Tag Archives: Christianity

How Sad

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It’s rather disappointing to see that a major Christian denomination has to bother debating the issue of abortion. Even if you could argue against the personhood of a first-term fetus, no Christian should advocate abortion as "emergency contraception". The very phrase turns my stomach. "Oh no! I’m infected with a child! Get it out!"

By the way, while I sympathize with victims of rape and incest, the child did not wrong anyone and does not deserve to be executed for someone else’s sin.

Presbyterian Church Will Battle Over Abortion at Upcoming Meeting
by Maria Gallagher, LifeNews.com Staff Writer

Richmond, VA (LifeNews.com) — The issue of abortion is likely to take center stage at a meeting of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Richmond, Virginia, June 26. A number of presbyteries, or district governing bodies, have submitted abortion-related resolutions to this year’s General Assembly.

Horror Knows No Bounds

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The sick and sinful behavior of non-Catholics does not give me joy (though I can't help but think "Whew. I'm glad the Church doesn't produce all the world's scandals."), but this story, seemingly ignored by most, shows that other venerable institutions have cracks in their armor. Sure, we knew that American public schools don't educate children as well as they should. Classrooms are overcrowded, money is distributed unfairly, and teachers are forced to teach to the "middle". I'd imagine, though, that few know about this hidden scandal.

Report: Up to 10 percent of students sexual targets
By Maggi Newhouse, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, June 14, 2004

"While the Catholic Church continues to wrestle with the ramifications of decades of sexual misconduct by some priests, another institution responsible for even more children has its own shameful record of protecting child molesters — public school systems."

Busted

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Wow. Reading this entry at Jollyblogger really got me thinking. Righteous indignation is one thing. Self-righteous snobbery is another. I think I tend toward the latter and I need to work on that (no need to comment, John).

Advice to Christian Bloggers from G. K. Chesterton

This month's Gilbert Magazine (a magazine devoted to G. K. Chesterton) has a good little short piece called "Bad Christian Journalism and the G. K. Chesterton Remedy," by J. Fraser Field. Field starts with an example of what he considers "Bad Christian Journalism."

Dodging?

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I’m not sure how I feel about the USCCB‘s official comment on the Communion controversy. It seems a bit wishy-washy at points, but it might be the right response. It sounds like a much softer version of what one of the bishops (can’t recall who) said on his own a while ago. Paraphrased, he said, “No Catholic would dare bring his/herself to communion while supporting abortion.” He sidestepped election-year issues by not singling out particular politicians, but he still made his point clear.

Pro-Abortion Politicians Can Be Denied Communion, Says Episcopate
U.S. Bishops Warns Catholics of “Cooperating in Evil”

WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 20, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The U.S. bishops’ conference issued a rebuke to Catholic politicians who support abortion, and said that the decision to deny them Communion is up to individual bishops.

Priests Thank U.S. Bishops for Statement
Sat Jun 19,12:27 PM ET
Contact: Jerry Horn of Priests for Life, 540-785-4733

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y., June 19 /U.S. Newswire/ — In a statement released on Saturday, June 19, Fr. Frank Pavone expressed the gratitude of the Priests for Life association, of which he serves as national director, for the June 18 statement of the U.S. Bishops, “Catholics in Political Life.”

On a related note:

U.S. Bishops’ Panel Urges New Kind of Politics
Calls for Focus on the Common Good, Not Demands of Special Interests

WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 18, 2004 (Zenit.org).- In testimony submitted to the Democratic and Republican party platform committees, U.S. bishops have called for “a new kind of politics — focused on moral principles not on the latest polls.”

Calling all Fiskers

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This is a long, intelligent, well-written, logical, and rather wrong piece about the Communion controversy written by an atheist. If it were just just laughable pretzel logic, I probably wouldn’t have given it a second thought. Since is so skillfully written, it ought to be refuted with at least as much skill. Even if I had the time, I wouldn’t present myself as equal to the task. So I’m putting a call out for one or more persons to step up to the soap box. This article screaming for a good fisking.

The Communion Question
[link fixed 06/21/04 – Funky Dung]
Posted by John Holbo

I’ll assume you are an educated person who’s already read Josh Marshall’s post about – what to call it? Bush’s Al-Sadrist gambit: locked in a death-struggle with the forces of democratic reconstruction in your country? See if you can get zealous souls to lay down suppressing fire from the holy places. If you succeed, fine. If the holy places end up getting shelled when the targets lose patience, you cry religious persecution (even if it was pure self-defense) and make hay out of that. It’s win-win.