Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The Vatican's Jesuit moment


At the cutting edge

Mar 14th 2013, 18:17 by B.C.




WHETHER you admire them or fear them, the Jesuits have a great mystique. Now that a pope has emerged from the Society of Jesus, for the first time in its five centuries of history, fascination with them is bound to grow. We can all expect to hear a lot of good and bad things about the Jesuits in the days and weeks to come.

So what can be said about them for certain? They are the largest religious order within the Catholic church, with about 18,000 members, of whom 12,000 or so have undergone a long and rigorous training (at least eight years) to become priests. Since its foundation in 1540, by Ignatius of Loyola, and six of his fellow students at the university of Paris, the Society of Jesus has had a reputation for brains, energy and independence.

In different ways, the Jesuits have always been at the outer edge of the Catholic world: delving deeply into foreign languages, cultures and faiths, in the ultimate hope of converting people to Christianity but in a spirit of deep and skilfully applied empathy. They brought the Christian faith to Japan, to Quebec, to the indigenous peoples of South America, always immersing themselves in the local tongue and way of life. If the Western world knows anything about China's greatest philosopher, and calls him by the Latinised name Confucius, it is because of reports sent back by the Jesuit scholar Matteo Ricci, who thought that Christianity and Confucianism were compatible.

From the very start, the Jesuits were powerful and controversial. An early Jesuit mission exercised huge influence in Japan until it was suppresssed after a few decades and Christianity went underground for three centuries. The Jesuits' current leader, or superior-general, is a Spanish Japanologist, Adolfo Nicolás. Call them cultural imperialists if you like, but the Jesuits were nobody's placemen. They were spearheads for Portuguese influence in places ranging from Brazil to Goa to Macau but they didn't always endear themselves to the authorities in Lisbon; in 1759 they were expelled from the Portugese empire. In Latin America, they set up indigenous communities on the banks of the Uruguay and Paraná rivers called "reducciones". One of the stated purposes was to protect people from slavery; it was even claimed that they were bringing to life Plato's vision of an ideal republic.

And even now, the Jesuits are a challenging, contradictory bunch. They include some of Catholicism's sharpest critics of Islam, such as the Egyptian-born Samir Khalil Samir, who has urged the Vatican not to go far in its overtures to Muslims; and some of the church's most sympathetic observers of Islam, such as Thomas Michel who is an avowed admirer of the Turkish-born preacher Fethullah Gulen. A Jesuit who used to live in Syria, Paolo Dall'Oglio, has spoken out in favour of that country's armed opposition: he is the author of a book entitled "In love with Islam, Believing in Jesus". Jacques Dupuis, an influential Belgian-born Jesuit who lived mostly in India and studied Hinduism, was called to order by the Vatican for appearing to question the role of Jesus Christ as a source of absolute truth.

In the West, the Jesuits' huge prestige in the world of education has been overshadowed by child-abuse scandals. Jesuits in the northwestern United States paid out  $166m to victims (mainly indigenous) of child abuse in schools. One of the order's best-known American members, the travelling preacher Donald McGuire, was exposed as a serial abuser and sent to jail for 25 years, to the acute embarrassment of senior Jesuits who had failed to respond to complaints.

Some hope that Jesuit energy and brainpower can be deployed in the struggle against child abuse. In Germany it was a Jesuit school director, Klaus Mertes, who made waves in 2010 by exposing the record of abuse at his own and many other Catholic schools.

Whether they use their knowledge responsibly or otherwise, the Jesuits are certainly privy to a lot of sensitive information. I can vouch for that. I once asked the late Miguel Arranz, a Spanish Jesuit who served as Russian interpreter to three popes, whether it was true that a senior Russian bishop, Metropolitan Nikodim of Leningrad, had died during an audience with John Paul I, the Italian pope who reigned for a few weeks in September 1978. And was it true, as rumour had it, that the Russian had dropped dead in the bewildered pope's arms? "In fact, it was my arms he dropped into," the scholar wistfully told me, before confirming that in other respects that the story was accurate.


.

President Obama Sings Along To Justin Timberlake's Rendition Of "Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay"





Published on Apr 9, 2013


White House celebrates Memphis soul with Justin Timberlake

.
.
P.S. PBS will air an edited version of tonight's concert on April 16th.

.

D-day



Today is the target day, it's the moment of 'truth', D-day!
1.Today is the day on which North Korea has threatened to launch missiles...
2. Today is the day when the president unveils his Budget.

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Police: Army recruiter shoots teenage recruit, then self



By Michael Martinez and Shannon Travis

updated 3:28 PM EDT, Tue April 9, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
An Army recruiter shoots a recruit, 17, and then himself, police say
Staff Sgt. Adam Anthony Arndt, 31, supervised the recruitment of Michelle Miller
Her father says she raced to the home of Arndt, who threatened suicide
She wanted to become a psychotherapist, her father says

(CNN) -- Police continued their investigation Tuesday into the shooting deaths of an Army recruiter and a 17-year-old girl in Maryland that appear to be "a murder-suicide," Montgomery County police said.

Staff Sgt. Adam Anthony Arndt, 31, knew Michelle Lynne Miller because he supervised her recruitment as she planned to enlist in the Army Reserves after graduating high school, police said.

Police found both of them dead Monday inside Arndt's apartment in Germantown while looking into a report of a missing juvenile possibly being at that location, police said. Police broke down the door because they were unable to make contact with anyone inside.

"Detectives now believe that Arndt shot Miller and then shot himself," police said in a statement. Miller was a senior at Rockville High School, police said.

Miller's father, Kevin, told CNN affiliate WJLA that he believes his daughter was lured to Arndt's residence after she received a call Sunday night from Arndt, who was threatening suicide.

His daughter raced to his home in her mother's car, her father said.

Miller had just been accepted at Arizona State University and enlisted to help pay the tuition, her father said. She wanted to be a psychotherapist, he said.

Arndt was apparently in violation of Army recruiting regulations because a recruiter isn't "allowed to have anyone who would be considered influenced by your position in the Army in your private home, in your dwelling place," said Kathleen Welker of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command.

When asked if the recruit's presence in Arndt's residence violated regulations, Welker stated: "I would say it appears that way. But it is being investigated by the police and by our Criminal Investigation Division."

A recruiter is also prohibited from having any sort of relationship with someone applying for military service, Welker said. Arndt worked at the recruitment center in Gaithersburg, Maryland, she said.


.

Earthquake reported to kill dozens in southern Iran





A screenshot of a map produced by the Los Angeles Times using U.S. Geological Survey data on the location of an earthquake in Iran. (The Los Angeles Times / April 9, 2013)



By Ramin Mostaghim

April 9, 2013, 9:48 a.m.


TEHRAN -- A powerful earthquake shook southern Iran on Tuesday afternoon, killing dozens of people and devastating entire towns, Iranian media reported.


At least 31 people died in the quake, including three victims under a collapsed house in the small town of Shanbe, according to Fars News Agency and the Tabnak news website. State media reported at least 20 were killed. Earlier news reports had put the death toll at three or four people.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Tuesday's earthquake measured magnitude 6.3; Iranian state media reported that it measured 6.1.

There were no immediate reports of damage at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, about 60 miles from the reported epicenter of the earthquake. The official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted a plant executive saying the earthquake had caused no problems at the facility.

Officials with Iran's Red Crescent Society said that the small town of Shanbe, where farmers earn a living by growing watermelons, tomatoes and tobacco, was one of two towns “completely destroyed”in the quake, according to IRNA. As many as 500 people were estimated to have been injured in the stricken areas.

Phone connections to Shanbe were broken after the quake, Reza Shabankara, a journalist who lives in the nearby area of Borazjan, told the Los Angeles Times. Ten aftershocks jolted the area in the after the temblor, Shabankara said.

Earthquakes frequently rattle Iran. A decade ago, the southeastern city of Bam was struck by a bigger quake that left more than 26,000 people dead. It measured magnitude 6.6.


.

National Ruin Follows National Apostasy


The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Isa. 24:5.


The people of the United States have been a favored people; but when they restrict religious liberty, surrender Protestantism, and give countenance to popery, the measure of their guilt will be full, and "national apostasy" will be registered in the books of heaven. The result of this apostasy will be national ruin.

By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.

Through spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race, healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new and more exalted system of religious faith; but at the same time he works as a destroyer. . . .

While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. . . .

And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils.

As men depart further and further from God, Satan is permitted to have power over the children of disobedience. He hurls destruction among men. There is calamity by land and sea. Property and life are destroyed by fire and flood. Satan resolves to charge this upon those who refuse to bow to the idol which he has set up. His agents point to Seventh-day Adventists as the cause of the trouble. "These people stand out in defiance of law," they say. "They desecrate Sunday. Were they compelled to obey the law for Sunday observance, there would be a cessation of these terrible judgments."

Maranatha, p.217
.

Up to 14 hurt in Lone Star College stabbings



Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY 
2p.m. EDT April 9, 2013

One suspect still at large after a stabbing fight that leave a dozen people injured.



(Photo: lonestar.edu)


Several students have injured -- two reportedly in critical condition -- from a stabbing fight the campus of Lone Star College Cy-Fair, according to KHOU-TV.

KHOU says as many as 12 people were injured, ABC News and Fox News put the number of injured at 14.

The college, located in Cypress, Texas, near Houston, says on its website that two suspects are involved in the incident and that one is still at large.

KHOU-TV quotes a student, Margo Shimfarr-Evans, as saying the incident took place in a lab at the Health Science Center.

Alan Bernstein of the Harris County Sheriff's Office says authorities have a suspect in custody following a Tuesday morning attack at the Lone Star campus in Cypress. Bernstein did not know how many people were hurt or conditions.

KHOU reports that four victims were taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital, two by helicopters and two by ambulance.

The school says the campus is on lockdown.

"Stay away from the area," the college advised its students. "Seek shelter in a secure location until the incident is resolved."

Two people were shot at another Lone Star College campus in January.

Contributing: Associated Press


.

From Ban on Assault Weapons to Comprehensive Gun Control



In the aftermath of the Newtown Massacre there was an appeal to Ban Assault Weapons...

Last week, a landmark Gun Control legislation was signed by Dannel Malloy governor of Connecticut.

Yesterday, President Obama returned to the scene of the crime:

.
.
What a dichotomy? Perpetual Global Warfare vs Gun Control in the Homeland?r

Arsenio
.

Update: Wonderful Wednesday

Supposedly tomorrow Wednesday April 10, 2013 is a deadline.


  • The U. S. president will reveal his latest fiscal budget.
  • All embassies should be closed and foreign diplomats should be out North Korea.
Wa....
Warfare Wednesday

u
Is this what they call Suspense?  Is this a cliff hanger, or what?

.

.



Monday, April 08, 2013

Evangelicos: A Way Back for the GOP



Religion

April 08, 2013


MARCO GROB FOR TIME


Can Latino evangelicals help Republicans take a bite out of the Democratic advantage with Hispanic voters?

Maybe. As my cover story “The Latino Reformation“ this week suggests, Latino evangelicals are a group that has strong conservative social values—meaning the Republican Party should find them very attractive. They prize the nuclear family. They are largely against abortion and gay marriage. They also tend to be wealthier than Latino Catholics, and they are more likely to have been born in the United States.

It is a point that Michael Warren of The Weekly Standard explored a couple weeks ago. Republicans have lost a net 30 points among evangélicos since the 2004 presidential campaign. George W. Bush got 69% of the Latino evangelical vote in 2004, and Mitt Romney only had support of 39% of Latino evangelicals in 2012. Warren argues that Republicans should see this as an opening:


Somewhere in the party’s long tradition, there are principles and policies that can attract a group that values family, community, and the church. A party that can win Hispanic evangelicals might be one that can combine pro-family tax policies, pro-growth economic policies, traditionalism on social issues, and a realistic immigration policy.


What I learned after spending time in Iglesias in Chicago and the far suburbs of Washington is a little more complicated than that. But Warren is on to something. But before Republicans can win them over, they have to know who the evangélicos really are. That is what we explore in the magazine this week.

.

Unable to Pay Rent, Italian Couple Commits Suicide


by Naharnet Newsdesk 2 days ago





An Italian couple in their sixties, overwhelmed by crushing financial difficulties and unable to pay their rent, committed suicide by hanging, police told local media on Friday.

Their bodies of Romeo Dionsi, 62, and Anna Sopranzi, 68, were discovered by their neighborliness on Friday morning at their home in Civitanova, a small village in the central Marche region on the Adriatic Sea.

Learning the news, the woman's brother Giuseppe Sopranzi, 73, threw himself into the sea. His body was retrieved by rescuers who were unable to revive him.

Police said there was no doubt the suicide was linked to economic problems, and that the couple was unable to pay their rent.

Anna Sopranzi, received a modest pension of 500 euros ($650) a month and her husband was a "victim" of recent labor reforms that left him without unemployment insurance or right to a pension, police said.

The couple appeared to have painstakingly planned their deaths, leaving a note in front of their garage apologizing for their act and explaining where to find their bodies.

"They preferred to disappear rather than ask for help, showing their extreme dignity in a tragic situation," Mayor Tommaso Corvatta told local media, in tears.

He called on government "not to abandon people".

Corvatta said the economic crisis in Italy has led to a rise in suicides linked to economic problems among the unemployed and small business owners. The unemployment rate has gone from 7.0 percent in 2009 to 10.9 percent in 2012.

"The unemployment rate is unacceptable and it is a tragedy for the whole country and for Europe," said Emanuela Munerato, a lawmaker with the Northern League party.



.

In Video: Naming the Dead


March 26th, 2013 | by Drones team |




The Bureau is using a crowd-funding appeal to help raise money for the next stage of our drones project.

So far, our monitoring of CIA drone strikes has recorded at least 2,537 people reported to have been killed by strikes in Pakistan. But fewer than 20% of those killed have been named. Our new Naming the Dead project aims to identify as many as possible of the remainder, whether civilian or militant.

To start with, we will publish all the names and information we have collected so far. But we want to build on this, by identifying as many of the other victims as possible. Naming the Dead will expand the transparency that the Bureau has already brought to this conflict, a factor campaign groups argue is extremely important.

Jennifer Gibson, staff attorney, with legal campaign group, Reprieve explains: ‘All we have is the US government saying trust us, these are bad guys we are killing, trust us. We can’t start to get to the bottom of who is being killed until we know the names of those who are being killed.’

But the Bureau needs to raise some funds to support this project. Rachel Oldroyd, the Bureau’s deputy editor says: ’In order to do this work, we are raising funds so we can send journalists into northern Pakistan to talk to families, talk to government agencies, hospitals, even militant groups.’

Related article: Naming the dead: Bureau announces new drones project

We have already raised significant sums from a UK foundation, but we have not yet reached our target. However the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation in the US, is helping us by nominating Naming the Dead as one of four organisations to support until the end of April.

This crowd-funding has raised over £50,000 through more than 750 donors and over £9,000 ($13,800) will go to the Bureau’s Naming the Dead project. We would like to hit £12,000.

To support Naming the Dead, visit and donate at pressfreedomfoundation.org. Supporters can also like our Facebook page here.

Watch the video here: Naming the Dead


Source
.

The Serpent's Deception



Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, Yes, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 

2 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. 

4 And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die

5 For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her; and he did eat. 

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 


 Cross References

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the middle of wolves: be you therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. 
Matthew 10:16

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:3

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
 Revelation 12:9

And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
Revelation 12:15

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

[Revelation 20:2]
...

http://bibleapps.com/genesis/3-1.htm
.

Religious Affiliation in Jamaica




Jamaica


International Religious Freedom Report 2008



The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and other laws and policies contributed to the generally free practice of religion. The law at all levels protects this right in full against abuse, either by governmental or private actors.


The Government generally respected religious freedom in practice. There was no change in the status of respect for religious freedom by the Government during the period covered by this report.


There were no reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice.


The U.S. Government discusses religious freedom with the Government as part of its overall policy to promote human rights.


Section I. Religious Demography

The country has an area of 4,244 square miles and a population of 2.7 million. According to the most recent census (2001), the population's religious affiliation consists of Church of God, 24 percent; Seventh-day Adventist, 11 percent; Pentecostal, 10 percent; Baptist, 7 percent; Anglican, 4 percent; Roman Catholic, 2 percent; United Church, 2 percent; Methodist, 2 percent; Jehovah's Witnesses, 2 percent; Moravian, 1 percent; Brethren, 1 percent; unstated, 3 percent; and "other," 10 percent. The category "other" includes 24,020 Rastafarians, an estimated 5,000 Muslims, 1,453 Hindus, approximately 350 Jews, and 279 Baha'is. The census reported that 21 percent claimed no religious affiliation.


Section II. Status of Religious Freedom

Legal/Policy Framework


The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and other laws and policies contributed to the generally free practice of religion. The law at all levels protects this right in full against abuse, either by governmental or private actors.


There is no state religion.


The Government observes Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Easter Monday, and Christmas as national holidays.


Parliament may act freely to recognize a religious group; however, registration is not mandatory. Recognized groups receive tax-exempt status and other privileges, such as the right of their clergy to visit members in prison.


Religious schools are not subject to any special restrictions, nor do they receive special treatment from the Government. Most religious schools are affiliated with either the Catholic Church or Protestant denominations; there also is at least one Jewish school.


Restrictions on Religious Freedom


The Government generally respected religious freedom in practice. There was no change in the status of respect for religious freedom by the Government during the period covered by this report.


Members of the Rastafarian community continued to complain that law enforcement officials unfairly targeted them; however, it was not clear whether such complaints reflected discrimination on the basis of religious belief or were due to the group's illegal use of marijuana as part of Rastafarian religious practice. In 2003 a parliamentary joint select committee on marijuana recommended decriminalization of possession of small quantities for adult personal use. In April 2006 the Senate passed a resolution to have the committee reconvene and conclude its deliberations. The bill was never brought for a vote, and the current Government has not given any indication of when it will be reconsidered.


There were no reports of religious prisoners or detainees in the country.


Forced Religious Conversion


There were no reports of forced religious conversion, including of minor U.S. citizens who had been abducted or illegally removed from the United States, or of the refusal to allow such citizens to be returned to the United States.


Section III. Societal Abuses and Discrimination

There were no reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice. Local media outlets continued to provide a forum for extensive, open coverage and debate on religious matters.


Section IV. U.S. Government Policy


The U.S. Government discusses religious freedom with the Government as part of its overall policy to promote human rights.


Source

.

Christian Unity - Dream Coming True


Published: Saturday | April 6, 2013


Pastor Brown


Could this be real? It was real. I attended a wonderful celebration just on the eve of Easter. The Seventh-day Adventists were celebrating at the Medallion Hotel their fifth year of Good Samaritan Inn at 5 Heroes Circle, Kingston, where there is a night shelter, a food line and clothes line and a training centre for the poor.

Our Missionaries of the Poor Sisters are practically next door at Holy Innocents' Home, Heroes Circle, in service of pregnant women, a clinic, a soup kitchen and Sunday worship for our neighbours. We give thanks that Heroes Circle is becoming more and more an annex of God's mercy served by Christians: Adventists who keep their Sabbath holy and Roman Catholics who worship their Risen Christ on Sunday.

"Are you a Jesuit, Father?" Pastor Everett Brown, president of the Jamaican Union for Seventh-day Adventists, asked smilingly. "No, I am a Missionary of the Poor," I remarked. "It is a Jamaican order founded in Jamaica. It is all over the world." "Where?" asked Pastor Brown. "In Uganda, Kenya, Philippines, Indonesia, Haiti, India, and USA. All for the poor in the poorest areas, for the poorest people."

"How can that be?" "Well, I was a Jesuit, and I was trained very well. But Christ was calling me to serve the poorest of people, with Archbishop Carter's blessings. He was also a Jesuit." "I began this order by God's grace, and we are now in all these countries known as the Jamaican brothers. We offer free service."

The Rev Everett Brown offered special prayers for Pope Francis, newly elected. He prayed, "We pray for his guidance and protection - that God will pour forth many abundant blessings on him and that he will do what is the Father's will."

I was greatly moved and felt deep within me a brotherhood with our Adventist Christian brothers. There were wonderful speeches and a programme led by Mrs Yvonne Lawson. There was a simple meal, solid encouragement for others to reach out to the poor, and a chance for me to share greetings.

The hatred that David Mould intended to incite, a Jamaican now a member of the Adventists in Florida, was reversed. Instead, the Lord drew good out of evil. I felt bonded to my Adventist brethren in Jamaica, whatever the differences seemed of little consequences. They thanked Missionaries of the Poor for their leadership.

I thanked them for their wonderful example of respect, discipline, beautiful music, and their cultivation of responsible youth and stable family life. Implied was their disagreement with the David Mould approach to call me "devil" as fabricating a plot to capture Jamaica in the name oRome.

destitute and homeless

I invited Pastor Brown, president of the Jamaica Union of the Seventh-day Adventists, to visit our monastery and our homes for the destitute and homeless and share a luncheon with our brothers.

The Seventh-day Adventists also invited Missionaries of the Poor and myself to attend a service and special luncheon in the Spanish Town Seventh-day Adventist Church on the following Saturday, which we did. What a warm and wonderful man Pastor Alton Williams is! He had 12 of us brothers sit in the front seats of worship at his Spanish Town church.

We prayed, we sang, we worshipped with our Adventist brothers, honouring our one true God.

There was so much warmth, special attention and good wishes being extended to all our brothers. They were really one with us, as the Mystical Body of Jesus is intended to be. Jesus was the centre of our unity. Jesus is the foundation of our unity.

We were so glad that our Adventist brothers and sisters had invited us to yet a second gathering of Christians. Our brothers sang their hearts out. Again, Pastor Alton Williams prayed for new Pope Francis, "I pray that he will fulfil the will of God's plan for him; that he will obey the Lord and do whatever He wills." There was a moment of profound silence.

Again, I felt that something special was happening in God's Kingdom. We were all coming from different directions to the one true God on Mount Zion.

Pastor Williams called me to give a word of greeting. I prayed for Christian unity. I prayed that we would be one even as Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit are one.

I prayed for our country, especially for our poor. I prayed that all Christians be one under Christ, our one Leader, in order to battle against the one common enemy, Satan.

We are all a people of love and forgiveness. We are all against abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, racism and materialism. In between, the congregation cried out, "Amen!" and "Alleluia!"

I thanked Pastor Williams and his congregation and we invited him to come and visit our centres and share a meal with our brothers and myself. I invited him to our musical productions at the National Arena which are all Christian.

The warm Jamaican congregation of Seventh-day Adventists at Spanish Town filled the brothers and myself with a sense of our mission. We are here to serve Christ, to unite Christians to serve the poorest of people.

The enemy is in the shadows. We must meet, unite, pray together, and drive out the evils that are being introduced to our deeply Christian people. Jamaicans, stand together and reject Satan!

Father Richard Ho Lung is founder of Missionaries of the Poor. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.


.

Three priests removed from service over sexual abuse


Mon Apr 8, 2013 1:55AM


Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput has permanently removed three more parish priests from public ministry over claims of sexual abuse or misconduct around minors, including one whose accuser killed himself in 2009, allegedly after church officials first declared his claim unsubstantiated.


That priest, the Rev. Joseph J. Gallagher, has been deemed "unsuitable for ministry due to violations" of church standards, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Sunday. A second priest, the Rev. Mark Gaspar, was removed for the same reason, officials said. As it has in other cases, the archdiocese did not identify the violations, or any details about the accusers or their claims.

A third priest, Msgr. Richard T. Powers, 77, was permanently removed over substantiated allegations that he abused a 17-year-old girl during an overseas trip 40 years ago.

Each of the priests had been on administrative leave, along with two dozen others suspended in the wake of a 2011 grand jury report that accused the archdiocese of failing to act on credible allegations of child sex abuse or misconduct by priests. In the past year, Chaput has restored eight of the suspended clerics to ministry, and declared seven others were unfit to continue to publicly serve as priests.

The decisions were announced this weekend at parishes where the priests last served before they were put on leave - St. Richard, where Gallagher was the pastor and pastor emeritus; Our Lady of Charity Church in Brookhaven, Delaware County, for Gaspar; and Epiphany of Our Lord in Philadelphia for Powers.

The grand jury report said Gallagher was twice accused of fondling altar boys at St. Mark's Church in Bristol Township, Bucks County in the early 1980s.

One of his accusers, Daniel Neill, allegedly gave archdiocesan victim coordinators a detailed account in 2007 of how Gallagher molested him. The report said other altar boys confirmed aspects of the boy's, while Gallagher gave investigators "evasive" answers. But church officials declined to take action against Gallagher. Neill killed himself in 2009. The Inquirer


FACTS & FIGURES

Sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests has been widely reported throughout the world, with the countries of Canada, Ireland, United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, Belgium, France, Germany and Australia receiving the most attention. digitaljournal.com

The Catholic Church has been rocked in recent decades by accusations that it tried to cover up the sexual abuse of children by priests and has paid out billions in settlements to abuse victims, bankrupting several U.S. dioceses. Daily Star

On Jan. 31, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles released 12,000 pages of internal files on priests accused of sexually abusing children. NY Times

Studies commissioned by the U.S. bishops found more than 4,000 U.S. priests have faced sexual abuse allegations since the early 1950s, in cases involving more than 10,000 children - mostly boys. AP


ISH/KK


.

Sunday, April 07, 2013

MSNBC’s Krystal Ball Uses Daughter As Prop To Push Gay Marriage (Video)

by Fire Jim Moran • April 5, 2013
 
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy


The infamous former candidate for Congress in Virginia, Krystal Ball, nudges her daughter along to show that even five-year-olds get gay marriage. When MSNBC stoops this low and uses a five-year old to push a left-wing agenda, they must really be grasping at straws.

(H/T Hot Air)


Source
.

VP Joe Biden: "To Actually Create A NEW WORLD ORDER"




VP Biden "The Affirmative Task We Have Now Is To Create A NEW WORLD ORDER" (FULL SPEECH)



MOXNEWSd0tC0M


Published on Apr 7, 2013


April 05, 2013 C-SPAN
.

*(Vice President Biden spoke at the Export-Import Bank’s 2013 Annual Conference)
.

Psywar : Full Documentary HQ







Duncan Bates

Published on Aug 16, 2012


This film explores the evolution of propaganda and public relations in the United States, with an emphasis on the elitist theory of democracy and the relationship between war, propaganda and class.

Includes original interviews with a number of dissident scholars including Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Peter Phillips (Project Censored), John Stauber (PR Watch), Christopher Simpson (The Science of Coercion) and others.

A deep, richly illustrated study of the nature and history of propaganda, featuring some of the world's most insightful critics, Psywar exposes the propaganda system, providing crucial background and insight into the control of information and thought.


Thanks to http://www.youtube.com/user/truthmedi...

.

1991 Book Predicts School Shootings By Drugged Individuals In Order To Disarm Public


Friday, December 28, 2012 22:15

(Before It's News)

The Arcane Front http://tiny.cc/u081pw

Does this seem familiar? From the pages of Milton William Cooper’s 1991 book Behold A Pale Horse:

“The government encouraged the manufacture and importation of firearms for the criminals to use. This is intended to foster a feeling of insecurity, which would lead the American people to voluntarily disarm themselves by passing laws against firearms. Using drugs and hypnosis on mental patients in a process called Orion, the CIA inculcated the desire in these people to open fire on schoolyards and thus inflame the ant-igun lobby. This plan is well under way, and so far is working perfectly. The middle class is begging the government to do away with the 2nd Amendment.” — with Anya Lambert. A complete lecture by Cooper on The Secret Government is available here:



Milton William Cooper (May 6, 1943 – November 5, 2001) was an American conspiracy theorist, radio broadcaster, and author best known for his 1991 book, Behold a Pale Horse, in which he claimed global conspiracies, some involving aliens.

On November 5, 2001 Cooper was fatally shot by a law enforcement officer at his Eagar, Arizona home after confronting deputies trying to arrest him and shooting one of them in the head. Authorities said Cooper was carrying a handgun and fled when Apache County deputies identified themselves and tried to arrest Cooper on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and endangerment stemming from earlier disputes with local residents. Federal authorities reported that Cooper spent years trying to avoid capture on a 1998 arrest warrant for tax evasion and according to a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service, Cooper vowed “he would not be taken alive”

Milton William Cooper



Credit: Wikipedia

Mark Potok, spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, writes that Cooper was well known within the militia movement for his book, Behold a Pale Horse and his anti-government shortwave radio program that reportedly included Oklahoma City bomber Timothy J. McVeigh as a fan.

Political scientist Michael Barkun characterized Behold a Pale Horse as “among the most complex superconspiracy theories” and also among the most influential, being much read in militia circles as well as widely sold in mainstream bookstores. Read the rest of the article here- http://beforeitsnews.com/politics/2012/12/1991-books-predicts-schoo...


Source

.

Facebook Home Means You'll Never Check Facebook Again (It'll Check You)



Bianca Bosker

bianca@huffingtonpost.com


Posted: 04/05/2013 11:55 am EDT | Updated: 04/05/2013 12:28 pm EDT





At a press conference Thursday, Facebook unveiled Home, a new smartphone software design it cryptically said “isn't a phone or operating system,” but is “more than just an app” and will deliver a "completely new experience."

That "new experience" doesn’t stop at the phone’s screen. What Home seeks to deliver is not only a Facebook environment for our phones, but also a Facebook environment for our lives.

With Home, Facebook has crossed the line between something people check -- that they have control over, and deploy according to their wishes and needs -- to become something that’s always on, checking in with us, fighting for attention, waving people we know in our face. Rather than a tool we use to talk to others, the phone, thanks to Facebook, has become something that communicates to us. And it’s Facebook that gets to do the talking.

Home, which will be available for download on a handful of smartphones next week, is essentially a Facebook-ified version of Google’s Android operating system, modified by Facebook engineers to place the social network at its core. A flow of updates from the News Feed will be the first thing people see when they turn on their phones -- the newly named “cover feed,” a slideshow of friends’ photos and status updates, will take over the phone’s primary screen, though users can swipe past to access other applications. Home also touts “chat heads,” a feature that brings together texting and messaging, replaces names with Facebook photos and lets users message within any application. Ads will be on their way to the cover feed soon, Facebook conceded. And though the social network didn’t say as much, technology observers, such as Om Malik, have pointed out that Home will let Facebook scoop up even more personal information about everything from our locations to our calls.

The social network has a very specific idea of what we should be doing on our phones and has designed Home to push that mission. The phone "[puts] people first," Facebook's director of product, Adam Mosseri, explained at Thursday’s press conference, noting that Home’s design purposefully shifted the focus "away from tasks and apps."

Seen one way, Home makes communication with loved ones more seamless, more fluid. Seen another, however, Home lets Facebook ensure we don’t have bothersome news readers, workout trackers or even work emails -- those irksome apps and tasks -- distracting us from Facebook.

All tech companies want us to spend more time with their products. But Facebook is unique in that its fortunes depend on convincing us to pay attention to it over all else, and it just invited itself to be the DNA of our most personal device, which we carry with us, on average, all but two hours of our waking day. Google, Apple and Microsoft of course want their users to spend hours with their smartphones and consume liberally from the ecosystem of content they have for sale. Yet they compete with each other in no small part to deliver the smartphone software that will be most intuitive, helpful and easy-to-use. Facebook's software isn’t there to necessarily offer the best smartphone software or most intuitive design, but to offer the best version of Facebook, one that more quickly and permanently attracts our attention.

Facebook doesn’t just want us to spend time on its phone. It wants you to spend time on Facebook. Home is strategically designed to grab our attention, with mewling chat heads and rotating pictures of our friends, and to make everything it shows more interesting than whatever you see around you. Phones can still be slipped into pockets and darkened, but for Home adopters, Facebook will be the first thing they see when they pick up their phones -- on average, we do so 100 times a day -- and Mark Zuckerberg expects we’ll be enthralled by what his social network sends to our screens. Our phone, more than ever, now has an agenda.

“From the moment you wake up your phone, you become immersed in cover feed,” a Facebook press release promised. Take out “your phone,” and we might have a sense of what else Facebook has in mind.

Mark Zuckerberg dismissed concerns that Home would distract people from their surroundings or from being in the moment with the people around them.

"Whether or not communicating online disconnects you from people offline ... I think that’s overblown," Zuckerberg said, according to TechCrunch. "With Facebook and other tools, you can stay connected and get more context from more people."

And yet Facebook’s advertisements for Home show people checking their screens at dinner parties, sprawled on the couch with a friend and even while in bed with a loved one. Even the name raises questions: Does Home reference the fact that Facebook has found its home on phones? Or is Home supposed to be our home?

Clifford Nass, a Stanford University professor and expert in human-machine interaction, observed in an interview last month that companies have been wielding an ever-more powerful arsenal of tools in the fight for our attention, and Home would appear to be the latest weapon. Although it’s too soon to predict how Facebook’s innovation may shift our eyes, Nass’ research has shown that the high-tech war for our time is leading us to multitask with greater frequency, which in turn is injuring our ability to focus and think deeply.

“The way to make money in media is to sell attention. You have to fight and claw and do all these things to get attention. And the more media there is, the more you have to compete, so it’s an arms race, with everyone competing harder and harder to grab people’s attention,” Nass said. That “arms race” drives multitasking and, Nass explained, “If we’re breeding a world in which people chronically multitask, that has very, very worrisome and serious effects on people’s brains.”

Home will also be free to interrupt its regularly-scheduled broadcast with a word from its sponsors, Facebook confirmed, bringing ads ever more directly into our personal space and consciousness. Facebook could theoretically let Bank of America “poke” people when they’re near a branch, or, by comparing our location to the content in our cover feed, assure J.C. Penney that we stepped into its store moments after seeing its ad rotate through the phone’s screen.

Facebook’s phone ties what we’re doing in real life to what we’re doing on Facebook. It even promises to go both ways, so what we do on Facebook could change what we’re doing in real life.


.

Saturday, April 06, 2013

Son of Pastor Rick Warren commits suicide


By CNN Staff
updated 5:09 PM EDT, Sat April 6, 2013


STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Matthew Warren, 27, committed suicide Saturday, the pastor says
Warren suffered from mental illness, the family said
Rick Warren is a pioneer of the megachurch movement and a best-selling author


(CNN) -- The youngest son of Pastor Rick Warren has committed suicide, according to a family statement released Saturday.

Matthew Warren, 27, took his life following a lifelong battle with mental illness, Warren and his wife, Kay, said in the statement.

"No words can express the anguished grief we feel right now," the statement said.

In the statement, Rick Warren said his son struggled from birth with mental illness, "dark holes of depression, and even suicidal thoughts."

"In spite of America's best doctors, meds, counselors, and prayers for healing, the torture of mental illness never subsided," he wrote. "Today, after a fund evening together with Kay and me, in a momentary wave of despair at his home, he took his own life."

As a pioneer of the megachurch movement, Warren looked to translate traditional evangelical messages for a wider audience.

Rick Warren penned "The Purpose-Driven Life," a spiritually based self-help guide that became a mainstream best-seller.


.

Biblical Spirituality: Rediscovering Our Biblical Roots or Embracing the East?



2012 » August

Written by Mark Finley


[A segment from the article]


Spiritual formation

Another concept that has gen­erated a great deal of discussion is spiritual formation. Words have meaning in the way they are defined and who defines them. Is the con­cept of spiritual formation biblical? If we define spiritual formation as being formed into the image of Christ as we meditate upon God’s Word, seek Him in prayer, and open our minds to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, certainly it is biblical. The apostle Paul admon­ishes believers at Rome “not [to] be conformed to this world but [to] be transformed by the renew­ing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2).

He urges the Philippians to “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). To the Colossians, he says, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above” (Col. 3:1, 2). Ellen White expresses the idea of our characters being formed in the image of Christ beautifully: “In Jesus is manifested the character of the Father, and the sight of him attracts. It softens and subdues, and ceases not to transform the character, until Christ is formed within, the hope of glory. The human heart that has learned to behold the character of God may become, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, like a sacred harp, sending forth divine melody.”12

When the term spiritual formation is used to describe contemplative spirituality, centering prayer, and a religious experience based on a mystical involvement, however sincere its proponents may be, it is certainly not biblical. If by spiritual formation we mean blending the meditative techniques of priests and monks or non-Christian religions with biblical ideas to achieve some sort of spiritual oneness with the so-called spark of divine within us, this is not biblical at all.
,

Protestantism Destroyed


Author: Professor Walter J. Veith, PhD
Publish date: Apr 21, 2010

Summary: The main goal of the Jesuit order is to counter the work of the Reformation, which is the establishment of Protestantism.
Protestantism is not based on reasoning, human judgment, and natural law, but on moral absolutes given by God through His Word (See John 14:6). Reverend J. A. Wylie tells us this in his book The History of Protestantism:

Protestantism is not solely the outcome of human progress; it is no mere principle of perfectibility inherent in humanity...It is neither the product of the individual reason, nor the result of the joint thought and energies of the species. Protestantism is a principle which has its origin outside human society: it is a Divine graft on the intellectual and moral nature of man, whereby new vitalities and forces are introduced into it, and the human stem yields henceforth a nobler fruit...In a word, Protestantism is revived Christianity.i

According to G. B. Nicolini, the aim of the Jesuits was to counter the Reformation's work by destroying Protestantism (see our article on St. Ignatius and Martin Luther):

I cannot too much impress upon the minds of my readers that the Jesuits by their very calling, by the very essence of their institution, are bound to seek, by every means, right or wrong, the destruction of Protestantism. This is the condition of their existence, the duty they must fulfill, or cease to be Jesuits.
Accordingly, we find them in this evil dilemma. Either the Jesuits fulfill the duties of their calling, or not. In the first instance, they must be considered as the the biggest enemies of the Protestant faith; in the second, as bad and unworthy priests; and in both cases, therefore, to be equally regarded with aversion and distrust.ii


One way the Jesuits worked to reverse the result of the Reformation—that is, Protestantism—was to replace the moral absolutes of Protestantism with relativism. The Jesuits sowed this relativism throughout history using new doctrines, ecumenism, and the Pentecostal movement. Most recently the Hippie and rock movements, and even the trend toward Christian psychology, have also been tools for the spread of relativism:



The main goal of the Jesuit order is to counter Protestantism. One way this was accomplished in the 20th century was the hippie movement.



The work of Richard McBrien and Martin Heidegger increased the popularity of the needs-based social Gospel in Christian circles.



This article is adapted from Walter Veith's Rekindling the Reformation DVD The Jesuits and the Counter Reformation Part 1.

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

i. J. A. Wylie, The History of Protestantism (Virginia: Hartland Publications, 2002)

ii. G.B. Nicolini, History of the Jesuits: Their Origin, Progress, Doctrine, and Design (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854): v.


.

The Mark of the Beast




BibleUnlimited


Published on Jan 18, 2013


Clear Biblical and historical evidence identifying the mark of the beast.

.