Orthodixie

From Scripps Howard News Service

Most Americans don’t believe they will experience a resurrection of their bodies when they die, putting them at odds with a core teaching of Christianity.

The findings of a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll surprised and dismayed some of the nation’s top theologians since it seems to put Americans in conflict with both the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed, ancient statements of faith meant to unify Christian belief.

The Nicene Creed, adopted in 325 at the First Council of Nicea under Roman Emperor Constantine, concludes with the famous words: “We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.”

Similarly, the Apostles’ Creed professes a belief in “the resurrection of the body.”

Only 36 percent of the 1,007 adults interviewed a month ago … MORE

Brit Preemies get no respect.

Then again, when does “ensoulment” happen?

Would someone please step up to the Republican plate … other than Giuliani and McCain?

Bill Cosby on old New Orleans …

“It’s painful, but we can’t cleanse ourselves unless we look at the wound,” Cosby told the rally of about 2,000 people in front of the city’s convention center.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you had the highest murder rate, unto each other. You were dealing drugs to each other. You were impregnating our 13-, 12-, 11-year-old children,” he said.

“What kind of a village is that?”

HT: This Side of Glory

Heck, I know he’s had problems, but how ’bout the Coz for Prez?

And now for a breath of fresh air …

My former Pastoral Theology prof & son’s [middle] name’s sake sent this along:

“Watch over your child, O Lord, as his days increase; bless and guide him wherever he may be, keeping him unspotted from the world. Strengthen him when he stands, comfort him when discouraged or sorrowful, raise him up if he fall; and in his heart may your peace which passes understanding abide all the days of his life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen”

Audrey Ignatoff

I have written about the devil before, but always in a metaphorical way. However, I now feel that an evil force has come too close to home. Even this embattled “health care warrior” was shocked to the core to learn that school children in my district were being taken on a trip to see an exhibit called “Body Worlds” at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. This goes against all religious and ethical beliefs in the civilized world, and has given me nightmares from just looking at the website.

There was a dark and joyless time in America when one could actually go about daily life without ever encountering pornographic images. A child could grow up scarcely knowing that “adult entertainment” existed, much less acquainted with its many varieties. Hotel stays, in that prudish, stuffy era, had to be endured without pay-as-you-go porn, in-room and On Command. American males could not avail themselves of hundreds of millions of obscene films every year–as they do now, courtesy of even respectable corporations like Time Warner and Comcast–or take in the show at “gentlemen’s clubs” when porn is not enough.

It was Mr. Hefner who put the real money in porn …

He is not the worst of America’s celebrity pornographers, though being the first is no great distinction either, and but for Hef a few standards of public decency might actually have held awhile. Without his pioneering vision, we might, in our own time, rise every morning to face a world without “Girls Gone Wild” or Sex.com, without cable or Internet porn for all hours and all ages. Whatever the problems of those repressed, Puritanical types that Mr. Hefner is still using as strawmen, they did somehow manage to fill their days without such things, and we could use a little more of their self-restraint and modesty.

As to those “major beneficiaries” of porn, you won’t find too many women these days who think that the world is better because of Playboy or the smug, selfish ethic it has always purveyed. For good reason has the Playboy Foundation long been a benefactor to NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood: The Playboy Philosophy has always been for the ladies, too, all right–just so long as they remember what they’re good for, don’t get too sentimental and feel grateful when the playboy in their own life offers to pay for the abortion.

The WHOLE story.

My question: What is the difference between Body World’s Gunther von Hagens and porno mag’s Hugh Hefner?

On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06. This won’t happen again for a thousand more years, until 3006, by which time I hope to be retired.

Thanks to FWD from an old friend, Jim.

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director what the criterion was which defined whether or not a patient should be institutionalized.

“Well,” said the Director, “we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub.”

“Oh, I understand,” said the visitor. “A normal person would use the bucket because it’s bigger than the spoon or the teacup.”

“No.” said the Director, “A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a room with or without a view?”

Thanks to FWD from Missuz Orthodixie.