Posted on 06/10/2007 3:02:20 PM PDT by NYer
Many modern people have the notion that the principal mission of the Catholic Church is to impose belief on unbelievers. The reality is that most of its time is spent trying to restrain belief in everything from spoon-bending to the aliens who allegedly speak to us through a cat in Poughkeepsie.
The riptides and cross-currents of religious enthusiasm in American culture are kaleidoscopic and dizzying. Cradle Catholics can be forgiven for just ignoring the whole thing and many of them do. But it’s still worth taking into account because some religious trends can have decided real-world effects.
Some of the effects of unrestrained belief can be amusing.
For instance, after five centuries of being told by Protestant polemicists that we “Romanists” do not trust the saving grace of Jesus Christ and ignorantly seek salvation by the works of the law, it is a weird thing for a Catholic to see the spectacle of kooky apocalyptic Protestants eagerly excited about the birth of red heifers because this will (they hope) be the prelude to rebuilding the Temple of Solomon and the re-institution of the Mosaic sacrificial system. Just how that Temple will be rebuilt when the Dome of the Rock is situated on the site of the Temple is not quite as clearly worked out.
Which brings me to something just as kooky, but less amusing.
Recently, James Dobson, a leading Evangelical and a usually sensible man, hosted on his show one Joel Rosenberg, author of something called Epicenter: Why Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future. Rosenberg claims to know “what the Bible says” about what is happening in the Mideast and is not shy about making “predictions regarding the fate of the Middle East regarding issues such as Iran’s nuclear threats against Israel, the arms race and ultimately ... Armageddon.” Here’s a snippet:
Dobson: “Well, Joel, let’s explain to everybody how Ezekiel 38 turns out, because Israel is about to be attacked, and a huge number of troops from Russia and Iran are coming toward Israel to destroy it, and what happens?”
Rosenberg: “Well, God is going to move. You won’t find in the Scriptures that the United States is coming to rescue Israel or the European Union, but God says he is going to supernaturally intervene — we’re talking about fire from heaven, a massive earthquake, diseases spreading through the enemy forces. It is going to be such a clear judgment against the enemies of Israel that Ezekiel 39 says that it will take seven months to bury all the bodies of the slain enemies of Israel. “
Such standard-issue Evangelical prophetic cocksureness is an excellent example of why a magisterium is so useful and necessary.
Not only does the magisterium help us know what is essential to the faith, it also helps us remain free of what is unessential. For the various species of Protestantism, in addition to denying real biblical truths such as the Real Presence or infant baptism, also have a tendency to invent “biblical truths” that do not exist and impose them by means of a sort of cultural pressure via charismatic preachers with pet theories who, in their own sphere, are granted an infallibility the Pope could never dream of.
Now, a Catholic is quite free to have a kooky private reading of Ezekiel 38-39 as a prophecy of the “coming resurgent Soviet Union” and its alliance with Muslims, communist Chinese or whoever, all in a vast Cecil B. DeMille battle against Israel. The Church has all sorts of room for eccentrics, and everybody needs a hobby.
But a Catholic is not free to go around telling everybody that “this is the clear teaching of the Bible” and demand it be believed. For the fact is, this kooky theory is emphatically not the clear teaching of the Bible, nor does it have any sanction whatsoever from the Church, the tradition, the Fathers, the councils or the popes. It is a pure novelty we can and should ignore.
What we should not ignore is Rosenberg’s claim that, “Given the events going on in our world today, people at the Pentagon, people at the CIA, people at the White House are asking to sit down and talk about these issues, to understand the Biblical perspective, because it is uncanny what is happening out there and it deserves some study.”
I suspect that Rosenberg is exaggerating his clout with the big cheeses in DC. I doubt that the Pentagon’s intel meetings are dominated by exegeses of Ezekiel 38.
But I do think it matters if a significant portion of the American polity drinks in such bizarre theories as if they were God’s revealed Truth.
Ideas have consequences, especially crazy ones. Most crazy ideas do no harm.
Crazy ideas about the Middle East, backed by the force of arms, stand a better than average chance of killing millions.
Okay, would you care to explain WHY you call my argument Pharasaical? I get the name-calling. But it does me no good. it still seems like a good argument to me.
However, suppose animation takes place at birth. Humans by definition have a soul. So an abortion of a fetus before birth would not be the same kind of thing at all as it is since animation takes place at theunion of sperm and ovum.
Or if the people who say animation takes place at 40 days were right, then you could make an argument for the morning after pill quite different from the ones one needs to resort to if animation takes place earlier. As somebody noted, some people seem to think animation takes place at implantation. Again there are moral consequences.
One man's split hair may be another human's life. It just might be a hair that needs to be split properly.
I just don't think that is accurate. Does accuracy matter?
If you were a mind to, I suppose you could copy and paste into a Word file.
Ah, well, you can easily write it off of merely more of my pontifications.
I suppose that if I didn’t read black and white posts any more, our communications would be in a real pickle.
You used that word. I didn’t.
As to why I commented as I did . . .
because the sequence of questions struck me as EXTREMELY similar in style, mode, tone, structure, perhaps in goal.
I suppose so.
Personally, I deplore all abortions.
IF
One MUST be FORCED to live with one or the other—the I choose the morning after pill. The zygotes avoid implantation for a variety of reasons. Who but God knows whether He allowed the pill to have an effect, or not.
Welll, having been on the receiving end of a lot of such, as has Dr. E . . . it’s rings plenty accurate, to me.
I never TRY to be inaccurate.
Just a question, Quix... as a Christian.
I searched on crosswalk.com and found 21 verses in the New Testament with the words 'love one another'. 21!
Swedenborg wrote:
Again, heaven is where the Lord is acknowledged, believed in and loved. Variety in worship of the Lord resulting from the variety of good in one society and another is not harmful but beneficial, for the perfection of heaven is therefrom. It can scarcely be made clear to the comprehension that the perfection of heaven is the result of variety, without employing terms in common use in the learned world and by them showing how unity, to be perfect, is formed from various parts. Every unity has its existence from diversity, for a unity that is not the result of diversity is not anything; it has no form and therefore no quality. When, on the other hand, a unity comes into existence from various parts, and these various parts are in a perfect form in which each attaches itself in series, like a congenial friend to another, then the quality is perfect.
My question is could you please point me to some Scripture passage that you find justifies your endless putting down and ridicule of anothers faith and beliefs?
Sigh.
The doctrine
In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin."
Luke 1:47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.How do you read the words of Miriyam in
b'shem yah'shua
Luke 1:46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,
where Mary calls Yah'shua her savior;
she must have been a sinner to have needed a savior.
Thank you so much for all of your insights and encouragements!
AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!
Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear -
Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die:
Autumn frosts have slain July.
Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.
Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.
In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream -
Lingering in the golden gleam -
Life, what is it but a dream?
THE END
~Lewis Carroll
Yah, we end up with a "we know it when we see it" type of definition of life. No one objects to chopping up and recombining DNA because it hurts DNA, so that's not the life. No one really denies that the fetus from moment of inception is alive. So supporters of abortion don't have a problem killing a living fetus; no one denies that the fetus is alive. I think those that are willing to kill babies in the womb have a conception of the baby as "not human" somehow, there is some point that they haven't come to that makes the fetus human. Since the Christian knows that God knows the baby in the womb, from the moment of conception and before as a person (Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you);" the Christian sees it as an answered question . . . the secular thinker does not. Psalm 139 "You knit me together in my mother’s womb."
Full Prayer from the internet Quix:
Long Version:
PRAYER TO SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Most glorious Prince of the Heavenly Armies, Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in “our battle against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Eph., VI,12).
Come to the assistance of men whom God has created to His likeness and whom He has redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil. Holy Church venerates thee as her guardian and protector; to thee, the Lord has entrusted the souls of the redeemed to be led into heaven.
Pray therefore the God of Peace to crush Satan beneath our feet, that he may no longer retain men captive and do injury to the Church. Offer our prayers to the Most High, that without delay they may draw His mercy down upon us; take hold of “the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan”, bind him that he may no longer seduce the nations” (Apoc. XX,2).
PSALM 67: God arises; His enemies are scattered and those who hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so are they driven; as wax melts before the fire, so the wicked perish at the presence of God.
V. Behold the Cross of the Lord, flee bands of enemies.
R. He has conquered, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the offspring of David.
V. May thy mercy, Lord, descend upon us.
R. As great as our hope in Thee.
V. O Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And let my cry come unto Thee.
V. May the Lord be with thee.
R. And with thy spirit.
Let us pray. - God of heaven, God of earth, God of Angels, God of Archangels, God of Patriarchs, God of Prophets, God of Apostles, God of Martyrs, God of Confessors, God of Virgins, God who has power to give life after death and rest after work, because there is no other God than Thee and there can be no other, for Thou art the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, of whose reign there shall be no end, we humbly prostrate ourselves before Thy glorious Majesty and we beseech Thee to deliver us by Thy power from all the tyranny of the infernal spirits, from their snares, their lies and their furious wickedness; deign, O Lord, to grant us Thy powerful protection and to keep us safe and sound. We beseech Thee through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.
From the snares of the devil, deliver us, O Lord.
That Thy Church may serve Thee in peace and liberty, we beseech Thee in peace and liberty, we beseech Thee to hear us.
That Thou may crush down all enemies of Thy Church, we beseech Thee to hear us.
Short Version:
Archangel Micheal
Prince of the heavenly hosts
Defend us in battle
Against the wickedness and snares of the devil
May the Lord rebuke him, we humbly pray
Thrust into hell Satan and all evil sprits
Who wander the world for the ruin of souls
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