Jerusalem Surrenders to Sodom

On June 24, 2005, Haaretz reported that the Jerusalem City Hall would not allow the “Fourth Annual Jerusalem Pride March,” a homosexual event scheduled for June 30th, to take place. Both the city council and the mayor feared that the march would offend many Jerusalem residents and precipitate unrest. In a letter to the Jerusalem Open House group (organizers of the parade), Eitan Meir, the director general of City Hall, declared “it is not right to allow the march or other planned activities to take place in the streets of Jerusalem, fearing it will create an uproar and offend a wide sector of city residents, and out of fear of public disturbances.” Previous parades, which took place under very heavy security, were accompanied by minor incidents of vandalism and protest.  Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox mayor, Uri Lupolianski, has expressed his personal opposition to the parades in previous years, but let them go ahead, claiming the decision fell under police jurisdiction.

However, the Jerusalem Open House group appealed to the Supreme Court to repeal the ruling, saying the decision was a violation of the homosexual community's freedom of expression. "The actions of the mayor, and those carrying out his policies, are injurious to the values of freedom of expression," said Hagai El-Ad, director of the Open House, who went on to state that "Jerusalem continues in its discriminatory policy against the Jerusalem Open House and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Jerusalem.”

On June 26th, the Jerusalem municipality was ordered to drop its ban on the “Fourth Annual Gay Pride Parade.” Jerusalem District Court Judge Moussia Arad, who is vice president of the court for administrative affairs, ruled that the City Hall could not discriminate against a particular public because some of its members object to that public's opinions or sexual orientation. The judge also ordered the municipality and Mayor Lupolianski to pay court costs of NIS 30,000 ($6,500) each.

Hagai Elad of the Jerusalem Open House described the court verdict as a victory for freedom of expression and the principle of equality. He promised that the parade, which received police approval, would take place as planned and follow the same format as last year's.

COMMENT: The Jerusalem authorities had originally banned the “Fourth Annual Gay Pride Parade” because it would be provocative. In their letter to the parade’s organizers, the Jerusalem municipality stated their belief that "it wouldn't be right to authorize the march and the related festivities in Jerusalem out of the concern that it would be provocative and hurt the feelings of the broader public living in and visiting the city.” Apparently, the whims of a few thousand activists far outweigh the good of the broader public living in and visiting the city.

And, yes, the mayor and City Hall of Jerusalem were right when they expressed concerns about the unrest sure to be caused by a parade that was nothing more than a collective slap in the face to the Jerusalem citizenry disguised as a bid for “pluralism.”  Nearly 1,000 protesters lined the streets of the march.  Some threw bottles of urine and bags of feces into the crowd, while others yelled "shame" at the passing marchers.  Protesters gathered in front of the Great Synagogue and held signs which read: "People with AIDS belong in hospitals" and "Homosexuality is a sickness."

Moreover, on June 30, 2005, the Jerusalem Post reported that “what started off as a lively parade of nearly 5,000 Gay Pride activists quickly turned violent” as three young marchers were stabbed by a man described as a “young, ultra-Orthodox youth.” Police detained a young man in connection to the stabbing and also arrested 13 religious Jews who attempted to block the parade's path as it turned onto King George Street.

One need not condone violence in order to appreciate the plain fact that the people of Jerusalem behaved like a people under siege. And that’s just what they are. The sacred history of the Holy City, and its unique place among all the cities of the earth, mean nothing to the organizers of the homosexual parade. Throughout history, people have died to protect the sanctity of places hallowed by the actions of God, yet it is treated as a given that men and women of today could never care about such things as strongly as did their ancestors. So much for the prevailing wisdom.

Was the “Fourth Annual Gay Pride Parade” merely a practice run for the upcoming August “2005 World Pride Parade,” an event which will see thousands of homosexual participants from around the world converging upon Jerusalem?  The “World Pride” event has also garnered its share of advance protests.  In fact, one wonders if the organizers of the “World Pride” event (also the Jerusalem Open House group) appreciate the irony of the situation. They state as one of the reasons for holding their event in Jerusalem that “in a city – and indeed, a world – where ethnic and religious tensions have become commonplace, it is easy for people to forget their common humanity, to neglect the basic human rights to dignity and freedom .... from the home of three of the world’s great religions, the world gay community will proclaim that love knows no borders.”

Where’s the irony? It is precisely the OPPOSITION to the upcoming “World Pride” event that has UNITED the different religions and ethnic groups of Jerusalem! Last March, Jerusalem’s top religious leaders – Sheikh Abed El Salem Menasera, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Eirineos, Catholic Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, Armenian Patriarch Turkum Manijian, Sefardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Ashkanezaic Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger – held a joint news conference during which they issued a declaration warning that holding the homosexual event in Jerusalem would "desecrate its sanctity and character and cause a breakdown in public order.”

If the organizers of “World Pride” are truly interested in bringing people together and healing strife, they will find these things occurring only in the unified opposition to their agenda. Why, then, don’t they just suck it up and leave the citizens of Jerusalem alone? But, then, the common good isn’t really the goal of “gay activism,” is it?

Pope Benedict XVI  to Visit German Synagogue

According to the Associated Press (July 5, 2005), “German-born Pope Benedict XVI will say prayers in Hebrew when he visits the synagogue in Cologne, Germany, that was destroyed by the Nazis,” according to a cardinal who is organizing the trip.

Jewish representatives invited the Pope to visit the synagogue while he is in Germany in August for World Youth Day, and Benedict replied, '"I will come,"' said Cologne Cardinal Joachim Meisner. The visit will include a prayer service in which the psalms will be "prayed," said the cardinal. "We have learned them in Hebrew."

Speaking of World War II and the “holocaust," Cardinal Meisner said that the German people “carry our wounds up to this day, and sometimes they are still bleeding wounds.” He believes that the Pope’s visit to the synagogue will be an “unequivocal symbol to our elder brothers and sisters" that the holocaust "must never happen again."

COMMENT: On the same day that the above news item was published, Life Site News reported on a July 5th talk given by Pope Benedict, in which he spoke of the necessity for Catholics to accept the whole of the faith.

Speaking of the new Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Holy Father said, "Dear brothers and sisters, how necessary it is today at the dawn of the third millennium for the entire Catholic community to proclaim, teach and witness to the entire truth of Catholic faith, doctrine and morals in a unanimous and harmonious manner!"

To proclaim, teach and witness to the entire truth of Catholic faith. Will the Pope do this when he appears at the Cologne Synagogue? Will he preach the Gospel to those who need it so badly? Or, will he, by example if not by word, tell the world that belief in Jesus Christ is merely “optional,” something which can be dispensed with at will with no consequences either now or for eternity? Is praying the Psalms in Hebrew as important as teaching clearly and unequivocally that those very Psalms find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ?

When our current Pope was elected, some well-intentioned, but overanxious, person out there in cyberspace came up with the phrase, “The cafeteria is closed!” No, the cafeteria apparently isn’t closed. It has merely had a new coat of paint slapped onto it. Come August, it would be truly magnificent to be proven wrong.

More Muslim “Ecumenism”

According to a June 30, 2005 report by the non-profit, interdenominational group, The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), Christian homes in three areas near Peshawar, Pakistan were attacked by a radical Muslim mob on June 28^th, after a Christian man was accused earlier that day of burning pages with Koranic verses written on them.

VOM sources say that the man, Yousaf Masih, is more than 60 years old and has worked for almost two decades as a sweeper for the Pakistani military. While cleaning the home office of a military officer, Masih came across a bag of “rough papers,” and was told by the officer to take the papers outside and burn them. Masih is illiterate, and would have no way of knowing what was written on the papers he had been told to burn.

Other workers saw the papers and accused Yousaf Masih of burning pages from the Koran. Upon hearing these accusations, Masih ran to his home, where he was later arrested by police. Under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, insulting Islam, the Prophet Mohammed or the Koran can be punishable with death.

Radical Muslims returned to the area at about 10 p.m. and burnt an estimated total of 200 houses, many of which were looted by members of the mob, who stole television sets, refrigerators and other items. The mob also beat Yousaf Masih’s three sons and his brother, Yaqoob.  A Hindu temple was also attacked, as apparently the mob at first believed Masih was a Hindu.

Although Police have reportedly arrested 16 people involved in the attacks, Christians live in fear of further violence.

COMMENT: October 28, 1965 saw the publication of Nostra Aetate: The Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions. In this document, proclaimed by Pope Paul VI, we read the following:

The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God.

They adore the one God? The Living God is a Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This is the God worshipped by Roman Catholics, and not by Muslims. They take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees? The Living God became man for the restoration of a fallen world, so that “there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved.” This is the Redeemer, Jesus Christ, worshipped and adored as both True God and True Man by Roman Catholics, and not by Muslims.

The above cited atrocities committed upon an illiterate man, his family and hundreds of innocent people in Pakistan are the rule, not the exception, and we can only wonder what the world would be like today had courageous Catholic warriors, under the protection of the Queen of Heaven, not routed the forces of Islam at Lepanto in 1571 and before the gates of Vienna in 1683.

Rather than parrot the same old “ecumenical” blasphemies comparing the True God to a plethora of counterfeits, our shepherds would do well to return to Pope Pius XI’s original Act of Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in which we find this petition to Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the human race: “Be Thou King of all those who are still involved in the darkness of idolatry or of Islamism, and refuse not to draw them all into the light and kingdom of God.”

[Note: The VOM report cited above does indicate whether the victims were Catholic or Protestant. Therefore, for simplicity’s sake, I have retained the use of the word “Christian” from the original text.]

“I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar!”

According to the Associated Press (July 2, 2005), a 56-year-old French woman named Genevieve Beney “defied a threat of excommunication by the Roman Catholic Church and held a ceremony proclaiming herself a priest.”

Joining Beney for the ceremony aboard a small riverboat in Lyon were two women, Gisela Forster of Germany and Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger of Austria, “bishops” of the “European Women’s Synod,” who were among seven women excommunicated in 2002 for conducting an “ordination” ceremony. Also present was Patricia Fresen of South Africa. Fresen, a Dominican sister, lost her teaching position at the Catholic University of Johannesburg after being “ordained” by “bishops” Forster and Mayr-Lumetzbeger.

Before boarding the boat, Beney's husband, Albert Ratz, called his wife's act "a magnificent adventure, an act of resistance against incomprehensible blockage by the Catholic church."

The Archbishop of Lyon, Philippe Barbarin, had urged Beney not to follow through with her plan, saying it would constitute “a serious act of rupture in respect to the Catholic Church," and “be a source of useless injury and suffering."

"This is not a rupture with the Roman Catholic Church," Beney said in a statement read aloud before she boarded the boat. "If there is a rupture on my part, it is with a situation that I consider to be obsolete and unjust to women." In an earlier interview with the AP, Beney said that "we consider ourselves Catholic, but we do not agree with the church law … that says only a baptized male can be ordained as a priest.”

According to a July 5, 2005 report by United Press International (UPI), Genevieve Beney “has been excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church.”

COMMENT: “French Woman Ordains Herself a Priest!” blared the Associated Press headline. It might just as well have read, “Donkeys Fly!” Further comment on the activities of these Church-hating harpies (and their mild-mannered husbands) would be superfluous, but the following line from the Associated Press is worth quoting: “Beney, a theologian, says its time for the church to change.” When you defend sound doctrine, as did Mel Gibson in his cinematic masterpiece, you’re some sort of antediluvian nut-case. If you’re an “ecumenical activist” or a renegade nun, you’re a “theologian.” And, of course, if you really want to display your theological credentials to general applause, just act as if you know more than Christ does.

“Paging Noah....”

United Press International (UPI) reports (July 2, 2005) that “archeologists are rejoicing over a discovery this week of a man-made structure 300 feet below the surface of  the Black Sea, which points to dramatic new evidence of an apocalyptic flood that may have inspired the Biblical story of Noah.”

The Washington Post reported that a collapsed barn-like structure was discovered more than 300 feet below the surface of the Black Sea, 12 miles east of the Turkish port city of Synope, along with planks, beams and tree branches untouched by worms or mollusks.

Using sonar to map anomalies on the sea floor and a robot submersible to investigate, the expedition discovered a collapsed building described as a “good-sized barn,” measuring 39 feet long and 13 feet wide. Other evidence of human habitation, including a trash heap with polished stones and old tree branches and pieces of wood, were also found. “It is beyond our wildest imagination," said explorer Robert D. Ballard, leader of the expedition. "Wood is existing much shallower than we thought. When we do go deep, it can only get better."

University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert described the construction technique of the barn as a "cluster of wood stuck in a clay matrix"—traditional Black Sea "wattle and daub" architecture. "This struck a bell, because it was familiar to me from land," Hiebert said. "Literally, my jaw dropped."

The Black Sea Project’s goal is to look for ancient shipwrecks and evidence of a great flood. Late last year, the outline of an ancient coast 550 feet below the current waterline was discovered. That coast was the first visual evidence that a flood had occurred in the region eons ago. The Black Sea’s 7,000-foot abyss may shelter intact shipwrecks dating back to the dawn of seafaring.