Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Michael Coren. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Michael Coren. Sort by date Show all posts

Thursday, April 13, 2023

The Rebel Christ by Michael Coren

14 APRIL 2023

David Chillingworth on the challenge posed by an ex-conservative


MICHAEL COREN is an Anglican priest — English by birth and now living in Canada. His story is interesting and unusual. He was a successful journalist and author — and a Roman Catholic priest. He describes himself as having been until 2013 “a champion of orthodox Catholicism”. He says that, to his shame, he was rather good at it. His book Why Catholics are Right sold nearly 50,000 copies.

But then things began to change, particularly when he encountered Ugandan homophobia. Beyond that, he met a “fetish of reactionary ideas around gender, sex, power, relationships and personal choice”.

Faced with this, Coren says, “I stopped speaking and started listening, entered into belief as a dialogue, opened my eyes rather than folded my arms. Yes, I met the rebel Christ.”

This is a brave book. The forces of rampant conservatism which Coren is taking on — forces that he describes as “triumphalist, proud and sectarian” — are not to be underestimated in their power. In his view, ranged against that “cult of the bunker” is the supreme paradox that is Christianity. That paradox claims that “in defeat is victory and in death is life.”

In the background of this book, one senses the constant presence of the “almost parallel version of the faith” which has been developed by American Evangelical conservatives: religious freedom, gun rights, support for Israel, resistance to LGBTQ2 equality (the “2” refers to “two-spirited” in Native American culture), and objection to abortion.

Facing that right-wing agenda, Coren explores the question how the Bible is to be read and understood. He courageously addresses the questions of gay rights and gay marriage, abortion, capital punishment, and slavery. Always, one senses that he is attempting to make his picture of the Rebel Christ as compelling as the alternative and conservative pictures are to so many. He says, “We are thinking, questioning men and women trying to find paths of goodness.”

There is one aspect of his subject which Coren does not address. It is the question — which others have referred to as “deep underlying concepts” — why some people take up what are in general liberal and flexible positions while others become deeply and defensively conservative in their attitudes. Not only would it be interesting and important to know why people are as they are: it might also provide a key to the deep changes in attitude for which Coren and many others yearn.


The Rt Revd David Chillingworth is a former Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.
The Rebel Christ
Michael Coren
Canterbury Press 
(978-1-78622-479-8)


FOR MY CRITIQUES OF THE 'CONSERVATIVE REACTIONARY CATHOLIC' COREN SEE

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Michael Coren's Fatwa

File this under two wrongs don't make a right or birds of a feather flock together.

I found a startling similarity in Michael Coren's latest column defending a protest over the building of a Mosque in Newmarket and this Saudi Fatwa.

Of course Coren claims its not the Mosque that bothers him but the Imam of the Mosque.

Mosque building made simple: Satisfy the local building codes and do not make excessive noise.

Oh, and don't preach anti-Semitic garbage and call for violent world revolution.

Which is where an otherwise anonymous new Muslim temple in Newmarket, Ont., might have got it wrong. A type of culture clash, by the way, that is being replicated throughout Canada and most of the Western world.

Protesters have emphasized that it is not the mosque that bothered them but the fact that its leader, Zafar Bangash, is a notorious extremist.

So we judge for ourselves. Surely just another little mosque in Canada, with fun and laughter and good cheer all round.

Coren being a born again Christian is of course a zealot for his faith, one which he professes allows him to deny the rights of other faiths.

So I would suspect that underneath his denial of free speech from the pulpit, a Minbar in a Mosque, he really agrees with this fatwa.

Just change Islam for Christianity. Better yet change it to Coren's Personal Christianity.

Because what he is saying is that Muslims should NOT be allowed to build Mosques in Canada. Not unlike those nice folks in
Herouxville.

'All Religions Other Than Islam Are Heresy': Saudi Religious Council


The Saudi fatwa reads as follows: "The Permanent Council for Scholarly Research and Religious Legal Judgment has studied the queries some individuals brought before the Chief Mufti… concerning the topic of the construction of houses of worship for unbelievers in the Arabian Peninsula, such as the construction of churches for Christians and houses of worship for Jews and for other unbelievers and [the question of] the owners of companies or organizations allotting a fixed place for their unbelieving workers to perform the rites of unbelief.

"After considering the queries the Council answered as follows:

"All religions other than Islam are heresy and error. Any place designated for worship other than [that of] Islam is a place of heresy and error, for it is forbidden to worship Allah in any way other than the way that Allah has prescribed in Islam. The law of Islam (shari'a) is the final and definitive religious law. It applies to all men and jinns and abrogates all that came before it. This is a matter about which there is consensus.

"Those who claim that there is truth in what the Jews say, or in what the Christians say - whether he is one of them or not - is denying the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad's sunna and the consensus of the Muslim nation… Allah said: 'The only reason I sent you was to bring good tidings and warnings to all [Koran 34:28]'; 'Oh people, I am Allah's Messenger to you all [Koran 7:158]'; 'Allah's religion is Islam [3:19]'; 'Whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him [3:85]'; 'The unbelievers from among the people of the Book [i.e. Jews and Christians] and the polytheists are in hellfire and will be [there] forever. They are the worst of all creation… [98:6].'

"Therefore, religion necessitates the prohibition of unbelief, and this requires the prohibition of worshiping Allah in any way other than that of the Islamic shari'a. Included in this is the prohibition against building houses of worship according to the abrogated religious laws, Jewish or Christian or anything else, since these houses of worship - whether they be churches or other houses of worship - are considered heretical houses of worship, because the worship that is practiced in them is in violation of the Islamic shari'a, which abrogates all religious law that came before it. Allah says about the unbelievers and their deeds: 'I will turn to every deed they have done and I will make them into dust in the wind [Koran 25:23].'



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Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Coren Is An Idiot

The evidence is in. In black and white. Michael Coren is an idiot.

And why he has a
TV and Radio Talk Show let alone a column in the Sun newspapers shows the shallow depths of the social conservative right wing will dredge to find someone, anyone, who will say anything to cause a controversy.

His opinion on matters is usually outrageous, but the ultimate off the wall comment is his latest column. All 'opinion' and reaction, and being a reactionary of course he will excuse himself, with no factual basis to back up his assertions.

Though you will find his opinion of animals, animal rights and the glorious animal husbandry of farmers shared by members of the Federal Conservative Government as well as rural MLA's and right wingers in the West.

I will excerpt the stupidest and most moronic of his statements. They are not suitable for young children, people with weak hearts, or folks with any heart.

They are the ramblings of mental case who would not matter if he did not have access to the media because they are desperate for right wing commentators to offset the supposed dominance of liberal left news bias.

OK, the evidence is in.

People who are obsessed with the welfare of animals and become hysterical when they hear about a dog or cat being abused are mentally ill.

No need here for compromise or silliness. Animal rights types are mentally ill.

Good God, get a grip! People matter more than animals.

Even bad people matter more than animals.

No relativism please, no soppy arguments about cute puppies compared to mass murderers.

The human spirit and soul is unique and deserves respect, dignity and reverence.

FOR US TO USE

Animals, on the other hand, are there to be used. Not abused, but used. So we can eat them, wear their skins, experiment on them if we can thus improve the human condition.

A million kittens do not one human life make. So if by testing medication on a million kittens we can find a cure for cancer, we should have not a second's pause.

Animals have no rights, but we have responsibilities. To treat them properly.

Farmers do this best because they treat them precisely as animals. Keep them fed and warm, show them affection and care, make them better when sick, but kill them if need be.

But not little Rover or cuddly Whiskers. Because they are dumb they must be special and because they give us pleasure they must be kind. Nonsense. Animals can be cruel, are invariably selfish and exist for us and not us for them.


And right wing columnists who claim to speak for the unborn can be cruel, dumb but must be given special privileges because they speak for those who have yet to exist. And like their fantasy worlds of the before life and after life, they condemn those who live in the here and now to their medieval ideal of hierarchy, man above animals, the King above human rights, and God above Man.

I would be remiss if I did not correct Coren's misleading allegations, assertions, and distortions

Not that he reads my blog, but rather because a letter to the editor while short and pithy does little to refute his over the top column.

First what got Coren's goat was the incident in Toronto this past week. Or more correctly not the incident itself but the reactions to it.

An idiot left his dog in his car with the windows rolled up on a very hot day. The car became a hotbox and the dog's brain was boiling. A Humane Society officer rescued the dog and in the process was confronted by the dogs owner, who interfered in the rescue.

The Humane Officer handcuffed him to his car and took the dog to the emergency vet clinic. The idiot who was broiling his dogs brain seems to have attracted some attention to his blight, and got beat up. As a result the Humane Society officer was suspended from his job. A protest in support of him ensued and Coren considers this an indication animal advocates mental illness.

The real sufferers of mental illness are those who would leave animals in a hot car with the windows closed. And contrary to Coren's relativist assertion that animals are less relevant than humans, these same brain dead types are also the folks who leave children in their cars.

Animal abusers often become human abusers, in fact they often become serial killers, as forensic psychologists will tell you.

And clearly this is the case in Edmonton currently.

Edmonton task force seeking serial cat-killer

Of course using Coren's illogic the police are wasting their time, since;" A million kittens do not one human life make."

Coren's illogic is frighteningly similar to the Nazi's belief that untermenschen were not humans. Once you have determined that there is a difference between humans and the 'other'; animals or humans, you are on that slippery slope to mass species genocide.

Animals have sentience, intelligence through learning, calculative thought processes, communication abilities, etc. But for Coren this matters not they are just dumb animals. It has recently been documented that dogs have the ability to remember hundreds of words, and that in human terms they have the intelligence of a three year old.

Elephants, dolphins, monkeys and apes all cogitate, that is have the capacity to learn, and now we are finding they use tools. Humans domesticated animals in a symbiotic relationship, horses, oxen, dogs, cats, etc. Not by force but through mutual aid to meet each others needs.

It was with development of capitalist agriculture that animals were seen as beasts of burden, not unlike the indentured servant, the serf and slave, those who were disposed of their land due to the English encroachment acts.

When Coren praises farmers as having a sympathetic understanding of the animals in their care, one must be forgiven for LOL. Farmers, ranchers and the like view their animals as property just as their fore bearers did. One can see the sympathetic treatment of animals at the rodeo, where horses who 'would be sold for horse meat" are sacrificed in the horror show that is chuckwagon races.

Coren's over the top rant is not much different from the arguments put forward by Reform/Alliance/Conservative MP Myron Thompson who has opposed strengthening Canada's woefully inadeuate animal protection laws, in order to protect rodeos. The laws concerning animal cruelty date back to 1892.

Since he claims to be a convert to Catholicism I would remind Coren of the venerable Saint Francis of Assisi who saw all creatures as part of Gods Creation, and not dumb animals to be processed, mutilated, tortured, abused, etc. Of course Saint Francis is not Coren's kind of Catholic, since he also was a pacifist as well as animal rights activist.

And speaking of St. Francis of Assisi, and dumb animals, this coyote proves Coren wrong.


Chicago City Animal Care and Control workers unsuccessfully tried Monday afternoon to catch a coyote that has been running wild in the Lincoln Park neighborhood for several days.

For two hours, three workers in three trucks couldn't grab the coyote that ran near children, dog walkers and eventually Cardinal Francis George's residence in the nearby Gold Coast neighborhood. At one point, the animal rested near a statue of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and the environment.

Workers finally gave up their hunt when the coyote slipped away again into a backyard area of George's home.


Dumb animal indeed. Gave dem workers da slip. And knowing Chicago is a Sanctuary City, this illegal alien sought sanctuary from Saint Francis and on Catholic Church property. Indeed Chicago has the largest urban coyote population in North America. That is one Wiley E. Coyote.


SEE:

Animal Crimes

Katrina: It's a Dog-Gone Crime

Tiger Tiger Burning Bright

We Love Animals


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Saturday, August 12, 2023

Priest: My conversion on LGBTQ rights tells an important story

 Opinion by Michael Coren • CNN

Editor’s Note: Father Michael Coren is an Anglican priest, journalist and writer. He is a columnist for the Toronto Star, frequent contributor to the Globe and Mail and the author of 18 books. The views expressed here are his own. Read more opinion on CNN.

I don’t think I was ever a homophobe, but I certainly came close.


Michael Coren - Courtesy Rev Michael Coren© Provided by CNN

That is a profoundly shocking thought, and extremely painful for me to say, especially as, for the past decade, I’ve been regarded in Canada as a Christian champion of equal marriage, same-sex blessings and the full affirmation of LGBTQ+ people in the church. The change, the transformation, the conversion – for that is what it was – came about for various reasons, but mostly because of a new reading and understanding of the Bible.

I became an ally because of a deeper faith. Here I now had to stand. I could do no other.

Some background and context: Until 2013 I was a Roman Catholic, and as a journalist and broadcaster with a fairly high profile, spoke and wrote frequently in support of Catholic sexual teachings. There are, of course, many Catholics who dissent from the official line, but the official line it remains. And according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law.” Pope Francis has made some soothing and compromising comments but, at heart, very little has changed. In January 2023, Pope Francis told The Associated Press that “being homosexual is not a crime,” yet then reiterated that homosexuality was “a sin” under Catholic doctrine. And while he encouraged bishops to welcome gay people into their ministries “with tenderness,” he also discredited larger attempts to alter existing church practices, which included attempts to provide church blessings to same-sex couples.

I suppose I could have tried to find a way to ignore this, but life’s messy realities do find a way. In March 2014, the humanitarian organization World Vision US announced that it would hire Christians in same-sex marriages in its US offices. The organization’s motives were entirely noble, if a little naïve. Within two days, numerous leading evangelical groups denounced the charity, threatening to withdraw support. World Vision apologized, reversed its new policy and asked for forgiveness. It seemed such a cruel over-reaction, such a humiliation of good people.

At around the same time, Canada’s then-foreign minister John Baird criticized the Ugandan president for legislation that could lead to life imprisonment for gay sex. I supported Baird on my television show, arguing that even those of us who disagreed with same-sex marriage surely condemned such a monstrous policy. As a result, I was roundly attacked by Christian conservatives, Catholic as well as Protestant.

I felt as if I were being pushed against a wall of uncertainty. My defense of traditional Christian teachings on the issue was, I’d always assumed, based on love rather than hate. I started to question myself. Was that a self-defense mechanism, a comforting denial of truth? Perhaps. And that creeping doubt led me to return to scripture. “Tolle Lege,” said that mysterious voice to St. Augustine. Take up and read. So, I did.

The Bible can be as gentle as a watercolor and as powerful as a thunderstorm. It can be taken literally or taken seriously but not always both. It’s a library written over centuries, containing poetry and metaphor as well as history and biography, and without discernment, it makes little sense. It has to be, must be, read through the prism of empathy and the human condition.

The thing is, the Bible hardly mentions homosexuality, which is of course a word not coined until the late 19th-century. The so-called “gotcha” verses from the Old Testament are specific to ancient customs and are often misunderstood. The Sodom story, for example, wasn’t interpreted as referring to homosexuality until the 11th-century. Lot – the hero of the text – offers his virgin daughters to the mob in place of his guests, so it can’t exactly be used as a compelling morality tale!

Ezekiel in the Hebrew Scriptures says, “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things before me” (Ezekiel 16:49-50).

The Old Testament never speaks of lesbianism, and its mentions of sex are more about procreation and the preservation of the tribe than personal morality and romance. It also has some rather disturbing things to say about slavery in Genesis and in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, about ethnic cleansing in Deuteronomy and even killing children in First Samuel. So a precise guide to modern manners it’s certainly not.

Jesus doesn’t mention the issue, and St. Paul’s comments, mainly in his letters to the Romans, are more about men using young male prostitutes in pagan initiation rites than about loving, consenting same-sex relationships. There is, however, one possible discussion in the New Testament. It’s when Jesus is approached by a centurion whose beloved male servant is dying. Will Jesus cure him? Of course, and Jesus then praises the Roman for his faith. The Greek word used to describe the relationship between the Roman and his “beloved” servant indicates something far deeper than mere platonic affection.

Then there’s the love of David and Jonathan, Jesus refusing to judge and the pristine beauty of grace and justice that informs the Gospels. Most of all, there’s the permanent revolution of love that Jesus didn’t request but demand. His central teaching, remember, is to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. We’re told this in three of the four Gospels — Matthew (22:35-40), Mark (12:28-34) and Luke (10:27). It’s a transformational moment for Christians, to know that only by loving others can we properly know and love God.

As I read more, I prayed more. As I prayed more, I reached out to gay Christians, who taught me lessons in forgiveness that shamed me. I made a public apology in my syndicated newspaper column for harm caused to the LGBTQ+ community by my writing and broadcasting. As a consequence, I felt the full force of those on the political and religious right. I’ve reported from Northern Ireland and the Middle East but seldom seen such visceral hatred. Abuse, threats, attacks on my children and campaigns to have me canceled and fired. Thank God, because it confirmed everything that I’d come to believe.

I became an Anglican, and three years later entered seminary. I’m now a priest, spend my time trying to preach the genuine song of the Gospels, and write books and columns doing the same. In other words, I’m a Christian conservative’s nightmare. But for me, a dream lived. I found truth. I found Jesus. This straight, 64-year-old man, married for 36 years and with four children, has a lot to be grateful for. Most of all, I thank the gay community for teaching me so much about what Christianity really means.


Friday, June 29, 2007

Fraser Institute Racists

Whats the difference between the Fraser Institutes anti immigration conference and these guys?

One is overtly racist, while the other hides their racism behind 'national security'.

The other irony is that mainstream media commentators like right whingnut Michael Coren defend restricting access to Canada to White Christian Europeans, which is what media pirriah like right whingnut Paul Fromm also says. But unlike Fromm, Coren is an immigrant.

And being from Britain Coren has dual citizenship, another bugaboo of the right.

While right whingnuts like Coren can freely move here, or like their Canadian counterparts like Mark Steyn or David Frum who freely move to England and the U.S. to work, they would deny these rights to others.


SEE:

Procreation To Save The White Race

Conservatives Orwellian Language Politics

White Multiculturalism

Because They Ain't White

Racist ADQ

The Language Of Racism



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Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Patels Panics


I got this message from Herr Werner Patels on MyBloglog account.
Please be advised that Eugene Plawiuk will be reported to the authorities for criminal libel and harassment this week. A report about this will also be sent to his union and the school he works at, since he is clearly not fit to be around children.


It appears that bi-polar blogger Patels is panicking, first he erased his offending web pages on Alberta Spectator blog where he attacked Montreal Simon and Red Tory last month, then he created a new set of multi-blog personalities called Eye On. Including Eye On Blogosphere.(aka Eye on Blogs)

What Eye on the Blogosphere is about

  1. cyberbullying
  2. freedom of speech
  3. harassment
  4. libel
  5. political blogging



Ironically his attack on them was the result of one of his purged posts (available thanks to Google Cache) where he said this;

As I wrote here a while ago, there seems to be a trend (primarily among lefties and/or Liberals) to muzzle bloggers by slapping them with lawsuits. Funny how you never hear about conservatives suing bloggers (unless I missed something, so if you have information on such a case, please do drop me a line in the comments section below).
Ah hem, well I for one would like to report Werner for threatening to do this, I am not sure he is a conservative, but he is a whingnut. Of course his threat to me is not the first time he has said he would sue me. Or report me to my employer which he has also threatened to do to me and other bloggers in the past.

Now in the midst of his latest revisionist rewriting of the story of his cyberstalking, he has created another blog called Common Sense Musings. Which used to be his Ideas And Issues Blog. And was the original URL setting for Alberta Spectator.


Common Sense Musings provides snapshots of the world we live in. This blog is about finding common sense, or rather, an attempt to instill some common sense, as well as about ideas and the issues that matter.


Of course with multiple blog personality Werner his opinions are as far from commonsensical as one can be.

At this site he reposts his posts from his other blogs. In this particular case he has reposted his revisionist history of his cyber-stalking and blog attacks on Red Tory and Montreal Simon with a passing reference to yours truly whom he calls and extremist leftist. It is the same story he published on the weekend in his new Eye On Blogs. Which I commented on .

Unfortunately he has purged all his posts at Eye On Blogs and reposted his new sanitized version at his Common Sense Musings.

I guess he figures if he says something over and over again on various of his blogs which he sanitizes then folks will be fooled into believing he is a reasonable, rational, fellow.

He also rewrote his article on Michael Coren, at yet another of his blogs purging any reference to me. The original article was posted on the now purged Alberta Spectator, there he had linked to my original article on Coren and recognized I had blogged on this first, he gave me a H/T.

  • Photo of wpalberta

    On animals, mental disease and Michael Coren

    we can eat them, wear their skins, experiment on them if we can thus improve the human condition. Clearly, if there's a mentally ill individual, it's Coren, but not people who really and truly understand animals and what they're all about. Hat tip to Eugene Plawiuk for alerting me to the story. Cross-posted from A Writer's Musings Alberta Spectator



As for criminal libel there is no such a creature, there is slander and libel and it is covered in a section of the criminal code. It is not a felonious offense so it is a civil matter which is resolved through a suit in civil court.

And purging your offensive articles, will not save your ass if you are sued.

Please have your lawyers contact my lawyers;
Hungadunga, Hungadunga, Hungadunga, Hungadunga and McCormack.

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Sunday, June 04, 2006

Historical Revisionism

Right Whing Whiner Michael Coren takes on CUPE over their boycott of Israel. In his latest Toronto Sun column, which was published in other Sun papers across Canada, Coren engages in historical revisionism that one expects from the likes of Ernst Zundel.

Coren justifies the oppression of the Palestinian peoples by claiming the continous existence of a State of Israel, and denies the existence of the Palestinian peoples.

"The Jewish state, Israel, came into existence more than 1300 years before the birth of Jesus Christ and 2000 years before Islam existed. The Jewish people have lived in the country for more than 3000 years and resisted Greeks, Persians, Syrians, Romans and legions of other tyrants. There never was a Palestine. After the Romans murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews and destroyed entire cities they attempted to expunge any trace of Jews and Judaism from Israel. Thus they renamed the land after the ancient Philistines, a people who had creased to exist."

Gee Michael what state would that be again? The one ruled by King Solomon perhaps or the one founded by the terrorists of the Stern Gang.

United Monarchy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The United Monarchy refers to a period in the History of Israel where the Twelve tribes of Israel were united into one monarchy under King Saul in roughly 1050 BC. The empire according to the Torah reached its height under the reign of King Solomon. Some scholars and historians doubt the extent of the monarchy described in the Torah, and instead suggest a smaller localized kingdom while others go further to doubt its existence



Because there is big difference between them.

You see the Palestinian peoples did exist at the time of Solomon, in fact you can
check your bible to see. It's recorded in the Song of Songs, the Holy of Holies. The daughters of Jerusalem, indeed the main female voice in the song are; I am black but comely, O daughters of Jerusalem! Like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

Where upon the threshing dance that is referred to in the text is a "Palestinian peasant dance, a wedding dance" according to Marvin H. Pope in his Biblical exegesis of the Song of Songs.


"Return, return, O Shulammite; return, return, and let us gaze upon you." "What will you see for the Shulammite, as in the dance of the two camps?

The Jewish Encyclopedia states:
Still another view regards the book as picturing the popular festivities held in Palestine in connection with the wedding-week. Of such festivities there are hints in the Old Testament (Judges xiv. 10-12; Jer. xvi. 9; Ps. xix. 6 [5]; comp. Matt. xxv. 1 et seq.); and Wetzstein (in his article "Die Syrische Dreschtafel," in Bastian's "Zeitschrift für Ethnologie," 1873, pp. 270 et seq., and in the appendix to Delitzsch's commentary on the Song) has given the details of the modern Syrian marriage celebration, in which he finds parallels to those of the poem. In the week succeeding the marriage the villagers assemble; the thrashing-board is set up as a throne, on which the newly married pair take their seats as "king" and "queen"; there are songs in praise of the physical charms of the pair, and dances, in which bridegroom and bride take part; especially noteworthy is the "sword-dance," performed by the bride with a naked sword in one hand (see vii. 1 [R. V. vi. 13]). In accordance with this view the "king" of the poem, sometimes called "Solomon" (an imaginative designation of a person of ideal beauty), is the bridegroom; the "daughters of Jerusalem" are the village maidens in attendance on the bride; the royal procession of iii. 6-11 is that of the bridegroom (comp. Ps. xix. 6 [5]); the dialogues, descriptions of bodily charms, and other pieces are folk-songs; according to Budde, the name "Shulamite," given to the bride once (vii. 1 [vi. 13]), is equivalent to "Shunemmite," and isan imaginative reminiscence of the fair Abishag (I Kings i. 3).

You see it was not the State of Israel, but the Kingdom of Solomon.
"The kingdom of Solomon," says George Rawlinson, "is one of the most striking facts in Biblical history. A petty nation, which for hundreds of years has with difficulty maintained a separate existence in the midst of warlike tribes, each of which has in turn exercised dominion over it and oppressed it, is suddenly raised by the genius of a soldier-monarch to glory and greatness." Song of Solomon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And this Kingdom was ruled by a solar phallic prince who was crowned not by his father, David, but by his mother. Much to the chagrin of the patriarchs of the various semitic tribes, which included not just Jews but Arabs as well. As the Song says; Go out, O daughters of Zion, and gaze upon King Solomon, upon the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his nuptials and on the day of the joy of his heart.

His truimph was his communal, polygamous marriage to hundreds of priestesses of various goddess religions of the time, as well as marriage into a variety of Semitic ruling families of the twelve tribes.
There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and innumerable maidens.

Solomon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The first half of his reign was, however, by far the brighter and more prosperous; the latter half was clouded by the idolatries into which he fell, mainly, according to the scribes, from his intermarriages. According to 1 Kings 11:4, he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. As soon as he had settled himself in his kingdom, and arranged the affairs of his extensive empire, he entered into an alliance with Egypt by a marriage with the daughter of the Pharaoh.


This as well as his trade deals with the King of Tyre, created a stable peaceful state. One that had not existed previously. The Kingdom of Jeruslaem (NOT the State of Israel) prior to Solomon was at war with their neighbours, and each other. Sound familar.

In fact Solomon's importance is such that he is Shlomo in Jewish and Suliman in Arabic. Hence his respect by all in the region is still held today as children are named after him. Qur'anic account of Solomon


There was no State of Israel but there was a Palestine and a Palestinian peoples, they were Semites just like the Jews. There were twelve tribes, there was a Kingdom of Jerusalem, and that is what is defined as Israel in the Old Testament. Michael Coren a self professed old Catholic should know his bible, but being a demagouge he prefers to revise history for his own ends whic is historical revisionism to justify the continuing Zionist State's oppression of the Palestinian peoples.

See Jay C. Treasts interesting website The Song of Songs


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Tuesday, June 01, 2021

Survivors, faith leaders, call on Catholic Church to take responsibility for residential schools

Jon Hernandez 
CBC NEWS
JUNE 1,2021
© Ben Nelms/CBC People pay their respects at a memorial in Vancouver after the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation reported that ground-penetrating radar scans of the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School revealed the remains of…

Taking in the sight of hundreds of shoes on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery, the magnitude of what was found buried beneath the former Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds isn't lost on Carmen Lansdowne.

She's a member of B.C.'s Heiltsuk First Nation, and her grandparents were among those taken away from their families decades ago.

"I have flashes of anger and frustration, combined with grief and sadness and numbness," she told CBC News on Monday.

Lansdowne is also a minister of the First United Church, an inner-city ministry of the United Church of Canada. In 1998, the United Church formally apologized for its role in operating residential schools in Canada.
 Jon Hernandez/CBC Carmen Lansdowne, an ordained minister at First United Church, stands in front of a memorial in Vancouver for victims of the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

"I don't think I could be an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada if we hadn't been honest in our role," she said.

The Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in B.C. said last Thursday that preliminary findings from a survey of the grounds at the former residential school in Kamloops revealed the remains of 215 children — some as young as three years old.

In the wake of the find, survivors, Indigenous leaders and advocates, and faith leaders are calling on the Roman Catholic Church to apologize and take responsibility for the atrocities committed against children, families and communities in the residential school system.

"As an Indigenous ordained minister, it deeply pains me to see our ecumenical partners not do that work," said Lansdowne.

The Roman Catholic Church was responsible for operating up to 70 per cent of residential schools, according to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS). United, Anglican and Presbyterian churches were among those operating the remainder.

In the years since, the Roman Catholic Church is the only one that hasn't made a formal apology.

"They have caused the greatest harm in many of our communities," said Angela White, IRSSS executive director.



Video: Calgarians offer Indigenous prayers for healing after Kamloops mass grave found (Global News)

An apology for the Catholic Church's role in the residential school system is also one of the calls to action from the Truth and Reconcilation Commission of Canada (TRC).

The TRC has confirmed the names of more than 4,000 children who died at residential schools and there are many more who have not been identified or are missing.
 Jon Hernandez/CBC Angela White, executive director of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, says the Roman Catholic Church needs to apologize for the atrocities committed at residential schools, and should offer resources, including counselling, to victims.

Church leaders respond


In response to the announcement of the discovery of the human remains, Richard Gagnon, the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a statement expressing sorrow for the lives lost.

"Honouring the dignity of the lost little ones demands that the truth be brought to light," he wrote.

There was a similar message by Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller, who, speaking for the church, said "we pledge to do whatever we can to heal that suffering."
Missing apologies

But critics say there's one key word missing from those statements: "Sorry."

Rev. Michael Coren, an Anglican priest and author, is among those who have been the most vocal following the Kamloops discovery, penning a column directed at the Catholic Church.

"Every church, virtually every church in Canada, was involved in this catastrophe," he told host Stephen Quinn on CBC's The Early Edition. "And that should never be denied."

© Ben Nelms/CBC People pay their respects at the memorial in Vancouver.

"[The Roman Catholic Church] simply will not make a commitment to its direct involvement in these atrocities because, I would argue, it's terrified of the financial and legal consequences if it does," he said.

The survivors society has issued calls to action, similar to the TRC, aimed at both the federal government and the Catholic Church. That includes an acknowledgement from the Pope.

When it comes to healing, Angela White says it starts with "sorry," but true reconciliation requires an ongoing dialogue.

"We should have them be accountable to providing resources, whether it's money or counselling, for the damage that they've done, so the healing can continue," she said.

"We shouldn't have to be figuring out how we're going to heal, when they're the ones that did the damage."

With files from CBC's The Early Edition


Saturday, July 28, 2007

The War Against Secular Society


The right wing is expanding it's identity politics campaign claiming that Christianity is being oppressed and abused; with politically correct attacks on outspoken atheists of late.

As Barbara Kay in the National Post writes;
"atheists in democratic countries can't conjure up grim tales of the truncheon's midnight thud on the door,"

Once again proving that right wing political correctness is based on historical revisionism.

Indeed Ms. Kay atheism was considered a legal offense in Merry Olde England for the longest time.

Free Thinkers, as they were called, did have the police truncheon and worse put upon them. Indeed their publications were banned and their printing presses destroyed. Free Thought, indeed secularism, with its libertarian origins in Godwin, Bakunin, Carlisle, Tucker, Proudhon, Woodhull, etc. was began in the late 18th Century and was a 19th Century phenomena.

Richard Carlisle, a "freethinker," opened a lecturing, conversation, and discussion establishment, preached the "only true gospel," hung effigies of bishops outside his shop, and was eventually quieted by nine years' imprisonment, a punishment by no means undeserved.


Despite its origins in Greek Philosophies such as those of Heraclitus and Epicurus, atheism is a modern movement coincidental with the Enlightenment and the development of modern industrial/capitalist society.

And it was the philosopher Spinoza, a Jew, who began the attack on Christianity, Judaism, Islam and all the Abrahamic religions with his philosophical defense of atheism.

It is well known that Marx was familiar with Spinoza; indeed, he hand-copied whole passages of Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus into his notebooks. Less clear is the significance of this fact, and the extent of Spinoza's influence on Marx's thought.


And it would be Marx who would proclaim that atheists needed to take one more step to truly be revolutionaries.

In the "Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts" (1844), Marx said:

Once the essence of man and of nature, man as a natural being and nature as a human reality, has become evident in practical life, in sense experience, the quest for an ALIEN being, a being above man and nature (a quest which is an avowal of the unreality of man and nature) becomes impossible in practice. ATHEISM, as a denial of this unreality, is no longer meaningful, for atheism is a NEGATION OF GOD and seeks to assert by this negation the EXISTENCE OF MAN. Socialism no longer requires such a roundabout method; it begins from the THEORETICAL and PRACTICAL SENSE PERCEPTION of man and nature as essential beings. It is positive human SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS, no longer a self-consciousness attained through the negation of religion. (Marx 1964A: 166-67)


In the famous Introduction to the Critique of the Hegelian philosophy of public law, Marx gives an even more explicit and elaborate formulation of this outlook. "Religious misery", he writes, "is at once the expression of real misery and a protest against it. Religion is the groan of the oppressed, the sentiment of a heartless world, and at the same time the spirit of a condition deprived of spirituality. It is the opium of the people. The suppression of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the premise of its real happiness. It is first and foremost the task of philosophy, operating in the service of history, to unmask self-alienation in its profane forms, after the sacred form of human self alienation has been discovered. Thus criticism of heaven is transformed into criticism of the earth, criticism of religion into criticism of law, criticism of theology into criticism of politics". And just before: "Religion is the consciousness and awareness of man who has not yet acquired or who has again lost himself. But man is not an abstract being, isolated from the world. Man is the world of man, the State, society. This State and this society produce religion, an upside-down consciousness of the world, just because they are an upside-down world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopedic epitome, its logic in popular form, its spiritualistic point d'honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn completion, its fundamental reason of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of human essence, since human essence does not possess a true reality. The struggle against religion is therefore indirectly the struggle against that world of which religion is the spiritual aroma" (K. Marx, Per la critica della filosofia del diritto di Hegel, Introduzione, Rome 1966, pp. 57-58).



Ironically in her attack on atheists Kay attacks Christopher Hitchens, the right wings favorite former Trotskyist turned pro war contrarian. She of course claims that atheists only want to ban Christianity and Judaism.

Aggressively marketed grievance has worked for women and gays. The same strategy for brights will doubtless end in a government-funded Status of Atheists Council to undo the iniquities of 10,000 years of theocratic hegemony and repression. After that, we may yet see -- don't laugh until you're sure it can't happen -- demands for reparations payout by churches and synagogues to redress the ignominy and shame now-atheist, former (involuntarily-designated) Christians and Jews suffered as children when force-fed the Ten Commandments in Sunday and Hebrew School. (Somehow, I do not envisage a similar campaign by Muslim atheists directed against the madrassas, not sure why ?)


While Christopher Hitchens has made it clear for many years that he opposes all theocracies and theocrats, Christian, Jewish or Muslim, heck he doesn't even like the Dali Lama. He has been outspoken against Islamism in fact his support for the war on terror is based upon his atheist opposition to Muslim Fascism.

So like her counterpart at the Sun; Michael Coren, she smears atheists with the Anti-Christian PC label, while failing to accurately point out that atheists oppose all religions and all belief systems that put faith in a supreme being.

Like Coren, Kay and other social conservatives, especially those of the evangelical Protestant faith, believe in the coming Rapture, the end times, and the Israel plays a role in this as predicted in the Book of Revelations in the New Testament.

They of course overlook the persecution and pogroms of the Jews by the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Empires in Europe. They are not defending Jews or Jewish culture, which has had a major cultural impact on the West in developing secularism, socialism, and yes atheism as well as anarchism and libertarianism. Rather they are defending Israel and Zionism.

The phony war on Christianity is just so much bunkum. According to Stats Canada the dominant religion in Canada remains Christianity and its sects and cults.

For Kay, Coren and the Byfields, the supposed war on Christianity is being engaged in by the secularist elites and heathen pagans, whoever they are. Oh yeah the old 'Powers That Be'. Except that the PTB in North America are Christians. Once again the right embraces historical revisionism; the screed of conspiracy theorists.



h/t to Another Point of View




SEE:

Lou Dobbs New Enemy: The Church

Pauline Origins of Social Conservatism

Marxism and Religion

Secular Democracy

GoldilocksEnigma

American Polytheism

1666 The Creation Of The World

Snakes Alive



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