Mad Cow Scare Benefits Lutheran Education

Everyone has heard of bingo, carwashes, and bake sales being used as church fundraisers. However, a sick cow from Alberta has given rise to a whole new kind of fundraiser. The recent mad cow disease scare has wreaked havoc on the Canadian beef industry. With cattle prices dropping, some farmers in the Pembroke area have only been making around two dollars net profit per cow, once transportation costs, fees and taxes are taken into account. This has prompted some farmers to dispose of animals however they can, often by illegal means. However, some Lutheran farmers have found another way around the problem. They donated their animals to their Church, which sent “Divine Bovine” order forms to fellow Lutheran Congregations. Once a congregation got enough 35-pound orders at 100 dollars each, a cow was slaughtered and the meat delivered. Profits are being donated to Grace Lutheran School in Pembroke, which currently operates out of a nearby church’s parish hall, and will use the funds to buy a school building in town. The school offers what it calls a classical Lutheran education from kindergarten to grade seven, including introductory Latin. When the Principal of the school had a meeting to attend in Kitchener, he drove the delivery truck down himself, and was able to give local supporters a first taste.

Also, let it be known that we here at St. Jerome Ministries are supporting this venture by purchasing our very own "fatted calf" to celebrate Melinda's sister Jamie and the author of this collumn comming into the fold.

Bishop Spong now Dabbles in Fortune-Telling

Those of you who are already familiar with American Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong and the rubbish he tries to pass off as “theology” would probably not be surprised at all by some recent statements of his such as “Some day we will see sexual orientation as in the same category as skin color, gender and left-handedness.” There is nothing particularly noteworthy about this statement except for his vague use of the term “sexual orientation.” I presume we are supposed to take it as referring to gender preference, but I am left to wonder if it should not also include different preferences such as age or species. For Bishop Spong to be advocating homosexuality, but not pedophilia or bestiality seems somewhat out of character. Such an exclusive and narrow-minded view of sexual orientation would contradict his “inclusive” and “welcoming” stance on most other sins.

One of Spong’s most recent predictions, however, is much more precise. Believe it or not, he is now giving specific timelines for certain future events. A letter of his on dated April 21, 2004 includes the following prediction:

The United States will have a woman president within twenty-five years and the Roman Catholic Church will have women priests within a decade. Patriarchy is a dying prejudice and even the Pope aided by the patriarch of Constantinople will not be able to resuscitate it.

Anti-Life Groups use Graphic Images to Promote Abortion (i.e. Moloch Returns)

At the end of April, British television aired a show called “My Foetus” which showed an abortion done at four weeks, and also showed images of aborted ten and 21 week old babies. The director of the show, Julia Black, says, “the pro-choice movement can no longer rely on just arguing abortion is a woman’s right. They have to start engaging with the reality.... [A woman needs] to be convinced that abortion is a morally legitimate procedure, even after knowing what it involves.” However, the show was designed to dehumanize the baby rather than show what abortion is all about. From the use of the word “foetus” in the title to the portrayal of abortion as a simple, painless operation, the show made it appear as if it is merely a medical procedure like having tonsils removed, and there were images of the dead baby being washed in a sieve and placed in a petri dish. Ironically, many images were the same ones that a pro-life group was banned from showing on TV a while earlier.
The idea behind showing these images is to desensitize people to abortion so that it is regarded as perfectly normal, and also to render the pro-life tactic of showing these pictures practically useless. A more extreme example showed up at a pro-abortion conference this year in the United States. They actually showed a partial-birth abortion being performed. Disgustingly, after the baby had been killed, the room burst into applause. For such a gruesome act to be applauded by a room full of people is a clear sign of just how corrupt the pro-abortion lobby really is. They have gone far beyond the already lamentable state of seeing abortion as an unfortunate but sometimes necessary evil. It is now conceived of by some as actually good, and this just shows how vital it is that these people be stopped.