Cluster of wheat image Grapes and vines image Cluster of wheat image
September 26th, 2010

WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?

I am posting  Whitehead’s What Would Jesus Do? the same day as I  publish my thoughts on encroaching Islamization because I have been unable to decide to my satisfaction when a Christian stands and fights and when a Christian stands  and dies.   I believe wholeheartedly in the power of love. I believe in passive resistance and non-violence, in the manner of Martin Luther King and Gandhi.   And Randy Terry’s Operation Rescue.

“What would Jesus do?” is the question.

The Catholic Catechism(2309) gives the four conditions for a just war:

1. the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;

2. all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;

3. there must be serious prospects of success;

4. the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.

These are hard conditions to fulfill; the Church teaches that war should always be the last resort.

Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) thought that “reasons sufficient for unleashing a war against Iraq did not exist,” in part because “proportion between the possible positive consequences and the sure negative effect of the conflict was not guaranteed. On the contrary, it seems clear that the negative consequences will be greater than anything positive that might be obtained.”

As immoral as it was to drop atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it had the good effect of scaring the world silly that it could happen again. I don’t think the rest of the world fears that the United States, unprovoked,  is likely to again drop an atomic bomb.  On the other hand, the 9/11 attack in the name of Islam on the Twin Towers was a wake-up call that there are indeed others who are just looking for an opportunity to attack us again, who are willing to offer up their own bodies in order to wreak havoc on The Great Satan — that’s us.

That being said, once our country is attacked, we have a right to self-defense.   It is my feeling that disarmament is foolish as long as we know that others are arming.   We are safer in a position of strength; we do not need to appear weak and appeasing.  I do not like to see us running scared.   I firmly believe in welcoming to our country those who are willing to abide by our laws, which, on the whole (having a Judeo-Christian basis) are what make the United States a good place to be. Whether they be Mexicans or Muslims, I find it hard to welcome those who come thinking to impose some other legal structure upon us (or respecting none at all) and flying their own flag.

Jesus’ message is a simple one of love and peace. We can all get along if we do to others as we would have them do to us.    If the others are coming from the same mindset it makes it a lot easier.

Thank you all for putting up with my musings.  Feel free to try to straighten me out.  I will listen.

~~~

And his banner over me is love. — Song of Solomon 2:4

For though we live in the world, we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds.   — 2 Cor. 10:4

September 26th, 2010

A 9/11 VICTORY MOSQUE?

All I did was post a quote from Newt Gingrich on Facebook:

There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia.  The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our submission is over.  — Newt Gingrich

It seemed to me that Gingrich has a better world view than most people.  I was surprised by the responses I received.  I was reminded with a scriptural quote (Matthew 5:44) that we are called to love our enemies and do good to those who hate you.   I was reminded that the First Amendment provides us with freedom of religion.   (Believe it or not, I already knew these things.)

Hate-mongering was mentioned.  I had not considered myself or Gingrich hate-mongers.   These (below) are hate-mongers.

Pilgrims to Mecca shout “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”


Newt Gingrich was well aware of the phenomenon known as “creeping Sharia,” especially in European countries but also beginning in our United States.  I posted a small sample on Facebook.


Here are links to samples of Sharia in Minnesota, the megamosque being planned in London, and the Islamization of Paris.

William Federer has made a study of the muslim history of erecting mosques after a victory.

William J. Federer

Sept. 6, 2010

The HISTORY OF ISLAM may hold answers to WHY it is so important for Moslems to build that GROUND ZERO MOSQUE…

In 630, Muhammad led 10,000 Muslim soldiers into Mecca and turned the pagans’ most prominent spot, the Ka’aba, into the Masjid al-Haram Mosque.

In 634, Rightly Guided Caliph Umar conquered Syria and turned the Christians’ most prominent spot, the Church of Job, famous for being visited by Saint Silva in the fourth century, into the Mosque of Job.

In 637, Caliph Umar conquered Hebron and turned the second-most prominent spot in Judaism, the Cave of the Patriarchs, into the Ibrahim Mosque. (This was repeated by Saladin in 1188.)

In 638, Muslim generals Amr ibn al-As and Khalid ibn al-Walid conquered Gaza and turned the prominent fifth-century Byzantine church into the Great Mosque of Gaza.

In 638, Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem.

In 691, Caliph Al-Malik ordered the Dome of the Rock  built on the most prominent spot in Judaism, the Temple Mount, followed by Caliph Al-Walid building the Al-Aqsa Mosque there in 705.

In 651, Muslims conquered Persia and turned Zoroastrian temples in Bukhara and Istakhr into mosques.

In 706, after Muslims took Damascus from the Byzantine Empire, Caliph Al-Walid turned the prominent Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist into the Umayyad Mosque.

In 710, Gen. Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Pakistan, defiled the prominent Sun Temple in Multan, which house the great idol “sanam,” and erected a mosque.

In 784, after the conquest of Spain, Emir Abd ar-Rahman turned the prominent Visigothic Christian Church of Saint Vincent into the Great Aljama Mosque of Cordoba.

After the conquest of Egypt, Caliphs al-Mamun (813-833) and al-Hakim (996-1021) turned prominent Coptic Christian churches and Jewish synagogues in Cairo into mosques.

In 831, Muslims conquered Palermo, Sicily, and Asad ibn al-Furat turned the prominent Church of Saint Mary of the Assumption into the Great Mosque of Bal ‘harm.

In 1193, Muslims conquered Delhi, India, and Qutbuddin Aibak turned the Red Citadel in Dhillika, the most prominent spot of the last Hindu rulers, into the Qutb Minar Mosque.

From 1250-1517, Mamluk Muslims controlled the Golan Heights and used the ancient Synagogue of Katzrin as a mosque.

In 1387, Turkish Muslims conquered Thessaloniki and turned the Katholikon Monastery and the Church of Aghia Sophia, which housed the relics of Saint Gregorios Palamas, into mosques, as Symeon of Thessaloniki recorded:

“The greatest number of the buildings of the churches fell to them, of which the first was the Holy Church of the Savior. … These were trampled underfoot and the infidels rejoiced in them. … Most of the religious buildings in the city were despoiled, while altars were demolished and sacred things profaned.”

On May 29, 1453, Sultan Mehmet II conquered Constantinople and turned the great Byzantine church, Hagia Sophia, into the Ayasofya Mosque.  The largest church in Christendom for a thousand years, the church’s four acres of gold mosaics was covered with whitewash and Quran verses.

In 1458, Sultan Mehmet II conquered Athens and turned the Greeks’ most prominent spot, the Parthenon on Acropolis hill, into a mosque. When Venetian Gen. Francesco Morosini drove the Muslims out in 1687, a cannonball hit the gunpowder stored in the mosque, blowing it up.

In the 15th century, Ottoman invaders turned Saint Clement’s Macedonian Orthodox Monastery in Plaosnik, Balkans, into the Imater Mosque.

From 1519-1858, Muslim Mughal rulers gained control of India and turned over 2,000 Hindu temples into mosques, including demolishing the Temple of Ram Janmabhoomi in Ajodhya, the birthplace of Rama, and replacing it with the Babri Mosque.

India’s Mughal Muslim ruler, Jahangir (1605-1627), wrote in Tujuk-i-Jahangiri: “At the city of Banaras [was] a temple. … I made it my plea for throwing down thee temple … and on the spot, with the very same materials, I erected the great mosque.”

In 1543, Hayreddin Barbarossa’s 30,000 Muslim troops wintered in Toulon, France, and turned the prominent Toulon Cathedral into a mosque.

In 1570, under Sultan Selim II Khan, Muslims conquered Paphos, Cyprus, and Gov. Mehmet Bey Ebubkir turned the prominent Christian church into the Great Mosque of Paphos.

In 1571, Muslims invaded Famagusta, Cyprus, and turned Saint Nicolas Cathedral, a rare Gothic church, into the Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque, and Saint Sophia Cathedral in Nicosia, constructed in 1228, into the Selimiye Mosque.

In 1588, Sultan Murat III turned the Eastern Orthodox Church of Saint John the Forerunner in Constantinople into the Hirami Ahmet Pasha Mosque.

In 1781, after having conquered the Old City of Acre, Ottoman Muslims turned the Roman Catholic Church built by Crusaders into the Jezzar Ahmet Pasha Mosque, where a hair from Muhammad’s beard is preserved.

In 1923, Muslims expelled Greeks from Turkey and turned Orthodox churches into mosques. In World War II, Nazis allied with Bosnians and turned the prominent Artists’ Gallery Museum in Zagreb, Croatia, into a mosque.

In the 1950s, Muslims expelled Jews from Arab lands and turned synagogues into mosques. Algerian Muslims warred against French colonial rule till France pulled out in 1962, after which the Cathedral of St. Philippe was turned into the Ketchaoua Mosque.

Violence against Jews caused 30,000 to flee and the Great Synagogue of Oran was turned into the Mosque Abdullah Ben Salem.

In 1974, Turkish Muslims invaded northern Cyprus, and prominent Greek Orthodox churches were turned into mosques.

In 1981, Muslim immigrants to the Netherlands converted Amsterdam’s historic Catholic Sint-Ignatiuskerk into the Fatih Mosque, and a synagogue in The Hague into the Aksa Mosque.

In the following  video Imam Rauf explains why Sharia law is compatible with our Constitution.  Be warned that it is not friendly to the Imam’s plan.

Over a hundred mosques have been built in New York City without any flak.  There have been numerous offers to help Imam Rauf move his mosque to a site further from Ground Zero.  In this video clip Imam Rauf said that moving the mosque further away might precipitate an attack by radical muslims.   “If we move from that location…the headlines in the muslim world will be that Islam is under attack..”   That sounds rather like a threat!

If the Imam were to denounce the 9/11 attack on my country by terrorists, that would help me believe this particular mosque could be an  “outreach.”   But the thought of a Victory Mosque on ground where the dust of the Twin Towers and the ashes of our fellow Americans rained down does not sit well with me…or with many others.

Further information click  here. And here.

Muslims confront Pope Benedict.

~~~

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. — 1 Peter 15

September 23rd, 2010

PALIN NOW

It was the end of August, just two years ago, that I first blogged about Sarah Palin when she was introduced as the Republican candidate for vice-president. I was especially impressed when she said she had a “servant’s heart.” Today Greta vanSusteren asks her whether she is hoping to run for president in 2012. It seems she hasn’t changed much.    More mature, better seasoned, wiser – still with a servant’s heart.

~~~

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:  a time to be born and a time to die,  a time to plant and a time to uproot,  a time to kill and a time to heal,  a time to tear down and a time to build,  a time to weep and a time to laugh,  a time to mourn and a time to dance,  a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,  a time to embrace and a time to refrain,  a time to search and a time to give up,  a time to keep and a time to throw away,  a time to tear and a time to mend,  a time to be silent and a time to speak,  a time to love and a time to hate,  a time for war and a time for peace.   — Ecclesiastes 3


September 21st, 2010

A MIRACLE THAT REPEATS ITSELF

I have written about miracles before. For those who believe there is nothing beyond this universe, no miracle is possible. But for those of us who believe God made the universe and authored its laws, we think it is possible for God to suspend those laws if he wishes. It is a good way to get attention and miracles were the “signs” used by Jesus and the apostles to witness to God.

Almost every year, on the 19th of September, in the Naples Cathedral, the dried blood of  St. Januarius (San Gennaro), a bishop who was beheaded in 305, becomes liquid. According to the  story some of his blood was collected after his death and is kept in an ampule.

There are numerous records on the liquefaction of the blood, dating from times before 1649 when they officially started recording this miracle. One of the descriptions of the procession dates from the year 1389. According to writings in 1528 the blood miracle didn’t take place. This was the year the pest broke out and Naples didn’t receive its raise from France.

There are hundreds of records of the liquefaction dating from the 16th Century.

This well-documented phenomenon is still regarded as unexplained by believers and sceptics alike. Noted parapsychologist Hans Bender defined it the paranormal phenomenon with the best and historical documentation; physicist Enrico Fermi seems to have expressed interest as well.

It is also one of the few recurrent non-medical, physical “miracles” that might be studied scientifically.

 

 

The liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius to reported to have occurred once again.

Naples ItalySeptember 19th, 2010 – The precious vial was transported in a procession that took place from the Duomo to the Monastero di Santa Chiara, did not disappoint the expectations of thousands of tourists and believers alike and this morning at 9:43 the miracle of San Gennaro took place. It was Bishop Crescenzio Sepe to announce the liquefaction of the blood that as always is welcomed by the waving the white handkerchief.

September 18th, 2010

MEET CHRISTINE

Young, fresh, untried, a bumblebee trying to fly, Christine O’Donnell, Catholic, wins the Republican primary in Delaware. You have to admire her goodness and her guts.

~~~



For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. — Luke 21:15

September 10th, 2010

HAITI REVISITED

When Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, Chair of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) visited Haiti a week after their monumental 7.0 earthquake he promised he would return. First, below, is a video at the time of the quake.   Second, a video of Bishop Dolan’s return visit six months later.    Obviously, much is still to be done but thank God for the helping hands and generous hearts so far.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York visits Port-au-Prince, Haiti, six months after the January 2010 7.0 earthquake.

September 6th, 2010

PRO-CHOICE IDIOCY

THE POWER OF SELF DELUSION
by Mark Crutcher, September 3, 2010

Over the years, George Orwell’s observation that some things are so stupid only an intellectual could believe them has proven to be frighteningly accurate. One example was recently seen in a Durango, Colorado, newspaper article in which local abortionist, Richard Grossman, was asked when he thought life begins. His answer was that he believes in the strength, intellect and fortitude of women and that they are the ones who make that decision. He went on to say that it is women who empower the fetus.

It is no secret that the pro-life community is constantly accused of being a bunch of knuckle-dragging troglodytes who’ve been mesmerized by religious superstition while the abortion lobby is portrayed as deep-thinkers guided only by logic and science. Yet here, a practicing baby-killer is asked a question related to science and biology and he responds with some moronic new-age mumbo-jumbo. And, of course, he got away with it because the “journalist” who wrote this puff piece was a card-carrying member of the mainstream media who knew better than to question the “party line” on abortion.

In any event, to appreciate the shear idiocy of this idea that women must be allowed to decide when life begins, imagine two children who are conceived at the same moment. Three months later, one mother talks about her baby, knows its gender, has named it, and has even seen it on an ultrasound screen. Meanwhile, the other mother contends that the life of her child hasn’t begun yet and decides to have it killed by the goons at Planned Parenthood. The pro-choice argument is that both of these mothers are correct, despite the fact it is physically, biologically and scientifically impossible for that to be the case.

Also, if women are going to be the ones who decide when life begins, why should they lose that right by giving birth? Let’s say there’s a woman who sincerely believes that life doesn’t begin until speech is possible and she kills her three-month-old daughter. Should she be charged with murder? What makes her belief that life begins at speech less valid than another woman’s belief that life begins in the second trimester, or at viability, or at birth, or at any other arbitrarily chosen point? And what gives society the right to charge this woman with murder? After all, if she claims that the life of her child had not begun, and if she’s the one who gets to make that decision, then by definition she did not commit a murder. Or is it that only pregnant women have this mystical ability to know when life begins and, somehow, they lose it at the moment they are no longer pregnant?

Like I’ve said a million times before, the entire pro-choice position is a testament to the fact that the human brain is the only organism in nature that has the ability to intentionally deceive itself. And if you need further proof of it, in this same article, Grossman said that the reason he does abortions is because he is a Christian.

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