GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Sunday, October 31, 2021

GOOD CATHOLIC: A POLITICAL POPE GIVES ABSOLUTION TO A POLITICAL CATHOLIC.

ICHEOKU says as Fela Anikulapo Kuti of blessed memory would say, "Religion na(is) politics." It was true then when he said and sang it as a song and it is even much truer today with a Pope in the Vatican who actively plays politics of convenience; and who chooses which American president to like and which one to hate. Just look at how dearly he held President Joe Biden and gleamed meeting him, compared to his growling frown when President Donald John Trump similarly met with him. If according to the doctrine of the church, thou shall not judge but love everyone equally, why was he openly happy to see Joe Biden but not President Trump. 

The same pope that is supposedly a Christ ambassador on earth has maintained eerie silence while President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has been purging Christians in Nigeria, particularly those of them in Southeast and Middle Belt of Nigeria, majority of who are active Catholics. But despite the State sponsored and orchestrated killings and others sanctioned by the State, which have claimed hundreds of thousands of innocent Christians lives in Nigeria, the pope has largely maintained his silence and have never spoken out vociferously against the systematic ethnic and religious cleansing going on in Nigeria; neither has the pope ever called out or condemned President Muhammadu Buhari for masterminding the pogrom against Christians in Nigeria. 

The latest of the atrocities in Nigeria is the refusal of the Nigerian government to declare well established and well known terrorists, currently being passed off as "bandits" as domestic terrorist, because according to the government, it is not yet time to so declare them because the government is observing "due process" to ensure that those bandits who have murdered over 100,000 Nigerians get their "due process" before being named for what they really are. But the same Nigerian government did not give IPOB "due process" before declaring them "terrorists" just within few months of their voicing out the need for fairness and equity in Nigeria. Has the pope said a word, nope.

Even the poverty ravaging parts of the world, particularly christians and Catholics could be partly assuaged if the Catholic Church could divest itself of some priceless holdings and use the proceed to provide palliatives to starving humanity. But no, it is only to play double talk, hide and seek as it benefits Vatican and at the expense of the congregants. Now instead of reserving judgment for the United States council of Catholic bishops on their planned censor of President Joe Biden, the same pope just cut off their legs by peremptorily "beatifying" President Joe Biden, anointing him a "good catholic" and you ask yourself based on what? Is he a good catholic because he is now president or a good catholic because he keeps a portrait of the pope behind his desk in the Oval Office. 

As catholics we were taught in catechism that sins offend God and that there are "big" sins and "small" sins; that the biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah happened because homosexuality is a sin before God. We were also taught that killing is one of the big sins. But here is a president who is pro homosexuality, who does not mind if over 300,000 babies are killed each year under the guise of "women's right to choose, it is their body, their choice" nonsensical. Here is a president who have told countless lies and issued series of misstatements which as catholics we were told are both sins. We were also told that receiving the holy communion under a state of sin is double sin. 

But all these not withstanding, the pope was ready and in fact actually gave Joe Biden a clean bill of catholicism; and it is now all clear for him to take holy communion despite not being a good poster man representation of what catholicism teaches. Then we are told not to judge as judgment is for God to make. If this is the new operating standard procedure for the Catholic Church, then why don't everybody forget about living an upright life and wait for God to decide on the judgment day. Why all the effort being put in evangelism when a fully grown man who despite identifying as catholic snubs the tenets of catholicism. 

This piece is not an attack on the pope nor the president; but that catholicism and being in good standing of the church be properly reclassified in order to avoid misleading and confusing double standards. It was the same way a divorced Kennedy and John Kerry were allowed to remarry when the church teaches that divorce is against the law of God. It is sad that this particular pope is not guided by the doctrine of foundational catholicism, but have been tweaking it as suits his agenda to transform the church into a woke culture accepted place of everything is ok all things goes bazaar. Why and how he became pope still baffles some ardent catholics and catholic watchers alike. 

ICHEOKU is not saying that Joe Biden should be ex-communicated from the catholic church, but to declare him fully absolved of every anti catholicism behavior and stand on issues; and then went on to determine him as "good catholic" is where the confusion set in. If Joe Biden with all his anti catholic baggage is an epitome of catholicism, who then is the example of how not to be a catholic. One writer surmised a "good catholic" as a catholic who is having a personal relationship with God and living the faith in a vibrant way; who follows the teachings of Jesus Christ, the moral law and the precepts of the Church which Jesus built on Peter. Continuing, he wrote that good catholic is one who is "good" in the eyes of God", begging the question, did the pope look into God's eyes to know what God was seeing in President Joe Biden before declaring him a good catholic. 

ICHEOKU says is just confused, people are confused and catholics are confused as to who then is a bad catholic if Joe Biden is a good catholic. Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence Rhode Island said in a letter to the pope imploring him to confront President Joe Biden on his stand on the abortion issue, which he said was an embarrassment for the church and a scandal to the world. The bishop followed it up, after the pope's convenient silence and calculated decision not to raise the issue with Joe Biden, that the church has lost its prophetic voice and no longer has a "John the Baptist" with the audacity to confront Herods of our day. 

What a brave and courageous bishop and hopefully Vatican will not excommunicate him for voicing out so strong an opinion or treat him like the army high ups treated Lieutenant Stuart Sheller. It is probably nearing the finish line for the catholic church, the reason parishioners and congregants are deserting the church at such high numbers that too many church pews now sit empty during mass. People are constantly becoming fed up with what Mahatma Gandhi described as practice what you preach in his famous dialogue, 'I have read your bible, it contains so many good things, but you people do not practice what your Jesus taught and preached; and of course lived and died for.' It is not a good tiding coming out of Rome. It is increasingly discouraging to be a catholic in today's Pope Francis supervisory papacy.

No comments:

Post a Comment