Lake Shastina is a little hole in the wall community northeast of Weed, California and south of the Oregon border. The area is full of old hippies from the 1960’s (and their descendants) and also a mix of farmers and people once associated with the logging industry. It is an eclectic mix of folks.
Lake Shastina
Lake Shastina finds itself in the news because the Truth is offensive to those that choose to embrace lies. In this case, a local church has put up a sign that has got a few pagans and Liberals up in arms. The purpose of such signs is twofold, give information about what the church is doing or what they believe—commonly called outreach. In this instance the Church sign reads:
Bruce Jenner is still a man Homosexuality is still a sin The culture may change but the Bible does not
The church’s pastor, Justin Hoke, said he expected “flack” regarding the sign’s message, but believes it is poignant because it “rebukes sin” and calls people to repentance. “It is not possible to preach the gospel in short pithy statements. I have used this sign for seven years now to provoke reflection or make a strong point about a single truth,” Hoke wrote on Facebook. “Such as this one: ‘The culture does not determine truth, God does.’ … The funny thing is, I could have put those words up and no one would have cared. Why? Because it does not rebuke sin or call anyone to repentance. The church has lost its saltiness and I fully expect to get as much or more flack from the visible church as I am getting from the world.” In that same Facebook thread, Hoke posted, “The response we’re receiving from this sign proves that it was posted way too late. If a conservative mountain farming community is no longer a safe place to call sin, sin, then is anywhere in this country still safe for real Christians?”
One protester, worried about what the church message conveys to youth, described the sign as “an amplified voice telling [those youth], ‘You’re wrong.’”
All three propositions are true so what’s the issue? Oh yeah, this is California so I guess I do have to defend each just because…
Statement One Bruce Jenner is still a man. Here’s the offensive part, God made him a man. No manner how much Jenner has paid to have himself mutilated and pumped full of hormones, biologically and genetically he is still male.
That Jenner has mental and spirit problems is tragic. To be human is to be an image bearer of God. Jenner can’t hurt God so he attacks Him by attacking His image bearer, in this case himself. God is the primary victim of this and every crime, Jenner is a secondary victim to this rebellion.
Statement Two Homosexuality is still a sin. Homosexuality is not only a sin in both the Old and New Testaments, per Romans chapter one, it is a judgement upon men for exchanging the Truth of God for a lie.
Homosexuality was common in the period when the New Testament was written. If you look at Paul’s arguments in Romans, in chapter one he takes the Greco-Roman world to task for rejecting God and then in chapters two and three, he takes on the Jews of his day that think themselves religious and concludes that they too fall short of God’s standard. Toward the end of chapter three he concludes in verse 23:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God
As you continue reading, Paul lays out the case that we cannot save ourselves and only Jesus can save us. So while chapter one condemns homosexuality, the rest of the book presents the case that all people are sinners and need Jesus.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11, Paul points out “And such were some of you”. His point is God can save and redeem even the worst of us.
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Statement Three The culture may change but the Bible does not. God doesn’t change. You can look at creation and see that there was a designer (Romans 1) but to have a relationship with Him requires special revelation. God’s special revelation, the Bible, is the standard by which we are measured and as stated above, we all fall short. That doesn’t make His standard wrong, just us.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Hebrews 13:8
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Timothy 3:16 -17
The point is not to call everybody wrong but to call people to repentance. Repentance means that you are sorry for your sin; turn around, you’re going the wrong way.
Stop running from God but instead embrace Him. Jesus is the only way to the Father.
The church message is not a message of hate, it is a warning that people that are going the wrong way and that they need to repent.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Proverbs 14:12
Which is more loving, seeing someone heading straight to hell and say nothing or warn them to turn around before it’s too late.
Since tomorrow is Christmas, I thought readers might enjoy a glimpse into the life of Old Saint Nick.
Oh, and yes Virginia there really was a Saint Nick. He loved the poor and had no tolerance for corrupt politicians or heretics.
The history of Nicholas is blurry, but there are many legends associated with the man. Apparently, after his parents died, he inherited their fortune and chose to distribute it to the needy. Most famously, he lobbed bags of gold through the windows and down the chimneys of three sisters who had no dowry to allow them to marry. Soon, Nicholas became bishop of Myra, the city where he preached. Ted Olsen, assistant editor of Christian history at Christianity Today, wrote that “it wasn’t long before Diocletian and Maximian began their persecutions of Christians, and the new bishop was imprisoned.” However, when Constantine assumed emperorship, Nicholas was released with many other persecuted believers and he returned to preaching. After his release, Nicholas became a defender of the faith against Arianism, a heretical doctrine which asserted that Christ was not the Son of God, but a being nurtured by God the Father to the position of Son of God. Saint Nicholas reportedly traveled to the Council of Nicea and actually slapped Arius in the face in defense of the Gospel of Christ.
FYI: today we know the modern followers of Arius as Jehovah’s Witnesses. They claim Jesus was the greatest created being. In contrast, historic Christianity summarized by the Creed maintain that Jesus was, “begotten not made…”
When the first major heresy – the Arian Heresy – began to split the Christian Church, Constantine ordered all the bishops to go to Nicea to settle it, which they did by writing the Nicene Creed. The tradition is that St. Nicholas attended the Council of Nicea and was so upset at Arius for starting this heresy that he slapped him across the face. Evidently, Jolly Old St. Nick had a little temper! Nicholas preached against the sexual immorality Artemis or Diana fertility worship, as did the Apostle Paul according to the Book of Acts, chapter 19. The Temple to Diana at Ephesus was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, twice as big as the Parthenon in Athens, having 127 huge pillars – and temple prostitutes. It was the Las Vegas of the Mediterranean world. Nicholas’ preaching led the people of Myra to tear down their local temple to Diana. Shortly after, from the preaching of St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople (A.D. 397-403), the people tore down the temple to Diana at Ephesus. Nicholas confronted dishonest government politicians. One story was of a corrupt governor who was about to execute some innocent soldiers in order to cover up his misdeeds. Nicholas broke through the crowd, grabbed the executioner’s sword, threw it down and then exposed the governor’s evil plot. The governor, realizing that Nicholas had no way of knowing his plot except by insight from God, fell on his knees and begged Nicholas to pray for him.
Keith Green wrote a song many years ago (1978) Asleep in the Light. The song is an indictment of the Church, particularly in America:
The world is sleeping in the dark,
That the church just can’t fight,
’cause it’s asleep in the light!
How can you be so dead?!
When you’ve been so well fed
Jesus rose from the grave,
And you!
You can’t even get out of bed!
If there’s one thing that I have seen over-and-over in my lifetime, it’s that Christian people don’t care about the world around them as long as they are left alone. Like kicking the proverbial bee’s nest or waking the sleeping giant, occasionally those assaulting Christians get too bold and rouse folks from their pews just long enough to have them push back…for a while anyways.
You can go back to Moral Majority, Christian Coalition, Tea Party, Gary Bowers, Patrick J Buchannan, Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee, opposition to Common Core, and others. People will band together for a short period of time and then unilaterally surrender and go back to their lives of isolation. Back to their Christian Ghettos.
30 years ago, I was a member of Capital Christian Center in Sacramento. At this church of 6,000 folks, I got a copy of the Christian Yellow Pages. In it I learned that I could live practically my whole existence without ever having to interact with a pagan. We had the Christian car dealer, the Christian pizza parlor, Christian haircut place, Christian grocery store, Christian real estate, etc. The only folks missing from this book were the public utilities.
Steve Taylor pokes fun at this notion in his song, Guilty by Association (1984)
So you need a new car? let your fingers take a walk
through the business guide for the “born again” flock
you’ll be keeping all your money in the kingdom now
and you’ll only drink milk from a Christian cow
don’t you go casting your bread to keep the heathen well-fed
line Christian pockets instead–avoid temptation
guilty by association
(Please note: the Christian cow mentioned above is not Chick-fil-A)
So why am I dredging up this stuff today? Because of the super-secret meeting tonight in Elk Grove. Those of you that need to know were told via the grapevine.
Update 11/27/2018 Super Secret Meeting is now 12/10/2018 @ 7 PM Lifepointe Church, 10291 E. Stockton Blvd. 95624
The topic tonight is how to combat the new curriculum in the Elk Grove School District that promotes homosexuality in elementary schools. This exercise at tilting at windmills is brought to you by at least one local church and the Pacific Justice Institute.
While I agree that imposing San Francisco values on the rest of California is terrible, the truth is this ship sailed about a decade ago thanks to such luminaries as Mark Leno and Leland Yee. Where were you then?
Folks you had a few school board candidates two years ago that would have agreed with you on this issue but where were you then? The guys in your corner lost decisively.
How many people at tonight’s meeting voted a straight Democrat ticket three weeks ago? Two years ago? Ten years ago? Oh, truth is they probably didn’t even vote.
The truth is that these guys aren’t serious about anything except being left alone.
How many at tonight’s meeting will blame Common Core for this addition to the social studies curriculum? FYI it’s not, I had two different teachers look it up on the official Common Core website. This requirement is a Legislative amendment to the education code that was approved by the governor.
Folks you have my sympathy for the meeting tonight,
But only if your goal is to shine your light.
Vice President Mike Pence, right, prays with Rabbi Loren Jacobs, of Bloomfield Hills’ Congregation Shema Yisrael, for the victims and families of those killed in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, at a rally for Republicans in Oakland County, Monday, (Tanya Moutzalias / AP)
On Saturday, some nut killed a bunch of Jewish folks worshipping in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Today, Vice-President Mike Pence is in Detroit, Michigan holding a campaign rally for a Jewish Republican named Lena Epstein. The distance between the two cities is about 300 miles, hundreds of precincts, and at state or two.
Pence is an openly Christian man that attends Bible studies in the White House and is known to pray regularly. In the article below, Pence is getting slammed at a campaign stop for having the wrong kind of Jew pray at the campaign rally. Pence had Loren Jacobs pray twice at the rally, once in the beginning and again to close the campaign stop.
Please note that the article posted below is a new article and not and opinion piece.
Instead of opening up with prayers for the 11 Jews shot dead Saturday at the Tree of Life synagogue, Jacobs praised Jesus Christ and then offered prayers for four Republican candidates.
“I pray that you will enable Vice President Pence to fulfill his many and important responsibilities with excellence,” he added.
At the end of the rally, Pence, a devout Christian and hero of evangelicals, invited Jacob back to say a prayer for the victims as “a leader of the Jewish community here in Michigan.”
As you continue in the article then you get to the real rub, which is that Loren Jacobs is a Jew by upbringing and a Christian by faith.
“Messianic ‘Judaism’ is a branch of Christianity & offensive to the Jewish community. Lena Epstein knew this & so did Pence & his team. This wasn’t ecumenical; it was an insulting political stunt,” said Jason Miller, a Detroit rabbi, noting that there are more than 60 official rabbis in Michigan.
The “Messianic Judaism” movement promotes the conversion of Jews to Christianity. One group in the movement goes by the title “Jews for Jesus.”
The movement has the strong support of evangelical Christians, a corner stone of President Donald Trump’s and Republicans’ voter base.
Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow is a senior figure in the Messianic Jew movement.
Criticizing Jacob’s involvement in the rally, Danya Ruttenberg, a prominent young rabbi, blasted Pence as a “Christian supremacist.”
“Stop pretending and appropriating my people,” she wrote online.
The White House said Epstein was responsible for inviting Jacob to the event, and that the vice president “invited him back on stage to deliver a message of unity.”
In defense of the Vice-President I would like to ask the following:
How many Jewish Rabbis actually believe the Torah is the Word of God and authoritative in their lives?
How many Torah believing Rabbis are registered to vote as Republicans?
How many Torah believing Rabbis are willing to publicly endorse anyone or anything related to Donald Trump or Mike Pence?
How many did so during the 2016 election cycle?
How many of the above defined Rabbis live in Detroit?
Thus this article is utilizing a strawman argument as a pretext for bashing Christianity.
Oh, my Christian church prayed for the Jewish victims and their families at our Christian worship service the following day as did many millions of Christians across this nation and probably the world.
Those making sour grapes about Pence’s campaign stop are not Republicans and would never vote for the candidates that were on the stage. This article is a political hit piece crafted on the eve of a close election.
Last week while we were all distracted by the fake bombs sent via snail mail to various Democrat leaders, other things more significant were afoot elsewhere in the world.
It is part of the Ten Commandments. “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” Exodus 20:7
There is a little known movie about a man that is transported from 1890 to the present (ok 2002) and is shocked at what he sees. On the one hand, marvels of technology and on the other the decay in societal values. At one point he goes into a movie theater and hears God’s name used in vain. Shocked he runs out and complains to the first theater employee that he encounters. The guy selling soda and popcorn looks at him with a blank stare trying to figure out first what using the Lord’s name in vain even means and secondly why this guy is upset when people talk like that all the time.
The Irish constitution’s preamble still begins “in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity” and acknowledges “all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial.” Its text continues to read “the State acknowledges that the homage of public worship is due to Almighty God. It shall hold His Name in reverence, and shall respect and honor religion.”
While 20th century Ireland was a strongly Catholic society where lay political leaders implemented Catholic faith and morals as they perceived them, sometimes in close cooperation with Church leaders and other Catholic institutions, in recent decades the country has secularized.
While Ireland has higher Mass attendance rates than many traditionally Catholic countries in Europe, vocation numbers have plummeted and self-identified Catholics have dropped to 78 percent, according to the 2016 census, and almost one in ten now identify as having no religion.
The secularizing changes are attributed to scandals involving clergy sex abuse, other abuse in other Catholic-run institutions, as well as increasing affluence and influence from international corporations and NGOs.
Ireland’s long-standing pro-life constitutional protections were repealed in a May 2018 vote with over 66 percent voting in favor. In May 2015 Ireland became the first country to implement gay marriage by a popular vote, with 62 percent of voters backing the change.
Ireland is one of 71 countries where blasphemy is illegal.
After this weekend, now blasphemy is illegal in 70 countries because Ireland voted overwhelmingly to drop the prohibition from their constitution.
DUBLIN, Ireland – Exit polls indicated Irish voters were expected to repeal the Republic of Ireland’s constitutional prohibition against blasphemy, with close to 70 percent of voters backing the change in a Friday vote, the Irish Times has reported.
Catholic bishops did not put forward a defense of the law, though one Muslim leader spoke in its favor.
“The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law,” said the constitutional passage in question, which dates back to 1937.
As passed, the referendum would remove blasphemy from this list of offenses, and allow the Irish parliament to change laws penalizing blasphemy.
This continues a trend that Europe is moving away from any pretense of holding to its very deep rooted Christianity. However, this is not the end of blasphemy news last week. While Christianity has been further diminished, Islam has been elevated throughout the European Union by the European Court of Human Rights.
Europe’s ever-steady march towards illiberal, totalitarian nonsense continues apace. The European Court of Human Rights ruled this week that defaming the Prophet Muhammad is not protected speech. More specifically, the court said an “Austrian woman’s conviction for calling the prophet of Islam a pedophile didn’t breach her freedom of speech,” the Associated Press reported.
The ECHR explained in its ruling that Austrian courts had “carefully balanced her right to freedom of expression with the right of others to have their religious feelings protected.” The woman explained in 2009 during a seminar discussion that the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to a six-year-old girl was basically “pedophilia.”
“A 56-year-old and a 6-year-old? What do you call that? Give me an example? What do we call it, if it is not pedophilia?” she said.
The woman was charged and convicted by a Vienna court in 2011 of “disparaging religious doctrines.” The woman was ordered to pay a $547 fine, plus costs, the AP notes. An Austrian appeals court upheld the 2011 ruling.
On Thursday, the ECHR explained in its ruling that the Austrian court’s decision “served the legitimate aim of preserving religious peace.”
The seven-judge panel also argued in its ruling that there’s a difference between child marriage and pedophilia:
[B]y accusing Muhammad of paedophilia, the applicant had merely sought to defame him, without providing evidence that his primary sexual interest in Aisha had been her not yet having reached puberty or that his other wives or concubines had been similarly young. In particular, the applicant had disregarded the fact that the marriage with Aisha had continued until the Prophet’s death, when she had already turned eighteen and had therefore passed the age of puberty.
The recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (henceforth ‘the Court’), upholding Austria’s decision to charge somebody for insulting Islam, poses an interesting quandary to its regular critics.
On the one hand, it has upheld what a great many liberals and conservatives alike consider to be an absurdly restrictive judgement. It may not (quite, yet) have imposed an Europe-wide blasphemy law, as sometimes suggested, but it has upheld Austria’s.
But on the other, those whose overweening concern is with democratic accountability and national sovereignty, and therefore oppose the imposition of law by a transnational judiciary, cannot without great care demand that the Court ought to strike down Austria’s laws when we don’t like them.
Moreover, Scott argues that the Court is actually suggesting – at a time when blasphemy legislation is falling across the continent, most recently in Ireland – that signatories of the Charter have a duty to “criminalise “improper and abusive attacks” on objects of veneration”.
But in justifying their ruling the judges appear, if I read Scott’s analysis correctly, to be setting precedents which could well lead to impositions on other nations at a later date. If it becomes established that religious persons have a right not to be offended, it will fall on other states to uphold that right. Where Austria leads, other may have to follow.
Of course, Theresa May has backed away from her earlier enthusiasm for withdrawing from the authority of the European Court of Human Rights. But incidents such as this, where rights law starts metastasising and threatening to impose fresh obligations on democratic governments without any popular mandate, remind us why our relationship with it is something which future, post-Brexit governments may need to revisit.
Given the above events, when in Europe, you can blaspheme Jesus all you wish but to treat Mohammed the same way is to incur the wrath of the secular elites. Sadly, Mark Stein is vindicated once again in his prediction that it is an actuarial certainty that Europe will be Islamic in a few short decades.
About the time that my website went belly-up, I had just returned from seeing Glenn Kaiser in concert at a church in Modesto. I know Facebook gets a bad rap about conservative censorship, but thankfully Glenn is not on their radar (nor that he should be). I learned of the concert thru an ad on FB less than a week before the event.
Facebook Concert ad
After getting home from work on the appointed day, I loaded up the wife & son and headed to the concert.
The concert was advertised as free. In my experience, a “free concert” means that they pass the hat and give the proceeds to the performer. Assuming that was the case, I took some extra cash with me. One of the reasons that I mention this is that I never, ever carry cash with me. The second is that they never took up a collection. Not before, during, or after. There was a merchandise table after it was over but no cost, direct or indirect. I was shocked.
The concert was advertised as the doors opening at 6 PM and starting at 7. The seating was first come, first serve. We arrived from Elk Grove about 6:30. Because of our late arrival, I expected to be seated in the back third of the church. We were greeted by two people at the door and then hit the restrooms. After regrouping, we entered the church. Now this church was a “mega-church” by any standard and could seat close to 1,000 folks at a time. I was shocked that we were able to walk up to the front row and grab some seats. We asked the people around us just to make sure the seats we not taken. I was amazed yet again.
Glenn Started off doing a solo while playing the harmonica at the same time. I’ve never seen that done before. He then grabbed an instrument and played a few more songs. Then a band joined him. He never introduced them, so I don’t know if they were local musicians or came with him from Chicago.
Glenn Kaiser starts his concert with solo while playing harmonica
Glenn played a variety of instruments, several of which he made himself. This added a sense of authenticity that you will rarely see. Glenn has a history of doing rock music in the 1970’s thru 90’s but he gradually has shifted to play blues, and he has the vocal range to do it.
Cigar Box Guitar–perfect for the blues
His most well know instrument is a three-string cigar box guitar. He sells these on his website.
Glenn playing handball racket made into single stringed instrument
He explained that the people who originated the blues utilized any type of wire that they could fashion into an instrument because they could not afford to buy a premade one. Guitars such as his, washboards, bottles and many other things were converted to instruments.
Following the concert which was really good, Glenn stayed around for photos and to visit with folks. Some knew him from his days with Resurrection Band while others from more recent times. This man is the real deal.
I said hello and introduced him to my wife and son. I took the opportunity to thank him for a kindness that he did for me back in 1983 after I was robbed at gunpoint in Chicago. He personally saw to it that I got a ride back to the base (Great Lakes Navy Training Center) at the end of a concert that he was involved in.
Run to the Battle was a song by Steve Camp many years ago. To some extent, this is what we do here at Really Right.
Martin Luther famously said:
‘If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point?
We may not engage in every opportunity that we encounter, but overall, we try to make folks aware of what’s happening and what we think of it. Sometimes its like trying to grab a fist full of water. So much goes by without comment. Liberalism is a symptom of a spiritual disease that is toxic to everything it touches. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse the hearts of men. Giving men new hearts is God’s job, pointing out what folks without Him do is often what we do here.
The Catholic Church is suffering from a self-inflicted wound that it can’t cure. The peasants with pitchforks appear to have had enough. Here is one proposed solution.
The sex abuse scandal and its cover-up within the Catholic Church require solutions that the institutional Church will be incapable of achieving on its own.
But the more serious problem is that since Vatican II the Church has been AWOL on Biblically based Christian moral issues affecting the core family and its relationship to God. From marriage, divorce, same-sex relations, sex outside marriage, and the love respect between men and women according to God’s laws, the Church has abandoned its role of moral teacher and spiritual guide telling people where the ‘guardrails’ are.
The Church’s abandonment of focus on the central and natural institution of the family has been accentuated by Pope Francis’ attention to socialist, earthly issues. His progressive politics-overfamily approach is a symptom of the larger problems within the Church and its hierarchy.
No institution that is sick can cure itself, and the Catholic Church is grievously ill. Like any patient, the institutional Church must be a willing participant in the cure. But it will be up to the Catholic laity to administer the necessary fixes.
We join others who have already made the call for Pope Francis to resign, and ask you to do the same by clicking and signing this petition, which will be widely circulated to thousands of Catholic leaders including clergy, laity, and the media. While the Pope’s failures have been many, the flashpoint may be that he chose to ignore the warning issued by Apostolic Nuncio Carlo Maria Viganò about the pattern of sexual abuse under Archbishop McCarrick of Washington, D.C. Pope Benedict had demoted McCarrick. Ignoring the warning, Pope Francis chose to promote and insulate McCarrick, leaving the inescapable conclusion that the current Pope’s resignation is the only acceptable beginning of both the legal and spiritual remedies.
Blogger’s note:
I am disguising my identity due to my standing in a group that aids and assists the Catholic Church where I worship on Sundays due to my status as the 3rd highest ranking officer. The opinions in this blog represent one man’s experience and opinions, not those of the Blog Father or his other contributors. Additionally, some graphic nature of this blog may be disturbing to some of our readers, I apologize in advance.
When I was a young lad, I was brought into the church the old-fashioned way, I was forced to attend. While I was usually allowed to look at a picture book or sit and read the bulletin, I was a weekly attendee at every Sunday service. Mom insured that I was always dressed up as if I was going to the Oscar’s immediately afterward. Upon receiving the final blessing and going forth after the procession leaving church I was always told to say hello to the priest (or father) as they call them in the Catholic Church. I always complied and was very impressed with our priest. As a young lad I found it more interesting that this person said Mass every weekend, and always seemed to wear a different robe, and when he spoke everyone listened. Fr. Barry Brunswick always captivated the audience. The highlight of my Sunday as a 5-8-year-old was Fr. Barry saying make sure you go to the social hall and grab a donut; good boys get donuts for free.
Church for me as a young lad was like golf, many attended but few understood. I certainly didn’t, except for the whole “your sins are forgiven go forth” at the end of each Mass. I thought this was like a get out of jail free card, I was happy going to church each Sunday. Fr. Barry was eventually moved, the Catholic Church does this every 6 years or so, and as a result we found a new church to attend as we moved as well. I found out this past week a reason we moved was the priest incoming was transferred from Florida and had child molestation in his background.
As I grew I attended High School at Jesuit High in Carmichael, here in Sacramento County. I loved my time there, even more so I really grew to like my art teacher my freshman year Brother Charles Onorato. I couldn’t draw a stick figure very well, but Brother Onorato challenged me, and I grew better for it. Then everything changed, news of some Catholic Priests abusing young boys came out. I still remember our Pope saying it was a couple rogue priests and the problem was isolated, I believed it. Then one day Brother Onorato was not at class. We were told by the Dean of Students Karl “Hiel” Hanff he was removed due to accusations of him abusing young boys. I was devastated, like anyone would be. I figured Onorato was the least likely to be accused. As of this writing I am unsure if anything happened to him, and if anything did I don’t want to know, it would break my heart.
Brother Charles Onorato, whatever caused his removal at Jesuit High School, is still a Jesuit in good standing
Hundreds of priests were accused, rounded up, and shipped out, much like the Salem Witch Trials. I thought this was only a few rogue priests Mr. Pope? I questioned my own faith, these same people preaching from the pulpit about morality, and telling me not to lie….lied. They did not practice what they preached. I thought very long and hard about switching faiths, the Catholic Church was no longer for me.
Over time, the tragedy quieted down, and faded from the news, I didn’t leave the church, in fact I mistakenly became more involved. I rose through the ranks after just a few years and became the number 5 in command, I was required to attend a meeting put on by members of Supreme from Connecticut. At this meeting we were told EVERY MEMBER of our group would be required to do online training and get fingerprinted at our own expense and have the results turned over to the local church office to remain a member in good standing. Keep in mind the church office staff are not priests and would have access to anyone’s criminal record check. Several members asked why it was our group being singled out and not the actual priests who had a history of crimes in their past? We were told that issue is in the past and we could have members with child molestation in our ranks. So, we all had to pay for background checks, with our own money by the way. To this day I have not heard of a single member being thrown out due to any criminal past. Just as an addition, the Sacramento Diocese stretches from Sacramento County over to Nevada and all the way north to Oregon, one of the largest by land mass in the Catholic Church. The church is divided up into sub groups called diocese, run by the bishop.
The issue largely went silent and many, myself included were under the impression that the church had cleaned house and a new day was here. We were proven wrong. A bombshell report out of Pennsylvania alleges that over 70 years 300 catholic priests in 6 out of the 8 dioceses sexually abused over 1,000 victims. Even more disturbing is in that same grand jury investigation, priests and bishops urged victims not to report the abuse, and law enforcement not to investigate it. I guess the collar has a separate set of rules from the masses that attend church. Perhaps even more disturbing, the cover up was ordered by the archbishop of Pennsylvania, this person is akin to being Governor of a state, the top law enforcement officer. This report came out on the heels of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington DC resigning after reports surfaced he abused young priests, seminarians, and minors. Seminarians are those who are studying to become priests, apparently McCarrick didn’t discriminate age wise. The cardinals vote to pick the Pope by the way, you can see how powerful they are. Some of those named in this report not only avoided prosecution but they were promoted in the ranks. One of those bishops named is now the archbishop of the Washington DC diocese. One priest named, abused 5 sisters in the same family, including one when she was 18 months old. Luckily for most named in the report the statute of limitations has run out, so they will avoid any penance for their sins. This just in, the diocese has appealed to the 3rd Circuit to keep the names in the report sealed, so much for that whole transparency thing promised 15 years ago.
Now some excerpts from the report…again, these are very disturbing in nature:
“It catalogs horrific instances of abuse: a priest who raped a young girl in the hospital after she had her tonsils out; another victim tied up and whipped with leather straps by a priest; and another priest who was allowed to stay in ministry after impregnating a young girl and arranging for her to have an abortion.”
Abortion is a sin that the Catholic Church prays for an end to each week by the way.
“Despite some institutional reform, individual leaders of the church have largely escaped public accountability,” the grand jury wrote. “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades.”
The grand jury said that while some accused priests were removed from ministry, the church officials who protected them remained in office or even got promotions. One bishop named in the report as vouching for an abusive priest was Cardinal Donald Wuerl, now the archbishop of Washington. “Until that changes, we think it is too early to close the book on the Catholic Church sex scandal,” the jury wrote.
Here is a good one, on relocation…….brought to us by Cardinal Wuerl named above:
Father Paone was relocated successively to Los Angeles, San Diego and Reno in the following years, with Pittsburgh’s bishops attesting to his fitness as a priest. Among those bishops was Cardinal Wuerl, now the archbishop of Washington. He accepted Father Paone’s resignation from ministry in good standing in 2003, allowing him to collect his pension.
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, an architect of sexual abuse cover-up
Wuerl even nominated himself for sainthood prior to this report coming out, check this out:
Cardinal Wuerl released a letter to his priests on Monday, saying that while the grand jury report would be “critical of some of my actions, I believe the report also confirms that I acted with diligence, with concern for the survivors and to prevent future acts of abuse.”
This quote from a person who attempted to commit suicide due to abuse by a priest:
“From her hospital bed, she asked for one thing,” the grand jury wrote in the report, “that we finish our work and tell the world what really happened.”
Some victims were plied with alcohol and groped or molested, the report says. Others were orally, vaginally or anally raped, according to the grand jurors.
“But all of them were brushed aside, in every part of the state, by church leaders who preferred to protect the abusers and their institution above all.”
Among the more egregious cases, the grand jury reports that:
• In the Greensburg diocese, a priest impregnated a 17-year-old, forged a pastor’s signature on a marriage certificate and divorced the girl months later. According to the grand jury, the priest was allowed to stay in ministry by finding a “benevolent bishop.”
• Another priest in Greensburg groomed middle-school students for sex, according to the grand jury, by telling them that Mary had to “bite off the cord” and “lick” Jesus clean after the Nativity.
• In Harrisburg, a priest abused five sisters from the same family and collected samples of their urine, pubic hair and menstrual blood.
• Also in Harrisburg, a priest raped a 7-year-old girl who was in the hospital after her tonsils were removed, according to the report.
• In Pittsburgh, church officials said that a 15-year-old boy “pursued” and “literally seduced” a priest. A church report later acknowledged that the priest had admitted to “sado-masochistic” activities with several boys.
• In the Allentown diocese, a priest admitted sexually molesting a boy and pleaded for help, according to documents, but was left in ministry for several more years.
• Also in Allentown, a priest who had abused several boys, according to the grand jury, was given a recommendation to work at Disney World.
• In Scranton, a priest who later served prison time for abusing children was found to have been HIV-positive for years.
Tuesday’s news conference began with a short video of three victims who told how they were abused and how it changed their lives.
An 83-Year-Old Man Said He Couldn’t Show Any Affection To His Wife And Children As A Result Of The Abuse he suffered. A woman said the abuse started when she was 18 months old. Another man said, “When you have the priest touching you every day, that’s a hard memory to have. The first erection that you have is at the hands of a priest.”
Church officials followed a “playbook for concealing the truth,” the grand jury said, minimizing the abuse by using words like “inappropriate contact” instead of “rape”; assigning priests untrained in sexual abuse cases to investigate their colleagues; and not informing the community of the real reasons behind removing an accused priest.
“Tell his parishioners that he is on ‘sick leave,’ or suffering from ‘nervous exhaustion.’ Or say nothing at all,” the report said.
He said that the cover-up by senior church officials “stretched in some cases all the way up to the Vatican.”
In summary, it’s once again crisis time at the Catholic Church, and once again they proved they never learned from the past. Churches in Canada and the Midwest are closing at alarming rates, and no one seems to care. A weak-kneed email was sent to all members of the group I belong to saying anyone who has abused someone should be removed from public service……I guess the church feels priests are akin to a government worker. Removed from public service, like teachers who get put in a room and continue to accrue service time and when the time comes enjoy full retirement? The Blog Father and I agree on this; they should be defrocked and removed from the clergy permanently in shame. The cardinals elected a Pope who is nothing more than a weak-kneed social justice warrior who cares more about America accepting more immigrants than policing his own. He would rather look the other way and hope the issue blows over as opposed to taking a stand and saying there will be a worldwide review at every level of the church and no one is safe. However, he won’t do this, because sadly Catholicism has essentially become a multi-level marketing scheme, they care more about bringing in new members than retention or finding true believers. Try it for yourself, put a few dollars in the basket when it comes around and regardless of your views on marriage, abortion, or the death penalty they will accept you. Nebraska and Illinois have pending investigations and Australia apparently has a huge investigation into this…..buckle up folks this is going to get very ugly. Let priests get married you will find a better pool from which to pull from and these issues likely will not be as prevalent…..in the mean time I may be searching for a faith that actually practices what it preaches. I am embarrassed and upset about my own faith. They are led by weak kneed, spineless people who literally turned a blind eye to abuse of children, innocent young children.
Jake the Snake
Disclaimer: any resemblance to this author and some other guy named Jake is purely coincidental; furthermore, Jake is not related to the snake in the account of Adam and Eve.
I told you this is coming and here it is. Canada is a few years ahead of California in its moral decline and attacks on
Christianity—although we will pass them up soon.
I have said that the moral stands of Christians will either have to be done away with or that Christian Colleges will not
be allowed money for loans and graduates will not be allowed government jobs. In Canada, they are starting with a key
part of the government education system of denying accreditation if you don’t comply. Please note this has nothing to
do with academic standards or quality of education. This is a bald faced attack on religious freedom.
A Christian university in Canada has decided to eliminate its code of behavior – which had been mandatory – for students after a court ruling that a law society could deny its law-school membership because of the “discrimination” against LGBT students.
The Supreme Court of Canada, in a pair of 7-2 rulings, recent concluded that the law societies of British Columbia and Ontario could refuse accreditation to Trinity Western University’s planned law school because of the community covenant.
As a Christian institution, Trinity Western required students and faculty to abide by biblical boundaries on sexual behavior. The covenant also requires students to abstain from, among other things, fornication, obscene language, harassment, lying, stealing, pornography and drunkenness.
But now the board of governors has reviewed the situation, and issued the following conclusion:
“In furtherance of our desire to maintain TWU as a thriving community of Christian believers that is inclusive of all students wishing to learn from a Christian viewpoint and underlying philosophy, the Community Covenant will no longer be mandatory as of the 2018-19 academic year with respect to admission of students to, or continuation of students at, the university.”
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Paul of Tarsus letter to Romans ~55 AD
In the same vein of attaching Western Culture (Christianity), the state of California is considering purging all laws and regulations of gender pronouns referencing male and female because they offend folks that embrace morally deviant sexual preferences.
