BLOW THEIR SHIPS OUT OF THE WATER
By Joe Kress
July 29, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
John G. Barbour hits the nail on the head when he states that Dr. Richard Jones of American Vision issued in a challenge regarding why so many Take America Back for Christ events that aren’t bearing the fruit we’d like to see. Barbour quotes the movie Amazing Grace where Wilberforce asks his former Pastor John Newton what he should do. Newton tells him to “blow their ships out of the water.”
I wish that every pastor, every bishop, every cardinal and especially the Pope would change direction and put real meaning in what we as Christians should be.
To capsulate and with license to expound upon what Barbour stated: The symptoms of idolatry are found in the abnormal mores and products of man’s free will which he exercises over God’s purpose for man’s creation. Aberrations of the sexual act are symptoms whereby procreation is superseded by lust and self gratification that is worshipped, not condemned. The same is true regarding the sacredness of human life which is overthrown by the Roe verses Wade Supreme Court decision. Murder of the unborn is legalized because inconvenience takes precedence over the living fetus. We are fighting one war after another war killing and maiming millions of innocent people conjured by those in consort with diabolical plans in league with Lucifer. Prayer in public places is outlawed and unisex marriage is fine with those living in La La Land - the Sodom by the Sea and the leftists in the land of Kennedy, centered along Massesschutes’ shores. Barbour makes the profound observation that raging against the practices that lead to death of both soul and body are not enough. What is required is to “Blow the Ships out of the Water” and not just ineffectual clucking platitudes devoid of the power of St. Paul who took up Christ’s banner no matter the cost.
As
it is, we are on a merry-go-round of outward remonstrations without
real intent of stopping the cycle. I can't help but feel guilty because
of my doing the same thing over and over knowing that the problem of
accepting the status quo is getting worse, not better.
The time is now to wake up, and “Blow the enemy's battleships
out of the water” just as in Barbour’s clarion call. I have
not enrolled in the Knights of Columbus because as defenders and protectors
of the faith they haven't shown me much besides the charitable works
which I fully admire. But if we expect to make a dint on the onslaught
of legal murder of the unborn, homosexuality, unisex marriage and a
public school system that destroys the souls of children, the Knights
and we better change the agenda to one of outward aggressiveness that
names names and confronts the hedonists and the agnostic and atheist
legislative bodies – on radio, television, and face to face –
leading thousands of Catholics in demonstrations at every opportunity.
This is a war on men's souls but as far as I can see we're losing to
modernism, to watered down Evangelicalism, to Judaism, and to Islam's
growing influence, to tent preachers and those who pick and choose the
right words from the Bible to make political acceptance for a chosen
candidate and for monetary gains to support their massive tabernacles,
their jet planes and million dollar homes rather than meaningful adherence
to the Sermon on the Mount. What has happened is the Catholic Church's
timidness in not confronting the government, the politicians who promote
what is antithetical to our moral beliefs and those entities who intimidate
the church leadership with the threat of removing its tax free status,
making exceptions for the televised tent preachers like Pat Robertson
and John Hagee or tolerance of black preachers promoting their race’s
political agenda during services. We’re all brothers and sisters,
descendents of Adam and Eve and our color is just skin deep, so why
of all segments in our society should there not be an acknowledgement
of this fact from the pulpit, otherwise the Christ I believe in is not
the same as the men and women of the cloth who advocates such dissension.
There is the Masonic influence that inculcated itself in Christianity, especially at the highest levels within the Vatican. Christ threw the moneychangers out of the temple and He knew the consequences and He ended up on the Cross. Would we have such courage as the early Christians who entered the arenas of death? We need inspirational bishops like Fulton Sheen of the New York diocese or activists like the popular radio host, Father Coughlin, who was condemned and labeled as anti-Semitic because he chastised Franklin Roosevelt's social/communist plans and the stacking of the Supreme Court in violation of the Constitution. The Church was intimidated and forbade him from further broadcasts.
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The
Church leadership has failed to inspire Catholics and millions have
abandoned their faith for watered down versions. Its charitable works
of mercy are a primary source of inspiration, but have not had as much
of an impact as what happened when the “Novus Ordo Mass”
replaced the Tridentine Mass, a ritual that is devoid of the solemnity
of the universal Roman Mass of Trent and the specific unalterable meaning
of words in the Latin language found in its Canon.
The homosexual scandals put a permanent mark on the good and holy men
and women within the clergy and engendered a major lack of respect for
the Church hierarchy. The old Roman Missal was the catalyst that helped
to unite the Roman Church throughout the world, where identical words
were used in every mass and in every parish commencing with the Council
of Trent and much later, was ordained by Vatican I as the final version
of the Mass for the universal Church. It is now almost relegated to
history and few Catholics have copies in their home libraries for even
though the Pope permits a post Vatican II version, few new priests have
been trained in Latin or can appreciate it.
Most Catholics, in my view, attend a sterile ceremony hindered by add
on new prayers recited as if made up the night before by the celebrant
or the deacon and are seldom found in the congregation's prayer books
or post Vatican II missals, unavailable even in pamphlets or a common
book of prayer provided by the dioceses and parishes. As a result, the
parishioners listen not read with the celebrant and therefore cannot
really savor what is meant. The Novus Ordo Mass has an abbreviated version
of the old Tridentine liturgy and sermons are devoted mainly to the
historical meaning of the epistles and gospels. The message is ecumenist
linkage with Judaism’s Biblical heroes and a lesser difference
in Christian faiths - a quixotic belief in the idea that there is more
than the one True Faith. From the pulpit nothing is said about the horrific
happenings all around us, perpetrated by the government’s mental
eunuchs, who impose such laws on us that our Founding Fathers voices
would cry out in abhorrence.
Catholics listen to mostly unsingable versions of both Protestant and
Catholic compositions with complex, erratic lyrics not easy to meld
with the music. The music is no match for the music of Haydn, Bach,
and Gregorian Chant, the forms of glorious musical praise that once
rose up like incense to the rafters to the glory of Almighty God. Haydn,
Bach and Mendelssohn were Lutherans (Mendelssohn a converted Jew). Yet
their music embodied the inspiration of the angels, achieving a true
religious commonality within all of Christendom.
What I see today is a loss of solemnity whereby the congregation no longer appreciates the dress code for attending Sunday Mass; rather, we now have women attending who irreverently expose bare shoulders, bare midriffs, and bare legs – some even attending in short shorts and flip flops. Our men actually attend Sunday Mass in dungarees, overalls, tank tops and shorts. Gone are the days when decorum was expected, when ties and jackets were the norm. Now anything goes in the same way our altar boys are more and more being replaced by altar girls and adults are doing much of what the male altar boy servers, the promising prospects for the priesthood used to do during pre-Vatican II days, at a time when the Church had enough priests. Our girls no longer enter convents, and this trend has led to a point that the median age of our nuns is near seventy. And does one wonder that the Church has a hard time finding bishops to fill diocesan posts?
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When the problems of the Roman Catholic Church unfolded, other major denominations caught pneumonia and a general decomposition took place that can only be described as materialist - a compromising cop-out that excuses even the most obnoxious mores of every uncivilized society that mankind has ever been capable of conjuring. Some Presbyterians now accept homosexuals marrying, as do many Episcopalians, and would soon incorporate other doctrinal changes that would sanction infanticide, which once was considered an abomination. Righteousness is now a dirty word as is the idea of damnation to Hell for all Eternity, a damnation many believe they will avoid by public declarations of their acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Savior but can find no fault in the way their Church conducts its ministry. If that sounds pedantic, so be it.
� 2008 Joe Kress - All Rights
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