bookmarked for later reading

A reuters article headline blares the fall of Christianity in Spain.

Spain’s Holy Week parades thrive despite falling Catholic faith

Yet deep in the story we read this:

But nowhere is the fervor as intense as in Seville, a city of 700,000 in the Andalusia region of southern Spain.
And the crowds of both onlookers and participants have been growing despite a decline in Catholicism that has led to fewer than half of Spaniards attending church regularly. Some 72 percent described themselves as Catholic in a 2011 survey compared to 82 percent a decade earlier.

I read a similar story in the UK and in the US: both of which blared the collapse of faith, whereas the statistics show the drop is there, but the majority still believe.

This is especially true in the US, where the elites loathe christianity and it is hard to find a Christian character or theme, even in dramas that purport to show reality.

So no, I don't expect Jersey shore to go to church, but you know, their parents, or grandparents, probably do, and they probably would attend christenings and first communion parties with their families...but then we don't see their families either (which always makes me wonder where these characters find money to live these lifestyles, but never mind)...

hating parents

LINK

from boing boing: Complaining that when folks have kids, they don't want to come out and play with the writer.

It's all about me me me.

and the comments are worse.

Narcisissm and evil

Instapundit, a libertarian blog, is against traditional laws, although I suspect like a good Randian, those blogging there chose to live reponsible lives.

So today he has guest bloggers, but look at the trends, and then I'll put the problem with them.

HE WHO CONTROLS THE PAST CONTROLS THE FUTURE. He who controls the present controls the past.

Posted at 7:15 pm by Ed Driscoll  

It is discussing the war in Iraq, where the meme is that it was a disaster (which it is not: Imagine a sanctions from Saddam running the place today, with the MSM ignoring his atrocities).

Yet the same thing can be said about America's loss of a moral sense, and even the moral vocabulary to express such things.

“CONGRESS DECIDED… TO EXPRESS MORAL DISAPPROVAL OF HOMOSEXUALITY.” Justice Kagan quotes from the legislative history of DOMA at today’s oral argument in United States v. Windsor. And Paul Clement reels out a fine response.

yes, but since the elites have normalized promiscuity, deconstructed marriage by various policies including no fault divorce, and blurred the distinction between the personality trait toward same sex attraction and the reality of the "gay lifestyle", which of course is not embraced by all gays, we have a communication problem

and I disagree with this:

MEGAN MCARDLE: Why Gay Marriage Will Win, And Sexual Freedom Will Lose. “In the future, gay marriage will not only be legal, but practically mandatory.”

Posted at 1:51 pm by Glenn Reynolds,  

actually, it won't, because the argument that it will stablize gay relationships is bogus and hasn't been argued a lot, except by conservative blogs. The dirty little secret it that men and women have different ways of expressing sex, so lesbians tend to have long term monogamous relationships (which women do in marriage) yet men, released from the societal pressures to remain faithful, are promiscuous.

And gay men are even more promiscuous than heterosexual men: Not because they are morally worse, but because even female sluts have some morals. There are not that many women who will go to a bar/bathhouse with a man and then let him have sex with four other people anonymously and then go home with him. And most women require at least a hint of romance before they have a one night stand.

Letting the sociopaths "win" the gay sex arguments means that gays who do want a long term relationship will be seduced into the gay lifestyle, which can be very lonely and dehumanizing (which is why many bisexuals who are predominantly gay prefer to marry women and just have an occassional affair on the side).

Yet the real problem isn't gay sex or marriage: the real problem is that this will be used to demonize/marginalize the Catholics and other churches who continue to hold the line.

the real problem is that promoting the traditional Christian/Jewish/Confucian ethic of marriage will soon be seen as a thought crime.

Also at Time, “Joe Klein ‘Mystified Anyone Would Oppose Same-sex Marriage.’”
So Joe’s not going to ponder why someone would oppose the notion, and then offer counter-arguments in favor it; his brain simply won’t allow him to commit such Thoughtcrime. I just “can’t understand” that…
Posted at 4:45 pm by Ed Driscoll  

Paranoia alert

Right wing paranoia? Or prophetic?

Nolte is even more paranoid than I am that the Gay marriage argument is about destroying Christian churches that don't go along with the deconstruction of marriage and gender.

OF course, Catholics are already in deep doodoo for not going along with abortion or agreeing to pay for it.

Culture of death update

Wesley Smith article on terminal sedation and those trying to redefine death.
Terminal sedation is ethical when the alternative is severe pain and the person is dying of their disease

In the UK, however, the Liverpool pathway has been used on injured or elderly patients who were not in pain, and were not dying.

and the idea to redefine death to mean "higher brain functioning" is a real danger.

bookmarked for later reading

Sigh

LesFemmes is worried that the new emphasis on gays being equal will make marriage a gender neutral institution.

Actually, this is merely the last step in destroying marriage in the name of feminist ideology.

The first step was easy divorce, that meant a woman could not rely on not being abandoned, and made men leery of loving their wife and children,  since she could boot him out at any time for any reason

The second step was birth control, that made it her fault if she got pregnant, so the man no longer was required to marry her and/or support his children.

The third was abortion that also made a child part of the mom's life, but denied any male input into that decision, even by a husband.

The 4th part was welfare, that let moms have kids without a husband: indeed, marrying would lower her income

5th problem? The export of blue collar jobs overseas, meaning that a man could no longer find a job that would let him support his family (and forced wives to work to make ends meet).

6th: The idea of government nanny state: one only has to see the Julia ad of the Democrats to see that government programs have replaced the family as the source of welbeing and care>

but the gay agenda  is especially subtle.

 Most of us feel that civil unions would help:

And that many lesbians have stable relationships.

But no one wants to admits that over half the males with gay partners are in an "open marriage", where the relationship does not necessarily lower their promiscuity.

And so far not mentioned: That this will allow those hating religion to try to use the law to destroy churches, institutions, and individuals who hold traditional values.

Orson Scott Card, one of the leading sci fi writers of today, is one example (his classic book, Ender's Game, is to be released as a movie this summer)

: When given a job at a comics company, the gay agenda threatened a boycott. Why? Because he is a devout Mormon and once wrote an article defending marriage. Ironically, there are gay relationships/characters in at least one of his stories, so one cannot claim homophobia, but never mind. First they come for the Mormons, then they come for the Catholics...

And this worries me.Another problem: The gay and abortion agenda is already being pushed on third world countries by the US State Department. This will not make the US friends in Africa or Asia...

bye bye Christ hello we are god

Constance gives a good summary of the new age nuns.

Keynoter Barbara Marx Hubbard tells these theologically renegade nuns "you are the best seed bed for evolving the Church and the world in the 21st Century."

I'm happy I've had the privilege of meeting so very many fine Cathoic nuns who definitely do not share their opinions and would recoil at the prospect of Barbara Marx Hubbard advocating at their meetings.

I note for the record, as I did in my past NewswithViews series that Barbara Marx Hubbard performed similar “honors” for a conference held with Evangelical leaders at Gold Lake, Colorado on October 23-26, 1987.  She co-chaired that meeting with none other than Doug Coe.  The event was underwritten by Fellowship Founder core group member Paul N. Temple, his daughter and his son in law.  Paul Temple is also known as the co-Founder and President Emeritus of the decidedly New Age “Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS).The theme of that meeting was “Bridging through Christ.”  I note cynically that they failed to tell the Christian participants, “which 'Christ”.  You may review that equally sorry situation by visiting my old NewswithViews archives on “The Hi-Jacking of Evangelicalism.”

Well, since 60 Minutes raised the subject of "Inquisition," I thought we might explore what Barbara Marx Hubbard whom they sponsored and endorsed had in mind as inquisition punishments for those not accepting her own "New Gospel." 

she then dares to actually quote from the new age gospel


the vatican's take is HERE.

Father Mitch Pacwa has a good series "Who do you say I am" that analyzes it.

But in some ways my favorite evaluation is a secular take : Magic Science and Religion.

when the French enlightenment decided to make "Religion" the enemy, the magic came back in...

what bothers me as a scientist is that this is magical thinking: Delusions of grandeur.

And what really makes me shudder is that, although 90 percent of these magical things are psychological delusions or self hypnosis, leading to a break with reality....
but about ten percent are demonic in origin, and that really worries me.

Doesn't matter if I believe or not: There is enough parallels with the nazi occult ideas to be afraid.

the sisters are playing with fire.

 

Don't tell the NYTimes

The NYTimes has gone crazy with allegations about Pope Francis helping the right wing gov't during the civil war in Argentina. It is part of a disinformation campaign by the present gov't of Argentina because he has condemned their anti Catholic agenda and pointed out their corruption.

Now AFP has actually bothered to ask someone who might actually know about it and guess what? It's not true.

Father Jose Caravias, currently based in Paraguay, said the pope -- then known as Jorge Bergoglio -- warned him and a fellow priest that a rightwing militia called Triple A intended to kill them.

"I had been expelled from Paraguay in 1972. I knew the ferocity of the dictatorship" and left the country, he told AFP. At the time of the threat, he was working with other priests in the slums of Buenos Aires.

He said the other priest, Francisco Jalics, "was brave and stayed in Buenos Aires, and it nearly cost him his life. He would not go and he had a terrible time. He was severely tortured," he said.

"Bergoglio saved him. He insisted on finding out where he was being held. If he had not been claimed he would have died," he said, adding that Bergoglio had saved another priest, Orlando Yorio, in the same way.

"Thanks to Bergoglio, I am alive and talking with you today," Caravias said, dismissing as "terrible slander" allegations that Bergoglio turned a blind eye to the abuses of the military.

Argentina's 1976-83 "dirty war" -- in which some 30,000 people were killed or disappeared by a rightwing military junta -- has come under a spotlight since Cardinal Bergoglio's election as pope this month.

The Vatican has vehemently denied charges by an Argentine journalist that Bergoglio was complicit in the 1976 kidnapping and torture of Yorio and Jalics, who were released five months later.

The Argentine judge hearing the case of the two priests, German Castelli, has also rejected the charges, telling a newspaper it is "totally false" to suggest that Bergoglio was implicated in their arrest and torture.

 

Indigenous religion

There are a lot of "indigenous" churches in Africa, that combine African customs (especially polygamy but also customs similar to those in the Old testament).


Dr. Livingstone is called a "missionary" rather than an explorer, but he only made one "convert" (who quickly fell away from Christianity because he reverted to polygamy).

The BBC however, notes that just because he loved four wives didn't make him love Jesus less:

The first British missionaries who arrived to work with the Zulu Ndebele tribe in what is now Zimbabwe in 1859 were staggered to find that they already had regular Christian prayers. Sechele had beaten them to it.
Sechele had decided to lead church services for his own people after Livingstone left. He taught reading, the Bible became popular, and slowly the Bakwena became Christian.
Sechele travelled hundreds of miles as a missionary to other tribes, and having withstood the Boers, the Bakwena became a refuge, absorbing many tribes into their Christian society.
At his death in 1892, Sechele ruled 30,000 people, a hundred times the number Livingstone first found him with.

African Christianity: Does it owe more to Sechele than Livingstone?

In the estimation of Neil Parsons, of the University of Botswana, Sechele "did more to propagate Christianity in nineteenth-century southern Africa than virtually any single European missionary".
For European missionaries though, Sechele was a frustrating puzzle, "a half Christian and a half heathen".
He returned to rainmaking, considering it a political necessity, and late in life returned to polygamy, marrying a young woman for what do not seem to have been entirely political reasons.
Missionaries also strongly objected to his use of traditional charms and purification rites, and the list of his ancestors on the church wall

Catholics have always argued if they should "baptize" local customs and add the story of Jesus on top, or if they should be strict and impose the culture of civilization along with the gospel. In Africa, Ireland, and the Philippines, Catholics stressed the goodness of the local culture when founding the church, but alas during the times of the reformation, Father Ricci was stopped from doing this in China, so Catholicism became an outsider religion again (whereas, after a major persecution, Buddhism was made more compatible with Chinese culture and spread).

As for polygamy: It remains a problem in Africa. If you require the man to "give up" his wives, these wives and their children often end up in poverty. When I worked in Africa, the priests encouraged them to attend church and raise the children Catholic, because the fruits of divorce were worse than the fruits of polygamy: and we figured the grace of God would bring them home (and often they were "baptized" or received last rites on their deathbeds to square their lives with the rules).

A similar scenerio is seen in the USA. I had two aunts married outside the church who were very pious...they figured on the mercy of God would get them and their spouses into heaven by getting them a deathbed reconciliation (and it did). And I can name a half dozen celebrities whose sexual picadillos/divorces meant they did the same, from Oscar Wilde to John Wayne.

So when you read strict christians who don't believe or follow the traditional rules because they mix Christianity with the local customs (the Episcopal church comes to mind) just remember what Jesus told the apostles when they said they stopped strangers from throwing out demons in Jesus' name:

he who is not against me is for me.

Lots of folks will be in heaven that we won't expect to see.
====================

pope joke of the day

 

 

via LesFemmes

Comments on the new pope

Tea at Trianon has several quotes on the new Pope:

this one is about the best one, written by a serial adulterer and ex drug addict (and no, not by one of the Kennedy family).

I read some things this man has said -- and don't get the wrong idea. I'm just telling you why I like this so far. I'm reading things that he's said that I have authored in the Undeniable Truths of Life. One of my Undeniable Truths of Life is that senior citizens -- I'm paraphrasing my own truth; I don't have it right in front of me -- senior citizens are among the most valuable resource we have for our young people. And, of course, young people throw the elderly away and they laugh at 'em, old-fashioned fuddy-duddies, don't know what they're talking about. To the young, every old person has Alzheimer's. To the young, every old person has Parkinson's.

This man said that the elderly are the seat of wisdom in any society, is how he put it. He says adoption by homosexuals is a form of discrimination against children, which is why you're only gonna be hearing about the aspects of his life I just described, this common man, everyday man. This is not what they were hoping for.

Pope Francis

John Allen's take HERE.

written before he was elected.

My take on what taking the name Francis might mean.

Patay vs Buhay take two

This PhilInquirer article describes how the church will be destroyed because it opposed the population control aspects of the RH bill:

Saying priest had babies  by local women.

Some incidents are probably true, but who can tell? It would be easy to find someone to swear such a thing to a reporter for a little "gift".

The Inquirer report is fuming about this, but is stuck since most of the  posters were posted by laymen (like in the US, the lay Catholics are very aggressive in pro life issues).

alas, the election is on, and the candidates are buying votes...one rumor is that the ex mayor's daughter is offering 2000 P per vote (four times the normal amount, but then her father is under arrest for arranging a hit against his rival that killed the previous candidate's sons and our nephew, a bystander).

The real problem is that the secular types, who love the RH bill including the eugenics/population control aspects of it, tend to be seen as being less likely to steal everything in sight.

I should note that in a country where people are not "equal", having docs tell a woman to use the pill is coercion in a way that is not true in the USA...but of course, those at most risk from too many/too close pregnancies are often those who don't deliver at a government hospital/clinic/with gov't midwife.

Why?  Because there aren't enough of these around and many of these free clinics ask for "gifts".

So it's cheaper to deliver with a traditional midwife, who may or may not do a good job, hence the high maternal mortality rate.

Elsewhere, I suggested that they let the rich NGO's pay for "pill ladies",local  laywomen trained to give out free contraceptives and let the gov't instead fund free midwives/clinics. I was called  a church apologist for this, even though this worked in pagan Africa and in Muslim Bangladesh.

And the dirty little secret is that the NGO's and US next plan to force clinic workers to do abortion.

Does abortion go on here? Yes. All women know the local untrained traditional midwives have herbs to bring on your period if it is late, but that taking it later in pregnancy is dangerous.

The Voting begins

Abortion activists one, Human rights activists zero

TurtleBayandBeyond, a site that keeps an eye on the UN's follies, notes:

As countries are deadlocked over negotiations going late into the night at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the US and European Union have played a deadly card. One that contradicts a foundational principle of citizens and civilizations worldwide, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
Last night, the US and EU called for deleting a reafirmation that every human being has the inherent right to life, liberty and security of persons.
This year’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) has become the equivalent of D-Day for abortion hard-liners. Last year’s CSW could not produce a final agreement because the US insisted it included “reproductive rights,” language that is used to legitimize abortion. The pressure to produce an agreement is intense – and is being exploited by abortion advocates, who are attempting to create the impression than a lack of agreement is the fault of those who want to protect the right to life for all, including unborn babies.

---------------------

 update: Why this is important is because the US/EU and UN types are pushing Catholic and Muslim countries to push the culture of death.

Here in the Philippines, the "RH Bill" pushed on us by US money from NGO's and the US State Department, including Hillary during her last visit here, actually prevents people from talking against using chemical contraceptives.

From the blog of the old lefty Catholic gadfly: retired Archbishop Cruz:

“Team Buhay.” “Team Patay.”(team life vs team death)

All of a sudden, life or death has become but a political issue, nothing more than a partisan political matter. To speak openly about this reality is no taboo for the citizens of the Philippines. To choose publicly between the two alternatives is even forbidden by the laws of the Philippines. To be expressly pro-life or pro-death is taboo for the present government and agencies under its patronage – if not it its mercy. Formerly, it was the contest but between “pro-choice” or pro-right. Now, under the present regime, people are even asked to be pro-non-life or pro-extinction of life – courtesy of the national leadership and its well favored and rewarded allies.

There is definitely something very relevant as well as very serious about the on-going bout of “Life VS Death” that has gone viral, that has even gone before the Supreme Court. The fight is not simply about a poster separating personalities defending life or promoting death. It is about the law itself masquerading as some kind of a socio-economic developmental project generously funded certainly not by a single peso from the pockets of the said leadership and its faithful allies but by people’s taxes – as usual.

One third of our women give birth without a trained birth attendent, and many of the "free" birth attendents/clinics ask for "gifts". And it is a rare week when I am not asked for money for a poor mother needing money for her child's antibiotics or for the hospital for IV treatment of dehydration.

Ah, but you will get free birth control pills. (and just wait until someone figures out how to make money on that one).

Bishop Cruz goes on to point out the problems of lack of democracy: (the present president was chosen as honest due to his family's reputation, but his willingness to cooperate with the NWO was not part of the election issues).

Malacañang (i.e. the Presidential palace, meaning the present administration) is both the author and the promoter of population control – irrespective of the costs and the means. Malacañang even went to extent of officially certifying it as an urgent legislation for the country. Malacañang is dead sure that the Filipinos are the enemies of the Philippines, that their poverty and misery are their own making – not the continuing odious graft and corrupt practices in government, not the detestable smuggling unlimited in the country, not the dubious and interminable practice of the “Pork Barrel” system, not the conversion of politics into lucrative business – specially when favored by dynastic features.

The signs of the time

Commentary magazine has an article about a so called "Rabbi" on the Wapo "faith" section blasting all christians for hating gays and being responsible for the recent death of a gay candidate in Missisippi.

this "Faith" section is full of UCC type progressive writers, with one or two believers that belong to actual Christian churches.

But the "anti gay hate crime" was a domestic violence crime, not a hate crime.

This is similar to the "gay activist" in Uganda who was killed by a fellow gay prostitute.

or similar to the "matthew shepherd" crime, where a boy liked the "rough trade" and knew it was dangerous because he had been beaten up at least one time for hitting on straight men in lower class heterosexual bars.



http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20130302/NEW...

Friends of Reed told Memphis television station WPTY that the two recently had met at a Clarksdale bar and became close. Then, sometime either late Monday night or early Tuesday morning, McMillian made sexual advances on Reed, the friends said, adding that Reed is straight.

The Clarion-Ledger couldn’t reach Reed’s friends, but it’s also the version of events investigators were told. After being hit on, Reed allegedly snapped, strangled McMillian, then drove McMillian’s SUV to the levee west of Clarksdale and tossed his body near the river.

Friends of McMillian, however, say the two men were romantically involved and quarreled immediately before the slaying.

“They were having an affair,” said 18-year-old Carlos Jones. “They got to tussling.”

Well, that's logical

From FT:

CNN’s Piers Morgan asked Penn Jillette, author of Every Day is an Atheist Holiday, what he thought of the pope’s resignation. His response?
“I think I may be somebody who believes in the Pope’s position more than most Catholics. . . . if you have someone who is a conduit to God and is speaking God’s word, even if you can’t understand exactly what God’s plan is . . . that still doesn’t mean you get to vote on what God actually believes.”

Yes, and Penn once defended bible thumpers who tried to save his soul by pointing out that they actuctually were trying to help him (not that he believed in what they were pushing).

You know, once upon a time, most Americans knew these things. Now it takes an honest atheist to point it out.

Lenten meditation

Father Z's lenten meditation podcast LINK

mp3 link

From Joseph Ratzinger:

There are many persons who live in conflict with themselves. This aversion for oneself, this inability to accept oneself and to be reconciled with oneself is far removed from the self-abnegation that the Lord asks of us. If we fail to love ourselves, we cannot love our neighbor.

Reuters puts two cents in against Tagle

Reuters story blast the Catholic church in the Philippines for "abuse".

heh. Some priests had girlfriends? Here it is assumed a lot of them have the equivalent of "second wives", and a lot of the great families are actually descended from Spanish priests.


and I suspect the high "leave" rate is similar to what we see in other countries: Seminaries are a cheap way to get a college education.

this is especially true in "minor" seminaries (which are high school/ basic college). Indeed, a lot of them in the US closed because too many ended up dropping out.

I'm not saying the church is not having problems: But the main problems is the aggressive in your faith christianity pushed by pastors.

Just wait a generation, and their hypocracy will come out and the folks will return to the church.

Benedict musing

Father Z says: Don't worry about those portents and omens: They happen all the time.

then he brings up the Raven at the mass...uh oh....expscept in legend, ravens aren't always bad:

Ravens fed Elijah and (according to legend)... St Benedict of Nusia, befriended and fed a raven who identified poison bread so he knew not to eat it).

Benedict of Nursia was the founder of western monastacism: seeing the Roman world being destroyed, his monasteries kept the books alive in the wilderness. That is why Christians saw taking the name of Benedict was prophetic for the church's future.

Factoid:  there is another St Benedict: The Moor, born of African slaves in Sicily.

----------------------------
Idle Speculations has a post on John Cardinal Newman.

Alas, his writings are too hard for me to understand (and he was considered "too liberal" for many in those days) but his writings on the conscience and faith's relationship to reason influenced the real Vatican II reforms (as opposed to the pseudoreformers who used the magic words "Vatican II" to destroy beautiful churches and get rid of the poetry in the liturgy).

there is a double link of Newman to the Tolkien family

Tolkien's great nephew did the statue of Newman for the Pope's visit, but he is probably more famous for his Battle of Brittain memorial: photo wikipedia commons.

 more HERE although he seems to be pushing the connections.

I suspect the main connection is the appreciation of beauty and truth in a world where both are discarded for utility and pragmatism, but as I said, I have trouble understanding Newman.

this article points out Newman's love of ordinary Christian life.

In his sermon, Christ Hidden from the World, Newman points out to his congregation that Christ Himself could be living next door to us without our knowing. He did, after all, spend thirty years of his life in obscurity, “living here, as if for the sake of living; not preaching, or collecting disciples, or apparently in any way furthering the cause which brought Him down from heaven.” Those who were with Him “seem to have treated Him as one of their equals” (PS IV, 241). So it is with Christians in our day. They do not look different from the mass of men around them. Christians “look the same to the world” as those with whom they work and live, Newman told his listeners, but  “in their hearts [they] are very different; they make no great show, they go on in the same quiet ordinary way as the others, but really they are training to be saints in Heaven. They do all they can to change themselves, to become like God, to obey God, to discipline themselves, to renounce the world; but they do it in secret, both because God tells them so to do, and because they do not like it to be known” (PS IV, 243).

Newman is building on the letter to Diogenes, which is easy for my little mind to understand.

And it is something most of us ordinary folks know via the "little way" of the "little Flower" i.e. St Theresa of Liseux.  (Another saint pooh poohed by the pseudo Vatican II people, who made voting Democratic and demonstrating for "the poor" the only way to serve god, meaning ordinary folks who merely take care of their families are never shown how to live a Christian life in today's post Vatican II churches: or at least I rarely heard a sermon about it in the last 40 years)...

Both Tolkien and CS Lewis (in That Hideous Strength) have as a theme ordinary people being good and doing their duty.

I was happy that Jackson added a  non Tolkien quote to the Hobbit about Bilbo: LINK

• 1. Galadriel: Mithrandir... Why the hafling?
  2. Gandalf: Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? I don't know. Perhaps because I am afraid, and he gives me courage.
  – Submitted by Fitri C (57 days ago)

One of the things that makes me despair about the New age types trying to hijack the nuns and churches is that they preach that one can become great and powerful (for the good, of course). But the Jewish carpenter reminded us that the meek will inherit the earth, and an old Jewish belief is that as long as there are ten just men alive in the world, the world will not end.