Moral Glaucoma

Jewish World Review ^ | December 5, 2002 | J. J. Walker

[lilylangtree]

Something I found out today disturbed me greatly since I believe in wholeheartedly in the sanctity of marriage. Anyone can apply for ordination via the internet. Voila! Marriages and baptisms can be performed and they're legal. I even called the local County Auditor, and she verified that these actions are legal. There aren't any legal controls as to who can perform marriages, baptisms, etc. Also, if a person needs a doctorate in divinity, just apply online and certificate is in the mail. These certificates given to people who apply are great for stocking stuffers this time of year if anyone needs a Dave Barry creative idea. The disheartening bottom line is that they're legal.

[Dan Day]

Parents wonder where their kids get this language? All you have to do is get on a school bus or go to a school yard, something that parents can't imagine. The Walkmans and radio gear that the kids are listening to, that's where they hear it.

Umm... Back when I was "on a school bus" or in a "school yard", and this was thirty+ years ago, the language in use was just as bad. And not because we heard it on "Walkmans". Kids learned it from other kids, just as they learned how to play Kick the Can, and the lyrics to "Jingle Bells, Santa Smells", as it has been since the dawn of man.

[Dan Day]

Something I found out today disturbed me greatly since I believe in wholeheartedly in the sanctity of marriage. Anyone can apply for ordination via the internet. Voila! Marriages and baptisms can be performed and they're legal. I even called the local County Auditor, and she verified that these actions are legal. There aren't any legal controls as to who can perform marriages, baptisms, etc. Also, if a person needs a doctorate in divinity, just apply online and certificate is in the mail. These certificates given to people who apply are great for stocking stuffers this time of year if anyone needs a Dave Barry creative idea. The disheartening bottom line is that they're legal.

Then this ought to really shock you -- you don't even need to be a religious figure to perform marriages! A mere Justice of the Peace can perform marriages!! No, really, it's true!!!

Teasing aside, how is your "discovery" any more shocking to you than the existence of common-law marriages, where people don't even need a ceremony or marriage certificate?

Or marriages performed by a county clerk?

As for cheesy mail-order divinity degrees, it's no different than "honorary" college degrees, or graduation certificates from some useless mail-order "school". Any "diploma" (or badge, or certificate, or what have you) is only worth the reputation of the body which issues it.

In your final line you express dismay that such things are legal -- do you *really* want to get the government involved in deciding what's a *proper* religious group and what's not? Or what's an "acceptable" religious curriculum for a title?

[lilylangtree]

Yes, I know all about JP's performing marriage ceremonies (my sister was married by one). Common law marriages are not unusual (close friend has been in one for 20 years even though the state we live in doesn't recognize them). Another friend's son, who is about as religious as an atheist, obtained one of these ordination certificates and performed the marriage ceremony for a relative this past weekend. The whole act seemed sacrilegious. In my humble opinion, it demeans the marriage act to obtain these quickie papers. My educational degree certificates mean a lot to me because I worked very hard for them. I have other certificates for various things I earned mean a lot to me too. Obtaining these ordination papers in such a cavalier manner appears illegal and disappointing, but I found out today it is not illegal. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the Reverends Jesse "Shakedown" Jackson and Al "The Mouth" Sharpton got their papers on the internet.

[Chuckster]

Where have you been? This has pretty much always been the case.

A friend of mine in HIGH SCHOOL some forty years ago thought it would be cool to be called "Reverend" so he got a mail order ordination certificate and had cards printed. I think he even performed a couple of marriages.

[Itzlzha]

Opie and Anthony, a couple of "Shock Jocks" out of New York, pushed the envelope to the limit. As part of a "Contest" they broadcast a couple having sex at St. Patrick's Cathedral...during Mass. Soon after, they were taken off the air. How did the duo wind up in New York to begin with? They were fired from a Boston station for pulling a different stunt. The two made a false claim on-air that Boston Mayor, Tom Menino, had been killed in a car crash. Soon after, they were hired by New York radio station WNEW-FM.

Ummm...I know O&A from the Boston days...it was an APRIL FOOLS DAY JOKE!

Mumbles Menino behaved like the good Stalinist Mofioso he is, and threatened the Radio Station and Owners in order to dump O&A (Huge ratings then as well as NY syndication).

They did an April Fools joke, and the Left wing Mafia didn't like it. How does that jibe with JJ 's slant here?

"I have no idea what's going on..."

[RichardMoore]

OK, where to start..after scrolling thru the BS that followed this post I think it is necessary to mention the root causes of todays problems. It is summed up as an attack upon the on unit that is effective it maintaining order and sanity in the world, that is an attack upon THE FAMILY.

But the question is from whence does this attack come?

In EUGENICS and OTHER EVILS G K Chesterton identified the comming causes of this crisis. He said that Industrial Capitalism as it was and is being practiced is a failure. Why, because it cannot afford to pay one man enough to support a family the size of his own choosing.

So what did those august Newspaper owners of 80 years ago put into motion to solve this problem, if only temporarily? BIRTH CONTROL, DIVORCE and ABORTION! They argued that rich folks already had these "benefits" and it was unfair not to let the "common folk" have them too.

So there you have it. Fast forward to 2002 and what Pope Paul VI said about BIRTH CONTROL in 1968 has been proven right. But Chesterton said it in 1920. (chesterton.org)(ignatius.com)

[Happygal]

Ye know, I've thought about this with radio stations...

I'm a provincial journalist in Ireland with my own column. And, I LOVE when I can get a reaction...either positive, OR negative.
It means people read me.
If they bother to write an email, or send a letter. They have acknowledged that they have seen MY message.

(Which is good, because they are mainly of a conservative bent, eh?)

The one thing that will have MY column pulled is...NO reaction.

That's why I would never ring into a radio show that I hate, no matter how badly I was jumping up and down with anger by its content.

I MAY report it to the publications standards board, or shop the journalist to the NUJ (the journalistic union) for breaching a code of ethics.

But then again in Ireland..NO BODY...BUT NO BODY..attempts stunts like these cheap-shot artists, who make Jerry Springer look like Mother Therese. They wouldn't get away with it in this country.

[SkyPilot]

bump

[afraidfortherepublic]

...these cheap-shot artists, who make Jerry Springer look like Mother Therese.

Arggggghhhhhhhh....That is a real stretch of the imagination! LOL. :~)

[afraidfortherepublic]

Back when I was "on a school bus" or in a "school yard", and this was thirty+ years ago, the language in use was just as bad.

I'm a little older than you, and the language certainly was NOT as bad in my day. J.J. is closer to my age than yours because I remember him on TV when I was about 25.

[afraidfortherepublic]

He does write columns from time to time.

And very good ones, I might add.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Perhaps your list of black conservatives would be interested in this! I've read three columns by Jimmie (j. J. Walker) and I think he is a good writer with a great moral compass. Until he started publishing in JWR, I just thought he was a comedian (a funny one) from Good Times. This is a pleasant surprise.

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

[A_perfect_lady]

And let this be an example as to what happens when freeping while doing two other things!

Hey! Were you castrating a pig and having sex in a cathedral while trying to post? Bad Freeper! Oh, wait...

[Dutchgirl]

My 11 year old son was telling me the other day how much he HATES Lexx and Terry. I asked him where he had ever heard them and he said on the 2 occasions when he was driven to school by 2 of my coworkers, after missing the bus and coming to work with me. (I work in a flooring company with pirates masquerading as carpenters.)

I contrast this with a beautiful story in "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom.

She is travelling with her father, a watchmaker. She asks him a question about a poem she has read and does not understand, with a referencec to "sex-sin." Instead of answering, he tells her to lift his tool case. "I can't Papa. It is too heavy for me." She says.
" I cannot answer you" he says. "You are not strong enough for the answer yet." He replies.

[bvw]

What a good story!

[Dutchgirl]

Given a choice between having my children read "The Diary of Anne Frank" or "The Hiding Place", I have opted for Corrie Ten Boom every time.

[mafree]

DY-NO-MITE!!

[demosthenes the elder]

a statement of the obvious, but well stated and well worth re-stating until the facts displace the "truth" the Left has successfuly sold to the masses.