Bookworm Room

I went to church yesterday, as I periodically do when one of my children performs at a church service.  Since I don’t take communion, I can sit in the pew and watch people as they file back from the experience.  Some look businesslike, some contemplative, some uplifted and some, interestingly, look self-righteous.  It’s the latter [...]

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Brutally Honest brought to my attention the fact that the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUSA) has released a statement denouncing Israel in terms that a Hamas member or Ahmadinejad could easily love:
The Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUSA) is about to release a report which denounces Israel as a “racist” nation which [...]

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On the subject of the “secular humanism religion” that guides liberals, it’s informative to read this quotation from William Kristol, writing about Obama’s sudden imperative need to do away with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in the American military:
But the repeal is something that Obama campaigned on. He believes in it. But with all due respect [...]

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I got a very hysterical form letter from Americans United for Separation of Church and State.  What’s impressive about it is that Barry Lynn, the Executive Director who purportedly authored this fevered screed, is totally uninformed about the nature of America’s Constitutional mandates regarding religion.  Here’s what the First Amendment says:
Congress shall make no law [...]

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It’s always interesting to hear my husband, a militant atheist, and me, a respectful agnostic/atheist, talk about the Bible to the kids.  Today, my husband tackled the story of the sacrifice of Isaac.  He told the kids that the whole point of the story is to remind religious people that they have to be blindly [...]

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There’s been a fair amount of talk lately about Brit Hume’s “come to Jesus” suggestion to Tiger:
I don’t have a whole lot to say about that, other than it goes a long way to explaining why Hume left the MSM.  Not only could he not say that when he worked for ABC, he’d probably be [...]

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Two views of moral behavior, one from the source, and one from an English divine:
God:  Thou shalt not steal.  (Exodus 20:15)
A priest in England:  It is far better for people desperate during the recession to shoplift than turn to ‘prostitution, mugging or burglary’.
It is true that, under Jewish law, Jews in extremis are allowed to [...]

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Don Quixote and I were at the local mall.  The mall was getting ready for the shopping season, and it has some special events planned.  It even had a sign:

If you’re like DQ and me, you realize that something is missing from the sign:  there’s no mention of the actual holiday being celebrated, with the [...]

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The Reluctant Scribe is my Dear Friend, and I am his.  I may not be blessed with faith, but I am blessed with friends.  All of which means that I can only hope that the Abou Ben Adhem approach to God works for me.

Sphere: Related Content

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Jack, the ExPreacherman, emailed me a great joke:
During a visit to the mental asylum, I asked the Director “How do you determine whether or not a patient should be institutionalized?”
“Well,” said the Director, “we fill up a bathtub.  Then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or [...]

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See what you think.

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The Breitbarth site headlines the following video as follows:
SHOCK DISCOVERY:  COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS PRAY TO PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA
With my pre-Obama mindset, I promptly inverted the language and read it as a normal sentence:
SHOCK DISCOVERY:  COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS PRAY TO ELECT PRESIDENT OBAMA
How naive I was.  This political activism group, in a Church, led by people in vestments, prays [...]

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I have some familiarity with Church history and doctrine, owing to my background as a European history major.  I am woefully ignorant, however, about modern Catholicism — or, more specifically, modern American Catholicism.  I therefore have a question for those of you who are Catholic:  Does it matter to a critical mass of American Catholics [...]

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The news lines are aflutter with the fact that the Vatican has kept mum about Kennedy’s death.  This is scarcely surprising given that Kennedy, although raised a Catholic, took (and sought to use his political power to impose on America) political positions that are anathema to the Church:
Edward Kennedy, it can be said, was not [...]

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One of the brightest lines in America, a line that goes back to our Founders and the Constititution, is the imperative rule that the American government stay out of religion.  That does not mean that people in politics cannot be religious or that their values cannot be informed by religion.  It does mean, though, that [...]

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Wright crawled out from under the bus to give a “sermon” at Glide Memorial in SF, a “church” more famous for its activism, than its religion.  Wright’s “sermon” was in keeping with the “church’s” mission, which is political, not religious:
In a half-hour, high-energy sermon, sprinkled with spontaneous songs, jokes and impersonations, Wright admonished the under-40 [...]

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It occurred to me that, two times in as many days, I’ve alluded to the first couple’s Messiah complex.  Yesterday, I noted that Michelle and Barack are pretty sure that John 3:16 applies to their willingness to “give” Obama to the American people and, just a few hours ago I did a post in which [...]

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Picture this:  You’re a believing Christian, and you work for a Christian charity that is under the patronage of your country’s major Christian organization.  One of your colleagues, in a private conversation, asks for yours views about your faith. You say that you’re opposed as a doctrinal matter, but that you don’t personally have [...]

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My son came home from public school the other day complaining that one of his teachers used a history lesson as an opportunity to launch into a short speech about how Obama was going to bring peace to the world.  (Which is true, if you accept that, as Charles Krauthammar points out, Obama is going [...]

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Am I the only one to be a bit surprised by Tony Blair’s chutzpah?  He’s been Catholic for about a year, and he is already presuming to tell the Pope that the Church’s doctrine is wrong and should be changed.
Perhaps, ex-PM Blair, you should have converted to a different faith.  After all, it’s not as [...]

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There’s a row in England over the fact that a kids’ cartoon magazine, published by the Who Cares? Trust, which receives a great deal of public funding, shows a boy wearing a large cross being an Islamophobe, while a hijab clad girl is an articulate, brave defender of human rights.  What struck me about this [...]

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As you know, one of my main reasons for supporting Proposition 8, which amended the California constitution to define marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman, was because I believe that move to redefine marriage has the potential to put the State and religion organizations — especially the Catholic church — into [...]

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I was not thrilled by Bush’s Office on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, since I don’t want the White House involved in faith, but I recognized it as a pragmatic means to increasing the effectiveness of existing religious charities.  I also wasn’t too concerned because I did not see it as a government effort to co-opt [...]

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It’s been an incoherent day, one that never gave me the opportunity for contemplation and writing.  Instead, I’ve been bopping here and there, and dealing with one thing and another.  Nevertheless, I have been tracking the news, so I thought I’d just write up a mish-mash of thoughts about current issues and events.
Gaza
The top issue/event, [...]

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The other day, as part of my “false syllogism” post, I noted the way in which the Left continues to be, as it was in Marx’s heyday, fanatically hostile to religion.  If you doubt me, just check out Patrick’s gimlet eyed examination of Cintra Wilson’s attacks on Palin and other openly religious public figures, as [...]

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