Posts Tagged ‘christianity’

The Feast of Stephen and Two Reminders

Posted: December 26, 2024 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine
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Today is the Feast of St. Stephen the first Martyr of the Christian faith.

To some it might be an odd thing that the very first thing celebrated after the birth of Christ in the Christmas Season is the slaughter of one of his early followers and one of the first appointed deacons of his Church but it’s an important point in terms of both of why he is killed and how he dies.

When people find themselves unable to assail his arguments for Christ he is accused of blasphemy and when brought forth before the authorities he recounts the history of the Jewish race from God’s call of Abraham to Solomon before finally declaring:

“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. You received the law as transmitted by angels, but you did not observe it.”

And then the words that sent them over the edge

When they heard this, they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, filled with the holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

They instantly take him out and stone him to death yet his final words are:

“Lord, do not hold this sin against them”

Why because he didn’t tell them the truth to condemn them, he told them the truth in order for them to see themselves in the light of truth. To see things as they really are and act accordingly. That’s why even in death he asks for mercy for them and ironically one of those there Saul would soon become the messenger of the Lord who would spread the word of Christ far beyond the Jewish community.

Steven’s death reminds us that it is our duty to speak the truth but to never hate those who are trying to teach. He in his speech and death incorporates most of the Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy:

  • Instructing the Ignorant
  • Admonishing the Sinner
  • Forgiving injuries
  • Bearing wrongs patiently
  • Praying for the Living and the Dead

It’s an important reminder that the following of Christ is not without cost.

The 2nd reminder has little to do with St. Stephen but a lot to do with Christ.

We have an Islamic Iman in Florida claiming that Christians are pagans while at the same time supporters of the Palestinian Arabs are claiming that Jesus is a Palestinian and Christians in Bethlehem are trying to use their position to politicize the birth of Christ.

Meanwhile while at the same time we have writers denying the Palestinian attempt to re-write history and rightly claiming Christ as a Jew while at the same time denying his place in history by terming the numbering system of years as the “common era” rather than AD as if there is no special event that this system is about. Taking the Christ out of the entire Calendar.

Using Jesus as a political football has been a favorite sport of people for centuries but C. S. Lewis’ favorite Devil Screwtape gives a warning about this trend.

Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours—and the more “religious” (on those terms) the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here.

Britain throws The Two Greatest Gifts to Mankind Away

Posted: August 10, 2024 by datechguy in culture, internet/free speech
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The nations, not so blest as thee,
Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall;
While thou shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all

."Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
"Britons never will be slaves."

Rule Britannia! 1740

I have often argued that the two greatest social developments in the history of mankind for the cause of good are

  1. Christianity
  2. British Common Law

The first Christianity establishes the idea that all people are equal in the sight of God:

Men, women, slaves, freemen, Jews, Greeks, rich, poor (to use the phrases of scripture) all are God children and thus due the respect of such.

Even if you don’t believe in Christ, that idea was about as radical as you can get in the 1st century. And it is from that idea that the rights of man evolved.

The second British common law built on both the concepts of Christianity and the rights granted by Magna Carta. Again this was revolutionary.

From this grew the concept that if men were equal before God they should also be equal before the law. It was the idea that the law applied to the great as well as the common, the powerful as well as the powerless and that judgement would not come in a summary manner.

It was this idea spread by the Brits going around the world that made possible those in the world who would eventually leave the empire they would build, because they would be educated in this law and then insist that said ideas be applied where they were.

Now I don’t claim for a moment that these concepts were always applied by imperfect humans nor to I claim that there were not those who tried to use them for their own advantages. If you want perfection you’ll have to wait for heaven. Suffice to say that those who would use such things for advantage would have had no problem using other systems the same way, systems that didn’t provide legal or social restraint to their goals.

These things changed the world for the better.

That’s what makes Britain’s situation today really sad and completely predictable.

Once the British started rejecting Christianity, equality before God, it became easy to reject equality before the law. The seeds laid by Henry VIII finally bloomed at the 1930 Lambeth Conference and have now spread and taken solid root to the point where Englishmen don’t have confidence in their own culture and are now ironically being colonized by a people who DO have confidence in both their laws and religion which proclaim them superior.

Thus if all men are not equal in the eyes of God why would they be equal before the law so why should British police or members of the British government risk their single life and limb with no reward to follow to enforce the laws of those who might harm them if they do or protect the rights of those who can not?

And of course nobody can be allowed to speak aloud this shameful change, they must all be silent less their true state be known and the newly minted slaves become aware of their chains.

So much for “Britons never never never shall be slaves”

How foolish, how sad and how utterly predictable.

I’ll take “Things That Actually Don’t Phase me” for $2000 Alex

Posted: April 2, 2024 by datechguy in culture, News/opinion
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The good folks at Libs of TicTok note an interesting double standard when it comes to “hate”.

Now given that I’m a very Catholic guy, who reads scripture regularly (a minimum of 21 chapters and seven Psalms a week) you might think this would bother me.

But other than the double standard, which at worst annoys and which I’ll note, it doesn’t really bother me. Let’s list the reasons why it doesn’t bother me in order of unimportance:

  1. I don’t know if they’re actual Catholic Bibles
  2. None of this does anything to my faith or anyone else’s
  3. As long as the person is alive it’s their soul to play with and or throw away
  4. You never know what God has in store for such a guy, If there was such a thing as the Bible on the day Saul left for Damascus he might have cheered burning them too.
  5. Such an act self identifies someone that I need to pray for thus generating needed prayer
  6. If those bibles belonged to the person who burned them it’s none of my business unless I lived in the town and was delayed by a fire illegally set at an intersection

In a republic reason one is the key one. I don’t believe in hate crimes. If a person chooses to hate their neighbor that’s on them people have the right to their own opinions even nasty ones. As long as those actions don’t harm anyone and involve their own property it’s not my business. In fact if they had not left this in the middle of an intersection blocking it I don’t think it would be newsworthy at all.

Now if they sheriff decides to cite this guy for blocking an intersection and reckless endangerment (fire at a public intersection) I’m all for it but those are the crimes involved period.

If some guy wants to buy bibles and burn them, it’s on them. Now if someone decides to try to take one of MY bibles or someone else’s Bible, Catholic or no, and destroys it, THEN we have a problem that needs to be acted on. That’s theft and vandalism.

But I’m not going to be provoked by idiots being idiots who are only harming themselves to anything other than prayer.

That’s how Christianity works.

The Biden/Trudeau Administrations Accidently Producing The Best Argument Against the Death Penalty I’ve Seen

Posted: January 14, 2024 by datechguy in Blame Biden Administration, culture
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One of the weakest arguments against the death penalty, one that has annoyed me over the years has been the Pope’s implying God’s opposition to it. It’s an argument that to me doesn’t hold water if you consider Acts Chapter 5 which is all about how Ananias, literally dies at the word of St. Peter for lying about the price he got for a piece of land.

But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart so that you lied to the holy Spirit and retained part of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain yours? And when it was sold, was it not still under your control? Why did you contrive this deed? You have lied not to human beings, but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last, and great fear came upon all who heard of it.

Acts 5 3-5

And when his wife, not knowing he’s dead repeats the lie…

Peter said to her, “Tell me, did you sell the land for this amount?” She answered, “Yes, for that amount.” Then Peter said to her, “Why did you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen, the footsteps of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” At once, she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men entered they found her dead, so they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

Acts 5:7-11

Now remember these are people who believed in Christ, were part of the new Christian community even before they were called Christians and had just sold some land and given a portion of the money to the disciples. Their crime had been to lie about the amount and keeping it to themselves and yet there is no hesitation at all in what happens, no appeal no chance to go to confession or repent. Nope they’re dead (Now the question as to if they are damned is a completely different one and an interesting theological question but I digress).

C. S. Lewis has his own opinions on the subject:

Thus the weakness of the theological argument argument against the death penalty, but however there is a better one that we’ve seen lately.

That argument comes from this story out of Canada:

And this one out of DC:

And then I ask myself: Would I trust the people who are making these decision with the power of life and death over folks regardless of the charge or the evidence? That’s when I remember this excellent maxium:

Never trust government with a power that you would not trust your worst enemy with.

If there is a better argument against the death penalty, I don’t know it.

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