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]