Resurrection and Baptism

Happy Easter to all friends and visitors of this blog.

Today we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

On this holy day, Pope Benedict makes a highly significant and symbollic gesture:

At an Easter vigil mass in St Peter's Basilica on Saturday night the Pope baptized Magdi Allam, 55, a Muslim-born convert who is one of Italy's most outspoken journalists.

Allam, a fierce critic of Islamic extremism and a strong supporter of Israel, is protected by a police escort because of threats he has received.

WELL-KEPT SECRET

His conversion to Christianity was a well-kept secret, disclosed by the Vatican in a statement less than an hour before the Easter eve service started on Saturday night.

"For the Catholic Church, each person who asks to receive baptism after a deep personal search, a fully free choice and adequate preparation, has a right to receive it," it said.

Allam defended the pope in 2006 when the pontiff made a speech in Regensburg, Germany, that many Muslims perceived as depicting Islam as a violent faith.

The Vatican statement announcing Allam was joining Catholicism said all newcomers were "equally important before God's love and welcome in the community of the Church".

Allam, who has been living in Italy for 35 years, has said he was never a very devout Muslim. Still, his conversion to Christianity came as a surprise.

"What amazes me is the high profile the Vatican has given this conversion," Yaha Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, vice-president of the Italian Islamic Religious Community, told Reuters.

Gateway Pundit links to the photos

As this article reminds us,

The role of Christian theology is not to reconcile the diversity of 'creeds,' to find in Islam 'Christian seeds' and 'biblical seeds,' to engage in dialogue, but to proclaim the Christian message

The Pope has reaffirmed this role.
(h/t The Baron)

UPDATE
Muslim Converted by Pope Says
Life in More Danger

ROME - An outspoken muslim author and critic of Islamic fundamentalism who converted to Christianity at the hands of Pope Benedict said on Sunday he realised he was in greater danger but he has no regrets.

"I realise what I am going up against but I will confront my fate with my head high, with my back straight and the interior strength of one who is certain about his faith", said Magdi Allam.
...
Writing in Sunday's edition of the leading Corriere della Sera, the newspaper of which he is a deputy director, Allam said: "... the root of evil is innate in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictual". Allam, who is a strong supporter of Israel and who an Israeli newspaper once called a "Muslim Zionist," has lived under police protection following threats against him, particularly after he criticised Iran's position on Israel.

--------------------------------------------------------------
This week's WSJ's Five Best Books, selected by Gabriel Schoenfeld:


--------------------------------------------------------------
This week's shoes: the very pretty Geox Sarah sandal, perfect for showing off a pedicure . . . once the temperatures allow it:

--------------------------------------------------------------
Pat has the Easter Carnival of the Insanities





Share on Facebook

Good Friday Miserere

Psalm 51
David pleads for forgiveness after he went in to Bath-sheba—He pleads: Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me.
TO THE CHIEF MUSICIAN, A PSALM OF DAVID, WHEN NATHAN THE PROPHET CAME UNTO HIM, AFTER HE HAD GONE IN TO BATH-SHEBA.
1 Have amercy upon me, O God, according to thy blovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies cblot out my dtransgressions.
2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and acleanse me from my sin.
3 For I aacknowledge my transgressions: and my bsin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I asinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be bjustified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother aconceive me.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with ahyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
10 Create in me a aclean heart, O God; and brenew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from thy apresence; and take not thy bholy spirit from me.
12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be aconverted unto thee.
14 aDeliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
16 For thou desirest not asacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17 The asacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a bcontrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
18 Do good in thy good apleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.



Share on Facebook

Two media items:

The first item has to do with CNN's shameful exercise in moral equivalence and disregard for historical facts, God's Warriors. I watched part of the Christian Warriors episode and fully expected Amanpour to compare the Veggie Tales with the Hamas Mickey Mouse.

Phyllis Chesler in her article, CNN'S Master Plan: Part One, unveils Amanpour's prejudices:

In my no doubt alarmist and paranoid view, she is trying to position American and world Jewish support for Israel as essentially equivalent to American and world Muslim support for Hamas and for other Muslim terrorist organizations who also engage in humanitarian aid and social service projects. Just as the leaders of the Holy Land foundation are being tried as supporters of terrorist organizations in America today, Amanpour's portrayal of Jewish support for an allegedly "illegal," "racist," or "apartheid" Jewish "settler state" with a "handful of Jewish terrorists" may now lead to similar attempts to shut down American-based fundraising for Israel and to dampen Congressional support for military foreign aid to Israel.

Perhaps Amanpour does not envision this at all but merely wishes to show that there is terrorism on both sides of the divide. But this is not true. While there is indeed a "handful" of "Jewish terrorists" or ideologue of Jewish reprisal, (Meir Kahane, Baruch Goldstein, Yigal Amir, and the Jewish Underground are named), such figures are just that--a handful, and their attempts at indiscriminate violence have either been prevented or immediately and seriously punished by the Israeli government.

Further, Amanpour fails to draw the right conclusions from what she does show on camera. In every instance, Israeli government officials, including former Shin Bet and IDF spokesmen are the ones who prevent Jewish terrorists from striking, who arrest and imprison them when they commit violence, who sentence them to between 7-15 years in jail or to life sentences. There are no posters all over Israel glorifying their violent deeds as there are on the West Bank for their shahids and shahidas and in the no-longer occupied Gaza strip. Israeli textbooks and television videos do not sing their praises in Israel as is the case among the Palestinians.

Hip-Hop Republican posts about "Mother Amanpour" and her Magical Kingdom.

The point of CNN's religious fundamentalism series

Atlas Shrugs has more.

Update
I simply never thought of drunkblogging it.

UPDATE 2
Phyllis continues, Christian Crusaders Also Want a Caliphate. The Gospel According to Christiane

Amanpour completely fails to make the distinction between Islamists who teach hatred of infidels and women and who blow infidel and Muslim civilians up (as well as honor-murder their own women); Israelis who are under perpetual terrorist siege and who are trying to defend themselves against Islamist attacks; and conservative Christians who are trying to mobilize votes, change laws, or win hearts and minds with words, not bombs (although she certainly has lots of footage of the bloody bombings at abortion clinics--bombings I personally abhor and mourn--as do many Christians).

Amanpour wants us to like Muslims--even the most extremist among them. They are human, prick them will they not bleed? But she does not want us to like Christians or Jews, especially those who are Zionists.

Read it all.
----------------------------------------------------------
The second item has to do with these two photos:



The FBI has asked the public to be on the lookout for these two characters. The Seattle Post Intelligencer has refused to publish the pictures.

(Warning: disturbing photos at the link) Gerard Van der leun rips the SPI to shreds up one side and down the other.

I'm Thinking of a White Christmas Easter

As record low temps put a crimp in Augusta, and here in Princeton we get dressed for Easter in our winter coats (right now it's 30F outdoors), my young relatives in Fredericksburg, VA might be doing their Easter Egg hunt in the snow.

To celebrate the ocassion, Larwyn has a selection of posts for our enjoyment:
The UN's IPCC Global-Warming Bunko Scam
Will there be consequences to the Global Warming foolishness?
UN: Global Warming To Wipe Out All Life On Earth Within 20 Years; Women, Minorities Hardest Hit, and Moe and I assure you the bamboo will still be there. The old ads used to say "a diamond is forever." Not true: diamonds can break, but bamboo just keeps coming back.
Update: Louisiana Conservative reminds us that The Great Global Warming Swindle is available on You Tube. (end of Update)

Larwyn was pondering Nancy's Hermes scarf:

I was truly trying to keep my petty thoughts on the Speakerette's fashion sense to myself, concentrating on the statement she made by covering her hair. I have not seen anyone call her on the choice of the pattern on this scarf.

It was a pattern of fallen Autumn leaves, dead leaves.

She was on Easter break, the cherry blossoms were already out, so her choice of pattern is totally out of sync with the season. and the season's colors. That is a Sept/October scarf. Not an April scarf. And no excuse that it was the only one they packed for her. The Autumn patterns and colors, along with the Winter/Christmas deep rich burgundies, mustards and teals are already in the back of the drawer, the bottom of the pile.

Her choice was deliberate, as a replacement was easy to find, she was in one of the scarf selling capitals of the world.

It is my opinion that she was sending a message, that Bush's policies are dead. Blowing in the wind just like Autumn's leaves and once they impeach Bush and Cheney, the whole world will see who's in charge.

BTW, how do I know it's Hermes? My educated guess is that it's Hermes because the scarf is made of heavy-gauge silk that doesn't "crumple" into a fold or slide off easily, and the rolled hem is rolled up, into the side with the pattern. Mac finds More Calls for Pelosi to Resign - From a Democrat

Check with Dr Sanity for the Carnival:

----------------------------------------------------------
Happy Easter to all my visitors, and a special heartfelt Easter wish for Mickey.

Of prawns and pawns

Yesterday around noon I was meeting a friend while trying to navigate the very noisy lobby of the Museum of Modern Art, which was packed to the gills with a very wet crowd of loud people on Easter Break who had ventured in the cold rain. The place felt like an airport the day before Thanksgiving, only with no departures, just arrivals.

My friend and I finally found each other and since the MoMA was mobbed with the crowd we decided to have lunch across the street at Gattopardo. We rushed out of the noisy MoMA across the noisy and rainy cold street, walked into the restaurant and were warmly greeted into a sanctuary of elegant quiet and excellent food.

I had a most excellent plate of prawns that must have come from Paradise. They were that good.

To make a long story short, I had a wonderful afternoon and was totally unaware of anything in the news until evening, when I was reading this post from Siggy (who's as fond of Bond as I am of Bryn). Siggy said,

Mahmoud Ahmadenijad's 'pardon' and release of those 15 British sailors and marines is no more a gesture of Iran's inherent 'goodness' than were Adolph Hitler's displays of affection for his dog - and it is important that we understand that.

Until then I had not heard that Mahmoud Ahmadenijad had been saying that he had pardoned the hostages.

Shortly after, the BBC newscast showed Tony Blair talking about "how much he respects the Iranians".

I couldn't believe my ears.

Yes, the hostages were not yet out of Iran, but for Blair to stoop down to praising a culture of shame with his respect was beyond belief. The same culture of shame who for two weeks publically paraded and humiliated IN COMPLETE DISREGARD OF GENEVA CONVENTIONS PROTOCOL fifteen members of the British forces.

Make no mistake, the hostages were political prisoners and as such were humiliated. For an explanation of this point, listen to the Sanity Squad, and listen to what Siggy had to say about the videos of the hostages.

By expressing his respect, Tony Blair, who apparently got gelded along the way, became a pawn.

Margaret Thatcher would have "pardoned" Ahmadenijad's grubby little butt into the ground from the get-go.

But we live in different times.

While we stand on the shoulders of giants like Thatcher and Reagan and are able to feast on prawns while we still can, undoubtedly because of the sacrifice of people like the hostages, the Democrats have ended the war on terror by banishing the term, because the

Democratic leadership doesn't like the phrase.

(h/t Alcibiades).

Mind you, I don't like the term either, and would definitely prefer to call it the war on Caliphate Islam. But that won't suit the Democrat mindset, whose delicate sensibilites has them doing anti-terror drills against Christians (during Lent, no less), just a few miles away from here. Because of course we don't want to upset Muslims

The real story is that it has become acceptable to discriminate against Christians with bigoted characterizations that portray them as gun wielding psycho killers. Such bigotry is a common occurrence in film, on TV and the internet, in schools and in city halls across America. Newspapers cover such stories with zest and a certain sense of shoulder shrugging normalcy.

Instead of the war on terror, we now have 'The War That Must Not Be Named'.

That way we can digest our prawns with ease. While my friend and I found temporary shelter from the daily grind at a lovely restaurant, the Dems are seeking permanent shelter from reality through a linguistic trick. This has become part and parcel of their grab for power.

The Dem's grab for power at any price includes having Nancy playing pretend at being Secretary of State, making new friends with our enemies, lying about our friends, and veiling herself with an Hermes scarf,

The Reform Party of Syria, which is not playing pretend because it can not afford to, explains what's really behind the veil:

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was seen roaming the streets of Damascus flaunting a Hijab. The Hijab worn by women across the Muslim world has come to symbolize either one of three things: 1) a symbol that men control women by forcing piety, or 2) a return to religiosity because of oppressive rulers, or 3) a fashion statement. If you ask any expert on the Middle East, you would get any one of three answers. The ones who usually claim it is a fashion statement are the political rulers who usually oppress people in general. A Hijab is NOT a confirmation of the rights of women in the Middle East but rather a symbol of their suppression.

At least Siggy was able to look at the bright side,

she could have been photograped wearing a Palestinian keffiyah.

Because a pawn is a pawn is a pawn no matter how expensive a scarf she wears.

Special thanks to Maria and Larwyn.
Update: Pratfall in Damascus
(Note To those who asked, my friend's a vegetarian - she had the spinach)

Technorati tags Nancy Pelosi

James Cameron finds Jesus

... or at least he claims to not only have found Jesus's grave, but also the graves of Jesus's whole family.

Scholars don't believe him, Kobayashi Maru, Eric, The Anchoress and Steve are posting about it.

Apparently Cameron thinks that finding

10 ancient ossuaries - small caskets used to store bones - discovered in a suburb of Jerusalem in 1980

is evidence, because

One of the caskets even bears the title, "Judah, son of Jesus," hinting that Jesus may have had a son

All I can say is, if the name Jesus was anywhere near as common in Judea 2,000 years ago as it is today in Spanish-speaking countries (and the Phillipines - I knew a Philipino named Jesus), Cameron's got his work cut out for him.

Heck, even The Dude found Jesus at the bowling alley:

More at PowersPoint, via Jeremayakovka

Update, Wednesday 28 February: What did I tell you?

Other archeologists note that the names listed by the documentarians were the most common names in use at the time for Jerusalem.

------------------------------------------
My email seems to be working again. Thank you for your patience.

How not to do it, and today's items

Via Humberto, How Not to Do It: Nothing works in the omnicompetent state.

The scheme in Britain is, of course, rather different. (It is not necessary to believe that such schemes have been consciously elaborated, incidentally; rather, they are inherent in the statism that comes naturally to so many politicians because of their self-importance.) The hoops that bind the government to the consultants who advise it in its perennially failing schemes of modernization are those of gold. As Craig demonstrates (though without understanding all the implications), the consultants need failure in Britain to perpetuate the contracts that allow them to charge so outrageously and virtually ad libitum (Craig suggests that $140 billion has disappeared so far, with no end in sight); and, in turn, the government benefits from having this rich but utterly dependent clientele.

The beauty of the system is that dependence on expensive failure reaches quite low levels of the administration: for example, all those “civilians” (as nonpolice workers for the police are called) in P.C. Copperfield’s police station, as well as the educational psychologists whom Frank Chalk derides. The state has become a vast and intricate system of patronage, whose influence very few can entirely escape. It is essentially corporatist: the central government, avid for power, sets itself up as an authority on everything and claims to be omnicompetent both morally and in practice; and by means of taxation, licensing, regulation, and bureaucracy, it destroys the independence of all organizations that intervene between it and the individual citizen. If it can draw enough citizens into dependence on it, the central government can remain in power, if not forever, then for a very long time, at least until a crisis or cataclysm forces change.

At the very end of the chain of patronage in the British state is the underclass, who (to change the metaphor slightly) form the scavengers or bottom-feeders of the whole corporatist ecosystem. Impoverished and degraded as they might be, they are nonetheless essential to the whole system, for their existence provides an ideological proof of the necessity of providential government in the first place, as well as justifying many employment opportunities in themselves. Both Copperfield and Chalk describe with great eloquence precisely what I have seen myself in this most wretched stratum of society: large numbers of people corrupted to the very fiber of their being by having been deprived of responsibility, purpose, and self-respect, void of hope and fear alike, living in as near to purgatory as anywhere in modern society can come.

The books Dalrymple mentions in his article are available through Amazon.co.uk:
Wasting Police Time: The Crazy World of the War on Crime
It's Your Time You're Wasting: A Teacher's Tales of Classroom Hell
--------------------------------------------------
Good News Bad News

Good news on Iraq: Senate Democrats are moving to rewrite history, by limiting the Iraq war authorization they voted in 2002.  Good news how?  Well, if you are a surrender enthusiast, it's a step in the right direction!  But if you believe the United States must fight and win in Iraq as in all the theaters of this generational war on Islamic extremism, then every move the anti-war Democrats make to undercut a wartime president and troops in the field is a shot in the foot that will drive Americans farther from them.   

More good news about Iraq: Sen. Joseph Lieberman says the Democratic measure to undercut the troops could make a Republican out of him. This highly principled Democrat's moral stance is an example the rest of them should follow, but the bad news is, they won't.  But Hillary's new embrace of defeatism may be just the thing to underscore what a bankrupt position it is.  She's not the only 2008 hopeful playing politics with war.

Read the rest. (h/t Larwyn)
--------------------------------------------------
Dan's asking, Are SC Pols Pay To Play? (h/t Larwyn)
--------------------------------------------------
Town Commons looks at Iran
--------------------------------------------------
Return to the Third World

In a very short while, nearly 70% of Christians will be in the non-European world.

.04% Of Our Military Is Against The War

I'm a little behind this morning but will be blogging more later. Thank you for your patience.

The Temple Mount ramp

In today's headlines Turkey is to send an inspection team to survey excavation work being carried out near the Temple Mount or Haram al-Sharif in East Jerusalem

You can watch via livecam

Via The American-Israeli Patriot,


More background on the destruction of the Temple Mount antiquities, via SC&A.

Update, Friday 16 February
History, Stones And The Palestinians Orwellian Dance

To deny Jewish/Christian history in Jerusalem and Israel is to deny the beliefs of Jews and Christians and to deny both the Old and New Testaments (both of which precede the birth of Mohammed and the Quran). Jews and Christian believe that it was upon Rock of Abraham was the site where the Patriarch Abraham showed his willingness to sacrifice his son, Isaac, only to be told that God demanded not sacrifice (Jihadis and shaheed wannabes, take note), but rather that he parent his beloved child and instruct that child in the ways of the Lord.

Caracas stockmarket freefall, and today's items

Venezuela Index Falls 12% as Banking Law Threatens Profit

Venezuelan stocks tumbled to an eight- week low, led by banking shares, as investors reacted to government plans to cap banks' profits and dividends.

The Caracas Stock Exchange Index fell 12 percent to 41,748.98, the lowest since Nov. 21. With today's decline the index has fallen 33 percent since Jan. 8, when President Hugo Chavez announced plans to nationalize companies in the country's telephone, power and oil industries.

Meanwhile in Kenya, the stockmarket is growing

Who exactly has a noise machine? (h/t Larwyn)
-----------------------------------------
Globally warmed in Texas (h/t Maria). Right now it's 19oF in Princeton - a little global warning would be good right now.
Weather Channel Climate Expert Calls for Decertifying Global Warming Skeptics
-----------------------------------------
Feeding my 24 addiction
CAIR vs 24, again

Via Tom, Dave Barry and Rick Moran are fans, too.
The doll got burned.
Update More! (h/t Linda)
-----------------------------------------
Paul Sorvino did the right thing
-----------------------------------------
If I Had a Little Less Self-Esteem, I'd Start Rioting Right Now
-----------------------------------------
"I used to think that prizes were demeaning and divisive, until I got one, and now they seem sort of meaningful and real."

Today's must-reads: SC&A and Eternity Road

Two exceptionally good posts from two of the brightest bloggers around:

Sigmund, Carl and Alfred's post Monsters From Within, Monsters From Without goes a long way towards explaining, as he so well puts it,

the origins of widely accepted terror as an acceptable form of political or religious expression

I had posed a question during an email exchange, and here's part of Siggy's post to that question (emphasis added):

Radical Islam has assumed the face and costume of militancy and violence, not the face of theology. The gun- and frenzied use of the gun, has become a part of the faith. This of course, is clearly antithetical to Judeo-Christian values, moral and principles (The Church never advocated the butcher and slaughter of all non believers). Democracies do not settle differences with violence- and in large measure, that is why the Islamists reject dealing with us. The Islamists are willing to engage us violently because they believe that secularism abhors conflict- and thus, we are theirs for the taking. They understand they will not have to face equal or violent consequences of their actions. That in itself is one definition of the 'Clash of Civilizations.'

That is why they oppose a peace deal with Israel, real democracy within the Palestinian Authority, Iraq or anywhere else in the region. In their minds, democracy, freedom and peace means that secularists have asserted their dominion over Islamism. That notion is intolerable- and as many as need be will die preserving the illusion that democracy, freedom and peace are evil and in opposition to Islam. They deliberately define democracy as a religion in opposition to Islam. That is why their opposition to democracy is so fierce. To believe in democracy is to be apostate and thus, deserving of death.

Modernity is also suspect is the Muslim world. We can define modernity as the change brought about by self expression, higher education and modern economies that function efficiently and seamlessly. Ayatollah Khomeini resisted modernity, as do the Saudis, ostensibly for religious reasons. That said, Saudi ideologies are roundly rejected by countries like Morocco, Jordan, Egypt and Syria. They reject modernity because modernity, like secularism, favors democracy.

The rejection of modernity also explains the indifference the Arab world has to education and functioning economies. Failed and dismal Arab world education levels and economies are of little and no concern to Arabs because education and functioning economies represent the reality of a real future. Recognizing and anticipating the future is an integral part of modernity. The future is a reality the Arab world has consciously rejected, by word and deed.

Healthy societies do not naturally reject the future and modernity. Every parent does what they can to address their children’s future and to ensure they the future well prepared. That is how society functions and perpetuates itself. Children are the future and it is incumbent on us to ensure their success. It is also incumbent upon us to do what we can to leave a better world for our children- a concept not at all understood in much of the Arab world, for decades led by dysfunctional political and religious leaders. How this dysfunction operates needs to be understood.

In fact, the Arab world has made clear their intent and desire to return to the past, and not have to face the future. Facing the future means the Arab world would have to be held accountable for their dysfunctional behavior that has made poverty and failure a part of the Arab world reality of today.

On a different but not totally unrelated subject, Francis Porretto ponders the war on Christianity in his post By His Stripes:

Anti-Christians are not uniform in their motivations. Many are hostile to the notion of divinity. Others dislike any assertion of a moral standard higher than that imposed by man-made law. Some merely practice a thoroughgoing skepticism about anything they can't verify by the direct and immediate report of their senses. And some are consumed by envy at the serenity enjoyed by the majority of Christian adherents, a condition unaffected by variations or fluctuations in their worldly estates. No doubt there are others with other reasons.

But they cannot point to one single thing that the "mythical" Jesus ever said or did that to which a decent man could raise the slightest objection. For to do so, they'd have to take issue with:

• The desirability of spiritual peace and forgiveness of others' sins;
  
• Gratitude for the gift of life in a lawful universe and honor to those who are the temporal reason for it;
  
• The prohibitions against murder, theft, fraud, and covetousness;
  
• Last but most striking of all, Christ's denial of the rightness of enforcing religious precepts with temporal force, as exemplified dramatically in His treatment of the adultery of Mary Magdalene.
  

Many creatures of darkness live in our accumulated cultural consciousness. Some are historically well attested: the great mass murderers of the Twentieth Century, for example. Others, such as Attila and Ghengis Khan, are more remote, with more uncertainty attached to their deeds. A few villainous names survive in the epics of deep antiquity, but their stories are most uncertain of all. None of these are worshipped; they're held up to the young of today to illustrate what horrors are possible to Man. Even evil figures whose actual lives are entirely uncertain present useful profiles in human depravity; we reflect upon them because we can sense that the stories attached to their names are things men might really have done -- that no degree of malice is inherently beyond us.

Go read 'em. You'll be smarter when you're done.

Update, 2:55PM
Alifa emailed,

I tried using the comments section but it wouldn't load.

In this post you quote Francis Porretto, ending with "Last but most
striking of all, Christ's denial of the rightness of enforcing
religious precepts with temporal force, as exemplified dramatically in
His treatment of the adultery of Mary Magdalene."

I probably should be replying to Mr. Porretto, but I'd like to point
out that I think he has conflated a couple of New Testament stories,
and perhaps even thinks that Mary Magdalene is the reformed prostitute
of legend. Mary Magdalene in the New Testament is a woman from whom
Jesus cast out evil spirits; but in Christian preaching over the
centuries, she was conflated with other New Testament figures of the
same name or no known name.

It looks like he's referring to the story of the woman taken in
adultery that is included in some (but not all) of the manuscripts of
John, beginning of ch. 8.

This is a very problematic story; I do not think that it means what
people usually think it means. Looking at it with Jewish eyes, there
are just too many missing pieces for it to be about the immediate
stoning of an adulteress by an angry mob.

If she was caught "in the very act" then the man involved was also
taken, but in this story, he's missing. In Jewish law, both parties
were liable for the death penalty in adultery, and the act must have
been witnessed (which is what is claimed here). So where is the man?

Secondly, as we also know from the story of Christ's Passion, the Jews
could not sentence someone to death without Roman approval in those
days.

In addition, we are not told that the woman and her lover were ever
brought to trial -- admittedly, we don't know exactly how a Jewish
court in Jesus' day would have handled an adultery case such as this,
but certainly by the late Roman period, Jewish law made it very
difficult for a death penalty to be handed out, and there were many
formal procedures, the calling of witnesses, etc. that had to take
place before a sentence could be handed down. None of this is present
in this story; we have rather the idea that a mob was ready to stone
the woman (but not her unknown partner). Execution by stoning
following a court sentence was a formal ritual. According to Jewish
law, the person bringing the accusation had to cast the first
stone --- the implication being that if an unjust accusation was being
made, the one who initiated the execution was himself liable to at
least a heavenly judgment because an unjust execution meant the
accuser was committing murder himself. Cleary Jesus is drawing on this
strong Jewish tradition, but changes it to "let he who is without sin
cast the first stone."

So what gives?

It may be that Jesus was once again being tested on his teaching. One
suggestion is that this story is referring back to his teaching that
marriage was permanent, with no divorce. A woman "caught in the very
act" could well mean simply that she was divorced according to Jewish
law and was in the process of getting remarried. If so, this story
does not make that clear at all. In Jewish circles in late Roman
times, there was a great debate about divorce; should it be easy to
divorce, or difficult? The rabbinical schools of Hillel and Shammai
took different sides on this issue.

Or perhaps the story has to do with Jewish versus Roman law -- should
she be executed according to Jewish law without Roman approval?

Once more Jesus neatly sidestepped the question, and I cannot help
wondering what exactly he's referring to when he says "go and sin no
more."

---------
I hope you'll forgive me for ranting a bit. This is one of the
biblical stories that is too often used to paint a harsh and
unforgiving portrait of the "Jews." Like "an eye for an eye..." used
in the sense of meaning a call for vengeance, even though vengeance is
specifically forbidden in the Bible.

I'm emailing Francis on these very interesting points
Update 2 Francis replies in the comments section