The attack of the mutant alphabet: LGBTTTIQQAA

Posted on August 25, 2011 by David

No, my head didn’t just fall on the keyboard. This apparently random collection of letters does mean something. Here goes: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Two-spirited, Intersex, Queer, Questioning, Asexual, and Allies.

Although I am not an expert on the fine distinction between these vocations, there is an organisation that can educate anyone prepared to disconnect their critical faculties.

If only the Rev. Hollis Hiscock had availed himself of this education before penning an article in the Niagara Anglican and getting himself in a bit of a muddle. The Rev. writes:

Our goals include building bridges with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Two-spirited, Intersex, Queer, Questioning, Asexual, and Ally (LGBTTTIQQAA) communities, educating people and promoting St. Christopher’s church as “a more welcoming, affirming and safe church” for everyone.

Affirming and welcoming what, you may wonder: LGBTTTIQQAAs (I’m unsure of the plural of LGBTTTIQQAA – should the final “s” be capitalised, is it plural without the “s”? Who knows. Who cares), of course.

Rev. Hiscock: in my eagerness for maximal inclusion, you have no idea how long I spent looking for the new, hitherto unexplored sexual deviation – the Ally orientation – only to discover, in my frustration and disappointment, that you had no idea what you were talking about. You meant “allies”: allies of the other letters – which, in my unceasing efforts to be a Green Anglican by conserving bandwidth, I won’t repeat.

Unfortunately, Rev. Hollis Hiscock has just been appointed as the new editor of the Niagara Anglican, replacing Chris Grabiec. I look forward with dismay to many more meaningless, misinterpreted acronyms strewn extravagantly amongst the wasteland of degenerate tripe that represents the worst Canadian Anglicanism has to offer.

And it’s all at the taxpayer’s expense.

Nailing Jesus down in the Diocese of Niagara

Posted on August 25, 2011 by David

Malcolm Muggeridge, in the title of his essay Tread Softly for you tread on my Jokes, was referring to the difficulty of parodying an institution which, through its own self-parodying, was already surpassing all possible outside efforts.

Thus I realise the futility of attempting to compete with the nescient witlessness – blind to irony or inadvertent allusion – of a contributor to the rag of a post-Christian Anglican denomination in writing this phrase about Christ: “there’s a mystery about him the moment we try to nail him down”.

The Diocese of Niagara’s September edition of its paper arrived on my doorstep this morning; as of this writing, it isn’t online. The same article goes on to note that the Nicene Creed is so fourth century:

I have to admit that I don’t find the traditional Nicene formula of the 4th. Century a good fit in the 21st. I’m thankful that in our church, St. George’s, Guelph, we seldom use the Nicene Creed.

Let’s all stand and sing John Lennon’s Imagine.

The Good News, the Gospel, is that God is in everyone so he is really, really inclusive and we’re all reconciled to him, like it or not; take that Christopher Hitchens:

the good news, as I see it is that God is in the world, in everybody. Thank God we’re an inclusive church, but how inclusive is inclusive? I believe as Paul said, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. That’s our good news to the world. Heaven is on earth. God loves everyone. He lives in and among us, as Our Father. We’re all reconciled to Him. This was Jesus’ message, misunderstood by the Pharisees and many today.

There is no Fall, no sin, no need for a Saviour, no future heaven or hell, no transcendence and, so…… no point:

But what is the good news? Is it the tradition that if we’re good girls and boys we’ll go to heaven? Or, if we believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior? Lord perhaps, but savior? Savior from what? He does say that if we believe in Him (God who so loved the world, or Jesus himself?) we shall not perish, but have eternal life. But there’s no past or future in eternity, only a perpetual present, the eternal now. If this be so, the present should be our chief, and only, concern, not after we die. Heaven and Hell are present realities.

Apparently, we don’t actually know who Jesus was, so we might as well let everyone decide for himself – after all, we wouldn’t want to exclude someone (the only sin left) who thinks he is the reincarnation of the Easter bunny – that would lead to confusion and conflict:

God is chiefly drawn from his [Jesus’] life, as recorded in the Scriptures. But there’s a mystery about him the moment we try to nail him down. Why not dispense with creed making, and let each person find out who Jesus is for her or himself? Orthodoxy leads only to confusion, conflict and exclusion.

So, welcome to church where nothing is real, transcendent or believable but at least you will feel included in the gibbering crackpot collective known as the Diocese of Niagara.

The normalising of paedophilia

Posted on August 24, 2011 by David

From here:

A group of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals say it’s time to change the way society views individuals who have physical attractions to children.

The organization, which calls itself B4U-Act, is lobbying for changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, the guideline of standards on mental health that’s put together by the American Psychiatric Association.

The group says its mission is to help pedophiles before they create a crisis, and to do so by offering a less critical view of the disorder.

“Stigmatizing and stereotyping minor-attracted people inflames the fears of minor-attracted people, mental health professionals and the public, without contributing to an understanding of minor-attracted people or the issue of child sexual abuse,” reads the organization’s website.

B4U-Act said that 38 individuals attended a symposium in Baltimore last week, including researchers from Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and the universities of Illinois and Louisville. According to the group, which said to not endorse every point of view expressed, the speakers in attendance concluded that “minor-attracted” individuals are largely misunderstood and should not be criminalized even as their actions should be discouraged.

Speakers also argued that people who are sexually attracted to children should have input into the decision about how pedophilia is defined in the DSM, which they said is supposed to be a guide to promote “mental health vs. social control.”

It was inevitable that once the normalising of homosexuality was a fait accompli, western culture would look for even less appetising sexual extremes upon which to confer its blessing. Sodomy, sadomasochism , polyamory and adult consensual incest are now also old hat – boring even – so we are strenuously searching for new taboos to sanitise.

Paedophilia is the obvious choice. Today’s secular society regards all inclinations as morally neutral, although acting on some of them might still result in an invitation to spend a part of one’s life locked up: consummating the urge to murder, for example. But there is almost nothing that one can copulate with, providing it is inanimate, insentient or has given consent, that will lead to societal censure, let alone prosecution.

It is understandable that psychologists, with their long and varied experience of telling people that what they are feeling is perfectly normal no matter what it is, are leading the charge to sanctify the inclination to have sex with children. Otherwise, one so inclined might feel stigmatised – and that, if nothing else, is on the psychologist’s list of unforgivable sins.

From a Christian perspective – and I don’t include mainline liberal denominations in that category – inclinations and actions are relatively straightforward:

An urge to have sexual intercourse with a person of the same sex or a child is an urge that exists as result of the Fall, a perversion of God’s gift of sexuality. Neither urge was created by God; rather, they are a corruption of something that he created, so they cannot be good – or even neutral. To experience such a aberrant inclination is one of the consequences of living in a fallen universe: it is, like many other urges, a temptation to sin; it has to be resisted.

If Christianity is true, no amount of psychological sophistry can change this.

September the 25th is Back to Church Sunday

Posted on August 23, 2011 by David

And the Anglican Church is vigorously promoting it, so is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada:

Back to Church Sunday (B2CS) is the largest single local-church invitational initiative in the world. It is based on the simplest and shortest step in evangelism – that we should invite someone we already know to some-thing we love – inviting a friend to our church.

[….]

In Canada, the Anglican Church of Canada has been part of the B2CS initiative for two years. Last year, hundreds of Anglican congregations in Canada contributed to the more than 80,000 people globally that came back to church for B2CS. This year, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada is joining the initiative, as are congregations from other Christian traditions.

The week after, both churches will hold services of repentance for Back to Christ Sunday.

Actually, they won’t, that was just my fevered imagination working overtime.

R.I.P. Jack Layton in spite of the pantomime

Posted on August 23, 2011 by David

From here:

Yet what was truly singular about him was how consumed by politics he was and how publicly, yet comfortably, he lived.

How fitting that his death should have been turned into such a thoroughly public spectacle, where from early morn Monday, television anchors donned their most funereal faces, producers dug out the heavy organ music, reporters who would never dream of addressing any other politician by first name only were proudly calling him “Jack” and even serious journalists like Evan Solomon of the CBC repeatedly spoke of the difficulty “as we all try to cope” with the news of Mr. Layton’s death.

The Anglican Socialist Church of Canada intoned its approval of Layton in death much as it had done in life:

The Honourable Jack Layton, leader of the Opposition, had a “ great compassion” for people in need. He was a doer who was deeply engaged in society and had a great vision of what Canada could be.

These are some of the things that Bishop Dennis Drainville, Anglican diocese of Quebec, will remember most about him.

But perhaps the most fitting memorial was scrawled on his gravestone:

I couldn’t agree more. Jack Layton was the reason I started voting, too – for Stephen Harper.

New Zealand Christchurch Cathedral to be built out of cardboard

Posted on August 23, 2011 by David

From here:

The original 1864 cathedral was badly damaged in a major earthquake on February 22, with the bell tower completely destroyed.

A second quake, in June, caused further damage, shattering stained glass panels.

The city has yet to decide on a long-term replacement for the landmark and has commissioned architect Shigeru Ban to create a structure that will be ready by the one-year anniversary of the earthquake and last until the Anglican cathedral can be restored to its original condition.

Tokyo-based Mr Ban has earned a reputation for his use of cardboard – because it is recyclable and surprisingly strong – for large buildings.

It isn’t often such an apt metaphor presents itself: a cardboard cathedral for a denomination with a cardboard faith which will soon have to fill its pews with cardboard cut-out people to maintain the illusion that someone is still interested.

In the Diocese of New Westminster, All You Need is Love and Lawsuits

Posted on August 22, 2011 by David

From here:

Anglican Church of Canada worship returned to the parish of St. Matthias and St. Luke, Sunday, August 21st at 10:30am.
An enthusiastic group attended the service of Holy Eucharist on a beautiful sunny, warm morning and the atmosphere in the sanctuary was prayerful, positive and welcoming.
During the homily, interim Priest-in-Charge, the Reverend Randolph Bruce referred to the scripture readings of the day to emphasize that the role of a Christian is to love, love God, love each other and be loved by God, always in the awareness of God’s grace.

What Reverend Randolph Bruce omitted to mention is that, in the Diocese of New Westminster, in order to preach love, love, love to this particular collection of interlopers, the diocese first had to love getting rid of the original congregations by suing them and purloining the buildings they paid for.

Still, I’m sure they sued prayerfully.

Richard Dawkins, William Lane Craig and self-promotion

Posted on August 22, 2011 by David

Richard Dawkins has consistently refused to debate Christian philosopher William Lane Craig. The most plausible explanation for Dawkins’ uncharacteristic reticence is that he is afraid he would lose; he is correct.

Among Dawkins’ excuses is this: “I have no intention of assisting Craig in his relentless drive for self-promotion.”

Dawkins is not known for being a man of self-effacing humility. In fact, he knows a great deal about a “relentless drive for self-promotion”: his website sells a bumper sticker with his name on it in large letters:

Dawkins’ tendency to indulge in emotion tirades against anyone with whom he disagrees – his “the Pope is a leering old villain in a frock” harangue, for example – stands in stark contrast to Craig’s relentless logic. Unable to defeat Craig on the ground on which he, himself, claims to stand – reason – Dawkins has resorted to his old standby: insults.

Mysterious rumbling in Windsor

Posted on August 20, 2011 by David

From here:

For weeks, residents of Windsor, Ont., have been complaining about a mysterious rumbling that is shaking them out of sleep. So far no one — including the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and the federal agency Earthquakes Canada — has any idea why.

It’s the sound of the ACoC multitude stampeding back into Aidan’s – will the building be big enough to hold them all, I wonder?

The Diocese of Huron, after being barred from the building in 2008 by the break away group, has for many months shared the facility with the ACNA parish, but in light of this court ruling will move to take sole possession of the building.

Diocese of Newark to commemorate 10th anniversary of 9/11 with a reading from the Koran

Posted on August 19, 2011 by David

There will also be participation from other religions because, after all, every religion points to the same thing and all we are really looking for is peace, love, harmony and mushy feelings.

From here:

In the Diocese of Newark, Bishop Mark Beckwith will be joined by Rabbi Matthew D. Gewirtz of Temple B’Nai Jeshurun in Short Hills and Imam W. Deen Shareef of Masjid Waarith ud Deen in Irvington to lead an interfaith service, titled “Compassion in Action,” at 3 p.m. on Sept. 11 at Trinity & St. Philip’s Cathedral in Newark.

The service will blend scripture and reflections based on the Old and New Testaments and the Qur’an, music from the Jewish and Christian traditions and the Al-Adhaan, the Islamic call to worship.

On Sept. 10, the Los Angeles city hall will host OneLight, a vigil for peace, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of 9/11.