Tag Archives: morality

Christian Bigotry

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A friend of mine and semi-frequent comment poster has asked me numerous times to
stop posting “anti-gay stuff”. This Sed
Contra post might interest him. The blogger at SC is David Morrison, author
of Beyond Gay. He lives with same-sex attraction, but does not accept or
advocate the gay lifestyle. His most recent post, about the proper Christian response
to homosexuals, relates to Sunday’s Gospel
reading.

I care about this so much because I wouldn’t be Christ’s today if it were not for
the friendship and love of the Christians in my first Anglican parish, people who
knew I was a gay activist, didn’t agree with me about gay sex, and loved me anyway.
They knew I had homosexual sex and that I believed it was fine – and they disagreed
with me. But they nevertheless invited me to their cookouts, car washes, sporting
events, school plays, pot lucks – the whole joyful, chaotic mess of parish and family
life and as our friendships deepened they showed me they loved me.

And they told me their stories too. They told me about their own past drug use,
their own previous abortions, their own prior womanizing, and their own previous
struggles with the Faith and its demands. In short, they made it clear to me that
the church universal is a hospital for sinners far more than it is a penthouse for
saints.

Sacrilege and Medical Science

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Fabian of Report from Greater Tokyo has responded to Jerry's stem cell primer.

"On the medical science issue, once upon a time, it was considered sacriligious to cut open a human corpse. Early doctors' methods were notoriously unreliable, and early post-mortems were unlikely to either find the exact cause of death or provide immediately useful data for medical research.

However, although no one knew exactly how that research might be beneficial in the future, we know now that it was invaluable to almost every modern surgical technique.

Similarly, although we don't yet know which way stem cell research may take medical science, and we don't even know of any specific benefits, but it seems reasonable to believe that there will be some tangible medical benefit in the future. If the anti-stem cell research people had won back then, modern medical surgery would still be at the amputate and cauterize stage. Stuff as basic as resetting a broken bone would be life-threatening, and almost certainly result in long term problems.

Comments? Criticisms? My gut reaction is to say that cutting open a corpse is not the same as destroying a living creature. Whether killing that creature is killing a person or not is a matter for debate, but that a living thing is killed is not."

Thoughts? 

Mission Creep

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When I attended the United for Peace and Justice anti-war rally in Pittsburgh at the beginning of ’03, I was annoyed and frustrated by the horrendous mission creep there. I was there to stop what I felt was an unjust war (we can argue that point later) and intrusive laws that threatened liberty in the name of patriotism and national security, not support abortion on demand. One minute I was cheering an anti-war speaker and the next I was listening to a feminazi rail on about a woman’s right to end a life choose.

It seems that Catholic Peace Fellowship has had similar experiences with UFPJ and wants no more. They’ve severed ties over UFPJ’s participation in the "March for Women’s Lives" and I can’t blame them.

"United for Peace and Justice is a coalition of more than 800 local and national groups throughout the United States who have joined together to oppose our government’s policy of permanent warfare and empire-building."

And that has what to do with abortion?!? I like what CPF said about this.

"No one has the right to choose life or death for another; to assume such power has always been recognized as the ultimate form of oppression"

….

"Nowhere in [UFPJ’s statement of purpose, the Unity Statement] is there mention of ‘reproductive rights’ or the ‘freedom’ to choose to kill."

By the way, these are the same yahoos who demand no barriers/pens, free water, free transportation, and monetary compensation for their march at the GOP convention.

Otay, Buckwheat

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Here’s another about celiac disease and wheat hosts. The last time I blogged about this, it was just one
little girl. This is about a whole facility mass producing wheat-free hosts without permission. Again I ask,
at what level of truth does the insistence on wheat stand? Was the Eucharist improperly confected at thousands of masses? Was the sacrament valid?

The Wrong Stuff

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8-year-old’s first Holy Communion invalidated by Church
By JOHN CURRAN, The Associated Press

BRIELLE, N.J. – An 8-year-old girl who suffers from a rare digestive disorder and cannot consume wheat has had her first Holy Communion declared invalid because the wafer contained none, violating Catholic doctrine.

(Thanks, Fark)

Redemptionis Sacramentum, paragraph 48:

“[48.] The bread used in the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharistic Sacrifice must be unleavened, purely of wheat, and recently made so that there is no danger of decomposition.123 It follows therefore that bread made from another substance, even if it is grain, or if it is mixed with another substance different from wheat to such an extent that it would not commonly be considered wheat bread, does not constitute valid matter for confecting the Sacrifice and the Eucharistic Sacrament.124 It is a grave abuse to introduce other substances, such as fruit or sugar or honey, into the bread for confecting the Eucharist. Hosts should obviously be made by those who are not only distinguished by their integrity, but also skilled in making them and furnished with suitable tools.125”

123 Cf. Code of Canon Law, can. 924 S2; Missale Romanum, Institutio Generalis, n. 320.
124 Cf. S. Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments, Instruction, Dominus Salvator noster, 26 March 1929, n. 1: AAS 21 (1929) pp. 631-642, here p. 632.
125 Cf. ibidem, n. II: AAS 21 (1929) p. 635.

What do you folks think about this? Is the exclusive use of wheat dogmatic, doctrinal, of ordinary tradition (habit, as opposed to Sacred Tradition), or merely intended to preclude the use of unworthy materials?