Karate and Whatnot from VA makes this complaint:

Oh, and I can’t check Veith’s blog during lunch at work any more - it’s blocked by the company filters for having “adult/sexual content”! ROTFLOL! That’s GOT to be an IP-based filter instead of content-based! Anyway, my veneer just got thinner!

How can that be? We had the same problem here at Patrick Henry College, no less!, the filters blocking this blog. I’m wondering if there is some word posted somewhere that is triggering this, but I really am trying to be as pure as pure can be, above reproach and all that. And I hate the thought of losing readers to these filters.

Does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with this? (tODD, thanks for letting me know about the spam filter Akismet. It’s working beautifully against that problem.)

Rev. William Cwirla offers some provocative and oddly encouraging thoughts about why divisions within a congregation or church body are, in the words of the Apostle Paul, “necessary.” See Blogosphere Underground: Devilish Distractions. A sample:

Dissensions and divisions have their root in our old Adamic flesh (Gal 5:20; 1 Tim 6:4; Titus 3:9). The old Adam loves to stir up trouble wherever he can find it. Dissensions and divisions in the church arise from false teachings and false teachers who subvert the Gospel (Rom 16:17; Jude 19). Paul’s desire for the Corinthian congregation is that it be united, of the same mind and judgment (1 Cor. 1:10). Yet Paul goes on to make this remarkable statement: “It is necessary that there be divisions (Gk: heresies) among you so that those who are proven might be manifest among you” (1 Cor 11:19). In other words, the soundness of a teacher is tested in the face of controversy, and divisions serve the purpose of showing who is proven.

Rev. Cwirla goes on to apply what this means and why. He does not praise church divisions, mind you, seeing them as sinful; and yet God uses them nonetheless.

The Pope has said that politicians who support abortion should not receive Communion. And yet, at his big masses in New York City and Washington, D.C., pro-abortion politicians from Nancy Pelosi to Rudy Giulianni took Communion. (Rudy should not have been allowed to anyway, due to his being in his third marriage.) This wasn’t Pope Benedict’s fault, who was not involved in the distribution; rather, it is being described as deliberate disobedience from the Archbishops of New York and Washington, who invited the politicians to the event, seated them prominently, and had them served Communion. See Robert D. Novak - For Pro-Choice Politicians, a Pass With the Pope - washingtonpost.com.

UPDATE: Now New York’s Cardinal Egan is saying that he had an “understanding” with the pro-abortion Giulianni that he would not receive the eucharist in NY parishes, but that he violated that agreement by receiving communion from the Pope. The Cardinal said that he would talk with the former mayor. See this. It still seems like this friendly arrangement–come see the pope, we’ve got great seats for you at Yankee Stadium, we’ll still hang out, we’re good buddies, just don’t take communion–stops short of actual church discipline.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright is taking advantage of his notoriety, speaking at an NAACP event, being on Bill Moyer’s PBS show, and now speaking at the National Press Club, no less. Guarded by Nation of Islam operatives and basking in the limelight, he is unrepentant, repeating his charges that America deserved the 9/11 attacks, that the US government engineered the HIV virus to commit genocide against black people, etc., etc. Now he’s also saying that Muslims are saved. See Liveblogging Wright at the National Press Club. Doesn’t Rev. Wright see how he is hurting the campaign of his parishioner, Barack Obama?

UPDATE: Here is a clue: It seems that Rev. Wright’s address at the National Press Club was arranged by Barbara Reynolds, an “enthusiastic” Clinton supporter!

ANOTHER UPDATE: But maybe not.