The Prophet Muhammad

Did the title of this post make you  bristle?  Did you wonder, is this going to confirm my beliefs?  Is it going to be hype?  Is it going to be hate-mongering? Is it going to be politically correct?

There is precious little information about the Arab world before The Prophet.  In fact, among non-Muslim sources, the very existence of The Prophet Muhammad is often questioned.  As with many Christian texts, original documents regarding Muhammad (peace be upon him [pbuh],) may be incomplete or lost.  But many careful and faithful copies of Muslim texts, including the full version of The Qur'an, were completed after the death of the original authors.  This does not mean that the original documents never existed, it is merely a hazard of history, war, the elements, and mobility.  During the Protestant Reformation, 7 books of the bible were taken out of the canon of scripture because of original versions being lost to time.  Coult this be a grave mistake that has done a severe disservice to Protestant spirituality?  The historical Church sure thinks so!

The Catholic Church and The Orthodox Church have NEVER doubted the historical Prophet Muhammad [pbuh].  In fact, Christians have enjoyed a treaty with the founder of Islam for centuries.  This treaty is known as The Achtiname of Muhammad and its authenticity has not been questioned since Muhammad's [pbuh] lifetime by Christians or Muslims.  In fact, the treaty has been renewed with Islamic leaders over the centuries.   Would this mean that The Prophet Muhammad's [pbuh] words became invalid upon his death?  Certainly not.  That would invalidate the Qur'an.  The renewal of the treaty simply showed new generations of Christians and Muslims that The Prophet's words would be respected and upheld, much like the way U.S. presidents swear to uphold The Constitution or witnesses swear on The Bible.

Here is a translation of The Achtiname of Muhammad.

"This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.

No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries.
No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.

No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.

Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants. No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world)."

English translation from 'Muslim History: 570 - 1950 C.E.' by Dr. A. Zahoor and Dr. Z. Haq, ZMD Corporation. P.O. Box 8231 - Gaithersburg, MD 20898-8231 - Copyright Akram Zahoor 2000. P. 167.

Similar language and sentiment is recorded in Persia  in The Chronicle of Seert.

I have seen many videos and heard speeches by online personalities, who are otherwise not idiots, talk about Muhammad with hatred and a complete lack of respect.  While it is true that one cannot hold Christian and Muslim beliefs together, it is not true that hateful and disrespectful language toward Muslims is acceptable to God.  If our aim is to convert the world and give His creation back to Him, we must love one another.  Only through Love can the Holy Spirit work toward conversion in the heart of another.

St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai

3 Degrees

The Prophet Muhammad signed the above treaty at St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt.

El Greco was a painter of The Spanish Renaissance.  

El Greco painted St. Catherine's on the back of his Modena Triptych

He also painted Pope Pius V.

Pope Pius V, portrait by El Greco in the 17th Century

Muhammad to El Greco (via St. Catherine's Monastery) to Pope Pius V to Blessed John Paul II

Justin Bieber

5 Degrees

Tween idol, Justin Bieber and fourth degree, Kim Kardashian are friends.

Here they pose together in a photo reminiscent of the Dustin Hoffman
film, The Graduate

Kardashian (front row toward the right in a blue dress) and third degree, Beyonce Knowles (blue cigarette pants and yellow shoes front row toward the left) at 2012 Fashion Week for Vera Wang's show.

We already read in a previous post how Beyonce went to Egypt and met Zahi Hawass to give her three degrees.  Let's take a different tack here to link to Blessed John Paul II.  

In January of 2011, Vera Wang was invited to a state dinner at the White House to greet
Chinese President Hu Jintao

Jackie Chan was also on the guest list

Yo Yo Ma was awarded the Medal of Freedom at
the Chinese State Dinner.  He also performed at Senator
Ted Kennedy's funeral with first degree, Placido Domingo.

This is another picture of the Kennedy funeral.  Note first degree,
President George W Bush and first degree Jimmy Carter.  Cardinal O'Malley is also
a first degree.

Blessed John Paul II and President Jimmy Carter at the
beginning of JP's pontificate

At Castel Gandalfo

4 Degrees

Bieber to Kardashian to Vera Wang to Placido Domingo to Pope JP2

5 Degrees

Bieber to Kardashian to Beyonce to Dr. Hawass to Laura Bush to Pope JP2

Bieber to Kardashian to Vera Wang to Yo Yo Ma to Jimmy Carter to Pope JP2

Bieber to Kardashian to Vera Wang to Yo Yo Ma to Cardinal O'Malley to Pope JP2

The Saints and Heroes of 9/11

May their memory be eternal.  I'd like to tell the story about brave and loving people who were cut down by self-righteousness and judgementalism.  The terrorists who used planes as bombs on 9/11 were certain that they were right and just in their actions.  They were wrong.  The people they murdered were some of the finest that mankind has to offer.

Even in death, Father Mychal saved lives

The man who has since been called, "the saint of 9/11" was a Franciscan friar and chaplain to the New York City Fire Department.  His name was Father Mychal Judge.  His death saved the life of every man in this picture.  If he had not died, these men would have been in the towers, trying to save victims, when the towers collapsed.  Father Mychal's was the first death recorded on 9/11.

For a biography on Father Mychal, click here.  Here is a trailer for the film, The Saint of 9/11.  A documentary film was being made on 9/11 and Father Mychal was captured staring out a plate glass window with his lips moving.  He was absolving people as they fell to their deaths.  Moments later there was an explosion and Mychal Judge was blasted to his death.  As members of his flocked carried his body out of the tower, the tower fell.  For the NPR story remembering Mychal Judge, click here.

1 Degree

The plane that started the fire that killed Father Mychal tipped off the passengers of Flight 93.  Through a series of plane-to-land phone calls, the passengers figured out that their plane was being hijacked to be used as a bomb and that they needed to act in order to save others and possibly themselves.  This past week some tapes were declassified.  These tapes give a clearer picture of what happened on that flight.  Families of those heroic passengers have requested that the final 30 minutes, the portion after "Let's roll," not be released.  That struggle and the impact are private and making them public would not be appropriate.  The 9/11 Commission heard them however, and used the knowledge from them in their report.

Here are some videos and audio clips.  May their memory be eternal.



For a transcript of the above video, click here.

The passengers formulated a plan, voted and ratified it, and implemented it in 30 minutes.  They rammed drink carts into the cockpit door.  In response the terrorist rocked the plane from side to side to knock the passengers down and stop them.  Finally the terrorist flying the plane said "should I put it in" and another said "yes" and the plane was crashed into the earth.  Here is a link to a story which describes that from the tapes.

Priorities and Frequency

Dear Readers,

I love writing this blog, but I need to slow down a little bit.  Posts won't be as regular or as frequent.  I need to attend to Fantasy Bishball until Advent because I said I would.  Also, and this is the main reason, I need to concentrate on weightloss and focus on that.  I'm cutting out Tiny Tower and blog posts I don't need to write to make time for workouts and maybe starting a Catholic/Orthodox weight loss blog.

Please continue to read older posts, there are almost 200 of them!  I'll add more as things hit the news.

Random O.C. Christian

Margaret Sanger

4 Degrees

Margaret Sanger's life's work is at odds with that of Jesus Christ.  But I think it only fair that Ms Sanger be allowed to speak for herself.  Here is an interview with Mike Wallace from the early 1960s.

Take a moment now to jot down the reasons why you believe abortion should be legal.  Even if you are a Catholic in step with The Church, go ahead, write them down.  Fewer poor people, fewer people born into instability, economic power for women might be among your reasons.

I think that abortion is still legal because Christians have not really put their heart into the issue.  Some distinctly annoying and distasteful Christians scream and yell on sidewalks and put gruesome pictures of baby pieces on their front lawn.  Some Christians hold long discourse with pro-choice friends over glasses of Merlot and agree to disagree.  Most just leave the fight to someone else, their view on the topic an ambivalent mix of understanding and revulsion.

In this Freakanomics piece, we see how the explosion of abortion in the 1970s made for far fewer criminals in the 1990s.  
Back to Ms Sanger.  Did you know she was the darling of the KKK lecture circuit?




Guess who drank Ms Sanger's cool-aide?

Second degree Barack Obama is carrying on the Aryan crusade of Margaret Sanger.  I don't believe that President Obama is ultimately comfortable with his public support of abortion.  Father Robert Barron thinks so too.

So think about it, is racism, classism, or a dislike of children keeping you from actively opposing abortion?  What about guilt for having an abortion or fathering an aborted baby?  Statistics from Planned Parenthood and The National Organization for Women say that between 30-40% of American women have an abortion in her lifetime.  Sure, shame comes from sin and abortion is a sin, but there's a cure for that, CONFESSION! Just go to confession and get on with it.  Quit wasting your time sitting on the fence.

If you need help recovering emotionally and/or spiritually from abortion, contact Project Rachel.

Rupert Murdoch

Rupert is only two degrees from John Paul II as evidenced by the following photos.

Rupert Murdoch and Second Degree, Tony Blaire, check out the clenched smile
of the Prime Minister

A much more relaxed Tony Blaire

Murdoch on left and his wife in red next to President George W Bush.

Mr. Murdoch runs the most prolific media empire in the world, but he's an absolute idiot.  Well, he claims to be an idiot.  In his "humble" testimony before British Parliament, he claimed not to know about his most successful newspaper's journalists tapping the phones of politicians and celebrities.  

Prince Charles was tapped by Murdoch's
organization.  Charles is shown here with
Pope John Paul II

This guy was also tapped by Murdoch's minions.

But it's the suicides and inhuman cruelty that surrounded News of the World that we'll remember.  When a reporter hacked into a phone system and deleted messages so that more calls to a dead kidnapping victim could be recorded, Murdoch's organization was finally caught.  After years of treachery, he's been caught.  Only now, he's turned into Sgt. Schultz from Hogan's Heroes.  

Embodying evil?

Bearing false witness, it's considered a lightweight commandment by many, but it's actually one of the biggies.  We lie routinely, we gossip for entertainment, we think nothing of it.  But as we've seen in these past few posts, lying destroys the work of the good and facilitates the work of The Evil One.  To falsely accuse a priest of abuse means that children are less safe and a good man is ruined.  To cook up stories about people for ratings or paper sales drives the subjects of stories to despair and rips lives apart.

I remember learning that gossip was considered a sin when I was in High School.  I decided to cut it out of my life and didn't talk for over  a week!  Before that, you could never shut me up.  I'll never forget how amazed I was that all my vocal impulses were gossip.  I was ashamed.  Try it, you might be surprised too.

Michele Bachman

Michele Bachmann is making headlines because she is a Tea Party candidate for the 2012 election.  It's highly improbable that a Republican can defeat Obama and Michele's threat to the president's job is beyond unlikely.  It's impossible.  That having been said, let's have some fun.
Please, don't let someone who is so misinformed or disinterested in facts become a nominee.  Please, if you are Republican, push for a qualified candidate.

7 Degrees

Michele, the history L'Enfant terrible, the only woman who could make Sarah Palin look like the president of Mensa, is married to "Dr." Marcus Bachmann.



Separated at birth are Marcus (methinks the "gentleman" doth protest too much) Bachmann and Chastity (Chas) Bono.


Chas is the offspring of Sonny and Cher.

Cher appeared on Sex and the City alongside 4th degree, Sarah Jessica Parker.