The latest crypto-con

SEC sues entrepreneur, alleging $1 billion in unregistered crypto sales and multimillion-dollar fraud

The so-called crypto industry is a high-tech scam with a history that reads like a catalog of financial criminality. Stay away from it.

New bishop responds to charge of reciting the Creed with the filioque

Bishop Stephan of Philomelion published an explanatory declaration and clarification as a response to the official comment made by the Orthodox Churh of Albania, according to which he said to have “recited the Symbol of Faith (Credo) with the filioque”.

“Inasmuch as these accusations this time touch upon the integrity of my Orthodox phronema and do not merely concert my personal journey, I feel the need and obligation to respond both explicitly and categorically in order to prevent any potential scandal,” the Bishop said in his declaration.

Then, he expressed his wonder: “Does my oversight in reciting part of the English version of the text of the Hierarchal Confession, caused by my emotional intensity and great personal anxiety at that sacred moment, perhaps constitute proof of my ‘deficient’ Orthodoxy?”

Finally, he concluded: “In order to placate even the most sensitive conscience that might have been influenced by the aforementioned prejudicial comment, I declare to everyone everywhere that I believe absolutely and unwaveringly everything proper that I signed with my own hand in the attached text of my Hierarchal Confession.”

Read the rest here. 

HT: Dr. Tighe

A book recommendation

Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud
If you own crypto, or are thinking of dabbling in it; I strongly reccomend reading this book.

The Return of Paganism

Cracking down on eco-vandals

In recent years, museums have become easy targets for eco-extremists and vandals who think that disrupting exhibits and attacking priceless works of art are legitimate forms of protest for their cause. Now fed up, the museums and authorities are starting to push back. Suits are being filed for damages and serious criminal charges, long overdue, are finally being brought.

Story here.

Francis names 21 new cardinals

July 9 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Sunday announced that he would elevate 21 churchmen to the high rank of cardinal, again putting his mark on the group that will one day choose his successor after his death or resignation.

Archbishop of York: Our Father is problematic

The archbishop of York has suggested that opening words of the Lord’s Prayer, recited by Christians all over the world for 2,000 years, may be “problematic” because of their patriarchal association.

In his opening address to a meeting of the Church of England’s ruling body, the General Synod, Stephen Cottrell dwelt on the words “Our Father”, the start of the prayer based on Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:2–4 in the New Testament.

“I know the word ‘father’ is problematic for those whose experience of earthly fathers has been destructive and abusive, and for all of us who have laboured rather too much from an oppressively patriarchal grip on life,” he said.

His comment – a brief aside in a speech that focused on the need for unity – will divide members of the C of E, a body whose differences on issues of sexuality, identity and equality have been highly visible for years.

Read the rest here.

Pope Francis (again)

Pope Francis picks notorious pro-LGBT clerics to participate in October Synod on Synodality
HT: Dr. Tighe

One in five United Methodist congregations in the US have left the denomination

More than 6,000 United Methodist congregations — a fifth of the U.S. total — have now received permission to leave the denomination amid a schism over theology and the role of LGBTQ people in the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination.

Those figures emerge following the close of regular meetings in June for the denomination’s regional bodies, known as annual conferences. The departures began with a trickle in 2019 — when the church created a four-year window of opportunity for U.S. congregations to depart over LGBTQ-related issues — and cascaded to its highest level this year.

Church law forbids the marriage or ordination of “self-avowed, practicing homosexuals,” but many conservatives have chosen to leave amid a growing defiance of those bans in many U.S. churches and conferences.

Many of the departing congregations are joining the Global Methodist Church, a denomination created last year by conservatives breaking from the UMC, while others are going independent or joining different denominations.

Read the rest here.

Pope Francis Appoints a Liberal Protestant as Guardian of Doctrine

The Catholic blogosphere is in an uproar over the appointment of Archbishop Victor Manuel “Tucho” Fernandez to be the new head of the Vatican office responsible for defending doctrinal orthodoxy. To say that the man represents a direct attack on anything resembling Catholicism would be a huge understatement. I can only assume that V Gene Robinson didn't get the job because he was deemed too conservative.

Trivia

On this date in 1921 William H. Taft became Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. He was the first, and to date, only former president to hold the top job in both the executive and judicial branches of government.