Once laudatory:

The Passion of the Christ: A Powerful Spiritual Experience
Copyright 2004 by Gretchen Passantino

Few would argue against the proposition that Billy Graham was the single greatest tool of evangelism God used in the 20th century. I believe Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ may well be the single greatest tool of evangelism God uses in the 21st century. Exaggeration? I don’t think so. In a worldwide culture of visual communication and subjective experience, this movie version of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has the potential to impact more people in more cultures than any other single individual, book, or evangelism method.

. . what will they say now of Gomorrah’s iconoclast champion of Jesus? A movie millionaire made billionaire by telling the Savior’s story on the degenerate silver screen in eye-popping gore? They didn’t know him? He’s Hollywood, ferchrissakes . .

I had the opportunity and privilege to see the movie in the midst of the editing process and to speak briefly with Mr. Gibson. Seeing this movie was one of the most significant spiritual events of my life. I am convinced that Mr. Gibson is a Christian of remarkable humility, faith, and commitment to following God’s will in his life, no matter what the cost. His work on this project is a living example of Paul’s words in Romans 1:16: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”

. . Mr. Gibson is not a Christian of remarkable humility, faith, and commitment to following God’s anything:

Sniper blogging:

Puke. Wishing I hadn’t found the gratis computer just off the foyer.

Texas schools board rewrites US history with lessons promoting God and guns
Chris McGreal, Houston | Sunday 16 May 2010

…The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favour of what [Cynthia] Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy.

Cynthia Dunbar

“We are fighting for our children’s education and our nation’s future,” Dunbar said. “In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system. There seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go back and make some corrections.”

And that, the laughable idea of “corrections,” gives you a snap shot of just how blindly politicized and caustic the school board-ers are. Over and over again, they planned to and succeeded in voting to “correct” History.

What was so wrong? Certain words kept appearing in their textbooks. Huh? That’s right — bad words kept popping up. So they had to be wiped out.

The words were inappropriate? No. The words were inaccurate? No. The words were poorly chosen, misused? No. The words stung. Nothing more than that. They were unpalatable to some people, those with smothering buttoned-down psychologies who exult in exporting hospital-corners Americanism. The people who now run the Texas Board of Education.

Well, who wouldn’t want America to be perfect? Who’d rather hear that the United States screws up, incarcerates the blameless, brutalizes the peaceable, slaughters the defenseless? Not these solid Republicans. Not these folks who can’t bear honesty, not anyone immature to the point of believing the past can be re-texted into vanity.

Not the Texas Christian textbook tyrants.

Terri Leo

Scholars on the curriculum teams had argued that “capitalism” and “free market” are commonly used terms in economics courses and everyday discourse…

Terri Leo (R- Spring): “I do think words mean things. . . . I see no reason, frankly, to compromise with liberal professors from academia.”

The commie academics stunk up “capitalism” badly. So the Texans decided they’re no longer going to lay their students down at the feet of the eggheads, no longer going to allow the c-word to be seen in their books. The leftists don’t get to beat kids up with their elitist agenda.

After the discussion, the board voted to strike all instances of “capitalism” from the state’s curriculum.

“Capitalism” certainly isn’t inaccurate, but it’s rank to their sensibilities, so it’s out. “Democratic” too:

One amendment required students to learn about the “unintended consequences” of the Great Society, affirmative action, and Title IX programs, and another replaced references to “democratic societies” to references to “republican societies.”

The Board struck the word “democratic” from the description of the U.S. government, instead terming it a “constitutional republic.”

We certainly operate by democratic principles. But why mention that if it ingratiates the d-word into students’ minds? Just substitute it with “republican.” Obliterate the rival party: a correction.

And then there’s slavery. There’s no hiding behind the pretense of balance by trying to call it anything else . .

The education board has dropped references to the slave trade in favour of calling it the more innocuous “Atlantic triangular trade” . .

. . but they’re atomically pretentious. The mere attempt to re-brand slavery properly abominates the school board. It indicts the Texans as a suspect bunch harboring an unhealthy obsession with evil and, likely, a latent disappoint with the abolition of it.

Buying, selling, working to death, killing human beings — these are at least tolerable to the Texas Conservatives. Otherwise, there would be no need to protect or rehabilitate any of it, right? There’s no way to view centuries of human trade as scandalized unless it were possible to scandalize it somehow. It’s the liberals, we’re left to assume, that are to blame for putting a stink on it, not the events themselves. And this word that’s a remnant of the conspiracy, it’s not fair or patriotic any more to let it go.

They simply have to put it right. This considerable slice of American history deserves to be free from the recriminations of History intellectuals and the self-righteous — the politics forced upon school books as “slavery.” The British are “Redcoats,” Sacco and Vanzetti are still “Anarchists” and the Holocaust remains “The Holocaust.” But you better leave the Atlantic Triangular Trade alone.

Texas schools board rewrites US history with lessons promoting God and guns
– US Christian conservatives drop references to slave trade and sideline Thomas Jefferson who backed church-state separation

. . “We are fighting for our children’s education and our nation’s future,” Dunbar said. “In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system. There seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go back and make some corrections” . .

Several changes include sidelining Thomas Jefferson, who favoured separation of church and state, while introducing a new focus on the “significant contributions” of pro-slavery Confederate leaders during the civil war . .

The education board has dropped references to the slave trade in favour of calling it the more innocuous “Atlantic triangular trade”, and recasts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as driven by Islamic fundamentalism.

So, this is Texans’ more “patriotic ideology”? It looks like flat out lying and cowardice. It also looks like it’s pretty sympathetic to slavery, and I have no idea how that could ever be construed as patriotic. Slavery is and was a heinous evil — why would anyone try to hide or soft-pedal two centuries of it? It’s preposterous.

Nonetheless, if Texas school board members need any more help in whitewashing a history that’s already universally known, presumably because the documented truth hurts their obscene versions of ‘patriotism’, perhaps we can be of some help. There must be plenty of ways to hide the truth about slavery.

Instead of saying the word “slave,” an unpatriotic derivation of the s-word, perhaps teachers can simply say “triangular trades-product.”

Instead of mentioning that they frequently tried to run off plantations to get away from the horrors of trades-product life, Texans might speak of the difficulties of “inventory retention.”

When the inventory were caught and returned to their ramshackle “warehouses,” any mention of subsequent whipping could be substituted with “product lashing and bundling”, a traditional method of “loss prevention.”

Avoid mentioning the practice of breaking up families by selling off children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives — call it “franchising.” Try not to mention these sales of human beings perhaps by calling auction houses vigorous “distribution centers.” And avoid mentioning death — ever — by referring to it as “breakage.”

Of course, any and all temptations to mention The Emancipation Proclamation would be eclipsed by a patriotic effort to quietly assimilate trades-product and its actual history into the oblivion known as “History as Texans Need to See It.”

Lastly, the post-Abraham Lincoln era of American goodwill toward newly and freely distributed inventory will be challenged with how to describe lynching. I would say that re-casting the unfortunate trades-product, taking particular note of it being the focus of attention, as a primitive and public “entertainment center” would buoy the patriotic spirits of both Texans and franchises still in operation.

These little ways of avoiding the un-American mention of American History might be just the thing to get our Conservative friends to embrace all of their nation’s past: the good, the benign and the palatable. It’s about time that the writers of History books took into account their customers, right? If the writers themselves are disappointed to be forced to bend to popular will, if they’re so overwrought by inventing a tailored past for the s-word, tell them they can re-visit “branding” all they want: describe it any way you like, that’s perfectly fine.

Letter shows Pope Paul VI knew of child abuse decades ago

By Andrew McLemore
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 — 9:30 pm

Further revelations of the Vatican’s inaction to address pedophilia may tarnish not only Pope Benedict’s reputation, but that of Pope Paul VI.

According to a newly released letter, Pope Paul VI and the Vatican knew about clergy abuse of children almost 50 years ago.

The 1963 letter is from the head of a Roman Catholic order dedicated to the treatment of priests who had committed pedophilia. In it, he tells Pope Paul that he recommends removing the priests from active ministry . .

Tony DeMarco, an attorney for clergy abuse victims . . thinks the letter shows clearly that the Vatican knew about priest abuses decades ago and didn’t do anything about it.

He points out that the priest even suggests removing the pedophile priests from ministry entirely instead of shuffling them from parish to parish, which the Vatican has been criticized for since the reports of clergy abuse began.

“It shows without a shadow of a doubt that … how pervasive the problem was was communicated to the pope. He was able to share with him their knowledge of how pervasive this problems was, how destructive this problem was,” DeMarco said.

On Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI said he believed the scandal was a “test for him and the church.” Several days earlier, he said he would not be “intimidated” by all the outrage over the clergy abuse, dismissing the claims as “petty gossip” . .

I’m always a little perplexed by the outrage these revelations cause. Certainly not because the allegations aren’t true or shocking: children were raped over and over again. But because people actually believe that if they raise their voices high enough, the Vatican will somehow suddenly come to its senses. It won’t.

It’s shown over and over again that it considers itself both above and immune to the morality of secular society which rightfully deems these priests to be evil criminals of the highest order.

'In this file photo, members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, SNAP, protest outside Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, seat of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, in September 2006.'

It matters nothing to them that their behavior in dealing with pedophiles over centuries clearly amounts to very serious crimes. Other pedophiles have to work far harder to avoid being prosecuted or killed because of their operating in secular society. But within the church, they are protected and abetted.

The priests get access to children across the world. When they’re reported to the church, the church never reports them to authorities though they are ethically, if not clearly legally, compelled to. The church often usually prevails upon the victims to shun authorities as well. The church almost never bars the priests from seeing more children. And the church usually sets them right back into situations where the molesters regain access to and the confidence of children so that they can rape again. These new settings are often away from the previous victims and communities so that no one, police and district attorneys especially, has a clue as to what’s about to happen.

If that doesn’t amount to a criminal conspiracy, I’m not sure what does.

The Pope will be fine, he will go on unaffected by the scandal because Catholics consider him a sacred object, which he is not. They’d sooner sacrifice themselves than allow him, and his seriously wayward policies, to be properly exposed and shamed. And so the beat goes on:

Recall the church’s later handling of the disgraceful treatment of Galileo and who felt compelled to justify it four hundred years later:

On 15 February 1990, in a speech delivered at the Sapienza University of Rome, Cardinal Ratzinger (later to become Pope Benedict XVI) cited some current views on the Galileo affair as forming what he called “a symptomatic case that permits us to see how deep the self-doubt of the modern age, of science and technology goes today.” Some of the views he cited were those of the philosopher Paul Feyerabend, whom he quoted as saying “The Church at the time of Galileo kept much more closely to reason than did Galileo himself, and she took into consideration the ethical and social consequences of Galileo’s teaching too. Her verdict against Galileo was rational and just and the revision of this verdict can be justified only on the grounds of what is politically opportune.” The Cardinal did not clearly indicate whether he agreed or disagreed with Feyerabend’s assertions. He did, however, say “It would be foolish to construct an impulsive apologetic on the basis of such views.”

On 31 October 1992, Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair was handled, and issued a declaration acknowledging the errors committed by the Catholic church tribunal that judged the scientific positions of Galileo Galilei, as the result of a study conducted by the Pontifical Council for Culture.

You’re looking for sanity and the making of right, finally, in this long-running atrocity? Don’t hold your breath.

Dateline of this article was Tuesday. Read more about the christianist decapitating drug cartel here.

‘La Familia Michoacana’ decapitated yet another victim, this one in the town of Celaya, in Guanajuato, just north of Michoacan. They put his head in a cooler and dumped it in front of the city’s ‘Presidencia Municipal.’ As usual, they left a message with the head, but authorities are not giving it out specific details of the text.

If you’re Spanish is better than mine, read the account here.

Then:

5 suspects arrested in clergyman shooting…
Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Now:

Riverside County Pastor Suspected for Drug, Sex Crimes
By Mary Parks and Bill French
updated 2:52 p.m. PT, Thurs., Dec . 31, 2009

Behind the locked gates of Our Lady of Tepayac Church in the Home Gardens community, Riverside County Sheriff’s Investigators say they found evidence to suggest the unthinkable had occurred.

“He targeted Spanish speaking families,” said Sgt. Gutierrez. “We believe there are many more victims out there. We want to find all of them because we don’t want him to ever see the light of day again.”

Continue Reading »

I’ve mentioned Mike Adams before, he’s extremely angry and dumb. And this is an exceptionally bizarre effort. The ‘participants’ in his bloody 45th birthday celebration: PETA (though I don’t know why), unwanted cats, spray paint, the local Women’s Resource Center, power tools, an industrial vacuum, blood-letting, skull drilling, sucking out cat’s brains, and maybe The Black Student Union.

This is a ludicrously abysmal post, even by Adams’ standards:

Mike Adams :: Townhall.com Columnist
Felines, Nothing More than Felines

Dear People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals:

This Friday, I will turn 45 years old. I’m planning to celebrate my birthday by arranging a small demonstration in front of Randall Library on the campus of The University of North Carolina at Wilmington. I realize this is short notice but I need a favor. Since we’re old friends I figured you could do this for me as an early birthday gift.

I’m looking for three cats that have been discarded by their owners because they were either unable to afford them or because they were just generally inconvenienced by them. It is my preference that you provide me with two white cats and one black cat. If you cannot accommodate me I would ask that you also provide me with spray paint – the kind your members spray on women wearing mink coats. For example, if you can only provide three white cats I will want to spay paint one of them black. I’ll explain that later.

I intend to take the three cats over to Randall Library at about ten in the morning. The Women’s Resource Center is located in Randall. I will call their staff beforehand and ask them to meet me out front. I don’t want my demonstration to disturb anyone who might be studying.

And since you’re so obviously sane, you and your long list of enemies and penchant for Mengele-birthday fantasies, I’m sure they’d be glad to meet you.

I can supply all of the other materials needed for the demonstration: a Black & Decker drill, an industrial vacuum cleaner, two clipboards, two pencils, and some paper. I might also need a water hose and three plastic garbage bags.

By now you may have guessed that it is my intention to perform – on all three cats – a procedure similar to “partial birth abortion.” I will use my Black & Decker drill to make a hole in the head of each cat, which will be large enough to accommodate the hose of an industrial vacuum cleaner. I will then use the vacuum to remove the brain matter from all three cats. Just as in “partial birth abortion” no anesthesia will be used on the object of the procedure.

I don’t get it. Why wouldn’t you just argue trying to do this with some newborns, for maximum effect, Mike? Other than you’re just a strange, angry human being? Why rope PETA into your abortion protest? They neither want to hurt cats nor write the abortion laws. I don’t understand the switch.

I understand that you may object to this demonstration as being illegal.

Wow, now that’s odd–that’s where he wants to start? Not that it’s hideously violent and obscene, and society will try to lock him up in a penitentiary? Is this supposed to be cool-headed satire?

But that objection does not have merit coming from you. You routinely destroy private property in order to make political points. Of course, these cats are no longer anyone’s private property. They have been discarded because they are too inconvenient or because they would be too much of a financial burden on their previous owners.

Oh, I see. Because the PETAs damage private property, you will torture and destroy and suck the brains out of helpless cats. So, somehow, the brutality of PETA’s lawlessness is equal to what Mike is going to do. It’s the law he’s desperate about, typical weirdo Conservative. I woulda thought by now he’d have at least hinted about the ‘evil’ nature of abortion, but, okay: for now, it’s raining cats and laws.

BTW, nobody is better at damaging private property than the military, but I somehow doubt that Mike’s going to maim recruits in front of the campus ROTC office.

Nor will the Women’s Resource Center be able to object on the basis of the illegality of my conduct. In March, they displayed pictures of nude children in Randall Library. People raised legal objections to the public display of pictures showing the breasts and pubic hair of these children. The feminist rebuttal was a simple First Amendment claim. Now, I’m claiming a right under the constitution to terminate life by removing brain matter.

‘Naked girl pictures’ equals ‘drilling holes in cat’s heads and forcibly removing their brains’. But strictly legally speaking. Of course, it’s so simple.

Incidentally, what Adams is so angry about here is The Century Project: the chronicling of individual women’s lives with nude photos from their births into their old age. Read about the head-scratching banning of the venerated show here. No wonder he wants to slaughter animals in front of the Women’s Resource Center–women are moved by the exhibition.

Finally, there will be objections that the blood of these cats will create some sort of health hazard. I’ve got that one covered, too. I debated a Ph.D student from UCLA on Fox News once in relation to a similar issue. His Professor of Theater was HIV positive and cut himself on stage so that his infected blood spilled out in front of the audience. He also relied on the First Amendment to defend his dramatic (literally) demonstration. We don’t have to worry about HIV positive cats. Once again, I am claiming a constitutional right to terminate life by removing brain matter.

Once again, because these people are non-lawmaking advocates of things he doesn’t like, Mike BREAKS THE LAW by drilling and killing helpless things.

After this little demonstration is over I will use the two clipboards, two pencils, and paper to create two sign up sheets. One will be used to sign students up for the student PETA chapter at UNC-Wilmington. The other will be used to sign students up for the student pro-life chapter at UNC-Wilmington. It will be very interesting to see which organization gains the most members in response to the demonstration.

After you do that to cats, can’t imagine anyone would join People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Mike Adams is obviously too right-wing overwrought to be remotely sentient at this point.

The Black Student Union might even want to recruit students at this event. After all, the one black cat is a symbol of the fact that 1/3 of those aborted in America are black. This is despite the fact that blacks are only 1/8 of the total population.

Finally, I will use the water hose and three plastic garbage bags to clean up any mess I might have made. I hope there will be no lasting trauma following my demonstration. After all, they are only cats. It’s isn’t like they’re human beings.

Wow, finally a mention of humans, in the last two words. He never even got to ‘babies’.

On the Senate floor, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) spoke against the amendment, calling it “a political attack directed at Halliburton.” Franken responded, “This amendment does not single out a single contractor. This amendment would defund any contractor that refuses to give a victim of rape their day in court.”

In the end, Franken won the debate. His amendment passed by a 68-30 vote, earning the support of 10 Republican senators including that of newly-minted Florida Sen. George LeMieux. “He did what a senator should do, which was he was working it,” LeMieux said in praise of Franken. “He was working for his amendment.”

Appearing with Franken after the vote, an elated Jones expressed her deep appreciation. “It means the world to me,” she said of the amendment’s passage. “It means that every tear shed to go public and repeat my story over and over again to make a difference for other women was worth it.”
———————————————————————————————————————————-

UPDATE: 30 Republican senators voted against the amendment, including Sen. David Vitter (R-LA).