A 'Faith Matters' collection: 9-12-08

Sometimes there's so much going on that I have to pile it all into one stack.

So here's today's collection of items:

* A church-sponsored effort known as "A Call to Oneness," aimed at African-Americans in Kansas City, is going on this weekend. For information, click here. Several events are scheduled tomorrow.

* David Crumm, former Detroit Free Press religion writer, is doing lots of interesting work in that area that you can be in touch with through his Web site, http://www.readthespirit.com. One of the features there this month is called "Sharing Ramadan," written by a series of Muslims who tell of their experiences with this major holiday in Islam.

* A group called Faith in Public Life has created this site where you can follow the political polling this election season that involves religious questions. This is where to stay current on the shifting sands of faith and politics.

* Operation Breakthrough, a great Kansas City agency that helps needy children, needs volunteers to work at a fund-raiser at the Sept. 20 Kansas City Royals game. If you want to help, contact Debbie Skaggs at Debbie@operationbreakthrough.org.

* At a recent meeting of the American Society of International Law, international criminal prosecutors issued a statement calling on countries to protect their citizens' human rights. One of those rights, of course, is freedom of religion.

* Finally, for an interesting take on newly adopted revisions in the Catholic Mass liturgy, click here.

* * *

MORE ON PALIN AND FAITH

In case you missed Gov. Sarah Palin's interview with Charles Gibson of ABC, here's a story that focuses on some religious aspects. This subject is a long way from disappearing in the news.

To read my latest Kansas City Star work, click here. (My column tomorrow talks about the continuing ripple effects of 9/11.)

 

Comments

[Just Thinking]

What is far more important that Sarah Palin's religion in this election is that Sarah Palin is a liar. There's just no other way to put it.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/09/11/kaye.palin.honest.cnn

CNN reports on how Palin is a self-professing enemy of government earkmarks, but how she secured $27,000,000 in federal earmarks for a town of 5,000!!!! ($5400 for every man woman and child). Palin did self-rigtheously say "no thanks" to the "bridge to nowhere" after she was elected governor, even though she campaigned for it originally. But she forgot to mention that her state took the money anyway! These are clear deceptions. Clear lies.

You can put lipstick on the pig, but it still feeds at the same old pork barrel. It gets fatter and fatter as it crowds out all the baby pigs in the future generations out and takes their food. Holy Sow, can this one eat. Even more than most of the other pigs. It eats like a pig and lies like a dog.

[Joe Barone]

I was truly irritated by Palin's citing of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural to justify her comment that Iraq is God's war. I thought what she said was a travesty.

I think Lincoln's second inaugural address is the single greatest theological statement ever made by anyone about theodicy. And she got it all screwed up.

She said Lincoln said that we all think God is on our side in wars. She said what Lincoln really said is that we should be on God's side.

What a perversion of Lincoln's words. He said God is on neither side. Lincoln said, "The Almighty has His own purposes." And then he closed with, " With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

In other words, we do the best we can in the face of the unknowableness of God's purpose. Anyone who claims that any war is God's war is being blasphemous.

I can visualize Palin and her buddies sitting in some room somewhere saying, "Now when Charlie asks you this, how can we spin it?" This time they took their spinning too far. Sarah Palin is no Abraham Lincoln. And given the way she quotes Lincoln and understands Lincoln, she needs to go back to being the mayor of Wasilla.

[Just Thinking]

If being captured and tortured by the enemy qualifies you to be President, then Guantanamo Bay must be a proving ground for future leaders.

No! Being captured and tortured by the enemy doesn't even qualify you as a good soldier. But it can make you into a cranky, feisty, loud-mouthed little man who can stand on a stage for an hour and say, "look at me, look at me!" Someone who asks not what they can do for our country, but instead asks what we can do for them.

They're owed. They're entitled. They're qualifed by torture. They're George W. McCain. Kleenex, please. I'm getting all Republican weepy now just thinking about buying my eigth house, just thinking about depriving children of healthcare while robbing them through huge deficits, even before they are out of the womb. [Stage direction: Stand with hand over heart now as flag waves in background. Tilt head up and to the right.]

2 Corinthians 11
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as ser
vants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

[Dolores Lear]

GODs PLAN.
There is No Way, for the Human Species to 'Know' GODs PLAN, even by High Tech Science. GOD made the Atom and Electro-Magnetic Force that makes LIFE, with Seen and Unseen Universes.

GODs PLAN, from a Fallen Human Point of View, is for the GOD Elements to 'Evolve?' up to High Tech Pure-bred Male and Female Clones, on Planets and in Spaceships.

IF Otherwise, Will Humans Ever Know how GODs Elements became the High Tech Physical Human Creator Species of GODs LIFE on Earth, 'in the beginning'? Our High Tech Human Ancestors are called Gods, Goddesses and Angels, in Religion and Myth.

In Genesis, the Gods Reproduced Human Male and Female Clone Helpmeets,
'in their Image', to be the Caretakers, of All Life and the Eco System.

The Creator Human 'Gods' do have a Plan to Keep Human Male and Female Clone Eternal Physical Life After Birth, on Planets and in Spaceships.

If Human Gods Accidentally Die, they can Reproduce Another Clone Helpmeet. They can also Escape a Dying Sun, Solar System, Galaxy or Collapsing Universe, in their High Tech Spaceships.

When the High Tech Clone Couples on Planet Earth, started Reproducing Heterosexual Body Birth, Disease, Greed, Killing and Death began.

High Tech Humans do not Kill GODs LIFE. Fallen Humans on Earth, regressed back to the Natural Heterosexual Born Killer Human Species, for 6000 years.

GODs PLAN was for High Tech Equal Male and Female Clone Caretaker, to have the High Tech Eternal Human Life After Birth, spread around the Universes.

Eternal Physical Life 'is' for Living Humans, not Dead Humans, that return to GODs Elements.

[Dolores Lear]

God's Plan.
God's Plan, is High Tech Equal Asexual Male and Female Clone Humans, that made Human Life in their Image, on Earth, They do Have Eternal Physical Life After Birth.

The High Tech Equal Male and Female Clone Brothers/Sisters, they Reproduced 'in the beginning', started Reproducing by the Unequal Lower Animal Nature, of Heterosexual Body Birth.

Our High Tech Human Ancestor Clones, called the Lord God in Genesis, closed down their High Tech Labs, in the Garden of Eden where they had Reproduced the Female Clones.

They do continue Keeping Watch, over Fallen Humans as they go through their Fallen Life Experiences, of Birth, Death and Rebirth of the Human Species. They do not Kill GODs LIFE Elements.

They do have Eternal Physical Life After Birth, with High Tech Science 'Regeneration'. We have this Technology today.

Once Fallen Humans have destroyed Earth's Eco System, Our Ancestors will return, 'Regenerate' those that are left to Pure-bred Asexual Bodies, like they did Jesus, and take them Alive to another Planet.

Eternal Physical Life After Birth, with Human Free Will on Planets and in Spaceships, is the Ultimate Human Species Result, of GOD PLAN and Gods Plan.

Jesus did talk to our Ancestors, understood Male Celibacy, started a Celibate Movement, and was given a 'Regenerated' Pure-bred Physical Body. Jesus left Earth, Alive, and will return Alive with our Ancestors, at the Final Judgement Day of Life on Earth.

Physical Life After Death on Planets, returns to GODs Seen and Unseen Elements to be used again. IF GODs Elements ever Die, so will the Universes.

John 13:45,50. (Jesus) "And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. - And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak."

[a theist]

Anybody posting here actually a believer? In Jesus that is.

[PreacherDJ]

Joe Barone,

I don't think Palin was quoting Lincoln's second inaugural address, but a quote that was made by him in a conversation that you can find at many web sites:

"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right." (not all references include that last clause)

[Patricia]

Amen, Joe Barone.

[Patricia]

Thanks for the good links, Bill. Especially the notice on Operation Breakthrough.

[Joe Barone]

Thanks, PDJ. I'd never heard that quote before. I still think what she said goes against what Lincoln said in the Second Inaugural.

[Joe Barone]

Preacher D.J., I looked up the quote. It may well be apocryphal. Even some religious sites say Lincoln "purportedly" said it. Here is one of the best sources I found on the quote--

http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2008/09/12/did-palin-misquote-lincoln.htm