gdp's Comments

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Ministering to gays

Mon, 4 May 2009 17:51:19 +0000

Frank, the Catholic Church and most other orthodox Christians regard homosexuality as a disorder of nature and a grave sin only when acted out. This church and, again, most orthodox Christians strictly require that homosexuals must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. While militant homosexuals are involved in a well organized movement to gain acceptance for homosexual behavior including marriage, I'm unaware of any such heterosexual movement for, say, fornication and adultery. It is true that the sexual revolution has lowered sexual standards generally. Orthodox Christians regard all sexual activity outside of marriage between a man and woman to be sinful. As to the Catholic Church's position on any homosexual acts, what could be more clear than the following: Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,[140] tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."[141] They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Ministering to gays

Mon, 4 May 2009 15:07:32 +0000

Churches should heartily welcome homosexual people who, acknowledge homosexual behavior as a sin and sincerely struggle against it. The Catholic catechism balances this nicely with the following sections: 2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,[140] tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."[141] They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved. 2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition. 2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection. The trouble is that many contemporary homosexuals are involved in a militant movement to recognize homosexuality as equivalent to heterosexuality including the crucial institution of marriage.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : The wars of the peace candidate

Sun, 3 May 2009 20:03:00 +0000

That's rather a thumb sucker of a comment. The Dems are a caricature of themselves. They indulged for years with Bush Derangement Syndrome and now faint at the slightest criticism of St. Obama.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : The wars of the peace candidate

Fri, 1 May 2009 17:29:16 +0000

Apart from rhetoric, Obama is so far following Bush's policies in the Global War against Radical Islam. Obama's populist move to do away with Gitmo is hardly any different than what McCain would have done. He has actually increased Predator strikes against al Quaeda in Pakistan that include civilian casualties; instead of using aggressive interrogation he's killing the terrorists without a trial. According to Max Boot, we're incarcerating three times as many unlawful combatants at our Bagram base in Afghanistan than Bush did. He, also, authorized the Seals to take out the Somali pirates. The change in rhetoric is not trivial, though amusing. The "War on Terror" has become "Global Contingency Operations" and terrorist acts are termed "man caused disasters"; How silly and how revealing of Obama's insecurity. Obama is doing OK on terrorism, though his domestic policies are an unmitigated disaster. Should he continue to press for utopian domestic goals, he won't be able to achieve his foreign policy ones. I still think that underneath it all he is a colossal empty suit with little experience and less accomplishment who has provided the Republicans with rich opportunity to come back in 2010 and 2012

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : A Reformation Comedy

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:24:34 +0000

Luther was indeed a severe ascetic as a monk. He claimed later that this asceticism caused many physical problems and would shorten his life, which it probably did, as he died at age sixty-two. Mr. Davalos, though plays are best seen, has the play been published anywhere?

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Bono's confession of faith

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:48:14 +0000

Barb, I agree with you. Following Reinhold Niebuhr, I believe that we are equally sinners but unequally guilty in the degree of our sin. We should indeed try to live holy lives and improve our lives over the years, though, as Niebuhr remarked, remembering that perhaps the greatest of sins is spiritual pride.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Bono's confession of faith

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:49:07 +0000

True Christian faith involves an understanding of the moral law that, however hard we try, cannot consistently be obeyed, coupled with the incredible gift of God's grace and forgiveness for those who truly repent. The opposite of the above is the romantic notion that we are capable of determining our own "lifestyles" and need to express our true inner selves by doing our own thing. Much of the sort of rock music that Bono has heretofore stood for encourages this sort of romantic view of liberty as opposed to the freedom we have to do both right and wrong. Toward the end of his life Karl Barth intended to tour America and lecture on the meaning of freedom as opposed to liberty. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to do so.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Air Force One's joyride

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:38:17 +0000

Dream on Tickletext. What you see is what you get from Carl Vehse, a man incapable of mincing words and capable of marvelously astute neologisms such as Obozo.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Changing your religion

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:17:54 +0000

My family has been Congregationalist in the same New England town since 1635. For a few years I switched to the Episcopal church due to a particularly liberal Congregational minister. After he left and and was replaced by an orthodox Reform minister, I am happily back in an orthodox Congregational church.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : The Democrats' absolute rule

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:57:59 +0000

Bryan, I''m far from being a fan of the recent Bush administration's spending habits, though Obama's proposed federal spending deficits make Bush look like a piker. Bush took eight years to double the deficit. Obama will double it in five years and triple it in ten years. Check out the the graphic Heritage chart, Bush Deficit vs. Obama Deficit in Pictures. Essentially, Bush and Obama are equal in the sin of overspending, though quite unequal in terms of guilt.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : The Democrats' absolute rule

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:03:47 +0000

For the long term this is good news for the Republicans. It rids the GOP of a notoriously crass RINO and gives the Democrats full control of the White House and Senate. Obama, Pelosi, and Reid no longer have to be restrained in the face of Senate cloture, which will allow the Left to pursue an unrestrained spending and power agenda that will cause a backlash in 2010 and 2012. Johnson pursued an unrestrained agenda in the late Sixties; Clinton attempted one in 2003-4; in both case the Left suffered a healthy backlash from American voters who are not interested in saddling themselves with unrestrained government spending.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : A play I have to see

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:01:52 +0000

My apologies Mr. Davalos, I respect and enjoy folk who are large and contain multitudes. I shall keep an eye out for your play should it come to the Boston area.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : A play I have to see

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:08:27 +0000

I should say that Hamlet proved to be rather indecisive and weak in confronting his uncle, while Faustus proved smitten by power and lust, though it is true that in the end he calmed down and settled for the practical goods of reclaiming marshland and understanding inevitable death. The real hero of the play should be Luther who understood the notion of simul eustis et pecator, which both Hamlet and Faustus failed to understand, though I fear that Davalos, an aspiring modern, might not understand.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : The Taliban taking over Pakistan?

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:10:43 +0000

Scylding, granted Afghanistan mountain fighters have defeated not a few occupiers, though we took down the Taliban with a few special forces once and with determination can do so again. I'm not nearly as pessimistic as you about this. It will probably be a hard slog, though to let Afghanistan and Pakistan fall to the Taliban is out of the question. Both America's and Canada's most serious problem is the opposition of the hard Left and isolationists who wish to cave in to a very serious enemy. The leftists wish to see The capitalist West defeated, and the isolationists suffer the illusion that the Atlantic and Pacific somehow keep us immune from serious enemies. These people cost us the Vietnam War and almost succeeded in losing WW II, the Cold War, and Iraq War.