Another reason to like Harry Potter: he upsets atheists

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From here:

This month, the final Harry Potter film had the most successful opening weekend of any movie ever. Among the fans who lined up for the opening midnight showing were Christians, many of whom see striking similarities between the story of Jesus — with its sacrificial death, burial and resurrection — and the story of Harry Potter.

But at least one atheist has also noticed these similarities, and he’s written a book about it. In the newly-released (and blasphemously-titled) Jesus Potter Harry Christ, Derek Murphy makes the case that J. K. Rowling — the author of the Harry Potter series — achieved her success by tapping into some of the deepest and most ancient longings of the human heart. These same longings, Murphy argues, compelled first-century pagans to construct what he calls “the Jesus myth.”

Surprising: Jesus Potter, Harry Christ but no Jesus Murphy.

As Chuck Colson notes, both C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien recognised that the truth of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross and subsequent resurrection is so powerful that it permeates the entire universe and ends up finding expression in unexpected places – like Harry Potter:

Well, Murphy is certainly right in recognizing a common thread through pagan religious beliefs. As C. S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity, the heathen religions are full of “…those queer stories…about a god who dies and comes to life again and, by his death, has somehow given new life to men.”

But what Murphy misses — and Lewis got — is the fact that the human longings for sacrifice, resurrection and redemption are stamped on our hearts for a reason: They point us straight to the God who stepped into history to fulfill them!

In a letter to a friend, Lewis recounts a conversation he had with J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings — and a close colleague of Lewis.

“The story of Christ,” said Tolkien, “is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened…The Pagan stories are God expressing Himself through the minds of poets, using such images as He found there, while Christianity is God expressing Himself through what we call ‘real things.’”

 

 

Belligerent atheists promoting death and misery as usual

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From here:

Wisconsin officials are reviewing a complaint that the official state website links to an anti-abortion group with religious ties.

The organization is called Care Net, a faith-based group that caters to pregnant women.

The Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation says by linking to the site, the state is advertising evangelical ideals. Group president Annie Laurie Gaylor wants the link removed.

The link in question can be found here, and it points to this site, whose aim is:

As the largest network of pregnancy centers in North America, Care Net is committed to expanding access to the life-saving services and support provided by our local centers and to reaching the hurting and broken with the hope of Jesus Christ.

We work to accomplish this goal by promoting our network of centers and the Option Line call center, preparing our local centers to effectively serve their communities, and partnering with existing centers or like-minded ministries to plant new pregnancy centers in underserved areas.

As you can see, pretty sinister.

I have little doubt that if today’s coterie of benighted God haters had lived in the 19th Century, they would have vigorously canvassed to prevent William Wilberforce end slavery – because he was an evangelical Christian who had no right imposing his Christian perspectives on a secular parliament.

Kandahar mayor killed by suicide bomber with explosives in turban

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From here:

Afghan insurgents appeared to continue their assassination campaign against key public figures on Wednesday with the killing of the mayor of Kandahar.

Ghulam Haider Hamidi was targeted by a suicide bomber who got into the municipality compound in Kandahar City with explosives concealed under his turban.

Now where did he get that idea?

 

Cross at 9/11 Memorial upsets atheists

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From here:

A group of atheists has filed a lawsuit claiming the display of the World Trade Center cross at the 9/11 memorial in lower Manhattan is unconstitutional, calling it a “mingling of church and state.”

[…..]

The cross, which consists of two intersecting steel beams that were found intact in the rubble at Ground Zero, was initially constructed on a side of a church in lower Manhattan. The cross was then placed inside the 9/11 Memorial Museum during a ceremony over the weekend.

“The WTC cross has become a Christian icon. It has been blessed by so-called holy men and presented as a reminder that their god, who couldn’t be bothered to stop the Muslim terrorists or prevent 3,000 people from being killed in his name, cared only enough to bestow upon us some rubble that resembles a cross,” the group’s president, Dave Silverman, said in a press release. “It’s a truly ridiculous assertion.”

What is truly ridiculous is David Silverman’s objection to displaying the cross that was formed out of the two beams. If he is right and there is no God, the cross is meaningless and he is free to ignore it. If there is a God, particularly a Christian God, the cross is a symbol of God’s identification with people’s suffering and of the future resurrection; Silverman is free to ignore that, too. Either way, it is nonsense for him to cavil because a God he doesn’t believe in won’t run the universe the way he, Silverman, wants.

It’s amazing how much atheists hate someone they claim doesn’t exist.

 

Catholics to march in Ottawa Gay Pride parade

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I knew Catholics could learn something from Anglicans.

From here:

You are invited to join the Capital Pride Parade on August 28th, 2011, at 1:00PM.

We march every year, because we want to tell the Pride Parade’s participants and viewers that it is possible to live in integrity as a person of faith, who is both gay and deeply spiritual.  We believe that there is a place for everybody at Christ’s table.

Please join us at the Pride Parade and help make this message heard. All people have the same gift of love to share! Following the march, at 2:00PM, the group invites participants to the St. Joe’s Supper Table (151 Laurier Street East) for light snacks and refreshments. This event is sponsored by the University of Ottawa’s Gay Catholics, Christians and Allies Group (GCCA).

 

h/:t Big Blue Wave

 

When should a job be left for an expert?

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Here is one example:

A man stuck a butter knife into his belly in a failed bid at self-surgery to remove a painful hernia, police said Tuesday.

The wife of the 63-year-old Glendale man called paramedics on Sunday night and told the emergency operator her husband was using a knife to remove a protruding hernia, Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

“She said he had impaled himself with a knife,” Lorenz said.

Officers found the man naked on a patio lounge chair outside his apartment with a 6-inch (15-centimeter) butter knife sticking out of his stomach.

The man’s wife told officers that her husband was upset about the hernia and wanted to take it out.

While waiting for paramedics, the sergeant said, the man pulled out the knife and stuffed a cigarette he was smoking into the bleeding, open wound.

Here is another:

Amy Winehouse

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I was planning on ignoring her death, but there is so much chatter about it, I can’t resist adding to it.

First of all, having little interest in contemporary pop music, I may be one of the few people on the planet who has never heard any of her music. I’m sure she was talented, but doubt that she was a successor to J. S. Bach: in 50 years, her music will probably be forgotten.

Second, it is a tragedy that any creature made in the image of God should reach a point where she sees so little value in that gift that she discards it by killing herself.

Third, in the US, about 84 people commit suicide every day; they are no less important than Amy Winehouse, yet she gets all the attention.

Fourth, if she hadn’t got all the attention, she may still be alive.

Anders Behring Breivik is not a Christian

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Nor was his evil, murderous rampage inspired by any form of Christianity, fundamentalist or otherwise.

Nevertheless, media articles repeatedly refer to him as a Christian fundamentalist. For example:
Here:

Anders Behring Breivik, the main suspect in the Norwegian bomb attacks and shootings, has been described by police as a Christian fundamentalist with right-wing views.

Here:

On the Facebook page attributed to him, he describes himself as a Christian and a conservative.

Here:

What has emerged so far paints a disturbing picture: a Christian fundamentalist with a deep hatred of multiculturalism, of the left and of Muslims, who had written disparagingly of prominent Norwegian politicians.

The enthusiasm that the mainstream media has demonstrated in identifying – misidentifying, really – Breivik’s religion is quite absent when it comes to identifying the religion of those responsible for Islamist attacks – around 16,000 since 9/11. Going by media accounts, when it comes to Islamist terrorism there is not a Muslim to be found anywhere – except among the victims.

UK: Police should get more tattoos

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From here:

A police leader has called for officers to sport their tattoos at work – claiming it could be an ‘icebreaker’ when dealing with the public.

All 43 police forces in England and Wales ban their officers from having rude, lewd, discriminatory, violent or intimidating tattoos that could cause offence to colleagues or the public. Even innocuous tattoos are expected to be covered from public view and body and facial piercings are banned.

But Ian Pointon, chairman of the Police Federation in Kent, has slammed the official rules, saying the Kent force needs to ‘get over’ its problem with tattoos and allow officers to show off their body art.

As Theodore Dalrymple has noted, tattoos are an emblem of the criminal class and those who enjoy exuding an aura of dangerous criminality without having to actually take the risk of committing a crime.

In fact, more than 95 percent of imprisoned white British criminals are tattooed. The statistical association between tattooing and criminality is very much stronger (with the exception of that between criminality and smoking) than that with any of the more conventionally investigated factors, such as broken homes, drug addiction, low intelligence, and poor educational attainment.

I’m sure a police officer exposing his tattoos will be a real icebreaker when mingling with criminals; but why don’t the police arrest them instead?

What next, police nipple rings?

The American Civil Liberties Union, still working hard to curtail liberty

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From here:

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced Tuesday that they are suing a Vermont inn on behalf of a lesbian couple, after the inn’s Christian owners refused to host the couple’s ‘wedding’ reception.

The Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville, owned by Jim and Mary O’Reilly, has a policy against hosting receptions for homosexual ‘weddings’, so when Kate Baker and Ming Linsley of New York City approached them last fall, they were turned away.

The ACLU alleges that the O’Reillys’ policy violates Vermont’s Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Act, which prohibits the denial of goods and services based on customers’ sexual orientation.  The act contains exceptions for religious organizations and small inns with five or fewer rooms, but not larger establishments.

Nevertheless, the O’Reillys, who are devout Catholics, have stood their ground.  “We do not … feel that we can offer our personal services wholeheartedly to celebrate the marriage between same sex couples because it goes against everything that we as Catholics believe in,” they wrote in a statement Tuesday.

“We have never refused rooms or dining or employment to gays or lesbians,” they continued.  “Many of our guests have been same sex couples. We welcome and treat all people with respect and dignity.”

The ACLU ought to be renamed the ACSLU – the “S”, standing for “selective”. The liberties of Jim and Mary O’Reilly should be no less important than those of the lesbian couple: and the O’Reilly’s liberties are far more threatened. If recent events in the UK are anything to go by, it won’t be worth the bother for the Vermont Inn to stay in business, whereas all the lesbian couple needed to do was find somewhere else to hold their reception.

This is known as Equality in today’s newspeak.