If You Deny Me . . .

Things could be worse. We could live in England.

Although our nation’s zeitgeist is growing more anti-Christian, we have yet to embrace the apostasy of our British brethren. So blasphemous are recent trends in England that Britons better pray that God saves more than just the Queen.

Not long ago posters appeared on London buses claiming, “There’s probably no God. So stop worrying and enjoy your life”. Now the National Secular Society (NSS) is issuing online certificates for Christians who want to de-baptize themselves.

(http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.ae71a038e9b3b47af4f0e9eac9598fd8.2b1&show_article=1) More than 100,000 people have reportedly downloaded the certificate, and according to NSS President Terry Sanderson the organization has already sold 1,500 of the documents at $4.35 apiece.

Some disavow their Christian baptism to protest a perceived increase in Roman Catholic political activism. Others argue that baptism was forced on them as young children and, thus, was not of their own choice. One individual even went so far as to label baptism a form of child abuse. NSS President Sanderson believes this push to de-baptize is a reaction to the “hostility” emanating from the 72% of Brits who define themselves as Christians–an odd accusation considering the rabid political correctness dominating British culture.

Similar de-baptizing efforts have emerged in Spain and Italy. According to a report in the International Herald Tribune, the Spanish high court ruled “in favor of a man from Valencia, Manuel Blat, saying that under data protection laws he could have the record of his baptism erased.” In Italy, “the Italian Union of Rationalists and Agnostics (UAAR) won a legal battle over the right to file for de-baptism in 2002". UAAR secretary Raffaele Carcano asserts that “more than 60,000 of these forms have been downloaded in the past four years and continue to be downloaded at a rate of about 2,000 per month.”

There is little doubt this de-baptizing crusade will find its way to our shores. Let’s just hope that when it arrives Americans remember Christ’s warning:

“But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:33)


Donald Tremblay

Persecuted and Forgotten

The charity group Aid to the Church in Need has released "Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians Oppressed for their Faith 2007/8." (www.acn.org.uk/shop/reports/BPAF08_All.pdf) www.acn.org.uk/shop/reports/BPAF08_All.pdf) How bad is the persecution? Neville Kyrke-Smith, the United Kingdom’s director of Aid to the Church in Need, is quoted by Zenit news agency stating the following:

"What the [report summary] demonstrates is that Christians are the most persecuted group in the world today," he said. "People are aware of an enormous number of human rights abuses throughout the globe, but they are not always aware of the denial of human rights to millions of Christians.”

Donald

The Religious Atheist

Bill Maher’s Religulous received mixed reviews from movie critics around the nation. Some newspapers such as the New York Daily News and the New York Post loved it, while others like Newsday and The Boston Globe ripped it. The New York Daily News gives the film four stars and states, “What he [Maher] does do finally in this funny, refreshing movie is assert how unrestrained religiosity could guarantee the ‘end days’ many of his subjects admit to looking forward to.” (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2008/09/30/2008-09-30_oh_god_religulous_features_bill_maher_in.html)

Similarly, the New York Post describes the film as a “religious experience” while granting it three stars. (The Post’s favorable critique isn’t surprising, however, considering that the writer of the review believes that “[n]o defender of any religion could withstand five minutes of cross-examination from a junior varsity debater”.) (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2008/09/30/2008-09-30_oh_god_religulous_features_bill_maher_in.html)

Kudos to Newsday and The Boston Globe for exposing Maher’s hypocrisy. Maher criticizes religious supporters as fanatical; yet he is as rabid in his atheistic views as the very people he denigrates and mocks.

Newsday’s Rafer Guzman labels the film “a nasty, condescending, small-minded film, self-amused and ultimately self-defeating.” He also adds that “[Maher’s] routines are often vulgar: Whenever homosexuality comes up, Maher resorts to sniggering anatomical jokes. After the interviews are wrapped, director Larry Charles (‘Borat’) uses the editing room to have the last laugh. At one point, the film visually compares a well-dressed black pastor to a flashy black pimp.” (http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/wednesday/partii/ny-etrelig5864082oct01,0,6930563.story )

This vulgarity should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Maher’s previous works. A juvenile sense of humor is his trademark.

The Boston Globe’s Wesley Morris describes the film as follows:
“As an exchange of ideas, this is a hopeless project, since Maher's doubt is as immovable as his interviewees' certainty. As entertainment, it's entirely a matter of whether of you find Maher's superiority complex a laughing matter. He's a committed skeptic, and those who aren't must be stupid.” (http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2008/10/03/maher_happily_makes_a_mockery_of_religion/)
Maher’s subjects are purposely not theologians or biblical scholars, a point raised by Morris later in his review: “Many of the faithful Maher interviews are underprepared or exposed as naïve, misinformed, or possibly fraudulent.” But let’s give Bill a break; it’s difficult to mock those who can defend themselves.

In the film Maher contends, “I’m only asking questions.” But anyone familiar with his modus operandi is well aware of the disingenuousness of this statement. Ridicule is his motive, as Morris summarizes in the final paragraph of his column:

“Mostly Maher is content to riff, rant, opine, judge, reduce, and preach - zealously, I might add. Early in the film, he meets with a group of American men in their tiny church, and speaks from an elevated pulpit, requiring them to look up at him. One of the men doesn't appreciate Maher's tone, excuses himself, and exits. He knows that Maher is not looking for answers. He's looking for targets.”

Maher’s dirty, little secret is that he is as zealously religious as any Christian fundamentalist. The only difference is that his religion is atheism.

Donald Tremblay

Anything to Discredit Faith in the Lord Jesus

I’m amazed at the lengths people will go to discredit Christianity. The International Herald Tribune reported yesterday about a “three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus.” (http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/05/africa/06stone.php) The stone is of interest to many because “it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days”. According to the daily this is important because it “suggests that the story of his [Jesus] death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.” Israel Knohl, a professor of Bible studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem bluntly states, “"This should shake our basic view of Christianity . . . Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story."

And . . . . .?

Why this should shake our view of Christianity is beyond me. Perhaps Mr. Knohl should re-read Matthew 5:17:

“Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”

Fulfill. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines fulfill as “to carry out, as a promise”. In other words Christ was carrying out the promise of a resurrected messiah.

The Catholic News Agency (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=13168) answered the Tribune’s article by posting its own, arguing that “while one scholar claims the find could ‘shake our basic view of Christianity,’ a Catholic Professor of Scripture suggests the tablet is actually evidence for the historical probability of Christian belief.” (Why the Tribune didn’t see fit to interview a Christian scholar about Knohl’s claims is a story in itself)

Dr. Timothy Gray, a professor of Biblical Studies at the Augustine Institute in Denver , points out that Jesus made many references to the Book of Daniel and “that the Jewish expectation of a dying messiah is shown in Daniel’s prophecies, noting that Daniel chapter 9 talks about how an anointed messiah will be cut off and killed.” Gray also exposes the hypocrisy of many who seek to discredit Christianity:

“On the one hand, scholars argue no Jewish tradition about a messiah suffering shows that the Church added this idea. And once you show a document, an ancient document to point to, showing that they did interpret a prophet like Daniel to expect a suffering messiah, well then people say ‘Well this proves Christianity can’t be true.’”

“You can’t have it both ways,” Gray said.

“The point is that our people in modern media and modern scholars will use any evidence as disproof of Christianity, even if it illustrates the evidence of Christian belief. And this evidence clearly points to the historical probability of Christianity, to the historical Jesus.

Well said, Dr. Gray.

Donald Tremblay

We Are Not Expected To Be Perfect, But To Be Made Perfect

The spiritually zealous often labor to live sinless lives. They want to live for Christ alone and to completely reject their own wills in favor of Our Heavenly Father’s Will. It is commendable, but unrealistic. In fact, more than being unrealistic, it is a complete misunderstanding of what God expects from us.

Throughout history God has chosen the most unusual people, unusual by the world’s standards, to fulfill His wishes.

David became King of Israel and one of the most revered figures of the Bible. Yet, this is the same man who became criminally drunk with power. He slept with and impregnated a married woman (Bathsabee); then, after finding out about her pregnancy, he compounded his sin by sending her husband, Uriah, to “the front of the battle, where the fight is strongest: and leave ye him, that he may be wounded and die.” (2 Kings 11:15) All this so that he could have Bathsabee to himself.

St. Peter, “the Rock upon which I will build My Church”, three times denied knowing Christ when accused by others of being a disciple.

St. Paul, perhaps the best example of a strange choice by God, was originally Saul of Tarsus. Before his conversion Saul persecuted and killed Christians.


These men certainly appear to be a motley crew intimately familiar with sin—which is exactly what God expected and wanted.

Humility is a Catholic’s best friend. God wants people who are open to His mercy and to obeying His will. Sometimes it is those who sin most who recognize their weaknesses and are thus more open to God’s care.

In her book The Way of Divine Love, Sister Josefa Menendez makes it clear that during her near-daily visits from the Lord that it is her nothingness that appealed to Him. She quotes Him as follows:

“That soul may and will fall often again, but if she humbles herself, if she recognizes her nothingness, if she tries to repair her faults by little acts of generosity and love, if she confides and surrenders herself once more to my Heart . . . she gives Me more glory and can do more good to other souls, than if she had never fallen.” (p 199)

The same is said by the Lord to Sister Mary of the Holy Trinity:

“I love you because you are so, so wretched . . . I love you because you cannot do without me.” (The Spiritual Legacy of Sister Mary of the Holy Trinity, p 87)

It is when we recognize our weaknesses and our need for the Lord’s guidance that He is most with us. During these times our humility opens the door of our soul wide to allow Him entry. When confronted by their sins, the three biblical greats mentioned above displayed great humility:

The Lord sends the prophet Nathan to David to tell him a parable about a rich man, a poor man, and a ewe. The rich man must provide a feast for a visiting guest. Rather than kill one of the many sheep or goats he owns, he takes the only sheep owned by a poor man. The poor man is saddened since this ewe was raised as a member of the family. Outraged, David promises to punish the rich man, only to learn from Nathan that he is that rich man. David doesn’t offer excuses or attack Nathan. Instead he confesses, “I have sinned against the Lord.” (2Kings 12:12)

Following his third denial of Jesus, Peter hears the cock crow and remembers Jesus’ prediction of betrayal. Devastated, the apostle “wept bitterly“. (Matthew 26:75) Does the Lord abandon him? Hardly. He becomes the first Pope, the first Bishop of Rome. Moreover, in his later years Peter is given the strength by the Holy Spirit to erase his betrayal. Facing crucifixion Peter refuses to deny the Lord and instead embraces the same death as Christ. (Peter reportedly chooses to be crucified upside-down, believing he is not worthy to die in the same manner as the Lord)

Saul goes blind after seeing a vision of the Lord. His sight returns after being touched by Ananias. Saul is humbled and embraces Christ as his Lord. He changes his name to Paul and spreads Christ’s gospel further than any human in history—all while enduring physical attacks, imprisonments, and threats of death.

It is the Lord who makes us perfect through our willingness to be transformed. We can no more make ourselves perfect than a leopard can remove its spots. Let God be God and He will take care of the rest.



Donald Tremblay

Perservere

In 1996 Justice Robert Bork wrote a best-selling book entitled, Slouching Towards Gomorrah. The synopsis on the book jacket reads, “In this New York Times best-selling book, Robert H. Bork, our country’s most distinguished conservative scholar offers a prophetic and unprecedented view of a culture in decline, a nation in such serious moral trouble that its very foundation is crumbling.” I often wonder whether the concept of Bork’s title is outdated—not because the arguments in his book don’t still apply, but because we have already reached Gomorrah

. Case in point:

WorldNetDaily.com has an article posted today about a new Colorado law that it says will levy penalties against people who criticize homosexuality outside Church walls (http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=66829)

In the article Focus on the Family analyst Bruce Hausknecht makes an excellent point when he states that one of the goals of laws such as these is to marginalize the Church: "They'll say, 'It's just a church.' It will allow gay activists to continue to marginalize Christians. They'll say, 'Keep it within your four walls. That's all.'" Hausknecht also acknowledges that "there are those who simply by publishing Christian materials could find themselves charged with a violation of this statute," he said.

Christ made it clear to His disciples that “You shall be hated by all men for my name's sake” (Luke 21:17). As Christians our very beliefs are anathema to society. And according to how the world judges victory, we are fighting a losing battle. Things will only continue to get worse as is made clear in The Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.” (The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 675) Why is this so? Because since it is Christ’s Church, it must endure the same persecution, death, and resurrection that He suffered: “The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection” (The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 677)

Nevertheless, despite the inevitability of the persecution we face, our responsibility as Catholic Christians is to defend the Word and win as many souls back to Christ as possible before the Final Judgment. For as Christ says, “It is impossible that scandals should not come: but woe to him through whom they come.” (Luke 17:1) The reality that evil is unavoidable in this world does not absolve us from battling against it. Yes, we are fighting a losing battle as the world defines victory, but our goals are different than the world’s goals. We seek to rescue souls for eternity, and each soul saved is a victory that is celebrated in Heaven.

Let’s persevere and focus on evangelizing one soul at a time.

Donald Tremblay