VIENNA, Austria -- The parish church of Amras, Austria, near Innsbruck in Tyrol, was chock-a-block full for the first-Communion Mass on April 22. Shortly before Communion, the parish priest, Norbertine Fr. Patrick Busskamp, announced that only Catholics who were in a state of grace should come forward to Communion. Catholics who are divorced and remarried and Catholics who do not attend Mass every week were not worthy to receive the Eucharist, he said.
When Communion time came, not a single adult came forward. The entire congregation demonstratively remained seated. Only the children received Communion.
The priest has forgotten how to serve Christ. There is no other way to put it. The Lord said you can recognize the quality of a tree by its fruit. Here is some of the fruit of Fr. Busskamp and others infected with the yeast of the Pharisees.
Referring to the high numbers of Catholics who are leaving the church -- more than 87,000 Austrian Catholics have formally left the church in the last two years -- one of the mothers of a child receiving first Communion told the press it was incomprehensible that the few remaining Catholics were being antagonized like this. Another mother warned that the patience of faithful Catholics is nearing its end.
Disobedience is the only answer to spiritually bankrupt Church leaders.
Let me encourage you to watch this video on homosexuality and faith.
It is long (67 minutes), but let me offer a few reasons to watch and listen to this young man.
Watch it for the courage it takes to lay bare your soul in a very public forum. While this presentation was given to a sympathetic audience in a church, posting on YouTube exposes him to a larger and much more hostile audience. You don't have to wade very far into the comments to witness the anger, contempt, and disgust aimed at him and all in the LGBT community.
Watch it for the powerful witness of his personal faith. It is sad that someone so committed to their faith must plead for acceptance among others that supposedly share that faith. He is not asking for special status. He is merely making the case that he should be allowed to participate fully in the church and enjoy all the benefits of a committed, monogamous relationship.
I think of it as the perfect test for people who call themselves Christians. Christ spelled out the commandments to his followers in the simplest possible terms - love God and love others (even those that hate you). Matthew makes it clear that he is committed to the teachings of Jesus and presents himself as a fellow sinner on the road of life. It is the perfect cognitive dissonance paradigm. On the one hand, he clearly and proudly professes his faith, which should have fellow Christians cheering with approval and acceptance. Evangelism accomplished in every possible sense. On the other hand, some members of the Christian community have elevated homosexuals to a special class of sinner deemed less worthy of love and respect. Instead of "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), we are told to treat homosexuals as pariahs.
For me, the conflict is easy to resolve. I am moved by Matthew's humanity, see him as a brother in Christ, and focus on the log in my eye rather than spend time and energy trying to remove any dust in his eye. My challenge is to love those that teach Christians to judge others rather than love others. On my good days, I call these people ________. For those who have fallen under the spell of the culture warriors, the choice is much more difficult. Embracing Matthew as someone worthy of love and respect means rejecting the guidance from these religious leaders they chose to follow. My advice to them is to remember what Jesus said about the religious leaders of his day. Everything he said about the Pharisees and Sadducees is doubly true of the Christian culture warriors of today.
Another reason I like this video is that it highlights the perversity of many Church leaders. Here is a young man who desperately wants to be in a committed loving relationship and rejects promiscuity. As Matthew notes, the biblical references to homosexuality all focus on acts of hedonism or coercion, not on sexuality within the context of a committed relationship. The irony is that the Christian culture warriors are demanding that homosexuals either be celibate or keep their attraction to members of the same sex a secret. The culture warriors reject sex within the context of a loving relationship as an option for LGBT people, most especially those that want to be part of the larger Christian community. It is clear that the culture warriors are the ultimate perverts.
One thing Matthew fails to mention is that the culture warriors perversely believe in collective rewards and punishment. Never mind that Jesus focused on personal responsibility, teaching that you are only accountable for your own beliefs and actions. There is no injustice to fight. Consensual same sex relationships do not involve harm or coercion so there is no one to protect from victimization. Likewise, heterosexual relationships are not harmed in any way, shape, or form by same sex relationships. So why the obsession? Culture warriors want you to believe our nation will be showered with prosperity if we condemn homosexuality and showered with fire if we don't.
As a heterosexual, why does all this matter to me? After all, I do not seem to have any skin in the game if the cultural warriors win. But I do have friends, neighbors, fellow congregants, and fellow Americans who will be harmed by the culture warriors. Silence is complicity and I refuse to be silent when my brothers and sisters are being mistreated.
I am posting this video and commentary on May 8 as a reminder of how disgraceful and toxic the culture warriors have become in our society. Today in North Carolina, the culture warriors have successfully put an initiative on the ballot that invalidates all same sex unions, including civil domestic partnerships.
NC Same Sex Amendment 1
Constitutional amendment to provide that marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State.
I would call culture warriors monsters if it did not demean monsters. Monsters, after all, are only figments of our imagination. Culture warriors are very real and prove the existence of evil. Some would say there are reasons to hope the reign of terror by cultural warriors is coming to an end. For example, recent surveys have shown that younger members of the evangelical community are abandoning the culture wars. I never underestimate the ability of money and power to corrupt, coerce, and turn well-meaning idiots into instruments of injustice.
I am proud to call Matthew my brother in Christ and deeply ashamed of the deadly culture war pox infecting the body of Christ.
Rep. Pelosi stands accused of repeatedly violating Church teachings and setting a bad example for other Catholics. She wants women to have the right to make up their own mind about when they want to get pregnant and what to do if they accidently get pregnant. OMG, OMG. OMG!!!
Meanwhile, these very same people stand behind Paul Ryan as he disobeys the advice of Catholic Bishops along with many other Church leaders. Ryan wants to sacrifice the poor to pamper the rich. Blessed Paul has thrown his heart and soul into the noble task of euthanizing the less fortunate to starvation, disease, hopelessness, and homelessness. Their wealth needs to go the rich who know how to use money. It is fundamental.
It reminds me of that old hymn...
Jesus loves me! This I know,
For Ayn Rand tells me so.
Poor ones to Me belong;
They are weak, but I am strong.
Chorus:
Yes, Jesus hates you
Yes, Jesus hates you
Yes, Jesus hates you
The Bible tells me so.
We live in a country where God is supposed to serve politicians. God is expected to condemn our political enemies and bless our chosen politicians. And God, made in our image, will smite those that dare offend us. And the list of those to be turned into pillars of fire or salt is long.
There are the women that have offended the Godly men by demanding equality and control over their own bodies (see Exhibit A above).
There are the homosexuals that have offended the Godly straight.
There are the liberals that have offended the Godly conservative.
There are the people of color that have dared not bow to the Godly white.
There are the Muslims, Jews, and other brands of theology that have offended the Godly Christians.
There are the people loyal to Brand X or Y of Christianity that disgust those loyal to the only true Godly brand of Christianity, Brand Z.
There are the people that dare not believe in God that so outrage the Godly believers.
There are the poor that have offended the financially comfortable Godly by wanting opportunities and not wanting to starve.
There are the heathens that live near natural resources the financially powerful Godly covet.
There are those who seek peace that try (feebly) to stand in the way of the Godly lovers of war and bloodshed.
And, of course, the imperfect you that expects to stand near the Godly me.
By all means, protect the sanctity of the Eucharist by making sure it only goes into the mouths of Godly rich white men lusting for dominion over all creation. Amen.
Growing income inequality has a number of sources, but a distinct aspect of rising inequality in the United States is the wage gap between the very highest earners—those in the upper 1.0 percent or even upper 0.1 percent—and other earners, including other high-wage earners. Driving this ever-widening gap is the unequal growth in earnings enjoyed by those at the top. The average annual earnings of the top 1 percent of wage earners grew 156 percent from 1979 to 2007; for the top 0.1 percent they grew 362 percent (Mishel, Bivens, Gould, and Shierholz 2012). In contrast, earners in the 90th to 95th percentiles had wage growth of 34 percent, less than a tenth as much as those in the top 0.1 percent tier. Workers in the bottom 90 percent had the weakest wage growth, at 17 percent from 1979 to 2007.
So, for 90% of Americans, their wages grew 0.6% per year over the three decades before the Great Recession. Factor in the Great Recession, the numbers look even worse. In other words, they did not keep up with inflation. Meanwhile, the top 1% saw their wages grow an average of 5.6% per year.
And what about the pigs in the executive suites?
From 1978 to 2011, CEO compensation increased more than 725 percent, a rise substantially greater than stock market growth and the painfully slow 5.7 percent growth in worker compensation over the same period.
So where is all that trickle down from supply side economics that we hear so much about? Oh, never mind. We should forget about economic injustices and the growing ranks of the poor, instead keeping our eyes on culture wars.
Certainly, when building coalitions around initiatives and projects like “Justice Invitationals,” issues like the environment, slavery, poverty, natural disasters, and the like are going to build more consensus, allowing for us to re-build the bridges burned by so much demonizing in the past. However, we have a responsibility to both publically denounce the practice of homosexuality and abortion as well as give our young evangelicals the tools to learn for themselves why these practices are not the way God intended the world to be. Speaking and writing such in today’s secular milieu is certainly more dangerous than it used to be but it is still our responsibility before God.
There are more than 2000 references to the need to care for the poor, sick, aged, and disabled in the scriptures. Obsession with issues like homosexuality, abortion, and contraception indicates a heart to disobey God. When you have young evangelicals lead by the heart of God to answer the prayers of those that suffer, the culture warriors are nothing but false prophets.
American soldiers learned the hard way not to walk down enemy trails in Vietnam — and certainly not twice. But here come the House Republicans, marching into the sunlight by shifting billions from poverty programs to the Pentagon, all within hours of adopting an entirely new round of tax cuts for those earning more than $1 million a year..
Berean Baptist Church "pastor" Sean Harris told his congregation to physically abuse children that show any gender role ambiguity during a 55 minute "sermon." Here is an example:
"Dads, the second you see that son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up. Give them a good punch. OK?"
You can hear more of this simpleton's view that homosexuality stems from inadequate parental discipline in the following clip.
When video of this sermon was posted online and provoked a firestorm of criticism, this cowardly little man claimed it was a big misunderstanding and a joke. He did stand by his tough stance on stereotypic gender behavior as grounded in biblical principles.
"Those weren't planned words, but what I do stand by is that the word of God makes it clear that effeminate behavior is ungodly. I'm not going to compromise on that," Harris said.
A professor at Baptist seminary in the area put this joke of a sermon into proper context.
Tony Cartledge, a divinity professor at Campbell University, called Harris' sermon "one of the most disappointing and un-Christ-like diatribes I have ever heard."
The more Christianity is associated with heterosexuals obsessed with homosexuality, the less the message of God's love is on display and the less compassionate people will be drawn to the message of Christ. This preoccupation with homosexuality comes as the number of people suffering with poverty and disease continues to grow. Instead of answering the cries and prayers of those in need, tremendous energy and resources are expended to throw stones.
A poll in a local newspaper is running about 9 to 1 against the garbage that came out of the "pastor's" mouth. The opposite of evangelism is repulsing people and providing false witness.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/05/02/3213618/nc-pastor-telling-parents-to-punch.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/05/02/3213618/nc-pastor-telling-parents-to-punch.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/05/02/3213618/nc-pastor-telling-parents-to-punch.html#storylink=cpy
