Jan's Stinkin Blog: April 2013

Sunday, April 28, 2013

ONE BISHOP TO ANOTHER: Clean your house first before you try to clean ours...

In the Thursday, April 25, 2013 Detroit Free Press piece under the Metro Region heading, I found interesting the one titled: EPISCOPAL BISHOP: VIGNERON WRONG ON GAY MARRIAGE.

The Episcopalian bishop is the retired bishop GENE ROBINSON who was the first openly gay man to become a bishop in the U.S. Episcopal Church. Allen Vigneron is the Catholic archbishop of Detroit, Michigan.

Robinson claimed that Catholic leaders like Vigneron “profane the Sacrament” and use communion as a “manipulative tool” when they say that Catholics who support gay marriage should not present themselves for communion.

Robinson continued in his op-ed piece in the Washington Post “On Faith” that “While some are seeking to withhold communion from pro-choice and pro-marriage-equality Catholics…I have not heard no call to withhold communion from priests and bishops who have engaged in horrific sexual abuse against vulnerable children, nor their enablers”.

HERE ROBINSON HIT THE NAIL RIGHT ON THE HEAD and what do people like Vigneron, all smug in their self-importance and righteousness, have to say to that???

The fact that Catholic leaders continue to tell us what is right and what is wrong and what GOD wants us to do and believe and not address their own abject failings as an institution and as god’s representatives on earth, tells us to take their words and actions for what they are worth…nothing!

Sunday, April 21, 2013

NEWSPAPER AD FOR "THE BIBLE" TV SERIES...

Ok…my last Easter commentary…and I will move on…

The History Channel series THE BIBLE played during Easter and culminated on Easter Sunday with the BIG finale. There were “full Page” ads taken out in the biggest newspapers in the country promoting this series.

The ads were paid for, predictably, by the Hobby Lobby, Hemispheres and Mardel Stores whose owners are obviously some serious Christians.

The bottom of the ad read: Experience the real meaning of Easter and gave links on how to load a free Bible onto your phone and a link if you would like to know more about this Jesus fellow.

The top of the ad had a huge picture of the actor playing Jesus in the series and a quote from JOHN 3:16 on the side of his image. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one & only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”.

It is one of those quotes that makes me ask a ton on questions; what I call common sense questions that any inquisitive person would ask; I mean someone who is not blinded by faith and can actually think objectively about what they are being told.

The Secular Humanist Organization’s magazine featured an article by Peter W. Sperlich, emeritus professor of political science at the University of California at Berkeley titled: EASTER EXPLAINED; What the Sacrificial Death of the Son Tells Us About the Father.

The author assumes, for the sake of argument, that god actually exists in the way the Bible says he does.

The author first tackles the concept of MONOTHEISM which actually is quite problematic in religions that claim one god. Jews of the Old Testament were not consistently monotheists but worshiped a number of gods. Just take the commandment that demands that “You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me” suggesting that there are other gods but the Jews shall not place “other” gods “before” Yahweh.

If you know the history of the Christian faith you would be aware of all the troubles throughout history associated with the concept of the TRINITY; three gods in one? Jews as well as Muslims couldn't fathom why god would even need a son.

Catholicism muddied the water even more by making The Virgin Mary into a quasi-god venerated even more than the father, son or the Holy Ghost. And when you throw in the SAINTS, each responsible for specific tasks, into the mix, you have a perfect polytheistic faith.

OK so let’s say that we have a monotheistic god that is omnibenevolent, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent; so why does evil exist?

You can believe in a Satan but a Satan created and controlled by god? This dilemma cannot be resolved unless you take away god’s Omni benevolence or make Satan the creation of some other god which blows the whole monotheism thing up.

So now let’s tackle the quote from John 3:16 as mentioned above.

God sacrificed not only a “beloved” son but his “only” son. Wow, what a sacrifice but hey, if god was able to get himself one son, why not more as in a bunch of sons?

Also, god did not save the entire world but only the people that “believed” in his son and they are the only ones that get to have “eternal life” so no, god did not love the world so much but only a specific few in the world.

Another problem is the sacrifice of god’s son on Easter. Why was god “compelled” to sacrifice his son? Was there no other way to save the world?

If god was truly omnipotent, could he have not just said to the world, I forgive your sins?

So the next question must be, what power made god sacrifice his only son for our sins?

It seems that either there is another power (no more monotheism) or there is something that forced god to behave in that fashion (no more omnipotence).

So the conventional story of Easter, when extrapolated from the quote (John 3:16) challenges the monotheism of Yahweh and his omnipotence; to add to this reasoning, the existence of evil challenges god’s Omni benevolence also.

The author states that the Easter Story really does not logically cohere with the various other tenets of the Christian faith – which calls into doubt its truth and validity.

On the other hand, religion was never meant to be rational and logical; it belongs to the realm of myth, fiction, fantasy and wishful thinking but it does have a place in our society and obviously has had that place forever.

I guess all this is to show that religion does mean a lot to people but that truth and logic does not play a role in what religion means to people.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

REV. HARRY COOK: Easter message...

I know Easter has been over for some time but I resent the fact that I was too busy to talk about some great articles I read during Easter.

One of my favorite religion writers is Harry Cook, a retired Michigan Episcopal priest who happens to also be a scholar of ancient texts including Biblical texts.

His article in the Detroit News: WORSE THINGS THAN DEATH? The Easter story carries a challenge to all living souls. (March 31, 2013).

He is different because he sees religion as it is; a myth with important lessons for humanity.

He says that such myths/stories survive in the human epoch because they are seen as vessels of truth, if not truth themselves.

He sees Easter and the Easter cross as a call to remembrance. A remembrance of the Sage of Nazareth (Jesus) in his persistence in passive resistance and his advocacy as Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin King Jr. are remembered for the same reasons.

We remember them because they saw that there were worse things than death and were willing to die for those reasons.

Rev. Cook cites the Gospel of Mark and its ending with women at Jesus’ empty tomb sitting there astonished, unsure and afraid to tell anyone about it…the end!

Cook seems to think Mark ended it there on purpose as if to say… if you want to know how the story turns out, go on and live it yourself.

I hope you see why I think Harry Cook is great and has a lot of religious wisdom to pass around.

WHY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH MUST CHANGE: New book by a solid Catholic author...

There is a new book that uploaded to my Kindle Reader that is called: WHY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH MUST CHANGE: A Necessary Conversation by Margaret Nutting Ralph.

Before you jump all over her as another anti-Catholic nut let me tell you that she is a Catholic and director of the pastoral studies master’s program at Lexington Theological Seminary in Kentucky and teaches in the permanent deacon program at St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad, Indiana.

So she has Catholic credentials.

This book is quite refreshing and has a needed dose of common sense and reality in today’s world.

She has also written a book in 1986 called: AND GOD SAID WHAT?: An Introduction to Biblical Literary Forms.

In this book she explores the fact that everyone can use the Bible to support his or her point of view but what did the Bible REALLY say about that point of view; a necessary lesson we all need to learn.

As I read the books, I will share my notations…

BOSTON TRAGEDY: Media Reporting stupid and unacceptable...

The Boston Marathon tragedy was hard to take but the way that tragedy was handled by the main media outlets was just unacceptable.

There is just absolutely no reason to cover a tragedy 24/7 when there is NOTHING new to report.

The media must think that the public expects them to stay on the scene for days upon days and show the same video of the explosion over and over and over and over again. Asking people how they feel about what just happened is MORONIC after days and days of the same.

I had to turn to CNN Headline News which is obligated to show other news events of the day because I just could not take anymore.

I was happy to see an article in the Detroit News by Maria Servold titled NEWS MEDIA FARES POORLY IN BOSTON.

As a trained journalist, she knows that a journalist does not report anything without corroboration or at least a number of corroborating sources but here networks priding themselves on being objective and responsible journalists and they are nothing of the sort.

They report rumors that are not true in the hope that they will be true and they could say that they were the FIRST to break that news…BULLSHIT!

I am very disappointed that ratings has corrupted responsible journalism into a three ring circus and CNN, I am most disappointed in you because I thought you were the last of a true journalistic station…ratings mean money and I guess you have to follow the crowd or die.

This means that we have to wait for the paper in the morning and hope they still follow journalistic rules.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

DENY COMMUNION TO GAY SUPPORTERS: The backlash!!!

Last week’s news that Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron suggested withholding communion from Catholics that support gay marriage had a huge response in the letter section of the Detroit Free Press.

Some of the letters supporting Vigneron were typical of the sheep mentality of some Catholics and their profound ignorance of Christianity itself. I am sad but not surprised to say that many of those have Polish surnames.

One letter says that Jesus never said it would be easy to follow the gospel. The gospels were written 50-100 years after the death of Jesus so…? She continues that Jesus provided a definition of marriage to his followers and gave authority to his church. Jesus was born a Jew and died a Jew; he never started a church/religion named after him, his mission was to reform Judaism of the day.

A few letters told Archbishop Vigneron to clean up his own house before sticking his nose into other people’s houses.

One letter writer asks why the church doesn't deny communion to those favoring the death penalty; is there a double standard here?

And there was a letter by a Catholic nun titled: STANCE ON COMMUNION IS EMBARRASSING, PUZZLING asking the archbishop if at communion, everyone will be asked where they stand before placing the wafer in their hands?

What about all those Catholic women that use contraception; should they be denied communion?

Other letters remind Vigneron to “give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to" God the things that are God’s” and “Love thy neighbor as one self”.

I liked one letter saying that communion is like an all-inclusive dinner table; not the clergy’s table but the Lord’s Table.

And a director of the Thomas Moore Project in Baltimore, MD asks Vigneron where he got the power to judge who is worthy to receive communion and who is not. He quotes “Judge not…” & “Take this all of you…”

But the most dramatic and to me, influential letters was the one written to Vigneron by a Catholic mother of a gay son titled: DISCRIMINATION AND EXCLUSION BY THE CHURCH IS NOT GOD’S WORK.

The mother resented Vigneron for suggesting she had a “malformed” conscience for believing that we are all God’s children deserving of his love.

She says that she has learnt to think for herself and not blindly believe in “pray, pay & obey.”

She tells him “you don’t own God” and God is not limited and small-minded like you would want us to believe.

She also accused the church hierarchy of forgetting who Jesus was and what he taught: “Love one another as I have loved you…” and “Love thy neighbor as one self” and “ do unto others as you would want done to you”…

And the big ending: who is the church? WE are the church, WE are the body of Christ and not you, so don’t be dismissive of US.

She did manage to suggest at the end that are probably many priests, bishops and cardinals that should not be receiving communion.

Great to see that the Catholic community is still alive and well.

MARGARET THATCHER: The Iron Lady?

I was disappointed that in Britain, upon Margaret Thatcher’s death (she was the Prime Minister there 1979-1990) crowds were seen gathering in London celebrating her death with the ditty “Ding, Dong, the queen is dead”; the song shot up to number one in the charts.

Thatcher was definitely controversial but in my reading of history, she basically saved Britain from economic collapse and put Britain on a road to recovery that serves it well to this day albeit new kinds of economic problems have arisen.

Britain in 1979 was so socialist that the government controlled everything and everyone and even wiped your arse for you.

To some, that form of socialism bordering on Communism, suited them well after all why bother with individual responsibility when the government took care of you birth to death.

While this was appealing to the public, it was economically unsustainable as evidenced by the collapse of the Soviet Union and other centrally controlled and planned economic systems.

To nurse the Brits off the government teat, she had to yank the teat and you should have heard the shrieking, screaming and gnashing of teeth.

She deregulated and sold off many state-owned companies (the government owned practically everything) and, and this is probably where all the cheering at her death comes from, she castrated the unions; the Russians called her THE IRON LADY.

Her Conservative (Tory) Party is the largest in Britain and is in power under Cameron today.

You may rejoice at the death of an 87 year-old woman who died of a stroke, but history will mark her time on earth as quite influential and remarkable.