2009 February archive at Being Frank

Archive for February, 2009

Feb

Kids, We know we are your parents, but figure this stuff out for yourself.

By On the Road 3 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

There have been more than a few recent wonderfully disturbing news items to emerge from the UK in recent weeks. But, when it comes to sex education and sexual morality, the UK seems to take the cake.

‘Parents should NOT tell their children what is ‘right or wrong’ about having sex, say ministers’ – That’s right, parents need to stay out of their kid’s ‘sex lives’ and let them make their own responsible choices. If they even broach the subject, it could cause the kids to be afraid to talk about it, developing a fear of ‘being open’. Their answer to this crisis of parent’s imposing sexual morality on their children? Teach sex education starting in primary school. Right.

Next story – Baby-faced boy Alfie Patten is father at 13

Hmmm…… Government to Parents: ‘Let your kids make their own sexual decisions.’ Kids to Parents: ‘OK then, but could you please watch my baby because I need to go back to PRIMARY school today. Oh, feed her too because I have lots of homework tonight.’

Where did we go so wrong?

Here is a great response on a UK news website by Melanie Phillips, criticizing the whole agenda in the UK that is producing such tragic stories as this.

Where is the love in these policies? How is treating children like adults the loving thing to do with such an integral aspect of their young lives? As Melanie Phillips put it, ‘What they actually needed, as all children do, was firm and consistent boundaries which taught them that sex was properly an adult activity…..So much for ‘informed choice’. Our society has abandoned its children by treating them prematurely as adults because it is too selfcentred to look after and protect them.’

The loving thing to do is to be the parents to the children God has given you. They are a gift, on loan to you from our Lord, and it is your responsibility to lovingly care for them in all aspects of their lives, including teaching them about sexuality. Our sexuality is such a wonderful, amazing gift, which society has twisted so far from its original meaning that it ruins so many lives, especially our children’s.

Love your kids – teach them the true meaning of their sexuality and help them prosper into adulthood, enjoying the life God intended for them, the one which sin attacks at every corner.

Feb

“Why aren’t we ascending into Heaven? Oh, right – the sins.”

By Methuselah's Beard 7 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

I had some problems with the interweb accesing the site today (using Internet Explorer…). Has anyone else experienced any problems? I even resorted to the tried and tested solution of restarting my computer before finally admiting defeat and downloading a new browser.

So anyway, this week I’ve mostly been thinking about football and the great injustices my team seems to suffer every week. Aside from that, I was also posed the following question.

Let’s say you have a person who has been baptised but doesn’t really live his baptism so to speak and who doesn’t really lead a good Christian life at all. And on the other hand you have someone who’s never been baptised, and who’s not even Christian perhaps, but who lives a good (for all intents and purposes) Christian life (without the worshipping God aspect…) but for whatever reason, has never seen it necessary to be baptised etc. Who then has the better chance of going to heaven?

I was under the impression that if someone knew of God and was given the chance to be baptised but then rejected it, that person does not then have any chance of enjoying a good afterlife? So of course I’m probably wrong here, as who knows how God’s mercy works, and how far living a good life gets you.

Feb

Waiting for the Silence to End

By Filia Day 9 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

I haven’t posted on women’s issues lately (excluding Obama related topics) but I intend in the next couple of weeks to make up for my lack of “token feminist-ness”. How did this come about? Well, I found this brilliant article, which re-enkindled my dormant passion for the topic (it not that I lost it or anything, it was just buried beneath a pile of other things on the agenda).

FYI: I have posted the full article here, for your reading pleasure.

The main jist of the article is that radical feminism with its proclaimed mantras of freedom, equality and autonomy hasn’t borne the fruits initially proclaimed by its founding sisters. Now you maybe thinking, “so what, we all knew that….the Church has been saying exactly this for years”. This article is different though. It’s quite original in approach; it’s biographical and recounts the experiences of a female playwright born and raised (nurtured, if you like) as a feminist.

I have to say my heart went out to the poor lass. Zoe Lewis despairs at the fact she sunk her time into her career and casual relationships, convinced that a high-flying career was the pinnacle of success and inevitably happiness. Now in her late thirties she feels robbed of a husband and children. Robbed by who/what exactly? Feminism.

Radical Feminism might well argue that the Lewis’ testimony is an isolated case and not very characteristic of the rewards of living by the sacred mantras of radical feminism. They might even argue that Lewis is one of the woman who remains slightly attached to/ brainwashed by patriarchal notions of womanhood i.e. wanting to be a mother and a wife. Yet the comments at the bottom of the article are indicative of a condition that is much more widespread that isolated pockets of women who have failed to rid themselves of the patriachy. Woman after woman agree with Lewis’ sentiments, admit similar feelings and similar experiences – unfulfilling careers, opportunities lost, and in the end feel (and literally are) completely barren.

The real irony is that others have been saying the same thing for years. Just pick up anything written by Wendy Shalit on the subject, for instance. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, a former radical feminist herself, dedicated an entire book to how feminist ideology no longer resonates with ordinary women.

I’m not going to be all like ‘I told you so’ but it is a real shame that women have to be completely broken before feminism realises that maybe they’ve got it slightly wrong.

Speaking of radical feminism getting things entirely wrong, I loved what Madeleine had to say on her blog yesterday. Fair call Mads, a little consistency would go along way!

Feb

Le Mercredi des Cendres

By Tuppence 10 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

It’s Ash Wednesday (well, not for me right now as I write this, it’s still Shrove Tuesday…ah the time difference…), or here ‘Mercredi des Cendres’ (Wednesday of the ashes).

Time to hang up the gin bottle and pull out the sack cloth. haha. Anyone who knows me knows that I enjoy a refreshing gin’n'tonic with a good lime at the end of a long day. For lent, I enjoy a refreshing tonic water instead…

I really appreciate Lent. And I always seems like the time for a ‘spiritual spring clean’ if you like. Like a stocktake. It’s like pruning season. I guess there’s plenty of metaphors.

This Lent, being in Dakar, I have to consider how my physical environment will affect my lenten choices. So below is just a collection of random thoughts about what might be my Careme in Dakar

Prayer – more than normal, I have the chance to arrange my time to make sure I really give God the best part of the day in prayer. And I find that tends to be in the morning first thing…I can even wander down to the chapel of the Sisters that live 2 mins down the road. It rocks my socks to have the Eucharist so accessible.

Lent is the time to make sure I’ve got my priorities straight…that I put prayer and my relationship with Christ back in the centre if it’s been off centre in any way, that I actually live that out in how I choose to pass my days.

Fasting – When you’re still getting a handle of the language and your meals are all cooked for you by an exceptionally hospitable and insistent Muslim mother, the task of explaining why I’d like to skip lunch or dinner, or refrain from eating the meat, can seem somewhat insurmountable. If I try to explain that it’s like Ramadan, they might only let me eat when it’s dark! Nevertheless, it’s not so difficult to be a bit more restrained in how I eat, to go without, to give it away, to join in solidarity with those who do struggle to get a decent meal each day…and this year for the first time, those kind of people live metres from my house. That puts a new light on the challenge.

Almsgiving – Being in Dakar also sheds new light on almsgiving. I don’t need to give to the Lenten Appeal, putting my coins in an envelope that will not reach a beneficiary for a few months, I just have to walk down the street. Here there are street kids everywhere, they hang out outside the supermarket, anywhere that they can hopefully garner some charity. However, the bulk of these kids are trapped in a terrible system of corruption where their parents sent them to the Marabouts (religious teachers) thinking they’d get education in the Koran, and in fact they’re sent out to beg for money that they have to give back to their ‘masters’ (the Maribouts) who use the funds to run these Koranic schools. In my humble opinion, these schools just indoctrinate young students into some rather extreme Islamique ideologies. So giving the street kids a few coins only makes their situation worse. Instead, it’s worthwhile taking them to a fruit stand nearby and buying a bunch of bananas, or something that they can eat and that doesn’t benefit the ‘Maribout’. So this lent, the experience of almsgiving is particularly acute for me. I find myself asking a lot of questions of myself, of society, of the value of money vs the value of relationship. Am I just trying to get rid of my guilt if I just buy them bananas and keep walking? What more can I actually do? Does anything I do put the kids in more danger – if their maribout knows they’re getting bananas and not coins, are they going to get punished? I don’t know, but it highlights the paradoxes in the area of almsgiving.

Just to finish, I hope that it is evident that there is an important complementarity between this week’s post and my post last Wednesday. Chris, we have to get past the old dichotomy of ‘social justice or liturgy’ (as a crude way to describe it). Beautiful liturgy is essential to our participation in the Divine, a desire for social justice is the natural outflow of that authentic interior experience of community, and that social justice is brought to it’s summit (like all things) in our experience of the Eucharist and the Mass. I’m no theologian, but that’s how I can best describe it. Can anyone say it better?

Feb

Funny stuff

By The Dumb Ox 3 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

I found this guy on another local blog, his name is Steven Crowder, and he is a Canadian comedian who produces his own regular video blogs, here are some of his funnier ones…

The Qur’an Challenge:

A farewell to Bush, liberal celebs and Brad Pitt’s idiocy:

Abortion is super fun:

Feb

You’re fired!

By James the Least 49 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

Well, things are finally coming to a head over at St.Mary’s in South Brisbane. I’ve been following aspects of this developing for a while now, but for those who aren’t familiar with the situation, Father Peter Kennedy, the parish priest there for around 28 years, has been “fired” by the Archbishop of Brisbane, the Most Reverend John Bathersby after Fr Kennedy continued to refuse to change his practices there and fall in line with…well, let’s face it…with the Catholic Church.

In reviewing this story, I have to say I’ve found myself constantly startled and beyond belief that it’s for real. There’s been plenty of coverage – The Brisbane Times, the Sydney Morning Herald covering the bomb threat that kept the new priest away, the Courier Mail on how Fr Kennedy has basically sacked himself – and there is the official line from the Archbishop is available on the Archdiocese of Brisbane’s website if you’d like to make sure you’re getting all the facts.

Now, in case you think I’m just some right-wing, ultra-conservative, “rules before love” kinda guy, let me just recount some of the teachings and events that have lead to this situation:

“Can you possibly think any individual can believe that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary? In the medieval times you might have understood that, but do you expect modern people today to believe that somehow she was impregnated with the Holy Spirit?” – direct quote from Fr Kennedy himself
He said he didn’t have faith in the Pope.
“It’s not we who are in schism with the Catholic Church, The Catholic Church is not in sync with its own people.”
The parish sells books claiming Christ wasn’t divine
He doesn’t wear any vestments at all
He allows laypeople to preach during Mass
He’s blessed gay unions
The parish used the invalid Baptism formula “Creator, the Sanctifier and the Redeemer”, thereby invalidating the baptism

That last one really gets me. Even if you are all for gender-inclusive language, how can you possibly dispute Christ’s own words!?!?! “Go forth and baptise in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.” If you’re going to tinker, why tinker with that?

And for anyone who thinks maybe the media is mis-quoting Fr Kennedy and it’s all a beat-up, well check out some of the pretty extensive interviews with the man himself where he explains his thoughts, if you’re interested. There’s one here from ABC Brisbane where he explains that the fat, shaven statue that could be mistaken for a Buddha was actually just a monk at prayer…apparently; his moves to re-arrange the furniture in the church (i.e. throwing out the pews); his views on Vatican II; and plenty of other interesting topics. I’d definitely recommend skipping ahead to the “poem” one of his parishioners wrote for him about St.Peter and the cellphone call. It’s about 3:40 before the end and sums up his thoughts on rules, regulations and other such matters. Unbelievable.

He’s on his way now, though, unless his “appeal” goes through. Listening to Archbishop Bathersby, though, I think it’s pretty clear that he’s not backing down anytime soon.

But I’m left wondering about “communities” like this. Those that continue to stay inside the Church, but apparently hate everything about it. Those that think freedom is singing songs from the 80′s really loudly, and that social justice rules all. Don’t get me wrong – setting up charities that help the poor and helpless in our society are a great thing and the work this parish seems to have done in this area cannot be disregarded. But at what cost?

I think the Archbishop of Canberra, Archbishop Mark Coleridge put it best when he said:

In the end, communities like St Mary’s and those who support them, fail to recognise the difference between a band-wagon and a hearse. With the best of good intentions – and no-one is attributing any of this to malice – they jump gleefully on the band-wagon of a certain relevance and inclusiveness without realising that what looks like a band-wagon into the brave, new world of the future is in fact a hearse leading to a dead end that they do not see coming. Such confusions do not help, and it is the task of the Pope and the bishops to speak with one voice in pointing the way beyond them.

Being frank, I think that any communities in a similar vein to St.Mary’s would do well to heed those words.

Feb

Legacy

By eyeWitness 4 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

This weekend there was a massive youth event called Legacy 09 in Auckland. It was a follow up to World Youth Day and included cultural and hip hop dancers, internationally acclaimed speakers such as John Pridmore and much more. I only got to a little bit of the weekend, including Dean Mischewski’s excellent talk on ‘thinking like a Catholic, living as a Catholic and dying like a Catholic’. He emphasised that while it is great for our youth groups to organise fun events we must ground ourselves in prayer and make sure we feed ourselves with a strong understanding of our faith.

I know so much hard work went into this event by many. I’m sure all involved would appreciate your comments regarding the weekend and also suggestions as to what more can be done in the future.

One thing the event emphasised is we have so many enthusiastic and amazing young people in our Church who have so much potential for growth.