Tag: current-events

Unlovley America – “Scalia Protest at Princeton Raises an Important Question” – Re-blog (Crisis Magazine)

Peanut Gallery: I am in crisis… I do not recognize the country I have loved and lived in all my life. I do not understand today’s prevailing “culture.” I put the word in quotes because it looks more like a cess pool to me – catering to our basest nature (gangsta rap)… rather than encouraging us to soar to the heights of our God-given nature (flash mob).

We are so caught up in ourselves… in our own frantic activities… running to what, or from what… that we can no longer hear the music.

And now, the issue of legalizing/sanctifying gay marriage is at the forefront of the “culture wars.” Among the political/educational elite, there is no longer any room for civil discussion or debate. The lunatics are running the asylum… as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia discovered.

Justice Scalia at Princeton:

Digging his heels in, [Scalia] put to the students the following question, which goes right to the heart of the matter:  “If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality,” he pointedly asked, “can we have them against murder?  Can we have it against other things?”

Where is all this leading us? Regis Martin reflects on this very question in his important article re-posted below –

If a nation to be loved, as Burke once said, must be lovely, where does that leave those of us who look upon same sex marriage with abhorrence? At what point does cultural approval, followed by juridical vindication from the highest court in the land, so diminish the loveliness of our country that to withdraw one’s love and loyalty from it becomes the only tenable course to take?

These are serious times and Christians are facing serious issues. Please read Martin’s original article here, posted here at Crisis Magazine.

Special thanks to servus fidelis for bringing this important post to our attention.
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Scalia Protest at Princeton Raises an Important Question

by Regis Martin

Scalia-on-Fox-620x320When does it become impermissable for a self-governing people to pass laws that will ensure the survival of the things they love?  When they no longer command a majority of the electorate?  Is that the standard?  Certainly among people of democratic disposition, it is a constitutional given that any time a plurality of voters take charge, they are more or less at liberty to set aside whatever arrangements were in place before they assumed control.

In other words, that massive tectonic shift in the culture we’ve been witnessing over these past fifty years, is about to be given formal and official sanction from the political process.  All the awfulness of the culture, as it were, will sooner or later be codified into law.
Continue reading “Unlovley America – “Scalia Protest at Princeton Raises an Important Question” – Re-blog (Crisis Magazine)” →

Reformation Day | First Things

Reformation Day – October 31, 2012
Timothy George

“We confess together: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.”

It was around two o’clock in the afternoon on the eve of the Day of All Saints, October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther, hammer in hand, approached the main north door of the Schlosskirche (Castle Church) in Wittenberg and nailed up his Ninety-Five Theses protesting the abuse of indulgences in the teaching and practice of the church of his day. In remembrance of this event, millions of Christians still celebrate this day as the symbolic beginning of the Protestant Reformation. At Beeson Divinity School, for example, we do not celebrate Halloween on October 31. Instead we have a Reformation party.

But did this event really happen? Erwin Iserloh, a Catholic Reformation scholar, attributed the story of the theses-posting to later myth-making. He pointed to the fact that the story was first told by Philip Melanchthon long after Luther’s death. Other Luther scholars rushed to defend the historicity of the hammer blows of Wittenberg. In fact, the door of the Castle Church did serve as the official university bulletin board and was regularly used for exactly the kind of announcement Luther made when he called for a public disputation on indulgences.

But whether the event happened at two o’clock in the afternoon, or at all, is not the point. Copies of Luther’s theses were soon distributed by humanist scholars all over Europe. Within just a few weeks, an obscure Augustinian monk in a backwater university town had become a household name and was the subject of chatter from Lisbon to Lithuania.

It was not Luther’s intention to divide the Church, much less to start a brand new church. To the end of his life, he considered himself to be a faithful and obedient servant of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. Though Luther renounced his monastic vows and married a former nun, Katarina von Bora, he never forgot that he had received a doctorate in Holy Scripture. His vocation was to teach the written Word of God and to point men and women to the Lord of Scripture, Jesus Christ.

On this Reformation Day, it is good to remember that Martin Luther belongs to the entire Church, not only to Lutherans and Protestants, just as Thomas Aquinas Continue reading “Reformation Day | First Things” →

Stand Up for Religious Freedom – “attacks threaten every American” – Washington Times

Peanut Gallery: Join a “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” rally near you. I’m headed for Charleston, SC this morning. You can find a rally near you here.

Even if you don’t quite understand what the big deal is, it ought to trouble you that the HHS mandate is such a big deal to so many — and not just to Catholics. Several Protestant institutions also have filed suit against the HHS mandate, including Wheaton College and Houston Baptist University.

SCHEIDLER: Religious freedom attacks threatens every American – Washington Times. By Eric Scheidler – Thursday, October 18, 2012

HHS mandate is only the beginning

Despite 10 months of controversy — including a public clash between the White House and the U.S. Catholic bishops, countless rallies and protests across the country and the filing of dozens of federal lawsuits — many liberals and independents remain puzzled by the fight over the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. They don’t understand how conservatives can insist that the HHS mandate constitutes an unprecedented attack on religious freedom.

The mandate, announced by the Obama administration in January and finalized in February, requires nearly all employers to provide contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs through their health plans, regardless of any moral objections. Continue reading “Stand Up for Religious Freedom – “attacks threaten every American” – Washington Times” →

Pulpit Freedom Sunday: Pastors Stand Firm in Face of IRS Intimidation

Pulpit Freedom Sunday: Pastors Defy Tax Rules, Back Political Candidates 
Nanette Byrnes (Reuters, October 7, 2012)

[Thanks to Public Catholic for the follow-up. Check it out here.]

Constitution and Declaration of Independence on Grungy Betsy Ros

Charlotte, USA – Baptist Pastor Mark Harris stood before his flock in North Carolina on Sunday and joined hundreds of other U.S. religious leaders in deliberately breaking the law in an election-year campaign that tests the role of churches in politics.

By publicly backing candidates for political office from the pulpit, Harris and nearly 1,500 other preachers at services across the United States were flouting a law they see as an incursion on freedom of religion and speech.

Under the U.S. tax code, non-profit organizations such as churches may express views on any issue, but they jeopardize their favorable tax-exempt status if they speak for or against any political candidate.

“Pulpit Freedom Sunday” has been staged annually since 2008 by a group called the Alliance Defending Freedom. Its aim is to provoke a challenge from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in order to file a lawsuit and have its argument out in court.

The event has grown steadily in size, but the IRS has yet to respond – even though the pastors tape their sermons and mail them to the agency.

Now in an election year, where a few swing states – including North Carolina – will be crucial, political analysts say pastors campaigning from the pulpit could have an impact. Continue reading “Pulpit Freedom Sunday: Pastors Stand Firm in Face of IRS Intimidation” →