Don’t go to Gene Robinson for scriptural interpretations February 5, 2010
Posted by Tantumblogo in foolishness, General Catholic, Society.comments closed
Disgraceful Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson was interviewed by CNSnews, and had some very unusual interpretations(as in, made up to justify his behaviors) of some St. Paul’s letters. Bishop Gene was the first homosexual to be made a Bishop in the Episcopal Church. So, naturally, some of Paul’s letter to the Roman’s has to be reinterpreted to justify the Episcopal Church’s shamefully un-Christian election of him.
So, what does Gene say? Well, he says that, in Paul’s day, there was no conception of homosexuality proper, and so Paul was actually warning heterosexuals not to engage in gay sex. Bishop Gene assures us that, had St. Paul been alive today, he surely would have endorsed the ability to true homosexuals, who he says have no power over their sexual proclivities, to engage in a gay sex extravaganza.
Does anyone in North America, besides those willingly self-deluded, actually believe that? First, he’s wrong – St. Paul doesn’t say, don’t lay with a man, “unless you intend to have a lifelong monogamous relationship with him. Romans 1-22-27 says:
22 For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. 23 And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of fourfooted beasts, and of creeping things. 24 Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonour their own bodies among themselves. 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.26 For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. 27 And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.
Pretty straightforward to me. ‘Men with men….is filthy.’ Not, “it’s filthy unless you just really, really feel attracted to men.” No, just filthy.
Bishop Gene is doing what many apostates try to do – to reinterpret Scripture to justify their apostasy. They like to claim that the writer couldn’t possibly mean what it plainly says, and that, of course, the writers lacked the oh-so sophisticated nuance of ‘today’s interpretations.’ Basic point – I get to make Scripture mean anything I want to justify my lifestyle. Pretty convenient.
Obey your elders February 5, 2010
Posted by Tantumblogo in foolishness, General Catholic.comments closed
WARNING: I am not charitable in this post. I pray for God’s forgiveness, but this kind of foolishness needs serious rebuttal.
National Catholic Distorter has a regular column called young voices. In a recent such column, a young person named Kate Childs Graham advises the Magisterium of the Church, that august and timeless body, to scrap centuries of revealed Truth and the doctrine of the faith and instead heed the ‘lesson’ of the movie Footloose. Yes, Footloose, the 1984 Kevin Bacon vehicle about good-natured rebelling teens in small town ‘Texas’ (it was filmed in southern California, as the mountains in the background reveal). In the movie, the town preacher (a choose your own revealed truth Protestant) wages a war against rock n’ roll and dancing, to the dismay of the town youth. The youth rebel, and have a big barn dance. Hilarity insues. Wake me up when it’s over.
Apparently, young Ms. Graham was much smitten with Footloose. She was so smitten, in fact, that she advises the Magisterium of God’s Eternal Church to follow the example of the preacher in the movie, who eventually came to realize that his opposition to the need for adolescent exuberance was misplaced. How does this relate to the Catholic Church? Ms. Graham states that:
Much like Rev. Moore (ED – the preacher), I believe that many church teachings, particularly around gender, sex and sexuality, began with good intentions. In excluding women from leadership, for instance, the bishops of yore were aspiring to do what they thought Christ would do
Ah, I see. Yes, those silly old fuddy duddy Popes, Cardinals, and Bishops, they just can’t get with the times and be hip! Don’t you see, there is no infallibly revealed Truth, but only the vagaries of the times. You can’t have immortal teachings, you have to change your message to the whims of today. Then, tired old Magisterium, you too can have a remarkable revelation just like the preacher in the movie, and you’ll be cool and hip! Isn’t that neat?!
Good Lord. First of all, deriving deep lessons on faith from a movie like Footloose is boneheaded in the extreme. Secondly, what we have here is another case of someone looking for evidence to prove their already existing viewpoint. Ms. Graham didn’t suddenly come to the conclusion that the Magisterium just wasn’t with the times when she watched this silly movie – she already believed, apparently, that gays should be able to marry in the Church, that contraception is great, that abortion is a woman’s choice, and that women should be ordained. In a truly adolescent fashion, she apparently saw in this cliched Hollywood movie, full of tired stereotypes of people of faith, some deep lesson that proved what she already believed. Wow, I’m shocked.
No, really, I am shocked. I’m shocked that an editor at a publication as well known as NCR would actually publish something this, I’m sorry to say, sophmoric. Do the editors at NCR really feel that 2000 years of revealed Truth, supported in almost all cases directly by Scripture, should be scrapped in the name of receiving the approbation of the culture? Do these guys even listen, are they capable of hearing, when Jesus calls us to die to ourselves and to the world, to take up our cross and follow Him? Do they really think the infallible word of God can be somehow argued away by the lessons of a quarter century old teen flick? Oh, wait…..we already know the answers to all those questions.
This is actually depressing. It is depressing to read the words of an ostensible ‘young voice’ repeating the very tired, and completely false, doctrine of the dissent crowd.
I hope everyone will join me in prayers for vastly improved Catholic formation, for youth and adults. Good formation is the only way to combat this error.
Good Lord, what is going on? February 5, 2010
Posted by Tantumblogo in General Catholic, scandals.comments closed
I posted on Wednesday some questions regarding the utility of national bishop’s conferences, and whether they were truly beneficial to the Church. Of course, the USCCB would figure prominently in any such discussion, as probably the most powerful and influential Bishop’s conference in the world.
There has been a great deal of news this week regarding the USCCB and evidence showing that it has, wittingly or not, been funding groups that support abortion and homosexual marriage, as well as employing a number of people in very high positions that work both for the USCCB, and these same pro-abort pro-gay marriage groups. Now, further evidence has come to light today that the USCCB will host a ‘social justice’ gathering featuring pro-abort, pro-gay ‘marriage’ speakers such as Fr. Thomas Reese, SJ, Diana Hayes, John Carr, and Paul Booth. All of these speakers take stands that are directly contrary to the Truth God has revealed through his Church, that abortion and active homosexuality are intrinsically evil acts. These same folks also oppose Church teaching on contraception, priestly celibacy, and the enforcement of Church discipline. This conference is organized and being sponsored by the USCCB.
Really. REALLY!?! I would say I’m surprised, only I’m not. The only surprising thing is that the staff at USCCB who coordinated this event could be so utterly tone deaf and blind to the currents of change sweeping the Church. Currents made up of increasingly large numbers of the faithful who keep saying, very clearly, ‘this will not stand – this is not what the Church is supposed to be.’ The faithful are very tired, sick even, of seeing Catholic organizations related to the USCCB continue to host conferences and promote speakers who profess views completely at odds to the truth of the Church. And the faithful are very alarmed to find that some of their money which supports the USCCB appears to be actively supporting organizations with agendas which are antithetical to Church doctrine.
How many scandals do their need to be before some truly effective change takes place? How many times does the CCHD or any other organization funded by the Bishop’s conference have to be found to be funneling money to some pro-abort or pro-gay “marriage” group before we will see a thoroughgoing review of the USCCB and all its funding activities. I think the question of whether the USCCB and other national conferences are in themselves even necessary or beneficial to the Church needs to be seriously discussed within the Church. All bureaucracies tend to take on a life of their own and develop their own agendas, and there is no accident that bureaucratic organizations always tend towards leftist dogma – bureaucracies attract people of that mindset, and soon become inseparable from the leftist agenda. This affects the Church, as we have seen, because in a permanent Church bureaucracy, that leftist agenda soon comes to dominate and color all the efforts of that bureaucracy. I don’t know that the bureaucracy of the USCCB is something that can be ‘cleaned up’ – you can’t change the fundamental nature of a thing without taking it down, root and branch.
I also highly recommend everyone check out Michael Voris’ commentary at www.realcatholictv.com. He has been very dedicated to reporting all this controversy and presents a great deal of good, thought-provoking information.
PS – much of the content at realcatholictv is free!
UPDATE: I need to make something clear. The evidence coming to light is not an occasional example of one or two organizations being funded by accident, but that dozens of organizations with agenda’s opposed to the Church have been funded for decades. No Bishop has yet responded on the questions raised by this evidence. It is reliably reported, however, that what has been presented thus far is far from all the evidence of this systematic support for pro-abort and other groups – more will be revealed in the days ahead.
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