Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Pope Francis and Homosexuality

So the media is a buzz with Pope Francis 80 minute interview with the media. And as can be expected the media is doing what it does best

...DISTORT THE NEWS...DISTORT THE MESSAGE

Yet people are willing to swallow whatever the media feeds them without questioning their sources or looking at other reliable sources.

In a way I'm kind of confused why the Holy Father would expect anything different, but be that as it may, the Holy Father hasn't said anything different than what the Catholic Church has taught for 2000 years.

Have a listen:  
Catholic Connection July 30, 2013 - Hour 1 (Ave Maria Radio) 


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

A Royal Baby & The Youth of Rio - Another News Day?



They stood watch at the front door of the London Hospital. The news channels both cable and local cut into regularly scheduled programming in order to try and capture the singular moment the Royal family arrived at the hospital and when the new born would pop his or her little head out of the front door..
Endless coverage and speculation over the new baby in tabloids and news articles guessed what the name would be if a girl or a boy and it’s royal ranking, in line for the thrown.

A joyous event, celebrating life as it enters the world, yes but really is all that moment to moment coverage necessary? 

The other news item, thousands of youth in Brazil awaiting the Holy Father to celebrate World Youth Day and their fearless acclamation of their faith, the news coverage of the event, well not so minute-to-minute and kind of sparse. The only real headline came when the car containing Pope Frances turned down a wrong street into throngs of faithful. Then there’s the bomb found at a location to be visited by the pope. That seemed the interest of their story not the purpose of his visit.

What’s the beef with these two events? No real beef, just some observations that came to my mind as these events unfolded

First, the birth of George Alexander Louis, of parents Prince William and Kate Middleton  seemed I don’t know, kind of out of place in a world screaming abortion!, abortion!, and ObamaCare. It seemed like a complete 180 degree’s out of the today’s fog, all the news agencies hanging on every word of their camped out reporters and any slight movement from the front door of the hospital, wow confusing.

A few of the cable stations pretending to not care but still reporting on the event, breaking away with a gasp, “is the baby here?!”. All the welcoming waves and cheers from well wishers outside the hospital and later at Kensington Castle. The statistics show a 2.5% drop in abortions in England, but that doesn’t tell the story that 185,000 unborn children died in Britain lastyear, in a nation with few limits on abortion and taxpayer financing of them 

The fastest-growing type of family in the UK are people who are living together without being married, according to official figures. The number of people who cohabit has doubled to 5.9 million since 1996, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures state.

Despite the appearance of Price William placing Prince George in his car seat and driving the Royal family and their new born, off from the hospital to a life of ever after, the majority of family life in London doesn’t reflect that in any way. The U.S. is not that far behind.

Many of my work colleagues in their mid to late thirties just now are tying the knot. Those newlyweds with a new born at home seem a little frustrated at caring for the baby and maintain their careers. One of my work mates confided in me that he has to give up the gym of all things to help with the baby. Who knew he would have to sacrifice so much.

I told him that’s what parenting and marriage was about, sacrifice. He had that puzzled look on his face and scampered off before I could explain. I’ll have to make a note to myself to follow up on that conversation with him.

So the excitement is short lived, and the news day has moved on. A passing glimpse of family life not practiced and celebrated with any such new coverage. Very sad.

The second news item was hardly covered at all, the beginning of World Youth Day 2013 and the arrival of Pope France to Brazil. I saw a brief clip on the local news channels only to mention that the safety of the pope was in question after his motorcade turned down a wrong street and was immediately surrounded by mobs of greeters. Also a note of a finding of a bomb at a planned event location, and that was it.
The only coverage at all of course was on EWTN, and that’s a shame because of the number of youths , thousands eager to celebrate their faith is a message that the world really needs to see and hear.

The New Evangelization is in high gear in Brazil and the muffled coverage is in full effect. Who wants to see a bunch (did I mention THOUSANDS!) of teenagers and young adults eager and on fire with their faith of Catholicism. 

The Catholic Church, lamp on the bushel basket, the source of all Truth, the bride of Christ, the visible church the only remedy of today’s bile, is on display in Brazil and nowhere else.

Except for a brief view of a family driving off to their castle and the spotlight of faith in Brazil the Western civilization goes on not skipping a beat on the Zimmerman coverage, the IRS scandals, the Spy in Russia, etc..etc…Ad Nauseam.

I don’t know it seems we treat to many things as just another news day item. What’s important and what s not is determined by the media and news.

Maybe a little over zealous news coverage on the royal birth but again just treated like a news day item.  

I would love to see more coverage of Youth Day. Not all our youth are in trouble and unaware of what’s important, namely our faith. Maybe a little more news on these teens and young adults can shed some light on a path to follow.

Friday, July 19, 2013

President Obama and Trayvon - Unite'er or Divider?

President Obama gave his thoughts on the Trayvon/Zimmerman case this morning
I listened to it a couple of times, I wanted to make sure I didn't read into it anything that wasn't there.

There's enough of that going on in the media already, Right and Left.

Lot's of clips of what's being said and lot's of interpretations not eluded to in the presidents original transcripts.


Okay, so here are my personal thoughts on what the president said, just my own thoughts and not in any particular order.

My overall, step back and listen, impression is that it seemed a bit one sided. His sympathies mentioned in the first half of the speech and specifically his points made that "Trayvon could have been my son....I could have been Trayvon 35 years ago" seemed at first understandable. He is African American just like Trayvon, he also seems to suggest that he had a hard life like Trayvon.

What is he saying? He also smoked pot like Trayvon, wandered the streets like Trayvon? Is he saying Trayvon didn't have a strong father figure like him?

He wants to make some sort of connection with this family and distance himself from the Zimmerman family. Why?

Out of empathy? Is he sincere or only trying to make sure his African American voting base (90%) is intact?
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Here's where I have a bit of a problem. Right after he goes through this part of his speech, I hear no sympathy for the Zimmerman family. What about the multiple death threats his family is getting? What about the tragedy affecting both families. The loss of a son for the Martin's and the instability of the Zimmerman family with a future of forever looking over their shoulders.
Nothing, not even a mention.

Now one may say the president is only expressing his empathy and inner feeling for the tragic loss of the Martins however he is the President of the United States and so I would think that his comments would recognize ALL the sense of loss here. He must go beyond his personal feelings.

The president then goes on to mention the plight of the African American male, having to hear "clicking car doors" and women in elevators "clutching there purses".

Well, I don't understand. With over 80% of arrests of people committing crimes being African American's is it any wonder. I don't think clicking your car door shut or woman holding on to her purse tighter is an extreme prejudice action. If it were a skin-head with a dog collar or  menacing bikers surrounding your car as you drive down the street, I don't think those action would seem out of place.

In his second part of his speech the president continues with an explanation as to why the African American community is suspicious and upset (I guess he is watching the late news of the protests...like the one here in LA) of the he calls Trayvon story, I think he means the disagreement of the verdict.

He blames it on the history and past of the African American life. He mentions the poverty the disproportional victims and arrests of African Americans (80% as mentioned above also includes that most of these are Black on Black crime).

He says the community is frustrated. So what does that mean? The African American community should and must be excused for pulling people out of their cars and beating them up, of trashing their neighborhoods, attempting to break into local stores and establishments as I saw happening in LA? That is not the crowd I saw, it was a crowd of young people out for a good time of causing pandemonium. I even saw very young kids (under 8yrs) being dragged with there moms who where apart of the riotous crowd. There faces were not ones of outrage at the Trayvon verdict. They were smiling and having a great time.

I've seen the LA Riots of earlier years. I worked in the area and it was terrifying watching the mob run wild, not knowing if you can make it out of the area and home safely. The city fires blazing as seen from the over packed freeways, hoping the mob won’t move on the cars and their occupants.

Was I over-reacting when I locked my car doors?

Towards the end of the speech the president mentions how Eric Holder is looking into a Civil Rights  case against Zimmerman.

Here again I'm confused. The thought is Trayvon had his civil rights violated. He's rights to walk to the store in the rain and get skittles and ice tea. ( What is Purple Drank?).

Was it racial? The FBI says it wasn't by the way.

What about Zimmerman's civil rights. The right to remain innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Seems the Media violated those rights by claiming his guilt night and day on the news.

I guess if you're going to investigate civil rights, why not do it all around.

So Mr. Obama ends his talk with a few good points. Generally discussing what we need to do next.

1. At the State level, Mayors and Governors training Police I presume to be more  cognizant of the African American mentality, to remove the mistrust.

I don't understand, I think we have plenty of African Americans on the police forces of our cities and in our State legislation. But I understand we can take another look at what can be done. Dialogue is always a good thing.

2. He mentioned the "Stand Your Ground" law, which by the way have no major reaches in the trial. He mentioned "If you have the right to carry, do you have the right to shoot"

Then he gave an example of Trayvon, if he was of age, would he have the right to shoot if he had a legal gun?
Sorry, what if's don't help in this matter. The facts of the case are the facts of the case. Putting forward a "straw-man" circumstance doesn't mean anything.

3. Point three was a very good point. The president said we must spend more time with our young African American boys, showing them ways to and means to educate themselves, pathways to succeed.

Absolutely, we need to do with all our children, black, white, brown...all our children. We need, both mothers and fathers involved with the raising of their children.

We recently had Father Mitch Pacwa out to our parish for a Saturday mini conference. The talks were recorded and can be obtained here: www.fathermitchpacwa.org ( Events tab, MP3 Store).

His talked was on Culture War and the New Evangelization. He mentions many facts of how we came to be where we are today and what we need to do.

Seems all I got from the presidents speech is that I'm not Black so I don't understand, which is just as valid as "I'm white and you're not or Brown and you're not, or yellow and you're not or pick your race, and you're not and you'll never understand me".

What I do know and what we have been moving away from more and more is that fact that we do have something in common.

We are all children of God. We are all either going to Heaven or to Hell. No one seems to be concerned about that nowadays. We need to re-focus back on that once again.

 That is all that matters

Maybe then we can look at each other without colored glasses and know we have to help each other get to that heavenly reward.
It's not a world of "I'm getting all I can at the cost of everyone else" mentality. We need God back in our lives.

A couple of great resources, one of which I mentioned from Fr. Pacwa's website, and a book from Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy at Boston College entitled How to Win the Culture War 

Will the president's speech help prevent riots this weekend...I hope so. 
Is he a Divider or a Unite'er? 

 Will his remarks start the healing process? I don't know. I'd like to think his remarks were sincere but I just don't get that from his remarks.

 Prayer is what we need for the president and our nation and each other, for the Martin family for the 
Zimmerman family.

And a re-focus on our families, our faith, our belief on one God, on our brothers and sisters in Christ, black, brown, yellow, purple, red....


Skittles and Ice Tea.....and Cough Surup

The concoctions that kids are putting together to made drugs is, well mind boggling.

I was totally unaware of the mixture of these off the shelf items to make something called "Purple Drank or Syrup, or Lean" among other names.

Where is the innocence once associated with our youth?

Trayvon Martin was referred to as an innocent black child with skittles and ice tea. While I don't know if Trayvon was using this "Purple Drank", nothing has surfaced from the medical examiner's office to point to it being in his system, I believe it may need to be looked at.

Anyway here's an article that outlines what this poison is about.

Let's keep our kids away from this and other drugs....lets be better parents. Let's keep God on our families

Skittles & Ice Tea/Cough Syrup - Purple Drank    

WCC

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

The Religion of All Religions

Well, if you can't beat them join them....ALL OF THEM.

This is the idea behind this religion of all religions or in other words ..No religion at all.
Reminds me of  that bumper sticker that took me forever to read...guess I never was good with shapes.

The Rev. Steven Greenebaum, 65 thinks it through this way:

The reverend’s primary goal, it seems, is to knock down the barriers that often divide. Many times, people hunker down in their religions, believe that they have it right and are, thus, divided from others with whom they disagree. After the 9/11 attacks, Greenebaum realized that, in his view, it is essential for people of different theological views to pray together.

Pray together, sure. Respect one another, absolutely. But how does one delete what contradicts other for the good of commonality.
What he doesn't understand is if everyone is right, no one is right, there is no Truth.

There is only one truth and truth never compromises.

Alright then, have a listen and see if this makes sense to you.


" No path that leads to Social Justice is foreign to us..."
What does that mean? Whatever the majority believes in, then it should be. Kind of reminds me of 'Lord of the Flies'.

Like to see how he convinces the Ayatollah's of Iran with this one.

Article: Controversial New ‘Religion That Embraces All Religions’  



Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Fr. Z - Lumen Fidei Audio

Fr. Z still has new encyclical audio posted on his blog....for now

Please respect Father's request for text copyright...do not sell.

The audio is for your enjoyment...

Lumen Fidei