fredag, juli 16, 2010

Mad Priest's Thought For the Day.

Having seen the lives of so many ordinary, good people ruined by it, I have come to the conclusion that, after rape, the most harm you can do to another person is to make them redundant. If the churches of the world really want to do some something to strengthen the institution of marriage they should preach against this casual evil, now endemic throughout the world, as it screws up relationships and takes children away from parents more effectively than anything else other than, maybe, sexual unfaithfulness. Yet, although the churches, without any proof to back their claims, are prepared to condemn same sex love as being the cause of the weakening of heterosexual marriage, you rarely hear a preacher condemning the discarding of human livelihood, worth, health and happiness by the hatchet men of capitalism. This failure to condemn is rendered even more evil and downright blasphemous by the fact that the prophets and the lawmakers of the Old Testament made it patently obvious, over and over again, that the welfare of servant and worker was right up near the top of the list of stuff considered extremely important by God.

Pinched from Mad Priest's Blog on the right.

Click on the headline, if you like.

onsdag, juli 14, 2010

Archbishop Orombi's message to the Nation.

I learned, with great shock, of the bomb blasts that went off at Kyadondo Rugby Club and Ethiopian Restaurant in Kabalagala, killing and injuring many innocent people who had converged to watch the World Cup Final on Sunday night.

As a result, there is a spirit of gloom and doom over the city of Kampala and the people of Uganda. Many people are bereaved; parents and children have been separated; brothers and sisters, lovers and friends are all feeling a great sense of loss and there is great pain.

This act of malice and hatred towards mankind is completely ungodly, especially towards innocent and unsuspecting persons. I condemn this act in the strongest terms possible and hope to see the perpetrators of this hideous crime brought to justice.

In the mean time, I call upon each one of us to desist from anger and revenge; this will only perpetuate the pain we already feel. Revenge is not a solution and neither is a sectarian approach to this problem helpful.

Let us instead now focus our energies on being a part of the fight against terrorism in our country. Each one of you can use your eyes as a great weapon to fight this evil. Even as we do so, let us not breed unnecessary suspicion against one another but instead seek for the common goal of a peaceful and just society. Remember a peaceful society is the right of every one regardless of their age, race, gender or religious inclination.

It may cost this nation a lot to try and be a good neighbour to the Somalis who are struggling to have a governable nation.

To the bereaved, I extend my sincere condolences. We share in your pain and wish you God’s comfort during this difficult time.

And to the entire nation, I ask you to fix your eyes on the cross of Jesus. The cross is a reminder of human cruelty to an innocent person; the agony of pain He went through enables Him to share in our pain as well. He had to pay a price for us to receive our freedom. The blood of the Ugandans spilled on Sunday will bring to Ugandans peace.

Perpetrators may not know what they are doing but Jesus prayed a powerful prayer, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” Yet with this blood on their hands, the Righteous God will be the one to avenge our cause while human justice will also take its course.

For indeed our help comes from the Lord as Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

I pray for the President, his Cabinet, the Members of Parliament, the Police and all Security Agencies as they address this challenge. May God’s wisdom direct you and give you victory over the enemies of our people. And may Ugandans remain united during such a trying time.

The Peace of God be over this nation now and forever.
For God and my country!

The Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi
Archbishop of the Church of Uganda and Bishop of Kampala Diocese

From the News Service of the Anglican Communion Official Web Site. (Click on the head line)

Remark: This is a good message, even excellent. But I find it the message of a Politician, not a Bishop.

lördag, juli 10, 2010

Hierarchy

"God is the foundation, who gave us Reason before he gave us Scripture, and when the written word was shown to be plainly insufficient, gave us the living Word of his son Jesus Christ." Tobias S. Haller BSG

lördag, juli 03, 2010

Why Abomination Is An Abomination.

Under the headline is an article in Religion Dispatches by Jay Michaelson of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on the byn now habitual English language translation of toeva, Greek bdé-lygma, as abomination. He talks of it as an error in the KJV (1611/1783) but what he does not mention is that it comes from the great Scholastic changes perpetrated on the very reliable Old Latin translation (2nd century North Africa ff) in Paris by the pupils of Peter Lombard (+1162), the so called Versio vulgata parisiensis.

Kaì metà ársenos ou koimäthäsä koítän gynäkeían, bdélygma gár estí; And with man don't lay in bed of wife, X it is, became Cum masculo non commiscearis coitu femineo, quia abominatio est;
With a man don't commit female "bedding", for it is an abomina-tion.

Incidentally, coitu (here rendered as "beddings") although well known from medical Macaroni, is a word that doesn't exist. It has been invented and put in the place of the Wife's Bed (the only bed there was in a Household in Antiquity) probably by the Versio vulgata people, to suggest sexual commerce. It is false.

The only current translation to retain the Bed is the 1956 Bible de Jéerusalem of the French Dominicans...

The obvious that 3 in a bed is one too many, was turned into the Socio-Political propaganda of the Scholastics. The aim was, of course, not to persecute the minority, but the Majority. Crowd control.

Koimäthäsä; lay, sleep even die, was turned into an abstract: commit, and gynäkeian; of wife into despective female/womanly - and, of course, toeva into devaluing abomination...

Dr Michaelson concludes "Personally, I like “taboo” as a replace-ment. It conveys the culturally relative nature of toevah, has some connotation of foreignness, and rightly aligns the taboo against homosexuality with taboos against, for example, eating unkosher food. It also has a vaguely archaic feel, which it should. Admittedly, “taboo” began as tabu, and specifically refers to a particular concept in Pacific indigenous religion; it is a bit inexact to import it to Judaism and Christianity. Yet the word has, by now, entered the common parlance, and in that general sense, it matches toevah fairly well. (Alternatively, we could stick with the Hebrew term, the foreignness of which heightens the foreignness of the biblical concerns about homosexuality.) One thing remains clear, though: what’s really abominable here is the word “abomi-nation” itself."

Click on the headline!