Tag Archives: stupidity

Swallowing Camels

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Another
aren’t we wonderful? parish

From Richard John Neuhaus’ May “Public Square”

It is no little thing when one Sunday’s church bulletin can reflect the innumerable
wonders of renewal. A friend picked up the other day the bulletin of St. Francis
Xavier Church, which is around the corner on West 16th Street. It includes the parish
mission statement: “We, the Church of St. Francis Xavier, are a prophetic Roman
Catholic community. . . .” Not any old Roman Catholic Church, mind you, but a community,
and a prophetic one at that.

I doubt parishes like this actually bother to strain gnats, but they’re apparently
swallowing camels like crazy. Inclusiveness isn’t an object good. If it were, the
Church would be inclusive of pagans, secular humanists, feminists, third-rate liturgical
composers, and other un-Catholic types. Oh, wait…

Fighting Fire With Fanaticism

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Stop
Congress from Amending the Constitution to Limit Free Speech
Urge your Members of Congress to Oppose the Flag Desecration Amendment!

For more than a decade, numerous members of Congress have tried to amend — with
seemingly endless resources — the U.S. Constitution to give the government the
power to prohibit the physical desecration of the American flag. Civil libertarians
have fought back hard with coalitions of veterans, religious leaders and other Americans
who believe that such a constitutional amendment would undermine the very principles
for which the American flag stands.

*Sigh* How many more times with this monstrosity rear its ugly head? The American
flag – any flag for that matter – is just a symbol. Citizens of any free country
should have the right to protest what they see as disgraceful actions taken in their
name by their government, so long as doing so doesn’t not endanger others. A legal
expression of such a protest should be the “desecration” of a symbol of
that government/country, including its flag.

This should be especially true for the US. Our constitution, and the Supreme Court
interpretations thereof, guarantees the rights of free expression and to petition
the government with grievances. To ban flag-burning would violate both.

Perhaps flag-burning is a distasteful thing. I’d have to be pretty ticked off to
do it myself, but tastefulness should not guide legislation of constitutional law.
If it were, we might as well ban foul language, sandals worn with socks, reality
TV, and Hillary Clinton.

In, But Not Of

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Scripture tells us to be in the world but not of it. Obviously somebody forgot to tell the Anglicans. The implication of these actions is that if it’s legal in man’s law, it should be legal in God’s law. "It has the state’s blessing. Why shouldn’t it have ours?" Oy. I bet this kind of thing drives Pontificator nutty.

Liturgy for Gay Marriages Developed in Vt.
Fri Jun 18, 4:26 AM ET
By DAVID GRAM, Associated Press Writer

BURLINGTON, Vt. – Vermont’s Episcopal Diocese has become the first in the country to develop a liturgy – a script for a religious service – in response to a state law making same-sex unions legal.

Rolling My Eyes

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CHURCH & STATE
by Neal Pollack

A lunatic Christian cult has the run of the White House and the ear of the president. What do they want? The end of the world. Be afraid.

I almost didn't blog this article due to it's secular silliness and lack of intelligent analysis, but the author offers the following pile of stinking feces (Ad hoc or accurate assessment? Let me know.) as a prayer. It reeks of the kind of warm, fuzzy, "I'm OK. You're OK" relativism that defeats the whole point of having faith at all.

"Dear [Higher Power of Choice], give us the will to restore religion in this country, as our Founding Fathers intended, to an abstract guiding principle, not the theologically unsound justification for a twisted foreign policy. Let us fight our enemies with peace and wisdom, not anger and indiscriminate force. Allow our country to serve as a symbol of what's good in humankind, not what's corrupt. Most of all, grant us the strength and wisdom to remove President George W. Bush from office. In your name, we say: Amen."

"abstract guiding principle"?!? Why believe in God at all? Why not just stick to secular humanism? It makes you feel like you're a good person acting on an informed, enlightened conscience without any of the nasty thankfulness, codes of conduct, or global implications and applications inherent to most religions. No fuss, no muss. "Ethos Lite: All of the Flavor, None of the Obligations"

Spam Left or Spam Right?

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No, I don’t mean junk email. I mean something closer to the Monty Python skit. The two major parties in America both nauseate me, just in different ways. You get left-wing corruption with the Democrats and right-wing corruption with the Republicans. It’s a lose-lose scenario at election time.

Everyone seems to want to jump on one bandwagon or another without consideration for real options. I just can’t fathom why people demand competition in economics, but not in politics. A duopoly is bad for everyone.

I’ve talked to people who don’t really like the party they usually vote for. They just do it because they hate the other party more. When I ask them why they don’t vote "outside of the box", they tell me they fear throwing their votes away. If people voted with their consciences, rather than by following others, they’d have real power. Worse yet are the people who are too disgusted to vote. Their votes "don’t count". Well, duh, if you don’t use them, how can they?

I wish I had more free time. I’d love to start a political organization for independent moderates. Heck, I’d be happy to get a comprehensive "alternative" politics web page up with information about beating the current system.

From the looks of things, I’m not the only disgusted blogger.

Rally around the label

I’ve recently become disillusioned with the state of American politics… okay, more disillusioned with the state of American politics. I just keeps hitting me how hard people on each side of the traditional aisle are trying to distinguish themselves from each other, while actually differing on very little.