Orthodox Editors

Fr. Peter Preble interviews Fr. Hans Jacobse on the Mosque at Ground Zero

Shepherd of Souls Fr. Peter-Michael Preble
8/18/2010 – Fr. Johannes Jacobse and Fr. Peter Preble –

Fr. Peter-Michael Preble interviewed Fr. Hans Jacobse about the building of the mosque at Ground Zero after my article was published on Catholic Online. In it Fr. Hans discusses some of the ideas that inform the argument he made in his earlier article on the same topic.

Mosque at Ground Zero? – 8/18/2010 http://audio.ancientfaith.com/shepherdofsouls/sos_2010-08-18.mp3|titles=Mosque

Fr. Peter blogs at Shepherd of Souls, and Fr. Peter-Michael Preble. He hosts the Shepherd of Souls podcast on Ancient Faith Radio Orthodox website. [Read more…]

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What About the Ground Zero Church? Archdiocese Says Officials Abandoned Project

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church

8/17/2010 – Judson Berger –

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America accused New York officials on Tuesday of turning their backs on the reconstruction of the only church destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks, while the controversial mosque near Ground Zero moves forward.

The sidelined project is the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, a tiny, four-story building destroyed in 2001 when one of the World Trade Center towers fell on top of it. Nobody from the church was hurt in the attack, but the congregation has for the past eight years been trying to rebuild its house of worship.

While the mosque project cleared red tape earlier this month, negotiations between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the church stalled last year — and will not be revived, according to government officials. [Read more…]

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Official: Satellite Failure Means Decade of Global Warming Data Doubtful

Global Warming NOAA satellite8/17/2010 – John O’Sullivan –

US Government admits satellite temperature readings “degraded.” All data taken offline in shock move. Global warming temperatures may be 10 to 15 degrees too high.

The fault was first detected after a tip off from an anonymous member of the public to climate skeptic blog, Climate Change Fraud (view original article) (August 9, 2010).

Caught in the center of the controversy is the beleaguered taxpayer funded National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA’s Program Coordinator, Chuck Pistis has now confirmed that the fast spreading story on the respected climate skeptic blog is true. [Read more…]

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2010 Politics and the Cult of Me

8/16/2010 – Jeremy Meister –
The “Me Generation” was cute until it got in charge.

The “Greatest Generation” came home from fighting and suffering in World War 2 and gave birth to the “Baby Boom.” Like most children, these “Boomers” rebelled against their parents’ values, like honor, duty, and sacrifice. It was the ’60s, and the old fuddy-duddy ways of doing things were frowned upon by the new generation. The “Boomers” were going to have a good time regardless of the consequences. [Read more…]

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Re-education, It’s Not Just for Tyrants Anymore

Chuck Colson
Chuck Colson
8/16/2010 – Chuck Colson –

The threat to religious freedom in this country is not a hypothetical threat. It’s real, and real people are suffering as a result.

When we wrote the Manhattan Declaration last fall, we warned about “the decline in respect for religious values in the media, the academy and political leadership.”

An example of this decline is on display currently in Georgia. Jennifer Keeton, who is a 24-year-old studying for a master’s degree in counseling at Augusta State University, has been threatened with expulsion. The grounds for the threatened expulsion are not poor grades or misconduct – they are Keeton’s beliefs.

Specifically, they are Keeton’s beliefs about the morality of homosexuality. In written assignments and classroom discussions, Keeton has said that people’s sexual conduct is “the result of accountable, personal choices,” and not “a state of being.” [Read more…]

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The Perils of ‘Wannabe Cool’ Christianity

8/13/2010 – Brett McCracken –
‘How can we stop the oil gusher?” may have been the question of the summer for most Americans. Yet for many evangelical pastors and leaders, the leaking well is nothing compared to the threat posed by an ongoing gusher of a different sort: Young people pouring out of their churches, never to return.

As a 27-year-old evangelical myself, I understand the concern. My peers, many of whom grew up in the church, are losing interest in the Christian establishment. [Read more…]

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Manufacturing Liberals

8/12/2010 – Larrey Anderson –
Liberals are not insane, as many conservatives believe. Most liberals (I am not speaking here of the political or intellectual class) are ordinary human beings pursuing everyday human lives — just like the rest of us. Here is a brief summary of why most liberals are liberal and what we can do to help at least some of them understand conservative thought:

1) Indoctrination, not education
Polls consistently find that over 70% of college professors identify themselves as liberal. The percentage of liberal faculty members is even higher if one removes responses from those teaching the “hard” sciences. In our prestigious universities, the figure approaches 90%. Both of these reported percentages are probably lower than the real figures [i]. [Read more…]

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Why We Should Preach After The Gospel

Fr. Johannes Jacobse
Fr. Johannes Jacobse

8/11/2010 – Fr. Johannes Jacobse –
I used to preach at the end of the Liturgy.

It was a pragmatic decision. A good portion of my congregation didn’t arrive until after the Gospel reading. The sloppy behavior was ingrained in parish life for decades and wasn’t likely to change soon no matter how strongly I exhorted them to arrive on time. Better to hear the teaching later then never at all I reasoned.

Did some people benefit from the arrangement? Probably. Did it implicitly encourage the sloppy behavior? Most likely. But short of a full-blown renewal in the parish, the late-comers were like to keep on coming in late and what would they remember if I preached earlier? The announcements?

Since moving from a large parish to a mission parish I’ve changed my ways. The sermon is always after the Gospel reading. I used to think that the rubrics required it because the reading was fresh in the minds of my hearers. While this is true, I’m no longer convinced this is the primary reason. I see something new: The timing of the sermon vivifies – breaths life into – the Eucharistic half of the Liturgy. [Read more…]

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Christian Academics Cite Hostility On Campus

8/3/2010 – Barbara Bradley Hagerty –
One of the hot debates in academia is now reaching the courts. The question: Do universities discriminate against religious conservatives? Some professors and students say they do, but it’s not an easy charge to pin down.

When Elaine Howard Ecklund began asking top scientists whether they believe in God, she got a surprise. Ecklund, an assistant professor at Rice University and author of the book Science Vs. Religion, polled 1,700 scientists at elite universities. Contrary to the stereotype that most scientists are atheists, she says, nearly half of them say they are religious. But when she did follow up interviews, she found they practice a “closeted faith.” [Read more…]

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Free Speech Lawsuit: NYC Bans ‘9/11 Images’

8/10/2010 – Pamela Geller –
It seems that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg invokes certain freedoms only when they serve his 2012 agenda — and freedom of speech is not high on his list. Doing away with term limits wasn’t enough (which is why we are still suffering under his no-salt, no-trans-fat regime). He is now widening his ayatollah-like power-grab to imposing blasphemy laws (Islamic sharia laws) on the secular marketplace. Bloomberg’s frenzied Ground Zero mosque push may have inspired al-Azhar clerics to oppose the Ground Zero Mosque, calling it a “a zionist plot.”

Last month, I signed a contract with CBS Outdoor to run a “Preservation of Ground Zero” bus ad campaign. The campaign was paid for in full.

Here is the ad I submitted:
Preservation of Ground Zero
[Read more…]

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