Harrowing of Hell

The Harrowing of Hell by Our Lord. Here is what the Catholic Encyclopedia and EWTN say. And here is a Protestant’s take on it.

UPDATE: The Lord Descends into Hell [h/t: Holy Whapping]

Zubrin - Achieving Energy Victory

Awesome. Out of petro-dhimmitude? [h/t: Maggie's Farm]

Steyn on the Post-Post-Racial Candidate

Mark Steyn on So much for the 'post-racial' candidate. I studied James Cone's liberation theology as a religion major in college. I studied preaching styles at seminary. I believed words have meaning and weight in my 20+ years in the pulpit.

I still do, and so does the majority of Americans. Let's leave the race card out of this. Words have weight and carry consequences whether you are a member of aa majority or a minority ethnic group. Period.

... Have Mercy on Me, A Sinner

Needing to touch base now and again, it is important both for groundedness, ontologically speaking, and for one's life of prayer (though, at bottom, they are one and the same, of course) to remember that one is most certain of one's "righteousness" when one is falling prey to the logic of the primitive Sacred. That is, when you think you have found a certifiable "bad guy", upon whom you can "get rid of your sins on the cheap" (Gil Bailie) by pointing the accusing finger at him. It feels at that moment as though fear of one's own sins being found out is magically gone in direct proportion to the amount of evil I can attribute to the scapegoat upon whom I am piling more and more evil.

The antidote to this "satanic" mode of human "being" is hearing the "cock crow" [Lk 22,34] as Saint Peter did, and feel utter remorse and contrition for one's own sin and guilt. Our Lord in his mercy -- as opposed to other deities whose followers believe they have no such quality in their nature -- understands our fallen human condition and our need for forgiveness. He not only withstood the grinding ordeal of the Paschal Mystery for our salvation, but continues to be present with us and help us be absolved of sin and guilt through the Church's Sacrament of Reconciliation (Penance, "Confession").

It is clear, reading headlines, browsing the web, talking with colleagues, friends, and family that elements of the primitive Sacred's scapegoating mechanism are and perhaps always be a part of our lives -- from the realpolitik of presidential campaigns and the clash between the Scimitar and a dying West, down to church committee meetings and PTO skirmishes. (Sigh.)

The great battles may never be fought against with lance and shield. The great battles may be fought in one's soul with a prayer for a sword: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

Fr Cantalamessa - Good Friday

Father Raniero Cantalamessa's homily on Good Friday included the following:

In battles in the Middle Ages there was a moment in which, after the infantry, archers and cavalry had been overwhelmed, the melee began to circle around the king. There the final outcome of the fight was decided. Today the battle for us also takes place around the king. There are buildings and structures made of metal in such a way that if a certain neuralgic point is touched or a certain stone is removed, everything falls apart. In the edifice of the Christian faith this cornerstone is the divinity of Christ. If this is removed, everything falls apart and faith in the Trinity is the first to go.

From this we see that today there are two possible ecumenisms: an ecumenism of faith and an ecumenism of incredulity; one that unites all those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that Christ died to save all humankind, and an ecumenism that unites all those who, in deference to the Nicene Creed, continue to proclaim these formulas but empty them of their content. It is an ecumenism in which, in its extreme form, everyone believes the same things because no one any longer believes anything, in the sense that "believing" has in the New Testament.

"Who is it that overcomes the world," John writes in his first letter, "if not those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1John 5:5). Sticking with this criterion, the fundamental distinction among Christians is not between Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants, but between those who believe that Christ is the Son of God and those who do not believe this.

Read all …

Quote of the Day - Christopher Dawson

The Cross on the Mountain - Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840)

"As the Christian faith in Christ is faith in a real historical person, not an abstract ideal, so the Catholic faith in the church is faith in a real historical society, not an invisible communion of saints or a spiritual union of Christians who are divided into a number of religious groups and sects. And this historic society is not merely the custodian of the sacred Scriptures and a teacher of Christian morality. It is the bearer of a living tradition which unites the present and the past, the living and the dead, in one great spiritual community which transcends all the limited communities of race and nation and state."

- Christopher Dawson [h/t: Cornerstone Forum]

Pat Condell Speaking Truth

Pat Condell – More demands from Saudi "Human Rights" Commission.

Good Friday

The Procession to Calvary - Pieter Bruegel

Doc's Scimitar Factoids

Judge for yourself if "Doc's Talk" (GS Don Morris) is correct. File under way too interesting not to post:

Islamization occurs when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their so-called "religious rights."

When politically correct and culturally diverse societies agree to "the reasonable" Muslim demands for their "religious rights," they also get the other components under the table.

Here's how it works (percentages source CIA: The World Fact Book (2007)).

As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness:

United States -- Muslim 1.0%
Australia -- Muslim 1.5%
Canada -- Muslim 1.9%
China -- Muslim 1%-2%
Italy -- Muslim 1.5%
Norway -- Muslim 1.8%

At 2% and 3% they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs:

Denmark -- Muslim 2%
Germany -- Muslim 3.7%
United Kingdom -- Muslim 2. 7%
Spain -- Muslim 4%
Thailand -- Muslim 4.6%

From 5% on they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population.

They will push for the introduction of halaal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature it on their shelves -- along with threats for failure to comply. (United States).

France -- Muslim 8%
Philippines -- Muslim 5%
Sweden -- Muslim 5%
Switzerland -- Muslim 4.3%
The Netherlands -- Muslim 5.5%
Trinidad & Tobago -- Muslim 5.8%

At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of Islam is not to convert the world but to establish Sharia law over the entire world.

When Muslims reach 10% of the population, they will increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions (Paris -- car-burnings). Any non-Muslim action that offends Islam will result in uprisings and threats (Amsterdam -- Mohammed cartoons).

Guyana -- Muslim 10%
India -- Muslim 13.4%
Israel -- Muslim 16%
Kenya -- Muslim 10%
Russia -- Muslim 10-15%

After reaching 20% expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings and church and synagogue burning:

Ethiopia -- Muslim 32.8%

At 40% you will find widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks and ongoing militia warfare:

Bosnia -- Muslim 40%
Chad -- Muslim 53.1%
Lebanon -- Muslim 59.7%

From 60% you may expect unfettered persecution of non-believers and other religions, sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon and Jizya, the tax placed on infidels:

Albania -- Muslim 70%
Malaysia -- Muslim 60.4%
Qatar -- Muslim 77.5%
Sudan -- Muslim 70%

After 80% expect State run ethnic cleansing and genocide:

Bangladesh -- Muslim 83%
Egypt -- Muslim 90%
Gaza -- Muslim 98.7%
Indonesia -- Muslim 86.1%
Iran -- Muslim 98%
Iraq -- Muslim 97%
Jordan -- Muslim 92%
Morocco -- Muslim 98.7%
Pakistan -- Muslim 97%
Palestine -- Muslim 99%
Syria -- Muslim 90%
Tajikistan -- Muslim 90%
Turkey -- Muslim 99.8%
United Arab Emirates -- Muslim 96%

100% will usher in the peace of "Dar-es-Salaam" -- the Islamic House of Peace -- there's supposed to be peace because everybody is a Muslim:

Afghanistan -- Muslim 100%
Saudi Arabia -- Muslim 100%
Somalia -- Muslim 100%
Yemen -- Muslim 99.9

Yes, I thought so too.

I would quibble with Dr. Morris's notion that Islam is not a religion, nor a cult, but a "complete system." What he calls a complete system, mimetic theory calls an expression of the primitive Sacred, our human default culture-founding, culture-maintaining mechanism sans influence by the biblical faiths of Judaism and Christianity. But as hope would have it, resistance is NOT futile.

Bin Laden Pulls the Trigger - Phares

Dr Walid Phares, author of the recently released book, The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad, comments on Bin Laden's recently released audio and following discussion:

In an audiotape posted on Internet, Osama Bin Laden threatened Europe with punishment because of its “negligence in spite of the opportunity presented to take the necessary measures” to stop the republishing of the Danish cartoons. It also menaced the Vatican with retribution for an alleged role in incitement "against religion." This al Qaeda warning would have been normal in Salafi Jihad logic. This radical movement obviously considers the drawings as an ultimate insult to Muslims and would unleash extreme violence in retaliation. Actually one would have expected al Qaeda to strike back “for the cartoons offense” long time ago. In fact, this particular audio is intriguing precisely because it is too “political,” read too sophisticated. Bin Laden’s school of Jihadism would have smitten first, explained later. So why is this message more peculiar than previous ones? What can we read into it? In short, I see in it the imprints of Jihadi "politicians” and strategists in international relations and deeply immersed in the diplomatic games across the Mediterranean. Even though it is indeed the voice of al Qaeda’s master but nevertheless one can see increasingly the impact of political operatives on the movement’s public statements.

[ ... ]

What I saw in the al Qaeda message(s) and the al Jazeera debate was clear: The Salafist movement worldwide was "talking" to the Europeans and the Euro-Jihadis. It was threatening Governments to retreat from the confrontation on the one hand and unleashing the pools of indoctrinated Jihadis across the continent to "engage" in violence. The near future will tell us if the trigger will be successful or not.

Read all of his comments.

Bin Laden Accuses the Pope

Reuters reports on Osama Bin Laden's newest release:

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatened the European Union with grave punishment on Wednesday over cartoons of Islam's Prophet Mohammad.

In an audio recording posted on the Internet coinciding with the birthday of Islam's founder, bin Laden said the drawings, considered offensive by Muslims, were part of a "crusade" in which Pope Benedict was involved.

"Your publications of these drawings -- part of a new crusade in which the Pope of the Vatican had a significant role -- is a confirmation from you that the war continues," said the Saudi-born militant leader in a message addressed to "those who are wise at the European Union".

You are "testing Muslims ... the answer will be what you shall see and not what you hear. May our mothers lose us to death if we did not rise in defence of the messenger of God..."

This is a classic instance of the accusatory gesture, the etymologically and anthropologically satanic action (Gr. ha satan - the accuser) that epitomizes the "primitive Sacred," for you aficionados of René Girard's mimetic theory. Bin Laden has embedded the accusation in his statement and, thus, targeted his potential victim: the victim with the very highest prestige for the Western world (whether he is acknowledged as such by the West or not).

The Holy Father has, of course, realized this probability all along. But what is of import is the fact that Bin Laden sees the time is ripe for aiming his accusing finger in Benedict's direction.

Discussion regarding Islam as a religion of peace is moot. We who hold to the banner of magisterial truth know that any action can and may be justified by the primitive Sacred cloaked in the Scimitar's sharia. The only question is, will there be sufficient chivalry, valor, and legitimate defense when the time comes.

In Praise of Little Things

Daniel Mitsui, who is both an extraordinary artist and theologian, offers a poignant collection of thoughts this Holy Week regarding Little Things. After an edict in Japan outlawed Christianity,

The Kakure Kirishitan - the "hidden Christians" of Japan - were able to practice a crypto-Christianity disguised as Buddhism; they attended the temples like their neighbors, but secretly fasted from meat on Fridays and gathered to pray the Rosary. They had no priests, and thus no Mass, but they baptized children in celebrations disguised as birthday parties. They kept statues of Buddhist saints that resembled Christian ones, and collected rocks whose shapes suggested the Virgin Mary. Some communities guarded the small catechisms and devotional books that the missionaries had disseminated, but most relied on memorized, orally transmitted prayers in garbled Latin. Some families kept pious trinkets that the missionaries had given their ancestors - medals not much different from those now sold in Catholic bookstores for 25 cents each. The Kakure Kirishitan hid these in their homes and handed them down through the generations.

[ ... ]

Amid the destruction of so many ecclesiastical traditions since Vatican II, few have reflected that even the littlest of these "little" traditions might have been necessary to sustain the faith through centuries of persecution in a dark future. Any hymn that is discarded, any statue destroyed, any devotion discontinued, any note or syllable or image or gesture forgotten might one day have needed to be "enough". And now it has been lost; it will not be there - and not because Catholics since Vatican II have had samurai swords at their necks. This iconoclasm was motivated not by the zeal of a false religion, but, as Martin Mosebach wrote, by angst and pusillanimity. They threw away more than the Kakure Kirishitan ever had - because their souls were far too small for such "little" things.

I would never dare to tell a man who had risked torture and death for himself and for his family to keep a saint's medal buried in his house; who had gathered in conspiracy to exhume and venerate it; whose ancestors had passed it on as a terrible secret for ten generations, that it is a trivial or unnecessary thing. The "mature Christian" who has sneered at such "little t" traditions will stand face to face with that man on the Day of Judgment, and Saint Michael will weigh them in his scales.

Important words. Yes -- "maturity of the faith." But we human beings sometimes need the "little things" because we ARE little things in a vast universe. And in times of persecution, little things may be the ONLY things we have to cling to, until better times -- or Our Lord and His Good Lady -- return.

Churches in Saudia Arabia?

Daniel Pipes reports on the purported news of Catholic churches arrival in Saudi Arabia ( ... !?). Says Pipes:

For some years now, the Vatican has made reciprocity the key to its relations with Muslim-majority states. For example, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican equivalent of foreign minister, commented in 2003 that "There are too many majority Muslim countries where non-Muslims are second-class citizens" and pushed for reciprocity: "Just as Muslims can build their houses of prayer anywhere in the world, the faithful of other religions should be able to do so as well."

That sounded good, but does anyone actually expect churches to be built in Saudi Arabia, the country that most severely represses non-Islamic religious expression?

Of all this, I believe the most operative word is reciprocity. Stay tuned.

Cardinal Newman - Kingdoms

"Earthly kingdoms are founded, not in justice, but in injustice. They are created by the sword, by robbery, cruelty, perjury, craft and fraud. There never was a kingdom, except Christ's, which was not conceived and born, nurtured and educated, in sin. There never was a state, but was committed to acts and maxims which is its crime to maintain and its ruin to abandon. What monarchy is there but began in invasion or usurpation? What revolution has been effected without self-will, violence, or hypocrisy? What popular government but is blown about by every wind, as if it had no conscience and no responsibilities?"

- John Henry Cardinal Newman

Donutism and Other New Heresies

Trying to keep up with that other, evil Athos at The Three Mass’keteers (okay; it is I [subject complement!), Adam's Ale offers a new set of heresies, such as:

DONUTISM – (Not to be confused with old heresy known as Donatism) Donutism is the propensity for some Catholics to leave their parish and join a denomination based on the quality of the donuts and coffee that that is served before, after, and during Sunday services.

Read his new list of “heresies”. [h/t: The Curt Jester]

When We Stop Pushing/Pulling Against

...Truth is a magnet, with the powers of attraction and repulsion ... The moment men cease to pull against [the Catholic Church] they feel a tug towards it. The moment they cease to shout it down they begin to listen to it with pleasure. The moment they try to be fair to it they begin to be fond of it. But when that affection has passed a certain point it begins to take on the tragic and menacing grandeur of a great love affair ... When he has entered the Church, he finds that the Church is much larger inside than it is outside.

-- G. K. Chesterton

Sudden Jihad Syndrome in Peanut Country

And one nut was on the train. Fortunately, this time he was lying when he threatened to blow up things and people. And remember: nearly any behavior can be justified in service to the deity of the Scimitar ...

Domestic Church

Jennifer Roback Morse tells the truth: It takes a family to raise a village.

Pius XII & Adolf

John Zmirak at Taki's Magazine posts a fine piece, Hitler’s Deadliest Enemy: Pius XII.

I spent much of winter 2006 butting heads with a cantankerous nun. Thankfully, it happened via email, and in no way resembled the battles with hirsute radical feminists in stretch jeans that ate up most of my high school years. No, I contended with a solidly orthodox battle-ax who is still the most distinguished biographer of Pope Pius XII. We had no differences of principle--unless you count “My every word is sacred even when it’s completely disorganized and redundant” as a principle. And it ended badly--when the publisher backed me up on my insistence that the book be readable, she yanked it and gave it to a more compliant house. I’m sure some people have bought it. For a penance, some of them may have read it.

But I learned a lot from the exercise--especially about Pope Pius XII. Because that wet, shaggy dog of an MS contained an amazing quantity of facts about the events of World War II. They combine with what I’ve learned from other sources to offer an excellent answer to Richard Spencer’s blog of yesterday. In his blog, Richard makes the excellent point that my own reasons for celebrating the utter and complete extirpation of the satanic National Socialist regime, and the presence of U.S. forces to prevent an equally evil Stalin from swallowing the Mother Continent, were not those that motivated Franklin Delano Roosevelt. No doubt this is true. I’m not a Roosevelt biographer, or even an admirer. His own bias toward mild socialism no doubt made him found the Soviet system less repulsive than the Nazi. (His vice president, after all was Henry Wallace, not Joseph Kennedy.)

It was not Franklin Roosevelt who saw the real issues at stake in the confrontation between Hitler and Stalin, over the supine bodies of the crumbling democracies of Europe. It was Eugenio Pacelli, later Pius XII. Keep reading …

Hope

Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.

— Vaclav Havel

Painting a Corpse

Peter Hitchens gives a trenchant, heart-felt, and, sadly, fairly accurate analysis of recent UK government efforts to paint a corpse.

The people who destroyed Britain now say they want to revive something called “Britishness”.

This is as grimly funny as a gangster funeral, where the murderers pile enormous wreaths on the coffin of the man they butchered.

It also completely misses the point. “Britishness” grew out of our forgotten talent for leaving each other alone, for private life and private pursuits – and a general resistance to being organised, plus a dislike for what used to be called Nosey Parkers.

How can this flourish in an age when the taxman can force entry to our homes on the say-so of some unaccountable official?

Our ancient culture was a forest that took a thousand years to grow and less than half a century to cut down. Now that the trees are all flattened, the people who massacred them find that they are shivering in a howling wilderness that they are powerless to restore to its former shape.

Read all of No oath will save us from this howling wilderness.

'Vatican Plans to Open Church in Saudi Arabia'

Was that a Sus within the Suidae family I just saw fly by?

Qatar - Our Lady of the Rosary

15,000 at first Mass. Awesome. You go, Our Lady.

The Holy Shroud: A record of his love

From Bishop Victor Galeone of Saint Augustine, Florida:

“He was crucified under Pontius Pilate…”
We pray these words of the creed so glibly that their meaning often escapes us. They state that Jesus – God’s eternal Son who became one of us – died like a common criminal. Since God cannot suffer, God the Son took on our mortal nature so that he could suffer. The one who suffers is a person (“My tooth is killing me”). Since there is only one person in Jesus of Nazareth – a divine person – it means that he, God, experienced excruciating pain. Utilizing the Shroud of Turin, I would like us to consider just how excruciating that pain was.

The Shroud of Turin
The Holy Shroud is a 14-foot linen cloth with the frontal and dorsal image of a nude man who appears to have been physically traumatized by crucifixion. It is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral in Turin, Italy. Composed of faint shades of brown, the image is barely visible to the naked eye.

The existence of the shroud can be historically traced to France, where it was in the possession of Geoffroi de Charney in the year 1357. The Knights Templar allegedly came into possession of the shroud in the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. Prior to that, it was identified with the Image of Edessa, dating back to the fourth century. John’s gospel refers to the burial cloths of Jesus, which Peter and John discovered on entering the tomb on Easter morning.

In 1898, Secondo Pia, an amateur photographer, was allowed to photograph the shroud for the first time as part of a rare exhibit in the Turin Cathedral. Later, developing the negative in his darkroom, he almost dropped the photographic glass plate – so shocked was he to see the image of a face on it. His negative was in fact a “positive” image of the brown shadows on the shroud. In other words, the entire image on the shroud is a negative, with the exception of the bloodstains. Furthermore, it is not a painting. Various experts testing the shroud detected no pigments. The image is the result of a scorch on the surface of the linen, similar to a burn mark left on a shirt from an overheated iron.

The Shroud and Carbon-14 dating
In 1988, the Vatican granted permission for specimens of the shroud to be tested via carbon-14 analysis by three universities to ascertain its age. The results dated the shroud between the years 1220 and 1390. However, more recent research shows that the material used in the 1988 analysis was cut from a medieval patch woven into one end of the shroud to repair damage caused by a 1532 fire. “The radiocarbon sample has completely different chemical properties than the main part of the shroud relic,” said Raymond Rogers, a retired chemist from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. To date, the Vatican has not permitted a new analysis.

Read more …

Saint Patrick's Day

A hopeful note sounded on Saint Patrick's Day by Cat at Brits at Their Best: The Saint of Second Chances.

More No-Go Enclaves in UK

Historian John Cornwell asks vital questions for the future of freedom and the Christian faith (TimesonLine)

Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar (Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest). Ash-hadu alla ilaha illa-llah (I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah).

The call to prayer resounds across the rooftops before dawn, bringing echoes of the Levant to provincial Luton and its 30,000 Muslims. But for infidel locals, the holy wake-up is a curse. “I’d like to pull the plug on that caterwauling,” a second-generation Luton Irish woman tells me. “I go to work, and I’ve got two small kids. It’s just not fair on non-Muslim families around here.”

While nearly three out of four people in Britain claim some form of Christian affiliation, Christianity makes ever less demands on the public space. Even nativity plays are surrendering to the sensitivities of secularists and other faiths. But the impact of Britain’s estimated 1.6m Muslims is increasingly assertive. Asian Muslims account for about 1 in 50 of British citizens, yet they dominate entire districts in the vicinities of their more than 1,350 mosques: 10 of them in Luton alone. Are Muslim enclaves making a contribution to a flourishing multicultural mosaic? Or are they undermining the cohesion of Britain’s civil society?

O'Brien - Deadly Theater

Novelist Michael O'Brien makes telling observations on compromise as caving in a time of moral anarchy.

"You are presented with a choice. Threatened by a foreign leader with a Koran in one hand and in his other a nuclear weapon, you can choose to elect as your own national leader a figure with a Bible in one hand and in his other a nuclear weapon. Which of the two would you want to determine the future of the world? Oh, and as a supplementary detail, both of them are willing to drop the bomb on the other.

"Recoiling in horror, you might then turn to an alternative set of candidates, thinking you must now elect a leader who, like you, abhors nuclear weapons. He may or may not have a Bible in one hand, but it is more likely he will have The Humanist Manifesto (a sacred text of Materialism) in one hand and a suction tube in the other.

"Are these our only choices?" says O'Brien. "If so, this is no choice at all. It is a piece of deadly theater."

To read O'Brien's full essay click here. (pdf document)

Evensong

Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir John Reynolds - John Constable [1836]
National Gallery - London

2 As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.
3 My being thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and see the face of God?
4 My tears have been my food day and night, as they ask daily,"Where is your God?"
5 Those times I recall as I pour out my soul, When I went in procession with the crowd, I went with them to the house of God, Amid loud cries of thanksgiving, with the multitude keeping festival.
6 Why are you downcast, my soul; why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.
7 My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you From the land of the Jordan and Hermon, from the land of Mount Mizar.
8 Here deep calls to deep in the roar of your torrents. All your waves and breakers sweep over me.
9 At dawn may the LORD bestow faithful love that I may sing praise through the night, praise to the God of my life.
10 I say to God, "My rock, why do you forget me? Why must I go about mourning with the enemy oppressing me?"
11 It shatters my bones, when my adversaries reproach me. They say to me daily: "Where is your God?"
12 Why are you downcast, my soul, why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.

- Psalm 42 [NAB]

Canon Attacked by "Youths"

Western Resistance has the scoop on the recent attack on Anglican priest, Canon Michael Ainsworth, in East London. The MSM, of course, referred to his attackers as "Asian youth." Um-hum, the euphemism for guess what? From the article:

According to an Asian member of the church community, the church has been attacked before by Asian youths who hate Christians. He said: "I've been physically threatened and verbally abused on the steps of the church. On one occasion, youths shouted: 'This should not be a church, this should be a mosque, you should not be here'. just walked away from it - you are too frightened to challenge them. We have church windows smashed two to three times a month. The youths are anti-Christian. It's terrible what they have done to Canon Ainsworth. We've never had violence like that before. I know his face was very smashed up and bruised because I saw him just minutes after the attack when I called round to deliver some papers."

If I'm not mistaken, this incident is an unfortunate if predictable microcosm of what happens when the multicultural gospel-lite meets rather ordinary exemplars of the primitive Sacred called Islam.

When Will the West Awaken?

[Image @ Lionheart]

Often I have the wish that modern observer-commentators on the clash between the West and the Scimitar might have a greater -- or some -- understanding of Girard's mimetic theory. Take Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, for example. He reports most ably on what mimetic theory sees as the deconstructive power of the primitive Sacred: it deludes the human mind into believing ”our” innocence and "their" evil and sub-human status,, worthy of expelling and extermination. John Zmirak gives a poignant eulogy for the recent victim of such "righteous" violence, Archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Raho.

Thing is, you see, the Christ-haunted West politicos (EU mandarins and naive progressive Americans) cling tenaciously to a mere wisp of the Catholic Church's truth and teaching while excluding all her other claims regarding truth, morals, and ethics; namely, a preening relativistic tolerance of all, albeit with no belief in a self-revealing God, moral and natural Law. Coupled to this soft core philosophical nihilism is an unacknowledged return to pagan worship of the instincts and explicit pansexual bestiality. This leaves the West in a most precarious position facing a foe armed with an extremely sharp Scimitar that is thoroughly convinced and convicted of its deity's demand to extend Dar al-Islam to cover the planet. All it can stand on is a rickety one-legged pedestal of multicultural political correctness. One swipe by the Scimitar, and the remnants of Christendom will fall into a new era of subservience and dhimmitude.

When will the leaders of the West awaken and stop giving away the store?