Witness this atrocity: Link

Return fire!

Read this:

What I think is missing is any clear Gospel proclamation on the part of the Pope. Of course he wants to increase the rapidly dwindling ranks of his own church, what leader would not want to do that? But is the building up of a church on the basis of hatred consistent with Jesus’ message? Is the idea “If you hate gay people and women, then come join us” one Benedict really wants to support? Or is this gesture likely to become, as I suspect, a tremendous embarrassment to present and future generations of Roman Catholics? Jesus Christ’s message about love and acceptance of all seems to have been somehow overlooked by the Holy Father.

Is this statement from:

A.) Your typical forum troll.
B.) “Some midnight madman with a saliva-bespattered keyboard venting into the comboxes.”
C.) “the considered opinions, purportedly, of a sitting bishop in a mainline Christian denomination”

Amazingly, the answer is C.

Hat tip to Diogenes with full entry here.

Progressives will often let inconvenient truths slip out when they are too busy grandstanding to notice:

The story:

In a Q&A with Details magazine, the openly gay ‘Lord of the Rings’ star admits to a habit of tearing out the Bible passage that condemns homosexuality — Leviticus 18:22 — every time he finds one in his hotel room. The passage: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” “I’m not proudly defacing the book,” he asserts, “but it’s a choice between removing that page and throwing away the whole Bible.”

Get that? Sir Ian is tacitly admitting that the Bible does indeed condemn homosexual acts in the face of the endless parade of progressive theologians who twist themselves into pretzels insisting it doesn’t. Congratulations and thanks for the help Sir!

we should take nominations for the Sour Grapes Award. In the meantime always remember:

Keeping silent may ultimately not save you, but if you open your mouth, the hammer will come down:

A Massachusetts man was fired from a national retail corporation because of his traditional beliefs on same-sex marriage. Peter Vadala was formally dismissed from his job as second deputy manager of the Brookstone store at Boston’s Logan Airport on August 12, 2009, after a supervisor reported him to Human Resources regarding an incident two days earlier.

As Peter described the incident (see video above), he came to work on August 10 and began his day normally. A female manager from another store was in the store and began talking to Peter about her upcoming marriage. When Peter asked “where is he taking you for the honeymoon,” she corrected him and said she was not getting married to “he” but to another woman.

Peter did not immediately react, but when the manager sensed Peter’s discomfort with the subject of same-sex “marriage”, the woman apparently continued bringing it up to Peter throughout the day, reiterating that she was getting married to another woman. Finally, after the fourth or fifth time she brought it up, Peter remarked that his Christian beliefs did not accept same-sex marriage. At that point the woman became very angry and bluntly told Peter that he needed to “get over it” and said that she would be immediately contacting the Human Resources department.

From Gateway Pundit:

The leader of Planned Parenthood in College Station, Texas left her post after watching the ultrasound of an abortion procedure. Abby Johnson told reporters that Planned Parenthood changed it’s business model from one that pushed prevention, to one that focused on abortion.

video: http://www.kbtx.com/video/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=4262930&flvUri=&thirdpartymrssurl=

Hat tip LarryD

Several blogs like Catholic Key have the story. In short, the media can’t report on religion without going into ZOMGRAWR!11! mode.

For a sensible view of Halloween, try Erin Manning at And Sometimes Tea:

Secular celebrations are just that: secular. And sometimes that’s just fine–no one expects to have to infuse the Independence Day barbecue and fireworks ritual with a narrative about how Independence Day is a foreshadowing of our independence from sin, and the fireworks are reminders of the brevity of life and how all that is beautiful eventually becomes ash, and the barbecue is an example of hope, because we sure hope the guy in charge of the grill is using a meat thermometer instead of just guessing when the food is done…This is not, of course, to say that there’s no place for prayer, for faith, at an Independence Day barbecue; it just means we don’t have to try to turn a purely secular event into an adopted Catholic holiday, when that is simply not what it is.

Update: Commentor “stef” sends along this link, which shows this is old hat being recycled.

Torchlight returns to the Diablo well and wisely refuses to mess with the formula.

The cantankerous Robert Fripp once said that when a musician talks about “expressing himself” you know it’s going to suck. Likewise, when a game is touted as “creative”, “innovative”, or “groundbreaking” I can safely bet that what it means is that the creators have gone in for cheap novelty or desperate experimentation that does nothing for the core game.

So now that Diablo 3 is in the works, some in the gamesphere note the return of the Barbarian from D2 and that the other characters are remakes of previous ones and are asking where the creativity is. I respond like many others, that there are only so many character archetypes out there, and when game developers stray too far from these, they end up with mediocre filler. Rather, I would admonish Blizzard to stick to the philosophy that has made them what they are: Forget what you think other people want, forget vague appeals to creativity, just stick to this one question: what game do I, the developer want to play? Then go and make that game and the rest of us will vote yea or nay with our dollars.

Of course the game is a loooong way off. They say if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. Likewise, if you want to make a gamer laugh, tell them Blizzard’s release date. In the meantime, for a modest $20 there is the downloadable and computer requirement-friendly Torchlight, made by creators from the original Diablo and its sequel. It is a Diablo clone mind you (except a little more cartoonish like World of Warcraft), but sometimes I just want a straight-forward dungeon crawler, and Torchlight fills the bill nicely.

LarryD exposes the plot!: The website of the American Catholic Council:

Inclusivity

Those involved from the beginning have been acutely aware that our statement of inclusivity has not been reflected in the reality of participation. Approaches to others have not produced an ACC planning committee which is representative of many potential constituencies. However, we have attracted representatives of women’s groups and others involved in specific reform agendas such as optional celibacy, women’s ordination, GLT, peace activism, protection of children from abuse—and organizations with broader agendas such as ARCC, VOTF, CTA and FutureChurch. This must remain an ongoing process—as we ask ourselves regularly: who else should be working with us and sharing ideas with us?

But hang on there. This isn’t just the usual inclusivity we klatch about at Panera Bread with our Mac computers. This is Double-Sekrit s00per-concentrated inclusivity: “We have committed to radical inclusivity”.

But read carefully this sentence: “Ultimately, the only pre-requisites to “membership” and “participation” were (1) commitment to the principles of Vatican II (i.e. the rights and responsibilities of all the baptized) and (2) a willingness to participate in the process.*”

What’s that asterick you ask?:

* This qualification decision was made to ensure that groups committed to a pre-Vatican II restoration of a clerical, hierarchical Church or who rejected the roles and responsibilities of all baptized did not attempt to co-opt or abort the Council. We realized that the importance of Vatican II was often lost on Catholics born after the 1950s—but we decided that we could articulate the principles of Vatican II without focusing on the Vatican Council itself.

Ohh that wonderful inclusivity.

Chris Johnson of MCJ rips James Carroll a new one in a fisk of the latter’s bemoaning of the fact that the project to Episcopalize the Catholic Church has been set back decades. Sample:

While the Vatican and its recruits just say no, the rest of us attempt to apply tested modes of ethical reasoning to revolutions, for example, in genetic science that separate reproduction from sexuality.

Translation: we have our house “theologians” declare that they’ve “studied” the issue and decided that boinking a man/woman/other you’re not married to isn’t a sin any longer.