This morning, as one of the show hosts was talking, the other one suddenly shouted "white smoke, white smoke!" At first, i thought there was a fire in the studio. Then i realised he was referring to the white smoke that was coming out from the chimney of Sistine Chapel.
Uh huh, a new Pope had (finally) been elected.
Well, what amazed me was that when i read the news and took a look at the pictures on the Web, i saw thousands of people gathered outside the chapel, waiting for the smoke signal. They cheered and cried when the white smoke and the new Pope appeared. Ok, it must be very emotional and a historical moment for them, but let us not to forget that the one we worship is God and not the Pope.
My friends asked if he is handsome when i told them that i've checked out his picture on the Web. The thing is that looks is not one of the selection criteria for being a Pope. Apparently age isn't too. The new Pope is still very old. I told my friends that even if the newly elected is good looking, he would soon look old and frail too after a couple of years in this post.
There is a tough road ahead of the new Pope. The Roman Catholic church is beleaguered by series of scandals and problems such as child molestation, corruption and homosexual issues. To restore the reputation and faith of the religion will be a great and difficult task for him. May God's anointing be upon him to overcome all the troubles.
Then, there was another news that i heard in the morning which i took no joy in it at all, even though i know a lot of people are happy about it. The parliament here in NZ has voted for the second time on legalising gay marriage and it received a huge majority of supporting votes. This means that it is very likely that the bill will be passed and same sex marriage will be legalised here.
I guess you should be able to tell by now that i am against it. Much have already been said and written all around the world on this topic, from both the supporting and opposing sides. Of course I have my views and thoughts about it but i'm not gonna elaborate it here.
Just to make it clear though - i do NOT think homosexuals are any less human being than heterosexual, as no one in this world is worth any lesser than another. Everyone should be respected as a human being.
However, to me, marriage is another issue altogether and it is not about discrimination or what basic human rights. But then, i know that this is a trend that seems unstoppable and very soon all countries will be legalising it and the future generations will be taking this as a norm as well. Frankly, this does put me in doubt and confusion.
During one of my weekly cell group meetings, our group leader reminded us about the distinction between sins and sinners. God hates sins and sins will doom us; however, God welcomes sinners to His kingdom if we repent and transform. We are all sinners and he loves us all the same.
You probably do not understand why i brought this up and what has it got to do with same sex marriage. Well, never mind. That's all i wanna touch on for this topic. Let's move on to the last piece of news.
Wellington (in fact, i think it's the entire NZ) is having some sort of drought now. The last rainfall was back in early Feb and it wasn't enough to bring up the water level of the rivers, which are the main sources of water for the inhabitants here. A few days back, it was reported that the city now has less than 20 days of water supply, which is nearing crisis point. If there is still no rain anytime soon, we will be having serious water supply issue. The government will be imposing water restriction very soon if the water level continues to dwindle. I read that this is the longest dry spell since 1947!
I thought such situation will only happen in Malaysia, as we seem to experience it almost every year. As the weather is cold here, the water drying up may be less noticeable than in Malaysia when it is so hot. Let's just hope that the rain will come soon.
Labels: Christianity, New Zealand
