I recently received an e-mail from a prominent African-American Church leader who asked me to pray that her Dad's name would not be "pimped" by those who would distort her father's message of love, forgiveness, and non-violent Christian commitment!
When I first read it, I obviously PRAYED!!!
But, then after praying, I thought to myself how much "sex" is a type of 'transaction . . .'
According to the Judeo-Christian (and in a similar Abrahamic vein, the Islamic) monotheistic Tradition, sex is literally the joining together of husband and wife in holy matrimony. Sex is for pleasure to be sure, but more importantly, sex is for child-rearing!
In the Second Vatican Council's Dignitatis Humanae (1965) http://www.ewtn.com/library/councils/v2relfre.htm, the right for Catholic Christians to raise their children in a spirit of religious freedom, and free from state control is intrinsic to human dignity itself.
But, unless one spends tons of money to send a child to private school, the state time and time again has over-stepped the boundaries of true religious freedom. Children are taught to use condoms. Children are required to accept homosexuality as a normative lifestyle. Children are even doped full of ritalin for an entire host of artificially-constructed "mental illnesses," mental illnesses that apparently never even existed until the late twentieth century and when the drug companies of the U.S. foresaw a HUGE financial pay-off!
Truly, as Catholic moral philosopher (at the University of Notre Dame), Alasdair MacIntyre prophetically highlighted at the end of his epic treatise After Virtue, the Dark Ages of post-modernity are well upon us and it will only be through morally coherent, robust Aristotelian centers of Virtue that the Church (or anyone else . . .) can survive the onslaught against human dignity!
Barack Obama's first week following the election was marked by his assault upon life-in-the-womb.
Genocide occurs in the Sudan, yet the Bush-Cheney era was more concerned about Sadaam's oil profits than they were TRUE human rights abuses!!
The only choice for Christians, whether we are Sojourners Liberal Evangelical-Catholics (like myself . . .) or hard-liners like Richard John Neuhaus (Editor of First Things . . .) is to both discover and highlight those communities of Natural Law Aristotelian Virtue that respect the human person, foster an independent spirit (i.e. free of state-totalitarian G.O.P. control!), and also welcome children!
I, thus pledge, along with folks like Jim Wallis, Neuhaus, Stanley Hauerwas, Mike Baxter, et al to embody a different Kingdom than the capitalistic, consumer-profit-at-all-costs of the Republikaaners, and also different from the self-mutilating "suicide/abortion cult" of the Demokraats, a political party that on the one hand saved the U.S.A. from its slide towards "torture-ridden fascist Ideology," but also sought refuge in the worn out cliches of the Political Left that equate true womanhood somehow with the supposed right to murder one's babies!!! No, Barack, Hillary and the rest of you infanticide-fanatics, True Womanhood is centered in Jesus the Messiah, and modelled upon his mother, the Divine Theotokos, the head of the communion of saints, Mary.
In the Name of Jesus the Messiah and through the most blessed intercession of His mother, the Virgin Mary! --Rob
Friday, December 19, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Making the M-O-S-T of LIFE!
I was recently sent a nice e-mail, encouraging me in my "growth as a Leader" (sent by a fellow Shorecrest High grad, class of '91). This successful businessman (real estate) told me that "in order to climb the ladder of success, that we can't have our hands in our pockets!" (paraphrase)
How true this is!
Often life will send set-backs.
Mortgage foreclosures. Sickness. Job insecurity.
You name it and 2008 is a pretty awful year for the U.S.A.
But, however tempting it might be to blame Bush, blame Cheney (although I like blaming Cheney! :-), it is still the lot in life that we receive by Divine Providence, and as a "test of faith!"
Joseph, the early Hebrew patriarch was betrayed by his very own brothers (thrown in a well; sold into slavery in Egypt!).
Joseph could have cried "woa is me!" Joseph could have "kept his hands in his pockets . . ."
INSTEAD, however, Joseph just kept being faithful to God. God directed his path, and lo and behold, at the end of Joseph's life he became the second most-powerful political leader (next to Pharaoh!) in the Ancient World!!
So, when life throws us lemons, MAKE LEMONADE!
God will test us, but in the end, we shall be refined as silver or gold tested in the flames of Christ's holiness!
Blessings in Jesus' Name,
Rob J. King (What I am doing Academically, by the way . . . :-)http://it.spcollege.edu/course_info/inquiry.cfm?number=1162)
How true this is!
Often life will send set-backs.
Mortgage foreclosures. Sickness. Job insecurity.
You name it and 2008 is a pretty awful year for the U.S.A.
But, however tempting it might be to blame Bush, blame Cheney (although I like blaming Cheney! :-), it is still the lot in life that we receive by Divine Providence, and as a "test of faith!"
Joseph, the early Hebrew patriarch was betrayed by his very own brothers (thrown in a well; sold into slavery in Egypt!).
Joseph could have cried "woa is me!" Joseph could have "kept his hands in his pockets . . ."
INSTEAD, however, Joseph just kept being faithful to God. God directed his path, and lo and behold, at the end of Joseph's life he became the second most-powerful political leader (next to Pharaoh!) in the Ancient World!!
So, when life throws us lemons, MAKE LEMONADE!
God will test us, but in the end, we shall be refined as silver or gold tested in the flames of Christ's holiness!
Blessings in Jesus' Name,
Rob J. King (What I am doing Academically, by the way . . . :-)http://it.spcollege.edu/course_info/inquiry.cfm?number=1162)
Monday, November 10, 2008
Defending the "Culture of Life . . ."
AN OPEN-LETTER TO PRESIDENT-ELECT, BARACK OBAMA!
I just read today how you, Barack Obama, want to overturn 200 Executive Orders by George W. Bush! Included in these orders are National Security measures designed to protect the lives of the innocent--i.e. orders designed to limit abortion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prenatal_development); orders to keep babies from being harvested for their organs, etc.
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING???
As a Father of two children, why would you support the old, old Democratic Party's position of the 1970's - 1990's that promotes "death-on-demand?" Why do some of your fellow Democrats enjoy killing the defenseless?
This is completely INSANE!
Even the pre-Christian grandfather of Western Medical Theory, Hippocrates, outlawed abortion as something that physicians simply should never do! Hippocratic Ethics means that the physician seeks to safeguard LIFE! Now, in 1973 - 2008 in the U.S., even the pre-Christian Greek Pagans were MUCH MORE ETHICAL than the majority of the U.S. that supported you, Barack Obama and your anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-LIFE policies!!
Why not 'fix the economy' rather than neutering men and spading women of their TRUE reproductive rights? Why not focus on ending bloodshed in the Middle East rather than promoting it in the wombs of American women and in the sinister petri-dishes of the "mad scientists" who wrongly insist that babies must be murdered (cattle style!) in order to produce the most succulent stem-cells? (i.e. stem-cells that can be equally obtained from umbilical cord blood!)
Why are you set on death? Death of the innocent, death of the defenseless?
Well, my friend, unless you repent, truly turn your life over to Jesus Christ in a REAL-church (not that excuse for a dying, pro-death denomination called the U.C.C.!), then you my dear friend, Mr. Obama will have the blood of millions of innocent children on your hands!
Sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Rob J. King, PRO-LIFE, NON-VIOLENT, SUPPORTER-OF-HUMANAE VITAE
I just read today how you, Barack Obama, want to overturn 200 Executive Orders by George W. Bush! Included in these orders are National Security measures designed to protect the lives of the innocent--i.e. orders designed to limit abortion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prenatal_development); orders to keep babies from being harvested for their organs, etc.
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING???
As a Father of two children, why would you support the old, old Democratic Party's position of the 1970's - 1990's that promotes "death-on-demand?" Why do some of your fellow Democrats enjoy killing the defenseless?
This is completely INSANE!
Even the pre-Christian grandfather of Western Medical Theory, Hippocrates, outlawed abortion as something that physicians simply should never do! Hippocratic Ethics means that the physician seeks to safeguard LIFE! Now, in 1973 - 2008 in the U.S., even the pre-Christian Greek Pagans were MUCH MORE ETHICAL than the majority of the U.S. that supported you, Barack Obama and your anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-LIFE policies!!
Why not 'fix the economy' rather than neutering men and spading women of their TRUE reproductive rights? Why not focus on ending bloodshed in the Middle East rather than promoting it in the wombs of American women and in the sinister petri-dishes of the "mad scientists" who wrongly insist that babies must be murdered (cattle style!) in order to produce the most succulent stem-cells? (i.e. stem-cells that can be equally obtained from umbilical cord blood!)
Why are you set on death? Death of the innocent, death of the defenseless?
Well, my friend, unless you repent, truly turn your life over to Jesus Christ in a REAL-church (not that excuse for a dying, pro-death denomination called the U.C.C.!), then you my dear friend, Mr. Obama will have the blood of millions of innocent children on your hands!
Sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Rob J. King, PRO-LIFE, NON-VIOLENT, SUPPORTER-OF-HUMANAE VITAE
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Money, Stuff, the Apocalypse . . .
Do you believe that the end of the world is upon us? Well, if your primary source of income is the Stock Market, then 2008 might very well be the Apocalypse!
Just imagine if you had been living off of the return on your investment, and suddenly that investment not only does not produce wealth, but now even the initial investment is rapidly vanishing before your/our collective eyes! Right . . . let's blame Bush, let's blame Cheney, let's blame former Federal Reserve Chair Greenspan.
But, in each case of the economy heading south, can we not blame ourselves?
How many times have we each desired to have tons of cash without actually putting in the sweat, time, resourcefulness, etc. to achieve the status that results in wealth?
Tiger Woods diligently practices his golf swing, and thus earns millions! Michael Jordan relentlessly pursued perfection in the intra-team and individual skill sets to make him the single most successful pro athlete in history! These men and women (e.g. Sec. of State Condoleeza Rice, former Provost at Stanford) deserve their income, status, etc.
But what of the rest of us?
We really do want something for nothing. I like receiving perks, accolades, and to be frank, well, just not putting in quite the effort necessary. But, and this I owe to my staunch Catholic upbringing, from the time I was five and starting kindergarten, I worked hard, and thus through such hard work was a three year starting offensive lineman for Davidson College, boasted G.P.A.'s of 3.6, 3.6, 3.9 and 3.7 at Davidson, Duke, Duke and Notre Dame resp.
Not to boast, and in all that I do, my only boasting is in Christ, but hard work does succeed in the end.
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school varsity basketball team as a sophomore. I had to overcome the death of my own mother to cancer, yet in the end, the Grace of God as it empowered me, did, indeed lead to success!
So, perhaps, like chicken little, the Sky really is falling! But in the wake of such financial disaster (and like the Fall of Rome!) the end result could be beautiful. Like the book How the Irish Saved Civilization, perhaps the New Era is to be marked by societal decline for the lazy, the selfish, the corrupt, but societal regeneration for the Just.
Blessings in Christ! Rob J. King
Just imagine if you had been living off of the return on your investment, and suddenly that investment not only does not produce wealth, but now even the initial investment is rapidly vanishing before your/our collective eyes! Right . . . let's blame Bush, let's blame Cheney, let's blame former Federal Reserve Chair Greenspan.
But, in each case of the economy heading south, can we not blame ourselves?
How many times have we each desired to have tons of cash without actually putting in the sweat, time, resourcefulness, etc. to achieve the status that results in wealth?
Tiger Woods diligently practices his golf swing, and thus earns millions! Michael Jordan relentlessly pursued perfection in the intra-team and individual skill sets to make him the single most successful pro athlete in history! These men and women (e.g. Sec. of State Condoleeza Rice, former Provost at Stanford) deserve their income, status, etc.
But what of the rest of us?
We really do want something for nothing. I like receiving perks, accolades, and to be frank, well, just not putting in quite the effort necessary. But, and this I owe to my staunch Catholic upbringing, from the time I was five and starting kindergarten, I worked hard, and thus through such hard work was a three year starting offensive lineman for Davidson College, boasted G.P.A.'s of 3.6, 3.6, 3.9 and 3.7 at Davidson, Duke, Duke and Notre Dame resp.
Not to boast, and in all that I do, my only boasting is in Christ, but hard work does succeed in the end.
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school varsity basketball team as a sophomore. I had to overcome the death of my own mother to cancer, yet in the end, the Grace of God as it empowered me, did, indeed lead to success!
So, perhaps, like chicken little, the Sky really is falling! But in the wake of such financial disaster (and like the Fall of Rome!) the end result could be beautiful. Like the book How the Irish Saved Civilization, perhaps the New Era is to be marked by societal decline for the lazy, the selfish, the corrupt, but societal regeneration for the Just.
Blessings in Christ! Rob J. King
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Why the U.S.A. Will Now Collapse!
The other day I received an invitation to participate in (possibly present a paper at!) an Academic Conference at Oxford.
Sadly, when I read the cost of attending ($2,940 + Air Fare), I was utterly amazed at how 'dirt-poor' the U.S.A. is becoming, at least when compared to the European Union!
I will diligently try to save my own, hard-earned dollars to actually attend this conference (e.g. with degrees from places like Davidson College and Duke University, this is where I should be . . . :-), but sadly, as an Instructor at a publicly-funded college in St. Petersburg, Florida (U.S.A.), the people who 'run the show' are pernicious in excluding the best & brightest (Yale, Duke, etc.) and politically "rewarding" each other for their own lack of academic achievement . . . So, Oxford University comes calling and sadly, the poor, run-down public school system (St. Petersburg College!) is left to wallow in its own misery! After all, as The St. Petersburg Times newspaper has been diligently reporting, when people with only bachelor's degrees (and from agricultural institutes no less!) are "rewarded" for their political loyalty (i.e. by the President of the College!) and paid $60,000+ for their mediocre academic level (and again, over institutions of higher learning such as Duke, Yale, Notre Dame, etc.!), then the end result is a disloyalty, distrust even of the entire publicly-funded higher educational system!
The St. Petersburg Times alerted the public to this malfeasance, but in the wake of a Trustee's audit of its own hiring practices, sadly, the damage is already done. I must now apply outside of my hometown, work every alumni connection that I know, and possibly simply take a job outside of Higher Education.
But, Oxford University is still there!
Notre Dame, Duke and Davidson are all top-tier colleges and universities (i.e. Top 20!), and thus, the WORLD FINANCIAL ELITE will now capitalize on the illegal, discriminatory hiring practices of St. Petersburg College and other institutions built on cronyism, insider status, etc.
So, if anyone wants to help "fund my way" to Oxford, please remit any checks or money orders as follows: Rob J. King, c/o Jesus the Messiah-Christ, 12 Apostolic Drive, New Heavens and New Earth, 219 7th Ave., N. Apt. 2, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. (the second part of the address is my real mailing address!)
Blessings & Love in Jesus Christ,
Rob
Sadly, when I read the cost of attending ($2,940 + Air Fare), I was utterly amazed at how 'dirt-poor' the U.S.A. is becoming, at least when compared to the European Union!
I will diligently try to save my own, hard-earned dollars to actually attend this conference (e.g. with degrees from places like Davidson College and Duke University, this is where I should be . . . :-), but sadly, as an Instructor at a publicly-funded college in St. Petersburg, Florida (U.S.A.), the people who 'run the show' are pernicious in excluding the best & brightest (Yale, Duke, etc.) and politically "rewarding" each other for their own lack of academic achievement . . . So, Oxford University comes calling and sadly, the poor, run-down public school system (St. Petersburg College!) is left to wallow in its own misery! After all, as The St. Petersburg Times newspaper has been diligently reporting, when people with only bachelor's degrees (and from agricultural institutes no less!) are "rewarded" for their political loyalty (i.e. by the President of the College!) and paid $60,000+ for their mediocre academic level (and again, over institutions of higher learning such as Duke, Yale, Notre Dame, etc.!), then the end result is a disloyalty, distrust even of the entire publicly-funded higher educational system!
The St. Petersburg Times alerted the public to this malfeasance, but in the wake of a Trustee's audit of its own hiring practices, sadly, the damage is already done. I must now apply outside of my hometown, work every alumni connection that I know, and possibly simply take a job outside of Higher Education.
But, Oxford University is still there!
Notre Dame, Duke and Davidson are all top-tier colleges and universities (i.e. Top 20!), and thus, the WORLD FINANCIAL ELITE will now capitalize on the illegal, discriminatory hiring practices of St. Petersburg College and other institutions built on cronyism, insider status, etc.
So, if anyone wants to help "fund my way" to Oxford, please remit any checks or money orders as follows: Rob J. King, c/o Jesus the Messiah-Christ, 12 Apostolic Drive, New Heavens and New Earth, 219 7th Ave., N. Apt. 2, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. (the second part of the address is my real mailing address!)
Blessings & Love in Jesus Christ,
Rob
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Economic Justice!
While studying in the Ph.D. program at the University of Notre Dame, one of the seminars I was blessed to have taken was a course called "Christianity and the Living Wage." This course outlined the Catholic Church's recent social teaching on economic justice.
Yes, the Catholic Church is firmly Pro-Life. And yes, the "liberal" side of the Political Spectrum is not too fond of Catholic Teaching.
But, the Church is also the primary voice for true and lasting economic reform!
Secular thought usually drifts between socialism (Marxism even!) on the Left and unbridled laissez-faire capitalism on the Right!
But, the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ founded by the Apostles, teaches that both private property is to be affirmed, but also that workers (which are all of us!) deserve fair and just economic compensation for our labor!
In fact, John Ryan was an early 20th century reforming priest who helped the U.S. rise out of its quagmire of economic degradation through petitioning the government for a fair wage (minimum wage legislation), anti-child labor laws, and the 40 hour work week.
But, whether it is the corporate elite who siphon millions, even billions of dollars off of us, while we hard-working Americans struggle living "paycheck to paycheck," or whether it is the socialist governmental dynamics of local, state and federal bureaucracies that shield what little tax revenue that comes in for the hiring of their cronies, the Catholic Church offers an alternative!
So, fellow Catholics (and Protestants!) let us join together and hold Wall Street accountable for its financial malfeasance! Hold them, and not we the tax-paying public, responsible for the debt-machine called capitalism! Also, although laissez-faire capitalism is unethical, let us also hold the Political Left accountable! Welfare really does produce squalor, not urban redevelopment. Communism and Marxism really are idealistic in theory, yet pernicious in practice leading to human rights abuse after human rights abuse.
In the end, Jesus Christ will return, and His People will Reign! Wall Street will be a greased slide to hell itself. The federal government will be no more (replaced by Jesus' bodily REIGN on earth!). Finally, every tear will be wiped away, and no pain will exist. This final "City of God" (to quote St. Augustine) is what we as Christians live for, but as we await Christ Jesus' physical return, let us at least make sure that the billionaire boys club and the nanny-socialist state called the Democratic Party are held accountable to CHRISTIAN LAW!
Amen and amen! Come LORD JESUS, come.
Love in Jesus the Messiah-Christ, Rob
Yes, the Catholic Church is firmly Pro-Life. And yes, the "liberal" side of the Political Spectrum is not too fond of Catholic Teaching.
But, the Church is also the primary voice for true and lasting economic reform!
Secular thought usually drifts between socialism (Marxism even!) on the Left and unbridled laissez-faire capitalism on the Right!
But, the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ founded by the Apostles, teaches that both private property is to be affirmed, but also that workers (which are all of us!) deserve fair and just economic compensation for our labor!
In fact, John Ryan was an early 20th century reforming priest who helped the U.S. rise out of its quagmire of economic degradation through petitioning the government for a fair wage (minimum wage legislation), anti-child labor laws, and the 40 hour work week.
But, whether it is the corporate elite who siphon millions, even billions of dollars off of us, while we hard-working Americans struggle living "paycheck to paycheck," or whether it is the socialist governmental dynamics of local, state and federal bureaucracies that shield what little tax revenue that comes in for the hiring of their cronies, the Catholic Church offers an alternative!
So, fellow Catholics (and Protestants!) let us join together and hold Wall Street accountable for its financial malfeasance! Hold them, and not we the tax-paying public, responsible for the debt-machine called capitalism! Also, although laissez-faire capitalism is unethical, let us also hold the Political Left accountable! Welfare really does produce squalor, not urban redevelopment. Communism and Marxism really are idealistic in theory, yet pernicious in practice leading to human rights abuse after human rights abuse.
In the end, Jesus Christ will return, and His People will Reign! Wall Street will be a greased slide to hell itself. The federal government will be no more (replaced by Jesus' bodily REIGN on earth!). Finally, every tear will be wiped away, and no pain will exist. This final "City of God" (to quote St. Augustine) is what we as Christians live for, but as we await Christ Jesus' physical return, let us at least make sure that the billionaire boys club and the nanny-socialist state called the Democratic Party are held accountable to CHRISTIAN LAW!
Amen and amen! Come LORD JESUS, come.
Love in Jesus the Messiah-Christ, Rob
Monday, October 6, 2008
Fidelity, Abortion, and Why the West can now move ahead!
Barack Obama is starting to get annoying! Here is a man who claims to be a Christian, yet his voting record on the abortion issue has been almost genocidal. That's right, abortion, the intentional killing of a baby in the mother's womb is a barbaric act that had been successfully outlawed in the Western world since Emperor Constantine all of the way through the twentieth century.
1600 years of Pro-Life legislation and judicial enforcement, ALL gone in the twentieth century. That vile era that produced nazi racist paranoia, anti-semitism, euthanasia of the "unfit" and the birth and proliferation of "mental illness" as a category (Carl Jung, noted psychological theorist was also a white, Aryan anti-semitic bigot who postulated that the "Aryan" psyche, whatever that is, was 'superior' to the Jewish!) is now drawing to a close.
So, now we have Barack Obama, supposedly a born-again Christian, and his running mate, Joe Biden, supposedly Catholic, supporting infant-killing!
And so, the Catholic Church, the true Church of Jesus Christ (i.e. that which is loyal to the Bible and the episcopacy established by Christ!) is picketing abortion clinics.
I myself stood bravely in front of one for 40 minutes one Wednesday afternoon. No, contrary to media stereotypes we do not "harass" people. We, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were simply peacefully protesting with signs, rosaries and a picket line!
So, Barack, since you will likely be the next President of the United States, get ready for the picket lines!
We will march, like the black community from which you are siphoning off cheap support, and engage in Civil rights for the unborn! Those who are the most defenseless, the children, have been brutalized by people like you Barack Obama! It will now end. The Catholic Church has declared it so. Bishop Lynch of St. Petersburg, FL is the "villain" who started the PROTEST against all murder! Pope Benedict XVI, friend of George W. Bush, is also the "culprit!"
So, when you see thousands upon thousands of Latino, Anglo, and oh yes, AFRICAN CATHOLICS and PROTESTANTS descend upon Washington, D.C., you will know what happened! You are "Bull Conner" (racist police-chief of the Civil Rights era . . .) and WE are Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
IN CHRIST, PAX CHRISTI, EX CORDE ECCLESIA, Rob J. King, Gandi-M.L. King promoter of a non-violent ethic in support of the defenseless babies murdered by mommies
1600 years of Pro-Life legislation and judicial enforcement, ALL gone in the twentieth century. That vile era that produced nazi racist paranoia, anti-semitism, euthanasia of the "unfit" and the birth and proliferation of "mental illness" as a category (Carl Jung, noted psychological theorist was also a white, Aryan anti-semitic bigot who postulated that the "Aryan" psyche, whatever that is, was 'superior' to the Jewish!) is now drawing to a close.
So, now we have Barack Obama, supposedly a born-again Christian, and his running mate, Joe Biden, supposedly Catholic, supporting infant-killing!
And so, the Catholic Church, the true Church of Jesus Christ (i.e. that which is loyal to the Bible and the episcopacy established by Christ!) is picketing abortion clinics.
I myself stood bravely in front of one for 40 minutes one Wednesday afternoon. No, contrary to media stereotypes we do not "harass" people. We, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were simply peacefully protesting with signs, rosaries and a picket line!
So, Barack, since you will likely be the next President of the United States, get ready for the picket lines!
We will march, like the black community from which you are siphoning off cheap support, and engage in Civil rights for the unborn! Those who are the most defenseless, the children, have been brutalized by people like you Barack Obama! It will now end. The Catholic Church has declared it so. Bishop Lynch of St. Petersburg, FL is the "villain" who started the PROTEST against all murder! Pope Benedict XVI, friend of George W. Bush, is also the "culprit!"
So, when you see thousands upon thousands of Latino, Anglo, and oh yes, AFRICAN CATHOLICS and PROTESTANTS descend upon Washington, D.C., you will know what happened! You are "Bull Conner" (racist police-chief of the Civil Rights era . . .) and WE are Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
IN CHRIST, PAX CHRISTI, EX CORDE ECCLESIA, Rob J. King, Gandi-M.L. King promoter of a non-violent ethic in support of the defenseless babies murdered by mommies
Monday, September 29, 2008
The War Against Christians . . .
Sometimes I wonder if there is a "secret-war" against Christianity. Take the movies for example. Murder, violence, homosexuality and anything that is gratuitous in sin is what the movies glorify. Yes, yes, there are good movies, but from the blockbuster Titanic which seeks to glorify the 'myth of romantic love' as more important than eternal salvation to the Dark Knight in which complex moral dilemmas allow the Batman character to become more and more "compromised" in his belief structure (only to be lauded!), we are seeing an all-out, subtle and sometimes overt attack on Judeo-Christianity!
Now, rather than homosexual practice being classified a crime (i.e. the crime of sodomy!), homosexuality, a moral vice, is seeking to impose its standards of elicit behavior on all of society!
Abortion, the murder of a newly conceived child, continues unabated.
War, rather than avoided, is increasingly utilized as Foreign Policy!
What ever happened to Jesus' Teaching? Doesn't forgiveness, rather than 'pre-emptive strike' signal the outburst that Christians should side with? BUT, no, the Evangelical Right sided with the Political Right, and like Nazi Germany, a state-enforced terrorist action called the War in Iraq is the result!
Yes, yes, people may say, "VOTE OBAMA!" BUT, in voting against one set of evils, a vote cast for Obama is WORSE! Killing babies is MUCH worse than the injustice of the War in Iraq!
And so, again, the Christian Right will likely side with McCain, Palin and the "New Political Right!" Luckily, for ALL U.S. citizens, a vote for McCain-Palin will not only be a vote for a Pro-Life Political Party, but also through McCain's historic voting record against use-of-torture, a vote for helping to clean up a military machine that is marked by deception, fraud, and cover-up.
VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE! VOTE JESUS the CHRIST!
Rob J. King (Democrat, FULLY-PRO-LIFE, and a sworn servant of YHWH, revealed ONLY through Jesus Christ the SON for Eternal Salvation!)
Now, rather than homosexual practice being classified a crime (i.e. the crime of sodomy!), homosexuality, a moral vice, is seeking to impose its standards of elicit behavior on all of society!
Abortion, the murder of a newly conceived child, continues unabated.
War, rather than avoided, is increasingly utilized as Foreign Policy!
What ever happened to Jesus' Teaching? Doesn't forgiveness, rather than 'pre-emptive strike' signal the outburst that Christians should side with? BUT, no, the Evangelical Right sided with the Political Right, and like Nazi Germany, a state-enforced terrorist action called the War in Iraq is the result!
Yes, yes, people may say, "VOTE OBAMA!" BUT, in voting against one set of evils, a vote cast for Obama is WORSE! Killing babies is MUCH worse than the injustice of the War in Iraq!
And so, again, the Christian Right will likely side with McCain, Palin and the "New Political Right!" Luckily, for ALL U.S. citizens, a vote for McCain-Palin will not only be a vote for a Pro-Life Political Party, but also through McCain's historic voting record against use-of-torture, a vote for helping to clean up a military machine that is marked by deception, fraud, and cover-up.
VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE! VOTE JESUS the CHRIST!
Rob J. King (Democrat, FULLY-PRO-LIFE, and a sworn servant of YHWH, revealed ONLY through Jesus Christ the SON for Eternal Salvation!)
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
It's the End of the World as We Know it . . . (but I feel fine!)
That old, old R.E.M. song, "It's the End of the World as We Know It" is as apropos today as any day!
Barack Obama, a first-term Senator, may be the next-President!
V.P. Candidate, a Pentecostal-turned Lutheran from Alaska, Sarah Palin might just rise from utter anonymity (& mothering several kids!) to become "2nd mommy in charge!"
So, when gas prices are as much as school lunches per gallon, when the Tampa Bay Rays might actually win the World Series, when Libya's President is cooing to the new American Leadership of African-American Sec. of State, Condoleeza Rice, and when the stock market needs to be "bought" at face-value ticket-price by the Federal Government in order to avoid the Next Great Depression, we know that life in 2008 A.D. is quite STRANGE . . .
BUT, as the old, old R.E.M. song goes, "but I feel fine!"
Give me that old, old timey Catholic ecclesiology complete with an authoritarian Pope who bans the heretics, unites with the Greek Orthodox and saves the day!
Give me that nice cold Icehouse beer and a Tampa Bay Rays game (yes, I am a "band-wagon" baseball fan and PROUD of it! I even now own a corporate-sponsored Rays baseball cap! ;-)
Give me Christ and nothing but Christ!
Who know, 400 years from now, Tampa Bay may be the next New York City?!
Blessings in Jesus Christ, Rob J. King, Trinitarian, Catholic, Evangelical and awaiting Christ's bodily Return to Earth!
Barack Obama, a first-term Senator, may be the next-President!
V.P. Candidate, a Pentecostal-turned Lutheran from Alaska, Sarah Palin might just rise from utter anonymity (& mothering several kids!) to become "2nd mommy in charge!"
So, when gas prices are as much as school lunches per gallon, when the Tampa Bay Rays might actually win the World Series, when Libya's President is cooing to the new American Leadership of African-American Sec. of State, Condoleeza Rice, and when the stock market needs to be "bought" at face-value ticket-price by the Federal Government in order to avoid the Next Great Depression, we know that life in 2008 A.D. is quite STRANGE . . .
BUT, as the old, old R.E.M. song goes, "but I feel fine!"
Give me that old, old timey Catholic ecclesiology complete with an authoritarian Pope who bans the heretics, unites with the Greek Orthodox and saves the day!
Give me that nice cold Icehouse beer and a Tampa Bay Rays game (yes, I am a "band-wagon" baseball fan and PROUD of it! I even now own a corporate-sponsored Rays baseball cap! ;-)
Give me Christ and nothing but Christ!
Who know, 400 years from now, Tampa Bay may be the next New York City?!
Blessings in Jesus Christ, Rob J. King, Trinitarian, Catholic, Evangelical and awaiting Christ's bodily Return to Earth!
Friday, September 19, 2008
Stealing
Today I am a victim of crime!
Unlike "accidental" incidents that might seem like stealing (e.g. someone in the office uses your coffee mug!), I was recently the victim of REAL CRIME!
On 9-18, 7 days after Patriot Day, I woke up, left for teaching (Tarpon Springs/Clearwater campuses of St. Petersburg College) and noticed that someone had actually stolen the celtic cross that sits near my front porch!
How could anyone steal a cross of Christ?
Well, short of feeling a little bit like the Bishop in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables (the one who had valuable silver utensils, etc. stolen from him!), I was quite unnerved!
Was this a "hate-crime?"
Was I being "targeted" just for being a Christian?! Will the cross turn up in some dumpster after a satanic ceremony had been performed on it? (the Tampa Bay Times, a free local newspaper had recently reported a series of animal cruelty cases in which dead cats were found, decapitated heads only, in front of newspaper stands!). After all, I even know of one incident in S. Korea in which a satanic cult had been broken up. The perpetrators? Practicing satanists in the U.S. Army! (their battalion commander, a staunch Catholic, had made sure that religious-hate acts would not exist under her reign!)
OR, was this just a petty crime?
Did someone really just want the cross to decorate his/her yard with?
(the price of the actual cross was only $10 or so and bought near the Lawn care section of a St. Petersburg, FL-area Lowe's Home Improvement store--in 2007! I guess the stealing of a cross is something that a fellow U.S. citizen could somehow "justify" to himself/herself, perhaps as a symbolic act, a hate-crime maybe? More than likely, just someone who likes to steal for the pleasure of doing something wrong! St. Augustine, prior to his conversion, apparently delighted in simply stealing fruit!)
Well, whether it was a satanic hate crime, a local drunk bar-hopper returning from a Tampa Bay Rays-Boston Red Sox game, or just someone who likes to steal, I am still QUITE unsettled!
First the cross stolen, and then what should I expect next? Hate crimes are anonymous, and yes, I have been a victim before (e.g. receiving racially-motivated graffiti in college on my dorm room marker wipe-board due to my strong racially-progressive and affirmative action viewpoints!).
CHRIST-FOR-ALL! Rob J. King (victim of Christian discrimination or just a Red Sox fan annoyed that the Tampa Bay Rays are in first place? By the way, if you read this, please return the cross and it will likely reduce your time in purgatory! I just prayed a Hail Mary for your eternal salvation . . . :-)
Unlike "accidental" incidents that might seem like stealing (e.g. someone in the office uses your coffee mug!), I was recently the victim of REAL CRIME!
On 9-18, 7 days after Patriot Day, I woke up, left for teaching (Tarpon Springs/Clearwater campuses of St. Petersburg College) and noticed that someone had actually stolen the celtic cross that sits near my front porch!
How could anyone steal a cross of Christ?
Well, short of feeling a little bit like the Bishop in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables (the one who had valuable silver utensils, etc. stolen from him!), I was quite unnerved!
Was this a "hate-crime?"
Was I being "targeted" just for being a Christian?! Will the cross turn up in some dumpster after a satanic ceremony had been performed on it? (the Tampa Bay Times, a free local newspaper had recently reported a series of animal cruelty cases in which dead cats were found, decapitated heads only, in front of newspaper stands!). After all, I even know of one incident in S. Korea in which a satanic cult had been broken up. The perpetrators? Practicing satanists in the U.S. Army! (their battalion commander, a staunch Catholic, had made sure that religious-hate acts would not exist under her reign!)
OR, was this just a petty crime?
Did someone really just want the cross to decorate his/her yard with?
(the price of the actual cross was only $10 or so and bought near the Lawn care section of a St. Petersburg, FL-area Lowe's Home Improvement store--in 2007! I guess the stealing of a cross is something that a fellow U.S. citizen could somehow "justify" to himself/herself, perhaps as a symbolic act, a hate-crime maybe? More than likely, just someone who likes to steal for the pleasure of doing something wrong! St. Augustine, prior to his conversion, apparently delighted in simply stealing fruit!)
Well, whether it was a satanic hate crime, a local drunk bar-hopper returning from a Tampa Bay Rays-Boston Red Sox game, or just someone who likes to steal, I am still QUITE unsettled!
First the cross stolen, and then what should I expect next? Hate crimes are anonymous, and yes, I have been a victim before (e.g. receiving racially-motivated graffiti in college on my dorm room marker wipe-board due to my strong racially-progressive and affirmative action viewpoints!).
CHRIST-FOR-ALL! Rob J. King (victim of Christian discrimination or just a Red Sox fan annoyed that the Tampa Bay Rays are in first place? By the way, if you read this, please return the cross and it will likely reduce your time in purgatory! I just prayed a Hail Mary for your eternal salvation . . . :-)
Monday, September 15, 2008
Barack, BIG OIL and newborn life!
I am really at a loss as how to explain, much less vote, in this Presidential Election. One the one hand, Barack Obama has impressed me with his poise, his intelligence, his generally good read of the economy, etc. BUT, through supporting Roe v. Wade any Christian should not vote for him! Since 1973, when Roe v. Wade overturned state law after state law barring abortions (judicial usurpation of democratic process as noted by Fr. Richard Neuhaus and others!), over 1 million children per year (40 million plus!) have been brutally and grotesquely murdered by their mommies.
Then in steps Presidential candidate John McCain, an "old, old timer" who has been a staunch advocate against military abuse (i.e. opposition to various torture bills!), is not in support of abortion, and sensing how far the Evangelical and Catholic Right had drifted from supporting the Giuliani-G.O.P., selected a staunch "family values" candidate in the Pro-Life governor from Alaska Sarah Palin.
But, an easy vote for the G.O.P. I am still reticent about . . .
The same Sarah Palin who rightly opposes child-murder (e.g. abortion!) is also the same Governor Palin who abused her position as an elected official to settle a family score in trying to get her ex-brother-in-law (a state trooper in Alaska!) fired due to a messy divorce proceedings! Should we not call her "Governor Stalin?" Sarah Stalin the new voice of women's liberation.
Okay, here the concerned Catholic (and Islamic, Jewish and Protestant) voter is left in a moral quandary.
A vote for Obama is a vote for killing babies.
A vote for McCain-Palin is a vote for dictatorial abuse of power.
In my camp lie the religious voter, the secularist who can actually think (i.e. a baby has unique D.N.A. at the moment of conception, brain waves and a heart beat, limbs, etc. in the FIRST TRIMESTER!) and it seems any and all who really care about people, rather than just cheap votes.
So, although a minority voice, once again, my support can be found neither among the Democrats nor the Republicans.
Alan Keyes, a staunch Pro-Life advocate, an African American Leader with a Ph.D. from Harvard and a moral exemplar is who will receive my vote.
Am I wasting a vote?
Well, only time will tell!
VOTE PRO-LIFE.
Love in Jesus the Christ,
Rob J. King
Then in steps Presidential candidate John McCain, an "old, old timer" who has been a staunch advocate against military abuse (i.e. opposition to various torture bills!), is not in support of abortion, and sensing how far the Evangelical and Catholic Right had drifted from supporting the Giuliani-G.O.P., selected a staunch "family values" candidate in the Pro-Life governor from Alaska Sarah Palin.
But, an easy vote for the G.O.P. I am still reticent about . . .
The same Sarah Palin who rightly opposes child-murder (e.g. abortion!) is also the same Governor Palin who abused her position as an elected official to settle a family score in trying to get her ex-brother-in-law (a state trooper in Alaska!) fired due to a messy divorce proceedings! Should we not call her "Governor Stalin?" Sarah Stalin the new voice of women's liberation.
Okay, here the concerned Catholic (and Islamic, Jewish and Protestant) voter is left in a moral quandary.
A vote for Obama is a vote for killing babies.
A vote for McCain-Palin is a vote for dictatorial abuse of power.
In my camp lie the religious voter, the secularist who can actually think (i.e. a baby has unique D.N.A. at the moment of conception, brain waves and a heart beat, limbs, etc. in the FIRST TRIMESTER!) and it seems any and all who really care about people, rather than just cheap votes.
So, although a minority voice, once again, my support can be found neither among the Democrats nor the Republicans.
Alan Keyes, a staunch Pro-Life advocate, an African American Leader with a Ph.D. from Harvard and a moral exemplar is who will receive my vote.
Am I wasting a vote?
Well, only time will tell!
VOTE PRO-LIFE.
Love in Jesus the Christ,
Rob J. King
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Artificial Reality, the 'Net and David Wilmington! :-)
The other day I received one of those Facebook application e-mails that "compares and contrasts" my different friends. The category was, of all things, who was the "most influential!"
Some names, such as Howard Dean, Chair of the Democratic National Party made sense! (Actually, he was considered the "most influential" of my "Facebook friends," many of whom are medical doctors, Duke University Professors, et al.).
BUT, the second most influential person was that ALL-time famous independent movie producer (and soccer coach, dad, Ph.D. student at Baylor University!), David Wilmington!
The Pope (also a Facebook friend!) apparently is not quite the "Mover & Shaker" that David Wilmington is (e.g. David, as an independent film producer, is on the Google search and thus MUST BE more influential than the POPE! ;-).
Well, as much as David Wilmington is a lifelong friend (M.T.S. from Duke; Ph.D. student in Theology at Baylor University!), due to the dynamics of Internet "search engines," etc. the "artificial reality" as created by the mass media is exactly THAT--namely, ARTIFICIAL!
BUT, and here is both the potentially interesting and also somewhat frustrating point, due to the ever-pervasive "star-producing" quality of the mass media, LEADERS can literally be FORMED OVER NIGHT (e.g. Sarah Palin, a soccer mom turned Alaska Governor turned V.P. Candidate ALL-IN-LESS-THAN 3 years!).
So, whether it is first-term Senator Barack Obama becoming "Mr. President" (or V.P. "Barracuda Palin" the point guard with a B.A. in Journalism . . .), 2008 A.D. is now the era of "mass production of fame . . . "
So, Mr. Wilmington, now that you are LITERALLY more influential than the POPE (Benedict XVI is losing his touch! :-) will you now become the next Shakespeare?!
FAME, Artificial Reality! :-)
Love in Jesus Christ, Rob J. King (Roman Catholic and still a Vatican-loyal CATHOLIC! :-)
Some names, such as Howard Dean, Chair of the Democratic National Party made sense! (Actually, he was considered the "most influential" of my "Facebook friends," many of whom are medical doctors, Duke University Professors, et al.).
BUT, the second most influential person was that ALL-time famous independent movie producer (and soccer coach, dad, Ph.D. student at Baylor University!), David Wilmington!
The Pope (also a Facebook friend!) apparently is not quite the "Mover & Shaker" that David Wilmington is (e.g. David, as an independent film producer, is on the Google search and thus MUST BE more influential than the POPE! ;-).
Well, as much as David Wilmington is a lifelong friend (M.T.S. from Duke; Ph.D. student in Theology at Baylor University!), due to the dynamics of Internet "search engines," etc. the "artificial reality" as created by the mass media is exactly THAT--namely, ARTIFICIAL!
BUT, and here is both the potentially interesting and also somewhat frustrating point, due to the ever-pervasive "star-producing" quality of the mass media, LEADERS can literally be FORMED OVER NIGHT (e.g. Sarah Palin, a soccer mom turned Alaska Governor turned V.P. Candidate ALL-IN-LESS-THAN 3 years!).
So, whether it is first-term Senator Barack Obama becoming "Mr. President" (or V.P. "Barracuda Palin" the point guard with a B.A. in Journalism . . .), 2008 A.D. is now the era of "mass production of fame . . . "
So, Mr. Wilmington, now that you are LITERALLY more influential than the POPE (Benedict XVI is losing his touch! :-) will you now become the next Shakespeare?!
FAME, Artificial Reality! :-)
Love in Jesus Christ, Rob J. King (Roman Catholic and still a Vatican-loyal CATHOLIC! :-)
Friday, August 15, 2008
Christian Warfare
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
--Ephesians 6:10 - 15 N.I.V.
Many "trials & tribulations" beset the true follower of Christ!
Whether it was Karl Barth, the Swiss-German Protestant (Calvinist) Theologian who resisted Hitler or whether it was the Methodist-trained Nelson Mandela, the first democratically-elected President of S. Africa, when one follows Christ, one will be persecuted, exiled, killed even for the Faith of Christ!
Take for example the recent round of high-profile "trials" in which Christians were (thanks be to God!) vindicated! First, the wife of TV Evangelist Joel Olsteen had been dragged into court on false charges of assault. A stewardess who had been aboard the flight that the Olsteens were travelling on had attempted to "con" Ms. Olsteen out of several hundred thousand dollars due to "emotional distress" because she had claimed that Ms. Olsteen attacked her while on flight.
The verdict?
A unanimous jury decision was on behalf of the TV Evangelist-Olsteen family . . .
Similarly, in a rancorous Tampa Bay-area divorce trial, a trial in which the former Mrs. Hulk Hogan sought to imprison him on "contempt of court" charges for not buying a several million dollar condo in Las Vegas (the Hulkster claimed it was a bad business decision and had that court order amended!), the quietly Christian Hulk Hogan was relieved of any penalty and the couple split all assets more or less "50/50." At the end of The St. Petersburg Times article (p. A2, August 15, 2008), the reporter briefly mentioned how the Hulkster prays nightly with his family, and how the tattoo on his wrist is to help him remember that "The Spirit of Christ is in him." (paraphrase)
So, whether it was Karl Barth resisting the Nazis or the Hulkster resisting his money-hungry former wife the truth is that JUSTICE is done!
The Nazis were (eventually . . .) conquered and tried for War Crimes.
The Hulkster can now live in peace.
The Olsteen family can now return to ministering for the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
Remember, however, FELLOW CHRISTIAN, the struggle against evil is not just physical (legal), but is always conducted in the heavenly realms . . .
ALL THE BEST IN CHRIST,
Rob J. King
--Ephesians 6:10 - 15 N.I.V.
Many "trials & tribulations" beset the true follower of Christ!
Whether it was Karl Barth, the Swiss-German Protestant (Calvinist) Theologian who resisted Hitler or whether it was the Methodist-trained Nelson Mandela, the first democratically-elected President of S. Africa, when one follows Christ, one will be persecuted, exiled, killed even for the Faith of Christ!
Take for example the recent round of high-profile "trials" in which Christians were (thanks be to God!) vindicated! First, the wife of TV Evangelist Joel Olsteen had been dragged into court on false charges of assault. A stewardess who had been aboard the flight that the Olsteens were travelling on had attempted to "con" Ms. Olsteen out of several hundred thousand dollars due to "emotional distress" because she had claimed that Ms. Olsteen attacked her while on flight.
The verdict?
A unanimous jury decision was on behalf of the TV Evangelist-Olsteen family . . .
Similarly, in a rancorous Tampa Bay-area divorce trial, a trial in which the former Mrs. Hulk Hogan sought to imprison him on "contempt of court" charges for not buying a several million dollar condo in Las Vegas (the Hulkster claimed it was a bad business decision and had that court order amended!), the quietly Christian Hulk Hogan was relieved of any penalty and the couple split all assets more or less "50/50." At the end of The St. Petersburg Times article (p. A2, August 15, 2008), the reporter briefly mentioned how the Hulkster prays nightly with his family, and how the tattoo on his wrist is to help him remember that "The Spirit of Christ is in him." (paraphrase)
So, whether it was Karl Barth resisting the Nazis or the Hulkster resisting his money-hungry former wife the truth is that JUSTICE is done!
The Nazis were (eventually . . .) conquered and tried for War Crimes.
The Hulkster can now live in peace.
The Olsteen family can now return to ministering for the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
Remember, however, FELLOW CHRISTIAN, the struggle against evil is not just physical (legal), but is always conducted in the heavenly realms . . .
ALL THE BEST IN CHRIST,
Rob J. King
Friday, August 8, 2008
Do Plants 'Hate' Each Other . . .
In Michel Foucault's The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences, the French philosophical genius describes the "birth" of modern scientific disciplines such as botany, biology, etc.
In perhaps the most humorous part of the book (I am about half-way through it), Foucault describes the pre-modern view of botany in which plants were thought to have almost human and/or animal-like dispositions. Although a modern botanist would explain how certain plants do not grow well next to each other due to chemical conditions of the soil, differences in root structure, etc., due to a view of similitude in which all aspects of nature were somehow intertwined, the pre-modern mind would think of plants as actually "hating" each other in the way that human neighbors may have disagreements or in the way that different animals might get into territorial squabbles (e.g. local stray cats fighting each other). Quoting the 1656 work De la subtilite by J. Cardan, Foucault describes this non-sensical scene thusly, "It is fairly widely known that the plants have hatreds between themselves . . . it is said that the olive and the vine hate the cabbage; the cucumber flies from the olive . . ." (p. 24).
What nonsense so it seems to the 'modern era.'
But is this the case?
Plants are indeed living creatures, granted lacking rationality, but in spite of a lack of cognition plants do respond better to conditions that are not simply reducible to chemicals. Granted, plants may lack the anthropomorphicized "emotional" qualities that we humans often ascribe to dogs, cats, etc., but nonetheless as the Jewish teaching on soil conservation shows (e.g. allowing fields to lie fallow in order to "rest"), perhaps the living aspect of creation (i.e. plants, animals, humans, microorganisms) are not simply the network of electro-magnetic energy, chemical interdependencies, etc. Perhaps creation is just that, the living, breathing (plants aspirate!) handiwork of God Himself!
Okay, so do plants "hate" each other? Well this question would be difficult to gauge. Plants do not speak. Thus, like the amoeba all that we can do is to live according to "stimulus-response." Thus, if your flowers seem to "perk up" in direct sunlight, then let them grow there! If they seem to wither in direct sunlight then place your potted plants in a cooler, less sunny place.
In care of God's Green Earth in Christ, Rob
In perhaps the most humorous part of the book (I am about half-way through it), Foucault describes the pre-modern view of botany in which plants were thought to have almost human and/or animal-like dispositions. Although a modern botanist would explain how certain plants do not grow well next to each other due to chemical conditions of the soil, differences in root structure, etc., due to a view of similitude in which all aspects of nature were somehow intertwined, the pre-modern mind would think of plants as actually "hating" each other in the way that human neighbors may have disagreements or in the way that different animals might get into territorial squabbles (e.g. local stray cats fighting each other). Quoting the 1656 work De la subtilite by J. Cardan, Foucault describes this non-sensical scene thusly, "It is fairly widely known that the plants have hatreds between themselves . . . it is said that the olive and the vine hate the cabbage; the cucumber flies from the olive . . ." (p. 24).
What nonsense so it seems to the 'modern era.'
But is this the case?
Plants are indeed living creatures, granted lacking rationality, but in spite of a lack of cognition plants do respond better to conditions that are not simply reducible to chemicals. Granted, plants may lack the anthropomorphicized "emotional" qualities that we humans often ascribe to dogs, cats, etc., but nonetheless as the Jewish teaching on soil conservation shows (e.g. allowing fields to lie fallow in order to "rest"), perhaps the living aspect of creation (i.e. plants, animals, humans, microorganisms) are not simply the network of electro-magnetic energy, chemical interdependencies, etc. Perhaps creation is just that, the living, breathing (plants aspirate!) handiwork of God Himself!
Okay, so do plants "hate" each other? Well this question would be difficult to gauge. Plants do not speak. Thus, like the amoeba all that we can do is to live according to "stimulus-response." Thus, if your flowers seem to "perk up" in direct sunlight, then let them grow there! If they seem to wither in direct sunlight then place your potted plants in a cooler, less sunny place.
In care of God's Green Earth in Christ, Rob
Friday, July 25, 2008
Why the U.S. is in such economic upheaval . . .
In the former country of Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) the ruling elite (white Europeans) had been brutal in their economic exploitation of the indigenous African people. Once Zimbabwe was liberated, however, the draconian dictator Robert Mugabe espousing Marxism (Mugabe is a lapsed Catholic) then, in "good Stalinist-style," sought to reallocate land away from white Europeans and to the African ruling elite of his country (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mugabe).
So how does this apply to the United States of America?
Well, like the colonized nations of Africa and Latin America, like it or not, the U.S.A. has been built up first on the backs of black African slaves, then on the hard-fought sweat labor of Poles, Irish, Mexican and other ethnic Catholic enclaves, and now finally, on the sweaty brow of the white European-descended middle class.
Our C.E.O.'s enslave us, and rather than unifying around the name of Jesus Christ (i.e. the first economic reform movement leading to minimum wage law, anti-child labor law, etc.) now the only options left are meek compliance with the Oil Barons, the C.E.O.'s and the Bankers OR to elect Barack Obama.
Barack Obama, an eloquent orator, Harvard-Law trained, and the son of a Kenyan father and American mother could very well become the next President of the United States of America!
Sadly, due to racist, jingoist rhetoric on the right, whether the new President is named Obama or named McCain, the sad state of the U.S.A. will be an increasingly divided Nation State--divided racially, divided ethnically, divided financially!
Thanks Mitt Romney and fellow racists in the G.O.P.!
Your earlier anti-Hispanic paranoia has led to the impoverishment of the Nation!
As Jesus Christ Himself once said, "a house divided will not stand!"
And so, in seeking an alternative to being further enslaved by Republicans catering to BIG BUSINESS, we will now welcome in an untested president (Barack Obama), a man who had to accept abortion-on-demand and homosexual marriage to get himself elected, and now, sad to see, also a DIVIDED NATION!
But, like St. Augustine wrote in his City of God concerning the collapse of Rome, so also must the true blood-bought believer in Jesus Christ not despair!
Yes, yes, the U.S.A. will be 'dirt poor' for a while, barely able to afford food, gas and electricity, but as St. Augustine wrote concerning our true citizenship, our home and thus our ONLY true political allegiance is in Heaven with Jesus Christ!
A DIVIDED NATION, A UNIFIED HEAVEN
IN JESUS CHRIST'S NAME, Rob J. King
So how does this apply to the United States of America?
Well, like the colonized nations of Africa and Latin America, like it or not, the U.S.A. has been built up first on the backs of black African slaves, then on the hard-fought sweat labor of Poles, Irish, Mexican and other ethnic Catholic enclaves, and now finally, on the sweaty brow of the white European-descended middle class.
Our C.E.O.'s enslave us, and rather than unifying around the name of Jesus Christ (i.e. the first economic reform movement leading to minimum wage law, anti-child labor law, etc.) now the only options left are meek compliance with the Oil Barons, the C.E.O.'s and the Bankers OR to elect Barack Obama.
Barack Obama, an eloquent orator, Harvard-Law trained, and the son of a Kenyan father and American mother could very well become the next President of the United States of America!
Sadly, due to racist, jingoist rhetoric on the right, whether the new President is named Obama or named McCain, the sad state of the U.S.A. will be an increasingly divided Nation State--divided racially, divided ethnically, divided financially!
Thanks Mitt Romney and fellow racists in the G.O.P.!
Your earlier anti-Hispanic paranoia has led to the impoverishment of the Nation!
As Jesus Christ Himself once said, "a house divided will not stand!"
And so, in seeking an alternative to being further enslaved by Republicans catering to BIG BUSINESS, we will now welcome in an untested president (Barack Obama), a man who had to accept abortion-on-demand and homosexual marriage to get himself elected, and now, sad to see, also a DIVIDED NATION!
But, like St. Augustine wrote in his City of God concerning the collapse of Rome, so also must the true blood-bought believer in Jesus Christ not despair!
Yes, yes, the U.S.A. will be 'dirt poor' for a while, barely able to afford food, gas and electricity, but as St. Augustine wrote concerning our true citizenship, our home and thus our ONLY true political allegiance is in Heaven with Jesus Christ!
A DIVIDED NATION, A UNIFIED HEAVEN
IN JESUS CHRIST'S NAME, Rob J. King
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
The Matrix
One of my all-time favorite movie series are the Matrix movies. In the Matrix trilogy, in addition to the standard 'critique of technological sophistication at expense of human personhood,' are also some quite adroit Christian Trinitarian Theological Themes . . .
The main character (played by Keanu Reaves) is this Messiah name Neo whose love relationship with Trinity is a corporeal, flesh-&-blood, and passionate love between the two characters. Yes, yes, the passion borders on an eroticism that is not in keeping with Christian understanding of the filial love between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, yet as I would watch these movies, I could not help but reflect upon St. Augustine's view that the Holy Spirit was somehow, mysteriously, the love between God the Father and God the Son.
Again, filial love is quite different from what the movie portrays, but nonetheless, as Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical showed (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html), it is the LOVE of God that is at the heart of Christian witness, life and discipleship!
Perhaps this is why "love" is so easily misinterpreted in this world.
On one side are those who have exchanged love for the Creator for love of the creature, and as St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Romans (chp. 1), either male-on-male homosexuality OR female-on-female lesbian homosexuality is the end-result.
Similarly, on the 'far right' socially and religiously are those groups that wish to constrain ALL signs of affection.
No, love is not to be misdirected to "self." No, love is not to even be directed to 'things' such as art, sculptured bodies, music, etc. Each of these "loves" directed toward the creature instead of the Creator result in distorted sexual patternings.
But, in confronting libertinism on one side (i.e. homosexuality as the result of loving the creature), so also is it a mistake to forgo love at all!
In some cultures (e.g. Italian, Romanian, etc.) such love is well-pronounced as a "kiss" on the cheek is the norm, and a hand-shake, well, is rather cold! I was friends with one such European, a Romanian Orthodox priest who would literally "bear hug" me each time we would meet! Nothing other than fraternal love as brothers-in-Christ Jesus!
So, maybe the Matrix is on to something! Maybe, rather than the cold, lifeless love that often is felt in many churches, something passionate is needed to re-invigorate our faith! After all, it is the LOVE that God has for us that transcends ALL!
Love in Jesus Christ!
Rob J. King
The main character (played by Keanu Reaves) is this Messiah name Neo whose love relationship with Trinity is a corporeal, flesh-&-blood, and passionate love between the two characters. Yes, yes, the passion borders on an eroticism that is not in keeping with Christian understanding of the filial love between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, yet as I would watch these movies, I could not help but reflect upon St. Augustine's view that the Holy Spirit was somehow, mysteriously, the love between God the Father and God the Son.
Again, filial love is quite different from what the movie portrays, but nonetheless, as Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical showed (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html), it is the LOVE of God that is at the heart of Christian witness, life and discipleship!
Perhaps this is why "love" is so easily misinterpreted in this world.
On one side are those who have exchanged love for the Creator for love of the creature, and as St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Romans (chp. 1), either male-on-male homosexuality OR female-on-female lesbian homosexuality is the end-result.
Similarly, on the 'far right' socially and religiously are those groups that wish to constrain ALL signs of affection.
No, love is not to be misdirected to "self." No, love is not to even be directed to 'things' such as art, sculptured bodies, music, etc. Each of these "loves" directed toward the creature instead of the Creator result in distorted sexual patternings.
But, in confronting libertinism on one side (i.e. homosexuality as the result of loving the creature), so also is it a mistake to forgo love at all!
In some cultures (e.g. Italian, Romanian, etc.) such love is well-pronounced as a "kiss" on the cheek is the norm, and a hand-shake, well, is rather cold! I was friends with one such European, a Romanian Orthodox priest who would literally "bear hug" me each time we would meet! Nothing other than fraternal love as brothers-in-Christ Jesus!
So, maybe the Matrix is on to something! Maybe, rather than the cold, lifeless love that often is felt in many churches, something passionate is needed to re-invigorate our faith! After all, it is the LOVE that God has for us that transcends ALL!
Love in Jesus Christ!
Rob J. King
Monday, July 21, 2008
Being the Body of Jesus Christ
Yesterday, I spent my morning getting ready for church. This might not sound very abnormal, but in our increasingly secular U.S. society, this truly is.
Christians, that is TRUE Christians, are a minority in the U.S.A. now! A recent Pew Foundation poll had listed that although 75% or so of Americans claim to be Christian, when 'push comes to shove,' only about 25% of Americans actually believe that Jesus is the only source of salvation!
Whether it is the Catholic Church's internal apostasy (i.e. priests and academics who no longer believe the Historic Faith as found in Acts of the Apostles 4:12) or whether it is Southern Baptist Military Chaplains who trade prayer in Jesus' Name for comfy "rank & privilege" to include health insurance and retirement pay, the folks who actually believe that Jesus Christ is the ONLY source of salvation are about 25% or so of Americans!
In the future, however, I wonder if TRUE APOSTOLIC-CATHOLIC Christianity will not flourish! Yes, yes, many deny the name Christ (Jesus said if you deny me before men, so I will deny you before the Father!). Yes, many will seek to "pressure" you through intimidation, demotion even, BUT, in spite of such bullying tactics, TRUTH prevails!
I have seen a student, a Methodist believer, intimidated into a corner by another apostate student, BUT what I was able to do in a secular university setting was simply affirm the Religious Freedom principle of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment! The state is not to impose a religion, including the denial of Christian identity, upon we the people! If one believes that JESUS is the ONLY source of salvation then one should not be bullied into believing otherwise! Likewise one should not be bullied into a 'personalistic' view either--i.e. "Jesus is savior for me."
No, Jesus is SAVIOR for ALL PEOPLE!
Now, whether it was Billy Graham or Pope Benedict XVI's recent visit to the U.S.A., the universal Lordship of Christ Jesus is not to be denied!
KURIOSIESUSCHRISTOS = "Jesus Christ is LORD" in Greek! Martyrs of the Christian Faith have died for this claim! Whether it was Polycarp who dared to say that Jesus Christ is GOD and NOT Caesar or whether it is our brave Evangelical and Catholic Chaplains who will not deny Christ Jesus' Name before men (e.g. former navy Chaplain Gorden Klingenschmidt), one's salvation is at stake concerning whose Name one is willing to live and die for!
For Pope Benedict XVI this meant opposing Hitler during WW II by literally leaving the German army!
For Casey Bernall this meant admitting her Christian allegiance when a gun was placed in her face by fellow students involved in occultic activities--i.e. the Columbine Christian martyr.
As Tertullian (Early Church Father . . .) once wrote, "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."
This was true in the first three centuries of Christianity and is still true today!
PEACE IN CHRIST JESUS! Rob J. King
Christians, that is TRUE Christians, are a minority in the U.S.A. now! A recent Pew Foundation poll had listed that although 75% or so of Americans claim to be Christian, when 'push comes to shove,' only about 25% of Americans actually believe that Jesus is the only source of salvation!
Whether it is the Catholic Church's internal apostasy (i.e. priests and academics who no longer believe the Historic Faith as found in Acts of the Apostles 4:12) or whether it is Southern Baptist Military Chaplains who trade prayer in Jesus' Name for comfy "rank & privilege" to include health insurance and retirement pay, the folks who actually believe that Jesus Christ is the ONLY source of salvation are about 25% or so of Americans!
In the future, however, I wonder if TRUE APOSTOLIC-CATHOLIC Christianity will not flourish! Yes, yes, many deny the name Christ (Jesus said if you deny me before men, so I will deny you before the Father!). Yes, many will seek to "pressure" you through intimidation, demotion even, BUT, in spite of such bullying tactics, TRUTH prevails!
I have seen a student, a Methodist believer, intimidated into a corner by another apostate student, BUT what I was able to do in a secular university setting was simply affirm the Religious Freedom principle of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment! The state is not to impose a religion, including the denial of Christian identity, upon we the people! If one believes that JESUS is the ONLY source of salvation then one should not be bullied into believing otherwise! Likewise one should not be bullied into a 'personalistic' view either--i.e. "Jesus is savior for me."
No, Jesus is SAVIOR for ALL PEOPLE!
Now, whether it was Billy Graham or Pope Benedict XVI's recent visit to the U.S.A., the universal Lordship of Christ Jesus is not to be denied!
KURIOSIESUSCHRISTOS = "Jesus Christ is LORD" in Greek! Martyrs of the Christian Faith have died for this claim! Whether it was Polycarp who dared to say that Jesus Christ is GOD and NOT Caesar or whether it is our brave Evangelical and Catholic Chaplains who will not deny Christ Jesus' Name before men (e.g. former navy Chaplain Gorden Klingenschmidt), one's salvation is at stake concerning whose Name one is willing to live and die for!
For Pope Benedict XVI this meant opposing Hitler during WW II by literally leaving the German army!
For Casey Bernall this meant admitting her Christian allegiance when a gun was placed in her face by fellow students involved in occultic activities--i.e. the Columbine Christian martyr.
As Tertullian (Early Church Father . . .) once wrote, "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."
This was true in the first three centuries of Christianity and is still true today!
PEACE IN CHRIST JESUS! Rob J. King
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The Politics of God
Just for 'fun' I actually asked the Pope to be my Facebook "friend." After all, I am a staunch Opus Dei-supporting Catholic who believes (Acts 4:12) that ONLY in Jesus Christ are people saved.
I also believe that abortion is murder, that homosexual activity is a sinful sign of a distorted 'creature-worship.' Finally, I do believe that institutionally, although flawed in its historical fidelity, the Catholic Church nonetheless represents the true version of the Gospel. Yes there were the Crusades. Yes, there was the Spanish Inquisition. But, nonetheless the Catholic Church represents what is UNIVERSAL among Christian belief and practice (e.g. even Pentecostalism is an expression of Catholic theological self-identity!).
Well, in being On-Line Friends with the Vicar of Christ here on earth (i.e. Benedict XVI!), I was pleasantly surprised to see the Pope's own unique sense of humor. Although I have a somewhat awkward designation of my political affiliation of 'liberal/moderate economic, yet PRO-LIFE view,' the Pope just simply wrote, "God!"
Huh?
God
Well, I guess that makes sense!
God is the politics of the Pope . . .
Well, what do the politics of God look like? Yes, they would include the fullness of Catholic teaching, to include Catholic prohibition of artificial insemination, opposition to secularism, etc. BUT, the fullness of Catholic teaching also includes safeguarding the poor, the worker, the disadvantaged economically!
Huh?
Well, I guess I will VOTE GOD!
For a new, radical introduction to Jesus Christ, please see me, our supreme Pontiff, oh yeah, and the Dean of Duke University's DIVINITY SCHOOL!!!
PEACEINJESUSCHRIST<><ROBJKINGhttp://it.spcollege.edu/course_info/inquiry.cfm?number=1162
I also believe that abortion is murder, that homosexual activity is a sinful sign of a distorted 'creature-worship.' Finally, I do believe that institutionally, although flawed in its historical fidelity, the Catholic Church nonetheless represents the true version of the Gospel. Yes there were the Crusades. Yes, there was the Spanish Inquisition. But, nonetheless the Catholic Church represents what is UNIVERSAL among Christian belief and practice (e.g. even Pentecostalism is an expression of Catholic theological self-identity!).
Well, in being On-Line Friends with the Vicar of Christ here on earth (i.e. Benedict XVI!), I was pleasantly surprised to see the Pope's own unique sense of humor. Although I have a somewhat awkward designation of my political affiliation of 'liberal/moderate economic, yet PRO-LIFE view,' the Pope just simply wrote, "God!"
Huh?
God
Well, I guess that makes sense!
God is the politics of the Pope . . .
Well, what do the politics of God look like? Yes, they would include the fullness of Catholic teaching, to include Catholic prohibition of artificial insemination, opposition to secularism, etc. BUT, the fullness of Catholic teaching also includes safeguarding the poor, the worker, the disadvantaged economically!
Huh?
Well, I guess I will VOTE GOD!
For a new, radical introduction to Jesus Christ, please see me, our supreme Pontiff, oh yeah, and the Dean of Duke University's DIVINITY SCHOOL!!!
PEACEINJESUSCHRIST<><ROBJKINGhttp://it.spcollege.edu/course_info/inquiry.cfm?number=1162
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Demons, Angels and Atheists . . . ;-)
I read the pre-Da Vinci Code book (or rather skimmed) called Angels and Demons by novelist Dan Brown.
You know the story, the so-called Illuminati against the Catholic Church, yada yada yada . . .
Well, how does one evaluate such fancy?
Are these 'myths?' Is any of it factual?
Is there really a cosmic struggle of "good versus evil?" (George W. Bush seems to think so! :-)
What about the Pope? What are his thoughts on such "conspiracy theories?"
Oh yeah, while we're at it, is Barack Obama a secret-closet Muslim who's linked to Al-Quaida???
Okay, well, we all know that Barack is a liberal evangelical Protestant (i.e. Barack believes in "gay rights" and "abortion," but somehow claims to have also "given his life to Christ").
We also know that groups such as the Freemasons have been secretly controlling things for years! George Washington was a Freemason even (i.e. he even would slip out from Holy Communion before the bread and wine were served at the Episcopal church he "attended" . . .).
So, are we to buy into the standard media line!?
Does the Catholic Church represent all that's bad?
Well, apparently so. After all, so-called 'objective secular history' has deemed the Catholic Era in European History as the "Dark Ages" before the advent of capitalism and the so-called renaissance, humanism, etc. Even world religions textbooks show their anti-Catholic bite as all things Catholic are ridiculed! Gay rights, abortion, inclusivism (i.e. Jesus as one way among many) are all celebrated, yet TRUE CHRISTIAN THOUGHT IS ATTACKED AT ALL COSTS!
Well, friends, this is all about to change!
The new western world will look increasingly like the supposedly "Dark Ages." Secular university standards will continue to cheapen. Gas will continue to grow more outside of the middle class's affordability (guess we'll all be riding buses thanks to George W. and Dickie Cheney!), but in the midst of the cultural disintegration initiated by George W. Bush and cronies (i.e. his opposition to Judeo-Christianity!), the "future will be Catholic transnationalism . . ."
No longer will the evil powers of the world control the world's money supply!
We will have U.S. ingenuity out-witting the "capitalists" in Europe who enslave us, Africa and Latin America!
We will have REVIVALISTS! http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/FaithMatters/story?id=5338963&page=1
We will have a new Christian West!
FOR JESUS CHRIST, FOR AMERICA!
Rob J. King
You know the story, the so-called Illuminati against the Catholic Church, yada yada yada . . .
Well, how does one evaluate such fancy?
Are these 'myths?' Is any of it factual?
Is there really a cosmic struggle of "good versus evil?" (George W. Bush seems to think so! :-)
What about the Pope? What are his thoughts on such "conspiracy theories?"
Oh yeah, while we're at it, is Barack Obama a secret-closet Muslim who's linked to Al-Quaida???
Okay, well, we all know that Barack is a liberal evangelical Protestant (i.e. Barack believes in "gay rights" and "abortion," but somehow claims to have also "given his life to Christ").
We also know that groups such as the Freemasons have been secretly controlling things for years! George Washington was a Freemason even (i.e. he even would slip out from Holy Communion before the bread and wine were served at the Episcopal church he "attended" . . .).
So, are we to buy into the standard media line!?
Does the Catholic Church represent all that's bad?
Well, apparently so. After all, so-called 'objective secular history' has deemed the Catholic Era in European History as the "Dark Ages" before the advent of capitalism and the so-called renaissance, humanism, etc. Even world religions textbooks show their anti-Catholic bite as all things Catholic are ridiculed! Gay rights, abortion, inclusivism (i.e. Jesus as one way among many) are all celebrated, yet TRUE CHRISTIAN THOUGHT IS ATTACKED AT ALL COSTS!
Well, friends, this is all about to change!
The new western world will look increasingly like the supposedly "Dark Ages." Secular university standards will continue to cheapen. Gas will continue to grow more outside of the middle class's affordability (guess we'll all be riding buses thanks to George W. and Dickie Cheney!), but in the midst of the cultural disintegration initiated by George W. Bush and cronies (i.e. his opposition to Judeo-Christianity!), the "future will be Catholic transnationalism . . ."
No longer will the evil powers of the world control the world's money supply!
We will have U.S. ingenuity out-witting the "capitalists" in Europe who enslave us, Africa and Latin America!
We will have REVIVALISTS! http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/FaithMatters/story?id=5338963&page=1
We will have a new Christian West!
FOR JESUS CHRIST, FOR AMERICA!
Rob J. King
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
G-8
The financial power to create long-term sustainable agriculture and long-term sustainable transportation is at the finger-tips of the G-8 (meeting next week in Hokkaido, Japan http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/07/g-8-faces-setbacks-to-un-development-goals/).
But, will short-term 'cheap profits' of the Big Oil Barons squelch our political voice?
Folks, this is neither a 'liberal,' nor a 'conservative' issue.
This is a common sense issue!
We spend too much money feeding the meat producing farms which require far too much investment of time, effort and grain to produce those scrumptious Outback steaks that fill our first-world bellies!
We spend too much money on oil to fuel our gas-guzzling SUV-fixation.
We spend too much money on gasoline through not car-pooling!
And so, what is the state government's solution?
Off-shore drilling!!! When I can no longer even swim in my beloved Tampa Bay (Florida) due to recent storm water run-off polluting the environment, what does the fickle Gov. Charlie now do?
Well, he advocates off-shore drilling!
Come now, Charlie!
You are from the 'Burg, as I am (St. Petersburg, FL; Shorecrest Prep Class of 1990).
You know full well that an oil spill would pollute our precious waters.
As a resident of the 'Burg (you are a member of First U.M.C. in St. Petersburg, which is right across the street from the homeless refuge called Williams Park!) you know full well how inadequate the State's mass transit system is!
Unlike Chicago where one does not even need a car, Tampa, Orlando, and the rest of the state are largely inaccessible without a mass transit system!
Yet, what do you do?
You advocate the archaic 1960's McCain era oil exploration model.
Well, as a concerned citizen of Florida, I think you should be impeached! (If only our sea creatures such as the dolphins and manatees could vote! :-)
All the very best,
Rob J. King
(St. Petersburg College Instructor of World Religions and Applied Ethics)
But, will short-term 'cheap profits' of the Big Oil Barons squelch our political voice?
Folks, this is neither a 'liberal,' nor a 'conservative' issue.
This is a common sense issue!
We spend too much money feeding the meat producing farms which require far too much investment of time, effort and grain to produce those scrumptious Outback steaks that fill our first-world bellies!
We spend too much money on oil to fuel our gas-guzzling SUV-fixation.
We spend too much money on gasoline through not car-pooling!
And so, what is the state government's solution?
Off-shore drilling!!! When I can no longer even swim in my beloved Tampa Bay (Florida) due to recent storm water run-off polluting the environment, what does the fickle Gov. Charlie now do?
Well, he advocates off-shore drilling!
Come now, Charlie!
You are from the 'Burg, as I am (St. Petersburg, FL; Shorecrest Prep Class of 1990).
You know full well that an oil spill would pollute our precious waters.
As a resident of the 'Burg (you are a member of First U.M.C. in St. Petersburg, which is right across the street from the homeless refuge called Williams Park!) you know full well how inadequate the State's mass transit system is!
Unlike Chicago where one does not even need a car, Tampa, Orlando, and the rest of the state are largely inaccessible without a mass transit system!
Yet, what do you do?
You advocate the archaic 1960's McCain era oil exploration model.
Well, as a concerned citizen of Florida, I think you should be impeached! (If only our sea creatures such as the dolphins and manatees could vote! :-)
All the very best,
Rob J. King
(St. Petersburg College Instructor of World Religions and Applied Ethics)
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Pregnant 'men,' Gay Studies and the Curious Future . . .
I was first introduced to 'Gender Studies' while studying for the M.Div. at Duke.
Yes, it was Duke University, ever the bastion of Pro-Catholic, Evangelical and 'Post-Liberal' (Lindbeck) Christian Theology that also, curiously enough, had a homosexual Christian Education Professor!
Of course, this fact was not known by me at the time, and so this homosexual professor (who is no longer employed by the Divinity School . . .) proceeded to leave his wife, 'seek other options,' and now has left quite a mess of a family-life!
BUT, secularism does not even want the 'question' mark to be levied at homosexuality! Homosexual as morally acceptable citizen is all that the U.S. will now tolerate! You can speak your mind, but the second you protest a gay pride event with a sign that is deemed to be too large you find yourself sitting in front of a judge! Yes, yes, homosexual practice can now be flaunted openly, 'gay marriage' celebrated, but once any cry of public dissent is given the cops are called!
Sadly, more than anything, such a 'condition' (i.e. the "cultural malaise") is a symptom of something larger. St. Paul in Romans 2:1 does say not to judge the homosexual, but in not judging this is not to blindly accept a practice that is out of harmony with Natural Law family planning! Thus, to have a so-called 'pregnant man' (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4581943&page=1) is a symptom of the times . . .
Yes, this supposed 'pregnant man' is indeed PREGNANT, but as far as being a 'male,' well, this is a fiction! Have a gender-change operation and it is just that, a medical operation, no more no less! To actually become a 'woman' if born a man or a 'man' if born a woman is, to be frank, a miraculous possibility, but short of the Buddha having been actually fathered by a white elephant inseminating his mother such miracles simply do not happen! Religious myths aside, the true question to levy at the homosexual community is simply 'what biological data do you utilize to support your new gender politics?' A 'man' who is in fact a woman (sex change operation already duly noted!) is still biologically female . . . If the Gay Community does not accept this biological FACT, then I challenge these transgendered individuals to actually undergo DNA testing!
No, a DNA of a 'man' who is in fact a woman really will be the XX chromosome still!
Yes, a DNA of a woman who has had a sex-change will, again, still be an XX chromosome.
There you have it! Gender politics may be the stuff of Duke University professors who leave their wives, but when compared to the microscopic analysis of real-life biological data, a man is a man, a woman is a woman and it takes an actual sperm and an actual egg (NOT two eggs . . . :-) to produce a baby.
BIOLOGICAL FACT = heterosexuality is normative.
BIOLOGICAL FICTION = the Gay Rights agenda!
Blessings in Jesus Christ, XY Chromosome-holder for Christ Rob J. King
Yes, it was Duke University, ever the bastion of Pro-Catholic, Evangelical and 'Post-Liberal' (Lindbeck) Christian Theology that also, curiously enough, had a homosexual Christian Education Professor!
Of course, this fact was not known by me at the time, and so this homosexual professor (who is no longer employed by the Divinity School . . .) proceeded to leave his wife, 'seek other options,' and now has left quite a mess of a family-life!
BUT, secularism does not even want the 'question' mark to be levied at homosexuality! Homosexual as morally acceptable citizen is all that the U.S. will now tolerate! You can speak your mind, but the second you protest a gay pride event with a sign that is deemed to be too large you find yourself sitting in front of a judge! Yes, yes, homosexual practice can now be flaunted openly, 'gay marriage' celebrated, but once any cry of public dissent is given the cops are called!
Sadly, more than anything, such a 'condition' (i.e. the "cultural malaise") is a symptom of something larger. St. Paul in Romans 2:1 does say not to judge the homosexual, but in not judging this is not to blindly accept a practice that is out of harmony with Natural Law family planning! Thus, to have a so-called 'pregnant man' (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4581943&page=1) is a symptom of the times . . .
Yes, this supposed 'pregnant man' is indeed PREGNANT, but as far as being a 'male,' well, this is a fiction! Have a gender-change operation and it is just that, a medical operation, no more no less! To actually become a 'woman' if born a man or a 'man' if born a woman is, to be frank, a miraculous possibility, but short of the Buddha having been actually fathered by a white elephant inseminating his mother such miracles simply do not happen! Religious myths aside, the true question to levy at the homosexual community is simply 'what biological data do you utilize to support your new gender politics?' A 'man' who is in fact a woman (sex change operation already duly noted!) is still biologically female . . . If the Gay Community does not accept this biological FACT, then I challenge these transgendered individuals to actually undergo DNA testing!
No, a DNA of a 'man' who is in fact a woman really will be the XX chromosome still!
Yes, a DNA of a woman who has had a sex-change will, again, still be an XX chromosome.
There you have it! Gender politics may be the stuff of Duke University professors who leave their wives, but when compared to the microscopic analysis of real-life biological data, a man is a man, a woman is a woman and it takes an actual sperm and an actual egg (NOT two eggs . . . :-) to produce a baby.
BIOLOGICAL FACT = heterosexuality is normative.
BIOLOGICAL FICTION = the Gay Rights agenda!
Blessings in Jesus Christ, XY Chromosome-holder for Christ Rob J. King
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
K-cars, gasoline, SUV's and Indentured Servitude . . .
I recently watched a U-Tube video (sent to me by the ministry of Bernice King) which predicted (in 2007) how we would be paying $4 - $5 per gallon for gasoline in California.
This 'prediction' was given from someone who worked with the oil barons in Alaska and was given credence recently by, you guessed it, $4 - $5 per gallon gas prices!
Ahh, if only 'common-sense' can be returned to the U.S.
My father, a career military serviceman, in the wake of the 1970's O.P.E.C. oil crisis, and ever the pragmatic military man, decided (wisely . . .) to buy a Plymouth "K-Car" when purchasing a new car in the 1980's. My father saw, perhaps more than most, that if a 'structure' had systemic problems, then one must 'handle it yourself' many times! The end-result was a highly fuel-efficient Plymouth sedan! :-)
Well, as inspired by my father I also seek pragmatic, non-judgmental decisions.
Do I vote for Barack Obama?
Well, the true question has little to do with Party affiliation (I often vote for both Democrats and Republicans), but more his stand on key issues.
Here, this election is tricky . . .
Do I support a candidate who supports abortion-on-demand?
Well, no, this is unethical.
Do I support a candidate who is pro-life, a sensible man, yet does not seem to be an adequate military leader? McCain, although a former P.O.W., nonetheless seems to be a bit too confident in U.S. military power to resolve complex world geo-political realities! Bomb Iran? Well, that may be the only way to keep them from building a nuclear bomb . . .
But, if war is declared on Iran, is such 'preemptive strike' a Just-War?
Well, obviously St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas say NO!
Jus ad bellum is the Just-War principle in which one attacks ONLY if attacked first.
IF, and only if, we enter into yet a third Middle Eastern military conflict will we then become even more cash-strapped as a Nation State?
Well, yes, of course.
BUT, in safe-guarding National Defense are we doing so only because we are addicted to foreign oil supplies? We already live uncontrollably beyond our means, factory-producing gas-guzzling cars, addicted to electric usage, and in short the most consuming nation in the world!
And so, many will likely vote for Barack, sadly, inadvertently supporting the mass killing of babies-in-utero in the process . . .
Maybe we could just vote for one of them and then make sure that they just don't hurt themselves or the rest of us! :-)
Blessings in Christ, Rob (Waiting for a New, Better HOPE in '12 . . . McCain and Obama are not much of a choice! ;-)
This 'prediction' was given from someone who worked with the oil barons in Alaska and was given credence recently by, you guessed it, $4 - $5 per gallon gas prices!
Ahh, if only 'common-sense' can be returned to the U.S.
My father, a career military serviceman, in the wake of the 1970's O.P.E.C. oil crisis, and ever the pragmatic military man, decided (wisely . . .) to buy a Plymouth "K-Car" when purchasing a new car in the 1980's. My father saw, perhaps more than most, that if a 'structure' had systemic problems, then one must 'handle it yourself' many times! The end-result was a highly fuel-efficient Plymouth sedan! :-)
Well, as inspired by my father I also seek pragmatic, non-judgmental decisions.
Do I vote for Barack Obama?
Well, the true question has little to do with Party affiliation (I often vote for both Democrats and Republicans), but more his stand on key issues.
Here, this election is tricky . . .
Do I support a candidate who supports abortion-on-demand?
Well, no, this is unethical.
Do I support a candidate who is pro-life, a sensible man, yet does not seem to be an adequate military leader? McCain, although a former P.O.W., nonetheless seems to be a bit too confident in U.S. military power to resolve complex world geo-political realities! Bomb Iran? Well, that may be the only way to keep them from building a nuclear bomb . . .
But, if war is declared on Iran, is such 'preemptive strike' a Just-War?
Well, obviously St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas say NO!
Jus ad bellum is the Just-War principle in which one attacks ONLY if attacked first.
IF, and only if, we enter into yet a third Middle Eastern military conflict will we then become even more cash-strapped as a Nation State?
Well, yes, of course.
BUT, in safe-guarding National Defense are we doing so only because we are addicted to foreign oil supplies? We already live uncontrollably beyond our means, factory-producing gas-guzzling cars, addicted to electric usage, and in short the most consuming nation in the world!
And so, many will likely vote for Barack, sadly, inadvertently supporting the mass killing of babies-in-utero in the process . . .
Maybe we could just vote for one of them and then make sure that they just don't hurt themselves or the rest of us! :-)
Blessings in Christ, Rob (Waiting for a New, Better HOPE in '12 . . . McCain and Obama are not much of a choice! ;-)
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Opiate of the Masses . . .
Karl Marx once termed religion 'the opiate of the masses . . .' Basically, the Marxist argument is that religion is nothing more than a way of placating the population into a herd-like mentality of acceptance of the capitalistic abuses set against them.
What is striking, however, is that wherever the true Christian Gospel is preached (e.g. Pentecostalism, Catholic ministry faithful to the Magisterium, Southern Baptist missions, etc.) the quite opposite normally happens!
Poor people when equipped with the Gospel message of salvation do not normally stay 'poor' for very long!
'White trailer trash' end up as Pentecostal clergy who are suddenly, like Pastor Rod Parsley (a Ohio preacher . . .), playing golf with the nation's elite.
Or take even ole Barack Obama.
Obama lost his mom, was never able to meet his father, raised by his grandparents, and through even a quite dead white Protestant denomination (U.C.C.) nonetheless was exposed to enough of the Gospel in order to give his life to Jesus Christ!
There you have it. The poor, the uneducated, the fatherless, the disenfranchised, et al will now through the power of Christ be in control of all key societal structures to include the Federal Government, local and state government and even the world financial grid!
Yep, Christians when exploited, pressed down, etc. through Christ are elevated to rule as kings and princes! Martin Luther King, Jr. is one such example. Will you now be the next?
All the very best in Christ, R. J. King
What is striking, however, is that wherever the true Christian Gospel is preached (e.g. Pentecostalism, Catholic ministry faithful to the Magisterium, Southern Baptist missions, etc.) the quite opposite normally happens!
Poor people when equipped with the Gospel message of salvation do not normally stay 'poor' for very long!
'White trailer trash' end up as Pentecostal clergy who are suddenly, like Pastor Rod Parsley (a Ohio preacher . . .), playing golf with the nation's elite.
Or take even ole Barack Obama.
Obama lost his mom, was never able to meet his father, raised by his grandparents, and through even a quite dead white Protestant denomination (U.C.C.) nonetheless was exposed to enough of the Gospel in order to give his life to Jesus Christ!
There you have it. The poor, the uneducated, the fatherless, the disenfranchised, et al will now through the power of Christ be in control of all key societal structures to include the Federal Government, local and state government and even the world financial grid!
Yep, Christians when exploited, pressed down, etc. through Christ are elevated to rule as kings and princes! Martin Luther King, Jr. is one such example. Will you now be the next?
All the very best in Christ, R. J. King
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Animals, Messiahs and other sundry topics . . .
The idea that human beings are in need of salvation is something that, in the Post-Modern Euro-West, seems to be anathema.
Whether one is speaking to the French secularist, the German secularist or the American Floridian "beach-bum," salvation itself just seems to be so 'exclusive.' Why can't all people just get into heaven? Truly homosexuals, abortion doctors and the like are 'just like everyone else,' right?
Well, as much as we are not to judge (Romans 2:1), there is nonetheless, a normative Judeo-Christian Ethic.
If a species of animals 'mates' through same gender sex, then, in addition to being completely irrational (i.e. contrary to the Natural Law . . .), these species would soon grow extinct! Homosexuality does not make 'sense' simply on DARWINIST grounds of species selection and promulgation (i.e. the survival of the planet is based upon heterosexual animals, to include the dolphin, the manatee, and yes, even the Florida yard lizard . . .).
But in the increasingly irrational United States of America and as led by 'liberals' who are not truly liberal, just wanting cheap political pay-offs from the homosexual community and its supporters, the Democrats stand for the morally incoherent view that male on male or female on female sexual coupling should not only be celebrated, but somehow declared law in the U.S.
We are truly falling apart as a society . . .
But what about the so-called 'good liberal . . .?' You know, the standard non-homosexual rights-supporting, PRO-WORKING CLASS, PRO-RELIGIOUS FREEDOM Democrat? Well aside from Bernice King (daughter of M.L. King, Jr.), the liberal cause (just like the conservative cause . . .) has been hi-jacked!
Let's protect the animals! Let's reform our poultry industry so that chickens are not pumped full of artificial hormones. Let's also insure their species survival by making heterosexual sex part of the Natural Law again! Not like heterosexuality ever went anywhere, but due to recent political maneuvering, the gay-lesbian-bi-sexual alliance has tried to shove homosexual deviance on the rest of America!
What about Religion?
Well, religion is not a general topic. No, as Karl Barth, Swiss German-speaking Theologian who actively resisted Hitler relentlessly chided German Protestant Liberalism for embodying, "Religion" is NEVER a general topic! No, RELIGION is ONLY the Religion of JESUS CHRIST who is LORD and Savior of ALL humanity.
One must accept Jesus Christ as LORD and SAVIOR and profess Him with your lips, believe in His Resurrection and be incorporated into Jesus Christ (Body & Blood) in order to be saved!
But the topic of exclusive salvation in Jesus Christ just seems so 'old-fashioned . . .'
Not anymore. Now it is CHRISTIANS who represent the minority in the U.S.A.
We Christians are a minority group and as such must FIGHT non-violently and politically to insure that our Christian Rights are not trampled.
Sadly, in ditching each of their respective clergy members, BOTH Barack Obama AND John McCain have shown their true disdain for Christianity's normative claims on their lives. Whatever gets them elected is what they each stand for!
So, if you want oil slicks in the Gulf of Mexico, VOTE McCAIN.
So, if you want homosexual marriage, then VOTE BARACK.
If you want Christ to Rule, well, I guess just watch TV and not worry about it. They'll both be gone (hopefully!) in the 2012 election. Maybe a Christian (a true Christian . . .) can be elected at that time.
Blessings and Love in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King (concerned American, but JESUS-supporter . . .)
Whether one is speaking to the French secularist, the German secularist or the American Floridian "beach-bum," salvation itself just seems to be so 'exclusive.' Why can't all people just get into heaven? Truly homosexuals, abortion doctors and the like are 'just like everyone else,' right?
Well, as much as we are not to judge (Romans 2:1), there is nonetheless, a normative Judeo-Christian Ethic.
If a species of animals 'mates' through same gender sex, then, in addition to being completely irrational (i.e. contrary to the Natural Law . . .), these species would soon grow extinct! Homosexuality does not make 'sense' simply on DARWINIST grounds of species selection and promulgation (i.e. the survival of the planet is based upon heterosexual animals, to include the dolphin, the manatee, and yes, even the Florida yard lizard . . .).
But in the increasingly irrational United States of America and as led by 'liberals' who are not truly liberal, just wanting cheap political pay-offs from the homosexual community and its supporters, the Democrats stand for the morally incoherent view that male on male or female on female sexual coupling should not only be celebrated, but somehow declared law in the U.S.
We are truly falling apart as a society . . .
But what about the so-called 'good liberal . . .?' You know, the standard non-homosexual rights-supporting, PRO-WORKING CLASS, PRO-RELIGIOUS FREEDOM Democrat? Well aside from Bernice King (daughter of M.L. King, Jr.), the liberal cause (just like the conservative cause . . .) has been hi-jacked!
Let's protect the animals! Let's reform our poultry industry so that chickens are not pumped full of artificial hormones. Let's also insure their species survival by making heterosexual sex part of the Natural Law again! Not like heterosexuality ever went anywhere, but due to recent political maneuvering, the gay-lesbian-bi-sexual alliance has tried to shove homosexual deviance on the rest of America!
What about Religion?
Well, religion is not a general topic. No, as Karl Barth, Swiss German-speaking Theologian who actively resisted Hitler relentlessly chided German Protestant Liberalism for embodying, "Religion" is NEVER a general topic! No, RELIGION is ONLY the Religion of JESUS CHRIST who is LORD and Savior of ALL humanity.
One must accept Jesus Christ as LORD and SAVIOR and profess Him with your lips, believe in His Resurrection and be incorporated into Jesus Christ (Body & Blood) in order to be saved!
But the topic of exclusive salvation in Jesus Christ just seems so 'old-fashioned . . .'
Not anymore. Now it is CHRISTIANS who represent the minority in the U.S.A.
We Christians are a minority group and as such must FIGHT non-violently and politically to insure that our Christian Rights are not trampled.
Sadly, in ditching each of their respective clergy members, BOTH Barack Obama AND John McCain have shown their true disdain for Christianity's normative claims on their lives. Whatever gets them elected is what they each stand for!
So, if you want oil slicks in the Gulf of Mexico, VOTE McCAIN.
So, if you want homosexual marriage, then VOTE BARACK.
If you want Christ to Rule, well, I guess just watch TV and not worry about it. They'll both be gone (hopefully!) in the 2012 election. Maybe a Christian (a true Christian . . .) can be elected at that time.
Blessings and Love in Jesus Christ,
Rob J. King (concerned American, but JESUS-supporter . . .)
Thursday, June 19, 2008
BayWalk, Sembler, and other failed laissez-faire financial investments . . .
I just read the other day where my favorite movie complex, BayWalk in downtown St. Petersburg, is actually looking for a 'buyer' due to the foot traffic of downtown St. Petersburg conveniently bypassing this colossal real estate investment by Sembler.
How can this be?
I thought that 'free-market economic principles' were the supposed panacea for all problems in the U.S.?
Well, Toto, we're not in Kansas!!! :-)
It turns out that Pinellas County residents VOTE WITH THEIR FEET!
If Sembler and other supporters of the failed laissez-faire system perpetuated by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, et al cannot 'turn a profit' on their own investments (without siphoning off of public support!) then why do they think that such bad fiscal policy will somehow fix 'our problems?'
BayWalk charges too much for food, and so we end up eating at Chipotle Mexican!
BayWalk charges too much for clothing, and so we end up going to Old Navy.
Sorry, but when left to the free-market, your laissez-faire economic ideology produces smog-filled suburbs, gas-guzzling SUV's, $4 - $5 per gallon gas prices and inner cities that are becoming intoxicated war-zones complete with drugs, gangs, and even the homeless left to camp out in the normally beautiful public parks.
So if you want your children to side-step the unemployed wino as you vault over broken bottles and as the only movie theater in the downtown area prepares to go under, then VOTE REPUBLICAN!
BUT, if like Pinellas County Commissioner Welch (who works with Faith-Based Groups and tries to safe-guard the urban landscape . . .) you wish to make America beautiful again, then I guess Obama is the FUTURE!
(now, if only we could convince that murdering babies, and homosexual unions are not good moral responsibility, then we'd have a perfect world ushered in through the next election!)
Love in Jesus' Name, Rob J. King CHRIST-CENTERED Democrat
How can this be?
I thought that 'free-market economic principles' were the supposed panacea for all problems in the U.S.?
Well, Toto, we're not in Kansas!!! :-)
It turns out that Pinellas County residents VOTE WITH THEIR FEET!
If Sembler and other supporters of the failed laissez-faire system perpetuated by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, et al cannot 'turn a profit' on their own investments (without siphoning off of public support!) then why do they think that such bad fiscal policy will somehow fix 'our problems?'
BayWalk charges too much for food, and so we end up eating at Chipotle Mexican!
BayWalk charges too much for clothing, and so we end up going to Old Navy.
Sorry, but when left to the free-market, your laissez-faire economic ideology produces smog-filled suburbs, gas-guzzling SUV's, $4 - $5 per gallon gas prices and inner cities that are becoming intoxicated war-zones complete with drugs, gangs, and even the homeless left to camp out in the normally beautiful public parks.
So if you want your children to side-step the unemployed wino as you vault over broken bottles and as the only movie theater in the downtown area prepares to go under, then VOTE REPUBLICAN!
BUT, if like Pinellas County Commissioner Welch (who works with Faith-Based Groups and tries to safe-guard the urban landscape . . .) you wish to make America beautiful again, then I guess Obama is the FUTURE!
(now, if only we could convince that murdering babies, and homosexual unions are not good moral responsibility, then we'd have a perfect world ushered in through the next election!)
Love in Jesus' Name, Rob J. King CHRIST-CENTERED Democrat
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Zeitgeist, German Imperialism . . .
Foucault, the Greatest French Intellectual of the 20th century valiantly fought off several of the worst abusers within modernity. 'Mental illness' as a classificatory scheme propped up by the Prison System. Medicine as a medically verifiable course of study in which the 'disease' suddenly over-rode the patient in terms of importance. Finally, prison itself in which sheer bureaucracy could imprison someone indefinitely, all behind the facade of anonymity.
Well, the Year is 2008 A.D. and although the enemies of the Cross of Jesus wish to adopt 'normative-sounding' prose, the true test of truth will be held within the battlefield of the mind!
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba it turns out really is inside the jurisdiction of the U.S. Constitution, and much to the chagrin of George W. Bush, ever the American King wishing to override the laws of the land! No, by a margin of 5 - 4, the U.S. Supreme Court said that even our enemies are deserving of due process under U.S. Law!
But what of 'mental illness?' The sad fact is that 'mental illness' is an artificial construction whereby those holding the keys to a police state can label anyone with whom they disagree as being 'crazy' or 'delusional' and that seems to be the end of the story! The Soviet Union did so to political dissenters, as does Communist China. In fact, I even know a professor who disagreed with the former Pope, John Paul II, and rather than admit his own less than holy life (pretty arrogant chap!) instead just said, "The Pope's crazy!" Well, friends, 'crazy' is not a theological or epistemological category.
Indeed, when Jesus Christ was ministering, even his own family had claimed that Jesus had "gone out of his mind!"
Huh?
Yep, that's right, whether the enemies of the cross are errant faculty, communists, or simply shrinks, the pull towards dictatorship is as common to human history as eating, drinking and sleeping.
The term "zeitgeist" is a German word meaning "spirit of the times" and is an apt word to utilize when describing the post 2001 shift in U.S. self-identity! No longer are Americans concerned with due process under law. No, now in the wake of 9/11, we are living in a "clean-up" operation! We must now re-gain the very liberties that BOTH Democrats and Republicans have done away with! Whether it is warrant-less wire-taps or refusing to acknowledge our dependence on foreign oil, we Americans will now rebuild.
Sorry about that one . . .
Maybe we can learn from the Post WW II German people! In Germany, the horrors of the Holocaust led to an increasingly socialist and free society opposed to all forms of discrimination. Perhaps in our own society, and in the wake of Roe v. Wade's disavowing of Christian and Natural Law teaching regarding protection of babies in the womb we can now rebuild a 'culture of life.'
FOR CHRIST, FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
Rob J. King
Well, the Year is 2008 A.D. and although the enemies of the Cross of Jesus wish to adopt 'normative-sounding' prose, the true test of truth will be held within the battlefield of the mind!
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba it turns out really is inside the jurisdiction of the U.S. Constitution, and much to the chagrin of George W. Bush, ever the American King wishing to override the laws of the land! No, by a margin of 5 - 4, the U.S. Supreme Court said that even our enemies are deserving of due process under U.S. Law!
But what of 'mental illness?' The sad fact is that 'mental illness' is an artificial construction whereby those holding the keys to a police state can label anyone with whom they disagree as being 'crazy' or 'delusional' and that seems to be the end of the story! The Soviet Union did so to political dissenters, as does Communist China. In fact, I even know a professor who disagreed with the former Pope, John Paul II, and rather than admit his own less than holy life (pretty arrogant chap!) instead just said, "The Pope's crazy!" Well, friends, 'crazy' is not a theological or epistemological category.
Indeed, when Jesus Christ was ministering, even his own family had claimed that Jesus had "gone out of his mind!"
Huh?
Yep, that's right, whether the enemies of the cross are errant faculty, communists, or simply shrinks, the pull towards dictatorship is as common to human history as eating, drinking and sleeping.
The term "zeitgeist" is a German word meaning "spirit of the times" and is an apt word to utilize when describing the post 2001 shift in U.S. self-identity! No longer are Americans concerned with due process under law. No, now in the wake of 9/11, we are living in a "clean-up" operation! We must now re-gain the very liberties that BOTH Democrats and Republicans have done away with! Whether it is warrant-less wire-taps or refusing to acknowledge our dependence on foreign oil, we Americans will now rebuild.
Sorry about that one . . .
Maybe we can learn from the Post WW II German people! In Germany, the horrors of the Holocaust led to an increasingly socialist and free society opposed to all forms of discrimination. Perhaps in our own society, and in the wake of Roe v. Wade's disavowing of Christian and Natural Law teaching regarding protection of babies in the womb we can now rebuild a 'culture of life.'
FOR CHRIST, FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
Rob J. King
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