Vice - christiansquoting.org.uk

No vices are so incurable as those which men are apt to glory in. -Joseph Addison

Vice knows she's ugly, so puts on her mask. - Benjamin Franklin

Some faults are so closely allied to qualities that it is difficult to weed out the vice without eradicating the virtue.- Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)

Inactivity is the beginning of all vice. - C.F.W. Walther , letter: 15 Jan 1873

Vegetables - christiansquoting.org.uk

Do you know the difference between broccoli and nose-pickings?
You have to tell your children to eat broccoli.

I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian.

Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage.

If we aren't supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?

Vegetarians don't live longer, they just look older.

Nothing wrong with vegetarians. Some of my best friends are vegetarians. Admittedly, they're also quadrupeds....Peter Anderton

The conclusion which he drew, or pretended to draw, as that if it was sinful to kill and eat animals, it was not less sinful to do the like by vegetables, or their seeds. None such, he said, should be eaten, except what had died a natural death, such as fruit that was lying on the ground and about to rot, or cabbage-leaves that had turned yellow in late autumn. These and other like garbage he declared to be the only food that might be eaten with a clear conscience. Even so the eater must plant the pips of any apples or pears that he may have eaten, or any plum-stones, cherrystones and the like, or he would come near to incurring the guilt of infanticide. The grain of cereals, according to him, was out of the question, for ever such grain had a living soul as much as man had, and had as good a right as man to possess that soul in peace.
Samuel Butler, Erewhon: or, Over the Range, chapter XXVII, "The view of an Erewhonian philosopher concerning the rights of vegetables."

Most vegetarians look so much like the food they eat that they can be classified as cannibals. - Finley Peter Dunne

Vegetarianism is harmless enough, though it is apt to fill a man with wind and self-righteousness. --Sir Robert Hutchinson

A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and hen thrown out, as good for nothing.
Samuel Johnson (Boswell: Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides)

Vegetables are interesting but lack a sense of purpose when unaccompanied by a good cut of meat. --Fran Lebowitz

I'm not a vegetarian, but I eat animals who are. --Groucho Marx

The West wasn't won on salad. --North Dakota Beef Council

I was a vegetarian until I started leaning toward the sunlight.-Rita Rudner

Please understand the reason why Chinese vegetables taste so good. It is simple. The Chinese do not cook them, they just threaten them! - Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet Cooks with Wine, 1986

Red meat is NOT bad for you. Now blue-green meat, THAT'S bad for you! --Tommy Smothers

Vanity - christiansquoting.org.uk

The difference between the vanity of a Frenchmen and an Englisman seems to be this: the one thinks everything right that is French, the other thinks everything wrong that is not English. --William Hazlitt, 1823

Vanity is definitely my favorite sin. -- John Milton aka Satan, in Devil's Advocate 1997

Homeopathy

During my degree we were taught that homeopathy rests on the principle that symptoms can be relieved by taking a drug that mimics them; like cures like. Homeopathic medicines are made by diluting these specifics many thousand fold if not millions. Just at the point when there may be no molecules of the active ingredient left, the homeopath says it becomes a potent medicine.

As far as i am concerned this is nonsense. I will not sell drugs I believe to be of no benefit. The best I can say is they will have no side effects.

However, homeopathic practitioners claim to be wholistic, treating patients not disease. This can only be positive even if their medicines are rubbish.

However many people claim to be helped by homeopathy I remain unconvinced.

Equality Bill Will Force Churches to Employ Homosexuals

CCFON says, 'Churches and other Christian groups will be forced to employ practising homosexuals, transsexuals and civil partners under the Government’s new Equality Bill.




The Bill aims to sweep all of the existing law on equality into one Act of Parliament and to eliminate more forms of discrimination than are currently covered.



While Christians believe in the innate worth of every human being, the Bill undermines basic Christian freedoms to adhere to biblical values in the area of employment. Churches and other Christian groups will not be able to discriminate on the basis of sexual practice which contravenes biblical values or gender reassignment when employing staff. Only roles which mainly involve teaching, promoting, or leading worship services will be exempt from the provisions of the Government’s new Equality Bill. Far from simplifying the law which the Equality Bill promised to do. The Bill places even more complex requirements above and beyond those already within the existing law and states in the Explanatory notes to the Bill that “the specific exception applies to a very narrow range of circumstances”.



This means that churches could be sued for not employing practising homosexuals for jobs including a church youth worker, secretary or accountant.



This is made clear in the Explanatory notes that accompany the bill: ‘This exception would not apply to a requirement that a church youth worker of accountant be heterosexual’.



Equalities Minister Maria Eagle has recently addressed a UK conference on Faith, Homophobia, Transphobia and Human Rights and stated that “The circumstances in which religious institutions can practice anything less than full equality are few and far between…”. This sort of so-called equality leads to censorship and discrimination.



Andrea Williams, Director of Christian Concern for our Nation commented, ‘This is a new attempt to impose the State’s secularist agenda on the Church and gag Christians from teaching and living out what the Bible says about sexual ethics. The Government thrust is that Christians should largely be free to follow Christ in private, as long as it doesn’t affect their working life ’.'

I believe a favorite cry of the secularist is telling the Christian not to impose their moral standards on them. So how come the people of a constitutionally Christian country should have the state enforce its secular morality de jure?

European Elections Thursday 4th June - A Time of Jubilee?

Working with Christians in politics across Europe, The Christian Party

– Christian Peoples Alliance (CP_CPA) have come together united by

their Christian faith to contest the EU elections. They offer a vision for

Europe based on the social teachings of the Churches and are

determined to restore truth and integrity to politics. Many people are

fed up with the big party system. Could this be the moment to see a

return to Christian values in Britain?



In this election, you can't vote for individual candidates as you do

for Westminster. You have to choose a political party 'list', with MEPs

elected according to how many votes the list wins. In several regions

of England, such as the North West and London, it's possible for the

CP-CPA to win a seat with just 8 per cent of the vote - giving a voice

for values in the European Parliament.



Read more about the campaign by visiting either www.VoteChristian.info

or www.cpaparty.org.uk The Christian Peoples Alliance was born out of

the Movement for Christian Democracy, founded by pro-lifer, David Alton.

Get more details about them by emailing press@cpaparty.org.uk



Their manifesto A Time of Jubilee is summarised by these bullet points:



A Christian Europe

Recognition that Christianity brought Europe the

freedom, culture and values that we must return to.




Greening the Global Economy

Jobs, the developing world and the climate are

paramount. We’ll end debt-based growth and

move away from a carbon-based economy.

Trade Justice and Equality

Open EU markets to help end global poverty.

And we’ll tackle growing social division.


Respect for the Human Person

Full protection of the law for all human life from

conception until natural death.

End Secrecy and Corruption in the EU

Bring transparency and openness. Reform the

accounting system and tackle financial abuses.


Referendum Now! (Lisbon Treaty)

No to a European State. More democracy, less

bureaucracy and an end to creeping federalism.

Muslim appointed BBC Head of Religion

CCFON says,

'The reaction of many to the appointment of Muslim, Aaqil Ahmed to the post of Head of Religion and Ethics at the BBC must be—'How is this possible?' Until now, our public national broadcaster has been charged with reflecting our Country’s Christian heritage and ethos. Aaqil Ahmed’s appointment is controversial because his background and previous work at Channel 4 has revealed a noticeable bias towards Islam and multiculturalism.

According to The Daily Telegraph, senior bishops wrote to the BBC’s Director General Mark Thompson when it was envisaged that Mr. Ahmed might be appointed, to question the BBC’s commitment to Britain's Christian audience. The Archbishop of Canterbury had also raised concerns with Mr. Thompson that the ‘Christian voice is being sidelined’ after Mr. Ahmed was first connected to the role.

The appointment could be seen as the inevitable result of our multicultural society, in which all religions are viewed as of equal value. This is the secularist point of view—that religion should be confined to the home and the church and excluded from the public square and the workplace. A cursory survey of the Christian Legal Centre’s website (www.christianlegalcentre.com) will reveal the increasing intolerance of this ideology as far as Christians are concerned.

It could also be seen as another sign that our country is in danger of becoming Islamised, alongside, for example, the fact that under pressure from Muslims, the Qur’an is now placed on a higher shelf than the Bible in courtrooms, or the fact that Shari’ah Law is used to judge disputes in Muslim Arbitration Tribunals (now officially part of the English Legal System). Our Government appears to make concessions to the Muslim community, in contrast to its marginalisation of Christianity and the rights of Christians in recent years.

Another interpretation is that the appointment is the result of the European Directive of 2000, which was implemented in the UK by the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003. These ‘equalitarian’ provisions force employers to appoint an applicant to a role who is broadly the ‘best person’ for the job—if the candidate’s religion is ignored, that is. This applies to every role, except where there is a ‘genuine and determining occupational requirement’ that they should be of a particular religion.

According to The Guardian, Jana Bennett, director of BBC Vision, said that the areas of broadcasting that the ‘Knowledge’ jobs commission (such as religion and ethics) ‘go to the very heart of the BBC's public purposes’. Clearly, the BBC did not think that their Head of religion and ethics—in our country where 70% of the population still align themselves with Christianity—needed to be a Christian.

The Lord Jesus said that if the eye is single the whole body will be full of light. He went on to warn that if the light becomes darkness how great will be that darkness (Matt 6:22-3). When Christianity is no longer the light of a nation then the nation becomes full of darkness. Christianity is the only way by which man may know God. What is required today is for Christians in this country to stand up for the Faith and act on what they believe—that Jesus Christ is indeed the way, the truth and the life for all that live in 21st century Britain.

Please see also our web article entitled: Controversial Muslim programme-maker appointed head of BBC religious broadcasting at: http://www.ccfon.org/view.php?id=736.

Books read in May 2009 (8)

1. Surprised by Hope by Tom Wright

Wright had written an excellent text to show the Christian hope is not heaven after death but resurrection. Salvation is for the body, not disembodied souls. We do not look to heaven but to a new creation at the return of Christ, a new heaves and earth. Wright works out the practical implications now. He certainly makes one look afresh at our hymnody where the focus is too often on heaven not resurrection.
However, at three points I would depart from Wright. First, he says that once you establish there is no purgatory there is nothing wrong in prayers for the dead. I do not see to one end one can in any way pray for any alteration in the state of the dead. Second, Wright has a less than biblical understanding of hell and eternal punishment. He sees the lost merely as in someway dehumanised by losing the divine image. I think this is mere non-biblical speculation . Finally I cannot for the life of me understand why he thinks that third world debt is as big a modern scandal as slavery was 200 years ago.

2. A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey. Archer

I like Archer's work but I found the identity swap at the heart of the plot to be unbelievable. The author has drawn on his own prison experience which was much more credible than his fictional prison.

3, The Murder Club Guides: South West England and Wales by Brian Lane

Some are centuries old stories, some modern. Murder was more interesting before the death penalty was abolished. More was at stake. I was pleased to find it included a brief account of the murder of a relaative of mine in 1920

4. Cold Steel by Paul Carson

A run of the mill thriller to while away some idle hours. Not bad but far short of the best in the genre.