GOD, CHRIST: QUESTIONS & FAITH

Long Quote for Today on the Brazil Excommunications of the Victims

While the family of a 9-year-old incest victim’s abortion is excommunicated, the perpetrator never even made it to the ecclesial radar screen. Let this case signal the end of any credible claim to authority of bishops and the dawn of a new era when local communities determine their own members. I daresay the world will be a safer, kinder place.

. . . My colleagues at Catholicas pelo Direito de Decidir, an international partner to the Washington-based Catholics for Choice, asked in their editorial whether this was a case of Insanity, Cruelty, or Christian Principles? and I applaud them for stating the question so clearly and for answering it without equivocation. Let me simply add indignation, sadness, and affirmation.

It is hard to find words sufficient to convey the moral indignation elicited by the Roman Catholic Church’s actions. As a Catholic feminist theologian who is pro-choice, I have dealt with abortion for decades. I thought I was inured to its callousness. Maybe it’s because I have an 8-year-old daughter that I find the Church’s actions in this case violent beyond defense.

• Mary E. Hunt, Ph.D., a feminist theologian who is co-founder and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) in Silver Spring, Maryland.  A Roman Catholic active in the women-church movement, she lectures and writes on theology and ethics. Full article here.

Quote for Today on the Atheist Bus Campaign (in Montreal and elsewhere)

In advertising the alleged non-existence of God, less than bright “Brights” are actually raising consciousness to God. Doh! . . . I have no problem at all with the Atheist Bus advertising campaign coming to Montreal. In fact, I look forward to it, as it will provoke discussion about God. Who would have thought that evangelical militant atheists would ever give God free publicity?

• Robin Edgar, The Emerson Avenger: The Atheist Bus Campaign *And* The Unitarian Church Of Montreal Get Reflected In The Montreal Mirror aka The Less Than Magic Bus That Takes Me To U*Us

Quote for Today on Nigeria’s Anglican Archbishop Akinola

And finally, why is this sort of naked bigotry, roundly condemned elsewhere, not considered a problem worthy of discussion when Anglican leaders convene? We've spent six years fussing about an openly gay bishop who harms no one while Archbishop Akinola's hate-mongering elicits not a peep from the leadership of the Communion.

• Jim Naughton, Episcopal Diocese of Washington

Context:  The Anglican Church of Nigeria, led by Archbishop Peter Akinola, supports legislation to criminalize direct or indirect, public or private displays of same-sex affection.

Amnesty International:

If passed, the bill would give license to the authorities to raid public or private gatherings of any group of people they suspect to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. The measure would also increase the risk of violence and other acts of discrimination against individuals who are suspected of being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

“It is simply unacceptable to single out one group of people to be deprived of the rights we all enjoy,” said Aster Van Kregten, Amnesty International’s Nigeria researcher. “Legalising discrimination is reprehensible in itself and can only promote acts of hatred.”

Human Rights Watch:

"This bill masquerades as a law on marriage, but in fact it violates the privacy of anyone even suspected of an intimate relationship with a person of the same sex," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "It also threatens basic freedoms by punishing human rights defenders who speak out for unpopular causes."

Content from The Lead

Thought for Today

To demand courtesy is to rob courtesy of its meaning.

• Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG (Brotherhood of Saint Gregory)

The Brotherhood of Saint Gregory is a Christian Community of the Episcopal Church, whose members follow a common rule and serve the church on parochial, diocesan, and national levels. Members--clergy and lay, without regard to marital status--live individually, in small groups, or with their families. They support themselves and the community through their secular or church-related work, making use of their God-given talents in the world while not being of the world. The trust that all labor and life can be sanctified is summed up in the community's motto: Soli Deo Gloria, To God Alone the Glory.

Words that should be framed: Andrew Sullivan

Those of us who are believers - and who do not believe that real religious faith has anything to fear from a completely open debate - should wake up and defend freedom. And that includes, as it must, the freedom to believe nothing, and to say whatever the hell one likes about religion.

Read why he writes this: The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan (February 03, 2009) - The Inversion Of Human Rights

Quote for Today by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams

Years ago I lived in a town where there was a very active church indeed. Outside this church was an enormous noticeboard. It must have been about six feet square. It seemed every moment of the week was taken up by activity. But I've no doubt indeed it was a very good church and very careful and loving parish.

And yet that noticeboard used to worry me and it still does. It seems to me it speaks of an idea of the church which supposes that the church is about human beings doing things. When you looked at that church you would have thought, what a lot of things they do there. But I'm still wondering if anyone ever asked, does God do things here? It seemed to be just a slight risk that there was hardly any room in the week for God to find his way in among all these activities.

• Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury preaching at the dedication of the new St Mark's pro-cathedral in Alexandria, Egypt as quoted by Ruth Gledhill in The Times.

Quote for Today by Christopher Buckley

I’m no longer a practicing member of Mother Church, but the old reflexes die hard. Once an altar boy, always an altar boy. But really, I have to say, out loud, as it were, What—the fuck—were you thinking of, Your Holiness? This repugnant episode is surely to the Vatican what Abu Ghraib was to the Pentagon. No, actually, worse. Actually, not even on the same scale.

• Christopher Buckley in his blog, The Daily Beast in a posting titled Pope-a-Dope

Buckley starts his post with these words:

The running title of this blog is “What Fresh Hell.” This week’s heaping helping of fresh hell comes courtesy of Bishop Richard Williamson, one of four bishops whom Pope Benedict XVI has just un-excommunicated. A plainer way of putting it would be: rehabilitated.

You must see this video for complete context. In fact, read Buckley’s full posting.

Political Quote of the Day

People who live in seven houses should not throw stones

• Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Senator from Minnesota

Quote for today on much ado about nothing

Critics have lambasted Dr. Williams for departing from Anglican tradition and acceding to the Roman Catholic dogma of the immaculate conception of Mary. While the content of Dr. Williams’ sermon has aroused the ire of Protestants, the fact that his sermon took place during a Roman Catholic mass has intrigued liturgists, who note that Roman Catholic canon law only permits Catholic clergy to preach at a mass.

• George Conger in his blog Conger, October 17, 2008

What did Rowan Williams actually say? He used the word spotless to describe Mary. To complicate things more, we learn that the Rt. Rev. Jacques Perrier, the Catholic bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes had invited Dr. Williams to preach. This is shocking because . . .

New Zealand liturgist, the Rev. Bosco Peters, observed that by allowing Dr. Williams to preach at Lourdes, “Roman Catholics appear to be accepting that the Archbishop of Canterbury is validly ordained.”

And how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Quote for Today from William F. Buckley

The duel between Christianity and atheism is the most important in the world, and the struggle between individualism and collectivism is the same struggle reproduced on another level.

• William F Buckley

Hat tip: Touchstone Magazine - Mere Comments: A Buckleyan Lenitive