ORTHODIXIE ... Southern, Orthodox, Convert, Etc.

She relates to Tom Cruise, who has taken endless flak for being a Scientologist. "If it makes Tom Cruise happy, I don't care if he prays to turtles," Madonna says. "And I don't think anybody else should."

"I'm not thinking of quitting," she says with a big laugh. "I ain't going nowhere."


Not so the Protestants. The bottom is dropping out.

After decades of Protestant stability, pollsters chart a dramatic nose dive since 1993 among people who identify themselves as Protestant (the group including Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Holiness, Disciples of Christ, Congregationalist and, in this survey, Mormon).

Among the reasons: a continuing hemorrhage of liberal mainline church membership, defections by young people who were raised Protestant and fewer youths getting any religious training at all.

In other words, Happy Deformation Day!
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H E R E 's the thousand words.
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Don't get me wrong. I'm not opposed to fantasy, games, dress-up, and such. And if you promise not to tell anyone: I've read most everything Stephen King has written. Harry Potter? Used to be opposed, now I've read 'em all.

I'm just not interested in celebrating this feast.

I did as a kid. It was a parent thing. (Hi Mom!) That and, well, a candy thing. When I got older I was confused. One year, honest to goodness, we had a Haunted House IN the church! [Folks, even now I get the willies just recalling it.] Like the Haunted House rides at the Fair, it was more silly than spooky. But, you gotta admit, Wee Erd.

Much has changed since I was a jitter-bug. More people are more kooky. And not all Christian "histories of Halloween" are accurate. [Here's my own collection of lore from ago -- along with its "correction."]

Call me a fundamentalist, but I actually get excited when schools cancel its celebration. Here ... and H E R E.

I used to provide letters to parents asking school administrators to excuse Orthodox kids from Halloween celebrations.

As mentioned in one of the posts linked above, my son really wants to participate in Trick-or-Treat and revels in any and all Halloween decorations. Just the other day he told his 3-year old sister, "Helen ... we don't celebrate Halloween. But, when you get to be a grown-up, you can if you want to. Right, Dad?"

Right ... son.

Okay, so here's the hypocrite part. Back at Nashotah House, there was a legend of the Black Monk. You can read it here. It was our first year in seminary and they were taking all the seminarians' kids on a wagon ride trick-or-treating. I was in my really anti-Halloween twisted phase. We didn't have kids; there was no reason for us to go, but everyone knew my proclivities.

Then something got into me. I remembered a ghoulish mask that I'd packed away in a back closet. We'd used it in some radio gig and, for some reason, I still had it. When I heard the tractor and wagon approaching our apartment on the return trip, I quickly donned a cassock and the hooded mask and went and stood by the road. Motionless. Staring. Those kids screamed their heads off! (My wife couldn't believe what I was doing.)

After they'd passed, I ran into the apartment, de-costumed, and walked down to where all the hub-bub was to bask in my ghoulish glory.

One of the students, a Middler, rushed up to me and said, "That was great! Man! You were awesome!"

Speechless, I just stood and smiled at him. Then he said, "You really got us good when you were standing in the cemetery!"

(Uh, folks ... though I never told him, I didn't go up to the cemetery that night.)


For more on the Black Monk of Nashotah House: HERE.
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A worthy read from the dormant blogger; pardon the title, please.
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"DeLay is motivated more than anything by power," says Jan Reid, coauthor with Lou Dubose of The Hammer, a just-published biography of DeLay. "But he also believes in the power of the coming Millennium [of Jesus Christ], and it helps shape his vision on government and the world." This may explain why DeLay's Capitol office furnishings include a marble replica of the Ten Commandments and a wall poster that reads: "This Could Be The Day" -- meaning Judgment Day.

DeLay is also a self-declared member of the Christian Zionists, an End-Time faction numbering 20 million Americans. Christian Zionists believe that the 1948 creation of the state of Israel marked the first event in what author Hal Lindsey calls the "countdown to Armageddon" and they are committed to making that doomsday clock tick faster, speeding Christ's return.

In 2002, DeLay visited pastor John Hagee's Cornerstone Church. Hagee preached a fiery message as simple as it was horrifying: "The war between America and Iraq is the gateway to the Apocalypse!" he said, urging his followers to support the war, perhaps in order to bring about the Second Coming. After Hagee finished, DeLay rose to second the motion. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "what has been spoken here tonight is the truth from God."

With those words -- broadcast to 225 Christian TV and radio stations -- DeLay placed himself squarely inside the End-Time camp, a faction willing to force the Apocalypse upon the rest of the world. In part, DeLay may embrace Hagee and others like him in a calculated attempt to win fundamentalist votes -- but he was also raised a Southern Baptist, steeped in a literal interpretation of the Bible and End-Time dogma. Biographer Dubose says that the majority leader probably doesn't grasp the complexities of dispensationalist and reconstructionist theology, but "I am convinced that he believes [in] it." For DeLay, Dubose told me, "If John Hagee says it, then it is true."
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In the beginning was the Bible, and the Bible was with God, and the Bible was God. It was in the beginning with God; all things were made through it, and without it was not anything made that was made. In it was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was King James. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the Bible, that all might believe through it.

Some ...

More.
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This Saturday, October 29th, His Grace BISHOP TIKHON [Mollard], will be officially installed as the ruling Bishop Philadelphia and the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania of the Orthodox Church in America at Saint Stephen Cathedral in Philadelphia, PA. Bishop Tikhon was elected to the position by clergy and lay delegates at a special assembly of the diocese held in May 2005. He will oversee nearly 50 parishes located in the eastern half of the state. His Beatitude, METROPOLITAN HERMAN, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, will preside at the installation Divine Liturgy at the cathedral at 10:00 a.m. A native of Boston, Bishop Tikhon converted to Orthodox Christianity from Episcopalianism in 1989. After completing studies at Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA, he entered Saint Tikhon Orthodox Theological Seminary, South Canaan, PA, from which he received a Master of Divinity degree in 1993. Prior to his consecration to the episcopacy in 2004, Bishop Tikhon was senior lecturer in Old Testament at Saint Tikhon Seminary, and is credited with a number of publications. He also served as deputy abbot of Saint Tikhon Monastery prior to his election for the see of Philadelphia.
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She can cite scholarly authority for giving her Christ a birth date of 11 B.C., and for making James, his disciple, the son of Joseph by a previous marriage. But she's also taken liberties where they don't explicitly conflict with Scripture. No one reports that the young Jesus studied with the historian Philo of Alexandria, as the novel has it—or that Jesus' family was in Alexandria at all. And she's used legends of the boy Messiah's miracles from the noncanonical Apocrypha: bringing clay birds to life, striking a bully dead and resurrecting him.

Rice's most daring move, though, is to try to get inside the head of a 7-year-old kid who's intermittently aware that he's also God Almighty. "There were times when I thought I couldn't do it," she admits. The advance notices say she's pulled it off: Kirkus Reviews' starred rave pronounces her Jesus "fully believable."

Would that be Brown Rice?
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ONE

Go H E R E.













TWO

Go H E R E.
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Catholic bishops say no to married priests

On the tough questions of priestly celibacy and communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, 256 bishops from all over the world voted to maintain the status quo. In one of the 50 "propositions" submitted to Pope Benedict XVI to help him write an encyclical on the Eucharist, the bishops "affirmed the importance of the inestimable gift of priestly celibacy in the Latin church." The bishops further said that the proposal to appoint Catholic married men of good reputation -- described in the Latin debates as "viri probati" -- was "not a path to follow."

Prelates in favor of rethinking the disciplinary rule of barring priests from marrying argued that it might encourage more young men to enter the priesthood. The Orthodox Church allows priests to marry, but those who do are not eligible to become bishops. Defenders of priestly celibacy concentrated on its symbolic nature. Speaking in the synod during one of its sessions, Cardinal Pell called it "the witness to loving sacrifice, and to the reality of the Last Things, and the rewards of Heaven." Pope Benedict XVI endorsed the majority view Sunday when he called on priests to remain "faithful" to their vow of celibacy, which he said was "a precious gift."

MORE.


Winking Jesus
"The message of the statue is, he's telling the people I'm here for you," explains Dones. "This ain't about the statue. It's about the word of God, and he wants the people together. It was a sign for the people. It was broken, both eyes were closed, then one eye opened. This happened by fate, to show the right way."

Julio "Sly" Dones has always been a deeply religious man. He's dedicated his life to maintaining his shrine of artificial flowers, photographs and statues of the Virgin Mother, Saint Anthony and Jesus Christ. The Sacred Heart of Jesus statue is about a year old; Dones salvaged it from a Dumpster in Jersey City.

Born legally blind, Dones sees very little out of his right eye and even less out of the left one, which stays mostly shut - just like the Sacred Heart of Jesus statue.

Glimpse more HERE.
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Father-like, God tends and spares us,

Well our feeble frame he knows;

Mother-like, God gently bears us,

Rescues us from all our foes.

Alleluia, alleluia! Widely yet God's mercy flows.

Go HERE for more (e.g., On Turkey's Wings: "I will raise you up on turkey's wings, la de da and la de da").

Et cetera.
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Gorbachev becomes Archon of the Patriarchate of Constantinople

According to Anthony Limberakis, National Commander of the Order of St.Andrew the Apostle, the ex-president was given the honorary title as ‘a baptized Russian Orthodox Christian’ who played a key role in ‘adopting the law that guaranteed religious freedom in the former USSR’.

Each archon has to make a sworn oath at his investiture ‘to defend and promote the Greek Orthodox faith and tradition’ and, in particular, ‘to protect and promote the Holy Patriarchate and its mission’. The statute says that this honour is bestowed upon individuals of ‘proven Christian character’, who ‘conform faithfully to the teachings of Christ, and the doctrines, canons, worship, discipline, and encyclicals of the Church’.

The STORY.
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The Orange Peel, Asheville's "Social Aid & Pleasure Club," is also a church.




ASHEVILLE - It's not the church your mother took you to. Highland Christian Church is a nondenominational organization of Christ followers that encourages celebration of life through love, loyalty and friendship. And it's making its presence known in new and innovative ways.

The Orange Peel nightclub serves as the locale. A typical Sunday morning service may include music, dance, theater, film and always lots of humor. Children receive a kid's pack contains items such as crayons, paper and other materials related to the service of the day. The services are interactive, and people are encouraged to participate in a variety of ways.

Their mission is to encourage people to remember what really matters in life - sitting on the front-porch swing and talking with family, pulling on some favorite slippers and settling down with a good book, or sharing thoughts and ideas while gathered around the dinner table.

More Pics HERE.

Full S T O R Y.
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The Russian Government is planning to remove Lenin's embalmed body from Moscow's Red Square and give it a decent burial in some cemetery. It is time the ideologue, after lying for 80 years in Red Square, following in the footsteps of the ideology was given a grave, too. Mikhail Gorbachev, who presided over the demise of Lenin's USSR in 1991, has cautioned Kremlin against undue haste in burying Lenin. But President Vladimir Putin feels Russia is already late. His predecessor Boris Yeltsin had also brought such a proposal during his tenure but could not persuade the Russians.

Lenin's corpse lies encased in a glass box for public viewing. He is perhaps the world's only dead man for whom suits are still tailored. But his embalmed body occasionally sprouts fungi and needs medical attention. His admirers say he is resting in peace, but others find him ghastly. Mikhalov,no doubt, is a Russian Orthodox who wants Lenin to be buried beside his mother's grave in St Petersburg 'as Lenin had wanted it'. No one is sure whether Lenin wanted a Christian burial or cremation.

This story is worth reading ... lest we forget.


Russia is literally dying. From a population peak in 1992 of 148 million, it will be down to below 130 million by 2015 and thereafter dropping to perhaps 50 or 60 million by the end of the century, a third of what it was at the fall of the Soviet Union. It needn't decline at a consistent rate, of course. But I'd say it's more likely to be even lower than 50 million than it is to be over 100 million. The longer Russia goes without arresting the death spiral, the harder it is to pull out of it, and when it comes to the future most Russian women are voting with their foetus: 70 per cent of pregnancies are aborted. ...

Scoop.
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Sunday should not only be a day of rest but it should also be a day of sex, the Church of England has recommended.

Story.

(I know the article states that, but does it really say that?)

H/T THUNDERSTRUCK

Then there's T H I S.
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U2's frontman, Bono, on Evangelicals:

I've started to see this community as a real resource in America. I have described them as "narrow-minded idealists." If you can widen the aperture of that idealism, these people want to change the world. They want their lives to have meaning. And it's one of the things that the Democratic Party has missed out on. You know, so much of the moral high ground in the past was Democratic: FDR, RFK, Cesar Chavez. Now I suppose it's Hillary's passion for cheaper medical care. And Teddy Kennedy, of course.(Excerpted from RS 986, November 3, 2005)

Taken from THUNDERSTRUCK (from interview in Rolling Stone, scroll to 10/20, reader beware).


Jesus e. e. christ

Brussels, Oct. 19, 2005 (CNA) - According to a new grammar rule in the Netherlands and Belgium, the name "Christ" will soon be written with a lower-case "c", as stipulated by an orthography reform published last Friday.

According to the Kath.net agency, the new spelling rules also will stipulate that the Dutch word for "jews" (joden) be spelled with a capital "J" when referring to nationality and with a lower-case "j" when referring to the religion. The changes will be mandatory starting in August 2006.

More.
H/T News Forum.


Comment from Open Book:

Plagiarism? Let's see:

Holy Blood, Holy Grail: Jesus has sex with Mary Magdalene. They spawn a holy bloodline.

Da Vinci Code: Jesus has sex with Mary Magdalene. They spawn a holy bloodline.

Yep, sounds like a lawsuit to me.

H/T GetReligion

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My rant on the Evangelist Madonna garnered comments in other venues around the Blogosphere. While it was intended to tweak conversation, I've not read any disagreement concerning my actual words. The following words, in this long but worthy read, should prove beneficial to all -- even Madonna. :)

In the sluggish carriage of the body my soul journeys through this world of illusions, which are trying to prove their existence by means of their sluggishness and massiveness.

O Light-bearing Lord, how dreadfully and drukenly stuck to this sluggish carriage my soul has become! In her blindness she thinks that, if she were to fall from this carriage, she would be able to fall down lower still -- as though she were not standing on the same ashes whether on the wood or beneath the wood!

In her fear and ignorance my soul has entirely surrendered herself to the body, merely in order for the body to convey her as slowly and sluggishly as possible on the road to a disastrous end.

Her own lordship, her own reality -- the only reality in this world -- the soul has handed over to the body out of fear and ignorance. She has handed over a mirror to a blind man, and the blind man has shattered it into pieces.

Remember your beginning, O soul, when you were like a sunbeam and the body was like moonlight. Back then you were as piercing and translucent as sunlight, and your carriage was as swift as moonlight.

At that time you used to know that essence was within you, and that your carriage was merely your shadow and something loaned to you. And you knew nothing of fear, for you had your sight and saw yourself borne aloft on the wings of power and immortality.

The sluggish carriage in which you are now riding, is what you yourself wanted of your own free will, according to your own fear and your own ignorance, and you yourself created it.

God did not wish to make you the way you are now, nor your body the way it is now. In order to rid yourself of some slight darkness, into which you were tossed by your desire, you plunged into denser and denser darkness, until you became altogether dark, became heavy, and made a garment for yourself -- until you eventually surrendered all your dignity to your corpulent garment, just to rid yourself of fear.

You gave your essence to one who could not bear it, and thus you lost it in both ways; and you became a nonessential and frightful shadow like your body. For essence is a sacred object, and as soon as it is brought out into the bazaar to be bought and sold, it leaves both the buyer and the seller and drifts away from both to an equal extent.

Therefore even the great wise man of India has denied your essence, O soul -- to you no less than to your bodily raiment. However, if God descends into you, and is born within you, you will gladden the saddened Hindu sage, who sits in lotus position and meditates, for you will have restored the lost essence. Truly, all essence lies in God, and outside God there is no essence, not even so much as a mustard seed.

Behold, I see within you, my soul, a tiny nook, like a candle-illumined cave in a massive mountain overladen with darkness. The more deeply I peer into the light concealed within you, the more it seems to me to resemble your virginal beauty, your pristine beauty, my soul. Since my peering the dim light has been growing brighter, and more and more clearly one can distinguish in it the wondrous face of a virgin -- like a sunbeam arrayed in moonlight.

Here is your salvation, my frightened soul. Here is your life -- everything else is a sepulchre. If only you would make this dim light burst into blaze, and bring this blazing bonfire into my mind and into my heart.

Come to your senses, my soul, and fix your gaze on the little cave where the youthful virgin dwells. Lo, out of this cave deliverance will come to you. Within it even now you will find all your remaining strength, your unblemished beauty, and your unsold immortality.

Outside the cave, outside my soul, where a virgin gives birth to God, everything is shadow and ash, including the sluggish carriage of the body.

-- St Nikolai Velimirovich

Taken from Prayers by the Lake
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I'm currently teaching a class, De-Canonizing the "Da Vinci Code." Tonight, toward the end of our session, we visited Genesis 3, the "curses" upon Man, and the casting out from Paradise. Of course, one of the "penalties" is that the woman longs for -- and submits -- to her husband.

Here's an email I later received from a female parishioner:

"Is this what you were talking about?"

FWD ...

When everybody on earth was dead and waiting to enter Paradise, God appeared and said, "I want the men to make two lines; one line for the men who were true heads of their households and the other line for men who were dominated by their women. I want all the women to report to St. Peter."

Soon, the women had gone and there were two lines of men. The line of the men who were dominated by their wives was 100 miles long, and in the line of men who were truly heads of their households, there was only one man.

God said, "You men should be ashamed of yourselves. I created you to be the head of the household. You have been disobedient and not fulfilled your purpose. I told you to be the leaders in your families. Of all of you only one has obeyed. Learn from him. Tell them, my son, how did you manage to be the only one in this line?"

The man replied, "I don't know. My wife told me to stand here"
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In antiquity, a kiss on the lips was seen as transferring a little bit of one's spirit to the other person. You have a lot of early -- I kind of think of them almost as Greco-Roman Harlequin -- novels that speak of the kiss as this transfer of spirit. Christians modify it a bit, to suggest that when Christians kiss each other, they don't just exchange their own spirit, but also share a part of the Holy Spirit with one another. So the kiss is seen as a way to bind the community together.

Here.

H/T Thunderstruck
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Many young women, upon meeting us, have asked whether I had "the test." I interpret the question as a get-home-free card. If I say no, they figure, that means I'm a victim of circumstance, and therefore not implicitly repudiating the decision they may make to abort if they think there are disabilities involved. If yes, then it means I'm a right-wing antiabortion nut whose choices aren't relevant to their lives.

More.
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Pimping priest found guilty
Question: Shouldn't that read "Priest found guilty of pimping?" I mean, would you say "Axe Murder Found Guilty?" Or "O.J. Found Innocent?" Oh, never mind.
Story.
More.

WITCHCRAFT is a religion for the weak and oppressed, especially women. It has nothing to do with Satan, nor is it about sex. So says a leading Melbourne witch, Caroline Tully.

ORTHODOX RESPONSE TO HURRICANES PASSES $3 MILLION
Baltimore, Md. (IOCC) Following the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina and later Hurricane Rita, the response by International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) to the Gulf Coast region has grown to more than $3 million – the largest intervention ever by the agency in the United States.
Story.

Rembember the story about thieves stealing the copper from the onion domes?
They got 'em!

"Let us, as Christians and Muslims, show that we can live together in true fraternity, striving always to do the will of merciful God who created humanity to be one family," the archbishop wrote.
He said what?

The icon, dating back to the 13th century, was taken to Italy by philhellenic humanists and antiquity lovers from Constantinople under unclear circumstances (before the Fall of Constantinople) and this is the second time it leaves Italy after being exhibited in New York's Metropolitan Museum.
Story.

You say "Ephraimites," I say "Ephra I am nots"
Everybody say: Huh?


For the parishioners of Sts. Peter and Paul Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church on River Road there were many feelings last week.

There was solemnity, as the highest leaders of the Orthodox Church consecrated their new place of worship in a rare and sacred ceremony. There was joy, as they ate, drank and danced to Middle Eastern music at a "hafli" Oct. 7: the Arabic word translates loosely to "party."

Go HERE.
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On Orthodox People Time!

:)
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The king of Saudi Arabia says women may eventually be allowed to drive in the kingdom.

From Drudge
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Did you know that "America" was named for the Italian cartographer, Amerigo Vespucci, who made the momentous discovery that the place on the far side of the Atlantic was not Asia (as most Europeans thought) but a completely different place?

1492 is indeed the year Columbus sailed the ocean blue, but it is also famous for being the year of the re-conquest of Granada. Ferdinand and Isabella finally conquered the last Muslim stronghold in Spain and achieved the final Christian victory in the 8 century long struggle between Christianity and Islam in Spain (ever since the Muslims invaded only some 50 years after Muhammad's death).

Christians today are not commonly aware that Europe was almost taken by the Muslim armies. Islam made three significant incursions into Europe. The first in the 9th century engulfing Spain, Portugal, southern Italy and parts of France (this is what ended in 1492); the second incursion struck Eastern Europe when the Mongol-Tatars conquered Russia. That too was driven back by a Russian Christian re-conquest. The third incursion was under the Muslim Turks who conquered Byzantine Anatolia, the Balkans, and besieged Vienna twice, even
sending their pirating ships as far as the British Isles and Iceland!

For almost 1000 years Islam was a very serious threat to Christian Europe. And 1492 marks a significant victory ... lest we forget.

By Fr Josiah Trenham
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ST. PAUL - About 75 Catholic parents of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender children released a statement Wednesday evening rejecting church teaching on homosexuality and calling Vatican policies "spiritually abusive." A group called Catholic Rainbow Parents read a "declaration of wisdom and love" on the steps of the Cathedral of St. Paul before placing a scroll containing the document in the center door of the cathedral.

More.
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Cultural conservatives and libertarian conservatives are gathering in several camps:

• Those who trust the team of God and President Bush above all.

• Those who do not trust Bush, in part because of rising evidence that the crony card trumps everything else.

• Traditional conservatives — including many in pews — who are insulted that Bush passed over thousands of more qualified candidates (including younger judges, other females and minorities) and that now, to fight the opposition, the White House is playing the God card.

Then, BOOM:

Journalists must realize the leadership of the Republican Party knows that pro-life, traditional religious believers — Democrats, as well as Republicans — have nowhere to go in an era in which, to paraphrase Maureen Dowd, the Democratic Party’s only iron-clad value is the defense of Woodstock. So the Republican establishment can treat cultural conservatives the way the Democrats treat labor unions.

STORY.
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The following is taken from a comment I posted on Grace's [excellent] SITE:

In the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean," during the initial sword fight, Captain Jack Sparks is accused of cheating ... quite quickly he responds: "Pirate."

That's my favorite line.

But I hate that line when it's paraphrased by Bush & Company.

It goes something like this ... there's a battle going on, something nutty happens, every sane person cries "foul" ... and Bush says: "God."

Even Alfred E. Newman is starting to worry.


For those who are stressed and have a slight sense of humour, there's this.
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"We need to have more respect for each other," Wonder says, leaning forward for emphasis. "Things have just gone really crazy, out of control. ... We're on a very weird kind of cycle."

It was here that he put together the tracks featuring a wide array of musicians, including Prince, Paul McCartney, India.Arie and Bonnie Raitt, as well as two duets with his daughter Aisha Morris, one of his seven children.

Story.

I saw Stevie Wonder in concert back in 1980. Phenominal. Two and a half hours of nothing but number one songs. "Songs in the Key of Life" is one of my favorite albums; "As" and "Love in Need of Love Today" are guaranteed remedies for any mental funk. Stevie is one of the artists featured in Dad's Musicology class. (Which means my children have to suffer mini-lectures when Stevie's tunes are played.) Pull out the "Talking Book " LP, put on "You and I" ... and fall in love with somebody. Even love itself.

But Stevie quit making real music the day he just called to say he loved me. Would that his return ushered in "A Time for Love." Lord knows we all need it.

H/T Drudge

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The variation on Beacon’s saying is this:

The Internet shows us that, while a million monkeys at a million keyboards might eventually produce the complete Works of Shakespeare, they’ll first produce a lot of monkey porn.

A Comment, and picture, stolen from Get Religion
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MUZAFFARABAD: Death toll in the disastrous earthquake that had struck Azad Kashmir, Frontier province and Punjab is likely to go beyond 40,000 marks, while the much needed relief works in some of the devastated areas could not yet been taken up.

The nightmare and the huge tragedy that visited these ruined and ravaged vast areas of hills and dales and the plane lands with no exceptions and with equal severity could hardly be described as words fail to depict the real scene of that doomsday ...

More


Rich and poor nations have taken the hit over a period so twisted in nature's assaults that one month, rich is helping poor and the next, poor is helping rich as best it can, and then the poor gets slammed once again.

The United States, giver of tsunami aid in December, accepted hurricane aid from some of those same countries in September. Now it is giving to South Asia a second time, in response to the weekend earthquakes. India is sending tents, food, blankets and medicine to its foe, Pakistan, geology briefly shoving aside geopolitics.

More than 176,000 people died in the earthquake and tsunami of December; an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 in the quake Saturday; perhaps 1,000 or more in Guatemalan landslides last week; more than 1,200 in Katrina. Asian beaches, mountainous Kashmir villages and American urban streets and casinos all were overwhelmed.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

H/T Drudge


The city of Lisbon, capital of Portugal, was flourishing in a sustained economic boom based on the development of diamond and gold mines in Brazil when a massive earthquake struck on the morning of Nov. 1, 1755.

It was All Saints Day, and the churches were packed with worshippers when the first of two shocks hit. At least 30,000 lives were lost. The 18th century rationalist philosopher and skeptic Francois Marie Arouet -- better known as Voltaire -- used the disaster to attack the concept of a kindly, beneficial God watching over a world where everything worked out for the best in his satirical novel "Candide."

The Book of Revelation predicts a dramatic earthquake will shake the earth before the Second Coming of Christ. Accordingly, Christian fundamentalist groups have always been prone to see earthquakes as signs of divine judgment or of the imminence of the return of Jesus.

More ...
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It was on this day in 1962, Pope John XXIII convened the first session of the Second Vatican Council in Rome, also known as Vatican II. Vatican II resulted in some of the greatest changes in the history of the Catholic Church. As a result of it, Catholics were allowed to pray with Protestants and attend weddings and funerals in Protestant churches. Priests were encouraged to say mass facing the congregation rather than facing the altar, and Priests were allowed to perform mass in languages other than Latin.

Taken from today's Writer's Almanac. Subscribe

Interpretation:

Vatican II resulted in some of the worst changes in the history of the Catholic Church. As a result of it, Catholics were allowed to become Protestants. Priests were encouraged to say mass with their arse facing God and to perform mass in languages such as street slang.
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[T]he first collective meeting of 256 bishops representing the Catholic world in four years, and the first presided over by the new pope inevitably brought out the major problems facing the episcopates - terrorism, Islam, and the issue of married priests.

Vatican experts were making the point this week that the church has recently removed the celibacy rule for individual married Protestant clergymen wishing to become Catholic priests. An undisclosed number of Anglican and Episcopalian priests with families have turned to Catholicism because they opposed the introduction of women clergy in their own churches. The Orthodox church separated from Rome operates a 'dual track' system for its clergy in which married priests are excluded from becoming bishops.

More ...

VATICAN CITY (AP) - A top cardinal from an Eastern rite church that allows married priests cautioned Friday that allowing Roman Catholic clergy to marry might resolve the shortage but would create new and ”equally serious“ problems.

Lebanese Cardinal Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir, patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, told the Synod of Bishops that married priests have to divert their attention away from their parishes to their wives and children, assuring their care and education.

More still.
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If you've ever been part of an Internet discussion list, you will appreciate the wit and art of Mike Reed at Flame Warriors. I've had him in my side margin links for a long time, but noticed his URL had changed.

Pay him a visit, it'll do ya good.
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But we should also understand that our best human efforts, the works of Michelangelo and the Pyramids and Dostoevsky and Mozart, are like a toddler's finger painting, stuck on God's refrigerator more out of love for the artist than appreciation for the art.
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CLEVELAND (AP)--One of the domes atop Ohio's oldest Russian Orthodox church was peeled of its copper covering by thieves who apparently wanted to sell the metal for scrap.

"Who could steal from God?" said Ted Lentz, the church caretaker, as he looked up at the damage Wednesday.

The St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral, which appeared in scenes of the Oscar-winning film "The Deer Hunter," is topped with 13 onion-shaped copper domes, one for Jesus and each of his 12 apostles.

At each of the four corners of the church, there are smaller half-domes. Police say the thieves who struck Tuesday night chose one of those to pillage.

While the going rate for copper is at its highest in years _ about $1.25 a pound--the stolen copper probably wouldn't fetch more than $100.
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On Harriet Miers:

If she does not exhibit these qualities in testimony before the Judiciary Committee, Harriet Miers should be rejected. That she is a woman, a good lawyer, a trusted friend of the Bush family, a born-again Republican and Evangelical Christian is not enough. That Dr. James Dobson has been secretly assured by Karl Rove she is pro-life is not enough. After all, we have a president who professes to be "pro-life," yet cannot bring himself to say that Roe v. Wade was an abomination he hopes will go the way of Dred Scott.

H E R E.

H/T Drudge


Ioannis Zizioulas, Metropolitan of Pergamum:

Catholics must take seriously the notion of full catholicity of the local Church promoted at Vatican Council II, and must apply it to their ecclesiology. This means that every form of primacy at the universal level must reflect the local Church and must not intervene in the local Church without her consent. Every local Church, must have the possibility to affirm its own catholicity, in relation to the primacy. For this reason, I repeat, the golden rule for a correct exercise of primacy is the 34th Apostolic Canon.

I had the honor and privilege of meeting the then Cardinal Ratzinger in the early eighties when we were members of the International Commission on the official Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Churches. He is a great theologian and an expert in ecclesiology, both Western and Eastern. In his new capacity as Pope he can certainly contribute decisively to the convergence between the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox understanding of primacy. In the past he made some important suggestions for the solution of this problem. It may prove to be providential that he is Pope at this crucial moment of the discussion of this matter.

A worthy READ.
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"President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

Read it H E R E.

Thanks Matt.
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Baltimore, Md. (IOCC) – Three shipments of material aid, including quilts, health kits and school kits, all gifts from Lutheran World Relief, have been received by emergency response staff working for International Orthodox Christian Charities in Houston, Texas, and Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi.

While hundreds of tons of food, clothing, diapers and children’s supplies, water and medicines have been distributed throughout the hurricane affected areas, the measure of care and comfort brought by the hand-made quilts held added significance for survivors who received them.

“The beauty of these quilts is compounded by what went into them,” observed Mary Francis Ford, who heads the distribution center at Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church in Biloxi, Miss. that is the hub of an ecumenical effort supported by IOCC together with 18 churches representing many faith communities in the area.

“We are in awe. It is so nice to have something so beautiful in addition to being helpful,” said Ford as she surveyed the quilts.

A total of 22,400 quilts will be given to people displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita who have no bedding, according to Frank Carlin, field director of the IOCC emergency response team.

It was clear that the brightly-colored quilts warmed the spirits as well as the bodies of weary hurricane survivors who received them.

“I remember how winds blew salt water 50 miles inland and turned everything brown,” recalled one woman as she received a hand-made quilt in Biloxi, Miss. “After what seems like such a long period, it is refreshing to see something so colorful and beautiful.”

Nearby an 80-year-old woman started crying at the sight of the quilts.

“I lost everything. My house was blown away and with it was my grandmother’s quilt,” she said as tears mixed with joy and sadness cascaded off of her cheeks.

The school kits will provide school supplies for 4,510 displaced children, and the 6,600 health kits will help people maintain personal hygiene. The value of the quilts and kits for Biloxi, Miss. alone is more than $360,000.

Both IOCC and LWR are members of Action by Church Together, a global alliance of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergencies. The Action by Churches Together alliance is made up of Protestant and Orthodox churches. Founded in 1992, IOCC is the official humanitarian aid agency of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA). Contributions to IOCC’s Hurricane Disaster Response Fund may be sent to IOCC, “Hurricane Relief,” P.O. Box 630225, Baltimore, MD 21263-0225. Donations may also be made online at www.iocc.org or by calling toll-free 1-877-803-IOCC (4622).
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And so, I announce sorrowfully that The Dawn Patrol is going into hibernation until I finish my book, which will likely be just when it's due, in the middle of January.

(I'd hate to know how Planned Parenthood celebrates.)



FWIW, I (Fr Joseph) also have a book due ... October 15th.

Prayers coveted!
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Roman Catholic

“I am the heterosexual priest who stood before the people of the Diocese of Arlington on Holy Thursday -- the day we celebrate the institution of the priesthood, the First Communion of the first priests and bishops, and the first unbloody Mass in which Christ willingly gave His life for the Truth.

“And, with the full integrity and honesty of my words and life, I renewed my commitment to priestly service and the demands and sacrifices of priestly life, which includes celibacy and thus chastity, modesty, prudence and, of course, the avoidance of the near occasion of sin. Even if I fail, even if I sin, the validity of my promise and the means to achieving it will always be valid.

“But I do not understand what the homosexual priests were promising, because they can’t give up what they can’t have and don’t want in the first place – marriage to a woman. I don't know why the people in the pew were clapping for them, because it certainly wasn't their prudence or modesty, and they certainly do not avoid the near occasions of sin. In fact, they immerse themselves and are forced to live in many serious and secret occasions of sin throughout their priestly lives by living and constantly associating with those to whom they are sexually and emotionally attracted.

“Would anyone be concerned if, now four years after being inexplicably removed from the priesthood, I were to show up living with the Sisters of Poor Clare in Arlington? Would anyone be concerned if I took all my vacations with women, had parties only with women, played sports only with women, went to movies only with women, had breakfast, lunch and dinner only with women, and all at the advice and recommendation of my superiors and the dictates of canon law -- even if these women were all under that ‘memorable’ vow of celibacy?

“Why, then, is no one screaming in horror at the living situations of ‘our’ homosexual priests who do all of the above with other men, and even more patently and blatantly, the homosexual religious priests whose very charism is to live in communities? They certainly seem to be very ready to protest their ‘right’ to live in such occasions of sin. Why is there no equivalent protest from the faithful Catholics to this moral outrage perpetuated in the name of so-called non-discrimination?

“Yes, my head is spinning in disbelief at the acceptance of the total illogic of it all, and in the horrendous acceptance and silence of Catholics to the obvious double and duplicitous moral standards required of heterosexual versus homosexual priests. And yes, my heart is sickened by the hypocrisy, the immorality and the outrage of the ordination of homosexual men as priests and bishops.

MORE.


Anglican

It was another week of shock and awe for the Episcopal Church USA when the rector of the second largest parish in the DIOCESE OF FLORIDA -- one of the top 50 Episcopal churches in the country -- announced that he was quitting his parish, the diocese, and the Episcopal Church and was heading down the road to start St. Peter's in Tallahassee, coming under an African bishop.

In one fell swoop the Rev. Eric D. Dudley, 46, gutted St. John's church with its 2,000-plus members paving the way for other orthodox parish priests to follow his lead. At least a dozen or more are contemplating following his example.

Following hard on the heels of Dudley's action to leave, several clergy in the Diocese of Florida formed the Anglican Alliance of North Florida, under the authority of a yet another unnamed Anglican archbishop.

This is yet another example of a specific solution to affirm Biblical truth and state that orthodox theology matters more than affiliation with the Episcopal Church, said the Texas-based executive director of Anglicans United, the Rev. Todd Wetzel.

"Moderate and revisionist bishops in ECUSA just don't get it," Wetzel said. "They keep trying to trump faith with power politics and squash the orthodox with creative but incorrect application of canon law. Increasingly, they are coming up short, prompting this type of response from faithful priests and parishes.

The loss of more than 1,200-dues paying Episcopalians will not go down well with Howard, who has already begun belt-tightening procedures in the diocese. And if what VirtueOnline has learned comes true the number of those departing the diocese could be five times that number in the coming months.

A STATISTICS WONK wrote VirtueOnline and said that according to the official statistics of ECUSA, in the year 2003 (the last stats available), ECUSA lost 36,368 confirmed members. That is an average of 100 PER DAY! If the average Episcopal Church is only about 100 members, (it's actually 77), then we are losing one congregation each day! One can only wonder about the statistics for 2004 and 2005. The end can't be far off.

MORE.


Orthodox

ROME, October 4 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Orthodox Church considers current discussions at the Catholic Synod of Bishops assembly in the Vatican to confirm the Orthodox Church's traditional values, a Russian bishop said Tuesday.

[Bishop Yegorevsky] Mark said changes made 40 years ago had substantially relaxed access to Catholic communion.

"The aim of the Catholic Church to adapt to the modern world, to make Christianity more understandable and 'easy' for the world has had serious negative consequences," he said.

According to Mark, this situation has also caused a reverse reactionary process, geared towards returning to the same traditions the Orthodox Church has faithfully observed.

STORY.
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It's when I read studies like THIS that I wonder how long the Lord shall tarry.

The good Lord shows His great care for us in that the shamelessness of the feminine sex is checked by shyness as with a sort of bit. For if the woman were to run after the man, no flesh would be saved.

-- St John of the Ladder
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George Clinton is born on July 22, 1941 in Kannapolis, North Carolina, a planned company town then known for its household linens and textiles industries.
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Oh, and if Sirius Black died in the (using alchemical terms) black book, and Albus (white) Dumbledore died in the white book, who might die in the RED, or final, sacrificial stage of the alchemical process? Rubeus (Latin for “red”) Hagrid? Someone in a family that is, well, rather red-oriented? Just asking.

Here's the whole SCOOP.

Bishop urges church to re-Christen Halloween

HALLOWEEN must not be banned, but re-Christened, says a bishop. The Bishop of Bolton, the Rt Rev David Gillett proposes Christians should reclaim the tradition for themselves so they too feel justified in enjoying the annual festivities. Many Christians believe that Halloween has become increasingly associated with intimidation and links to the occult, but are caught in a dilemma about whether or not partake in the activities.

MORE.

Thanks THUNDERSTRUCK


Regarding this horror story ...

If these are indeed only "fetuses" and they are simply tissue, the women who produced this tissue in their bodies might have done so in order to sell it to some people one who wanted it for whatever purposes they had in mind. In which case, this would be a bizarre business news story. It's the woman's body, and the woman's right to choose. If someone wants to make lampshades from the tissue, what's the problem, aside from poor taste?

Emm Ooo Are Eee.
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