Ted Haggard trying to make a comeback on HBO

Nancy Pelosi’s daughter and Ted Haggard – not a likely duo.

Alexandra Pelosi has put together a new HBO documentary entitled “The Trials of Ted Haggard” that debuts on Thursday. Pelosi’s film tracks the fallout after the Evangelical leader and pastor lied and then admitted to a sexual encounter with a homosexual massage therapist.

Haggard is now under further scrutiny for a new accusation that he masturbated in front of a church member in 2005.

               

Vatican condemns Pres. Obama’s reversal of Mexico City Policy

Obama tried to reverse the Mexico City “gag rule” against funding overseas agencies that perform or promote abortion. Now the Vatican is blowing the whistle.

Time magazine has the full story.

Hat tip to Dwight Lindley.

               

Poll: How did you feel about Rick Warren’s prayer at President Obama’s Inauguration?

How did you feel about Rick Warren’s prayer at President Obama’s Inauguration?

Please let Christian and American know what you thought about Pastor Warren’s inaugural prayer by either leaving a comment below or by participating in our poll. If you didn’t hear the prayer, you can read the officially transcribed text of the prayer at the bottom of this post.

After you make your selection, PLEASE CLICK THE “Confirmation” BUTTON THE OPTIONS TO ENSURE THAT YOUR VOTE HAS BEEN COUNTED AND TALLIED.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, our father, everything we see and everything we can’t see exists because of you alone. It all comes from you, it all belongs to you. It all exists for your glory. History is your story.

The Scripture tells us Hear, oh Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is one. And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.

Now today we rejoice not only in America’s peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time. We celebrate a hinge-point of history with the inauguration of our first African-American president of the United States.

We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership.

And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in Heaven.

Give to our new president, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity. Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the Cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.

Help us, oh God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.

When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the Earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us.

And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes, even when we differ.

Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all.

May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet. And may we never forget that one day all nations and all people will stand accountable before you.

We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.

I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus, Jesus (hay-SOOS), who taught us to pray, Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen.

               

Carl Djerassi, inventor of birth controll, pill condemns it

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Eighty five year old Carl Djerassi the Austrian chemist who helped invent the contraceptive pill now says that his co-creation has led to a “demographic catastrophe.”

In an article published by the Vatican this week, the head of the world’s Catholic doctors broadened the attack on the pill, claiming it had also brought “devastating ecological effects” by releasing into the environment “tonnes of hormones” that had impaired male fertility, The Taiwan Times says.

The assault began with a personal commentary in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard by Carl Djerassi. The Austrian chemist was one of three whose formulation of the synthetic progestogen Norethisterone marked a key step toward the earliest oral contraceptive pill.

Djerassi outlined the “horror scenario” that occurred because of the population imbalance, for which his invention was partly to blame. He said that in most of Europe there was now “no connection at all between sexuality and reproduction.” He said: “This divide in Catholic Austria, a country which has on average 1.4 children per family, is now complete.”

He described families who had decided against reproduction as “wanting to enjoy their schnitzels while leaving the rest of the world to get on with it.”

The fall in the birth rate, he said, was an “epidemic” far worse, but given less attention, than obesity. Young Austrians, he said, were committing national suicide if they failed to procreate. And if it were not possible to reverse the population decline they would have to understand the necessity of an “intelligent immigration policy.”

The head of Austria’s Catholics, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, told an interviewer that the Vatican had forecast 40 years ago that the pill would lead to a dramatic fall in the birth rate in the west.

“Somebody above suspicion like Carl Djerassi … is saying that each family has to produce three children to maintain population levels, but we’re far away from that,” he said.

Schonborn told Austrian TV that when he first read Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical condemning artificial contraception he viewed it negatively as a “cold shower.” But he said he had altered his views as, over time, it had proved “prophetic.”

Read the whole thing from CathNews.

SOURCE

Catholic Church renews its attack on contraceptive pill (Taipei Times)

Medical Association points out prophetic nature of Humanae Vitae (Catholic News Agency)

Hat tip: Clint Rain

               

RIP Richard John Neuhaus

The great former Lutheran pastor and Catholic priest Richard John Neuhaus has passed away and gone to his reward. He was the founder of First Things, the great journal/magazine discussing religion and the public square.

               

Year End Review of American Christianity

2008 is over.

The most important event on the religious landscape of America was the presidential election. The Democratic party reinvented itself as “religious” and the Republicans lassoed former Baptist minister and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Mormon governor Mitt Romney stepped up the plate, as well. John McCain suffered a slight setback for snuggling too close to John Hagee, a card-carrying anti-Catholic. McCain then chose Sarah Palin, an Pentecostalesque evangelical who was denounced as a “creationist” and “fundamentalist”. Who can forget the Saturday Night Live skits mocking Palin.

Then there were the Pastor Rick Warren interviews, which were very civilized and enlightening–perhaps the highlight of the entire campaign. Barack Obama shocked everyone by saying that decisions over abortion and the moment with life begins were “above his pay grade.”

We elected Barack Obama, a professed Christian whom a majority of practicing Christians voted against. Barack Obama’s greatest moment of unpopularity centered around his pastor Jeremiah Wright’s racist comments about Whites, Jews, and the infamous “God damn America” sermon. Obama promised America that he had not heard the Reverend Wright say anything prejudicial in his twenty years of attending Wright’s Trinity United Church in Chicago. Obama withdrew his membership at Trinity United and the rest is history. Obama won the election but Proposition 8 passed in California with the support of Catholics, Evangelicals and Mormons.

Pope Benedict XVI made his first visit to the United States and celebrated Holy Mass in Washington, D.C. and New York City where he visited Ground Zero. Most notably, the Holy Father met with victims of priestly sexual abuse and offered apologies.

As a former Anglican clergyman, I followed with great interest the crisis in the Anglican Communion and the related fallout in America’s branch-the Episcopal Church USA. After a meeting in Jerusalem, conservatives around the globe rallied together in their affirmation that homosexuality is a grave sin and contrary to the Sacred Scriptures. In the meantime the American Episcopal denomination continues to fracture and splinter. Perhaps 2009 will see the formation of a new denomination.

Did I miss anything? If so leave a comment.

               

Catholic monarch stripped of veto power over euthanasia

This is very interesting. The Grand Duke of Luxembourg is about to lose his veto power because he has threatened a bill legalizing euthanasia.

“Grand Duke of Luxembourg Will Lose His Veto”

Luxembourg’s parliament looks ready to strip the Grand Duke of his last lawmaking power as a controversy over euthanasia comes to a head. One of Europe’s last royals with political sway may lose his formal veto by taking a stand against a law legalizing euthanasia.

The Grand Duke of Luxembourg, who has said he would interfere with a decision by parliament, will likely be stripped of his veto in a historic decision after a heated showdown over a bill to legalize euthanasia.

Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg protested the bill and threatened to kill it next week by refusing to sign it into law.

Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg will refuse to sign a euthanasia law for “reasons of conscience.”

Since parliament is expected to pass the bill, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said the Grande Duke has overstepped his role. Juncker personally opposes the euthanasia bill but says he will propose a change to the constitution to deny the Grand Duke his veto. His role by the end of 2008 could be reduced to rubber-stamping parliamentary decisions, instead of deciding whether to approve them.

“That means he will only technically enact laws,” Juncker said, according to Reuters.

The euthanasia bill passed a first vote by parliament in February. It looks set to pass a second and final vote next week, but the Catholic Grand Duke announced on Tuesday — in a closed-door meeting with leaders of Juncker’s ruling Christian Socialists — that he would refuse to enact the law.

His position tipped the tiny nation into the worst constitutional crisis in its history. The Luxembourg royal house has tried to block a decision by parliament only once before, when the Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide refused to sign an education bill in 1912.

“I understand the Grand Duke’s problems of conscience,” said Juncker, “but I believe that if the parliament votes in a law, it must be brought into force.”

The euthanasia bill has been controversial since 2001. It would let patients with “grave and incurable” conditions die at the hands of a doctor if they ask repeatedly to be euthanized and earn the consent of two doctors and a panel of experts. Medical and physician groups have opposed the bill, though, and so have many citizens of this traditionally Catholic nation.

It follows similar laws in the Netherlands and Belgium, where King Baudouin — Henri’s uncle — abdicated for a day in 1990 to avoid signing a Belgian abortion law. The current Belgian king, Albert II, has signed Belgium’s recent euthanasia and homosexual-marriage laws over his private Catholic beliefs.

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a constitutional monarchy, and the Grand Duke is its head of state. He has indicated that he won’t stand in the way of any change to the constitution.”

The full article can be found at: Spiegel Online.

               

Perspectives on Rick Warren and Barack Obama

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Rick Warren is losing respect from Evangelicals and Barack Obama is losing respect from the Left.

Recent headlines from Real Clear Politics:

Will the Warren Risk Be Worth It? – E.J. Dionne, Washington Post
The Saddling of Rick Warren – Debra Saunders, SF Chronicle
Warren is Obama’s Booker T. Washington – DeWayne Wickham, USA Today

               

Are we obsessed about “God Bless America”?

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Why are Americans obsessed with the words “God bless America”? A new Canadian documentary looks at the American fascination with invoking God’s blessing.

The six-part documentary by award-winning Canadian journalist Ralph Benmergui probes why and when faith became such an important part in the life of that country.

It probes: When did it become obligatory for presidents to end every speech with the words “God bless America”? Why do so many Americans believe that their country enjoys the lord’s special favour?

“God Bless America”, to be aired on Canada’s VisionTV, premieres Jan 19 – just a day before the new US president Barack Obama takes oath of office.

From: Economic Times.

               

American Evangelicals and Left Behind

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The Day I Got Left Behind

As unfounded as many of the theocracy accusations from the far-left are, American evangelicals, especially those raised on Left Behind theology, are facing some tough questions right now, and will face many more in the future… The Call of Duty Blog – http://www.codserver.org/

               

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