Agent 9 sent us the link to this short (2:17) video, posted to YouTube back in 2015 by students at East Catholic High School, in Manchester CT. The recent massacre at Parkland School makes it even more relevant now than it was when first posted.
The message the students want to get through to the rest of us is that we should be more concerned with God than with being politically correct.
No more "prayer shaming", they say. Let's bring God and prayer back into our lives. Amen!
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Saturday, February 14, 2015
"Message from God!"
I heard this on The Irrelevant Show, the funniest programme on CBC Radio -- not counting CBC Toronto's Metro Morning which doesn't mean to be funny but is so politically correct that it is funny...or not.
Please pay particular attention to the part in which God asks us to stop taking His name in vain. The Holy Name Society approves this message! So does Walt.
Please pay particular attention to the part in which God asks us to stop taking His name in vain. The Holy Name Society approves this message! So does Walt.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Democrats appeal to God... but not much
As you know, Walt was away for a couple of days. My intention was to go to one of my favourite southern cities to watch the spectacle of southern and western Democrats holding their noses for the renomination of Hussein Obama.
I was told, however, that I would be recognized -- not as a speaker or delegate but as a reasonably able, straight, white male, and a Catholic to boot, thus Surplus to Requirements. In other words, my kind is not much wanted in the Grand Conclave of the Politically Correct.
Seems, though, that a few Christians snuck in the door, and exerted sufficient pressure to persuade the Dems to change their convention platform to add one (1) mention of God. Following criticism from the GOP, who got God into their platform twelve (12) times, the Democrats reinstated language from their 2008 platform that said "we need a government that stands up for the hopes, values and interests of working people and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential."
This very small and wet sop to religious Americans -- now shrinking to minority status, at least in Obama's party -- was not unopposed. Convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa called three (3) times for a vote on the motion to amend, before declaring it approved without a vote being taken. His ruling was met with a loud chorus of booze ["boos", surely! Ed.] and cheers ["jeers", surely! Ed.] and cries of "God is dead and we hope he hears us!"
Having pacified the Christians, the Democrats also decided to get the Jews onside. (Not that there was ever much chance of their backing a Mormon and a Catholic!) In a paradigm of pandering, the party declared that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
What's interesting about that move is that it's said to reflect Obama’s personal views on the city claimed as holy by Jews, Christians and Muslims. [In that order, too. Ed.] If that be the case, does it mean that Obama's America would go to war -- against Iran, let's say -- to preserve the status of Jerusalem as the capital of the Zionist entity? Just asking.
I was told, however, that I would be recognized -- not as a speaker or delegate but as a reasonably able, straight, white male, and a Catholic to boot, thus Surplus to Requirements. In other words, my kind is not much wanted in the Grand Conclave of the Politically Correct.
Seems, though, that a few Christians snuck in the door, and exerted sufficient pressure to persuade the Dems to change their convention platform to add one (1) mention of God. Following criticism from the GOP, who got God into their platform twelve (12) times, the Democrats reinstated language from their 2008 platform that said "we need a government that stands up for the hopes, values and interests of working people and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential."
This very small and wet sop to religious Americans -- now shrinking to minority status, at least in Obama's party -- was not unopposed. Convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa called three (3) times for a vote on the motion to amend, before declaring it approved without a vote being taken. His ruling was met with a loud chorus of booze ["boos", surely! Ed.] and cheers ["jeers", surely! Ed.] and cries of "God is dead and we hope he hears us!"
Having pacified the Christians, the Democrats also decided to get the Jews onside. (Not that there was ever much chance of their backing a Mormon and a Catholic!) In a paradigm of pandering, the party declared that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
What's interesting about that move is that it's said to reflect Obama’s personal views on the city claimed as holy by Jews, Christians and Muslims. [In that order, too. Ed.] If that be the case, does it mean that Obama's America would go to war -- against Iran, let's say -- to preserve the status of Jerusalem as the capital of the Zionist entity? Just asking.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Christopher Hitchens meets his maker
In case you haven't read all the hang-wringing articles and obits in the lamestream press, Christopher Hitchens died last week. He was a loudmouth, left-wing, secular humanist and God-denier. Now he should be painfully aware that he was wrong.
Agent 3 has written a bit of poetry [??? Ed.] to mark Hitchens' passage into the world beyond.
Walt adds an "amen". God will not be mocked.
Agent 3 has written a bit of poetry [??? Ed.] to mark Hitchens' passage into the world beyond.
So, farewell then, Christopher Hitchens
May you burn forever in hell
And save a place for Richard Dawkins
For he shall surely be next.
May you burn forever in hell
And save a place for Richard Dawkins
For he shall surely be next.
Walt adds an "amen". God will not be mocked.
Friday, September 30, 2011
"Bless you!" - not in Calilfornia!
Quick now. What do you say, without even thinking, when someone sneezes? "God bless you!" Right? No. Not right -- that is, not politically correct -- in Steve Cuckovich's classroom in Vacaville CA.
The teacher has banned his students at Will C. Woods High School from saying "bless you" -- even if God's name isn't invoked --when someone lets one rip. [You need to make it clear you're talking about a sneeze! Ed.] He has gone so far as to lower students' grades if they let a blessing slip past their lips.
And get this. Mr. Kookovich says it has nothing to do with the political correctness plaguing California even more than the rest of the once-Christian country. Here's how he explains himself.
OK, so he's a wingnut. California is full of them. There's a nation-wide network of ultra-PC teachers. [Are you talking about teachers unions? Ed.] And Mr. Cuckovich has since been forced to lift his policy. So who cares?
Well... let's not forget that, while banning "bless you" is certainly a bit extreme, "public" schools in North America and Europe have been forced to phase out religious -- read "Christian" -- artifacts and dress for years now.
France, having banned Christian symbols from its state schools over two centuries ago, outlawed Islamic headscarves and other religious symbols from in 2004. In 2009, the European Court of Human Rights ordered Italy to remove all crucifixes from schools. (Italy appealed and won, so the crucifix remains, much to the dismay of the secular humanists.)
In 2002, New York prohibited Nativity scenes from its public school system, while an Ottawa school gained notoriety in 2007 for dropping the word "Christmas" from a rendition of "Silver Bells".
The campaign of the liberals and "progressive thinkers" -- exemplified by Teacher Kookovich -- continues. If this kind of thing outrages you, do what the parents of Vacaville did. Say something! Don't hold your tongue when people are being punished for expressing even a mild belief in the existence of God.
The teacher has banned his students at Will C. Woods High School from saying "bless you" -- even if God's name isn't invoked --when someone lets one rip. [You need to make it clear you're talking about a sneeze! Ed.] He has gone so far as to lower students' grades if they let a blessing slip past their lips.
And get this. Mr. Kookovich says it has nothing to do with the political correctness plaguing California even more than the rest of the once-Christian country. Here's how he explains himself.
OK, so he's a wingnut. California is full of them. There's a nation-wide network of ultra-PC teachers. [Are you talking about teachers unions? Ed.] And Mr. Cuckovich has since been forced to lift his policy. So who cares?
Well... let's not forget that, while banning "bless you" is certainly a bit extreme, "public" schools in North America and Europe have been forced to phase out religious -- read "Christian" -- artifacts and dress for years now.
France, having banned Christian symbols from its state schools over two centuries ago, outlawed Islamic headscarves and other religious symbols from in 2004. In 2009, the European Court of Human Rights ordered Italy to remove all crucifixes from schools. (Italy appealed and won, so the crucifix remains, much to the dismay of the secular humanists.)
In 2002, New York prohibited Nativity scenes from its public school system, while an Ottawa school gained notoriety in 2007 for dropping the word "Christmas" from a rendition of "Silver Bells".
The campaign of the liberals and "progressive thinkers" -- exemplified by Teacher Kookovich -- continues. If this kind of thing outrages you, do what the parents of Vacaville did. Say something! Don't hold your tongue when people are being punished for expressing even a mild belief in the existence of God.
Friday, August 12, 2011
The brick
Woken up by flashing red lights, heading down the road in the direction of my next neighbour. After daybreak I will go to see what has happened and if there's anything I can do. As they say. When someone near us is stricken by "bad luck" or "misfortune" or "the fickle finger of fate", we should be reminded of our own mortality. Sometimes it's not "bad luck" but the hand of God, throwing a brick.
I think and write this having just received, by "coincidence", the following story.
A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something.
As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown.
The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what do you think you're doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?"
The young boy was apologetic. "Please, mister...please, I'm sorry but I didn't
know what else to do," he pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop..."
With tears dripping down his face, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. "It's my brother," he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up."
Still sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. "Thank you and God bless you," the grateful child told the stranger.
Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.
It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: "Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!"
God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have
time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It's our choice to listen or not.
Thanks to Agent 38 for this thought for the day.
I think and write this having just received, by "coincidence", the following story.
A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something.
As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown.
The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what do you think you're doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?"
The young boy was apologetic. "Please, mister...please, I'm sorry but I didn't
know what else to do," he pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop..."
With tears dripping down his face, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. "It's my brother," he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up."
Still sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. "Thank you and God bless you," the grateful child told the stranger.
Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.
It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: "Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!"
God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have
time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It's our choice to listen or not.
Thanks to Agent 38 for this thought for the day.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Have faith in God, not technology: Benedict XVI
Thanks to the miracles of modern science, we humans are more powerful now than ever before. We are masters of our world and masters of our lives. Right?
Modern technology lets us to fly from one side of the earth to the other in less than 24 hours. And we can get through the airports at other end in only six or seven hours.
Modern technology enables us to know in the first months of a pregnancy whether a child is healthy and whether it's a boy or a girl. And if it's a girl, modern technology helps us to kill her before she sees the light of day.
Modern technology gives us access to literally 1000s of channels of information and entertainment. We can see pornography from all over the world on our tablets, Blackberries, even our cellphones, 24 hours a day.
At the risk of being called a technophobe, Walt ventures the opinion that today's world is a worse place -- more complicated, more contaminated and more inhospitable -- than ever before.
Why? Because the modern world has been created by humans who think their science has made them better than God. We can do anything, they think, except maybe create life and we're pretty close to that. Aren't we humans great?
Pope Benedict XVI is of a different view. He told Palm Sunday worshippers that man will pay the price for his pride if he believes technology can give him the powers of God.
The Holy Father's homily, delivered to tens of thousands in St. Peter's Square, had as its theme man’s relationship with God and how it can sometimes be threatened by technology.
"From the beginning men and women have been filled — and this is as true today as ever — with a desire to ‘be like God’, to attain the heights of God by their own powers," the pontiff said. "All the inventions of the human spirit are ultimately an effort to gain wings so as to rise to the heights of Being and to become independent, completely free, as God is free."
“Mankind has managed to accomplish so many things: we can fly! We can see, hear and speak to one another from the farthest ends of the earth. And yet the force of gravity which draws us down is powerful,” he said.
While the great advances of technology have improved life for man, the Pope explained, they have also increased possibilities for evil, and recent natural disasters are a reminder, if any were needed, that mankind is not all-powerful.
In spite of being "powered by technology", today's world is in a horrible state. The lesson to be learned, Pope Benedict said, is that "the great achievements of technology...contribute to the progress of mankind only if they are joined to these attitudes – if our hands become clean and our hearts pure, if we seek truth, if we seek God and let ourselves be touched and challenged by His love.
"All these means of 'ascent' are effective only if we humbly acknowledge that we need to be lifted up; if we abandon the pride of wanting to become God. We need God. He draws us upwards; letting ourselves be upheld by His hands – by faith, in other words – sets us aright and gives us the inner strength that raises us on high. We need the humility of a faith which seeks the face of God and trusts in the truth of His love."
Walt says "amen".
Modern technology lets us to fly from one side of the earth to the other in less than 24 hours. And we can get through the airports at other end in only six or seven hours.
Modern technology enables us to know in the first months of a pregnancy whether a child is healthy and whether it's a boy or a girl. And if it's a girl, modern technology helps us to kill her before she sees the light of day.
Modern technology gives us access to literally 1000s of channels of information and entertainment. We can see pornography from all over the world on our tablets, Blackberries, even our cellphones, 24 hours a day.
At the risk of being called a technophobe, Walt ventures the opinion that today's world is a worse place -- more complicated, more contaminated and more inhospitable -- than ever before.
Why? Because the modern world has been created by humans who think their science has made them better than God. We can do anything, they think, except maybe create life and we're pretty close to that. Aren't we humans great?
Pope Benedict XVI is of a different view. He told Palm Sunday worshippers that man will pay the price for his pride if he believes technology can give him the powers of God.
The Holy Father's homily, delivered to tens of thousands in St. Peter's Square, had as its theme man’s relationship with God and how it can sometimes be threatened by technology.
"From the beginning men and women have been filled — and this is as true today as ever — with a desire to ‘be like God’, to attain the heights of God by their own powers," the pontiff said. "All the inventions of the human spirit are ultimately an effort to gain wings so as to rise to the heights of Being and to become independent, completely free, as God is free."
“Mankind has managed to accomplish so many things: we can fly! We can see, hear and speak to one another from the farthest ends of the earth. And yet the force of gravity which draws us down is powerful,” he said.
While the great advances of technology have improved life for man, the Pope explained, they have also increased possibilities for evil, and recent natural disasters are a reminder, if any were needed, that mankind is not all-powerful.
In spite of being "powered by technology", today's world is in a horrible state. The lesson to be learned, Pope Benedict said, is that "the great achievements of technology...contribute to the progress of mankind only if they are joined to these attitudes – if our hands become clean and our hearts pure, if we seek truth, if we seek God and let ourselves be touched and challenged by His love.
"All these means of 'ascent' are effective only if we humbly acknowledge that we need to be lifted up; if we abandon the pride of wanting to become God. We need God. He draws us upwards; letting ourselves be upheld by His hands – by faith, in other words – sets us aright and gives us the inner strength that raises us on high. We need the humility of a faith which seeks the face of God and trusts in the truth of His love."
Walt says "amen".
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
I had a dream
Last night I had a dream. Just like Martin Luther King. Well, not the same dream, of course. But a pretty good dream. And I thought, in a waking moment, wouldn't it be great if I could "save" this so I could watch it again. Why can't I just plug a flash drive into my ear and download it. But not being a droid (in spite of my R2D2-like shape), I couldn't do that.
That got me thinking about the complexity of the life forms we call human beings. Doctors and scientists still don't fully understand how our brains function. They don't know exactly how we dream or why we dream. But we do.
There are those -- Stephen Hawking is the latest -- who tell us that God had nothing to do with the creation of such complex creatures. It just kind of happened. Just by accident a couple of simple cells swimming in the primordial soup just happened to meet, and billions of years later, voilà , homo sapiens.
Yet even genii like Dr. Hawking can't figure out how to replicate a human. You can clone a sheep, but not a person. Perhaps it has something to do with what religous people call "the soul". Which brings us back to God.
I'm not a "creationist", in the sense of believing that God created the world in exactly six 24-hour days, and made man, fully-formed in the shape and image we call "man" today, out of mud. But I do believe in intelligent design.
Maybe, since Hawking and others are intelligent enough, we should call it "super-intelligent design". That's "super-intelligent", a close cousin of "supernatural".
The Bible tells us that God made man. It doesn't give the recipe -- the one that intelligent, 21st-century men are still looking for.
The Bible was written in simpler times, for simple people. It does not tell us how God made us. If you want to believe He did it in a day, that's fine. If you prefer to think that it took a complex evolutionary process, over millions of years, that's fine too.
The important thing is to remember that there is a Higher Power which/whom we call God. Let's not deny Him.
That got me thinking about the complexity of the life forms we call human beings. Doctors and scientists still don't fully understand how our brains function. They don't know exactly how we dream or why we dream. But we do.
There are those -- Stephen Hawking is the latest -- who tell us that God had nothing to do with the creation of such complex creatures. It just kind of happened. Just by accident a couple of simple cells swimming in the primordial soup just happened to meet, and billions of years later, voilà , homo sapiens.
Yet even genii like Dr. Hawking can't figure out how to replicate a human. You can clone a sheep, but not a person. Perhaps it has something to do with what religous people call "the soul". Which brings us back to God.
I'm not a "creationist", in the sense of believing that God created the world in exactly six 24-hour days, and made man, fully-formed in the shape and image we call "man" today, out of mud. But I do believe in intelligent design.
Maybe, since Hawking and others are intelligent enough, we should call it "super-intelligent design". That's "super-intelligent", a close cousin of "supernatural".
The Bible tells us that God made man. It doesn't give the recipe -- the one that intelligent, 21st-century men are still looking for.
The Bible was written in simpler times, for simple people. It does not tell us how God made us. If you want to believe He did it in a day, that's fine. If you prefer to think that it took a complex evolutionary process, over millions of years, that's fine too.
The important thing is to remember that there is a Higher Power which/whom we call God. Let's not deny Him.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Homosexuality condemned in the Word of God
The militant and powerful "gay lobby" would undoubtedly like to have the Holy Bible banned as "hate literature". Why? Because the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality is as clear and plain as the Bible's condemnation of murder, adultery, premarital sex, kidnapping, lying, idolatry and other grave sins. Clergy who support the "cause" of gay and lesbian rights must have skipped classes at the seminary the day this was taught. (Or perhaps they went to seminaries which have become, in the words of a now-deceased cardinal, "hotbeds of homosexuality"!) In any case, for any churchman or layman (oops -- layperson!) to use the Bible to condone rather than condemn homosexuality just proves such a one has absolutely no idea what the Bible actually teaches.
For anyone to suggest that the Holy Bible says God approves of (or at least doesn't condemn) homosexual activity is nothing less than willful blindness. This is what the Bible* -- the inspired Word of God -- actually says on the subject.
First, look at the story of Sodom and Gommorah in Genesis 19. Those cities were notorious hotbeds of homosexuality. Gen. 19:5-7: They called Lot and said to him, "Where are the men that came in to thee at night? Bring them out hither that we may know [have sexual relations with] them." Lot went out to them...and said, "Do not so, I beseech you, my brethren; do not commit this evil."
The Greek-dervied word we use, even today, to describe homosexual sex is "sodomy". And those who practise sodomy are "sodomites". It was for the sin of sodomy, among others, that God punished the city of Sodom with total annihilation.
Some say that the God of the New Testament is a God of love, much different from the God of righteousness and justice we meet in the Old Testament. But the first Christians, the writers of the New Testament, knew perfectly well that God's view of sodomy remains the same.
In the Catholic Epistle of St. Jude the Apostle we read (7): As Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbouring cities, in like manner, having given themselves to fornication, and going after other [strange] flesh, were made an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
Yes, the God who commands us to love our neighbour is the same God who will cast unrepentant sinners into the "eternal fire".
Back to the Old Testament, where homosexuality is clearly and unequivocally condemned.
Leviticus 18:22-23: Thou shalt not copulate with mankind [males] as with womankind [women]; because it is an abomination."
Lev. 20:13: If any one [man] lie with a man as with a woman, both have committed an abomination; let them be put to death.
In his epistles, St. Paul writes on this subject three times.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10: Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind [those who have sex with men]...shall possess the kingdom of God.
1 Timothy 1:9-10: The law is not made for the just man, but for the unjust and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the wicked and defiled...for fornicators, for them who defile themselves with mankind [men], ...for liars, for perjured persons, and whatever thing is contrary to sound doctrine.
In the following passage we see the condemnation not just of sex between men but also sex between women (lesbianism):
Romans 1:26-27: For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that which is against nature. And in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to [the punishment for] their error."
If homosexuals continue in their deviant ways, in the face of the clear proscription of God, that is their choice, made of their own free will. But let them know for certain that the Bible condemns all such practices and the day will surely come when God will judge them unfit for His kingdom.
Moreover, if they continue to practise and openly promote homosexuality, leading others astray, "it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea." (St. Mark 9:41).
* Douay-Rheims Version (DRV)
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