What’s Wrong with the World

The men signed of the cross of Christ go gaily in the dark.

About

What’s Wrong with the World is dedicated to the defense of what remains of Christendom, the civilization made by the men of the Cross of Christ. Athwart two hostile Powers we stand: the Jihad and Liberalism...read more

« September 2020 | Main | November 2020 »

October 2020 Archives

October 22, 2020

Temple cleansing, new FB post, etc.

I apologize for the unorganized nature of these posts, but it's the best way to get myself to do anything right now!

I've made a series of videos on the Temple cleansing in John and the Synoptic Gospels. This incident makes a good departure point for 1) understanding different ideas about reporting time, 2) understanding what these fact-changing "compositional devices" involve, 3) seeing how bad reasoning works in New Testament scholarship. I myself prefer to get my information from reading, but it seems like a lot of people like to get their info. from viewing. So here is a playlist for these videos. They begin with an introductory discussion of ways of reporting time and continue to a six-part discussion of evidence that Jesus cleansed the Temple twice.

Last evening I had a great, two-hour discussion with Youtube apologist Pastor Mike Winger. Pastor Winger has a large Youtube following, and I was really pleased to get to discuss The Mirror or the Mask in front of such a large audience. Winger "gets it." He understands the nature of the issues involved and sees through the equivocation that goes on.

And finally, on another topic...

Continue reading "Temple cleansing, new FB post, etc." »

October 27, 2020

Defending Pope Francis from “Civil Unions”

In an odd way, it would be delightful and refreshing if, at this juncture, it had become necessary to unqualifiedly defend Pope Francis from some unqualifiedly unwarranted attack by liberals / leftists / revolutionaries / heretics. Delightful because it would imply that the pope had said something that unqualifiedly upset them. What actually happened, though, requires a great deal of qualification.

Apparently a documentary is being released in which the pope gave the following comments:

“Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it,” Pope Francis said in the film, of his approach to pastoral care. After those remarks, and in comments likely to spark controversy among Catholics, Pope Francis weighed in directly on the issue of civil unions for same-sex couples. “What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered,” the pope said. “I stood up for that.”

Before we get too immersed in making waves about these sentiments, we need to introduce a whole cargo ship of distinctions, clarifications, and interjectory notes.

(1) First, although this is in a documentary about the pope, it is not a straight up interview OF the pope. Not everything in the documentary is simply Pope Francis speaking before the camera for this documentary. They pulled from other, pre-existing material. And although the pope did give them footage specifically for this documentary, not everything they put in is from that footage – in particular, these comments at issue.

This is significant, because it appears that they did some careful editing / carving to generate the 18 seconds in which those comments are made. According to long-time Catholic apologist Dave Armstrong the phrases we have are taken out of context, something not at all uncommon from the media dealing with this pope (and prior popes).

Continue reading "Defending Pope Francis from “Civil Unions” " »