Saturday, August 10, 2013

Family leaves US on sailboat over religious concerns to start new life, becomes lost at sea


August 10, 2013 7:59 pm


By Greg Moore The Associated Press





Hannah Gastonguay, holding her baby Rahab, is followed by her husband Sean and the couple's 3-year-old daughter Ardith, as they disembark in the port city of San Antonio, Chile, Friday, Aug. 9, 2013. AP Photo/Las Ultimas Noticias






PHOENIX – A northern Arizona family that was lost at sea for weeks in an ill-fated attempt to leave the U.S. over what they consider government interference in religion will fly back home Sunday.

Hannah Gastonguay, 26, said Saturday that she and her husband “decided to take a leap of faith and see where God led us” when they took their two small children and her father-in-law and set sail from San Diego for the tiny Pacific island nation of Kiribati in May.

But just weeks into their journey the Gastonguays hit a series of storms that damaged their small boat, leaving them adrift for weeks, unable to make progress. They were eventually picked up by a Venezuelan fishing vessel, transferred to a Japanese cargo ship and taken to Chile where they are resting in a hotel in the port city of San Antonio.

Their flights home were arranged by U.S. Embassy officials, Gastonguay said. The U.S. State Department was not immediately available for comment.

The months-long journey has been “pretty exciting” and “little scary at certain points,” Gastonguay told The Associated Press by telephone.

She said they wanted to go to Kiribati because “we didn’t want to go anywhere big.” She said they understood the island to be “one of the least developed countries in the world.”

Kiribati is a group of islands just off the Equator and the international date line about halfway between Hawaii and Australia. The total population is just over 100,000 people of primarily Micronesian descent.

Hannah Gastonguay said her family was fed up with government control in the U.S. As Christians they don’t believe in “abortion, homosexuality, in the state-controlled church,” she said.

U.S. “churches aren’t their own,” Gastonguay said, suggesting that government regulation interfered with religious independence. “Jesus isn’t the head of the church. God isn’t the head of the church,” she said.

Among other differences, she said they had a problem with being “forced to pay these taxes that pay for abortions we don’t agree with.”
The family moved in November from Ash Fork, Arizona, to San Diego, where they lived on their boat as they prepared to set sail. She said she gave birth to the couple’s 8-month-old girl on the boat, which was docked in a slip at the time.

In May, Hannah, her 30-year-old husband Sean, his father Mike, and the couple’s daughters, 3-year-old Ardith and baby Rahab set off. They wouldn’t touch land again for 91 days, she said.

She said at first, “We were cruising.”

But within a couple of weeks “when we came out there, storm, storm, storm.”

The boat had taken a beating, and they decided to set course for the Marquesas Islands. Instead they found themselves in a “twilight zone,” taking more and more damage, leaving them unable to make progress.

They could have used a sail called a genoa, she said, but they risked snapping off the mast and losing their radio and ability to communicate.

They had been on the ocean for about two months and were low on supplies. They were out of food and were down to “some juice and some honey.” She said they were able to catch fish, but they didn’t see any boats.

Still, we “didn’t feel like we were going to die or anything. We believed God would see us through,” she said.

At one point a fishing ship came into contact with them but left without providing assistance. A Canadian cargo ship came along and offered supplies, but when they pulled up alongside it, the vessels bumped and the smaller ship sustained even more damage.

They were getting hit by “squall after squall after squall.”

“We were in the thick of it, but we prayed,” she said. “Being out on that boat, I just knew I was going to see some miracles.”

They watched the surrounding storms disperse, and “next thing you know the sun is out. It’s amazing.”

Eventually, their boat was spotted by a helicopter that had taken off from a nearby Venezuelan fishing vessel, which ended up saving them.

“The captain said, ‘Do you know where you’re at? You’re in the middle of nowhere,”‘ she said.

They were on the Venezuelan ship for about five days before transferring to the Japanese cargo ship, where they spent nearly three weeks before landing in Chile on Friday. The Chilean newspaper Las Ultimas Noticias reported the story of their arrival.

Sean Gastonguay’s brother Jimmy, who lives in Arizona, said he had provided a description of the family’s vessel to the U.S. Coast Guard and exchanged emails with them once they were picked up by the first boat.

“There was some concern, but we were hoping for the best, and they eventually popped up,” he said. He was able to keep track of the family with the help of the Coast Guard as they were transferred from ship to ship.

“We’re all happy. We have good peace of mind now,” he said.

Hannah Gastonguay said the family will next, “go back to Arizona” and “come up with a new plan.”

AP Writer Susan Montoya Bryan contributed to this report.


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Americans Giving Up Passports Jump Sixfold as Tougher Rules Loom


 


By Dylan Griffiths | Bloomberg – 14 hours ago



Getty Images/Thinkstock -


RELATED QUOTES

SymbolPriceChangeTD.TO 86.66 -0.46


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Americans renouncing U.S. citizenship surged sixfold in the second quarter from a year earlier as the government prepares to introduce tougher asset-disclosure rules.

Expatriates giving up their nationality at U.S. embassies climbed to 1,131 in the three months through June from 189 in the year-earlier period, according to Federal Register figures published today. That brought the first-half total to 1,810 compared with 235 for the whole of 2008.

The U.S., the only nation in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that taxes citizens wherever they reside, is searching for tax cheats in offshore centers, including Switzerland, as the government tries to curb the budget deficit. Shunned by Swiss and German banks and facing tougher asset-disclosure rules under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, more of the estimated 6 million Americans living overseas are weighing the cost of holding a U.S. passport.

"With the looming deadline for Fatca, more and more U.S. citizens are becoming aware that they have U.S. tax reporting obligations," said Matthew Ledvina, a U.S. tax lawyer at Anaford AG in Zurich. "Once aware, they decide to renounce their U.S. citizenship."

Fatca requires foreign financial institutions to report to the Internal Revenue Service information about financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers, or held by foreign entities in which U.S. taxpayers hold a substantial ownership interest. It was estimated to generate $8.7 billion over 10 years, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

Delaying Implementation

The 2010 Fatca law requires banks to withhold 30 percent from "certain U.S.-connected payments" to some accounts of American clients who don't disclose enough information to the IRS. While banks can sign agreements to report to the IRS individually, many are precluded from doing so by privacy laws in their jurisdictions.

The Treasury Department last month announced that the IRS will delay the start of Fatca by six months until July 1, 2014, to give foreign banks time to comply with the law. The extension of the act follows a previous one-year delay announced in 2011.

Financial institutions including Canada's Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) and Allianz SE of Germany have expressed concerns that Fatca is too complex.

The latest delay comes after the Swiss government agreed in February to simplifications that will help the country's banks implement Fatca.

Penalty Threat

"The United States wishes to ensure that all income earned worldwide by U.S. taxpayers on accounts held abroad can be taxed by the United States," the Swiss government said on April 10.

Since 2011, Americans, who disclose their non-U.S. bank accounts to the IRS, must file the more expansive 8938 form that asks for all foreign financial assets, including insurance contracts, loans and shareholdings in non-UNN.S. companies.

Failure to file the 8938 form can result in a fine of as much as $50,000. Clients can also be penalized half the amount in an undeclared foreign bank account under the Banks Secrecy Act of 1970.

The implementation of Fatca from July next year comes after UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, paid a $780 million penalty in 2009 and handed over data on about 4,700 accounts to settle a tax-evasion dispute with the U.S. Whistle-blower Bradley Birkenfeld was sentenced to 40 months in a U.S. prison in 2009 after informing the government and Senate about his American clients at the Geneva branch of Zurich-based UBS AG.

Compliance Costs

The additional compliance costs for companies to ensure that Americans they hire are filing the correct U.S. tax returns and asset-declaration forms are at least $5,000 per person, said Ledvina.

For individuals, the costs are also rising. Getting a mortgage or acquiring life insurance is becoming almost impossible for American citizens living overseas, Ledvina said.

"With increased U.S. tax reporting, U.S. accounting costs alone are around $2,000 per year for a U.S. citizen residing abroad," the tax lawyer said. "Adding factors, such as difficulty in finding a bank to accept a U.S. citizen as a client, it is difficult to justify keeping the U.S. citizenship for those who reside permanently abroad."

To contact the reporter on this story: Dylan Griffiths in Geneva at dgriffiths1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Frank Connelly at fconnelly@bloomberg.net


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Obama Opposes Olympic Boycott, Criticizes Russian Anti-Gay Law




Posted: 08/09/2013 4:01 pm EDT | Updated: 08/09/2013 4:21 pm EDT



WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said Friday that he did not favor boycotting the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, rejecting calls from LGBT activists to do so over a new law banning so-called homosexual propaganda.

"I want to say very clearly. I do not think it's appropriate to boycott the Olympics," he said at a news conference. But he added that he hoped gay and lesbian American athletes would bring home medals and reiterated his opposition to the law.

"If Russia doesn't have gay or lesbian athletes, then it will probably make their team weaker," he said.

A law signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in June bans "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations," and the law is written so vaguely that many fear that it will be used to crack down against gays and lesbians broadly. Since foreigners who violate the law can potentially be deported, many fear LGBT athletes from other countries who are competing in the Olympics may be targeted.

"Nobody is more offended than me by some of the anti-gay and lesbian legislation than you’ve been seeing in Russia," Obama said. "As I said just this week, I’ve spoken out against that, not just with respect to Russia, but a number of other countries where we continue to do work with them but we have a strong disagreement on this issue."

Obama also spoke on the U.S.-Russian relationship more broadly, and defended his relationship with Putin.

"I don't have a bad personal relationship with Putin," he said, describing their conversations as "blunt" and "candid."

He added, however, that he had seen more anti-American rhetoric coming from Russia since Putin became president again in 2012. "I've encouraged Mr. Putin to think forward as opposed to backwards with mixed success," Obama said.

The comments come after Obama cancelled a bilateral meeting in Moscow with Putin amid tensions over Edward Snowden, the NSA leaker who applied for asylum in Russia, as well as differences on Syria, arms control and missile defense. The presidents will still meet in St. Petersburg during the G-20 summit next month.

Also on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Washington.

Relations with Russia have gone downhill since Putin returned to office and moved the country in a more conservative, nationalistic direction. Obama and Putin's predecessor, Dimitry Medvedev, had signed a new arms control agreement and maintained a somewhat warmer relationship.


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BILDERBERG 2013 The Vision of Joseph Retinger






Adrian McQueen

Published on Jun 14, 2013


The secretive Bilderberg meetings have existed since 1954. Started by Polish political adviser and Eurocrat Joseph Retinger. it is a corporate clique of the most powerful bankers, businessmen,politicians, journalists and European royalty. Its original objective was to merge the continent of Europe which is not an original idea, but there is one prophetic book that foretold that this would never happen. it is the prophetic book of Daniel.

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"In Heavenly Places" - Bob Trefz



The Boston Bombings, Manufactured Terrorism and the Jesuits By Bob Trefz



MrPioneerlight2011


Published on Jul 22, 2013


"In Heavenly Places" July 2013 by Bob Trefz

For More Information Please SEE Our Website: www.exposingdeceptions.org

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Tares Among the Wheat





Joseph Armstrong

Published on May 14, 2013

Excellent!
KJV1611.org
RYFTKOHIAH.WordPress.com

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The Parable of the Sower



Matthew 13 - End of the World, Reapers, Parable of the Sower



Knowthetruthstudio

Uploaded on Oct 19, 2011

This is a Non-profit educational video with the purpose of promoting social, political and economic awareness. Videos which contain copyrighted material which use in accordance with US Copyright Law 17 U.S.C. Section 107 "Fair Use" is allowed for the purposes of criticism, commenting, news reporting, teaching, and or research and is not an infringement of copyright.

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Mark of the Beast 666 The Final Warning



Sunday Law: Mark of the Beast 666 The Final Warning Video Obama



VATICANTVNEWS

Uploaded on Oct 25, 2011

http://religiousmatrix.com/ The United States will enact a Sunday Law and will use the death penalty against Christians who keep the fourth commandment of God.

Final Warninghttp://www.facebook.com/pages/Religio...

the Final Warning Video obama Pope Benedict XVI to resign, first pontiff to quit since Middle Ages


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Friday, August 09, 2013

When No One Can Buy or Sell - Pastor Steve Cook



18. When No One Can Buy or Sell - RSH0222

Better Life Broadcasting Network

Uploaded on Feb 16, 2011

Pastor Steve Cook reveals how the book of Revelation foretells the future of mankind. What is the last crisis? What do the symbols mean? You'll be fascinated by his clear presentation. This program is just one in a series of presentations.

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The Protector - Bob Trefz






Leland Raymond, lll

Published on Jun 27, 2012

Sermon presentaion by Bob Trefz.

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Happy Sabbath

 

Catholic Charities Out of Control with Refugee Resettlement in Tennessee



Thursday, 8 August 2013



Don Barnett writes in The Tennessean:

“local affiliate funding is based on the number of refugees they serve, so affiliates have an incentive to maintain or increase the number of refugees they resettle each year rather than allowing the number to decrease.” --from the GAO report


At what level of taxpayer support for an entity do we stop calling that entity a “non-government organization” or a “religious nonprofit”? 
Revenue in 2011 for Migration and Refugee Services, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) refugee contracting arm, was more than $72 million, about 98 percent of which came from the taxpayer in the form of government grants or federal contracts. Would it surprise anyone to find it subject to the same incentives and laws of behavior that have driven federal contractors since the birth of the republic? 
USCCB’s main source of contracts and grants comes from refugee resettlement. The U.S. resettles nearly three times the refugees as the rest of the industrialized world combined, and the USCCB wants that number increased.
According to a recent report from the Washington think tank Migration Policy Institute (MPI), publicly funded private resettlement agencies, USCBB being the largest of nine, “meet with state and local agencies on a quarterly basis regarding the opportunities and services available to refugees in local communities and the ability of these communities to accommodate new arrivals. They also consult with the state refugee coordinator on placement plans for each local site. … If a state opposes the plan, the State Department will not approve it.”
 A July 2012 GAO report was a little more real world than the MPI report stating that “Most resettlement agencies … consult with some public entities such as state refugee coordinators; however, most public entities such as public schools and health departments generally said that agencies notified them of the number of refugees expected to arrive in the coming year, but did not consult them regarding the number of refugees they could serve…” 
Both reports assume a state government role in the resettlement process. The state refugee coordinator evaluates the plans of the private contractors, representing the interests of the taxpayer in the process. That’s the way it is supposed to work, in theory. 
In Tennessee, however, the state refugee coordinator is an employee of Catholic Charities, an affiliate of USCCB. Resettlement of the U.N.-selected refugees is Tennessee Catholic Charities’ largest mission and largest revenue item by far. 
In 2008, Gov. Phil Bredesen thought he was streamlining the process and saving money by outsourcing the state coordinator function to the contractor. Instead, he gave up the opportunity for the state to have any input in a process that affects the state and set up a textbook illustration of a conflict of interest. 
The annual cost of the program to Tennesseans went up immediately after the state handed over the position of state refugee coordinator. Today, Metro Nashville alone resettles more refugees than each of 29 states in the U.S. 
A bill introduced in the 2013 Tennessee legislature had the modest goal of requiring Catholic Charities to keep an accounting of the numbers of refugees it places into programs that carry a cost to the state taxpayer. TennCare, for instance, is about 30 percent funded by the state and most refugees are placed in TennCare upon arrival. 
Opposition to the bill was led by none other than the state refugee coordinator, whose motto seems to be “the less the public knows about this, the better.” The bill was deferred for “summer study” where bills often die. In this case, however, it may well come up again.
Hopefully, the 2014 legislature will act to require the contractor to record at least a portion of the costs it is running up on the taxpayers’ tab. A reasonable next step is for Tennessee to reclaim the function of the state refugee coordinator. This office should be representing the taxpayer, not the interests of a private contractor.


The Tennessee State refugee coordinator is Holly Johnson who is also an employee of Catholic Charities. The refugee coordinator for Metro Nashville is Abdelghani Barré, a Somali refugee himself.


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Pope Francis Adds a Personal Touch to Eid Al-Fitr Greetings




Posted by: Zafar Siddiqui Updated: August 7, 2013 - 11:27 PM




Pope Francis is pressing ahead with his efforts to strengthen ties between Muslims and Catholics. In his personal message for Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that comes at the end of Ramadan, the Pope touched upon the theme of “Promoting Mutual Respect Through Education.” I find this particularly exciting because it speaks to the effort that I and other Muslims have been involved in the Twin Cities through the Islamic Resource Group (IRG) and other organizations. The IRG’s mission is to build bridges of understanding through education, one very similar to the Pope's call.

The Pope’s renewed call for dialogue is another opportunity for the Catholic community to take the dialogue with Muslims to the next level and I am confident that the Catholic leadership will find the IRG and several other Muslim organizations willing partners in this effort to promote mutual respect through education.

Eid Mubarak to all who are celebrating.

Below is the text of Pope Francis’s message to Muslims worldwide:


To Muslims throughout the World
It gives me great pleasure to greet you as you celebrate ‘Id al-Fitr, so concluding the month of Ramadan, dedicated mainly to fasting, prayer and almsgiving.
It is a tradition by now that, on this occasion, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue sends you a message of good wishes, together with a proposed theme for common reflection. This year, the first of my Pontificate, I have decided to sign this traditional message myself and to send it to you, dear friends, as an expression of esteem and friendship for all Muslims, especially those who are religious leaders.
As you all know, when the Cardinals elected me as Bishop of Rome and Universal Pastor of the Catholic Church, I chose the name of “Francis”, a very famous saint who loved God and every human being deeply, to the point of being called “universal brother”. He loved, helped and served the needy, the sick and the poor; he also cared greatly for creation.
I am aware that family and social dimensions enjoy a particular prominence for Muslims during this period, and it is worth noting that there are certain parallels in each of these areas with Christian faith and practice.
This year, the theme on which I would like to reflect with you and with all who will read this message is one that concerns both Muslims and Christians: Promoting Mutual Respect through Education.
This year’s theme is intended to underline the importance of education in the way we understand each other, built upon the foundation of mutual respect. “Respect” means an attitude of kindness towards people for whom we have consideration and esteem. “Mutual” means that this is not a one-way process, but something shared by both sides.
What we are called to respect in each person is first of all his life, his physical integrity, his dignity and the rights deriving from that dignity, his reputation, his property, his ethnic and cultural identity, his ideas and his political choices. We are therefore called to think, speak and write respectfully of the other, not only in his presence, but always and everywhere, avoiding unfair criticism or defamation. Families, schools, religious teaching and all forms of media have a role to play in achieving this goal.
Turning to mutual respect in interreligious relations, especially between Christians and Muslims, we are called to respect the religion of the other, its teachings, its symbols, its values. Particular respect is due to religious leaders and to places of worship. How painful are attacks on one or other of these!
It is clear that, when we show respect for the religion of our neighbours or when we offer them our good wishes on the occasion of a religious celebration, we simply seek to share their joy, without making reference to the content of their religious convictions.
Regarding the education of Muslim and Christian youth, we have to bring up our young people to think and speak respectfully of other religions and their followers, and to avoid ridiculing or denigrating their convictions and practices.
We all know that mutual respect is fundamental in any human relationship, especially among people who profess religious belief. In this way, sincere and lasting friendship can grow.
When I received the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See on 22 March 2013, I said: “It is not possible to establish true links with God, while ignoring other people. Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam. At the Mass marking the beginning of my ministry, I greatly appreciated the presence of so many civil and religious leaders from the Islamic world.” With these words, I wished to emphasize once more the great importance of dialogue and cooperation among believers, in particular Christians and Muslims, and the need for it to be enhanced.
With these sentiments, I reiterate my hope that all Christians and Muslims may be true promoters of mutual respect and friendship, in particular through education.
Finally, I send you my prayerful good wishes, that your lives may glorify the Almighty and give joy to those around you.

Happy Feast to you all!
From the Vatican, 10 July 2013



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The Real Roots Of The Emergent Church Documentary by Elliott Nesch





sermonindex


Uploaded on Jan 27, 2012


Website: http://www.sermonindex.net | Twitter: http://goo.gl/f9i0R
The work and ministry of sermonindex can be encapsulated in this one word: REVIVAL. sermonindex is not a organisation, business, or any attempt by man to build something for God. It is rather a expression of a heart burden to see the Church revived and brought back to holiness, purity, and power with God. "The mission of SermonIndex is the preservation and propogation of classical vintage preaching and the promotion of genuine biblical revival to this generation."

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3MIN News August 9, 2013: Life on Europa? Earth-Directed CMEs





Suspicious0bservers


Published on Aug 9, 2013


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Ice Age Soon? http://youtu.be/UuYTcnN7TQk
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REPEAT LINKS:

WORLD WEATHER:
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Forecast Maps: http://www.woweather.com/weather/maps...
EL DORADO WORLD WEATHER MAP:http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/...
TORCON: http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-t... [Tornado Forecast for the day]
HURRICANE TRACKER: http://www.weather.com/weather/hurric...

US WEATHER:
Precipitation Totals: http://www.cocorahs.org/ViewData/List...
GOES Satellites: http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/
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Records/Extremes: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/extremes/rec...

SPACEWEATHER:
Spaceweather: http://spaceweather.com
SOHO Solar Wind: http://umtof.umd.edu/pm/
HAARP Data Meters: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/dat...
Planetary Orbital Diagram - Ceres1 JPL:http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr...
SDO: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/
Helioviewer: http://www.helioviewer.org/
SOHO: http://sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov/cgi-b...
Stereo: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/i...
SOLARIMG: http://solarimg.org/artis/
iSWA: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov/iswa/iSWA.html
NASA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/IswaSy...
NOAA ENLIL SPIRAL: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/
GOES Xray: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sxi/goes15/i...
Gamma Ray Bursts: http://grb.sonoma.edu/
BARTOL Cosmic Rays: http://neutronm.bartol.udel.edu//spac...
ISWA: http://iswa.ccmc.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080/I...
NOAA Sunspot Classifications:http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpdir/lates...
GONG: http://gong2.nso.edu/dailyimages/
GONG Magnetic Maps: http://gong.nso.edu/data/magmap/ondem...


MISC Links:
JAPAN Radiation Map: http://jciv.iidj.net/map/
RADIATION Network: http://radiationnetwork.com/
LISS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring...
QUAKES LIST FULL: http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/s...
RSOE: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php [That cool alert map I use]
Moon: http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/pac...

WireTrapped



29.07.2013



As the NSA revelations started to unfold, citizens around the globe called upon their governments to protect their privacy – what a foolish idea. Those who want their privacy protected must take action themselves.



© THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images


Modern society tends to comfort itself by using an ostrich policy – “if I can’t see it, it won’t hurt me.” For many years there have been warning signs out there: the spying and wiretapping of Kim Dotcom; the confidentiality leaks at Facebook; the Dropbox scandal; the manhunt for Assange; the geo-tracking by Apple; the dark hours of the ugly sistersSOPA, ACTA, and PIPA…and now PRISM, Tempora and the monitoring of the world’s population. We can’t fool ourselves any longer; governments and large organizations are trying to exploit the data goldmine provided by the biggest Internet industry players who, at the same time, actively bereave their opponents of the ability to act against them. We are about to slip into Orwell’s nightmare.

The vast majority of citizens with an Internet connection are aware that perils lie in exposing too much information online – whether it be stalkers, phishing scammers or identity thieves, the general consensus is that “danger” is certainly lurking in the shadows. Most individuals pay little attention to the easily tracked data trail they drop behind them along the way, and some may even defend themselves arguing that they are virtually inactive on social networks. But what about their entourage? The whole Western world is online, and habits are easily to assume with ample data from a circle of family members and friends.

Most people might, at this point in our technological timeline, assume that one may be able to find information regarding their date and place of birth online, maybe an address and probably even physical appearance. But there is so much more. With a bit of hacking and monitoring, a great complexity of information can be mined within mere minutes: Tell me what you eat, I will tell you who you are. Let me wiretap your Internet connection and I will tell you who you are, who you were, and who you will become. Yes, your computer knows more about you than you do yourself, and so could the government.

The (Effective) Riposte

The interesting part of all this is that there hasn’t really been a counter strike from governments. The Obama administration tends to minimize input at this point, and European representatives blame diplomatic incidents (but would still arrest and deliver Snowden or any other hacktivist). Overall, there wasn’t any kind of flat denial or real decision undertaken to counteract the unveiling of Snowden’s revelations.

The most powerful weapon against the Internet is …well, the Internet. There is so much content on the Internet that the collective libraries of the world wouldn’t be big enough to hold all of its knowledge. For the average net user, it is easy to get fooled by certain content, and a normal reaction is a developed skepticism with regards to online content in general. There have been conspiracy theories about the moon landing, the World Trade Center attack, the Holocaust, and so many other historical events, that when radical news such as that heralding in the Star Trek-like PRISM Project comes along, people tend to relativize it.

Another important point is the image of the main Internet actors and defenders. Up until a couple of years ago, people involved in the Internet business were seen as spotty nerds sitting in their basements wishing they knew more girls. Anonymous, PirateBay, WikiLeaks, and key players such as Dotcom suffer from being pigeonholed as disorganized and vengeful criminals.

In addition to the effects on a very individual level, as discussed above, the control of the Internet can have huge socio-cultural impacts on the future of a country. The Internet is the only free media that exists in our current climate: everybody can publish, comment, share, like, discuss – in short, exchange. The best illustration of such triumph over censorship was the black hole of information provided by Turkish national media and the considerable amount of pictures, texts and videos available online, despite it. This instant and unconditional transparency has fully discredited Erdogan for his shameless denial of the use of police force. Even though social media accounts may have been banned, and an Internet connection was practically impossible to attain at Taksim square, people kept documenting and uploading the truth to be witnessed on the World Wide Web. The same thing happened in Brazil, Syria, and many other modern conflicts.

Fearing the Average Citizen

It’s foolish to rely only on governments to seek protection. The online world is moving at the speed of light in comparison to laws and legal agreements. Any clever Internet user should understand that every ounce of data published or uploaded to public networks will be just that, public.

Every action leads to a reaction and only populations have the power to change things. If a government hides, spies and seeks to censor online freedoms, it is the duty of the people to stand up for their rights. There isn’t any Superior Commission for the Internet. Only the media for and by the people are in charge of this. Assange or Snowden aren’t crazy nerds involved in some cyber war, they’re people defending one very real aspect of individual freedom and human rights. The Internet is much more than LOLcats; it’s the biggest platform for business, cultural exchanges and communication on earth.

To conclude, the words of Snowden can be transposed to any global institution: “In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning, or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised – and it should be.”

29.07.2013


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With NSA and NYPD under scrutiny, is tide turning on surveillance?




Harry Bruinius 12 hours ago



Government surveillance programs are on the defensive.

On Wednesday, the New York Police Department agreed to expunge more than a half million names from its stop-and-frisk database – another blow to the embattled crime-fighting tactic that Mayor Michael Bloomberg has hailed as a key policy in the city’s plunging crime rate.

And the National Security Administration, already under fire from revelations that it has been vacuuming up vast amounts of Americans’ private phone and e-mail data, likely will face increased scrutiny as it has also been sifting through some of the actual content – a fact previously undisclosed – according to a New York Times investigation.

The Obama administration has defended the secret NSA program as an essential tool in the fight against terrorism.

Both practices, while involving separate issues of safety, have reignited questions about the ways government agencies keep tabs on millions of citizens – as well as the various techniques they employ to fight both crime and terror.

Civil liberties advocates are seeking to put government officials on their heels as they fight to swing the constitutional pendulum back toward protection of privacy.

“There has to be a balance struck between the need to protect us, and the need to protect the constitution,” says Randal McLaughlin, co-chair of the civil rights practice group at Newman Ferrara LLP in New York. “And that’s the wavering line we’ve been adjusting since 9/11, frankly.”

Wednesday’s stop-and-frisk settlement is the latest sign the line may be wavering back toward privacy. The Bloomberg administration, which has been fighting challenges to the program vociferously for over a decade, nevertheless agreed to voluntarily delete about 565,000 names and addresses that police officers had collected from those who were stopped and frisked.

The agreement stemmed from a lawsuit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union in 2010, which challenged the collection and use of this data. But police had been collecting such data for over a decade, gathering more than 2.7 million names and addresses through the program.

But in 2010, against the objections of Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, the state passed a law forcing the NYPD to expunge the information of anyone who was not charged with a crime – about 90 percent of the data. In the new settlement, the remaining names and addresses will be deleted within 90 days.

But the stop-and-frisk tactic faces its biggest test sometime in the next few weeks, when a federal judge is expected to rule on whether the controversial police practice violates the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure, as well as the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause, which bars racial discrimination. Roughly 85 percent of those stopped are black or Latino, and 9 out of 10 of all stops result in no arrest or further action.

“They’re under a lot of pressure from both the federal court and potentially the Justice Department to take a hard look at this thing,” says Mr. McLaughlin. “And I think the case is critical to the continuation of the policy, because if the case is successful for the plaintiffs, then there will be more likely than not a federal monitor appointed.”

The Justice Department has already told the judge that a federal monitor is the most appropriate remedy, should she find stop-and-frisk unconstitutional.

At the same time, the Obama administration continues to defend the secret NSA databases against charges that it violates the constitution’s protections against unwarranted searches, as an issue of national security. But the New York Times investigation revealed that in addition to its complex dragnet of American’s phone and Internet data, analyzing only connections to previously known suspects, the spy agency also scans all texts and e-mails sent overseas with a keyword search.

But these keywords need not have any direct connection to a known terror suspect. An e-mail or text that simply mentions anything related to the keywords used, even if incidental or coincidental, can be sent to an analyst for review. This has never been acknowledged since details of the NSA program first came to light with the leaks by Edward Snowden.

This brings constitutional questions about the NSA program even more to the fore, say experts, and it adds another layer to charges that the government surveillance program intrudes too far into Americans’ private affairs.

The program “involves a breathtaking invasion of millions of people's privacy," wrote Jameel Jaffer, American Civil Liberties Union deputy legal director, in a statement. "The government's scrutiny of virtually every international e-mail sent by Americans will have extraordinary consequences for free expression. Americans will inevitably hesitate to discuss controversial topics, visit politically sensitive websites, or interact with foreigners with dissenting views. By injecting the NSA into virtually every cross-border interaction, the US government will forever alter what has always been an open exchange of ideas."


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The Rise of Global Governance






LibertyInOurTime


Published on Sep 17, 2012

This five-part series explains what global governance is - and is not, and traces its development over the last century and identifies the people, organizations and events that have produced the United Nations. It explains how U.N. influence is exerted on domestic policy, how and why land use regulations eroded property rights, the origins of the new global green religion and sustainable development. Narrated by Henry Lamb and produced by Sovereignty International, Inc. http://sovereignty.net

Playlist link for the complete series: http://tinyurl.com/8ssxnqk

Links to informative news articles and essays further exposing the drive for a totalitarian world government under the United Nations:

The UN Is NOT Your Friend
Behind the mask of peace, brotherhood, and universal understanding, the United Nations promotes terror and tyranny in order to achieve its real objective: world government.
http://tinyurl.com/8zlqc97

Building World Order
http://tinyurl.com/7hzdery

A Plague of Power
http://tinyurl.com/8og9wa2

The UN "Reform" Bandwagon
http://tinyurl.com/9lowutw

Obama at UN, Calls for "Change ... New Era of Engagement"
http://tinyurl.com/7maex2n

Obama Defends Military Intervention at UN, Calls for More
http://tinyurl.com/8fz4vxp

President Obama Quietly Promotes a More Powerful NATO
http://tinyurl.com/9tnm2rl

Framework for World Government
From the moment State Department planners in the Roosevelt administration began crafting plans for the United Nations, their goal was always the same: world government.
http://tinyurl.com/d7sh7oh

An Internationalist Primer
For many decades the Council on Foreign Relations has been the reservoir of this nation's globalist "wise men" and their new world order schemes.
http://tinyurl.com/6r6w38s

No Accident: The Continuing Betrayal of American Interests Is a Matter of Policy
http://tinyurl.com/c9aqe52

World Government, Take Three
http://tinyurl.com/8dlrpzy

Globalism's Growing Grasp
http://tinyurl.com/6nmo7xf

Rooting for World Government
http://tinyurl.com/8nwou5b

Dropping All Pretenses About "Global Governance"
http://tinyurl.com/9w7h4xw

The UN's Millennial "Mandate"
http://tinyurl.com/6smffhq

UN Politics: A Rigged Game
http://tinyurl.com/d3v8h8y

The UN Attack on Property
http://tinyurl.com/cm5u3gp

The Real Agenda Behind UN "Sustainability" Unmasked
http://tinyurl.com/7fmlkyb

Eco-Agenda for Planetary Control
http://tinyurl.com/cbqrztm

Your Hometown & the United Nations' Agenda 21
http://tinyurl.com/9ohv9bw

The United Nations' Big Green Machine
http://tinyurl.com/7duuon2

ECO '92: Launching Pad for International Global Governance
http://tinyurl.com/9qeyo2p

Sink the Law of the Sea Treaty!
http://tinyurl.com/cvlxph7

Science, Politics and Death
http://tinyurl.com/8n7rz6o

Environmental Genocide
http://tinyurl.com/7m2825w

Climate "Experts" Propose Global One-child Policy, Socialism, Taxes, Carbon Rationing
http://tinyurl.com/9kngaj4

UN Attack on World Population
http://tinyurl.com/942sxlh

A Covenant With Death
http://tinyurl.com/ckpx2hl

Global ObamaCare and World Population Control
http://tinyurl.com/8ypz82g

Gender Politics in Beijing
http://tinyurl.com/6poc245

UN Takes Aim at Children
http://tinyurl.com/8bh7s37

The UN Plan for Your Mental Health
http://tinyurl.com/75rkt

UNESCO: The Global School Board
http://tinyurl.com/9okqcmx

UN: Turning America's Students Into Good Global Citizens
http://tinyurl.com/8b2mxl5

The New World Religion
http://tinyurl.com/ck9hf4k

World Economic Order
http://tinyurl.com/6v5hmks

Bretton Woods
http://tinyurl.com/8cwo4ot

Salivating Over the Rich Nations' Wealth
http://tinyurl.com/852hzvg

UN's Marxist Plan for Global Government
http://tinyurl.com/9jhp25o

UN Seeking to Tax and Control Food Markets
http://tinyurl.com/8ol42ph

Global Fusion: The G20, IMF, and World Government
http://tinyurl.com/8dxruf8

UN Steps Up Attack On Dollar, Calls for World Currency
http://tinyurl.com/9stgjwx

UN Bureaucrats Floating Plan for Global Tax
http://tinyurl.com/9xvtrdo

Shaping the New World Order
http://tinyurl.com/87huxob

The UN's War on Firearms
http://tinyurl.com/7wx3xp9

Disarmament and Destruction
http://tinyurl.com/8yxzz

Toward a Global Police State
http://tinyurl.com/c8oby8h

Bring on the Peacekeepers?
http://tinyurl.com/9mba3ht

The NATO/UN Army: Perpetual War ... and Bankruptcy for U.S.
http://tinyurl.com/8yk8psk

Beasts in Blue Berets
http://tinyurl.com/d9xywbv

Big Push for UN's International Criminal Court
http://tinyurl.com/9apr2pf

Courting Global Tyranny
http://tinyurl.com/9ja4wrw

No WMDs in Iraq? Why It Matters
http://tinyurl.com/9rgcbec

Why We Fought
http://tinyurl.com/82eb3jj

The UN's Desire to Control the Internet
http://tinyurl.com/chuemf3

UN Oil-For-Food Program: Scams R Us
http://tinyurl.com/96x4b6d

Global Tyranny ... Bloc by Bloc
http://tinyurl.com/78cpurk

UN Clichés: A Few Tired Bromides
http://tinyurl.com/cw7g57z

A World Without the UN
http://tinyurl.com/bnp6nyo

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Romanism the Religion of Human Nature


 "It is a backsliding church that lessens the distance between itself and the papacy."
Signs of the Times, Feb.19,1894.



There is great need that all who claim to be Bible Christians should take the Scriptures as they read. There is need of arriving at right conclusions as to what the Scriptures mean in their reference to the man of sin, who thought to change times and laws. He had no real power to change the time and the law of God, but he thought himself able to do this work; for he "opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." He is an imitator of the first great rebel, the originator of sin. In heaven Satan thought to change the laws of God, and for this purpose he changed his character and his position in the heavenly courts, and influenced others until they united with him in the work of rebellion against God; but he did not succeed in changing the law of God. God did not alter or change his form of government to suit Satan's ideas, but made it manifest that the foundation of his government in heaven and earth is as unchangeable as is the throne itself.

When Satan could not induce all the angels to revolt against the law of God, he made the earth the scene of his rebellion, and through the man of sin seeks to carry out his diabolical purpose. Through the Papacy, the Roman power, the man of sin, the purpose of Satan is carried out among men; the law and the time of God are set aside. In this we see that Protestantism is giving encouragement to popery; and false systems of worship, against which our fathers manfully opposed themselves, imperiling even property and life, are fostered and cherished and encouraged to extend and gain wide influence. Protestants do not search their Bibles as they should, and do not heed the warning that has been given concerning the work of the man of sin. The Roman Church claims that the pope is invested with supreme authority over all bishops and pastors, and this claim of supremacy was once denied by Protestants. They took the position that the Bible, and the Bible alone, constituted the rule of faith and doctrine, that the word of God is the only unerring guide for human souls, and that it is unnecessary and harmful to take the words of priests and prelates instead of the word of God.

To the Romanist the Bible is a forbidden book, because it plainly reveals the errors of the Roman system; and whoever searches the Bible with an enlightened understanding, cannot long be in harmony with Romanism. He who searches the Bible to understand the truth, will find no authority in the word of God for the assumption of power on the part of popes and cardinals. There is no word of God that sanctions their assumed superiority or supremacy over their people, as there is no word to sanction the claim that Lucifer made in heaven of superiority over Christ. The claim of the Papacy to superiority is made under the influence of the first great usurper, who so persistently urged his right to supremacy over the host of God. Through the Dark Ages,--that long night of ignorance and superstition,--the claim of the Papacy to superiority and supremacy was conceded by emperors and kings, although God had sanctioned no such concession, and raised up men to dispute the claim, and to break the Romish yoke from the church of God. Through his appointed agencies God summoned the church to reassert her independence, and in the strength of God she stood forth in the liberty wherewith Christ had made her free. She broke away from the papal yoke, and with the word of God in her hand, met the giant evil of Romanism, even as David met Goliath in the name of heaven, using his sling and a few pebblestones. The defier of Israel was slain before the man of faith; and while men cling to the word of the Lord, they cannot affiliate with the great system of error.

The Lord has pronounced a curse upon those who take from or add to the Scriptures. The great I AM has decided what shall constitute the rule of faith and doctrine, and he has designed that the Bible shall be a household book. The church that holds to the word of God is irreconcilably separated from Rome. Protestants were once thus apart from this great church of apostasy, but they have approached more nearly to her, and are still in the path of reconciliation to the Church of Rome. Rome never changes. Her principles have not altered in the least. She has not lessened the breach between herself and Protestants; they have done all the advancing. But what does this argue for the Protestantism of this day? It is the rejection of Bible truth which makes men approach to infidelity. It is a backsliding church that lessens the distance between itself and the Papacy.

It is souls like Luther, Cranmer, Ridley, Hooper, and the thousands of noble men who were martyrs for the truth's sake, who are the true Protestants. They stood as faithful sentinels of truth, declaring that Protestantism is incapable of union with Romanism, but must be as far separated from the principles of the Papacy as is the east from the west. Such advocates of truth could no more harmonize with "the man of sin" than could Christ and his apostles. In earlier ages the righteous felt that it was impossible to affiliate with Rome, and, though their antagonism to this system of error was maintained at risk of property and life, yet they had courage to maintain their separation, and manfully struggled for the truth. Bible truth was dearer to them than wealth, honor, or even life itself. They could not endure to see the truth buried under a mass of superstition and lying sophistry. They took the word of God in their hands, and raised the standard of truth before the people, boldly declaring that which God had revealed unto them through diligent searching of the Bible. They died the cruelest of deaths for their fidelity to God, but by their blood they purchased for us liberties and privileges that many who claim to be Protestants are easily yielding up to the power of evil. But shall we yield up these dearly bought privileges? Shall we offer insult to the God of heaven, and, after he has freed us from the Romish yoke, again place ourselves in bondage to this antichristian power? Shall we prove our degeneracy by signing away our religious liberty, our right to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience?

The voice of Luther, that echoed in mountains and valleys, that shook Europe as with an earthquake, summoned forth an army of noble apostles of Jesus, and the truth they advocated could not be silenced by fagots, by tortures, by dungeons, by death; and still the voices of the noble army of martyrs are telling us that the Roman power is the predicted apostasy of the last days, the mystery of iniquity which Paul saw beginning to work even in his day. Roman Catholicism is rapidly gaining ground. Popery is on the increase, and those who have turned their ears away from hearing the truth are listening to her delusive fables. Papal chapels, papal colleges, nunneries, and monasteries are on the increase, and the Protestant world seems to be asleep. Protestants are losing the mark of distinction that distinguished them from the world, and they are lessening the distance between themselves and the Roman power. They have turned away their ears from hearing the truth; they have been unwilling to accept light which God shed upon their pathway, and are therefore going into darkness. They speak with contempt of the idea that there will be a revival of the past cruel persecution on the part of Romanists and those who affiliate with them. They do not recognize the fact that the word of God fully predicts such a revival, and will not concede that the people of God in the last days shall suffer persecution, although the Bible says, "The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."

Popery is the religion of human nature, and the mass of humanity love a doctrine that permits them to commit sin, and yet frees them from its consequences. People must have some form of religion, and this religion, formed by human device, and yet claiming divine authority, suits the carnal mind. Men who think themselves wise and intelligent turn away in pride from the standard of righteousness, the ten commandments, and do not think it is in harmony with their dignity to inquire into the ways of God. Therefore they go into false ways, into forbidden paths, become self-sufficient, self inflated, after the pattern of the pope, not after the pattern of Jesus Christ. They must have the form of religion that has the least requirement of spirituality and self-denial, and as unsanctified human wisdom will not lead them to loathe popery, they are naturally drawn toward its provisions and doctrines. They do not want to walk in the ways of the Lord. They are altogether too much enlightened to seek God prayerfully and humbly, with an intelligent knowledge of his word. Not caring to know the ways of the Lord, their minds are all open to delusions, all ready to accept and believe a lie. They are willing to have the most unreasonable, most inconsistent falsehoods palmed off upon them as truth.

Satan's masterpiece of deception is popery; and while it has been demonstrated that a day of great intellectual darkness was favorable to Romanism, it will also be demonstrated that a day of great intellectual light is also favorable to its power; for the minds of men are concentrated on their own superiority, and do not like to retain God in their knowledge. Rome claims infallibility, and Protestants are following in the same line. They do not desire to search for truth and go on from light to a greater light. They wall themselves in with prejudice, and seem willing to be deceived and to deceive others.

But though the attitude of the churches is discouraging, yet there is no need of being disheartened; for God has a people who will preserve their fidelity to his truth, who will make the Bible, and the Bible alone, their rule of faith and doctrine, who will elevate the standard, and hold aloft the banner on which is inscribed, "The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." They will value a pure gospel, and make the Bible the foundation of their faith and doctrine.

For such a time as this, when men are casting aside the law of the Lord of hosts, the prayer of David is applicable,--"It is time for thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void thy law." We are coming to a time when almost universal scorn will be heaped upon the law of God, and God's commandment-keeping people will be severely tried; but will they lose their respect for the law of Jehovah because others do not see and realize its binding claims? Let God's commandment-keeping people, like David, reverence God's law in proportion as men cast it aside and heap upon it disrespect and contempt.


The Signs of the Times-1894
8. Article Title: Romanism the Religion of Human Nature
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Thursday, August 08, 2013

Testimony of a Former Irish Priest

Richard Peter Bennett

E-mail: bereanbennett@juno.com

Richard P. Bennett was a Roman Catholic priest for 22 years until 1985. In 1986, Richard Bennett experienced the new birth in Jesus Christ at the age of 48. The following account is his fascinating story, printed on our site by Brother Bennett's permission:




Born Irish, in a family of eight, my early childhood was fulfilled and happy. My father was a colonel in the Irish Army until he retired when I was about nine. As a family, we loved to play, sing, and act, all within a military camp in Dublin.

We were a typical Irish Roman Catholic family. My father sometimes knelt down to pray at his bedside in a solemn manner. My mother would talk to Jesus while sewing, washing dishes, or even smoking a cigarette. Most evenings we would kneel in the living room to say the Rosary together. No one ever missed Mass on Sundays unless he was seriously ill. By the time I was about five or six years of age, Jesus Christ was a very real person to me, but so also were Mary and the saints. I can identify easily with others in traditional Catholic nations in Europe and with Hispanics and Filipinos who put Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and other saints all in one boiling pot of faith.




The catechism was drilled into me at the Jesuit School of Belvedere, where I had all my elementary and secondary education. Like every boy who studies under the Jesuits, I could recite before the age of ten five reasons why God existed and why the Pope was head of the only true Church. Getting souls out of Purgatory was a serious matter. The often quoted words, "It is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from sins," were memorized even though we did not know what these words meant. We were told that the Pope as head of the Church was the most important man on earth. What he said was law, and the Jesuits were his right-hand men. Even though the Mass was in Latin, I tried to attend daily because I was intrigued by the deep sense of mystery which surrounded it. We were told it was the most important way to please God. Praying to saints was encouraged, and we had patron saints for most aspects of life. I did not make a practise of that, with one exception: St. Anthony, the patron of lost objects, since I seemed to lose so many things.

When I was fourteen years old, I sensed a call to be a missionary. This call, however, did not affect the way in which I conducted my life at that time. Age sixteen to eighteen were the most fulfilled and enjoyable years a youth could have. During this time, I did quite well both academically and athletically.

I often had to drive my mother to the hospital for treatments. While waiting for her, I found quoted in a book these verses from Mark 10:29-30, "And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life." Not having any idea of the true salvation message, I decided that I truly did have a call to be a missionary.

Trying To Earn Salvation I left my family and friends in 1956 to join the Dominican Order. I spent eight years studying what it is to be a monk, the traditions of the Church, philosophy, the theology of Thomas Aquinas, and some of the Bible from a Catholic standpoint. Whatever personal faith I had was institutionalized and ritualized in the Dominican religious system. Obedience to the law, both Church and Dominican, was put before me as the means of sanctification. I often spoke to Ambrose Duffy, our Master of Students, about the law being the means of becoming holy. In addition to becoming "holy," I wanted also to be sure of eternal salvation. I memorized part of the teaching of Pope Pius XII in which he said, "...the salvation of many depends on the prayers and sacrifices of the mystical body of Christ offered for this intention." This idea of gaining salvation through suffering and prayer is also the basic message of Fatima and Lourdes, and I sought to win my own salvation as well as the salvation of others by such suffering and prayer.

In the Dominican monastery in Tallaght, Dublin, I performed many difficult feats to win souls, such as taking cold showers in the middle of winter and beating my back with a small steel chain. The Master of Students knew what I was doing, his own austere life being part of the inspiration that I had received from the Pope's words. With rigor and determination, I studied, prayed, did penance, tried to keep the Ten Commandments and the multitude of Dominican rules and traditions.

OUTWARD POMP -- INNER EMPTINESS

Then in 1963 at the age of twenty-five I was ordained a Roman Catholic priest and went on to finish my course of studies of Thomas Aquinas at The Angelicum University in Rome. But there I had difficulty with both the outward pomp and the inner emptiness. Over the years I had formed, from pictures and books, pictures in my mind of the Holy See and the Holy City. Could this be the same city? At the Angelicum University I was also shocked that hundreds of others who poured into our morning classes seemed quite disinterested in theology. I noticed Time and Newsweek magazines being read during classes. Those who were interested in what was being taught seemed only to be looking for either degrees or positions within the Catholic Church in their homelands.

One day I went for a walk in the Colosseum so that my feet might tread the ground where the blood of so many Christians had been poured out. I walked to the arena in the Forum. I tried to picture in my mind those men and women who knew Christ so well that they were joyfully willing to be burned at the stake or devoured alive by beasts because of His overpowering love. The joy of this experience was marred, however, for as I went back in the bus I was insulted by jeering youths shouting words meaning "scum or garbage." I sensed their motivation for such insults was not because I stood for Christ as the early Christians did but because they saw in me the Roman Catholic system. Quickly, I put this contrast out of my mind, yet what I had been taught about the present glories of Rome now seemed very irrelevant and empty.

One night soon after that, I prayed for two hours in front of the main altar in the church of San Clemente. Remembering my earlier youthful call to be a missionary and the hundredfold promise of Mark 10:29-30, I decided not to take the theological degree that had been my ambition since beginning study of the theology of Thomas Aquinas. This was a major decision, but after long prayer I was sure I had decided correctly.

The priest who was to direct my thesis did not want to accept my decision. In order to make the degree easier, he offered me a thesis written several years earlier. He said I could use it as my own if only I would do the oral defense. This turned my stomach. It was similar to what I had seen a few weeks earlier in a city park: elegant prostitutes parading themselves in their black leather boots. What he was offering was equally sinful. I held to my decision, finishing at the University at the ordinary academic level, without the degree.

On returning from Rome, I received official word that I had been assigned to do a three year course at Cork University. I prayed earnestly about my missionary call. To my surprise, I received orders in late August 1964 to go to Trinidad, West Indies, as a missionary.

PRIDE, FALL, AND A NEW HUNGER

On October 1, 1964, I arrived in Trinidad, and for seven years I was a successful priest, in Roman Catholic terms, doing all my duties and getting many people to come to Mass. By 1972 I had become quite involved in the Catholic Charismatic Movement. Then, at a prayer meeting on March 16th of that year, I thanked the Lord that I was such a good priest and requested that if it were His will, He humble me that I might be even better. Later that same evening I had a freak accident, splitting the back of my head and hurting my spine in many places. Without thus coming close to death, I doubt that I would ever have gotten out of my self- satisfied state. Rote, set prayer showed its emptiness as I cried out to God in my pain.

In the suffering that I went through in the weeks after the accident, I began to find some comfort in direct personal prayer. I stopped saying the Breviary (the Roman Catholic Church's official prayer for clergy) and the Rosary and began to pray using parts of the Bible itself. This was a very slow process. I did not know my way through the Bible and the little I had learned over the years had taught me more to distrust it rather than to trust it. My training in philosophy and in the theology of Thomas Aquinas left me helpless, so that coming into the Bible now to find the Lord was like going into a huge dark woods without a map.

When assigned to a new parish later that year, I found that I was to work side-by-side with a Dominican priest who had been a brother to me over the years. For more than two years we were to work together, fully seeking God as best we knew in the parish of Pointe-a-Pierre. We read, studied, prayed, and put into practise what we had been taught in Church teaching. We built up communities in Gasparillo, Claxton Bay, and Marabella, just to mention the main villages. In a Catholic religious sense we were very successful. Many people attended Mass. The Catechism was taught in many schools, including government schools. I continued my personal search into the Bible, but it did not much affect the work we were doing; rather it showed me how little I really knew about the Lord and His Word. It was at this time that Philippians 3:10 became the cry of my heart, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection...."

About this time the Catholic Charismatic movement was growing, and we introduced it into most of our villages. Because of this movement, some Canadian Christians came to Trinidad to share with us. I learned much from their messages, especially about praying for healing. The whole impact of what they said was very experience-oriented but was truly a blessing, insofar, as it got me deeply into the Bible as an authority source. I began to compare scripture with scripture and even to quote chapter and verse! One of the texts the Canadians used was Isaiah 53:5, "...and with his stripes we are healed." Yet in studying Isaiah 53, I discovered that the Bible deals with the problem of sin by means of substitution. Christ died in my place. It was wrong for me to try to expidite or try to cooperate in paying the price of my sin.

"If by grace, it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace.." Romans 11:6. "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).

One particular sin of mine was getting annoyed with people, sometimes even angry. Although I asked forgiveness for my sins, I still did not realize that I was a sinner by the nature which we all inherit from Adam. The scriptural truth is, "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10), and "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). The Catholic Church, however, had taught me that the depravity of man, which is called "original sin," had been washed away by my infant baptism. I still held this belief in my head, but in my heart I knew that my depraved nature had not yet been conquered by Christ.

"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection..." (Philippians 3:10) continued to be the cry of my heart. I knew that it could be only through His power that I could live the Christian life. I posted this text on the dashboard of my car and in other places. It became the plea that motivated me, and the Lord who is Faithful began to answer.

THE ULTIMATE QUESTION

First, I discovered that God's Word in the Bible is absolute and without error. I had been taught that the Word is relative and that its truthfulness in many areas was to be questioned. Now I began to understand that the Bible could, in fact, be trusted. With the aid of Strong's Concordance, I began to study the Bible to see what it says about itself. I discovered that the Bible teaches clearly that it is from God and is absolute in what it says. It is true in its history, in the promises God has made, in its prophecies, in the moral commands it gives, and in how to live the Christian life. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (II Timothy 3:16-17).

This discovery was made while visiting in Vancouver, B.C., and in Seattle. When I was asked to talk to the prayer group in St. Stephen's Catholic Church, I took as my subject the absolute authority of God's Word. It was the first time that I had understood such a truth or talked about it. I returned to Vancouver, B.C. and in a large parish Church, before about 400 people, I preached the same message. Bible in hand, I proclaimed that "the absolute and final authority in all matters of faith and morals is the Bible, God's own Word."

Three days later, the archbishop of Vancouver, B.C., James Carney, called me to his office. I was then officially silenced and forbidden to preach in his archdiocese. I was told that my punishment would have been more severe, were it not for the letter of recommendation I had received from my own archbishop, Anthony Pantin. Soon afterwards I returned to Trinidad.

CHURCH-BIBLE DILEMMA

While I was still parish priest of Point-a-Pierre, Ambrose Duffy, the man who had so strictly taught me while he was Student Master, was asked to assist me. The tide had turned. After some initial difficulties, we became close friends. I shared with him what I was discovering. He listened and commented with great interest and wanted to find out what was motivating me. I saw in him a channel to my Dominican brothers and even to those in the Archbishop's house.

When he died suddenly of a heart attack, I was stricken with grief. In my mind, I had seen Ambrose as the one who could make sense out of the Church-Bible dilemma with which I so struggled. I had hoped that he would have been able to explain to me and then to my Dominican brothers the truths with which I wrestled. I preached at his funeral and my despair was very deep.

I continued to pray Philippians 3:10, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection...." But to learn more about Him, I had first to learn about myself as a sinner. I saw from the Bible (I Timothy 2:5) that the role I was playing as a priestly mediator -- exactly what the Catholic Church teaches but exactly opposite to what the Bible teaches -- was wrong. I really enjoyed being looked up to by the people and, in a certain sense, being idolized by them. I rationalized my sin by saying that after all, if this is what the biggest Church in the world teaches, who am I to question it? Still, I struggled with the conflict within. I began to see the worship of Mary, the saints, and the priests for the sin that it is. But while I was willing to renounce Mary and the saints as mediators, I could not renounce the priesthood, for in that I had invested my whole life.

TUG-OF-WAR YEARS

Mary, the saints, and the priesthood were just a small part of the huge struggle with which I was working. Who was Lord of my life, Jesus Christ in His Word or the Roman Church? This ultimate question raged inside me especially during my last six years as parish priest of Sangre Grande (1979-1985). That the Catholic Church was supreme in all matters of faith and morals had been dyed into my brain since I was a child. It looked impossible ever to change.

Rome was not only supreme but always called "Holy Mother." How could I ever go against "Holy Mother," all the more so since I had an official part in dispensing her sacraments and keeping people faithful to her? In 1981, I actually rededicated myself to serving the Roman Catholic Church while attending a parish renewal seminar in New Orleans. Yet when I returned to Trinidad and again became involved in real life problems, I began to return to the authority of God's Word. Finally the tension became like a tug-of-war inside me. Sometimes I looked to the Roman Church as being absolute, sometimes to the authority of the Bible as being final. My stomach suffered much during those years; my emotions were being torn. I ought to have known the simple truth that one cannot serve two masters. My working position was to place the absolute authority of the Word of God under the supreme authority of the Roman Church.

This contradiction was symbolized in what I did with the four statues in the Sangre Grande Church. I removed and broke the statues of St. Francis and St. Martin because the second commandment of God's Law declares in Exodus 20:4, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image...." But when some of the people objected to my removal of the statues of the Sacred Heart and of Mary, I left them standing because the higher authority, i.e., the Roman Catholic Church, said in its law Canon 1188: "The practise of displaying sacred images in the churches for the veneration of the faithful is to remain in force."

I did not see that what I was trying to do was to make God's Word subject to man's word. My Own Fault While I had learned earlier that God's Word is absolute, I still went through this agony of trying to maintain the Roman Catholic Church as holding more authority than God's Word, even in issues where the Church of Rome was saying the exact opposite to what was in the Bible.

How could this be? First of all, it was my own fault. If I had accepted the authority of the Bible as supreme, I would have been convicted by God's Word to give up my priestly role as mediator, but that was too precious to me. Second, no one ever questioned what I did as a priest.

Christians from overseas came to Mass, saw our sacred oils, holy water, medals, statues, vestments, rituals, and never said a word! The marvelous style, symbolism, music, and artistic taste of the Roman Church was all very captivating. Incense not only smells pungent, but to the mind it spells mystery.

THE TURNING POINT

One day, a woman challenged me (the only Christian ever to challenge me in all my 22 years as a priest), "You Roman Catholics have a form of godliness, but you deny its power." Those words bothered me for some time because the lights, banners, folk music, guitars, and drums were dear to me. Probably no priest on the whole island of Trinidad had as colorful robes, banners, and vestments as I had. Clearly I did not apply what was before my eyes.

In October 1985, God's grace was greater than the lie that I was trying to live. I went to Barbados to pray over the compromise that I was forcing myself to live. I felt truly trapped. The Word of God is absolute indeed. I ought to obey it alone; yet to the very same God I had vowed obedience to the supreme authority of the Catholic Church. In Barbados I read a book in which was explained the Biblical meaning of Church as "the fellowship of believers." In the New Testament there is no hint of a hierarchy; "Clergy" lording it over the "laity" is unknown. Rather, it is as the Lord Himself declared "...one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren" (Matthew 23:8).

Now to see and to understand the meaning of church as "fellowship" left me free to let go of the Roman Catholic Church as supreme authority and depend on Jesus Christ as Lord. It began to dawn on me that in Biblical terms, the Bishops I knew in the Catholic Church were not Biblical believers. They were for the most part pious men taken up with devotion to Mary and the Rosary and loyal to Rome, but not one had any idea of the finished work of salvation, that Christ's work is done, that salvation is personal and complete. They all preached penance for sin, human suffering, religious deeds, "the way of man" rather than the Gospel of grace. But by God's grace I saw that it was not through the Roman Church nor by any kind of works that one is saved, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

NEW BIRTH AT AGE 48

I left the Roman Catholic Church when I saw that life in Jesus Christ was not possible while remaining true to Roman Catholic doctrine. In leaving Trinidad in November 1985, I only reached neighboring Barbados. Staying with an elderly couple, I prayed to the Lord for a suit and necessary money to reach Canada, for I had only tropical clothing and a few hundred dollars to my name. Both prayers were answered without making my needs known to anyone except the Lord.

From a tropical temperature of 90 degrees, I landed in snow and ice in Canada. After one month in Vancouver, I came to the United States of America. I now trusted that He would take care of my many needs, since I was beginning life anew at 48 years of age, practically penniless, without an alien resident card, without a driver's license, without a recommendation of any kind, having only the Lord and His Word.

I spent six months with a Christian couple on a farm in Washington State. I explained to my hosts that I had left the Roman Catholic Church and that I had accepted Jesus Christ and His Word in the Bible as all-sufficient. I had done this, I said, "absolutely, finally, definitively, and resolutely." Yet far from being impressed by these four adverbs, they wanted to know if there was any bitterness or hurt inside me. In prayer and in great compassion, they ministered to me, for they themselves had made the transition and knew how easily one can become embittered. Four days after I arrived in their home, by God's grace I began to see in repentance the fruit of salvation. This meant being able not only to ask the Lord's pardon for my many years of compromising but also to accept His healing where I had been so deeply hurt. Finally, at age 48, on the authority of God's Word alone, by grace alone, I accepted Christ's substitutionary death on the Cross alone. To Him alone be the glory.

Having been refurbished both physically and spiritually by this Christian couple together with their family, I was provided a wife by the Lord, Lynn, born-again in faith, lovely in manner, intelligent in mind. Together we set out for Atlanta, Georgia, where we both got jobs.

A REAL MISSIONARY WITH A REAL MESSAGE

In September 1988, we left Atlanta to go as missionaries to Asia. It was a year of deep fruitfulness in the Lord that once I would never have thought was possible. Men and women came to know the authority of the Bible and the power of Christ's death and resurrection. I was amazed at how easy it is for the Lord's grace to be effective when only the Bible is used to present Jesus Christ. This contrasted with the cobwebs of church tradition that had so clouded my 21 years in missionary garments in Trinidad, 21 years without the real message.

To explain the abundant life of which Jesus spoke and which I now enjoy, no better words could be used than those of Romans 8:1-2: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." It is not just that I have been freed from the Roman Catholic system, but that I have become a new creature in Christ. It is by the grace of God, and nothing but His grace, that I have gone from dead works into new life.

TESTIMONY TO THE GOSPEL OF GRACE

Back in 1972, when some Christians had taught me about the Lord healing our bodies, how much more helpful it would have been had they explained to me on what authority our sinful nature is made right with God. The Bible clearly shows that Jesus substituted for us on the cross. I cannot express it better than Isaiah 53:5: "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." (This means that Christ took on himself what I ought to suffer for my sins. Before the Father, I trust in Jesus as my substitute.)

That was written 750 years before the crucifixion of our Lord. A short time after the sacrifice of the cross, the Bible states in I Peter 2:24: "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed."

Because we inherited our sin nature from Adam, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. How can we stand before a Holy God -- except in Christ -- and acknowledge that He died where we ought to have died? God gives us the faith to be born again, making it possible for us to acknowledge Christ as our substitute. It was Christ who paid the price for our sins: sinless, yet He was crucified. This is the true Gospel message. Is faith enough? Yes, born-again faith is enough. That faith, born of God, will result in good works including repentance: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).

In repenting, we put aside, through God's strength, our former way of life and our former sins. It does not mean that we cannot sin again, but it does mean that our position before God has changed. We are called children of God, for so indeed we are. If we do sin, it is a relationship problem with the Father which can be resolved, not a problem of losing our position as a child of God in Christ, for this position is irrevocable. In Hebrews 10:10, the Bible says it so wonderfully: "...we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

The finished work of Christ Jesus on the Cross is sufficient and complete. As you trust solely in this finished work, a new life which is born of the Spirit will be yours -- you will be born again.
THE PRESENT DAY

My present task: the good work that the Lord has prepared for me to do is as an evangelist situated in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.A. What Paul said about his fellow Jews I say about my dearly loved Catholic brothers: my heart's desire and prayer to God for Catholics is that they may be saved. I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based in God's Word but in their church tradition. If you understand the devotion and agony that some of our brothers and sisters in the Philippines and South America have put into their religion, you may understand my heart's cry: "Lord, give us a compassion to understand the pain and torment of the search our brothers and sisters have made to please You. In understanding pain inside the Catholic hearts, we will have the desire to show them the Good News of Christ's finished work on the Cross."

My testimony shows how difficult it was for me as a Catholic to give up Church tradition, but when the Lord demands it in His Word, we must do it. The "form of godliness" that the Roman Catholic Church has makes it most difficult for a Catholic to see where the real problem lies. Everyone must determine by what authority we know truth. Rome claims that it is only by her own authority that truth is known. In her own words, Cannon 212, Section 1, "The Christian faithful, conscious of their own responsibility, are bound by Christian obedience to follow what the sacred pastors, as representatives of Christ, declare as teachers of the faith or determine as leaders of the Church." (Vatican Council II based, Code of Canon Law promulgated by Pope John-Paul II, 1983).

Yet according to the Bible, it is God's Word itself which is the authority by which truth is known. It was man-made traditions which caused the Reformers to demand "the Bible only, faith only, grace only, in Christ only, and to God only be the glory."
THE REASON WHY I SHARE

I share these truths with you now so that you can know God's way of salvation. Our basic fault as Catholics is that we believe that somehow we can of ourselves respond to the help God gives us to be right in His sight. This presupposition that many of us have carried for years is aptly defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994) #2021, "Grace is the help God gives us to respond to our vocation of becoming his adopted sons...."

With that mindset, we were unknowingly holding to a teaching that the Bible continually condemns. Such a definition of grace is man's careful fabrication, for the Bible consistently declares that the believer's right standing with God is "without works" (Romans 4:6), "without the deeds of the Law" (Romans 3:28), "not of works" (Ephesians 2:9), "It is the gift of God," (Ephesians 2:8). To attempt to make the believer's response part of his salvation and to look upon grace as "a help" is to flatly deny Biblical truth,

"...if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace..." (Romans 11:6). The simple Biblical message is that "the gift of righteousness" in Christ Jesus is a gift, resting on His all-sufficient sacrifice on the cross, "For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17).

So it is as Christ Jesus Himself said, He died in place of the believer, the One for many (Mark 10:45), His life a ransom for many. As He declared, ...this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matthew 26:28). This is also what Peter proclaimed, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God..." (I Peter 3:18).

Paul's preaching is summarized at the end of II Corinthians 5:21, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.." (II Cor. 5:21).

This fact, dear reader, is presented clearly to you in the Bible. Acceptance of it is now commanded by God, "...  Repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15).

The most difficult repentance for us dyed-in-the-wool Catholics is changing our mind from thoughts of "meriting," "earning," "being good enough," simply to accepting with empty hands the gift of righteousness in Christ Jesus. To refuse to accept what God commands is the same sin as that of the religious Jews of Paul's time, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." (Romans 10:3)

Repent and believe the Good News!Richard M. Bennett P.O. Box 55353 Portland, OR 97238-5353 (USA) Tel. or Fax (503) 257-5995 Web Site: http://www.integrityonline.com/cl/berean E-mail: bereanbennett@juno.com


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