Advent Versus Christmas - Mattingly Reports

Terry Mattingly often has interesting reports and reflections. This week he posted one on a subject that has been a theme for Orthodox and Greek Catholic clergy for years: The Christmas season begins on 25 December.

It is wearying for an Eastern priest the number of sincere requests by parishioners for dispensations to attend a "Christmas party at the office" or some other such secular celebration. Every couple of years I still get many wrong answers when I ask on what day does the Twelve Days of Christmas commence. Any movement in the Roman Church to increase awareness of the basic rule of liturgical seasons (fast before, celebrate the feast, celebrate the 'leave-taking' of the feast) in the Christian Church is to be commended.

Terry's offering is entitled "Celebrate Christmas — gasp! — in Christmas?" and I encourage everyone to read it.

Here's a quote:

Rather than leap straight to Christmas trees early in December, the bishop urged Catholic families to embrace Advent prayer wreathes — with candles marking the Sundays leading up to Christmas. Families could have “Jesse Trees” that are decorated in Advent purple and symbols of the ancestors of Jesus, before adding Christmas decorations at the proper time.

While the article is very Romano-centric regarding the Advent (read Nativity Fast) season, the point is yet well taken. Read it here.

Of cats and holidays

You either get it or you don't.

Simon's Cat, also seen on I Can Has Cheezburger

Incidentally, this posting is in honor of my dearly departed wife, whose birthday would have been today. My Lady is missed more than words can tell.

Aλήθεια

The Truth Will Out. (Shakespeare 1596)

The truth of the Lord abideth for ever. (Psalm 116)

Eίναι τὸ Α καὶ τὸ Ω.

Kυρία μου, θα σ 'αγαπώ για πάντα

First Things and Disgust

Joe Carter at First Things' On the Square has contributed an article literally filled with disgust. It is a thought-provoking essay on the role of disgust in human life and society.

Below a few excerpts...

Because we lack an innate sense of what to avoid, the full range of disgust triggers must be taught. Disgust, as an emotion, must be learned. And as with any knowledge that is not inherently in our biological makeup, disgust can be culturally relative and passed on through successive generations.

...

Repugnance, therefore, may be a form of knowing that precedes rational thought. Reactions to the repugnant may be similar, for instance, to the way that "fight-or-flight-or-freeze" responses work. When confronted with a dangerous situation, we don't have to wait until we can develop a reasoned response based on propositional knowledge before we react. Our autonomic responses, which are conditioned to respond to similar situations, take over and allow us to respond quickly.

...

If socio-moral disgust is an offshoot of core disgust, then shouldn't we be careful before we dismiss it as a relic of an outmoded cultural bias? What if the wisdom of repugnance protects us from harm in the same way core disgust do? Should this form of cognition be dismissed simply because it may hinder progressivism?

Read the full essay here.

Would that this sort of thing happened more often ... and when I'm shopping...

Frankly, I'm surprised and delighted that no one called the cops!

What it actually says

Amendment XXVII

No law varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives shall take effect until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

What it actually says

Amendment XXVI

1: The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age.

2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

What it actually says

Amendment XXV

1: In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

2: Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

3: Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

4: Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

What it actually says

Amendment XXIV

1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

What it actually says

Amendment XXIII

1: The District constituting the seat of government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct: A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a state, but in no event more than the least populous state; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the states, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a state; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

2: The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

What it actually says

Amendment XXII

1: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

2: This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission to the states by the Congress.

What it actually says

Article XXI

1: The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

2: The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

3: This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

What it actually says

Article XX

1: The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

2: The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

3: If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

4: The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

5: Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.

6: This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.

What it actually says

Article XIX

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

What it actually says

Article XVIII

1: After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

2: The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

3: This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

Hauerwasian Insights for College Freshmen

Ages ago, I had the pleasure of taking an ethics course under Professor Stanley Hauerwas at the Divinity School. I also had the opportunity to chat with him a few times during my soujourn at Duke during that long lost forgotten time. The current issue of First Things (November 2010) includes an inciteful essay from Professor Hauerwas entited: Go With God: An open letter to young Christians on their way to college. I urge everyone to read it (whether a college/university student or not; whether young or old). Below is a brief snippet.

Don’t underestimate how much the Church needs your mind. Remember your Bible-study class? Christians read Isaiah’s prophecy of a suffering servant as pointing to Christ. That seems obvious, but it’s not; or at least it wasn’t obvious to the Ethiopian eunuch to whom the Lord sent Philip to explain things. Christ is written everywhere, not only in the prophecies of the Old Testament but also in the pages of history and in the book of nature. The Church has been explaining, interpreting, and illuminating ever since it began. It takes an educated mind to do the Church’s work of thinking about and interpreting the world in light of Christ. Physics, sociology, French literary theory: All these and more—in fact, everything you study in college—is bathed in the light of Christ. It takes the eyes of faith to see that light, and it takes an educated mind to understand and articulate it.

There’s another dimension to the call of intellectual work. In the First Letter of Peter we read, “Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you” (3:15). Not everybody believes. In fact, the contemporary American secular university is largely a place of unbelief. Thus, the Church has a job to do: to explain why belief in the risen Lord actually makes sense. There’s no one formula, no one argument, so don’t imagine you will find the magic defense against all objections. You can, however, offer the reasonable defense Peter asks for. You may at least make someone think twice before he rejects the risen Lord.

Read the entire piece here.

What it actually says

Article XVII

1: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

2: When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

3: This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

What it actually says

Article XVI

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

What it actually says

Article XV

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

What it actually says

Article XIV

1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

2: Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

3: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

4: The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

5: The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

What it actually says

Article XIII

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

What it actually says

Article XII

The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;

--The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;

--The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.

--The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

Coming in 2011

Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer

Sayidna Elias: We need your friendship

From Zenit.org's coverage of The Second General Congregation of the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops.

ARCHBISHOP ELIAS CHACOUR OF AKKA OF THE GREEK-MELKITES, ISRAEL. "During the past twenty centuries our Christians from the Holy Land were alike condemned and privileged to share oppression, persecution and suffering with Christ. ... Being the archbishop of the largest Catholic Church in the Holy Land, the Melkite Catholic Church, I insistently invite you and plead with the Holy Father to give even more attention to the living stones of the Holy Land. ... We are in Galilee since immemorial times. Now we are in Israel. We want to stay where we are, we need your friendship more than your money".

What it actually says

Article XI

The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.

What it actually says

Congress OF THE United States

begun and held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.

THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.

RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.

ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.

Article I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Article II

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Article III

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Article IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Article V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Article VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Article VII

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Article VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Article IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Article X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.



Attest,
John Beckley,
Clerk of the House of Representatives.

Sam. A. Otis
Secretary of the Senate.

Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg
Speaker of the House of Representatives.

John Adams,
Vice-President of the United States, and President of the Senate.

What it actually says

Letter of Transmittal

In Convention. Monday September 17th 1787.
Present: The States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Mr. Hamilton from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

Resolved, That the preceeding Constitution be laid before the United States in Congress assembled, and that it is the Opinion of this Convention, that it should afterwards be submitted to a Convention of Delegates, chosen in each State by the People thereof, under the Recommendation of its Legislature, for their Assent and Ratification; and that each Convention assenting to, and ratifying the Same, should give Notice thereof to the United States in Congress assembled. Resolved, That it is the Opinion of this Convention, that as soon as the Conventions of nine States shall have ratified this Constitution, the United States in Congress assembled should fix a Day on which Electors should be appointed by the States which shall have ratified the same, and a Day on which the Electors should assemble to vote for the President, and the Time and Place for commencing Proceedings under this Constitution.

That after such Publication the Electors should be appointed, and the Senators and Representatives elected: That the Electors should meet on the Day fixed for the Election of the President, and should transmit their Votes certified, signed, sealed and directed, as the Constitution requires, to the Secretary of the United States in Congress assembled, that the Senators and Representatives should convene at the Time and Place assigned; that the Senators should appoint a President of the Senate, for the sole Purpose of receiving, opening and counting the Votes for President; and, that after he shall be chosen, the Congress, together with the President, should, without Delay, proceed to execute this Constitution.

By the unanimous Order of the Convention

W. Jackson Secretary.
Go: Washington -Presidt.


Letter of Transmittal to the President of Congress

In Convention. Monday September 17th 1787.

SIR:

We have now the honor to submit to the consideration of the United States in Congress assembled, that Constitution which has appeared to us the most advisable.

The friends of our country have long seen and desired that the power of making war, peace, and treaties, that of levying money, and regulating commerce, and the correspondent executive and judicial authorities, should be fully and effectually vested in the General Government of the Union; but the impropriety of delegating such extensive trust to one body of men is evident: hence results the necessity of a different organization.

It is obviously impracticable in the Federal Government of these States to secure all rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide for the interest and safety of all. Individuals entering into society must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest. The magnitude of the sacrifice must depend as well on situation and circumstance, as on the object to be obtained. It is at all times difficult to draw with precision the line between those rights which must be surrendered, and those which may be preserved; and, on the present occasion, this difficulty was increased by a difference among the several States as to their situation, extent, habits, and particular interests.

In all our deliberations on this subject, we kept steadily in our view that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, the consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety--perhaps our national existence. This important consideration, seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led each State in the Convention to be less rigid on points of inferior magnitude than might have been otherwise expected; and thus, the Constitution which we now present is the result of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and concession, which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable.

That it will meet the full and entire approbation of every State is not, perhaps, to be expected; but each will, doubtless, consider, that had her interest alone been consulted, the consequences might have been particularly disagreeable or injurious to others; that it is liable to as few exceptions as could reasonably have been expected, we hope and believe; that it may promote the lasting welfare of that Country so dear to us all, and secure her freedom and happiness, is our most ardent wish.

With great respect,
we have the honor to be,
SIR,
your excellency's most obedient and humble servants:
GEORGE WASHINGTON, President.
By the unanimous order of the convention.

His Excellency
the President of Congress.

What it actually says

Article VII

The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.

Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names,

Attest William Jackson Secretary

Go: Washington -Presidt. and deputy from Virginia


Delaware
Geo: Read
Gunning Bedford jun
John Dickinson
Richard Bassett
Jaco: Broom


Maryland
James McHenry
Dan of St Thos. Jenifer
Danl Carroll.


Virginia
John Blair--
James Madison Jr.


North Carolina
Wm Blount
Richd. Dobbs Spaight.
Hu Williamson


South Carolina
J. Rutledge
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Charles Pinckney
Pierce Butler.


Georgia
William Few
Abr Baldwin


New Hampshire
John Langdon
Nicholas Gilman


Massachusetts
Nathaniel Gorham
Rufus King


Connecticut
Wm. Saml. Johnson
Roger Sherman


New York
Alexander Hamilton


New Jersey
Wil. Livingston
David Brearley.
Wm. Paterson.
Jona: Dayton


Pennsylvania
B Franklin
Thomas Mifflin
Robt Morris
Geo. Clymer
Thos. FitzSimons
Jared Ingersoll
James Wilson.
Gouv Morris

The Witness of Lila Rose

The current issue of First Things includes a powerful article by Lila Rose on the lies perpetrated by Planned Parent. Below is but a short snippet. I encourage everyone to read the article and, if there is any doubt, check the facts - it's so accurate it's frightening.

When I was thirteen I wrote in my journal, “God, it’s time I actually do something about abortion.” I began to research online and think about what I could do to tell other people about this terrible crime being committed even in our own neighborhoods. A friend and I wrote a letter to the community of Almaden, where we lived, exhorting people to vote only for pro-life candidates. We put up copies of the letter around the local shopping center. When I was fourteen I began planning a “Pro-Life Club.” Within months it became Live Action. It began in my parents’ living room, with a meeting of about a dozen of my closest friends, all whom I had convinced to come.
...
I posed as a young, scared, pregnant girl, fifteen years old, the victim of a twenty-three-year-old statutory rapist. The Planned Parenthood staff told me, into our hidden cameras: “Figure out a birth date that works.” Lie about your age on the paperwork. Say you are older than you really are. We will give you a secret abortion, and no one will ever know.
...
I remember seeing that and not being able to look away. I knew I was looking at the meeting of two cousins separated by just inches of flesh—and one of them, a little boy or a little girl, would be violently killed by abortion that very day. It reminded me of another meeting, one between two unborn cousins, when Mary, the Madonna, visited her cousin Elizabeth. And how could it not? We had named the Mona Lisa Project after these two women.

Read the entire article here.

What it actually says

Article VI

1: All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

2: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

3: The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Coming in 2011

Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer

What it actually says

Article V

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

Taki talks turkey about God and Science

The online journal Taki's Magazine this week includes a refreshing essay entitled Viva Christianity! by James Jackson. It's worth your time reading; below are snippets.

Albert Einstein’s damning-if-quirky verdict on Marie Curie’s character was that she “has the soul of a herring.” I am reminded of his words every time I hear yet another bloodless and desiccated scientist pronounce that God is finished and has no place in modern life. What spoilsports. And how cruel to the old man up there with the world-weary look and long white beard.

Without faith in something, it is hard to find meaning. In a changing world, a creed that is constant and unafraid to make moral judgment or declare there is such a thing as right and wrong is no bad thing. We may disagree—sometimes profoundly—but thank God for the conscience and dimension religion provides.

Read the whole article here.

What it actually says

Article IV

Section 1

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.

Section 2

1: The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

2: A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.

3: No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.

Section 3

1: New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

2: The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.

Section 4

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

What it actually says

Article III

Section 1

The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.

Section 2

1: The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;--to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;--to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;--to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;--to Controversies between two or more States;--between a State and Citizens of another State; --between Citizens of different States, --between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.

2: In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.

3: The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed.

Section 3

1: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

2: The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

What it actually says

Article II

Section 1

1: The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows

2: Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

3: The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall choose from them by Ballot the Vice President.

4: The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

5: No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

6: In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

7: The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.

8: Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Section 2

1: The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

2: He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

3: The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

Section 3

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

Section 4

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

What it actually says

Article I

Section 1

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Section 2

1: The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

2: No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

3: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

4: When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.

5: The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.

Section 3

1: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.

2: Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies.

3: No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

4: The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

5: The Senate shall choose their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.

6: The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

7: Judgment in Cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

Section 4

1: The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators.

2: The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.

Section 5

1: Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.

2: Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.

3: Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.

4: Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

Section 6

1: The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

2: No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.

Section 7

1: All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

2: Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.

3: Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be re-passed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill.

Section 8

1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

2: To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

3: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

6: To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

9: To constitute Tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

10: To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

11: To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

12: To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

13: To provide and maintain a Navy;

14: To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

16: To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

17: To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;

--And

18: To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Section 9

1: The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

2: The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.

3: No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

4: No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.

5: No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.

6: No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

7: No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.

8: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Section 10

1: No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

2: No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Control of the Congress.

3: No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

Coming in 2011

Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer

What it says

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Coming in 2011

Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer

Mattingly on Douthat on Religion and the Press

Over at Get Religion, Terry Mattingly reports on, and includes a video link of, Ross Douthat speaking to a gathering at the Annenberg School for Communciation & Journalism. As always, it's well worth reading.

Here's a snippet for peak your interest:

The message for that day can be summed up with that famous quotation from the movie "Cool Hand Luke." In other words, "What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate."

Read the entire piece (it's not lengthy) here.

Coming in 2011

Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer

Coming in 2011

Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer

Coming in 2011

Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer

Coming in 2011

Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer

The Lord's Blessings at this Beginning of the Church Year!

September First marks the beginning of the Church Year.

Start out the New Year well by bookmarking the Dynamic Horologion and refer to it daily. The Hours are presented simply utilizing the excellent Holy Transfiguration Monastery Psalter and Troparia. There is an option that allows you to follow the Typikon with either the Gregorian or Julian calendars.

May the Most Holy Trinity bless us all with an increase of Faith, Love, Hope, and may the Peace of God descend into every heart.

A Few Historical Notes

A friend sent me the following information. As it presents historical facts, I thought it would be prudent to share it.

Let me note three things: First, the incidents cited are facts, not conjectures or interpretations. Second, the friend who sent me this is a man intimately acquainted with Islam having lived many years in a Moslem controlled country. Too often we accept the romanticized opinions of those who do not have direct experience with particular realities - my friend does not represent that propensity. Third, I have 'neutralized' several statements to remove potential contextual misunderstandings.

Moslems are proposing a 13-story $100,000,000.00 Million Dollar Mosque in the immediate debris field of the destroyed World Trade Center site in New York. Questions have been raised whether this Mosque would be an example of America's 'tolerance', or a Tribute to a great Moslem Conquest. Some have charged that the proposed complex’s name “Cordoba Cultural Center” reveals the intentions to be triumphalistic. Others relate the name to an historic era of peaceful coexistence on the Iberian Peninsula.

What history witnesses:

In 630, Muhammad led 10,000 Moslem soldiers into Mecca and turned the pagans' most prominent spot, the Ka'aba, into the Masjid al-Haram Mosque.

In 634, Rightly Guided Caliph Umar conquered Syria and turned the Christians' most prominent spot, the Church of Job, famous for being visited by Saint Silva in the fourth century, into the Mosque of Job.

In 637, Caliph Umar conquered Hebron and turned the second-most prominent spot in Judaism, the Cave of the Patriarchs, into the Ibrahimi Mosque. (This was repeated by Saladin in 1188.)

In 638, Moslem generals Amr ibn al-As and Khalid ibn al-Walid conquered Gaza and turned the prominent fifth-century Byzantine church into the Great Mosque of Gaza.

In 638, Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem. In 691, Caliph Al-Malik ordered the Dome of the Rock built on the most prominent spot in Judaism, the Temple Mount, followed by Caliph Al-Walid building the Al-Aqsa Mosque there in 705.

In 651, Moslems conquered Persia and turned temples in Bukhara and Istakhr into mosques.

In 706, after Moslems took Damascus from the Byzantine Empire, Caliph Al-Walid turned the prominent Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist into the Umayyad Mosque.

In 710, Gen. Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Pakistan, defiled the prominent Sun Temple in Multan, which housed the great idol "Sanam," and erected a Mosque.

In 784, after the conquest of Spain, Emir Abd ar-Rahman turned the prominent Visigothic Christian Church of Saint Vincent into the Great Aljama Mosque of Cordoba.

After the conquest of Egypt, Caliphs al-Mamun (813-833) and al-Hakim (996-1021) turned prominent Coptic Christian churches and Jewish synagogues in Cairo into mosques.

In 831, Moslems conquered Palermo, Sicily, and Asad ibn al-Furat turned the prominent Church of Saint Mary of the Assumption into the Great Mosque of Bal'harm.

In 1193, Moslems conquered Delhi, India, and Qutbuddin Aibak turned the Red Citadel in Dhillika, the most prominent spot of the last Hindu rulers, into the Qutb Minar Mosque.

From 1250-1517, Mamluk Moslems controlled the Golan Heights and used the ancient Synagogue of Katzrin as a mosque.

In 1387, Turkish Moslems conquered Thessaloniki and turned the Katholikon Monastery and the Church of Aghia Sophia, which housed the relics of Saint Gregorios Palamas, into Mosques, as Symeon of Thessaloniki recorded: "The greatest number of the buildings of the churches fell to them, of which the first was the Holy Church of the Savior. These were trampled underfoot and the infidels rejoiced in them. Most of the religious buildings in the city were despoiled, while altars were demolished and sacred things profaned."

On May 29, 1453, Sultan Mehmet II conquered Constantinople and turned the great Byzantine church, Hagia Sophia, into the Ayasofya Mosque. The largest Church in Christendom for a thousand years, the church's four acres of gold mosaics were covered with whitewash and Quran verses.

In 1458, Sultan Mehmet II conquered Athens and turned the Greeks' most prominent spot, the Parthenon on Acropolis hill, into a mosque. When Venetian Gen. Francesco Morosini drove the Moslems out in 1687, a cannonball hit the gunpowder stored in the mosque, blowing it up.

In the 15th century, Ottoman invaders turned Saint Clement's Macedonian Orthodox Monastery in Plaosnik, Balkans, into the Imater Mosque.

From 1519-1858, Moslem Mughal rulers gained control of India and turned over 2,000 Hindu temples into Mosques, including demolishing the Temple of Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya, the birthplace of Rama, and replacing it with the Babri Mosque.

India's Mughal Moslem ruler, Jahangir (1605-1627), wrote in Tujuk-i-Jahangiri: "At the city of Banaras was a temple. I made it my plea for throwing down the temple and on the spot, with the very same materials, I erected the great Mosque."

In 1543, Hayreddin Barbarossa's 30,000 Moslem troops wintered in Toulon, France, and turned the prominent Toulon Cathedral into a Mosque.

In 1570, under Sultan Selim II Khan, Moslems conquered Paphos, Cyprus, and Gov. Mehmet Bey Ebubkir turned the prominent Christian church into the Great Mosque of Paphos.

In 1571, Moslems invaded Famagusta, Cyprus, and turned Saint Nicolas Cathedral, a rare Gothic church, into the Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque, and Saint Sophia Cathedral in Nicosia, constructed in 1228, into the Selimiye Mosque.

In 1588, Sultan Murat III turned the Eastern Orthodox Church of Saint John the Forerunner in Constantinople into the Hirami Ahmet Pasha Mosque.

In 1781, after having conquered the Old City of Acre, Ottoman Moslems turned the Roman Catholic Church built by Crusaders into the Jezzar Ahmet Pasha Mosque, where a hair from Muhammad's beard is preserved.

In 1923, Moslems expelled Greeks from Turkey and turned Orthodox churches into mosques.

In World War II, Nazis allied with Bosnians and turned the prominent Artists' Gallery Museum in Zagreb, Croatia, into a mosque.

In the 1950s, Moslems expelled Jews from Arab lands and turned synagogues into Mosques.

Algerian Moslems warred against French colonial rule until the French took their Leave in 1962, after which the Cathedral of St. Philippe was turned into the Ketchaoua Mosque. Violence caused 30,000 Jews to flee and the Great Synagogue of Oran was turned into the Mosque Abdellah Ben Salem. In 1974, Turkish Moslems invaded northern Cyprus, and prominent Greek Orthodox Churches were turned into Mosques.

In 1981, Moslem immigrants to the Netherlands converted Amsterdam's historic Catholic Sint-Ignatiuskerk into the Fatih Mosque, and a synagogue in The Hague into the Aksa Mosque.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Moslems attacked the World Trade Center. In less than 10 years, the number of Mosques in New York City has skyrocketed to over 140. In light of History, would a Mosque in the immediate debris field of the Ground Zero site be a sign of America's 'tolerance', or a monument to a Great Moslem Victory over "The Great Satan"?

Coming in 2011

Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer

On a Certain "Contemporary Translation"

As most readers know, your rambling host prefers Biblical translations that follow (in the Old Testament) the Septuagint (New English Translation of the Septuagint, Brenton, Orthodox Study Bible - and the long awaited translation that will come from Holy Transfiguration Monastery). That said, I have a fondness for the Revised Standard Version, the very good English Standard Version and the classics - the Douay Rheims and the King James Versions.

A particular translation that captured my fancy centuries ago - long before I knew anything about translation principles and the original texts - was the New American Bible. As one might expect, the more I learnt about the Scriptures in the Greek (and Hebrew) the less favorable the NAB came to be in my estimation. Consequently, I must agree with Cistercian Brother Stephen of Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank in Wisconsin, whose Sub Tuum entry Isn't It Time to Retire the "New" American Bible? makes me want to strike up a chorus of "If I Had A Hammer".

Give it a read.

First Thing on the 9-11 Mosque Controversy

First Thing's On the Square yet again brings its typically incisive analysis to one of the best essays on the controversy surrounding the plans to build an Islamic cultural center in the neighborhood of the 9-11 attack site in New York City.

Two quotes for your consideration:

But America is being told—by the very people who have spent decades promoting the primacy of “feelings,” over thought, and who have declared that “a feeling is neither right or wrong”—to shut up, to not express its feelings, to not even have feelings, because those feelings are bad, stupid ones that are very, very wrong.

They are not afraid of the mosque or its members; they’re afraid of what the mosque will communicate—to the world and to themselves—as it rises so near the sterile ground where once stood two towers. They intuit that such a structure will signal a defeat more thorough than any found on a battlefield because it will suggest a defeat of the will, of priorities, ingenuity, of energy, and most importantly of identity.

Read it Rhetorical Axes and Park51 here.

Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos

Troparion of the Dormition in Tone One

In giving birth, you have preserved your virginity; and in falling asleep, you did not forsake the world, O Mother of God. You have passed to life, being the Mother of Life. Through your intercessions, save our souls from death.

Kontakion of the Dormition in Tone Two

Neither death nor the tomb could hold the Mother of God, our watchful protectress and our unfailing hope. Since she is the Mother of Life, Christ who dwelt in her ever-virginal womb lifted her up to the eternal life.

Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord

Troparion of the Transfiguration in Tone Seven

You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ God, showing Your Disciples as much of Your Glory as they could hold. Let Your eternal Light shine also upon us sinners, through the prayers of the Mother of God, O Giver of Light, glory to You!

Kontakion of the Transfiguration in Tone Seven

On the mountain You were transfigured, O Christ our God, and Your Disciples saw as much of Your Glory as they could hold, so that when they should see You crucified, they would know that You suffer willingly, and would proclaim to the world that You are verily the Splendor of the Father.

Image and Likeness - Installment Eight

c. The consequences of sin (Part Three)

The cosmic effects of mans disobedience and breaking the intimate communion with God which he had enjoyed and for which he was created is here revealed. Man, created in the image and likeness of God, possesses a soul unlike any other in creation. While sharing features similar to many of the “higher” animal, it was man alone that God “formed … of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” through which he “became a living being.” (Gen 2.7) Man’s soul is literally inspired by the “breath of life” from God, and because of this man received from God the special blessing: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." (Gen 1.28) While the death (spiritual and physical) that now dooms man and limits his spiritual relationship with creation, a degree of mastery remains; however, now creation also brings forth “thorns and thistles” so that in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return. (Gen 3.18f) Again, this is not a punishment ‘imposed’ by God so much as a statement of the reality of life lived without the Grace and communion of God.

Man, now self-condemned to live in isolation from God and indeed from himself, will also live at odds with the world around him; the effect of this separation will impact the whole of creation. The image and likeness of God within man was the principle means by which God intended to vivify and bless the universe. Therein will be the cause of decay, rot and corruption – the very entropy that bears down upon man taking the whole of creation with him. This is attested by the Apostle stating that “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God;
for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Rom 8.18-21)

Genesis 3.20-24 concludes the story of humanity’s creation and the ancestral sin that still plagues us all. Heretofore in the creation accounts, the woman was not identified by name. It is after the disobedience and breaking of communion with God, the besmirching of the Image of God within man, that Adam is said to give his wife the name Eve, in the Hebrew evincing a pun in that she will be the “mother of all living”, that is of all humans to follow.” (One may relect that the woman did not need a name before the Fall in that the man and the woman shared the intimacy and dignity of the Image and Likeness; but after the Fall, the spiritual separation from God separated them also such that their former identity is lost in the distinctness of names.)

The twenty-first verse of chapter three states: “And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and clothed them.” This has led some to speculate that Paradise was originally a spiritual state from which Adam and Eve were expulsed to the material physical world after their sin. Such a view, from a purely spiritual perspective, has merit; however it must be viewed solely as metaphorical in that it is clearly stated that God “formed man of dust from the ground” (Gen 2.7) and is further emphasized by God that “you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Gen 3.19)

Rather, it might be argued that the verse demonstrates God’s ongoing love and concern for man. God clothed them, revealing that despite the damage to the communion with God initiated by man, God continues to bless and assist man to the degree that man’s free will accepts it. In this case, man has complained that he is naked and so God makes garments to cover his nakedness and thereby help ‘cover’ his shame. This act also implicitly reminds man of his difference from the rest of the created order and the former dignity he once possessed.

The remaining three verses of the account may be seen as framed in the perspective of fallen humanity. God considers the danger of a broken humanity continuing to live forever and falling further and further from the purity of the image in which it had been created. Thus the way to the Tree of Life is cut off. God is depicted as considering this potential tragedy saying, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever" -- ” (Gen 3.22) This can either be seen as fallen humanity’s perception of God as Judge or else a poetic statement of the mercy of God in not permitting the defacing effects of man’s disobedience to continue for ever. In either interpretation, the potential for man to also eat of the Tree of Life has already been shown to be an impossibility in that God, the very source of life, has been rejected by man and life cannot be obtained by any other means. Again, “through the devil's envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it”. (Wis 2.24) There is no other possibility.

The metaphoric ending is completed with the following verses:

“Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Gen 3.23f)

Man has chosen to separate himself from God. God respects this choice and therefore removes him from Paradise, allowing him to take responsibility for it. Note that from the beginning part of man’s creation God intended for him “to till it and keep it”. (Gen 2.15) Now, however, it is emphasized that the ground he will till is that “from which he was taken”. This is the ground to which man will return when he dies.

Man’s sin affects the whole of creation. Again, the Book of Wisdom notes that God “created all things that they might exist, and the generative forces of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them; and the dominion of Hades is not on earth. For righteousness is immortal.” (Wis 1.14f) Man’s sin corrupts the very fabric of the universe. “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.” (Gen 3.17f) The effects of this sin will lead to decay and death not only for Adam and Eve but also for their offspring and, indeed, everything in creation. Even though, “the Spirit of the Lord has filled the world” (Wis 1.7), man, created in the image of God, has lost the likeness of God through his own choice, “for perverse thoughts separate men from God [and] wisdom will not enter a deceitful soul, nor dwell in a body enslaved to sin”. (Wis 1.3f)

Image and Likeness - Installment Seven

c. The consequences of sin (Continued)

Unfortunately, the break in communion with God, the loss of that recognition of God’s infinite Love and compassion, has reduced Adam’s humanity to one of servile fear. He no longer perceives God as He is and instead considers admission of his transgression in terms of guilt. In this deluded state, the man fears punishment. If he confesses his sin, he will be punished. Rather than understanding the truth that ‘punishment’ for confessed sin is the only path to healing, Adam perceives in terms of further diminishment. Punishment will entail fully recognizing the wrong in his disobedience and this recognition will be ‘painful’. Lost in the finitude of his sinful condition, man seeks to avoid the very conviction and action that can heal him and restore fullness to his humanity.

Therefore, Adam seeks to ‘contextualize’ his sin. He offers ‘mitigating circumstances’ that he hopes will reduce his punishment. “The man said, ‘The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’” (Gen 3.12) In this way, we also see the break in communion between the man and the woman. Man’s very personhood has been diminished in that he no longer sees in the woman the complement completion of his personhood, but rather finds her a source of division and danger whom he can use as an object to deflect attention to his own sin. (Note that in this act Adam truly is virtually ‘objectifying’ Eve, seeing her as an object, rather than as a personal subject.)

God now turns to Eve and questions her. “Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.’” (Gen 3.13) it must not be thought that God has accepted Adam’s attempt to shift responsibility for his sin from himself to Eve. In questioning Eve God is offering her the same opportunity for repentance, contrition and reunion. The solidarity of humanity is hinted at in this as if Eve takes the path of repentance she will serve as a role model for Adam and thus an encouragement for him to follow a similar path in his own relationship with God. As noted above, the personhood of an individual human is revealed and finds its fullness in the humanity of another. The shared nature of humanity is communal; it is not in separation and ‘distinctiveness’ that man becomes fully a person, but in the shared humanity that discovers his own personhood through the personhood of other humans.

However, Eve, like Adam before her, reveals her own diminishment in sin and seeks to place the blame, and therefore guilt, on the serpent. Rather than accepting her own responsibility for her exchange with the serpent, she speaks of the serpent ‘beguiling’ (lying or tricking) her. Yet, we have already seen her active participation in the temptation, the exaggeration of God’s command, the permission she gave her incensive power to lust after the fruit, and the accompanying rise of pride in the false belief that partaking of it would somehow make her more ‘like’ God than her creation in His image and likeness already made her.

It is clear, then, that humanity, that nature common to all human beings, has been wounded. The potential for growth in the likeness of God has been lost in the inability to accept responsibility for the self-chosen separation from God. This break with God has resulted not only in cutting off man from the fullness of communion with God but has also created rift of separation between the man and the woman. This rift is the diminishment of each person’s humanity and the closing off of communion between human beings, the rise of individualism that seeks self validation through differentiation between the self and all others. This self-imposed isolationism has consequences for man’s relationship with God and with each human being’s relationship with all others. The fire of Divine Love that had warmed the heart of man giving comfort and fulfillment in the ongoing growth in that Divine Likeness for which man was created has been perverted into a mistaken belief that only in seeking ‘my personal good’ can my humanity find fulfillment.

The consequence of the sin of separation from God is now pronounced by God. This section (Gen 3.14-19) is often interpreted as God meting out judgment for the transgression, a judgment for crimes committed. Yet a careful review of the passage reveals a more startling reality.

God first addresses the serpent. “"Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." (Gen 3.14f) God curses the serpent and the imagery of slithering snakes is directly used to convey the debasement the serpent has incurred for its part in the ruination of humanity’s communion with God. But given what we have said before we can understand this as more than a punishment meted out.

The serpent (the Evil One) is cursed “because you have done this”. The Evil One has sought to exalt himself in opposition to God and the finitude of his createdness has given birth to an envy that seeks to ruin God’s creation, and particularly the pinnacle of that creation, man. Yet the magnitude of his separation has not enhanced the Evil One’s standing, it has lowered him. The turning from God has removed him from the communion that is the very source of his existence. Thus, for the Evil One existence is one of total isolation, self-loathing, and callous hatred that knows no peace or joy. The knowledge and power that he once enjoyed as a mighty heavenly power cannot be used in creative ways but only in actions that demean both the one tempted and the Tempter himself. Each attempt to sway others of God’s creatures only further isolates him and increases his debasement.

A more specific result of the serpent’s participation in man’s fall is seen in the statement: “upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.” (Gen 3.14) The debasement of the serpent going on its ‘belly’ has already been discussed. But note the emphasis that the serpent will eat dust “all the days” of its life. This does not indicate some pre-scientific belief that serpents eat dust; it is a revelation that the corrupting envy of the Evil One will persist in an ongoing hatred for humanity. God will later tell Adam, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return”. (Gen 3.19) This ‘dust’ from which man’s body is created will be the only reward of the Evil One’s machinations. As he is not God and seeks only self-gratification in his interactions with man, the Evil One cannot obtain the intimacy open to man in his being created in the image and likeness of God. The Divine spark within man may be besmirched but it cannot be destroyed and no amount of connivance from the Evil One can result in the loving communion man was created to enjoy with God. Thus the harvest of the Evil One’s temptations will be merely the reaping of dust.

Further, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Gen 3.15) This enmity clearly indicates that God has not abandoned man because of his sin. Man can find no happiness, not personal growth in evil and sin. This is the ‘bruise’ that will be a complication of man’s sojourn – no one and nothing can replace the Love of God man is created to enjoy and without which he can find no peace. Similarly, man’s innate need for God’s love will always remain an affront to the Evil One. His obsession with bringing ruin to man, as the pinnacle of God’s creation, will consume him and add to his self-chosen alienation from all that is good in God’s creation.

God now turns to the woman saying, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." (Gen 3.16) While some would see in this either and indictment or justification for a cultural view of the inferiority of women versus men, in fact it indicates the misery of human life bereft of communion with God. The “greatly” multiplied pain in childbearing is due to the fact that the child born of woman will also be subject to corruption and death. Woman cannot give to her child that which she no longer possesses – namely, the intimate spiritual communion with God. Thus, the child, too, will struggle in a world of unfulfilled existence.

The desire of the woman for her husband and his “rule” over her likewise does not indicate superiority of the male over the female. It states the reality of isolation within the human individual that distorts love into possessiveness rather than free self-giving. The inability to recognize the image of God within the man will also blind him to the image of God in woman, thus leading him to consider her in terms of ownership rather than equal.

And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, `You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (Gen 3.17-19)

God answers the man’s original attempt to deflect responsibility for his sin through blaming it on the woman by framing His response in the same terms. The man knew that God had commanded him to not eat of the fruit of the Tree. Man’s attempt to mitigate his responsibility merely further exposes him to the truth of his disobedience. This truth has no contextualization that can free man from his responsibility for his own disobedience and action. Later, the prophet Ezekiel will clearly state: “Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sins shall die.” (Ezek 18.4)

Next Installment: Consequences of Sin (Part Three) and Conclusion