eChurch Blog

David over at MediaWatchWatch has the following story:

A Galician satirical magazine has been “kidnapped” by its printers because they disagree with it making fun of the Pope and the Church.

The special issue of Retranca was meant to coincide with the Pope’s visit to Santiago de Compostela, but the printers took offence and refused to release it for distribution, citing their “moral disagreement” with its contents.

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It would seem the impending visit to Spain by the Pope is causing as much chagrin as preceded the UK visit. Only yesterday Fr Stephen Smutts noted a ‘demonstration’ that is planned, wherein, hundreds of gay people will kiss each other in front of the Pope when he visits Spain next month.

I hope the Pope’s visit to Spain will be as marvelous, encouraging and successful as his UK visit, despite the antagonists.

Interesting to see the Vatican attempt to intervene in the case of former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz.

Tariq is a Chaldean Catholic and yesterday the Iraqi high court sentenced him to death by hanging for his part in the persecution of Shiite Muslim dissidents.

Here’s what the Vatican said:

“The position of the Catholic church on the death penalty is well known. It’s hoped, therefore, that the sentence against Tariq Aziz will not be executed, precisely in order to favor reconciliation and the reconstruction of peace and justice in Iraq after the great sufferings it has experienced.”

“Regarding a possible humanitarian intervention, the Holy See is not accustomed to operate in a public fashion, but through the diplomatic means at its disposal.”

So the Vatican will attempt to use diplomatic channels to intervene in this case.

Archbishop Cranmer has picked up on this and leans toward pro-execution in this particular case and concludes with:

If Mr Aziz be a Christian, shall we let God be the judge?

David over at Anglican Samizdat also tackles the issue of the death penalty albeit in a different case, namely, that of the murderer Russell Williams. David notes the general arguments against the death penalty as follows:

To kill someone is always wrong. It is difficult to maintain this pacifist position without hypocrisy while living in a society whose order and well-being are maintained by force or the threat of force.

To kill someone to punish them for murder makes the state as bad as the murderer. If that were true, the state could not imprison kidnappers or use force at all to maintain order since it would always be as bad as the criminal.

From a Christian perspective, to kill someone gives them less time to repent and turn to Christ. Alternatively, as Dr. Johnson noted, the threat of one’s imminent demise serves to concentrate the mind, so it could lead to accelerated repentance.

Capital punishment is not a deterrent. The original article addresses this to some extent. Common sense would tell us that insofar that any punishment is a deterrent against crime, the ultimate punishment for the ultimate crime should be more of a deterrent than imprisonment.

Capital punishment is wrong since human life is sacred. True, but if capital punishment is a deterrent, it would save lives and protect the innocent.

Capital punishment is irreversible. True; and the impossibility of correcting a mistake is one of the few convincing arguments against capital punishment.

David concludes:

Temporal justice has always seemed to me to be tinged with fraudulence; as Pascal noted, “if magistrates had true justice, and if physicians had the true art of healing, they would have no occasion for square caps; the majesty of these sciences would of itself be venerable enough”. Nevertheless, if temporal justice has any meaning, I find it hard to see how someone like Russell Williams should not be put to death.

It was a year ago that a surprising Premier survey revealed that over half of British people think the death penalty should be re-introduced.

Today the death penalty is headline news in the UK following the execution of Jeffrey Landrigan in the US state of Arizona. It transpires that the sodium thiopental used for the execution came from the UK.

So, what do you think, are you for or against the death penalty?

With the ‘Swavesey’ Christian Gypsies hitting the news during the summer and the conversation that ensued here on this blog, I found this Christian Today article of some interest and thought you might too.

In deporting thousands of Roma, or Gypsies, to Romania and Bulgaria this summer, France polarized the European Union and focused continent-wide attention on the ethnic minority known for its centuries-old story of discrimination. Fewer know how far the gospel is spreading among them.

“Most people still hate Gypsies, especially in France,” said John Boyd, a Roma pastor who works with Light and Life, an international Assemblies of God ministry by and for Roma. “[Yet] revival hasn’t stopped. God is calling Gypsies all around the world.”

Pentecostalism has spread throughout the worldwide Roma community since the early 1950s. France, the source and center of the main movement, has over 200,000 Pentecostals among perhaps 500,000 Roma, according to Thomas Acton, a professor of Romani studies at the University of Greenwich. Missionary efforts among Roma continue to be fruitful.

In the United Kingdom, Boyd and his fellow ministers host tent missions where groups of Roma converge in a field to hear preaching and teaching. “This summer has been exceptional,” he said. “In eight weeks we’ve seen about 300 people come to faith in Christ.”

Such gatherings still attract controversy. One of Boyd’s meetings near Cambridge this summer made national headlines. Newspapers featured local residents complaining about the Roma presence and making the same accusations of theft and disruption levied at Roma throughout the centuries. The Daily Mail reported that a local pub barred the outsiders.

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I’ve got to cross post this important article from David over at Anglican Samizdat, detailing the crucial work of the The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba:

Anglican Archbishop calls for transparency on toilets

From here:

The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba has joined the call for the City of Cape Town to release an internal report on the Makhaza toilet saga.

Last week, members of the Social Justice Coalition marched to the Civic Centre and demanded to see the report into the construction of the open air toilets.

“I believe that transparency is fundamental to building trust. Withholding information is guaranteed to undermine that information,” he added.

David comments:

One can only hope that the Social Justice departments of Anglican Churches everywhere are inspired by this effort and mount their own campaigns for Waste-Justice.

Indeed David, we can only hope!

Is this going too far?

Independent

British women who want to terminate a pregnancy are being confronted by Christian protesters picketing abortion clinics, in a copy of tactics used by hardcore anti-abortionists in the US.

A Texas-based religious group, which has support and funding from hundreds of American churches, has been holding protests outside Marie Stopes House in central London, one of Britain’s first modern abortion clinics.

It is the first time that the group – called 40 Days for Life – has targeted an abortion clinic in mainland Britain.

“Pro-choice” campaigners say pickets place unfair pressure on women at a vulnerable time in their lives. They accuse fundamentalist Christians of blocking pregnant women as they try to enter abortion clinics and providing them with misleading leaflets that over-exaggerate the medical risks of terminating a pregnancy. Clinic staff told The Independent that 40 Days for Life had filmed some women and employees walking into the clinic.

The “pro-lifers” counter that their protests are simply peaceful “prayer vigils” to provide women with support and information on alternatives to terminating their pregnancy. Campaigners are holding a planned 40 days of protests, picketing clinics in 218 US cities, as well as in Australia, Denmark, Canada and Northern Ireland. The protest at Marie Stopes House was due to enter its 35th day today.

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Only last week the Lausanne congress was hit by a deliberate malicious Internet attack and now Catholic Online are reporting:

WE WERE HIT, AND HIT HARD BY CYBER TERRORISTS!  Catholic Online experienced a deliberate and sophisticated cyber terrorism attack. We are attacked frequently.  However, this time, a malicious code was deliberately and fraudulently sent into the ad servers through third party software by very sophisticated cyber terrorists intent on shutting Catholic Online down. It was not an “internet hack” for fun but cyber terrorism to destroy!  The perpetrators targeted the articles on Catholic Online and the operational integrity of the ad servers. They do not like what we are writing.

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Backup and backup religiously folks!

I’m sickened to my stomach that the coalition government wants to sell off half the Forestry Commission land, aka, our beautiful ancient forests converted to private ventures like logging, golf courses and holiday parks.

In doing this they hope to raise 1 billion pounds and some have it as low as 250 million pounds.

And this is not the first time the Tories have tried this little trick.

In the meantime, 2 billion pounds has been set aside to bloody snoop on our web activites.

I’m sick of this government already.

There is a Facebook campaign and petition for your to sign.

Hat-tips: Connexions & Methodist Preacher

Original Source: Glitter-Graphics.com

That’s roughly 30% of the world’s population online by the end of the year according to this article.

Adrian Warnock notes:

We simply cannot afford to neglect the medium of the Internet as Christians.

Indeed.

The motto of the Carthusians is:

Stat crux dum volvitur orbis

Latin for:

The Cross is steady while the world is turning

Amen