April 7 - Happy Quasimodo Day!

Sunday - April 7, 2013

Today, you should remember Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo.  Here’s why  . . .

This is the “Second Sunday of Easter.”  It is sometimes called “Thomas Sunday” because of the Gospel reading about the doubting Apostle.  It is also called “Quasi Modo Sunday” for the first word of the opening chant which comes from 1 Peter 2:2-3 which says: “Like newborn babes (Sicut modo infantes), long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation; for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”

Quasi modo and Sicut modo are interchangeable.  Quasi modo reflects a Latin Scripture version predating what became the Vulgate.  So, today’s Mass begins by exhorting the newly baptized. 

In the ancient Church the newly baptized were called infantes.  They wore their white baptismal robes for “octave” period after Easter during which they received special instruction from the bishop about the sacred mysteries and Christian life to which they were not admitted before the Vigil rites.  On this Sunday they removed their robes, which were deposited in the cathedral treasury as a perpetual witness to their vows.  They were then “out of the nest” of the bishop, as it were, on their own in living their Catholic lives daily. 

The Victor Hugo character, poor Quasimodo, born with various defects, was abandoned as an infant in Notre Dame on this very Sunday… “Quasimodo” Sunday. He is raised by the Archdeacon of Notre Dame who makes him the bell-ringer of the Cathedral… which makes young Quasimodo deaf.

Poor Quasimodo.  His name, with the “quasi… almost”, indicates that he is only nearly human in the context of the society in which he was called by God to live.  But he utters some of the most human things, shows moments of the most poignant human agony ever penned.  Who in reading the book will forget his first, great, burning tear?

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2013/04/oh-all-that-ive-ever-loved/

Army Now Labels Christians as “Domestic Hate Groups”

Army Email Labels Christian Ministries as “Domestic Hate Groups”

By Todd Starnes

A U.S. Army officer sent an email to dozens of subordinates listing the American Family Association and Family Research Council as “domestic hate groups” because they oppose homosexuality — and warned officers to monitor soldiers who might be supporters of the groups.

“Just want to ensure everyone is somewhat educated on some of the groups out there that do not share our Army Values,” read an email from Lt. Col.  Jack Rich to three dozen subordinates at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. “When we see behaviors that are inconsistent with Army Values – don’t just walk by – do the right thing and address the concern before it becomes a problem.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told Fox News he was disturbed by the contents of the email.

“It’s very disturbing to see where the Obama Administration is taking the military and using it as a laboratory for social experimentation  — and also as an instrument to fundamentally change the culture,” he said. “The message is very clear – if you are a Christian who believes in the Bible, who believes in transcendent truth, there is no place for you in the military.”

The Army denied there is any attack on Christians or those who hold religious beliefs.

“The notion that the Army is taking an anti-religion or anti-Christian stance is contrary to any of our policies, doctrines and regulations,” said George Wright, Army spokesman at the Pentagon. “Any belief that the Army is out to label religious groups in a negative manner is without warrant.”

Wright said they are checking into the origin of the email. At this point it’s unclear who ordered the email to be sent and why.

The 14-page email documented groups the military considers to be anti-gay, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim. Among the other groups mentioned are Neo-Nazis, Racist Skinheads, White Nationalists and the Ku Klux Klan.

The Family Research Council and the American Family Association were listed as being anti-gay.

“The religious right in America has employed a variety of strategies in its efforts to beat back the increasingly confident gay rights movement,” the officer wrote. “One of those has been defamation.”

The officer accused the “Christian Right” of “engaging in the crudest type of name-calling, describing LGBT people as ‘perverts” with ‘filthy habits’ who seek to snatch the children of straight parents and ‘convert’ them to gay sex,” he wrote.

Last week, Fox news reported that an Army training instructor told a Reserve unit based in Pennsylvania that Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism were examples of religious extremism. The Army categorized that episode as an isolated incident.

Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance, told Fox News that the latest revelation is proof of a much larger problem within military leadership.

“We’re concerned that this is more than an isolated incident,” he said. “We’d like answers. Is there a policy in the military concerning people of faith?”

Crews said that soldiers have religious liberty – and they should not be punished for being members of respected religious groups.

“This is part of a trend that is concerning us,” he said. “Several in the military have this belief that evangelicals and people who hold to traditional values seem to be a problem and need to be monitored.”

Perkins, a Marine Corps veteran, said it’s clear that “Army Values” have indeed changed.

“And it’s the values of Evangelicals and Catholics,” Perkins said. “It’s not the values of the vast majority of those serving in our nation’s military. I think it’s the values of this administration trying to superimpose upon our military.”

http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/army-email-labels-christian-ministries-as-domestic-hate-groups.html

Bill O'Reilly - Moral Relativist

“. . . On his Fox News show, The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly, informed Megyn Kelly that:

The compelling argument is on the side of homosexuals. That's where the compelling argument is. "We're Americans. We just want to be treated like everybody else." That's a compelling argument, and to deny that, you gotta have a very strong argument on the other side, and the other side hasn't been able to do anything but thump the Bible.

Well, God is either "in the mix," or not.  When God is not in the mix, both sides are reduced to moral relativism.  No one can say one side's arguments are better than the other's.  What makes sense to one side is foolishness to the other.

To the radical left, which largely controls education and the media, there will never be a "compelling" reason to ban homosexual marriage, whether based on secular or celestial arguments or a combination of both.  Gay marriage is being advanced on emotion and rejection of our flawed traditions.

Since there never will be a "compelling argument" against gay marriage to the left, why not stand on religious principle?  Such a stance gives sacred purpose to the secular interests in preserving marriage.

What so-called conservatives like O'Reilly must realize is that without the moral authority of our Creator, one can take a man marrying another man or a man marrying a few men or a mother marrying her adult son or a man marrying a woman and a man, etc. and put all of these on the same intellectual footing.  Even Obama knew he had to appeal to divine authority when he was pretending to be against homosexual marriage.

To win the culture is to win the argument.  If the culture cannot be won, there will be no moral restoration in America, and the slide to Gomorrah will continue.  Conservatives and Christians must contend that the moral compass of the Bible has not changed.

To win the argument, we must be convinced that Western civilization's time-tested definition of marriage is not subject to evolution.  Marriage does not evolve, because the Bible does not evolve.

Contrary to what Bill O'Reilly believes, objecting to gay marriage because God objects to it is the most profound argument of all.”

AmericanThinker.com

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/04/gay_marriage_bill_oreilly_misses_the_point.html?utm_source=04-08-13&utm_campaign=AT+Newsletter+04-08-13&utm_medium=email#ixzz2PtCo15nw

Forever Young

Enjoy this beautiful video. It is told in secular terms but its message is of youthful joy, and the endurance of love.

As it opens, it is clear we are in the autumn of life. A song plays in the background called “The Last Song.” Our focus shifts to an elderly woman who, looking out on the world from her window, casts a whimsical look at the autumn scene. She shuts her window (for the last time).

She is clearly living more now on memories more than the present. A picture of her family from long ago hangs over the mantle and she grabs a photo of her dead husband, looking as he did when she first met and fell in love with him. Yes, her last thoughts are of love.

She sits in her chair and dozes off. Suddenly the radio goes dead, but it is really she who has died. Her final and fading memories, as she clutches the memory of her love are those of her youth, when she was strong and could dance to life’s rhythms.

And then it happens. God gives her the joy of her youth. She awakens, forever young.

One day, if we die thinking of Love and longing for Him, Our Lord will sing us to sleep and awaken us, forever young.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Z30ZP0AoAdU

And here is a meditation on this beautiful video:  http://blog.adw.org/2013/04/to-god-who-gives-me-the-joy-of-my-youth-a-meditation-on-a-beautiful-video/

Man Poisons Wife For Her Obsessional Catholic Interests

Well, I can’t imagine such an obsession . . .

Italian carpenter caught on spy clock trying to poison wife

Husband tried to poison wife so she'd stop listening to Catholic radio.

Wife set up camera in clock after becoming suspicious when her husband gave her a glass of water containing hydrochloric acid.

The man admits putting poison in his wife's water but denies trying to kill her. He told police he had been trying to make her a little unwell to ease her obsessional interest in planning pilgrimages and listening to the Catholic radio station Radio Maria.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/04/italian-carpenter-spy-clock-poison-wife

10 Quotes By Barack Obama About Islam

True Biblical Christianity has been under attack for a long time. President Obama claims to be a Christian. I think anyone who has heard him speak who has any sense of discernment knows otherwise. Is a closet Muslim? I don’t know. But one thing is for sure the man is much more sympathetic to his Muslim heritage than to anything Christian.

#1 "Islam has always been part of America"

#2 "we will encourage more Americans to study in Muslim communities"

#3 "These rituals remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings."

#4 "America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."

#5 "So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed"

#6 "Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality"

#7 "As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith."

#8 "I look forward to hosting an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan here at the White House later this week, and wish you a blessed month."

#9 "That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn’t. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear."

#10 "I also know that Islam has always been a part of America’s story."

10 Quotes by Barack Obama About Christianity

#1 "Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation"

#2 "We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation."

#3 "Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith?"

#4 "Even those who claim the Bible’s inerrancy make distinctions between Scriptural edicts, sensing that some passages – the Ten Commandments, say, or a belief in Christ’s divinity – are central to Christian faith, while others are more culturally specific and may be modified to accommodate modern life."

#5 "The American people intuitively understand this, which is why the majority of Catholics practice birth control and some of those opposed to gay marriage nevertheless are opposed to a Constitutional amendment to ban it. Religious leadership need not accept such wisdom in counseling their flocks, but they should recognize this wisdom in their politics."

#6 From Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope: "I am not willing to have the state deny American citizens a civil union that confers equivalent rights on such basic matters as hospital visitation or health insurance coverage simply because the people they love are of the same sex—nor am I willing to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount."

#7 "I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell. I can’t imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity. That’s just not part of my religious makeup."

#8 "Those opposed to abortion cannot simply invoke God’s will–they have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths."

#9 On his support for civil unions for gay couples: "If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount."

#10 "I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people."