Sunday, March 16, 2014
Via JMG: Franklin Graham Endorses Putin
"America’s response to Putin’s law was sadly predictable. President
Obama intentionally included homosexuals in his official U.S. delegation
to Sochi. Then his attorney general stole headlines from the opening
weekend with an announcement to the Human Rights Campaign (a major
gay-rights group): As far as the federal government is concerned, there
is no longer any difference between traditional and same-sex
marriage—even in the 33 states that outlaw those marriages. It’s obvious
that President Obama and his administration are pushing the gay-lesbian
agenda in America today and have sold themselves completely to that
which is contrary to God’s teaching." - Franklin Graham, writing for Decision Magazine.
Reposted from Joe Jervis
Via JMG: Fred Phelps Reportedly Near Death
I’ve learned that my father, Fred Phelps, Sr., pastor of the “God Hates Fags” Westboro Baptist Church, was ex-communicated from the “church” back in August of 2013. He is now on the edge of death at Midland Hospice house in Topeka, Kansas. I’m not sure how I feel about this. Terribly ironic that his devotion to his god ends this way. Destroyed by the monster he made. I feel sad for all the hurt he’s caused so many. I feel sad for those who will lose the grandfather and father they loved. And I’m bitterly angry that my family is blocking the family members who left from seeing him, and saying their good-byes.Hemant Mehta has more at the Friendly Atheist:
I just got off the phone with Nate and he confirmed what he had written. The rumors had been flying for several weeks, he said, but after a conversation with some of his fellow “excommunicated” family members, he found out that the rumors were true. He elaborated on that final line, too, saying that the Phelps family is now blocking anyone who is no longer with the church from seeing him, including Fred’s sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews. Why was he kicked out of his own church? Did he have a change of heart near the end of his life? There’s no definitive answer to that and Nate has heard different things (so any explanation is pure speculation right now).Over on Twitter, some are calling for a picket of Phelps' funeral, but Mehta and others suggest that the better response might be to ignore it completely. Rod Dreher writes at American Conservative:
Can you imagine having come to the end of your life, very nearly to the moment in which you will meet your God and be reckoned with, and all you have to show for it is … that? I’ve always thought the Westboro Baptist Church people were despicable, but there is something about the thought of that old man lying on his death bed, forsaken, the victim of his own sins, that makes me pity him. One tear of repentance from the vicious old preacher will open the floodgates of the divine mercy he spent his life trying to deny to others. I pray for that tear. And I hope no one pickets his funeral, giving to his family the mercy they do not deserve.
Labels: Fred Phelps, hate groups, religion, Westboro
Via Daily Dharma:
What's So Great About Now? | March 16, 2014
Mindfulness, accompanied by clear
comprehension, differs from ordinary awareness. Rather than seeing the
conventional features of objects more clearly, mindfulness goes beyond
them to perceive something quite specific—the ultimate characteristics
common to all formations, good or bad. There are only three of these:
impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and non-selfness. (Note that beauty
isn't among them.) These traits are unwelcome—unsatisfactory. So the
more mindfulness one has, the clearer dukkha becomes.
—Cynthia Thatcher, “What’s So Great About Now?”
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