February is Black History Month

While we do not bow to the current fashions in historical studies, we will use this opportunity to note several items of interest.


Morgan Freeman gets it Right
Morgan Freeman blasted the concept of a month dedicated to black history, calling it "ridiculous."
"You're going to relegate my history to a month?" the 68-year-old actor says in an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes". "I don't want a black history month. Black history is American history."
Freeman further noted there is no "white history month."
The actor says he believes the labels "black" and "white" are an obstacle to beating racism.
"I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man," Freeman says. Perhaps he realizes that we are, simply, Americans.
(in a humorous, though telling warning, online commenters noted "Freeman better be careful -- if he keeps rocking the PC boat they will pull a Cosby on him" and "If he keeps this up, he may get a taste of the Bill Cosby treatment from the so-called black leaders.")

So, I guess we'd like to also thank Mr. Cosby for his honesty in the last couple of years. Pity that those who need to hear him and learn from his words the most, won't. Thank the current cadre of conniving black leaders, of the Jesse Jackson variety, truth and realism will fall while racism and robbery continue.

editor note: while we sympathize with Mr. Freeman's position, we find ourselves, in a broad national context, unable to remove "black" from titles. It is only a matter of practicality when dealing with a media oversaturated by white and black. Thus the below uses of "black."

Black Leaders who are leading (sorry Jesse Jackson)
http://www.nationalreview.com/lopez/lopez200602150839.asp

Renewal starts with the family. Leadership begins in the home, by the father. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was famously attacked for his insistence upon the role of the family, in fighting poverty and crime, and providing for stability and advancement. And by family, he meant a father and mother engaged in rearing their children. And he was speaking of the inner-city black community. But it is a truth and lesson for all, race matters not at all. The family must survive intact or society will fracture.
The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson agrees. Character matters. To learn more about Peterson's work, visit http://www.bondinfo.org/

Chronicle of the Damned, part 2 (revisited)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060214/ap_on_re_us/bishop_rehab

Bishop Robinson, the infamous practicing catamite of the New Hampshire Episcopal Church, has entered treatment for alcoholism. Interestingly he noted "he had been dealing with alcoholism for years and had considered it 'as a failure of will or discipline on my part, rather than a disease over which my particular body simply has no control, except to stop drinking altogether.'"

So the decision, and the choice, for immorality is always a choice, to openly engage in homosexuality was not a "failure of will or discipline" but a sin to flaunt in violation of Scripture and excuse away. But alcoholism, which many times DOES have genetic roots, was a "failure...[of] discipline on my part."

In such a wayward, even heretical and apostasizing Episcopal church, little surprise arises when his assistant, the Rev. Tim Rich notes, "We did not see it in any way impact his ministry in the diocese."

1 Timothy 3:2-3
"A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour...not given to wine..."

Bishop Robinson ought to step down from his position, having acknowledged a long struggle with alcohol. He should have removed himself from a position of leadership years ago. So it seems that Robinson is pending an entry into the Third Circle of Hell, reserved for the incontinent. That includes gluttony, or the excess of food or drink.

He might be more concerned however, with his proud and firmly established path of schism, lies, violence against nature (sodomy), and betrayal that places his eternal destination somewhere in Circle Seven, Eight, or even the deepest realm of Nine (with only Lucifer, Judas, Cassius, and Brutus as comrades).
see our previous entry:
http://tonguedwithfire.blogspot.com/2006/01/chronicle-of-damned-part-2.html

Chronicle of the Damned, part 4

The DaVinci Code, writes the Library Journal, is a "compelling blend of history and page-turning suspense." The Chicago Tribune was equally effusive in its praise of Dan Brown's book: "Brown doesn't slow down his tremendously powerful narrative engine despite transmitting several doctorates' worth of fascinating history and learned speculation."

Discerning minds will wonder where the fiction ends and the history begins in this book.

The basic plot of the novel is this: the Catholic Church is perpetuating a major, centuries-long conspiracy to hide the "truth" about Jesus Christ from the public, and it or its agents are willing to stop at nothing, including murder, to do so.

Leonardo DaVinci is portrayed as a former head of the conspiracy guarding the "truth" about Jesus Christ. In the novel he is said to have planted various codes and secret symbols in his work, particularly in his painting of the Last Supper. According to the novel, this painting depicts Jesus' alleged wife, Mary Magdalene, next to him as a symbol of her prominence in his true teaching. [In reality (a concept foreign to Dan, it seems), the figure that Brown identifies as Mary Magdalene is John the Evangelist, who traditionally has been regarded as the youngest of the apostles and so is often pictured in medieval art without a beard.]

Among the lies promulgated by Brown in The DaVinci Code:

-Jesus is not God; he was only a man.

-Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene (who is to be worshiped as a goddess).

-Jesus got her pregnant, and the two had a daughter. That daughter gave rise to a prominent family line that is still present in Europe today.

-The Bible was put together by a pagan Roman emperor.

-Jesus was viewed as a man and not as God until the fourth century, when he was deified by the emperor Constantine.

-The Gospels have been edited to support the claims of later Christians. In the original Gospels, Mary Magdalene rather than Peter was directed to establish the Church.

-There is a secret society known as the Priory of Sion that still worships Mary Magdalene as a goddess and is trying to keep the truth alive.

Of course, since no reference to Christ in popular culture is complete without the customary Catholic/Roman/Papist conspiracy, the book also claims that:

-The Catholic Church is aware of all this and has been fighting for centuries to keep it suppressed. It often has committed murder to do so.

-The Catholic Church is willing to and often has assassinated the descendents of Christ to keep his bloodline from growing.

Despite none of these ideas being grounded in Christian tradition, many readers cling to their veracity. Why get bogged down in the facts, anyway? Therein lay the dispute. Brown claims to have done extensive and thorough research into these matters, a claim that, in the minds of too many, lends credibility to the tales he tells. A look at his bibliography, however, reveals works that neither historians nor religious scholars take seriously.

In the afterlife Brown will spend his time divided betwixt Circle Six, for heresy, and the bottom of Circle Eight, a place reserved for falsifiers of persons and words. That Brown's work has made it to the New York Times bestsellers list gives hint that he has prospered financially off of his crimes. You'd better live it up here, Dan, because the fame and fortune sure as hell won't do you any good in the fate that awaits you.