Climate change terrorism

With thanks to Mr Dale for bringing this appalling (but wholly genuine) promotional video to His Grace's attention, a few thoughts:

'Environmentalism' and the belief in man-made climate change now has the same weight in law as religious faith. According to a recent judgement, the belief in man-made climate change is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations. Theology has mutated to Ecotheology; God and Gaia are syncretised. The cult has its own creed, its own extremists and, judging by this video, its own terrorists. For what is this supposed to induce if it is not terror?

You hunt out the non-believer, the heretic, the recusant; you isolate them and blow them up.

This is precisely what 'Islamists' do to the kuffar, believing sincerely that they deserve it merely for denying the truth.

Is not this video 'inciting hatred' against the climate-change agnostic?

Pope Pontificates to European Bishops

This article comes from Zenit.

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Pope to European Bishops: Defend Family, Life

Observatory Created on Discrimination Against Christians

ZAGREB, Croatia, SEPT. 30, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is urging the bishops of Europe to work for the defense of the family and human life, and to fight against intolerance and discrimination of Christians.

The Pope sent a telegram, through his secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, to participants in a plenary assembly of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences.

The assembly began today in Zagreb, and will focus on the theme, "Demographics and the Family in Europe." It will end Sunday.

In the telegram, the Pontiff encouraged the prelates "to continue the important work undertaken and inspire in the Church communities the necessary commitment so that the faithful might be free from intolerance and discrimination and to promote the family and the defense of human life."

He assured the participants of his prayers "so that the providential meeting may contribute to strengthening the bonds of unity and communion between the European bishops giving a further courageous thrust to the new evangelization of the continent."

The Holy Father imparted "the requested apostolic blessing as a pledge of abundant Divine assistance."

Identity crisis

In his opening speech, Cardinal Peter Erdo, president of the council and archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, offered an analysis of the situation in Europe.

"Europe, this continent in which many cultures have found the Gospel, and from where so many missionaries have set out to proclaim the Word to the ends of the earth, is today experiencing an identity crisis," he noted.

"Europe needs God," the prelate said, "to recall its own roots and therefore to look to the future with realism and hope."

He noted, however, the challenges faced by Christians who attempt to share their faith with others.

In this light, the cardinal announced the birth of an "Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe," which aims to "promote greater awareness of the forms of intolerance and discrimination which some Christians in Europe suffer, and in agreement with what was decided in our previous assemblies."

He continued: "This observatory does not aim to be a tool for disputes, but an aid to create a society more respectful of religious freedom, more capable too of understanding and accepting both its own roots and the plural reality through a healthy secularism. 

"In short, it is, on the one hand, a help to modern evangelization, and, on the other, a help to the development of an authentic democracy based on equality in our continent."

Evangelization

Cardinal Erdo underlined "the urgency of the new evangelization," which "has always been [the council's] main aim." He pointed to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, recently established by Benedict XVI, as "a clear sign of the Holy Father's judgement about this urgency."

The prelate noted that "a clear consequence of the unease in our society is also present in the question which we want to tackle in greater depth over these days: demographics and its necessary link to the question of the family."

"The family's state of health is an image of the health of society and vice versa," he added.
The cardinal affirmed that "the family and life are an integral part of God's plan and they are God's way of making us anticipate full communion with him."

He continued, "The beauty of love between a man and a woman, who for the whole of their lives unite and make of their love a gift to also welcome and educate new people, is and will always be the most beautiful image of God."

"The Church calls for policies to be put in place which are appropriate to the real needs of the family and asks that concrete aid measures be always more consistent and effective to the reality of the family," Cardinal Erdo stated.

"However," he added, "perhaps what is missing the most in our society and also in our families, are not solutions for solving immediate problems, even if this can be sometimes necessarily urgent, but above all the enthusiasm is missing, the energy which God gives us if we live in him."

In working for the good of the family, the prelate acknowledged the "great harmony both in the anthropological and in the theological reasons that support the Christian vision of the family and the urgent need to protect it between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches."

He concluded by expressing the hope that this annual meeting of the bishops will be one of "intense reflection" for the good of the family and European society, but also "of prayer and friendship."

Insulting Scientology

It has been a tough week for Scientology.

But His Grace would like to know why it is perfectly in order for an MP to say that Scientology is 'intellectually difficult and religiously rubbish' but a councillor may not call it 'stupid'?

Do they not amount to the same thing?

Parliamentary privilege aside, why can the Roman Catholic convert John Gummer insult the sincerely-held beliefs of thousands of Scientologists, while anyone who dared to express the view that Roman Catholicism was 'intellectually difficult and religiously rubbish' would doubtless soon find themselves called a 'bigot'?

Is papal infallibility 'intellectually difficult and religiously rubbish'?

Is the Anglican Settlement?

Why should Tom Cruise and John Travolta be pilloried for believing in Lord Xenu while Yusuf Islam and Baroness Warsi may believe in Mohammed with impunity?

When it comes to state funding or tax subsidy of religious organisations, what constitutes a 'dangerous cult'?

Councillor John Dixon has now been cleared of breaching the code of conduct for councillors after he tweeted that Scientology was 'stupid'.

He had been reported to the standards and ethics committee earlier this year by the Public Services Ombudsmen for Wales. But members on the standards and ethics committee have found no evidence of a breach of the councillors' code of conduct, ruling out the possibility of a hearing for the case. The committee concluded Dixon was not acting in his capacity as councillor at the time.

Apparently he was tweeting 'in a personal capacity'.

Yet Mr Gummer clearly made his comments in his capacity as a politician.

What is it that MPs may say about religions that councillors may not?

One wonders if the standards and ethics committee would have absolved Cllr Dixon quite so quickly and absolutely if his comment had been directed at another minority faith group.

Perhaps we need a quota of Scientologists in Parliament.