Posted on 02/26/2007 4:53:41 AM PST by Teófilo
Folks, much as I am tempted to jump into the fray regarding James Cameron's and Simcha Jacobovici's (the Naked Archaeologist) documentary which purports to debunk the Lord's Resurrection, well, I will not. For I had promised that I would refrain from those kinds of posts because of Lent. Tempted as I am, I'll keep my promise. The debate is raging throughout the blogosphere, granting Cameron and Jacobovici a lot of free publicity.
Every year during Lent someone somewhere comes out with some new "discovery" purporting to debunk Jesus and the Church. Last year it was the so-called Gospel of Judas. This year is this thing. (Yawn), I saw it coming.
Sorry, but I have more important fish to fry this Lent—pun fully intended.
But, if you're still interested in reading a critique on this new pseudo-documentary, pay a visit to the DarwinCatholic blog and read his post, entitled Discovery Channel on the 'Jesus Family Tomb': I Fisk It Here and follow all the threads there and elsewhere.
Instead, I will regale you with three paragraphs from an article Robert P. George for National Review, entitled, "Families and First Principles":
Our task should be to understand the moral truth and speak it in season and out of season. We will be fold y the pure pragmatists that the public is too far gone in moral relativism or even moral delinquency to be reached by a moral argument. We will be advised to make the moral arguments to the social-conservative "base" but to frame those arguments in coded language so as not scare off the soccer moms or whoever is playing their role in the next election cycle. All of this must be resisted. We must, to be sure, practice the much-neglected and badly underrated virtue of prudence.Commentary. I don't want to sound too flippant in my reaction to this excellent article and these three very true paragraphs, but "what is the truth" is the question Pilate asked Jesus shortly he had Him flogged and crucified.But we must have faith that truth is luminously powerful: so that if we bear witness to the truth about, say marriage and the sanctity of human life—lovingly, civilly, but with passion and determination—and if we honor the truth in advancing our positions, then even many of our fellow citizen who now find themselves on the other side of these issues will—some sooner, some later—come around.
To speak of truth frightens many people today. At least they seem to be frightened when conservatives speak of truth. They evidently believe that people who claim to know the truth about anything—and especially about moral matters—are "fundamentalists" and potential totalitarians. But this is silly. As Hardley Arkes has patiently explained in the pages of NATIONAL REVIEW and elsewhere, those on the other side of the great debates over social issues such as abortion and marriage make truth claims—moral truth claims—all the time. They assert their positions with no less confidence and no more doubt than one finds in the advocacy of pro-lifers and defenders of conjugal marriage. They proclaim a woman's "fundamental right" to abortion. They insist with moral conviction that "love makes a family." They condemn "Bush's immoral war in Iraq." The question is not whether there are truths about the morality of abortion and the nature of marriage; the question in each case is: What is the truth?
Truth is now granted to Christians via direct intuition, but that doesn't stop a great number of people, many of them professed Christians, to embrace opinions and causes that are not only opposed to the Truth, but that also negate or diminish the intrinsic value and dignity of all human life and of conjugal love.
The thing is that many powerful people, educated, well-traveled, and sophisticated, ask the same question but like Pilate before them, they don't want to wait for the answer. In Pilate's case, Truth was right there staring at him and he still didn't get it. Pilate killed the Lord of Glory; today, all who deny the Truth do the same and innocents have to suffer because of their hubris.
In this Lent, join me in asking how Jesus Christ, "the Truth, the Way, and the Life" is present in our lives, and how we appropriate his Truth in word and in deeds of love and mercy. If we are short, let us ask for more grace and let us act toward others in the same measure Lord gives us—which is to say, a lot.
This goes too for Cameron and Jacobovici.
PING!
Yet, liberals are dead certain about the "truth" of global warming. They should be called "enviro-fundamentalists."
John 17:17 - "Thy Word is Truth."
Though He's Good as existence is, or at least is meant to be through us. I believe we build the rest from that.
Have you noticed? When some agenda-driven media production seeks to dismantle the basic tenets of a major religion, Christianity is always the target. The same cannot be said of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, or Hinduism, for instance.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Noticed for sure! They would not dare to target the other religions!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.