Common Sense from Canterbury

From a Telegraph [U.K.] article, Archbishop attacks Da Vinci Code 'obsession':

Archbishop attacks Da Vinci Code 'obsession' [/] By Elizabeth Day [/] (Filed: 16/04/2006)

The Archbishop of Canterbury today attacks society's obsession with books such as The Da Vinci Code which, he says, encourage people to believe that the Christian faith is a series of "conspiracies and cover ups".

In a strongly worded Easter sermon being delivered in Canterbury Cathedral this morning, Dr Rowan Williams says that there is a tendency to treat Biblical texts "as if they were unconvincing press releases from some official source, whose intention is to conceal the real story". Fascination with "bringing secrets to light", he said, evoked All the President's Men, the 1976 film about the investigative journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, who exposed the Watergate scandal.

"We have become so suspicious of the power of words. . . the first assumption we make is that we're faced with spin of some kind, with an agenda being forced on us. So that the modern response to the proclamation, 'Christ is risen!' is likely to be, 'Ah, but you would say that, wouldn't you? Now, what's the real agenda?' "

The Gospel of Judas is also scorned by the Archbishop [/] The Archbishop also pours scorn on the recent discovery of a leather-bound papyrus written around 300AD believed to be "The Gospel of Judas", which claims that it was Christ himself who asked Judas to betray him.

"Anything that looks like the official version is automatically suspect," says Dr Williams. "Someone is trying to stop you finding out what 'really' happened, because what really happened could upset or challenge the power of officaldom."

In his first Easter sermon, on Friday, the Pope effectively dismissed the "Gospel" text by reasserting the orthodox thinking that Judas, the 13th apostle, "evaluated Jesus in terms of power and success". And Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, the Pope's personal priest, also used his Easter sermon to criticise The Da Vinci Code. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Rome: New Attack on Modern Sins II

In a series of Good Friday meditations that he will lead in Rome, the Pope will say that society is in the grip of a kind of “anti-Genesis” described as “a diabolical pride aimed at eliminating the family”. He will pray for society to be cleansed of the “filth” that surrounds it and be restored to purity, freed from “decadent narcissism”.

Above quote from Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent in The Times [London]. (Link to Article).

From the meditations and prayers to be given at the Coliseum in Rome, by Pope Benedict XVI, on Good Friday, 2006, commemorating the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, Section on the Seventh Station of the Cross (Link to full text of Good Friday meditations.):

But what is it that today, in particular, strikes at Christ's holy body?

Surely God is deeply pained by the attack on the family. Today we seem to be witnessing a kind of anti-Genesis, a counter-plan, a diabolical pride aimed at eliminating the family.

There is a move to reinvent mankind, to modify the very grammar of life as planned and willed by God.[10] But, to take God's place, without being God, is insane arrogance, a risky and dangerous venture.

May Christ's fall open our eyes to see once more the beautiful face, the true face, the holy face of the family. The face of the family which all of us need.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, the family is one of God's dreams entrusted to humanity; the family is a spark from Heaven shared with all mankind: the family is the cradle where we were born and are constantly reborn in love.

Lord Jesus, enter our homes and lead us in the song of life. Rekindle the lamp of love and make us feel the beauty of being bound to one another in an embrace of life: a life warmed by God's own breath, the breath of the God who is Love.

Lord Jesus, save the family, and save life itself!

Lord Jesus, save my own family, save our families! [My formatting]

Rome: New Attack on Modern Sins I

From a The Times [London] article, Pope condemns geneticists 'who play at being God'.

Link to full text of Good Friday meditation..

The Times April 14, 2006 [/] Pope condemns geneticists 'who play at being God' [/] By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

Pope Benedict XVI will deliver a blistering attack […] on the “satanic” mores of modern society today, warning against an “inane apologia of evil” that is in danger of destroying humanity.

In a series of Good Friday meditations that he will lead in Rome, the Pope will say that society is in the grip of a kind of “anti-Genesis” described as “a diabolical pride aimed at eliminating the family”. He will pray for society to be cleansed of the “filth” that surrounds it and be restored to purity, freed from “decadent narcissism”.

Particular condemnation is reserved for scientific advances in the field of genetic manipulation. Warning against the move to “modify the very grammar of life as planned and willed by God”, the Pope will lead prayers against “insane, risky and dangerous” ventures in attempting “to take God’s place without being God”.

The Pope has not actually composed the prayers for the traditional Way of the Cross, but is certain to have given his blessing to the Good Friday meditations at the Colosseum.

Their author is Archbishop Angelo Comastri, Vicar General at Vatican City. The tone of the meditations is striking in its contrast to the contemporary fashion for feel-good religion.

While some will regard their emphasis on sin and the dark side of human nature as retrograde, others will welcome them as a sign of the strong and conservative leadership that Pope Benedict XVI was elected to provide. All Roman Catholic churches and many others, including Anglican churches in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, celebrate a liturgy around the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday.

The 14 stations begin with Jesus’s condemnation to death, take Christians through meditations of the “Way of the Cross” and the Crucifixion and end with the laying of Jesus’s body in the tomb. The Pope wrote the meditations himself for last year’s Way of the Cross in Rome. But today’s Catholic prayers, published in Italian this week and in English on the Zenit website yesterday, go further than most in their thorough denunciation of contemporary culture.

At the Third Station of the Cross, where Jesus falls for the first time, Archbishop Comastri has written: “Lord, we have lost our sense of sin. Today a slick campaign of propaganda is spreading an inane apologia of evil, a senseless cult of Satan, a mindless desire for transgression, a dishonest and frivolous freedom, exalting impulsiveness, immorality and selfishness as if they were new heights of sophistication.”

At the Fourth Station, where Jesus is helped by Simon the Cyrene to carry the cross, Pope Benedict and his followers will pray: “Lord Jesus, our affluence is making us less human, our entertainment has become a drug, a source of alienation, and our society’s incessant, tedious message is an invitation to die of selfishness.”

One of the strongest meditations warns against the attack on the family. “Today we seem to be witnessing a kind of anti-Genesis, a counter-plan, a diabolical pride aimed at eliminating the family.”

There is a moving meditation for the Eighth Station, where Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem, describing the “River of tears shed by mothers, mothers of the crucified, mothers of murderers, mothers of drug addicts, mothers of terrorists, mothers of rapists, mothers of psychopaths, but mothers all the same”.

The Pope will also confront the question of evil in the world in a meditation that asks: “Where is Jesus in the agony of our own time, in the division of our world into belts of prosperity and belts of poverty . . . in one room they are concerned about obesity, in the other, they are begging for charity?”

Ruth Gledhill weblog http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/ [My ellipses and emphasis]

Too Soon to Remember 9/11 Graphic Details? POLL

See article below and Vote at Adult Christian Forum Thread 95447 (Choices given after article below).

From a Newsweek article, A Dark Day Revisited:

A Dark Day Revisited [/] Five years later, Hollywood is betting that America is ready for films about what happened on 9/11. Are we?

By Sean Smith and Jac Chebatoris [/] Newsweek [/] April 10, 2006 issue -

If movie trailers are supposed to cause a reaction, the preview for "United 93" more than succeeds. Featuring no voice-over and no famous actors, it begins with images of a beautiful morning and passengers boarding an airplane. It takes you a minute to realize what the movie's even about. That's when a plane hits the World Trade Center. The effect is visceral. When the trailer played before "Inside Man" last week at the famed Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, audience members began calling out, "Too soon!" In New York City, where 9/11 remains an open wound, the response was even more dramatic. The AMC Loews theater on Manhattan's Upper West Side took the rare step of pulling the trailer from its screens after several complaints. "One lady was crying," says one of the theater's managers, Kevin Adjodha. "She was saying we shouldn't have [played the trailer]. That this was wrong ... I don't think people are ready for this."

We're about to find out. "United 93" is the first feature film to deal explicitly with the events of September 11, 2001, and is certain to ignite an emotional debate before and after it opens on April 28. Is it too soon? Should the film have been made at all? More to the point, will anyone want to see it? Other 9/11 projects are on the way as the fifth anniversary of the attacks approaches, most notably Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center," starring Nicolas Cage, opening Aug. 9. But as the harbinger, "United 93" will take most of the heat, whether it deserves it or not.

The real United 93 crashed in a Pennsylvania field after 40 passengers and crew fought back against the terrorists who had hijacked the plane. Writer-director Paul Greengrass ("The Bourne Supremacy") has gone to great lengths to be respectful in his depiction of what occurred, proceeding with the film only after securing the approval of every victim's family. "Was I surprised at the unanimity? Yes. Very. Usually there are one or two families who are more reluctant," Greengrass writes in an e-mail. "I was surprised and humbled at the extraordinary way the United 93 families have welcomed us into their lives and shared their experiences with us." His team's research was meticulous. "They even went so far as to ask what my mother had been wearing on the plane," says Carole O'Hare, whose 79-year-old mother, Hilda Marcin, died on the flight. "They were very open and honest with us, and they made us a part of this whole project." Universal, which is releasing the film, plans to donate 10 percent of its opening weekend gross to the Flight 93 National Memorial Fund. That hasn't stopped criticism that the studio is exploiting a national tragedy. O'Hare thinks that's unfair. "This story has to be told to honor the passengers and crew for what they did," she says. "But more than that, it raises awareness. Our ports aren't secure. Our borders aren't secure. Our airlines still aren't secure, and this is what happens when you're not secure. That's the message I want people to hear."

It's unclear whether Americans will pay $9.50 to hear it. The A&E cable movie "Flight 93" drew 5.9 million viewers in January, the highest-rated show in the channel's history. But movies are different. "I don't want anyone to go who doesn't want to have this experience," says Adam Fogelson, Universal's president of marketing. "But when I see what's on screen, I feel comfortable that a lot of people will." Audiences seem to be split on the issue. "I don't think that's a movie I really want to see," says Jackie Alvarez, 73, of San Ramon, Calif., after seeing the trailer. "It gave me the creeps. It's way too soon." But 17-year-old Antoine Richardson of Memphis, Tenn., is looking forward to it. "I don't think it's exploitative or too soon," he says. "It helps us remember." As if any of us could forget. [[No matter how much some may want to forget this and other dangers of this present world.]]

With Nadine Joseph in San Francisco and Donnie Snow in Memphis [[My ellipses and emphasis and [[insertion]].]]

. Remember the Alamo!

. Remember the Maine!!

. Remember Pearl Harbor!!!

. Remember the Two Towers!!!!

Poll Question: Too Soon to Remember 9/11 Graphic Details? | Poll choices:

1. Yes. Engenders vicious hate crimes against Muslims. | 2. Yes. Depiction of violence creates violence. | 3. Yes. Keep violence from the children. | 4. Yes. Consider relatives of victims. | 5. Yes. | 6. Possibly. | 7. No. Counter elite media folly. | 8. No. Focus on number one National priority. | 9. No. Neglect history and get a repetition. | 10. No. Or the dead will have died in vain. | 11. No. | 12. Other. | 13. No comment. | 14. No opinion. | 15. This poll is worthless. | 16. This poll is of negative value.

Vote at Adult Christian Forum Thread 95447

Link from above article: "BLOG TALK [/] Read what bloggers are saying about this Newsweek article [/] 23 blogs are discussing A Dark Day Revisited right now. View All."

Link to video of the United 93 movie trailer being discussed. [Note: Possible problems with MSNBC page linked.]

First Lady Knocks Predecessor's Housekeeping

Lot's of comments come to mind, but I would rather hear yours.

From a Drudge Report FLASH, LAURA BUSH SAYS HILLARY KEPT BAD HOUSE:

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX APRIL 02, 2006 19:02:31 ET XXXXX

LAURA BUSH SAYS HILLARY KEPT BAD HOUSE; WEST WING DECORATIONS WERE GAUDY, OUTDATED

First Lady Laura Bush believes Hillary Clinton did not keep good house during her time as first lady, a new book will charge.

Ron Kessler, a former investigative reporter for the WASHINGTON POST and the WALL STREET JOURNAL, is set to unleash his account of Laura Bush.

On December 18, 2000, just after the Supreme Court ruled on the election, Hillary Clinton gave Laura Bush a tour of the White House. The incoming-First Lady was dismayed at what she saw: Not only were carpets and furnishings fraying and in disrepair in the West Wing and public areas, the Oval Office was done in loud colors—red, blue, and gold! The East Wing was cut up into small offices and had exposed electrical conduits. Many of the furnishings looked dated.

Laura Bush noted how the Lincoln Bedroom looked worn out.

MORE

Laura was appalled at the way the Clintons left the White House and Hillary Clinton's gaudy, outdated taste in decorating, reveals the new book, LAURA BUSH: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT.

The book, which will be published by DOUBLEDAY on Tuesday, is the only book to be written about Laura Bush with White House cooperation.

MORE

Elsewhere in AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT: After NEWSWEEK ran a Periscope item claiming the U.S. military had flushed a Koran down a toilet, leading to rioting, Laura ordered: "I don't want NEWSWEEK around the house!"

Laura Bush became so disgusted with the media and their war against her husband that at one point, she told her public relations person Noelia Rodriguez she did not want to do any more media interviews. After about a month, she slowly resumed talking to the press.

A close friend of Laura's, Pamela Nelson, asks Laura how she's doing. Laura replies, "Well, it's the Kitty Kelly book and Dan Rather this week..."

Nancy Weiss, a Bush family intimate, told Kessler, "She torments herself by reading the WASHINGTON POST and the NEW YORK TIMES, " and added, "A Texas Monthly article (based on a book by a Washington Post reporter ) said she is a 'bad mom.' She handles it calmly but I can tell things like that do upset her."