What Jesus Didn't Say

New York City has a new archbishop, and because it's New York, the rest of us are supposed to care.

What gives the rest of us a reason to care is the first four paragraphs, showing how Dolan, when he ruled the diocese of Milwaukee, convinced a priest to recant his view that it would be okay for the Holy Church to ordain a woman.

Oh, the irony ... In Matthew 23:9, Jesus asks the disciples not to call any *man* father. He never asked them not to call a *woman* father ...

So in fact, ordaining a woman would not violate the stated wish of Jesus at all. What violates the stated wish of Jesus is ordaining men, if by "ordaining" you mean, "inviting others to call a person 'father.'"

Hitchens Beaten by Nazi-Like Syrian Christians

Kudos to Christopher Hitchens for taking a stand against swastikas. And shame on the Christians who beat him.

One of the commenters, blinded by his faith, expresses surprise because he had "long thought that the Christians in Lebanon--and the Middle East in general--were on the right side and that they resisted terror in all its forms."

Sheesh. That's what I'm talking about. Christians think there's something magical about being Christian that makes you a good person. And the reason they think that is that they haven't given the Holocaust quite enough thought.

Christians and the Holocaust

If the matter weren't so serious, it would almost be fun to watch the Catholic Church try to tamp down the old anti-Semitic fires. That pesky old bigotry keeps coming back to haunt the Church, despite the ad campaigns promising "Now: Less Anti-Semitism!"

But let's face it: The visible figurehead of a Pope makes it far too easy to blame the Catholic Church alone for anti-Semitism. Only a third of Nazi Germany, for example, was Catholic. Almost all of the rest of Germany followed the vicious anti-Semite Martin Luther.

America's right wing loves to whine about the media's alleged left-wing, anti-Christian bias. And yet it can't be quite as anti-Christian as they say. Because one way or another, Christian anti-Semitism has gotten a pretty free ride when it comes to Holocaust discussions.

Most folks pin the Holocaust on an evil Adolf Hitler, and a few of his thugs.

Yep. even the allegedly liberal media seems to find it uncomfortable to examine the way Christianity fertilized the garden in which Hitler worked.

But I suppose we can all find undercovered stories ...

Christian Creed Banned for British Soldiers

This news got Free Republic’s readers up in arms. Commenter #8 was so upset that he insulted the chaplain who made the decision and even the chaplain’s mother, and implied that the chaplain prefers to have sex with other men.

The Daily Mail article offers no evidence on the chaplain’s orientation. So we’ll assume that commenter #7 believes that tagging someone as homosexual constitutes an insult. Perhaps, in his warped world, that’s even true.

Leaving aside the hatred commenter #7 vomits forth in the name of Christianity, I’m curious about how a professing Christian can join the military in the first place, let alone to recite the creed with a straight face once he or she is in.

In Matthew 5:39-45, Jesus is quite clear: “I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.”

So what’s up, Christians? How can you pretend to follow Christ with a gun in your hand? Do you guys not read your own Bible? Or do you just not want to be sons of your Father in heaven?

Oh, that crazy Pope ...

Pope Benedict can't keep his message straight. He loves traditionalists, and wants to "heal" the church. But healing means re-admitting Holocaust deniers and dealing with "deeply spiritual" leaders who didn't quite manage to keep every last vow.

As usual, American Catholics wring their hands and hope the Pope will navigate through these rocky waters. And they'll find some way to excuse him -- "he's bookish, not a politician," etc.

What I find hard to understand, as an outsider, is why on Earth any Catholic with a passing familiarity with the Bible can offer allegiance to his or her own local priests, let alone the allegedly Holy Father.

The gospel of Matthew is fairly clear:

"Don't call anyone on earth your father. All of you have the same Father in heaven. None of you should be called the leader. The Messiah is your only leader. Whoever is the greatest should be the servant of the others. If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honored."

Yet Catholics call every priest "father," in direct contradiction of their Messiah's teaching, and the higher a priest's rank, the fancier his garb. When you see the "Holy Father" in those red robes, sitting on that throne-like chair, is "humility" the first thing you think of?

This guy first decided to be a priest "in 1932, when Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber, the archbishop of Munich, visited the small town in which the Ratzinger family lived, arriving in a black limousine. The future pope, then five years old, was part of a group of children who presented the cardinal with flowers, and later that day he announced he wanted to be a cardinal, too. 'It wasn't so much the car, since we weren't technically minded,' Georg Ratzinger told a reporter from the New York Times. 'It was the way the cardinal looked, Pope Benedict's bearing, and the garments he was wearing that made such an impression on him.'"

Ah, that's nice. It wasn't service he was after. He saw the garments, the fancy car, and he thought, "The life of a cardinal for me!" Well, we'll try to be glad for him, that he reached his goal.

Jesus said, "If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honored."

It's hard to humble yourself in fancy robes and cars. So if Jesus was right, looks like the Pope's heading for a humbling ....