Scio, Scio

A Foretaste of Fascism

nobody@vox.com(Scio, Scio) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:17:56 -0700

Canada has been making a splash in conservative circles lately. The reason? They seem to be systematically destroying the right to freedom of expression up there.

First came the news of Mark Steyn, author of the book America Alone, of which I have blogged. An excerpt from this book was published in the Canadian magazine Maclean's some time ago, making essentially the same point as the book: that demographic trends in the West are pointing towards an imminent Muslim majority and the traditional European cultures may be forced to accomodate radical Muslims.

Wouldn't you know it, a Muslim group was offended by this.

So Steyn was hauled before what I can only classify as the corporeal embodiment of a liberal wet dream: a government sponsored Human Rights Tribunal. This body, while not possessing the actual faculties of a court of law, is authorized to arbitrate complaints of discrimination and "hate." With that authority comes the power to fine "offenders" and award damages to "victims."

Well, I'm not here to write about Muslim relations today, because these Canadians look to be setting up an attack on Christianity itself.

NEWS: Canada Orders Pastor to Renounce His Faith
Catholic Exchange
Pete Vere
June 9, 2008
In a decision that foreshadows the possible fate of Fr. Alphonse de Valk, Canada's leading pro-life voice among Catholic clergy, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal has forbidden evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson from expressing his moral opposition to homosexuality. The tribunal also ordered Boisson to pay $5,000 "damages for pain and suffering" and apologize to the "human rights" activist who filed the complaint.

You'll forgive the obvious bias of the writer, as this is a Catholic publication. Let's continue:

The complaint stems from Canada's debate leading up to state legislation recognizing so-called same-sex marriage. In 2002, the pastor wrote a letter to the editor of his local newspaper in which he denounced the homosexual agenda as "wicked" and stated that: "Children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights."

The activist subsequently filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission -- a quasi-judicial body that investigates alleged discrimination within the Canadian province. The government tribunal published its decision on May 30.

Interesting. That's pretty standard stuff here in America.

While agreeing that Boisson's letter was not a criminal act, the government tribunal nevertheless ordered the Christian pastor to "cease publishing in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals." Moreover, the tribunal's decision "prohibited [Boisson] from making disparaging remarks in the future" about the activist who filed the complaint and witnesses who supported the complaint. Many of Canada's religious leaders and civil libertarians have expressed concern that the government's human rights tribunals are interpreting any criticism of homosexual activism as 'disparaging'.

Not criminal? Then why all the hubbub, bub? Why muzzle a religious figure?

The tribunal also ordered Boisson to provide the complainant with a written apology for his letter to the editor. This last requirement threatens civil liberties in Canada, said Ezra Levant, a Jewish-Canadian author and lawyer. Levant, himself the target of an Alberta Human Rights Commission investigation, is facing the possibility the state may order him to apologize as well.

Never mind the $5,000 he was ordered to pay, they are going to force him to apologize as well? So...

"Ed Stelmach's 'conservative' government now believes that if it can't convince a Christian pastor that he's wrong, it will just order him to condemn himself?" Levant wrote on his blog. "Other than tribunals in Stalin's Soviet Union and Mao's China, where is this Orwellian 'order' considered to be justice?"

"This is like a Third World jail-house confession -- where accused criminals are forced to sign false statements of guilt," Levant wrote. "We don't even 'order' murderers to apologize to their victims' families. Because we know that a forced apology is meaningless. But not if your point is to degrade Christian pastors."

Welcome to the liberal end game. This is what they want, this is why divisions run so deep. A liberal used to be someone who challenged conventions without undermining the foundations of good government. Our Founding Fathers were all liberals of a sort. But today's liberal is more Mussolini than Madison.

In essence, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal is ordering to the minister to renounce his Christian faith, since his opposition to homosexuality is based upon the Judeo-Christian Bible. The case against Pastor Boisson has been watched closely by practicing Catholics in the country, especially as news spreads about the current Canadian Human Rights Commission investigation into Fr. de Valk reported on in this space last Wednesday. The Basilian priest and publisher of Catholic Insight magazine stands accused of promoting "extreme hatred and contempt" against homosexuals for having publicly defended the Church's traditional definition of marriage. Some of the allegedly hateful statements are quotations from the Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Fr. de Valk told Catholic Exchange.

Now, it's personal.

Although Catholic moral teaching is generally more nuanced in its criticism of homosexuality, evangelicals and fundamentalist Protestants often appear to be used as test cases for the government commissions before targeting Catholics. Thus many Catholics fear the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal will attempt to use the Boisson case to muzzle Fr. de Valk from expressing the Church's traditional moral teaching, delivering a further blow to religious liberty and freedom of conscience in Canada.

See, the real threat to these fascist dregs is a strong faith, grounded in reason. Evangelicals are, I'm sorry to say, all too often hampered by their own zeal. They emphasize the emotional relationship aspect of the faith, and allow that to color their interactions with a hostile world.

But here's the deal folks. They come after the Church, first. Then they come after the people who don't vote their way. Then they come after their own people. That's how it worked all through the 20th century, and it seems that Canada is continuing the trend..

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Onward to Philadelphia!

nobody@vox.com(Scio, Scio) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:16:03 -0700

I am heading out this weekend to visit my good friends the Mercedarians in Philadelphia. This religious order was founded in 1218 by one Peter Nolasco, since sainted, with its principle aim the ransom of Christian captives of the Saracens. A Spanish order, it was a product of a time when the struggle between the West and Islam was apparent and immediate. The Reconquista was proceeding apace, but unfortunately many Christians suffered as captive slaves of the Islamic Almohads.
As was common practice in those days, captives could be ransomed back for sums based on their station in life. A king's ransom would be something like the entire GDP of whichever kingdom he represented. Or not, I am no authority on international law of the 13th century. It was a sad reality that kings and lords were not the only people taken captive in this long and bitter conflict. Many captives were simply too poor to secure their release.
What distinguished this order (and in my opinion gives it particular valor) is its peculiar Fourth Vow. All religious orders take vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, with many opting for a Fourth Vow which is particular to their order and in line with their charism. But the Mercedarians made the Solemn Vow to exchange themselves for captives if ransom could not be met. They would replace these Christian captives, many of whom were in danger of losing their Faith by forced conversion, many of whom were in danger of execution. They vowed to give their life to ransom back people who were in danger of losing their faith.
Think on this. Today, Americans change religions like they change automobiles. The belief that our Faith and its profession has eternal consequences has fallen by the wayside. But in the founding days of the Order of Merced, the belief was strong that denying belief in God (or Allah, conversely) for an opposing religion would damn one to Hell. The belief is so weakened today by the noxious fumes of relativism that the noble origins of this order seem quaint by our enlightened standards.
Yet how heroic they really were. To lay down their lives in order to save the soul of another person required supreme faith and supreme courage. The order had men of such quality, and it continues today to boast men of like caliber. The specifics of ransoming those in danger of losing their faith are somewhat different, but the commitment to the salvation of souls remains strongly in place.
In this age of soft values and hard realities, we need men who will bolster our Faith and help us to call on God for strength. We need men who will meet the challenges of a both plunging cultural standards and militant Wahhabist Islam with Christian ideals. We need more men like the Mercedarians, to whom I now go.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Coming to America, Pope-Style

nobody@vox.com(Scio, Scio) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:43:22 -0700

I was reading an article about the pope's visit to America, and was pleased to see that it was positive. I'm excited about this opportunity for American Catholics to see and hear the pope address them directly. It doesn't happen every day, you know.
But this article, well, it was funny. Because it was humming along just fine until the very last paragraph. Here it is:

Soprano Kathleen Battle has been enlisted to sing "The Lord's Prayer" - a decision the White House defended as appropriate despite the overt insertion of religion into a public event. "I think we've struck the right balance," Perino said. "Many people across America and across the world say that prayer in order to provide themselves comfort and confidence in getting their day started."

Notice anything funny there? Because to me, it looks like we're debating whether we should sing a song that mentions God when we're hosting the freaking Pope. Does it matter if it's a "public event?" We put God on our money, and we have prayer before the sessions of Congress. This doesn't rise beyond that level of public acknowledgment of God.
I believe the courts have determined that the use of "God" on our money is defensible from a standpoint that it is not an endorsement by the state of a particular religion, but is merely in this day and age a reflection of our shared traditions and history. If our mottos were coined today I'm sure they would sound something like the Obama campaign rhetoric, but fortunately they were laid down in a time when men were able to speak openly in a public forum of their faith and its influence on their decisions.
May my grandchildren see the end of political correctness, I pray.

Keep watching this Pope, my friends. That includes you who aren't religious, and you who are primarily concerned with other things. He may surprise you. Suffice it to say that he can explain better than most of us why we believe what we believe about life, death, and what comes after.

Viva il Papa!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Relatively Important Post

nobody@vox.com(Scio, Scio) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:55:39 -0800

Not my words.

Relativism is powerful in Western life, evidenced in many areas -- from the decline in the study of history and English literature, through to the triumph of subjective values and conscience over moral truth and the downgrading of heterosexual marriage.

One reason for optimism is that no one believes, deep down, in relativism. People may express their scepticism about truth and morality in lecture rooms or in print, but afterwards they will go on to sip a cappuccino, pay the mortgage, drive home on the left side of the road, and presumably avoid acts of murder and cannibalism throughout their evening. People, unless insane, do not live as relativists. They care about truth and follow clear cut rules.
Nothing matters more than truth to our country. Differences about important issues such as war, slavery, abortion, euthanasia are different claims to moral truth, not merely competing preferences. Some who have never been deprived of truth can give it up too easily, perhaps using talk of relativism or secularism to camouflage their actual commitment to money, success, possessions, power. But these are ambiguous goods: they can be misused and are rarely distributed fairly.

It is getting to the truth about things and having the integrity to live by that truth that is the ideal we should pass to the next generation. By comparison, relativism is bankrupt: it offers no future because it is not liveable; and where it is a camouflage, what it camouflages is generally rotten and often shaped by greed.
--Cardinal George Pell

I've been struck in recent years at how poor the quality of debate has become in my country and around the world. I feel that this contemptible philosophy of relativism is mostly to blame. To lay claim to any sort of moral truth is seen as backwards, an anachronism. The current vogue is to merely "present one's opinion" and if someone should take issue with that then run to the safety of the lamest of rebuttals. How can any serious thinker allow for the existence of relativism in matters of morality or even politics? How can anyone who claims to be open-minded steadfastly refuse to change their mind on the subject of Absolute Truth?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The Benefit of the Doubt

nobody@vox.com(Scio, Scio) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:17:16 -0800

Abortion is one of those things that I feel is a defining struggle for our time. Strong feelings exist on both sides of the debate, but for me it all comes down to the simple principle that no person should be denied the right to draw their first breath.

Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness...is their order an accident? I think not. Happiness can only be pursued in an atmosphere of liberty (from government, from tyranny, from discrimination). Liberty cannot be said to exist unless all are given equal rights under the law, and the foremost of these is the right to life.

Piddling questions of when life begins are irrelevant. Should we not err on the side of caution when dealing with such great matters as the life of a potential being? A being that if left to develop will only die from disease, defect or man's intervention. When weighed against the limitless potential of a human life these three instances are trifling obstacles. Always err on the side of life.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

And in Catholic News...

nobody@vox.com(Scio, Scio) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 07:08:28 -0800

I often highlight the faults and crimes of radical Islam on this blog. In an attempt to be fair, here's something from my own people. This happens every year. Every year. The fight in Jerusalem is also a yearly occurrence. Don't mess with the Orthodox, because apparently they carry iron rods around with them to church. Even Franciscans got into the mix a few years ago.

Very much highlights the necessity of everyone coming back to the fold of the Catholic Church, in my humble opinion. But that's a religious matter. In political terms, this kind of stuff highlights the very strong convictions that can lead to violence, even among a religion that explicitly asks its adherents to turn the other cheek.

Priests brawl at Bethlehem birthplace of Jesus

View larger image

Seven people were injured on Thursday when Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests came to blows in a dispute over how to clean the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
Following the Christmas celebrations, Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders to clean the walls and ceilings of their part of the church, which is built over the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born.
But the ladders encroached on space controlled by Armenian priests, according to photographers who said angry words ensued and blows quickly followed.
For a quarter of an hour bearded and robed priests laid into each other with fists, brooms and iron rods while the photographers who had come to take pictures of the annual cleaning ceremony recorded the whole event.
A dozen unarmed Palestinian policemen were sent to try to separate the priests, but two of them were also injured in the unholy melee.
"As usual the cleaning of the church afer Christmas is a cause of problems," Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh told AFP, adding that he has offered to help ease tensions.
"For the two years that I have been here everything went more or less calmly," he said. "It's all finished now."
The Church of the Nativity, like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City, is shared by various branches of Christianity, each of which controls and jealously guards a part of the holy site.
The Church of the Nativity is built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born in a stable more than 2,000 years ago after Mary and Joseph were turned away by an inn.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

A New Group on Vox

nobody@vox.com(Scio, Scio) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:50:17 -0700

Howdy folks. Just found a new group on Vox which some of my many many readers (...) may want to join. It's Pro-Life Vox, and it's for people who don't agree with legalized abortion and who are willing to acknowledge the damage it does to people.

So, join up if you're in agreement. If you aren't, I wouldn't think it productive to post there.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The Long Awaited

nobody@vox.com(Scio, Scio) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 04:13:50 -0700

TESTING THE FAITH
Bishop urges Christians to call God 'Allah'
Catholic leader believes it would help ease tensions between religions

Posted: August 15, 2007
3:28 p.m. Eastern

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Bishop Tiny Muskens (Courtesy Radio Netherlands Worldwide)

Catholic churches in the Netherlands should use the name Allah for God to ease tensions between Muslims and Christians, says a Dutch bishop.
Tiny Muskens, the bishop of Breda, told the Dutch TV program "Network" Monday night he believes God doesn't mind what he is called, Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported.
The Almighty is above such "discussion and bickering," he insisted.
Muskens points to Indonesia, where he served 30 years ago, as an example for Dutch churches. Christians in the Middle East also use the term Allah for God.
"Someone like me has prayed to Allah yang maha kuasa (Almighty God) for eight years in Indonesia and other priests for 20 or 30 years," Muskens said. "In the heart of the Eucharist, God is called Allah over there, so why can't we start doing that together?"
Muskens thinks it could take another 100 years, but eventually the name Allah will be used by Dutch churches, promoting rapprochement between the two religions, he said, according to Radio Netherlands.
However, a survey published today in the Netherlands' largest newspaper, De Telegraaf, showed 92 percent of the more than 4,000 people polled oppose the bishop's view, the Associated Press reported.
(Story continues below)

Some letters to the paper were filled with ridicule for the bishop.
"Sure. Lets call God Allah. Lets then call a church a mosque and pray five times a day. Ramadan sounds like fun," wrote Welmoet Koppenhol.
The chairman of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, Gerrit de Fijter, told the Dutch paper he welcomed any attempt to "create more dialogue," according to the AP. But he said, "Calling God 'Allah' does no justice to Western identity. I see no benefit in it."
A Muslim spokesman, for Amsterdam's union of Moroccan mosques, said Muslims had not asked for such a gesture from Christians, the AP reported.
Tensions with the Netherlands' 1-million-strong Muslim community have been high since the 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a Muslim avenging a film critical of Islam.
Last week, politician Geert Wilders talked about banning the Quran, shortly after the head of a group of former Muslims, Ehsan Jami, compared Islam's prophet Muhammad with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Muskens made similar remarks several year ago about using the name of Allah, Radio Netherlands reported. He also suggested replacing the national Christian holiday Whit Monday – celebrated the day after Pentecost – with an Islamic religious day.
The bishop also has offended Muslims, saying in 2005 Islam was a religion without a future because it has too many violent aspects

Ok, so when I said I'd ridicule another faith, I didn't really think it would be my own. And of course, it's not actually my faith that's on the block here. But this representative of my faith deserves some ire.

Firstly, the point I want to make is the one made by the Protestant. Simply calling God "Allah" does nothing to encourage mutual respect and deference...the actual goal and the point in which Islam is lacking. To simply give up our Western identity because we know a bunch of Mecca-lovers are going to throw a tantrum is spineless.

Which brings me to the point in which Christianity is lacking: too much deference to a faith which doesn't deserve it. In fact, I'd like to see more criticism like that levied by my pope, though after the riots that more than likely won't happen. Because think about it...Catholicism is attacked almost daily, its precepts misrepresented in the media and its priests slandered because of the actions of a few. I've always been a believer that turning the cheek needs to give way to institutional survival, and Catholicism needs to grow a pair.

Forgive my earthiness, but it galls me that we can sit in little circles and talk about how we've got things right and we need to enlighten our Protestant bretheren and those of other faiths, and yet when Islam starts whining we have a bishop who advocates adoption of the Muslim name for God. In a misguided attempt to appease our enemies (let's face it, we're in competition here) that would weaken our distinctive Western characteristics. His point that the Church in Asia uses the name "Allah" is not relevant to the Church in the West.

I think that the time for nancy-boy Christianity has passed. It never actually had a time given to it, rather I feel my faith has been usurped by short-sighted institutional martyrs who want to embrace the oblivion that is relativism. On my blog I'm often accused of bigotry...how can believing that I am right (and by extension, that others are wrong) about God make me a bigot? I don't deny anyone the opportunity to come around to my faith. I have staked my claim to truth, and I refuse to compromise on it. Unlike this bishop.

One more thing: like most of the problems with cultural apathy, this is what seems a subtle and insignificant change. What does it matter if we call God "Allah" anyway? But it'll make it that much easier for the Muslims to make inroads in Europe. And I don't want that, frankly.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Catholic Update

nobody@vox.com(Scio, Scio) — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 21:53:06 -0700

To anyone who might be in the Catholic Vox group, nota bene -- Please review new group guidelines for posts. I've noticed a lot of very general posts in there that have nothing to do with Catholicism. Please limit your posts to Catholic specific articles, questions, commentary, or even prayers if you are inclined. Ecumenical prayer, even! Interfaith prayer, maybe!

But in order to keep the group from becoming unwieldy I shall forthwith issue this fiat: Thou shalt not post to Catholic Vox that which is not geared towards Catholic topicry.

Suggestion: Somebody blog about how the L.A. Diocese just paid $660 million to abuse victims. That would be Catholic specific.

Suggestion: Nobody post a blog which doesn't even mention Catholicism.

I say to thee "word."

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Cardinal Mahony is the Winner!

nobody@vox.com(Scio, Scio) — Wed, 16 May 2007 18:22:59 -0700

Hardly anybody ever makes the point that the L.A. diocese, with its rampant "progressive" Catholicism, also has had to dole out the most in sex-abuse money. It's gotten so bad that the Prince has had to sell his fancy new office buildings. I found a site that will soothe my worries about the Los Angeles diocese under His Eminence Roger Cardinal Mahony.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend