On February 14, 1989, Iran's Supreme Ruler, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa--a legal judgment--encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of the novel The Satanic Verses (1988), accused of being disrespectful to the prophet Muhammad. The fatwa came amidst violent protests against the novel in several Muslim countries. The day after the fatwa, one of the Ayatollah's aides offered $1 million for the death of Mr. Rushdie. On February 18, Mr. Rushdie issued a statement saying, "I profoundly regret the distress that publication has occasioned to sincere followers of Islam." The next day, the Ayatollah rejected the apology, and Mr. Rushdie was forced into hiding for the next 9 1/2 years, until a new Iranian President, Mohammed Khatami, publicly stated that Iran would not support the fatwa. Of course, just because the government of Iran may not officially support the fatwa doesn't mean that private individuals or organizations don't still support it, and there are still people who would be quite happy to kill Mr. Rushdie or reward anyone who does.
In Western nations, university campuses showed their support for freedom by holding marathon public readings of The Satanic Verses. As an aside, it was during such activity at the University of Alberta that I discovered a number of books by American novelist Thomas Dixon (1864-1946) on the shelves of Rutherford Library. I'd heard of Mr. Dixon years earlier, but had never read any of his books, and had never bothered looking for them. When I found his novels in the library early in 1989, the first one I read was his most notorious: The Clansman (1905), which inspired the famous film The Birth of a Nation (1915). I found the book to be racist and offensive by modern standards, but it's also entertaining and fascinating to read, and is one of my guilty pleasures. I couldn't help but think that if people at the university really believed in "freedom to read," they should hold public readings from The Clansman. The reader may go here for a free dowload of The Clansman and make up his own mind.
The protests by Muslims against The Satanic Verses occurred about six months after protests by Christians--mainly in the United States--against the motion picture The Last Temptation of Christ, which portrayed Jesus Christ in a manner that could charitably be described as blasphemous and defamatory. It's hard not to notice the difference between Islamic reaction against The Satanic Verses--a novel that hadn't yet been committed to screen--and Christian reaction against The Last Temptation of Christ. The movie was based on a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, originally published in Greek as O Teleutaios Peirasmos in 1953, and first published in English as The Last Temptation in 1960.
As to the movie and the controversy surrounding it, a typical establishment media view was expressed by critic David Ehrenstein in his notes accompanying the DVD of the movie. Mr. Ehrenstein is a typical liberal--accusing others of what he's guilty of himself. To paraphrase Mr. Ehrenstein, his account is a mixture of half-truths, outright lies, and anti-Christian slurs--with the addition of a large dose of Jewish paranoia. However, his description of the movie's content is very accurate:
The Last Temptation of Christ is, without question, one of the most serious, literate, complex, and deeply felt religious films ever made...this adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' imaginative retelling of the life of Christ should surely be discussed...by theological scholars and thoughtful moviegoers for years to come. Unfortunately, such serious discussion has been blocked by a yowling mob of right-wing zealots who have stood in the way of all discussions of the work since it was first released in 1988...
...In 1983, Scorcese began preproduction on the film for Paramount Pictures...But weeks before the shooting was to begin the project was canceled--at least in part as a result of a letter-writing campaign engineered by right-wing Christian groups. They claimed that Last Temptation would portray Christ as a homosexual--though such a notion figured neither in the Kazantzakis novel nor in the film Scorsese planned. Unbowed, Scorsese persevered, eventually making Last Temptation for Universal (for an estimated $6 million to $8 million) four years later...
...But by that time, the hysterical fantasies of a select few had given way to the organized campaign of a larger and more sinister consortium. Fueled by half-truths, outright lies, and anti-Semitic slurs--the likes of which haven't been heard since the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg--this well-orchestrated campaign demanded nothing less than Last Temptation's total destruction. Spearheaded by Tim Penland of MasterMedia and Bill Bright of the Campus Crusade for Christ, an ad hoc committee of self-styled "fundamentalist leaders" declared that a film none of them had seen depicted " a mentally-deranged, lust-driven man who, in a dream sequence, comes down off the cross and has a sexual relationship with Mary Magdalene." If Universal would not burn the negative, they offered to buy it to destroy it themselves.
Predictably, those TV-savvy reverends Jerry Falwell and Donald Wildmon joined the chorus of disapproval, along with the three Pats--Robertson, Buchanan, and Boone. Though they hadn't seen the film, they were far from disinclined to discuss it. Likewise, director Franco Zeffirelli withdrew his Young Toscanini from the Venice Film Festival when he learned that Last Temptation--which he described sight-unseen as "truly horrible and completely deranged"--was invited there for a screening. In this he was little different from the Roman Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles, Roger Mahony, who, though he hadn't seen the film, deemed it "morally offensive."
Still, the archbishop made a point of distancing his critique from the protests of the Reverend H.L. Hymers, who staged a rally in front of the home of Lew Wasserman, then chairman of MCA, the parent company of Universal Pictures. Carrying placards proclaiming "Wasserman fans anti-Semitism," the minister and his flock proceeded to provide the fanning--chanting to all who'd hear that "Jewish money" was behind Last Temptation.
Had the Reverend Hymers been a bit more attentive to detail, he would have been aware that Nikos Kazantzakis was of the Greek Orthodox faith; that Paul Schrader, who wrote the screenplay, was raised as a Calvinist; and that Martin Scorsese was a Roman Catholic. But then, Hymers hadn't seen the film either. And why should he, or any of Last Temptation's foes, want to confuse themselves with the facts?
Rather than a "blasphemous" attack on Christ's divinity, climaxing with a salacious "sex scene," The Last Temptation of Christ is a stirring affirmation of faith both in the person of Jesus and in his teachings. This affirmation is unorthodox only in that it requires a viewer to think about the meaning of the gospels for every one of the film's 163 minutes. And it is this process of thought that the film's attackers can't abide--particularly as such thought involves the paradox of Jesus' simultaneous divinity and humanity. And this is the crux of the matter. For The Last Temptation of Christ presents divinity not as a given, but rather as a process Christ explores through his humanity. Consequently, the film's message couldn't be simpler. By experiencing Jesus' divinity as a process, we come to learn how the divine might enter our own lives.
We first meet Jesus as a grown man--frail and terrified. Troubled by crippling headaches and mystical visions, he's well aware that he isn't like ordinary men but is uncertain about what the future holds in store for him. He sees himself as a sinner, for while he's resisted sin, he feels he's done so out of cowardice. He takes personal responsibility for the fact that Mary Magdalene has become a prostitute--blaming himself for not having married her and provided a normal life.
His friend Judas is convinced that Jesus' future is in politics--as the man who will lead the Jews in revolt against their Roman captors. But after meditating in the desert, Jesus comes to a different realization of his destiny. Slowly gathering about him the group of men and women who would become his disciples, he begins to preach.
"I'll just open my mouth and God will do the talking," he says at first. Later, as he gains conviction, he talks both of love and of "the sword." Finally, he comes to realize that his purpose on Earth is to be the "lamb of God," sacrificing himself on the cross. He urges Judas to betray him in order to accomplish this mission. And it is on the cross he faces his "last temptation."
Looking down, Jesus sees a beautiful little girl who claims to be an angel of the Lord. She tells him his sufferings are over and that he doesn't have to go through with the crucifixion. It is only a test--like God's telling Abraham to kill his son Isaac. Taking him to a verdant valley, the girl presents him to Mary Magdalene for marriage. Magdalene later dies, but Jesus continues living a quiet life with Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus--the man whom he raised from the dead. "There is only one woman in the world," the girl tells him. He fathers children and lives to a ripe old age. But on Jesus' deathbed an angry Judas confronts him. He tells him he's missed his calling by not being crucified. And he reveals that the angelic-looking girl is, in fact, the devil. Realizing the truth, Jesus recommits himself to God--and finds himself back on the cross. In truth, he's been there all along. The "last temptation" took place in a flash, between his questioning why God has "forsaken him" and his final declaration that "it is accomplished." It is in this final moment that Christ's divinity is fully revealed.
All of this, needless to say, means nothing to the film's enemies, who have used it as little more than a ploy to regain ground lost in the wake of the Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart money and sex scandals. And that's not to mention those other opportunists, who, in the wake of Last Temptation, have created a powerful reactionary political lobby within the Republican Party that calls itself "Christian" while harboring beliefs and attitudes that are more political than spiritual.
But that is another matter--and the possible subject of another movie. For the moment, it is enough to contemplate--in reasoned calm--the power and glory of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. David Ehrenstein, DVD, 2000, The Criterion Collection
Evidence to rebut Mr. Ehrenstein's contentions are taken mainly from Michael Medved's book Hollywood vs. America (1992), pp. 37-49, and John Ankerberg & John Weldon's out-of-print but very informative booklet The Facts on "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988). I saw the movie on DVD in 2013 (which explains why I'm able to quote Mr. Ehrenstein's notes), and I can confirm that everything in the movie cited by Messrs. Ankerberg & Weldon and others critical of the film is accurate.
Mr. Ehrenstein claims that serious discussion of the film has been blocked by a "yowling mob" of right-wing zealots who have stood in the way of all discussions of the work..." On the contrary, it was Christian leaders who wanted a serious discussion of the movie's content, and they were denied that privilege. Two weeks before the movie's release, John Ankerberg invited representatives of Universal Studios to appear on the John Ankerberg Television Show to discuss the movie with Campus Crusade for Christ president Bill Bright, American Family Association director Donald Wildmon, newspaper columnist Cal Thomas, and lawyer and Christian apologist John Warwick Montgomery. Universal Studios officially declined the opportunity (Ankerberg & Weldon, pp. 40-41). At the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Washington, D.C. in February 1988, representatives of Universal Studios promised to allow 10 Christian leaders to view the film two months before its release, and that they would be allowed to delete materials that they found offensive to their beliefs. A preview screening scheduled for June 1988, and a July 12 preview screening for evangelical leaders was also cancelled--although a screening was held that day for liberal clergy (Ankerberg & Weldon, p. 41).
Mr. Ehrenstein may be partially right when he says that early protest against the movie was based on a belief that Jesus Christ would be portrayed as a homosexual. There's a long-standing urban legend within evangelicalism that says that a movie portraying the sex life of Christ is in the works. This goes back at least as far as 1978; I remember seeing a half-hour television broadcast that summer on that subject, hosted by Pat Boone and sponsored by an organization called the Interfaith Committee Against Blasphemy, based in Glendale, California, if I remember correctly. A campaign urging that protest letters be sent to "Attorney General Scott" of Illinois (why, I don't know) was still going on 10 years later (when I received one such form letter with a space for my signature, to be sent to the aforementioned Mr. Scott). Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper discussed the myth in his book Hollywood Urban Legends (2001), pp. 113-118. I don't know if Christians in 1983 were assuming that The Last Temptation of Christ was the movie that they had been hearing about, or whether Mr. Ehrenstein is confused or misinformed about the early protests.
The "sinister consortium" that Mr. Ehrenstein mentions, whose protests culminated in a protest of 25,000 people outside the "Black Tower" housing the head offices of MCA/Universal in Universal City, California on August 11, 1988, included the National Council of Catholic Bishops; National Catholic Conference; Southern Baptist Convention; Eastern Orthodox Church of America; Archbishop of Canterbury; Archbishop of Paris; Christian Democratic Party of Italy (Italy's largest political party); 20 members of the United States House of Representatives; and Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Medved, pp. 37-39).
Mr. Ehrenstein makes much of Rev. R.L. Hymers' protests as if he was typical of those who were opposed to the movie, although Mr. Ehrenstein is generous enough to note that Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archbishop Roger Mahony distanced himself from Rev. Hymers. Mr. Medved points out that Rev. Hymers represented virtually no one other than himself and his 250-member Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle, but received a disproportionate amount of press coverage, while mainstream Protestant and Catholic protesters denounced Rev. Hymers. However, southern California pastors such as Jack Hayford and Lloyd Ogilvie, whose congregations were each at least 20 times as large as those of Rev. Hymers, were virtually ignored (Medved, pp. 43-44).
The overwhelming majority of the protesters focused their opposition where it rightly belonged--on the content of the movie itself. Mr. Ehrenstein is correct in pointing out that the creative talent behind the movie was Gentile, although novelist Nikos Kazantzakis was actually a pantheist in his beliefs (Ankerberg & Weldon, pp. 47-48). However, as boorish and distasteful as Rev. Hymers' protests were--I especially dislike the idea of protesting outside people's homes--I think it's legitimate to look at who was in charge of the studio that made and distributed The Last Temptation of Christ, especially since MCA/Universal went out of its way to be as offensive and insensitive toward Christians as possible. Tal Brooke, president of Spiritual Counterfeits Project, isn't shy in expressing his opinion:
You recall the timid protesters who dared name Lew Wasserman as the power behind the film on their posters. It was written up in the LA Times. Then Mel Brooks was quoted as becoming so enraged with these protesters as to threaten to do his own film spoofing Jesus Christ. The message: Christians had better shut up fast and learn who's running the show. Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell were nothing compared to what would come ahead.
But the protesters in Hollywood were right. Presiding over MCA Universal pictures when the film came out was Lew Wasserman, chairman and chief executive, and the undisputed ruler of MCA, Inc., the parent of Universal Studios. Beneath him were other collaborators: Sidney Sheinberg, MCA President; Gary Goldstein, heading National Promotion and Field Operations; and Simon Kornblitt, Vice President of Marketing.
The reality is that in film after film attacking the Christian Faith you have been looking at the credits and seeing prominently displayed the names of a trigger-sensitive minority who have helped produce and often directed the films. Ironically, they have been busy at work in the culture, introducing hate crime bills that would ban any critical speech against them, while they have been harping on their own persecution and building expensive museums around the world about their victimization and suffering. The double standard is outrageous, but no one dare protest above a whisper.
You wonder quietly to yourself whether you are really seeing a pattern here (just the fact that you are seeing the pattern may prove that you are just a bigot blinded by prejudice, as many would tell you). If you are the average Christian, this may take years for you to work through if you ever see it at all. Chances are it will be easier for you to look away. Tal Brooke, Sanctioned Mockery: And the Rise of Attacks on Christians, SCP Journal, 30:4-31:1, 2007, p. 6
Jews have more than enough enemies that they don't deserve, and it doesn't help their cause to attack the faith of those who are virtually their only friends. While inflammatory actions and words such as those of Rev. R.L. Hymers don't encourage Jews to think well of Christians, it's also true that inflammatory behaviour such as that of MCA/Universal and inflammatory language such as that used by Mr. Ehrenstein don't do anything to encourage Christians to think well of Jews. Mr. Ehrenstein's whining about anti-Semitic slurs that "haven't been heard since the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg" is Jewish paranoia at its most absurd and hysterical (and it's probably not a good idea on his part to invoke the names of two traitors).
Mr. Ehrenstein mentions Bill Bright and Tim Penland in his critique, and cites them as examples of Christians who criticized the film without seeing it. As I stated earlier--and which Mr. Ehrenstein neglects to mention--one of the reasons that prominent Christian opponents of the film didn't see it is because Universal Pictures reneged on its promise to them of an advance screening. I didn't agree with Mr. Bright's idea of bribing the studio to destroy prints of the film; it would have been better if Universal had shown good taste and simply shelved the movie. As for Mr. Penland, Mr. Ehrenstein neglects to mention that he was Universal's agent who was dealing with Christian leaders, and he resigned in protest when the studio cancelled the June 1988 advance screening for Christian leaders (Ankerberg & Weldon, p. 41).
Mr. Ehrenstein, while harping on the film's opponents not having seen the movie, also fails to explain how, not having seen the film, their criticisms of the film's content were so accurate; all the things about the movie that they objected to were actually in the movie. The protesters' objections to The Last Temptation of Christ weren't based on nothing, but on a copy of the script that was leaked to Christian leaders in advance of the film's release (Ankerberg & Weldon, p. 41).
Mr. Ehrenstein's praise of the film's depiction of Jesus Christ indicates his total ignorance of the subject; I seriously doubt that he's read the New Testament. The Jesus of The Last Temptation of Christ is filled with doubt and fear, and is consumed with his own sin, which seems impossible for someone of "simultaneous divinity and humanity." He's not worth following, or crucifying. The movie is so far off the mark as far as historical accuracy is concerned that if the real names of the characters weren't used, I wouldn't know who they were. The most accurate part of the movie is the pre-title crawl quoting the novel:
"The dual substance of Christ--the yearning, so human, so superhuman, of man to attain God...has always been a deep inscrutable mystery to me. My principle anguish and source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh...and my soul is the arena where these two armies have clashed and met."
Nikos Kazantzakis
From the book
"The Last Temptation of Christ"
This film is not based upon the Gospels but upon the fictional exploration of the eternal spiritual conflict.
Blasphemy and historical innacuracy aside, The Last Temptation of Christ is a terrible movie. Mr. Medved says he knows of a number of critics who privately hated the movie, but publicly and hypocritically praised it because they didn't want to be seen as being in sympathy with Christian protesters. Mr. Medved was one of the few critics to publicly slam the film:
It is the height of irony that all this controversy should be generated by a film that turns out to be so breathtakingly bad, so unbearably boring. In my opinion, the controversy about this picture as a lot more interesting than the film itself. Michael Medved, Hollywood vs. America, 1992, p.47
In a 1991 interview on the Focus on the Family radio program, Mr. Medved accurately summed up the movie as 2 hours and 40 minutes of excruciating boredom punctuated with outbursts of pointless violence. As for protests after the release of the movie, the Saint Michel cinema in Paris was bombed shortly after the movie opened there in 1988; I'm not aware of any violent protests in North America. Fellow Christian cultural observer Chris Milner and I dropped by the Westmount Theatre complex in Edmonton on opening night to see if there was any protest taking place. The only protester was Bill Haines, who was handing out evangelistic tracts. He had quite a number left over, because we counted only seven people coming out of the theatre after the early evening screening. I don't think The Last Temptation of Christ lasted more than two weeks in Edmonton theatres, which was typical of its dismal performance at the box office. Estimates of the movie's losses range from $10-14 million (Medved, p. 43).
Nine years after The Last Temptation of Christ, Martin Scorsese directed another movie--Kundun--about a religious leader, in this case the 14th Dalai Lama, leader of Tibetan Buddhism. Mr. Scorsese made Kundun in association with the Dalai Lama, which certainly was in marked contrast to his attitude toward Christians while making The Last Temptation of Christ. Universal Pictures, which had been so "courageous" in producing and distributing The Last Temptation of Christ, passed on Kundun for fear of offending the Chinese, who refuse to recognize the independence of Tibet or the leadership of the Dalai Lama. Kundun was instead released by Disney. In contrast to the hypocritical near-unanimity in praise for The Last Temptation of Christ, critical opinion on Kundun was more divided. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who, along with his television colleague Gene Siskel had given an enthusiastic "thumbs up" to The Last Temptation of Christ, gave Kundun a less-glowing, but still positive review, while noticing the difference in Mr. Scorsese's depiction of the main character of each movie:
There is rarely the sense that a living, breathing and (dare I say?) fallible human inhabits the body of the Dalai Lama. Unlike Scorsese's portrait of Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ, this is not a man striving for perfection, but perfection in the shape of a man. ... Once we understand that "Kundun" will not be a drama involving a plausible human character, we are freed to see the film as it is: an act of devotion, an act even of spiritual desperation, flung into the eyes of 20th century materialism. The film's visuals and music are rich and inspiring, and like a mass by Bach or a Renaissance church painting, it exists as an aid to worship: It wants to enhance, not question.
Kundun managed to surpass The Last Temptation of Christ in one notable area: it was an even bigger box office flop.
It's worth noting that in contrast to the Islamic protests surrounding Mr. Rushdie's novel, the protests against The Last Temptation of Christ--with the exception of the theatre bombing in Paris--were peaceful (even those of Rev. R.L. Hymers). Martin Scorsese has continued to make movies, and no one associated with The Last Temptation of Christ has had to go into hiding for fear of his life. Lest anyone think I have a knee-jerk aversion to anyone associated with this awful movie, I've seen about 10 of Mr. Scorsese's movies, including some he made after The Last Temptation of Christ. I like some of his movies and dislike others. I rate The Aviator (2004) as the best of Mr. Scorsese's movies that I've seen. I haven't seen Kundun--but then, not many have. As for screenwriter Paul Schrader, I don't think he's ever been known to have written anything uplifting--Taxi Driver (1976) is an example of his work--and he's an example of the bitter fruit of Calvinism.
I have yet to hear of any "yowling mob" that's been preventing any serious discussion of The Last Temptation of Christ by, for example, threatening to bomb a film studies department that might want to screen the movie--but maybe Mr. Ehrenstein knows more than I do about that. On January 25, 2014, Wells Cathedral, which is affiliated with the increasingly buffoonish and pagan institution that still goes by the name of the Church of England, put on a screening of the movie, and the event included a live video address from Mr. Scorsese.
It's now been more than 25 years since The Satanic Verses was published. However, as Mr. Medved has pointed out, nobody in Hollywood--including Universal Pictures--has seen fit to make this novel into a movie (Medved, p. 40). Where's the "courage" that Hollywood people are always celebrating when they make movies that might be seen as "controversial?" Such cowardice is understandable, since non-Hollywood filmmakers who've dared to make movies critical of Islam have been the subject of protests similar to those that surrounded The Satanic Verses. One recalls Dutch director Theo van Gogh, who was murdered in Amsterdam on November 2, 2004, several months after the television broadcast of his 10-minute short film Submission (2004); or another Dutch director, Geert Wilders, whose short film Fitna (2008) earned him a fatwa from the terrorist organization al-Qaeda; or Innocence of Muslims (2012), a 14-minute trailer that appeared on YouTube and sparked violent protests in Muslim countries. This blogger awaits the same display of courage by Hollywood filmmakers regarding The Satanic Verses that they so boldly displayed when they inflicted The Last Temptation of Christ on an unreceptive public.
Friday, 21 February 2014
Wednesday, 12 February 2014
February 12: Date of infamy
In looking at other sites and old almanacs for today's entry in one of my other blogs, it struck me that February 12 is associated with more than its share of abominations. 105 years ago today, on February 12, 1809, Charles Darwin was born, and it would have been better for the world if he hadn't been born. Abe Lincoln was born on the same day; there are some people who have a negative view of Mr. Lincoln, but I'll let Americans argue over that. A sampling of other notable events on this date:
225 years ago
1789
Ethan Allen, a leading figure in the American Revolution and one of the founders of Vermont, died at the age of 51 of an apparent fit of apoplexy while returning home from a visit to his cousin. His book Reason: the Only Oracle of Man had been published in 1785, and the title tells all you need to know about Mr. Allen's religious views. The book was a critical and commercial failure, and Mr. Allen's foolishness has now presumably been corrected.
40 years ago
1974
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature, was arrested by force after he and his wife had refused two summonses for him to meet with state investigators. Soviet officials had been outraged by the recent publication of Mr. Solzhenitsyn's novel The Gulag Archipelago, an expose of the U.S.S.R.'s prison system. The next day, Mr. Solzhenitsyn was stripped of his Soviet citizenship and deported to West Germany.
Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,
Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?
This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. John 12:3-6
Eight days after kidnapping newspaper heiress Patty Hearst from her Berkeley, California apartment, the Symbionese Liberation Army demanded that her father, San Francisco Examiner editor and president Randolph Hearst, give $230 million of free food to the poor as evidence of good faith in negotiating for his daughter's release. The SLA's leader, Donald DeFreeze, aka "General Field Marshal Cinque Mtume," addressed Mr. Hearst as "the corporate chairman of a fascist media empire of the ultra right," and told him he was "quite willing to carry out the execution of your daughter to save the life of starving men, women, and children of every race." The demand was accompanied by a tape of Miss Hearst pleading for her father's cooperation. According to the Wikipedia entry, the seven heads of the SLA's logo represented the seven principles of the bogus holiday Kwanzaa. I have to admire the Judas Iscariot-like passion for social justice of Mr. DeFreeze, even if he was just a street thug whose career in wealth redistribution began with an attempt to rob a prostitute of $10. If he hadn't committed suicide during a shootout with police in Los Angeles on May 17, 1974, Mr. DeFreeze, the only Negro member of an organization that was supposedly leading the "black revolution," may well have ended up with a position in the administration of White House occupant B. Hussein Obama or become a tenured professor at Eastern University, participating in protests with Ron Sider and Tony Campolo.
25 years ago
1989
Police in Pakistan killed six people who were protesting Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses (1988), which was accused of being disresepctful toward the prophet Muhammad. Two days later, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa--a legal judgment--calling for the death of Mr. Rushdie, and the day after that, one of the Ayatollah's aides offered $1 million for Mr. Rushdie's death, prompting Mr. Rushdie to go into hiding. The reaction of Muslims to The Satanic Verses was considerably different from the reaction of Christians to the film The Last Temptation of Christ several months earlier, but that's a subject for another post.
20 years ago
1994
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
Sue Rodriguez, 43, a resident of Victoria, British Columbia, died in hospital. She was diagnosed with amyotropic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease) in 1991, and sued the B.C. government for the legal right to assisted suicide, which was an offense in the Criminal Code of Canada punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. On September 30, 1993, the Supreme Court of Canada, in a 5-4 decision, upheld the Criminal Code prohibition on assisted suicide. Svend Robinson, a member of the Canadian House of Commons (NDP--Burnaby-Kingsway), assisted in Mrs. Rodriguez's campaign, and claimed to have been in the hospital room when she committed suicide with the help an anonymous physician. Although assisted suicide remains illegal in Canada, national opinion seems to have shifted in an increasingly pro-death direction in the 20 years since the death of Sue Rodriguez, but no doctor has yet been identified or come forward as the one who helped end her life, which makes this blogger suspect that the "anonymous" physician may have been a "nonexistent" physician. The only person who claims to have been in the room with Mrs. Rodriguez is Svend Robinson, and yet he's never been charged in connection with her death. Mr. Robinson was the first Canadian MP to come out of the closet as a sodomite, and he was constantly trying to get the law changed to lower the age of consent for sex--no doubt to make it easier for men to have sex with boys. His career in Parliament ended shortly after he stole an expensive ring from a public auction site.
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. I Timothy 2:12
In Toronto, Rev. Victoria Matthews was consecrated the first female Bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada.
The Winter Olympic Games, featuring 1,884 athletes from 67 countries, opened in Lillehammer, Norway. Much of the opening ceremony consisted of celebrations of Norse paganism.
10 years ago
2004
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
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 1:18-32
More than 85 couples participated in "marriage" ceremonies as the city of San Francisco began issuing marriage licenses to sodomite and lesbian couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom, contrary to a California state law.
Scientists in South Korea announced that they had created 30 human embryos by cloning for the purposes of embryonic stem cell research, and had removed embryonic stem cells from them.
225 years ago
1789
Ethan Allen, a leading figure in the American Revolution and one of the founders of Vermont, died at the age of 51 of an apparent fit of apoplexy while returning home from a visit to his cousin. His book Reason: the Only Oracle of Man had been published in 1785, and the title tells all you need to know about Mr. Allen's religious views. The book was a critical and commercial failure, and Mr. Allen's foolishness has now presumably been corrected.
40 years ago
1974
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature, was arrested by force after he and his wife had refused two summonses for him to meet with state investigators. Soviet officials had been outraged by the recent publication of Mr. Solzhenitsyn's novel The Gulag Archipelago, an expose of the U.S.S.R.'s prison system. The next day, Mr. Solzhenitsyn was stripped of his Soviet citizenship and deported to West Germany.
Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,
Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?
This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. John 12:3-6
Eight days after kidnapping newspaper heiress Patty Hearst from her Berkeley, California apartment, the Symbionese Liberation Army demanded that her father, San Francisco Examiner editor and president Randolph Hearst, give $230 million of free food to the poor as evidence of good faith in negotiating for his daughter's release. The SLA's leader, Donald DeFreeze, aka "General Field Marshal Cinque Mtume," addressed Mr. Hearst as "the corporate chairman of a fascist media empire of the ultra right," and told him he was "quite willing to carry out the execution of your daughter to save the life of starving men, women, and children of every race." The demand was accompanied by a tape of Miss Hearst pleading for her father's cooperation. According to the Wikipedia entry, the seven heads of the SLA's logo represented the seven principles of the bogus holiday Kwanzaa. I have to admire the Judas Iscariot-like passion for social justice of Mr. DeFreeze, even if he was just a street thug whose career in wealth redistribution began with an attempt to rob a prostitute of $10. If he hadn't committed suicide during a shootout with police in Los Angeles on May 17, 1974, Mr. DeFreeze, the only Negro member of an organization that was supposedly leading the "black revolution," may well have ended up with a position in the administration of White House occupant B. Hussein Obama or become a tenured professor at Eastern University, participating in protests with Ron Sider and Tony Campolo.
25 years ago
1989
Police in Pakistan killed six people who were protesting Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses (1988), which was accused of being disresepctful toward the prophet Muhammad. Two days later, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa--a legal judgment--calling for the death of Mr. Rushdie, and the day after that, one of the Ayatollah's aides offered $1 million for Mr. Rushdie's death, prompting Mr. Rushdie to go into hiding. The reaction of Muslims to The Satanic Verses was considerably different from the reaction of Christians to the film The Last Temptation of Christ several months earlier, but that's a subject for another post.
20 years ago
1994
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
Sue Rodriguez, 43, a resident of Victoria, British Columbia, died in hospital. She was diagnosed with amyotropic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease) in 1991, and sued the B.C. government for the legal right to assisted suicide, which was an offense in the Criminal Code of Canada punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. On September 30, 1993, the Supreme Court of Canada, in a 5-4 decision, upheld the Criminal Code prohibition on assisted suicide. Svend Robinson, a member of the Canadian House of Commons (NDP--Burnaby-Kingsway), assisted in Mrs. Rodriguez's campaign, and claimed to have been in the hospital room when she committed suicide with the help an anonymous physician. Although assisted suicide remains illegal in Canada, national opinion seems to have shifted in an increasingly pro-death direction in the 20 years since the death of Sue Rodriguez, but no doctor has yet been identified or come forward as the one who helped end her life, which makes this blogger suspect that the "anonymous" physician may have been a "nonexistent" physician. The only person who claims to have been in the room with Mrs. Rodriguez is Svend Robinson, and yet he's never been charged in connection with her death. Mr. Robinson was the first Canadian MP to come out of the closet as a sodomite, and he was constantly trying to get the law changed to lower the age of consent for sex--no doubt to make it easier for men to have sex with boys. His career in Parliament ended shortly after he stole an expensive ring from a public auction site.
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. I Timothy 2:12
In Toronto, Rev. Victoria Matthews was consecrated the first female Bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada.
The Winter Olympic Games, featuring 1,884 athletes from 67 countries, opened in Lillehammer, Norway. Much of the opening ceremony consisted of celebrations of Norse paganism.
10 years ago
2004
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
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 1:18-32
More than 85 couples participated in "marriage" ceremonies as the city of San Francisco began issuing marriage licenses to sodomite and lesbian couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom, contrary to a California state law.
Scientists in South Korea announced that they had created 30 human embryos by cloning for the purposes of embryonic stem cell research, and had removed embryonic stem cells from them.
Tuesday, 4 February 2014
And now for something completely different: "Ace Pride"
If there haven't been enough sexual minority groups coming out of the closet, here comes another one: the asexuals, or "aces," as reported by Justina Reichel of The Epoch Times, January 22, 2014:
Asexuality? It’s Normal, Says Expert
Go here to see the abstract of Brock University professor Anthony Bogaert's 2004 Journal of Sex Research article Asexuality: prevalence and associated factors in a national probability sample. I take issue with the contention that asexuality is "normal." If Professor Bogaert is correct in his estimate that at least 1% of the population is asexual, that means that close to 99% of the population is not asexual, which, it seems to me, makes asexuality statistically abnormal.
While asexuality isn't God's will for humanity, at least asexual behaviour doesn't cause or spread disease. I suspect that a factor contributing to asexuality is that so many people today go out of their way to make themselves as sexually unattractive as possible. Living in Edmonton, Alberta, for example, is a dreary existence for those of us who appreciate feminine women. A disproportionate amount of Edmonton's female population consists of fat, ugly, waddling slobs with butch haircuts, body piercings, and tattoos. The sight of a good-looking woman who's nicely dressed is so rare now that when I see one, I'm both encouraged and depressed--encouraged to know that feminine woman haven't yet become completely extinct, and depressed because such sightings are now so rare.
For people to hold a parade to celebrate their pride in something they don't have and are uninterested in doing sounds like an idea for a Monty Python skit, but an asexuality parade actually took place in London in 2012 and a WorldPride Asexual Conference will be taking place in Toronto on June 28, 2014--which is more evidence that you can't be a satirist anymore.
Asexuality? It’s Normal, Says Expert
Go here to see the abstract of Brock University professor Anthony Bogaert's 2004 Journal of Sex Research article Asexuality: prevalence and associated factors in a national probability sample. I take issue with the contention that asexuality is "normal." If Professor Bogaert is correct in his estimate that at least 1% of the population is asexual, that means that close to 99% of the population is not asexual, which, it seems to me, makes asexuality statistically abnormal.
While asexuality isn't God's will for humanity, at least asexual behaviour doesn't cause or spread disease. I suspect that a factor contributing to asexuality is that so many people today go out of their way to make themselves as sexually unattractive as possible. Living in Edmonton, Alberta, for example, is a dreary existence for those of us who appreciate feminine women. A disproportionate amount of Edmonton's female population consists of fat, ugly, waddling slobs with butch haircuts, body piercings, and tattoos. The sight of a good-looking woman who's nicely dressed is so rare now that when I see one, I'm both encouraged and depressed--encouraged to know that feminine woman haven't yet become completely extinct, and depressed because such sightings are now so rare.
For people to hold a parade to celebrate their pride in something they don't have and are uninterested in doing sounds like an idea for a Monty Python skit, but an asexuality parade actually took place in London in 2012 and a WorldPride Asexual Conference will be taking place in Toronto on June 28, 2014--which is more evidence that you can't be a satirist anymore.
Monday, 3 February 2014
20th Century Irish nationalism and Zionism
The connections and similarities between 20th Century Irish nationalism and Zionism seem far from obvious, but University of Chicago Ph.D. student Aidan Beatty has been conducting research which has turned up some interesting information on this. See his posts A Long and Oddly Intertwined History: Irish Nationalism and Zionism (January 23, 2013) and Body and Soul of the Nation: Early 20th Century Irish Nationalism and Zionism as Ideologies (February 5, 2013). You can download the podcast of an interview that Mr. Quinn did with Dublin radio station Near FM's The History Show early in 2013 by going here.
Sunday, 26 January 2014
Mormons participate in food bank drive
Related to my comments in the post below, here's an example of a group that worships a false god and preaches a false gospel performing the same kinds of community service works as those of many evangelical churches. Another backlog item, as reported by Catherine Griwkowsky of the Edmonton Sun, September 22, 2013:
When Mormons come knocking at your door, they’ll be hoping to collect food for the Edmonton Food Bank.
Volunteers with the city-wide food drive on Sept. 28 will hope to collect canned fish or meats, canned beans, macaroni and cheese, school snacks such as granola bars, fruit cups and juice boxes as well as peanut butter.
The food bank and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will team up for the food drive.
“For some, eating three meals a day is a luxury and hunger never takes a holiday. For these reasons, the Food Bank must ensure continued flow of food out to our neighbours in need,” said Marjorie Bencz, executive director for the food bank.
The snacks will go towards youth programs and agencies such as Crystal Kids...
An example of a dead church morphing into a community centre
In evangelical churches in recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on the church serving the world, with the result that churches are increasingly becoming community service centres, and are becoming harder to recognize as churches. In the item below from my backlog, we see what has happened to a mainline church in a small town. Pay attention to the mainline churches, because the liberalism that has destroyed them is increasingly infecting evangelical churches, which are heading in the same direction and will end up in the same place.
When an evangelical church adopts a phrase such as "Serve the World" as part of its slogan or mission statement, watch out; it's an indication that the church is turning in the direction of the social gospel, which is in fact a false gospel. I'm not saying that works such as those mentioned in the story below or community or social service works are necessarily bad, but if such works done by a church are not distinctively Christian, then the church is merely attaching its name to the sort of "good works" that anyone, saved or unsaved, might do. The further a church goes in the direction of serving the world, the more likely it is to become an institution of the world, and will no longer be recognizable as a Christian church.
As reported by Jim Coyle of the Toronto Star, July 14, 2012:
When an evangelical church adopts a phrase such as "Serve the World" as part of its slogan or mission statement, watch out; it's an indication that the church is turning in the direction of the social gospel, which is in fact a false gospel. I'm not saying that works such as those mentioned in the story below or community or social service works are necessarily bad, but if such works done by a church are not distinctively Christian, then the church is merely attaching its name to the sort of "good works" that anyone, saved or unsaved, might do. The further a church goes in the direction of serving the world, the more likely it is to become an institution of the world, and will no longer be recognizable as a Christian church.
As reported by Jim Coyle of the Toronto Star, July 14, 2012:
CODRINGTON, ONT.—It was the first morning of summer, before 9 o’clock already shirt-clingy, neck-swabbing hot, the air redolent with fresh-cut grass as two men on mowers kept the soccer field and baseball diamond in trim.
If this was Thursday, and it was, that meant line-dancing. And the parking lot outside the Codrington Community Centre was starting to fill.
Inside, coffee was already on the brew, the little public library was up and running, some line-dancing early-birds were chatting about their club’s new banner, and a directors’ meeting was starting about whether to improve the signage out front.
Let’s face it. The Codrington Community Centre signs have a lot of work to do.
There’s music night (mostly country) on Mondays at 7 p.m. Tuesday morning breakfast (at a bargain $3 a plate). Line dancing on Thursday mornings. Euchre every Friday at 8 p.m. Women’s Institute meetings the second Wednesday of every month at 7:45.
Not to mention the seasonal delights of trout barbecues, family days, roast-beef dinners and functions of some sort or other at Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween and Christmas.
The Codrington Community Centre is a blink-and-you-miss-it affair on Highway 30 north of the 401 — not far from where Trinity Anglican Church of Colborne was recently deconsecrated and just up the road from where Carman United Church is fighting for its survival, like many churches of all denominations these days around Ontario.
In some ways, the community centre was one rural area’s answer to the closing of a church — an expression of the notion that if God is love, and if love is action, authentic spirituality is found not in mere ritual piety, but in how people treat and care for one another.
Cathy McCann knows the sorrow of losing a church that can be a community’s place of comfort and joy and also the setting of life’s most important milestones.
McCann also knows that, sometimes, as T.S. Eliot wrote, “the end is where we start from.”
In 1929, Codrington United Church was built literally from the bricks of Wesleyan and Episcopal Methodist churches that it replaced and its construction included, along with its own, their original cornerstones.
Its building, a local historian wrote, was “a great example of co-operation in a common cause.” And for generations, it was the area’s community centre.
In 1968, owing to a diminishing congregations and church amalgamations, it was closed. And two years later — farming communities fearing that old churches risk suffering the indignity of becoming chicken barns — it was torn down.
Needless to say, there was huge sorrow and “everybody was disappointed,” said McCann, a Cobourg girl who’s lived in Codrington since she married husband Howard 52 years ago.
People had family pews. There were potluck dinners that required multiple sittings. “People had been raised in that church, maybe married,” McCann said.
“There was all the fundraising they did to restore that steeple. There was this little church, with this little congregation, but they were bound they were going to do it.”
And then it was gone, dismantled, various parts of it scattered around the region.
At its closure, members scattered to churches in Brighton and elsewhere, and probably a quarter “didn’t go anywhere,” she said, but drifted away, disillusioned...
...If, for most people, other houses of worship were eventually found, the loss of a local social anchor left a large hole. “We always used the church basement as our community centre,” Cathy McCann says.
The empty lot had been turned over to the local Women’s Institute and was for a time used as a park and the site of picnics and barbecues. After a time, thoughts turned to fundraising for a new community centre.
It was no easy task. There were negotiations and hoops to jump through with the municipality for any new development. There were also grants to pursue in those days from the former Wintario lottery. And, this being farm country, there were other ways to raise money.
There were bakes sales, hay rides, quilt draws, walkathons, bikeathons, yard sales. McCann’s family donated a woodlot and community volunteers “got together, cut firewood and sold it all winter.” Manure was bagged up and sold. “I don’t know what all we did.”
One thing McCann does now, she laughs now, is that “we did not know it was going to take seven years! But we were bound we were going to show (the at times unhelpful local) council we could do it.”
Do it they did. The original lot, unsuitable for the larger centre, was sold and another property a couple of lots south was purchased. The community centre was built in 1982. And, 30 years on, just about everything in its operation continues to be done by volunteers.
As McCann says, her choice of language a nod to the centre’s genesis, “in Codrington, no matter what we undertake, we are blessed with any number of willing workers.”
Liana Palmer is a retired parole officer from Warkworth Institute who arrived in the Brighton area in 1980 and has been an enthusiastic volunteer ever since.
In the last 30 years, there have been a lot of city folk retiring to the area who are delighted to find “this sense of community, because they didn’t have it in Toronto, or Ajax or Pickering,” she says.
“So our little Women’s Institute has grown a lot, because new people join it. And once you join, you’re volunteering for everything that happens here.”
She says they’re still trying to figure out a way to get teenagers more involved. Then again, who isn’t?
In 2011, as McCann reported in her recent newsletter, the Codrington hall was used 688 times — the centre for functions of one sort or another almost twice a day. In time, the board hired a maintenance person because the hall is so busy...
Monday, 13 January 2014
30 years ago: U.S.A. and Vatican reopen full diplomatic relations
Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. John 18:36
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:..
...And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth...
... And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. Revelation 17:3-4, 7-9, 18
On January 10, 1984, the United States and the Vatican reestablished full diplomatic relations after a hiatus of 117 years.
Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the Holy See began in the 18th century when the Papal States (before their absorption into Italy) agreed to open several Mediterranean ports to U.S. shipping. In 1797 John B. Sartori, an Italian, was named U.S. Consul...
In 1847, at the request of President James K. Polk, the U.S. Senate established a diplomatic post in the Papal States...until 1867 when anti-Catholic elements in the United States succeeded in getting the diplomatic mission eliminated.
Informal relations resumed in 1939 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Myron C. Taylor as his "personal envoy" to the Holy See...
In 1981, President Reagan named William A. Wilson, a Catholic, to the post. Wilson served until 1984, when the Vatican and the U.S. began full diplomatic relations and Wilson was made the first U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. Columbia (Knights of Columbus magazine), June 1990, p. 8 (cited by Dave Hunt, A Woman Rides the Beast (1994), p. 226)
Carl McIntire, President of the International Council of Christian Churches, expressed his displeasure at the establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S.A. and the Vatican in his newspaper, the Christian Beacon, January 12, 1984:
Graham Involved in Reagan’s Vatican Ambassador Decision
Mr. Reagan apparently had the Cold War on his mind when he restored diplomatic relations with the Vatican. The U.S.A. and Vatican City acted as allies in helping to bring down the Soviet Union, with the Vatican’s intelligence--better and quicker than that of the United States, according to Alexander Haig, U.S. Secretary of State (1981-1982)--and the political activities of Pope John Paul II playing major roles, acknowledged by Mr. Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet leader from 1985-1991. The story was told by Carl Bernstein in The Holy Alliance: Ronald Reagan and John Paul II, Time, February 24, 1992.
In the words of Mr. Hunt:
At this point we will leave it to the reader to consider the Vatican’s motivation in such heavy political intervention. The fact remains that such a role on the world scene, with its unholy alliances, political intrigues, and earthly goals, would be anathema to Christ’s true bride.
The Vatican has long been involved in clandestine activities and self-serving partnerships with many nations...
...Apparently Christ, whose kingdom at the beginning was "not of this world," had changed His mind. He who commissioned his disciples to call converts out of the world to heavenly citizenship with His gospel of redemptive grace has apparently decided to work with the nations of this world to create a paradise down here...
...Rome has not changed. Her ambitions remain very much of this world. Of course, it is in Christ’s name that she wants to reestablish her "reign over the kings of the earth." Dave Hunt, A Woman Rides the Beast (1994), pp. 225-226.
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:..
...And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth...
... And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. Revelation 17:3-4, 7-9, 18
On January 10, 1984, the United States and the Vatican reestablished full diplomatic relations after a hiatus of 117 years.
Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the Holy See began in the 18th century when the Papal States (before their absorption into Italy) agreed to open several Mediterranean ports to U.S. shipping. In 1797 John B. Sartori, an Italian, was named U.S. Consul...
In 1847, at the request of President James K. Polk, the U.S. Senate established a diplomatic post in the Papal States...until 1867 when anti-Catholic elements in the United States succeeded in getting the diplomatic mission eliminated.
Informal relations resumed in 1939 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Myron C. Taylor as his "personal envoy" to the Holy See...
In 1981, President Reagan named William A. Wilson, a Catholic, to the post. Wilson served until 1984, when the Vatican and the U.S. began full diplomatic relations and Wilson was made the first U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. Columbia (Knights of Columbus magazine), June 1990, p. 8 (cited by Dave Hunt, A Woman Rides the Beast (1994), p. 226)
Carl McIntire, President of the International Council of Christian Churches, expressed his displeasure at the establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S.A. and the Vatican in his newspaper, the Christian Beacon, January 12, 1984:
...The Roman Catholic Church and its state of a few acres are one. The Pope is the head of both, though both do not exist separately.According to this Associated Press article from January 23, 1984:
The arguments are now being presented. One: a personal representative has been doing the job since Roosevelt. The argument is reversed. He was appointed because we would not have an ambassador, but now we must have him as an ambassador because he was appointed.
Second: all the other nations are now doing it, 112 of them, even Great Britain, and only the U.S. and Russia are holding out. But we have a different concept of religious equality and liberty and should maintain our separation regardless of others.
Third: They can provide information not obtained in other channels. This betrays their entire position: the state is only a few acres, but the church is world-wide and does not occupy territory as a state in every country. The priests have their confessions which are supposed to be secret, but they gather through the confessional all manner of information not dealing with personal sins which they communicate to Rome to be provided to ambassadors. This is the direct use of religion under the guise of a state.
Fourth: The Pope is said now to be an international figure for peace and his leadership is influencing other nations. Here again it is using a religious leader an all his journeys, which he said were pastoral visits--U.S.A., England, Central America, Africa, the Philippines. Now the Pope becomes a world political leader, receiving a U.S. ambassador.
For the U.S. government to give prestige to this religious leadership is a devastating undermining of all the Protestants’ faith, especially those who are opposing the ecumenical movement. He uses the word, ecumenical, more frequently, perhaps more than any other church leader in the world. All of this must be dealt with.
Our radio program now will deal with these in the days that are ahead of us. We are planning a second Protestant pilgrimage to Washington.
It was our opposition that had a major part in reversing President Truman’s appointment of General Mark Clark as ambassador to the Vatican, which he withdrew in 1952. The issues are still the same, with the Roman Catholic church now more powerful.
It must now be in our lovely land of religious equality before the law.
Should the United States Have An Ambassador to the Vatican?
Statement by Dr. Carl McIntire on behalf of the International Council of Christian Churches on the appointment of an ambassador to the Vatican
January 10, 1984
The appointment of an ambassador to the Vatican destroys the equality of the churches before the law. There are several twists that have been used to mislead our people. The appointment of a personal representative was first made because an ambassador was not desired. Now his appointment has prepared the way for the securing of an official ambassador.
The effort to separate the church from the state collapses when the state covers only a few acres of geography in contrast to the broad world area from which the Roman Catholic Church gathers its information. The Vatican has no civil authorities and its value to the United States is confined to the material its network of priests can provide. In recent months the Pope has been traveling on pastoral visits. Now we are being told that the Pope, as an international figure, a position gained by such travel, with its political acumen and the information he possesses from these journeys, is of such value to the United States that he deserves to have a U.S. ambassador at his right hand.
But what is even more distressing is that everywhere he goes he is advocating church unity, which is without question a religious emphasis, and his concept of unity is that the church may be reunited throughout the world in one encompassing structure. This view is not accepted by millions of Christians who believe that their unity is spiritual and their fellowship with one another is in Jesus Christ and not in a visible ecclesiastical structure. The appointment of a U.S. ambassador to the Vatican now is tantamount to a de facto recognition and promotion of the ecumenical movement. This boundary is beyond the church itself and involves the liberal, pluralistic churches of the West.
There are reasons to oppose such a Vatican recognition which did not exist in 1952. The Bible-believing Christians throughout the world who have been lifting their voices against the development of a one-world church and the relation that such a structure would have to a world political leader are now more vitally concerned than ever. The United States must not give credibility or assistance to the Pope’s leadership in building both the world church and its corollary, a world state.
The Protestants of this country must now pay closer attention to the pressures in Washington brought by Roman Catholics who occupy positions under appointment in the State Department. All of the civil rights statutes require that there be no discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin.
Little Opposition to Vatican Ambassador
The announcement of the appointment of a United States Ambassador to the Vatican is justified in the press report on the ground that there was little opposition to it, that the opposition in 1952 that President Harry Truman faced did not develop.
The fact is there was not time for it to develop. The actions of Congress in rescinding objections which have stood in the past were done without any public knowledge. It has taken the Christian churches of the country by surprise...There simply has not been opportunity to confront the President with the will of the people. Constitution Hall in Washington must now be rented as it was in 1952, and the widest possible publicity and an array of speakers brought to the platform to let the President know that he is going to lose thousands and thousands of votes.
Religious liberty, the recognition of one state church as he has done transcends all other actions. He may boast of his improvements in the economy and tying the country with the Roman Catholic Church and all it has meant historically. The desire that our founding fathers had that Rome would not have preference or even an acknowledgment in this land across sea has now simply been dashed...
President Reagan is losing the support of fundamental and evangelical Christians all over the country, and they are not hesitating to say so. What this means to the future of the United States cannot be calculated.
Moreover the Vatican position on the Soviet Union is certainly not the position the United States has, and the influence of the Vatican in this area upon the United States would be damaging for the future of the country.
Chicago--The Rev. Billy Graham worked behind the scenes last spring to help President Reagan assess what the reaction of evangelical leaders would be to U.S. establishment of full diplomatic ties with the Vatican, The Chicago Sun-Times reported yesterday.Dr. McIntire offered his comments in the Christian Beacon, January 26, 1984:
Graham, who since Watergate has downplayed his relationship to U.S. presidents, summed up his findings in a confidential, seven-page letter to Interior Secretary William P. Clark, then the president’s national security adviser, the newspaper said.
"If anyone can do it and get away with it, it is Mr. Reagan," Graham reported, quoting a comment from one of his contacts.
A copy of the letter was obtained by The Sun-Times, the newspaper said.
On Jan. 10, Reagan established full diplomatic ties for the United States with the papal state after a break of 117 years. He nominated William Wilson, an old friend and California real estate developer, as ambassador.
Graham said in the letter that he made several "discreet inquiries" on a "confidential basis, and no mention was made of the fact that the inquiries were being made at the request of the White House."
Graham told Clark the reactions to expect from several "recognized leaders among evangelicals," then wrote, "I honestly don’t know what I personally would recommend that the president do.
"One person said, ‘If anyone can do it and get away with it,’ it is Mr. Reagan," the letter said.
"I think he would need to cover his political bases and be sure he brought people into the picture who might cause him trouble--Jews, Catholic Bishop’s Committee, National Council (of Churches), etc.
"It may be also that some people (like Jerry Falwell) could be persuaded to keep silent on the issue," it continued.
Graham said he and his associate, John Aker, made the inquiries and that he asked Gilbert Beers, editor of Christianity Today, "to raise the issue with Jerry Falwell, since he knows him better than I do."
Graham’s assessment of his colleagues stated that Falwell would be placed "in a very difficult position and hopes that the issue is not raised" because his Moral Majority includes both Roman Catholics and Baptists.
Falwell said after the announcement of full relations that he thought Reagan’s motives were "very sincere and pure" but that appointment of an ambassador to the Vatican was "a practical mistake."
"If the Southern Baptists were asking for an ambassador to Nashville, I’d be opposed to it," he said.
Graham Involved in Reagan’s Vatican Ambassador Decision
The revelation that Billy Graham was used by President Reagan to prepare for his decision to send a U.S. representative to the Vatican indicates how he himself has given up the Protestant position and heritage of our land. He not only would make no recommendation to the President, but he did advise him, "If anyone can do it and get away with it, it is Mr. Reagan."Billy Graham, with his typical compromise, political butt-kissing, and mischief-making, continued to give up the Protestant position to the extent that when Pope John Paul II died in 2005, Life magazine published a special commemorative issue, and Billy Graham wrote the introduction, praising John Paul II.
And Mr. Reagan proceeded to attempt to do so...
...There can be no possible way of accepting or justifying the recognition of the Pope as a part of the political activities of the United States...
Mr. Reagan apparently had the Cold War on his mind when he restored diplomatic relations with the Vatican. The U.S.A. and Vatican City acted as allies in helping to bring down the Soviet Union, with the Vatican’s intelligence--better and quicker than that of the United States, according to Alexander Haig, U.S. Secretary of State (1981-1982)--and the political activities of Pope John Paul II playing major roles, acknowledged by Mr. Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet leader from 1985-1991. The story was told by Carl Bernstein in The Holy Alliance: Ronald Reagan and John Paul II, Time, February 24, 1992.
In the words of Mr. Hunt:
At this point we will leave it to the reader to consider the Vatican’s motivation in such heavy political intervention. The fact remains that such a role on the world scene, with its unholy alliances, political intrigues, and earthly goals, would be anathema to Christ’s true bride.
The Vatican has long been involved in clandestine activities and self-serving partnerships with many nations...
...Apparently Christ, whose kingdom at the beginning was "not of this world," had changed His mind. He who commissioned his disciples to call converts out of the world to heavenly citizenship with His gospel of redemptive grace has apparently decided to work with the nations of this world to create a paradise down here...
...Rome has not changed. Her ambitions remain very much of this world. Of course, it is in Christ’s name that she wants to reestablish her "reign over the kings of the earth." Dave Hunt, A Woman Rides the Beast (1994), pp. 225-226.
Friday, 10 January 2014
Pharaoh in recently-discovered Egyptian tomb identified as Sobekhotep I
As reported by Voice of Russia, January 7, 2014:
The tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh King Sobekhotep I, believed to be first king of the 13th Dynasty (1781BC-1650BC), has been discovered by a team from the University of Pennsylvania at Abydos in Middle Egypt, 500km south of Cairo.Go here and here for more information.
The team from the University of Pennsylvania had discovered the quartzite sarcophagus of Sobekhotep I, which weighed about 60 tonnes, a year ago, but was unable to identify who it belonged to until last week, the ministry said.
Its identity was established after the team found fragments of a slab inscribed with the pharaoh's name and showed him sitting on a throne, Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said in a statement.
"He is likely the first who ruled Egypt at the start of the 13th dynasty during the second intermediate period," the minister said.
The discovery is important as not much information was available about Sobekhotep I "who ruled Egypt for four years and a half, the longest rule at this time," said Ayman El-Damarani, a ministry official.
The tomb's discovery in the southern archaeological site of Abydos is expected to reveal more details about his life and rule, he added.
The team also discovered the remnants of canopic vases traditionally used to preserve internal body organs, along with gold objects owned by the king.
Since new royal tombs are rarely discovered, and as only ten from the 13th Dynasty are known—all at Dahshur, just south of Cairo—this is an important find. King Sobekhotep I ruled for only about three years, at a time when Egypt was entering a period of decline. In fact, the chronological evidence for this period is so complex that scholars are still debating the order of the 13th Dynasty kings.
Sobekhotep I’s tomb was constructed from limestone brought from the Tura quarries near modern Cairo, while his burial chamber is made from red quartzite. The burial was originally topped by a pyramid. Among the further finds are a 60-ton quartzite sarcophagus, a stele bearing the name of the king, an image of Sobekhotep I enthroned, parts of the canopic jars that once contained the pharaohs internal organs, and funerary objects.
Excavation at the tomb is ongoing, though Egypt’s antiquities chief, Mohamed Ibrahim, hopes to open the site to the public, once the tomb has been restored.
Thursday, 9 January 2014
Royal Canadian Air Force doesn't need permission to fly drones in Canada
RCAF drones are absolutely necessary, of course, for national security--and what could possibly go wrong? Another backlog item, as reported by David Pugliese of the Ottawa Citizen, August 17, 2013:
Canada’s air force has determined that, unlike its counterparts in the United States and Europe, it does not need approval from civil aviation agencies to fly drones in domestic airspace and it will operate those unmanned planes as it sees fit, according to newly released Department of National Defence documents.
But the air force acknowledges that flying the drones in domestic airspace shared by civilian jetliners and other aircraft will be challenging.
The issue of whether to allow unmanned aerial vehicles — or UAVs — to operate in domestic airspace is currently being hotly debated in Europe. In June, Germany’s defence officials were accused of wasting more than $1 billion after they purchased long-range UAVs, only to be told by the European Aviation Safety Agency that the aircraft would not be allowed to fly in Europe. The aircraft did not have a proper collision-avoidance system, the safety agency determined.
The debate was further fuelled by the leak last month of two videos to German news outlets. One showed a German military UAV almost colliding with a passenger jet over Kabul, Afghanistan; the other showed German military personnel fleeing from an out-of-control Heron UAV, also in Afghanistan. The Heron later slammed into a military transport plane sitting on the runway.
The Heron is the same type of drone the Canadian military leased for its Afghanistan operations.
Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) planners examining the proposed purchase of UAVs predicted back in 2011 that flying drones in commercial airspace would become an issue, but noted they didn’t have to worry.
The RCAF doesn’t need approval from Transport Canada or Nav Canada to fly the aircraft domestically, according to the documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen through the access-to-information law.
The RCAF pointed out that the Canadian situation is very different from Europe and the U.S., where civilian agencies set the rules. The air force concluded that it saw no significant risks to routine operation of UAVs in Canada.
But the briefing note also added that “in the domestic environment in both high-use and uncongested airspace regions the employment of military unmanned aircraft will provide greater challenges.”
The Conservative government wants to purchase a fleet of up to 18 medium-altitude UAVs for the RCAF. No specific costs have been released but the project’s price tag is estimated to be over $1.5 billion.
The solution to operating in civilian airspace will be based on air traffic management and collision and avoidance systems, the RCAF has determined. “An autonomous ‘sense and avoid’ capability will be pursued to permit ever increasing access to Canadian Airspace,” the briefing added.
Such technology would allow UAVs to automatically avoid mid-air collisions.
Capt. Holly-Anne Brown of the RCAF noted in an email sent Thursday to the Citizen that while aerospace firms are working on a sense-and-avoid system for UAVs, that is not considered an essential requirement for the Canadian military’s planned purchase of such aircraft.
“The RCAF has procedures in place that will ensure the safe operation of any UAVs we operate,” she added.
Access to airspace for any of the Canadian Forces unmanned aerial vehicles “will be conducted in a deliberate and co-ordinated fashion, and through incremental steps, to ensure the safety of all airspace users,” Brown also stated.
In addition, there is significant co-ordination between the military and Transport Canada and Nav Canada, she added.
But Steve Staples, president of the Ottawa-based Rideau Institute, says the debate in Europe raises serious concerns about UAV flight safety in Canada. “It’s one thing to be flying a drone over the desert in Afghanistan but it’s something else to fly them over Ottawa or Toronto,” said Staples, who is spearheading a campaign against the military’s purchase of armed UAVs.
He said the lack of civilian safety oversight could lead to an accident in the future.
Staples pointed out that the 2011 report from the military’s flight-safety branch acknowledged 10 Canadian UAV crashes between 2007 and 2010. Most of those happened in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and involved engine failures. Since the early 2000s, there have been 42 accidents involving Canadian Forces UAVs.
While the military conducted experiments with UAVs in domestic airspace in 2004, the RCAF briefing note pointed out that “nowhere was civilian approval or permission required or sought.”
Although Canadian Forces UAVs do not routinely operate outside their restricted airspace at this point, that constraint is entirely self-imposed by the military, it added.
Some police forces in Canada operate small UAVs but need special permission from Transport Canada to fly them.
Drones to fly over pipelines in Alberta
Pipelines today, the entire province tomorrow--all for our good, of course. Another backlog item, as reported by Sarah O'Donnell of the Edmonton Journal, August 12, 2013:
Unmanned aerial drones may one day watch over the pipelines that criss-cross Alberta's landscape, and the province is hoping to develop such cutting-edge technology with Nevada's help.
Alberta has signed a new agreement with the U.S. state on developing drones to boost the province's reputation in the aerospace industry, as it pushes for economic development beyond the energy sector.
The three-year deal, signed at the recent U.S. Council of State Governments-West meeting in Las Vegas, pledges the two governments will work together in the developing field of unmanned vehicle systems, commonly referred to as drones.
Though military use of these small aircraft often dominates headlines - particularly last week as U.S. drone strikes continued in Yemen - a growing sector is working to harness the technology equipment for civilian use.
Alberta, home to the Canadian Centre for Unmanned Vehicle Systems in Medicine Hat, is one of the hot spots.
"The technology has been proven in the military applications, but it is moving toward the civilian, commercial, industrial and agricultural applications: things like pipeline surveillance, forestry monitoring and the agricultural sector as well," said Derek Cummings, spokesman for International and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Cal Dallas.
"It's a growth industry," Dallas said. "It's an opportunity to diversify our economy, so there are benefits for us for sure."
About 70 companies, military agencies and educational institutions are working in Alberta on the research, development and testing of these complex systems, the provincial government says.
Other companies are beginning to integrate the technology into their business. Stantec, for example, recently purchased its first unmanned aerial vehicle to help with its mapping and topographical work. The small plane has a wingspan of almost one metre, weighs 630 grams and takes high-resolution pictures.
Still, the sector only accounts for a fraction of province's $1.3-billion aerospace and defence industry. Nationwide, most aviation-related research and development in the country's $22-billion aerospace industry is in Ontario and Quebec.
Provincial officials believe these small, unmanned aircraft have a big future in Alberta, particularly with the Canadian centre of excellence located at Medicine Hat's airport. The federal government also is weighing whether to approve an unmanned vehicle training centre in southeast Alberta near Foremost, with restricted airspace that would allow companies and researchers to fly tests of the equipment beyond their line of sight.
Nevada, meanwhile, has applied to become home to one of six Federal Aviation Administration-approved unmanned vehicle test sites in the U.S.
Officials with ING Robotic Aviation, an Ottawa-based company with thousands of hours experience supporting Canadian troops in Afghanistan with aerial surveillance, said the two jurisdictions are a good fit.
Nevada has a long history of aviation experimentation, said Jeremy Byatt, ING's senior counsel of corporate affairs.
Alberta is a place where there are huge growth opportunities for the sector, such as using the remotely piloted aircraft to help monitor the thousands of kilometres of pipeline across the province. ING, for example, plans to open its first Alberta office in Calgary this week.
"Free speech for me, but not for thee" at Carleton University
As the old saying goes, a liberal is someone who says, "Everyone has the right to my own opinion." I've never seen anyone more intolerant than sodomite/lesbian/(insert pervert group here) advocates, who can't stand the thought of even one person being less than 100% supportive of their aggressive agenda. Those who are old enough to remember when this movement began will recall that originally it was just about having homosexual acts removed from the Criminal Code. The advocates didn't argue that their behaviour was the moral equivalent of heterosexual behaviour, much less marriage. Who would have thought, 40-50 years ago, that the pervert rights movement would lead to payment of benefits to same-sex "partners;" adoption of children by such couples; and sodomite/lesbian "marriage"? As recently as 20-25 years ago, it was those who supported such "marriages" who were the way-out fringe element in society; now it's those who uphold the laws of nature and the traditions of anything historically regarded as civilization who are regarded as extremists.
For a particularly egregious example of the intolerance of the advocates of perversion, this backlog item is submitted for your approval. As reported by Katherine DeClerq of Canadian University Press, January 30, 2013:
That such an innocuous statement as "traditional marriage is aweseome" would be perceived as an "act of violence" against sodomite rights shows that such activists are not only incapable of distinguishing speech from behaviour, but that their whole movement isn't about affirming anything positive on their own behalf as much as it is bent on destroying traditional morality (and National Post columnist Jonathan Kay provided appropriate commentary on students who have been in university for seven years without yet, apparently, earning a degree).
For a particularly egregious example of the intolerance of the advocates of perversion, this backlog item is submitted for your approval. As reported by Katherine DeClerq of Canadian University Press, January 30, 2013:
The Carleton Free Speech Wall was an initiative put forth by the Carleton Students for Liberty Society (SFL) that was meant to measure the level of discourse on campus. For five days, students were encouraged to write on the wall and enact their rights of free expression.As reported by Tristin Hopper in the National Post, January 22, 2013:
On Jan. 21, Arun Smith, Campaign Coordinator for the Challenge Homophobia and Transphobia Campaign, removed the display from the Unicentre Galleria.
“When we talk about free speech we forget to talk about the structures behind it and the way free speech can be used to reinforce and create violence and hatred,” said Smith.
“In the case of the free speech wall, it’s unregulated free speech, and unlimited free speech will always dissolve into hate speech, and that is exactly why, to prevent the triggering of students, the expression of hatred and the invalidation of people’s identities, I took down the wall.”
Ian CoKehyeng, president of SFL, maintained that the comments on the wall were primarily positive, and that he was surprised at the maturity of the campus.
“You can’t have the good without the bad,” said CoKehyeng in response to some of the negative comments written on the Carleton Free Speech Wall.
“We wanted to challenge the monopoly of opinions that we felt were happening on the university campus and create a marketplace of ideas. We didn’t know what the end goal was going to be — it could have ended really badly or ended very well, [but] it has been very positive.”
However, Smith does not believe that the positive messages outweighed the alleged negative overtones of the others. He cited phrases such as “abortion is murder” and “traditional marriage is awesome” as examples of how the Carleton Free Speech Wall was not conducive to a safe and tolerant university space.
CoKeyheng explained that Smith had always been wary of the project, insisting that it would create an unsafe space on campus.
“[Smith] was already complaining about it before the wall was up, accusing us of putting up a platform for potential homophobia,” said CoKehyeng.
A second wall has been erected Unicentre and there have been no further damages.
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), the organization that sponsored the project, was saddened by the display’s removal, but said that they were proud of the way the SFL rebounded its efforts.
“It’s very disappointing to see that level of ignorance about what free speech is about. The person who stole or removed the wall had their opportunity, along with everybody else, to express their opinions,” said JCCF president John Carpay. “If we allow personal subjection of hate to be a tool for censorship, then neither Smith nor anyone else has any free speech left over.”
“These students have character and persistence, and it is good to see that they won’t allow themselves to become completely discouraged by this.”
Student Affairs at Carleton University is currently considering the application of sanctions against Smith based on the Student Rights and Responsibilities Code for damage to property under $500.00. Disciplinary action can include a fine and an apology.
Student Affairs has confirmed that this is the first incident of its kind at Carleton.
...Installed on Monday in the Unicentre Galleria, one of campus’ most high-traffic areas, the wall was really more of a 1.2 x 1.8 meter wooden plank wrapped in paper and equipped with felt markers.The reader will note that's it's a "human rights" student who exhibited the most intolerance--which is why for the last several years I've been saying that I don't believe in human rights; I believe in freedom, as opposed to "human rights." My friend Ezra Levant's book Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights (2009) is must reading, and not just for Canadians (The U.S.A., unfortunately, has increasingly been adopting Canada's bad ideas in recent years, which is why Americans should pay attention to what's going on in The Great White North to see what they should be avoiding).
By Tuesday morning the wall was gone, destroyed in an act of “forceful resistance,” by seventh-year human rights student Arun Smith.
“In organizing the ‘free speech wall,’ the Students for Liberty have forgotten that liberty requires liberation, and this liberation is prevented by providing space … for the expression of hate,” he wrote in a 600-word Facebook post in which he identified himself as an anti-homophobia campaigner.
Calling the area around the wall a “war zone,” he intimated that it was “but another in a series of acts of violence” against gay rights.
In a Tuesday afternoon Twitter exchange with a CBC reporter, Mr. Smith dubbed free speech an “illusory concept” and declared that “not every opinion is valid, nor deserving of expression...”
...In truth, the wall’s only overt references to sexual orientation were pro-gay, such as “QUEERS ARE AWESOME,” “Gay is OK” and “I [Heart] Queers.”
The only comment that verged into anti-gay territory was a scrawl reading “traditional marriage is awesome.”
According to Mr. CoKehyeng, the four-word phrase prompted a visit from Ryan Flannagan, the university’s director of student affairs.
“He saw that it wasn’t inciting hate speech at all, so he let that one slide,” said Mr. CoKehyeng...
That such an innocuous statement as "traditional marriage is aweseome" would be perceived as an "act of violence" against sodomite rights shows that such activists are not only incapable of distinguishing speech from behaviour, but that their whole movement isn't about affirming anything positive on their own behalf as much as it is bent on destroying traditional morality (and National Post columnist Jonathan Kay provided appropriate commentary on students who have been in university for seven years without yet, apparently, earning a degree).
"Rev." Fred Phelps sends hate tweets to a Canadian university
Perhaps the greatest hustler in the history of the movie business was Kroger Babb, who spent more than 30 years from the late 1930s to the early 1970s producing and promoting "exploitation" films. His best known film was Mom and Dad (1945), which featured footage of a live birth. To promote the movie, Mr. Babb orchestrated his own protest campaign, fabricating letters and leaflets to newspapers and churches, ostensibly from people concerned about the film's moral basis, in an attempt to generate controversy and attract huge numbers of people to see a movie that would otherwise be ignored. Mr. Babb's approach worked so well that Mom and Dad was reportedly the third-highest-grossing movie of the entire decade of the 1940s; its box office receipts were estimated to be anywhere from $40 million-$100 million, for a movie that cost just $63,000 to make.
As Mr. Babb manufactured protests against his movies in an attempt to increase his success, I've long been suspicious of "Rev." Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. If I were a sodomite/lesbian activist, I would either pay Fred Phelps to caricature Christian opposition to perversion or, if he's actually sincere in his views, I would strongly encourage him to continue and encourage as much publicity for him as possible. As this backlog item from a year ago shows, he's not above sending nasty tweets to those involved with the production of a play he doesn't like. Usually "Rev." Phelps threatens to show up in person to protest an event and then chickens out after the resultant publicity, but on this occasion he was content to remain online. Perhaps he figured that it wouldn't be worth the bother of even threatening to show up in St. John's in January--or maybe he's unaware that Newfoundland is in Canada. As an aside, it should be pointed out that it's far from a proven fact that hatred of homosexuality was the main factor motivating the murderers of Matthew Shepard.
As reported by Laura Howells in the Memorial University of Newfoundland newspaper The Muse, January 9, 2013:
As Mr. Babb manufactured protests against his movies in an attempt to increase his success, I've long been suspicious of "Rev." Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. If I were a sodomite/lesbian activist, I would either pay Fred Phelps to caricature Christian opposition to perversion or, if he's actually sincere in his views, I would strongly encourage him to continue and encourage as much publicity for him as possible. As this backlog item from a year ago shows, he's not above sending nasty tweets to those involved with the production of a play he doesn't like. Usually "Rev." Phelps threatens to show up in person to protest an event and then chickens out after the resultant publicity, but on this occasion he was content to remain online. Perhaps he figured that it wouldn't be worth the bother of even threatening to show up in St. John's in January--or maybe he's unaware that Newfoundland is in Canada. As an aside, it should be pointed out that it's far from a proven fact that hatred of homosexuality was the main factor motivating the murderers of Matthew Shepard.
As reported by Laura Howells in the Memorial University of Newfoundland newspaper The Muse, January 9, 2013:
A local production of the Laramie Project recently received hate-messages from the Westboro Baptist Church.
The Laramie Project was a production put off by the MUN theatre class 4401 at the LSPU Hall.
The play tells the true story of Matthew Shepard, a 21 year old man who in 1998, was beaten and left to die for being gay. Shepard’s funeral was picketed by the notoriously homophobic Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), who delivered such provocative messages as “God hates fags,” among other similar hate-slogans.
The church, led by its pastor Rev. Fred Phelps, has since gone on to picket the funerals of AIDS victims, American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many other institutions or individuals who the WBC deems to be “nation-destroying filth.”
The St. John’s production of the Laramie Project was protested online by Fred Phelps’ son, Fred Phelps Jr. Phelps sent the Laramie Project NL hate-messages via Twitter such as “LSPU Hall are a group of fag enablers” and “You will burn in Hell for all of eternity.”
Jon Aylward was the lighting designer for the Laramie Project. He says that the messages from the WBC were “some of the most vile messages [he'd] ever seen typed on a screen.”
“The cast and crew turned a blind eye to the whole thing,” said Aylward. “No matter what angle we took with it, Laramie was controversial before our involvement and will probably remain so for many decades to come. Our concern, first and foremost, was to tell the story.”
Aylward says that while the production was never about garnering a reaction from the WBC, it was certainly an invigorating experience.
“It was more exhilarating for us than anything else,” said Aylward. “[The WBC] are in the media all the time; they react to everything. But this time, ‘we’ were the ones that were creating that reaction! It was an empowering feeling for everyone.”
Aylward says that while the WBC’s reaction to the production certainly increased the project’s publicity, the play’s success was based solely on its own merit.
“Controversy helped to put people in the seats, but all the controversy in the world couldn’t have created those standing ovations.”
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
Inuktitut Bible app available for free download
Another backlog item, as reported by the Iqaluit newspaper Nunatsiaq News, March 28, 2013 (links in original):
The Inuit language bible, produced in Inuktitut syllabics last June after 34 years of work, is now available for download online.I'm suspicious of anything coming from the Anglican Church of Canada, but if that's all that's available, so be it. If it took 34 years for this version of the Bible to be published, it's unlikely that another Inuktitut version will be coming out soon.
The Inuktitut Bible application can be downloaded for free on a number of devices, including computers, iPads, iPhones, iPods and android phones.
However, the app won’t work on older Blackberry smartphones, but it will work on computers and laptops.
The online version of the Inuktitut Bible took about a year to develop, because of the “unusual font” of Inuktitut, according to a spokesperson from the company that helped develop the app in Kitchener, Ontario.
Last June, the Inuktitut Bible was dedicated at the new St. Jude’s Cathedral in Iqaluit.
The cathedral’s dedication services featured the consecration of the Anglican Church’s new Inuktitut Bible, produced by a team lead by Bishop Benjamin Arreak.
Andrew Atagotaaluk, the former Bishop of the Arctic, had earlier praised the project, saying that for the first time, readers of syllabics could read all books of the Old and New Testament in the Inuit language.
The Inuktitut Bible also marked the first time in Canada that a translation was done by first-language speakers of Inuktitut rather than by missionaries.
The first draft of that Bible was completed after 23 years of collaboration between the Canadian Bible Society and the Diocese of the Arctic of the Anglican Church of Canada.
The online Inuktitut Bible can be downloaded here, by selecting Inuktitut from a pull-down menu.
No paranoia here: Turkey clears kestrel of suspicions of being an Israeli spy
Another backlog item, as reported by the Times of Israel, July 26, 2013:
A bird captured in Turkey on suspicion of being an Israeli spy was released after a thorough examination revealed that the falcon was not in the employ of the Mossad.While the Turks are correct in not underestimating Israeli cleverness and resourcefulness, such willingness on their part to believe in enemy conspiracies is not a recent phenomenon. Submitted for your approval is the following item from The Times of London, April 6, 1920:
Resident of the Ağın district in the eastern province of Elazığ became concerned after a kestrel, with a tag reading “24311 Tel Avivunia Israel,” ventured nearby, Turkish media reported Friday.
After capturing the winged invader, locals turned it over to Turkish authorities, who had the bird X-rayed at a nearby university, according to the Turkish news outlet Hurriyet.
The bird was apparently registered as an “Israeli spy” by medical personnel.
After determining that the bird had been tagged for research purposes and not snooping, authorities released the kestrel back into the sky.
Israeli use of non-human spies is apparently a large concern in the Middle East. In May of 2012, authorities in Ankara dissected a European bee-eater after becoming concerned that it was carrying an Israeli listening device, and in December an eagle with an Israeli tag in Sudan was captured and touted as a Mossad spy.
In 2010, an Egyptian official said Israel-controlled sharks could be involved in a number of attacks on tourists in the Red Sea.
"SERLO KOLMS" IN CONSTANTINOPLE.HT: Hal Lindsey Media Ministries, This week on 'The Hal Lindsey Report', August 23, 2013
--------------
THE GENERATION OF A MYTH.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
CONSTANTINOPLE, March 18 (by mail).
...it was with a feeling of resentment that a large section of us, on reaching the landing-stage at Kadikeui to depart for Galata by the most popular morning boat, discovered that something was happening at the European side which we did not understand. The ticket offices were closed. An empty steamer pulled solemnly alongside. The officials, pressed for explanations, remarked that there had been an order for the boats to stop running.
The public nervously watched the other side of the water. One or two, blessed with the eye of faith, averred that they could see Allied soldiers disembarking at Seraglio Point. Forthwith an explanation was found. The Allies were landing troops on the bridge between Galata, and Stambul, and therefore the boats were not running.
PUZZLED CROWD.
The crowd settled down to lounge about near the landing stage, or to sit in the adjacent cafes. Then came the buzzing of a seaplane, which performed various evolutions above Kadekeui and Haidar Pasha. The crowd promptly thickened. It was a lovely day, bright and clear, and the seaplane was worth watching. We became quite interested. Next came a green-grey launch, flying the tricolour of France, and carrying a disproportionately lengthy naval gun; she performed more evolutions on the water in front of us, and suddenly broke off to stop a tug which had apparently trespassed and send it back to Haidar Pasha.
At this all felt that the explanation that troops were landing could not be correct. Something more was needed. It was supplied by the Nationalist Orator, a fearsome gentleman who pounces mercilessly on friends, acquaintances, and comparative strangers on ferry steamers, and expounds the beauties of Nationalism to them in sonorous tones. Having collected a little group around him by artifices such as were used by Mr. Joseph Finsbury in "The Wrong Box," he explained that the patriotic sailors of the ferry company had gone on strike as a protest against the scandalous language used by Lord Curzon and Mr. Lloyd George against Turkey.
For a moment many accepted the explanation which X. Effendi repeated in French for the benefit of Europeans, adding that the sailors had thereby shown "a laudable and patriotic initiative." But he had barely ceased to perorate when a cabman whose Turkish was fluent if he had no French arrived to inform us that no trains were running and that the British had seized Haidar Pasha Station. The strike had hardly accounted for this!
A GREEK "SPELLBINDER."
Presently the crowd began to thin. A great part of it drifted towards a cafe. The writer followed. There sat a happy Greek sailor in his shirt-sleeves. He had seen a great personage, Djemal Pasha, he believed, being marched through the streets in the custody of British soldiers in the small hours of the morning. With vigorous gesture, he described the how and the when in excruciating Turkish mingled with Greek.
I left him spell-binding. That evening I heard more. Yes, it was pretty certain that three Turks had been caught trying to blow up the British general with dynamite bombs. (The general had denied it, but of course there might be political and diplomatic reasons for his denial!)
One of my neighbours who had seen something for himself on the other side found that his servants knew more than he though they had not crossed the water. One had seen captive Nationalists conducted to a launch and British troops occupy Haidar Pasha Station.
"It was very well done," said he; "this time unimportant people were left alone."
"But do you know why?" asked another, who regards the cinema as the greatest educational influence of the age. "The English have brought "Serlo Kolms" (Greeks are as weak over the "sh" as the tribe of Ephraim) out to Constantinople. A wonderful man that! He just puts his nose in the air and smells out evil-doers. How brilliant an idea to employ him!"
Thus do myths arise in the Near East. I shall be surprised if Yanni, grown older and more garrulous, does not one day describe to his wondering and believing friends how he witnessed the dramatic arrest of Djemal Pasha by "Serlo Kolms" on that memorable March 16, 1920.
"Serlo Kolms" is a real being to many frequenters of our cinemas, and recently a newspaper advertising a coming feuilleton published the notice "Sherlock Holmes a Constantinople" in several successive numbers. This was taken literally by certain Greek and Turkish readers, who blamed a rival newspaper for failing to report the presence of this celebrity here! It is now an article of faith with many that Sherlock is here and at work, presumably in the "I" branch.
Monday, 6 January 2014
1,700-year-old curse tablet discovered in Jerusalem
Another backlog item, as reported by Israel Antiquities Authority, October 2013:
A rolled-up sheet of lead bearing a Greek inscription was recently discovered in archaeological excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting in the Giv‘ati parking lot in the City of David, funded by the ‘Ir David Fellowship. This is a curse tablet bearing a spell that was probably written by a professional sorcerer or wizard.The article A Juridical Curse from a Roman Mansion in the City of David by Doron Ben Ami, Yana Tchekhanovets, and Robert Walter Daniel was published in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Volume 186 (2013), pp. 227-236, but doesn't yet seem to be available online for free.
According to Dr. Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets, the excavation directors on behalf to the Israel Antiquities Authority, “the tablet was discovered in one of the rooms of an enormous building from the Roman period, which was excavated at the site in recent years. The building, which was constructed during the third century CE at the northern end of the City of David spur, was destroyed in the earthquake that struck the region in 363 CE, as evidenced by the many coins found amongst the collapse of its second story. A wealth of artifacts from this period was recovered from inside the ruins that were excavated in the building’s northeastern corner. Besides the lead tablet, the finds include a large amount of roof tiles stamped with the impression of the Tenth Legion that was garrisoned in the city following its destruction in 70 CE, bone and ivory objects, ceramic figurines and other finds attesting to the rich material culture of the structure’s inhabitants. Fresco remains found in the collapse are evidence of the second story walls decorated with painted floral and geometric patterns.
The lead tablet, which at the time of its discovery resembled a small narrow pipe, was sent to the laboratories of the Israel Antiquities Authority in order to be opened. After many days of toiling, Lena Kupershmidt, an IAA conservator, was the first person to set eyes on the ancient script since it was rolled up some 1,700 years ago. She needed much patience and nerves of steel to open the lead tablet because any attempt to do so quickly might have caused permanent damage to the inscription. When the tablet was finally unrolled it turned out it was in an excellent state of preservation, and included a Greek inscription that covers the entire surface of one side of the tablet, as well as part of the other side.
The tablet was sent for analysis and deciphering to Dr. Robert Daniel of the University of Cologne, Germany, a world renowned expert in the field. According to Dr. Daniel the text was written in cursive script and it was obviously not created by Kyrilla herself, rather by a professional sorcerer hired by her. The inscription invokes the curse a woman named Kyrilla wants cast on a man by the name of Iennys, probably in the wake of some legal dispute, the nature of is unclear. To this end she calls upon the help of the gods of the underworld, among them Pluto, Hermes Persephone, and even the Mesopotamian goddess Ereshkigal is asked to assist.
“I strike and strike down and nail down the tongue, the eyes, the wrath, the ire, the anger, the procrastination, the opposition of Iennys” – so says Kyrilla in one portion of the curse tablet. What we have here might be a metaphorical description of actions taken by Kyrilla designed to gain control over her legal opponent. At the same time we cannot rule out the possibility that writing the text on the tablet was literally accompanied by Kyrilla striking the image (?) of Iennys with a hammer and nails in a kind of ancient voodoo ritual.
Kyrilla hid the tablet in a place associated with Iennys and therefore the second floor room inside the ruins where the tablet was discovered was probably his residence. Alternately, a courtroom might have been situated in this corner of the Roman building where the trial of Kyrilla and Iennys was conducted. Kyrilla evidently concealed the object shortly before the structure was destroyed in the earthquake, after which the building was abandoned and never reinhabited.
500-year-old Jewish skeleton discovered in Brazil
Another backlog item:
The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. Deuteronomy 28:25
As reported by Jewish Telegraphic Agency, July 19, 2013:
The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. Deuteronomy 28:25
As reported by Jewish Telegraphic Agency, July 19, 2013:
Brazilian archaeologists unearthed what they said are the 500-year-old remains of a Jewish man in Recife.Go here to see an article in Portuguese about the dig.
A report Thursday in the online edition of the Rio de Janeiro-based O Globo described the discovery earlier this month of a perfectly preserved skeleton of a male adult. The skeleton was found during earthwork in Recife, in northern Brazil, where Portuguese Jews in 1636 built the first known synagogue in the New World.
Marcos Albuquerque of the Federal University of Pernambuco, who oversaw the dig around the skeleton, told O Globo he had no doubt the man was Jewish and that he was buried sometime in the 16th century.
“In Christian tradition, it is customary to bury the dead with their hands crossed over their chest, but this man was buried with hands laid alongside his body before rigor mortis set in,” Albuquerque said. “Furthermore, the body was buried in simple shroud without jewelry or any other private belonging and without casket.”
The body was found five feet underground, O Globo reported, during the construction of a tunnel, Tunel da Abolicao, in Recife’s central neighborhood of Madalena. The tomb is situated approximately 1.5 miles east of the Kahal Zur synagogue, which Jews who fled the Portuguese and Spanish Inquisitions built in Recife, which was then still a Dutch colony.
Determining exactly when the man was buried would require the removal of a piece of the skeleton for carbon dating.
“But out of respect to the religious issue, we left the body where it was found,” Albuquerque said.
Majority of Israel's Jews oppose building synagogue or Temple on Temple Mount
Another backlog item, as reported by Kobi Nahshoni of Ynet News, July 16, 2013:
And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. Revelation 11:1-2
The majority of the Israeli public is in favor of freedom of religion for Jews on the Temple Mount but is against building a synagogue or the Temple itself at the holy site, according to a survey conducted ahead of the annual Jewish fast day of Tisha B'Av, which takes place Tuesday.We know that the Temple will be rebuilt, with the possibility that some of the land in the vicinity will be left for the Gentiles:
The poll, commissioned by the Israel Independence Fund and the Joint Forum of Temple Mount Organizations, was conducted by the Maagar Mochot research institute in honor of the period of mourning commemorating the destruction of the first and second Jewish Temples.
The survey included 523 respondents – a representative sample of the adult Jewish population in Israel. The maximum sampling error was 4.5%.
Although the Western Wall draws its sacredness from the Temple Mount, 66% of respondents said it was the holiest place in the Land of Israel, while only 29% favored the Temple's location itself. Two percent mentioned the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, another 2% chose the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, and 1% - Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem.
A breakdown of the responses according to religious affiliation reveals that the secular and traditional public sees the Western Wall as the holiest site (67%), while the national-religious and ultra-Orthodox chose the Temple Mount (49-54%).
Secular and traditional Jews, by the way, visit the Western Wall once every few years (44%) while religious and haredi Jews arrive at the site several times a year (53-54%).
55% interested in visiting Temple Mount
As opposed to the Western Wall, there appears to be an inverse proportion between the affinity to the Temple Mount and respondents' level of religiousness: The higher their conservatism – the more distant they feel from the Temple site. This stems from the halachic prohibition to get too close to holiness, which deters them from going up to the Mount.
Forty-nine percent of respondents believe it is important for Jews to visit the Temple Mount (including 45% of secular-traditional Jews and 78% of national-religious Jews), but 40% view it as unimportant (65% of haredim and those defined in the survey as "hardalim" – religious Zionist Jews inclines significantly toward haredi ideology). Among those in favor, 57% said it should only be done according to the rules of Halacha.
The survey participants were asked, "Will you be interested in visiting the Temple Mount as part of a tour of Jerusalem?" Fifty-five percent said yes (60% of secular-traditional Jews and 68% of national-religious Jews), and 38% said no (75% of haredim-hardalim). Yet 58% would not say a prayer even if it were possible (61% of secular-traditional and 70% of haredim-hardalim), and 34% would pray (including 73% of national-religious Jews).
About 50%: Muslim Waqf controls Mount
What about the establishment of a prayer house (or actual synagogue) on the Mount? Forty-nine percent are against the idea (47% of secular-traditional Jews and 85% of haredim), and 30% are in favor (52% of national-religious).
"May the Temple be built soon in our lifetime?" Only 30% are in favor of rebuilding the Temple today (43% of national-religious), while 45% are against it (45% of secular-traditional Jews and 62% of haredim).
Forty-nine percent of the public believes the Temple Mount is under the sovereignty of the Muslim Waqf, and only 19% think the State of Israel controls the site (others mentioned Jordan and the Palestinian Authority as well). Among those who claim there is no Israeli sovereignty, 47% said the State must take control of the holy site and 11% would put it in the hands of a Jewish religious authority.
59%: Divide Mount between Jews, Muslims
According to 48% of respondents (58% who had an opinion), the State must guarantee freedom of access and ritual on the Temple Mount for Jews as well, as required by the Protection of Holy Places Law (48% of secular-traditional Jews and 70% of national-religious Jews believe so). On the other hand, 35% agree with the ban on Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount (52% of haredim-hardalim).
Forty percent said that by allowing the current situation, in which there is no freedom of religion for Jews, the police were surrendering to violence and threats on the part of Muslims (64% of national-religious, 54% of haredim-hardalim and 34% of secular-traditional Jews said so), while 36% believe that the law enforcement authorities are simply maintaining law and order (39% of secular-traditional Jews).
So what is the solution? Fifty-nine percent are in favor of an arrangement dividing the Temple Mount between Jews and Muslims according to defined areas and times, as is the custom at the Cave of the Patriarchs (60% of secular-traditional, 65% of national-religious and 46% of haredim-hardalim). Twenty-three percent are against this proposal.
And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. Revelation 11:1-2
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