"End times" refers to the period before the end of the world or a specific era, often associated with biblical prophecies and the Second Coming of Christ, and can also refer to the study of these "last things" called eschatology.
Things are changing and to a sufficient degree that makes me think that the end times might be here.
The best ever pope - Pope Francis is on his last legs and there are rumblings in the Vatican about the need for change (again). Place this against the ridiculous and dangerous radical right Christian movement in USA being sanctioned by the ridiculous and dangerous radical right MAGA movement headed by the ridiculous and dangerous radical right Donal Trump and we are likely to live with more anti LGBQT and anti women's rights preaching from the nation's pulpits.
Cracks are showing in that though with some Christians already defying the Vatican's teachings and going their own way. I've become aware of one previously avid god-botherer who has for years promoted the Bible as real and worthy and the Ten Commandments as sacrosanct. He's banged on about this ad nauseam much to all the other bloggers' annoyance. Well, blow me down if he's not by thought and deed defying one of the commandments. These ones:
1. Thou Shalt Not Have Strange Gods before Me. 2. Thou Shalt Not Make Unto Thee Any Graven Image.
Yes, you heard it here. That's what this joker has been doing.
"How" you might ask and I'm glad that you did.
Have a look at this:
"Holy shit!" you might exclaim and you'd be right in two ways. It is scary and it is holy shit.
Robert now blogging as Rob (he's dropped all of the Catholic titles) has built an effigy in his back yard that he prays to. Click on it to see close up - it's as scary as fuck. No wonder God and Moses concocted that ban on effigies and graven images. I wonder if his priest and the congregation at his church know what he's up to? An excommunication is on the cards I think and might make the news like Lloyd Geering did when facing charges of doctrinal error in the Presbyterian church of New Zealand.
Today I watched a live-stream funeral service for my uncle at Our Lady of Kapiti Catholic church.
I was impressed, not by the religious side of things of course, but by the proficiency of the technology and frankly that there was a very good balance between 'churchiness' and family and friends gathering.
Fr. Michael McCabe presented the eulogy on behalf of the family and did it extremely well. Normally I'm against priests, celebrants or other agents doing this especially if they have no awareness of the deceased's life. In this case McCabe was respectful and, as my uncle had been a very regular church goer, knew him. The eulogy made from family members memories was a good celebration of his life and was followed by a photo collage accompanied by mt uncle's favourite music.
My cousin's husband presented a separate eulogy and did it very well.
To me, this is what religion and churches are all about. Places of sanctuary and gathering amongst friends and family and, in the case of funeral services, remembering the loved one and swapping stories.
I would have liked to be there but after the eye-procedure yesterday have blurred vision today and couldn't get to Paraparaumu at short notice.
"My eyes are dim I can not see I have not got my specs with me I have not got my specs with me."
Yesterday while playing tennis I had to call it quits early and go home because I couldn't see properly.
My eyes have been giving my gyp recently and have been worse over the last few days. I had planed to go to an optician for a check up and a new prescription for lenses but The Old Girl convinced me to make an appointment with an ophthalmologist. I did that yesterday but, no surprises here, the earliest I can be seen is mid January. The cost is enormous but hey! Eyesight is extremely important.
I'm hoping that the outcome will be the requirement for a new prescription but at my age, cataracts and macular degeneration are a real possibility.
Fingers crossed (not eyes hopefully).
I'll give tennis another go tomorrow if the rain eases up.
I've mentioned before how Christianity and Catholicism's 'beliefs' and 'proofs' didn't originate until centuries after Christ's death but, hey don't just take my word for it, watch this documentary if you want.
It's good to see this laid out in a digestible essay even if it's a bit repetitive. It's something that I've learned over my lifetime from reading, university studies, discussions with theologians I've known and of course my in-built atheism. Believe me (a little joke there) this is worth watching.
I favour the last of these definitions, the ' pursuit of interest followed with great devotion.'
I'm not religious if 'religion' is defined as belief in and worship of a supernatural being but I have tried to live my life within guidelines that maybe are not spiritual but certainly are ethical. I like to think, even though I've failed many times, that I've been fair and caring in my interactions with family, friends, associates, employees, service providers, authorities and society in general. If there were such things as sins and blessings then I hope that my 'blessings' have outweighed the 'sins'.
This came to me this evening, as it sometimes does when enjoying a nice glass of wine (Te Terra Martinborough Pinot Noir) and I recalled a comment that Robert wrote following my comment on his latest blog post and my follow-up comment.
Here's the thread:
My dad was brought up in a mixed faith household - his father was a Methodist and his mother a Catholic. When he sought to marry my mother, who was a Catholic, the silly Catholic Church, as a condition of them marrying in one of their silly churches demanded that my father sign up to Catholicism exclusively. I guess that dad said "whatever' and just went along with it to get the job done. Apart from his own wedding, family weddings, baptisms and funerals I don't think dad attended any other Catholic Church ceremonies - certainly never Sunday Mass.
Dad, with mum, brought us up as Catholics though and, when we were very young and mum was dragging us off to Sunday Mass, when we remonstrated that dad wasn't coming with us mum would just tell us that he was a heathen and was going to hell. That was the norm and accepted. I guess that this was influential on me when at age 12 in Standard Six I stopped going to Mass and thought the whole thing was a waste of time.
Dad was a tradesman and worked long hours but he was still involved in community works helping out institutions like the RSA, Wellington Council and the Catholic Church with its many commitments like The Home of Compassion, local churches and schools and the Wellington Catholic Diocese. Maybe he saw this as his 'worship', who knows? I never (unfortunately) discussed this with him. I do know though that he was liked and respected by those he helped particularly the nuns at The Home of Compassion. I also know or, am sure, that he was never looking to 'get into heaven' through his good works. That wouldn't have been on his radar. He just did the right thing and, I'm sure, my own ethical standards come as much or more from his guidance than from all the instruction I had from nuns, brothers and priests.
Is there a god or gods? I don't believe there is but, if there is one or many, I hope that they are more like my old man was and not the despots that Robert believes in.
This song from Jethro Tull comes to mind. Here are the lyrics and, Youtube allowing, the video clip to follow:
"When I was young and they packed me off to school and taught me how not to play the game, I didn't mind if they groomed me for success, or if they said that I was just a fool So I left there in the morning with their God tucked underneath my arm their half-assed smiles and the book of rules So I asked this God a question and by way of firm reply, He said I'm not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays So to my old headmaster (and to anyone who cares): before I'm through I'd like to say my prayers I don't believe you: you had the whole damn thing all wrong He's not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays Well you can excomunicate me on my way to Sunday school and have all the bishops harmonise these lines how do you dare tell me that I'm my Father's son when that was just an accident of Birth I'd rather look around me compose a better song `cos that's the honest measure of my worth In your pomp and all your glory you're a poorer man than me, as you lick the boots of death born out of fear. When I was young and they packed me off to school and taught me how not to play the game, I didn't mind if they groomed me for success, or if they said that I was just a fool So I left there in the morning with their God tucked underneath my arm their half-assed smiles and the book of rules Well you can excomunicate me on my way to Sunday school and have all the bishops harmonize these lines When I was young and they packed me off to school and taught me how not to play the game, I didn't mind if they groomed me for success, or if they said that I was just a fool So to my old headmaster (and to anyone who cares): before I'm through I'd like to say my prayers Well you can excomunicate me on my way to Sunday school and have all the bishops harmonize these lines I don't believe you: you had the whole damn thing all wrong He's not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays."
Robert, on his blog and in his latest post now published under the name Robert the sinner (we won't ask what he's been up to) seems to be lamenting the decline of his favourite Church - the Catholic Church and has come up with some statistics that the Vatican probably don't want anyone to see. Maybe that's Robert's sin?
Robert wrote:
11-year decline in worldwide priestly vocations continues The number of major seminarians worldwide fell from 109,895 at the end of 2021 to 108,481 at the end of 2022, according to statistics published by the Fides news agency (CWN coverage). Between the end of 2020 and the end of 2021, the number of seminarians worldwide had declined from 111,855 to...
Worldwide baptisms fall over 15% in 6 years The number of baptisms administered in the Church worldwide plunged from over 16 million in 2016 to 13,327,037 in 2022—a decline of 17% over six years, according to the appendix to statistics published by the Fides news agency (CWN coverage). There were 18.1 million baptisms in 1991,...
If he'd asked me anytime over the last 60 years I'd have said - "I told you so" but he didn't.
What I don't get though is that if the Catholic Church has falling numbers of dupes subscibers and then one assumes, less money to throw around, then how come I received this letter today from a Catholic priest offering to give me money?
In his second to last post Robert mentioned the church shop again that he occasionally mans (seeing as very few other people want to).
"He was on Church shop at 9am.
"I can do you a deal on some overpriced rosary beads, some crappy medals made in China or some right-wing, mysogynistic, fact-devoid Christian pamphlets. Two for the price of one."
He wondered if the chap from Wainui would come asking for hot cross buns. Rob always referred him across the road to Woolworths. The chap would rave about obscure chords before suddenly looking at his watch. "Have to go ,have to go ...oh my!" and hurry off. Because he was busy with the shop and collections Rob liked to go to the Mass the previous evening too. He could sit at the front and concentrate free of distractions. He was anxious to receive Holy Communion with a clean 'slate'. It always felt better that way. A sinful soul was like a dark dungeon for Jesus. Jesus had suffered enough on the cross for his sins, he didn't want to add to His pain. As he had entered the church a husband and wife team was handing out brochures. He politely declined the weekly newsletter from the gentleman, having received his by email. The lady asked him if he wanted the Catholic monthly newspaper. He declined again, not wishing to have to take it into the church. She seemed put out. He thought of a comical situation in the film Airplane where Robert Stack deals with people trying to give him pamphlets. The Gospel is about divorce. Jesus says Moses had allowed it but He was now putting his foot down. It had to stop! The sermon carries on that theme. Robert finds the native African priest dryly humorous. He has a Ph D evidently and his wit seems to go over the heads of most of the congregation."
In a comment on one of Richard's posts he said:
Is this a sign that cracks are showing in his belief in Catholicism? After all, he has, in his latest post admitted that the 'Ten Commandments' is a crock of shit:
"Let's take a closer look at commandments in Exodus. I do not want to say THE TEN COMMANDMENTS! Because these are not advice for living well or Tennant's for everyone to get along okee-dory with everyone else. Really there are not necessarily only ten. They may not even be mutually exclusive as TC pointed out in his blog. They build on each other. "Don't steal" then later " look to be perfectly honest don't even think of stealing"!"
- Robert Monday 7 October
... or that's what I gleaned in that convoluted and grammatically incorrect paragraph. I blame the Scottish beer.
Maybe Robert needs to jazz up the church shop offerings. Hey! What a great idea that I actually suggested in a comment on Richard's post:
Admittedly Robert's church shop has a pretty crappy offering that he has admitted to. I looked on-line to see if that was the norm and, sadly it seems to be the case around the country. Even the Cathedral Shop has defaulted to Trade Me which is really 'letting the moneylenders into the Temple' Jesus would no doubt disapprove.
Other shops, as Robert informed us, carry expensive (and overpriced) tatty junk:
Look at the price of that!
I bet that they bought it from TEMU for about $3 and applied a generous and 'sacred' mark-up.
I suggest going to the source for tatty religious junk. Here a a few of the many offerings on the TEMU website:
Wow! classy.
100 of these for $13.94!
Admittedly I'd have liked to have one of these when back at school
Who wouldn't want one of these over the door?
Robert - that's who. He'd no doubt want a pair of them.
Robert was right to criticise his church's shop's offerings. As the virtual sole proprietor though he should become a bit more involved in purchasing, price-setting, display, merchandising, marketing and advertising.
Earlier I briefly suggested some new stock items and services like a condom machine, a magazine rack with some trendy lifestyle publications, a vape section that can be expanded when this current government allows vaping tobacco, a wine section with bottles with labels preferably featuring Jesus, a novelty section where funny’s things like false beards, fart cushions, itching powder, stink bombs and plastic dog turds can be sold to amuse the kids and altar boys who would otherwise be bored, and a communion host section. These can be expanded with a music section featuring some old favourites likeThe Faith Tones:
... and The Ministers Quartet:
Some cross-marketing could be had in providing foodstuff items, home furnishings and clothing as these are always in demand:
Obviously these are just preliminary ideas and suggestions. A more detailed marketing plan and sales strategy can be written - I'll do it for a reasonable fee.
