Why America? Why…

31 School shootings in America since Columbine, only 14 in the rest of the world combined.

Source

 

Anglican Priest Joins Atheists Calling for End to Bible Study in School

In New Zealand:

Rev. Clay Nelson wants to put a stop to Bible study in schools because it violates the students’ human right to “freedom of religion”.

From here:

An Anglican leader is urging state schools to ditch the Bible in Schools programme as he believes it is trying to create a loophole around the New Zealand Bill of Rights.

St Matthew in the City Reverend Clay Nelson has joined the atheist run-Secular Education Network in a bid to get the religious education programme out of the country’s primary and secondary schools.

Nelson said the programme is an imposition on the human rights of children as it restricts the freedom of other religions which is protected under the Bill of Rights.

“The biggest reason is the issue of human rights,” Nelson told TV ONE’s Breakfast.

“We believe in freedom of religion and to have Bibles in public schools is in an imposition on the religious freedom of others. To have religious freedom you have to have freedom from the religion of others.”

In the video below Clay declares that he is a “non-theist”, doesn’t believe in the divinity of Jesus and doesn’t believe any of the historic creeds; his faith, he says, thrives on “uncertainty”.

Oddly enough, he still insists on calling himself a Christian; nevertheless, as Kierkegaard pointed out, it doesn’t matter how many times you call a cow a horse – it remains a cow.

See, it’s next to impossible to remain, in good conscience, an Anglican. Pretty soon, it’ll be like saying you’re a non-Christian: One and the same thing.

 

On Catholic Oath of Fidelity: It’s About Time

In the Washington Post:

I have two words for Bishop Paul S. Loverde: thank you. If I could add three more: it’s about time.

In May, the bishop announced that he would be mandating an “Oath of Fidelity”, requiring them to submit “will and intellect” to the teachings of the Catholic Church. I didn’t have to reflect for long on this new requirement to see its wisdom, and the more I think about it, the more grateful I am that Bishop Loverde has exercised his leadership in this attempt to preserve the traditions of my Faith from personal interpretation and distortion. I think that requiring a profession of faith for catechists makes complete sense and is justifiable for several reasons.

First, the church is a membership organization with the right to regulate its membership, just like any other organization. When a person is accepted into the Catholic Church, he or she must profess the faith and then be baptized. Membership is not compulsory, but in order to maintain one’s good standing, a person must continue to profess what the church teaches.

Secondly, contrary to popular desire, the church is not a democracy. Its members profess the faith given to us by Jesus Christ; they don’t create the faith. As members and representatives of the church, we follow its rules. In making a profession of faith, far from abandoning our reason (as is commonly asserted), we more easily avoid error and are freer to come to a greater understanding of ourselves and our relationship to God and neighbor than we would be able to achieve independently.

As Christ so elegantly in teaches in John’s Gospel, “the truth will set you free.” Once I accept the truth, I can use my reason to come to a deeper understanding of the things that I already know are true, rather than worry about whether I know anything correctly in the first place.

With so much of the spirit of confusion about who we are as a church and as individuals prevailing after Vatican II, it is appropriate that on the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, our spiritual leaders would try to bring a renewed order and clarity to the transmission of the authentic teachings of the church, especially in educating our children who trust us so much. Last year, I signed a document similar to this one as a requirement to teach at a Catholic school in the diocese. At various points throughout the year, I recalled that I had signed that document, and it made me a better teacher because I was more careful to formulate what I taught in an accurate way. Oaths  have that effect sometimes, for those who take them seriously.

So essentially, if I decide that I want to help out in my parish, a Catholic school, or other organization where I am representing the Catholic Church, then it is completely within reason that Church leaders would have the right to regulate what I teach in their name. It defies logic to assert that teachers of the Catholic faith should be free to misrepresent what that faith is.

Ultimately, I think we need to realize that what this comes down to is a classic case of don’t shoot the messenger. Bishop Loverde didn’t invent the teachings of the cChurch, Jesus did, and as bishop he is simply asking us to be honest in passing along those teachings when we call ourselves Catholic catechists. As a Catholic school teacher, a former CCD teacher, and now an aspiring seminarian, I am grateful to Bishop Loverde and our other church leaders who are working tirelessly to preserve the unity of our faith through a renewed and clear commitment to the truth who is Jesus Christ.

 

Church Meetings Cannot Be Held In Public Schools

In yet another sign of the times. The Wall Street Journal reports:

The United States Supreme Court has declined to hear a case over whether a church can hold religious services in public school facilities, ending a 16-year legal battle about the rights churches have in public schools in the city.

The decision means about 60 churches have less than a month to find new spaces for their congregations, according to a previous agreement between the Department of Education and the churches, lawyers for the church said.

Lawyers for the Bronx Household of Faith, an evangelical congregation that meets at P.S. 15 in the Bronx, had filed a petition in late September hoping to get an earlier court ruling overturned.

Churches who use the school spaces pay nominal fees for security and custodial staff. The policy has saved fledgling churches from having to pay market-rate rents for worship space in meeting centers or hotels. While the court’s decision was pending, churches had continued meeting in public schools.

In June, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that allowing church services in schools violates the principle of the separation of church and state. A Supreme Court case in 2001, Good News Club vs. Milford Central School, ruled that a school could not deny a Bible study group access to school facilities. But the Bronx case applied specifically to religious worship services, allowing the appeals court to rule in favor of the Department of Education.

Jordan Lorence, a lawyer for the church, said he was surprised that the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

“The Supreme Court’s decision not to review this case is befuddling because it has already ruled multiple times in other equal-access cases that the First Amendment protects religious worship the same as secular speech,” he said.

New York City school officials have not yet responded to calls for comment…

Chores or ‘Forced Labour’?

11-year-old doing chores phones police complaining of ‘forced labour’

The headline caught my attention in the The Telegraph:

A German boy doing chores at home phoned the police to complain he was being made to do “forced labour”.

The 11-year-old from the western German city of Aachen phoned on Monday to make his complaint, adding that his mother “made him work all day”, police said.

“I have to work all day long. I haven’t any free time,” the boy told authorities over the phone.

His mother, who was not identified, later told police her son had been complaining over the holidays of having to help around the house, and had   repeatedly threatened to call the police over such “forced labour”.

When she asked him to pick up paper on the floor, he dialled the 110 police emergency number.

“He plays all day long and when told to tidy up what he’s done, he calls it forced labour,” police quoted his mother as saying.

Lazy little imp.

Schools Ban Gideon Bibles to Avoid Upsetting other Faiths

Ah, let me guess… It can only be in multicultural Britain:

Schools have banned Christians from handing out Bibles to avoid angering other faiths.

The Gideons have become famed for handing out signature red Bibles to young children during school assemblies.

But they have been told to stay away from some classes because it may spark complaints from different faiths.

Abbot Beyne School and Paget High School near Burton On Trent in Staffordshire have made the controversial ban.

Maggie Tate, deputy head teacher of Abbot Beyne, said: ‘The reason we stopped the Gideons coming in is that we are a comprehensive multi-faith school. We felt it was inappropriate to allow one faith group to distribute material in school.’

She said all pupils at Abbot Beyne, Winshill were given moral-themed assemblies and that the school had the highest proportion of pupils in Staffordshire sitting GCSEs in religious education.

Headteacher at Paget High School in Branston, Don Smith, also cited multiculturalism [see, I told you] as the reason behind the decision to abolish the tradition…

The decision has caused outrage among Christians, who have accused the schools of trying to silence Christianity.

Gideons supporter Barry Martin said: ‘We live in a Christian country [I thought it was a Muslim country by now]. I think that if the Gideons want to offer Bibles to children then they should be allowed to do so.

‘Banning them is not right because these schools are trying to silence Christianity and we must fight to defend it [indeed]. Christians make this world a better place.’ [Amen].

Read more here.

But brainwash children with homosexual literature is perfectly acceptable!? What stupid godless people.