News Weakly - 5/26/18

NOT the Faith Once For All Delivered
The pope met privately with Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of priestly sexual abuse in Chile. In that meeting Cruz reports the pope told him, "Juan Carlos, that you are gay does not matter. God made you like this and loves you like this and it doesn't matter to me. The Pope loves you like this, you have to be happy with who you are." And the LGBTQ community goes wild with this new position from the Roman Catholic church.

Welcome to the new Bible. Apparently God makes people gay. Apparently it doesn't matter to God what acts people perform if they are "born that way" (a position simply assumed by this pope). Apparently we can delete all those references to sexual relations between same-sex genders. Apparently God figured out His mistake that He made way back in Leviticus and that Paul agreed with (Rom 1:26-27; 1 Cor 6:9-10) and has passed His blessing, nay, His positive efforts to promote same-sex sexual relations. Or ... the pope is unclear on the concept.

Unclear on the Concept
Speaking of "unclear on the concept," California's Attorney General has filed a petition to stay the decision of a judge in Riverside County that overturned their "right-to-die" law. Between June and December of 2016, 200 terminally ill patients received prescriptions to end their lives, so you might think that it's simply a matter of numbers. You know, "There's a demand for this." It isn't. The petition says the law was intended to "improve the efficiency and the efficacy of the health care system, and improve the health of Californian's." Wait ... hold on ... you're telling me that "improving the health" and "die" are synonymous? I mean, sure, I can see how it improves the efficacy of the health care system -- one less person to take care of, but ...?

Look, I get it. Life doesn't matter, as California clearly indicates. Kill babies; kill sick people. It is consistent. Wrong, but consistent. But don't tell me that killing people is improving their health. That's just nonsense. If I'm wrong, I think I'll need to avoid California for any health care issues.

Science News
So, it's always nice to hear from today's god, Science. Lots of stuff recently. We now know that sleeping in on the weekend can extend your life ... as opposed to never getting enough sleep ever.

They found that adults under age 65 who got only five hours of sleep or less a night, for seven days a week, had a higher risk of early death than those who consistently got six or seven hours. But those who made up for it at the weekend by sleeping in had no raised mortality risk compared with the steady sleepers.

Strange conclusion. Not enough sleep is bad for you. Getting more is good. And we needed Science to tell us this?

We've also learned that eating one egg a day can reduce the risk of heart disease ... because Science used to say that eating eggs caused heart disease, except before that Science was quite sure that eggs were good for you, that is ... well, you get the idea. This Science god can be really wishy-washy.

But the story I liked best was the one where the group of scientists are going to Loch Ness to find "Nessie". Oh, they don't think they'll find the Loch Ness monster, but they'll have a good idea of the biodiversity of Loch Ness when they're done. It's just that "a journey to solve one of the world’s most elusive mysteries" is a lot cooler than "biodiversity".

Dirty Rotten Racists
"The principal of Cherry Hill High School East has apologized for 'insensitive' language on tickets for the upcoming senior prom," the story goes. What was the racially insensitive remark? The principal thought it was the line, "Party like it's 1776," but others figured it was "Not all communities can celebrate what life was like in 1776." The school is in Cherry Hill, NJ, one of the original 13 colonies. So I'm thinking that no community in, say, California or Arizona "can celebrate what life was like in 1776." They weren't there. I thought the message was, "Appreciate your freedom." At least, that's what I'm thinking. But, hey, I suppose it's possible to find something racist anywhere you look. The real question is, is the real racist the one that makes these kinds of statements or the one that finds them when no racism was there (Titus 1:15)?

Placing Blame
Well, apparently they're wrong. Gun owners have always claimed, "Guns don't kill people; people kill people." Wrong, wrong, wrong. Or so it would appear from a news item out of Florida. The families of two of the victims of the Parkland shooting are suing the maker and seller of the weapon used in the killing, "claiming they should be held partially responsible for what Nikolas Cruz did with it." Oh, wait, I'm mistaken. They're not saying guns kill people. They're saying gun manufacturers and gun sellers kill people. How? These defendants were complicit in "the entirely foreseeable, deadly use of the assault-style weapons that they place on the market."

I like the logic. Since it is entirely foreseeable that someone will use a car to kill someone, car makers and car sellers should be held responsible when someone does. Since it's entirely foreseeable that someone might use a kitchen knife or a baseball bat to kill someone, those manufacturers and sellers should also be held responsible when it happens. Since we have all seen the cartoons where some character drops a safe on another character, manufacturers of safes ought to be held responsible ... or so the logic goes. I'm not at all clear where the line should be drawn. When people use legal items illegally, is it then the fault of the manufacturer?

Another School Shooting
This makes ... what ... 43? 44? ... another school shooting, this time in an Indiana middle school. I'm not the only one who believes that the problem isn't guns. I think I've figured out the remedy. If the problem is school shootings, why not eliminate schools? I mean, fixing gun violence won't eliminate other ways of killing, but if we want to eliminate school shootings, eliminate schools and we should eliminate that problem. I know, I know, wrong answer. The right answer is a fundamental change in character wrought by the work of Christ in the lives of these kids and a radical return to a more "Christian" morality in our culture so that, even if it isn't actually Christian, it will be more selfless and concerned with others. But we won't allow for that one right now, so I vote to eliminate schools. They're largely not doing their job these days anyway. [end sarcasm] I'm being sarcastic here because school shootings are a big problem and too many loud voices are demanding action that won't solve a thing. Is this a product of the "people don't matter" mindset that brought us legalized baby killing and murder of the old and sick?