Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

Via Hot Air Time makes fun of indulgences:

Indulgences are a handy marketing tool for the Church, a way of encouraging people to amp up their spiritual life. But figuring out exactly what they are and how they work can be confusing. “It brings people who aren’t Catholic up short,” said David Steinmetz, a professor of the history of Christianity at Duke Divinity School.

It’s not a “marketing tool” or a very tough concept but the tougher or odder you make it seem the less likely that one will do a devotion. Good works and faithful acts are like anything in life, repetition breeds habit, habit leads one closer to God and that is why it must be made trivial.

Indirect proof time.

Two stories that I was going to split into two posts but since Fr. Z is the source of em both lets make them one and give him the credit.

Item: Argentina expels Williamson:

Argentina has ordered an ultra-traditionalist British bishop who denies the Holocaust to leave the country or face expulsion.

The interior ministry said Richard Williamson had been given 10 days to leave Argentina.

Fr. Z notes they manage to get some facts wrong.

My take: This is an indirect proof of the existence of God. Who but the holy spirit could cause Argentina to expel someone with Nazi like opinions? And remember this was only possible because the Pope acted as he did.

Item: Australian priest sacked:

In a decision that is likely to reverberate throughout the Catholic community, the Archbishop of Brisbane yesterday fired Father Peter Kennedy for unorthodox practices.

Fr. Z’s take, preached pure heresy, Bye!

My take: Gee denying the virgin birth, blessing Gay Marriage, he would fit right in at the Episcopal See in New Hampshire. I’ve said it many times, if people don’t want to be Catholics that’s their business, there are many Protestant Churches out there that you can become a part of. What I object to is their insistence that the church change to suit them. To wit from the article:

He said his liturgies were still valid. “We celebrate in a way that is relevant to Australian Catholics, rather than toeing the line in Rome.”

In other words we do what we want and its valid because we say so.

Father Kennedy will not go quietly. He plans to say Mass at 9am on Sunday and expects 1000 people to turn up. But he has backed away from threats that he would form a breakaway church. “I don’t wish to do that. We argue but we are very much within the Catholic tradition.”

…except that we don’t follow it.

I see this as the flip side of the Legionaries of Christ business. We again have a cult of personality substituting itself for the teaching of Christ, except this time it comes from the left. The legionaries can recover by admitting their errors while sticking to the doctrines and practices of the church. These guys have the worst of both worlds, the personality cult and rejection of the church.

This will ensure that Fr. Kennedy if he stays defiant will be feted and celebrated and make out fine with a large group of followers. He can be on the gravy train for the rest of his life.

After that he and they are on their own.

…to this post. I want to address something I mentioned in my last post:

Remember it isn’t the souls of the aborted that are at risk, it is the souls of those who are involved in the action itself and its support. They should be our primary concern and the focus of our prayers.

When I had my discussion with my nephew concerning religion he jumped all over this in the same way the Ebon the atheist does on his blog:

And Lewis has it exactly right: if death before the age of accountability means instant no-effort salvation, then the majority of the population of Heaven will be made up of people who died in infancy or very early childhood and never had a life on Earth at all. This is even more true if, as many Christians believe, even a single-celled embryo is a person with a soul. By some estimates, as many as 75% of all conceptions end in spontaneous abortion, usually before the woman ever realizes she is pregnant – a vast number of souls that will get into Heaven for free, while the majority of the unlucky few who happen to survive into adulthood will end up consigned to eternal torment.

The bizarre, ludicrous illogic of this system turns notions of morality on their head. The logical conclusion from these beliefs would be that it is a morally praiseworthy act to kill children, thereby guaranteeing their salvation. The corollary is that life on Earth is a terrible misfortune and something to be avoided at all costs, veering extremely close to the ancient Gnostic belief systems condemned as heresy by the church. Why in the world would God even bother to create the Earth if “human birth is important chiefly as the qualification for human death”? Why not just create a race of beings that all die in the womb and have their salvation assured? Lewis mentions these glaring facts, but never addresses their implications for Christianity.

His earlier George W. Bush rant not withstanding; this is a solid question that deserves an answer so let me give the one I gave to my nephew who echoed the argument that an abortionist made concerning this about sending souls to heaven. Lets take them in order. First of all there is a reason why the commandments are in order. And commandment number one is:

You shall have no other Gods but me!

The act of taking what belongs to God or the attempt to make oneself God is a big sin, maybe even THE great sin, not only does the abortionist violate this sin but he brings millions to that same brink and establishes it. The number of abortions still is dwarfed by the number of births and the number of people actually alive. The establishment of it as a societal has the potential to damn far more people over the course of decades than the number of souls that avoid judgment. No person makes this argument for their own sake, they make it to shut other people up.

The second point in his argument is the “spontaneous abortion” argument. Scientifically there is no question when a human life begins. At conception you have a human. Thus as a society “human” rights need to proceed from that point. Some might want to play “gotcha” games on the moment the soul exists, but that leads to the danger of giving an out to play with human life.

We are actually warned in scripture that this is the case, remember the ending of the parable:

When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’ He said to one of them in reply, ‘My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? (Or) am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?‘ Matt 20:8-15

Again we have the protest of God methods the foolishness of the Cross as Paul says:

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Cor 17:18

Mr. Ebon also forgets the gift of free will. I ask him if he would prefer a life where he is fed, clothed and taken care of but doesn’t have free will? That is the gift that that a full life gives us, we are given the chance to make our own choices, for good or ill. One can’t create saints without the potential to create sinners. Would Ebon consider himself lucky if his free will was removed? Would you?

The killing children argument I’ve already covered above, but I would also mention that the primary duty of the individual is to send oneself to heaven. Remember this passage:

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:37

This should cover the argument. Like most liberals we see the cry against an unfair world. One would be more wise to spend one’s time living in it instead.