Thursday, May 31, 2018
The Baptist Apocalypse
By Ross Douthat
Opinion Columnist
May 30, 2018
People praying at last year’s Southern Baptist Convention.CreditMatt York/Associated Press
Among Trump-supporting religious believers, the long odds he overcame to win the presidency are often interpreted as a providential sign: Only God could have put Donald Trump in the White House, which means he must be there for some high and holy purpose.
The trouble with this theory is that it’s way too simplistic about what kind of surprises an interventionist deity might have in mind. Such a God might, for instance, offer political success as a temptation rather than a reward — or use an unexpected presidency not to save Americans but to chastise them.
We’re a long way from any final judgment on God’s purposes in the Trump era. But so far the Trump presidency has clearly been a kind of apocalypse — not (yet) in the “world-historical calamity” sense of the word, but in the original Greek meaning: an unveiling, an uncovering, an exposure of truths that had heretofore been hidden.
That exposure came first for the Republican Party’s establishment, who were revealed as something uncomfortably close to liberal caricature in their mix of weakness, cynicism and power worship. It came next for the technocrats and the data nerds of the Democratic Party, who were revealed as ineffectual, clueless and self-regarding in opposing Trump’s clown-car campaign. And then it came for a range of celebrated media men, from Harvey Weinstein to Matt Lauer, who found that in the backlash against Trump’s misogyny their own sins were suddenly exposed.
Among Trump-supporting religious believers, the long odds he overcame to win the presidency are often interpreted as a providential sign: Only God could have put Donald Trump in the White House, which means he must be there for some high and holy purpose.
The trouble with this theory is that it’s way too simplistic about what kind of surprises an interventionist deity might have in mind. Such a God might, for instance, offer political success as a temptation rather than a reward — or use an unexpected presidency not to save Americans but to chastise them.
We’re a long way from any final judgment on God’s purposes in the Trump era. But so far the Trump presidency has clearly been a kind of apocalypse — not (yet) in the “world-historical calamity” sense of the word, but in the original Greek meaning: an unveiling, an uncovering, an exposure of truths that had heretofore been hidden.
That exposure came first for the Republican Party’s establishment, who were revealed as something uncomfortably close to liberal caricature in their mix of weakness, cynicism and power worship. It came next for the technocrats and the data nerds of the Democratic Party, who were revealed as ineffectual, clueless and self-regarding in opposing Trump’s clown-car campaign. And then it came for a range of celebrated media men, from Harvey Weinstein to Matt Lauer, who found that in the backlash against Trump’s misogyny their own sins were suddenly exposed.
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Wim Wenders’ ‘Pope Francis’ Documentary Is Religious Pornography
‘Pope Francis’ is a disturbing film, not solely for its exaltation of Francis and his politics but more so for having been planned from the beginning of his ascent to office.
By Maureen Mullarkey
May 30, 2018
Jorge Bergoglio found his Leni Riefenstahl in Wim Wenders. I went to see Wenders’ “Pope Francis: A Man of His Word” expecting hagiography. What I watched came closer to pornography. It was the pornography of blatant propaganda, that notorious key to “the heart of the broad masses.” Lust for dominance is airbrushed into a semblance of piety; avarice for celebrity is lighted and staged to look like humility.
Contrary to the court press, Damon Linker recently ascribed “psychological acuity and Machiavellian cunning” to Pope Francis. And he is correct. But Linker’s interest lies in the Catholic Church’s eventual alignment with contemporary mores, especially legitimization of homosexuality. Yet there remains a larger, more compelling issue: the sacralization of politics via the person of the pope himself. Francis is not reforming the church but denaturing it, reducing it to a social tool.
Commissioned by the Vatican, the film ups the ante on papalolotry. Its deluge of glorifying images stimulates devotion to Bergoglio himself, papa to all the world. A quasi-erotic glow infuses the whole. It is the eros of surrender to a liberator, a defender against ideological bogeys: “the globalization of indifference”; “money drenched in blood”; “fear of foreigners.” The old creed proclaimed Christ risen. The new Bergoglian one, emblazoned on St. Peter’s dome during the 2016 light show repeated here, proclaims: “Planet Earth first.”
The West “must become a little bit poorer” and repent for despoiling Sister Planet. Francis rails against “the culture of waste” of a rapacious West that clings to the wealth belonging to all. As if he were stating something new, Francis declares, “Poverty is an outrage.” Even “a hard-boiled American” can be moved by the sight of how much “we have plundered Mother Earth.” Follow Francis back to the original, unspoiled “harmony of creation.”
Masked men attack Jesuit University in Nicaragua
Antonio De Loera-Brust
May 29, 2018
In this April 24, 2018 photo, demonstrators protest in honor of those who have died during anti-government protests in Managua, Nicaragua. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga, File)
Since protests directed at the Sandinista government in Nicaragua began in April, the Jesuit-run University of Central America has been a hub of student activism and, as a result, a target of violence. On Sunday, Father Jose Alberto Idiaquez, S.J., the rector of U.C.A., condemned the latest attack on his university as government-sponsored.
In a statement addressed to the Nicaraguan people, Father Idiaquez announced that U.C.A.’s campus in Nicaragua’s capital city of Managua was attacked on May 27 at 12:45 a.m. by a group of masked men in vans. The attackers shot a mortar at two campus guards.
Since protests directed at the Sandinista government in Nicaragua began in April, the Jesuit-run University of Central America has been a a target of violence.
“Although they did not manage to hurt or kill our watchmen, this was their intent, based on the charge of gunpowder used and the nearness of the shot,” Father Idiaquez said in his statement.
Since protests directed at the Sandinista government in Nicaragua began in April, the Jesuit-run University of Central America has been a hub of student activism and, as a result, a target of violence. On Sunday, Father Jose Alberto Idiaquez, S.J., the rector of U.C.A., condemned the latest attack on his university as government-sponsored.
In a statement addressed to the Nicaraguan people, Father Idiaquez announced that U.C.A.’s campus in Nicaragua’s capital city of Managua was attacked on May 27 at 12:45 a.m. by a group of masked men in vans. The attackers shot a mortar at two campus guards.
Since protests directed at the Sandinista government in Nicaragua began in April, the Jesuit-run University of Central America has been a a target of violence.
“Although they did not manage to hurt or kill our watchmen, this was their intent, based on the charge of gunpowder used and the nearness of the shot,” Father Idiaquez said in his statement.
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Televangelist seeks donations for $54M private jet
Published May 29, 2018
By Bradford Betz | Fox News
Televangelist seeks donations for $54M private jet
Jesse Duplantis, a Louisiana-based televangelist, is asking his followers to donate money for a $54 million jet, that can "go anywhere in the world in one stop."
A Louisiana-based televangelist is asking his followers to donate money for a $54 million jet that can “go anywhere in the world in one stop,” The Times-Picayune reported.
Jesse Duplantis, 68, a Christian minister based in Destrehan, about 25 miles east of New Orleans, says his ministry has paid cash for three private jets.
“You know I’ve owned three different jets in my life and used them and used them and just burning them up for the Lord,” Duplantis says in a video posted to his ministries’ website.
Duplantis is now reportedly seeking the funds for a Dassault Falcon 7X, worth $54 million.
Monday, May 28, 2018
FBI’s Code Name for Trump Investigation’s Secret Meaning Revealed
News Commentary
By Matt | Contributor | May 25, 2018 10:38AM
Six months went by between the time the FBI launched a secret counterintelligence operation into the Trump campaign (which officially began at the end of July 2016), and James Comey disclosing the investigation to the public during a hearing in March of 2017.
Contrary to protocol, the FBI did not notify the Gang of Eight of the investigation, which Comey says was done at the advice of Bill Priestap (who heads the FBI’s counterintelligence division).
It took six months before the public would learn of the investigation and another year after that before we’d learn the name of the investigation: Operation Crossfire. The name of the operation is a reference to the 1968 Rolling Stones song Jumpin’ Jack Flash, which co-songwriter Keith Richards says “refers to his being born amid the bombing and air raid sirens of Dartford, England, in 1943 during World War II.”
The names that the FBI chooses for their operations reveals some info about the nature of the operation, and this case is no different.
According to The Federalist’s Lee Smith:
The answer may be found in the 1986 Penny Marshall film named after the song, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” In the Cold War-era comedy, a quirky bank officer played by Whoopi Goldberg comes to the aid of Jonathan Pryce, who plays a British spy being chased by the KGB. The code name “Crossfire Hurricane” is most likely a reference to the former British spy whose allegedly Russian-sourced reports on the Trump team’s alleged ties to Russia were used as evidence to secure a Foreign Intelligence Service Act secret warrant on Trump adviser Carter Page in October 2016: ex-MI6 agent Christopher Steele.
The FBI’s spy was a man named Stefan Halper, a U.S./U.K. dual citizen with connections to intelligence agencies in both countries. Halper had met with Trump campaign members George Papadopoulos, Sam Clovis, and Carter Page in attempts to extract damning information against the Trump campaign. After Trump’s victory, Halper tried to pitch himself to be an ambassador to Asia but wasn’t given a position. (RELATED: Revealed: The Top Trump Staffer Who Got the FBI Mole On the Campaign!).
It’s interesting to see the role that British intelligence operatives played in this investigation. John Brennan had meetings with the head of the British intelligence agency GCHQ, Robert Hannigan, who passed along any surveillance of Trump campaign members they picked up. It was a British spy who authored the dossier – and now a British spy that was tasked to infiltrate the Trump campaign. (RELATED: Trump Rips Brennan – ‘Disgrace to the Intelligence Community’).
One might say that sounds a lot like foreign meddling in an election.
‘Heretic’ in the Vatican
By Hannah Roberts | 5/28/18, 4:05 AM CET | Updated 5/28/18, 6:29 AM CET
Despite Pope Francis’ unflagging demeanor, there are signs that the personal attacks may be wearing him down | Andreas Solaro/AFP via Getty Images
ROME — “They call me a heretic.”
Not the words you’d expect to hear from the head of the Roman Catholic Church. But that’s what Pope Francis told a group of fellow Jesuits in Chile earlier this year, acknowledging the fierce pushback from arch-conservatives in the Vatican.
Celebrated by progressives around the world for his push to update and liberalize aspects of church doctrine, Francis is facing fierce blowback from traditionalists who take issue with his openness to Muslim migrants, his concern for the environment and his softer tone on divorce, cohabitation and homosexuality. Opposition has become so heated that some advisers are warning him to tread carefully to avoid a “schism” in the church.
Father Thomas Weinandy, a former chief of staff for the U.S. bishops’ committee on doctrine, has accused Francis of causing “theological anarchy.” Another group of bishops has warned Francis risks spreading “a plague of divorce.” Last fall, more than 200 scholars and priests signed a letter accusing Francis of spreading heresy. “This was not something I did lightly,” Father John Rice, a parish priest in Shaftesbury in the U.K. said, claiming the pope’s liberal push has caused “much division and disagreement, and sadness and confusion in the church.”
“It’s not merciful to let people continue to sin and say nothing,” Rice said. “If you see a child trying to put his hand in a fire you say stop.”
As Ireland Joins Europe’s Sprint From Catholic Fold, Francis Looks South
Pope Francis at the Vatican last week. The challenge for Francis is to keep the present decline of the church in Europe from becoming a preview of its future in South America and Africa.CreditAndrew Medichini/Associated Press
By Jason Horowitz
May 27, 2018
VATICAN CITY — When nearly one-third of Ireland’s Catholic population came to see Pope John Paul II celebrate a papal Mass in Dublin in 1979, divorce, homosexual acts and abortion were all illegal in the country. Ireland, like much of Europe, toed the line on Roman Catholic Church teaching.
In August, Pope Francis will return to Ireland for a World Meeting of Families event attended by the church’s most committed anti-abortion activists. But they will find themselves, after Saturday’s historic repeal of an abortion ban in a landslide vote, in a country that is clearly part of Europe’s secular sprint out of the Roman Catholic fold.
Across Western Europe, the church’s once mighty footprint has faded, in no small measure because of self-inflicted clerical sex abuse scandals and an inability to keep up with and reach contemporary Catholics. Church attendance has plummeted, parishes are merging, and new priests and nuns are in short supply. Gay marriage is on the rise, and abortion is widely legal.
And yet, Francis is not sounding the alarm or calling the faithful to the ramparts. He seems resigned to accept that a devout and Catholic Europe has largely slipped into the church’s past.
Instead, he has shifted his focus on the faith’s future to the global South from which he came. At the heart of Francis’ vision is a closeness of priests to the poor and desolate whom he believes the church should most serve.
This turn has drawn criticism from conservative Catholics like those in the Continent’s most faithful country, Poland, who have allied with a nationalist government to keep out migrants.
By Jason Horowitz
May 27, 2018
VATICAN CITY — When nearly one-third of Ireland’s Catholic population came to see Pope John Paul II celebrate a papal Mass in Dublin in 1979, divorce, homosexual acts and abortion were all illegal in the country. Ireland, like much of Europe, toed the line on Roman Catholic Church teaching.
In August, Pope Francis will return to Ireland for a World Meeting of Families event attended by the church’s most committed anti-abortion activists. But they will find themselves, after Saturday’s historic repeal of an abortion ban in a landslide vote, in a country that is clearly part of Europe’s secular sprint out of the Roman Catholic fold.
Across Western Europe, the church’s once mighty footprint has faded, in no small measure because of self-inflicted clerical sex abuse scandals and an inability to keep up with and reach contemporary Catholics. Church attendance has plummeted, parishes are merging, and new priests and nuns are in short supply. Gay marriage is on the rise, and abortion is widely legal.
And yet, Francis is not sounding the alarm or calling the faithful to the ramparts. He seems resigned to accept that a devout and Catholic Europe has largely slipped into the church’s past.
Instead, he has shifted his focus on the faith’s future to the global South from which he came. At the heart of Francis’ vision is a closeness of priests to the poor and desolate whom he believes the church should most serve.
This turn has drawn criticism from conservative Catholics like those in the Continent’s most faithful country, Poland, who have allied with a nationalist government to keep out migrants.
Sunday a sacred day for some, but not for others
Rev. Raymond Maher / Battlefords News-Optimist
MAY 25, 2018 08:04 AM
Neighbourly Advice According to Ed
Ed, my old neighbour in Saskatchewan, considers every day alike. He rejects going to church on Sunday as he sees Sunday as no more sacred than any other day. My old neighbour has lots of people who share his view. They reject the view that Sunday is the Lord’s Day. The commandment, to remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy does not hold water with them.
Ed argues the Sabbath Day was not Sunday in the Old Testament but Saturday, and therefore, the commandment to remember or observe the Sabbath does not apply to us. The Old Testament is clear about the Sabbath Day. It says, “There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day (Saturday) is a holy day, a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly.”
As Christians, Jesus is our rest, our Saviour and Lord. God no longer requires us to observe the Sabbath Day and other holy days of the Old Testament. They were shadows of the reality of Jesus Christ to come. Jesus made it clear that he is Lord of the Sabbath.
In the New Testament, God does not specify a certain day of worship and rest, but requires Christians to come together in worship. Sunday, the first day of the week, when Jesus arose from the dead, became the day of worship and rest for Christians. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Sunday, May 27, 2018
New coloring book for adults helps spiritual creativity
Coloring book created by TED Women’s Ministries department also includes for lessons about women in the Bible.
Jan 09, 2018 | St Albans, England | Victor Hulbert, communication director, Trans-European Division
Do you ever find yourself doodling around the edges of your meeting notes? Perhaps you even find your accidental art work helps you concentrate. That is the rationale behind a coloring book for adults released by the Women’s Ministries department of the Trans-European Division.
Based around a set of 14 lessons entitled, ‘Women in the Bible and me’, the coloring books help spark creativity while studying God’s Word.
The lessons can be used individually, or in a small group Bible Study setting. They can also be used as an outreach tool. However, the coloring books add a new dimension, something that is making Clair Sanches-Schutte, TED Women and Children’s Ministries director very excited.
“Did you know that you take in more information while you are coloring? “Listening and coloring at the same time helps you use both sides of your brain which has many benefits,” she says. “This may be while you are in the group Bible study, but you could be listening to a podcast, or in a whole variety of situations.”
While the book is a Women’s Ministries initiative Clair has been surprised by how many men also like to join in – including in her own family. What is the reason?
“There are so many benefits to coloring,” she enthuses. “It can relieve stress and anxiety, spark our God given gift of creativity, and even help us to focus while listening to others.”
She also notes that while we often color individually it can be a social event, even in terms of sharing our varied results with each other.
In exercising the mind, Clair notes that “Creative coloring can also help us to grow spiritually, as Christians. As you color and consider what you are coloring, it can open up a whole new world in Bible Study for you. It can help you to focus on what you have read and what you are hearing.”
Source: Adventist News Network® The official news service of the Seventh-day Adventist world church
Source
Pope, patriarch call for ethical intervention in economy
Pope Francis embraces Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople at the conclusion of a meeting in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican May 26. (Credit: CNS photo/Paul Haring.)
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople called on Christians to work together to build a culture of solidarity in the face of growing economic inequality and a lack of respect for the human dignity of the poor and of migrants.
The two leaders met privately May 26 before addressing an international conference sponsored by the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation, which seeks to promote the teaching of St. John Paul II’s 1991 encyclical on social and economic justice.
“The current difficulties and crises within the global economic system have an undeniable ethical dimension,” Francis told some 500 business leaders, theologians and proponents of Catholic social teaching.
The crises clearly “are related to a mentality of egoism and exclusion that has effectively created a culture of waste blind to the human dignity of the most vulnerable,” the pope said.
A “growing ‘globalization of indifference'” is seen in the uneven pace of development, “not only in materially poorer countries but increasingly amid the opulence of the developed world,” he said. It also is obvious in people’s reactions to migrants and refugees.
In his speech to the gathering, Bartholomew insisted that Christianity is “essentially social. Faith is not limited only to the ‘soul’ without any interest for the social dimension, but rather, it also plays a pivotal role at the level of society.”
The Orthodox and Catholic churches, he said, promote spiritual values and charitable activity, but they also teach “the principles of the respect of the person, solidarity, subsidiarity and the common good.”
But, he said, the world today - as seen in the global economic system and the continued destruction of the environment - is experiencing a “crisis of solidarity” that threatens humanity’s very existence.
Bartholomew condemned what he described as the “‘fundamentalism of the market,’ the deification of profit, the association of dignity with property, the reduction of the human being to ‘homo oeconomicus’ and the subordination of the human person to the tyranny of needs.”
In addition, he said, “we worship technology and its highest symbol - the computer - as our god,” thinking that it will solve all of people’s problems. But the world’s deepest problems cannot be fixed with technology alone, he said, citing “social injustice, divorces, violence, crimes, loneliness, fanaticism and the clash of civilizations.”
“Never before have we possessed so much scientific knowledge and acted so violently and destructively against nature and our fellow human beings,” Bartholomew said.
For Christians, he said, two things are clear: the “crisis of solidarity” cannot be ignored because the problems directly impact human dignity; and, “nobody can face these problems alone.”
“The contribution of our churches remains crucial,” he said, because “they have preserved high values, precious spiritual and moral heritage and deep anthropological knowledge.”
“For Pope Francis and us, the identity and value of a culture or a society cannot be judged by the level of its economic growth, its technological development or its organization,” he said. “A civilization is judged by whether or not its final point of reference is the human person, in relation to his true divine destiny and the protection of his world.”
Saturday, May 26, 2018
‘This Is Not of God’: When Anti-Trump Evangelicals Confront Their Brethren
Saturday, May 26, 2018
‘This Is Not of God’: When Anti-Trump Evangelicals Confront Their Brethren
Shane Claiborne at an early morning meeting before a Christian revival in Lynchburg, Va. To the leaders of Liberty University, he was seen as a menace to the campus.
CreditTravis Dove for The New York Times
By Laurie Goodstein
May 23, 2018
LYNCHBURG, Va. — The night before Shane Claiborne came to town to preach at a Christian revival, he received a letter from the chief of police at Liberty University warning that if he set foot on the property, he would be arrested for trespassing and face up to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine.
At first glance, Mr. Claiborne hardly appeared a threat to Liberty University, a dominant force in Lynchburg, Va., and a powerful engine in evangelical Christianity. Wearing baggy clothes that he sews himself, Mr. Claiborne preaches the Gospel, lives among the poor and befriends prisoners on death row, modeling his ministry on the life of Jesus.
But to the leaders of Liberty, he was a menace to their campus. He and his national network of liberal evangelicals, called the Red Letter Christians, were holding a revival meeting to protest in Liberty’s backyard. Their target: Jerry Falwell Jr., Liberty’s president and a man who has played a pivotal role in forging the alliance between white evangelicals and Donald J. Trump, who won 81 percent of their vote.
Mr. Claiborne and his group are the other evangelicals. The Red Letter Christians, a reference to the words of Jesus printed in some Bibles in red type, are not the evangelicals invited for interviews on Fox News or MSNBC. They don’t align neatly with either political party. But they have fierce moral and theological objections to those evangelicals who have latched onto Mr. Trump and the Republican Party.
“Let’s go where the Christians are, go where toxic Christianity lives,” Mr. Claiborne said last year, when proposing the idea for a revival in Lynchburg at an annual retreat for the Red Letter Christians.
The revival last month was the most energetic of several recent attempts by Christians in various camps to confront what they see as Mr. Trump’s “court evangelicals” selling out the faith. The critics have written columns, and a book called “Still Evangelical?” They convened a closed-door summit last month at Wheaton College. A number of bereaved, eminent elders plan a procession to the White House soon to hand over their manifesto, “Reclaiming Jesus: A Confession of Faith in a Time of Crisis.”
Christians and Muslims must move from confrontation to cooperation, says cardinal
by Carol Glatz
posted Sunday, 20 May 2018
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran issues message as Ramadan begins
A competitive attitude between Christians and Muslims fosters the belief that religions are a source of tension and violence, not peace, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran has said.
“It is important that we Christians and Muslims recall the religious and moral values that we share, while acknowledging our differences,” said the cardinal, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
“By recognising what we hold in common and by showing respect for our legitimate differences, we can more firmly establish a solid foundation for peaceful relations, moving from competition and confrontation to an effective cooperation for the common good,” he said in a message to Muslims.
The annual message was for Ramadan, which began on May 16, and Eid al-Fitr, the feast marking the end of the monthlong fast, which will be on or around June 15 this year. The Vatican published the message on May 18.
Titled “Christians and Muslims: From Competition to Collaboration,” the message expressed appreciation for “the great effort by the Muslims throughout the world to fast, pray and share the Almighty’s gifts with the poor.”
The importance of the month was an opportunity to share some thoughts about relations between Christians and Muslims and the need to move from competition to collaboration, the cardinal wrote.
“A spirit of competition has too often marked past relations between Christians and Muslims,” he said, adding that “the negative consequences of which are evident: jealousy, recriminations and tensions.”
“In some cases, these have led to violent confrontations, especially where religion has been instrumentalised, above all due to self-interest and political motives,” the message said.
This kind of “interreligious competition” hurts the image of religions and their followers, “and it fosters the view that religions are not sources of peace, but of tension and violence,” it said.
To prevent and overcome such negative consequences, the cardinal wrote, it is key for Christians and Muslims to recognise what values they share and show respect concerning legitimate differences.
Working together for the common good should include assisting those most in need, allowing both sides “to offer a credible witness to the Almighty’s love for the whole of humanity,” the message said.
“So that we may further peaceful and fraternal relations, let us work together and honour each another,” Cardinal Tauran wrote. “In this way we will give glory to the Almighty and promote harmony in society, which is becoming increasingly multi-ethnic, multireligious and multicultural.”
"the stealthy but rapid progress of the papal power--all will be unmasked"
The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty, for it is the point of truth especially controverted. When the final test shall be brought to bear upon men, then the line of distinction will be drawn between those who serve God and those who serve Him not. While the observance of the false sabbath in compliance with the law of the state, contrary to the fourth commandment, will be an avowal of allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God, the keeping of the true Sabbath, in obedience to God's law, is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator. While one class, by accepting the sign of submission to earthly powers, receive the mark of the beast, the other choosing the token of allegiance to divine authority, receive the seal of God.
Heretofore those who presented the truths of the third angel's message have often been regarded as mere alarmists. Their predictions that religious intolerance would gain control in the United States, that church and state would unite to persecute those who keep the commandments of God, have been pronounced groundless and absurd. It has been confidently declared that this land could never become other than what it has been--the defender of religious freedom. But as the question of enforcing Sunday observance is widely agitated, the event so long doubted and disbelieved is seen to be approaching, and the third message will produce an effect which it could not have had before.
In every generation God has sent His servants to rebuke sin, both in the world and in the church. But the people desire smooth things spoken to them, and the pure, unvarnished truth is not acceptable. Many reformers, in entering upon their work, determined to exercise great prudence in attacking the sins of the church and the nation. They hoped, by the example of a pure Christian life, to lead the people back to the doctrines of the Bible. But the Spirit of God came upon them as it came upon Elijah, moving him to rebuke the sins of a wicked king and an apostate people; they could not refrain from preaching the plain utterances of the Bible-- doctrines which they had been reluctant to present. They were impelled to zealously declare the truth and the danger which threatened souls. The words which the Lord gave them they uttered, fearless of consequences, and the people were compelled to hear the warning.
Vatican Walls Originally Designed to Repel Muslims…
Posted on February 20, 2016 by Jan Sobieski III
Pope Francis’ statement this week Christians should not think of “building walls” had one major problem.
The pope’s sovereign city-state, Vatican City, is surrounded by giant walls.
Online Portfolio Websites
Artists - Photographers - Musicians Add Photo Galleries, Music & Videos
www.talkspot.com/Free_Websites
What’s more, the walls were specifically built by a prior pope to repel Muslims.
History shows back in 846, Muslim raiders known as the Saracens looted Old St. Peter’s Basilica and the Papal Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls. The pirates took priceless treasures from the shrines.
Shocked by the sack of some of the most sacred sites in Christendom, Pope Leo IV created the Leonine Wall, completely surrounding the Vatican Hill. Additional defenses were added in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Commenters on social networking, including GOP president frontrunner Donald Trump’s social media director Dan Scavino, mocked Pope Francis’ attack on Trump by posting pictures of the large walls surrounding Vatican City. But some critics saw a more sinister design at work.
Pamela Geller, a world-famous activist against Islamization and a WND columnist, slammed the pope for his advocacy of open borders policies in both Europe and the United States.
“He’s a hypocrite,” she charged. “If he is sincere, let him tear down the Vatican walls and admit Muslim migrants in unlimited numbers. Some can stay in his luxurious apartments. Until he does that, he is exposed as a self-righteous leftist hypocrite.”
Geller, the author of “Stop the Islamization of America,” called the pope’s actions “unconscionable as well as one-sided.”
“When has he ever called out Hillary or Bernie Sanders for their un-Christian support for abortion?” she asked rhetorically. “The church supposedly opposes that and has opposed it for longer than it has been in favor of absolutely open borders and the suicide of the West. It appears as if the pope has abandoned all pretense of being a spiritual leader and has become instead an eager advocate for the far left’s political agenda.”
The Vatican attempted to walk back the pope’s attack, which came against Trump, on Friday, with a spokesperson saying, “In no way was this a personal attack, nor an indication of how to vote.”
However, Dr. G.M. Davis, the author of “House of War: Islam’s Jihad Against the World,” argues the pope’s reputation has already been damaged.
The terrorism-Islam equation? “A foolish lie”
The Pope’s interview with the Echo of Bergamo for the arrival in the city of John XXIII’s body: “the Church’s task is not to change governments, but to bring the logic of the Gospel into the thinking and actions of rulers”
Pope Francis
Pubblicato il 24/05/2018
Ultima modifica il 24/05/2018 alle ore 15:54
andrea tornielli
vatican city
“It may be on the lips of many, but that equation is a foolish lie. This is how Pope Francis defined the equation that many make between Muslims and terrorists. He did so in the extensive interview with the director of the Echo of Bergamo newspaper, published today 24 May 2018, on the occasion of the arrival in the city of the urn with the remains of Saint John XXIII, who thus returns for the first time to his land. The most important role of religions, Bergoglio said, “is that of promoting the culture of encounter, along with the promotion of true education in responsible behavior in caring for creation”.
Francis recalled the “Good Pope”, whom he canonized, defining him as “a man, a saint who did not know the word “enemy “, and added that he was “aware of the Church’s call to serve all men and women and not only Catholics; to defend first and foremost the rights of the human person and not only those of the Catholic Church. aware that the Pope must build bridges...”.
In the interview, the Pope spoke again about immigration. “True “welcome” can only be totally disinterested, that which costs sacrifices. The international situation is complex, as we know, but in any case, I am convinced that walls are raised out of fear, to not see the suffering of our brothers and sisters that can be disturbing, wall that are raised to protect what should instead be shared”.
“Raising a wall - the Pontiff continued - is closing one’s heart, sealing it like a tomb. This is not about generosity, nor solidarity. There is so much work to do, we need to create a new culture, a new mentality, educate the new generations to think, to think of themselves as a single human family, a community without boundaries.
Friday, May 25, 2018
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Paul Ryan says America needs Catholicism
Paul Ryan says America needs Catholicism
Comments come after attempted ouster of chaplain
By:
ASHLEY KILLOUGH
CNN
Posted: May 24, 2018 11:44 AM MDT
Updated: May 24, 2018 11:44 AM MDT
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), leaves a closed door briefing with members of the Intelligence community on Capitol Hill May 22, 2018 in Washington, DC.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), leaves a closed door briefing with members of the Intelligence community on Capitol Hill May 22, 2018 in Washington, DC.
Related Content
Fight over chaplain leads to shouting match between lawmakers on House floor
Speaker Ryan, House chaplain meet following rescinded resignation
House Chaplain gives opening prayer after rescinding resignation
House Chaplain Pat Conroy rescinds his resignation, to sit down with Paul Ryan next week
Some Republicans grill Ryan over House chaplain firing
WASHINGTON (CNN) - House Speaker Paul Ryan made the case Thursday for Catholicism as a faith that can help solve the country's problems.
Ryan, who is Catholic, lamented at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast what he sees as a deepening sense of "identity politics and tribalism" in the country, as well as a trend of "moral relativism" that is becoming "more and more pervasive."
"If there was ever a time, if there was ever a place where Catholics --- from the clergy to the laity --- are needed, it is here and it is now, helping solve this problem, addressing this challenge," he said. "Our social doctrine is the perfect antidote to what ails our culture."
His comments come just weeks after his office made headlines for forcing the resignation of a Catholic House chaplain over what was explained at the time to members as a decision based on feedback from members.
Ryan said he sees "this tremendous opportunity for Catholics to lead" and "help bring our culture and our country closer to their great moral potential."
"We are uniquely suited for this task -- from the clergy to the laity, we all have got to step up," he added.
Earlier this month, Rev. Pat Conroy, the House chaplain and a Jesuit priest, sent a letter to Ryan's office rescinding his resignation that he made weeks earlier -- a resignation that caused a firestorm across Capitol Hill as members of both parties demanded answers as to why Conroy was asked to leave.
In his letter, Conroy alleged that Ryan's chief of staff, Jonathan Burks, suggested it might be time for a non-Catholic chaplain when he asked Conroy to resign -- an account Burks has denied.
Hours after the letter was sent, Ryan accepted Conroy's decision to stay.
"My original decision was made in what I believed to be in the best interest of this institution. To be clear, that decision was based on my duty to ensure that the House has the kind of pastoral services that it deserves," Ryan said at the time in a statement.
The controversy has largely subsided since the resignation was canceled, and Conroy has continued in his daily duties and activities as chaplain.
Also at the breakfast Thursday, Ryan, who received two standing ovations, alluded to his upcoming departure. Ryan announced last month that he'd be retiring after the November midterm elections.
"Now I do not know what's in store for me next. But I promise you this: I am going to continue thinking about, and talking about, these things," he said. "Whether it is just as a parishioner in Janesville, Wisconsin, at coffee and donuts after Mass, I will be there.
This story has been updated.
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
NY Cardinal: Pope’s Affirming Comments to Gay Man Were ‘Conservative, Traditional, Catholic’
Victor J. Blue/Getty Images 23 May 2018
New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan has defended reported comments by Pope Francis to a gay Chilean man that “being gay doesn’t matter,” saying they represent “conservative” Catholic teaching.
In a reconstruction of his conversation with the pope, Juan Carlos Cruz, an alleged victim of clerical sex abuse, said that Francis told him, “Juan Carlos, you being gay doesn’t matter” during their meeting in April.
“God made you like this and loves you like this and it doesn’t matter to me. The pope loves you like this, you have to be happy with who you are,” he reportedly said.
Cruz is one of three victims of Father Fernando Karadima who were in Rome in late April for three days of meetings with Francis. His comments came in an interview published on Saturday with the Spanish daily El País.
Commenting on the news during his weekly radio show Tuesday, Cardinal Dolan said that it is hard to know with certainty exactly what was said, and that one would want “a little bit of ‘wait and see’ here, let’s see exactly what the Holy Father said.”
While noting he had no intention of questioning the young man’s sincerity, he did say it would be wise to “keep in mind we got it third-hand, so what the pope said to him, he said to the press, so one would want to get a clarification.”
It is of course possible that the pope used those very words but it is also possible that Mr. Cruz walked away with that message, but that the pope’s words were somewhat different, he suggested.
In his own reconstruction of the meeting, Cardinal Dolan said the conversation probably went something like this: “Well, God loves you and so do I.”
“What he says is beautiful,” Dolan said. “Jesus could have said that.”
“That’s sort of conservative, traditional, Catholic, orthodox teaching. The Catechism insists on that,” he added.
“Yes, yes, while any sexual expression outside of a man and woman in marriage is contrary to God’s purpose, so is not treating anyone, including a gay person, with anything less than dignity and respect,” he stated.
The cardinal tied the conversation back to the pope’s celebrated remark in 2013 “Who am I to judge?” in reference to gay individuals in the Church trying to live chaste lives.
“People thought this was revolutionary,” Dolan recalled. “What he would say today would be similar to what Jesus would say.”
“People don’t understand those teachings of the Church,” Dolan said.
The Catholic Church teaches that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law.”
Men and women “who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies,” however, “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided,” the Catholic Catechism states.
“Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection,” it concludes.
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
An actual sinkhole has opened on the White House lawn. It’s growing
DRAIN THE SWAMP
Heather Timmons
May 22, 2018
Still standing, however. (AP Photo)
Construction on the US White House began in 1792. It has been almost continuously occupied by US presidents since 1800, barring a few years after the British set it on fire in 1814.
But that doesn’t mean that the present-day building is free of hazards—there are mice, cockroaches, and ants. And as of this past weekend, a sinkhole has been growing on the north lawn, Voice of America reporter Steve Herman observed, just near the press briefing room.
Steve Herman
✔@W7VOA
Gossip, We Must Stop the Not So Silent Killer: A Challenge for Southern Baptists and Simply Everyone Else
Gossip, We Must Stop the Not So Silent Killer: A Challenge for Southern Baptists and Simply Everyone Else
Contact: Kevin Hester,
269-208-3844
ST. JOSEPH, Mich., May 8, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- Gossip hurts and it's time we stop the pain, says Kevin Hester, the pastor of The Shore Church in St. Joseph, Michigan. Kevin has been hurt by gossip and continues to see countless lives affected by gossip. Because of this, he is waging war against it.
Over the past few months, we have seen individuals and groups going to battle against bullying and sexual assault, but Kevin believes that gossip has become an accepted form of bullying and assault and that it's time that we take a stand against it.
269-208-3844
ST. JOSEPH, Mich., May 8, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- Gossip hurts and it's time we stop the pain, says Kevin Hester, the pastor of The Shore Church in St. Joseph, Michigan. Kevin has been hurt by gossip and continues to see countless lives affected by gossip. Because of this, he is waging war against it.
Over the past few months, we have seen individuals and groups going to battle against bullying and sexual assault, but Kevin believes that gossip has become an accepted form of bullying and assault and that it's time that we take a stand against it.
Monday, May 21, 2018
'Jesus never charged a leper a co-pay': rise of the religious left
From healthcare to tax and immigration, Rev William Barber and the Poor People’s Campaign are driven by faith to focus on the disadvantaged
by Lauren Gambino in Washington
Mon 21 May 2018 08.13 EDTFirst published on Mon 21 May 2018 07.38 EDT
In his prayer at the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem last week, a prayer delivered against a backdrop of violence in Gaza, the evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress said Donald Trump was a moral leader who stood “on the right side of you, oh God”.
Will evangelicals come out for Trump's Republican party in November?
Half a world away, outside the Capitol in Washington, the Rev William Barber led a moment of silence for the 60 Palestinians killed by Israeli soldiers.
As one group of faith leaders celebrates the fruits of a decades-long alliance with the Republican party, another is mounting a multi-faith challenge to the dominance of the Christian right, an attempt to recapture the moral agenda.
“There is no religious left and religious right,” Barber, a pastor and political leader in North Carolina, told the Guardian. “There is only a moral center. And the scripture is very clear about where you have to be to be in the moral center – you have to be on the side of the poor, the working, the sick, the immigrant.”
Vatican calls for an authority to regulate financial markets to prevent abuse
THE CHURCH | 2018/05/17
The Vatican is calling for an impartial authority to regulate financial markets, so they do not create a greater poverty.
The Holy See is asking through an official document on ethics and financial markets, prepared by two large departments of the Curia: the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. It has personally been approved by the pope and is entitled "Economic and Financial Issues."
MSGR. LUIS LADARIA Prefect, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
"It was not a direct assignment by the pope, but rather, it grew from concern and talk. We have to study this theme. The pope encouraged and supported the idea, but the idea of originally came from speaking to everyday people."
CARD. PETER TURKSON Prefect, Dicastery Integral Human Development
"The text does not begin referencing the Bible, but appealing to popular wisdom and different peoples. This appeals to what we are, first addressing our anthropological system and then morality. + FLASH 03:53 The document includes a large part about regulation. It speaks of how to introduce this in human activity, after the crisis." The Vatican calls on those who work in finance to play fair and not get rich at the expense of others, to "spread wealth and eliminate inequalities." The Holy See recalls that although speculation operations or offshore companies are legally viable, they pose serious ethical problems. The document proposes that an external authority prevent toxic products from entering the market and issue sanctions for those who don't comply. Two of Italy's leading finance experts explained the implications of the text.
LORENZO CAPRIO Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Milan)
"The importance of regulating is emphasized, especially since it is already done in practice. And also reminds of the implications of this process for the common good."
LEONARDO BECCHETTI Universiy of Rome Tor Vergata
"Fortunately, the world's wealth continues to grow. It is estimated that next year it will be 3.9 percent of global GDP. But there is a huge distribution problem because it doesn't mean that each of us will be 3.9 percent richer." Cardinal Turkson hopes that those who read it will not only appreciate the analysis of the crisis, but can help find realistic solutions.
CARD. PETER TURKSON Prefect, Dicastery Integral Human Development "Once, in the Deutsche Bundesbank, we presented a similar document. They liked the analysis of the moral and ethical causes of the crisis. But when we spoke about regulation, they didn't like it. They said that this area of human activity cannot be regulated." The Vatican has also requested that business schools include an ethics course in their study programs, so that their students do not renounce the dignity of the human person or the common good.
Source
Texans turn to God as school rocked by latest shooting
Michael Mathes
May 20, 2018
Residents leave flowers at a memorial for victims of a mass shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, TexasResidents leave flowers at a memorial for victims of a mass shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)More
Grief-stricken families in southwestern Texas gathered in churches throughout Santa Fe on Sunday seeking spiritual succor following a massacre at the town's high school, the nation's latest mass shooting.
As federal investigators search for a motive in the deadly attack, hundreds of people attended an emotional funeral service for a Pakistani exchange student, one of 10 people killed in Friday's rampage. Many of the men wore traditional Muslim garb, kneeled and prayed.
The gunman has been identified as Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old student who is alleged to have used his father's shotgun and revolver to kill fellow classmates and two teachers.
At Arcadia First Baptist Church, Texas Governor Greg Abbott hugged survivors of the shooting and their parents and urged them to stay strong.
"We're here to support you," Abbott said.
Some 500 congregants bowed their heads as interim Pastor Jerald Watkins offered prayers.
"It's time like this when all of us realize how fragile our lives really are," he said.
Santa Fe 10th grader Joshua Stevens, 15, said he was glad to see the governor in attendance, adding, "It's important that after a tragic event like this we just come together and worship."
Residents leave flowers at a memorial for victims of a mass shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, TexasResidents leave flowers at a memorial for victims of a mass shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)More
Grief-stricken families in southwestern Texas gathered in churches throughout Santa Fe on Sunday seeking spiritual succor following a massacre at the town's high school, the nation's latest mass shooting.
As federal investigators search for a motive in the deadly attack, hundreds of people attended an emotional funeral service for a Pakistani exchange student, one of 10 people killed in Friday's rampage. Many of the men wore traditional Muslim garb, kneeled and prayed.
The gunman has been identified as Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old student who is alleged to have used his father's shotgun and revolver to kill fellow classmates and two teachers.
At Arcadia First Baptist Church, Texas Governor Greg Abbott hugged survivors of the shooting and their parents and urged them to stay strong.
"We're here to support you," Abbott said.
Some 500 congregants bowed their heads as interim Pastor Jerald Watkins offered prayers.
"It's time like this when all of us realize how fragile our lives really are," he said.
Santa Fe 10th grader Joshua Stevens, 15, said he was glad to see the governor in attendance, adding, "It's important that after a tragic event like this we just come together and worship."
Sunday, May 20, 2018
Inter-American Adventists Move to Revitalize the Medical Cadet Corps
May 18, 2018
Focus will switch from service in the Armed Forces to community relief in disasters.
By: Deena Bartel-Wagner & Inter-American Division News
A historic meeting for the revitalization of the Medical Cadet Corps (MCC) program took place during a special training session held in Levittown, Puerto Rico, from April 30 to May 3, 2018. The meeting provided special training for MCC officers who are currently involved in the program across the North American and Inter-American divisions, as well as initiating other leaders who are interested in reviving the MCC in their regions.
“The MCC program originally helped Adventist servicemen serve according to their conscience,” said World Service Organization–General Conference (WSO-GC) director Mario Ceballos. MCC cadets are trained and equipped to provide spiritual comfort, and other services such as first aid during emergency situations, explained Ceballos.
Medical Cadet Corps presenters and leaders from the Adventist World Church, North American and Inter-America during the special training session held in Levittown, Puerto Rico, April 30 to May 3, 2018. [Photo: World Service Organization]
MCC leaders in East Puerto Rico train young people on a Sunday at the Adventist school in San Juan, Puerto Rico. [Photo: Libna Stevens, Inter-American Division News].
(From left to right): Mario Ceballos, director of World Service Organization at the General Conference; Hiram Ruiz, director of WSO-Inter-America; Ivan Omaña, associate chaplaincy ministries director for North America; and Darold Bigger, retired Rear Admiral of the US Navy. [Photo: World Service Organization]
Saturday, May 19, 2018
In US evangelical capital, a new progressiveness and differing views on Israel
For many on the Christian right, the state of Israel has been seen as a key to fulfilling prophesy. A new generation has other ideas
Josiah Hesse in Colorado Springs
Sat 19 May 2018 12.16 EDT First published on Sat 19 May 2018 07.00 EDT
Bruce McCluggage enjoys a coffee at the Wild Goose, in Colorado Springs.
Photograph: Josiah Hesse
This week, the Trump administration completed its move of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
At the opening ceremony, two of the American speakers were evangelical superstars: Pastor Robert Jeffress, the author of several doomsday books about Israel, and John Hagee, who interpreted recent lunar eclipses as evidence that the end times were nigh. The Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro, meanwhile, declared that Trump had “fulfilled biblical prophecy”.
The ceremony coincided with massive protests, in which 60 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces.
Thousands of miles away, in her home outside Colorado Springs, Kimberly Troup sat in a cluttered basement office. She is an evangelical Christian who takes to heart the Bible verse in which God speaks of the Jewish nation: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.”
Accordingly, she has devoted 22 years to Israel. She is now the US director of Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, an advocacy group with a Zionist ideology. Two other CFIC employees work with her. This week, they have been very busy.
Ever since she was a child, in Kentucky, Troup has been immersed in Israel. Her father saw the creation of the state in 1948 and the six-day war of 1967 as evidence of biblical prophecy surrounding the end of the world. Troup believes in such prophecies, though she does not pretend to know when they will occur. She sees it as her Christian duty to care for Israel, to defend it against “Arabs” who are “not interested in peace”.
As she described her position an associate, previously silent, spoke up, quoting the book of Isaiah: “You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.”
Christians around the world have always had an intense interest in the Holy Land. It has often been believed that the restoration of the Jews in Palestine will bring about a holy war between good and evil (as prophesied in the Book of Revelation), after which God will set up a holy kingdom on Earth.
In the 1970s, Troup’s father was one of millions who purchased a book called The Late Great Planet Earth, which interpreted events in Israel as evidence that the great war of Armageddon would happen by the late 1980s. The non-fiction bestseller of the decade, it was followed by the wildly popular end times conspiracy tome The New World Order, by the televangelist Pat Robertson, and then the Left Behind novels and films, which concerned violent clashes in Israel that would bring about biblical prophecy.
To outsiders, these pieces of doomsday pop culture seem like far-fetched lunacy. For millions of Christians, they are a roadmap to the end of the world.
This week, the Trump administration completed its move of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
At the opening ceremony, two of the American speakers were evangelical superstars: Pastor Robert Jeffress, the author of several doomsday books about Israel, and John Hagee, who interpreted recent lunar eclipses as evidence that the end times were nigh. The Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro, meanwhile, declared that Trump had “fulfilled biblical prophecy”.
The ceremony coincided with massive protests, in which 60 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces.
Thousands of miles away, in her home outside Colorado Springs, Kimberly Troup sat in a cluttered basement office. She is an evangelical Christian who takes to heart the Bible verse in which God speaks of the Jewish nation: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.”
Accordingly, she has devoted 22 years to Israel. She is now the US director of Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, an advocacy group with a Zionist ideology. Two other CFIC employees work with her. This week, they have been very busy.
Ever since she was a child, in Kentucky, Troup has been immersed in Israel. Her father saw the creation of the state in 1948 and the six-day war of 1967 as evidence of biblical prophecy surrounding the end of the world. Troup believes in such prophecies, though she does not pretend to know when they will occur. She sees it as her Christian duty to care for Israel, to defend it against “Arabs” who are “not interested in peace”.
As she described her position an associate, previously silent, spoke up, quoting the book of Isaiah: “You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.”
Christians around the world have always had an intense interest in the Holy Land. It has often been believed that the restoration of the Jews in Palestine will bring about a holy war between good and evil (as prophesied in the Book of Revelation), after which God will set up a holy kingdom on Earth.
In the 1970s, Troup’s father was one of millions who purchased a book called The Late Great Planet Earth, which interpreted events in Israel as evidence that the great war of Armageddon would happen by the late 1980s. The non-fiction bestseller of the decade, it was followed by the wildly popular end times conspiracy tome The New World Order, by the televangelist Pat Robertson, and then the Left Behind novels and films, which concerned violent clashes in Israel that would bring about biblical prophecy.
To outsiders, these pieces of doomsday pop culture seem like far-fetched lunacy. For millions of Christians, they are a roadmap to the end of the world.
‘We’ve been through all this before’
Without a Wedding Garment
Without a Wedding Garment
This chapter is based on the following verses:
Matt. 22:1-14
THE parable of the wedding garment opens before us a lesson of the highest consequence. By the marriage is represented the union of humanity with divinity; the wedding garment represents the character which all must possess who shall be accounted fit guests for the wedding.
In this parable, as in that of the great supper, are illustrated the gospel invitation, its rejection by the Jewish people, and the call of mercy to the Gentiles. But on the part of those who reject the invitation, this parable brings to view a deeper insult and a more dreadful punishment. The call to the feast is a king's invitation. It proceeds from one who is vested with power to command. It confers high honor. Yet the honor is unappreciated. The king's authority is despised. While the householder's invitation was regarded with indifference, the king's is met with insult and murder. They treated his servants with scorn, despitefully using them and slaying them.
The householder, on seeing his invitation slighted, declared that none of the men who are bidden should taste of his supper. But for those who had done despite to the king, more than exclusion from his presence and his table is decreed. "He sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city."
In both parables the feast is provided with guests, but the second shows that there is a preparation to be made by all who attend the feast. Those who neglect this preparation are cast out. "The king came in to see the guests," and "saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment; and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
The call to the feast had been given by Christ's disciples. Our Lord had sent out the twelve and afterward the seventy, proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand, and calling upon men to repent and believe the gospel. But the call was not heeded. Those who are bidden to the feast did not come. The servants were sent out later to say, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage." This was the message borne to the Jewish nation after the crucifixion of Christ; but the nation that claimed to be God's peculiar people rejected the gospel brought to them in the power of the Holy Spirit. Many did this in the most scornful manner. Others were so exasperated by the offer of salvation, the offer of pardon for rejecting the Lord of glory, that they turned upon the bearers of the message. There was "a great persecution." Acts 8:1. Many both of men and women were thrust into prison, and some of the Lord's messengers, as Stephen and James, were put to death.
Thus the Jewish people sealed their rejection of God's mercy. The result was foretold by Christ in the parable. The king "sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city." The judgment pronounced came upon the Jews in the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the nation.
The third call to the feast represents the giving of the gospel to the Gentiles. The king said, "The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage."
Vatican and World Council of Churches announce details of visit by Pope Francis
(Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC)Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, WCC general secretary and Rev. Andrzej Choromanski of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC
The Vatican and the World Council of Churches have revealed details of the June 21 landmark visit of Pope Francis, a visit the WCC described as "a gift to churches."
The Vatican and the World Council of Churches have revealed details of the June 21 landmark visit of Pope Francis, a visit the WCC described as "a gift to churches."
"The visit of His Holiness Pope Francis to the World Council of Churches in the year of our 70th anniversary, is an historical milestone in the search for Christian unity and for the cooperation among the churches for a world with peace and justice," said Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, WCC general secretary, at a May 15 press conference.
Due to illness, Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, was represented by Rev. Andrzej Choromanski of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, who is also a consultant on the WCC's Faith and Order Commission.
"I think His Holiness wanted to participate in this anniversary to express his gratitude to the ecumenical movement that the WCC has made over 70 years as part of the world church movement," Choromanski.
"His Holiness is very much invested in the cause of Christian unity. He has said we should aim for an ecumenism that involves us walking together. When we walk together we pray together."
Due to illness, Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, was represented by Rev. Andrzej Choromanski of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, who is also a consultant on the WCC's Faith and Order Commission.
"I think His Holiness wanted to participate in this anniversary to express his gratitude to the ecumenical movement that the WCC has made over 70 years as part of the world church movement," Choromanski.
"His Holiness is very much invested in the cause of Christian unity. He has said we should aim for an ecumenism that involves us walking together. When we walk together we pray together."
Vatican offices urge re-calibration of financial markets
Vatican City, May 17, 2018 / 12:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Two Vatican offices called Thursday for the development of new forms of economy and finance with regulations directed to the common good and respect for human dignity.
“It is especially necessary to provide an ethical reflection on certain aspects of financial transactions which, when operating without the necessary anthropological and moral foundations, have not only produced manifest abuses and injustice, but also demonstrated a capacity to create systemic and worldwide economic crisis,” read Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones, (Economic and financial issues), a document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development presented May 17.
The document, signed Jan. 6, presents considerations for an ethical discernment of economics and finances, and argues that profit should not be an end in itself, but must be pursued with the goal of achieving greater solidarity and a more equitable distribution of wealth.
It presents fundamental considerations, such as the need for ethics for the economy to function correctly, and treats at length of specific ethical issues in financial and economic markets.
It was presented during a press conference by Archbishop Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Sitting alongside the prefects were professors Leonardo Becchetti from Rome’s Tor Vergata University and Lorenzo Caprio, from the Catholic University of Milan.
Archbishop Ladaria said the aim of the document is to provide a correct anthropological vision for the current market, since “the common good has disappeared” from many areas of economics and finance.
Vatican Calls for Ethical Discernment in Face of Great Economic Inequality
(Daniel Ibanez/CNA)
Blogs | May. 17, 2018
Vatican Calls for Ethical Discernment in Face of Great Economic Inequality
‘Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones’ urges a recovery of what is ‘authentically human’ and dependence on the Lord to avoid a ‘slide towards social collapse.’
Edward Pentin
In a world of vast wealth inequalities, dishonest financial practices, and an emphasis profit over the authentic good, an ethical discernment is needed if the world is not to “slide towards social collapse with devastating consequences.”
These were the words of warning today from Archbishop Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, at the publication of Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones —Considerations for an Ethical Discernment Regarding Some Aspects of the Present Economic-Financial System, a document written by the Congregation and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Archbishop Ladaria said in view of current ethical challenges in the financial world, the considerations aim to take an “honest look” at certain areas of finance, and to “offer an ethical discernment on certain aspects of those areas.”
The document, signed on the Feast of the Epiphany and running to just over 11,000 words, begins by noting that, although global economic wellbeing has grown at a “magnitude and speed” never seen before, it is important to note “inequalities” that have grown within and among different countries and, moreover, that the number of people who live in “extreme conditions of poverty continues to be enormous.”
It speaks of a time to “initiate the recovery of what is authentically human” in an age which has “shown itself to have a limited vision of the human person” who is generally understood to be a “consumer whose profit consists above all in the optimization of his or her monetary income.”
The document stresses that, on the contrary, the human person has a “relational nature” whose wellbeing is “reducible neither to a logic of consumption nor to the economic aspects of life.”
Friday, May 18, 2018
Priest pleads guilty to molesting two boys in 1990s
Priest pleads guilty to molesting two boys in 1990s
By Associated Press
May 18, 2018 | 9:11am
Fernando SayasayaPhilippine National Police
FARGO, N.D. — A Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting two boys in North Dakota in the 1990s has pleaded guilty to two counts of felony gross sexual imposition.
Court documents show that Fernando Sayasaya entered the pleas Thursday during a scheduling conference. He’s accused of abusing two underage siblings from 1995 to 1998, while he was assigned to the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and St. Mary’s Cathedral in the Fargo area.
Sayasaya was returned to the United States in December from the Philippines, where he had been since 1998.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 30. Sayasaya faces up to 20 years in prison.
A Philippines court ordered Sayasaya’s extradition in 2010. He appealed, lost and was ultimately arrested in November.
Pat O’Day, Sayasaya’s attorney, did not return a phone message seeking comment.
FARGO, N.D. — A Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting two boys in North Dakota in the 1990s has pleaded guilty to two counts of felony gross sexual imposition.
Court documents show that Fernando Sayasaya entered the pleas Thursday during a scheduling conference. He’s accused of abusing two underage siblings from 1995 to 1998, while he was assigned to the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and St. Mary’s Cathedral in the Fargo area.
Sayasaya was returned to the United States in December from the Philippines, where he had been since 1998.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 30. Sayasaya faces up to 20 years in prison.
A Philippines court ordered Sayasaya’s extradition in 2010. He appealed, lost and was ultimately arrested in November.
Pat O’Day, Sayasaya’s attorney, did not return a phone message seeking comment.
Every bishop in Chile submits resignation to Pope Francis
May 18, 2018
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT
Members of Chile's bishops' conference Luis Bishop Fernando Ramos Perez, right, and Bishop Juan Ignacio Gonzalez, meet the journalists at the Vatican, Friday, May 18, 2018. Pope Francis on Thursday ended his emergency summit with Chile's bishops by thanking them for their "full willingness" to do whatever it takes to recover from a sex abuse and cover-up scandal that has discredited the Church. (Credit: Andrew Medichini/AP.)
ROME - Chilean bishops speaking at a Vatican news conference on Friday announced that all the country’s active bishops have submitted a written resignation to Pope Francis, in the wake of a three-day summit in Rome to discuss their Church’s massive crisis over sexual abuse and abuse of power.
The decision about the bishops’ fate is now in the hands of Pope Francis, who can either accept the resignations or reject them.
The bishops presented the resignations on Thursday, and the pope will make a decision in the weeks to come.
The bishops began a written statement on Friday thanking Pope Francis for listening to them and for his “fraternal correction,” saying that they want to “specially ask for forgiveness for the pain caused to the victims, the pope, the People of God and the country for our grave errors and omissions.”
RELATED: On Chilean abuses crisis, Francis says removing bishops is ‘needed’ but not enough
“Thank you to the victims, for their perseverance and their bravery, despite the enormous personal spiritual, social, and family difficulties they’ve had to face so many times, amidst the incomprehension and the attacks from the ecclesial community itself,” the bishops wrote.
The new Pope Francis documentary is a lucid portrait of a quiet radical
Steering away from hagiography, Wim Wenders’s Pope Francis — A Man of His Word presents a stirring case for the pope’s theology.
By Alissa Wilkinson
on May 17, 2018 11:30 am
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59759073/940585462.jpg.0.jpg)
Pope Francis delivering his Easter blessing in 2018.
Franco Origlia/Getty Images
It would seem a tad worrying that Wim Wenders’s documentary about Pope Francis had the full participation of the Vatican. Usually “authorized” documentaries about public figures come off as more hagiography than actual examination of the person’s life and legacy.
But in this case, it’s to the film’s advantage. Francis has not been terribly shy about talking with media and appearing on camera, but most of what the average person gets to hear and see about him is filtered through the broader news media or political commentary, or perhaps religiously oriented analysis.
Rating
For Pope Francis — A Man of His Word, though, Wenders actually sat down with Francis on several occasions. The interviews form the backbone of the film, mixed with footage of Francis all over the world meeting with refugees, prisoners, children, hospital patients, victims of natural disasters, aid workers, and more.
The result is less biographical documentary and more a lucid and coherent presentation of Francis’s theological framework, with some exploration of how it springs from the man whose name he adopted, the 13th-century St. Francis of Assisi. Pope Francis is charming and engaging, and he speaks with conviction and wit. Pope Francis — A Man of His Word isn’t likely to convert any of Francis’s critics, but it might just convince the indifferent that he has something to say to our world.
Franco Origlia/Getty Images
It would seem a tad worrying that Wim Wenders’s documentary about Pope Francis had the full participation of the Vatican. Usually “authorized” documentaries about public figures come off as more hagiography than actual examination of the person’s life and legacy.
But in this case, it’s to the film’s advantage. Francis has not been terribly shy about talking with media and appearing on camera, but most of what the average person gets to hear and see about him is filtered through the broader news media or political commentary, or perhaps religiously oriented analysis.
Rating
For Pope Francis — A Man of His Word, though, Wenders actually sat down with Francis on several occasions. The interviews form the backbone of the film, mixed with footage of Francis all over the world meeting with refugees, prisoners, children, hospital patients, victims of natural disasters, aid workers, and more.
The result is less biographical documentary and more a lucid and coherent presentation of Francis’s theological framework, with some exploration of how it springs from the man whose name he adopted, the 13th-century St. Francis of Assisi. Pope Francis is charming and engaging, and he speaks with conviction and wit. Pope Francis — A Man of His Word isn’t likely to convert any of Francis’s critics, but it might just convince the indifferent that he has something to say to our world.
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Code Name Crossfire Hurricane: The Secret Origins of the Trump Investigation
Code Name Crossfire Hurricane: The Secret Origins of the Trump Investigation
Days after the F.B.I. closed its investigation into Hillary Clinton in 2016, agents began scrutinizing the presidential campaign of her Republican rival, Donald J. Trump.
May 16, 2018
WASHINGTON — Within hours of opening an investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia in the summer of 2016, the F.B.I. dispatched a pair of agents to London on a mission so secretive that all but a handful of officials were kept in the dark.
Their assignment, which has not been previously reported, was to meet the Australian ambassador, who had evidence that one of Donald J. Trump’s advisers knew in advance about Russian election meddling. After tense deliberations between Washington and Canberra, top Australian officials broke with diplomatic protocol and allowed the ambassador, Alexander Downer, to sit for an F.B.I. interview to describe his meeting with the campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos.
The agents summarized their highly unusual interview and sent word to Washington on Aug. 2, 2016, two days after the investigation was opened. Their report helped provide the foundation for a case that, a year ago Thursday, became the special counsel investigation. But at the time, a small group of F.B.I. officials knew it by its code name: Crossfire Hurricane.
The name, a reference to the Rolling Stones lyric “I was born in a crossfire hurricane,” was an apt prediction of a political storm that continues to tear shingles off the bureau. Days after they closed their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, agents began scrutinizing the campaign of her Republican rival. The two cases have become inextricably linked in one of the most consequential periods in the history of the F.B.I.
[Read our briefing on secret government code names]
This month, the Justice Department inspector general is expected to release the findings of its lengthy review of the F.B.I.’s conduct in the Clinton case. The results are certain to renew debate over decisions by the F.B.I. director at the time, James B. Comey, to publicly chastise Mrs. Clinton in a news conference, and then announce the reopening of the investigation days before Election Day. Mrs. Clinton has said those actions buried her presidential hopes.
Those decisions stand in contrast to the F.B.I.’s handling of Crossfire Hurricane. Not only did agents in that case fall back to their typical policy of silence, but interviews with a dozen current and former government officials and a review of documents show that the F.B.I. was even more circumspect in that case than has been previously known. Many of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.
Agents considered, then rejected, interviewing key Trump associates, which might have sped up the investigation but risked revealing the existence of the case. Top officials quickly became convinced that they would not solve the case before Election Day, which made them only more hesitant to act. When agents did take bold investigative steps, like interviewing the ambassador, they were shrouded in secrecy.
Fearful of leaks, they kept details from political appointees across the street at the Justice Department. Peter Strzok, a senior F.B.I. agent, explained in a text that Justice Department officials would find it too “tasty” to resist sharing. “I’m not worried about our side,” he wrote.
WASHINGTON — Within hours of opening an investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia in the summer of 2016, the F.B.I. dispatched a pair of agents to London on a mission so secretive that all but a handful of officials were kept in the dark.
Their assignment, which has not been previously reported, was to meet the Australian ambassador, who had evidence that one of Donald J. Trump’s advisers knew in advance about Russian election meddling. After tense deliberations between Washington and Canberra, top Australian officials broke with diplomatic protocol and allowed the ambassador, Alexander Downer, to sit for an F.B.I. interview to describe his meeting with the campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos.
The agents summarized their highly unusual interview and sent word to Washington on Aug. 2, 2016, two days after the investigation was opened. Their report helped provide the foundation for a case that, a year ago Thursday, became the special counsel investigation. But at the time, a small group of F.B.I. officials knew it by its code name: Crossfire Hurricane.
The name, a reference to the Rolling Stones lyric “I was born in a crossfire hurricane,” was an apt prediction of a political storm that continues to tear shingles off the bureau. Days after they closed their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, agents began scrutinizing the campaign of her Republican rival. The two cases have become inextricably linked in one of the most consequential periods in the history of the F.B.I.
[Read our briefing on secret government code names]
This month, the Justice Department inspector general is expected to release the findings of its lengthy review of the F.B.I.’s conduct in the Clinton case. The results are certain to renew debate over decisions by the F.B.I. director at the time, James B. Comey, to publicly chastise Mrs. Clinton in a news conference, and then announce the reopening of the investigation days before Election Day. Mrs. Clinton has said those actions buried her presidential hopes.
Those decisions stand in contrast to the F.B.I.’s handling of Crossfire Hurricane. Not only did agents in that case fall back to their typical policy of silence, but interviews with a dozen current and former government officials and a review of documents show that the F.B.I. was even more circumspect in that case than has been previously known. Many of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.
Agents considered, then rejected, interviewing key Trump associates, which might have sped up the investigation but risked revealing the existence of the case. Top officials quickly became convinced that they would not solve the case before Election Day, which made them only more hesitant to act. When agents did take bold investigative steps, like interviewing the ambassador, they were shrouded in secrecy.
Fearful of leaks, they kept details from political appointees across the street at the Justice Department. Peter Strzok, a senior F.B.I. agent, explained in a text that Justice Department officials would find it too “tasty” to resist sharing. “I’m not worried about our side,” he wrote.