A Pure Moral Atmosphere | Our High Calling - September 6, 2026

Sports Gambling Is Still a Bad Bet

Where betting is legalized, lives are being destroyed.

07/31/26
John StonestreetandTimothy D Padgett


A recently released report shows a clear correlation between legalized gambling and gambling addiction. While this should surprise absolutely no one, there is further evidence that the explosion of legalized sports gambling was a bad idea.

In 2018, a Supreme Court decision cleared the way for states to legalize sports betting. Since then, according to the study shared by Epic Research, gambling disorders have risen by 61% in states that allow it but is down 29% in states that have not.

That’s a big spread, pun intended. The time frame is also significant. Only Nevada allowed sports gambling prior to 2018. Today, it is legal in 39 states and DC, though app-based gambling has made it ubiquitous. The results of this experience speak for themselves:

Of the overall population, adults aged 30 to 49 had the highest overall quarterly rate of diagnosed gambling disorder throughout the study period. . .. The largest proportional increase was among adults aged 18 to 29, whose rate more than doubled. Rates rose in both sexes and in every age group, but the male-to-female gap was substantially larger in adults under 50.

The math speaks for itself. For example, sports betting companies make enough to pay out a fortune in constant commercials while still raking in incredible profits. As of last year, gambling businesses have taken in around $300 billion, which is as much as China spends on its military each year.

The cost to consumers, however, is not only in the bet. According to a 2025 article by Charles Fain Lehman in The Atlantic, for every dollar spent on betting, household investing fell by an average of two dollars. The years since 2018 have been marked by large increases in over-drafted bank accounts and maxed-out credit cards. Legalized sports gambling has increased “the risk that a household goes bankrupt by 25 to 30 percent” and has caused debt delinquency to surge.  

The financial strain, in turn, worsens social pathologies. According to research cited by Lehman, an upset loss for an NFL home team correlates to a 10% spike in male domestic abuse. Overall, states with legalized sports gambling have seen an estimated 9% increase in “intimate-partner violence.”

As it turns out, it is possible to legislate morality, or, in this case, to legislate an increase in immorality. The legalization of sports gambling, and the general betting industrial complex, is a scourge on society, as if a highly contagious illness had a multi-billion-dollar PR campaign behind it. This is a cause for both the Left and the Right to get behind. Progressives would be hard pressed to find a better example of the rich getting richer on the backs of the poor. Conservatives have a horribly perfect example of the effects of moral decay and the corruption of domestic life.

Moral decline isn’t inevitable. Too many are convinced that things always go from bad to worse, so why try to turn the tide? Fighting the new normal, especially one with so much money and political power behind it, is an uphill battle. But Christians are commanded to love our neighbors. Sometimes that means giving to a local charity. Sometimes that means pressing leaders to ban what is destroying lives.

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Christian J. Pinto: The Society Of Jesus Their Moral Maxims And Plots

The Real Reveal

Jul 18, 2025

The Society of Jesus (a.k.a. the Jesuit Order) is perhaps the most controversial organization of the last 500 years.  Their activities have been warned about by kings, princes, preachers, and even American presidents.  By the year 1931, the Jesuits had been expelled from at least 83 countries, city states and cities for their subversive activities around the world.  Nineteenth century historian, Thomas Carlyle called their founder, Ignatius Loyola “the poison fountain from which these rivers of bitterness that now submerge the world have flowed.”  Despite these things, few Christians in modern times know either their history or their present activities in the world today. 

In this dynamic audio CD, documentary filmmaker Christian J. Pinto interviews Dr. Ronald Cooke, author of the book, The Jesuit Kulturkampf in the United States, as they unfold important information about the Jesuits in modern times.  This CD differs from our other CDs on the Jesuits in that it specifically focuses on their activities in America today through ecumenism and communitarianism.

Christian J. Pinto: The Society Of Jesus Their Moral Maxims And Plots

You’ve Been Psy-Opped: Demoralization Is Real

Archbishop for U.S. Military Says It’s ‘Morally Acceptable’ for Troops to Disobey Orders Amid Escalating Trump Threats

by
Connor Greene

Editorial Fellow

Archbishop Timothy Broglio conducts an Easter Sunday Mass at Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, Sunday, April 12, 2020.Jose Luis Magana—AP Photo/File



The archbishop for the U.S. military services said that it “would be morally acceptable” for troops to disobey orders that go against their conscience as the Trump Administration ramps up its military actions and threats, joining other prominent Catholic leaders in sounding alarms over President Donald Trump’s aggressive foreign policy moves.

“It would be very difficult for a soldier or a marine or a sailor to by himself disobey an order,” Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio told the BBC Sunday. “But strictly speaking, he or she would be, within the realm of their own conscience, it would be morally acceptable to disobey that order, but that’s perhaps putting that individual in an untenable situation, and that’s my concern.”

When asked if he was “worried” about the troops in the archdiocese he oversees, Broglio responded: “I am obviously worried because they could be put in a situation where they’re being ordered to do something which is morally questionable.”

Broglio, who has served as the head of the Washington, D.C.-based archdiocese of the U.S. military since 2007, specifically pushed back against Trump’s repeated threats to annex Greenland.

“Greenland is a territory of Denmark,” the archbishop said. “It does not seem really reasonable that the United States would attack and occupy a friendly nation.”

Read more: Trump Warns There’s ‘No Going Back’ on Greenland and Accuses U.K. of ‘Act of Great Stupidity’

A number of other high-ranking Catholic bishops and Pope Leo XIV have also raised vocal concerns in recent weeks as U.S. forces deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the President has levied threats against several other countries and territories, including in his renewed push to acquire Greenland. The Pope, who—along with a number of U.S. bishops—has also challenged Trump’s immigration crackdown, recently condemned a “diplomacy based on force” in an annual speech at the Vatican.

SCOTUS, the Paradigm Shift & ICE

As the U.S. Supreme Court debates whether men can compete in women’s sports, mainstream media has started using terms like “wife” and “husband” in ways once considered unconventional. After Renee N. Macklin Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026, news outlets referred to her lesbian partner as her WIFE and eventually her WIDOW. It’s been a decade since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage on June 26, 2015, expanding the definition of marriage beyond a man and a woman to include same-sex couples. In LGBT+ relationships, there can now be two WIVES or two HUSBANDS. As ICE continues detaining foreign nationals without legal authorization, discussions around gender roles and identities persist, with Media reinforcing newer uses of these terms, as seen in headlines like: “ICE detains man applying for green card at routine check-in, husband says.”

ICE detains man applying for green card at routine check-in, husband says

Story by Jason Lemon

A couple’s efforts to establish their life together have been disrupted after Elias Perez-Zuazo was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during what he and his husband believed to be a routine immigration check-in.

Jonathan Blanco Gallegos told WRC-TV in Washington that they were in process of applying for a green card for Perez-Zuazo but now face an uncertain future as legal proceedings unfold and questions remain over his detention.

Read more

Deep State Technocratic Education Regime & New Age Loom Large: John Klyczek

Jesuit “Moral Theology” and the Destruction of Western Morality

Jesuit Moral Theology and the Destruction of Western Morality, PDF format


Introduction

Do you want to know why the West has become a moral cesspool? A major reason is Jesuit “moral theology”, which has been taught for the past four centuries and has spread through western society like leaven. For this order of Roman Catholic priests has worked, since its inception, to conquer Protestantism, and the Protestant-influenced West, for the pope of Rome. And to do that, it has worked to destroy, indeed annihilate, western morality, which was so largely the product of the influence of Protestantism.

What you are about to read will shock and horrify every true Christian! This is not to say that the Jesuits are solely responsible for the collapse of the western world’s morals; but they are most definitely a major cause of it.

In order to analyse the various immoral, vile, perverted and utterly anti-scriptural Jesuit doctrines in the light of the Bible, quotations from the works of Jesuit theologians themselves will be given. These are taken from two books which powerfully expose the Jesuit Order: History of the Jesuits, by Theodor Griesinger,[1] and Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, by Charles Chiniquy.[2] Protestants of previous generations were well aware of the Jesuits and their intrigues, thanks to books like these; but alas, today the situation is very different. Very little is known about them at all, which has had devastatingly tragic results within the ranks of Protestantism, and within western society in general. For this very purpose I wrote my own book, The Jesuits: the Secret Army of the Papacy.[3]

As this pamphlet will show, Jesuit “moral theology” has (for the most part unknowingly) been absorbed into western society, including into what has been called the “Protestant West”. And the results are to be seen all around us. It is no exaggeration to say that the Jesuit Order has played a huge role in altering the morals of the western world.

May the Lord be pleased to use this present pamphlet to open the eyes of many to the disgusting “moral theology” of the Jesuits.

It must be pointed out that although Griesinger refers to these Jesuit priests by their title of “Father”, Christians are commanded not to give this title to any man, in a spiritual sense (Matt. 23:9); and in this present pamphlet I only do so in the imaginary exchanges between a Roman Catholic and a Jesuit in the confessional, where the Roman Catholic will of course call the priest, “Father.”

White house to shield health workers who refuse services on moral grounds

January 18, 2018

(HealthDay)—Health workers who refuse to perform abortions or sex-change operations on religious or moral grounds will now get more protection from the Trump administration.




Any medical professional who feels his or her rights have been violated can file a complaint with the new conscience and religious freedom division of the office for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The New York Times reported Thursday.

The move, which comes one day before the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., was a priority for anti-abortion groups, according to the Times.

Roger Severino, director of the new civil rights office, told the newspaper that he and his staff would investigate each and every complaint.

The federal government has typically ignored such complaints or treated them with "outright hostility" for years, Severino added.

While supporters of the new office welcomed it as a way to protect the religious rights of medical professionals, critics said the Trump administration is giving health workers a license to discriminate.

Some fear there will be doctors who deny fertility treatments to lesbian couples and pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for certain types of contraceptives, the Times reported.

"Donald Trump's administration is handing out permission slips for hospitals and providers to deny individuals, including women and LGBT patients, access to a full range of health services including lifesaving emergency care," Dawn Huckelbridge, director of the Women's Rights Initiative at American Bridge, told the newspaper.

HHS Acting Secretary Eric Hargan said during a media briefing that the new initiative simply follows an executive order issued last year by President Trump, who said that people of faith would no longer be bullied or silenced.

Conservative groups applauded the move.

"For more than 40 years, federal law has protected the conscience rights of all Americans in the context of health care," the Heritage Foundation said in a statement. "These protections have allowed for a diversity of values in health care and ensured that individuals can work and live according to their moral and religious beliefs.

"This new HHS division will help ensure that health care professionals enjoy the same rights they have had for decades—to not face coercion or discriminatory actions if they decide not to participate in certain procedures because of moral or religious objections."

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A priest's powerful impact on the New York Times' David Brooks

David Brooks. Credit: David Burnett (B&W) 2011.


Denver, Colo., May 21, 2015 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- New York Times columnist, best-selling author and all-around pundit David Brooks has made headlines recently for his bold new book making the case for a societal return to morality.

Perhaps lesser known, however, is some of the inspiration behind the work – a humble priest described by Brooks as an “insanely joyful” man who sparked a nagging, internal question. Why was this cleric so happy and fulfilled?

What followed was a meticulously researched and engaging book which poses a provocative thesis: we as a modern society are cultivating outwardly impressive but ultimately superficial “resume virtues” – not character. And it's costing us dearly, the author says, both personally and communally.

In a conversation with CNA editors, Brooks recounted his experience with the priest along with his thoughts on why his book – “The Road to Character” (Random House/2015) – is so important, and how it speaks to everything from politics, to religion to education.

He also gave a hat tip to Pope Francis, whom he called “the embodiment of being a Christian.”

Below is the full Q&A, edited for clarity.

You're very brave – all of your recent headlines explicitly touting the need for “morality.” Your book's glaring reference to “sin.” Has there been any fallout from this? What's the reaction been from your peers?

A friend of mine who is an editor at another publishing house – a really good editor – called me and said, you know, I love the way you talk about your book, but I wouldn't use the word “sin” – it's just such a downer, so you should use the word “insensitive.” I of course think that “insensitive” is very paltry substitute for the word “sin,” so there has been some pushback on that. And, there’s some hostility towards religion in general. The book is not super religious, but it does have religious characters, and certainly religious words and religious context. But I'd say the main reaction has just been welcoming. People are hungry for a conversation. And so, whether people are Christian, Jewish, atheist – I've been sort of surprised by the general desire to be in this general field of conversation.

When did you realize in your own life that you'd been building “resume virtues” instead of forming your character?

There wasn't one big thing – but there were certain moments in my life when I saw people who had spiritual and moral gifts that I lacked. One of them was a guy named Monsignor Ray East, who is a priest in the Anacostia neighborhood in D.C. – a very poor neighborhood. He was part of a lunch I do every year for Catholic Relief Services, which I do with my friend, Mark Shields. And every year, Monsignor East would give the benediction. He was just insanely joyful – such an insanely joyful man, and I was just so struck by him. Just being in his presence would lift me up for a few weeks. I had the realization that whatever I had achieved in career terms, I haven't achieved the inner joy that he possesses. And I was just curious: how do you get that?

In your book, you talk about a cultural shift over the last 50 plus years away from humility – and a natural sense of self-effacement people had – into the notion of the “big me.” What caused this?

There are many aspects, of course. One of them derives from the consumer society, that teaches that you have these desires and you should satisfy them, and so you should just go around satisfying your desires. And so I think you come to believe that your desires are good and to have tremendous trust in them – and that is a shift away from what people thought in previous centuries. Second, after WWII, people had been through deprivation and had seen a lot of darkness, from the Holocaust and just the death that WWII created. (A series of books from the time promoted the idea) that when we look inside ourselves, we see that our nature is beautiful and full of good and that we need to love ourselves more. That too is a sharp break from the biblical tradition which says that we are broken – so there was both a commercial and philosophical shift that happened.

A recent Pew survey documents the rise of “nones” – religiously unaffiliated people – in the U.S. With the general decline of those who identify as religious, would you say this correlates to a general lack of emphasis on character?

They go along together – character is the ability to commit to things outside of yourself, whether it is a political movement, or faith, or friendship, or a love affair, or a cause. I think people have a harder time committing. They are more autonomous, more individual, they have FOMO (fear of missing out) so they don't want to ruin any option, and that leads to a general era of de-commitment. People are walking away from political parties, from organized faith – they are just living more individually. And I think that's due to our inability to commit to things.

What about education? How does the school system help or hinder your concept of the need for more virtuous people?

I think obviously Catholic schools can teach us specific code, specific theology, but public schools really can't. I do think that they can familiarize students with the religions and the faiths and the philosophies that are out there. So what I do when I teach a course is say: here are a bunch of moral ontologies, different systems that people have come up with. There is a Greek system favoring honor and courage, the Jewish faith favoring obedience and law, the Christian system favoring grace and humility – I'm not going to tell you which one to pick, but here are a bunch of systems, do what seems true to you. But we don't even give students the words or an education there. I think we have to at least make them literate in spirituality and moral matters.

Let's move to politics. Many of the U.S. founding fathers either implied or explicitly said that democracy will only work if we are a nation comprised of people with character. What are the implications of your thesis for the American experiment?

I think that our founders were very clear on that. A healthy country requires a decent citizenry. And they also believed that statecraft is soulcraft – that in forming a government we’re helping to shape the character of the people within it. I think as we’ve lost the whole vocabulary and the whole focus, we now focus a lot on economics and economics as really the gateway between all social thinking and government policy.

And that’s not true – that doesn’t evaluate what people seek...And so we've kind of neutered the public square. I'm not the kind of person who thinks we're in a state of national decline or anything like that. I think people find ways to behave decently towards one another as best as they can. But I just think we’re inarticulate and that we could be living satisfying and more fulfilling lives if we actually had words and more – greater – self-consciousness and better road maps for how to lead a life of depth and kindness.

Is social media to blame for some of our narcissistic, “big me” tendencies as a society?

I'm not hugely fearful about it. I don't think Facebook is making us lonelier. I don't think video games are making us more violent. The two things I do think are: first, social media and the desire for likes and attention on Instagram and such is amplifying the self where we are broadcasting ourselves and just sort of being big about ourselves and win fame. And I do think social media damages our attention span. I've certainly noticed that in myself where I have trouble reading for long periods of time without checking my phone. So I do think that's probably the most harmful thing that’s happened to us. Moral reflection takes stillness. You've got to hear that soft voice inside...So I think those are the two things I worry about.

What, in a concrete, practical sense can your readers take away from your book? What effect do you want to have on people?

First, I just want them to live in this space and think about this world. Second, I think we become better people by copying others. So I hope they’re excited by some of the characters and they just want to live a life like Dorothy Day or live a life like Philip Randolph. I think that’s how we are motivated – by exemplars.

As for the practical things, some of them are mundane. I have a friend who when he goes home at night he asks how he did in his struggle against his core weakness that day and he resolves ways to do better. I think you can surround yourself by friends and also by heroes – people you can put on your walls in your room who remind what a decent, good life looks like. I think you can have discussion groups raising the subjects of: how do you turn suffering into a moral occasion? How do you build your relationships?

So there's a spiritual component. I think you learn from Samuel Johnson the virtue of reading and how just having a settled philosophy of life is important in having and living a life of character. You can learn from Francis Perkins about a vocation. You can ask, what is the mortal world around me calling me to do right now?

I think there are a few different things that can be done. There's no seven step process to doing it but there's a lifelong journey that I'm hoping people find different avenues towards.

As a Catholic news entity, we'd be remiss if we didn't ask your opinion on Pope Francis...

I have a quote in the book from Dave Jolly, a veterinarian, who says ‘the message is the person’ - the way we communicate, what we value is not necessarily from the theology that we found, but by the way we act, the way we are. And I think Pope Francis is the perfect exemplification of that. I'm not a huge expert in Catholic theology but I like the way he handles himself and I admire the way he behaves in matters large and small. So to me, he simply is the embodiment of being a Christian. He radiates love, radiates joy, shows mercy, shows empathy. That's the way Jesus asks Christians to live and Pope Francis lives that way. And so the message is the person.

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Brooks travels 'The Road to Character'

Gregory Korte, USA TODAY9:36 p.m. EDT May 10, 2015



(Photo: Random House)


One of David Brooks' great virtues as a columnist is his unpredictability. Hired as the token conservative on The New York Times' op-ed page, he's become the liberal's favorite conservative writer, alternately infuriating those on the far right and the far left. His columns often diverge into varied and non-political subjects like the psychology of pitching and the meaning of meaningfulness.

But in many parts of the commentariat, he's seen as also an off-putting egghead moralist — something Brooks acknowledges in the opening pages of The Road to Character (**1/2 out of four), his examination of how human nature has evolved from the classical era to the age of social media and the selfie stick.

"I'm paid to be a narcissistic blowhard, to volley my opinions, to appear more confident about them than I really am," he writes. "I have to work harder than most people to avoid a life of smug superficiality."

That confession is the closest Brooks comes to a first-person confrontation with his own character. The Road to Character is not a memoir, but a series of hagiographic essays extolling virtues of humility, self-sacrifice, discipline and generosity.

The soundbite thesis of the book is this: There are résumé virtues, the kinds of talents and job skills that lead to material success, and there are eulogy virtues, the kinds of things you'd like to be remembered for after you die: kindness, honesty, faithfulness.

Borrowing from Joseph Soloveitchik, an Orthodox Rabbi, Brooks calls these Adam I values and Adam II values. In the first chapter of Genesis, Adam I is created in the image of God, and is told to "fill the earth and subdue it." Adam I is ego-centered, majestic and masterful.

But there's a different creation story in the second chapter, where Adam II is created from dust. Adam II is humble, vulnerable and communal. "It is not good for man to be alone," God says.

Throughout the book, Brooks uses words like sin, vocation, soul and grace — words loaded with religious meaning but which Brooks tries to humanize and secularize. He argues for a new moral vocabulary to help balance out the more self-aggrandizing tendencies of modern society.

In the biographies that form the meat of the book, Brooks chooses as subjects religious figures such as St. Augustine of Hippo and Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker Movement (herself on the road to sainthood); civil rights leaders like A. Philip Randolphand Bayard Rustin; military leaders like Dwight Eisenhower and George Marshall; and writers like George Eliot and Samuel Johnson.

At his best, Brooks is a normative version of Malcolm Gladwell, culling from a wide array of scientists and thinkers to weave an idea bigger than the sum of its parts.

The book grew out of a course Brooks taught at Yale University, and it sometimes reads like a series of undergraduate essays, with great thinkers thrown in haphazardly in an effort to impress the teacher. Like his columns, Brooks' chapters can be original and eye-opening, or inconsistent and hard to follow.

The title of The Road to Character suggests a map to help the reader develop the eulogy virtues. But it's not quite a self-help book, which Brooks sees as a fool's errand anyway. "The existence of more and more self-help books is proof that they rarely work," he writes.

Instead, he says, "I wrote this book not sure I could follow the road to character, but I wanted at least to know what the road looks like and how other people have trodden it."

It's not until the acknowledgements that the reader learns that this book wasn't supposed to be about character at all. What was conceived as a book about "cognition and decision-making" evolved into one about "morality and inner life."

Brooks can be unpredictable, even to himself.

The Road to Character

By David Brooks

Random House, 270 pp.

2½ out of four stars

Gregory Korte is a White House reporter for USA TODAY. Follow @gregorykorte on Twitter.

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Sonntag muss Kirchtag sein [Sunday must be (a) feast day]

Sonntag muss Kirchtag sein

Martin Kilian aus Washington am Samstag den 4. April 2015

Kleine Geschichte

In den 50er-Jahren war der Gottesdienst für die ganze Familie noch Pflicht. Foto: Getty

«Der amerikanische Sonntag ist eine runde Sache: Man steht auf, frühstückt im Bademantel Eier mit Speck und Bratkartoffeln («House Fries»), dazu Waffeln mit Ahornsirup und Butter mitsamt Kaffee sowie einem Mimosa-Cocktail aus Champagner und frischgepresstem Orangensaft. Eine Bloody Mary tut es natürlich auch. Danach geht der echte Amerikaner zurück ins Bett zum Workout-Sex oder zum Jagen, Fischen und Sammeln. Er ist ein passionierter Jäger und Sammler.

Wer einen ruhigeren Ablauf seines freien Tages vorzieht, platziert sich schon morgens vor den TV und sieht fern. Es gibt Shows mit Celebrity-Köchen oder Werbefernsehen und auf CNN sogar Krisen aus aller Welt. Da der Aktienmarkt ruht, sind sonntags weder Gewinne noch Verluste zu verzeichnen. Die Kreditkarten hingegen ruhen nicht, denn bereits um zehn Uhr öffnen die Einkaufszentren und laden zu hemmungslosem Shopping am Tag des Herrn ein. Für alle, die arbeiten müssen – und das sind viele Amerikaner! – , findet der Sonntag am Dienstag oder sonstwann statt.

Dieser lässige Umgang mit dem Sonntag erregt den Unmut von Leuten, die den sittlichen wie moralischen Niedergang Amerikas beklagen und allerorten Teufelswerk wie die Homoehe wittern. Dass die Amerikaner immer weniger in die Kirchen strömen, obschon auf ihren Geldscheinen ausdrücklich vermerkt wird, sie vertrauten «auf Gott», erregt zudem seit geraumer Zeit den Unmut der Gegner einer allzu saloppen Interpretation des Sonntags.

Sie will die Moral in die Gesellschaft zurückbringen: Staatssenatorin Sylvia Allen. Foto: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Was sie wirklich denken, enthüllte kürzlich eine gewisse Sylvia Allen, von BerufRepublikanerin im Staatssenat von Arizona. Frau Sylvia repräsentiert die Kleinstadt Snowflake, was auf deutsch «Schneeflocke» bedeutet, jedoch weniger herzig ist, als man denkt. Denn Snowflake wurde 1878 von Erastus Snow und William Jordan Flake gegründet. Snow und Flake - alles klar? Synapsen okay? Die Gründerväter waren Mormonen, auch Frau Sylvia bekennt sich zu diesem Glauben.

Nun begab es sich unlängst, dass der Senat in Arizona mal wieder die Erlaubnis zumTragen verdeckter Schusswaffen in öffentlichen Gebäuden debattierte. Eine derartige Erlaubnis ist nicht ohne: Leute mit versteckten Ballermännern könnten durch die Korridore von Gerichten und Finanzämtern streifen und andere Leute massakrieren, wie dies leider dann und wann in Amerika geschieht. Frau Sylvia freilich suchte die Schuld nicht bei den Schusswaffen, sondern in den «verdorbenen Seelen» der Menschen.

Und deshalb verlangte sie eine «moralische Wiedergeburt» Amerikas sowie ein Ende der Erosion von Religion. «Wahrscheinlich», entfuhr es ihr, «sollten wir ein Gesetz debattieren, das jeden Amerikaner dazu verpflichtet, am Sonntag die Kirche seiner Wahl zu besuchen». Moment mal! Das ist extrem heavy! Vor allem, da Frau Sylvia sich wehmütig an die fünfziger Jahre erinnerte, als alle Läden am Sonntag geschlossen waren und die Leute in die Kirche gingen, statt sich sonntags mit Mimosas und Sex zu vergnügen. Oder eben jagen und sammeln zu gehen.

Beten statt gamen: Kinder vor einem Altar. Foto: Getty

Einmal davon abgesehen, dass Afroamerikaner in den fünfziger Jahren hinten im Bus sitzen und Homosexuelle um ihr Leben fürchten mussten und Frauen insgesamt weniger als ihre Haustiere zu sagen hatten und Richard Nixon Vizepräsident war: Wie bitte soll der Zwangsbesuch in der Kirche «meiner Wahl» administrativ vonstatten gehen? Was ist mit Atheisten und Agnostikern? Mit Theisten und Heiden? Zorastergläubigen? Punks? Santeria? Und wer soll den Transport Widerstrebender in die Kirchen bezahlen? Gibt es eine spezielle Polizeitruppe?

Fragen über Fragen werden laut. Es scheint, als habe Frau Sylvia ihre «moralische Wiedergeburt» eher nachlässig durchdacht. Das Konzept hat offenkundig profunde Lücken. Da gilt es nochmals nachzufassen! Frau Sylvia?

Martin Kilian, Washington

Er ist Amerikaner und Reisender durchs amerikanische Hinterland. Ihn interessiert ziemlich alles zwischen Boston und Seattle, San Diego und Miami. Er lebte unter anderem in Athens, Georgia, und Washington DC und wohnt derzeit in Charlottesville, Virginia. Gelegentlich fliegt er nach Europa und bewundert die Putzigkeit des Alten Kontinents.

Quelle

---------------------------------

Below is a bing Traslator, translation of the German article: 

(I do not speak German, still I wanted to share this article; So, I tried several online translators, and this seems like the best I could find. Please forgive the bad grammar, it's a computer generated translation.)


Sunday must be (a) feast day

Martin Kilian from Washington on Saturday the 4 April 2015

little story Church Thanksgiving

In the 1950s, the church service for the family was still required. Photo: Getty

«The American Sunday is a round thing: one stands up, in a bathrobe, breakfast eggswith Bacon and fried potatoes («House fries»), to waffles with maple syrup and butteralong with coffee and a Mimosa cocktail of champagne and fresh squeezed orange juice.» Of course, it is a Bloody Mary. Then the real Americans goes back to bed to the workout sex or hunting, fishing and gathering. He is a passionate Hunter and collector.

If you prefer a quieter end of his free day, placed already in the morning before the TVand watch TV. There are shows with celebrity chefs or commercial television and CNN even crises around the world. Since the stock market are neither gains nor losses recorded on Sunday. The credit cards, however, does not rest, because already at teno'clock the malls open and invite to uninhibited shopping on the day of the Lord. Forall those who work have to - and that many Americans! -takes place the Sunday to Tuesday or sonstwann.

This casual handling of Sunday aroused the resentment of people who complain about the moral as moral decline of America and everywhere smell Devil's work such as the gay marriage. That Americans always less in the churches flock, although on their money explicitly, stated they trusted «God», also aroused the displeasure of theopponents of a too popular interpretation of the Sunday for quite some time.

She wants to bring back the morality in the society: State Senator Sylvia all. Photo:Gage Skidmore/Flickr

What they really think, revealed a certain Sylvia Allen, of professional recently Republican in the State Senate of Arizona. Mrs Sylvia represents the town snowflake,what means, but less herzig on german «snowflake», than one might think. Snowflake was founded in 1878 by Erastus snow and William Jordan Flake? Snow and Flake - allright? Synapses okay? The founding fathers were Mormon, also wife Sylvia is committed to this belief.

Now it came recently, that the Arizona Senate again debated the permission to carry concealed weapons in public buildings. Such permission is not without: people with hidden shooting men could through the corridors of courts and tax offices and massacring people, like this unfortunately then and when happens in America. Mrs. Sylvia however sought blaming not the guns, but in the «corrupted souls».

And that's why she demanded a «moral rebirth» America's, as well as an end to the erosion of religion. «Likely», it said, «should we are debating a law that required every American to attend the Church of his choice on Sunday» Wait a minute! This is extremely heavy! Especially, since Mrs. Sylvia wistfully remembered the fifties, as all the stores on Sunday were closed and the people in the church went instead to enjoy Sunday with Mimosas and sex. Or just hunt and gather to go.

Praying instead of reading: Children before an altar. Photo: Getty

Even apart from African-Americans back had to sit in the 1950s in the bus and fear homosexuals for their lives and women had a total to say less than their pets, and Richard Nixon was Vice President: how should please the compulsory visit to the Church of «my choice» take administratively place? What about atheists and agnostics? With theists and pagans? Zorastergläubigen? Punks? Santería? And who should pay for transporting resistive in the churches? There is a special police force?

Questions about questions be loud. It seems rather carelessly, wife Sylvia have thought through their "moral rebirth". The concept has evidently profound gaps. There it is again to cover up! Mrs Sylvia?

Martin Kilian, Washington

He is American and Traveler through the American hinterland. Interested in pretty much everything between Boston and Seattle, San Diego and Miami. He lived in Athens, Georgia, and Washington DC and currently resides in Charlottesville, Virginia. Occasionally, he flies to Europe and admired the Putzigkeit (quaintness) of the old continent. 

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Connection Between God's Moral Law and Laws of the Physical World.

There is a close relation between the moral law and the laws that God had established in the physical world. If men would be obedient to the law of God, carrying out in their lives the principles of its ten precepts, the principles of righteousness that it teaches would be a safeguard against wrong habits. But as through the indulgence of perverted appetite they have declined in virtue, so they have become weakened through their own immoral practices and their violation of physical laws.

The suffering and anguish that we see everywhere, the deformity, decrepitude, disease, and imbecility now flooding the world, make it a lazar house in comparison with what it might be even now, if God's moral law and the law which He has implanted in our being were obeyed. By his own persistent violation of these laws, man has greatly aggravated the evils resulting from the transgression in Eden. --RH, Feb 11, 1902.

Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 2,  p. 562.

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Morality Declines, the End Approaches... Andrew Henriques

Morality Declines, The End Approaches, While Professed Christians Reject Manna And Lust For Flesh

ProphesyAgainTV

Published on Mar 15, 2015
2015

“Let the diet reform be progressive. Let the people be taught how to prepare food without the use of milk or butter. Tell them that the time will soon come when there will be no safety in using eggs, milk, cream, or butter, because disease in animals is increasing in proportion to the increase of wickedness among men. The time is near when, because of the iniquity of the fallen race, the whole animal creation will groan under the diseases that curse our earth... Let our people discard all unwholesome recipes...Let them teach the people to preserve the health and increase the strength by avoiding the large amount of cooking that has filled the world with chronic invalids. By precept and example make it plain that the food which God gave Adam in his sinless state is the best for man's use as he seeks to regain that sinless state.” {7T 135.2}
“We are coming to the time when recipes for cooking will not be needed, for God's people will learn that the food God gave Adam in his sinless state is the best for keeping the body in a sinless state.” {21MR 286.3}

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Fla. Lawmakers Move To Abolish 'Living-In-Sin' Law

Sean Rossman, Tallahassee Fla. Democrat12:45 p.m. EDT March 17, 2015

The 1868 law, which seems to not have been enforced, still could slap those living in sin with a second-degree misdemeanor.



(Photo: Getty Images)


TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Believe it or not, in spite of all the shacking up going on, and living together as an unmarried couple is still against the law in Florida.

But don't break the lease quite yet.

Two legislative committees approved the repeal of a nearly 150-year-old state law that says unmarried men and women cannot live together under the same roof. The 1868 law, which seems to not have been enforced, still could slap those living in sin with a second-degree misdemeanor.

On Monday, the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee approved Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda's House Bill 4045, which would repeal the part of a Florida statute that makes it a crime "If any man and woman, not being married to each other, lewdly and lasciviously associate and cohabit together."

The bill now moves to a second House committee.

Rehwinkel Vasilinda, a Tallahassee Democrat, said current law makes it illegal for people to have male-female roommates, even without the romance.

"The statute, as it's written, looks as if you could be arrested on a second-degree misdemeanor for merely living with a person of the opposite sex," she said.

Not everybody is ready to move in with the bill.

GOP Rep. Charles Van Zant of Palatka, Fla., voted against it, citing scripture. God's first institution was marriage, which didn't involve cohabitation, he said.

Rehwinkel Vasilinda has heard from a range of people on her proposal, from young people with roommates to the elderly constituents living together to save money. Besides removing the dated law, she introduced the bill to take advantage of a new House rule that allows members to strike parts of a law.

She finds the rest of the statute appropriate and therefore didn't propose doing away with all of it.

But a similar bill, Senate Bill 1078, introduced by Sen. Eleanor Sobel, a Democrat from Hollywood, Fla., would repeal the entire statute, which also includes a prohibition on married or unmarried men and women engaging "in open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior."

The Senate Criminal Justice Subcommittee unanimously approved that bill, which has two more committee stops.

Only three states — Florida, Michigan and Mississippi — have laws making cohabitation illegal, according to an analysis by Sobel's staff, which cited the National Conference of State Legislatures.

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Decline of Morality Fuels Rise of ISIS

Tuesday, 02 Sep 2014 12:57 PM

By Edward Pentin


A decline in moral values in the West, together with Islam’s history of violent conquest and dire education system, are major causes fueling the "diabolical" atrocities committed by Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria.

This is according to Father Samir Khalil Samir, a respected Jesuit professor of Islamic studies and Vatican consulter, who believes today’s moral decadence in the West is a “very important” factor in the rise of Islamism and most Westerners “are not aware of it.”

Although once looked up to in the Arab world, over the past 50 years the West “has given a very bad image of itself, mainly regarding the questions on sexual liberation,” Samir told Newsmax. “Everything about modernity is seen as wrong for these people [Islamists],” and the West is viewed as “imposing” these values on the Arab world through wars, “whether just or not.”

The Egyptian-born Jesuit also warns of a growing “clash of civilizations” as the intolerance of Western moral relativism and Islamism increase. But he directs much of his criticism towards Islam and its inability to reform itself.

“We hear very often Muslims say: ‘This has nothing to do with Islam’”, he said. “This is a spontaneous reaction of Muslims on the street, but in fact it’s a false reaction. This is a part of Islam, and we can find it in the Koran itself, and much more in the life of Muhammad who had a very strong and violent attitude to unbelievers.”

Samir said although Muhammad was “somewhat tolerant” of Jews and Christians, “he was absolutely intolerant” of those who did not believe. “The only solution for them in the Koran and in the life of Muhammad was to convert or die.” But he pointed out that today’s Islamists “are following this line with one difference: They call ‟unbeliever” (kāfir) anyone who is not like them, even the Shia, the Yazīdi, or the Christian.”

“The main thing to note is that violence is an element of Islam,” he continued. “Violence is not an element of Christianity. When Christians were using violence in wars and so on, they were not following the Gospel, nor the life of Christ. When Muslims are using it, they are following the Koran and the sunnah and Muhammad’s model. This is a very important point.”

Samir, a former student of Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), said Muslims “have to rethink Islam for today’s world,” as today the religion has “regressed” to the 7th century. To overcome the problem, he said the Islamic world needs to “overhaul its education system” which “is very, very poor.” Currently, Islam is learned through repetition and memory, he said, but Muslims need to learn how to “interpret a text,” and this should begin at a young age.

Asked whether ISIS has a future, Samir said in the short term they are likely to advance. “It’s unthinkable what they are doing. It is so inhuman that people don’t know how to react,” he said.

“They are operating exactly as the prophet did at the beginning, with war and conquest,” he continued, adding they will be hard to stop if they are well armed and equipped. “In each case they are winners: If they kill, they win; if they are killed they win, because they believe they have won paradise . . . They have no principles or norms or values or standards, other than to literally apply Shariah.”

“The astonishing thing,” he added, “is that they are fighting the immorality of the West and Western hedonism. But they are doing many more immoral things in the name of Islam.”

“I don’t like to say this word, but in a way what they are doing is diabolical, it’s something the world has never seen in history,” Samir declared. “We’ve seen a lot of cruelty, but this is a planned cruelty. This is why I think there’s no future for them in the long term. But in the short term, they will win more and more and we have to stop them. Now.”

Edward Pentin began reporting on the Vatican as a correspondent with Vatican Radio in 2002. He has covered the Pope and the Holy See for a number of publications, including Newsweek and The Sunday Times. Read more reports from Edward Pentin — Click Here Now.



© 2014 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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"Who is on the Lord's side?"

The Lord abhors indifference and disloyalty in a time of crisis in His work. The whole universe is watching with inexpressible interest the closing scenes of the great controversy between good and evil. The people of God are nearing the borders of the eternal world; what can be of more importance to them than that they be loyal to the God of heaven? All through the ages, God has had moral heroes, and He has them now--those who, like Joseph and Elijah and Daniel, are not ashamed to acknowledge themselves His peculiar people. His special blessing accompanies the labors of men of action, men who will not be swerved from the straight line of duty, but who with divine energy will inquire, "Who is on the Lord's side?" (Exodus 32:26), men who will not stop merely with the inquiry, but who will demand that those who choose to identify themselves with the people of God shall step forward and reveal unmistakably their allegiance to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Such men make their wills and plans subordinate to the law of God. For love of Him they count not their lives dear unto themselves. Their work is to catch the light from the Word and let it shine forth to the world in clear, steady rays. Fidelity to God is their motto.

Prophets and Kings, p.148.

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Britain: Same-Sex Couples Marry Under New Law

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MARCH 29, 2014




Some gay couples in Britain waited decades for the right to get married. When the opportunity came, it took just a few minutes to make history, and Sean Adl-Tabatabai and Sinclair Treadway of London were among the first to marry as Britain’s new marriage law, approved last July, went into effect early Saturday. The two men married in front of about 100 guests at their local town hall in the London borough of Camden — one of several places holding late-night ceremonies to mark the occasion. It was a sign of a profound shift in attitudes in a country that little more than a decade ago had a law on the books banning the “promotion” of homosexuality. Same-sex marriage has been welcomed with enthusiasm by Britain’s Conservative-led government. Rainbow flags went up over two government buildings on Friday in what Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg called “a small symbol to celebrate a massive achievement.” 



Tanya Ward, right, and Nikki Pettit, among the first gay couples to legally marry in Brighton, were showered on Saturday. Credit Leon Neal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images


A version of this brief appears in print on March 29, 2014, on page A5 of the New York edition with the headline: Britain: Same-Sex Couples Marry Under New Law.

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Vladimir Putin claims Russia is moral compass of the world

Vladimir Putin asserts in his annual state of the nation address that Russia takes a morally superior world-view to the West and defended its Conservatives values



The move appears to be a push by the Kremlin to consolidate state media resources at a time of increasing online criticism of Vladimir Putin's 13 years of rule Photo: RIA NOVOSTI/REUTERS





By Damien McElroy

5:27PM GMT 12 Dec 2013




Vladimir Putin sought to cast Russia as the moral arbiter of the world on Thursday, as he hit out at America’s “non-traditional values” and its influence across the world.


In an annual state of the nation address, the 61-year-old Russian president said his country did not aspire to be “some kind of superpower”.


“We do not infringe on anyone’s interests, we do not force our patronage on anyone, or try to teach anyone how to live,” he said.


His comments amounted to an oblique rebuttal to the growing international movement against Russia’s restrictive laws on homosexuality. Support for a boycott of Russia in the run up to the Sochi Winter Olympic Games has widened with celebrities announcing they will not perform in Russia. Others including Joachim Gauck, the German president, have declined invitations for the event.


Mr Putin defended his government’s increasingly conservative values and decried the “review of norms of morality” in the West and elsewhere.

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Pussy Riot: doing time, one stitch at a time RBTH

“This destruction of traditional values from above not only entails negative consequences for society, but is also inherently anti-democratic because it is based on an abstract notion and runs counter to the will of the majority of people,” Mr Putin said, adding there could be no benefit for society for treating “good and evil” equally.

In his 70-minute televised speech from an ornate Kremlin hall, Mr Putin said traditional family values where a bulwark against “so-called tolerance – genderless and infertile.”

Critics of the speech were quick to point that post-Soviet Russia has seen a deep and damaging decline in its birth rates to among the lowest of any developed nation.

While the speech did not contain a widely-trailed push to eliminate local mayors, one of the few power centres outside the Kremlin’s control, Mr Putin did appear to signal a push against oligarchs dominance of the economy.

The Russian leader attacked the prevalence of offshore companies in the economy, claiming the use of such vehicles was hampering growth.

“The main reasons for a slowdown in economic growth are internal, not external,” he said. “We must establish more stability and a good investment climate.”

Half of the $50 billion (£30 billion) that Russian companies invest abroad every year is sent to offshore jurisdictions, which Putin described as the “transfer of capitals that should be working in Russia.”

“You want to have offshores? Fine. You want to have benefits, support and to make profit by operating in Russia? Then do register in the Russian jurisdiction.”

However his wake-up call on the economy was criticised by Alexei Kudrin, a former close associate and Russia’s finance minister until 2011. The much-respected technocrat said the government was incapable of meaningful reforms.

“It’s a shame that so little has been done,” Mr Kudrin said after the speech. “The president’s proposals for reactivating the economy are a tactical response to the problem. We need a strategic plan to get out of stagnation.”

The Russian leader has had notable foreign policy success in 2013, forging a deal on Syria’s chemical weapons with the US and helping force Iran to the nuclear negotiating table. But internally the impression has grown that his regime is increasingly fragile.

Stefan Meister, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Mr Putin had lost room for political maneourve as he entered his presidential third term since 2000. “He has isolated himself from the proactive part of society and the elite,” he said. “He has surrounded himself with hardliners from the security service who promote Russia’s “modernisation” through the country’s military-industrial complex.”

Mr Putin also revived the Kremlin’s warnings again American plans for anti-missile shields and the dangers of reducing to nothing the post-Cold War strategic balance.

“Nobody should have any illusion about the possibility of gaining military superiority over Russia,” he said. “We will never allow this to happen. Russia will respond to all these challenges, political and military.”

An earlier version of this article said Sir Elton John was boycotting Russia but in fact he has made clear in statements at his website www.ejaf.com and elsewhere that he believes it is important not to isolate Russian people because of the actions of their government.

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Preacher's Wife Meagan Good Suffers Wardrobe Malfunction in See-Through Outfit

By Toyin Owoseje : Subscribe to Toyin's RSS feed | November 15, 2013 11:10 AM GMT



Megan Good gave the press an eyeful at the GQ Man of the Year Awards.

Meagan Good left little to the imagination when she suffered a wardrobe malfunction at the GQ Men of the Year annual bash.

The 29-year-old Hollywood actress, who married DeVon Franklin, a TV/movie executive and Seventh Day Adventist preacher in 2012, accidently flashed too much flesh while she posed on the red carpet.

Photographers got more than an eyeful when flashbulbs revealed that her sleek black mini dress was far from conservative and that she had gone braless to the glitzy event.

Images of Think Like A Man star's wardrobe malfunction posted online quickly provoked a major discussion within the Christian community with some claiming Good was dressed inappropriately as a preacher's wife.

"When the mentors are dressing like this?What should the Mentee wear....or probably go naked." One unimpressed viewer said.

"She's young. Let her be. She's growing, she will live and learn as everyone else does. Remember God does not judge the outward appearance it is what is in the heart that matters. Remember the parable of the cup."

Earlier this year Good face criticised for wearing a nipple-revealing, skin-tight, long-sleeved gown which hugged her curves and also featured a thigh-length slit for the 2013 BET Awards.

She defended controversial choice of outfit choice of outfit and claimed that Christians are often too quick to judge others saying: "It just makes me sad that us as Christians can't see beyond our initial reaction and don't seek God before the attack other brothers and sisters [sic].

"I merely picked a dress I saw and loved... God knows my heart and that I didn't do anything wrong."



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