A Cautionary Tale

 

Yes, readers, in song.

Your Buddy

LSP

It's Hammertime!

 

Totally Not Mob

Multi millionaire socialist Paul Pelosi, who has nothing whatsoever to do with the mob, just got hammered. Yes, with a literal hammer by a guy wearing underwear at 2 am in San Francisco. Nothing weird about that, at all, getting hammered in his mansion by some underwear freak called David DePape.  Who is this DePape?

DePape & Gypsy

A Canadian nudist, apparently, who hung out at a hippie setup in Berkeley and made hideous jewelry out of hemp. So far so good, and then you discover DePape's wife figure, amateur pornstar Oxane "Gypsy" Taub, accuses her onetime lover of pedophilia and satanism. She's in gaol for violating a restraining order, you can read all about Gypsy here.

For an autist drill down visit /pol. In the meanwhile, how did a hippy wearing underwear get into Pelosi's house? OK, it's San Francisco but still, surely he had his clothes on while he was walking around the ritzy rich socialist Pelosi neighborhood in the dead of night. Did he get into the Pelosi mansion and then remove his clothes, mostly?

And how did he get into the house of the third most important political figure in the US in the first place? By breaking a window in the back of the place, allegedly, but if so, why was the glass on the swanky garden door broken out from the inside? Huh.

For that matter, why aren't there any surveillance videos of the crazed underwear attacker breaking and entering? And what about his "manifesto"? Was he holding it in his hemp stained hand as he strolled through the streets of Pelositown? Good question.

DePape Hangout

Then there's multi millionaire Paul Pelosi's 911 call. The massively rich investor socialist, who has nothing to do with the mob, made this call, evidently, from a bathroom in his mansion while DePape was in the house. Excuse me? You're in the midst of a crazed hippie underwear break-in and somehow manage to take a handy bathroom time out and call the cops? Far out.

Gypsy

I guess it just kinda happened or, on the other hand, did a late night drug fueled rainbow sex romp go badly wrong? Surely not, after all, this is San Francisco. DePape's in hospital as is Paul Pelosi, who's recovering from brain surgery. 

Weird scenes inside the goldmine and we have to ask, will DePape get out of there alive.

In the meanwhile,

#HAMMERTIME

LSP

Musical Interlude

 

Whoa, power,

LSP

The Trinity - Sunday Sermon

 

If you wanted to make up a religion for, say, profit, fun and a seat on a private jet you wouldn't come up with the Trinity; the doctrine's too hard, that God is a trinity of Persons in unity of substance. Not three gods or three aspects of god but one God who is three distinct Persons, each one of which is fully divine. The Athanasian Creed puts it thus:

We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Essence. For there is one Person of the Father; another of the Son; and another of the Holy Ghost.

 

It goes on to say that unless you believe this you will, without doubt, “perish everlastingly,” which sounds harsh and is doubtless why this Creed's hidden away at the back of the 1979 Prayer Book.  It's just not very polite, especially for modern Anglican sensibilities. But there it is and if we aspire to heaven we'd better worship God as He's revealed Himself to us, as triune. Can we make any sense of this or must we fall into reverent silence in the face of the mystery?

Both, surely, and perhaps the African Doctor St. Augustine comes to our aid. He teaches us that the act of love, human love, necessitates three things, a lover, the beloved and love itself. This, he believes, is analogous to the Trinity, where from all eternity the Father pours out his being to the Son in an act of perfect love. 

The Son returns the Father’s love and gives himself to the Father perfectly. So they are one in essence or substance, yet distinct as persons in their relationship one to another. And from their love, this timeless interplay of perfect being, proceeds the Spirit. The love of God personified, distinct by virtue of his procession.

Benedict XVI describes the relationship with admirable clarity: 

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one because God is love and love is an absolute life-giving force; the unity created by love is a unity greater than a purely physical unity. The Father gives everything to the Son; the Son receives everything from the Father with gratitude; and the Holy Spirit is the fruit of this mutual love of the Father and the Son.

 

Per B16, St. John sums it up in three words, "God is love." Reflect on that for more than a moment and silence, to say nothing of fear of the Lord ensues, "Remove your sandals for you are on sacred ground." But we can say this, God, in the Trinity, has revealed himself to us as an infinitely loving communion of persons. So what? So a lot. Consider some of the other options.

What if your higher power is the enigmatic "Life Force," a popular deity in San Francisco, Portland, and Austin, which sounds suspiciously like electricity, doubtless solar. But however green, electricity doesn't love you, it can't, it's not a person. Stick your finger in a light socket and find out.

Again, what if "that than which nothing greater can be conceived" by you is simply the universe, the world writ large. The good Texan soil, the trees, the sun and moon, the stars glittering in the night sky, galaxies cascading out into the icy void of deep space. Such grandeur and all good in itself but here's the thing, the atoms don't care when they're smashed together and obliterate a city. Lake Whitney doesn't shed a tear when you tragically fall off the boat and drown along with your guns. Again, this version of God doesn't love us, it can't, it's not a person. 

So what? So a lot. People become like the gods they worship and an unloving, impersonal god produces unloving disciples; followers of the Life Force become just that, all about force. You'll note that "we just want civil unions" moved to "bake the damn cake!" at warp speed.

The doctrine of the Trinity saves us from this tyranny and the despair which goes with it. God, the ultimate reality, the great I AM, is love and He loves us. He dies for us on the Cross, he reconciles us to the Father, He restores God’s image in us, He adopts us as sons as we rise reborn in the waters of the font, the Spirit anointed Sons of God, beloved by the Father, heirs in Christ of everlasting life.

What can we do but fall down in humble adoration, wonder and praise before the God who loves us and has revealed Himself to us as love, as He who is, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

God bless you all,

LSP

When There's No More Room In Hell

This is San Francisco this morning, a veritable hellscape.

Make of it what you will,

LSP

Anglican Church Goes Full Green

The leader of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby has launched a bold new initiative to unite the world's third largest denomination against a common enemy, the Weather.

Called the "Season of Creation," Welby's green campaign has solicited "Letters of Creation" from the Communion's leading bishops, asking them to describe the catastrophic effects of global warming and climate change.

Welby has called the battle to stop the weather changing "essential to the life of faith" and an "ethical crisis."

The ethical crisis of climate change is an opportunity to find purpose and joy, and to respond to our Creator’s charge. Reducing the causes of climate change is essential to the life of faith. It is a way to love our neighbour and to steward the gift of creation.

Not to be outdone, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, held a special green worship ritual featuring people on stilts dressed as trees and shirtless liturgical dancers.

The leader of the Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry is vocal in his support of Welby's green crusade.

“We can maintain a vigorous and effective commitment, and empower Anglicans everywhere to undertake bold action to mitigate and reverse climate change," stated Curry.

Whether the bold action called for by Curry, Welby and the Ents of San Francisco will be enough to stop the Weather from changing remains to be seen.

Viriditas,

LSP

Beyonce Mass Better Than Clown Mass?

Pastor Jude Harmon of the Episcopal Church's Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, got more than he bargained for when he held a special Beyonce worship ritual at the famously LGBTQ church.

Within hours of the special service devoted to praising the popular singer, pundits were comparing the Beyonce ritual to a Clown Mass.

Jude Harmon, Left of Rainbow

"This is no better than a blasphemous Clown Mass," thundered one outraged Anglican clergyperson, who wishes to remain anonymous, "At least Clown Masses are honestly creepy, this isn't and that's scary." Others weren't so sure.

A Clown

"Clown Masses are deeply offensive," stated a senior member of the clergy, "Everyone knows that clowns at the altar are sinister and off-putting. Beyonce may be a member of the Illuminati along with her husband, Jay Z, but she's not repellently unattractive and frightening. Quite unlike a clown."

Several Baptist leaders were quick to point out that Beyonce's fertility goddess performance at the Grammys was idolatrous. At the star studded event, the pop diva superstar dressed up as the Virgin Mary and a Hindu deity, as opposed to a clown, leading some to accuse her of "immoral syncretism."

Beyonce

Unfazed by fierce criticism, Harmon defended his decision to host a Beyonce ritual instead of a Clown Mass at Grace Cathedral.

"I know there are people who will say using Beyoncé is just a cheap way of trying to get people in the church," Harmon said. "Jesus used very provocative images in the stories he would tell to incite people to ask hard questions about their own religious assumptions. He regularly provoked. We're following in the way of Jesus."

Beyonce And Abramovic, Third From Left

Grace Cathedral typically gets 50 people at its Wednesday evening Eucharist, as opposed to 900 for its Beyonce worship ritual. Known for rainbow riding diversity, Grace Cathedral's Pastor, Jude Harmon, opened last year's Pride "with a reflection and meditation on diversity, inclusiveness and religious tolerance."

Not The Virgin Mary

Beyonce was brought up a Methodist, the Episcopal Church was once Christian. Whether the Beyonce praise ceremony at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, is better or worse than a Clown Mass is something for you to decide.

Don't be shy, be the judge,

LSP

Manicorn -- Warning, Graphic.

A well known member of the intelligence community has alerted me to a new threat, "manicorns."  

Typical Manicorn Park Scene

Experts suggest that manicorns are related to the horned predators we're familiar with today, which are possibly mutations of the medieval unicorn or another species altogether, such as the Baiste-na-scoghaigh of Scottish folklore.

If you google manicorn you'll find some 69,000 results. How many of these are in San Francisco and Austin is, at present, unclear.

Mind how you go,

LSP