Happy Resurrection Day!
The battle rages on but—spoiler alert—Jesus wins in the end. Christianity, the only going religion based on historical events. Go to Mass. See what you’re missing.
The Week In Doom —Religion In Flames Edition
Item Notre Dame Burns
“It hurts to watch this,” said Pierre-Eric Trimovillas, 32. “The cathedral is the symbol, the heart of Paris.”
The crowd gasped and cried in horror as the spire fell, Mr. Trimovillas said, adding, “Paris is beheaded.”
The crowds that had gathered were eerily calm, with little shouting or commotion.
Angelique de Almeida, 32, watched through tears. “We are going to lose her, everything is up in flames,” she said. “We lose this, we lose Paris. It is apocalyptic. And this is the Holy Week.”
If there was ever a metaphor—or an omen. France has been burning for quite a while. Does anybody have a count on how many minutes after the fire was first spotted before the media were assuring us it was an accident? (Or otherwise?)
Omen already confirmed: Architects And Historians Wonder: Maybe The New Notre Dame Should Be Less “Overburdened” With Christian Meaning. They even work in a bit of white supremacy in there.
But for some people in France, Notre Dame has also served as a deep-seated symbol of resentment, a monument to a deeply flawed institution and an idealized Christian European France that arguably never existed in the first place. “The building was so overburdened with meaning that its burning feels like an act of liberation,” says Patricio del Real, an architecture historian at Harvard University.
Erika Harlitz-Kern says “Give Notre Dame a Modern Roof the Alt-Right Will Hate: Medieval Europe was a crossroads of global influence, not a mythical all-white past. The new Notre Dame should reflect that.”
Jews are the real victims here. “Notre Dame and the Jews: The flames at Notre Dame Cathedral should remind Jews of the burning by that very same Catholic Church of tens of wagonloads of the Talmud in the Middle Ages.”
We have entered the final phase of the redemption of Israel and of all humanity and it is truly regrettable to see some of our Jewish brothers saddened by this fire when this building represents in all its strength the exile of Israel and the will to replace us.
Final phase? (All Godwin’s Law fans should stick around for his last sentence.) The Times of Israel says “Radical rabbi [Shlomo Aviner] says Notre Dame fire retribution for 13th-century Talmud burning”. Aviner said “Jews should not commit arson against churches, but also that there was no duty to be saddened by the fire”. Arson? “Christianity, he explained, ‘is our number one enemy throughout history…the Holocaust.'”
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency said “The world mourned for Notre Dame. But France still struggles to accept French Jews and Muslims.” “But the price of hog jowls continues to increase in Burma”.
Ben Shaprio tweeted (after previous tweets) “If we wish to uphold the beauty and profundity of the Notre Dame cathedral, that means re-familiarizing ourselves with the philosophy and religious principles that built it.” Bill Kristol responded (thanks to Anon for sending these), in which he said “The terms ‘uphold’ and ‘re-familiarizing’ are doing a lot of ambiguous work here. The plain fact is that one can respect the beauty and profundity of Notre Dame while choosing not to accept its religious principles (the vanquished synagoga?) or any variant of its ‘philosophy.'”
Kristol is it right. This is a battle of different “philosophies”. The people who cheered as the Cathedral burned would agree (here and here).
Why stop at Notre Dame? “College professor bought 1-way ticket to Rome before St. Patrick’s Cathedral arson attempt, police say.…A part-time philosophy professor was charged with attempted arson on Thursday after he entered a historic cathedral with gasoline and lighter fluid, investigators said.”
Item
The internet is forever! pic.twitter.com/OIYaBwMND7
— GTO Judge (@V8POW) April 13, 2019
The original CBS tweet was deleted after causing a furor. [Update: This one is too, alas.] Watch this copy and ask, May we now reason: TV producers incites violence. Therefore, it is okay to punch TV producers. Not convinced? More from the show: “Assassinate President Trump Bomb Device Explosive…Eliminate Mar-A-Lago” and many more.
For the first time “No Religion” has topped a survey of Americans’ religious identity, according to a new analysis by a political scientist. The non-religious edged out Catholics and evangelicals in the long-running General Social Survey.
Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University and a Baptist pastor, found that 23.1% of Americans now claim no religion.
“Religious nones,” as they are called by researchers, are a diverse group made up of atheists, agnostics, the spiritual, and those who are no specific organized religion in particular. A rejection of organized religion is the common thread they share.
The fruits of ecumenicism have ripened.
If you are unwilling to say This is right, and that is wrong you must fall away to those who will.
Item Am I a Satanist? Are you? How Satanism is empowering the trans community
Am I a Satanist? I can see how someone might assume that. I do have that tattoo of the Baphomet pentacle. I’m wearing this upside-down serpent cross pretty much all the time. I’ve gone by the name Satana on a few other websites.
I named myself after Satan and I’m positively draped in demonic iconography. So far, it’s not looking so good.
I am an atheist…
Many trans people have found meaning and resonance with Satan…
When I asked my followers about the appeal of Satanic themes and aesthetics for them as trans people, my mentions erupted. There are so many more trans people who are into this than I expected, and their reasons for embracing the symbolism of Satan reflected some consistent motivations.
Many of them were inspired toward Satanism by the hostility of mainstream and conservative Christianity against queer and trans people.
That’ll show ’em.
Item Jewish Forward Why American Jews Shouldn’t Be Afraid To Put Israel First
The poll sought to determine, among other things, which country American Jews would side with in case of a serious confrontation between Israel and the United States. As such, it was rightly criticized for conjuring up the specter of “dual loyalty” that Jews in America and elsewhere have been accused of by their enemies. There’s certainly no need to provide extra grist for the anti-Semitic mill. Yet it’s also time to stop pretending that the loyalties of some American Jews aren’t divided between Israel and America. Of course they are. There’s just nothing wrong with it — nor is there anything uniquely Jewish about this. You’ll find plenty of similar cases in other places.
The truth is that any American Jew who doesn’t care as much about a Jewish state as he or she does about the United States can’t be very identified with the Jewish people. Suppose vital American and Israeli interests were to clash. What would it mean for a Jew to say: “I don’t give a damn what’s best for Israel. All that matters to me is what’s best for America”? What kind of Jew would that be? How deep could his or her Jewishness be said to go?
It’s not “dual loyalty” to have higher loyalty to another country than your own, and it’s anti-Jewish to suppose it is. This is a couple of years back, but it’s been re-bouncing around, and it pertinent to posts from two weeks ago.
Speaking of dual loyalty, no person ought to be allowed to serve in any Federal elected or otherwise high position if he hold dual citizenship. We should follow Israel, which does not allow this sort of thing. It must be obvious the person cannot be wholly trusted to do with is right for the country in which he lives, if there is any conflict, which there always is, with the other country. Imagine, say, a Somalia-USA dual-citizen Congressman.
Right?
Loyalty to a religion, or to God, is of course another matter. But it does not apply to national politics, since Heaven doesn’t issue passports.
Item Malls are closing
Foot traffic at some of the best shopping centers across the country peaked around August 2018 and has since started to fall, after rebounding for much of last year, according to a new report from data analytics firm Thasos, which uses more than 100 million mobile phones to track when consumers enter and leave certain trade areas.
Don’t worry. They’d never use that information against you.
Item Students, alumni outraged, ‘shaking’ after Vice President Pence invited to give commencement (ellipses after first original)
Vice President Mike Pence is getting pushback from Taylor University students and alumni after the small evangelical Christian school tapped the former Indiana governor to be this year’s commencement speaker…
One Taylor grad said the school, “should be ashamed…I am physically shaking…I feel personally attacked,” but not all alumni agree and Taylor officials said they are standing by their decision.
This is a Christian university inviting a Christian speaker. Sodomy is now a sacrament, and those who deny it are heretics.
The Civil War never happened, and even if it did, everyone in the south was a racist.
Item Time Magazine Endorses Transgender Claim of ‘Female Penis’
No one should give Time any time.
Item MSNBC Guest: Barr Presser is Nothing But ‘Performative Coonery’
Ladies & Gentlemen, we have a winner in the Best New Compound Noun Contest! Congratulations to MSNBC Guest Elie Mystal.
Realistic Female Hero Novel
Here is my new novel, in its entirety, a cynical attempt to cash in on the teen fiction phenomenon with its obligatory grrl power heroes, heroine being a dead word.
Qristol Vulva Manslayer hastily pondered the fork in the road, sweat causing the blue dye in her hair to leech onto her cool winged collar ($59.95, Sista Knitters, Etsy) which nicely framed her serious but cute face, knowing she had only moments to choose the right path to freedom before evil agents of Paytree Arc Corporation would be upon her to steal the long-awaited Proclamation Of Tolerance—which, when read to the People, would cause Paytree Arc to abandon its foul mission to forcibly enslave and impregnate the nation’s women—when she simultaneously spotted the longbow and a Paytree Arc Agent—six-foot-two at least, smokey eyes, bursting with muscles, an effortless stride and untamed beard, rugged, hard features, and a drawn sword—coming at her, a situation that ordinarily would not have defeated her, except she couldn’t pull back the bow (110 lb draw strength), a situation that led her to say, as her head separated from her shoulders, “What a man!”
The End
I’m thinking of entering this in the 2019 Bulwer Lytton contest. What are your entries?
Help Wanted — Christians Need Not Apply
So the University of Colorado posted a Help Wanted sign in its windows hoping to nab a new president. Fellow named Mark Kennedy applied.
Did well in the interviews, too. Story goes “the regents unanimously selected the outgoing University of North Dakota president as their only finalist for the position.”
But then some (we imagine) Studies graduate discovered Kennedy was a Christian. Worse, a believing Christian, a fact which Kennedy had failed to disclose.
“I really question whether or not he has the qualifications to lead as exemplary a university as the one in Colorado and whether he has the best interests of students at the forefront,” said this female.
This revelation led a trustee to waver. She tweeted, “Some information about Mark has come to light that is concerning; my colleagues and I will be exploring this further.” Mark? She must know the man well to call him by his first name while kicking him.
“While serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, Kennedy voted to restrict abortion rights, voted in support of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and voted to restrict bankruptcy rules.”
The complainant said Kennedy’s consideration “sends a harmful message to the women on campus, and it also sends a harmful message to the gay students.” Even though Kennedy himself said gmarriage is a “settled issue”.
Another report says “Colorado residents bombarded regents with complaints that Kennedy voted against same-sex marriage and a woman’s right to choose.”
Right to choose to kill the lives inside them when those lives are a burden.
Evidence of Kennedy’s evilness was thin, which prompted some to create imaginary evidence, which, as all know, can be even more damaging than real evidence. “@CURegentKroll serious question, wld u be ‘excited 2 have a leader of Mark Kennedy’s caliber’ if he had supported a constitutional amendment 2 deny rights to an ethnic group?”
Kennedy hadn’t so voted, but imagine if he did!
The report also said “Regent Smith told the Boulder Daily Camera that Kennedy’s voting record never came up during a two-hour interview…’I imagine that will be a question when he goes to forums, and I want to see how he responds and in return how the community responds to his responses,’ Smith told the paper.”
This gives the regents a face-saving possibility of dumping Kennedy. “Sorry, old fellow, the screaming mob didn’t like you.”
We met Israel Folau before. Remember him? The Australian Christian rugby player who caused controversy by stating, in public, that he believed Christian teachings on human sexuality.
Folau posted online an image that read (I’m adding punctuation) “WARNING: Drunks, Homosexuals, Adulterers, Liars, Fornicators, Thieves, Atheists, Idolators. HELL AWAITS YOU. Repent! Only Jesus Saves.”
Now one would think this was cheering news. Sin can be forgiven! Isn’t that nice? (I sure think so, for I am a great sinner in need of much forgiveness.)
Make that ex-rugby player. For Foulau was finally canned for speaking in public about his beliefs. (Thanks again to K.A. Rodgers for the tip.)
One report says “The NRL appears to have ruled out any prospect of Israel Folau returning to the game after ARL Commission chairman Peter Beattie said the rugby star had no support from league officialdom.”
“Israel Folau doesn’t pass our inclusiveness culture, which is a policy strongly supported by the ARLC,” Beattie said. Inclusive exclusive of Christian (and Islamic) beliefs, he meant.
Chief executive Todd Greenberg of Folau’s team said “There are young boys and girls who will read that (anti-homosexual posts) and find it hard to deal with because Israel has a large profile. That would not have been his intent, but it is very damaging to some people.”
Rather, it is damaging not to read and heed the advice Folau so generously gave.
The conservative publication Forbes said Rugby Australia has “shown leadership” by firing Folau for speaking about Christian teachings.
Well, this is true. For it takes a leader to “give the sack”.
Forbes said “had been warned a year ago about posting anti-LGBTIQ content and had signed a new contract with Rugby Australia which is thought to contain a clause that specifically prohibits him from expressing such beliefs.” (This turns out not to be true: Rugby Australia bungled Folau contract: report, “Rugby Australia bungled its contract negotiations with Israel Folau by failing to insert social media restraints, according to a Sydney media report.”)
Imagine that. God Himself is, of course, anti-LGBTIQ. God-Jesus-Holy Spirit was quoted as saying “Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind, because it is an abomination.” And that was only once instance of the Almighty’s “homophobic” stance.
Rugby Australia is doing its level best to make sure kiddies don’t hear that “prehistoric…hateful” message.
Finally(!), did you notice something important about these two stories? Nobody condemned Kennedy or Folau for being thievophobic, nor drunkophobic, adultererophobic, liarophobic, fornicatorophobic, atheistophobbic, nor idolatrophobic. Just “homophobic.” This isn’t because thieving is something you do and homosexual is something you are: there are no such things as homosexuals, for if there “are” homosexuals there are also necrophiliacs, pedophiles, and thieves.
Why the difference?
Bonus Late Doom Bulletin Folau a disservice to Christianity: NZ Catholic Church (Thanks again to K.A. Rogers)
The New Zealand Catholic Church has spoken out against controversial rugby star Israel Folau saying he has done a disservice to the church following his comments against homosexuals…
Following the fallout, New Zealand Catholic Church spokeswoman Dame Lyndsay Freer told the Herald she feels Folau’s words are damaging to the Christian faith and believes he portrays God’s messages in a negative light.
“I feel very sorry for what Israel Folau has done. I don’t think he’s done himself and I don’t think he’s done our Christian faith any great service by saying what he’s said and putting it the way he did,” she said in an exclusive interview with the Herald.
“Because that’s presenting God as a God of punishment and a God of vengeance, not a God of love, and mercy and compassion…
“Pope Francis is big on God being a God of love, not a God of judgement.”
One of the dangers of not reading the Bible is coming to views like this, views which are definite proof we are losing. Worth reminded us that no one spoke of Hell more than Jesus? Nah.