Divers and Sundry

In no particular order, here are a few stories that may or may not have anything to do with each other, but ones I've noticed:

In case you missed it, Nigerian Christians are reaching out for help in the wake of near genocidal atrocities being visited on the Nigerian Christian community.  This is not new.  Variations of this has been happening since at least the early 90s when I had friends from Nigeria, warning of what life is like when you're the minority under a Muslim majority.  But then, it's also not easily pinned on the US government.  Since it doesn't aid the Left's multi-cultural narrative, and those who would cozy to the Left can't use it to trash America or Conservatism, it's been mostly crickets and cicadas.  Here is a link to a story about one Nigerian bishop pleading for help.

Meanwhile, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, former Protestant fundamentalist pastor, has weighed in on the death penalty.  Here is his piece.  As I say, I'm of two minds about the issue.  Part of me leans against the Death Penalty, if for no other reason that if an innocent man is executed (and it has happened), there's no making amends.  On the other hand, much of the reasoning behind opposing the DP has the odor of secular 'because there ain't nothing more important than life in this material world!'  Bad reasons can be given, just as good reasons can be given, on both sides. Nonetheless, I notice that the worst reasons are on the opposition's side, with fewer strong - and Christian - reasons to be against it, while the arguments for capital punishment's restricted use seem to align more strongly with a traditional, orthodox Christian world view where this old world isn't the only thing to think about.   FWIW, here is a link to one Orthodox point of view which, as usual, allows for a certain amount of agreeing to disagree on the issue.

Finally, the latest big news is that some Catholic leaders have sent a letter apparently accusing Pope Francis of being a heretic.  I won't wade into that.  Pope Francis is clearly a child of Latin American liberation theology, and its Marxist roots and perspectives clearly influence how he approaches a host of issues.  Whether heretic or not is for others to say.  As usual, those who support Pope Francis have resorted to the typical name calling, snobbery, accusation and insinuation, rather than merely talk.  Since Pope Francis became pope, that has been the case.  If many of his supporters insist there was a time when they sat down and reasonably discussed difficulties with Pope Francis, I never saw it.  From the first, it was attack with both barrels.  And this is often from those who once had no problem blasting popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.  Again we're treated to the old 'that which liberalism once condemned, the Left now endorses - and vice versa.'  Here is one article unpacking the issue.

And in the 'It's not all about Christians' category, we have this unfolding story about China's war on its own Muslim population.  As can be expected, it's not getting much coverage in the US press.  That's because Chinese (Communists no less) waging an eradication campaign against Muslims flies in the face of the Left's carefully constructed Multi-Cultural narrative.  That narrative relies on a very basic template: evil white Christians from Europe and America/Everyone else awesome.  The Left's propaganda organs in the press have made it clear, as with the sad case of Jazmine Barnes, that they couldn't care less about actual minority suffering or oppression.  They care when they can exploit it.  Chinese doing this simply reminds us of the sad truth that the worst the West or America ever did is no worse than the rest of the world, in which these things still occur.  So, no news is proper news in this case.