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Last updated on July 16th, 2017 at 12:39 pm
The Philippines’ Father Roy Cimagala:
Sometime ago, a close friend of mine came to me in deep distress after attending Mass where the celebrant (a bishop) mentioned globalization, without any qualification, among the evils to avoid, together with abortion, contraception, pornography, etc.
“I was more ashamed of my bishop than bothered by what he said,” this friend told me. “He just showed complete ignorance of the issue. Incredible!”
I had to clarify the matter and disabuse him of a creeping cynicism about to engulf him. But this is not the only example. There are many others.
Someone told me the other day how dismayed he was when in a seminar a nun acted like a calamity prophetess talking about the impending doom that will be brought about by “global warming.”
“When I checked the Internet,” he said, “I found out that the issue is still a subject of intense debate as to whether there’s real basis for alarm or not. And here we have a nun already blabbering as if everything about it is already settled.”
“Calamity prophetess”! Father Roy has coined a noun for the ages.
I despair when I hear mainstream preachers and social activists (one and the same these days) getting behind Labor and the Unions return to power and corruption. They seem happy to re-condemn the weakest (ie chronic unemployed) to invisible status with no hope of ever finding or being offered a job, not to mention the flow on effects to economy and unemployment in general. Just who’s side are they on as it’s not the most needy that’s for sure?
Yes, I am amazed and somewhat cynical about the number of Christians who have jumped on board the global warming calamity-wagon.
If you are a Christian, you should know that the end of the world will not come about by global warming—I thought everyone knew it would be the second coming of Christ. That’s rather basic Christianity, and certainly those who have devoted their lives to studying Christianity should know it.
I know many readers of this site claim to be non-religious. When I see so-called Christians who act so ignorant and wishy-washy, I can understand why the non-believers think that believers are flaky and stupid and not something they want to be a part of. My minister mentioned on Sunday that one of the main reasons people don’t go to church is because of the people who do. Case in point.
GW is the new “liberation theology.”
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 08 29 at 03:31 PM • permalink
This nonsense is a primo example of why my church attendance has bottomed out in the past year or so. Each time I attend I hear something that sets a new standard for stupidity, something I’d expect to hear in a cult perhaps but not a mainstream Christian denomination.
Last Sunday, at the Episcopal Church where I am/used to be a member, was “Green Sunday.” The senior warden of the vestry gave the sermon (rector was out of town on vacation). After two paragraphs of lip service to the subject of this week’s gospel reading, which happened to be the observance of the Sabbath, she segued into the most ridiculous theme I have ever heard in a sermon: “Doesn’t the Earth need a Sabbath too?”
Gee, lady, I don’t know. Does it? And what the hell does that even mean?
Not only is Christianity drifting toward the religion of Green, but both are becoming a branch of the religion of Marxism.
Each of these has its own myth and miracle, saints and sinners, revelation and confession, sin and redemption.
The difference is that Green Marxism is a religion based on Materialism, a pale imitiation of religions based on Spirit.
This weak tea may be all that Modern Man can handle.
Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2007 08 29 at 04:02 PM • permalink
I tend to prefer the term Doominators. If it aint gonna doom up on its own, they’ll work their tails off to doom it up themselves.
And as to the Christian capitulation thing… That’s fairly common to all the sects that build their base on elements other than the Bible itself.
The more main streamy a Christian sect becomes, the more prone it is to getting swept along with the currents of popular politics.
Interestingly enough, in the LDS church (which maintains strict political neutrality, and which I’ve never heard utter a single word about 95% of the big hot button issues in the media nowdays) I have actually heard General Authorities of the church warn specifically about political correctness, calling it an attempt to legitimize a number of behaviors that are contrary to God’s law.
- I recently gave a talk on small business management to a group of self-employed translators.
One of them started whinging about how hard it is to get good rates for your work (much of which comes over the internet) when there are translators in Egypt who will translate for the equivalent of only 2 dollars an hour, and he went on to say this is an example of how globalization is wrecking everything.
He was of Asian extraction, we were in Melbourne, Australia and he was sitting with a Japanese-made laptop in front of him, with a “Make Poverty History” sticker on it.
So here is a young left-leaning person, having emigrated to the free world, benefitting from the internet and other globally traded technology, and who would happily deny poor Egyptians the opportunity offered by the internet, to rise above an income of less than 2 dollars per hour, lest he be forced to question the economical viability of what has only been a comfortable lifestyle choice to date.
I sputtered..
These blokes should be running the Catholic Church
And giving those who need it a good boot n the arse
Of course there have been Calamity Prophets since the beginning of history. My brother-in-law and his wife are off to Mexico on 21 December 2012 to see the end of the world. That’s when the Mayan Calendar ends. Needless to say, they expect to live through it.
Mrs A
Posted by Apparatchik on 2007 08 29 at 07:41 PM • permalink
Those Filipinos sure know how to turn a colorful phrase, and the word “calamity” is a big part of their lexicon, what with numerous village-burying mudslides, ferry sinkings, typhoons, Abu Sayyaf shenanigans, coup attempts, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
That said, how about “doom junkie?”
Posted by Tommy Shanks on 2007 08 29 at 08:01 PM • permalink
#9, Harry Bergeron, you’ve just nailed the single thing that will kill Christianity, and what empowers so many to turn to radical Islam today. People want answers beyond materialism, so they turn to what they think will give them spiritual answers. Christianity doesn’t challenge it’s believers anymore, and it doesn’t stick to its guns, and it absolutely doesn’t address the awful human dilemma of free will in a way that gives people hope. So they turn to ideologies that seem easy (why not be a “slave of God”, it takes away all that icky “choice”).
Giving yourself over to something like apocalyptic environmentalism is the same thing. Cry a little, attend a few rallies, it’s all the same: you’re going to die anyway.
Last year, while attending a friend’s child’s christening at the Catholic Church in suburban Melbourne I was stunned to hear the priest acknowledge the Aboriginal “owners” “on whose land we are walking”.
I bit my tongue because, well, not my church. Not my religion either for that matter.
Imagine going to church every Sunday to be told that you are trespassing in your own country. And they wonder why church attendances are down.
And at the turn of the new millennium, when Mars enters Uranus in the House of the Goat, Al Gore, begetter of Al Gore Jnr – who did speed in the Holy Prius but was sorry about it – took up his sacred camera and, with the recording of Himself, said to the world, “Lo! For the seas shall rise and the cities burn, the crops will wither and die on the stalk, for the great wage of Sin is about to be paid, and all those Sinners who have led their unholy and debauched lives, fornicators in SUV’s and eaters of the forbidden beef, they shall perish first. Gaia will darken their lives. Out shall go the inefficient incandescent bulbs of base light. Extinguished shall be the belching sulphurous smog of Satan’s industry. The wrath of Gaia will punish those of monstrous footprint and there will be much gnashing and wailing of teeth. In the name of the Fuhrer, the Pun and the Broken Spirit, Imam.”
So endeth the lesson.
Organized religion has fallen prey to the same poisonous forces as academia, communication and entertainment and public service. I keep hoping the passing of a generation will do much to halt the deterioration and enable a reversal. I won’t be around to see, so good luck, you guys.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2007 08 29 at 09:12 PM • permalink
What gets my goat (in a non muslim-molesting sort of way)is that these false Doominators are acting to misdirect us from the real and true threat!
Earth Likely to Relocate in Galactic Collision!
Andromeda is sloooowly sneaking up on us. That evil foreign devil galaxy wants to kick us out of our own space!!
And these False Doominators are helping the evil alien galaxy by keeping us all distracted by lousy weather predictions!
I’ve sat through more sermons than I care to remember about how evil we are for our treatment of illegal immigrants and for my daring to earn money. All of a couple of hours ago my mother told me of the anti-USA drivel that a priest spouted at mass last Sunday, how its a disgrace that America has held so many vigils for the couple of thousand that died in the WTC attacks and yet no-one cares about the one million (yes, one million apparently) Iraqis who have been killed by the evil Americans.
My faith is strong, but I don’t think I can call myself a Catholic anymore, the church and I see eye-to-eye on so very little.
The sister is an apocaholic.