Turkey’s Christians Under Siege

Unacceptable. Totally unacceptable.

The brutal murder of the head of Turkey’s Catholic Church, Bishop Luigi Padovese, on June 3, 2010, has rattled the country’s small, diverse, and hard-pressed Christian community. The 62-year-old bishop, who spearheaded the Vatican’s efforts to improve Muslim-Christian relations in Turkey, was stabbed repeatedly at his Iskenderun home by his driver and bodyguard Murat Altun, who concluded the slaughter by decapitating Padovese and shouting, “I killed the Great Satan. Allahu Akhbar!” He then told the police that he had acted in obedience to a “command from God.”

Though bearing all the hallmarks of a jihadist execution, the murder was met by denials and obfuscation—not only by the Turkish authorities but also by Western governments and the Vatican. This is not wholly surprising. In the post-9/11 era, it has become commonplace to deny connections between Islam and acts of violence despite much evidence to the contrary. But while this denial has undoubtedly sought to win the hearts and minds of Muslims, as opposed to Christians, Jews, or any other religious group, it has served to encourage Islamist terrorism and to exacerbate the persecution of non-Muslim minorities even in the most secularized Muslim states. For all President Barack Obama’s high praise for its “strong, vibrant, secular democracy,” and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “Alliance of Civilizations” rhetoric, Turkey is very much entrenched in the clash of civilizations paradigm.

Do read the rest on this horrific situation here. There is a lot more to digest.

 

Explaining Papal Infallibility

Thought this might interest a few, considering the volatility of this particular doctrine.This is presented by Fr. Robert Barron for the upcoming PBS series on Roman Catholicism.

Yes Joel (HT), interesting indeed.

Looks like it’ll be a great series…

Archbishop John Hepworth: Vatican Likely to Approve a New Structure

Would that it were true:

The primate of a breakaway church in Australia says the Vatican is likely to approve a new structure later this year to bring the Anglican and Catholic churches closer together.

Archbishop John Hepworth from the Traditional Anglican Communion says he has been negotiating ways to allow Anglican priests to be accepted by the Catholic Church.

Archbishop Hepworth says it is expected to be rolled out across parts of the world later this year, including the Traditional Anglican Communion in central Queensland.

“The Anglican parish that is going into this in Rockhampton with three priests and their congregation has all agreed to it,” he said.

“The priests have applied to be Catholic priests in the ordinariate, those applications are in the process of being approved.

“We expect that they’ll be re-ordained as Catholic deacon and priest immediately the ordinariate is announced.”

Especially after this fiasco, which has turned into an embarrassing PR nightmare for the entire Traditional Anglican Communion…

Israel in Peril

National Review Online from earlier in the week:

Several years ago, Charles Krauthammer pointed out that small nations can disappear, and they know it. Like Czechoslovakia in the late 1930s, Israel is a small nation and it has never been in more danger of disappearing. Today, Israel is surrounded by an armed alliance of Jihadist fundamentalists and nationalists, from North to South to East. Its West is the Mediterranean ocean, where Israel’s enemies would like to push her Jewish population. And Pres. Barack Obama has just put Israel’s very existence in more peril…

Read on here.

Christian Counsellor’s Attempt to Cure Gay man was ‘Malpractice’

So much for trying to help someone.

A Christian psychotherapist who tried to convert a gay man to become heterosexual has been found guilty of professional misconduct.

The Telegraph reports:

Lesley Pilkington was criticised by the professional body for counsellors after an undercover journalist posing as a patient secretly recorded her during a therapy session at her home.

Despite finding that Mrs Pilkington’s client, Patrick Strudwick, “deliberately misled her”, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) ruled that she had breached the profession’s ethical code.

She now faces being struck off the association’s widely recognised professional register and is considering an appeal.

Mrs Pilkington, 60, practises “reparative therapy”, a controversial method which holds that homosexual orientation can be “theraputically changed” in clients who are motivated.

Mr Strudwick met Mrs Pilkington in 2009 at a largely Christian conference on therapy of homosexuality. He told her he said he was unhappy with his gay lifestyle and that he wanted treatment for his same-sex attraction.

Mr Strudwick then attended Mrs Pilkington’s private practice, based at her home in Chorleywood, Herts, and recorded a session on a tape machine strapped to his stomach.

He gathered material which he later used in a complaint against Mrs Pilkington to the BACP. A decision by the BACP panel was made earlier this week but both sides were told to treat the matter as confidential while Mrs Pilkington considered whether to use her right to an appeal.

However, Mr Strudwick wrote about the BACP’s decision for the Guardian newspaper. Mrs Pilkington then issued her own press statement through the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting her case. The BACP has declined to comment, stating that the process has not yet concluded.

The disciplinary panel described Mrs Pilkington as “reckless”, “disrespectful”, “dogmatic” and “unprofessional” and ruled that her treatment of him constituted “professional malpractice”.

The ruling stated that her accreditation to the organisation will be suspended and she will be ordered to complete training. If she fails to comply she will be struck off the register.

In his newspaper article, Mr Strudwick said: “I am an out, happily gay man. I was undercover, investigating therapists who practise this so-called conversion therapy (also known as reparative therapy) – who try to ‘pray away the gay’…

There’s more  here.

What a deceptive act. To think that people go around wasting the time of others (who want to help). I’m glad that I stay nowhere near depraved England with all their spineless politically correct laws!

Heaven forbid you are to call homosexuality a sin!

 

Ignoring the Bible Will Cause Moral Decay

No kidding?!

Anyway, you’ve kinda got to appreciate the irony here: This from a Bishop in a Church that is presently ‘in-knots’ over whether or not homosexuals should become Bishops… 

Sacrificing the Bible’s place in society will cause moral decay, the Bishop of London has warned.

Speaking at a symposium on the Bible in the House of Lords this week, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres said that “culture and civilisation” were founded on scripture.

“The economy and politics must have ground beneath them,” he said.

“In Britain that ground has been biblical since our earliest days – and you do not sacrifice that without sacrificing much of what has been built upon that ground.”

He went on to say that “concepts of dignity and tolerance” will be very difficult to sustain without a solid Christian grounding.

He added: “Although it has become difficult to use the language of the Bible in this country, it will become more and more obvious that these values and these principles will be unsustainable without the Christian ground.”

The Bishop also defended the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s decision to chose the King James Version of the Bible, despite criticism that it is too archaic.

“At the royal wedding the couple chose traditional words, and none of the commentators remarked on it. But the following week the church press was full of commentators deploring the use of fusty words. But we need to remember that the couple who chose those words were both born in 1982.”…

More here.

That said, Chartres at least seems to have his head screwed on right.  I thought he did really well at the Royal Wedding. 

With Britain floundering in a multicultural, politically correct, leftist, anti-Christian cesspool, it’s about time somebody stood up and said what needs to be said!

Kudos therefore go to the Bishop of London!

Why Do People Stick By Scandal Plagued Pastors

Why indeed…

Russian Paratroopers Receive Mobile Chapel

Speaking of Russia, what a neat idea:

The Russian Orthodox Church has given the country’s Airborne Troops a mobile chapel to accompany them on military drills and combat missions, a paratrooper spokesman said on Friday.

The church is part of a wider project to restore full-scale military priesthood, which existed in Russia from the 18th century to the start of the Soviet era.

“Russian paratroopers received their first mobile church in May, financed by the Russian Orthodox Church,” the spokesman said.

The chapel is built on the frame of a truck trailer and is equipped with a life-support module, an electric generator and multimedia equipment.

It is serviced on the field by a priest and a five-man support team.

The chapel will be tested during forthcoming airborne exercises.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said in 2010 that Orthodox Church military chaplains will soon appear in the Russian army.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, two thirds of the country’s servicemen consider themselves religious. Some 83 percent of them are Orthodox Christians, about 8 percent are Muslims, and 9 percent represent other confessions.

(HT)

I don’t suppose there’s any hope of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ lot following suit? Probably not.

Now to try and find a pic of the mobile chapel…

Vladimir Putin is the Reincarnation of St Paul?!

Well, yes according to one Russian cult:

 

Russia (Reuters) – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin cultivates the image of a bare-chested macho man, but a nun-like sect in central Russia thinks actually he’s the reincarnation of St. Paul, the apostle.

Or, if not that, he may in a past life have been the founder of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“I say what the Lord has revealed to me,” the sect’s leader, former convict Svetlana Frolova, said.

Putin’s advisers disclaim any link with the sect led by the former railway manager, who was jailed for fraud in 1996.

“He (Putin) does not approve of that kind of admiration,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said by telephone…

Madness!

There is more on these lunatics here.

Waqf Dig Endangering Relics that May Have Been Part of Temple

Sure it will!

Several worked stones discovered during ongoing maintenance archaeology excavations around the Dome of the Rock may be part of a wall that once surrounded an outer courtyard of the Temple, some archaeologists conjecture.

The archaeology excavations are being carried out by the Waqf, the Muslim trust that is custodian of the Temple Mount, and the Public Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount called a press conference yesterday to warn that the excavation is endangering these and other rare artifacts.

There have been verbal confrontations in recent days between Waqf officials and police and Israel Antiquities Authority representatives over the Waqf’s violation of the terms of the permit it received to conduct work at the site. In one incident, a police officer tried to prevent Waqf workers from operating a bulldozer, ultimately resorting to blocking the vehicle with his body. Tempers later calmed, after senior officials intervened.

Waqf officials told the Associated Press that the 1.5-meter-deep trench in question is being dug in order to replace 40-year-old electric cables. They termed the claims by the Israeli archaeologists “sheer propaganda.”

Dr. Gabi Barkai, one of Israel’s most prominent archaeologists and a member of the committee, said that the Waqf’s current excavation, along with a previous one of over 400 meters in the direction of the Dome of the Rock, is an archaeological crime unacceptable in any cultured country.

Another archaeologist and committee member, Dr. Eilat Mazar, said it is unfathomable that the police, and perhaps also the IAA, allowed a bulldozer to damage layers of ground beneath the extensive flooring now uncovered.

“It is an unbelievable spectacle,” Mazar said. “Israeli police officers and an official from the Antiquities Authority observing as a tractor digs the trench. This is irreparable destruction. After all, nobody is examining the dirt and materials coming out of that trench, which is located in an incredibly unique area, of historic, cultural and religious importance for every human being, and particularly for the Jewish people.”

The committee issued a statement demanding that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Rafi Eitan and the IAA stop the Waqf’s work immediately, and prevent any further work on the Mount without proper archaeological supervision.

The archaeologists announced that they would file a police complaint and are contemplating a petition to the High Court of Justice against the excavation work…

In a related development yesterday, new artifacts discovered in sifting through earth removed from the Temple Mount were presented at the eighth annual City of David archaeological conference.

The project, now in its third year, entails scrutinizing truckloads of earth removed by the Waqf in 1999.

Among the ancient finds were numerous stone tiles intended for flooring, some of which have been identified as designed for use in the Roman-era mosaic work known as opus sectile, in which colorful tiles were cut into shapes and fitted into geometric patterns.

“The discovery of stone tiles used in opus sectile flooring in [earth from] the Temple Mount is one of the most important discoveries of the dirt-sifting work,” Barkai said, “and it might aid in reconstructing the appearance and character of the Temple’s outer courtyard.” …

There is more here.

Criminal is what it is. And in my opinion, the Waqf is simply petrified that (any) evidence of the Temple will be uncovered, and that golden monstrosity now preventing any archaeological work, be undone.   

I’ve mentioned this unacceptable state of affairs before, here.