John MacArthur's anti-Catholicism

What's the current flap about John MacArthur, an evangelical pastor, I wondered? So I googled what he said about Catholics and the Pope. Actually, there were so many entries going back 7 or 8 years, I couldn't even find the reference I was looking for and had to go to his website and click on his blog. If Christians wonder why youth, gays, non-Christians and young families are leaving the sanctuary and Sunday classroom for feel-goodism, Eastern meditation routines and la-la spirituality, they only need to look at their own nasty in-fighting and name calling. And he calls his web site, "Grace to you?" I wonder if this Bible believing teacher/preacher has heard of St. Jerome? Does he know that before the canon, there was tradition, liturgy, priests, bishops? His rants are like people libeling their great grandparents whom they never met. Evangelicals believe in the pope--the one they see in the mirror every morning.

J.S. Bach Day

Today may be Presidents' Day (Washington's Birthday Observed), but yesterday at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church (UALC), Lytham Road, it must have been JS Bach day. For the Prelude we enjoyed Prelude in F Minor; the Offertory was In thee O Lord have I put my trust; and the Postlude as we left the sanctuary was Salvation unto us has come. Allan Willis, organist, Paul Ulring, Senior Pastor, preaching at the traditional services.

Eat your hearts out contemporary service worshippers.

Why did Catholics support Obama

Fifty seven percent of practicing Catholics (attend mass at least once a week) voted for Romney.  Forty three percent who call themselves Catholic but rarely attend services, voted for Obama, the pro-abortion president. Every U.S. Bishop opposed the HHS mandate,  and it clearly looked like Obama stabbed them in the back after they’d supported him on immigration, taxes, etc.  But they just couldn't fight the fact that Catholics have been primarily Democrats for way too long.  I can’t imagine that they couldn’t see this coming when they supported a pro-abortion candidate in 2008.  So that also means that 43% of practicing Catholics think it is OK for Catholic charities and schools and hospitals to go under because of Obama's mandates.

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/02/15/why-did-so-many-faithful-catholics-vote-for-obama-again/

The Book of Judith films

Protestant Bibles don’t contain the book of Judith, although it was part of canon for the Eastern and Western Church until the Reformation.  (and still is for Caholics and Orthodox Christians). It seems, though, St. Jerome had a bit of a struggle—I looked it up and he had to translate from the Chaldean texts to Latin.  (We saw his cell when we were in the Holy Land.)

There is a web site that focuses just on Biblical films, Bible Films Blog. It is amazing, or maybe not, how many films have been made about Judith.  The author, Matt Page (UK), is going to be writing about Judith the next week or so, and begins with a collation of all the films he could find, and the first 3 are silent films.

He lists 13 films about Judith—it has everything for today’s audience; religion, sex, violence, and politics.