50 years ago: Pope Paul VI promulgates Second Vatican Council's Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate)

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 14:12 (also Proverbs 16:25)

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Amos 3:3

On October 28, 1965, the Second Vatican Council's Nostra Aetate--Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions--was promulgated by Pope Paul VI. It urged Roman Catholics to "enter with prudence and charity into discussion and collaboration with members of other religions," expressed a high regard for Muslims, and absolved the Jews of responsibility for the death of Jesus, reversing the decree issued in 1199 by Pope Innocent III. The declaration helped to pave the way for the current drive for a one-world religion being promoted by Pope Francis I and others. Here are some of the more notable passages (bold inserted by blogger):

...2. From ancient times down to the present, there is found among various peoples a certain perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events of human history; at times some indeed have come to the recognition of a Supreme Being, or even of a Father. This perception and recognition penetrates their lives with a profound religious sense.

Religions, however, that are bound up with an advanced culture have struggled to answer the same questions by means of more refined concepts and a more developed language. Thus in Hinduism, men contemplate the divine mystery and express it through an inexhaustible abundance of myths and through searching philosophical inquiry. They seek freedom from the anguish of our human condition either through ascetical practices or profound meditation or a flight to God with love and trust. Again, Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination. Likewise, other religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing "ways," comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites. The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself.(4)

The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men.

3. The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth,(5) who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.

Since in the course of centuries not a few quarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christians and Moslems, this sacred synod urges all to forget the past and to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom.

4. As the sacred synod searches into the mystery of the Church, it remembers the bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham's stock.

Thus the Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to God's saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are found already among the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets. She professes that all who believe in Christ-Abraham's sons according to faith (6)-are included in the same Patriarch's call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church is mysteriously foreshadowed by the chosen people's exodus from the land of bondage. The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles.(7) Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles. making both one in Himself.(8)

The Church keeps ever in mind the words of the Apostle about his kinsmen: "theirs is the sonship and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises; theirs are the fathers and from them is the Christ according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:4-5), the Son of the Virgin Mary. She also recalls that the Apostles, the Church's main-stay and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ's Gospel to the world, sprang from the Jewish people.

As Holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation,(9) nor did the Jews in large number, accept the Gospel; indeed not a few opposed its spreading.(10) Nevertheless, God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues-such is the witness of the Apostle.(11) In company with the Prophets and the same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and "serve him shoulder to shoulder" (Soph. 3:9).(12)

Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogues.

True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ;(13) still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ...

NOTES

...

4. Cf 2 Cor. 5:18-19

5. Cf St. Gregory VII, letter XXI to Anzir (Nacir), King of Mauritania (Pl. 148, col. 450f.)

6. Cf. Gal. 3:7

7. Cf. Rom. 11:17-24

8. Cf. Eph. 2:14-16

9. Cf. Lk. 19:44

10. Cf. Rom. 11:28

11. Cf. Rom. 11:28-29; cf. dogmatic Constitution, Lumen Gentium (Light of nations) AAS, 57 (1965) pag. 20

12. Cf. Is. 66:23; Ps. 65:4; Rom. 11:11-32

13. Cf. John. 19:6

...

Those who think Chrislam is a recent invention might be surprised by the passages highlighted above concerning Islam. The idea that Christians and Muslims worship the same God can be proven false by a comparison of the Bible with the Qur'an; it should be obvious to anyone who's read both books that the God of the Bible and the god of the Qur'an are different gods. It must be emphasized that the views expressed in Nostra Aetate aren't the opinions of a rogue liberal priest, but are in fact the official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, still in effect today--with the typical deadly mixture of truth and error, which is far more dangerous and deceptive than complete error.

It's now fashionable in Christian circles to play down or virtually deny Jewish culpability in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. In rebuttal, I offer the following account from the gospel according to Matthew--the gospel account that's most directed toward a Jewish audience--as well as comments by three Jewish leaders of the early Christian church who were either on the scene or in the area at the time:

When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death:
And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.
And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.
And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.
Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.
Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;
And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me.
And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest.
And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.
Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee?
And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly.
Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would.
And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas.
Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?
For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.
When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.
But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.
The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas.
Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.
And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.
When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.
Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. Matthew 27:1-25

Peter: But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:...
...Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:...
...Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ...
...But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses...
...Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole...
...The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree...
...And we are witnesses of all things, whih he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree; Acts 2:14, 23, 36; 3:14-15; 4:11; 5:30; 10:39

Stephen: Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Acts 7:51-52

Paul: For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:
Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. I Thessalonians 2:14-16

Nostra Aetate was followed by Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration "Nostra Aetate" (n. 4) , given on December 1, 1974.

An interesting postscript to Nostra Aetate is that in 2005, the United States Congress unanimously passed a resolution commending the decree on the 40th anniversary of its promulgation. The text reads as follows (bold in original):

H.Con.Res.260 - Concurrent resolution recognizing the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council's promulgation of Noestra Aetate, the declaration on the relation of the Roman Catholic Church to non-Christian religions, and the historic role of Nostra Aetate in fostering mutual interreligious respect and dialogue.

Text: H.Con.Res.260 — 109th Congress (2005-2006)

[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 260 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

H.Con.Res.260
Agreed to November 10, 2005

One Hundred Ninth Congress of the United States of America

AT THE FIRST SESSION

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday, the fourth day of January, two thousand and five

Concurrent Resolution

Whereas 2005 marks the 40th anniversary of the promulgation of Nostra Aetate, the declaration on the relation of the Roman Catholic Church to non-Christian religions;

Whereas on October 28, 1965, after the overwhelmingly affirmative vote of the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Paul VI issued Nostra Aetate, which means ``in our time'';

Whereas Nostra Aetate affirmed the respect of the Roman Catholic Church for Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism, and exhorted Catholics to engage in ``dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions'';

Whereas Nostra Aetate made possible a new relationship between Catholics and Jews worldwide and opened a chapter in Jewish-Christian relations that is unprecedented in its closeness and warmth;

Whereas Nostra Aetate states that the Roman Catholic Church ``decries hatred, persecution, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone''; and

Whereas Nostra Aetate clearly states that ``No foundation therefore remains for any theory or practice that leads to discrimination between man and man or people and people, so far as their human dignity and the rights flowing from it are concerned.'': Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress--
(1) recognizes the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council's promulgation of Nostra Aetate, the declaration on the relation of the Roman Catholic Church to non-Christian religions;
(2) appreciates the role of the Holy See in combating religious intolerance and religious discrimination;
(3) encourages the United States to continue to serve in a leading role in combating anti-Semitism and other forms of religious intolerance and religious discrimination worldwide;
(4) acknowledges the role of Nostra Aetate in fostering interreligious dialogue and mutual respect, including, in particular, new relationships of collaboration and dialogue between Jews and Catholics since the issuance of Nostra Aetate; and
(5) requests the President to issue a proclamation recognizing the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate and the historic role of Nostra Aetate in fostering mutual interreligious respect and dialogue.
Attest:

Clerk of the House of Representatives.

Attest:

Secretary of the Senate.

The resolution, introduced on October 6, 2005, was sponsored by Rep. Rush Holt (Democrat--New Jersey), and there were 65 co-sponsors. The actions were:

11/10/2005 Passed/agreed to in Senate: Resolution agreed to in Senate without amendment and with a preamble by Unanimous Consent.(consideration: CR S12710-12711)
11/07/2005 Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, as amended Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 349 - 0 (Roll no. 570).(text: CR H9701-9702)

I don't remember hearing anything about this at the time, and it makes me wonder where all the "separation of church and state" crowd were when the United States Congress was unanimously recognizing a decree from the Roman Catholic Church. Although the resolution emphasizes the importance of Nostra Aetate in fostering improved relations between the Roman Catholic Church and Jews, it should be kept in mind that Nostra Aetate also had many nice (and false) things to say about Islam, but the resolution omits any mention of that aspect of Nostra Aetate.

Playboy announces a cover-up

For those who missed this item a couple of weeks ago...as reported by Vinay Menon of Torstar News Service, October 14, 2015:

...On Tuesday, in one of the most momentous shifts in magazine history, Playboy turned on the lights and said it was getting dressed. At the age of 62 — which, oddly, makes it a sexagenarian — it is ditching the centrefolds and pictorials and scandalous baggage that were once as pivotal to its brand as twerking is to Miley Cyrus.

The magazine that helped trigger the sexual revolution while becoming a salacious rite of passage for young men was conceding defeat in the carnal trenches.

It was planting a white flag where the sun don't shine.

Or as Scott Flanders, Playboy's chief executive, told the New York Times: "That battle has been fought and won. You're now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it's just passé at this juncture."

But the bigger question, as Flanders asks, is "if you take nudity out, what's left?"

On the face of it, if you will, covering up probably seems like good business. You can almost see a team of new media execs huddling around a boardroom table in a grotto, itemizing the benefits of this "major brand realignment" as founder Hugh Hefner listens half-heartedly in a velvet robe while daydreaming about a threesome he had in Chicago during the summer of love.

"Sir, we'll be able to conquer new markets. We'll face fewer hurdles getting on mobile and tablet. We'll be safe for work. Readers will find us on newsstands next to reputable men's magazines. We won't be stashed behind a plywood concealer on a shelf that requires a stepstool and shame. Circulation will explode. The marketing tie-ins are huge. The possibilities are endless."

Yes, either that or this is the beginning of the end.

The problem for Playboy is not free porn. It is the powerful brand built up over more than a half-century and the equally powerful associations that are unlikely to dissolve just because Miss July is lounging suggestively in a turtleneck.

Whatever is depicted on the inside pages will still be no match for the entrenched subtext conveyed by that seven-letter title on the cover. This is why you never see a dad reading Playboy while waiting for his kids at gymnastics class — and why you never will.

This leads to an inverse problem: alienating customers who do buy the magazine for the pictures. While domestic circulation has dropped to about 800,000 from 5.6 million over the past 40 years, Playboy still has loyalists. When people buy products emblazoned with those bunny ears — and merchandising is now the revenue driver — they are doing so for the opposite reason dad is not thumbing through the magazine in public.

They are proud to be associated with Playboy. They want the world to know.

But by trading skin for more sophisticated lifestyle coverage, as Maxim is also trying to do as a de-sexual revolution rumbles through the men's magazine sector, will Playboy find a new audience filled with coveted millennials? Or is it diluting a brand that is big business in some parts of the world, including China, where the magazine is not even available?

It's hard to see how a future long-form investigation into, say, Senate corruption is going to help move bottles of cologne in Beijing.

The company tested this PG-13 approach in the digital realm this August when it jettisoned nudity from the website. The result, as the Times reported, was that the average reader age dropped from 47 to 30 and traffic spiked to 16 million from about four million unique users.

What's not clear in the context of a nudity-free print edition: how many of those readers are willing to pay for content?

The only place I've ever seen Playboy over the past couple of decades is at my old-school barber. Here, past issues are fanned out on a coffee table like crab claws at a Mandarin. They seem as anachronistic as the pictures of '70s haircuts on the wall...

The Playboy Club chain, which began with the opening of the first such club in Chicago in 1960, went out of business in 1991, and occasional attempts to revive the clubs have been mostly unsuccessful. The latest move by the magazine gives further evidence that the sexual revolution that Hugh Hefner and his magazine helped to create has long since passed them by, leaving Mr. Hefner and his creation as aging and pathetic relics of a bygone, "innocent" era.

Canada's "Conservative" Party sacks Sikh candidate for opposing homosexuality

Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. Proverbs 14:34

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isaiah 5:20

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Romans 1:24-32

October 19, 2015 is the date of another federal election in the multicultural monstrosity that still officially goes by the name of Canada, and the thought of any of the major parties--Conservative, Liberal, and New Democratic Party--forming a government is truly depressing, and is taken by this blogger as yet more evidence that the judgment of God upon the country is already well under way.

For non-Canadian readers, or those too young to remember, the "Conservative" government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been in office for almost 10 years, with a majority of seats in the House of Commons for the last 4½ years. I won't bother repeating my comments on the idea held by some that the Harper government has been trying to impose a Christian theocracy (see this post for just one example of evidence to the contrary). A more recent piece of evidence is the Conservative Party's sacking of their candidate in the Ontario riding of Mississauga-Malton, Jagdish Grewal, a Sikh and editor of the Punjabi-language Toronto newspaper Canadian Punjabi Post. As reported by Jennifer Ditchburn of Canadian Press, October 6, 2015:

OTTAWA — The Conservative party says a candidate in suburban Toronto who defended therapies that attempt to turn gays straight is no longer an official candidate for the party.

Jagdish Grewal, who is running in Mississauga-Malton, wrote an editorial entitled “Is it wrong for a homosexual to become a normal person?” that referred to homosexuality as “unnatural behaviour” and heterosexuals as “normal.”

A party spokeswoman said Tuesday night that Grewal’s comments “are not reflective of the views of the Conservative Party of Canada.”

“We believe that all Canadians — regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation — deserve to be treated with respect and dignity,” Megan Murdoch said in an email.

In the Punjabi Post editorial earlier this year, Grewal describes an NDP private member’s bill passed in the Ontario legislature in June that removed public funding for services designed to “change or direct the sexual orientation or gender identity of a patient.”

Grewal writes in the piece that some psychologists blame a “shock” during childhood for causing a person to become gay, but that the change “can be corrected.”

“The political competition of today raises the question of whether any person’s wish to become a normal person is wrong?” Grewal wrote in Punjabi.

“If it is a parent’s right to set guidelines for their children in terms of their education, career and health, then why is it illegal for them to strengthen their natural heterosexuality?”

Grewal said in an interview Tuesday that he was attempting to educate readers about an issue in the news and lay out the positions taken by the provincial parties and psychologists. He said he did not recall the names of the psychologists he mentioned.

In the editorial, he points to the Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity, an American group that offers therapies to people who have “unwanted homosexual attractions.”

“Yes, there’s children who have tendencies, who are attracted,” Grewal said in the interview. “If that child wants to come back or tell the parents that he wants to get out of this life, then parents should have the right to bring them back to their straight life.”

Grewal’s editorial does not address professional criticism of so-called reparative or conversion therapies. The Canadian Pediatric Society’s position on adolescent sexual orientation states that such treatments “should not be provided because they do not work and have the potential to heighten guilt and anxiety.”

High-profile Ontario Progressive Conservatives supported the private member’s bill when it came to a vote.

In Surrey, B.C., NDP Leader Tom Mulcair held a unscheduled media availability late Tuesday to call for Grewal’s removal as a candidate.

“That type of statement is so totally inadmissible there’s only one possible outcome: Mr. Harper has to fire that candidate,” said Mulcair, who had earlier taken to Twitter to denounce Grewal’s “homophobic” comments.

Grewal is just the latest in a series of unacceptable comments by Conservative candidates, Mulcair said, noting that Harper has signed the nomination papers of Tory incumbents John Williamson and Larry Miller. Williamson complained last March that “brown people” were taking white people’s jobs and Miller told a call-in radio show that Muslim women who don’t want to remove their face-covering veils during citizenship ceremonies should go back to where they came from.

“Mr. Harper’s got to start getting it right and it starts by firing this candidate who said those things that are totally unacceptable about gays,” Mulcair said.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau also called for Grewal’s removal.

“There is no place for offensive and homophobic statements. The Conservatives should apologize and Stephen Harper needs to remove this candidate,” Trudeau said in a statement issued by the party.

Grewal is running against Liberal Navdeep Bains, a former MP who is also an organizer for the party in the Toronto area. Dianne Douglas, a former municipal executive assistant, is running for the NDP.

A campaign pamphlet recently spotted in the riding, with the fine print, “Authorized by the official agent for Jagdish Grewal,” features a picture of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne at the Toronto Pride parade. The slogan reads, “Are these the priorities of your family?”

In another picture, a piece of paper is superimposed onto Bains’ hand. The paper reads “Liberal priorities: Sex Education, Gay Marriage, Legalize Marijuana and Prostitution.”
Grewal says the flyer is not from his campaign.

There has been opposition to the Ontario government’s new sexual education curriculum from within some ethnic communities. The new content addresses sexual orientation and gender identity and homophobia. Children in Grade 1 will be taught the correct names of body parts.

Earlier this year, Wynne said she believed the federal Conservatives were using sex ed as a political wedge issue in the province in advance of the election.

Grewal says he’s been getting an earful from people in the Muslim, Sikh and Hindu communities upset by the curriculum.

“There are families who are keeping their kids at home, they’re not sending them to school they’re so frustrated with this,” said Grewal. “They don’t talk about any other issues. This is their biggest issue at the time at the door.”

Bains disagrees, saying people understand that a federal MP has no power to shape a provincial education plan.

“Unemployment is high, higher than the national average, youth unemployment is high and people are worried about the economy, worried about jobs,” Bains said of the riding. “Those are the issues that matter.”

Here's another small benchmark in the rapidly increasing slide of Canada into the abyss of Trudeaupia. The term "cuckservative" has become popular lately. I don't think there's a dictionary definition yet, but I'm inclined to define a cuckservative as someone who claims to be, or is identified as, conservative, but who considers it more important to be seen as not racist, sexist, "homophobic," or [insert politically correct pejorative here] by people who don't like him, rather than to take a principled conservative stand. It's worth noting that Christians aren't the only people who are opposed to sodomy; devout followers of non-Christian religions are, as well. It's worth noting that the "Cuckservative" Party of Canada would rather offend the views of non-Christian religious minorities, and even risk being accused of racism, than tolerate within its midst a candidate who expresses views on sodomy that are currently unfashionable.

The matter of "conversion" or "reparative" therapy is controversial (professing Christians such as Warren Throckmorton and Al Mohler have come out against it, claiming that it doesn't work), but the "Cuckservative" Party of Canada has made opposition to "conversion therapy" a litmus test for its candidates--refusing, in the name of "tolerance," to tolerate a candidate who supports the freedom of choice for those who want to leave the homosexual lifestyle. There is a form of "conversion therapy" that does work, and it comes from God Himself, as declared under divine inspiration by the Apostle Paul:

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. I Corinthians 6:9-11

Scholar claims to have found the earliest known draft of the King James Bible

As reported by Jennifer Schuessler of The New York Times, October 14, 2015:

The King James Bible is the most widely read work in English literature, a masterpiece of translation whose stately cadences and transcendent phrases have long been seen, even by secular readers, as having emerged from a kind of collective divine inspiration.

But now, in an unassuming notebook held in an archive at the University of Cambridge, an American scholar has found what he says is an important new clue to the earthly processes behind that masterpiece: the earliest known draft, and the only one definitively written in the hand of one of the roughly four dozen translators who worked on it.

The notebook, which dates from 1604 to 1608, was discovered by Jeffrey Alan Miller, an assistant professor of English at Montclair State University in New Jersey, who announced his research on Wednesday in an article in The Times Literary Supplement.

While the notebook has yet to be examined by other scholars, experts who have reviewed Professor Miller’s research called it perhaps the most significant archival find relating to the King James Bible in decades.

David Norton, an emeritus professor at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and the author of several books about the King James Bible, called it “a major discovery” — if not quite equal to finding a draft of one of Shakespeare’s plays, “getting on up there.”

Gordon Campbell, a fellow in Renaissance studies at the University of Leicester and a consultant for the planned Museum of the Bible in Washington, said the new manuscript shed fresh light on how the King James translators actually did their work, as opposed to how they had been told to do it.

Studying the creation of the King James Bible “is like working with a jigsaw puzzle where 90 percent of the pieces are missing,” Mr. Campbell said. “You can arrange the surviving pieces as you wish, but then you find something new and you realize you put it together the wrong way.”

The King James Bible, published in 1611, was produced by six teams of translators, known as “companies,” in London, Oxford and Cambridge, who were charged with creating an authorized version that would support the Church of England against the Puritan influence seen in some earlier translations. Along with Shakespeare’s First Folio of 1623, it is one of the most influential books in the history of English and the wellspring of common phrases like “salt of the earth,” “drop in the bucket” and “fight the good fight,” to name only a few.

While some records of the committee that supervised the overall translation survive, only three manuscripts of the text itself have been known to exist until now. The Bodleian Library at Oxford owns nearly complete drafts of the Old Testament and the Gospels, in the form of corrected pages of the Bishops’ Bible, a 16th-century translation that the King James teams used as a base text. Lambeth Palace Library in London has a partial draft of the New Testament epistles.

Professor Miller discovered the manuscript last fall, when he was in the archives at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge, researching an essay about Samuel Ward, one of the King James translators and, later, the college’s master. He was hoping to find an unknown letter, which he did.

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“I thought that would be my great discovery,” he recalled.

But he also came across an unassuming notebook about the size of a modern paperback, wrapped in a stained piece of waste vellum and filled with some 70 pages of Ward’s nearly indecipherable handwriting.

The notebook had been cataloged in the 1980s as a “verse-by-verse biblical commentary” with “Greek word studies, and some Hebrew notes.” But as Professor Miller tried to puzzle out which passages of the Bible it concerned, he realized what it was: a draft of parts of the King James Version of the Apocrypha, a disputed section of the Bible that is left out of many editions, particularly in the United States.

“There was a kind of thunderstruck, leap-out-of-bathtub moment,” Professor Miller said. “But then comes the more laborious process of making sure you are 100 percent correct.”

The draft, Professor Miller argues, dates from between 1604, when the King James Bible was commissioned, and 1608, when the six teams were asked to send their work to the general committee for review. Unlike the other surviving drafts, which scholars date to later parts of the process, it shows an individual translator’s initial puzzling over aspects of the Greek text of the Apocrypha, indicating the reasoning behind his translation choices, with reference to Hebrew and Latin as well.

“You can actually see the way Greek, Latin and Hebrew are all feeding into what will become the most widely read work of English literature of all time,” Professor Miller said. “It gets you so close to the thought process, it’s incredible.”

The draft, he argues, also complicates one long-cherished aspect of the “mythos,” as he put it, surrounding the King James: that it was a collaborative project through and through.

The companies were charged with doing their work as a group, rather than subdividing it by assigning individual books to individual translators, as was the case with the Bishops’ Bible. But the Ward notebook, Professor Miller said, suggests “beyond a reasonable doubt” that at least some of the companies ignored the instructions and divided up the work among individuals, at least initially.

Further, he said, the notebook contains a complete draft for the book of the Apocrypha known as 1 Esdras, but then, after a run of blank pages, only a partial manuscript for the book known as the Wisdom of Solomon, suggesting that Ward picked up the slack for another translator.

“Some of them, being typical academics, either fell down on the job or just decided not to do it,” Professor Miller said, with a laugh. “It really testifies to the human element of this kind of great undertaking.”

In recent years, scholars have chipped away at the idea of Shakespeare’s plays as the product of an isolated genius, emphasizing instead the intensely collaborative nature of Elizabethan theater. Professor Miller said that the origins of the other great monument of 17th-century English literature is due for a similar reconsideration.

“There’s a strong desire to see the King James Bible as a uniform object, and a belief that it’s great because of its collaborative nature,” Professor Miller said.

“It was incredibly collaborative,” he continued. “But it was done in a much more complicated, nuanced, and at times individualistic way than we’ve ever really had good evidence to believe.”

Click on the link to see Professor Miller's article, Fruit of Good Labours.

Spain and Portugal have begun granting citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews

As reported by Associated Press, October 14, 2015:

LISBON — Portugal has started granting citizenship rights to the descendants of Jews it persecuted five centuries ago.

The Justice Ministry said Tuesday that on Oct. 2 it approved the first three of more than 200 applications it has received so far. The other applications are still being processed following a law that began in March.

Seeking to make amends for past wrongdoing, both Portugal and Spain adopted laws this year allowing citizenship for descendants of Sephardic Jews — the term commonly used for those who once lived in the Iberian peninsula — persecuted during the Inquisition...

...The Jewish Community of Oporto in northern Portugal, which is one of the organizations vetting applications, ...said Tuesday it has issued certificates for Jews from 23 countries, with two-thirds of them for Sephardic Jews from Turkey.

Portugal's action is subsequent to that of Spain, which passed a similar law in June 2015. However, according to Soeren Kern of the Gatestone Institute in an article published on June 21, 2015, the Spanish law "does not right a wrong" (read the full article for the details:

The final version of the law introduces so many hurdles to obtaining Spanish citizenship that most prospective hopefuls are likely to be deterred from even initiating the application process. Indeed, the law in its current form ensures that very few of the estimated 3.5 million Sephardic Jews in the world today will ever become Spanish citizens.

Spanish authorities -- presumably fearful that the list of Sephardic surnames could provoke an avalanche of citizenship applications -- issued an urgent notice that the government has no intention of ever publishing an official list of Sephardic names.

"All these facts lead us to conclude that the government has the clear intention that the fewer the number of applicants, the better. And the economic filter ensures that only people with high purchasing power can apply. ... Considering all of these factors, we believe that this law does not right a wrong. This law is more of a symbol, a first step, but not a law that will serve to satisfy the majority of Sephardim who would like obtain Spanish nationality." — Jon Iñarritu García, a congressman from the Basque Country.

Major oil find reported on Golan Heights

As reported by The Times of Israel, October 7, 2015:

A company drilling for oil on the Golan Heights claims to have found “significant amounts” in the plateau.

“We’re talking about a layer 350 meters thick,” Yuval Bartov, chief geologist of Afek Oil and Gas, a subsidiary of the American company Genie Energy, told Channel 2.

The layer is ten times larger than the average oil find worldwide, Bartov said, “and that’s why we’re talking about significant amounts. What’s important is to know that there’s oil in the rock, and this we know.”

Three drilling sites on the Golan have uncovered what is potentially billions of barrels of oil, enough to fulfill the Israeli market’s 270,000-barrel-per-day consumption for a very long time, the report claimed.

Exploratory drilling began in December 2014. In recent weeks, Afek requested permission to drill an additional 10 wells.

While it says the oil find is confirmed, the firm says the quality, more precise measures of quantity and cost-effectiveness of extracting the oil won’t be known until the extraction is begun.

Afek has faced numerous challenges from environmental groups concerned about the impact of drilling, some of which reached the High Court of Justice.

Since Israel’s founding, companies searching for oil across Israel have drilled 530 exploratory wells, and none of them has turned up commercially viable oil, Genie CEO Geoff Rochwarger said in September.

50 years ago: The death of Father Divine

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. Matthew 24:5 (also Mark 13:6)

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Matthew 24:24 (also Mark 13:

On September 10, 1965, George Baker, better known as Father Divine, died; his age was uncertain, but he was believed to be in his late 80s. He founded the International Peace Mission Movement in the early 20th century.

A Negro, Father Divine promoted racial equality, and attracted many white, as well as black, followers. He was heavily influenced by the positive-thinking movement known as New Thought, and was thus an early figure in the New Age Movement. Father Divine's main doctrine was that he was God, and the only true expression of God's spirit. He wasn't. For further reading, see Robert Weisbrot's biography Father Divine (1983) (originally published as Father Divine and the Struggle for Racial Equality).

25 years ago: The death of occultist Manly P. Hall

On August 29, 1990, Manly P. Hall died at the age of 89. Mr. Hall, a native of Peterborough, Ontario, moved to Los Angeles at the age of 19, and quickly became immersed in mysiticism and esoteric philosophies. He began preaching at Church of the People in 1919, and became permanent pastor in 1923. Mr. Hall founded the Philosophical Research Society in 1934, which continues today.

Mr. Hall is perhaps best known as the author of books such as The Lost Keys of Freemasonry (1923) and The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928). Oddly, despite Mr. Hall's many years of interest in Freemasonry, he wasn't actually initiated into the order until 1954; he was awarded the 33rd degree--Scottish Rite Freemasonry's highest honour--in 1973. Anyone reading about the history of the New Age Movement is likely to come across the name Manly P. Hall; his dubious spiritual descendants include Marianne Williamson, the most prominent promoter of the demonic A Course in Miracles. Ms. Williamson's career as a lecturer began in 1983 when she went to work with the Philosophical Research Society.

25 years ago: The death of B.F. Skinner

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Psalms 14:1a (also Psalms 53:1a)

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, Romans 1:22

On August 18, 1990, Dr. Skinner, one of the 20th century's most prominent psychologists, went to his own place. He became an atheist in the typical way--as the result of an emotional reaction in his youth, and not as a result of a rigorous intellectual pursuit of truth. In Dr. Skinner's case, he reportedly became an atheist after receiving conflicting views on hell. His atheistic views influenced Dr. Skinner to become a "radical behaviourist," believing that human will was an illusion and that people behaved on the basis of reinforcement, which he called operant conditioning. His best known books were the utopian novel Walden Two (1948) and Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971).

I won't go into detail about Dr. Skinner's theories; the reader may use his Wikipedia entry as a starting point, and his name can be found in almost any psychology textbook. Herbert Schlossberg, in his book Idols for Destruction (1983), makes mention of Dr. Skinner a few times, and offers an excellent critique:

B.F. Skinner advocates a science of human behavior as the means of solving social problems that otherwise remain intractable and says that it must adopt the strategies of physics and biology. This is consistent with his view, and that of many other psychologists, that psychology is a biological science. Human beings are simply a part of nature, in that conception, and a science of human behavior must study them in that light. Such a science produces the technology that will enable people to control human behavior and therefore permit humanity to survive...

...When Skinner says that the science of human behavior must follow the strategies of natural science, he means that it must be wholly materialist. He sees no hope of ever solving the old philosophical problem of how mind and matter interact and follows the common practice of assuming that one of them does not exist, the monist position. For behaviorists, everything is material, and therefore qualities we have been accustomed to attribute to mind or spirit are merely epiphenomena of material origin. They are successions of mental events that find coherence only in their identification with the nervous tissue of a particular organism...That is why Skinner insists that to speak of human behavior in terms of aims, purposes, intuitions, or goals is to betray an understanding of man which is "prescientific..."

...There can be no free choice in the world of behaviorism because there is no human faculty that may be said to "choose." The organism simply acts as the prior contingencies have programmed it (him) to act. Moral categories, therefore, are superfluous in understanding human behavior...The moral life, in short, is a delusion, and it often functions only as a hindrance to the survival of the human race...If man cannot be distinguished ontologically from other forms of matter, then materialist determinisms are logical inferences from the observed facts of nature. But empirical observations alone yield no information about ontology. Skinner tells us repeatedly that human beings may not survive if they do not accept behavioral engineering, but nowhere does he explain why that should bother us. Human survival--the sanctity of human life--is a value, and there is no way he or anyone else can derive value from material facts. Materialists almost invariably use language that is value-laden, even though their avowed epistemology does not allow for values. Mystification covers the logical gaps. The only ethical framework compatible with materialism is nihilism, defined as living without values. (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, pp. 146-147, 149-150).

A 2002 survey revealed Dr. Skinner as the most influential psychologist of the 20th century, which speaks volumes about psychology (and the 20th century). Dr. Skinner is presumably no longer an atheist. The best comment on the death of an atheist--if one is to look at it from a purely materialistic point of view--that I've seen is from blogger Vox Day, on the death of "New Atheist" Christopher Hitchens on December 16, 2011:

The conglomeration of atoms that were, for a very brief moment in history, collectively known by the name Christopher Hitchens, have begun to disperse.

The universe continues as before, uncaring and unaware.

10 years ago: The death of Islamic apologist Ahmed Deedat

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 14:12 (also Proverbs 16:25)

On August 8, 2005, Indian-born South African Islamic missionary and apologist Ahmed Deedat died at the age of 87. Mr. Deedat began his missionary work in 1942 and co-founded the Islamic Propaganda Centre International (IPCI) in 1957. He became known for debating Christians in South Africa and throughout the world. A prominent example was his debate before 4,000 people at West Ridge Park Stadium in Durban, South Africa in August 1981 with Campus Crusade for Christ apologist Josh McDowell on the topic Was Christ Crucified? Click on the link for a free download of the book The Islam Debate (1983) by Mr. McDowell and John Gilchrist, which includes the entire text of the debate. Click on the link for a free download of the book Mr. Deedat wrote in response, Crucifixion or Cruci-fiction. It hardly needs to be said (but I'll say it, anyway) that the issue of whether or not Jesus Christ was crucified isn't a minor point of contention between Christianity and Islam, but a life-or-death difference:

But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; I Corinthians 1:23

For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. I Corinthians 2:2

That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah"; - but they did not kill him, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they did not kill him: - The Qur'an, Surah 4:157

Mr. Deedat was awarded the King Faisal International Prize in 1986 for his 50 years of missionary work, but began to attract increasing criticism when he increased his own criticism of other religions. It was said that Christians in South Africa warned Mr. Deedat that if he didn't stop his attacks on Christianity, God would strike him down. I don't know if South African Christians issued such warnings--that may be an urban legend--but Mr. Deedat was indeed struck down by a severe stroke on May 3, 1996, leaving him with "locked-in" syndrome, bedridden and unable to communicate except through moving his eyes. This may very well have been the Lord's way of getting Mr. Deedat's attention in order to encourage him to repent; tragically, Mr. Deedat continued to promote the false gospel of Islam during the remaining nine years of his life.

75 years ago: The death of Ze'ev Jabotinsky

On August 4, 1940, Russian-born Zionist activist Ze'ev Jabotinsky died at the age of 59. Born Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky, he co-founded the Zion Mule Corps in Egypt during World War I, and moved to England, where his efforts resulted in the creation of the Jewish Legion. In the 1920s, Mr. Jabotinsky became the key figure in a movement known as Revisionist Zionism and began advocating for a liberal, democratic Jewish state on both banks of the Jordan River. He supported moving Arab populations if necessary to accomodate the influx of Jews, but he didn't want Arabs ejected from Palestine, and supported the rights of minorities in the proposed Jewish state.

While visiting South Africa in 1930, the British Colonial Office informed Mr. Jabotinsky that he would not be allowed to return to Palestine. During the 1930s he warned of increasing violence against Jews in Europe. When the British government enacted the McDonald White Paper, restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine under the British Mandate for the next five years, Mr. Jabotinsky protested by supporting an armed Jewish revolt in Palestine, involving the Irgun terrorist organization. He died of a heart attack in New York City while attempting to raise financial support for a Jewish army.

Although he didn't live to see the establishment of the state of Israel, Mr. Jabotinsky played a key role in events that led to the nation's founding. The Likud party--the party of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu--can trace its history back to the activities of Ze'ev Jabotinsky.

Flashback--1934: Fortune teller who almost drowned didn't foresee the danger

And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: Luke 4:23a

As reported by Chris Zdeb of the Edmonton Journal, July 31, 2015:

EDMONTON - The fortune teller never saw it coming.

Price Brown, known professionally as Professor Cosmo the fortune teller, would have drowned in the North Saskatchewan River if not for two city boys who dragged him to safety.

Brown was making his way to Queen Elizabeth Pool on the south side when he noticed a group of boys swimming in the river near the Low Level Bridge. Deciding to save himself a walk to the pool, he joined the boys, who warned him of the presence of a deep hole in the river bottom near where they were swimming.

“Brown had not been in the water long when he encountered the hole and sank beneath the river surface,” the Journal reported. Two of the boys, James Thompson and Daniel Peden, “noticing the man was in trouble, went to his assistance and after a battle with the river current, dragged him to the bank.”

The youths, both 15, left the scene without telling Brown their names, but he tracked them down through the other boys.

“The boys were modest about it all, and shy,” the story said.

“It wasn’t much,” said Thompson. “We just saw him struggling in the water and we knew there was a hole there, so we went and got him,” he explained.

“Sure, we didn’t have very far to take him,” echoed Peden.

The fortune teller, the son of a British distiller “who objects to his son toying with spirits of the less tangible sort, has been in Canada nine years,” and performed on the stages of various Canadian cities, the story said.

He claimed to have the gift of clairvoyance, which he discovered when he was 12.

So how come he didn’t know he would almost drown if he went into the river?

Brown explained that the gift of clairvoyance does not permit its holders to peer into their own futures.

The next day, he presented Thompson, a technical school student, and Peden, who attended Bennett School, with engraved gold watches for saving his life.

"The gift of clairvoyance does not permit its holders to peer into their own futures." Yeah--right. I don't know how Professor Cosmo's rescuers kept from laughing when they saw him doing an excellent impression of Oliver Hardy finding a deep hole in a puddle.

30 years ago: The death of Eugene Carson Blake

On July 31, 1985, Dr. Eugene Carson Blake died at the age of 78. Dr. Blake was Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. from 1951-1958; President of the National Council of Churches from 1954-1957; and General Secretary of the World Council of Churches in 1966. He was known for his liberal theological, social, and political views and helped to organize Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington in 1963, but is perhaps best remembered for delivering a speech in 1960 that was credited with beginning the Consultation on Church Union (COCU) (see my previous post on the beginning of COCU).

Dr. Blake was typical of the liberal Protestant clergyman of the 1960s and '70s who got his name in the paper for participating in demonstrations regarding trendy causes such as opposition to the Vietnam War, and getting hauled off in a paddy wagon to the police station for violating prohibitions on unlawful assembly. Bible-believing Christians at the time rejected Dr. Blake and his activities.

Typical also of the results of the activities of Mr. Blake is an example cited by Dr. Carl McIntire, then President of the International Council of Christian Churches. Billy Graham had scheduled a visit to Poland from September 28-October 5, 1966, under the sponsorship of the Baptist, Lutheran, Reformed, and Evangelical churches of Poland, all of which were controlled by Poland's Communist government of that time (yes, even as far back as 1966, Billy Graham was quite willing to be used by government-controlled churches in Communist countries), but his application for a visa was, surprisingly, rejected by the Polish government. From Dr. McIntire's book Outside the Gate (1967), p. 154:

Dr. Graham is now beginning to follow in the footsteps of Dr. Eugene Carson Blake. He was the leader and president of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. who went to Moscow in 1956, spoke in the Baptist Church, visited the theological seminaries, and was received by Metropolitan Nicolai. He returned with this pronouncement on behalf of peace and understanding, which the Communist spokesmen had also agreed to. It took the [United States] Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee to receive the testimony of Yuri Rastvorov and Petr Deriabian, which revealed that these men with whom Dr. Blake was dealing and whom he later brought to the United States as his guests were all spies and that Metropolitan Nicolai was an agent of the KGB, the secret police. But the pictures of Dr. Blake and his party in Moscow were used by the Communists in their slick publications all over the world; and in the propaganda for peace, which the Communist government is promoting. Dr. Blake became a very useful tool and propaganda piece.

Canada's "Conservative" government legalizes RU-486 abortion pill

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: Deuteronomy 30:19

Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. Proverbs 14:34

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isaiah 5:20

As reported by Helen Branswell of Canadian Press, July 30, 2015:

TORONTO — A quarter century after women in France were first given access to it, the abortion drug known as RU-486 is finally going to be available in Canada.

Health Canada confirmed late Wednesday that it had approved the drug for use here, 2 1/2 years after the manufacturer’s application was submitted. Women will need to obtain a prescription from a doctor to purchase the drug.

“The application has been before Health Canada since December 2012, so it is long overdue that they approve this very safe and effective method of early abortion care that millions of women around the world have been able to access since 1988,” said Vicki Saporta, president and CEO of the National Abortion Federation and its Canadian offshoot, NAF Canada.

“No one can claim that they fast-tracked the approval process and didn’t very thoroughly and completely review the application.”

NAF Canada represents the health-care professionals who provide most of the abortion care in this country. The group spearheaded efforts to bring the drug to Canada.

The drug has been available since 1988 in France and nearly as long in Britain. The drug was approved for use in the United States in 2000. Saporta said women in 60 countries have access to the drug, which is used to safely terminate a pregnancy.

Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose had little to say Wednesday night about her department’s decision.

“Drug approval decisions are arms-length decisions made by Health Canada officials based on analysis by Health Canada scientists,” a spokesperson for Ambrose said in an email.

The drug will be sold under the brand name Mifegymiso in Canada. It is made by Linepharma International Limited.

It is often called mifepristone. But in fact Mifegymiso is two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol. The former blocks production of the hormone progesterone, needed to sustain a pregnancy. The latter prompts the uterus to contract and expel the placenta and the fetus.

Studies have shown the drug can be used safely as late as 70 days into a pregnancy, although it is thought Health Canada may have set an earlier limit on the use of the drug.

Reproductive medicine experts have called the drug the best known option for abortion and have been advocating for its approval in Canada.

While some countries allow the drug to be dispensed by pharmacists, Health Canada has opted not to go that route.

Saporta said initially the drug will probably only be available through health-care professionals who already provide abortion services. But she said it’s hoped that over time more doctors will agree to prescribe the drug — especially those serving remote communities or working in areas where women have to travel long distances to see a doctor who will perform an abortion.

“Mifepristone holds the promise of improving access to abortion care for women in more rural communities where there isn’t a current abortion provider,” she said.

Saporta said it is likely the drug will only become available in Canada in early 2016.

And as reported by John Cotter of Canadian Press, July 30, 2015:

Conservative cabinet ministers shied away Thursday from questions about Health Canada's decision to approve the abortion drug known as RU-486.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay declined to comment on the decision during a stop in Calgary to make an unrelated announcement.

"Oh gosh. I think that would best be directed to (Health) Minister (Rona) Ambrose," he said.

"It is an issue of course for women, families, Canadians everywhere, but I think your question would best be directed to Health Canada.

"Personal opinions are best kept personal."

Health Canada confirmed late Wednesday that it has approved the drug for use here, a decision that comes 2 1/2 years after the manufacturer's application was submitted.

Women will need to obtain a prescription from a doctor to purchase the pill.

Defence Minister Jason Kenney and Michelle Rempel, minister of state for western economic diversification, were also in Calgary on Thursday and declined to comment.

Ambrose told reporters in St. Albert, Alta., that the decision did not rest with her.

"It's out of my hands and the decision is final," she said.

"Any of those details you would have to speak to the officials at Health Canada and the scientists that actually manage the regulatory approval process. I'm not involved in it."

Ambrose cancelled two events scheduled for Thursday afternoon and Friday in Edmonton and area. No reason was given.

A Conservative MP from Saskatchewan strongly condemned the government for approving the drug.

"It is a dangerous combination of drugs that destroys a woman's tissues in the womb in order to kill her preborn child," David Anderson, the member for Cypress Hills-Grasslands, said in a release.

"I am extremely disappointed that Health Canada would see this as acceptable to Canadians."

Anderson declined an interview request.

The RU-486 drug has been available since 1988 in France and was approved for use in the United States in 2000.

Prof. Ashley Waddington, a family planning expert at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., praised Health Canada's decision to approve the abortion pill.

She called it a step in the right direction for the government and Canadian women.

Waddington noted the move comes 10 years after the World Health Organization endorsed the drug on its list of essential medicines that all countries should have available.

"To be clear, medical abortion has been available in Canada for decades. However, Canadian women have had to rely on less effective, less safe medications for this purpose," she said.

"This is a step in the right direction towards ensuring Canadian women have access to legal first trimester abortion care that is as safe and accessible as it is in other parts of the world."

Vicki Saporta, CEO of the National Abortion Federation and its Canadian offshoot, NAF Canada, has said the drug probably won't be available in Canada until early next year.

The federal election campaign is expected to begin as early as this weekend.

Ladies and gentlemen, your "Conservative" government under the dictatorship leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper! Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, fearmongers on the "left" of the political spectrum (for those who prefer to use the increasingly irrelevant terms such as "left" and "right") insist that Mr. Harper wants to impose a Christian theocracy upon the country that's still officially known as Canada (see, for example, this article from 2012).

The reader of the articles above will note the typical cowardice of the cabinet ministers. I'm especially impressed by the reaction of Rona "Big Hair" Ambrose in refusing to take responsibility for a decision made by her department. If the decision didn't rest with Ms. Ambrose, and she doesn't approve of the policy, then she should resign from the cabinet. If the decision wasn't made by Ms. Ambrose, then it must have been made at a higher level, such as the Prime Minister's Office. The implication that civil servants are initiating government policy on their own without government approval is absurd; it doesn't work that way. If Ms. Ambrose isn't directly lying, she's certainly creating a false impression; either is typical behaviour from Harperites.

I have news for you, Ms. Ambrose: what goes on in your department is your responsibility, and any cabinet minister who refuses to take responsibility for her department should be fired. Not that this is anything new--in the late 1980s, when I first heard of RU-486, I wrote the Health Minister at the time, Jake Epp--who's allegedly a Christian--to express my opposition to it ever being legalized in Canada, and I couldn't believe the wimpy response I got from him. Somewhere I still have the letter, and it said something to the effect that he operated under the constraints of the Canada Health Act and couldn't do anything about it. Apparently Mr. Epp didn't think it was his job as a cabinet minister (in a "Progressive Conservative" government) to influence policy, which made me wonder why he was in the cabinet. It's a matter of record that in 1991 Mr. Epp voted in favour of abortion--a vote that didn't escape the notice and criticism of his fellow Mennonites in Steinbach, Manitoba.

The reader will also note that the Member of Parliament who is quoted as expressing disapproval of the decision is a backbencher. That's not a coincidence; any member of Mr. Harper's caucus who dares to bring up the subject of abortion--especially to express disapproval--can expect to remain in the back benches (to quote a former political science instructor of mine, "so far back in the benches, his head is touching the curtain"). Spineless Stephen has made it clear that abortion is a subject that's not open to discussion (one of these days--or years--I may do a long-overdue post on this).

Flashback--1978: Serbian Orthodox church in California gambles in Las Vegas--and loses

Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; Jeremiah 22:13a

This was my favourite news item of its year. I don't know if the church pursued litigation afterward, but they got what they deserved, and whether they learned a lesson seems debatable. As reported by Jim Nichols of the San Diego Evening Tribune, July 27, 1978 (bold and capitals in original):

CHURCH LOSES VEGAS GAMBLE

LAS VEGAS--Like many another visitor who's risked his chips in a Glitter City gambling game, a small San Diego-area religious congregation took a financial beating here last night.

Hoping to raise $250,000 to help build a church by sponsoring a high-stakes bingo evening in the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Serbian Orthodox Monastery of St. Petka instead lost nearly $40,000 on the deal.

Today church trustees were bandaging their financial wounds, considering a lawsuit, and wondering how four parishioners would repay the money they borrowed on their homes to provide $35,000 in prizes for the affair.

"We are all sick over it," said Danny Marshall of Escondido, a trustee of the San Marcos church, who was awake until 4 a.m. today looking over the figures and compiling the bad news.

The game went on as scheduled after a hectic day that featured a newspaper attack against it, a threat by the city to cancel it, and a last-minute court order that canceld the cancellation.

Despite it all, Marshall said proudly, "We paid our prizes. We stood there and took the beating like a gentleman, as we advertised."

"It was," he added, "a very expensive lesson."

First, Marshall said, a Las Vegas newspaper ran a front-page attack on the plans of the California congregation, noting that any money raised would be shipped out of state, lost to Las Vegas and its own worthy charities.

Then, he added, city officials announced that the complex rules for getting permits hadn't been followed to the letter. About noon, the church group was told the game was off.

Marshall found a local attorney and went to court. Two hours before the 8 p.m. start of the game, St. Petka's won a restraining order that allowed the affair to go on. The lawyer charged $3,000, Marshall said.

The game started on schedule, though the furor had left no time for rehearsal. Then, although organizers and publicists had prayed for 10,000 players, only about 500 showed up.

They spent about $13,000, Marshall said--considerably less than the $35,000 they won or the $16,000 St. Petka's had invested to arrange the game.

The unkindest cut of all, he said, was that none of the 80 or so Californians who had journeyed to Vegas to play in the bingo game was among the winners.

Marshall figures the newspaper story was partly responsible for the disappointing turnout. He said church trustees will discuss a suit against the paper, and maybe against the city as well.

Marshall is one of four parishioners who took out 90-day loans, using their own property as security, to put up the prize money. He says he doubts anyone will lose his home because of last night's disaster.

"It's a temporary economical setback for the next six months or so," he said, "but we'll just do the best we can to repair the damage."

St. Petka's owns nine acres in San Marcos. It opened a social hall with a temporary chapel in 1975, and hopes to build a church--estimated cost, $750,000 to $1 million--and eventually a home for the aged.

If last night's affair had succeeded, the trustees were considering a series of similar games, the next one probably in November.

27 pilgrims killed in stampede during Hindu festival in India

Submitted for your approval, another exciting episode in the wonderful world of Hinduism, as reported by Omer Farooq of Associated Press, July 15, 2015:

HYDERABAD, India — Tens of thousands of pilgrims taking part in a Hindu religious bathing festival surged forward and triggered a massive stampede on a riverbank in southern India, leaving at least 27 dead and dozens injured in chaotic scenes in which rescuers struggled to respond quickly.

The stampede Tuesday along the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh stampede was triggered by some pilgrims who were trying to retrieve their shoes, which had fallen off in the rush to the riverbank, police said.

Festival participants believe a bath in the river can rid them of their sins, and many believe it is more auspicious to bathe on the first day of the 12-day festival, called Pushkaralu.

"It was a frightening situation, with women and children crying for help," said pilgrim V. Satyanarayana, adding the mayhem lasted nearly 20 minutes. "The policemen on duty were helpless and it took more than an hour to bring the situation under control."

With the bodies of victims lying around, relatives wailed and cried for help. At least 34 people were hospitalized, said Andhra Pradesh's chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu.

Some pilgrims said ambulances took time to reach the site because the roads were overcrowded with people. Officials said that a small place like Rajahmundry, the disaster scene 450 kilometers (280 miles) east of Hyderabad, could not cope with the rush of hundreds of thousands of people, and that the situation became almost unmanageable.

Thousands of pilgrims, riding in buses, trains and other vehicles, started reaching the pilgrimage center two days ahead of the start of the festival.

"There is a false belief that taking a holy dip in the river on the first day of the festival will be more auspicious," said Swamy Swaroopanand, a Hindu holy man. "It's the same as taking dip on any other day."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the tragedy, tweeting that he was "deeply pained" by it.

About 24 million people are expected to take part in the festival at varying points along the Godavari River, which flows through Andhra Pradesh and newly created Telangana state.

Deadly stampedes are fairly common during Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas with few safety or crowd control measures.

In October 2013, a stampede in Madhya Pradesh state in central India killed more than 110 people, mostly women and children.

Nova Scotia government encourages perverts and freaks to become foster parents

Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. Proverbs 14:34

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Romans 1:24-32

Yet another item to be filed under "More evidence that the country still officially known as Canada is an unrecognizable rotting corpse whose judgment by God is already well under way." Nova Scotia has a Liberal government led by Premier Stephen McNeil--not that it matters who's in charge these days, since there are so few differences among politicians anymore. As reported by Metro News, July 22, 2015:

The province says they are reaching out to the LGBTQI community through a social media campaign to encourage them to become foster parents.

The campaign is called “Foster Parents: It Takes All Kinds,” and according to a provincial release, it’s the first of its kind in Nova Scotia.

The campaign will run during this month’s Pride celebrations and ends on July 26.

“Our hope is to encourage responsible adults in non-traditional families to consider becoming a foster parent,” Community Services minister Joanne Bernard said in a statement.

“We hope that same-sex couples and others will be encouraged by this campaign to find out more.”

The Community Services department says Nova Scotia has about 800 children living with foster families, and like other parts of North America, have experienced a decline in the number of foster families in the past five years.

They are also specifically focussing efforts on members of the African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaq communities, which they’ve done in the past.

25 years ago: St. John's Roman Catholic Archbishop offers his resignation as a result of priest sex abuse scandal

On July 18, 1990, Alphonsus Penney, Roman Catholic Archbishop of St. John's, announced that he had offered his resignation to Pope John Paul II following the release of a report that blamed church officials for ignoring and covering up sexual abuse by priests. "We are a sinful church," said Archbishop Penney, who had initiated the report by a five-member commission headed by former Newfoundland Lieutenant-Governor Gordon Winter. The report found that high-ranking clergy were more concerned about the offenders than the victims, and attempted to cover up allegations that priests were sexually abusing boys. Among its 55 recommendations, the commission suggested that the Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops examine such issues as compensation for abuse victims and the tradition of celibacy for priests.

Archbishop Penney's offer of resignation was accepted, and he stepped down in 1991 after 12 years in office. The Newfoundland scandals were among the first accounts of sexual abuse of boys by priests to receive widespread publicity in North America, and there have been so many since then that I won't even guess the number.

Newspaper "Religion Calendar" items offer an interesting snapshot of the current scene

From the Edmonton Journal 's Religion Calendar, July 11, 2015 (bold in original, links inserted by blogger):

Summer Silent Directed Retreat: Sunday, 5 p.m. to July 16, 1 p.m., at Star of the North Retreat Centre, 3A St. Vital Ave., St. Albert. Refresh your spirit and renew your relationship with God on this summer retreat. Spiritual directors: Patricia MacDonald, Fr. Mike McCaffrey, archbishop emeritus Sylvain Lavoie, and Pat Jamison. Call 780-459-5511 or visit starofthenorth.ca

Ramadan Iftar Dinner: Tuesday, 8:30 p.m. at the legislature grounds. Cultural exhibition, live music performances, pocorn and complimentary sundown Iftar dinner, the traditional meal that celebrates the end of daylight fasting during the Muslim month of Ramadan. RSVP to edmonton@interculturaldialog.com by Monday.

All Beings Confluence: July 19, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., at Southminster Steinhauer United Church, 10740 19th Ave. A community-based interactive project inspired by Carolyn McDade, a composer, social activist and environmentalist whose music has sustained and nourished many over the decades. It is an ever-expanding installation of more than 250 sheer fabrics created by many different individuals. Walk among them to experience being a part of a vast, complex and interconnected whole. For information: allbeingsconfluence.wordpress.com

Mindfulness Meditation Circle: July 22, 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Star of the North Retreat Centre, 3A St. Vital Ave., St. Albert. Mindfulness practice helps to reduce stress, improve attention, boost the immune system, reduce emotional reactivity, and promote a general sense of health and well-being. All are welcome: beginners, newcomers as well as seasoned practitioners. For information, contact Laurel Vespi, or visit events at stonecirclecoaching.com

Christian Weekend Retreat Yoga: July 24, 7 p.m. to July 26, 1 p.m., at Providence Renewal Centre, 3005 119th St. Practise yoga postures and breathing techniques that will calm the busyness of your mind, open your heart to God, and help your body build flexibility, strength, and balance. Bring a yoga mat and blanket. Contact Kathy, 780-701-1854, or visit providencerenewal.ca

Meditation Retreat: July 25, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at Providence Renewal Centre, 3005 119th St. Instruction in meditation with Kushok Lobsang Dhamchoe, a Buddhist monk who is a knowledgeable teacher and lifelong practitioner. Contact the Gaden Samten Ling Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Society office, gadensamtenling.org, 780-479-0014, or visit gasamling.ca

Gilligan's Island Vacation Bible School: July 27 to 30, 6:30 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., at Hosanna Lutheran Church, 9009 163rd St. Join Gilligan and his mates for an enriching week as we discover the hidden treasures of the Bible. Crafts, science, music, drama and more. Free event. For information, contact sonja@hosannalutheran.ab.ca, 780-484-3932, or visit hosannalutheran.ab.ca

Vacation Bible School: Aug. 17, 6 p.m. to Aug. 21, 9:30 a.m., at Millwoods Presbyterian Church, 6607 31st Ave. Vacation Bible School for stories and songs, games, crafts and snacks. Join us for all the fun.

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See also my previous posts:

Today's "Vacation Bible School" offers more "vacation" than "Bible"

More evidence that today's yesterday's evangelicals are tomorrow's today's liberals

100 years ago: The death of Ellen G. White

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Matthew 7:18

On July 16, 1915, Ellen G. White died at the age of 87. Mrs. White, born Ellen Harmon, co-founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church and remains its most influential individual. The church originated from William Miller's false prophecy that Jesus Christ would return in 1843. When that didn't happen, the date was revised to 1844, and when He still didn't return, some of the Millerites, including Mrs. White and her husband James, founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The SDA Church teaches many biblical truths, but unfortunately, also teaches some things that have the effect of undoing some of those truths. The Seventh-day Adventist Church summarizes its doctrines in a statement of 28 Fundamental Beliefs. According to the Beliefs page of the SDA web site:

Seventh-day Adventists accept the Bible as the only source of our beliefs. We consider our movement to be the result of the Protestant conviction Sola Scriptura—the Bible as the only standard of faith and practice for Christians.

According to Fundamental Belief 17: The Gift of Prophecy, Ellen G. White's "writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction. They also make clear that the Bible is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested." The Seventh-day Adventist Church seems to be talking out of both sides of its mouth here, claiming that the Bible is the only standard of faith and practice, while upholding Ellen G. White's writings as a "continuing and authoritative source of truth." To me, that says that the SDA's standard is the Bible plus the writings of Ellen G. White. The big problem I have with views such as those of the SDAs is that if the Bible is "the only standard of faith and practice," then further revelation from God is unnecessary. To allow any extrabiblical sources of revelation as coming from God is to contradict the principle of Sola Scriptura. Mrs. White's visionary experiences, which resulted in over 40 books, led Seventh-day Adventists to regard Mrs. White as possessing the biblical gift of prophecy--a view not shared by this blogger. The physical phenomena that accompanied Mrs. White's "visions" indicate control by a seducing spirit rather than by the Holy Spirit.

I disagree with the Seventh-day Adventist Church's emphasis on the Sabbath. According to Fundamental Belief 20, "The beneficent Creator...instituted the Sabbath for all people as a memorial of Creation. The fourth commandment of God's unchangeable law requires the observance of this seventh-day Sabbath..." In fact, the Sabbath was not instituted for all people, but only for Israel. Only Israel was required to observe the Sabbath, and only Israel was judged by God for failing to keep the Sabbath (e.g., Ezekiel 20:12-24). Gentile nations were never required to keep the Sabbath, and weren't judged by God for failing to keep it; they were judged for the way they treated Israel (e.g., Obadiah 10-20). When Jewish church leaders assembled in Jerusalem to decide on whether Gentile converts had to keep the law of Moses, the only requirements that were imposed on them were to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood; from animals that had been strangled; and from sexual immorality (Acts 15:19-29). Keeping the Sabbath wasn't a requirement (nor, for that matter, was tithing). The SDAs and others of similar views like to ask where in the New Testament the Sabbath was changed from Sunday to Saturday. The answer is--nowhere. The Sabbath and the Lord's Day are different observances. The Sabbath was mandatory and only for Israel, while the Lord's Day is voluntary and observed by Jewish and Gentile Christians within the church.

I disagree with the part in Fundamental Belief 22: Christian Behavior that states that we are to "abstain from the unclean foods identified in the Scriptures." When Jesus declared that it was the things that came out of a man and not what went into him that made him unclean, he was declaring all foods clean (Mark 7:15-23).

I have a big problem with Fundamental Belief 24: Christ's Ministry in the Heavenly Sanctuary, where it says: "In 1844, at the end of the prophetic period of 2300 days, He entered the second and last phase of His atoning ministry. It is a work of investigative judgment which is part of the ultimate disposition of all sin, typified by the cleansing of the ancient Hebrew sanctuary on the Day of Atonement...The Investigative judgment reveals to heavenly intelligences who among the dead are asleep in Christ and therefore, in Him, are deemed worthy to have part in the first resurrection." On the contrary, when Jesus said, "It is finished" (John 19:30)--an accounting term meaning "paid in full"--He was on the cross, not in Heaven. Jesus fully paid the penalty for sin on the cross, and didn't need to complete the work of atonement in Heaven. The SDA doctrine of "Investigative Judgment" is a serious error based on the false prophecy concerning 1844, and isn't found in Scripture--which again shows that the Bible is not in fact the only rule of faith and practice for the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

While the Seventh-day Adventist Church upholds many sound biblical teachings, the errors that the SDA Church upholds, and the origins of the SDA Church indicate that the tree that produced the Seventh-day Adventist Church is corrupt rather than good.

90 years ago: Meher Baba enters into silence

Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Matthew 24:23-24 (also Mark 13:21-22)

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Isaiah 45:22-23

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:10-11

On July 10, 1925, Indian mystic, guru, and self-proclaimed avatar Meher Baba (born Merwan Sheriar Irani), 31, who had been in contact with those he regarded as the five "Perfect Masters" since 1913 and had begun attracting his own following in 1921, began a practice of silence, communicating at first by writing, after 1927 only by means of an alphabet board, and from 1954 on, only by hand gestures.

Meher Baba claimed that he had entered into silence because man had been deaf to God. On a number of occasions, Meher Baba predicted that he would break his silence, and that that event would lay the foundation for that which would take place over the next 700 years. He became popular in Hollywood in the 1930s (Scientology not having been invented yet), and promised in 1934 that he would break his silence at the Hollywood Bowl, but suddenly changed his plans and sailed to England, ostensibly postponing the breaking of his silence because "conditions are not yet ripe." A similar thing had happened in 1926 when theosophist Annie Besant had brought Jiddu Krishnamurti to the United States: when his ship arrived in New York, the "chosen vessel" suddenly seemed to lose all his spiritual power, cancelled his American tour, and went into seclusion.1 Could it be that these things happened because Christians were praying to the true God that He would confound the enemy's plans and words and that the true God delivered immediate results?

Meher Baba never did break his silence, to the moment of his death on January 31, 1969 at the age of 74. His last hand gestures reportedly conveyed the words, "Do not forget that I am God"--he was deceived to the end. During his lifetime, Meher Baba asked his devotees to observe July 10 as Silence Day, and that practice continues today. The Avatar Meher Baba Trust continues his work. Meher Baba never broke his silence during this life, but he will when, with everyone else, he bows his knees and confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord.

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1. McCandlish Phillips, The Spirit World (1970), pp. 21-24, cited in Dave Hunt, Peace, Prosperity and the Coming Holocaust (1983), pp. 125-127.