Brian’s Reflection: Friday, February 25, 2011

Pope Pius V excommunicated
England's Queen Elizabeth I ;
on this date, 1570

As people on Facebook would say: WTF!?


Very “Christian” of Pius V, don’t you think?? Not only did he excommunicate her, he stated that any person who killed Queen Elizabeth would go straight to Heaven. Pius V should be grateful that Jesus “died for his sins” too.

Well: it’s Feb 25th. On this date, 1836, Samuel Colt patented his revolver. Now, hasn’t that been a lovely addition to our civilized development! If Jesus had been alive, I’m sure He would have cheered. Ya, right!

In 1913, on this date, The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving Congress the power to levy and collect income taxes, was declared in effect. That allowed us, we Americans, to use, at present, more than 1/3rd of our tax dollars to maintain the by-far-largest military complex on the planet – meaning that we have no money to care for our people. Charming. Very Christian, in this nation which many claim us to be. I spoke to Jesus the other day and asked Him about this. He could only manage a wan smile.

1943: Beatle George Harrison was born on this date, in Liverpool. Dead now. And he would have been today only three years older than I. Makes one sit up and take notice!

1964: Cassius Clay (who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali) became the world heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Sonny Liston in Miami Beach. So tell me: just how much has boxing advanced the humanity of human culture? How much did it make us more like the God of Love??

In 1991 on this date, an Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 28 Americans during the Persian Gulf War. War. Is this the behaviour of evolved human beings ….. after 110,000 or more years of development of homo sapiens?? Do we just go in cycles? Is there any actual forward advancement?? (Listen to the daily news.)

1999: A jury in Jasper, Texas, sentenced white supremacist John William King to death for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., an African-American man. Twelve years later, he is still on Death Row. Whatever you think of the death penalty, what does this say about American justice, and about our commitment to eradicate racism?

1965: Dame Myra Hess (b. 2/25/1890), English pianist, died. Has music actually in any way “soothed the savage beast”?? What has rap contributed? Come on folks! What do we really stand for in America??

Many folk like to claim that we are a “Christian” nation. I don’t see it much. Do you? Is there much evidence to support our claim?

1870: Hiram Revels, a Mississippi Republican, was sworn in as the first black member of the U.S. Senate. Today, how many African-American senators do we have? None.

WTF??!!

Brian+