Contemporary Christian Worship vs the Worship of the Early Church

Really worth checking out the comparison.

Priest With Double Life Gets 3-Years Sentence

Priest spent money on male escorts, designer clothes.

I remember his arrest some time back. Here’s the sentence:

A Roman Catholic priest from Waterbury who stole more than $1 million in church money and spent it on male escorts, Armani clothes and nights out at gay bars has been sentenced to three years in prison.

A plea of no contest was entered on behalf of The Rev. Kevin Gray, 65, and he was sentenced on Wednesday to three years of probation.

Gray was accused of stealing the money from Sacred Heart Church. He told his congregation he had cancer, but that was not true. The investigation revealed that he shared a small apartment on New York’s Upper East Side with a man he met in Central Park in 2005. After the apartment was vacated, items left behind included a reproduction of part of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, stuck to the ceiling of the living room, and a poster that seems to be the Virgin Mary.

Gray paid the $2,000 rent each month and would visit for a few days every week,according to court records.

The plea means he didn’t admit guilt, but a conviction for first-degree larceny was entered on his record, the Republican-American reports. The plea also allows Gray to deny the charge if there is a civil suit.

Gray won’t have to pay back the money because the Diocese of Hartford did not ask for restitution, prosecutors said.

Gray’s attorney called many of the charges against his client overblown.

Overblown or not, he is guilty of stealing from the Lord! But what I can’t figure out (reading the above news): is he going to prison for a three year sentence or is it ‘probation’?

Londonistan

Shocking: Gays Mock Christians with Easter Service

This is despicable. Here’s the video [Warning: nudity and vulgar language]:

The whole report apparently including blurred out pics of a “gay Jesus” showing his private parts to the crowd is here [I could not bring myself to go there, the above was bad enough].

(HT)

Sick!

I however find refuge in verses such as this one:

Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood (Rev 22:15).

Or as the CJB has it:

Outside are the homosexuals, those involved with the occult and with drugs, the sexually immoral, murderers, idol-worshippers, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood (Rev 22:15).

Statue of John Paul II Unveiled

Near the Vatican:

A Prayer for the Royal Wedding

Issued by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

HT:  Sevenoaks Ordinariate

University Campuses are ‘Hotbeds of Islamic Extremism’

Islamic fundamentalism is being allowed to flourish at universities, endangering national security, MPs and peers say.

Perhaps they are now starting to wake up?

Islamic fundamentalism is being allowed to flourish at universities, endangering national security, MPs and peers said yesterday.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a former student at University College London

Academics are turning a blind eye to radicals because they do not want to spy on students, a report claimed.

Despite “damning evidence” of a serious problem, little progress had been made in tackling the unsustainable situation, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Homeland Security said.

They urged the Government to tackle the issue on campuses with “utmost urgency”.

Such extremism “endangers our security at home and has international implications that are serious enough to threaten our alliance relationships”, said the group, which includes the former home secretary Lord Reid…

Secret files obtained by The Daily Telegraph and WikiLeaks disclosed this week that at least 35 terrorists held at Guantánamo Bay were indoctrinated by extremists in Britain.

The leaked documents, written by senior US military commanders, illustrated how Britain effectively became a crucible of terrorism over the course of two decades.

The parliamentary group was set up two years ago to carry out research into homeland security issues.

Its inaugural report comes after a separate inquiry by the umbrella organisation for universities earlier this year said animal rights extremists posed a greater problem than Islamist radicals.

Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said it could do very little about extremism on campus…

England well on the way to becoming an Islamist state.

Congo a Country of Rape and Ruin

A very sad article in the The Washington Times:

Eleven-year-old Donata tugged at her dark leopard-print shirt, squirming after she described how she had been raped the week before.

Her 9-year-old half sister, Vestina, had been raped at the same time, but she was more forthcoming. A local cowherd had caught her and her two sisters on their way home from the market. The third sister also was hospitalized, but she ran away because she was too hungry to stay for treatment.

“She left the hospital because there is no food,” Donata said. “We only get food in the evenings.”

The girls said their attacker had gone to prison. But activists say that is unlikely.

Rape in Congo is widespread and often systematic. Despite a few high-profile prosecutions this year, activists say, impunity for rape is common and soldiers and civilians continue to rape without fear of retribution.

The United Nations Children’s Fund says it treated 16,000 rape victims in Congo last year. About half were children.

Activists say rape in Congo rips apart lives and communities, drives the people further into poverty and continues to be a weapon in the war that has claimed more than 5 million lives since it began in 1996.

Dr. Endanda Zawadi cares for Donata and Vestina in a hospital in war-torn eastern Congo, where almost all of her patients are rape victims. She said about 80 percent of her patients report that soldiers from one of the region’s many competing militias attacked them.

Sometimes the attacks are random acts of violence, Dr. Zawadi said. But often, soldiers rape dozens or even hundreds of girls and women at a time as a deliberate act of war.

“They want to humiliate local people,” the doctor said. “It’s a way to show that they are powerful and they can control the whole region.”…

Read on here.

Property Rights for Animals?!

Yes, property rights for animals and court appointed guardians to enforce them:

A radical proposal to introduce property rights for animals has been slammed by farming associations across the country.Australian research lecturer Dr John Hadley from the University of Western Sydney (UWS) said under his proposal, particular animals would be given legal property rights, and human guardians would be appointed to represent them in court.But farmer associations are concerned about potential conflict.

President of the South Australian Farmers Federation Peter White said the proposal was ludicrous.

“It never ceases to amaze me how stupid some people can be,” he said this week.

“Why would somebody give animals more rights than humans?

Well you better believe it buddy… Radical environmentalism will stop at nothing.

Absolutely crazy! Anti human.   

The whole thing can be read here.

Atheists Seek Chaplain Role in the Military

The chaplaincy is clearly going to the dogs:

In the military, there are more than 3,000 chaplains who minister to the spiritual and emotional needs of active duty troops, regardless of their faiths. The vast majority are Christians, a few are Jews or Muslims, one is a Buddhist. A Hindu, possibly even a Wiccan may join their ranks soon.

But an atheist?

Strange as it sounds, groups representing atheists and secular humanists are pushing for the appointment of one of their own to the chaplaincy, hoping to give voice to what they say is a large — and largely underground — population of nonbelievers in the military.

Joining the chaplain corps is part of a broader campaign by atheists to win official acceptance in the military. Such recognition would make it easier for them to raise money and meet on military bases. It would help ensure that chaplains, religious or atheist, would distribute their literature, advertise their events and advocate for them with commanders.

But winning the appointment of an atheist chaplain will require support from senior chaplains, a tall order. Many chaplains are skeptical: Do atheists belong to a “faith group,” a requirement for a chaplain candidate? Can they provide support to religious troops of all faiths, a fundamental responsibility for chaplains?

Jason Torpy, a former Army captain who is president of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, said humanist chaplains would do everything religious chaplains do, including counsel troops and help them follow their faiths. But just as a Protestant chaplain would not preside over a Catholic service, a humanist might not lead a religious ceremony, though he might help organize it.

“Humanism fills the same role for atheists that Christianity does for Christians and Judaism does for Jews,” Mr. Torpy said in an interview. “It answers questions of ultimate concern; it directs our values.”

Mr. Torpy has asked to meet the chiefs of chaplains for each of the armed forces, which have their own corps, to discuss his proposal. The chiefs have yet to comment.

At the same time, an atheist group at Fort Bragg called Military Atheists and Secular Humanists, or MASH, has asked the Army to appoint an atheist lay leader at the base. A new MASH chapter at Fort Campbell, Ky., is planning to do the same as are atheists at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.

Such lay leaders can lead “services” in lieu of chaplains and have access to meeting rooms, including chapels.

Chaplains at Fort Bragg near here have seemed open to the idea, if somewhat perplexed by it.

“You’re not a faith group; you’re a lack-of-faith group,” First Lt. Samantha Nicoll, an active atheist at Fort Bragg, recalled a chaplain friend’s saying about the idea. “But I said, ‘What else is there for us?’ ”

The New York Times has more:

Chaplain for atheists? Lunacy. Perplexing too for there is no God for them anyway.