Faith or Faith & Works

I was reading about the poor and tragic events that occurred in Pennsylvania where a deranged man shot and killed three women in a fitness class. One of the statements reported from his blog was the following:

"Maybe soon, I will see God and Jesus. At least that is what I was told. Eternal life does NOT depend on works. If it did, we will all be in hell."

That must be the most extreme understanding of the difference between Faith and Faith & Works I have ever seen. As most people know, the Catholic Church believes it is Faith & Works that are required for Christians to live their lives according to God's teachings and, after the split by Luther, the Protestants determined only Faith was required for salvation.

Almost all Protestants I know take their Faith and convert it into Works (missionary work, evangelical work, bible studies, prison ministries), they just don't call it that. However, this disturbed murdered took something so completely out of context, ignoring reliance on Jesus, on loving your enemies, on loving your neighbor, on offering your sacrifices to God, on carrying your own cross... it's sad that someone could have misinterpreted something so obvious to most Christians and used it to ease the weight of his own evil actions.

The older I get the more I realize that context is often more important than the content.

SISS Vol 3 Available

For those collectors of all books rare, pick up your limited copy of Surviving in Safety Harbor, Volume 3 which covers from June to December of 2006.

Mom, I'll have your copy when you return on Monday.

Selective Validation

I find it irritatingly humorous when people quote some portions of the Bible as examples of why other parts of the Bible are invalid.

If you read The DaVinci Code or The Third Jesus, you'll find the authors using quotes from the Bible to invalidate the most important event recorded in the book... the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This amazes me... either the Bible is a valid point of reference or it is not.

Now, if you want to use passages in the Bible to analyze inconsistencies within the Bible itself, for example, that makes sense, but you cannot pick and choose the validity of the Bible as a reference.

That's like me examining the Constitution and referencing the first amendment in order to invalidate the second amendment.

I also find it irritatingly humorous when people utilizes discarded versions of writings similar to the those found in the Bible (Dead Sea Scrolls) and give them equal validity to the Bible.

That's like me finding an earlier version of the Declaration of Independence that stated "all Massachusetts born men are created equal" and arguing that it has equal contextual weight, even though the entry was discarded and ignored.

Just because a document was written during the same time frame about the same subject does not mean it is equally valid as the final, approved document. If I find a writing from the time of Moses stating Moses was also a circus clown doesn't make it accurate.

Obviously, when putting together the Bible or the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, some discernment over accuracy, validity and continuity had to be taken into consideration.

Things aren't discarded by some grand conspiracy... they're discarded because they're simply not good enough.

So, next time your hear arguments utilizing Biblical quotes skewed to attack the divinity of Jesus Christ, ask them to explain themselves. Their response will more than likely be irritatingly humorous.

Busy, Busy...

First, thank you Lord for the safety of Paul, Jean and Jonathan during Hurricane Ike! What a blessing. And congrats to Matt and Candyce on the birth of their new baby girl Eleanor Grace and also to Paul and Michelle on tying the knot. What wonderful news!

Things have been busy in the Bauer household recently. Dea and DC have been hit with a flu bug making the rounds. Gabe's Fall Ball season is about to start, so we've been down at the field quite a bit. I've been trying to prepare for a Purgatory, USA premiere for cast/crew and their families as well as working DVD menus for the eventual release of Volume 1.

This past week I finished writing the next two episodes of PUSA, one dealing with Envy and another dealing with the battle between God's Will and Our Will.

In researching a short script idea Paul had sent me about Angels, I finished reading a book called Angels & Devils by Joan Carroll Cruz... she takes all of the references in the Bible as well as from the Saints of any experiences with Angels and/or Devils and puts them into similar groupings, such as what Angels look like, Angels and the Eucharist, etc. It was a very interesting read.

Right now I'm in the middle of another one of Cruz' books called Eucharistic Miracles, which details all of the Eucharistic miracles from Christ through to the mid-1980's, when the book was written. Some of the stories are amazing.

After that I'm going to read another one of Cruz' books called The Incorruptables, about saints who have died and their bodies have remained incorrutable. I have to thank our friend, Darryll Miller, for loaning me the books, as he used to live next door to Mrs. Cruz in Louisiana and has all of her books.

So, things are busy... not exciting, just busy. Hopefully I'll have more interesting stuff later in the week :)

A Different Focus

Pope Benedict XVI arrived today, his birthday, and was greeted by the most powerful man in the free world, the U.S. President. This happened to occur on the sad first anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings. As I scanned my bookmarked news sites, I was interested to see two very different approaches.

On Fox News, the arrival of the Pope took up half the page.

As a matter of fact, every news website I visited (MSNBC, USAToday, ABCNews) highlighted the Pope... except one. On CNN, the arrival of the Pope is listed only as a link above the main page (I highlighted in Yellow).


A different focus... neither of which is more valid than the other. But such subtleties can guide you on which news organization will give exposure to areas that interest you the most.

NEWS FLASH: Media Biased!

Okay, so it's not so much of a news flash as it is a statement of fact.

Here's a prime example. A few months ago Mike Huckabee, a Christian pastor, got raked over the proverbial coals for having a subliminal figure of a cross in the background during a Christmas message.

A pastor having an image of a cross during a Christmas message???? NO!!! How could he??? What was he thinking???

Flash forward to last week.

Barack Obama gives a speech justifying gay marriage by quoting Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and stating we should ignore the "obscure" passage by St. Paul about homosexuality.

And what of the media outrage? Surely a non-pastor selectively picking from the bible to leap across to a volatile subject such as gay marriage would generate some intense media buzz!

Crickets. That's all you hear. Crickets.

Besides the fact that there are more than just this "obscure" statement in the bible about homosexuality which illuminate quite clearly the early church's feelings about it and besides the fact that Obama conveniently excluded the direct quote from Jesus about a man and a woman becoming one flesh in marriage, the silence from the media outlets is stunning and a perfect example of complete media bias.

You can read a very good analysis over at One News Now.

Whether you're for gay marriage or not, such blatant bias in coverage of critical political issues should be a concern for every American, no matter which gender with whom you prefer to bed down. Because at some point, that moral compass will be pointing in a direction with which you don't identify and you'll expect the media to show some centrist opinion.

Yeah, good luck with that.

I still believe this country is the best country in the world. What saddens me most is that we've stopped raising the bar and are, instead, sliding quickly toward second place.

We used to be a beacon of truth and opportunity. Now we're an example of selective relativism and moral confusion.

Come to America... we stand for nothing.

Interview with an Exorcist (2006)

I've always been intrigued by the spiritual realm.

I remember hearing an interview with Father Malachi Martin who, when speaking about the real exorcism from which the movie The Exorcist was based, stated that our sins are on the "public record," so to speak, in the spiritual realm. He spoke about how they are available to the demons to use against the priest. And how, at the end of that one particular difficult exorcism that spawned a movie franchise, a small group of people in a small church nearby all saw the image of St. Michael the Arc Angel lifting his sword in victory after the mighty demon was finally purged from the child.

Stories like that have fascinated me. I've always figured the spiritual realm was much greater, much more complex and far more intricate than we could ever imagine in our small little brains.

And, personally, I have felt the tinge of harassment from an unwelcomed entity at one point in my life.

So, picking up the book Interview with an Exorcist, by Father Jose Antonio Fortea of Spain, was a really interesting and a sometimes disturbing read about the nature of demonic forces, their goals, how best to combat them and the limits of what they can and cannot do. The book is fashioned in the standard and efficient answer/question format where, over the course of 110 questions, Father Fortea gives real world insight into what's up the Devil's sleeve and ways in which we can avoid or combat the work of the evil minions.

Some of that information was quite surprising.

Father warns that Satan would like nothing better than to make us all non-believers in him. Some religions have actually disbanded exorcists completely. Nothing makes Satan happier. Fortunately, Pope Benedict XVI has recently requested that more exorcist be made available to confront evil within our society.

Reading this book was also therapeutic for me, as it forced me to face the disturbing memories of when I felt attacked by an evil presence. Thankfully, the mercy of God is great and through pure living and frequent prayer Satan is unable to beat us.

God will be victorious in the end. And if we can remain by His side we will always be protected.

Inside Islam: A Guide for Catholics (2006)

What is Islam? Who was Muhammad? When was Islam created? Is the Koran like the Bible? What does Islam share with Judaism and Christianity and what separates them?

Inside Islam: A Guide for Catholics, by Daniel Ali and Robert Spencer, is a quick read consisting of 100 common questions and answers regarding Islam, its impact in history, the world and other faiths. Ali and Spencer do a nice job of explaining the beliefs of Muslims and how they are either similar or different from Judaism and Christianity.

Did you know that Muslims believe Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary and that his second coming is part of the end times? Did you know that the Koran includes stories of Adam and Eve, Moses and Abraham? Yes, Islam shares the names and the stories, but the details and interpretations are sometimes very different.

According to the book, Muslims believe the Koran to be the direct word from Allah as dictated by the angel Gabriel to Muhammad. These words are not up for interpretation, merely obedience.

According to the book:

• Where Christians see God as a father figure, Muslims see Allah as a master.
• Where Christians believe heaven means spending eternity in God's presence, Muslims believe heaven means spending eternity in paradise, but not in Allah's presence.
• Where the Bible is consistent in it's messages and truths, the Koran allows for Allah to contradict previous statements or change his mind on various teachings.
• Where Christians believe in the Trinity, Muslims believe in Allah alone.
• Where Christians believe Jesus was the Son of God, Muslims believe he was only a prophet.

The book also states that Muslims believe that the original Old and New Testaments were in line with the Koran at their inception, but have since been altered to meet various devious goals, thereby nullifying their value as they are considered fiction.

Ali and Stevens go into greater detail into the history of the creation of the Koran, the holy traditions, Mecca, the role of women in Muslim society and so on. It is an informative and enlightening book. It gives me a much greater appreciation as to why some Muslims take their religion and wage war with the sword against unbelievers.

This is all new territory for me and this book is a great starting point for Catholics who want to begin to understand the Muslim faith and how it varies from our own teachings. I strongly recommend it for those of you interested in the subject matter.

Flatulence Forces Plane To Land

From AP...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- An American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing Monday morning after a passenger lit a match to disguise the scent of flatulence, authorities said.

You can read the entire article here.

Editors have to love when they get to write headlines for stories such as these!

UK's Christ-less Christmas

The UK Postal Service releases it's Christmas stamps... none of which have Christ on them! I guess offending Christians on one of the holiest of holidays is okay.

Ah, hypocrisy still runs strong.

You can read more here: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/nov/06111001.html