which religion should govern the science classes? Or how about Math class? You know, don't you, that the zero is a Muslim invention? It might be interesting if Muslim teachers decided to teach the Koranic version of science, or if Hindu teachers decided to make sure the curriculum didn't contradict the Vedas.
For the entire history of the country until quite recently you could mention God and refer directly to biblical principles concerning the origins of man because that was the kind of schools that communities "freely" chose to create since the beginning of this country.
And if communities "freely" choose to teach that down is up, you're okay with that, right?
This is no longer the case, for you must now lead children to believe that science has proven that the only reasonable explanation for their existence must be given by naturalistic science, for they are the ultimate holders of all truth about past events that they did not observe or test and the Bible is merely a book of nonsense.
I don't know whether this is ignorance or lies. Either way, it's wrong. Science is about naturalistic explanations, but as yet there is not scientifically accepted theory of origins.
Do you really want the Bible in science class? Then you'd better be ready to have scientists subject the Bible to scientific scrutiny. Be careful what you wish for. Should we teach that roses are red because God wanted to remind us of the blood of Jesus? What color were roses before 33AD?
Why is the level of scientific knowledge in the Bible indistinguishable from the average man's knowledge of science when the Bible was written? Why didn't God drop a hint, say, about penicillin?
Kids need to learn science. If you want to live in the tenth century, fine. Enjoy life with the Islamists -- they're your allies in this.
It was only recently that liberals have used the supreme court to overcome the will of most parents in the name of their own secular progressive revisionism.
The only solution is to phase out and discontinue the godless government school monopoly and let the parents choose a private godless school if that is their choice. At the same time the large majority of parents will get to choose a school that they favor as well. Goodbye to the forced godless indoctrination.
Whose version of which God should be in the public schools?
Universal private schooling is a different issue entirely. But it should be noted that those who support schools that willfully distort science end up penalizing primarily their children.
It is the only just solution, because the government schools are a political monopoly as dictated by the NEA and the ACLU playbook.
I'm not here to defend public schools, but I do object to attempts to inject anyone's peculiar reading of the Bible into science.
You post has been addressed. Happy now?
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
"Is that why so many scientists have their own television shows on which they appear immaculately coiffed, sometimes with their wives interjecting, "Oh! Praise Pasteur!" every few moments while the scientist tearfully warns his viewers that unless the viewers send money, that science won't like them any more?"
I will have to save and reuse that quote, if you don't mind.
I consider your "roflmao" payment in full for any and all use and reuse of said item.
There is a simple grandeur in the view of life with its powers of growth, assimilation and reproduction, being originally breathed into matter under one or few forms, and that whilst this our planet has gone circling according to fixed laws, and land and water, in a cycle of change, have gone on replacing each other, that from so simple an origin, through the power of gradual selection of influential changes, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been evolved."
Furthermore, Darwin himself, later in life, stated basically that beauty does not actually exist - and current science states that we all must keep in mind that design is also non-existent --- nature merely displays the appearance of design.
I am not a creationist nor do I think id should currently be taught in high school, but I see no reason why students should not be allowed to explore the questions (or simular questions) above in class. I would think this is especially true considering what they will be exposed to in college biology.
As posted previously:
Darwin showed that material causes are a sufficient explanation not only for physical phenomena, as Descartes and Newton had shown, but also for biological phenomena with all their seeming evidence of design and purpose. By coupling undirected, purposeless variation to the blind, uncaring process of natural selection, Darwin made theological or spiritual explanations of the life processes superfluous. Together with Marx's materialistic theory of history and society and Freud's attribution of human behavior to influences over which we have little control, Darwin's theory of evolution was a crucial plank in the platform of mechanism and materialism
---Douglas Futuyma's Evolutionary Biology (1998, 3rd Ed., Sinauer Associates), p. 5
Consider consciousness
Is it merely an "emergent property" of natural selection? If so, where does the material complexity of human thought and the qualitative pieces for beauty and grandeur exist? Is human thought nothing more than the liver producing bile (see Huxley/Cabanis)? Until naturalism can reduce the qualitative properties of human consciousness into material things, the arguments based on naturalism are as immaterial as any other argument.
Oddly, after World War II, the Nazi in charge of the SUPER RACE program in Nazi Germany (the Eugenics program) became head of the International branch of Planned Parenthood (as I said, this happened after the end of World War II).
This would make a great 60 Minutes program except it would villanize Hillary Clinton's hero Margaret Sanger and is not attack on conservatives but on liberalism...
"What the Fuhrer has given me is not only a political ideology, but also a religion."
Eerily similar to the mindset of the MoveOn fanatics...
If the teacher used his remarks as a stimulus to discussion and viewpoints, rather than indoctrination, it would not seem unusual or improper.
But Darwin, like Newton and Descarte didn't explain everything.
So now we have amorphous/probability physics and fuzzy math.
I don't think Darwin ever envisioned the complexity of the
simple "bags of protoplasm" that we now know are highly
coordinated, organized cells.
I agree that these things should be discussed. I have no patience with people who would censor this. But I still think the teacher seems to have gone overboard.
Yeah, who needs freedom, when you can have Orwell.
Might I suggest you answer the first question before you pass judgement. That would be scientific. To pass judgement without information is faith. Science makes a real bad religion.
However if you read the rather lengthy post in the body, you will see that it was not contrary to science. People who make science into a religion really ruin science, but that has been common in history.
The foundation of modern biology is based on social darwinism. To teach biology without teaching about its foundations is piss poor teaching. Giving facts without context is brainwashing, not teaching.
If you think about it, you might note that the state schools are being used by the religion of humanism to teach their faith. All life is a balance, science should be taught that way. However, now that "scientificism" has been hijacked by Humanism, science has become a faith, and is taught like a religion.
How can you make a scientific decision, if you are only allowed left-handed test tubes?
If Darwinism is all that good of a theroy, it would not have to be guarded so religiously, but could stand on its own two feet. Or six as it may be.
There is none so blind as him who refuses to see.
Being intentionaly stupid and thinking that is wise is a clear indication of a fool. Kindly read my tagline and exit, stage left.
Teachers have little Freedom, instead they must teach the curriculum and this teacher was far off the science curriculum.
However, if you want teachers to have freedom in the classroom, I am sure there are many liberals teaching civics and history that can pontificate on the greatness of Communism of how George W. Bush is a War Criminal.
Fact is from the reports I have read we don't KNOW how this teacher spent his time, at least not in detail. Did he simply railed on about nothing else except Palnned Parenthood? As an occasional aside certainly there is nothing wrong with this. Many a teacher will thrown in an obiter dicta into a class discussion if only to kill time.
Kindly read what the post was in response to before you decide what it was about. I'm not too blind to see, you're just too freaking lazy to take the time to look.
I'm in the wrong thread!!!!
"I wonder what his Freeper name is."
LOL! Coffee, nose, you know the rest. :)
Route memorization of bland theories and opinions is the key to modern science.
There fixed it.
Good. He deserved to be fired.
He is an activist moron.
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Oregon Ping List.
Sorry this is so late!
Francis? lol In most cases, evolution occurs over significant periods of time (not always, but usually). Every once in a while, man tries to short-circuit that path, and, for a while, it might seem that he has done so. But, over time, his "well laid plans oft gang awry." :) The truth is that you cannot use the atrocities of the Third Reich to either justify or damn the theory of evolution. Anyone trying to make such a connection is 1) stupid and 2) driven by faulty understandings of almost everything. :) Thank you for your response; I do appreciate it. Truly. And, as for feeling sad for me, don't worry about it -- I am one happy fella! :)
He should be canned!
I think the Power Point show is the clincher
Not surprising in Communist Oregon. Another atheist "protecting" his young! Wish we had that teacher's email address so we could show support for him.
>Giving facts without context is brainwashing...<
Humanist theology took hold of the public schools many decades ago. There actually is a Humanist Manifesto, and it reads very similarly to the Communist Manifesto. Public servants have signed it. The public schools have been brainwashing children noticably since the '50's, beginning quietly in the late 19th century by John Dewey, etal.
Read NEA, Trojan Horse in American Education by Samuel L. Blumenfeld if you really want your eyes opened. It was first published in l984. Alas, people seem to care more about their pocketbooks than about what their children are being taught. Hence much of what we are faced with today.
Ping for those that haven't seen this yet.
Probably too much. It still depends on the content of the power point. If it goes against the curriculum then I wonder if he intended to rebut something in it. More likely an administrator was intimidated by an indignant parent. School administrators are the most political persons in the world.
More than that: read any issue of the NEA Journal. It will likely have at leaast one article dealing with "children at risk"; separation of Church and state, or federal aid for education, or just money in general. Years ago I was a union rep and I had a debate in the teachers lounge with one of the directors. My point was that NEA needed to come to terms with the private schools. He said, more or less, Never. They are paranoid about private education.
This was posted last night. There appears to
be some confusion among FReepers about the
teacher's motive. I think he is a hero.
Oops! Just noticed it is the same thread. My bad.
Evolution is an agenda contrary to science.
Not a reprimand, not a counseling, but a firing. You think he'd killed someone.
Creationism is a Biblical truth unlike evolution which is just a theory and really a lie.
>My point was that NEA needed to come to terms with the private schools. He said, more or less, never. They are paranoid about private education.<
Yes, private ANYTHING is not on their agenda. And I wish the Fed would get out of education, too. No Child Left Behind has been taken too far. Even children at risk must take it, which is outrageously ridiculous. The tension on all students is enormous, and unnecessary. It has been said that many teachers teach only for tests so the norm will rise at their schools, by which the student's general education suffers. Local control over education is more than needed to make the schools stop "dumbing down"; and to encourage healthy thinking, individualism and creativity.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


text:
Recently added item(s) ×
You have no items in your shopping cart.
Amazing Logic Pro Music Production Tutorials and out-of-the-box music design hacks! Featuring great Logic Pro X Tips, Tricks Tutorials and Hacks! How to create a simple, fast epic sounds! You can use these templates / tutorials to help you with any genre like: Electronica, Dance, EDM Dubstep, Metal, Rock, Country, Vocals, etc.


text:
5 Shows After Dark: This Picture is So '90s It Just Stole My Spice Girls CD and Dr Pepper Lip Smackers
By Genevieve Burgess | Miscellaneous | July 24, 2013 | Comments ()
"Royal Pains" on USA at 9 p.m. ET
"Spell-mageddon" on ABC Family at 9 p.m. ET. Series premiere. This is a new "extreme spelling-bee" where the contestants have to spell words while navigating challenges like running an obstacle course, being blasted with cold air, getting strapped to a fork and dipped in a giant pie, or while strobe lights and loud noises are used to try and distract them. Hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro. Anecdote time! When I was a slightly shorter but much lankier version of myself, my dad would tease my brother and I every time we went to Blockbuster that he was going to rent us "That spelling-bee movie." I can't tell you how happy it must make him that not only is there a spelling-bee movie now, but also a spelling-bee TV show.
"The Bridge" on FX at 10 p.m. ET
"Joe Rogan Questions Everything" on SyFy at 10 p.m. ET. Series premiere. What I have learned from Joe Rogan and Jenny McCarthy is that if you really nail hosting one awful TV show on a cable network, you never have to look for work again for some reason. There will be someone out there willing to put you on TV again no matter what. Clearly, my professional goals should have been less "graduate degree" and more "farting on TV in a bikini with a questionable dye-job."
"Camp" on NBC at 10 p.m. ET
Genevieve Burgess would like to pretend she's above farting on TV in a bikini for a bunch of money, but at this point let's just say that rates are negotiable.
Pajiba Love Express
Here's some Daveed Diggs for you. On Daveed Diggs' digs, actually. That man does things with clothes that should not make sense, but are absolutely perfect. (Go Fug Yourself)
Woody Allen has "so moved on" from his daughter's accusations and says he never even thinks about it. He equates her words about him to a bad review he won't read and comments on how wacky it is that Mia Farrow is his mother-in-law. He is the worst. (Celebitchy)
Not The Worst but still very gross: Leonardo DiCaprio and his
Here are 5 under-the-radar shows. I had never even heard of the first two. (Uproxx)


text:
Learn more
Black and Blue Hardcover – Oct 28 1997
Amazon Price
|New from
|Used from
"Please retry"
"Please retry"
Mass Market Paperback
"Please retry"
MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged
"Please retry"
Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed
No Kindle device required. Download one of the Free Kindle apps to start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, and computer.
Getting the download link through email is temporarily not available. Please check back later.
To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
I'd like to read this book on Kindle
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info, give feedback on images, or tell us about a lower price?
Product Description
From Amazon
"I'm a peeper, he thought, a voyeur. All cops are. But he knew he was more than that: he liked to get involved in the lives around him. He had a need to know which went beyond voyeurism. It was a drug. And the thing was, when he had all this knowledge, he then had to use booze to blank it out..." In his ninth outing, Edinburgh's glowering and tenacious Inspector John Rebus finds a unique way of cutting back on alcohol. Convinced that Rebus might lie or try to destroy evidence in the reopened case of a man convicted of a murder he probably didn't commit, the investigating officer assigns him a babysitter. Luckily, the minder is one of Rebus's old mentors, Jack Morton, a former drinking buddy now waging a successful battle against the bottle. Rebus and Morton burn off energy and anger repainting Rebus's apartment, while trying to clear Rebus's name and exploring the connection between a recent string of murders and a real-life Scottish serial killer of the 1970s known as Bible John. The cases take Rebus to Aberdeen and an oil platform in the North Atlantic, but as usual the main action happens within the mind and soul of Rankin's meticulously crafted creation. Previous entries in the memorable Rebus series are also available, including Let It Bleed, Hide and Seek, Knots and Crosses, Mortal Causes, and Tooth and Nail.
From Kirkus Reviews
Nearly 30 years after a serial killer dubbed Bible John abruptly retired after three vicious murders, he's back in the news again. Johnny Bible, an equally perverted killer who seems to be much younger, is imitating him with a gusto that suggests close research. Even though he knew one of Johnny Bible's victims, Edinburgh's Inspector John Rebus is in no position to take on this new case; he's got his hands full with a murdered oil-rig painter and the threatened reopening of a case in which he and his mentor, Inspector Lawson Geddes, may have planted evidence years and years ago that framed Lenny Spaven, who went to his death insisting he was innocent. When Rebus takes a few days in Aberdeen to visit the oil company's headquarters and incidentally chat up the locals about another of Johnny Bible's victims, he ends up under suspicion of killing a fourth victim himself and gets stuck with a minder who'll report his every move back to the very same Chief Inspector who's been put in charge of the Spaven case. Can things get any worse? Of course they can. For even though Rebus is behind the eight-ball, another avenger- -Bible John himself--is prepared to do whatever it takes to catch the copycat. Rebus's eighth case (Let It Bleed, 1996, etc.) is his biggest and most grueling so far. Yet Rankin's dexterity in juggling plots and threats and motives lights up the darkness with a poet's grace. Reading him is like watching somebody juggle a dozen bottles of single malt without spilling a drop. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.See all Product Description
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Top Customer Reviews
Inspector John Rebus investigating a bizarre murder that (after all, an author needs to fill his pages) takes him an oil rig in the North Sea. He happens to be in Aberdeen when the baiting murder occurs, and he becomes the mqain suspect. Three intertwined storylines, none of them really convincing. Basically a Scotland Mystery: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Shetland Islands, rig ... and the reader must follow in real-time each way to to all these places.
Ian Rankin is considered the "leading crime writers of Britain" (Times Literary Supplement), it says in the opening credits of the book. This may be so, but it would mean that the crime fiction of the United Kingdom is as mediocre as its politics.
The first hundred pages were completely muddled. The book finally got on path, only to lose it again in the last hundred pages.
Rebus - a loveable rebel cop in Tooth and Nail came off as a depressed and depressing malcontent and know-it-all.
The central plot is a very good one - a serial killer is emulating a serial killer from years before. The first, Bible John, returns to stalk the second, Johnny Bible. The first (potential) murder is also a good hook. But then, so much is added. At the same time Rebus is working on this (potential) murder he is still obsessing about the Bibles. During this time he is also being investigated for a murder investigation he did a decade before. The investigation runs among four locales. It is no wonder much of the book is confused. There are too many plot lines Rankin has difficulty bringing them together.
I intend to go on with the Rebus series since the reviews are so good. I doubt this one is necessary to understand the series. I wish I had skipped it and gone on to #3.
I'm still high on Rankin, but I wish he had turned this one into two separate novels (perhaps "Black" and "Blue").
The result of ticking his superiors off in Edinburgh was his transfer to what is acknowledged as the worst police station in the city. It's good to see that nothing has changed and Rebus is prepared to attack his cases with the usual mule-headed stubbornness.
Two cases head Rebus' consciousness in this book. The first case sees him teetering on the brink of obsession over a serial killer who is on the loose around the country. The unusual and intriguing part is that the M.O. and the killer's nickname are very similar to that of a killer who operated 25 years ago, but was never caught. The second case seems to be a more straightforward murder investigation, but this too is proving a difficult one to follow and leads Rebus a merry dance around Scotland.
John Rebus fans will be satisfied with Black and Blue, as everything we've come to love about him is here in spades. He flaunts the rules with abandon in his dogged pursuit of his quarry, he works quite comfortably alone, yet he still enjoys the assistance of Holmes and Clarke. One watershed moment is his passing dalliance with sobriety, as an old partner, Jack Morrow, exerts his reformed alcoholic influence on him.
Most recent customer reviews
I read the rave reviews before buying this book (my first Ian Rankin novel) and was very disappointed. I am currently forcing myself to complete it. Read morePublished on Nov. 12 2005 by Nickie
My first Rankin book (of many more to come). Loved the challenge!! Not only is there a labyrinth of plots and interesting characters, but the setting of Scotland opens up a whole... Read morePublished on June 7 2003 by SuzieM13
I was just introduced to Ian Rankin with this book. I loved it. Love Rebus. Rankin has a great knack for character and how to intertwine plots. Read morePublished on Jan. 9 2003 by Jim McCullaugh
There were a few cases in the 400 pages case: a new and an old serial killer, a man jumped to his death, a drug-connected death, a convicted prisoner committed suicide. Read morePublished on Nov. 4 2002 by Desmond Chow
I just finished reading this, my first, Rankin book. I wasn't overly impressed with it. The writing style was OK but nothing special and the famous dialogue everyone is so fond of... Read morePublished on Aug. 1 2001 by jamesa31
Everything seemed to be going wrong for Inspector John Rebus. Tracking murderers, serial killers, with the mafia, press and his supervisors breathing down his neck, a wrong move... Read morePublished on June 25 2001
In recent months, word has come that authors of several of the very best police procedural series have decided to put an end to their heroes adventures. Read morePublished on Oct. 13 2000 by Orrin C. Judd


text:
i am trying to disable the networking services from starting up automatically; i am thinking avahi-daemon, network-manager, and networking from the /etc/init.d/ folder; what do i do to keep them from running automatically? move them from /init.d/ ? then to where? and are there other networking services that i should be aware of? thanks
You can remove the startup symlinks of these files using
$ sudo update-rc.d -f NetworkManager remove $ sudo update-rc.d -f networking remove $ sudo update-rc.d -f avahi-daemon remove
this will stop these applications from running automatically on startup.
To re-add them later on, simply run:
$ sudo update-rc.d NetworkManager defaults $ sudo update-rc.d networking defaults $ sudo update-rc.d avahi-daemon detaults


text:
June 12, 2013
Wow, would I love to try 18 again. I am too many times 18 years old, at least in the physical sense. In my head I'm 37. Reality doesn't get in my way too much.
I find as time passed that I am more and more interested in stories, and, I guess, in life - how we live it, what we think of it, what we do with it, and what it has done to us. Stories can open our eyes, and hopefully our hearts. They can help us find an equilibrium between who we want to be and who we have to be. I hope to enjoy many stories and the people gifted enough and willing enough to share them. I hope to find the focus and strength, perhaps, to become one of them.
I have had the great fortune to have attended the National Story Telling Festival in Jonesborough, TN a couple of summers ago. It was wonderful and illuminating. It is also a bit expensive. I hope to attend again someday in the future. But I don't need "National" events. Rather, I am happier with local community events, where, in addition to the stories, there is time to enjoy the people behind the performance.
Joy. Joy in expanding my life experiences. Joy in the camaraderie of friends. Joy in promoting peaceful self-fulfillment for everyone with a heart. I will not comment on whether this excludes Washington DC.
Stories enhance our lives, expand our understanding, and open our mind and heart to the wonder of new experience. They are life revisited.
I'm was new to Triad Storytelling Exchange. I found the people warm and easy going, and the atmosphere safe and non-competitive. Most excellent!
Meetup members, Log in
By clicking "Sign up" or "Sign up using Facebook", you confirm that you accept our Terms of Service & Privacy Policy