Must the pope be Catholic?

You might imagine the pope is a paradigm-case of a high-profile Catholic. You might even assume it’s a job requirement that the pope be Roman Catholic. Presumably Richard Dawkins or John Piper lacks one of the necessary qualifications to assume the Pontificate.

But we live in a surprising world. You see, Dave Armstrong has raised the bar for who’s truly Catholic and who’s not.

But back to D'Souza. Why would I deny that he was a "high profile Catholic"? I do so based on his own report in the very article that Hays sent his readers to. He was never firmly in the Catholic camp to begin with...

Moreover, on his own More About Dinesh D'Souza page (from Rosey Grier's book of 1992), he stated that he was a "believing Catholic but a poorly practicing one."

Well, I think devoted partisans of either side think it is a very important question and business and issue (as Francis Beckwith himself noted in a critique article of D'Souza). The fact that D'Souza does not, plausibly gives some indication, I think, of his less than total commitment to theological maters of great importance.

http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2011/07/is-dinesh-dsouza-high-profile-fallen.html

Suppose we apply these criteria to some of the Renaissance popes. Were they real Roman Catholics? Well, to judge by Dave’s criteria, they clearly fell below the magic threshold.

So you don’t have to be Roman Catholic to be the Bishop of Rome. And that certainly widens and deepens the potential pool for the next conclave. Perhaps the Dali Lama or Bill Maher will be the next pope.

The view from the glass house

One of the favorite objections that Arminians raise to Calvinism is to constantly dust off the musty case of Servetus, as if Calvin’s complicity in the death of Servetus somehow taints Reformed theology.

Suppose we try that reasoning in reverse:

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - A South Carolina pastor is accused of kidnapping and raping a woman at gunpoint.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reports Saturday that 46-year-old Dale Richardson of Summerville is charged in North Charleston with kidnapping and possession of a firearm during a violent crime.

Police records say Richardson offered the victim a ride, but then pointed a gun at her, put a pillowcase over her head and bound her hands. A report accuses him of forcing her to have sex in a Dorchester County home. Charges are pending in that county.

Richardson says he has a spotless record and will put up a strong defense. He is the minister of Freedom Free Will Baptist Church in Ladson...

http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/15179247/sc-pastor-accused-of-kidnapping-rape

And, of course, that’s hardly an isolated incident. Off-the-top of my head, just consider some of these upstanding individuals:

Jim Bakker, Ergun Caner, Morris Cerullo, Kenneth Copeland, Paul Crouch, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, Eddie Long, Barry Minkow, Peter Popoff, Richard Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, Robert Tilton, Paula White, &c.

Stop and ask yourself how many of them subscribe to double predestination, or limited atonement. In fact, if I were a betting man, I’d guess most-all of them subscribe to unlimited atonement, libertarian freewill, &c. 

The Bible Is Part Of History

The presence or absence of a belief in church history often comes up in discussions between Protestants and Catholics. We should keep in mind that the Bible is a collection of historical documents. It's more than that, but that's part of what it is. If we're going to ask how significant it is for a Protestant belief to be absent for a period of patristic or medieval church history, we should also ask how significant it is for a Catholic belief to be absent for a period of Biblical history. Church history began before the patristic era, and God's work in the world began before church history. Do Catholics who act so concerned that a Protestant belief supposedly was absent or widely contradicted for a few hundred years or more of church history act similarly concerned when a Catholic belief is absent or widely contradicted for a similar or longer period of Biblical history or some later era? How do they react when the Bible itself refers to a correct belief or practice as having been absent or widely contradicted for a long period of time?

Finding Material At Triablogue

We get new readers, and people often ask us where they can find material on a particular subject at Triablogue. For those who aren't aware of it, I put together a topical index for the site earlier this year.

For example, Roman Catholicism has been discussed in some recent threads. Those who are interested in what we've written on a topic related to Catholicism could look for it on the topical index linked above. If that doesn't turn up anything, try something like a Blogger search or Google search.

Turning from Rome

Catholics like to hype high-profile conversions or reversions to Rome. But traffic in the opposite direction doesn't get quite the same press.

http://www.tkc.edu/abouttkc/dsouza/president_blog.asp

The Early Church and Contraception

I've written a paper addressing the claim that the early church was universally against contraception and that this fact should be troubling for Protestants who only began to accept the practice in the early twentieth century:

http://divinedisputation.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/the-early-church-and-contraception.pdf

Sam Harris on Breivik

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/christian-terrorism-and-islamophobia/

Incompetent book blurbs

I am not a biblical scholar and am simply not equipped to challenge on historical grounds the reconstruction of the social and political forces which led to the Hebrew canon we recognize today.

http://randalrauser.com/2011/07/one-word-in-many-many-words-a-review-of-thom-stark’s-“human-faces”-part-2/

Should Christianity end? I think not. But unthinking Christianity definitely should. For that reason I am grateful to the authors of this outstanding collection of essays.

https://sites.google.com/site/theendofchristianity/home/blurbs

If Randal Rauser isn’t qualified to evaluate Thom Stark’s attack on Scripture, how is Rauser qualified to endorse The End of Christianity’s attack on Scripture? 

Dave Armstrong photo gallery

"Commitment Page"

There are a myriad number of dead religions that we don't bother with because they are dead. We simply say we don't believe them, and yet somehow that is supposed to be a belief? How can the statement, "I don't believe you," be considered a belief? In what sense?

 

A religion by definition must be about supernatural beings and/or forces. Atheism therefore is not a belief nor a religion. I really don't know how much plainer I can get.

http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2011/07/once-again-atheism-is-not-belief-nor.html

It’s striking to compare this disclaimer with the conclusion to The End of Christianity. That book has a “Commitment Page” (435).

COMMITMENT PAGE

Date__________

 

I __________, having read this book and/or the series as a whole, do hereby state for the record that I no longer believe. I am a non-believer. As a result, I commit myself to doing some or all of the following actions for the cause of unbelief:

 

I will tell people in my life at the appropriate moments that I no longer believe. I will set specific dates by which I plan on accomplishing this goal with specific people. We need more and more people to do this. There is power in numbers.

 

I will tell others about this book and/or this series of books. Christians won’t be convinced with sound bites. We must create within them enough doubt that they will want to read entire books like these rather than avoiding them.

 

I will get involved to help end Christianity in the following way(s):

 

I will seek out and become involved in a local freethought group.

 

I will get active in online forums and blogs.

 

I will donate money to good secular causes, or to humanitarian causes in the name of secularism.

 

I will get an education for the express purpose of making a difference on behalf of reason and science.

 

I will become politically active on behalf of the separation of church and state, or even run for an elected office.

On the face of it, it’s puzzling how one can be so committed to a nonbelief. How can a nonbelief become a cause to live for?

This “Commitment Page” bears a sneaking resemblance to the Convert’s Pledge Card that Billy Sunday used to employ. Also called the Decision Card, which the convert signs and dates. This often incorporated the Temperance Pledge.

Funny how a “nonbelief” parodies a full-fledged religious movement.

The origins of the churches at Rome

http://bible.org/article/origins-church-rome#P108_30687

The Professor and the Madman

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2011/07/the_professor_and_the_madman048831.html

Yummy Yummy Yummy I got love in my tummy‏

The central objection to Calvinism has always been, and will always be, that God’s decision to elect some people to salvation whilst leaving (or electing) others to damnation is inconsistent with the notion of divine love.

 

Although Luther was often torn by the existential angst of the unknown God of the hidden decree, Melanchthon saw in the moments of Martin’s grief the face of a God who has the same unconditional love for all his children. In other words, Luther’s love was a pale token of the divine type. And surely it must be this way, for if we shall not find love in the face of a parent for their child, then where in this fallen creation shall we find it?

 

But this is a dangerous starting point for Calvinism. For if we accept the unconditional love of a parent for a child reflects a candlelight glimmer of the blazing solar furnace of the divine love for creation, then what shall be left of an electing love that turns some over to the most unimaginable horrors of eternal damnation?

http://randalrauser.com/2011/07/calvinism-preaches-a-god-of-love-and-yet/

Here's a good starting point for modeling divine love on unconditional parental love.

HOUSTON (AP) - Wanda Holloway, jailed for trying to hire a hit man to kill the mother of her daughter's cheerleading rival, was freed this morning.

 

Ms. Holloway had served six months of a 10-year sentence after pleading no contest to solicitation of capital murder.

 

Jurors in the 1991 trial heard secretly recorded tapes of Ms. Holloway asking her brother-in-law to hire a hit man to kill the mother of a girl who was vying against her daughter for a spot on the cheerleading squad.

 

Ms. Holloway said she wanted the mother killed because she believed that the daughter would be so upset that she would drop out of the competition.

http://www.texnews.com/texas97/mom030197.html 

Civilized punishment for mass murderers

Unlike rightwing Christians, with their barbaric eye-for-an-eye jurisprudence, secularized nations practice humane justice:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/8661444/Norway-killer-could-be-held-in-luxury-prison.html

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1986002,00.html

A personal appeal

I know that I’ve asked folks for help who are coming to this link; as an update, Beth has been diagnosed with “chronic myelomonocytic leukemia” (CMML) and is scheduled for a bone marrow transplant. Those things are described more fully in the links.

Several weeks ago, I mentioned here that my wife has been diagnosed with one of the Myelodysplastic Syndromes (a pre-leukemia cancer of the blood), and I’ve been chronicling the progress of her treatment at johnbugay.wordpress.com. I’ve put up a “Donate” button there, and Steve has graciously permitted me to make a blog post here requesting some financial help.

We have very good medical insurance through my employer, which pays most, but not all of our medical expenses. But Bethany is not able to work, and her paycheck has been 30-40% of our family income. She will be “disabled” for more than a year through this process. I’ve only been with my employer for less than two years, and so I don’t have much paid time off; in fact, I’ve used it up during Beth’s two previous hospital stays. I’m permitted to take time off through the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), but it is unpaid time. Taking Beth for doctor’s visits or Vidaza sessions means I have to take unpaid time off. In the near future, as she spends more time in the hospital for the transplant, or possible infections, it will mean no family income at all.

Please help us to get through this time by making a small donation. I’ve placed a “Donate” button in the right hand column of my personal blog; if you’d like to help, you can pay through PayPal, or use a credit card.

It’s true, there are “public” sources, such as Social Security, VA, and other sources. But the process for filing claims for these can take months (five months, in the case of Social Security). And as you know, the mortgage and other bills don’t take a break. Right now, five of our six children are living at home with us, and we’ve got three young men starting various college programs in August.

Nobody asks to get this kind of disease; even though there is good hope, from a medical perspective, it is a truly frightening process. We’re simply asking for financial help with our living expenses as we get through the next several months.

Thank you for your help and prayers.

Nature by numbers

(Source)

Devil's island resort

If convicted, Anders Behring Breivik could apparently be sent to the following health spa rehab center maximum-security prison. More info about Halden Prison here.

Here are some gruesome photos:

Islamization

http://legalinsurrection.com/2011/07/unesco-edits-the-jews-out-of-history-again/

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4097506,00.html

A natural law argument for infanticide

Catholics try to deploy natural law arguments against “artificial” contraception. Let’s consider another application of natural law reasoning.

Some animals kill their young. For instance, the mother or siblings may kill the runt. The ostensible reason is to reallocate limited resources to the remaining, healthier offspring. Better to have fewer with higher chances of survival than more with lower chances of survival.

Likewise, among social animals, alpha males or females may kill the offspring of the betas. The ostensible reason is to assert dominance as well as reserving the succession for the offspring of the alphas. Social animals often have a hierarchy which confers a survival advantage on the group, although some individuals may be sacrificed for the common good.

Assuming that natural law ethics is our guide, is it permissible or even obligatory to kill a sickly human baby?

One can’t say that’s contrary to nature, for there’s abundant precedent in nature for doing just that. And there are situations in which that would up the chances of survival for the remaining siblings. So it serves a natural purpose.

The Language of God

http://www.sbts.edu/resources/files/2011/06/sbjt-v15-n1_caneday.pdf