Turkey and Erdogan: Here comes the (real) caliphate; Episcopal Seminary Funeral March Underway?...more

Turkey and Erdogan: Here comes the (real) caliphate If today’s Western leaders possess one general trait, it’s a genius for self-deception. Insisting that Islamist terror has nothing to do with Islam, or that religion has no strategic impact, or that all human beings want freedom and democracy, amounts to declaring that up is down, right is left and night is day.

And midnight is coming for millions in Turkey, even as we insist that a dying flashlight is the sun.

Over the past few years, many Americans heard the term “caliphate” for the first time as ISIS declared that the territory it seized from Iraq and Syria was the caliphate reborn. To us, “caliphate” appeared to be just another name for a vast torture chamber. But for hundreds of millions of Muslims, many of whom have nothing to do with ISIS, the caliphate is associated with a lost and much-romanticized golden age when the caliph, who was also the Turkish sultan, claimed spiritual dominion over all Muslims...

5-Year-Old Idaho Victim Raped By Muslim Migrants Still Being Terrorized A five-year-old girl was raped and urinated upon by three Muslim migrant boys in Twin Falls, Idaho; one of them, a 14-year-old, videotaped the attack. After the attack, instead of getting justice, the victim’s family has been abused and targeted by law enforcement and medical authorities as if they were the criminals. The mother cannot get copies of the medical records of her own child, or transcripts of 9-1-1 calls made on the day of the attack.

In examining notes taken of their conversations with the victim’s mother, I was taken aback by how contemptuous they are of her. They talk down to her, as if she were the perpetrator, not the mother of the victim of this monstrous attack...

Episcopal Seminary Funeral March Underway?
In a surprise move, the Board of Trustees for one of the 10 schools educating Episcopal Church seminarians has voted to cease granting degrees at the conclusion of the 2016-2017 school year. It is unclear how Episcopal Divinity School of Cambridge, Massachusetts might continue on, with the board stating that it “will explore options for EDS’s future” in the coming year.

Interim Dean Francis Fornaro, who took office in March of 2015 following the departure of former Dean Katharine Ragsdale , will resign in November and stated “I totally disagree with this resolution.” Fornaro is a 1996 graduate of the seminary and previously served as adjunct faculty there.

“A school that has taken on racism, sexism, heterosexism, and multiple interlocking oppressions is now called to rethink its delivery of theological education in a new and changing world,” declared former Washington National Cathedral Dean and EDS Board Chairman Gary Hall in an official announcement. “Ending unsustainable spending is a matter of social justice.”...

Episcopal Seminary Succumbs to “Unsustainable” Spending