SLEEPING PILLS FOR GRANDMA

An elderly woman went to her local doctor's office and asked to speak with
her doctor.  When the receptionist asked why she was there, she replied,
"I'd like to have some birth control pills."

Taken back, the doctor thought for a minute and then said, "Excuse me, Mrs.
Glenwood, but you're 80 years old.  What would you possibly need birth
control pills for?"

The woman replied, "They help me sleep better."

The doctor considered this for a second, and continued, "How in the world do
birth control pills help you sleep?"

The woman said, "I put them in my granddaughter's orange juice."



Cheers,

Paul (A.)

I hope no Roman Catholic bishops venture here and read the joke.  Anyway, it's not my fault; it's Paul (A.)'s fault.

WHY I DON'T RUSH OVER...

...when you send me a link to Andrew Sullivan.  I remember when:

Sullivan had a longish media career, but was also one of the early bloggers. And after 9/11, General Sullivan enlisted in the Fighting 101st Keyboard Kommandos, otherwise known as the "warbloggers," whose primary mission was to fight America's most important enemy, the enemy at home known as "Americans."

Andrew and all of you who believed the crap about WMD and yellowcake in Iraq, how could you?

And now Andrew is Atrios'  choice as 2nd Runner Up WANKER OF THE DECADE.  You know I don't usually use language quite that colorful, but I make an exception just to tell the story.  I await with bated breath Atrios' announcement of his choices for 1st Runner Up  and the No. 1 spot, the champ.  See?  I couldn't type the word again.

And I fear we may be sleepwalking our way into a war with Iran, which will be another disaster.  You folks should be reading Juan Cole at Informed Comment who keeps up with events in the Middle East.  He speaks and reads several of the languages and brings a perspective which is different from the media in the West.

SIGNS

Note: I don't care if Snopes says the signs are not 'real'. I think they're funny.

Anyway, don't blame me. Blame Doug.

THIS IS GETTING RIDICULOUS

From the New York Times:

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops issued a proclamation on Thursday calling for every priest, parish and layperson to participate in a “great national campaign” to defend religious liberty, which they said is “under attack, both at home and abroad.” 

In particular they urged every diocese to hold a “Fortnight for Freedom” during the two weeks leading up to the Fourth of July, for parishioners to study, pray and take public action to fight what they see as the government’s attempts to curtail religious freedom. 

Wait!

For more than half a year, the bishops have put the religious liberty issue front and center, but it has not yet galvanized the Catholic laity and has even further polarized the church’s liberal and conservative flanks. In an election year, liberal Catholics have accused the bishops of making the church an arm of the Republican Party in the drive to defeat President Obama, an accusation the bishops reject. 

Could it be that the laity are not galvanized because they do not see their religious liberty at risk?  Could it be that a good many Roman Catholic women view the bishops' campaign as an assault on women's health care? 

Quoting from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” the bishops say that unjust laws should be either changed or resisted.

Puhleeze!  The citation of Martin Luther King's letter from jail and the comparison to to the Civil Rights struggle for equality for African-Americans is a bridge too far.  Bishops, you make yourself look foolish.  You speak well to immigration and other issues, but who will listen when you destroy your own credibility with comparisons to MLK, as you campaign to deny women health care in the name of religious freedom?

And if you don't mind strong language, read Charles Pierce's post titled 'The Clan of the Red Beanie Stalks MLK, Sanity.'

'The Clan of the Red Beanie' is good, isn't it?  Charles is quite the wordsmith.

Image from Wikipedia.

IN ENGLAND THE PLOT THICKENS

Caroline Spelman, MP for Meriden

From the Guardian:

A Christian charity which sponsored a conference promoting the idea that gay people can be converted to heterosexuality has funded interns for an estimated 20 MPs, including some who are now ministers in the coalition government.

The Christian Action Research and Education charity (Care) has provided staff to the parliamentary offices of Caroline Spelman, Alistair Burt and Steve Webb. In 2009 it sponsored a London conference about homosexuality and Christianity which included sessions on "mentoring the sexually broken". The event in London was also organised by Anglican Mainstream, one of the conservative Christian charities that was blocked this week from showing adverts on London buses that supported the idea that with therapy, homosexual people can become "ex-gay".

The conference featured a keynote by Joseph Nicolosi, a Californian psychologist and founder of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. The organisers said they were "very worried about the continued progress of the gay – and in fact the LGBT – agenda across the board in the UK. Social, cultural, political and religious sectors are being targeted and most of them are capitulating".

Well, well.  The "gay cure" folks under the name of a charity named Care (Oh, the irony!) have infiltrated Parliament by paying to support interns for MPs.  The members of Parliament who had or have interns paid by Care are unavailable for comment.  Surprise!  And the Care conference that included sessions on "mentoring the sexually broken" was organized by Anglican Mainstream.  A question: Where does Anglican Mainstream get its funds?

"It's a complete disgrace that any elected representative would have associations with an organisation that promotes a 'gay cure' in the 21st century," said Phillip Dawson, who launched a campaign when he discovered his local MP, David Burrowes had an intern sponsored by Care. "The Royal College of Psychiatrists has explicitly stated that discussions of a 'gay cure' fuel discrimination and prejudice. MPs should be fighting homophobia wherever it occurs but by associating themselves with Care they are actually helping to fuel it. We have to be clear that there is no place for groups that promote a 'gay cure' in the corridors of power."

 The "gay - and in fact the LGBT" agenda promoting fairness and equality for all is, indeed, worrisome to some, but why?

Thanks to themethatisme for the link to the story.

UPDATE:

Should MPs be accepting financial support from charities that sponsor "gay cure" conferences?

Phillip Dawson from Enfield thinks not -- so when he discovered a Christian charity that sponsored a conference discussing "Therapeutic approaches to same-sex attraction" and "Mentoring the sexually broken" had also since funded interns for 17 MPs, including his own, he was shocked.

Now Phillip has started a petition on Change.org calling for all MPs to sever ties with Care (Christian Action Research and Education). 

Thanks to MadPriest for calling the petition to my attention.  Signatures from outside England are accepted.

HUMOR BREAK - REFRIGERATOR DELUSION

A woman goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Doctor, you've got to do something about my husband:  He thinks he's a refrigerator!"

"I wouldn't worry too much about that," the doctor replies.  "Lots of people have harmless delusions.  It will pass."

"But you don't understand," the woman insists.  "He sleeps with his mouth open, and the little light keeps me awake."



Cheers,

Paul (A.)

I know.  Don't blame me.

THEY NEVER GIVE UP

From the Guardian:

Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor, has pulled an "offensive" Christian campaign advertising "gay conversion" which was due to appear on London's buses next week.

Revelations that adverts asserting the power of therapy to change the sexual orientation of gay people were due to be driven around the capital came as Johnson, who is seeking re-election in May, was due to appear at a mayoral hustings organised by the gay campaigning group Stonewall on Saturday.
The mayor immediately put the wheels in motion to halt the campaign after being alerted to the plans by the Guardian, and made clear that such advertising had no place in a tolerant city.

A clearly angered Johnson said: "London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world and intolerant of intolerance. It is clearly offensive to suggest that being gay is an illness that someone recovers from and I am not prepared to have that suggestion driven around London on our buses."

From the earlier story at the Guardian:

London buses have been booked to carry a Christian advertising campaign expected to start next week, which asserts the power of therapy to change the sexual orientation of gay people.

The full length advert, which will appear on five different routes in the capital, is backed by the Core Issues Trust whose leader, Mike Davies, believes "homoerotic behaviour is sinful". His charity funds "reparative therapy" for gay Christians who believe that they have homosexual feelings but want to become straight. The campaign is also backed by Anglican Mainstream, an worldwide orthodox Anglican group whose supporters have equated homosexuality with alcoholism.

 These folks never give up.  No matter that the therapy has been discredited by all the professional organizations, who warn that the practice of "reparative therapy" can be harmful and should be avoided.

And if Anglican Mainstream is actually the mainstream of Anglicanism, then heaven help us.  And when did same-sex attraction become a core issue of the Christian faith?

Kudos to Mayor Boris Johnson for pulling the offensive ads.

H/T to Simon Sarmiento at Thinking Anglicans.

IT IS A SIN

A leading Catholic cardinal at the Vatican has essentially said that complying the with Obama birth control mandate would have Catholics and Catholic organizations participating in sin.

The mandate compels religious employers to pay for birth control and drugs that may cause abortions in health coverage for their employees and a revised mandate will compel them to refer employees for free coverage from their health insurance plans, which will eventually have the payment mandate.

In an upcoming episode of Catholic Action Insight hosted by Thomas McKenna to air on EWTN on Wednesday, Cardinal Raymond Burke speaks out for the first time on the controversial mandate.

I can't wait for the EWTN episode.

Speaking of sin, the clashing colors of His Eminence's vestments against the clashing green of the throne are surely an ecclesiastical fashion sin.  Help!

Further, His Eminence believes that the Roman Catholic Church is well on its way to being a persecuted church.

Yes, I think we’re well on the way to it," he said, pointing to areas of social outreach - such as adoption and foster care - where the Church has had to withdraw rather than compromise its principles.

This trend could reach a point where the Church, "even by announcing her own teaching," is accused of "engaging in illegal activity, for instance, in its teaching on human sexuality."

What about the red vestments?

H/T to Charles Pierce at The Politics Blog for the links to the latest on the 'Clan of the Red Beanie'.

UPDATE: Ann V sent me the link to a post by Armando at Daily Kos titled, 'Is Walgreens committing a sin by selling condoms?'  According to the words of His Eminence, I can't see how not.  Strip the shelves!

UPDATE 2: I asked my expert consultant on ecclesiastical vestments if the objects on either side of the Cardinal Raymond Burke's hat were pom-poms, and he replied that they were "the tassels that hang down the side of a cardinal's hat, apparently sutured into place on top of the hat". There you have it.  The cardinal's hat may be a galero.

Thanks to Lapin for the picture.  

'DEAR ROWAN'

From Ann at Comprehensive Unity:

Dear Rowan:

A piece of advice from someone who has lost battles in church. Stop being a whiner or that will be your legacy -- grumpy old has-been. Accept the fact that it was neither the "radical liberals" nor the "hard line conservatives" who sank your dream. It was doomed from the beginning - not punitive enough for those who read the Bible selectively and not enough space for the Spirit to lead us into things we could not bear before (John 16:12).

Those who voted against the Covenant were not rejecting you, it was not all about you. Regular faithful church members voted against it once they read it and began to think about the ramifications of the entire document. The ACO and your arguments boiled down to "trust us" we know what we are doing and you don't, or we need it to save the communion, or it won't really change things. These are not facts but coercion.

It was not based in Anglican theology - a balance of scripture, tradition and reason. The last section had no mechanism for enforcement except a very fuzzy set of ideas centered around a small group of people. Anyone could grind any other province to a halt just by raising a complaint. The complaints were not limited in scope. They could come from any place on the spectrum of Anglican practice.

Think about it - detach your ego from Covenant. Read what people are saying now that it is no longer on the table. Perhaps you will understand why we worked to get the facts out in public - not just have people vote because someone tells them to vote a certain way with "trust me."


Yours truly,
Ann
The Rev. Ann Fontaine

Yes.  Amen.  Kudos to you, Ann.

Shorter version: Get over it.  Get over yourself.

THIS IS WHAT IT TAKES

From the ground up is how change will come.  The AP reports on a Holy Thursday sermon by Pope Benedict critical of a group of Austrian Roman Catholic priests who have taken a stand against celibacy for all RC priests and in favor of the ordination of women.  No steps beyond criticism have yet been taken to discipline the priests.  We shall see.

On the website of the group, the Pfarrer-Initiative is the following declaration.

The Roman refusal to take up long needed reforms and the inaction of the bishops, not only permits but demands that we follow our conscience and act independently:

We priests want to set a mark for the future:

1. WE WILL include a petition for church reform in every liturgy.

2. WE WILL not deny Communion to faithful of good will, especially remarried people, members of other Christian churches, and in some cases those who have officially left the Catholic Church.*

3. WE WILL avoid as much as possible celebrating multiple times on Sundays and feast days, and avoid scheduling priests travelling around or priests unknown to the community. A locally-planned Liturgy of the Word is preferable to providing guest performances.

4. WE WILL use the term “Priestless Eucharistic Celebration” for a Liturgy of the Word with distribution of Communion. This is how the Sunday Mass obligation is fulfilled when priests are in short supply.

5. WE WILL ignore the prohibition of preaching by competently trained laity, including female religion teachers. In difficult times, the Word of God must be proclaimed.

6. WE WILL advocate that every parish has a presiding leader – man or woman, married or unmarried, full-time or part time. Rather than consolidating parishes, We call for a new image of the priest.

7. WE WILL take every opportunity to speak up publicly for the admission of women and married people to the priesthood. These would be welcome colleagues in ministry.

We express solidarity with colleagues no longer permitted to exercise their ministry because we have married, and also with those in ministry who live in a permanent relationship. Both groups live in accordance with their conscience – as we do with our protest. We see in them as we do in our bishops and the pope our brothers. **

* Here we refer to those who officially leave the Church; some to avoid Church Tax as a means of protest

** This is a reference to the German Word "Mitbruder" instead of "Bruder" (=brother) which is sometimes used by clerics and excludes the laity.
Trinity Sunday, 19Th June, 2011

To expect the top levels of the Roman Catholic Church to implement change is unrealistic.  Change will come only from pressure from the folks on the ground, from the priests who serve in parish churches and church parishioners.  I'm pleased to learn of the brave stand by the Austrian priests, and I hope that the movement spreads to other countries.  The majority of the hierarchy seem out of touch with the operations of its parishes where the major work of the church is actually accomplished.

Note: Once you arrive at the website of the Pfarrer-Initiative, click on 'English', if you prefer to read the material in the English language, then scroll down and click on 'Appeal to Disobedience'.  The next link, 'A Plea For a Credible Church' is well worth reading, also.

H/T to Mark Harris at Preludium.