The Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal is on this weekend.

This year they aim to raise $79 million.

Most people feel vaguely favourable to the Salvation Army and give generously to them . . . .

But what is the Salvation Army?

* * *

It was founded in England in 1865 by one-time Methodist clergyman, William Booth. (He called himself “General Booth”.)

The emphasis was always on open-air preaching, high-decibel music and helping the poor and needy.

Booth summed it up as the “Three S’s” — Soup, Soap and Salvation.

Soup and Soap are self-explanatory.

But what about Salvation?

That is where, perhaps, they go too far.

They pose as a “Christian” organisation.

Are they?

Booth described his belief-system as “mainstream Protestant”.                              

The religion founded by Jesus Christ was, however, light-years away from the Salvation Army’s religion.

* * *

The key “S” that Jesus left for the human race is the Sacraments.

Four Sacraments that God wants every person to participate in are:

* Baptism

* Confirmation

* Confession (Penance)

* the Eucharist (Holy Communion).

The Salvation Army doesn’t do Baptism. The Salvation Army doesn’t do Confirmation.  The Salvation Army doesn’t do Confessions. The Salvation Army doesn’t do Holy Communion.

* * *

Jesus commanded his disciples, “Go, therefore, into all nations, baptising them . . . .”      

But the Salvos don’t.

At the Last Supper, Jesus gave the consecrated Bread and Wine to his disciples, saying, “This do in remembrance of me . . . .”

The Salvos don’t.

So what is net value of the Salvation Army?

Arguably more harm than good — teaching people who seek God that they don’t need to find Him in the way that Christ himself prescribed.

Yes, the Charity work that they do is OK . . . .

But the Saint Vincent de Paul Society does all that — WITHIN the Catholic Church.

No need for a breakaway movement.

At the Royal Wedding on Friday, the Bible passage was read by James Middleton, brother of Catherine

The words he read were as follows:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God–what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.   (Romans 12)

* * *

As the writer, Saint Paul, says, we are here on earth to serve God. To do that we need to be transformed by him.

If one lives God’s way, there will be enemies. But we are not to treat them as such. They are to be treated as fellow children of God.

This was an excellent choice of reading.

James read it well, with apparent conviction:

www.3news.co.nz/VIDEO-Kate-Middletons-brother-reads-bible-passage/tabid/313/articleID/209158/Default.aspx

The (homosexual) Mardi Gras happened last Saturday.

But doesn’t “Mardi” mean Tuesday?

Mardi Gras means “Fat Tuesday” – popularly known in the past as “Pancake Day”.

It’s the last day of unrestrained eating before Ash Wednesday (March 9 this year).

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent — the forty day fast preceding Good Friday and Easter, when Christ’s Crucifixion and Resurrection will be celebrated.

* * *

The theme of Saturday’s event was “homosexual marriage”.

Australia’s homosexual community already does fairly well. They are legally protected from vilification.

The government has done for them all that a government can do.

No good asking the government to give them something (the right to call their relationships “marriages”) which isn’t the government’s to give.

Marriage is a religious matter. A Christian Sacrament. Only God can bestow valid marriage — his Church being his agency in doing so.

Most people instinctively know this.

* * *

It’s no good talking about “rights”.

No human has the “right” to destroy himself.

Everyone knows that homosexual acts destroy human health.

Everyone knows that oral sex, practised by over 90 percent of homosexual males, is a major means of spreading hepatitis A and hepatitis B. (1)

Everyone knows that anal sex, practised by over 90 percent of homosexual males, is a leading cause of gonorrhoea, syphilis and AIDS. (2)

Homosexual acts are also spiritually destructive – something to discuss another time.

* * *

One more worry.

In the state of Victoria, 20 percent of victims of sexual assault are males, 83 percent being aged under 17. (3)

The proportion of Australian men identifying as homosexual is 1.6 percent.  The number identifying as “bisexual” is 0.9 percent. (4)

If a group of less than 3 percent of the male population commits more than 20% of male sex crimes, that has to be a worry.

(1) The Lancet 399:938

(2) Journal of the American Medical Association 251: 237

 (3) Victoria Police Crime Statistics 2000-2005.

(4)  Aust NZ J. Public Health 27: 138-145

In Australian law, marriage is defined as “the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life”.

This was re-affirmed early in 2010 in Federal Parliament.

However, later in the year, Greens Party MP, Mr Brandt, succeeded in forcing the lower house to support a motion seeking “feedback from the community on same-sex marriage”.

There are many Members of Parliament and others who have strong arguments why normal marriage should continue to be what the law recognises . . . .

It is not easy to reach average TV watchers and newspaper readers with that message.

Australia’s media seem biased the other way.

* * *

People need to be reminded that children raised by their two real parents, married and living together, are the least likely to get into crime, drug-involvement and unhealthy ways of life.

These facts are important and undeniable.

They constitute the second most important reason for recognising traditional marriage.

* * *

The most important reason relates to God.

It is God’s will that people marry and stay married and raise their children together.

Marriage is, first and foremost, a Sacrament of the Church.

In other words, marriage is a means, given by Jesus Christ himself, by which God gives his grace — empowering couples with the supernatural help needed to live a holy marriage in a very unholy world.

Marriage should be celebrated in a church by a priest.

The couple should be faithful in attending Confession and Mass regularly.

When children come along, they must be baptised, confirmed and taught and shown how to live the Faith.

* * *

A small practical means by which Australians can make a stand for marriage is to sign the online petition urging our Parliament to give Traditional Marriage its rightful place.

You can find the petition at:  http://www.guybarnett.com/Pages/article.aspx?ID=768: 

In his New Year message, Pope Benedict mentioned that he is organising a “Peace Summit” at Assisi, Italy, in October 2011.

He said its purpose would be “to solemnly renew the effort of those with faith of all religions to live their faith as a service for the cause of peace”.

Also that the Summit would “honour the memory of the historical event promoted by my predecessor”.

25 years ago, in 1986, Pope John Paul II held a Summit, also at Assisi, calling together leaders of many ideological groups, including Protestants, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Animists etc.

Will the same be done again?

How far can we take this? Will Satanists be invited?  

Mormons?

Time will tell.

* * *

It seems certain that this proposed meeting will include many things that would have been prohibited by earlier traditional Catholic Popes . . . .

Like Pope Pius XI who, in the 1920s, said, “The Catholic Church has never permitted its subjects to take part in congresses of non-Catholics. The union of Christians cannot be considered except by promoting the return of the dissidents to the One True Church.”

Traditional Catholics cannot avoid recognising such get-togethers as a betrayal of the Faith for which many in the past laid down their lives.

The original Christians willingly accepted being fed to the lions rather than compromising and pretending to go along with non-Catholic religion.

* * *

It is the duty of every Catholic to love our non-Catholic brothers and sisters.

We can do this best by letting them know what the true Catholic message is.

And that God does not regard the Catholic Sacraments as optional extras.

If our message comes over as “all religions are nice and more or less the same etc.” we are letting non-believers down badly.

We should all be happy about Christmas, the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The fact is that only Jesus can solve the real problems of mankind.

All real problems of men derive from sin (disobedience to God).

Health disorders, material, economic and political troubles – even bad decisions by umpires – all these are only really problems insofar as they affect our spiritual relationship with God.

* * *

That’s why Christmas is a good thing.

Christmas carries the message that there is a remedy for our troubles — the remedy being God’s forgiveness for our sins.

If we continue in unforgiven sin, we are a waste of both time and space – and can expect God to treat us as such.

So the problem of sin is serious.

Fatally serious.

The answer to that problem is NOT for us to make up our minds to do better.

That way we’ll merely discover that we’re incapable of persevering in ”doing better” for any length of time — because we’re spiritually broken, and can only be repaired by supernatural means.

The supernatural means being found exclusively in the confessional at a Catholic Church.

We might think it would be nice if there were some other alternative remedy — but there is none.

* * *

Anyway we don’t need an alternative.

God loves us enough to have given us the way back to him that we need.

Do we hate ourselves so much as to not accept his loving gift?

God will forgive because the sacrificial death of the God-made-man, Jesus Christ, was so infinitely meritorious  . . . .

So meritorious that it more than counterbalances all our attempts to make an enemy of God by disobeying him.

* * *

Let us thank God for his plan for our salvation, and for that first Christmas Day when it began to make itself apparent here on earth.

Let us also thank the Blessed Virgin Mary for her part in the birth — and in the Passion and death — of our Saviour.

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