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Friday, September 5, 2003
Books I'm Associated With
Click on the above to see some of the books that I have had a hand in walking through. Includes such authors as Father Benedict Groeschel, Pat Madrid, Archbishop Dolan, Johnnette Benkovic and others.
Click on the above to see some of the books that I have had a hand in walking through. Includes such authors as Father Benedict Groeschel, Pat Madrid, Archbishop Dolan, Johnnette Benkovic and others.
Thursday, September 4, 2003
Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword".
Paul Hill is dead. The State of Florida took his life. He took the life of those he felt were murderers of the unborn. He became one of them by taking their life. Ironically, the governor of Florida, Jeb Bush remarked that Hill's God wasn't his, because his God didn't teach that killing was right--I say ironically because he signed the death warrant that did to Paul Hill, what Paul Hill did to the abortionists. Hill felt they were murderers, the State of Florida felt that Hill was a murderer and in the end they murdered him.
Jesus' teachings are so radically opposed to the killing of anyone. Those who have grasped the teachings of Jesus have changed the world not through violence but through the power that Jesus offers his disciples if they humble themselves and allow Him to be the Lord of their lives. One has only to think of Rev. Martin Luther King and the non-violent Christian civil rights movement and the revolution it unleashed in the United States. Or of the Polish Solidarity movement led by Lech Walesa under the patronage of Our Lady that sparked similar movements and brought down the Iron Curtian. The only victims in both of these movements were members of the protesting groups, in imitation of Christ they offered their lives so that others might live. This is the message of Christ, that we lay down our lives for our friends and enemies--not that we take their lives.
But unfortunately most of us are way to impatient to wait on the Lord and are apt to take things into our own hands. So the unplanned pregnancy is terminated, so the anti-abortion protestor gets impatient and seeks to take up the sword, so the State decides the easiest way to deal with a criminal is to exterminate them. And the cycle of violence continues...but please never in the name of God.
Paul Hill is dead. The State of Florida took his life. He took the life of those he felt were murderers of the unborn. He became one of them by taking their life. Ironically, the governor of Florida, Jeb Bush remarked that Hill's God wasn't his, because his God didn't teach that killing was right--I say ironically because he signed the death warrant that did to Paul Hill, what Paul Hill did to the abortionists. Hill felt they were murderers, the State of Florida felt that Hill was a murderer and in the end they murdered him.
Jesus' teachings are so radically opposed to the killing of anyone. Those who have grasped the teachings of Jesus have changed the world not through violence but through the power that Jesus offers his disciples if they humble themselves and allow Him to be the Lord of their lives. One has only to think of Rev. Martin Luther King and the non-violent Christian civil rights movement and the revolution it unleashed in the United States. Or of the Polish Solidarity movement led by Lech Walesa under the patronage of Our Lady that sparked similar movements and brought down the Iron Curtian. The only victims in both of these movements were members of the protesting groups, in imitation of Christ they offered their lives so that others might live. This is the message of Christ, that we lay down our lives for our friends and enemies--not that we take their lives.
But unfortunately most of us are way to impatient to wait on the Lord and are apt to take things into our own hands. So the unplanned pregnancy is terminated, so the anti-abortion protestor gets impatient and seeks to take up the sword, so the State decides the easiest way to deal with a criminal is to exterminate them. And the cycle of violence continues...but please never in the name of God.
Wednesday, September 3, 2003
The Church that was Destroyed on 9/11
Much has been written about the church that survived the fall of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11/2001, but I've seen little written about the one that fell. It was an orthodox church dedicated to St. Nicholas. It strikes me there is symbolism to the fall of a church dedicated to the Christian bishop who has become the secularized Santa Claus.
An awesome picture of the church before its destruction and the effort to rebuild it are here...SAINT NICHOLAS CHURCH
Much has been written about the church that survived the fall of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11/2001, but I've seen little written about the one that fell. It was an orthodox church dedicated to St. Nicholas. It strikes me there is symbolism to the fall of a church dedicated to the Christian bishop who has become the secularized Santa Claus.
An awesome picture of the church before its destruction and the effort to rebuild it are here...SAINT NICHOLAS CHURCH
Scripture Interpretations--The Sodomites
Thanks to Amy for sending me a letter to the editor that appeared in the New Orleans newspaper protesting a priest who protested the French Quarter becoming another Sodom and Gommorah. Here is the link to the letter and here is my response to this absurd interpretation of the passage in Genesis. First let me say that what the writer is saying is truly one of the most oft repeated "modern" interpretations of the passage but in my mind one of the most absurd and cleary one motivated by an agenda that is not at the base truth seeking.
Was the sin of the Sodomites, inhospitality? (read the letter)
This is another example of the sad state of scripture studies. Reread that story about Sodom and see if there is anyway you could interpret the sin of the Sodomites as that of "inhospitality"--while it is true that Lot is hospitable--to the point of offering his virgin daughters to the Sodomites--their crime is hardly inhospitality. In fact if you take away any sense that homosexual activity is a bad thing, one might argue that the Sodomites were being incredibly hospitable to their guests and Lot was doing anything he could to prevent them from offering their generous hospitality to the strangers.
Of course the truth is that the Sodomites were evil. They lusted after the strangers and wanted to "use" them. The sin of the Sodomites is "lust" gone totally beserk to the point of violence. The imagery of them being struck blind by the angels is a good way shedding light on their predicament--they are so "blinded" by their lust that they can't even discern the heavenly visitors are from God!
The idiots who continue to teach the most absurd things about Scripture in order to be politically correct, to re-explain the miraculous and to not offend really have overstayed their welcome. I think it is time for us to be a little inhospitable to them.
Thanks to Amy for sending me a letter to the editor that appeared in the New Orleans newspaper protesting a priest who protested the French Quarter becoming another Sodom and Gommorah. Here is the link to the letter and here is my response to this absurd interpretation of the passage in Genesis. First let me say that what the writer is saying is truly one of the most oft repeated "modern" interpretations of the passage but in my mind one of the most absurd and cleary one motivated by an agenda that is not at the base truth seeking.
Was the sin of the Sodomites, inhospitality? (read the letter)
This is another example of the sad state of scripture studies. Reread that story about Sodom and see if there is anyway you could interpret the sin of the Sodomites as that of "inhospitality"--while it is true that Lot is hospitable--to the point of offering his virgin daughters to the Sodomites--their crime is hardly inhospitality. In fact if you take away any sense that homosexual activity is a bad thing, one might argue that the Sodomites were being incredibly hospitable to their guests and Lot was doing anything he could to prevent them from offering their generous hospitality to the strangers.
Of course the truth is that the Sodomites were evil. They lusted after the strangers and wanted to "use" them. The sin of the Sodomites is "lust" gone totally beserk to the point of violence. The imagery of them being struck blind by the angels is a good way shedding light on their predicament--they are so "blinded" by their lust that they can't even discern the heavenly visitors are from God!
The idiots who continue to teach the most absurd things about Scripture in order to be politically correct, to re-explain the miraculous and to not offend really have overstayed their welcome. I think it is time for us to be a little inhospitable to them.
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