A secular look at the impact of homosexuality

This handout, written by the leader of my Bible study, outlines in a secular way the impact that homosexuality has on the face of marriage and society. This was created as a way for people to better argue the point for traditional marriage and strict heterosexuality.

Prop 8 Articles.

The following post was made by the leader of my Bible study and contains the Biblical analysis of and Early Church Fathers' testimonies about homosexual acts. The notes I posted prior are in relation to this article as well so read both when you have the chance.

Prop 8 class 9-23-08

So my Bible study went into the analysis of Proposition 8 (voting on amending the state constitution to include the definition of marriage) and I took some notes on it. I will be posting the handout up here tomorrow morning or so.

1) Reasons against gay marriage

a) Genesis 1 and 2

i) Sets foundation for all Christian teaching on marriage, family and sexuality.

(1) Sex act is good by God.

(a) Has purpose

(b) Not bad at all

(2) Dual purpose to sex

(a) Procreative

(b) Unitive

b) Marriage in both Genesis (first book) and Revelation (last book)

c) Meanings in Genesis

i) Woman made from side of man.

(1) Symbolic as “side-by-side”

(2) Not made from head or foot

ii) When presented to man, brought to Adam as his wife.

(1) Unitive aspect shown

d) Man+Female=image of God.

i) We share in God’s own love

ii) We are unique persons with own intellect

iii) By virtue of being human, we are in two worlds at once… heaven and earth.

(1) Being of God’s image yet still mortal and having a soul.

e) Gender compliments

i) Each gender draws out of the opposing gender the qualities that God wants revealed.

ii) Gays can’t have complementary relationships

(1) Ultimately frustrating

(2) There is a dysfunction at the sexual level and even more dysfunction at the social level

(a) Can’t procreate so kids are adopted, etc.

(3) Always an attempt to mimic the heterosexual relationship

(4) Cannot (purposefully) fulfill any of the marriage aspects to fruition.

f) Types of marriage

i) Celibates

(1) One of two instances

(a) Has not found partner yet

(b) Chosen the greater good (priesthood, etc) in place of marriage.

ii) Childless

(1) Sometimes, couples cant have kids

(2) Even without kids, the unitive aspect is stull fulfilled.

(3) Even without sexual relations, the complementary levels still exist.

iii) Marriage union reflects what God is like.

g) Characteristics of Homosexual relationships

i) Largely selfish

(1) Simple attraction and pleasure

(2) Complementary traits, social well-being and responsibility lacking.

h) Sinful nature

i) Only 1 of 5 sins in Bible listed as abominable

i) Biblical examples

i) Sodom

(1) Foundation story for Scripture.

(2) Shows how grave a sin that homosexuality encompasses

(3) Lot’s wife analysis

(a) Referenced in NT

(b) Example of how quickly God’s judgment comes.

(c) One can’t have eyes on heaven and look back at the world.

(4) Analysis of physical blindness experienced by attackers trying to sodomize Lot.

(a) Physical blindness=manifestation of moral blindness

(b) The act of the attackers to trying and find the door of the house shows the compulsory nature of sin.

(c) Not like Paul’s blindness on Damascus road, for Paul repented and changed.

ii) Deuteronomy 23:18-19

(1) Canaanite religious reference

(a) Ritualistic sex practices

(2) “dog” refers to “Dogs of Ishtar’

(a) Castrated males dressed as women and made priest(esses?) in Canaanite temples.

(3) “Dog” is no neutral term, it is specific term for a specific sin.

(a) “Doggie style,” anyone?

(4) Lasting effect of the name

(a) By 100AD, Canaanites no longer existed and therefore the use of the term in Matthew 7 had no religious connotation.

iii) Judges 19:15-26

(1) Only time in Bible where all the tribes in Israel got together and beat up another tribe of Israel

(2) Nearly wiped out entire tribe of Benjamin.

(3) All done over the fact that the Benjamites wanted to have relations with men and instead viciously attacked a man’s wife.

(4) This story is like Lot’s story but it is entirely in the context of the Israelites.

Some Multimedia Sources

I found this a while back to show others in a more dynamic way the truths of Catholicism but have since forgotten to post them... until now. There is a man of the username cathaustralia on YouTube that has made two segmented videos on the Refuting Sola Fide and The Supremacy of the Papacy. Though these videos are a little bit monotonous in tone, they make up for it in information.

I have made playlists for these videos and they shall be listed here. Don't forget to give this guy some commentary love!

An Apology

I would like to apologize to all the people out there that I am sorry about some of the things I have said in regards to Protestants, particularly in the previous post. Practicing ecumenicism is one of my primary goals and the previous post could have been a little nicer. For that I apologize.

Off to work on learning to make a kilt.

-N8

Things I hate to hear

So I do not mean to be vindictive but I feel seriously wronged at this stage in my life because my ex-girlfriend's parents blindly refuse to recognize Catholicism as the original and full version of Christianity and as such do not want me dating their daughter, a beautiful woman that is now dating some guy that she isn't happy with because it makes her family "happy". As such, I am going to vent a little bit and list some things that I hate hearing Protestants say...

1) Catholics aren't Christian

Oh, this one warms the cockles of my heart with a torch cutter! Unfortunately for most Evangelical/Fundamentalist/Protestant cults/sects, the weight of history rests on our side, as does Tradition. As stated in previous blogs, without Tradition there would be no Bible with which our delineated brothers and sisters in Christ could bash the Catholics with.

2) If you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior then you will be saved.

Really? So while I am out at 3am, hacksawing the body of a hated person so I can fit their dismembered corpse into a trash can and I call upon the name of the big JC then I will be saved and not have my soul thrown into a state or mortal sin? What RUBBISH! Besides, one has to be baptized, Trinitatian and with holy water, to be seen in God's eyes, which means that NO, baptism is not a meaningless external symbol and NO, one is not saved by a simple profession of faith!

3) Catholics added unoriginal stuff to Christianity.

Actually, Protestants took away stuff from Christianity. Protestants have twisted Scripture, bastardized the Body of Christ into tens of thousands of neurotically schismatic sects and stripped away the foundations and pillars of faith that had been the mainstay and support of Christianity for over 1500 years before the advent of Luther and Calvin. Unfortunately for many of the Protestants today, the face of your respective sect looks NOTHING like what Christianity once did.

Catholicism started out at the original Christianity like a brand new sportscar. Protestantism decided that the water pump, the radiator, the manual transmission and the rims were not needed for it to function properly.

Point the blame appropriately.

4) People need to read the Bible every day, it is God's word and it is our spiritual nourishment.

Look, I am a big fan of reading. In fact, I just bought a Kindle and I have it loaded with a bunch of books and it will number in the thousands of books in a short amount of time, but do not feed me this line that an UNCHANGING BOOK, regardless of how holy it is, is the sole source of "spiritial nourishment" and that reading and rereading it somehow fulfills you. The only reason it is called the Living Word is because the words of JC transcend time and space, they do not make one alive in faith.

Besides, the original spiritual nourishment is the Eucharist, SURPRISE! Unfortunately, only Catholics have the true Eucharist and everything else is a skeletonized knockoff. Much like Clinton, Protestants cant seem to figure out what the meaning of "is" is.

5) The Bible is infallible.

REALLY?!???! When did it make a decision for you? When did it TELL YOU what to do? I believe the proper term is inerrant and even then it is subject to limitations, one limitation being that the Bible does not claim to be nor can it be used as a scientific treatise (an example of this being the next case in point.) However, the Bible does have given to us what we need for salvation but only in conjunction with the Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium, forming the "Three-Legged Stool"

This is all I have for now. I don't mean to be angry but I now have to go through the grieving process again and I am kind of an emotional wreck at the moment. Fortunately, the rant I have just posted does have some theological merit going for it.

Time to go try to be normal.

-N8

ETA: Read the comments section on this particular blog to read the wise words of dean.

Some book reviews

So I just got done reading two pretty good Catholic apologetics books that Ehab sent to me recently and I thought I would share my thoughts on them with all the blog readers out there.

The first book is called Protestantism by Dave Armstrong and is a collection of reflections on a variety of topics concerning Protestants, such as Private Judgment, Predestination, Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide and other such topics. The one topic that transcends all the other topics though is the Tradition that we Catholics hold so dear and how it is a cohesive force for our doctrine. All in all, this book is a very well-thought out collection of reflections from his online arguments and on his thoughts in converting to Catholicism.

The second book is another Dave Armstrong book called More Biblical Evidence and it essentially outlines the core beliefs of Catholicism in reference to the Bible. Including but not limited to the topics covered are Tradition, the Eucharist, Marian devotions and the centrality of the Bible to the Catholic faith in contrast to the exclusivity of the Bible in the Protestant faith(s). It is an excellent read and highly recommended for the conscientous apologist.

There are more reviews to come so check back again OR subscribe to this blog via RSS feed!

-N8

Meditations on Mark 1:40-45

Grace and peace be with you all from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! It is an honor that Nate has allowed me to be a second blogger in his blog. Thanks Nate! I will try my best to give Spiritual reflections on a Gospel story or verse or what not. My real name is Ehab but I am a Catholic rapper and my rap name is Elijah (www.myspace.com/twinrecords << click there to check out the music).

Before we begin, please know that this story has a beautiful ending to it that most of us have not seen. After the ending is revealed, your eyes will be open and it will be like seeing a magic trick. Please be patient and read this in its entirety from beginning to end because there is something beautiful to see at the end. I hope you enjoy this. Let's begin the meditation by first reading it:

Mar 1:40	And a leper came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, "If you will, you can make me clean."
Mar 1:41	Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I will; be clean."
Mar 1:42	And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
Mar 1:43	And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once,
Mar 1:44	and said to him, "See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people."
Mar 1:45	But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

We will take this verse by verse but first we have to begin with the background in those days about people who have leprosy. Most people know that people who had leprosy in those days were outcast and lived outside of the city. They were not allowed in because people were afraid to catch the disease. They were not allowed to worship in the Temple. This is very important to keep in mind for the sake of the meditation.

In verse 40, we read that the Leper approaches Jesus. This is very important to understand. First we have to ask ourselves, where was Jesus? If He was in the city, then how did the leper approach him if they are not allowed in the city? Well if we go back just 1 verse to Mk 1:39, it reads "And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons." So we can see that Jesus was in a public place where there are many people around him. He was preaching in the synagogue before the leper approached him. How is that possible? Well, Mark doesn't tell us how the Leper got there, but we know that he somehow got there. Perhaps he covered his skin and sneaked into town? To me, that seems to be the most reasonable explanation. What great faith! He basically took the chance of getting caught by the people. He took a greater chance when he approached Jesus and showed himself to be a leper in front of all the people and said "If you will, you can make me clean." Notice how Mark tells us that the leper kneeled in front of Jesus. This is a sign of humility. If there is an issue in your life that needs healing (whether it be forgiveness of sins, salvation, an addiction from porn/alcohol/sex, anger problems, etc...) you must approach Christ with humility and complete trust. We have to learn from the leper. He trusted in Jesus to heal him and that is why he went out of his ways and took a huge risk just to come to Jesus. What a powerful scene! We cannot approach Jesus with pride. We have to come to Jesus with a mindstate of trust.

There is something important to notice on what the leper said to Jesus. First of all, he didn't say "if you can. you can make me clean" but rather he said "if you will" or "if you want to" because he had great faith that Jesus could heal him and make him clean. Do the words "if you can" remind you of anything else that you've read? Perhaps from Mark 9:22-24:

Mar 9:22	And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us."
Mar 9:23	And Jesus said to him, "If you can! All things are possible to him who believes."
Mar 9:24	Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!"

It's interesting to compare the two. One says "if you want to" and the other says "if you can". But both instances, Jesus works a miracle.

Let's look at what the leper says. He tells Jesus "you can make me clean." Let's focus on that for a minute. What does he mean by clean? Well, lepers were considered to be unclean and unclean people were not allowed to worship in the Temple. They were looked down upon by the Jewish people. They were not allowed to eat with "clean" people. Being unclean doesn't necessarily mean that you had some kind of disease. The Jewish people looked at the Samaritans as unclean people.

Now if a clean person touches an unclean person, then the clean person becomes unclean and the unclean stays unclean. Let's look at what happens in verse 41.

Mar 1:41

Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I will; be clean."

Notice how Mark tells us that Jesus touched the leper. Now if you were a Jew in those days and you were watching this happen in front of you, you would consider Jesus to be unclean. For Jesus to touch an unclean person, that would make him unclean as well and would not allow him to worship in the Temple and whatnot. Notice also how Jesus was moved with pity. He had compassion on the leper. So too for us, we can approach the God of love who is Love Himself with faith and trust and he will look at us with compassion like we are children looking for a Father. God loves all of his children no matter what they have done. We have to approach Him with faith and he will have mercy on us.

Moving on to v.42, it states:

Mar 1:42	And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

We see that the leprosy left the man and he was made clean. Now as we stated above, if a clean person touches an unclean person, then the clean person becomes unclean and the unclean stays unclean. But we see a reversal happen here. The unclean person (the leper) is touched by the clean person (Jesus) and instead of Jesus being unclean, it is the leper who becomes clean. Keep this reversal in mind because it will serve a great purpose at the end of the story.

Now let's look at verses 43 and 44 together.

Mar 1:43	And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once,
Mar 1:44	and said to him, "See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people."

Jesus tells the Leper not to tell anyone about the miracle. He tells "go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for you cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people." In order to understand what Jesus is talking about, you have to look to the Old Testament. Jesus is referring here to Leviticus 14. It talks about what the leper must do when he is healed from his leprosy.

Let's not forget, Jesus tells the man not to tell anyone about the miracle. Let's look at the very last verse of our meditation and bring everything together. Bare with me, all this is going to make sense.

Mar 1:45

But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

So the man did not obey what Jesus told him. He went out and began to talk freely about the miracle. Now I don't know about you but if I had something like that happen to me, I'd be telling everyone! We can't look at the man as being disobedient (even though he did disobey). But I'm sure most of us would do the same.

Let's bring it all home. What does Mark tell us next? Well, after the leper goes and tells people about what happened, something happens to Jesus. Mark tells us "Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter." Now let me ask you this. In the beginning of the story, who was it that couldn't openly enter a town? Who was it that was an outcast? It was the leper. Now, here, at the end of the story, who is it that cannot openly enter a town? Who is an outcast now? It is Jesus. What a powerful scene! Christ took the leper's wounds and put them on his back and bore them and set the man free. Free to worship God in the temple and free to live a normal life. He set him free. This is a small foreshadow of the cross. Christ took on our sins and put them on His back and set us free when we were the ones who deserved to be on that cross. He heals those who come to Him with humility, faith, and complete trust. If we want to obtain salvation, we have to go to Jesus that way.

We see two reversals happen in the story. First, the unclean becomes clean when touching the clean instead of the clean becoming unclean when touching the unclean (it makes sense I promise!). Also, we have the leper being outcast and not allowed to openly enter a town and Jesus being free to enter a town and not be outcast to the leper being free to enter a town and living the city while Jesus was the one who was outcast at the end.

Let us approach Christ with the same humility that the leper approached Him with. We all have something dirty that we need healing from. Sin. Leprosy is something very disgusting and horrible to have. Sin is infinitely even more disgusting and horrible to have. We have to cleanse ourselves from sin and the only way we can do that is going to God. Let us fix our eyes to Jesus and He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us and give us everlasting life!

May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

www.myspace.com/twinrecords
-Ehab (AKA Elijah)

New Author

Well blog readers (few as you may be as of yet), I have just send out an invite to my friend and fellow Catholic apologetic Ehab to become an author for this blog in addition to myself. He has some great stuff to write about and it will bring a more balanced and less (personally) aggressive facet to the blog.

Enjoy!

-N8

My Questions to Protestants 9-5-08

So I haven't gone to a real Bible study in two weeks since I couldn't find the new location the first time and I was at a wedding the second, so I am a little dry on material and newfound theological knowledge. I attended one at another local parish and I must say, it was like attending an AA meeting (never been to one, just have an idea of it.) The whole meeting was about expressing feelings or whatever and since I didn't have the workbook, I couldn't participate so I was glossed over. Next Wednesday I am planning to attend a Calvary Chapel Bible study, just so I can see what heresies they are spreading now... gotta love it.

So, onto the Questions for Protestants. This one is on the Definition of Scripture. While not entirely inclusive in intent and scope, this (really short) battery of questions should provide some food for thought.

1) When the Bible (as we know it today) refers to Scripture, what is it that the Bible is referring to? Surely it cannot be referring to itself!

2) Since the Bible cannot be referring to itself as the Canon of Scripture was not thought of until 397 at the 3rd Council of Carthage, what is the Bible referring to when it speaks of Scripture?

3) How does one know that the Bible one reads is authentic Scripture unless one has been told by someone higher than oneself that it is true and correct?

4) Who sets the Biblical standard for the Protestant denominations?

Well, that's all I got folks. Feel free to respond or provide supplementary answers and whatnot :)

-N8

My Questions to Protestants 9-2-08

This is the next installment of my theological musings posed as questions to my Protestant brethren. Today's topic is the oh-so-caustic topic of saints and the prayers in reference to them. While many Protestants (wrongly) think of prayers to the saints as an act of necromancy, the position held by Tradition and all those that have come before us beg to differ on the matter.

The following battery of questions should provide an impetus for thought.

1) When we die here on earth, are we dead forever?

2) When we die, are we closer to or farther from God?

3) Isn't is a common practice for people to ask for another's prayers or to pray for another person asking for such prayers?

4) taking into consideration question 1 in regards to question 3, why is it such a bad thing to ask out eternal brothers and sisters, far closer to God than ourselves, to pray for us and ask for their intercession with God?

5) Why is it that if we are nt to be enamored with the ways of the world but instead to prepare for the next life in a pious way, what reason do you have for disavowing and denying the intercession of those that have passed on before us?

While we are on the topic, let us review the Apostle's Creed, which is (as far as I know) the oldest Catholic (OK, I guess we can say Christian as well...) creed.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Amen.

Notice that line there "the communion of saints." That is a direct reference to all of the appropriately justified and mortally expired kinsfolk interceding on our behalf.

Need Biblical proof? This article does a bang-up job explaining all of it.

http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2003/0312frs.asp

Good explanation of the fallacies of the Protestant argument.

http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1990/9011fea2.asp

As far as my private (and fallible) searches have concluded thus far, I believe that 2 Timothy 1:3 is referencing prayers for saints, Hebrews 12:1 shows us that many witness us, Revelation 6:9-10 tells us that saints deliver prayers in the form of incense and Romans 8:26-27 is pretty clear that we really don't know how to pray and that saints often intercede for us. In addition, James 5:16 is also nice because who can be more righteous than someone that has attained heaven?

So there you have it, we can see that the communion of saints is in reference to one big spiritual community. As usual, any feedback and/or arguments would be nice.

Also, the read count is a little low so if you are up to it, send the blog link along for all to see.

Off to bed for me.

-N8