A Reagan Forum with Tom Brokaw

Obama 'Extremist' Green Advisor Quits Amid Controversy

From OneNewsNow
By Will Lester - Associated Press Writer

President Barack Obama's environmental adviser Van Jones, who became embroiled in a controversy over past inflammatory statements, has resigned his White House job.

The resignation, announced early Sunday, came as Obama is working to regain his footing in the contentious health care debate.

Jones, an administration official specializing in environmentally friendly "green jobs" with the White House Council on Environmental Quality was linked to efforts suggesting a government role in the 2001 terror attacks and to derogatory comments about Republicans.

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Voices of Ascension - "Exsultate Deo" - Palestrina

A Homily by Father Franklyn M. McAfee - "To Shame the Strong, God Has Chosen What the World Counts Weakness"

Homily of Reverend Franklyn M. McAfee, D.D.
Pastor Emeritus

St. John the Beloved Catholic Church
McLean, Virginia

September 2, 2007

California Students to Study Sodomite Predator, Mass Murderer Supporter

Biography of 'gay' activist Harvey Milk outlines relationships with underage boys

From WorldNetDaily
By Bob Unruh

Lawmakers in California have voted to pressure all schoolchildren in the state to study and "honor" the life and values of homosexual activist Harvey Milk, whose biography tells of sexual escapades, including relationships with young boys.

In addition, it was Milk who publicly advocated for the late Jim Jones, the leader of the massacred hundreds in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978. Jones led the "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project," and in an audiotape of the deaths, described the 918 fatalities – mostly from drinking cyanide-laced flavored drink – as a "revolutionary suicide."

The California State Assembly now has passed a bill calling on all California public schools to hold an annual "day of significance" honoring the life and values of Milk. SB572 was approved on a 45 (all Democrats) to 27 (all Republicans) vote yesterday.

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Polish Bishops Emphasize Catholic Pro-Abortion Politicians Excommunicate Themselves

From LifeSiteNews
By Patrick B. Craine and Thaddeus M. Baklinski

A new document released by the Polish Episcopal Conference, emphasizing the Church's teaching on marriage and the family, gives a very clear and straightforward remainder to Catholic politicians that if they violate basic moral directives on life or family rights issues in the public sphere, they risk excommunication.

The document titled, "To Serve the Truth about Marriage and Family", which was drafted by the Conference's Council for Family Issues, affirms the need for politicians to defend human life, and emphasizes the Church's teaching that supporting abortion entails automatic excommunication and that it is a sacrilege for pro-abortion Catholic politicians to receive Communion.

"It is absolutely not true that a politician, or a government member, has to, or can, act against his conscience. (...) When it comes to God's law, everybody is equal, politicians included," the bishops wrote.

The document expresses the Church's teaching on family life and the responsibilities of society toward the family, strongly condemning such evils as abortion, in vitro fertilization, embryonic experimentation, as well as divorce and promiscuity.

"As John Paul II was saying just before he died, we are witnessing very strong, organized attacks on marriage and family, which could also serve to destroy the Christian spirit of Europe," said Father Andrzej Rebacz, head of the Episcopate Council for Family Affairs and the National Chaplain for Families, in a Polskie Radio report.

"These attacks include promotion of sex education at schools. We have to remember who was the first to introduce the idea of sex education. It was communist ideologue Gyorgy Lukacs in Hungary, who thought promiscuity was the best method to fight the institution of marriage, in order to fight Christianity."

The part of the Polish Bishops' document which focuses on the duties of Catholic politicians has drawn both praise from pro-life and pro-family commentators, and condemnation from those who believe religious moral values have no place in public life in Poland.

Wojciech Cejrowski, writer, journalist and Catholic commentator observed, "It should be obvious to every Catholic. If you are pro-abortion and keep it to yourself, you are guilty of a mortal sin, and until you Confess, you cannot go to Communion. However, if you publicly support abortion, then you excommunicate yourself. You don't need a bishop to excommunicate you, you have done it yourself, you have left the Church by the public act of disobedience."

Janusz Onyszkiewicz, a member of the Democratic Party, disagrees with the bishops and believes such issues should be separated from politics. He stated, "I don't want to discuss the Church teaching, I think that obviously the Church should expect everybody who belongs to the Church that he should follow a certain moral code. But it is different to follow it in private life and to work on the legal system of the country," he told Polskie Radio.

Polish member of the European Parliament Konrad Szymanski endorsed the bishops' document and said that politicians must be consistent in both their public and private lives, and if they declare themselves to be Catholic, they should practice what they preach.

"I've read the letter with great satisfaction because bishops reminded us the very simple truths that the obligation of conscience is much more important than any other obligation, including political obligations," Szymanski observed.

An English commentary by Joanna Najfeld on the Polish Bishops' document is available from Polskie Radio here.

'Massive' Ancient Wall Uncovered in Jerusalem

From CNN

An archaeological dig in Jerusalem has turned up a 3,700-year-old wall that is the largest and oldest of its kind found in the region, experts say.

The wall is built of enormous boulders, confounding archaeologists as to how ancient peoples built it.

Standing 8 meters (26 feet) high, the wall of huge cut stones is a marvel to archaeologists.

"To build straight walls up 8 meters ... I don't know how to do it today without mechanical equipment," said the excavation's director, Ronny Reich. "I don't think that any engineer today without electrical power [could] do it."

Archaeologist Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority added, "You see all the big boulders -- all the boulders are 4 to 5 tons."

The discovered section is 24 meters (79 feet) long. "However, it is thought the fortification is much longer because it continues west beyond the part that was exposed," the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a news release.

It was found inside the City of David, an archaeological excavation site outside the Old City of East Jerusalem on a slope of the Silwan Valley.

The wall is believed to have been built by the Canaanites, an ancient pagan people who the Bible says inhabited Jerusalem and other parts of the Middle East before the advent of monotheism. Watch report on the discovery of the ancient wall »

"This is the most massive wall that has ever been uncovered in the City of David," Reich and Shukron said in a joint statement about the find. It marks the first time "that such massive construction that predates the Herodian period has been discovered in Jerusalem."

It appears to be part of a "protected, well-fortified passage that descends to the spring tower from some sort of fortress that stood at the top of the hill," according to the joint statement.

The spring "is located in the weakest and most vulnerable place in the area. The construction of a protected passage, even though it involves tremendous effort, is a solution for which there are several parallels in antiquity, albeit from periods that are later than the remains described here."

Such walls were used primarily to defend against marauding desert nomads looking to rob the city, said Reich, a professor at the University of Haifa.

"We are dealing with a gigantic fortification, from the standpoint of the structure's dimensions, the thickness of its walls and the size of the stones that were incorporated in its construction," the joint statement said.

Water from the spring is used by modern inhabitants of Jerusalem.

"The new discovery shows that the picture regarding Jerusalem's eastern defenses and the ancient water system in the Middle Bronze Age 2 is still far from clear," Reich said. "Despite the fact that so many have excavated on this hill, there is a very good chance that extremely large and well-preserved architectural elements are still hidden in it and waiting to be uncovered."