The Merit of Heresy...

As anyone who knows me must realize by now, I am deliberately and intentionally orthodox in my Christian beliefs.

I know I fall short, as -- certainly -- we all do, but I make it my aim to conform to Biblical Doctrine.

So why, of all things, would heresy be something I would commend?

Let me be clear.

I do not endorse heresy, but I welcome the challenge they provide -- because good ideas survive strong challenges. In fact, these are precisely the crucibles in which good ideas become better.

Where would the Christian understanding of the Trinity be without the heretical challenge of Arius and those who followed him? What if the Early Church did not have to identify True Scripture in response to the pretender Marcion's pseudo-canon? Would Augustine of Hippo have written his doctrinal masterpieces if he were not arguing against Pagans, Donatists, Arians, and Manichaeans?

Would Luther have touched off the Protestant Reformation without Tetzel and Pope Leo X?

The list goes on, and extends to scientific and social critique, too.

Issues of suffrage, property rights, personal liberties, human relations (both micro and macro) were advanced by such battles of ideas, as were astronomy, medicine, agriculture, mathematics, physics, chemistry etc..

But in today's world, we have some who would silence dissent.

Could someone in today's world freely classify Islam as a aberrant pseudo-Christian heresy? (Without facing a human rights tribunal?) Probably not.

But that's exactly what it was characterized by St. John of Damascus (Biography here and here) in his work on Heresies from "The Fount of Knowledge".

See a long excerpt in context here. John outlines their core doctrines as outlined in the 8th Century.

But Islam refuses to be held to the mirror, and would rather lodge official complaints and harass free citizens exercising their right to critique, or stir international outrage which sometimes boils over into riots and worse. (Remember a certain cartoon, or the murder of a documentary-maker?)

As sometimes the Secularists do, when people won't dance to their tune.

Here is a current story about a Canadian Government Insider (Warren Kinsella) trying to force a broadcaster to exclude a dissenting voice. (H/T Ezra Levant)

There is a long-running criticism of the Church, in rejecting Galileo.

The Catholic Church did not believe Galileo's heliocentric universe, claiming it ran contrary to existing belief.

Did it actually run contrary to existing belief? Yes, it did.

But was it for THEOLOGICAL reasons? Not principally. It is incorrect to say that it was because of their religious views, mainly. They had accepted the scientific position of a 1st Century (probably pagan) scientist named "Ptolemy". Who was this upstart (Galileo) to contest some 1400 years of "settled science".

Like some liberal theologians of today, they had reinterpreted the Word of God in a way that could be wed to the prevailing scientific views of the age.

Quick News Blasts...and one REALLY big oops.

1) Orissa, India:
Future still looking bleak for persecuted and displaced Christians.

2) Lesbian couple in Australia have twins by IVF, sue doctor..
"...following the twins' birth, the mother had lost her capacity to love."
- Was the capacity really lost, or was it just found to be absent?
hat/tip Nova Scotia Scott

3) Founder/Chief Executive --Muzzammil Hassan-- of "Bridges TV" (intended to portray Muslims in a positive light) is charged with SECOND degree murder for the BEHEADING of his wife.

Question 1: how is beheading a Second-degree offense?
Question 2: how will this portray Muslims in a positive light?
Question 3: how does this happen in BUFFALO?
h/t SmallDeadAnimals

4)Steyn Testifies against the Police-state behaviour of the Ontario Human Rights commissions before the Ontario Legislature. Embarrassed them by enumerating their violations of both Canadian and International laws.

Also on Levant's site, why you can't legislate "nice". (spoiler: Germany had hate-speech laws)

5) Nuclear subs collide.

The "Messianic" Administration...

Let's tally the score so far in Obama's reign of hopenchange.

Jesus: "But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."*

Obama: leads the party that will prohibit renovation funding from the Bailout largess designated for school renovation from "being spent on facilities that allow 'religious worship.'" * [i.e., let the children come to the State, not God.]

Although Islam does have something parallel: [9:29] You shall fight back against those who do not believe in GOD, nor in the Last Day, nor do they prohibit what GOD and His messenger have prohibited, nor do they abide by the religion of truth - among those who received the scripture - until they pay the due tax, willingly or unwillingly. [Emphasis is mine.] This verse is part of the rationale for what is now called Dhimmitude*, the system of rules cultures conquered by Islam must strain under. They may not, for example build or repair places of worship.*

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Jesus says you will ask in my Name*

Judges have ruled, you may not ask.*

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Japanese company says "go home and have children"... *
...as a solution to a national crisis.

Pelosi suggests culling American children...*
... as a solution to a national crisis.

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Obama promises to help Africa...
...by helping broker peace in violent hotspots?*
...by standing in opposition to slave trade?*
...increased AIDS support?*

Nope, it's...
... access to abortion! *

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I submit to you that this administration's attitude toward the unborn is not just short-sighted, it is implicitly racist*!

Forget for a moment that we're on the brink of having retirees exceed workers. We do NOT want to create a standard of retirement rate exceeding birth rate. It's unsustainable. That logic, apparently is less than crystal-clear to these ideologues.

What is the stated goal? To relieve, according to Pelosi, the financial burden the child would place upon the State.

Who is the burden? The wealthy? The middle class? No, surely their taxes will more than offset their consumption.

Therefore, the ones they mean to cull (and I do not use that word lightly) are the poor. Eugenics did not die off with the collapse of Hitler's Germany, it is alive and well in American social policy. Which ethnic groups, statistically*, are considered most likely to be impoverished? Is this trend evenly distributed, or are there some ethnicities with a higher per-capita birth rate and lower per-capita income. Of course, you already know the answer.

If you still aren't sure, the same group receiving this funding in Africa.

Fortunately, Pelosi's policy proposal did not prevail.
Unfortunately, the African one did.