James' Swan Song

The Protestant apologist James Swan has now started a new line on his blog where he quotes me out of context. This is par for the course with ol' Jim whose idea of a "Catholic theologian" was the late Fr. Josef Lortz, a card carrying Nazi who reinterpreted European history through Hitler's eyes and agreed with Uncle Adolph that Martin Luther was a great German (i.e., Anti-Semitic) hero right up there with Himmler, Eichmann, and Heydrich.

But he has this great cartoon which I find kinda cute. Since it is of me, there is no copyright problem.


I think that this goes to show that the Death Eaters are indeed desperate. They cannot muster a decent argument among them and they need to stoop to personal intimidation and insults to make their point.

Satire is a valid method of criticism especially when one's opponents are illogical and continuously misrepresent the truth or frankly LIE in defense of their position. Anti-Catholics like Swan, Webster, Ensweger, Svendsen, Chick, and White constantly preach to the choir. Their fans want to believe their lies and so -- like their forbear Uncle Adolph -- they tell big ones and they tell them often. When challenged about this, they whine and make excuses for themselves, but they cut no one else any slack and descend into personal insults whenever they can. Despite what they want to believe, they are the ones who started the ad hominem insults but while they can dish it out they just can't take it.

I use terms for them like the Kampus Krusade for Kthulhu, and Death Eaters to make a point. They are KNOWINGLY lying and insulting towards Catholics and other people who do not agree with their narrow religious views. And they do so with a complete lack of charity. When you read what these people write you can see that they have no doubts about their own infallibility and will not admit any ambiguity in their position or that the rest of us might have a point.

I will go out on a limb here and state rather boldly that not one of these people has ever shown me anything that would make me think they were disciples of Jesus. The positions they defend are amoralist: they think that a righteous person is merely declared so by God not someone who possesses a good character. This position they hold in contradiction to the Scriptures:

Mat 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
Mat 5:44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Mat 5:45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Mat 5:46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
Mat 5:47 And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
Mat 5:48 You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.


Mat 7:13 "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
Mat 7:14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Mat 7:15 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
Mat 7:16 You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?
Mat 7:17 So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit.
Mat 7:18 A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
Mat 7:19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Mat 7:20 Thus you will know them by their fruits.
Mat 7:21 "Not every one who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Mat 7:22 On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'
Mat 7:23 And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.'

Luk 10:25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
Luk 10:26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read?"
Luk 10:27 And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
Luk 10:28 And he said to him, "You have answered right; do this, and you will live."

Gal 5:14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Rom 13:8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
Rom 13:9 The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Rom 13:10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Rom 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Rom 6:15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
Rom 6:16 Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Rom 6:17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
Rom 6:18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
Rom 6:19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.
Rom 6:20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Rom 6:21 But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.
Rom 6:22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.


Jam 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar?
Jam 2:22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works,
Jam 2:23 and the scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness"; and he was called the friend of God.
Jam 2:24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

{I apologize for the long Scriptural Quotations, but as a Catholic I am committed to reading the Bible IN CONTEXT and not taking mere snippets as the "slogans" on which my religion is based. My opponents cannot say the same thing.}

In short, their false religions of JBFA contradict the Bible and yet they hypocritically claim to affirm the Bible as their "sole rule of faith." We Catholics have been trying to correct them for almost 500 years, but they love the darkness of amoralism and hate the light of true righteousness of the heart. Yet those who stand up for the ancient faith "delivered once and for all to the Apostles", for Scripture, and the teachings of Jesus are insulted and defamed by them constantly.

It is the words of my Lord and Savior that give me comfort:

Mat 5:11 "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Mat 5:12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Mat 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.
Mat 5:14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.
Mat 5:15 Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
Mat 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

One more point. A couple of years ago, the sad Mr. White published a self aggrandizing caricature of himself on his website. Some of his critics took that caricature and modified it slightly to satirize the original cartoon. Mr. White went into a rage and threatened law suits denouncing their actions as "libelous."

This caricature of me I find amusing and -- dare I say -- flattering. If positions were reversed, Mr. White might take umbrage and make threats. But as a Christian, I know that my first duty is to know who I am in Christ and to "count others better than" myself (Phil 2:3). I make no threats. Instead i am enjoying the limelight.

In the meantime I challenge Mr. Swan to come up with SOME valid argument in defense of Webster's bogus Esdras argument. So far, he has just parroted back the same arguments that were refuted years ago.

I mean, fun's fun, but so far, this cartoon does not address my point that he has not given any new arguments but is serving up old lies in a new forum. I hope that Mr. Swan takes the hint.

Art Sippo