7 Quick Takes Friday (set #150)

7 Quick Takes Friday

This week: Islam is not interested in an “win-win” – now, in the past, or ever. Enlightened thinking that could be found in any “modern” university. A woman makes a (very poor) case for abortion being good. “Judging”: yes, no, depends on circumstances, other? Interesting yet extremely brief summaries of the Bible. The Dominican Friars have a new vocations / promo video. Makeup and digital editing produces “slob evolution.”

— 1 —

We project upon Islam our Christian values and that is a huge mistake. Our president says ISIL is not “true Islam.” He is wrong. There will be a lot of death, destruction and atrocity visited upon us until we put aside political correctness and accept truth.

While this seems like sound commentary from a credible source, you may be thinking that it also seems uncharitable (you probably mean “politically incorrect”). Fortunately, we have the words of those who were models of charity, now in Heaven, to guide us. Read what did the Saints say about Islam? BTW: Islam has been at war with Christianity since its inception.

UPDATE: Daniel Greenfield wrote a related piece: A Nigerian Prince Called Islam.

— 2 —

This could be a professor at any “modern” university. He deduces, using his own enlightened reason, that since God created everything He also created evil. QED.

Spotted by Fr. Z

— 3 —

As she got older, this woman “started embracing the truth about reality and life and that we’re floating around the universe on a wet marble.” From this insight, she deduces her past and future abortions are actually good, not sinful.

— 4 —

What do you think of this video?

Judge Not

IMHO, there is a valid message here but it is incomplete. Pictured are extremes. It would be naive (and possibly dangerous) to NOT use your life experience to make an initial assessment. I can imagine how it is possible that a “right” answer could turn out to be the wrong one upon further investigation. So yes, judge – then re-judge and re-judge as more and more information becomes available. Be aware of your confidence based upon the info you had and immediate circumstances involved. This is common sense.

As a general topic, judging is not bad. Scripture warns, as everybody knows, against judging (Matthew 7:1, Luke 6:37). Specifically against condemning a person for what you judge to be their heart or state of their soul. It is twisted beyond all recognition to say it means to never judge period. That is political correctness, not scripture, and used to bludgeon those who do not self-censor opinions others have judged to be in opposition to their ideaology.

Finally, on “judging” objectively sinful actions, see my piece from 2 years ago: Always be nice!.

— 5 —

A while back, Igniter Media produced this interesting summary of the Bible…   The Bible in 50 Words:

LectorPrep.org also took a shot at summarizing salvation history in ~250 words:

In ancient Sumer (modern Iraq) lived a rich, wily fellow soon to be renamed Abraham. We’d call him, and everybody else at the time, a pagan. He followed the mysterious voice of God and moved to Palestine, around 1800 BC, where he made a covenant with God.

His grandson Jacob was renamed Israel, and Israel’s twelve sons and their families wound up in Egypt seeking relief from famine. The Egyptians and others lumped these and other nomadic people under the name Hebrews. Eventually the Egyptians enslaved the Hebrew descendants of Israel.

Around 1200 BC Moses revived their ancestral religion and led them out of Egypt back to the land Abraham had occupied. (The event is known as the Exodus.) On the way, at Mount Sinai, Moses renewed the covenant between God and the people, their side of the Covenant being expressed concretely in the Ten Commandments.

Generations after Moses saw: the kingships of Saul, David, Solomon and lesser kings; the Temple on Mount Zion in Jerusalem; the division into northern and southern kingdoms (Israel and Judah, respectively); the prophets; the Exile in Babylon; more prophets; a dispirited return from exile; the diaspora (dispersion of many of the people now known as Jews (from “Judah”) among Mediterranean pagan populations; occupation of their homeland by Greeks under Alexander, then occupation by the Romans; the coming of John the Baptist; the coming of Jesus of Nazareth; and more.

— 6 —

This is a new vocations / promo video for the Dominican Friars:

— 7 —

Many (over 17M) people have seen the Dove “Evolution” video on digital image manipulation to make people look unachievably “perfect”:

At about the same time, but somehow missed by me, this really good spoof was made:


Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary to address this blogging need. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Jen for hosting this project!


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