Michael Voris Reigns! Captures NYT's Attention

Emmy Award winning journalist-anchor, 

Michael Voris in studio at Church Militant. 

He. Looks. Amazing.

What a coup.  Church Militant is endorsed by no less an influential public figure than Stephen K. Bannon, the head of the hard-right website Breitbart News and now Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, and maybe, just maybe ... by extension, the Trump administration.

Steve Skojec ain't got nuthin' on Mickey.

Church Militant theology and politics.

Redefining Church Militant for political purposes is more like it.

“When you heard the expression ‘the Church Militant,’ it didn’t bring to mind a call to arms or some kind of mobilized, militant action in the way we understand the term now,” said John C. Cavadini, a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. “A lot of the struggle of the Church Militant is against interior temptations that lead you to greed and all kinds of spiritual pathologies. And it’s about engaging in acts of mercy. Part of the victory of the Church Militant is the victory of love. It didn’t have the triumphalist and militarized connotation that’s been attached to it now.”

While the term remains in the Roman catechism, which was promulgated by the Council of Trent in the mid-1500s, the official catechism produced under Pope John Paul II in 1992 replaced “Church Militant” with “pilgrims on earth.” The adult catechism then devised by Catholic bishops in the United States adopted those words, and they are overwhelmingly the norm in Catholic practice in the United States and abroad.

Patrick J. Buchanan, one of Mr. Trump’s precursors in running for president on a platform of right-wing populism, embraced Church Militant theology in a 2009 essay in the conservative magazine Human Events. After delineating conflicts between Catholic leaders and Democratic politicians over issues like abortion and contraception, Mr. Buchanan made a more sweeping assertion:

“Catholicism is necessarily an adversary faith and culture in an America where a triumphant secularism has captured the heights, from Hollywood to the media, the arts and the academy, and relishes nothing more than insults to and blasphemous mockery of the Church of Rome.”

The words could serve as a mission statement for Mr. Vorsi’s ChurchMilitant.com. A television producer who renounced his earlier life as a gay man, Mr. Voris, 55, has developed a media operation from ChurchMilitant.com’s studio in suburban Detroit that produces books, online articles, YouTube videos, podcasts and a daily talk show. These cumulatively attract about 1.5 million views a month, he said. - NYT

Say what you will about Michael, but I am proud of him.

He's handsome and articulate and works hard,

and he has survived.  He is a fine example of

fidelity and courage.

The Monster Who Devoured Cleveland

Major gas leak threatens GOP Convention.

Song for this post here.  What?

Vatican freezes Monsignor Nunzio Scarano's ...

- photo removed -

Assets.  Freezes his assets.

Oh.  I thought you meant... 

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has frozen the assets of a monsignor who was arrested in a plot to smuggle 20 million euro ($26 million) into Italy and warned Friday that other people may be caught up in the investigation.

The Vatican’s chief prosecutor on July 9 froze the accounts at the Vatican bank of Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, who was arrested by Italian authorities June 28 on accusations of corruption and slander. Scarano allegedly plotted to bring 20 million euro into Italy from Switzerland in July of last year aboard a private jet to avoid declaring it at customs.

Prosecutors say the money was believed to have belonged to friends of Scarano, members of the d’Amico shipping family. Scarano has reportedly told prosecutors he stood to gain 2.5 million euro in commission for the operation.  [Ed. Note: My best friend in school was Larry Damico!] 

In addition to the money-smuggling case, Scarano is also under investigation by prosecutors in his hometown of Salerno for allegedly taking 560,000 euros ($729,000) in cash out of his Vatican account in 2009 and carrying it into Italy to help pay off a mortgage on his Salerno home. He used a complicated scheme to give dozens of friends 10,000 in cash in exchange for checks, made out to be donations, that he then deposited in an Italian bank account. - Money-Laundering Post

Bonus breaking news update:

Talk about crooks.  The Pope is said to be personally inspecting expensive cars in the parking lot of the Vatican to see who they belong to and just how they were able to afford such luxury vehicles and have enough left over to buy all those cappa majangas!  He's also cracking down on priests asking for donations to buy gourmet foods, wine and booze, expensive cigars, multiple computer monitors and laptops and ipads and handguns.  That's what I heard, at least.



H/T to Nan for the assets-tip.  Please, no blow-back.

 

 

Love this story: "Sports Camp" for Men With Same-Sex Attraction...

 

"You vill play sports and like it!"

Ed. note:  How I wish I could display my favorite episode from "Will and Grace" when Jack and Karen go to an ex-gay meeting headed by Neil Patrick Harris - it is LOL funny.  Anyway, I can't, because it has been removed from YouTube probably by whatever controls the licensing for the reruns.  I think of that show every time I come across controversial stories concerning Courage, claiming the organization attempts to make SSA men heterosexual.   So dumb.  SSA men are heterosexual, sheesh!


"Let's hit the showers!" - That's what Jack said to Neil Patrick Harris' character.

Courage is shipping SSA men to sports camp?!  It sounds so Nazi-ish.  But here's the deal:

Former Marine, Father Paul Check says his sports camp helps men strive towards chastity and friendship, but Ed Coffin with Peace Advocacy Network, says he is troubled by the anti-gay mission of the camp.    

Sounds way too butch already, you say?  Ed Coffin alleges:

"It's very clear what this organization does is focus on turning people who are homosexual--basically trying to change them into heterosexuals or at least get them to live a completely chaste lifestyle--which requires them to not act on any of their homosexual inclinations," Coffin said. "It falls under the broader realm of conversion therapy. We do feel that this is very detrimental, that's it's psychologically damaging."

Really?

Because Fr. Check says:

"The men who attend Sports Camp have the opportunity to have some fun," Check said, "to be at ease with one another in a peaceful surrounding and to develop, I think, a little bit more a sense of confidence that they can have fun in a way that is very enjoyable: outside, outdoors, running around, working up a little bit of a sweat, I suppose."

Check said he's puzzled by the protesters because the men at Sports Camp show up voluntarily to enjoy sports and have fun. He says participants say they appreciated the spirit of camaraderie and fellowship, but he's not aware of any who have regretted attending. 

Father Paul Check said the camp helps men resist those attractions and strive towards chastity, fellowship, and friendship. "We're all struggling against different human weaknesses that we have and confusion about who we think we might be and being in good company helps us to clarify some of that and, where necessary, try to make a few adjustments; and we learn some things that help us to go out and perhaps be a little bit more confident that we can do the right thing." - Source

Now what is wrong with that?  Nothing.  No-thing!  Nothing.  

Sports isn't conversion therapy.  I have a feeling Ed Coffin may not have been picked for the team - but Courage isn't forcing anyone to participate in their meetings, much less the 'sports camp'.  So what is Coffin's problem?  Dykes have been big softball enthusiasts forever, and don't forget about the 'Gay Games'.  Courage has every right to organize a 'sports camp'.  I think Mr. Coffin is just being intolerant.  Isn't that like a cardinal sin in the gay catechism?

Sports is not conversion therapy.

Is Someone Moving?

Just wondering.

H/T JP

Art:  Zagano Watch - T. Nelson