Music and the Loss of Virtue.

My latest article on Catholic Champion deals with music, and the loss of virtue. I find it interesting how so many people think they can take a degraded form of music such as rock music, and transform it into "Christian" music by just changing the lyrics. The devil must dance a jig when he sees this nonsense! This has been the Trojan horse that brought irreverence into the Church, and into society in general. The loss of virtue in music has disposed our culture to vice. This "Christian" rock music was brought into being by the Protestants. Of course not long after this we saw the Catholic Church start to experiment with this in the 60s, and unfortunately it still exists. If we are to understand the sacredness of art in general we must understand what makes it virtuous or non-virtuous. Art either rises or descends. You can read my full article at

http://www.catholicchampion.com/page30/page30.html

All comments are welcome, both for and against as always. Enjoy!

James Swan over at Beggars All closes thread on Luther. Damage control for White and Co.

James Swan said...

Thank you all for your comments. This comment thread is now closed.

6:58 AM, March 13, 2008

View entire thread here. Busy Minds Are Working to Make Black=White

Now that it is plain to see that White and Co. have been exposed as complete charlatans of the apologetics world, Swan closes the thread on the Luther subject so they can no longer be held accountable for their haphazard positions they took on this Luther mess. I also noticed he removed my reply to James White on the thread below on his blog titled Catholic E-pologetic Methodology #3 where White attacked my character. Thats OK, I put a copy of it in my blog on the thread below, so all is not lost. The point is these guys are not honest people. They will do anything to win a debate, or to make someone else look bad. Yet White has made a huge mistake that no real apologetics scholar would do. He based an argument on his video on an event that did not happen yet, (the rehabilitation of Martin Luther by the Pope.) and the "event" has now been exposed as a false rumor. These guys are not worth the time to engage in serious dialog with. I thought it might have been fruitful to bring some evidence to show them the truth of the Catholic Church by real research and documented sources, but it is painfully evident that they are unwilling to be open in their dealings with the public.

To see this video of White's on Luther you can go to http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/ and go down to his video Martin Luther ex-heretic. He may remove it before long. He begins the video with "it seems that this will happen" and then he launches into an attack on the Church and then mocks older Catholics, and then says that "he saw this coming" and continues on to assume that all of these Roman Catholic apologists will be left in some stupor that they will all have to apologize for. Then he tells us that the Roman Catholic Church is changing, and that Pope Benedict XVI is not consistent with prior Popes before him, and yet doesn't give us one example of what he is talking about. I guess he is talking about the rehabilitation of Luther, which hasn't happened! Is this what is the best the Reformed Protestants have to offer? Then White concludes his video with a little comment on how, when we as Catholics deny Sola Scriptura this is what we can expect. Who owes the apology here? One that bases an entire video off of a farce, or Dave Armstrong, Steve Ray, Art Sippo who at least bring some substance to the table? Once again the evidence is before all to see.

Vatican call Luther rehabilitation, a rumour. Will James White apologize?

Last week James White made a video making claims that the Vatican was posed to make changes on its teachings of excommunication on Martin Luther. I countered his video on Beggars All blog showing how foolish it was for someone to base an argument off of something has not happened yet. Of course White did not respond. I wonder, will White now apologize for using such a haphazard stance for his argument of the Catholic Church changing its teachings. I don't think he realizes the true meaning of doctrine or dogma, papal infallibility anyways. But that is beside the point. The point is he gave credibility to this news article, then based an argument off of it, and now we have an official statement by the Vatican saying that it was all a farce. Will White apologize to all of the Catholics he insulted on his videos? Probably not. But we can expect that cant we? Here is the article.

Vatican spokesman calls rumors of rehabilitation of Luther groundlessBy Carol GlatzCatholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Rumors that the Vatican is set to rehabilitate Martin Luther, the 16th-century leader of the Protestant Reformation, are groundless, said the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi.News reports in early March alleged that Pope Benedict XVI was dedicating a planned September symposium with former doctoral students to re-evaluating Luther, who was excommunicated and condemned for heresy.The story "does not have any foundation, insofar as no rehabilitation of Luther is foreseen," Father Lombardi told the Italian news agency ANSA March 8.Vatican officials said the topic of the pope's annual summer gathering of former students this year has not yet been decided. Of the two topics under consideration, Luther is not one of them, one official told Catholic News Service.Excesses in 16th-century preaching about indulgences and in Catholic penitential practices sparked Luther, a theologian and Augustinian monk, to seek reform in the church. His concerns started a movement that led to the Protestant Reformation.The church excommunicated Luther for preaching a philosophy doubting the pope's infallibility.Luther emphasized the absolute primacy of God's action in freeing people from sin and making them just, and the total sufficiency of Christ's death to expiate the sins of all.In 1983, Pope John Paul II noted that studies by Lutheran and Catholic researchers "have led to a more complete and more differentiated image of the personality of Luther" as well as the complicated historical factors surrounding his life.Nearly 500 years after the Reformation began in 1517, Lutherans and Catholics resolved one of the issues that began the Reformation era when they signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999.The declaration said the churches' consensus on basic truths means that the doctrine of justification is not a church-dividing issue for Catholics and Lutherans even though differences between them remain in language, theological elaboration and emphasis surrounding those basic truths.

James White cannot take the heat, hurls insults instead.

This is the response I got from James White after challenging him to a debate on the fist 400 years of the Church and the Biblical Canon.

[That is usually what you will get when you present White with a real argument backed up by documented sources that go against what he believes. He just disappears.]

Mr. Bellisario, I will be blunt. Your position is so fantastic, so ridiculous, so outside the realm of meaningful interaction, that it never crossed my mind to even be interested in your response. The facts are so obvious that your wild eyed claims are simply laughable. Your commentary is only the Roman Catholic version of Peter Ruckman, or some of the worst of the Mormon or Muslim apologists I have had the misfortune of encountering over the years. I do not waste my time with them, nor will I waste my time with you. I pointed out a very obvious and simple refutation of your absurd claims: an entire work, filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of reference notes (taken in context, something you would do well to study and imitate), that comes to the conclusion that there was a deep, and wide viewpoint in the early church that represented a rejection of the apocryphal works as inspired texts of Scripture. This is not a disputable fact, and only fanatics without the ability to reason would say "No, no, EVERYONE believed in the inspiration of those books!" Obfuscate all you wish, engage in sophistry all you wish, but no serious minded person will find your rants to be of any serious worth.

There are, then, of the Old Testament, twenty-two books in number;...Again it is not tedious to speak of the [books] of the New Testament...These are fountains of salvation, that they who thirst may be satisfied with the living words they contain. In these alone is proclaimed the doctrine of godliness. Let no man add to these, neither let him take ought from these....But for greater exactness I add this also, writing of necessity; that there are other books besides these not indeed included in the Canon, but appointed by the Fathers to be read by those who newly join us, and who wish for instruction in the word of godliness. The Wisdom of Solomon, and the Wisdom of Sirach, and Esther, and Judith, and Tobit, and that which is called the Teaching of the Apostles, and the Shepherd. But the former, my brethren, are included in the Canon, the latter being [merely] read...(Athanasius' 39th Festal Letter: if you have to twist these words into a pretzel, you have proven my point).

Now Mr. Bellisario, I have been dealing with bullies such as yourself for a long time, and I know that you have little else to be doing other than trying to start a long and fruitless food fight. There was a day when I cared about such things, that day is now long past. I am far too busy with worthwhile things to invest another moment with one who has no ears to hear. So please, feel free to pat yourself on the back and strut about---life is too short for such silliness.

James White
www.aomin.org

James White and his Martin Luther video.

I just cannot let this video of James White on Martin Luther go. I would like to ask Mr. White, what doctrine or dogma has changed in the Catholic Church before Vatican II to after it? Mr. White says all of these old Catholics who saw a consistent teaching before Vatican II, now must be confused. So Mr. White admits that the Catholic Church taught consistent doctrine before VC II and has now changed? His videos are going more and more out in left field. Once again Mr White gives no sources, no examples, nothing of any substance to back his statements. Are we beginning to see a pattern here? I have written an article completely documented, showing how a very reliable Protestant scholar disagrees with him and his assessment of the early Church and Sacred Scripture, yet the best he could come up with was a character attack in which he states that I am just a wishful thinker. Yet he does not counter my documented statements with any substance. Is this real scholarship? I will challenge White right now to a written debate on the first 400 years of the Church, and how these Fathers viewed the Deuterocanonical books. Yet White just dances the same dance he always does. When he is presented with documented rebuttals he does his best to avoid any further confrontation. I will continue to put forth documented pieces defending the Catholic faith, and when I see someone like White, or his buddy James Swan, I will point out their errors. If either of them want to debate me in a formal written setting on these Early Fathers and the Deuterocanon, I welcome it.

Whats all the talk about Luther?

Any thoughts about the news article from England talking about the Pope rehabilitating Luther? As we know the Church has lifted excommunications before. None being this extreme. The Protestant apologists like James White are already making videos about it! What a laugh.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3492299.ece

http://beggarsallreformation.blogspot.com/2008/03/busy-minds-are-working-to-make.html