AN OUTSIDE VIEW

Remainers claim that Brexit will allow in a torrent of toxic meat. This Guardian article , unsurprisingly not open for comment, shows yet again that there is already a grave home-produced problem. Tests carried out on food at the point of entry to a country are almost worthless in ensuring that it will be safe by the time it it put on the shelves of the shops, or served in restaurants. Food can be badly handled, or frozen food thawed and re-frozen. The most effective deterrent is the likelihood of random checks, with contraventions punishable by heavy fines or imprisonment. To supplement the resources of local authorities, it would also be worth giving the public better access to public analytical and testing services. Import controls exist primarily to protect producer interests. Benefits to consumers are largely incidental.

Remainers are like lovers who are blind to the faults of the loved one, even when these faults are expensive habits which can kill. How is this? The EU can be seen as operating in three levels in a hierarchical structure. At the top level is the principle of a forum where major issues of common interest can be discussed and differences resolved. This is one of the places where a particular moral tone is set eg through promoting values, human rights issues, legal structures, developing cultural and educational collaboration such as the Erasmus programme, and keeping a watchful eye on what is happening elsewhere in the world. There are also shared concerns such as the management of rivers which flow through several countries. Significantly, the EU steered clear of associating itself with Christianity, despite pleas such as that made by the Pope in 2002, when he said, of the EU draft Constitution, “How can we not mention the decisive contribution of the values which Christianity ...

I have taken down my Christmas lights at last, yesterday being the Feast of the Presentation, 2nd February, which marks the end of the Christmas season. Except that yesterday was 15th February. It was 2nd February on the Julian calendar, which is now 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar in secular use. Muslims use a lunar calendar with 12 months, but the months are  28 or 29 days long. The year is shorter than the real year, and feasts like Ramadan are 11 or 12 days earlier each year. At the moment, Ramadan is in the middle of the summer, which would be tough on those near the Arctic circle if the rules were not relaxed. The Jewish calendar is also a lunar calendar but extra months are added according to a 19 year cycle of leap years. The extra month, called Adar Sheni, the Second Adar, is in the spring, and is inserted on the 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19th years of the cycle. In practice the Jewish calendar is more complicated than that. Passover is on 15th...

This is extracted, unedited and without comment, from “The Innovations of the Roman Church” by Apostolos Makrakis (1831-1905). Here is an alternative interpretation of Matthew 16:18, the passage on which the perpetual Supremacy of Peter is based: that the Rock is not the person of Peter, but the faith which Peter confesses. “He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matt. 16: 15-19). The Father of Christ...

This is extracted, unedited, from “The Innovations of the Roman Church” by Apostolos Makrakis (1831-1905). I do not like the style but am in agreement with the substance.  Neither statues nor pictures are approved according to Jewish practice. Statues are indeed problematic; whilst they are intended only as a help to worship, it does not always stop there in practice. Ikons are a different matter because they are not made by human hands and are the product of prayer. The Gregorian calendar has been criticised by Jewish authorities on the same grounds: that Easter can occur a month too early. On the celibacy of the clergy, recent experience should be sufficient to condemn the practice. Married clergy is not of course a guarantee that misdemeanours will not occur, and this is not to suggest that most Catholic priests do not keep their vow of celibacy, but the requirement is neither necessary nor desirable. But besides the seven major innovations (heresies) and the infallible...

This is extracted, unedited and without comment, from “The Innovations of the Roman Church” by Apostolos Makrakis (1831-1905). I am not going to distance myself from this. The seventh innovation of the Popes is that decreed a century ago by the Vatican Council as the dogma of immaculate conception of the Theotokos (mother-who-has-given-birth-to-God), which asserts that she did not share the original sin—a dogma which is blasphemous, for it represents her as being at the same time Mother and Son, notwithstanding that she derived her substance (hypostasis) from the seed of earthly Adam, having been born of parents named Joachim and Anna. These are the principal innovations introduced by the Popes and are all due to the Popes’ claim to primacy, which caused the separation and the excommunication issued against them by the pastors of the Orthodox Church of Christ.

This is extracted, unedited, from “The Innovations of the Roman Church” by Apostolos Makrakis (1831-1905).  Having a background in Judaism, the notions of Purgatory and the associated Original Sin have never made sense to me. The sixth innovation of the Popes is that of Purgatory. According to the Papists, sinful souls (but what soul, besides that of Jesus, is righteous?) enter it after death and are purified through the prayers of the Popes. When, however? Whenever the relatives of the deceased pay the requisite sums, the amount of which depends upon the sins of the deceased and the financial status of the living, unless they are Willing to let their beloved be condemned to everlasting punishment. On the basis of this Purgatory the Popes have brought forth their life-saving “indulgences” in behalf of both the living and the dead, which have resulted in the rise of Protestantism with its many heads. Protestantism, in seeking to eradicate heresy by means of its own heresy, and ...

This is extracted, unedited, from “The Innovations of the Roman Church” by Apostolos Makrakis (1831-1905). The first paragraph is about faithfulness to scripture. The second paragraph is unfortunate. Communion under one kind follows logically from the notion of Transubstantiation, a concept developed by Aquinas. It is set out in the Sequence for the Feast of Corpus Christi, introduced in the thirteenth century. This feast is normally the occasion of Blessed Sacrament processions, a practice which was condemned by the Protestants, as in Article XXV of the Anglican Thirty-nine Articles of Faith (The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about, but that we should duly use them.)  The fifth innovation of the Popes is that of administering communion in only one kind, excluding the laity from partaking of the cup and allowing it only to the clergy, contrary to the command of the Lord, who said: “Drink ye of it all.” They claim that they mix (or so...

This is extracted, unedited, from “The Innovations of the Roman Church” by Apostolos Makrakis (1831-1905), “Orthodox Fundamentalist”.  The first paragraph makes a coherent case. The second is superfluous rant. I am not going to distance myself from the main point, which leads to the belief in the power of the words of consecration alone, apart from the overall context and action in which they are spoken. From that view emanates the wider and prevalent one where liturgy can been regarded as a mere trimming. Transubstantiation also spreads over into pious practices such as Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and Blessed Sacrament processions, condemned in Article 25 of the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles. The commandment in John 6 is to eat and drink. The fourth innovation of the Popes is the doctrine that the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the very body and blood of Christ takes place simply through enunciation of the Lord’s words: “Take, eat”; which is an egregio...

This is extracted, unedited, from “The Innovations of the Roman Church” by Apostolos Makrakis (1831-1905). Even in his lifetime, Makrakis was notorious as an “Orthodox Fundamentalist” and got himself into trouble. However, whilst his approach is abstruse, and at times verges on rant. I make no claim to be able to follow the argument except in the most general terms.  The comments on the chronology of Holy Week are important. That the Last Supper was not a Jewish Seder is evident from the Gospel of John, which records that the bodies were taken down from the Cross because it was Preparation Day for the Passover. Makrakis makes the important point that the confusion over the day arises from a mistranslation of Luke 22:7. From the confusion over this point arises a further confusion, that the Mass is a re-enactment of the Last Supper; in 1976, I was at a course where a Jesuit liturgical expert defended the Vatican 2 liturgical reforms with the statement that “the Last Supper certain...

This is extracted, unedited and without comment, from “The Innovations of the Roman Church” by Apostolos Makrakis (1831-1905). Even in his lifetime, Makrakis was notorious as an “Orthodox Fundamentalist” and got himself into trouble. However, whilst his approach is abstruse, and at times florid to the point of absurdity, he is not wrong in his identification of the main issues in which the Roman church appears to be in error. I make no claim to be able to follow the argument except in the most general terms. The Lord said: “ . . .baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matt. 28.19). The second innovation (heresy) of the Pope is pouring or sprinkling water on the person to be baptised, for the word baptism means dipping, and never means pouring or sprinkling — as anyone versed in the Greek language knows. The Latins “infallibly” assert that sprinkling (affusion or aspersion) was introduced and substituted for baptising (immersion) bec...

This is extracted, unedited, from “The Innovations of the Roman Church” by Apostolos Makrakis (1831-1905). Even in his lifetime, Makrakis was notorious as an “Orthodox Fundamentalist” and got himself into trouble. However, whilst his approach is abstruse, and at times florid verging on rant, he is not wrong in his identification of the main issues in which the Roman church appears to be in error. I make no claim to be able to follow the argument except in the most general terms.  I have seen simpler explanations: that the Son is begotten of the Father and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. This makes more sense than the Roman formulation with Filioque, which conveys the image of the Holy Spirit as a kind of appendage to the Father and the Son. The first innovation (or heresy) was the addition to the eighth article of the Symbol of Faith (or Creed) of the Latin words “filioque,” meaning “and from the Son,” and signifying that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and...

Fruit and vegetable farms across the UK were, apparently, left short of thousands of migrant workers in 2017 , leaving some produce to rot in the fields and farmers suffering big losses. Perhaps it is a naive question but surely the farmers could find all the pickers they needed if they paid the local rate for the job? The later part of the strawberry season is during the school holidays so that must be an opportunity to give teenagers the chance to earn some pocket money. Or would the farmers prefer to let the strawberries rot than pay their pickers a proper wage? The article in the “progressive” Guardian does not tell. The farmer in the parable paid the wage for a full day’s work even to those hired at the eleventh hour, so anxious was he to gather in his crop. There must be more behind this story.

The EU is threatening the UK if it competes by reducing corporate and other taxes. Surely the most dangerous threat would be for the EU to do the same thing? That would be tax competition, which is damned for being a “race to the bottom”.  Once again, it is looking through the wrong end of the telescope. Tax competition must be a good thing? Let the best system win! The Physiocrats were possibly the first to note that all taxes are ultimately at the expense of land rent. This conclusion also follows from Ricardo’s Law of Rent, which has never been formally refuted. In principle, therefore, all existing taxes could be replaced by a single tax on the annual rental value of land, since as taxes on wages, goods, services and profits are removed, land values rise by roughly the same amount in aggregate. This is confirmed in a general way by observation; where taxes are low, land values are high, in some cases extraordinarily so. Singapore and Hong Kong in particular have exp...