2019 Not a Good Year for EU Idolatry

As 2019 comes to a close, right-minded people can rejoice that Great Britain will be sovereign again having thrown off the EU.  The 2016 Brexit referendum was finally followed up in 2019 by the resounding victory of Boris Johnson, who made “Get Brexit Done” his chief campaign platform, and the accompanying resounding defeat of those who did not respect the 2016 referendum and sought to obstruct Brexit.

But Robert Innes, the Bishop of the Church of England’s Diocese in Europe, is not so happy about that.  If you really want to read his whinging, you can go to Anglican Ink for that.

Now one may think my headline about “EU Idolatry” might be overwrought.  But it is prompted by the photo of Innes’ idolatrous mitre at Anglican Ink (with apologies to Anglican Ink for, well, stealing it):

Yes. That is an outline of Europe front and center on his mitre.  It is appalling that anyone claiming to be a Christian bishop would wear such a mitre.  Jesus is Lord, not any state, and not the EU.  And his kingdom is not of this world.  To have Europe – or the U. S. or a world globe for that matter – so displayed on a mitre is idolatry (not to mention in bad taste, also a cardinal sin in Anglicanism).

(And if that is the outline of his diocese, that is no excuse.  Jesus is Lord, not the area of a diocese.  If I were somehow a Bishop of Texas, I would not dare to have an outline of Texas so prominantly displayed on my mitre.)

But then the Socialist Globalist politics most Church of England bishops so adore is part of the idolatry of the state which has so plagued Europe and the world, is it not? No wonder those bishops so deplored Brexit.

Anyway, let us rejoice all the more that the brazen idols of Statism, Globalism and of the EU had a bad year in 2019.  May the 2020's be a decade in which millions upon millions become all the more freed from their illegitimate power.

Pachamama Returns: Is Francis Committing Idolatry? UPDATED

I will soon be going to [TRIGGER WARNING!! AVERT YOUR EYES ALL YE SNOWFLAKES!!] a gun show.  So I am posting in haste.  I do not like to do so but the controversy about the Pachamama statues at the Vatican’s Amazon Synod has become so significant that I am compelled to comment.

To be brief, Pope Francis has noted that “the Pachamama statues” have been retrieved.  Yes, that is what he has now called them, and that in itself is significant. He thereby acknowledges that the statues are idols that have been brought into the Synod even though he claims there were “no idolatrous intentions.”

That is just begging for satire, but continuing…

This situation could become much worse tomorrow.  For, even after acknowledging that they are “Pachamama statues,” Francis said that they may be included in the Synod’s closing mass:

The Commander of the Carabinieri [Italian police] wished to inform us of the retrieval before the news becomes public. At the moment the news is confidential, and the statues are being kept in the office of the Commander of the Italian Carabinieri.

The leadership of the Carabinieri will be very happy to follow any indication given on the method of making the news public, and regarding the other initiatives desired in its regard, for example, the commander said, “the display of the statues at the closing Mass of the Synod.” We’ll see.

I delegate the Secretary of State to respond to this.

This is good news, thank you.

Needless to say, if said display occurs, it would be a grievous and idolatrous provocation.  

Already, Fr. John Hunwicke is asking if Francis has committed “a formal act of Apostasy” under the canons:

If the statue venerated in the VGE was not of Pachamama, but PF erroneously believed that it was, would his act of veneration of this statue (if he did make such an act) still be a formal act of Apostasy, on the grounds that the Roman Pontiff intended to commit an act of idolatry?

I think the question answers itself although canon law may complicate the matter.  But, yes, this is a grave matter already.

I will continue to keep an eye on this matter and to pray for faithful orthodox Catholics, who surely must be distressed by this.

---

UPDATE: There are numerous reports that the Pachamama idols were not seen at the closing Mass of the Synod. 

A Parable of the Idolatrous Church

Just about all of us in the organized church read or at least hear Old Testament passages in which the Lord makes it quite clear he does not like and will not bless and will judge idolatry.  Heck, last I heard, that was part of the Ten Commandments no less.

So why do so many churches think that now in more modern times God will somehow bless idolatry in the churches even though he judged idolatry in Israel?  Maybe they think God has loosened up or become more enlightened.  Apparently, some in the organized church think God is fine with Molech worship now as people in dog collars advocate for abortion on demand for all nine months of pregnancy.  And, of course, there are any number of other ways the organized church puts modern secularist political values above God’s standards as proclaimed in scripture.  The word of secularist man is put above the Word of God.

Do such libchurchers expect God to put up with that or even bless it?  Do such have no fear of God?

But it is not just libchurchers who bring idolatry into the organized church.  Sometimes well-meaning churches make idols out of good things.  Back in 2005, I noted an example - Family First Church. Its very name is idolatrous.  Yes, family is good, a vital part of God’s design.  But only God should be put first in the church.

This is Family First Church on this past New Years Eve.

 And today that remaining shell of a building is down.  The church building had such plumbing and electrical issues that the city condemned it.

Now I do not presume to know how much of this, if any, was God’s judgment and how much just a terrible mishap.  Bad things do happen to good churches. But the Lord has made it very clear that he will judge idolatry.  So why do any churches put anything first other than God?  Bigger picture, why does the church in the West persist in various idolatries even when the deadly results are already evident in declining membership and closed churches?  A higher power than the City condemns idolatry, and “judgment must begin at the house of God.” (I Peter 4:17 KJ)

Now God is merciful.  The congregation of Family First has joined another congregation, and the change seems to be blessing the blended church.  But any church is wrongly presuming on God’s mercy when it brings idolatry in.  And, yes, much of the decline of the church in the West is due to presumptuous idolatry.

Does the organized church literally have to crumble to the ground for us to get that?

In Case You Did Not Know Socialism is Idolatry…

I could make well-reasoned arguments as to why socialism is idolatry.  I could point out that socialism gives the state so much power, it more or less makes it the god of a country.  I could point out that socialism looks to the Holy State as the Great Provider.  I could point out that socialism in practice claims the State, not God, owns everything.  It might let you keep something at its forbearance - and you had better be thankful for that – but do not even think about defending your so-called property against the State Almighty.

But I am tired this morning so I will simply present to you the Socialist Party of Venezuela.

"Our Chavez who art in heaven, the earth, the sea and we delegates," red-shirted delegate Maria Estrella Uribe recited on Monday at the PSUV party Congress.

"Hallowed be your name, may your legacy come to us so we can spread it to people here and elsewhere. Give us your light to guide us every day," she said in front of an image of Chavez.

"Lead us not into the temptation of capitalism, deliver us from the evil of the oligarchy, like the crime of contraband, because ours is the homeland, the peace and life forever and ever. Amen. Viva Chavez!" she exclaimed to applause.

Though Chavez died of cancer in March 2013, he remains omnipresent in Venezuela. His photo is plastered all over capital Caracas, state TV frequently airs excerpts of his famously lengthy speeches and supporters sometimes don earrings or pendants with an artistic black-and-white rendition of his eyes.