My recollection of 9/11 apart from the news on live TV was our normal 12:15 PM Daily Mass on that day, in my former parish in Augusta, The Church of the Most Holy Trinity, which normally would have about 50 to 90 people having a full church of about 500 and a mix of Catholics and Protestants. We sang as the recessional of the Mass "O Beautiful" and the last verse had everyone in tears:
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self control,
Thy liberty in law.
We opened the front doors of the swung wide open for people to know that the Church was open for any and everyone to come and pray and come and pray they did and any and everyone!
22 comments:
While I also grieve for those who died, I have trouble feeling much patriotic love or fervor for this nation. We did nothing significant in retaliation, we mealy-mouthed around with some sand box war as a token response, and everyone in the country started making excuses for Muslims. We should have been rounding them up wholesale and deporting them while razing every mosque in the land. That would have been a reasonable, normal reaction to such an outrageous attack on our country. Instead, we wet our pants, wrung our hands, and elected this ineffectual hack as President so he could go around bowing and scraping to our enemies. This ain't the country I was born into.
"O God, who gave one origin to all peoples and willed to gather from them one family for yourself, fill all hearts, we pray, with the fire of your love and kindle in them a desire for the just advancement of their neighbor, that, through the good things which you richly bestow upon all, each human person may be brought to perfection, every division may be removed, and equity and justice may be established in human society."
Roman Missal, Collect from the Mass for the Progress of Peoples (#29)
That's very sweet Ignotus...now, about razing those mosques and deporting those who hate the Church, the country, and want to kill us...
Pin - No, it is not "sweet." It is the Church's own official prayer. It is telling that you degrade and dismiss the Church's own official prayers.
As you razing mosques, that's just un-American. (See The U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Amendment One: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.)
Well, well, Listen to old Ignotus get all indignant! No one is dismissing the Church's official prayers. Where'd ya' get that from? I was dismissing you...
The Founders never intended us to be held hostage by our own values to a bunch of savages and heretics. The only religion in this country that is being prohibited from free expression is the Christian one, more specifically the Catholic one. We do not need a bunch of mosques in this country where primitives howl like banshees five times a day, then gibber like baboons to strange gods. They are the enemy. Figure it out. Get over it.
Gene,
You will likely not like what I am going to say, but I do not mean to offend you.
Everyone on this Blog was and is upset (and more) about what happened on 9/11. How could it be otherwise? However, the group you mention in your second comment (“those who hate the Church, the country, and want to kill us”) is surely significantly smaller than the group you mention in your first comment (“Muslims,” which I take to mean “all Muslims”). To round up and deport all Muslims, as you seem to advocate, does not seem consistent with the prayer to God to confirm our soul in self-control and our liberty in law (let alone crowning our good with brotherhood).
And who in this country has been making excuses for those who attacked us on 9/11?
I experienced many IRA terrorist bombing campaigns while living in Britain, including London. It was scary and unnerving because we never knew if the pub or the tube we were in, or the car we were passing by, would blow up. We were on constant alert to report any unattended bags or packages. I did so at least twice myself. They killed many innocent men, women, and children, and they killed Lord Mountbatten, the Queen’s cousin, and the M.P. Airy Neave, close friend of Mrs. Thatcher. And they injured many more. They even bombed the shopping center of my home town one Saturday afternoon. However, all this did not cause me or others to want to deport all the Irish living in Britain or result in general hostility to Irish Catholics. My family doctor was an Irish Catholic. I do understand that the two situations are not exactly parallel but there are sufficient similarities, I think, to make the point.
P.S. I misspelled Airey Neave.
Anon 2, Your response is exactly the problem I am talking about.
Pin - You dismissed the Church's prayer, calling it "sweet." You weren't dismissing me, since the only words in my post were the words of the Church's official prayer.
I'll stick with the Church and the Church's prayers and with the US Constitution. You can wander off into any alternate universe you like. And in that universe, anyone who challenges your your racist, bigoted rants is the "problem."
Pater - It is difficult (nee impossible) to deny that the Mohammedan heresy has caused destruction and war on the Catholic world since its advent. Moreover, it now rails against our home country as well. Surely this is a problem...
In light of that and perennial Church teaching, we understand the words of the lovely prayer you have quoted for us. For surely by praying that "every division may be removed, and equity and justice may be established in human society," we are praying for the temporal reign of Christ the King and the unity of all men in the Roman Catholic Church with our visible vicar the Roman Pontiff. We pray for that sort of conversion for Mohammedans also, not because we see it as a possibility in our lifetimes but because we recognize that Christ is our God and our King!
Ah, there's that word again..."racist," "bigoted." I love it! Where are homophobe and chauvinist? LOL! You gonna' cast your vote for Obama during early voting, or are you going to wait until regular election day?
The problem, Marc, is that we make that much less likely with the kind of response Gene is advocating. I wish Gene could see that.
Also, there is more than enough sin to go around in the history of Christian-Muslim relations over the centuries.
Marc "nee" means "born," as in "Mrs. Charles Smith, nee Jones, has died." You wanted "nay" as in, "I was angry—nay, furious—at the way they were treating that poor dog."
Pin - "that word" should be "those words." Last time I counted, racist and bigoted are two words, not one.
How I choose to vorte has nothing to do with your racism and bigotry.
Pater - You are right, I wrote the wrong word. Unfortunately, there is no edit once you've submitted your post. Thank you, spelling police!
By the way, in your last post, you wrote "vorte," but I think you meant "vote." Thankfully, as educated, English-speaking humans, we can all look at the context in order to understand each other when we make small, human mistakes.
If you choose to vote in the manner Gene has proposed he believes you will vote, you wound us all because it wounds all in the Body of Christ when one of our number sins.
Ignotus, Again, you focus on the immaterial by way of avoidance and then merely repeat your previous cavil. You clearly do not know the meaning of the word "racist." Most libs don't; they use it as a nanananabooboo to anyone who advocates law and order, national sovreignty, and Christian values.
A racist is someone who believes that his race is inherently superior to all others and should, therefore, dominate or be granted special privilege. I do not believe that. In fact, numerous studies have shown that, IQ wise, certain Asian races, particularly the Japanese and Chinese, are likely superior to Caucasian and all other races. The Jewish people are also shown to be of superior intelligence to most races. (We must mention the Irish here for, were it not for the invention of whiskey, they surely would rule the world.) So, I do not believe my race is superior. I believe Western culture is probably the highest achievment of the human race, but people like you don't like that and feel terribly guilty about it.
So, I simply view Muslims as primitive savages who follow a militant, tribal religion that was made up by a megalomanic fakir along about the sixth century. They are a blight upon the earth, and the sooner Israel treats us to the spectacle of their destruction, the better.
Now, Anon 2, do you remember what Churchill said about Neville Chamberlin when Chamberlin returned from Munich...LOL!
Pin - You call President Obama "Obammy." Calling President Obama "Obammy" is a racist statement and reveals your racist motivation. "Obammy" is a vulgar play on "Mammy."
"This was the mammy caricature, and, like all caricatures, it contained a little truth surrounded by a larger lie. The caricature portrayed an obese, coarse, maternal figure. She had great love for her white "family," but often treated her own family with disdain. Although she had children, sometimes many, she was completely desexualized. She "belonged" to the white family, though it was rarely stated. Unlike Sambo, she was a faithful worker. She had no black friends; the white family was her entire world. Obviously, the mammy caricature was more myth than accurate portrayal." (Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia)
Yes, I remember, Gene, but facile comparisons between Hitler and [fill in the blank – he is a really useful fellow, isn’t he?] are to be avoided as a general matter. They only serve as a shortcut for thought – you know, like calling someone a racist often does.
Why do folks on the left consider Gene's verbal reponse unacceptable on one hand, while making excuses for radical Muslim attrocities on the other? Shouldn't both be measured by the same standard?
Carol, with respect, who is making excuses for “radical Muslim atrocities”? It is not making excuses for radical Muslim atrocities to suggest that not all Muslims, or even most Muslims, either commit or support “radical Muslim atrocities.” And BTW, there are good conservatives who know how to make the distinction. The following 2008 article by that very conservative and very Catholic Dinesh d’Souza should be sufficient to make the point. Some of his points may surprise you:
http://townhall.com/columnists/dineshdsouza/2008/09/15/who_speaks_for_islam/page/full/
For a fresh perspective on all these matters may I recommend the following 2008 article by that very conservative and very Catholic writer Dinesh d”Souza. Some of his points may surprise you:
http://townhall.com/columnists/dineshdsouza/2008/09/15/who_speaks_for_islam/page/full/
P.S. I have just double-checked a point and need to enter a correction. Dinesh d’Souza was raised Catholic, which I knew, but later became an Evangelical, it seems, which I did not know.
Once again, using a caricature or poking fun at an enemy of our country (Obammy) is not racist. So, does your guilty conscience lead you to spend a lot of time at the Jim Crow Museum? LOL! Now, that is really a hoot! I guess it is a sure bet that the restaurant doesn't offer fried chicken or watermelon. Does the gift shop sell "I Am Not A Racist" t-shirts? I'll bet you bought two.
Anon 2, a minor correction...it was Clement Attlee (there are other poignant Churchill gems regarding Chamberlin) of whom Churchill was speaking when he referred to him as "a sheep in sheep's clothing." Many good people like yourself, as well as other misguided and naive academics and feel-good types, are constantly urging everyone to listen to reason....and Reason says, "baa-baa-baaaaaa!!"
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