++ relapsed catholic ++ religion blog

"St. John's homosexual-activist group EGALE vice-president Gemma Hickey said she was not surprised some commissioners would resign, given that homophobia is especially prevalent in rural areas..."

Priest Slams Calgary Bishop Fred Henry and Knights of Columbus over Gay Marriage:

"Fr. McDevitt also seemed very upset with one or more members of the parish Knights of Columbus who had apparently been asking questions about [Liberal MP] Carroll's role in the parish considering her serious contradiction of Catholic moral teachings. LifeSiteNews.com has received unconfirmed reports that Carroll is a lector at the parish.

"The pastor was emphatic that he be quoted saying that he considered the Knight or Knights in question to be 'shit disturbers.' He told LifeSiteNews.com, 'They are a shit disturber, did you get that down, did you get the quote properly, they are a shit disturber.'"

For the Greatest American. It's part of an upcoming Discovery Channel program. Since so many of my readers are Americans, I thought I'd pass this along (although of course anyone can vote, and I know many of my fellow Canadians have strong opinions on the matter...)

The voting deadline is February 14.

Robert Spencer observes:

"One thing is certain (cf. the Brooklyn museum that was exhibiting a portrait of the Virgin Mary pelted with dung a few years ago, and many other cases): if Christians had complained, the museum would have cried 'censorship' and kept the exhibit up..."

***
Spencer's new book, The Myth of Islamic Tolerance is now available.

"A group representing U.S. victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests urged Lincoln to withdraw the ad, produced by agency Young & Rubicam.

"The group said the commercial 'trivialises childhood sex crimes by trusted clergy' by combining the image of the clergyman, a sheepish-looking young girl and the theme of temptation."

William Donohue of the Catholic League remarks:

“To assign predator status to a priest in an ad like this suggests that the complainants think of priests as child molesters. Moreover, when SNAP issues a press release charging that the ad trivializes the ‘child molestation crisis,’ it is twice wrong: a) the ad doesn’t come close to implying priestly sexual molestation and, b) more than 80 percent of the real-life victims in the sex scandal have been postpubescent males (not little girls).

"The Dutch newspaper Reformatorisch Dagblad has a strong religious (protestant) [sic] background, and puts value on Sunday as the day of the Lord, to be observed as a day of rest. And indeed, until now,the newspaper really CLOSED its website every Sunday, and just put up a small message explaining its adherence to this principle.

"Until this week, that is... "

"But Vicar General of the Melbourne Archdiocese Monsignor Les Tomlinson said the church regards radio confessions as inappropriate because they break the secrecy seal of the confessional. He said there could be severe repercussions for a priest who broke the seal, including defrocking or excommunication."

This evening, I'm a scheduled guest on "The World Tonight" with Rob Breakenridge on CHQR770, Calgary. The producers say I'll be on around 10:05PM EST, whatever time that is in Alberta...

Discussing the Pope, same-sex "marriage", Peter "Church & State" Pettigrew, etc.

"Here in Quebec we will soon be observing Mercredi des Cendres, known elsewhere as Ash Wednesday. I don't wish my blog to be a bible-thumping one, but this is one occasion where I thought a small reflection on faith in a modern age would be appropriate.

"But as I pondered it a little, I came across this wonderful post by Chris Taylor which expresses so many thoughts better I ever could. While the post is nominally about same sex marriage, it expresses a philosophy of life that is so much wider. I simply insist you read it all..."

***
And I insist you double back to Trudeaupia when you've finished Chris Taylor's post, to read his elaborations on Chris' essay. This sort of hypertextual meditation is part of what makes blogging so great.

From a chapter in "A Catholic Alphabet called "A is for the Arian Heresy":

"But Catholics aren't immune to occasional Arian lapses. When I was growing up, Jesus’humanity was emphasized over his divinity. He was, depending on what decade it was, the prototypical freedom fighter, a James Dean type rebel, the first feminist vegetarian socialist, and/or the main character in not one but two popular Broadway musicals.

"Taken to its logical conclusion, Belloc explains, Arianism leads us to treat 'our Lord at last as a prophet and, however exalted, no more than a prophet.'

"This is what Islam teaches. Even some nominal Christians believe that, in the words of The Byrds, 'Jesus was just all right.' The Mormons, Christian Scientists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Unification Church (or 'Moonies') say Jesus was a son of God, but not the Son of God.

"Yet Jesus himself said, 'I and my Father are one.' (John 16:15)

"That will never be good enough for some people, not even some Catholic bishops. So many of them were seduced by the Arian heresy that St Athanasius, who championed the Creed at Nicea, famously said, 'The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of bishops.'"

Remember: A Catholic Alphabet -- 187 perfect bound pages of pure "me" -- is available at a special price from now through Ash Wednesday (February 9). Hey, I didn't spend five years in Catholic book publishing for nothing!

And don't be put off by that Belloc quote above: A Catholic Alphabet contains less than 1% C.S. Lewis!

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who's picked up a copy (or two!) already. I really want to know what you think, good or bad, so keep in touch...

"Rabbi probed for circumcised infants' herpes," says MSNBC.

Spoiler-filled run-down of the upcoming Super Bowl episode:

"'The values he represents have become more visible in American life,' agrees 'Simpsons' executive producer Al Jean, 'as people who maybe are outward advocates of Ned's values have come into positions of power. We always satirize who's in power and what the cultural zeitgeist is, so currently the point of view Ned has is a little more ripe for satire.'

"Ned stands front and center in Sunday's edition of 'The Simpsons' when, in an unlikely collaboration with Homer, he co-produces the Super Bowl halftime show as (what else?) a biblical pageant."

Pope "pulls round in hospital from fever":

"The Italian government also sounded upbeat, with the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, saying: 'There is optimism and it is predicted that the episode can be overcome in two or three days.'"

You might want to add The Pope Blog to your RSS feeds. Andy's doing a fine job.

Also: Poynter.org's assembled some "Pope Resources" for journos, just in case.

Charlotte Hays thinks "Christianophobia" is a dumb word:

"Hatred of Christian values and symbols is also rampant in Europe. But it's hardly a medical condition. Christianophobia sounds more like a disease than an honest, if brutal, adherence to a faith that is at war with Christianity. Can you imagine the early Christian martyrs going to their deaths thinking, 'These Romans certainly are phobic'?"

Another insightful post from Kate McMillan:

"I hold no particular religious beliefs. My support for preserving the traditional definition of marriage is rooted in basic anthropology and solidified by a suspicion that same-sex marriage has more to do with forwarding the agenda of the extreme left than it does with concern about minority rights. If minority rights were truly the issue at stake, there would be full-out legislative war between the Federal Government and province of Quebec over minority language rights.

"The secular left advancing same-sex marriage legislation in the Canadian government purports a deep commitment to protect religious freedom from infringement by homosexual rights advocates, but in truth that commitment amounts to little more than a winking promise to allow people to 'believe in something that doesn't exist'.

"When push comes to shove, the 'truth' of state-defined equality rights will always trump the 'false' God-defined morality. The problem stems from something deeper than simple disbelief in God. Permitting freedom of religion to supercede equality rights is to acknowledge the possible existance of God -- an authority higher than that of the state."

Regular readers are familiar with my "Catholic Alphabet" column for Toronto's Catholic Register (the diocesan paper). I've posted a number of those columns here over the past three years, and the response is always encouraging.

So I finally got it together and collected the best of them into a new book, A Catholic Alphabet.

These short essays walk you through Catholic teaching from A to Z -- from the Assumption to Zeal -- with stops along the way to consider Natural Law, Original Sin, Confirmation and much more. A Catholic Alphabet leans heavily on the Catechism and scripture, but as you'd expect, I get in plenty of references to Night of the Living Dead, stuff in the news and 80s haircut bands, too. And if I'm not mistaken, the book contains only one Chesterton quote, so what more can you ask?

A Catholic Alphabet is available now for a special, limited-time-only price of $16.99 -- after Ash Wednesday (one week from today), A Catholic Alphabet's regular price will be $18.99. (PS: You can't get it in stores or at Amazon.)

Hope you enjoy it. I'd love to hear what you think, good and bad. Happy reading!

GetReligion.org shares a letter James Dobson's been emailing to supporters. It reads, in part:

"The video itself is relatively harmless and is devoid of any sexual content. However, it is being incorporated into a larger campaign, created by an organization called the We Are Family Foundation, to teach 'tolerance' to young children. Unfortunately, rather than simply encouraging tolerance of those who come from different cultural, religious, or socio-economic backgrounds -- which we believe is a worthy objective -- the curriculum also contains material designed to encourage young children to celebrate homosexual behavior.

"To complicate the issue further, soon after this story broke, the pro-homosexual resources to which we took offense were suddenly removed from the We Are Family Foundation's Web site."

Yep. They're out and they're proud! Except when they aren't...

"As MPs begin debating the government's same-sex marriage bill, a healthy majority of Canadians would actually prefer to see the contentious issue decided by a country-wide referendum, a new National Post/Global National poll suggests.

"More than two-thirds said they would prefer a direct say on the gay marriage question, rather than a free vote in Parliament that lets politicians act according to their conscience, the survey indicates.

"And the poll suggests the same-sex legislation might go down to defeat in a plebiscite, with 66% saying they support keeping the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman."

Pope's spokesman calls situation 'calm'; medical bulletin expected later.

One woman's story:

"In Arab culture, when a woman disgraces her family -- or is even rumored to have done so -- she deserves to die. I knew if I left the airport and ran away, my family would come after me to kill me for disgracing them. But the longer I thought about how miserable I'd be married to a man I didn't love or respect, the more angry I became. I've fasted for you; I've prayed five times a day to you; I've even studied the Qur'an for you, I inwardly screamed at Allah. And this is what you allow to happen?! Right then, on February 10, 1990, I stopped praying and worshiping Allah."

And more new stuff at LarkNews.com.

Pope John Paul II hospitalized, very few details right now except for coverage on FOX News TV (nothing on their site yet).

Not their Most Redeeming, mind you. These films were selected based on excellence alone. Surprising picks like Dogville and Vera Drake will cause a stir...

"In the years since its release [Groundhog Day]has been taken up by Jews, Catholics, Evangelicals, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, and followers of the oppressed Chinese Falun Gong movement. Meanwhile, the Internet brims with weighty philosophical treatises on the deep Platonist, Aristotelian, and existentialist themes providing the skin and bones beneath the film's clown makeup. On National Review Online's group blog, The Corner, I asked readers to send in their views on the film. Over 200 e-mails later I had learned that countless professors use it to teach ethics and a host of philosophical approaches. Several pastors sent me excerpts from sermons in which Groundhog Day was the central metaphor. And dozens of committed Christians of all denominations related that it was one of their most cherished movies."


This prompts Derb to give up his "Parents, don't let your kids go to the mall!" crusade for the moment. He should start here...

Time magazine manages less-crappy-than-usual cover story on evangelicals.

From the Meatriarchy (now in new Wintergreen flavour!):

"Fortune Magazine points out a curious phenomenon in Hollywood.

"G-Rated movies make the most money. Yet Hollywood continues to crank out anything but G-Rated movies. This article might be behind a subscription wall so I am summarizing it here.

Plus: new posts from the always provocative Hollywood insider Barbara Nicolosi, and the new blog from Govindini Murty and Co., the folks behind the Liberty Film Festival.

Nominate your favourites before Friday, February 4!

"Labour yesterday withdrew two electionposters depicting Michael Howard as a 'Fagin' figure and a flying pig after MPs and Jewish groups said they left the party open to charges of anti-Semitism."

Claims Wittenberg Door!

Anti-Bush Criticism and the Fixation on 'Delusional' Christian Fundamentalism:

"Perhaps you didn't know that Christian fundamentalists were running the United States, but then perhaps you weren't attending any upscale Manhattan parties over the holiday season. Or perhaps you didn't have the advantage of being introduced as someone who writes about religion for a newspaper..."

(Thanks to Loose Canon.)

The Web Elves have been extra busy lately -- grab a coffee and enjoy an embarrassment of riches at their groovy site!

"All across the country churches of every denomination are passing out postcards to send to MPs asking that traditional marriage be protected."

Terry Mattingly's latest:

"...International Bible Society leaders were not surprised that some people were upset by their decision to distribute 91,000 New Testaments in a pre-Christmas edition of the Colorado Springs Gazette. They were surprised when the project made national headlines, inspiring debate about free speech, religious tolerance and the role of newspapers in the marketplace of ideas."

"Muslims at hate website celebrate murders of the Armanious family"

And if I were Matt Groening, I'd call my lawyers about this.

Via Xavier.

"One of Poland's most famous newspaper editors, Jerzy Urban, will find out on Tuesday >whether he will be imprisoned for criticising Pope John Paul II.

"Mr Urban wrote a satirical article calling the Pope 'the Brezhnev of the Vatican' and an 'impotent old man'.

"In the first criminal trial of its kind in Poland, he has been charged with publicly insulting a head of state.

"If found guilty, he faces between three months and three years in priso."

(Thanks to W for the link).

Hey, my blog has a new slogan, via the guys at Swordandspirit.com. Their always-worth-reading, "too cool 4 skool" newsletter is ready. What are you waiting for?

GodBlogCon?:

"As the blogging world matures, bloggers have started meeting together in the flesh to trade ideas. Conservative blogger and radio host Hugh Hewitt recently suggested that religious bloggers should organize their own conference on the place of blogging in the church. Dr. Andy Jackson of Mesa, Arizona, is offering to host such a conference in his 2,000-seat auditorium. But first things first: is there any interest?"

"If you consider yourself a 'God-blogger' and would like to learn more, visit Andy Jackson's site and indicate your interest. The target is a minimum of 100 interested participants at this early stage as an indicator of whether the idea has any legs."

***
I didn't see a ton of recognizably Catholic names when I clicked through, but hey, it's early yet... I don't think conferences of any kind accomplish as much as blogging itself, but seriously, good luck guys!

*Speaking of which: demonstrating that the rift between Protesants and Catholics remains wide, I have no idea what these people are talking about, but it sounds very clever and learned, and they've sent a ton of new people to my blog. So: cheers to the Boar's Head Tavern!

What's worse: my laugh or my chins? A toss up, I know...

Anyway:

* Jeff Jarvis and his Freedom of Information Act discoveries about FCC broadcasting fines

* Life in Iraq: Friends of Democracy and Iraq the Model

* SpongeBob = gay

And Why The Hollywood System is Broken:

"And you liberals who run this town have a lot of answering to do, because you're greenlighting expensive garbage like Van Helsing and Alexander and Hellboy and in doing so slowly destroying the industry. I'm no great admirer of Martin Scorsese, and I'm beginning to lose respect for Clint Eastwood, but these are experienced artists and professionals who don't deserve to wait in the studio lobby while Rob Schneider pitches his latest fart-comedy to delighted executives. The lunatics are obviously running the asylum."

"He could have gone into Woolworths, but no. He had to go into this particular shop. One of the things I remember him taking was a book on Pope Pius XII. The devilment was always there, and it could be quite frightening."

A new breed of rock star: quietly Christian:

"The NME editor, Conor McNicholas, believes there is a simple reason why rock stars don't talk about their faith: 'The problem with religion is it's never cool. At the heart of all religions, there's a notion of control, and that's the opposite of rock'n'roll."

(Via Thunderstruck)

"If I have brought any message today, it is this:Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world."

Andre Crouch on synthetic authenticity:

"Church, and church people, can often seem unreal. Among my personal unreal church experiences was the megachurch service where we were invited to turn to the stranger next to us and 'share a deep personal need in the next two minutes.' Then there was the heartwarming, personal account of a minor miracle that I heard from two different preachers, speaking in the first person, on two separate occasions.

"But our longing for 'authenticity' also bears a suspicious resemblance to the latest plot twist in the story of consumer culture: the tendency to rapidly replace the squeaky-clean franchise with the 'authentic' franchise."

(...)

"Just down the road is the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, a homey, weathered place where a welcoming fire emanates from gas nozzles. On the walls at Cracker Barrel hang nearly 1,000 pieces of Americana, lovingly collected and restored to a suitably worn appearance. Each one has a bar code..."

First off, thanks to those of you who've expressed your support during this trying time.

Now I'd like to ask you all one more favour, one that might seem to contradict that expression of gratitude. I know many of you wish I'd return to the Shotgun group blog. However, I made up my mind to remove myself as an invited poster, for the sake of that blog, more than a month ago and I do not plan to ever return in that capacity.

This is just a suggestion, and I hope nobody takes this the wrong way, but: if possible, please refrain from mentioning my name in the comments over at the Shotgun. The last thing I want to do is "control" what other people write, think and say. However, it is obvious that the mention of my name, for reasons I can't quite fathom, creates a problem. Then I feel obliged to weigh in, like I did this weekend, to try to correct other people's misinformation for legal and professional reasons and...

Well, all this does is create stress for everyone involved.

I sincerely wish the Shotgun and the Western Standard every success. Our country needs them desperately. In my complete absence, I believe the site will return to being the vital communications center we Canadian conservatives need. I regret my role in the site's disintegration, and would encourage other folks to visit there and engage in healthy, constructive debate.

Again: I hope nobody is hurt by this suggestion. Unfortunately, sometimes our good intentions backfire, that's all. And hey, I'll always be right here, where I really belong.

Thanks again, all!

A comment at Touchstone:

"Oh, the irony of being told by the 50-year-old hipster that the introduction of the rock band into Sunday worship was done for our benefit!"

Thanks to Xavier for the link.

Along with Paul Tuns, I'm on Behind the Story tonight at 7PM EST.

Yep, more "pomes". Guess I'm not in the mood to blog much "real" stuff write now. Sorry. And the response to my Flanner O'Connor column was unexpectedly large and positive, so I thought some readers might be interested.

If you hate pomes, please scroll waaaay down to resume regular programming.

If you don't: this poem appears in my collection, and was inspired by this photograph.

***

"That Photograph of Flannery O'Connor"
by Kathy Shaidle


1

"You could say that in the Navajo system there is a myth behind every chant. And behind every chant there was a story, and if you had a certain illness, for instance, let's say you had what they would call joint pains, swelling, arthritis or rheumatism, you would say, what hero or heroine had that disease? So you might say that you would be identifying with her. So you would choose that chant."
--The Wisdom of the Dream


You could almost be my mother: coaxed to pose,
caught trying a smile on (one size too small).
Especially those rhinestoned, catseye glasses,
that settle-down-now hair, that dress:

sleeveless & black (too young to know better,
to care, I want to say crepe, to say crinoline)
heavy & hot in this picture of summer
(the South's always summer, and deadly, to me —
the screen door behind you: buckshot with flies).

A photo that's older than I am.
I can hear my mother laughing:
We thought we looked beautiful then!

You clearly do not think this
and couldn't laugh then, or now.
Your pearl necklace does your smiling for you.



2

"Flannery O'Connor, you're the tops. Anybody who wrote of being so obsessed with collecting chickens that she actually made clothes for them is A-OK with me. She may be famous for later raising peacocks but I'll always imagine her dreaming up Wise Blood as she stitched away on evening gowns for her darling little birdies."
--Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters


My mother has no time to spare for totems or familiars;
brooms her balcony of pigeons — rightly so.

On your mother's porch, beside you,
bows a peacock
:grotto-bird — varicose & virgin blue,
its star-stuck Marycrown —
an iridescent, feathered Lourdes

(to which you pilgrimed once,
and moaning all the way:
I dread a miracle)

But my mother owns a spinning wheel, just for decoration
with plastic plants where real wool should be,
and that leggy wooden thing could be
your bird's museum'd bones:
hooped one end, then
whittled down to neck the other side

Mr. Spinning Wheel stood sentry by our balcony for years
and then there was the time Mom took me to the little zoo:

the peacock in its cage — a sullen, stubborn droop — refused
to fandance for the pleading grownup crowd.

Birds don't speak English you dummies I thought.
I was, still am, a pompous child.
Also an excellent mimic:

the peacock's rusty mutter flew
through my ears & out of my mouth

& its blue tail blew up like Victoria Day.

The crowd wheeled like the bird and turned away from it, to me.
The tiny girl who rarely spoke had made a sound.


3

It was not without sorrow that she left her father's house very early in the morning; indeed, she could not believe that the pain of dying would be greater, for it seemed to her as if every bone in her body were wrenched asunder...
-- Vita Sackville-West on Teresa of Avila in The Eagle and the Dove


Is lupus Leaving Home Disease,
striking, almost always, would-be Mary Tyler Moores?
(sorry — guess you can't know who she is...)

Does perfect independence pack
its fearful baggage-bones, and like
a disappointed bride declare:
I'm going home to mother
while our lives, our chosen husbands,
stand bewildered on the porch,
and watch their much-loved freedom hail a cab?

You moved away, you took the train
under your very own steam —
and only hours later, carried off,
a doctor called.

I study the photograph again —
peer past your crutches, your snap't-shut lips;
the still screen door: its rusty last slam
that rings through the years to my ears —

Isn't that your mother baby standing in the shadows?

(sorry once again:
that's a song just past your time,

and so am I:
born here the year that you died down there)

Checkmate, captured queen, you stare me down.
Both doctor's-ordered not to work.
Allowed "to write a little."

Via Jihad Watch:

"The full 95-page Freedom House report, 'Saudi publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques,' is now available here in pdf form.

"Read it all. The venom directed toward Christians, Jews, Muslims deemed not Islamic enough, and America is breathtaking."

***
Freedom House have a good reputation, btw.

"The Rotterdam international film festival has pulled the last contentious work by Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh at the eleventh hour, amid fears that the screening might trigger further acts of religious violence."

Wired News: Tolkien Gets Ringing Endorsement:

"Jackson and company recognized something essential about the success of The Lord of the Rings: It happened because of its rabid fans.

"At least that's the case made by a new documentary, Ringers: Lord of the Fans, which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival this week in Park City, Utah.

"The film traces the history of Tolkien mania, which took off with the original publication of The Lord of the Rings in 1954."

Thanks to Walker for the link.

Frederica Mathewes-Green overheard pro-choicers singing that song at March for Life. Sad.

Thanks to CN for the link.

"A new book, Christian Jihad, by Ergun Mehmet Caner, of Liberty University, and Emir Fethi Caner, of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, examines this uncomfortable question. The authors bring an unusual perspective to the task. Two former Muslims who now follow Christ, the Caners have drawn international attention for their tough critiques of Islam in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks."

"Good News for Shroudies"

UPDATE 2:

First off, thanks to all of you for your support. Do know that the situation is being taken very seriously and I expect a favourable resolution in the very near future. I don't think it wise to say much more for now. No need to send "lawyers, guns and money" after all. I hope.

Once the situation is resolved in my favour, there will be a single post at this site to keep you informed. That will be the last word on the subject and we can all go back to wondering if SpongeBob is gay.


UPDATE: Norman Spector has now come right out and accused me of "lying about my resume" at the Shotgun blog. If you are or know a good libel lawyer, please contact me. No, I'm not joking. My reputation is at stake and I am more than willing to take any steps necessary to fight this libel. This is serious.

***
I'm getting ready to tape Behind the Story this afternoon. While I'm away, please check out GetReligion, Thunderstruck and the Christianity Today blog.

For now:

That murdered Coptic Christian family from New Jersey are mentioned on the "America's Most Wanted" website.

Plus: our Ignorant Frenchie of the Day!

Oh, and by the way: in the comments at The Shotgun, Norman Spector has now gone from calling me a "smear artist" who is "morally responsible for late-term abortions" to accusing me of "bluffing" (i.e., exaggerating, i.e., lying) about where and how often I've been published, and calling me "washed up".

Any big strong men who care to defend my honour are certainly welcome to do so. But be warned: Norm's a crotchety old thing once he gets those false teeth in...