The communist wing of the Catholic church in America un-endorses Brett Kavanaugh

The eldest law of nature

Poet Laureate of the UK, 1715

Witness for me, ye awful gods!

I took not arms till urg'd by self-defence,

The eldest law of nature.

-- Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718)

Accusers without at least two witnesses are worthless

Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. -- 1 Timothy 5:19

One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established. -- Deuteronomy 19:15

On the astonishment of the spectators

 

 

 

In hysterick women the rarity of symptoms doth oft strike an astonishment into spectators.

-- Gideon Harvey (c. 1640-c. 1700)

An eternity of extremes of fire and ice in hell

Thither by harpy-footed Furies hal'd,

At certain revolutions, all the damn'd

Are brought, and feel by turns the bitter change

Of fierce extremes,—extremes by change more fierce;

From beds of raging fire to starve in ice

Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine

Immoveable, infix'd, and frozen round

Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire.

-- John Milton

Henry More: Infinite God filling infinite space

Henry More, 1614-1687

Discussed here:

God, an infinite and eternal spirit, is spread out through space. If God and space are infinite and eternal, and God is spread through space, perhaps God is space. More concluded that space is God’s immensity or presence in the world. Similarly, time or duration is God’s eternity.

It's Sunday, the day when Catholic offerings in New York go to pay off men sexually abused as boys by priests

Bishop Robert Morlino: Catholic homosexual subculture to blame for abuse crisis, homosexuals unfit to be priests

Quoted here:

"It is time to admit that there is a homosexual subculture within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church that is wreaking great devastation in the vineyard of the Lord," wrote Bishop Robert Morlino in an Aug. 18 letter to Catholics in the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin. ... 

"We are talking about acts and actions which are not only in violation of the sacred promises made by some, in short, sacrilege, but also are in violation of the natural moral law for all. To call it anything else would be deceitful and would only ignore the problem further," Morlino said.

He continued: "There has been a great deal of effort to keep separate acts which fall under the category of now-culturally-acceptable acts of homosexuality from the publically-deplorable acts of pedophilia. That is to say, until recently the problems of the Church have been painted purely as problems of pedophilia — this despite clear evidence to the contrary. It is time to be honest that the problems are both and they are more." ... 

Morlino added in his letter that church teaching does not deem homosexual inclination sinful in itself, "but it is intrinsically disordered in a way that renders any man stably afflicted by it unfit to be a priest." ...

The 2011 John Jay report found 81 percent of abuse victims were male, but did not link that to a homosexual orientation among abusive priests; instead, the authors suggest greater access to young boys as a more likely factor.

Sure, sure.

Lawyer to bank robber: "Why do you rob banks?"

Bank robber to lawyer: "Because that's where they keep the money."

Protestantism's missionary gospel of inclusive brotherhood has been self-annulling

From the review of Protestants Abroad: How Missionaries Tried to Change the World but Changed America, here:

As Hollinger notes, by the end of World War II, commentators such as Congregationalist leader Buell Gallagher were observing that the “gospel of inclusive brotherhood” that missionaries preached abroad had begun to return home like a boomerang to “smite the imperialism of white nations, as well as to confound the churches.” Many missionaries and their families who had been assigned a key role in converting the benighted darker races to Western ways had instead gained abroad an appreciation for cultural diversity and had come back to the United States to challenge “cultural imperialism and arrogant paternalism” and play a leading role in contesting white Protestant hegemony. Hollinger charts the intriguing flight of this boomerang. ... As he sees it, their greatest importance in the 20th century is to be found in the effects of a contradictory, potentially self-annulling belief system. 

These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. -- Matthew 10:5ff.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. -- Matthew 23:15

Cultural enrichment from Shia Islam: Spare the burning hot coals on the feet, spoil the child

Father makes his little boy walk over HOT COALS while men whip themselves with blades in gory self-flagellation Shiite Muslim ceremony

A poor man is better than a liar

Routinely lied to over 30,000 homeowners to get $31 million

Proverbs 19:22

Un-Chinese communists make new demands that indigenous Taoists Sinicize

If the Chinese communists were really serious about Sinicization, they would be promoting, not attacking, the indigenous Chinese traditions of Confucius, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, and Han era Buddhism. Instead they impose the foreign thought of Marx. What they are really interested in is power. The communists cynically manipulate belief in the old Confucian ideal of the harmonious society as their chief justification for the measures they take to eliminate competition for their on-going control of Chinese society.  

China's religious crackdown takes aim at Daoists, Buddhists:

Homegrown faiths not getting a 'free pass' by President Xi Jinping as Party fires salvo at over-commercialization of Daoism

It's not only Christianity and Islam the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) is cracking down on and asserting its control over; homegrown religions like Daoism and imported belief systems like Buddhism now face more measures aimed at curbing and rolling back their commercialization. ... 

Many of China's most popular tourist attractions revolve around centuries-old Buddhist and Daoist temples. For example, the 1,500-year-old Shaolin temple in central Henan Province has long been under the scrutiny of authorities. ...

All commercial investments in Buddhism and Daoism are prohibited under the new directive, while any temples deemed non-profit are banned from investing in the operations of other religious venues, according to a recent report in the South China Morning Post. ...

During the (1966-76) Cultural Revolution, Buddhists were forced to practice their faith in secret while the less formal rites associated with Daoism took a pummeling under Chairman Mao Zedong, who died in 1976. The temples and statues of both religions were routinely shut down and destroyed. In recent decades, as religious practice has experienced a remarkable revival in China, both Buddhism and Daoism have crept and then surged back into favor. By some estimates, their combined active adherents now number well into the hundred of millions.

A Talmudic picture of heaven shares with Plato's Socrates that the debate continues in the afterlife

What Happens in Heaven? Study. Of What? Jewish Law:

But, in one particular text [Bava Metzia 86a], the Talmud presents a picture of heaven quite unlike anything in the Bible, an image that is indeed unthinkable, if not blasphemous, outside of its uniquely rabbinic context . . . :

They were arguing in the Academy of Heaven. If the blotch on the [individual’s] skin preceded the white hair, he is impure. If the white hair preceded the blotch on the skin, he is pure.

Not only does the Academy of Heaven forgo any discussion of ultimate truths, but the question being debated at this highest imaginable institution of learning centers on an issue of law—and not just any issue, but one involving some of the most obscure, picayune, and technical details that can be found in the entire rabbinic canon. 

The picture is hardly unthinkable, nor is it uniquely rabbinic.

Plato's Socrates [Apology 40f.]:

But on the other hand, if death is, as it were, a change of habitation from here to some other place, and if what we are told is true, that all the dead are there, what greater blessing could there be, judges? For if a man when he reaches the other world, after leaving behind these who claim to be judges, shall find those who are really judges who are said to sit in judgment there, Minos and Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus and Triptolemus, and all the other demigods who were just men in their lives, would the change of habitation be undesirable? Or again, what would any of you give to meet with Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod and Homer? I am willing to die many times over, if these things are true; for I personally should find the life there wonderful, when I met Palamedes or Ajax, the son of Telamon, or any other men of old who lost their lives through an unjust judgement, and compared my experience with theirs. I think that would not be unpleasant.

And the greatest pleasure would be to pass my time in examining and investigating the people there, as I do those here, to find out who among them is wise and who thinks he is when he is not. What price would any of you pay, judges, to examine him who led the great army against Troy, or Odysseus, or Sisyphus, or countless others, both men and women, whom I might mention? To converse and associate with them and examine them would be immeasurable happiness. At any rate, the folk there do not kill people for it; since, if what we are told is true, they are immortal for all future time, besides being happier in other respects than men are here.

Solitude, the nurse of sense

The Solitude Mansion, Philadelphia PA

Bear me, some god! oh quickly bear me hence

To wholesome solitude, the nurse of sense;

Where contemplation prunes her ruffled wings,

And the free soul looks down to pity kings.

-- Alexander Pope

9/11, when we remember the 18 acts of immigrant love of Jeb Bush's Florida

The grandmothers of Bolshevism: For every Republican on religion faculties there are 70 Democrats

Celebrating 9/11 will become a national holiday once the Muslims outnumber us, complete with a three-day weekend and kebabs on the grill

Cop:

"Some men were dancing, some held kids on their shoulders," said Gallagher, then a sergeant. "The women were shouting in Arabic and keening in the high-pitched wail of Arabic fashion. They were told to go back to their apartments since a crowd of non-Muslims was gathering on the sidewalk below and we feared for their safety."

Read the whole thing here.

AP: Chinese communists burn crosses, bibles and furniture in Nanyang and seize largest house church in Beijing

From the story here:

A Christian pastor in the Henan city of Nanyang said crosses, bibles and furniture were burned during a raid on his church on Sept. 5. The pastor, who asked not to be identified by name to avoid repercussions from authorities, said several people entered the church just as it opened its doors at 5 a.m. and began removing items. ...

In Beijing, the Zion church was shut on Sunday by around 60 government workers who arrived at 4:30 p.m. accompanied by buses, police cars and fire trucks, the church’s pastor, Ezra Jin Mingri, said Monday. Zion is known as the largest house church in Beijing, with six branches. The officials declared the gatherings illegal and sealed off church properties, Jin said, after already freezing the pastor’s personal assets in an apparent attempt to force him to comply with their demands.

Distorted virtue

Virtue hath some perverseness; for she will

Neither believe her good, nor others ill.

-- John Donne

Everyman a liar

The Summoning of Everyman

Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar.

-- Romans 3:4

Catholic Marc Thiessen understands for the first time how the Reformation happened

Commentary: Suddenly I understand how Reformation happened:

For the first time, I understand how the Reformation happened. ... If Vigano is right, it means the corruption in the Catholic Church has reached not just the highest levels of Roman Curia but the papacy itself. Vigano last week effectively nailed his 95 theses to the door of St. Peter’s. ... He got no response. ... Vigano is courageously sacrificing his own episcopal career to expose the truth. Now is the time for others with inside knowledge to step forward and do the same. ...  Five hundred years ago, faithful Catholics waited too long to root out corruption in the Vatican – with disastrous consequences. We can’t make the same mistake again.