Where the Rubber Hits the Road

I post this as a companion story to the one before. I find it bizarre that on the one hand someone can be granted an exemption from having to work with women (while it's not stated I assume that he was a Muslim) but this baker is ordered to provide a commercial service for a gay couple. It put me in mind of the Duck Dynasty brouhaha where everyone was screaming about his 'homophobic' (aka biblical) comments but virtually no one raised the fact that he also spit out some incredibly racist comments about African Americans at the same time. I guess the 'constabulary' of this new age of morality believe that consistency is 'the hobgoblin of a small mind'. Christian Baker Files Religious-Freedom Appeal in Wedding-Cake Ruling | Daily News | NCRegister.com

Archbishop Gomez (Los Angeles) writes an excellent defense of the Church's right to preach, teach and practice according our own beliefs. Well worth the read no matter what side of the issue you stand on. Defending Our First Freedom | First Things

When I was lucky enough to visit the Holy Land 10+ years ago, most of the Jewish men I met would wince when they heard my name. That's when I discovered that 'Moyle' (my family name) is pronounced the same as 'Mohel', the title of the Jewish Rabbi who performed ritual circumcisions. Ouch!  Nevertheless, this is an issue of religious and parental rights. Circumcisions are performed for both health and religious reasons and should not be banned by the state. All of this makes me wonder: why is it OK to pierce the bodies of small children with earrings and various studs but it is not OK to for parents to decide to have their sons circumcised? Makes no sense to me! Movement to ban circumcision reignites debate - CTV News

Omid Djalili, an Iranian comic offers a wonderful insight into how the Islamic and Western worlds have perverse views of each other. His line about CNN interviewing 'Muslim Nutcase with a hook' as representing Islam and comparing it to the Al Jazerra interviewing the Grand Knight of the KKK is both funny and true! Maybe if we learned and practiced what he suggests and actually take the time to learn about each other we might find a that we are not as hostile to each other as the media portrays. Just a thought. Fr. Tim

Donald Trump is scheduled to appear on the Larry King Show on CNN this evening to discuss his offer to purchase the Manhattan property near Ground Zero upon which the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his Muslim brethren intend to build the ‘Cordoba Center’, an Islamic cultural and religious center. While supporters of the project state that it little more than an ‘bridge building’ effort to the Christian west, an Islamic YMCA, its’ opponents characterize it as an insult to those thousands who perished on 9/11 and a threat to religious peace and civil liberties. They point to Youtube videos purporting to show how Islamists have intimidated and effectively taken over neighborhoods within Europe in which they impose Sharia Law upon the women under their control, in open contravention of the rule of law. Most analysts and media commentators are calling this little more than a publicity stunt with Trump using the occasion to market himself. It need not be so. In fact, if he were to follow ...

Some food for thought on the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. The Limits of Religious Tolerance | Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly