God Bless Those Baptist Sea Monkeys

The Sacred Sandwich ^ | October 1, 2005:

[Gamecock]

GRPL Ping

I just couldn't resist opening a thread from our dear Reformed Baptist brothers/sisters that discusses sea monkeys and faith in the same article!

[dangus]

In case you are interested in a Catholic take on this: OK, silly question... but still...

I grew up in a Franciscan parish, and it was quite a long-standing tradition to bless pets. We bless homes, food, our work, our Christmas tree, our lenten palms, our cars... whatever we use, so that we use it for God. Of course, the readings made clear what that such blessings did not mean our pets were rational ("human") souls any more than the food, the work, the Christmas tree, our lenten palms, our cars. No sane person could confuse the blessing with a baptism.

But our pets do play an important part of our lives, they are beloved and thus, we blessed them. Bless sea monkeys? well, that's reductio ad absurdeum; we don't love sea monkeys. We can't even tell them apart. (South Park notwithstanding...)

But like any decent thing, of course, the pagans and the fruitcakes have to go ruin things.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

LOL!

[dangus]

>> Yet the thing that raised my curiosity the most was the fact that these events are billed as “ecumenical.” Now correct me if I’m wrong, but I was under the impression that denominational divisions weren’t really an issue in the animal kingdom. <<

Yeah, that's just silly. My German Shepherd was Catholic. :^D

[alpha-8-25-02]

A rich man had a dog who he dearly loved.

The dog became very ill and after many trips to the vet the dog still seemed terminal.

As a devout catholic he arranged a meeting with the local bishop in the hope of sacred intervention.

Upon hearing the request to heal the animal the bishop replied he knew nothing of vetinary medicine.

The man said he would give the church $20,000.

The bishop replied,i didn't realize the dog is catholic.

5 solas!

[miketheprof]

I've been to services to bless the critters - had our dog and rabbit blessed, as a matter of fact. I never heard any "brother wolf and sister squid" bilge, but beyond that, I don't know what the big deal is. We have our houses blessed; in Galveston, they used to have an annual blessing of the shrimp fleet; if our buildings and our vehicles, why not our pets? BTW, I don't know if all German Shepherds are Catholic, but the current head of the Catholic Church is certainly a German Shepherd.

[tet68]

I think I went to a "Blessing of Trolls" once.
Baba Streisand was sprinkleing French Sparkling
Holy water at $17.98 a bottle, god would that stuff
sizzle when it hit them! I left about the time they
were branding themselves with DU and chanting "MOve on,
Move ON!"

[restornu]

Well there could be Baptist and Catholic, and Presbterian animals etc!:)

I think in general to pray for safty of the earth and it creatures are not a bad idea!

Hurricanes and tornado floods etc also there are these diseases like Mad Cow and Bird Flu

ALL CREATURES OF OUR GOD AND KING
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/c/acoogak.htm

FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/f/b/fbeautye.htm

[Calm_Cool_and_Elected]

Well, when we bought our house, we had a dedication service where we thanked God for the blessing He gave to us, asked Him to bless all who enter and dedicated our home to His service.

CC&E

[Lee N. Field]

Presbterian animal

A Presbyterian animal? Something like this?

[restornu]

A Presbyterian animal?

you took me literal....LOL

[Alex Murphy]

[Alex Murphy]

A Presbyterian animal? Something like this?

Now I dunno about animals per se, but I do know that all Jedi are Presbyterians, which is probably why Palpatine tried to wipe them out.

[dangus]

>> I never heard any "brother wolf and sister squid" bilge <<

I'm guessing the reference, which was actually "brother wolf, sister loon" is a sarcastic takeoff of "Brother son, Sister moon." A lot of wierdos, mistaking the meaning of that, (or purposely disregarding it) have tried to work that into all sorts of pagan dreck. Poor St. Francis; if only the people who supposedly love him would read more than a bumper stickers' worth of his writing!

I believe it was merely St. Francis' way of describing his chaste relationship with St. Claire.

[dangus]

... in fact, I don't even know if it was merely a later literary invention...

[dangus]

Two highly ironic things about your post:

St. Francis was founder of a religious order which takes a vow of poverty.

St. Francis was an active proponent of the notion of "Saved by grace, and by grace alone." The Catholic position is that faith and works are both fruits of a salvation which occurs through grace alone. I believe one of the solas you refer to is "faith alone."

[D-fendr]

This guy doesn't deserve a pet.

[Gamecock]

***In case you are interested in a Catholic take on this: OK, silly question... but still...***

So that is "a catholic" position, not THE CATHOLIC position....

[topcat54]

St. Francis was an active proponent of the notion of "Saved by grace, and by grace alone." The Catholic position is that faith and works are both fruits of a salvation which occurs through grace alone. I believe one of the solas you refer to is "faith alone."

Let's get it right. The "sola fide" of the Reformation was that faith is the alone instrument of our salvation. Jesus Christ is the object of that faith. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone. Our "good works" contribute nothing to our salvation, they merely affirm our salvation.

The RC position is that the instrument of salvation is faith plus works.