Pope visits Africa, reaffirms ban on condoms

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/03/17/cameroon.pope/index.html

Excerpt:
Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit harder by AIDS and HIV than any other region of the world, according to the United Nations and World Health Organization. There has been fierce debate between those who advocate the use of condoms to help stop the spread of the epidemic and those who oppose it.

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I’m sure the blogosphere is on fire with this one right now. I have a friend who is Catholic and I asked her about this. She said it’s only for conservative Catholics. I said, “But the Pope is in Africa where millions of people have AIDS, and he’s telling them not to use condoms.” She replies, “Cannot. If people do not use condoms they will die. So they must.”

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Martin Luther on Music

My favorite excerpt from this writing of Martin Luther is this:

“A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.” – Martin Luther

As quoted by Carl F. Schalk in “Luther on Music”. More thoughts on Martin Luther’s views on music and the quoted text in context follows:

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The Smalcald Articles of Martin Luther – 1537

In 1537 Martin Luther wrote the “Smalcald Articles”; an outline of the early church. Luther’s original 95 Theses were his own thoughts, but the Smalcald Articles were witnessed and subscribed to by many others; listed at the end of this article.

The complete text here translated into English. I think it will be interesting reading for those interested in the initial theology of the original German Protestant Reformation and eventual Lutheran Church.

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