Julia Bacha, Blessed are the meek for they shall possess the land

h Arab Spring was a phenomenon this year when oppressive Middle Eastern regimes were peacefully overturned, one after the other.  Now, millions of Arabs are peacefully discussing and deliberating their futures and setting the stage for a peaceful world for their children and grand children.

An idea vs an army

Wait a minute!  Aren't Arabs supposed to be uneducated, war-mongering, terrorists?  How could such an Arab Spring be possible?  Isn't that kind of peace against the nature of such barbarians?

We've been lied to!  Many of those lies are lies of omission!  Arabs are not what they've been made out to be.  Can one assume that Americans are murderers, psychopaths, and godless materialists?  Certainly not, yet the majority of school shooters, legendary serial killers, and celebrities are!  Just as we cannot be know through our wacko or hedonistic citizens, so to Arabs cannot.  Yes, those who attacked us on 9/11 were Arab, but they were not a representative sample.

The vast majority of Arabs are meekly demonstrating and claiming their God-given freedom.  Blessed are they, for they ARE inheriting their lands at long last!  A lone voice, that of Julia Bacha is crying in the wilderness.  She is hoping that someone will listen.  Let's take fewer than 10 minutes to hear her speak.

Queen Noor of Jordan (tall in a light blue gown) with Julia Bacha
at the 2009 Dubai film festival

Queen Noor has been acquainted with many first-degreers.  Among them...

Bono

and

Nelson Mandela

let's see

3 Degrees

Julia Bacha to Queen Noor to Bono to Pope John Paul II

or 

Julia Bacha to Queen Noor to Nelson Mandela to Pope John Paul II

Steven Tyler

The quickest way to connect Steven Tyler to Pope John Paul II is via first degree, Bono.

Tyler and Bono

But this is the month of fathers, so let's connect Steven Tyler through fatherhood.

Steven Tyler in the 1970s with his teenage girlfriend.  He refers to her as "Diane" in his autobiography.  I'll
use that name here too.  She was 14 years old when her parents gave Tyler guardianship of Diane.  She had
several abortions, it is not clear if Tyler was the father of all the aborted babies.  There was one abortion that Steve mentions in his books.  

“It was a big crisis. It’s a major thing when you’re growing something with a woman, but they convinced us that it would never work out and would ruin our lives. . . . You go to the doctor and they put the needle in her belly and they squeeze the stuff in and you watch. And it comes out dead. I was pretty devastated. In my mind, I’m going, Jesus, what have I done?”

Actually, this is a misquote.  The part about Diane was,

 "It's a major thing when you’re growing something with a woman, but they convinced us Diana was too young and it would never work out and would ruin our lives." 

Weather you abide by the pro-choice Salon.com article or the pro-life National Review article, it is clear that this abortion was disturbing to Tyler and a deep injustice to the teenage Diane.  She never should have been sexually active at that age.  She should not have been given to Tyler as a sexual plaything by her own parents. She should not have been used by Tyler (an adult) because she was a child.

Sex with underage children has been romanticized in our culture.  Here is an example that I grew up with.

At the time that "Big" came out, I didn't think much of it.  Now, as an adult and a mother, I'm appalled by the "love scene" with Tom Hanks (a 14 year old in a 25 year old body) and Elizabeth Perkins (a professional 20-something woman.)  This movie wasn't controversial when it came out in 1988.  The moral of keeping one's innocence to become the best adult version of yourself was universally accepted.  Did the character of Susan become pregnant after her encounter with the character Josh?  Did she greet him around Christmas time with the news that he'd be a father when he turned 14?  Did the character of Josh discover he had contracted a disease from Susan?  What a way to begin High School.

Here is another example of romanticizing sex with underage children, Lolita with Jeremy Irons.  Note how the girl is shown as the aggressor and the adult man is doing what he does against his better judgement.  We don't know if this 13 year old Lolita conceived.  I would imagine that she would within a few months of this relationship beginning.  What of that?  What of her heart?  What about her body?  What about her soul?

One source said that after Tyler broke up with Diane, Diane was suicidal.  In any event, he took up with a model after Diane and fathered fourth degree, Liv Tyler with a new girlfriend.

Liv Tyler was Arwen in The Lord of the Rings, a film adaptation
of the epic by J.R.R. Tolkein

Third Degree, J.R.R. Tolkein was a colleague and admirer of G.K. Chesterton.  We met Mr. Chesterton in the Charles Dickens post.  Dr. Alison Milbank wrote the book, "Chesterton and Tolkien as Theologians."  In it she analyses both men's works and their intellectual, literary relationship with one another.  Here is an excerpt from an interview with Dr. Milbank.  

Tolkien refers several times to Chesterton’s essays in On Fairy-stories, and I argue that these references show he knew a posthumous compilation of Chesterton’s writings, The Coloured Lands, edited by Maisie Ward in 1938, just before Tolkien’s lecture on which the fairy-story essay was based. Maisie Ward actually introduces the idea of sub-creation that is so important an aspect of Tolkien’s understanding of his literary project. It’s interesting that Tolkien is anxious to state that his view of the role of fantasy goes beyond that of Chesterton – this shows to me how closely influenced he feels himself to be. So Tolkien says that Chestertonian fantasy shows you the actual world from a new angle but thoroughgoing fantasy is like opening a box that allows out new things and releases them from our ownership of them. This is a really philosophical statement. The Enlightenment philosopher Kant said we have no access to things in themselves, and all we have is our own perception of the world. This leads to an alienated form of knowledge. Tolkien, following Chesterton, is a realist in a philosophical sense, because he thinks that we can be aware of a world beyond our own perceptions. Paradoxically, fiction – creating your own fantasy world – is not a way ofowning your own private reality but setting the things in that world free – like Tom Bombadil putting the contents of the barrow-wights’ hoard out on the hillside.

As mentioned in the Dickens post, Pope Pius XII sent condolences to G.K. Chesterton's family upon his death.

Hell, Purgatory, and The Body
According to Salon.com, Tyler was guilty and remorseful about his relationship with Diane and the abortion that resulted.

"It affected me later when I tried to get my real wife pregnant. I was afraid. I thought we'd give birth to a six-headed cow because of what I'd done with other women. The real life guilt was very traumatic for me."

Tyler did not sire a "six-headed cow".  All of his children, who were allowed to be born, were healthy.  God doesn't punish people with deaths and diseases any more than He rewards people with good health and riches.  God loves all of us, sinners and saints.

Pope John Paul in peaceful conversation with the
man who shot him

So what happens to someone like Mr. Tyler at death.  Is he forgiven?  Well, if he wants to be forgiven, he is.  It appears as though he does want that forgiveness.  Being right with God does not mean that all consequences for sin are forgiven here on earth.  People who are sorry for rape, murder, theft, etc. can still be prosecuted and punished through the legal system.  Even when sentences are served, victims can still suffer ongoing damage from the sin.  A good example of this is the subject of this blog, Blessed John Paul II.  He was shot in 1981.  The Pope forgave the man who attacked him but, like Jesus, his body bore the scars for the rest of his life.

Let us imagine a person who was NOT repentant.  Perhaps someone who is an adult and is currently sexually involved with a minor.  This could be part of a plural marriage, a family molestation, or a consensual student/teacher relationship.  In any event, under common sense and the laws of most countries, it is wrong.  More importantly, it is wrong in the eyes of God.  As Catholics see it, children cannot give consent to a lifelong sexual union and therefore cannot have lawful sexual relationships under natural Christian law.  If a person has given his (or her) sexuality and genitals to sin, he (or she) has disallowed God to be part of that aspect their human life.

Nothing sinful or imperfect can be in heaven.  If part of a person's body has been whole-heartedly given over to sin, how can it be resurrected in the second coming?  If the soul intends to use the body's members for sin, how can God allow that soul to enter Heaven?  How can God burn off the sinfulness and keep the good of a person if they've given over whole parts of themselves to sin WITHOUT RESERVE.

We cannot forget that death is not the end of the journey.  We are soul/body beings.  We will be reunited with our bodies which will be glorified.  If a fundamental part of our bodies cannot be resurrected, how can we be resurrected?  Giving one's alimentary canal over to sin via alcoholism, gluttony, popping pills, etc. means that, unless we are sorry for what we've done with our bodies, that system must die forever.  Christ ate with his apostles after his resurrection.  Our glorified bodies might have all the systems of our current ones.  The same would be true for giving one's brain over to substances and evil thoughts, our likeness over to vanity and self-worship, and our words and senses over to evil, we cannot bring those things to heaven and to the life to come.

A spiritual Father can help you get to Heaven

The fact is, we do not know how God could save someone with this kind of Swiss cheese soul and body.  I think the best that we can determine is that, with unrepentance comes the very real possibility of damnation.  We have to realize that not repenting can result in our inability to be saved because we refuse salvation.

Both the Orthodox East and Catholic West believe in a purification for souls after death.  We Catholics pray for the repose of the souls of the dead.  Only when circumstances make clear that a particular soul is definitely in the company of Jesus Christ do we venerate the dead as saints.  We NEVER imagine or determine who is not saved.

Confession in the Russian tradition

What to do?  Only speculate about the repose of your own soul.  Get to confession often.  Pray a little more every year.  Work with one confessor and try to find your spiritual father.  Examine your life, your body, your soul, and determine how you can begin to make yourself better.  Notice when you are tempted to judge others.  Use judgement and discernment in your choice of friends, colleagues, and influences.  Learn the difference between good judgement and judgementalism.  This difference is as subtle as the difference between evangelism and proselytism.  

John Belushi

John and Gilda Radner 

Third Degree: John Belushi
John Belushi was an original member of the cast of Saturday Night Live.  Here he is with Jane Curtin, Dan Akroyd, Lorraine Newman, Bill Murry, and Gilda Radner in "Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger."

John Belushi partied with Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams at the Marmont Hotel the night he died.  Here is Williams saluting DeNiro with an AFI lifetime achievement award.

After Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro left John Belushi, his dealer shot Belushi up that night with a speedball (cocaine and heroine,) he died a little while afterward.

Second Degree: Kevin Bacon
Here's another classic from 1978, Animal House.  Here John has a scene with second degree, Kevin Bacon.

First Degrees, Bill Clinton and Bono were in the 2002 documentary, "Elvis Lives" with Kevin Bacon. This also gets Cher, Mary J. Blige, Eric Clapton, John Corbett, and Jon Bon Jovi closer to Pope John Paul II!

Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II

George Stephanopoulos

2 Degrees

George Stephanopoulos will be mentioned in the last post of this month, "Carrie Bradshaw."  Watch for it!  He is two degrees from Pope John Paul II through two first-degreers.

President Clinton

Michael Stripe, Bono (first degree, see the post here), and George

George brings others a degree or so closer. 

Charlie Rose

Michael J. Fox

Barbara Walters (far right), we'll see her again in April,
the month of fools, in the Gene Wilder post.  

Dick Clark

I can find no evidence that Dick Clark ever met the Holy Father, but he sure does rub elbows with people who are close to the pontiff.  Let's take a "Rockin' New Year's Eve" look at celebrities who Dick knows who know the pope or are close to someone who knew the pope.

Dick Clark and First Degree, Michael Jackson

This post is in the spirit of Janus, the Roman god of the new year.  This god has two faces, one looking back and the other looking ahead.  Let's see who Dick Clark knows who has already been mentioned in the blog or who may be mentioned in 2011.

Dick Clark and Bono: 2 Degrees

As mentioned in a previous post, Bono met Pope John Paul II and gave him so rad shades.

Dick Clark and Nicole Scherzinger: 4 Degrees

A member of The Pussycat Dolls, Scherzinger met Dick as we see her performing at last year's show below.  She also appeared in "Dancing With the Stars" with second degreer, Buzz Aldren as see in this post from October.  

Dick Clark and Betty White: 5 Degrees

Betty White appeared on $25,000 Pyramid, a game show hosted by Dick Clark.  She also appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.  Johnny Carson filled in for Red Skelton when Red was in Europe with his family, see that post here.  Red Skelton and his family met and were blessed by Pope Pius XII.


Dick Clark to Ralph Edwards: 5 Degrees
Dick Clark was on "This is your life" hosted by TV giant, Ralph Edwards in 1959.

Ralph Edwards is pictured here with
Marilyn Monroe

Lovely Marilyn was the girlfriend of President John F. Kennedy.  The Jerry Lewis post in which President Kennedy and Miss Monroe are degrees is here.  President Kennedy met Pope Paul VI, the pope who elevated John Paul II to cardinal.

Pope Paul VI and Cardinal Wojtyla 

Bono

1 Degree

JP2 looking fly in Bono's shades

Bono met John Paul II in the 2000 Jubilee year.  They had a wonderful rapport including the following exchange that Bono recalls.

"I said 'Holy father, do you want a pair of fly shades?' and he said 'yes' and he put them on and he made a face kind of like this."

Bono retained an affection for JP2 and a tribute to him is on the U2News site.

John Paul II wore modest clothing.  He continued the tradition set by Paul VI and John Paul I of not wearing the Papal tiara.

Papal Tiara, not worn in over 40 years

We have a Fashionisto in Pope Benedict XVI

Much has been written about  Benedict XVI's fashion sense.  He was named "The Best Accessorized Man of 2007" by Esquire Magazine.  Though he has continued to abstain from the tiara, Benedict still looks sharp and knows how to raid the papal closet.  Listen to the NPR story and check out some of The Holy Father's fantastic looks.  As mentioned in a previous post, he really could use concealer under the eyes, but he's not gone into the realm of metrosexual and shows no hints of doing so.  

This article is hysterical and enormously entertaining.  Read "Red Hot Papa"

No, he's not wearing Prada.  The papal clothes are custom made by other designers, read this Washington Post article.  

The New York Times wrote a comprehensive article on Papal fashion too.

The shoes are custom made and free to the pope.
If you want a pair, they are 400 Euro

They're not Prada, but they
are made especially for the pope
and free of charge to him

He likes hats.  Here we have a jaunty
cap matched with a cassock.  I'm not
sure that it works, but he seems to
enjoy it.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Pope's Baseball Cap & CatholicTV<a>
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election March to Keep Fear Alive

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Pope's Baseball Cap & CatholicTV<a>

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

2010 Election

March to Keep Fear Alive

Colbert Report Full Episodes

2010 Election

March to Keep Fear Alive

Father, if you're going with the fancy filligree cross
with emeralds, you need to wear the red hat.  The
straw hat goes with the plain cross.

This "Santa" cap has gotten lots of
attention.  Both it and the ermine-trimmed
cape were in his closet.  He wears them
for warmth during the Christmas season

He loves this hat and wears it all the time

Liturgical vestments should be beautiful.  The Pope is
standing in the place of Christ.  Remember the woman
with the expensive perfume.  She annointed Jesus' feet.
"This could have been sold to feed the poor," said JUDAS.  

The loving care with which his stole was embroidered strikes me.
Those who came before did this with love.  

Handmade lace, gold embroidery, silk, and jewels.  The only place
he can wear this is when he's serving Jesus Christ.  I think that's
just beautiful.  

Note the gorgeous emerald cross.  It's much
flashier than John Paul's look, but each pope
is different.  The New York Times article
linked above discusses the cross.

I asked a priest once about the pomp and the ceremony, does it ever go to the bishop's head?  He said...

The bishop is the donkey who carries Jesus Christ to the people, 

he would be a fool indeed if  he thought they were waving palm 

branches for him.  I think Benedict XVI does realize whose clothes

he's wearing.  Look to his actions and his words.  Don't be like Judas

and deny him nice things our of false humility!