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.*

-----

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! *

-----

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.

"You Could Grow Orchids in There" / That's not Leadership

President Obama, is a new brand type of leader. He is going to do things differently in Washington.

For example, he has decided to forgo the outmoded tradition of entering buildings through doors.

(Oval office, no less. Photo here. Might I remind everyone that there was recently a "door photo" that embarassed Bush. Difference was, Bush was trying to open a locked DOOR, -- pictured in the same link.)

But that's just an aside. The REAL story is here:

The Obama that waxed eloquent only last May about the need to change our habits:

We can't drive our SUVs and, you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times, whether we're living in the desert or we're living in the tundra, and then just expect every other country is going to say OK, you know, you guys go ahead keep on using 25 percent of the world's energy, even though you only account for 3 percent of the population, and we'll be fine. Don't worry about us. That's not leadership.
-[Emphasis is mine. The oratory is, you know, simply breathtaking.]

Is the same Obama that was seen without his jacket, at his first day of work in the Oval Office.

Is it because he was working THAT HARD for the little guy? Was it to put other staffers at ease with a less formal atmosphere?

Nope.

Here his advisor explains:

WASHINGTON — The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat. “He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.

Hey Mr. President. To quote no less an authority than yourself:

"We can't ... keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times... That's not [you know] leadership."

You can't really argue with yourself, now, can you?

You being that all-new-and-different-sort-of-leader would NEVER demand that we do as you Say, not as you Do...

Right...?

Going in for the Cull

What do the following stories have in common?

Miracle on the Hudson

60,000 Turkeys Culled in BC

Food Bank Donations Way Down

Here's a hint:

Miracle on the Hudson -- Bird strike thought to be the culprit.
60,000 Turkeys culled -- Due to Threat of Avian flu.

We have, in Canadian cities, a classic case of a problem becoming a solution. But is the Canadian psyche ready to seriously consider it?

The Canada goose!

Early reports suggested that the Canada goose may have brought down the Airbus A320 -- a plane able to survive impacts with smaller birds.

If 60,000 domesticated turkeys pose a risk of Avian Flu transmission, (despite the fact that they are not mobile and are restricted to decidedly rural areas), what risk do the clouds of wild Canada Geese that crowd our cities pose? They have none of the limitations of movement that domesticated birds have, and (worse) they can congregate in densely populated areas.

If the true fear is that H5N1 Avian Flu is transmitted to the human population, should this not be a concern? In Ottawa, alone, some of the parks are often unfit for use -- Andrew Haydon Park, for example -- due to the tremendous quantity of droppings left by the geese.

A quick visit to the CDC page on Avian Influenza shows that it is transmitted by "...direct or close contact with H5N1-infected poultry or H5N1-contaminated surfaces." The virus is carried in "their saliva, nasal secretions, and feces."

It doesn't require much imagination to see how a large, mobile population of waterfowl in a major population center, gathering in (and fouling) a shared space that people use for recreation could quickly become a problem if Avian Flu were to cross into the goose population.

The Food bank, naturally, enters into this in two ways.

1) A problem.
With the culling of Turkeys, basic economics will tell you that the costs of the meat will rise. Thus, the ability of the food bank to purchase quality food will be affected. Not welcome news in this period of layoffs and uncertainty.

2) The solution!
We begin to cull the numbers of the bird populations to more limited numbers, and use the meat (perhaps even the feathers) to supply organizations that support the most needy in our society.

Everybody wins!

And maybe the next time you fly, you won't have to cross paths with a flock of them.

Climate Change Cult Update

Poor Al Gore.

The weather just doesn't like to cooperate with his speeches.

It seems he may have to call off his Senate F0reign Relations Committee meeting.

He won't be able to warn of the dire consequences of Global Warming (the cultists want you to say 'climate change' now because it's more difficult to refute generic change). There is a Winter Storm Watch in effect in DC. (h/t Drudge)

To twist the knife a little, here are some other related headlines currently on the BBC "Latest Headlines" feed:

Tough Love for Car Industry (Obama is throwing the US automakers under the bus in favor of "green" policy.) Reducing emissions by closing factories, Barry? Your union backers are going to be awfully put-out.

'Climate Hope' in Economic Plans

[Funny, hope was once a firm thing, anchored in a future event in which one had confidence. You know, like the hope students have that "Spring Break" is coming, if they can just hang on until then, or like children anticipating Christmas morning.]

I especially like the confidence they place in off-setting. It allows you to pay someone else to do the "right thing" (by somebody's definition) while letting you continue to do the 'wrong thing' with a clean conscience. Call it eco-indulgences where once the coin rang in the coffer to spring souls from "purgatory" (And it took a certain German monk to undo that mess...)

Entire nations can do the moral equivalent by buying potentially fraudulent carbon off-sets. (There was a clever parody of this scheme, paying someone else to be true to their spouse, so you could cheat on yours. If it doesn't make sense for marriage...)

But wait, just when we are told to have hope in the change that we are hoping will change us and the world that so desperately needs us to stop changing it -- or something -- we are left with another report. Global Warming is Irreversible. But, what about all the hope the previous stories about the socialist solutions were supposed to fill me with? It's futile, but we have hope anyway? That's settled science for you!

[Breaking: Germany to dump 6 tonnes of Iron Sulphate into the South Atlantic to "help stop Global Warming." That's Iron and Sulphur. Sin Tonnes of Iron and Sulphur into the Ocean! Hey Germany, there's a story about an old woman who swallowed a fly. There's a moral to it. Look it up!]

Just to round things out:

SNOW IN UNITED ARAB EMIRATES! (UAE is experiencing snow for only the Second time in their history!)

I'm sure the fact the the world in presently in a cooling trend, that the other planets in our solar system are also in cooling trends, and we are experiencing unusually low solar activity has NO bearing on the convictions of the eco-cult demanding we be penitent for our sins.

We must Propitiate Gaia's wrath, after all.

Web at a glance

Here are a number of interesting posts that are worth looking at...

Right on top:

The terrorists are getting better at killing... themselves. =)

- Palestine violence continues... but now how you think. Palestinian Torture in Schools and Hospitals (Hamas vs Fatah). Much hand-wringing over how to blame this on Israel, presumably.

Similarly, here in Canada: a picture with a little girl holding up hate signs. thank-you Small Dead Animals.

- On Journalists and their criminal behaviour... (Which prompts me to ask: why are people given so much press when charged, but so little when they are acquitted or convicted? Doesn't that hurt presumption of innocence?)

- Obligatory Obama references, since he was sworn in yesterday:
- The "prayer" (or, rather, soliloquy) offered by Gene Robinson to a "god of our many understandings"... blah, blah, blah in an official Obama function. Funny, this guy ratcheted the politics up a few notches. Almost as if his primary audience was PEOPLE, not God. Seems he and I have differing understandings about the definition and function of "prayer".
- Comment on the comparison between President (I guess I have to use that title now, don't I) Obama and the heroic pilot who made the NYC water landing.
- The Star puts out a rant about swooning Journalists as they cover the rise of Obama
- The spin as Obama's speech is reported (Little Green Footballs).

Closer to home:
Income splitting as a Canadian Stimulus package suggestion.
Polygamy: the next national debate?
Ezra Levant on Maher Arar (one) and (two), be sure to check out his positions on the hate marches in Calgary while you're there.