Well, I walked out of church this morning over the Cindy Sheehan situation (VANITY)

Muself | 8/14/05 | Myself

[Chi-townChief]

I'll apologize in advance for this vanity post but I need to get this off my chest:

At our 10:30 a.m. mass this morning, our pastor was the celebrant. Today's Gospel was the story of Christ's meeting with the Canaanite woman and the eventual healing of her daughter. Our pastor then followed with his homily where he first related the plight of the Canaanite woman with a woman he knew who called him requesting prayers for an illness in her family which we could relate to since my wife and I are both contending with (minor, we hope) health issues.

The nest thing we know, the pastor is relating this to the "lady camped out in Texas asking for healing AND ACCOUNTABILITY" (the emphasis is my own). We sat there and listened through the sermon as he returned to the Sheehan story a few more times asking us to imagine an Iraqi woman who lost children in the same position.

Thankfully, it was pretty short and we stood for the Creed but then, immediately before the intercessions, the pastor returned to the topic.

This was too much for us so we turned and left, commenting to those around that we don't come to church to hear politics. I handed the usher my offering as we exited.

This is the first time something like this has happened in this church we have attended for the past twenty years or so and I feel pretty horrible about the whole thing.

[prairiebreeze]

I pretty much make it policy to not open freepmails from people I don't know. Or at least check their posting history.

If somebody has something to say to me, most likely they can say it on the boards.....or I don't need to hear it in the first place.

I figured TonM was a repeat troll.

[TheRightGuy]

CHICAGOLAND PING (St. Gerald's at 93rd and Central for those interested)

My denomination, Christian Church (Discilples of Christ), has been hijacked by the leftists as well. The "Christian Left" is every bit as organized as the "Christian Right".

[Chi-townChief]

Personally, I don't think the RC Church has been hijacked by lefties, at least not yet. I believe our pastor's analogy between the Canaanite woman and Ms. Sheehan was made out of ignorance but who knows? I wrote to him, pointing out where he had crossed the line and I'll see if I get any response.

Pope Benedict as Cardinal Ratzinger offered some food for thought about a year ago:

- "Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion."

- "While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia."

Many other churches, I'll agree, have become the religious wing of the rat party: Evangelical Lutheran, Episcopal, and United Methodists (where President Bush and my father attend) immediately come to mind.

[spintreebob]

Business as usual in most Chicago diocese churches I've been in. In my parish, it is virtually non-stop all week. Maybe that's why I skipped it this week.