Christifideles

Oh darn

2009-11-18T19:14:34Z

Rare coins valued at $40,000 and left at National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes were, alas, not a donation but an attempt to have the Blessed Virgin Mary watch over them and protect them. The shrine security director suggested a safe deposit box for this purpose.

John Paul reported closer to Venerable

2009-11-18T12:21:14Z

It is reported that John Paul may be declared Venerable as soon as December.

Did the Prosperity Gospel cause the crash?

2009-11-16T19:39:02Z

Did the prosperity/health-and-wealth gospel contribute to the crash? They speak of people taking unwarranted risks, overextending themselves, and essentially "claiming" what was out of their reach. You wonder how many of these people bothered to read their bible (they note that Joel Osteen, a popular health-and-wealth monger, quotes very little scripture) when they say that "Jesus loved money too!" I suppose that's why he drove out the moneychangers, said "Blessed are the poor", and "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved".

Still, I have a tough time believing that there are enough adherents to this false gospel to blame them for the economic crash. Did they exacerbate it? Maybe, but they hardly deserve all the credit.

The origin of the heart symbol

2009-11-16T02:40:34Z

Ever wonder where the symbol for a heart came from? Obviously it doesn't look like the biological organ, so where did it come from?

An interesting book I'm reading, Alien Hand Syndrome, has an answer. It's the shape of the seed of the silphium or laserwort plant, which was used — get this — as 7th century B.C. to first century A.D. birth control (and abortifacient). People think of pharmaceutical contraceptives as a modern invention but the ancients had them too. Unfortunately the plant in question grew in only a narrow strip of land and defied cultivation; the lust of the world drove it to extinction. Deo gratias.

But I'm never going to look at the heart symbol the same way again.

Prop 8 boycotts petering out

2009-10-23T16:21:11Z

I am reminded of a scene in Les Miserables — a bunch of rabble-rousing starry-eyed students are convinced that the death of a general will spark an outcry among the people and stir them to their revolutionary cause, but the general's death comes and goes and the people stir not.

So it is with the raucous tumult among gay advocates over Proposition 8. They staged protests and boycotts and caused quite the hullabaloo (and if I recall desecrated churches and did some other nasty stuff) but they are starting to see now that the people just don't care. 'There was a cry for voter sympathy behind that rage: Feel our pain! It failed. "The activism didn't move the public," said Mark Solomon, Marriage Director for Equality California. Despite the outcry, Mr. Solomon said polling showed that voters were not swayed -- opinion stayed the same as on Election Day.'

They still seek to change people's opinions, but it will be a softer approach. (What, no more desecrating Masses?)

Fruits of once-saved, always-saved

2009-10-18T21:09:17Z

According to News of the Weird:

Among the ramblings on the blog of George Sodini (the gunman who killed three women in a Pennsylvania health club, and then himself, in August) was his belief that, having once been "saved," he would enter heaven even if he happened to commit mass murder. Sodini attributed the belief to one of his church's pastors, and another church official, Deacon Jack Rickard, told the Associated Press that he personally believes Sodini is in heaven ("once saved, always saved"), though Rickard somehow split the difference: "He'll be in heaven, but he won't have any rewards because he did evil." [Salon-AP, 8-9-09]

Conservative Christians want to take back bible from liberals

2009-10-13T14:07:05Z

The Conservative Bible Project is employing a Wikipedia-like site to correct errors in biblical meaning in modern translations. They plan to extirpate inclusive language, return to a more literal meaning of the original text, and "utilize powerful conservative terms" (whatever that means). For example, they'll use "gamble" instead of "cast lots" to "combat addiction". (One wonders what they're going to do with the Urim and the Thummim, which Old Testament priests cast to determine God's will.) I love this part; they plan to highlight "Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning." Also they intend to remove the pesky "liberal" "go and sin no more" adulteress story, no doubt added by some 3rd century Barack Obama. All very interesting.

Annual breast cancer awareness rant

2009-10-12T17:50:53Z

I continue to be amazed and nauseated by the sheer volume of ubiquitous breast cancer awareness messages I now see in daily life. Enough, people! No disease in the history of mankind (note ironic use of language) has gotten the attention this disease has received. I continue to ask why breast cancer of all diseases deserves such attention. Ten times more people died in 2006 from heart disease than breast cancer. Cancer of the lower GI is far more prevalent.

And to think, if women stopped contracepting with the Pill, the epidemic might end.

arrrggghhh

2009-10-01T20:27:04Z

The Supreme Court declined to hear a case where a school blocked secondary school students from forming a bible club at school, and was supported by the courts. What a travesty of justice. Makes you glad everyone will be judged one day.

How odd

2009-10-01T20:22:30Z

Interesting that I never heard in the news about the death of a pro-life protester. I bet if it was a pro-abortion protester it would have been all over the news.

Unbelievers promote blasphemy

2009-10-01T00:54:07Z

Today was "Blasphemy Day", a day when, shall we say, organized irreligion encourages people to take their best shots against God. It is timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Danish cartoon of Mohammad that caused such a stir a few years ago. Let us make reparation to God for these blasphemies and pray for those involved.

School bans sex while roommates are present

2009-09-30T16:30:15Z

Tufts University, responding to some complaints from students, banned student sex in the presence of roommates.

Is this how far we've fallen that universities have to make explicit that it's inappropriate to have sex in front of your roommate when they object? Of course, it's inappropriate to have sex in front of your roommate anyway, and for that matter inappropriate to have sex when not married, but the fact that students complained that their roommates were having sex in front of them just leaves me aghast.

System maintenance is now complete.

2009-09-19T02:57:55Z

Thanks, readers, for your patience during the system maintenance Friday evening.

Another secular expert backs pope on condoms in Africa

2009-09-16T14:38:31Z

A French epidemiologist, René Ecochard, backs the pope's assessment of the efficacy of condom campaigns in countries with large cases of AIDS. He said that the condom issue has become a "prisoner of ideology" and there is a "lack of realism". "All epidemiologists agree today that the campaigns to distribute [condoms] in countries where the proportion of affected people is very high, do not work," he says. The problem is, condoms fail often enough that in places where 25% of the population are infected, it simply doesn't work.

Cadaver exhibit turns to sex

2009-09-14T19:14:07Z

You may remember this controversial exhibit of real human cadavers processed with what they called "plastinization" turning them into preserved objects of scientific study, much like the models you might have seen in years' past in the science museum. Well now they want to portray those cadavers in sex acts. Can it get any worse than this?