Jumping Without A Chute

Help A Soldier's Child

While I normally keep my professional life separate from my blogging, I want to take an opportunity to ask for your help. Every year, the senior OCS class of the NJARNG organizes and runs the Sam Nutter Memorial 5k race at Sea Girt, NJ to benefit the child of a NJARNG soldier in need.

You can visit the website at:

www.nutterrun.com

Your donations are tax deductible and are greatly appreciated. In addition, if you are a blogger or just interested in helping, you can also print out a flyer from the website and post it. Again, thanks for your help.

Timeless Words From The Holy Father

From the dawn of the Republic, America's quest for freedom has been guided by the conviction that the principles governing political and social life are intimately linked to a moral order based on the dominion of God the Creator. The framers of this nation's founding documents drew upon this conviction when they proclaimed the "self-evident truth" that all men are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights grounded in the laws of nature and of nature's God. The course of American history demonstrates the difficulties, the struggles, and the great intellectual and moral resolve which were demanded to shape a society which faithfully embodied these noble principles. In that process, which forged the soul of the nation, religious beliefs were a constant inspiration and driving force, as for example in the struggle against slavery and in the civil rights movement. In our time too, particularly in moments of crisis, Americans continue to find their strength in a commitment to this patrimony of shared ideals and aspirations. ..

Freedom is not only a gift, but also a summons to personal responsibility. Americans know this from experience – almost every town in this country has its monuments honoring those who sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom, both at home and abroad. The preservation of freedom calls for the cultivation of virtue, self-discipline, sacrifice for the common good and a sense of responsibility towards the less fortunate. It also demands the courage to engage in civic life and to bring one's deepest beliefs and values to reasoned public debate. In a word, freedom is ever new. It is a challenge held out to each generation, and it must constantly be won over for the cause of good (cf. Spe Salvi, 24). Few have understood this as clearly as the late Pope John Paul II. In reflecting on the spiritual victory of freedom over totalitarianism in his native Poland and in eastern Europe, he reminded us that history shows, time and again, that "in a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation", and a democracy without values can lose its very soul (cf. Centesimus Annus, 46). Those prophetic words in some sense echo the conviction of President Washington, expressed in his Farewell Address, that religion and morality represent "indispensable supports" of political prosperity.

Go read the entire text, now.

The Holy Father Is Here

and thank God for that. I am pleased that he arrived safely and disappointed that, due to work commitments, I will not be able to make it to DC or NYC to see him. I am always impressed by how a Papal visit always seem to touch something spiritual within the hearts of many Americans. Even for a brief moment, people are reminded of the world beyond the secular, temporary, and transient.

I would have also loved to have heard Kathleen Battle sing the Our Father....actually I would have preferred Natalie Dessay but, no doubt the Holy Father, an avid fan of classical music, will enjoy the piece.

Heretics For Obama

That's right, the man who wouldn't want his child "punished" with a baby has a group of cafeteria catholics who don't have the guts to actually be real protestants supporting him.

Go here and check out the site. Then click on the contact us icon and ask them how they can support a candidate who is an enemy of the culture of life.

Why Radical Islam Doesn't Get It, Even After All These Years

A sermon last Friday by a prominent Muslim cleric and Hamas member of the Palestinian parliament openly declared that "the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital," would soon be conquered by Islam.

The fiery sermon, delivered by Yunis al-Astal and aired on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV, predicted that Rome would become "an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread though Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, even Eastern Europe."

"Allah has chosen you for Himself and for His religion," al-Astal preached, "so that you will serve as the engine pulling this nation to the phase of succession, security and consolidation of power, and even to conquests through da'wa and military conquests of the capitals of the entire world.

"Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our prophet Muhammad," he added.

Continue to read the story

   Sadly this misguided creature of hate fails to grasp that our faith does not reside in a place. Rome may be a spiritual capital but our faith is found in our hearts. this is why we do not face Mecca. We do not need a place to center our faith upon. We do not face Rome, we do not face Jerusalem, we face our hearts and minds to GOD! We face our God who through the act of sacrifice of his Son, and his ongoing presence in the world through the Holy Spirit, through the Triune God Three in One One in Three, seeks our love and calls us to redemption and Love. We are not called to conquer and convert at the point of a sword. Destroy Rome, Destroy Jerusalem, Destroy the world, it does not matter, you can not destroy what is not of the world!

Love, (agape) can not exist in a state of slavery.  Only eros, the love to possess can exist. This is not the love of God but the love of power used by those who pervert or fabricate the word of God to serve their own purposes.

Try to conquer or destroy whatever the hell you want., Faith remains, God remains, and even hope for your redemption remains.

AMDG!

Jimmy Carter: False Christian?

   I know that the title of this post alone is going to draw fire. So be it. It is written the way it is written in order to be absolutely clear. Jimmy Carter claims to be a Christian and even takes to the pulpit at his Plains Church to preach The Gospel and share The Word. His actions however, are in stark contrast to his words. Jimmy Carter's Christianity is one that is warped and distorted by liberation theology and a sad, sick, obsessive desire to leave a legacy, any legacy, other than the one he deserves for his continued arrival at the wrong side of history.

   His latest decision to meet with Hamas' leaders, men dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the sacrifice of their own people if it serves their purposes, is further proof of Carter's having lost his way. Over the years, Carter has embraced dictators and murderers, he has assisted in the murders of thousands by standing by while dictators and theocrats came to power and launched pogroms. He bent his knee toward the false god of communism by showing his belly to the USSR and its surrogates and satellites rather than facing up to them and calling them out for their crimes against God and man.

   Carter is incapable of loyalty to anything other than his own inflated ego. He is not loyal to the nation which he pledged to lead and then, when he failed as its leader, chose to blame his fellow citizens for his impotence. He is only loyal to his party when it listens to him or when the Republican Party is in power and he can use the wimp pulpit of failed former president to berate the current leadership from the safety of the peanut gallery, (no pun intended.) If he can not be loyal to his own country and the people whom he claims to love, how can he be loyal to God? He can't even render unto Caesar what is Caesar's without talking about how he rendered it better when he was Caesar.

   His writings, from Beyond the White House to Palestine: Peace not Apartheid are nothing more than poorly written attempts to revise history in the belief that a book will outlive his critics. (Not to worry, there will be new critics with each generation as more and more people see how he damaged and continues to damage the United States.) Criticism of Carter is met with self righteous indignation worthy of Bill Clinton's finger wagging denials and Barack Obama's impassioned rhapsodizing on the state of race in (G-d Damn) America. Whenever taken to task for his opportunism (remember how he painted himself as a Wallace democrat when he ran for Governor of Georgia) or anti-semitic words and actions, Carter's first response is to deflect the attack and accuse the attacker of either having some hidden agenda or being incapable of understanding the complexity of thought that careens between the ears of #39.

   While Carter may share the same initials as our Lord and Savior, it might be  good to recall that Christ died and descended into hell to defeat evil. Had Christ had anything in common with carter he would have emerged with a worthless peace treaty and a belief that this too somehow contributed to his legacy.

Fr. Michael Pfleger: Now What

Back on March 29th I blogged about the words and actions of Father Michael Pfleger and his defense of Jeremiah Wright. Michelle Malkin also blogged about it, and Pro-Life activist and blogger  Jill Stanek has been following the man for quite some time. I received no response from the Archidocese of Chicago when I called asking for a comment. The age old method of ignore and it will go away no longer seems to be likely as Bill O'Reilly made Fr. Pfleger and his actions the first story on his show tonight. Now let's see if Cardinal George will be a Shepherd. If not, then the Vatican needs to be contacted, especially considering the fact that the Holy Father will soon be sharing headline space with Pfleger when he arrives in a couple of weeks.

Personally, I believe Pfleger should be suspended and silenced while an investigation takes place. If he is guilty of placing his ego and his desire to be a political activist ahead of his duty as a Priest which seems likely, (and don't hand me the liberation theology or worker priest movements as a defense, none of them would have defended Farrakhan), he should be laicized and allowed to follow his secular siren song. Pfleger and Wright may want to read Jeremiah 50:6.

Where Goeth Christendom?

Muslims Outnumber Catholics

Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world, the Vatican said on Sunday.

Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, who compiled the Vatican's newly-released 2008 yearbook of statistics, said Muslims made up 19.2 percent of the world's population and Catholics 17.4 percent.

"For the first time in history we are no longer at the top: the Muslims have overtaken us," Formenti told Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano in an interview, saying the data referred to 2006.

He said that if all Christian groups were considered, including Orthodox churches, Anglicans and Protestants, then Christians made up 33 percent of the world's population -- or about 2 billion people.

The Vatican recently put the number of Catholics in the world at 1.13 billion people. It did not provide a figure for Muslims, generally estimated at around 1.3 billion.

   No doubt Islam grows, especially in the third world where its message of conflict and blame resonates with the have nots and the floundering failed attempts made by the west that only make things worse. Catholicism should be growing and has made gains but its losses far outweigh them. Why? Secularism, watered down catechesis, a hierarchy with provocateurs within that seek to undermine the efforts of those loyal to the Faith, these are but a few of the reasons.

   Hillaire Beloc, Ora Pro Nobis.

Jeremiah Wright Violates The Sanctity Of The Catholic Church As Well As Any Standard Of Human Decency

Disciple of Marxist inspired theology, Jeremiah Wright has now stained  the Catholic Church with his malevolent presence.

   While attending a birthday celebration for Poet-Laureate Maya Angelou at St. Sabina parish yesterday, Wright accepted an invitation to give the benediction offered to him by the Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of the parish. I can't imagine what Pfleger was thinking by creating scandal with this action.

   Pfleger appears to be yet another example of the worse our seminaries have to offer. A priest who acts in persona marxi rather than Persona Christi. Pfleger needs to realize that he can not serve two masters and based on the words and actions of Wright, and their harmonious relationship, he hasn't allied himself on the side of the angels. Pfleger shepherds his flock socially but, his spiritual leadership is horribly lacking if he welcomes someone like Wright into his parish and into his arms. Rev. Pfleger seems to be ignorant of the warning Christ gave to shepherds who lead their flocks astray.

   One wonders if Cardinal George will say or do anything about this. I contacted the Vicar General of The Archdiocese today and left a message, we'll see if they respond.

Easter

In former times one man opened for us the gates of death; today, the one man brings us back to life. Yesterday, life was lost to us because of death; but today, Life has destroyed death. Yesterday, shame caused us to hide ourselves beneath the fig tree; today, glory draws us towards the tree of life. Yesterday, disobedience expelled us from Paradise; today, our faith causes us to enter it. Once again the fruit of life is held out to us to be enjoyed as much as we wish. Once again the stream of Paradise, whose water irrigates us through the four rivers of the gospels, comes to refresh the whole face of the Church…

-St. Gregory of Nyssa

   May this year see your faith refreshed and our Church refreshed as well. God Bless.

Easter Approaches

and my kitchen smells like

Planned Parenthood Gets Caught (And Margaret Sanger Would Be Proud)

   Planned Parenthood claims they were set up and that the nasty right wing is making them look like racists as opposed to their altruistic, pure, unselfish desire to help all of those women oppressed by the patriarchy. You be the judge:

News coverage of the story here

Medical Study Reports Abortion May Lead To Mental Illness

Women may be at risk of mental health breakdowns if they have abortions, a medical royal college has warned. The Royal College of Psychiatrists says women should not be allowed to have an abortion until they are counselled on the possible risk to their mental health.

This overturns the consensus that has stood for decades that the risk to mental health of continuing with an unwanted pregnancy outweighs the risks of living with the possible regrets of having an abortion.

Continue reading the story

The Dis-United Church of Christ

Barack Obama and his pastor, Jeremiah Wright of Trinity UCC have been in the news lately due to the comments made by Wright, a bigoted afro-fascist and scum of the lowest order. What's interesting though is the way the UCC presents itself.

Contrast this

With this

Mormon Missionaries Desecrate Catholic Shrine

SAN LUIS, Colo.  —  Photos posted on the Internet showed three Mormon missionaries mocking a Catholic shrine and holding the broken head of a statue of a saint there, a church official said.

Costilla County Sheriff Gilbert Martinez said deputies on Monday were beginning to investigate whether the men vandalized the Shrine of the Mexican Martyrs at the Chapel of All Saints, which stands on a butte overlooking San Luis.

The photos show young men holding the broken head of a statue, preaching from the Book of Mormon at an altar and pretending to sacrifice each other.

The vandalism apparently occurred in 2006, though damage to the statue went unnoticed until last week, when a parish member saw the photos on the picture-sharing Internet site Photobucket. They have since been taken down.

Robert Fotheringham, a regional missions official for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, confirmed the three men in the photos were church missionaries.

"We have a history of people doing things like this to us, so we're mortified that our missionaries would do it to someone else," Fotheringham said. "It's beyond embarrassing. It's inexcusable."

He declined to release their names.

Continue reading the story

   

   An isolated incident? One wonders especially considering the considerable amount of effort LDS missionaries devote to proselytizing to Catholics. So when will we hear an apology from those who demand religious freedom in public but, in private show an intolerant bigotry worthy of the worst pagan excesses of Rome? Are these cowards the best and brightest of the LDS? I sincerely hope not as most of the members of the LDS I have met are genuinely good people. I look forward to seeing what comes of this.

Where Is The New Evangelization?

From the Washington Times

Evangelical Christianity has become the largest religious tradition in this country, supplanting Roman Catholicism, which is slowly bleeding members, according to a survey released yesterday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Evangelical Protestants outnumber Catholics by 26.3 percent (59 million) to 24 percent (54 million) of the population, according to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, a massive 45-question poll conducted last summer of more than 35,000 American adults. "There is no question that the demographic balance has shifted in past few decades toward evangelical churches," said Greg Smith, a research fellow at the Pew Forum. "They are now the mainline of American Protestantism."The traditional mainline Protestant churches, which in 1957 constituted about 66 percent of the populace, now count just 18 percent as adherents.Although one in three Americans are raised Roman Catholic, only one in four adults describe themselves as such, despite the huge numbers of immigrants swelling American churches, researchers said."Immigration is what is keeping them afloat," said John Green, a Pew senior fellow. "If everyone who was raised Catholic stayed Catholic, it'd be a third of the country."

continue reading the story

   So, why is this? Wasn't Vatican II supposed to modernize the Church and open its doors to the world so that everyone could come pouring in? Poor liturgy, non-existent apologetics and catechesis, horrid music, and an embrace of the secular to replace the sacred has forced many to leave in order to find a substitute that at least has some basis in faith. we will soon face a time when our values will be lost or hidden in the catacombs of society, a remnant church.

Abortion Hurts No One

From The Telegraph (UK)

An artist killed herself after aborting her twins when she was eight weeks pregnant, leaving a note saying: "I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a good mum."

Emma Beck was found hanging at her home in Helston, Cornwall, on Feb 1 2007. She was declared dead early the following day - her 31st birthday.

Her suicide note read: "I told everyone I didn't want to do it, even at the hospital. I was frightened, now it is too late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies: they need me, no-one else does."

The inquest at Truro City Hall heard that Miss Beck had split up with her boyfriend, referred to as "Ben" after he "reacted badly" to the pregnancy.

She saw her GP before the termination, but missed an appointment at a hospital in Penzance. She then cancelled, but later turned up to an appointment at a clinic at Royal Cornwall Hospital in Treliske. The counsellor was on holiday so a doctor referred Miss Beck to a pregnancy counselling telephone service eight days before carrying out the abortion when she was eight weeks pregnant, the inquest heard.

The coroner, Dr Emma Carlyon, ordered that the identities of the doctor who performed the abortion and her lead consultant be kept secret.

The inquest heard that Sylvia Beck, the victim's mother, wrote to the hospital after her daughter's death, saying: "I want to know why she was not given the opportunity to see a counsellor.

Continue reading the story

The doctor said: "I discussed Emma's situation with her, and wrote on the form, 'Unsupported, lives alone, ex-partner aware'.

'Unsupported, lives alone, ex-partner aware.'

Some epitaph. More on this later.

Sheep

Can you name the winning and losing quarterbacks from sunday night's Super Bowl?

Good, now, can you tell me who Paul Smith and Jason Dunham are?

Didn't think so and if you don't know, go learn something.

Did you vote today?

If not, why?

If you did, can you tell me what your candidate's stand is on the following issues:

Abortion

Iraq War

Economy

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Cloning

If you don't know the answers and voted solely based on party affiliation, race, or gender, then you are a moron and should be kept away from the ballot box.

Great News for the Cause of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

EL PASO -- A milestone in the cause for sainthood of El Paso native Archbishop Fulton Sheen comes Sunday, with a special mass of thanksgiving at 10:30 a.m. at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Peoria.

It is part the “postrema session,” which ends the Peoria Diocese’s role in Sheen’s path to sainthood. During the mass, documents collected over the past few years will be officially packed, sealed and notarized.

Sheen was a diocesan priest who later became famous worldwide as a radio and television personality, author and orator. He died in 1979.

Continue reading the story

50,000,000

A Visual Lesson

This is what abortion means.