Manya Brachear -An Intellectual Bag of Hammers on Gay Marriage

Religion in Chicago Media - Bags of Hammers: Manya Brachear and Cathleen Falsani (emerita)

Supporters of gay marriage call the renewed effort to highlight natural law a clever but disingenuous appeal to the masses. Manya Brachear, The Seeker, of The Chicago Tribune

Let's see, you got invited for tea for an update on the man's cancer therapies and then you wait ten days and called your host a liar?

She's The Seeker!

Here's the deal, on December 10th Cardinal George invited members of the Chicago media over to his house for tea.  Illinois Reps. Greg Harris and Heather Steans are bursiting bowels, theirs and the usual Springfield chattel, old and new, to rush through the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act exactly one year after somehow living through the the Religious Freedom and Civil Union law, which was signed by Governor Pat Quinn, who will sign anything Personal Pac President and Illinois boss wrangler Terry Cosgrove tells him to sign. When Terry Cosgrove opens his yap, Planned Parenthood and Fred Eychaner's dollars pour out; when he clams up so do the dollars.

Among the doyennes and dowagers  of pop culture, religion, economics and of course politics, balancing tea-cups above their cankles, was Chicago's own Seeker, Manya Brachear, the religion/well-spiritualist one-time columnist and extant religion scribbler for The Trib, who somehow managed to convince Chicago that Cathleen Falsani, formerly of the Sun Times, was not just surfing in Nebraska. Yep, Manya Brachear is an intellect to cause hushed awe and reverence among the appliance at Sears Hardware.

Cardinal George explained to this congress of viragoes, yet again, that the Catholic Church and those who attend it maintain that the sacrament of marriage was instituted by Christ to give grace -Will and Grace not withstanding:

"Marriage comes to us from nature," Chicago's Cardinal Francis George said in a recent interview. "That's based on the complementarity of the two sexes in such a way that the love of a man and a woman joined in a marital union is open to life, and that's how families are created and society goes along. … It's not in our doctrine. It's not a matter of faith. It's a matter of reason and understanding the way nature operates."

So, for next twenty days,  The "now moved-on" Seeker , Terry Cosgrove/Fred Eychaner rolo-dex and caught up with the voices necessary present a slam-dunk Gay Marriage New Years buffet of outrage:

"On sexual ethics, nature is neutral," said Bernard Schlager, executive director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif. "We're moral beings. We may look to nature for some aspects of how we are in our lives, but we answer to a higher standard. Sexual behavior is an expression of human love."
According to the tradition of natural law, every human being must seek a fundamental "good" that corresponds to the natural order to flourish. Natural-law proponents say heterosexual intercourse between a married man and a woman serves two intertwined good purposes: to procreate and to express a deep, abiding love. . . . And . . .Other people of faith disagree. Last Sunday, more than 250 Illinois clergy members, mostly Protestant and Jewish, endorsed the gay marriage bill as "morally just to grant equal opportunities and responsibilities to loving, committed same-sex couples. . . .

Alice Hunt, president of Chicago Theological Seminary, said the natural-law argument seems like a "strategic move."
"They quickly saw biblical marriage wasn't going to work," she said. "It doesn't work for me because you're still depending on one person or some group of people's interpretation of natural law. When you look at the history of marriage, there are many ways marriage has taken shape over time."

• Nature is neutral?   Tell that, Bernie Schlager, to Old John Stuart Mill who noted that “It (Nature) impales men, breaks them as if on the wheel, casts them to be devoured by wild beasts, burns them to death, crushes them with stones… starves them with hunger, freezes them with cold, poisons them by the quick or slow venom of her exhalations, and has hundreds of other hideous deaths in reserve…. All this Nature does with the most supercilious disregard both of mercy and of justice.” 
• Marriage has taken shape in many ways? Concubinage? polyandry?  polygamy? Good old beer-goggled fornication?

Ten days and that was all Manya could come up with.  Manya, Gay Marriage Illinois is a political power play controlled by our elected officials in Springfield, Santa leaves toys for kids, the Easter Bunny is always seen in the company of former Gov. Pat Quinn, the Red Sun of Krypton turns green on reaching the earth's atmosphere,Oliver Stone has a history show on cable and big old bag of hammers has nothing on you.

Meet Chicago Media Religion Op Eder :Manya False Decretals

Meet Chicago's Two Published Religion Thinkers who are One Person in the Same! The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun Times Really, really care about Religion - not Catholics or Jews or Moslems - real religion. Like Dr. Phil.

Meet Manya False-Decretals -The Quester:

Boy did the life spiritual get a boost this weekend! The Germans are thinking about banning Red Bull and That's Just Mean.

Mean People Suck. don't you think? I do. God means alot to me as long as she's not judgmental and stuff. Who's to say?

I went to Obermann University and smoked alot of hemp which helps old people with bad eyes and really cool people. I read all the stuff in the text books about the Scrolls an Arab boy found in the desert and they were Essenes* and Jesus was probably an Essene, unless you think otherwise. My coolest Prof was kicked out of the Air Force and went to Cuba to cut Cane and he said that Jesus was an Essene - they're like monks, but Jewish.

Madonna is like 50 and still so Hot, because she is spiritual. In a good way and not all doctrine icky.


My boyfriend, who was gay, but is so cool about it and not braggy, says all religion is about power. He's right. What would happen if we had a Civil Union? Not mean or nothing, but civil; that would be so chill. Cats are chill.

I like the way cats don't worry about going to church - but are soooo spiritual and Egyptian-like.

That made me think about what Bono said to Oprah -"Our generation will be remembered for the Internet, for the war against terror, and for how we let an entire continent burst into flames while we stood around with watering cans—or not,"

That was so cool I could not finish my Big Gulp. That's why I am no longer a Lakota Sioux. They are too bound by rules and they called me Thasintkala waksu
So I thought, Judas was probably doing the right thing because after all, with Jesus getting busted by the 'Garlic Noses' as Pastor Wright so rightly said, we would not have Jesus as a God and stuff. Atheist Bus Companies are Nice.

I don't think people need any more Memorial Day stuff, because it is about War. Don't you think? We should not encourage War by Honoring Baby Killers - so we won't. I like Peace Heroes, like Judas. He got Jesus where he is. And - Good Women Kill Babies before they are babies and Good Men help them.

Judas was an activist. He was really helping people and really cared about people.

That is all that matters

*http://www.essenespirit.com/

Click my post title for a genuine atrocity.

Cathleen Falsani Moves From Pfleger to Benson

Not long after Cedric Benson showed contrition Monday for his latest arrest, the Bears showed him the door.

The team released the troubled former first-round draft pick Monday as a result of Benson's arrest early Saturday morning in Austin, Texas, on a charge of driving while intoxicated. It was Benson's second alcohol-related arrest in five weeks and enough to convince the Bears he just wasn't worth the headaches.

"Cedric displayed a pattern of behavior we will not tolerate," general manager Jerry Angelo said. "As I said this past weekend, you have to protect your job. Everyone in this organization is held accountable for their actions. When individual priorities overshadow team goals, we suffer the consequences as a team. Those who fail to understand the importance of 'team' will not play for the Chicago Bears."

Chicago Tribune Click my post title for the real full story.

Now, the Chicago Sun Times fabricated news update!

They print news like it almost happened.

Cathleen Falsani Religion Editor of the Chicago Sun Times had this to say about Benson 'Time Out.'

There's something painfully ironic about Cedric's (if temporary) ouster.

He's been thumbing his nose at authority -- secular and sacred -- for years in pursuit of what he believes God has called him to do: fight for the poor yardage and the press coverage; battle injustice in whatever form it appears to taxing him at the moment, be it racism, sexism, or classicism; and to above all present the God of revolutionary love and radical grace to the world around him like he did when those cracker Texas Gomers boarded his boat. That sometimes has meant disobeying civil and Man law.

Benson has been arrested several dozen times over the last five weeks for civil disobedience. He's taken on drug dealers aboard his boat, big alcohol content while driving, the tobacco products when needed, Jerry Springer for his posse, the guns in lobby of Executive Suites, and gun-toting gang-bangers from his own entourage. He's also run afoul of three splendid theologians of Chicago, beginning with Bishop Manning, who drove no where near him in 2001 and called him ' A Long-legged Mack Daddy,' and who threatened to 'open a can' on him in 2006 when Benson blamed Grossman for all his fumbles.

After three seasons of clashes with authority, Benson's tripping points arrived in a three-minute video clip from a powerful, 47-minute-long sermon on race to the line of scrimmage. In those few moments, Benson, who is not white, made snarky comments about Grossman, who is white, that many people -- the Bear Organization has been inundated with complaints since last week -- thought were racist or sexist or both.

He apologized, but it was too late.

So in the days after Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president -- the first African American to do so in the history of our nation -- Benson, a man who has spent his life fighting for his kind of racial justice, is looking for a place to play.

Beson told me he plans to take his 'Dog,' Armani, whose name is an Italian word for " Glossy Loud and Garish Suit," with him. For company, and, perhaps, as a reminder of what sustains him in good times and in bad. The Bling! God's cool with Cedric and I'm Cool with God! Sin Boldly and Stay Thirsty My Friends!

The Chicago Sun Times will devote 85% of its columns and print space to Justice for Cedric Benson. Carol Marin is expected to make her thoughts public, as far as that goes, on Chicago Tonight. National Public Radio will devote a portion of its taxpayers dollars to the Cedric Beson Recidivist Foundation.

The Faith Community of St. Sabina will hold a news conference in five days announcing Cedric Benson's return, without restrictions, to Bears Camp in Bourbonnais.

Praise Jesus!