Tag Archives: The fall of the West

Flying in the face of reason

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God in His wisdom made the fly
And then forgot to tell us why.
Ogden Nash

We have reached an odd stage of un-civilisation when an organisation criticises the US president for “executing” a fly:

The president has been getting lots of kudos for a lightning-fast, Mr. Miyagi-worthy swipe he employed to slay a pesky house fly that was buzzing him in mid-interview during a taping with CNBC that aired Wednesday.

But now People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calling it an “execution,” wants the commander-in-chief to show a little more compassion to even “the least sympathetic animals.”

While ignoring his support for what is, to all intents and purposes, infanticide:

Obama is overwhelmingly Pro-Abortion. He draws no line when a baby can be aborted. He believes in partial birth abortions and infanticide, allowing a baby from an induced labor abortion to die without treatment.

He voted against the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. He was the only state senator to speak against this law on the floor of the Illinois Senate.

Surely the eschaton is close.

Body Language

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When my parents died – my mother about 8 years after my father – looking on their lifeless bodies reminded me of a derelict house that had once been filled with a family:  furniture, toys, decorations may still be present as a reminder of happier times, but the living occupants have vacated the premises. So it is with a corpse; the person has gone. I appreciated the respect the funeral directors showed to my parents’ earthly remains since I saw it as a token of respect for the people that they once were; but I felt no particular need for indulging the contemporary obsession of prettifying the corpses for later inspection by all and sundry in an open coffin – as if to give the appearance of cheating death.

My father’s grave is in the UK and my mother’s ashes were scattered on lake Ontario where she used to live in Canada, so I can’t make occasional pilgrimages to their graves. Even if I could, I wouldn’t, since nothing of the real people I knew remains; I hope to meet them again in the resurrection when they will have new bodies.

So although I don’t think there is anything intrinsically sacred about a corpse, I am, nevertheless, all for burying or burning the dead and not doing this:

A controversial German anatomy artist is facing protests over his latest plastination exhibition after unveiling a work showing two corpses having sexual intercourse. Gunther von Hagens, whose latest exhibition, Cycle of Life, opens in Berlin tomorrow, has defended the exhibit saying that it combines the two greatest taboos of sex and death and is a lesson in biology, but is “not meant to be sexually stimulating”.

I think there are a number of things wrong with von Hagens’ contorted cadavers: it mocks the people who were once a part of the body; there is no conceivable reason for doing it other than to shock; it degrades the prurient spectator; as art, it is pretentious rubbish.

I am against censorship, but if someone burned or buried these abominations as an act of free artistic expression, I would have no regrets.

Gender jumble

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If there is any doubt about the monumental muddle we are in about gender, take a look at this:

Huron Diocese moves toward same-sex blessing
The Diocese of Huron in London is moving toward same-sex blessings, but falls short of marriage for those of similar gender.

A similar gender?

It’s curious that in a digital age people seem to be so averse to either/or categorisations: instead, a sliding scale between truth and falsehood, right and wrong, black and white is to be preferred. And now we have one between men and women.

The cure for the church of Laodicea

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There can be little doubt that Christianity is under attack in the West. Here are some recent examples:
How to offend Atheist cleaners:

Atheist cleaners could sue Christian care homes over crucifixes, warn bishops

Church care homes could be forced to remove crucifixes from their walls in case they offend “atheist cleaners” under the new Equality Bill, Catholic bishops have warned.

The answer would be for the Christian care homes to hire only Christians – but that would probably run afoul of the Equality laws.

A Christian mother is refused a choice of foster parents:

Catholic mother launches legal battle after son placed with gay foster parents

The mother of a 10-year-old Catholic boy has launched a legal battle after a council placed him with homosexual foster carers.

A street preacher is harassed by police:

The outlook for Christians appears bleak: Christianity is being driven out of public life, attempts are being made to muzzle Christians, there is little tolerance from a society that will tolerate just about anything else and mainline church leaders have, for the most part, given up on religion and taken up politics.

The good thing is, pretty soon the only way a Christian will come out is if he is serious about it.

A new strategy in law enforcement

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The police force in the UK has a new weapon to fight crime: the cardboard cut-out.Add an Image

Police forces have spent more than £20,000 on cardboard cut-outs of uniformed officers designed to confuse criminals.

It was billed as the latest police tactic to combat crime and now the idea has taken off nationwide.

Police figures show that forces across the country have spent more than £20,000 on the flat-pack PCs.

It must be a considerable relief to British taxpayers to know that two dimensional replicas are on the job terrifying would-be criminals, freeing up their three dimensional counterparts to pursue the criminal hard-cases:

Beach bobbies: Police officers use hand-held cameras to trap cyclists speeding along seafrontAdd an Image

Police were today accused of wasting taxpayers’ cash by stopping cyclists accused of speeding.

Officers armed with hand-held speed cameras are catching bikers who exceed the 10mph limit on Bournemouth’s promenade.

A uniformed PC will hide behind a beach hut and, when he spots an errant cyclist, radio a council ‘seafront ranger’ waiting 200 yards down to request that they are stopped.

Couple Ordered to Stop Holding Bible Study at Home Without Permit

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This is not in Communist China, it’s in San Diego:

Pastor David Jones and his wife Mary have been told that they cannot invite friends to their San Diego, Calif. home for a bible study — unless they are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to San Diego County.

“On Good Friday we had an employee from San Diego County come to our house, and inform us that the bible study that we were having was a religious assembly, and in violation of the code in the county.” David Jones told FOX News.

“We told them this is not really a religious assembly — this is just a bible study with friends. We have a meal, we pray, that was all,” Jones said.

A few days later, the couple received a written warning that cited “unlawful use of land,” ordering them to either “stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit,” the couple’s attorney Dean Broyles told San Diego news station 10News.

But the major use permit could cost the Jones’ thousands of dollars just to have a few friends over.

For David and Mary Jones, it’s about more than a question of money.

“The government may not prohibit the free exercise of religion,” Broyles told FOX News. “I believe that our Founding Fathers would roll over in their grave if they saw that here in the year 2009, a pastor and his wife are being told that they cannot hold a simple bible study in their own home.”

“The implications are great because it’s not only us that’s involved,” Mary Jones said. “There are thousands and thousands of bible studies that are held all across the country. What we’re interested in is setting a precedent here — before it goes any further — and that we have it settled for the future.”

The couple is planning to dispute the county’s order this week.

If San Diego County refuses to allow the pastor and his wife to continue gathering without acquiring a permit, they will consider a lawsuit in federal court.

A salutary wake-up call for Christians: our faith is under attack on all fronts. We are thrown out of our buildings and now we can’t even meet in our own homes.

In spite of being an incorrigable misanthrope, I have an overwhelming urge to hold a large bible study in my home.

An infectious cross

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Apparently, wearing a crucifix has become an infection hazard:

A Christian hospital worker fears for her job after refusing to take off a crucifix which ‘could harbour infection’, it emerged today.

Helen Slatter, 43, says she will not choose between her faith and her job after the NHS claimed the jewellery could spread disease or even be used as a weapon.

Gloucestershire Royal Hospital explained today that health and safety rules applied to everyone and the regulations had nothing to do with religion.

The blood collector – or phlebologist – said she was called to a disciplinary meeting yesterday and warned she would be sent home if she failed to comply.

A spokesman for Gloucestershire NHS Trust said today: ‘The issue is not one of religion. The trust employs a uniform policy which must be adhered to at all times.

‘Necklaces and chains present two problems – firstly they provide a surface that can harbour and spread infections and secondly they present a health and safety issue whereby a patient could grab a necklace or chain and cause harm to a member of staff.’

Medicine is supposed to be based on science; where is the science that demonstrates cases of a crucifix infecting anyone or being used as a weapon? Where are the studies? Could the NHS be exhibiting religious bigotry?

The cross is infectious in a positive way; is this what really worries the NHS?

I’m a lumberjack and I’m okay

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The only thing that will be more confused than this is the Anglican Church theological commission’s report on why it is perfectly normal:

Here come the brides… transvestite groom cuts the cake as ‘Susan’ after taking wedding vow as Add an ImageIan

With long blonde hair, flowing ivory wedding dress and proud smile, Susan looks every inch the blushing bride.

Only Susan is really Ian Platt, 51, who performed the incredible feat of being both the bride and groom at his own wedding.

The transvestite father-of-three appeased his future in-laws by sporting a conservative dark grey morning suit for the registry office ceremony.

But after tying the knot with fiancee Lisa, 42, in a traditional wedding he left to perform a quick costume change.

And by the time guests arrived at a hotel for the wedding reception Mr Platt had transformed himself into a radiant bride.

The 100 guests roared with approval as the two brides cut their two wedding cakes – one saying ‘Ian and Lisa’ and the other saying ‘Susan and Lisa.’

The newly weds also had their first dance as brides and gave speeches thanking family and friends before jointly throwing a bouquet of flowers over their heads towards guests.Add an Image

Mrs Platt, a mother-of-three, from Leeds, West Yorks, said: ‘Some people might not understand our relationship but it works perfectly for us.

‘I truly believe that people should be themselves and enjoy life, and that is what Ian, Susan and I do each and every day. There are three people in this marriage – Ian, Lisa and Susan – but I wouldn’t have it any other way.’

Mrs Platt said: ‘I met him as Ian first, he was really nice – he would always say he was quiet as Ian. Then he said I should meet Susan. I just thought it was brilliant. She was so confident and had the best legs I’d ever seen on a girl, let alone a man.

‘Ian said that when he was a boy he loved dressing up in women’s clothes and had gradually developed his alter ego – Susan.

‘She was confident and flamboyant and loved dolling herself up for a night on the transvestite scene in Leeds and going out with her transvestite girlfriends.’

Obama sounds like Rowan Williams

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A modern foible is to take two irreconcilable viewpoints, either of which could conceivably be correct, and pretend to synthesise them into a middle ground which almost certainly is not. This is peddled as some kind of virtue: it’s common in the Anglican Church and appears to be an Obama preoccupation:

President Obama used the controversy surrounding his Notre Dame address Sunday as a lesson on the need to bridge cultural divides in America, as he urged graduates to seek common ground on issues, like abortion, that stir passion on both sides.

What common ground could there possibly be between those who believe life begins at conception and therefore should be protected, and those who believe a foetus is a cluster of disposable cells. This apparently:

On the specific issue of abortion, Obama urged the public to at least agree that it is a “heart-wrenching” decision for any woman, and that the country should work to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by reducing unwanted pregnancies and making adoption more available.

“When we open up our hearts and our minds to those who may not think precisely like we do or believe precisely what we believe — that’s when we discover at least the possibility of common ground,” Obama said.

Rowan Williams expresses similar sentiments in trying to bring together those who agree and disagree with same-sex blessings in the Anglican Church:

The challenge is, “how can those who share that cost, that sense of profound anxiety about how to make the Gospel credible, how are they to come together for at least some measure of respect to emerge, so that they can recognize the cost that the other bears and also recognize the deep seriousness about Jesus and the Gospel that they share?”

In both cases, the common ground has nothing to do with the actual issue, but is merely the intensity with which each side holds its belief. In reality this is little more than a sleight of hand on the part of liberals to pacify the opposition while the real agenda continues unimpeded.

Both Obama and Williams have placed a higher value on attaining a bogus middle ground than on truth: it explains how the West has lost its way and how the Anglican church – hot in pursuit – has too.

Transphobia, a new social disease

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Transphobia could, I suppose, be the irrational fear of any number of things: transubstantiation; trans fatty acids; GM bringing back the Trans-Am. We all know that it’s really the irrational fear of “gender variance in society”, though, don’t we. I don’t know about you, but I can scarcely bring myself to step outside my front door for fear of encountering rampant gender variance.

The usual Episcopalians, Unitarians, and other left-leaning quasi-religious dubbed those who believe one is born either as a man or a woman harbingers of violence. Rabbi Steven Jacobs of Temple Kol Tikvah in Los Angeles warned against an apparent new social disease, “transphobia,” which is “the fear of gender variance in society.” The rabbi lamented: “Gender rigidity impacts all of us, even if we are not transgender. That belief that there are only two ways to be human leads to violence and oppression.”

Sadly, evangelicals are now being recruited into this lunacy. Tony Campolo, although always a willing victim of political leftist fantasies to some degree, now seems to have gone completely off the deep end:

“Justice is love translated into social policy,” Campolo insisted at the Human Rights Campaign Clergy Call press conference. “This [legislation] is a chance to practice that love.” Previously expressing support for traditional marriage, and a popular speaker for evangelical conferences, Campolo appeared slightly uncomfortable surrounded by hard-line sexual identity activists, many of them seemingly post-operative transsexuals. Still, he soldiered on, asserting that supplementing federal hate crimes legislation with protection for “sexual orientation” would not threaten free speech among the clergy, “as long as [a sermon] does not promote violence.” Campolo declared:  “We evangelicals who have such a high view of scripture should want justice for gays, lesbians and transgendered persons.”