Thompson debates Akyol on feasibility of moderate Islam

Shadid Lewis and Mustafa Akyol debated
on behalf of Islam being a peaceful religion

August 10, 2013 (Ypsilanti, MI) - Today's debates in EMU's Grand Ballroom began with Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, and Mustafa Akyol, Turkish columnist and author who flew in from Turkey for the day, debating the question, "Does Islam Support Religious Liberty?"

Akyol, comparing Islamic-Christian differences to those between Judaism and Christianity, claimed that “Islam respects Jesus and Mary and so is closer to Christianity.” The question Akyol wanted to address was, "Can we get along?" and he claims that Islam actually recognizes Judaism and Christianity as valid monotheistic faiths.

"It is interesting that most persecution against people of other faiths has happened in the 20^th century, for example the Armenian genocide. Yes, Christians have suffered under Muslims, but it was due to nationalism since the Christian Armenians had coexisted with Muslims for centuries before that." Akyol pointed out that the source of 20th century conflicts could be land, resources, or tribal, and said that we should not over-religionize these conflicts because their sources are usually not religious.

However, Akyol claims, the biggest problem in Islam today that threatens religious freedom is the ban on apostasy or conversion from Islam to any other religion. Akyol himself defended "freedom for Islam and from Islam," and said the ban on apostosy doesn’t come from the Koran but from post-Koranic literature on which much of Sharia law is built. It’s also coming from an era in which religion and politics were more intertwined - In medieval times, conversion away from Islam was akin to joining the enemy army.

Akyol argues that Islam can support religious liberty if these are reformed.

Richard Thompson then took the stage and began by telling conference attendees that it’s "disrespectful of Islam" to not take them at their word. "What does Islam stand for? 9/11, Boston marathon bombing, Somalia, anti-semitism, forced marriages, death for blasphemy and apostasy." He went on to explain that most Muslims are not jihadists but most Germans were not Nazis - there is a small group that directs the agenda of the whole. Thompson says that Akyol wants Islam to be something it isn’t, and used a WWII example to set the stage for what he was about to do: “Tell the truth; use their own words.”

Thompson went on to quote Akyol's book, Islam without Extremes: “Islamic societies in the modern world are not beacons of freedom.” He gave this and other examples from Akyol’s book to show that "Islam is a violent religion, was borne of violence, and spreads by violence. We have to understand that if we are to survive as a nation."

Thompson says that Muslims already "fought that battle" between moderate and extreme Islam centuries ago, and the moderates lost. Even Turkey, once held up as an example of moderate Islam, is becoming more extreme today. He says we don’t have time to change Islam, since Muslim countries are beginning to acquire nuclear weapons. Thompson concluded, "We have to be vigilant and understand the nature of the enemy, which is to destroy the United States of America."

Debate followed, and cross-examination ensued, moderated by Kresta. The remainder of the debate focused on trying to identify who is the enemy, since both men agreed that not all Muslims are violent but that some Muslims are extreme jihadists who pose a threat to the U.S.

Morning Groundwork Laid

August 10, 2013 (Ypsilanti, MI) - The "Is Islam a Religion of Peace?" conference began today by laying the groundwork for the debates later. Al Kresta spoke on "The Big Difference" between Islam and Christianity, and Andrew Bieszad on "Common and Rocky Ground."

Kresta's talk began with a short YouTube video of a rap by a young Muslim woman, clarifying that we are not discussing here whether Muslims are good or bad people, but whether Islam is a religion of peace, and with a quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church on Islam.

Kresta began to juxtapose Islam and Christianity by presenting a conflict: "is the God of Mohammed also the Father of Jesus? ... There is no way to fit this together. Islam's reason for existence is to proclaim the utter uniqueness of God: He is no Father, and He has no Son... Muslims unequivocally deny the fatherhood of God and the sonship of Christ.”

He went on, "This is the big difference. How would Christianity and Islam answer these questions: Are human beings made in God's image? Does God establish covenants with people?.... We believe Christ images the Father and as Christians we must also image Him in our art. Islam considers this not a step forward but blasphemous."

Andrew Bieszad, in his talk again detailed contrasts between Christianity and Islam, and then outlined options for coexistence, for example, conversion of the Muslim world through Our Lady of Fatima. Formal consecration of Russia to Mary may be the way to conversion.

Problems in the West make it seem that only a miracle could save the West from Islamicization. "But Jesus is the living God of miracles.... He gave his mother to us as a great intercessor. It is she who put the crescent of Islam under her foot."

Biezsad ended by encouraging us all to petition the Holy Father to make a formal consecration of Russia to Our Lady of Fatima, and a plea for Mary to pray for us.

ObamaCare ‘death panel’ faces growing opposition from Democrats

By Elise Viebeck - 08/08/13 05:00 AM ET 
The Hill   

ObamaCare’s cost-cutting board — memorably called a “death panel” by Sarah Palin — is facing growing opposition from Democrats who say it will harm people on Medicare.

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean drew attention to the board designed to limit Medicare cost growth when he called for its repeal in an op-ed late last month.

Dean was quickly criticized by supporters of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), who noted his ties to the healthcare industry as an adviser to a major D.C. lobbying firm.

But the former Vermont governor is not the only Democrat looking to kill the panel.

A wave of vulnerable Democrats over the past three months has signed on to bills repealing the board’s powers, including Sen. Mark Pryor (Ark.) and Reps. Ron Barber (Ariz.), Ann Kirkpatrick (Ariz.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) and Elizabeth Esty (Conn.).

All five are considered vulnerable in next year’s election, highlighting the stakes and the political angst surrounding the healthcare measure.

The four House Democrats faced criticism from their party in July after voting with Republicans to delay ObamaCare's individual and employer mandates — moves widely interpreted as political positioning ahead of 2014.

Two of the lawmakers explained their opposition by suggesting the board would limit care for Medicare patients.

But the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) blasted the four Democrats for “desperately trying to jump off the ObamaCare train.”

The cost-cutting board has been dogged with controversy over the last three years.

 

Major healthcare interests like the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association and the pharmaceutical lobby have supported IPAB repeal, saying the panel would cut providers' pay arbitrarily.

Public awareness of the board shot up last year when Palin called it a “death panel,” connecting the IPAB to her previous attacks on a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning in the Affordable Care Act.

“Though I was called a liar for calling it like it is, many of these accusers finally saw that ObamaCare did in fact create a panel of faceless bureaucrats who have the power to make life and death decisions about healthcare funding,” Palin wrote on Facebook.


Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/316045-obamacare-cost-cutting-board-faces-growing-opposition-from-democrats#ixzz2bUbfoyrO
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook

IRS agent: Tax agency is still targeting Tea Party groups

By PAUL BEDARD | AUGUST 9, 2013 AT 6:35 AM   
Washington Examiner

 House Ways and Means Committee
Chairman Dave Camp

In a remarkable admission that is likely to rock the Internal Revenue Service again, testimony released Thursday by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp reveals that an agent involved in reviewing tax exempt applications from conservative groups told a committee investigator that the agency is still targeting Tea Party groups, three months after the IRS scandal erupted.

In closed door testimony before the House Ways & Means Committee, the unidentified IRS agent said requests for special tax status from Tea Party groups is being forced into a special "secondary screening" because the agency has yet to come up with new guidance on how to judge the tax status of the groups.

In a redacted transcript from the committee provided to Secrets, a Ways & Means investigator asked: "If you saw -- I am asking this currently, if today if a Tea Party case, a group -- a case from a Tea Party group came in to your desk, you reviewed the file and there was no evidence of political activity, would you potentially approve that case? Is that something you would do?"

The agent said, "At this point I would send it to secondary screening, political advocacy."
The committee staffer then said, "So you would treat a Tea Party group as a political advocacy case even if there was no evidence of political activity on the application. Is that right?" The agent admitted, "Based on my current manager's direction, uh-huh."

Camp called the renewed targeting of Tea Party groups "outrageous."
Added a committee aide, "In plain English, the IRS is still targeting Tea Party cases."

During 2010-2012 period when the anti-Obama Tea Party groups faced special scrutiny from the president's IRS, agents used a "be on the lookout," or BOLO, list which said groups with words like "Tea Party" in their title should face special, secondary screening for political activities that might hamper their special tax status.

When the scandal erupted after a Treasury Department inspector general revealed the improper political scrutiny, the acting head of the IRS, Danny Werfel, said the BOLO list had been suspended. That was six weeks ago.

But because there is nothing in its place, agents apparently either don't know how to handle Tea Party tax exempt applications, or are too scared to make a decision.

Asked by the committee how it handles Tea Party applications, the agent said, "If a political advocacy case came in today, I would give it -- or talk about it to my manager because right now we really don't have any direction or we haven't had any for the last month and a half."

Camp, the Michigan Republican, told Secrets, "It is outrageous that IRS management continues to target Tea Party cases without any justification. The harassment, abuse and delays these Americans have faced over the last few years has been unwarranted, unprovoked and, at times, possibly illegal. The fact that the IRS still continues to treat the Tea Party differently and subject them to additional targeting is outrageous and it must stop immediately."

In response, the IRS reiterated Werfel's pledge to not target groups because of political labels. "The IRS has taken decisive action to eliminate the use of inappropriate political labels in the screening of 501(c)(4) applications. We look forward to seeing the full transcript to gain a fuller understanding of the context of the interview," they said early Friday.

Werfel, called in to fix the scandal, directed the IRS to eliminate the use of BOLO lists. The statement said that "IRS policy is now clear that screening is based on activity, not words in a name. The new steps and current policies...specifically spells out that political campaign intervention will be reviewed without regard to specific labels. The IRS will not tolerate any deviation from this."

In an IRS review, the plan was that after the BOLO lists were removed, political labels would be ignored by the "Determinations Unit" as they screened for information for those seeking tax exempt status.

-----
Below is the Ways & Means Committee transcript of the IRS official.
Wednesday, August 1, 2013
Committee: Today, currently, how do you analyze advocacy cases. If, for example, Tea Party of Arkansas came in today, how would you handle it?
IRS agent: Well, the BOLO list doesn't exist anymore.
Committee: Sure.
IRS: If a political advocacy case came in today, I would give it -- or talk about it to my manager because right now we really don't have any direction or we haven't had any for the last month and a half.

Read the rest here: http://washingtonexaminer.com/irs-agent-tax-agency-is-still-targeting-tea-party-groups/article/2534044

'Angel' priest visits Missouri accident scene

Melanie Eversley, USA TODAY 11:04 a.m. EDT August 8, 2013

A mystery priest who suddenly appeared at a Mo. accident scene is being called an angel.

 

Emergency workers and community members in eastern Missouri are not sure what to make of a mystery priest who showed up at a critical accident scene Sunday morning and whose prayer seemed to change life-threatening events for the positive.

 

Even odder, the black-garbed priest does not appear in any of the nearly 70 photos of the scene of the accident in which a 19-year-old girl almost died. No one knows the priest and he vanished without a word, said Raymond Reed, fire chief of New London, Mo.

"I think it's a miracle," Reed said. "I would say whether it was an angel that was sent to us in the form of a priest or a priest that became our angel, I don't know. Either way, I'm good with it."

Carla Churchill Lentz, mother of the teen who was critically injured, said emergency workers have told her there is no way her daughter should have lived inside such a mangled car. Of the priest, she said, "I do believe he certainly could have been an angel dressed in priest's attire because the Bible tells us there are angels among us."

The scene unfolded Sunday morning. Katie Lentz, a sophomore at Tulane University, was driving from her parents' home in Quincy, Ill., to Jefferson City, Mo., where she has a summer internship and planned to attend church with friends. The Mercedes she was driving collided with another vehicle on a highway near Center, Mo. The accident crushed Lentz's vehicle into a ball of sheet metal that lay on the driver's side, Reed said.

 

Reed's team and emergency workers from several other jurisdictions tried for at least 45 minutes to remove the twisted metal from around Lentz. Various pieces of equipment broke and the team was running out of choices. A helicopter waited to carry Lentz to the nearest trauma center. Though Lentz appeared calm, talking about her church and her studies toward a dentistry degree, her vital signs were beginning to fail, Reed said.

"I was pulled off to the side by one of the members of the" helicopter evacuation team, Reed said. "He expressed to me that we were out of time. Her condition looked grim for her coming out of that vehicle alive. She was facing major problems."

At that point, Reed's team agreed to take the life-threatening chance of sitting the vehicle upright so that Lentz could be removed from it. This is dangerous because a sudden change in pressure to the body can be critical, he said.

That's when Lentz asked if someone would pray with her and a voice said, "I will."

The silver-haired priest in his 50s or 60s in black pants, black shirt and black collar with visible white insert stepped forward from nowhere. It struck Reed as odd because the street was blocked off 2 miles from the scene and no one from the nearby communities recognized him.

"We're all local people from four different towns," Reed said. "We've only got one Catholic church out of three towns and it wasn't their priest."

Reed and the other emergency workers were on their knees. The priest of about medium build, maybe 6-feet-tall, stood above them.

"This priest approached Katie and began to pray openly with her," Reed said. "He had a bottle of anointing oil with him and he used that."

Another firefighter who had been watching said it appeared as if the priest also sprinkled Reed and two other emergency workers nearby with oil.

Everything happened quickly after that. Twenty emergency workers pulled together and sat the car upright, Churchill Lentz said. Katie Lentz's vital signs improved and a rescue team from a neighboring community suddenly appeared with fresh equipment and tools. Lentz was removed and rushed to the hospital.

With Lentz gone, the rescue team prepared to clean up, Reed said.

"We all go back to thank this priest and he's gone," he said.

Initially, they assumed he had to get to his home church to lead Sunday services. But then they looked at their photos of the scene.

"I have 69 photographs that were taken from minutes after that accident happened — bystanders, the extrication, our final cleanup — and he's not in them," Reed said. "All we want to do is thank him."

Read the rest here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/07/angel-crash-missouri/2630227/

Catholic radio host defends Islamic scholar's debate choice

 

Ypsilanti, Mich., Aug 9, 2013 / 02:06 am (CNA).-

Citing the need for public dialogue, Catholic radio host Al Kresta defended Islamic scholar Shadid Lewis’ invite to controversial critic Robert Spencer to a symposium and debate sponsored by Ave Maria Radio.
“It was Shadid Lewis of the Muslim Debate Initiative who called for a public debate with Spencer,” Kresta said Aug. 7, adding that he “was disappointed that Robert Spencer's participation was treated as a sign of ill will.”

Spencer, the author of the book “Religion of Peace,” is one of several speakers at an Aug. 10 symposium at Eastern Michigan University on the topic “Is Islam a Religion of Peace?”

A Catholic columnist, blogger and bestselling author, Spencer has led seminars for the U.S. Army, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and other government agencies.

He is scheduled to debate Shadid Lewis, a member of the Muslim Debate Initiative and a former president of a Hampton, Va., mosque.

The invitation drew criticism from those who charged that Spencer spreads anti-Islamic and bigoted rhetoric. However, Kresta - who is the president and CEO of Ave Maria Communications - defended the decision, saying that Lewis had called for it as an opportunity for engagement.

“Have we lost our confidence in honest confrontation?” Kresta asked. “Spencer’s positions are held by millions of Americans and if they are baseless, the competent Muslim apologists will demonstrate it.”

“To those who sit on the sidelines and criticize, I prefer my way of bringing people together to their way of not doing it.”

Lewis told the Detroit Free Press in a recent interview that Spencer “represents true bigotry.” He cited the actions of the U.K. government, which barred Spencer from the country on the ground that his presence would not be “conducive to the public good.”

“It’s a pretty big thing to be banned from a country,” Lewis said.

Spencer said Aug. 7 on his blog Jihad Watch the ban was the consequence of “smears and defamation.”

His blog argues that non-Muslims are facing “a concerted effort by Islamic jihadists, the motives and goals of whom are largely ignored by Western media, to destroy their societies and impose Islamic law upon them -- and to commit violence to that end even while their overall goal remains out of reach.”

Spencer says that violent jihad is “a constant of Islamic history and a central element of Islamic theology.”

Dawood Zwink, executive director of the Michigan Muslim Community Council, charged that Spencer’s presentations are “incendiary” and “not in keeping with American values of civil dialogue.”

“I think it’s sad to see that this group would try to stage this kind of confrontational encounter, when Catholic and Muslim leaders are engaged in an ongoing, cordial dialogue,” Zwink told the Detroit Free Press.

Spencer said his critics were off-base.

“It would be nice for someone to have the courage to say that there is nothing wrong with resisting jihad violence and Islamic supremacism, but that may be too much to hope for in today's politically correct age,” he wrote on his blog.

Read the rest here: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/catholic-radio-host-defends-islamic-scholars-debate-choice/

Islam Conference Receives Widespread News and Blog Coverage

Posted on: August 8th, 2013 by kresta in the afternoon

Ann Arbor, Michigan
August 8, 2013

Ave Maria Radio’s August 10th Conference at Eastern Michigan University, Is Islam a Religion of Peace?, has received widespread news coverage, both positive and negative, across the world. The conference, which will include both Muslims and Christians in various debates in presentations, will cover topics such as: Does Islam Support Religious Liberty?, Is Islam a Religion of Peace?, and Does Islam Produce Democracy?, along with other pressing differences and legal concerns.

Below are some additional links to stories about the upcoming conference:

FindLaw: http://legalpronews.findlaw.com/article/08jO5kh6sIgmb

IranAware (American Infidels): http://iranaware.com/2013/07/17/robert-spencer-to-debate-muslim-scholars-on-is-islam-a-religion-of-peace-at-michigan-conference/

Nadia Sindi Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/vote4nadiasindi/posts/481883848573277

Celebrity Balla: http://www.celebrityballa.com/2013/08/anders-behring-breivik/news-smears-detroit-patricia-free-repeats-press-robert-spence

Michiguide.com: http://www.michiguide.com/archives2013/2013/08/newsmakers-and-links-aug-7-201.html

Historyscoper / IslamWatch: http://historyscoper-islamwatch.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/catholic-radio-station-invites-robert.html

Islamic Alert: http://islamicalert.com/robert-spencer-to-debate-muslim-scholars-on-is-islam-a-religion-of-peace-at-michigan-conference.html

NewsRT-US: http://www.newsrt.us/news/catholic-radio-station-invites-anti-islam-blogger-to-speak-at-emu-1145862.html

BlogoWogo: http://www.blogowogo.com/blog_article.php?aid=5019288&t=2

Jewish Blog Network: http://www.israelforum.com/blog_article.php?aid=4985212

United Patriots Worldwide: http://unitedpatriotsworldwide.com/vinienco/2013/08/07/catholic-radio-station-invites-robert-spencer-speak-eastern-michigan-university

Robert Spencer on Franciscan University Presents

Original air date: May 2012.

 

 

Robert Spencer: “Evangelization and Islam: The Dangers, Difficulties, and Rewards of Sharing the Faith with Muslims”

Robert Spencer at the Defending the Faith Conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, July 27, 2012.

Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - August 8, 2013

Talking about the "things that matter most" on August 8

Live From the Catholic Marketing Network Expo

4:00 –  Under the Mantle: Marian Thoughts from a 21st Century Priest
Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC is here to share his personal insights on topics including Divine Mercy, the Eucharist, the papacy, the Church, confession, prayer, the cross, masculinity, and femininity. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the central thread weaving a tapestry throughout with quotes about Our Lady from saints, blessed, and popes. Certain to become a "tour de force" Marian book for the Year of Faith! He joins us.

4:20 – Battle Saint
The BattleSaint™ project was hatched by a military Mom at a recent family reunion.  She hosted 7 of her immediate relatives who were enlisted in the military. Many of them had been deployed multiple times. The night was full of stories of war and close calls. She realized how great it would be to create a unique bracelet to honor their service and provide a sense of protection from the dangers of the battlefield.  With this inspiration, she designed handmade, wooden bracelets with pictures of Saints relevant to the military. There is more to this story and Jim LeMay is here to discuss it.

4:40 – Blessed, Beautiful and Bodacious: Celebrating the Gift of Catholic Womanhood
In her memoir, Pat Gohn draws on decades of women's ministry experience, her popular Catholic women's podcast Among Women, and her own story as a wife and mother, proclaiming the Church's compelling vision of every woman: you have dignity, you are gifted, and you have a mission. She guides us through moments of her life that have shaped her identity and understanding of womanhood--abiding love and talent for music, breast cancer in her thirties, and coming to understand true feminism in light of Church teaching and Mary's example. Gohn is here to share how she became empowered to embrace her blessings, beauty, and bodaciousness, and how we can do the same.

5:00 – The Ear of the Heart: An Actress' Journey from Hollywood to Holy Vows

Dolores Hart stunned Hollywood in 1963, when after ten highly successful feature films, she chose to enter a contemplative monastery. Now, fifty years later, Mother Dolores gives this fascinating account of her life. Dolores was a bright and beautiful college student when she made her film debut with Elvis Presley in Paramount's 1957 Loving You. She also gave a Tony-nominated performance on Broadway. Born Dolores Hicks to a complicated and colorful Chicago family, Mother Hart has traveled a charmed yet challenging road in her journey toward God, serenity and, yes, love. She entered the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Conn., at the peak of her career, not in order to leave the glamorous world of acting she had dreamed of since childhood, but in order to answer a mysterious summons she heard with the "ear of the heart". While contracted for another film and engaged to be married, she gave up everything to become a bride of Christ. Mother Dolores Hart joins us.

 

5:20 – The Miraculous Medal: Stories, Prayers, and Devotions

Over twenty years ago, Mother Teresa gave Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle a blessed Miraculous Medal, and she has never taken it off. To date, Donna-Marie has given away thousands of Miraculous Medals. But what is the Miraculous Medal--and why is it considered miraculous? Why is it important for us today? Donna-Marie is here to answer these questions and tells us about the origin and history of the Miraculous Medal, how the medal got its name and more.

 

5:40 – Rapunzel Let Down: A Fairy Tale Retold

A teen summer romance in New England has disastrous consequences when the daring son of a conservative senator forms a secret relationship with the isolated daughter of a reclusive scientist. It’s a modern retelling of the classic tale “Rapunzel” by Regina Doman. She joins us.

 

How a critic of Islam ended up in the check-out aisle

Posted on: August 7th, 2013 by kresta in the afternoon

National Post
August 7, 2013

By Barbara Kay

As the topic for its popular annual debate last May, the Oxford University Union proposed that “This House believes Islam is a religion of peace.”
Considering the venue — Oxford is, like many Western universities, marinated in political correctness — it’s hardly surprising that the motion passed 286-186 (as described in Robert Fulford’s July 27 column).

Indeed, in the culturally self-flagellating world of academia, where offending Muslim sensibilities is anathema, but offending Christian sensibilities is virtually a moral obligation, a motion such as “This House believes that Christianity promotes war and racism” would likely pass quite handily as well.

“Is Islam a religion of peace?” will also be up for public discussion Aug. 10 in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Subtitled “Catholic Witness in a Nation Divided,” this conference is organized by Ave Maria Communications, a Catholic marketing network. It’s reasonable to assume that this less politically correct venue will provide a sharp contrast with the Oxford experience.

The speakers list includes: Robert Spencer, director of the controversial web site Jihad Watch; Mustafa Akyol, Turkish journalist and author of Islam without extremes: a Muslim case for liberty; Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center; Shadid Lewis, Regional Director of the Muslim Debate Initiative USA; and Al Kresta, writer, missionary, CEO of Ave Maria Radio and host of the radio talk show “Kresta in the Afternoon.”

The conference speaker that particularly interests me, though, is a young man by the name of Andrew Bieszad, an Islamic Studies scholar with a specialty in Christian-Muslim relations. In fact I learned of the conference during a telephone interview with Bieszad after reading his book Lions of the Faith (which I am reviewing for a Catholic magazine).

Bieszad’s book is a compendium of brief narratives, chronicling the lives of Catholics martyred for their faith by Muslims. His interspersed prefaces to the litany of martyrdoms, organized into four eras from Islam’s birth to modern times, provide tutorials in such topics as the Crusades, the Christian reconquest of the Iberian peninsula, the Ottoman Empire, the knightly chivalric orders, the Islamic invasion of Europe and the Inquisition.

The Hartford Seminary in Connecticut.

Bieszad came to my attention in 2011 when, in an open letter, he detailed his experiences as a student of Islamic Studies at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, once a Protestant seminary for missionaries bound for Muslim regions, but today, according to Bieszad, despite many “brilliant, highly-educated Muslim and non-Muslim professors who value scholarship,” an institution that promotes “Islamo-correctness.”

Fluent in Arabic and many other languages, Bieszad was considered a “unique addition” to the Masters program at Hartford Seminary because of what he describes as “my strong interest in and strong disagreement with Islamic teachings.”

And so he proved to be. Although there were other Christians in the program, notably in the class on “interfaith dialogue,” he claims to have been the only non-Muslim to say aloud, “I am Catholic and I do not believe in Islam.”

Bieszad reports that he paid a heavy price for his forthrightness, being, by his account, routinely subjected to insults and threats by Muslim students. He writes that one student told him, “according to Islam you do not deserve to live.” Bieszad claims that his detractors were not censured, either by professors or by other Christian students.

Conversion to Islam was encouraged, Bieszad writes; but Christian proselytism was forbidden. Christianity, Bieszad alleges, was taught in the context of homosexuality, class discrimination and women’s liberation from patriarchal oppression. But in classes on Islam, he says, the professor never spoke of any “contextual” Koranic interpretation, let alone from a feminist, socialist or gay perspective.

When Bieszad brought his concerns to the administration, he says, he was accused of being “intolerant” of Islam, and ordered to show a “better understanding of Islam” as a solution.
Bieszad will likely incorporate these personal experiences into his conference presentation. He may include, as well, provocative statements from his book, such as: “Islam is … the only [world] religion whose theology specifically denounces and calls for the destruction of Christianity as a whole and regardless of form.”

Bieszad wants to do a PhD, but Islamic Studies is a small world. So far, he says, no U.S. Islamic Studies program he’s applied to will have him. While seeking an academic berth, this courageous scholar, married and the father of two young children, is employed in a Connecticut grocery store.

Source: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/08/07/barbara-kay-how-a-critic-of-islam-ended-up-in-the-check-out-aisle/

Patricia Montemurri of Detroit Free Press repeats Leftist/Islamic supremacist smears of Robert Spencer as “news”

Posted on: August 7th, 2013 by kresta in the afternoon

 

Jihad Watch
August 7, 2013
By Robert Spencer

Here is a particularly egregious manifestation of how “journalists” attempt to manipulate events and frame the general public’s understanding of the news. In a certain sense it is a shame that this article is about me, and I am the one responding to it, since that only obscures the core issues of media bias here: please try to keep in mind that this is not something that happens to me only, but to anyone and everyone who dares to challenge the politically correct establishment, the Leftist ideology that we all must accept on pain of charges of “bigotry,” “racism,” and “hate.” Leftist “journalists” such as Patricia Montemurri have just about succeeded in fooling Americans into thinking that there is something wrong with defending their home and country against a radically intolerant and repressive ideology — this article is just one small example of how it has been done.

It starts with the headline: “anti-Islam.” Not “pro-freedom.” Not even “anti-Sharia.” The implication is that my work is about “hate,” as Patricia Montemurri’s talking points from the editor-in-chief of Reza Aslan’s Aslan Media told her — not about defending the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the equality of rights of all people before the law. Not about defending women and non-Muslims and gays from Sharia-inspired oppression and intimidation. Not about championing Constitutional freedoms. Just about irrationally hating an entire Great World Religion, for some unaccountable reason.

“Catholic radio station invites anti-Islam blogger to speak at EMU,” by Patricia Montemurri for the Detroit Free Press, August 7:

An Ann Arbor-based Catholic radio station has invited anti-Islam blogger and author Robert Spencer to speak at a symposium at Eastern Michigan University on Saturday.

 

Note again the subtle manipulation of the reader. Patricia Montemurri had 1,000 things she could have called me; she chose “anti-Islam blogger and author.” Not, say, “former FBI and JTTF trainer.”

Not “human rights activist.” Not “pro-freedom activist.” You get the idea.

Spencer, who blogs at www.jihadwatch.org, is scheduled to speak at “Is Islam a Religion of Peace?” sponsored by Ave Maria Radio.

 

The symposium, which will be held in the student union, will feature pro-Muslim speakers, too. But Spencer’s appearance is controversial. The New York Times reported that Spencer’s comments were cited 64 times by the Norwegian white supremacist who killed 76 people in Norway in 2011. Spencer was banned from the United Kingdom in June for what the British government said was his association with hate groups.

 

In writing this, Montemurri implies that “the Norwegian white supremacist” was inspired to white supremacism and murder by me. In reality, Anders Behring Breivik’s “manifesto” cites not just me, but many, many people, including Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy, and Thomas Jefferson — who are just three of the many who are never blamed for his murders. Montemurri also doesn’t mention, and probably doesn’t know, since the editor-in-chief of Reza Aslan’s Aslan Media didn’t tell her, that Breivik’s manifesto actually reflects an ideology quite different from mine: so far was he from being a doctrinaire counter-jihadist that he wanted to aid Hamas and ally with jihad groups. Nor does she mention (or know, probably) that Breivik criticized me in his insane “manifesto” for not advocating violence. I am no more responsible for Breivik than the Beatles are for Charles Manson.

And as for the British ban, the fact that Montemurri even mentions it shows how these smears retailed by the editor-in-chief of Reza Aslan’s Aslan Media are self-reinforcing. As a result of smears and defamation from Aslan’s counterparts in Britain, my colleague Pamela Geller and I were banned from entering that country. The Home Office’s letter banning me from entering the country said I was being banned for saying that Islam has a doctrine mandating warfare against unbelievers, which it manifestly and demonstrably does indeed have. A preacher of that doctrine, the Saudi Sheikh Mohammed al-Arifi, was recently admitted into the UK. He has said: “Devotion to Jihad for the sake of Allah, and the desire to shed blood, to smash skulls and to sever limbs for the sake of Allah and in defense of His religion, is, undoubtedly, an honor for the believer.” Yet I who advocate no violence or hatred of any kind am not allowed in. This is hardly a blot on my record; it is a blot on Britain’s.

“He represents true bigotry,” said Shadid Lewis, former president of a Hampton, Va., mosque and a Muslim Debate Initiative member who is scheduled to debate Spencer at the Saturday symposium. “It’s a pretty big thing to be banned from a country.”

 

Shadid Lewis is set to debate me Saturday. It should be interesting. He will find that however much it may impress Patricia Montemurri, name-calling and ad hominem attacks won’t go as far in debate against actual facts.

Ave Maria radio station host Al Kresta, who will moderate the debate, isn’t shying away from controversy.

 

“If having a debate like this is considered incendiary, than that’s evidence that we need debates like this,” Kresta said Tuesday. “People think you can only live together peacefully if you agree on everything, and that’s not true.”

 

“When this conference is over, Christians and Muslims won’t be holding hands and singing Kumbayah,” Kresta said earlier in a news release. “Everyone who participates in this frank, no-holds-barred discussion, however, will be thankful for free speech and a civil society which permits people with irreconcilable differences to understand if not agree with one another.”

Spencer, who identifies himself as a Catholic on his blog, could not be reached for comment.

 

Actually Montemurri was given a phone number that is no longer in use, and — as is typical of today’s lazy and ideologically blinkered Leftist “journalists,” made no further attempt. My email address is publicly available on this site, but she didn’t email me until I emailed her this morning to take issue with her saying I couldn’t be reached for comment when she hardly tried. I offered to answer her questions via email at that point. She did not deign to respond. So much for “journalism” in America today. Note that she implies skepticism about my Catholicism, saying only that I identify myself as a Catholic but not going so far as to say that I actually am one, while manifesting no such skepticism toward the defamation that the others she quotes in the article direct toward me. Instead of only noting various bishops who have canceled me, she could have also noted that I was recently called “perhaps the foremost Catholic expert on Islam in our country” in the National Catholic Register. But that wouldn’t have accorded with her agenda.

Lansing Catholic bishop Earl Boyea is scheduled to lead a mass at the end of the symposium. Boyea’s scheduled appearance is raising concern among Muslim leaders, too.

Boyea “neither endorses nor condemns any of the featured presenters,” the bishop’s office said Tuesday in a statement. “Bishop Boyea hopes that the symposium, and dialog like it, can spur what Pope Francis last week called “mutual respect through education” between Christianity and Islam.”

 

There is nothing “disrespectful” about telling the truth.

In January, a Catholic diocese in Massachusetts withdrew an invitation to Spencer to speak at a Catholic men’s conference in Worcester, responding to concerns voiced by Muslims in the area. Last month the Diocese of Sacramento canceled an appearance by Spencer in a Catholic church.

 

Montemurri doesn’t mention, because the editor-in-chief of Reza Aslan’s Aslan Media didn’t tell her, that the Worcester bishop canceled me at the behest of Abdul Cader Asmal, an open supporter of convicted al-Qaeda jihad terrorist Tarek Mehanna. She doesn’t mention, yet again because she almost certainly wasn’t told, that while the Sacramento bishop caved to smears from (yes) the editor-in-chief of Reza Aslan’s Aslan Media, the diocese of Sacramento had a booth at the conference, which went on as planned with me speaking: obviously they didn’t think it was so terrible that I was there that they couldn’t have a presence at all. Montemurri displays no curiosity whatsoever as to how and why these cancellations happened.

Victor Begg, senior adviser to the Michigan Muslim Community Council, questioned Tuesday why Catholic Bishop Boyea would appear at such an event, “knowing these people have an Islamophobia, bigoted agenda.”

 

“I think it’s sad to see that this group would try to stage this kind of confrontational encounter, when Catholic and Muslim leaders are engaged in an ongoing, cordial dialogue,” said Dawood Zwink, executive director of the Michigan Muslim Community Council. “I don’t know why these organizers would choose as a headliner someone who just this summer was barred (from the United Kingdom) because his presentations are so incendiary. It’s not in keeping with American values of civil dialogue.”

 

I was not banned from Britain because my “presentations” were “incendiary.” I was banned from Britain for saying that Islam had a doctrine of violence against unbelievers. Muslims who believe in that doctrine are persecuting Christians with increasing ferocity in Nigeria, Egypt, Syria, Pakistan, Indonesia, and elsewhere today. If “ongoing, cordial dialogue” can’t acknowledge and discuss that and work toward ways to stop it, it is worthless.

Richard Thompson, the former Oakland County prosecutor who founded the Thomas More Law Center, also will speak at the Ave Maria symposium and defended Spencer.

 

“He’s a well-known author and spokesperson regarding Islam,” Thompson said. “We still live in a society that enshrines the constitutional right to free speech and we should exercise that right regardless of whether some people may be upset or offended.

 

Eastern Michigan University released a statement saying “the event is not sponsored, financially supported, or being promoted by” the university.

 

“Our facility is being rented as it is throughout the year by many organizations with no affiliation to the university,” the statement read. “As a public institution, and under the freedom of speech protections provided by the First Amendment, we do not and can not make determinations about access to our facilities based on the viewpoints being presented.”

 

Fair enough. It would be nice for someone to have the courage to say that there is nothing wrong with resisting jihad violence and Islamic supremacism, but that may be too much to hope for in today’s politically correct age.

Final observation: why didn’t the Detroit Free Press’s in-house pro-jihad terror stooge, Niraj Warikoo, write this hit piece? Was he tired of my calling him out on his endless cheerleading for jihad terror and Islamic supremacism?

Al Kresta Responds to Detroit Free Press Article: “Catholic radio station invites anti-Islam blogger to speak at EMU”

Posted on: August 7th, 2013 by kresta in the afternoon

August 7, 2013
By Al Kresta

The Detroit Free Press, Ann Arbor.com and Deadline Detroit have suggested that Ave Maria Radio is sponsoring a hate-fest. It is because of such ignorant opinions that Ave Maria is holding these debates.

Here is Al Kresta’s response:

“While I am grateful to the Free Press for covering the conference, I was disappointed that Robert Spencer’s participation was treated as a sign of ill will. Have we lost our confidence in honest confrontation? It was Shadid Lewis of the Muslim Debate Initiative who called for a public debate with Spencer during a podcast in which he reviewed Spencer’s book, Religion of Peace. I take Lewis at his word. Spencer’s positions are held by millions of Americans and if they are baseless, the competent Muslim apologists will demonstrate it. Apparently some of the Muslim groups quoted do not believe Mr. Lewis is up for the task. Otherwise wouldn’t they want the opportunity to publicly expose his ‘hate-mongering’ and’ Islamophobia’? It won’t do in a principled pluralistic society to hive off into our ethnic or religious ghettos and accuse outsiders of hatred and bigotry when we haven’t even confronted them publicly.

“A mark of intellectual maturity is to be able to re-present our opponent’s position in a way that our opponent recognizes as fair and accurate. Those attending will better understand each side and will be less willing to hastily prejudge one side or the other. For heaven’s sake, this is a public debate not a one-sided propaganda fest. We must get beyond cliches if we are to live together with irreconcilable differences. To those who sit on the sidelines and criticize, I prefer my way of bringing people together to their way of not doing it.”

Al Kresta
President and C.E.O. Ave Maria Communications

Free Press Coverage: Catholic radio station invites anti-Islam blogger to speak at EMU

11:54 AM, August 7, 2013

By Patricia Montemurri

Robert Spencer
photo credit: wikipedia

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

http://www.freep.com/

 

An Ann Arbor-based Catholic radio station has invited anti-Islam blogger and author Robert Spencer to speak at a symposium at Eastern Michigan University on Saturday.

Spencer, who blogs at www.jihadwatch.org, is scheduled to speak at “Is Islam a Religion of Peace?” sponsored by Ave Maria Radio.

The symposium, which will be held in the student union, will feature pro-Muslim speakers, too. But Spencer’s appearance is controversial. The New York Times reported that Spencer’s comments were cited 64 times by the Norwegian white supremacist who killed 76 people in Norway in 2011. Spencer was banned from the United Kingdom in June for what the British government said was his association with hate groups.

“He represents true bigotry,” said Shadid Lewis, former president of a Hampton, Va., mosque and a Muslim Debate Initiative member who is scheduled to debate Spencer at the Saturday symposium. “It’s a pretty big thing to be banned from a country.”

Ave Maria radio station host Al Kresta, who will moderate the debate, isn’t shying away from controversy.

“If having a debate like this is considered incendiary, than that’s evidence that we need debates like this,” Kresta said Tuesday. “People think you can only live together peacefully if you agree on everything, and that’s not true.”

“When this conference is over, Christians and Muslims won’t be holding hands and singing Kumbayah,” Kresta said earlier in a news release. “Everyone who participates in this frank, no-holds-barred discussion, however, will be thankful for free speech and a civil society which permits people with irreconcilable differences to understand if not agree with one another.”

Spencer, who identifies himself as a Catholic on his blog, could not be reached for comment.
Lansing Catholic bishop Earl Boyea is scheduled to lead a mass at the end of the symposium. Boyea’s scheduled appearance is raising concern among Muslim leaders, too.

Boyea “neither endorses nor condemns any of the featured presenters,” the bishop’s office said Tuesday in a statement. “Bishop Boyea hopes that the symposium, and dialog like it, can spur what Pope Francis last week called "mutual respect through education" between Christianity and Islam.”
In January, a Catholic diocese in Massachusetts withdrew an invitation to Spencer to speak at a Catholic men’s conference in Worcester, responding to concerns voiced by Muslims in the area. Last month the Diocese of Sacramento canceled an appearance by Spencer in a Catholic church.
Victor Begg, senior adviser to the Michigan Muslim Community Council, questioned Tuesday why Catholic Bishop Boyea would appear at such an event, “knowing these people have an Islamophobia, bigoted agenda.”

“I think it’s sad to see that this group would try to stage this kind of confrontational encounter, when Catholic and Muslim leaders are engaged in an ongoing, cordial dialogue,” said Dawood Zwink, executive director of the Michigan Muslim Community Council. “I don’t know why these organizers would choose as a headliner someone who just this summer was barred (from the United Kingdom) because his presentations are so incendiary. It’s not in keeping with American values of civil dialogue.”

Richard Thompson, the former Oakland County prosecutor who founded the Thomas More Law Center, also will speak at the Ave Maria symposium and defended Spencer.

“He’s a well-known author and spokesperson regarding Islam,” Thompson said. “We still live in a society that enshrines the constitutional right to free speech and we should exercise that right regardless of whether some people may be upset or offended.

Eastern Michigan University released a statement saying “the event is not sponsored, financially supported, or being promoted by” the university.

“Our facility is being rented as it is throughout the year by many organizations with no affiliation to the university,” the statement read. “As a public institution, and under the freedom of speech protections provided by the First Amendment, we do not and can not make determinations about access to our facilities based on the viewpoints being presented.”
 

Contact Patricia Montemurri: 313-223-4538 or pmontemurri@freepress.com

Who Should Be Barred From Catholic Forums?

Posted on: August 8th, 2013 by kresta in the afternoon

National Catholic Reporter
August 8, 2013

by Michael Sean Winters

Controversial anti-Muslim speaker and blogger Robert Spencer is slated to participate in a debate at Eastern Michigan University. The debate is being conducted by Al Kresta, the Catholic radio host of “Kresta in the Afternoon” which is distributed on Ave Maria Radio and EWTN. Earlier this year, two bishops, Robert McManus of Worcester and Jaime Soto of Sacramento, canceled appearances by Spencer on Catholic premises because of his anti-Muslim bigotry.

These episodes raise the question, and it is not an easy question, as to who should be barred from being given a platform at a Catholic institution. In defending his decision to host the debate, Mr. Kresta said, “If having a debate like this is considered incendiary, than that’s evidence that we need debates like this. People think you can only live together peacefully if you agree on everything, and that’s not true.” There is something to that sentiment to be sure, especially at a university setting where, presumably, encouraging debate is one of the institution’s primary goals.

There are limits. Holocaust deniers come to mind, and not only in the abstract. You may recall the controversy surrounding Columbia University’s invitation to now-former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak on campus. In what meaningful sense can a debate be considered an intellectual endeavor when it includes a madman?

Mr. Spencer’s vile anti-Muslim pronouncements certainly approach the level of bigotry we associate with Holocaust denial. He has made a career of cherry picking especially violent passages out of the Koran and tarring the rest of Islam as violent on account of those passages. Of course, the same methodology could be used to indict Christians and Jews for whom Psalm 137 is considered the very Word of God: After its poignant opening line – “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion,” the psalm concludes, “Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!” Slaughtering children by dashing them against rocks does not, in fact, make me happy. This passage – and there are others – brings to mind the sage observation of Origen, the early third century Christian exegete, regarding Biblical literalism.

Looking at Genesis and the account(s) of Creation therein, he asked, “who is so silly as to believe that God, after the manner of a farmer, planted a paradise eastward in Eden, and set in it a visible and palpable tree of life, of such a sort that anyone who tasted its fruit with his bodily teeth would gain life?” Well, it turns out, many fundamentalists believe precisely that all these centuries later. The point is that texts drawn from earlier centuries can almost always be cited to indict a given tradition.
In America today, there are only too many people who are willing to believe the worst about Muslims, which is why Spencer’s writings and speeches are not merely mad, they are, as Kresta admitted, “incendiary.” A madman can be written off, but a madman with consequence must be rebutted, and I am not sure that a debate forum is the proper method of rebuttal. There are people, and I would put Spencer in that group, whose views are so hateful and so tendentious that they should not, in fact, be given a forum at either a Catholic institution on moral grounds or an academic institution on intellectual grounds. Bishop Boyea of Lansing would be well advised to follow the example of his brother bishops and say that the Catholic Church simply cannot be associated with this vile anti-Muslim bigotry.

And, while he is at it, Bishop Boyea might take a hard look at another group supporting Spencer’s talk, the Thomas More Law Center, which has its own history of anti-Muslim bigotry. Last year, Tom Lynch, the Director of Mission Advancement at Thomas More Law Center, tweeted this nasty swipe at both Muslims and the Becket Fund, “Believe Islam a religion, then support the Becket Fund. Believe it will destroy US, then supt thomasmore.org.” Nice. To their great credit, the Becket Fund issued a public rebuke of the Thomas More Law Center.

While looking into the matter, the Catholic bishops as a whole might want to speak out against these anti-sharia laws that have been proposed, and in some instances passed, in several conservative states. Of course, no law could be upheld as constitutional that singled out a particular religion, so the laws the invocation of any law in state courts if that law is established by a foreign power. Funny, this past week a judge in Wisconsin ruled in favor of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s decision to transfer money to a cemetery fund, citing the fact that the canon law of the Church required such funds for the maintenance of cemeteries. The Church’s canon law was most definitely established by Bl. Pope John Paul II, and would meet the criterion set forth in these laws. Yet, when the law was being debated and passed in Kansas, not a word from the bishops of that state. They had rather a lot to say about the threat the HHS contraception mandate posed to religious liberty, but nary a word for the anti-sharia, and anti-canon law, proposal. Nor did the USCCB issue any statement against these laws.

Read the rest here: http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/who-should-be-barred-catholic-forums

Reza Aslan's Publisher Tries to Prevent Debate on Islam

Nathan Lean from Aslan Media (Reza Aslan) follows Robert Spencer around the country trying to get him banned from speaking. Lean has succeeded on two occasions due to a failure of leadership, but his charges are bogus. He stirs up emotion and fear while painting Robert as a hate-monger. As Ave Maria Radio prepares for its Symposium Debate this weekend Nathan Lane is at it again. He attempted to intimidate Eastern Michigan University, the venue of the event, and us. He has failed. Apparently he believes the Muslims that are taking part in the debates are ill-equipped to defend their religious beliefs - and his. We do not.

Join us as we prove that difficult topics can be debated without resorting to name-calling and intimidation techniques.

Register now for the August 10 symposium. Ticket are going fast and registration WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE at the door

To register for the conference, click here or call 734.930.5201.

Conference Debates: "Is Islam a Religion of Peace?"

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently showed that 19% of U.S. Muslims said that "suicide bombing or other forms of violence against civilians in the name of Islam" could be justified. That number in Egypt is 29% and 40% in the Palestinian territories. Do these findings mock the claim that Islam is a religion of peace?

On Saturday, August 10, renowned experts on Islam from around the world come to MI discuss and debate the question, "Is Islam a Religion of Peace?" The one-day symposium will be held in the Student Center at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, MI

Featured debaters will be Robert Spencer, director of JihadWatch.org facing off against Shadid Lewis, regional director of the Muslim Debate Initiative in the US, on the question "Is Islam a Religion of Peace?"

Muslim columnist for the Turkish News Mustafa Akyol will debate Richard Thompson of the Thomas More Law Center on "Can Islam Support Religious Liberty?"

The Eastern Michigan University Student Center is located at 900 Oakwood Street, Ypsilanti, Michigan 48197. Registration for the symposium is $40, and includes a box lunch and free parking. Clergy and student rates are available.

Registration will begin at 8:00 a.m., and the conference will run from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with Mass following.

To register for the conference, click here or call 734.930.5201.

Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - August 7, 2013

Talking about the "things that matter most" on August 7

4:00 – A Businessman’s Conversion – And the Church’s Benefit

Alan Napleton was at the height of his career as one of the country’s largest commercial Real Estate developers until 1990 as a Senior Vice-President in charge of Business Development. In 1990 Alan experienced a religious "re-awakening" of his Catholic faith that led him to leave a successful corporate career and began a second career applying his business skills to multiple Catholic projects. We talk to Alan about his career, conversion and the Catholic Marketing Network.

4:20 –Detroit Free Press – “Catholic radio station invites anti-Islam blogger to speak at EMU” – Al Responds

4:40 – Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life
Renowned in the blogosphere as The Anchoress and as Catholic Portal editor of the popular Patheos.com, Elizabeth Scalia offers a powerful critique of the "gods" we worship today, reminding us that life's deepest desires can be satisfied only in Christ. She is here today to offer us a surprising look at the ways in which modern people still commit the sin of idolatry in their everyday lives. While literal golden calves no longer dot the landscape, Scalia describes how legitimate loves become obsessively twisted into idols. She identifies idolatry in a number of everyday experiences--friendships that become needy or possessive, commitments political and religious that grow so intense they lead to hatred of others, to name a few--and points to the incarnation of Christ and authentic worship of him as a way out of idolatry and into peace, happiness, and love.re

Show5:00 – Kresta Comments

 

5:40 – Real Men Pray the Rosary: A Practical Guide to a Powerful Prayer 

In Real Men Pray the Rosary: A Practical Guide to a Powerful Prayer, a powerful story of a vital prayer movement that is igniting men’s hearts, David Calvillo narrates his own life-changing experience of the Rosary, presents a comprehensive guide to the Rosary, and offers a 33-Day Rosary Challenge. Often surprising and always inspiring, Calvillo combines storytelling with a profound, inviting guide and convincingly shows how the Rosary is alive and well today—for men.

 

Mysterious priest performs miracle at site of Mercedes crash

by Rajah Maples

Posted: 08.06.2013 at 11:15 PM

Connect Tristates

Rescuers working with the wreckage of Lentz's car / Courtesy: Carla Churchill Lentz Photo: 1 of 5 More slideshows » CENTER, MO. -- Rescue workers want to thank a higher power for coming to the rescue early Sunday morning. Emergency crews spent an hour and a half trying to extricate a 19-year-old Quincy woman trapped in her in crushed car on Missouri 19 near Center, Missouri. The Missouri Highway Patrol says 26-year-old Aaron Smith crossed the center line, hitting Katie Lentz head-on. Now, friends, family and those who rescued Lentz would love to find and thank a mysterious priest who they say helped make the rescue possible. New London Fire Chief Raymond Reed said rescue crews spent the first 45 minutes after the accident trying to get Lentz out of a car to no avail Sunday morning shortly after 9 a.m. The metal on an older model Mercedes dulled the department's equipment. "It was a very well-built car, and when you compact materials like that one, they become even stronger because you're cutting through multiple things instead of one layer," Reed said. Reed says Lentz was pinned in between the steering wheel and the seat. After 45 minutes had passed, medical workers told rescue crews that Katie was failing and fast. That's when Reed made an executive decision to move the car, which was standing on its side, back on all four wheels. About an hour into the rescue, Katie asked rescue workers to pray out loud with her. That's when a priest appeared out of no where. "He came up and approached the patient, and offered a prayer," Reed said. "It was a Catholic priest who had anointing oil with him. A sense of calmness came over her, and it did us as well. I can't be for certain how it was said, but myself and another firefighter, we very plainly heard that we should remain calm, that our tools would now work and that we would get her out of that vehicle." The Hannibal Fire Department showed up right after that prayer with fresh equipment and was able to finish the extrication. After getting Katie safely into the Air Evac helicopter, at least a dozen of the rescue workers turned around to thank the priest who was no where in sight. The highway had been blocked for a quarter of a mile during the hour and a half rescue, leaving no bystanders and no parked cars nearby. Lentz' family and friends are amazed by the story. "Where did this guy come from?" Lentz' friend Travis Wiseman asked. "We're looking for the priest and so far, no one has seen him. Whether it was a priest as an angel or an actual angel, he was an angel to all those and to Katie." "We would like to find this gentleman and be able to thank him," Reed said. "As a first responder, you don't know what you're going to run into. We have a lot of tools, and we have intensive training. In this particular case, it is my feeling that it was nothing more than sheer faith and nothing short of a miracle." Read the rest here: http://www.connecttristates.com/news/story.aspx?id=930741#.UgI49by9yvN

That Didn't Take Long: Praising Multi-Spouse "Marriage"

By Tom Hoopes
Catholic Vote

That didn’t take long. Salon magazine this morning is extolling the virtues of multi-spouse marriages.
Same-sex “marriage” proponents have always scoffed at the idea that redefining marriage would open the door for multi-spouse marriages. “My Two Husbands” by Angi Becker Stevens, not only argues for “poly-amorous” unions but continues to scoff at the foolish “right wing” people who expected people to go there. Her article is novel only in that it also scoffs at the same-sex marriage definers who argued back that it wouldn’t.

Stevens has been married for 16 years to her husband, and has now taken a boyfriend who she says she plans to marry in a “non-legal” way.

“With every stride forward for marriage equality, I can count on turning on the TV to find conservative talking heads lumping families like mine in with pedophilia and bestiality. But liberals, for the most part, don’t treat us much better. They’re quick to insist that same-sex marriage would never, ever lead to such awful things.”

The author uses her 9-year-old daughter to deflect criticism. Her daughter dutifully and understandably repeats the adult arguments for same-sex marriage and applies them to her family.

“When my daughter talks about same-sex marriage or polyamorous relationships, she always looks perplexed and says, ‘I don’t understand why anyone is angry about people being in love and not hurting anyone.’ And I long for a world where everyone is able to see it so simply.

And later …

“Whenever I mention the claims that polyamory is bad for children, she rolls her eyes and says, ‘Oh no, kids having more people to love them! How horrible!’”

In the style of such articles, the author doesn’t make a case against monogamous marriage on principle, or for multi-spouse “marriage” on principle. Instead, she presents the facts of a particular situation as a fait accompli and challenges you to argue why it is not so. She felt repressed before and says “I am more fulfilled now and living in a way that feels authentic for me.”

Read the rest here: http://www.catholicvote.org/that-didnt-take-long-praising-multi-spouse-marriage/