Nah, that can't be

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." Verbal Kint in The usual Suspects.

There is hope.

Principled position

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Peter Pace, recently expressed his principled opinion that homosexual behavior is immoral, just like adultery, and that this should not be condoned in the Military. His exact quote to a reporter from the Chicago Tribune was, "I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts. I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way." The context was a question about the Military's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy concerning gays in the Military. The Uniform Code of Military Justice makes it a felony-as in malum in se, inherently wrong as the infamous crime against nature-as opposed to malum prohibitum, wrong merely because the law makes it wrong. This is the Natural Law, and it is a good thing.

The General is being rounded condemned in the media for his stand on virtue and good. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) made the dimwitted remark: "We don't need moral judgment from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs." and Senator John Warned made the same mistake made by John Hosty, misquoting the General: "I respectfully but strongly disagree with the chairman's view that homosexuality is immoral." Notice the spin, the General said "homosexual acts", but the Senator says the General said "homosexuality."

Show support for Gen. Pace: Call the White House comment line at 1-202-456-1111 and your U.S. representatives at 1-202-224-3121 to support the Military's policy (ban) on open homosexual acts.

Worcester Catholic Men's conference

The 10th annual Worcester Diocese Men's conference was held today at the DCU Center. Dale Ahlquist spoke on marriage and the roles of men and women, quoting G.K.Chesterton at length. Among some of what he said:
Marriage is the only State that creates and loves its own citizens.
Sex is the gate to the house of the family, the foundation of Civilization.
The problem today is that men and women are trying to be both men and women, when men should be men and women should be women.
Once sex ceases to be a servant it becomes a tyrant.
When Almquist converted to Catholicism, one of his lobbyist peers, a lapsed Catholic, said he could not practice a religion that refused to ordain women priests. Dale asked the man if he believed in transubstantiation, if when the priest consecrated the host, it truly became the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The man replied no. So Dale asked, "then why does it matter if a woman cannot do that too?"

The sin of Sodom

At times we Christians are accused of being anti-gay, which is highly debatable. What is not debatable is the Scriptural condemnation of homosexual sex, although the Pro-gay marriage lobby certainly tries to make Scripture debatable.

Homosexual sex, like adulterous sex, is a sin. More grave, both are forms of idolatry. The Israelites were told not to seek after strange gods; St. Jude wrote in the New Testament that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was seeking after strange flesh.

One silly attempt at revisionism, which has made its way into Wikipedia as well as Rev. Dr. Jerry Maneker’s teachings, is that Jesus Himself said that the sin of Sodom was inhospitality to strangers. Matthew 10:14-15 is cited in this regard, because Jesus says “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words: going forth out of that house or city shake off the dust from your feet.” The idea is, when Jesus sends His disciples to preach, if their preaching is not accepted in that city, “it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment, than for that city.” This interpretation not only ignores all the rest of Scriptural teachings against the sin of homosexual sex, it even ignores the context of this passage.

Jesus explicitly told his Disciples not to go to lands where they would be strangers; not to go to the Gentiles, not even to the Samaritans, only to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” [Mt10:5-6]. God’s plan appears to have involved conversion of the Jews before conversion of the Gentiles. And the Jews were held to a higher standard by Jesus, because they were the chosen people, in effect the older children of God. And the older children are held more accountable than the younger children by any good parent.

The lesson of Ezekiel 16:48-50 is not that homosexual sex, one of the sins of Sodom, is only wrong if it is rape, the lesson is that as bad as the sin of homosexual sex is, turning your back on God, especially if you know better, is worse!

Salt, not of the earth

Michael Brown of Spiritdaily is recommending that Blessed Salt be use to protect and to help consecrate our homes, yards, places of work, and even our cities, including San Francisco (guess why?). Read about it here. It's an excellent idea. Spread it around.

kaw-dashe' - catamite

1st Kings (aka 3rd Kings) Elias [Elijah] was sent by G_d/Yhwh to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, to announce to King Achaz that Yhwh would avenge his apostasy. Achaz built a temple to Ba’al for his Tyrean wife Jezabel, and doubtless offered sacrifice to this idol. But Achaz also brought back another ancient practice.

14 23. For they also built them altars, and statues, and groves, upon every high hill, and under every green tree: 24. There were also the effeminate [catamites] in the land, and they did according to all the abominations of the people, whom the Lord had destroyed before the face of the children of Israel.

The newer translations may not use the note 'catamite', but the King James translates the same word as sodomite instead of effeminate.
Catamites/Sodomites: qadesh, (kaw-dashe') from 'qadash' (6942); a (quasi) sacred person, i.e. (technically) a (male) devotee (by prostitution) to licentious idolatry:-- sodomite, unclean.

This really should be understood as King Achaz brought back homosexual Temple Prostitutes along with idolatry to Ba'al.

Torah teaches

I sent the following letter to the Worcester Telegram in response to a letter Friday March 2 from Rabbi Bernstein saying that he trusts Planned Parenthood and welcomes their move to Pleasant St. I did not include the specific references, but thought I should address the Rabbi from a Jewish point of view, to show him the error of endorsing Planned Parenthood.

letters@telegram.com
Rabbi Seth Bernstein has misplaced his trust in Planned Parenthood (Letters, March 2). Maimonides (Rambam), the Mishnah, and other Jewish sources permit a “self defense” exemption to the commandment not to kill when an abortion is performed to save the mother's life. However an inference is drawn from this that if the mother's life is not threatened, abortion is not in self defense.

Planned Parenthood confuses this self defense by claiming an exemption for the mother's health, not just for her life. But according to Planned Parenthood's own data, 74% of all abortions performed in 2002 were because “having a baby would dramatically change my life” or “I can't afford a baby now.” The words spoken by every parent become justification for 74% of all abortions because Planned Parenthood has spun mother's life to mother's health to economic health.

Instead of creating a fence [sic] around Planned Parenthood, Rabbi Bernstein might consider that even if Rabbi Ishmael was extreme in demanding the death penalty for abortion (Sanhedrin57b), Rabbi Meir Simchah taught that abortion was punishable by “death at the hands of heaven” (Meshekh Chokhnash), and the Tosafot teaches that the majority of abortions are “a moral offense.” (Sanhedrin59a, Chullin 33a)

As the Zohar teaches in Shemat 3b, abortion “drives away the Shekhina (G_d's presence) from the world...For these abominations the Spirit of Holiness weeps.”

Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov

Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, retired archbishop of Bologna, quoted Russian philosopher Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov’s "Three Dialogues on War, Progress and the End of History," during weeklong Spiritual Exercises attended by Pope Benedict XVI and members of the Roman Curia. Cardinal Biffi told his listeners that "the Antichrist presents himself as pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist." "He will convoke an ecumenical council and will seek the consensus of all the Christian confessions, granting something to each one. The masses will follow him, with the exception of small groups of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants," adding that Solovyov says in that work: "Days will come in Christianity in which they will try to reduce the salvific event to a mere series of values."

No cross

In his "Tale of the Antichrist" Solovyov foresees that a small group of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants will resist and will say to the Antichrist: "You give us everything, except what interests us, Jesus Christ." For Cardinal Biffi, this narrative is a warning: "Today, in fact, we run the risk of having a Christianity which puts aside Jesus with his cross and resurrection." The 78-year-old cardinal said that if Christians "limited themselves to speaking of shared values they would be more accepted on television programs and in social groups. But in this way, they will have renounced Jesus, the overwhelming reality of the resurrection."