Saturday, February 7th
How will Kerry handle Gay Marriage?
Here's a good article on the political ramifications of the recent court rulings regarding Gay Marriage. I think this Presidential election is going to be drastically different than the previous one. Last time around, you couldn't get most Americans to care enough to walking in to the polling station even if it was next door. Ho Hum, two life time politicians who don't seem to stand for anything meaningful. This time, I think that we'll have one of the highest voter turnouts since World War II, with two candidates who speak for two heavily divided segments of society.
kencraw on 02.07.04 @ 01:48 PM PST [link]
Quote of the Day
"You saved your family; increased your land. In time you will have all the power in Scottland." -Father
"Lands, titles, men, power, nothing." -Son
"Nothing?" -Father
"I have nothing. Men fight for me, because if they do not, I throw them off my land and starve their wives and their children. Those men, who bled the ground red at Falkirk, they fought for William Wallace and he fights for something that I've never had. And I took it from him when I betrayed him and I saw it in his face on the battlefield. And it's tearing me apart." -Son
"Well all men betray; All lose heart" -Father
"I don't wait to lose heart! I want to believe, as he does." -Son
- Dialogue between Robert the Bruce the 16th and Robert the Bruce the 17th, from Braveheart, Mel Gibson's best film in my humble opinion (to date).
kencraw on 02.07.04 @ 01:25 PM PST [link]
Friday, February 6th
Another "Passion" review that leaves me speechless
I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THIS MOVIE!!! Read this review of it.
It's just another one of the many reviews I've seen that speak so highly of this movie, it is hard to imagine. I'll be going to see the movie with a bunch of people from Church who probably haven't ever seen me cry, but if the movie is at all as powerful as the reviews make it out to be, I can't imagine I'll be able to hold back the tears, nor should I want to.
kencraw on 02.06.04 @ 02:57 PM PST [link]
The Cannibal who couldn't be a killer!?!
Every once and a while I read a story that just sends me into a near panic regarding the state of our western society. This article reviews some of the details of the case of Cannibalism where the murderer got off with Manslaughter because "I had my big kick and I don't need to do it again."
Yet as the article points out:
"Yet when he was arrested nine months after killing Brandes, it was because police were notified the supposedly satiated Meiwes had posted yet another message on the Internet seeking someone to kill and eat."
It feels that just like with Gay marriage, we're on the path to saying: If two concentual adults want to have one of them kill the other so that they can eat them, why should that be against the law?
May this man see the sinfulness of his ways and turn to God and his everlasting mercy and forgiveness. May all of society see how deeply it needs to turn to God and repent. May God have mercy on us all!
kencraw on 02.06.04 @ 02:48 PM PST [link]
Another murder about to be committed by the state
Next Tuesday California is likely going execute (a.k.a. murder) it's next person on "Death Row" who has just about run out of appeal opportunities and has already had clemency denied by the Governator. Here's an article on the subject. There are currenly 638 people on "Death Row" yet we only murder one of them every 2 1/2 years or so. Is this a good thing? I guess so. I mean, I'd rather we never murder anyone, but if we can't overturn the laws as they exist, at least keeping the murders to a minimum is beneficial.
At the same time, it seems to me we need to take a hard look at this system. I hear a lot of people who are conceptually pro-death penalty, who think our current system is so much of a farce that we might as well get rid of it. Maybe there is an opportunity to get these people together with the anti-death penalty crowd to get the laws changed.
kencraw on 02.06.04 @ 08:42 AM PST [link]
May he seek God's forgiveness
The body of the 11-year old girl who was kidnapped in front of a security camera was found yesterday. Here is a link to an article about it.
Hopefully the man who is resposible for it, which is assumably is the Joseph P. Smith who was arrested and charged with her murder, may come to understand the horror and sinfulness of what he has done and seek God's forgiveness.
This case is another one that brings up the difficult subject of criminal sentences and parole. Joseph P. Smith has been convicted of a number of sexual preditory crimes over the years, but was still on the street to commit this crime.
I daily struggle with how to balance protecting the Sanctity of Life, especially of that of our children, while still following Our Lord's command to "forgive those who trespass against us."
kencraw on 02.06.04 @ 08:15 AM PST [link]
Quote of the Day
"Ask yourself, why do you seek the Cup of Christ? Is it for his glory, or for yours?"
-Casam from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
kencraw on 02.06.04 @ 07:55 AM PST [link]
Thursday, February 5th
Gay Marriage moving forward again
Well the courts continue to see it as their duty to decide for the rest of us what the laws should be. The state of Massachusetts has clarified their earlier ruling to say that Civil Unions would not be acceptable to meet the court's view on the constitutional requirement regarding discrimination.
The way I see it, we have two options as a society:
#1. Abolish Marriage as a state institution.
What does marriage mean to the state? A potential tax break and insurance benefits and that's about it. Because a married couple no longer has inherent power of attorney for one another (because of abuses of this power in the past), the unity of a married couple in the eyes of the law is all but gone. Most marriage laws these days have more to do with protecting the couple from each other than unifying and proctecting the couple from others. So why should the State care, particularly since civil unions provide the same benefits? Without an answer to that question, Marriage should be left as a religious institution.
#2. Protect Marriage as a life giving relationship between one Man and one Woman.
Many believe (and I think I put myself in this group) that society has an obligation to encourage behavior that'll help society as a whole. The general thought is that marriage helps us have an institution that is beneficial to raising our children who are often referred to, and rightly so, as the future of our country. The central family unit works best in it's natural form: Man, Woman, Children and 'till death do us part. Why? Follow this logic:
-Without a Man, a Woman and sexual intercourse, their can be no children.
-The two people who came together to create, through God, those children should bear the responsibility and priviledge of raising those children.
-It is easier and more effective for a person to raise all their children together.
-If all their children didn't come from the same person, the previous item is infeasible without Marriage or Polygamy.
So marriage has a benefit to society, but only in the sense of creating an institution that helps us more effectively raise Children. Marriage outside of that, provides no benefit to society. As such, Marriage, from the state's perspective, need only apply to those relationships potentially capable of bearing children.
I say we go with option #2.
That's my thought on the subject anyway. Thoughts?
kencraw on 02.05.04 @ 10:48 AM PST [link]
Quote of the Day
"After all, if you don't allow your faith to affect your decisions, why believe at all?"
-David N. Bass, online article writer
kencraw on 02.05.04 @ 10:02 AM PST [link]
Wednesday, February 4th
What'll be the issues of the next Papal Enclave?
Here's a good article on some of the important topics facing the Church and how it'll affect the choice of the next Pope.
I'm glad there are some media people who understand The Church. What is controversial from American Society's perspective is not necessarily controversial inside The Church.
kencraw on 02.04.04 @ 11:07 AM PST [link]
A Last Minute Edit to "The Passion"
Here's an article that quotes a source saying that Mel Gibson has removed a scene from "The Passion" that has the Jewish high priest Caiaphas declaring, "His blood be on us and on our children."
I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. It's hard to tell how far to go in being true to the Gospel text (this from Matt 27:25) when a movie growing crowd may not understand all the subtle issues and Church Teachings on that passage. I guess if the end result is that the Jewish Defamation League backs off some of its criticism of the movie and it doesn't have a huge impact on the story, it was the wise thing to do.
kencraw on 02.04.04 @ 11:00 AM PST [link]
Isn't it funny how...
Whenever I read some book about the Christian faith, that SAME DAY some new opportunity comes up to use the knowledge/experience I got from the book. Lately I've been reading a book called "Will Catholics be Left Behind?" It's a book about the Catholic position on the premillinial-dispensationalists and their belief in the Rapture, the End Times and their general view of salvation history.
This morning when I turned on the TV to watch Armstrong and Getty (a call-in radio show that is shown on TV here in the Sacramento area) I turned it on about 10 minutes too early and caught the tail end of one of the early morning Christian Evangelist shows. They were talking about the End Times and using the exact same arguments that the book was warning against. "We are living in the End Times and have been ever since Israel was re-created as a nation."
Somehow that doesn't jive with me and Matthew: "Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour" (Matt 25:13) Which, by the way, they would likely interpret to mean that we can know the month and the year.
Makes me what to find more time for reading!
kencraw on 02.04.04 @ 08:44 AM PST [link]
More religious women than men
This surprised me, particularly considering the current state of the convents of in America. This may be another case where our impression of The Church in America doesn't reflect the worldwide situation. In any case:
-The total number of Ordained (Bishops, Priests and Deacons) and Religious (assumably mostly made up of men in monestaries) Men is 494,678.
-The total number of Religious Women (assumably mostly Nuns) is 782,932.
That doesn't seem to support the somewhat frequently suggested idea that The Church discourages women from participating in it.
kencraw on 02.04.04 @ 08:17 AM PST [link]
Tuesday, February 3rd
We're online
The Ken Crawford BLOG is now up and running
kencraw on 02.03.04 @ 01:21 PM PST [link]
