Mitt Romney arguing FOR abortion, even for underage girls without parental permission

Here's a campaign commercial attacking Gov. Romney's record on the issue of abortion. It raises interesting issues that I'd like to see clarified, once and for all.

"And they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him" (Mk 10:34)

This Jerusalem Post article is sure to raise eyebrows, and perhaps tempers, among Jews, Catholics, and anyone else who thinks it's wrong and ugly to spit at someone because of his religious beliefs. This report says that Catholic and Orthodox priests and religious are regularly assaulted by Orthodox Jews who spit at them in a show of contempt.

Clearly, terrible things (far worse than spitting) were done by Christians to Jews over the centuries. No one (in his right mind) disputes this. But surely, modern Jews should have at least a dim collective memory of something very similar that started up in earnest against them in Germany, during the 1930s, right?

One would think.

With regard to this disturbing situation of religious Jews spitting on religious Christians, one of the underlying, and probably insoluble, problems here between Israeli Christians and the Jews who spit at them is that Judaism has historically followed the "eye for an eye" lex talionis (Exodus 21:22-27, Leviticus 24:18-20), while Christians are commanded by Jesus Christ to follow His injunction to "turn the other cheek" and to "do good to those who hate you" (Luke 6:27).

Anyway . . .

Mouths filled with hatred

Nov. 26, 2009
Larry Derfner , THE JERUSALEM POST

Father Samuel Aghoyan, a senior Armenian Orthodox cleric in Jerusalem's Old City, says he's been spat at by young haredi and national Orthodox Jews "about 15 to 20 times" in the past decade. The last time it happened, he said, was earlier this month. "I was walking back from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and I saw this boy in a yarmulke and ritual fringes coming back from the Western Wall, and he spat at me two or three times."

Wearing a dark-blue robe, sitting in St. James's Church, the main Armenian church in the Old City, Aghoyan said, "Every single priest in this church has been spat on. It happens day and night."

Father Athanasius, a Texas-born Franciscan monk who heads the Christian Information Center inside the Jaffa Gate, said he's been spat at by haredi and national Orthodox Jews "about 15 times in the last six months" - not only in the Old City, but also on Rehov Agron near the Franciscan friary. "One time a bunch of kids spat at me, another time a little girl spat at me," said the brown-robed monk near the Jaffa Gate.

"All 15 monks at our friary have been spat at," he said. "Every [Christian cleric in the Old City] who's been here for awhile, who dresses in robes in public, has a story to tell about being spat at. The more you get around, the more it happens."

A nun in her 60s who's lived in an east Jerusalem convent for decades says she was spat at for the first time by a haredi man on Rehov Agron about 25 years ago. "As I was walking past, he spat on the ground right next to my shoes and he gave me a look of contempt," said the black-robed nun, sitting inside the convent. "It took me a moment, but then I understood."

Since then, the nun, who didn't want to be identified, recalls being spat at three different times by young national Orthodox Jews on Jaffa Road, three different times by haredi youth near Mea She'arim and once by a young Jewish woman from her second-story window in the Old City's Jewish Quarter.

But the spitting incidents weren't the worst, she said - the worst was the time she was walking down Jaffa Road and a group of middle-aged haredi men coming her way pointed wordlessly to the curb, motioning her to move off the sidewalk to let them pass, which she did.

"That made me terribly sad," said the nun, speaking in ulpan-trained Hebrew. Taking personal responsibility for the history of Christian anti-Semitism, she said that in her native European country, such behavior "was the kind of thing that they - no, that we used to do to Jews."

News stories about young Jewish bigots in the Old City spitting on Christian clergy - who make conspicuous targets in their long dark robes and crucifix symbols around their necks - surface in the media every few years or so. It's natural, then, to conclude that such incidents are rare, but in fact they are habitual. Anti-Christian Orthodox Jews, overwhelmingly boys and young men, have been spitting with regularity on priests and nuns in the Old City for about 20 years, and the problem is only getting worse.

"My impression is that Christian clergymen are being spat at in the Old City virtually every day. This has been constantly increasing over the last decade," said Daniel Rossing. An observant, kippa-wearing Jew, Rossing heads the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations and was liaison to Israel's Christian communities for the Ministry of Religious Affairs in the '70s and '80s.

For Christian clergy in the Old City, being spat at by Jewish fanatics "is a part of life," said the American Jewish Committee's Rabbi David Rosen, Israel's most prominent Jewish interfaith activist.

"I hate to say it, but we've grown accustomed to this. Jewish religious fanatics spitting at Christian priests and nuns has become a tradition," said Roman Catholic Father Massimo Pazzini, sitting inside the Church of the Flagellation on the Via Dolorosa.

These are the very opposite of isolated incidents. Father Athanasius of the Christian Information Center called them a "phenomenon." George Hintlian, the unofficial spokesman for the local Armenian community and former secretary of the Armenian Patriarchate, said it was "like a campaign." . . . (continue reading)

We Now Have DEFINITIVE Proof that Mark Shea Actually Supports Torture

I knew it! I knew it. I just knew it.

Even given all his florid protestations to the contrary, and all his glowing "at-a-boy!" praise for my own personal denunciation of torture notwithstanding, and in light of his constant grinding on literally anything that moves — if it has even the tiniest tincture of support for torture about it — all of Mark "Torture Is Eeeeeevil" Shea's claims about how he's all against torture and stuff have just gone up in smoke.

Gun smoke, that is.

And I seriously doubt the old dude on the floor was ever even Mirandized.

(Courtesy of the illustrious and slender Father Shane)

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained. Here's My Wish List

For those who might wish to help me acquire some of the tools I really need for my work in apologetics, my theological studies, etc., here is my Amazon "Wish List." God bless any of you who are feeling generous today!

And now, meet the other "Father Z"

For the last several years, I've been following with great interest the astonishing success that Father Zakaria Botros, a Coptic priest, has had in evangelizing the Muslim world — in Arabic, using the Koran. As an Arab, he understands the mindset that so many Muslims have toward Christianity, and he exploits that knowledge quite effectively, not by simply presenting the claims for the divinity of Christ, as an example. Rather, he firmly turns the tables on Muslim apologists by relentlessly critiquing and refuting their own claims, using mainly the Koran as his tool. The reports are, he is successfully converting large numbers of Muslims (albeit secretly, for fear of deadly reprisals from their erstwhile co-religionists), and this is causing a lot of consternation among many Muslims who see Father Z as a real threat to Muslim hegemony.

And they are right to think this.

We should all be praying for this courageous priest. For one thing, he is almost single-handedly evangelizing hundreds of millions of Muslims every day through his television program. Anyone in that situation needs a lot of prayer. As one would expect, his life is in danger because of his work. May the Lord bless and protect this worthy servant of His!

Visit the other Father Z's English website here and his Arabic site here. And, of course, the excellent Father Z we all know and love can still be found feeding the chickadees here.

Scripture Says "the Devil Is Like a Roaring Lion." Yes, and He's Also Like a Silent Owl

Nancy Gave Me My Christmas Present Early This Year

Whoever said Catholic apologetics isn't cool?

The all-new "PatMan Ultra-Glide Jet Pac" is a new addition to a steadily expanding array of of high-tech apologetics tools that I've been assembling for awhile. Sometimes, I just have to get somewhere in a hurry to debate a Protestant minister, thwart a pair of Mormon missionaries, or stymie a cadre of JWs.

That's just how I roll.

200,000 Christian Shoppers Are Wearing "It's OK to Wish Me A Merry Christmas" Buttons

There are plenty of creative and effective things Catholics and other Christians can do to push back against militant secularism, and this new button campaign is a good example. It's an overt way of publicly making an important point — i.e., Christmas is about Christmas, not some generic "holidays" — and you don't even have to open your mouth to do it. To be sure, wearing one of these buttons will likely lead to opportunities to speak verbally about this message, but even if no one queries (or challenges) you about it, they will read the message, and it will stick with them.

So, I say "bravo" to the people who came up with this idea. Let's have some more of this kind of stuff, just in time for the holid . . . I mean, for Christmas.

Over 200,000 shoppers are wearing buttons this Christmas season that proclaim a straightforward message to retailers: "It's OK, Wish Me A Merry Christmas(tm)." Individuals and churches around the country are partnering with the Wish Me A Merry Christmas Campaign mobilizing advocates energized for a return to the traditional, convivial greeting, bearing buttons that make a clear statement - "It's OK, Wish Me A Merry Christmas(tm) (www.wmamc.com)". Over 200,000 of these buttons have been distributed nationally.

With over 200,000 buttons on the streets and in stores this year, local store associates are likely to be presented with the opportunity to deviate from the corporate holiday wishing policy of top retailers like the Gap and Best Buy, and stealthily wish their customer "Merry Christmas" instead of the generic "Happy Holidays". But since 96% of Americans celebrate Christmas (Gallup Poll, 2004), it's likely that the store cashiers would prefer to wish their customers "Merry Christmas" as well. In fact 88% of Americans state that "It's okay to wish 'Merry Christmas'." (Gallup Poll). . . . (source)

This Russian Guy Can Rollerblade Better Than You -- Way Better Than You

My Advice to Catholic Parents: Don't Let Your Kids Date Non-Catholics

I know, this is hardly revolutionary or unique advice, but I was recently asked about this issue by a young Catholic man who called my "Open Line" radio show (heard every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. ET). He had been dating a devoutly Presbyterian girl, and her father didn't like it one bit that the guy was Catholic.

I think my response to his "what do I do now?" question may have surprise him. (It apparently surprised and even dismayed a few of my listeners, judging from some of the e-mails that came in after that show.)

My basic premise, which I advert to in this audio segment is that, more often than not, mixed marriages (i.e., when a Catholic marries a non-Catholic) are a recipe for serious problems down the road in that marriage. My advice to Catholic parents is, teach your children well the importance of finding a devoutly Catholic spouse. Eventually, if you haven't taught them this maxim and they, as a result, do not act on it, you will very likely see problems springing up in your extended family due to your sons and daughters being, in a certain sense, unequally yoked with non-Catholics. Word to the wise.

Take a listen . . . .

Here's a thurible to end all thuribles

This amazing video gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "in the line of fire." You definitely do not want to be standing in or near the path of this bad-boy censer. The way I see it, if you're going to incense the sanctuary of the house of the Lord, really, really incense it, like these priests do.

Unfortunately, a few tourist lookie-loos can be heard tittering in the background as this thurible gets going. But I have to think that even they were impressed by the majestic symbolism of the billowing incense pouring forth from this no-nonsense bowl of fire.

Elves are . . . weird

Hey, Remember the 60s? They're Coming Back on Campus

This time around, students aren't agitating on campus for a cause like civil-rights or anti-war. These UCLA students are hacked off because of money. Specifically, they don't like the fact that the school is planning to bump up their tuition rates by 32%.

But, but, what happened to all the fresh, youthful altruism that, at least ostensibly, fueled the 60s' student demonstrations? You mean these college students want to hang on to their (parent's) hard-earned money and not be required to fork it over to an institution that has the power to forcibly extract it from them?

Why, these kids are starting to sound like conservatives! (At least when it comes to money.)

Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Urges the Pope to Change His Mind About Female Bishops

In related news, a junior-high science teacher in Dismal Seepage, Illinois, is urging the dean of the MIT science department to change his mind about the law of gravity.

The archbishop of Canterbury today pleaded with Roman Catholics to set aside their differences with Anglicans over the issue of female bishops, insisting there was more uniting the denominations than dividing them.

Rowan Williams was giving a lecture in Rome before Sunday's meeting with the pope, their first encounter since the Vatican's surprise announcement of a special institution for traditionalist Anglicans wanting to convert to Catholicism.

In his address at the Gregorian University, Williams said the Anglican communion was proof that churches could stay together in spite of their differences.

The communion has teetered on the edge of schism for nearly a decade over the issue of gay clergy but has retained a sliver of fellowship. Williams urged Roman Catholics to continue their 35-year dialogue with Anglicans in spite of theological and ideological divisions.

He said: "The various agreed statements of the churches stress that the church is a community, in which human beings are made sons and daughters of God.

"When so much agreement has been established in first-order matters about the identity and mission of the church, is it justifiable to treat other issues as equally vital for its health and integrity?"

Those issues included papal primacy, female clergy and the relations between the local and universal church in making decisions. "Is there a level of mutual recognition which allows a shared theological understanding

of primacy alongside a diversity of canonical and juridical arrangements?" he wondered

Williams challenged Roman Catholic thinking on female bishops, saying there was no proof that their ordination damaged the church.

For his part the "ecumenical glass" was "genuinely half-full". Catholics and Anglicans had achieved "striking" agreement on the broader questions. All that stood between them now were the "second order" issues of church organisation.

In an explicit but fleeting reference to the pope's move last month, Williams said it was an "imaginative pastoral response, but did not break any new ecclesiological ground." His speech was aimed at reviving dialogue between Anglicans and Catholics. But it also carried an implicit threat that there would be little point in continuing if the Catholic side continued to insist that the obstacles were insuperable.

Williams said: "The question is whether this unfinished business is quite as fundamental as our Roman Catholic friends believe."

He seemed tense, biting the sides of his fingers while he listened to the speaker who followed. His anxiety is understandable. . . . (continue reading)

Man discovers he's not a ninja after all

Ouch.