Cogito Ergo Sum

"By going back in one leap millions of centuries, [science] has succeeded in being witness to that primordial Fiat Lux (Latin for 'let there be light'] when, out of nothing, there burst forth with matter a sea of light and radiation, while the particles of chemical elements split and reunited in millions of galaxies ... Hence, creation took place."
"We say: therefore, there is a Creator. Therefore, God exists!"
Pope Pius XII

"Even when science cannot provide satisfactory answers -- Why is there more matter than antimatter? How did life begin? How does a material brain produce the subjective experience of thought? -- those who are skeptical of the textbook answers are lonely voices among a faithful mainstream, and shamed for it."
Joseph Brean, National Post: Redeeming Thomas

"We have a society that has a secular government [Canada] and there is a general assumption of faith being very private."
"On the other hand, when you actually take a look at everyday society, the majority of people are people of faith to one degree or another, and faith informs and influences many of the ways we deal with each other on a day-to-day basis."
"Some of the discomfort about some of the language [e.g. morality, forgiveness, mercy] does pose a challenge to faith leaders that perhaps they have not been as effective as they should at explaining themselves to their fellow citizens."
"We've conditioned ourselves to think that faith is extremely private and personal and not something to be talked about in polite company."
"The reality is we do that at our peril. Faith shapes how we relate to each  other, and if we're going to prosper as a society in the future we need to understand each other in a context of increasing faith diversity."
Ray Pennings, executive vice-president, think tank Cardus

"[The privately faithful 30 percent of poll respondents] are people who actually believe in God, believe in heaven, believe in an afterlife. They have largely not been involved in organized religion. They will go to funerals and weddings and that sort of thing, but their faith is largely a private matter, and it's really driven by their prayer. They pray on a regular basis."
"[The spiritually uncertain also 30 percent] seem to be a bit confused about where they want to be. On some issues they kind of side with the non-believers, but they haven't given up totally on everything."
"They ... believe that there's a God, but they're uncertain about the role of God."
"The word 'religion' itself has become a little bit of a four-letter word."
"The march toward secularism that has dominated Canadian society for the last couple of decades appears to be in a bit of a reversal and will be reversed over time if these trends continue, because clearly population growth is coming from immigration."
Angus Reid, founder, chairman, Angus Reid Institute

Actors perform the Stations of the Cross to mark Easter during the Holy Week in Ourem, central Portugal. (Photo credit FRANCISCO LEONG/AFP/Getty Images)

A new poll taken to test the prevalence or lack of faith among Canadians at a time when the general assumption is that religion plays less of an important role in most peoples' lives in Canada than ever before, paints a picture of a robust percentage of Canadians fully invested in their faith. The Angus Reid Institute along with Faith in Canada 150 placed poll respondents within four distinct categories reflecting their responses to poll questions engineered to gauge the level of their beliefs and religious practices.

The outcome of that classification resulting from the poll is that 21 percent of Canadians have been identified as religiously committed to hold a strong belief in God or a higher power, regularly attending religious services. Their direct opposite is the 19 percent of Canadians who have been designated into the category of non-believers (otherwise known as atheists). The larger group taking the middle ground have also been divided equally representing the "privately faithful" and "spiritually uncertain" (likely those said to be agnostic, in more familiar terms).

Each of these middle section groups have been divided equally to represent 30 percent. The poll's purpose was to distinguish and identify the numbers of Canadians categorized as believers and non-believers, and those who fall into a less clearly-defined category in the medium level of the spectrum. Respondents' reactions to a series of words toward which they were asked to register 'negative' or 'positive' resulted in 25 percent saying religion was positive, and 33 percent speaking of it as 'negative'.

"Evangelism", and "theology" gained the lowest estimation scores, while "forgiveness", "morality" and "mercy", on the other hand, were given the highest positive scores to reflect how those words generated a positive energy among respondents. Notable variations across regions in Canada were also identified where in the Prairie provinces about 30 percent of respondents gained the classification of religiously committed in comparison with 14 percent in Quebec, and 19 percent in British Columbia.

According to pollster Angus Reid, British Columbia represents "in many respects the most godless part of Canada", 27 percent fitting into the non-believer category. Quebecers, on the other hand, while deigning to avoid church attendance, still retain deep religious roots from their heritage, with only 18 percent identified as non-believers, while 36 percent are spiritually uncertain, and 32 percent privately faithful. "It's not that Quebecers have totally given up on God. They have given up on religion", clarified Mr. Reid.

Immigrants and visible minorities appear far likelier to be committed to religious faith, with visible minorities making up 16 percent of the group sampled, yet accounting for 29 percent of all religiously committed respondents.

Religious beliefs: All Canadians (in percentages)

• 67%   God or a  higher power exists;

  60%   Life after death;

  53%   God is active in this world;

  57%   Heaven;

  41%    Hell 

  

  The Denver Post      Pope Francis lies down in prayer for Easter services at the Vatican

Clasp Friends Wherever You Find them

"We feel that their support is genuine and not deriving from any ulterior motive."
"The number of Jewish communities is limited. When there are large numbers of Christians who are interested in visiting Israel and understanding Israel -- that, of course, is very, very helpful toward improving our international standing."
Akiva Tor, Israeli Foreign Ministry

Thousands of Christian Evangelists among marchers in a parade in the center of Jerusalem, marking the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. October 01, 2015. (Photo by Nati Shohat/Flash90)

 

An unusual collection of people representing delegates from 80 different countries gathered in Jerusalem to show their care and support for the Jewish State. An event that stands out as hugely at variance with the judgemental lack of esteem with which Israel is viewed in many countries of the world, as an 'occupying power', one that seeks to oppress the Palestinians, held to be victimized by the very creation of the State of Israel on lands Palestinian Arabs claim as their own.

 

And so it is with a different interpretation of the situation that the Christian Zionist movement exemplified in the world's Evangelical Christian movement with its pro-Israel International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, views Israel and its presence in its historical homeland. An organization which arranged a summit meeting in Jerusalem to coincide with the Judaic festival of Sukkot. Where a stadium was packed full of cheering pilgrims waving flags from Angola, Brazil China, Germany, Italy and the United States; even Egypt had its delegates.

 

ICEJ International

Recognized as one of the world's fastest-expanding religious movements, Evangelical Christianity is in full support of Israel's existence and its expansion as a Zionist-inspired homeland for Jews returning to the geography of their Biblical heritage. Roughly 700 million of the world's two billion Christians are evangelicals. Theirs is a movement in expansion in Latin America, Africa and Asia representing regions which "hold great potential for the nation of Israel in political, diplomatic and economic terms", according to a position paper presented by the group to Israel's Foreign Ministry last year.

Using the Jewish holiday of Sukkot to highlight their annual summit, the Evangelicals term their week-long gathering of celebration, as the Feast of Tabernacles. In the Biblical era the holiday of Sukkot was characterized through a pilgrimage to the ancient Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. At this year's summit there were prayer rallies and concerts where believers sang Hebrew songs. An annual flag-waving parade marched through the streets of Jerusalem.

Although Israel is hugely condemned throughout the world for the establishment of settlements by Orthodox Jews reclaiming Judea and Samaria as their traditional homelands, now situated in what is called the West Bank which Palestinians claim for their future state, some evangelicals, in particular those from the United States, volunteer as workers on Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

In parliaments worldwide, 32 pro-Israeli caucuses exist, according to the Israel Allies Foundation, a Jewish-Christian political group responsible for bringing two dozen lawmakers from 18 countries to Jerusalem for the summit, to meet with Israeli lawmakers and officials. The purpose of the Israeli parliament's Christian Allies Caucus, initiated in 2004 was to link Christian leaders and Israeli lawmakers; re-launched at this year's summit.

International Christian Embassy Jerusalem director Jurgen Buhler introduced 20 lawmakers from the Ivory Coast who flew to the summit at the Ivory Coast parliament's own expense. They were greeted by a 12-ram's-horn recognition from Taiwanese evangelicals using shofars, the traditional Jewish instrument used at sacred occasions. Nigeria was represented by Rev.Mosy Maduga, head of a network of Christian ministers.

An evangelical South African lawmaker, head of the African Christian Democratic Party, explained his usefulness in blocking anti-Israel motions in South Africa's parliament, one of which represented an effort to label Israeli products produced in the West Bank as "settlement" products. Where once such robust Christian support of Jews and the Jewish homeland would have been regarded with suspicion, the situation now calls for celebration.

What the evangelical Christians are doing is recognizing the historical fount from which the religion they worship emanated from. As the crucible of Christianity, Jerusalem, Judaism and a Jew who has been recognized by Christianity as the Messiah, are simply being given credit where credit is due. And, in the process, redeeming Christianity itself by acknowledging its debt to Judaism, to the Jewish tribe, to the support of the state dedicated to Jewish perseverance in a hostile world.

Risk-Taking in North Korea

"He is wise. He would not do anything unwise that would jeopardize the humanitarian mission. He would not say anything against the government, he wouldn't try to convert people. He's smarter than that."
"So, we thought, 'Let's not make it a huge issue'. The feeling now is, after the days have gone by, that this is a highly unusual situation."
"It's shorter to list the countries he hasn't been to [in his humanitarian work]."
"[With no news the congregation felt it had] nothing to worry about and nothing to not worry about [and proceeded to pray for good news]."
"He loves the people [of North Korea] and he wants to see the nation grow and develop."
Lisa Pak, staff member (pastor), Light Korean Presbyterian church, Toronto

Photo released by Light Presbyterian Church show Hyeon Soo Lim doing humanitarian work in North Korea

"There is no resident Canadian government office in the country. The ability of Canadian officials to provide consular assistance is extremely limited."
Nicolas Doire, spokesperson Foreign Affairs Canada

"It's not as though the [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] is making announcements about who they've detained. [If the preacher is in custody in North Korea] the next likely information relayed in this case would likely be to the Canadian government through the Swedish government [relaying consular information through their North Korean mission]."
"It's hard to get lost in North Korea. The North Koreans keep track of people pretty well. The unusual thing, I think, in this case, is because he's familiar and has been going back and forth. That's unsettling, because somebody with that level of experience going in and out -- basically he knows the rules."
Scott Snyder, senior fellow, Korea studies, Council on Foreign Relations

Well, knowing all the rules in diplomacy and acceptable behaviour, sticking strictly to them to ensure that he will not offend the sensibilities much less the suspicions of that paranoid, militant, secluded government, means also being aware of how those with whom you are familiar, in favour with the regime, are currently regarded. In Reverend Hyeon Soo Lim's case, he had groomed good relations with an uncle of Kim Jong-un.

This was an uncle by marriage to Mr. Kim's father's sister, his aunt. Who, together with her husband, the once-powerful Jang Song-Thaek, groomed the current dictator of North Korea for his ruling position on the death of his father. Unfortunately, Jang Song-Thaek fell out of favour with his nephew-by-marriage for leading a "dissolute and depraved" life; that, in any event was public disclosure held to be a handy accusation covering up a more discreetly-held charge against uncle.

Jang Song-thaek, his hands tied with a rope, is led into court by uniformed personnel. Photograph: Yonhap/Reuters

Whose 'trial' and 'sentence' was swift and final, his life summarily ended in December of 2013. So having the elite entree to the power system that is North Korea might have worked very well indeed for Reverend Heon Soo Lim for as long as his mentor was at the height of his powers, not so well in the wake of his fall from grace. His connection to uncle might be seen by the volatile and paranoid ruler to be evidence of the reverend's mission to proselytize, not offer humanitarian aid.

The 60-year-old pastor of the Mississauga-based church travelled to North Korea at the beginning of February, via China. A month has transpired with no word from him, which is most unusual. And which led members of his church to appeal to Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs to help find out what has become of the man. Foreign Affairs has a standard advisory warning Canadians to steer clear of North Korea.  Unfortunately, Canada has no mission in North Korea, but does have an arrangement with Sweden to represent Canadian interests in the hermit kingdom.

This was not an unfamiliar first-time trip, but one of over one hundred the pastor has embarked upon since the 1990s. All of those trips taken with the approval of North Korean authorities. Religious missionaries hoping to travel and work in North Korea place themselves in direct peril. But Reverend Lim focused on humanitarian aid, which is of course a covert type of mission work. However, aid workers are considered as being "agents of Western cultural imperialism", according to Richard Bush, senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

It was originally thought by his parishioners that Reverend Lim was in quarantine for the 21 days that North Korea insists upon, mandatory for all foreign visitors, as a guard against Ebola. Most foreigners detained in North Korea have been arrested on charges of failing to notify authorities about their visit, but that category would not include Reverend Lim. He immigrated to Canada from South Korea in 1986, and set up the Light Korean Presbyterian Church with an initial five-family membership, grown since then to 3,000 members.

He has led many worldwide mission for the church, including trips to Cambodia, Brazil, India and Kazakhstan, let alone North Korea. None of the other destinations pose as hazardous a destination potentially as does North Korea. In North Korea the pastor aided residents in the north to open noodle-producing factories, factories for tofu and yogurt production, and he carried in vitamins, medical supplies and winter coats. He was well aware of the risks involved in his travels to North Korea.

And now he is experiencing the results of those risks. And it is entirely possible that after several months of detention, appeals to the government will result in his release. Possible, but certainly not guaranteed.

UN Watch BriefingLatest from the United Nations  Vol. 511  |  October 29, 2014

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Nazareth Priest Tells U.N. in Arabic: "Israel is only country in Mideast where Christians live in safety" Must-See Video: Click here     Father Gabriel Naddaf testified on behalf of UN Watch Speaking in Arabic and on behalf of UN Watch, Father Gabriel Naddaf of Nazareth intervened during the recent 27th session of the UN Human Rights Council. Mr. President, I am speaking to you on behalf of UN Watch. Standing before you is Father Gabriel Naddaf, a Christian citizen from Nazareth, the city in which Christ was raised and where he proselytized. Dear Sirs, while I stand before you today, the earth of the Middle East is soaked with the blood of Christians being killed daily. Do you know that at the start of the 20th century, Christians comprised 20% of the population of the Middle East? Today they comprise only 4%. Do you know that over the past years some 100,000 Christians have been killed annually? And why? Not for a crime they’ve committed, but only for believing in Christ. In Iraq alone, more than 77% of the Christians have fled during the year 2000, in addition to thousands killed and expelled. Some 2 million Christians lived in Syria, but today, they are less than 250,000. Christians in these countries are treated as second-class citizens; facing racial, religious, economic and social discrimination. Why is this happening? Only due to their religion, a religion that advocates love and peace between mankind. Christians in the Middle East are marginalized, their rights denied, their property stolen, their honor violated, their men killed, and their children displaced. Where will they go? Who will defend them? And who will guard their property? If we look at the Middle East, Mr. President, we realize there’s only one safe place where Christians are not persecuted. One place where they are protected, enjoying freedom of worship and expression, living in peace and not subjected to killing and genocide. It is Israel, the country I live in. The Jewish state is the only place where the Christians of the Holy Land live in safety. Christians and Jews live in Israel not only because Christ was originally Jewish, born in Jewish Bethlehem, but because they share a common destiny, and a true hope to coexist in peace. Does the world acknowledge Israel for protecting its Christians? Many in the international community have chosen to criticize Israel. This, in my mind, is a double crime: because by doing so, the international community helps those striving to annihilate the Jews, the Christians, the Druze and the Yazidis for political ends. By doing so, the international community unfortunately contributes to exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East. It causes Christians to leave the land of Christ searching for a safe haven across the world. It is time for the world to awaken and realize the truth of those striving to destroy the Jewish state. They are hastening the death sentence of Christians in the Middle East and the Holy Land, the land which witnessed the birth and life of our Lord Jesus Christ. If they leave, who will remain in it? I, Father Gabrial Naddaf of Nazareth, stand before you and plead: O world leaders and supporters of peace, stop those who want to destroy the only free Jewish state in the region. It is the only refuge welcoming and protecting all of its citizens. It is the only place that does not attempt to push out Christians, forcing them to leave their land in search of security. I implore you from the bottom of my heart to hear the cry of the Christians of the Middle East before it is too late, and you may read about them only in the history books. Thank you, Mr. President. CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

The Islamic State Is Coming

"We all know that if they come, they will slit our throats for no reason."
Qaa, Lebanon, Christian villager

This Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014 photo, shows a general view of Lebanon's Ras Baalbek, a Christian town in the northern Bekaa region near the border with Syria. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Well, the poor man is wrong; there is a reason. The Sunni extremist Islamic State views Christians as wasted on life; as non-Muslims they have no right to life and ISIS jihadis are eager to obligingly remove them from the lifestream of existence. The small Lebanese Christian village on the border of Syria is on tenterhooks; all the men carry with them automatic rifles to take up positions and lay in ambush just in case ...

Lebanese Christians have watched with dread and foreboding as other Christians are forced to flee the Islamic jihadis in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, knowing their turn is not long into the future. A border town was overrun by Islamic State mujahadeen a month ago to clash with security forces in a conflict that took place over a period of days where the IS jihadis killed and kidnapped Lebanese soldiers and police.

These Christian villagers are not strangers to sectarian violence. But since the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990 they must have felt they had reason to hope that their ancestral homeland where their heritage of Christianity represents some of the most ancient such settlements in the world, would remain a safe haven for them and theirs. Now they are being forced to re-arm and set up self-defence units for protection.

Christian communities across the breadth of the Middle East as ancient as the religion itself, now know how at-risk their communities and their lives are, under threat of the Islamic State in its deadly rampages across Iraq and Syria. Tens of thousands of Christians, faced with the choice of converting to Islam or facing death, chose to flee their ancient homeland.

Now, Iraq's Ninevah region and the provincial capital of Mosul are empty of Christians. The Islamic State jihadis spray-painted their homes with the letter "N" representing the archaic word "Nasrani", referring to Christians, thus marking the houses as property of the Islamic State. Who is there who will argue with them for possession? During its three-year conflict Syria has seen thousands of its Christians displaced as they have come under jihadist attack.

Lebanon's Christian village of Ras Baalbek: Villagers are arming themselves for the first time since 1990 because they fear Isis will continue their rampage and cross the border from Syria to launch sectarian attacks   Bilal Hussein/The Associated Press

The rampages have destroyed churches and icons in one town after another In the militant stronghold of Raqqa, Christians were forced to pay an Islamic tax for protection, another quaint custom of Islam which dictates that the correct manner in which to dispose of non-Muslim unbelievers was to kill them, tax them, or banish them. Now, Christians originally from Iraq and Syria are finding shelter n Lebanon, a historically pluralistic country with the largest number of Christians left in the Middle East.

Fear is rampant, despite that Lebanon is the sole Arab country with a Christian head of state. A video, however, was posted online of boys burning an Islamic State flag in a Christian neighbourhood of Beirut, after which vandals spray-painted the walls of several churches with the menacing words: "The Islamic State is coming."

The sale of weapons has climbed exponentially on the black market. Shiite militia groups like Hezbollah approve of this rearming by the Christians; they view the Christian communities as the first line of defence for Shiite towns and villages in the Bekaa Valley region certain at some point to come under attack by the Sunni Islamic State jihadists.

Small Christian units have been fighting with the People's Protection Unit in Syria, a Kurdish militia. With the knowledge, however, that the numbers of Christians are limited enough to have little impact since they haven't the numbers, arms, or combat training to render them effective in countering the battle-hardened Islamist jihadis.

Iraq was once home to a million Christians before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, removing the authority of Saddam Hussein, who had traditionally given protection to Christians. Since that time, Christians have been targeted by both the Shiite and Sunni extremists who view them as aliens to a country where their religion's presence far predated that of the Muslims. Even while the Shia and Sunni population violated each other's human rights, they preyed on the Christian Iraqis as well.

Since that time, their churches have been bombed, their clergymen killed, and Christians have been steadily harassed and made to fear for their lives. Church officials now place the community number at less than one-half of their former presence. And as events continue to play out in the Middle East, their numbers will continue to decrease, until they become as scarce in presence as that of Jews, who also once proliferated throughout the Middle East.

A Good and Truly Decent Man

"Well, there was the time somebody passed me a zucchetto with a note inside. It said 'Back off or else', and it was composed of letters cut and pasted from L'Osservatore Romano."
"I blessed it and tossed it back. As for the Curia, let them complain. There are plenty of parishes in mission territory that need priests."
"It hurts me when I see a priest or nun with the latest-model car. A car is necessary to do a lot of work but, please, choose a more humble one. If you like the fancy one, just think about how many children are dying of hunger in the world."
"A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: 'Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?' We must always consider the person."
"I believe in God, not in a Catholic God, there is no Catholic God, there is God and I believe in Jesus Christ, his incarnation. Jesus is my teacher and my pastor, but God, the Father, Abba, is the light and the Creator. This is my Being."
Pope Francis

Pope Francis kissing the foot of a man as he performs the traditional “Washing of the feet". AFP/PHOTO

"I have even heard people say 'We are praying for him (Francis) to die as soon as possible'. That is wicked -- but such people think they are Christians."
Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga

Half of the world's Catholics live in Latin America. And it emerged that thousands of Latin American priests, in response to the endemic poverty they saw around them, engaged in social activism, what was called 'Liberation Theology', in efforts to aid the poor, and in their attempts to change the social order to more closely reflect the Christian vision of equality. This kind of activism was seen through the dark lens of religious disorder by the Vatican and it was disallowed.

Pope John Paul informed bishops that violence and Marxism were anathema to the Church. And that was that. There were certainly hints that the current Pope was engaged in social activism and was himself involved in liberation theology, dedicated to social equality and opportunities to advance the fortunes of all. He had always himself avoided pomp, and he has brought his view of how the Church should disport itself into the Vatican, living modestly and behaving at all times with humility.

In the course of his ministrations and activities within the Church he has defied convention and decried the penchant of some of the priests within the Church to live lavishly, to separate themselves from the people, to consider themselves exceptionally entitled to goods and services because of the exalted role they imagine themselves to be performing in service to the Church and to Roman Catholicism. He is, in fact, quite an exception to the prevailing norm.

And he's done it again, for Easter, in going to a centre for the disabled and the elderly in Rome, where he knelt, washed, dried and kissed the feet of a dozen people some seated in wheelchairs, and some of them women; one a Muslim. To those who protested that he was insulting papal tradition, that the 'regulations' were that the ritual be performed on men only, in reflection of the 12 male apostles who served Christ, he responded: "Jesus made a gesture a job, the service of a slave, a servant. And he leaves this inheritance to us: we need to be servants to one another."

In this instance, he repeated what he had done a year ago, two weeks following his elevation as the first ever-elected Jesuit-trained pope, when he visited a juvenile detention centre and performed the Holy Thursday foot-washing ritual on women and Muslin inmates. He sees his mission as serving all people, with equal fervour and devotion. The extravagance the Vatican is known for does not impress him; he focuses on global issues like poverty.

He eschews the popemobile in favour of a 1984 Renault with over 300,000 kilometres to its tired credit. He lives not in the lavish papal quarters but in a modest apartment meant for visitors. Instead of the richly embroidered and costly garments worn by popes, he favours a simple white cassock. His needs are modest and he bristles with revulsion when he learns of bishops living in luxurious mansions, using parishioners' gifts to the church to fund their style of living.

This man, so close to the god he serves, is a man of the people. So odd it is that he was in fact, elevated to the position bringing him so close to the divine. Such a removal in and of itself, from tradition.

In this picture made available by the Vatican newspaper L' Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis touches an amphora containing holy oil during the mass

‘The Book of Books’ displays 200 of the rarest biblical manuscripts in an illuminating tale of how the world’s most-published book came to be.

By Christa Case Bryant, Staff writer November 28, 2013

• 

  Ardon Bar-Hama/Courtesy of the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem

  View Caption

Jerusalem — Copied by Jewish scribes and Christian monks. Written on everything from tiny silver scrolls to papyrus that turned brittle with time. First published for a mass audience by Gutenberg; now available in 2,800 languages.

These are fragments of the story of how the Bible evolved from the days of ancient Israel to the days of Barnes and Noble.

Now the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem has launched a landmark exhibit tracing that story, drawn largely from the collection of American philanthropist Steve Green.

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“The Book of Books” exhibit is notable not only for its rare manuscripts but also its unusual balance between the Jewish and Christian narratives, and the reverence with which it treats both. Aiming to enrich both communities’ understanding of how the Bible has shaped Judeo-Christian civilization, it focuses on the development of the texts of the Bible rather than the development of divergent doctrines.

“We are trying to give a sense of how, as I jokingly say, ‘our Bible’ and ‘their Bible’ spread in our society and civilization,” says Lawrence Schiffman, vice provost and professor of Judaic studies at Yeshiva University in New York, who helped shape the exhibit. “We’re able to show everybody, artistically and technically, how those texts spread through our civilization and affected our civilization, and to do that in a way that everybody appreciates and sees the commonalities.”

The exhibit is visually stunning, from a second-century Greek Septuagint on papyrus to a 1450 Gutenberg Bible leaf to an illuminated 17^th -century Hebrew scroll depicting the story of Esther. IPad displays zoom in on ancient scrolls and codexes and get forensic views of nearly invisible lettering. As visitors trace the path of those who copied the Bible in myriad languages, the floors change from the sands of the Sinai to the cobblestones of Europe – the last exhibit’s last stop, where visitors can get a freshly printed page off a replica Gutenberg press and see early editions of the King James Version.

Deciphering an erased Aramaic text
Most of The Book of Books exhibit comes from the collection of Mr. Green, president of the arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby, who has been steadily acquiring an impressive array of manuscripts and artifacts.

Among Green’s most treasured pieces is the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, which features two Syriac treatises written on top of earlier Aramaic and Greek biblical texts. Green says it’s the largest remaining scripture in Palestinian Aramaic, the language closest to Jesus’s household language.
But some of the codex is not visible to the naked eye because the later writer, fishing around for a bit of parchment in the 9^th  century (very expensive in those days), partially erased the earlier text before writing on top of it. Oxford University has helped to bring to light the underlying text, and now Cambridge scholars are working to decipher it.

So what motivates a successful businessman to go on a global chase not only for such fragments, but their meaning as well? 

“[The Bible] didn’t show up on a bookshelf one day – there were blood and sweat and tears to give us what we have today,” says Green by phone from his Oklahoma office, crediting those whose meticulous transcription and translation led to modern Bible versions. “If we have a greater appreciation for them, then hopefully people will be more engaged.”

He is planning to open a Bible museum in Washington, D.C., in 2017, which aims to engage the public through three avenues: the stories, history, and impact of the Bible, including on the founding of America.

Part of a broader mission
While much of the material in the Book of Books exhibit will be incorporated into the Washington museum, its current configuration is uniquely designed for a Jerusalem audience.

Though modern Israel encompasses most of the key locations of Jesus’ ministry, many Israelis grow up with little exposure to the history, beliefs, or followers of Christianity, who today make up just 2 percent of the population in Jerusalem.

Museum director Amanda Weiss recalls one Israeli student years ago asking: “If Judaism and Christianity really come from the same source, why is there such animosity and hostility and in many places hatred, fear, bigotry between Christians and Jews?”

That’s the sort of question that the museum strives to both spark and answer, and The Book of Books exhibit has provided an unique avenue for emphasizing that common roots – understood and appreciated – can produce better modern-day relations.

“I think there’s no more fitting opportunity to really understand the Bible and the development of the Bible in text – how it was codified and how it developed in Judaism and Christianity than through the Book of Books exhibition,” says Weiss, pausing near the exit of the museum to read a passage of Scripture on the wall:

Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, … that He may instruct us in his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
“We can’t say it any better than the Bible can,” she says.

Endangered Species

"There are parts of the world today where to be a Christian is to put your life in danger. From continent to continent, Christians are facing discrimination, ostracism, torture, even murder, simply for the faith they follow. Christian populations are plummeting and the religion is being driven out of some of its historic heartlands. In Iraq, the Christian community has fallen from 1.2 million in 1990 to 200,000 today. In Syria, the horrific bloodshed has masked the haemorrhaging of its Christian population."
"A bomb going off in a Pakistani church shouldn't just reverberate through Christian communities; it should stir the world."
Sayeeda Warsi, minister for faith, British Government -- The Daily Telegraph

What an unspeakable turn of events. In the very places where Christianity was born, and where for centuries within the Middle East, Christians lived in peace and relative harmony with the Muslims who outnumbered them, but whose existence in that same geography was introduced well over a half-millennium later than Christianity, fundamentalist extremism has virulently turned Islam against Christianity.

Perhaps, after all, they should have seen it on the horizon. Pastor Martin Neumoller, after all, during the era of the World War II Nazi Germany Final Solution to exterminate Europe's Jews leading to the Holocaust said it well, when he declared that if he did nothing to protest the dread systemic annihilation by the Nazis against Europe's Jews there would come a time when the death-delivers would knock on his door as well.

And when the Jews, whose heritage existence in the Middle East where Judaism pre-existed both Christianity and Islam by thousands of years were hounded, pogroms mounted, their possessions taken and they exiled or face death, it signalled a progressive turn toward vicious Islamist intolerance. Jews found haven in the State of Israel, created for that very purpose; its very existence opposed then as it is now.

And then, unsurprisingly, it was the turn of the Christian population, that most ancient of Christian communities, to have their places of worship condemned as polluting the sacred ground of the Middle East that Islam had consecrated to itself. And the presence of Arabs who eschewed Islam for their own inherited religion of Christianity, passed down through the millennia as a sacred trust, constituted an assault against Islam.

Islam, the tertiary religion as it were, the last of the so-called Abrahamic monotheistic religions, which considers itself though last, the triumphant final version that God entrusted humankind with in its worship of the Omniscient Spirit equalled perfection. The final version was the finished one, the completed and final one, to which its predecessors were meant to submit and integrate themselves seamlessly into the embrace of Islam.

Having not done so, having refused the initial kindly invitations to surrender their incomplete, unfinished version of the world's only and one true religion to take instead to their hearts and souls God's chosen version, Jews, then Christians condemned themselves to life ever-lasting outside the embrace of the God of Islam. Which Islamists have interpreted as Allah's intention to destroy the incomplete drafts and those who continue to cling to them.

This is the jihad which focuses the mind of the jihadist. Their sublime duty to Islam and to Allah, in memory of the Prophet Mohammed whose wars of religious conquest they emulate. This is the Final Solution of Islamism. Which has been turned in a neat and tidy manner upon the pretenders within Islam as well, those who have chosen to take up their interpretation of a kinder, gentler God exhorting peace and equality, brotherhood and tolerance.

This is the religion that turns not only against other religions in the defiance of hatred and violence geared to destruction, but the version that placates the psychopaths among the dedicated faithful who turn their splenetic horror upon one another, leaving the region a battlefield of bloody massacres.

Pope Bluntly Faults Church’s Focus on Gays and Abortion

Alessandro Di Meo/European Pressphoto Agency   Pope Francis, who has said the church should be a “home for all,” on Sept. 4 in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Published: September 19, 2013 -- The New York Times

Pope Francis, in the first extensive interview of his six-month-old papacy, said that the Roman Catholic Church had grown “obsessed” with preaching about abortion, gay marriage and contraception, and that he has chosen not to speak of those issues despite recriminations from some critics.

In remarkably blunt language, Francis sought to set a new tone for the church, saying it should be a “home for all” and not a “small chapel” focused on doctrine, orthodoxy and a limited agenda of moral teachings. 

“It is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time,” the pope told the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a fellow Jesuit and editor in chief of La Civiltà Cattolica, the Italian Jesuit journal whose content is routinely approved by the Vatican. “The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. 

“We have to find a new balance,” the pope continued, “otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.” 

The interview was conducted in Italian during three meetings in August in the pope’s spartan quarters in Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse, and translated into English by a team of translators. Francis has chosen to live at Casa Santa Marta rather than in what he said were more isolated quarters at the Apostolic Palace, home to many of his predecessors. 

The interview was released simultaneously on Thursday morning by 16 Jesuit journals around the world, and includes the pope’s lengthy reflections on his identity as a Jesuit. Pope Francis personally reviewed the transcript in Italian, said the Rev. James Martin, an editor-at-large of America, the Jesuit magazine in New York. America and La Civiltà Cattolica together had asked Francis to grant the interview, which America is publishing in its magazine and as an e-book. 

“Some of the things in it really surprised me,” Father Martin said. “He seems even more of a free-thinker than I thought — creative, experimental, willing to live on the margins, push boundaries back a little bit.” 

The new pope’s words are likely to have repercussions in a church whose bishops and priests in many countries, including the United States, often appeared to make combating abortion, gay marriage and contraception their top public policy priorities. These teachings are “clear” to him as “a son of the church,” he said, but they have to be taught in a larger context. “The proclamation of the saving love of God comes before moral and religious imperatives.” 

From the outset of his papacy in March, Francis has chosen to use the global spotlight to focus instead on the church’s mandate to serve the poor and marginalized. He has washed the feet of juvenile prisoners, visited a center for refugees and hugged disabled pilgrims at his audiences.

His pastoral presence and humble gestures have made him wildly popular, according to recent surveys. But there has been a low rumble of discontent from some Catholic advocacy groups, and even from some bishops, who have taken note of his silence on abortion and gay marriage. Earlier this month, Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, R.I., told his diocesan newspaper that he was “a little bit disappointed in Pope Francis” because he had not spoken about abortion. “Many people have noticed that,” the bishop was quoted as saying. 

The interview is the first time Francis has explained the reasoning behind both his actions and omissions. He also expanded on the comments he made about homosexuality in July, on an airplane returning to Rome from Rio de Janeiro, where he had celebrated World Youth Day. In a remark then that produced headlines worldwide, the new pope said, “Who am I to judge?” At the time, some questioned whether he was referring only to gays in the priesthood, but in this interview he made clear that he had been speaking of gays and lesbians in general. 

“A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality,” he told Father Spadaro. “I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person.” 

The interview also serves to present the pope as a human being, who loves Mozart and Dostoevsky and his grandmother, and whose favorite film is Fellini’s “La Strada.” 

The 12,000-word interview ranges widely, and may confirm what many Catholics already suspected: that the chameleon-like Francis bears little resemblance to those on the church’s theological or political right wing. He said some people had assumed he was an “ultraconservative” because of his reputation when he served as the superior of his Jesuit province in Argentina. He pointed out that he was made superior at the “crazy” young age of 36, and that his leadership style was too authoritarian.

“But I have never been a right-winger,” he said. “It was my authoritarian way of making decisions that created problems.” 

Now, Francis said, he prefers a more consultative leadership style. He has appointed an advisory group of eight cardinals, a step he said was recommended by the cardinals at the conclave that elected him. They were demanding reform of the Vatican bureaucracy, he said, adding that from the eight, “I want to see that this is a real, not ceremonial consultation.”

The pope said he has found it “amazing” to see complaints about “lack of orthodoxy” flowing into the Vatican offices in Rome from conservative Catholics around the world. They ask the Vatican to investigate or discipline their priests, bishops or nuns. Such complaints, he said, “are better dealt with locally,” or else the Vatican offices risk becoming “institutions of censorship.” 

Asked what it means for him to “think with the church,” a phrase used by the Jesuit founder St. Ignatius, Francis said that it did not mean “thinking with the hierarchy of the church.”

He said he thinks of the church “as the people of God, pastors and people together.” 

“The church is the totality of God’s people,” he added, a notion popularized after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, which Francis praised for making the Gospel relevant to modern life, an approach he called “absolutely irreversible.” 

And while he agreed with the decision of his predecessor, Pope Benedict, to allow the broader use of the traditional Latin-language Tridentine Mass, he said that the more traditional Mass risked becoming an ideology and that he was worried about its “exploitation.” Those who seek a broad revival of the Tridentine Mass have been among Francis’s harshest critics, and those remarks are not likely to comfort them. 

In contrast to Benedict, who sometimes envisioned a smaller but purer church — a “faithful fragment” — Francis envisions the church as a big tent. 

“This church with which we should be thinking is the home of all, not a small chapel that can hold only a small group of selected people,” he said. “We must not reduce the bosom of the universal church to a nest protecting our mediocrity.”

Meticulously Cleaning House

Of the third Pope back it was claimed, bucolic as he was typecast, that he was also a scholar and a gentleman. His successor was the scholar. Now the first Jesuit pope, learned as he would be through his Jesuitical tutelage, appears the ultimate gentleman. A modest man by all accounts, and truly given as none before him appeared to have been, to quietly assuming his duties with a spare elegance of show, shunning the elaborate trappings of tradition and ornamental elaboration in the simplicity of his urge to serve.


As Pope, he is held to sit in an elevated position above mere kings and queens, yet without a hint of artifice he exhibited the courtly gentleness of a bow to a queen of Jordan. Not even of his faith, allowing him the opportunity to display respect of all religions. Certain enough in his faith and its strength that gives him his purpose in life to render civil respect where in his opinion he feels it is warranted.

Pope Francis welcomes King of Jordan Abdullah II Ibn Hussein’s wife Rania at the Vatican. Photo: MAURIZIO BRAMBATTI /AFP

He has parted with tradition at every opportunity, eschewing the rich robes of his office, and assuming instead simple white garments he feels more suitable to a servant of god. Setting an example for others that surround him. And while he may fail in persuading them to follow his lead, and his lead may have the effect of discomfiting those who serve his office, he surely has impressed the laity.

He has pledged himself to the arduous and yet delicate task of bringing order and openness, kindly regard and clarity of purpose to the Vatican. And because of the corruption that has rotted its understory and because of the conflict in personalities and priorities that have riven its members, he is taking careful steps to restore to the precincts of the sacred city a propriety and dignity of depth, not facade.

The discovery of his predecessor Pope Benedict's trusted butler purloining papers meant only for the eyes of the pope and which revealed matters not open to other eyes appears to have brought about the resignation of the pope, an event that astonished the world. The long-term friendship of Pope Benedict with the man he elevated in 2006 to secretary of state alongside his own ascension to the post of Vicar of Christ protected Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

The Cardinal was rumoured to have been involved in corrupt Vatican affairs, and there were trusted advisers who urged Pope Benedict XVI to discharge him from his duties as a way to restore trustworthiness to the affairs of the Vatican. Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne revealed months ago that he had pleaded for the replacement of Cardinal Bertone, but was soundly and roundly refused. His contention, speaking on behalf of a group of Cardinals, that Cardinal Bertone was incapable of adequately discharging his duties was rebuffed.

"During the Williamson affair, I even once, on behalf of a number of cardinals, went to the Pope and said: "Holy Father, you have to dismiss Cardinal Bertone! He's in charge -- as would be the responsible minister in a secular government." He looked at me and said, 'Listen to me carefully! Bertone remains! Basta! Basta! Basta! (stop it!)" After that I never brought up the subject again."

So it is entirely conceivable that Cardinal Bertone was referring to Cardinal Meisner when he was dismissed from his position on Saturday by Pope Francis, when he mourned that he was surrounded by "crows and vipers" who had set out to maliciously undermine his authority. And who appeared to have done so quite successfully. Vatican observers now believe this to represent part of the effort to reform the Vatican Bank.

 

And so the Pope has introduced another saintly individual to the position now vacated however reluctantly and with very bad humour by Cardinal Bertone. The position going to Archbishop Pietro Parolin, currently Vatican nuncio in Venezuela. Who will doubtless refrain from comporting himself in a manner so as to reflect badly on the office he will serve. And unlike Cardinal Bertone it is doubtful that Archbishop Parolin will, under duress, suggest blame for misplaced judgement on his part be shared by the Pope.

Shifting Social Mores

Luca ZennaroThe Associated Press

"In only one blow, he carried out a very brilliant operation, separating the theme of homosexuality from that of pedophilia. We know that a part of reactionary clerical thought plays on the confusion between these two completely different categories."
Nichi Vendola, Italy's first openly gay governor

This man, Pope Francis, is an open book, speaking with clarity and kindness, a true shepherd of the Faith that he represents. "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge? We shouldn't marginalize people for this. They must be integrated into society." An utterly refreshing change from his predecessor, Pope Francis speaks in gentle colours of gradations of grey between black and white.

All, he believes, evidently, are creations of the Divine Creator. If God loves them all as his children, who is his representative on Earth to question otherwise? It has been revealed that there exists a cadre of Roman Catholic priests who are gay. And while Pope Benedict XVI signed a 2005 document denying priesthood to those who were homosexual, conciliatory words pass this new Pope's lips. Clarifying how he feels, though while prepared to bless them, he forgives their 'sins'.

Forgiven for being, in other words, what nature has endowed them with. Nature, or God, however it is to be interpreted. Do we forgive people for being unattractive, for their dark complexions, for having flaxen hair, for being born blind or deaf, tall or short? Are those limitations to 'normalcy' seen as sins? Women are not and will not be permitted to serve the highest offices of the Church, precedent will not permit it.

They too, perhaps, should be forgiven for having been born the wrong gender to serve as priests. Their sin, then, is being female. Forgiveness will permit them, nonetheless, to serve their church, to serve in important ways, relevant to their religion and their times, but they may not serve as priests. Gays can, because they can be silent about their sexual orientation and appear without 'sin'. Women cannot guise themselves as men, therefore they may not serve as priests.

Pope Francis is clearly a devout and extremely good soul. How can he be faulted for believing, extolling and supporting the most basic precepts of his religion? He does because this is the manner in which he has been exposed to enable him to reach his exalted position by upholding the tenets of greatest important to the Roman Catholic Church.

His compassion and his willingness to present himself as a modestly ordinary human being is to his huge credit. He hides nothing, and speaks from his heart. He demurs rather than standing in judgement. Although he does judge greed and lack of compassion, and war-mongering and prejudice.

Ask no more of this good man.