Friday, October 11, 2013

Happy Sabbath!


Worship in Pink to be Held October 27

 FORT WORTH—Susan G. Komen® Greater Fort Worth announced today it will partner with local churches and places of worship on October 27 to educate women about breast cancer in honor of national "Breast Cancer Awareness Month.”

Komen Greater Fort Worth and The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders will provide packets of information to places of worship in Tarrant, Parker, Johnson and Hood counties to distribute to its membership during the month of October in an effort to educate congregations on breast health and breast cancer.

In 2012, Komen Greater Fort Worth partnered with more than 110 places of worship to educate 12,000 women.

Congregations interested in participating in Worship in Pink should contact Amy Hatfield at ahatfield@komengreaterfw.org or 817.735.8580 before September 28. Interested organizations may also register online at http://www.komengreaterfortworth.org/get-involved/Worship-in-Pink/.

"Our goal is to educate as many people as possible about breast health and the importance of early detection in the fight against breast cancer,” said Craig Schaefer, executive director of the Susan G. Komen Greater Fort Worth Affiliate. "By partnering with local places of worship, we are able to reach a huge amount of people in one day. We encourage everyone to wear pink to show their support, to honor survivors, celebrate their courage and to remember those who have lost their battle with breast cancer.”

More than 2.9 million women and men are surviving breast cancer – a living testament to the power of society and science to save lives. Early detection is key. Breast cancer, if caught early, has a 98 percent survival rate. Susan G. Komen Greater Fort Worth Affiliate’s effort to educate and assist as many individuals as possible in the fight against breast cancer would be impossible without the support of the many community partners and individuals who raise funds for the local Affiliate.

Many activities are taking place in October for "Breast Cancer Awareness Month.” Find an event near you by visiting http://www.komengreaterfortworth.org/get-involved/komen-activities/.

Susan G. Komen®, the global leader of the breast cancer movement, has invested more than $1.9 billion in research and life-saving community programs since its inception in 1982, and is the only breast cancer organization with a comprehensive approach that touches research, advocacy and community support. Thanks to events like the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, and generous contributions from partners, sponsors and fellow supporters, Susan G. Komen for the Cure has become the largest source in the world of non-profit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer. The Greater Fort Worth Affiliate of Susan G. Komen is one of 123 national affiliates of the parent organization. Chartered in July of 1992 by Rozanne Rosenthal, in honor of her close friend and three-time breast-cancer-survivor Joan Katz, the Greater Fort Worth Affiliate uses 75 percent of all money raised to fund treatment and prevention projects for women in Tarrant, Parker, Johnson and Hood counties.

The first Komen Greater Fort Worth Race for the Cure was held in 1993 and had 1,800 participants. Today, the organization boasts more than 10,000 participants each year, and serves as the largest 5K Race in the county.

To date, Komen Greater Fort Worth has raised more than $21 million for breast cancer treatment, prevention and research.


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Vice Adm. Tim Giardina Fired as No. 2 Nuclear Commander


Oct. 9, 2013
By LUIS MARTINEZ




Navy Vice Adm. Tim Giardina is shown in a Nov. 11, 2011, photo. U.S. Navy


The No. 2 officer at U.S. Strategic Command has been relieved of command by President Obama because of a "loss of confidence" in his abilities to carry out his post.

Vice Adm. Tim Giardina has been the focus of a criminal investigation looking into his suspected use of counterfeit gambling chips in a poker game at a western Iowa casino.

StratCom commander Gen. Robert Kehler suspended Giardina from his duties as deputy commander on Sept. 3 and recommended to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that he be relieved from his post. Kehler's moves were guided by preliminary information he had received from investigations of Giardina's alleged activities.

A defense official said Wednesday that "based upon a recommendation from the Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, the president determined Oct. 3 that Vice Adm. Timothy M. Giardina, former Deputy Commander, U.S. Strategic Command (O-9), should be relieved."

President Obama became involved in the case because only the president can relieve a three- and four-star officer from his post.

Giardina has been reassigned to an undetermined position within the Navy.

The vice admiral remains under investigation by the Navy Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) which launched its own probe of Giardina after being contacted by Iowa authorities in mid-July.

David Dales, a special agent in charge with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), told ABC News in late September that his agency began an investigation this past June centered on the introduction of counterfeit poker chips in a poker game at the Horseshoe Council Bluffs Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa. That city is located across the Missouri River from Omaha, Neb., which is near StratCom's headquarters.

Dales said the use of counterfeit chips is "pretty rare" and constituted "a Class D felony in the state of Iowa." Dale would not characterize the amount of chips used in the game, but described it as "a significant monetary amount."

He said his agency contacted StratCom "when we discovered the subject of the investigation that we had developed, and who that person was."

A source familiar with the case said Giardina was the subject of DCI's investigation.

Dale said the investigation is still open and no charges have been brought in the case, though DCI's investigation is pretty much complete. The county attorney has decided to hold off on charges for the moment and DCI is fully cooperating with the investigation being conducted by NCIS, he said.

Council Bluffs is home to three casinos that do the most gambling business in the state of Iowa. Horseshoe Council Bluffs Casino, run by Harrah's, is home to a greyhound race track and has table games and slot games inside a casino area.

A defense official said there is nothing to indicate there's been any compromise of StratCom's mission or classified material in the matter involving Giardina.

StratCom, based at Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue, Neb., oversees the military's nuclear units and weapons.

Giardina was scheduled to leave StratCom later this year and his successor, Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, had already been nominated by the White House.


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Air Force general in charge of nuclear missiles fired over 'conduct'




Pentagon


Published October 11, 2013



Shown here is Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, who led the 20th Air Force.US Air Force

The two-star general in charge of all Air Force nuclear missiles was fired Friday following a probe into alleged personal misbehavior -- just days after another key official overseeing U.S. nuclear power was relieved of duty.

The Air Force announced Friday that Maj. Gen. Michael Carey was removed from command of the 20th Air Force, which is responsible for three wings of intercontinental ballistic missiles -- a total of 450 missiles at three bases across the country.

The circumstances of Carey's firing were shrouded in mystery. A senior U.S. Defense official said he was fired over "conduct." Officials said it did not have to do with gambling, or the loss of a nuclear weapon, or sexual misconduct.

But they would not say what specifically led to the decision.

Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, made the decision based on details from an inspector general probe into Carey's behavior on a "temporary duty assignment," according to the Air Force.

"20th AF continues to execute its mission of around-the-clock nuclear deterrence in a safe, secure and effective manner," Kowalski said in a statement. "It's unfortunate that I've had to relieve an officer who's had an otherwise distinctive career spanning 35 years of commendable service."

Earlier in the week, the Navy announced that the deputy commander of U.S. nuclear forces, Vice Adm. Tim Giardina, was relieved of duty amid a military investigation of allegations that he used counterfeit chips at an Iowa casino.

The move was already exceedingly rare, and followed by Friday's decision at the Air Force.

Kowalski has selected the vice commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein, to temporarily replace Carey as head of 20th Air Force.

Fox News' Justin Fishel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Senate Chaplain: Death Benefits Delay Is ‘Incomprehensible’


Thursday, October 10, 2013


(To listen to podcast go to link)




Senate Chaplain Barry Black poses for a portrait in his office on Capital Hill in Washington Friday, July 9, 2010. (Drew Angerer/AP)

As the government shutdown continues, Barry Black, the 62nd Chaplain of the United States Senate and a rear admiral in the United States Navy, is no longer straddling the middle.

He calls the delay of death benefits to the families of recently killed service members “incomprehensible.”

Black told Here & Now‘s Robin Young that his 27-year service as a chaplain in the Navy and Marines has made the issue of death benefits resonate with him. One of his duties was to tell the family when a soldier died.

“I know what it feels like to be reading the newspapers searching for an understanding of what kind of support and back up you’re receiving from your government, so the idea of adding wait to the burden of grieving families is, to me, unthinkable,” Black said. “There comes a time when it doesn’t matter who is right or wrong.”

Guest
Barry Black, chaplain of the United States Senate.

More in Politics

What Would A Debt Default Mean For US Bond Holders?

October 10, 2013

Transcript


ROBIN YOUNG, HOST:

Well, the private foundation Fisher House has stepped in to make up for those stalled benefits to families of service members killed in action. The group will be reimbursed when the shutdown ends. And the Tampa Bay Special Ops Warrior Foundation will also present an additional $20,000 to the families of troops killed in Afghanistan over the weekend.

There has been outrage over the delay of the so-called death gratuities to help families, and yesterday the Senate chaplain, retired Navy Rear Admiral Barry Black, let loose on lawmakers in his opening prayer.

BARRY BLACK: Lord, when our federal shutdown delays payments of death benefits to the families of children dying on faraway battlefields, it's time for our lawmakers to say enough is enough.

YOUNG: And Chaplain Barry Black joins us now. Chaplain Black, you've been gently scolding lawmakers in the prayer over the shutdown but this was specific.

BLACK: Well, I think it engendered an empathy more intense than anything I've felt so far. I spent 27 years serving in the Navy and Marine Corps. One of my responsibilities was to inform the next of kin when there was a loss of the loved one. I know the trauma that that causes.

I also have been deployed. I've been in harm's way. I know what it feels like to be reading the newspapers searching for an understanding of what kind of support and backup you're receiving from your government. So the idea of adding weight to the burden of grieving families is, to me, unthinkable. It's just an absolutely incomprehensible thing for me.

So it does engender an intense empathy because I've been there, I've done that, and I have the T-shirt.

YOUNG: What would you say to people who say look, they have to see what it is, that this is what government is: it's payments to the families of dead troops, it's inspectors being called back because of a salmonella scare. You can't cherry-pick which you're going to restore? And then there are the other people who say the shutdown is good because we have too much government. What do you say to them?

BLACK: Well, the French philosopher and mathematician Pascal once said the heart has reasons that the mind can't understand. There comes a time to get beyond logic. There's a wonderful Bible verse in the Jewish scriptures, Isaiah Chapter 1, Verse 18, where God says to human beings come down, let us put an end to reason.

There are boundaries that are so sacrosanct that you don't cross them. And the care of our children who are giving the last full measure of devotion, you don't cross that boundary. I was saying to one journalist, I was talking about "The Godfather" movie and the back-and-forth and brinksmanship that took place in that very violent movie. But then the son of the don was killed, Santino, and the don said, the Marlon Brando character, he said this war is over.

There comes a time when it doesn't matter who is right or wrong, as Tina Turner sang in one of her songs, I don't care who's right or wrong, I don't want to fight anymore.

Don Corleone is right: this war should end.

YOUNG: Boy, it's rare when I hear references to Tina Turner, "The Godfather," Isaiah and Pascal in the same paragraph. We just did. By the way, have senators come to you for private consultation on the shutdown?

BLACK: Yes, yes, I've had - sitting in the office for over an hour talking to individual senators. And then there's a weekly prayer breakfast where 20 to 25 senators come together from both sides of the aisle and fellowship together and listen to a lawmaker talk about his or her personal faith pilgrimage and actually pray together at the end of each of the prayer breakfasts. And so...

YOUNG: Well, then, what's wrong, then, Chaplain, that we don't ever feel that they are doing anything together?

BLACK: Well, the legislative process can be cumbersome. It is adversarial by nature. But at some point in the legislative process, you know, hopefully you're going to have bipartisan cooperation. Hopefully you're going to have enough people saying let's find some common ground, and let's get this thing done.

YOUNG: By the way, do you think in the coming days you might get up and pray that legislators restore Head Start benefits? Because they seem to be, you know, listening to you. Harry Reid, who of course would want that to happen, he wants the shutdown to end, but he was said to be really listening intently to you, and he got up and he commented on what you said. And do you think you might pick other issues?

BLACK: Well, I'm not going to cherry-pick in my prayers, if that's what you're asking. No, I mean, you're not going to delay the death benefits of young people giving their lives and have a chaplain who spent 27 years serving them and have him get up and pray a now-I-lay-me-down-to-sleep-I-pray-the-lord-my-soul-to-keep prayer, I'm sorry.

You know, no, I apologize if that looked like I was isolating, you know, one issue, but that is just too important to me. It's the death of Santino for me. It's the this war should end for me. It's the enough is enough for me.

YOUNG: By the way, we should mention you're a federal employee. You're not being paid.

BLACK: No, that's correct.

YOUNG: Admiral Barry Black, chaplain for the United States Senate. Chaplain Black, thanks for speaking with us.

BLACK: Thank you so much, Robin, it's my pleasure.

YOUNG: And when we come back, Jeremy Hobson has the view of the shutdown from Phoenix, Arizona. You're listening to HERE AND NOW. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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The Greatest Invitation - Walter Veith




7735 - The Greatest Invitation - Walter Veith





OfficialADTVChannel

Published on Oct 8, 2013

For more lectures Visit: http://amazingdiscoveries.tv/c/96/The...
http://amazingdiscoveries.tv/media/15...
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The Destruction of Jerusalem - The Great Controversy




The Great Controversy - Chap 1 The Destruction of Jerusalem - Ellen G White



glenbobsoapshop

Published on Jun 14, 2012

A battle is raging. On one side is God and good. On the other side is the devil and evil. Much of the activity is off-stage. What occurs on the stage of history is the outworking of the spiritual conflict through human agencies -- empires and nations, religious movements and political forces -- and individuals.

The author traces the battle from the end of New Testament times to the present day. She then uses the prophetic and apocalyptic portions of scripture to shine an arc-light into the future.

Boldly the author identifies the movements and agencies which will set out to destroy the Cause of Christ in the end-time scene...

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World Revolution - James Arrabito Documentary





JesusTVSermons

Published on Jul 13, 2012

World Revolution - James Arrabito Documentary

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Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Barack Obama calls in lawmakers on political crisis


Barack Obama will begin the process by meeting minority Democrats in the House of Representatives later today, a White House official said.
Barack Obama will begin the process by meeting minority Democrats in the House of Representatives later today, a White House official said.

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama is inviting all Republican and Democratic lawmakers to the White House for discussions on defusing a dual showdown over the shuttered government and raising the debt ceiling.

Obama will begin the process by meeting minority Democrats in the House of Representatives later today, a White House official said.

Republicans in the House and members of both parties in the Senate will be invited in for talks "in the coming days," the official said on condition of anonymity.

The meetings come as Washington lurches close to an October 17 deadline to raise the US government's statutory borrowing limit.

Failure to do so could see the United States default on its obligations for the first time in its history and spark what the White House warns will be dire economic consequences which could spread around the globe.

The US government, meanwhile, has been shut for eight days, after Congress failed to agree on a budget to finance operations by an October 1 deadline.

Obama refuses to negotiate with Republicans on budget issues until the debt limit is lifted and the government is reopened.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner refuses to take either steps until Obama offers concessions to his House Republican caucus. 
 

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In the name of making us "safe," the NSA has shredded privacy rights and now treats all citizens as suspects



October 2013, Volume 15, Number 10
Edited by Jim Hightower and Phillip Frazer


View this issue as a PDF

You're not paranoid--they really are spying on you


Rube Goldberg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist of the last century, was famous for drawings of what he called "inventions" --complicated contraptions and convoluted schemes for achieving the simplest of goals. His "Simple Lawn Sprinkler," for example, involves (A) a man on a porch rocking back in his chair on (B) a squeeze bulb that sprays water causing (C) a shirt on a clothesline to shrink, thus pulling (D) a string that (E) tips a shelf, dumping (F) a heavy homemade biscuit down into (G) a butterfly net, causing its (H) rod to lift (I) a hood and expose (J) a mouse, which is chased by (K) a cat strapped to (L) a revolving platform, which turns rapidly as the cat and mouse go in a circle, causing (M) a laughing hyena sitting on the platform to spin around and around, with the hyena's nose tickled at every turn by (N) a feather ball, prompting him to laugh so hard he cries--and, as the hyena spins, his tears are flung out to water the lawn.

Apparently, Rube was also the designer of the National Security Agency's "Simple Catch-a-Terrorist Program," for only a mind as impish as his could've invented such a preposterous, roundabout spy scheme. Rather than simply targeting terrorists and really homing in on them, NSA is running a labyrinthian, secret, extravagant, unconstitutional, and out-of-control electronic surveillance operation that targets you. Yes, you! And me. And every other American living in our Land of the Free. This agency has redefined citizens as suspects.



Not that NSA officialdom actually thinks that you, Mr. Upright or Ms. Doright, are terrorists or even "persons of interest" --but, then again, you might be. So, the spook bureaucracy has unilaterally chosen to put its convenience over your constitutional rights. Doing the serious police work to sort out the tiny number of people in our country who are connected in any substantive way to real terrorist threats is too much bother for NSA's techno-warriors, so they've taken the shortcut of dumping all 330 million of us into a digitalized, guilty-until-found-innocent box, keeping an unblinking computer eye on us, and hoping the few bad guys stand out.

They have created an elaborate, electronic Rube-Goldbergish spy matrix that (A) appropriates and agglomerates everyone's "metadata" (a geek term defined as data that provides information about other data), channels it into (B) banks of rapidly spinning supercomputers that (C) analyze your and my terrorist inclinations, based on (D) the phone calls we make and get, (E) emails we send and receive, (F) websites we visit and topics we Google, (G) Facebook friends and pages we like, (H) credit card expenditures and bank transactions we make, and--most telling of all (I) whether we have or have ever had a laughing hyena in our yard.
The SuperLux
Question: "Can you understand, though, why some people might not trust what you're saying?" Obama: "No, I can't." ---- Aug. 9 press conference when the President claimed that NSA's spying is not abusive.

NSA is not just one more entity chipping away at our privacy rights. Its intrusion is huge, both in its unprecedented reach and in its autocratic reordering of our way of life. Our government certainly has the right and duty (just as the governments of other nations) to eavesdrop on those who plot terrorist attacks and pose an actual threat to us. But this is not that. As the investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald puts it, NSA "is sweeping up billions and billions of emails and telephone calls every single day from people around the world and in the United States who have absolutely nothing to do with terrorism."

By taking advantage of the pervasive fog of fear blanketing our country since 9/11, this secret arm of government has become the SuperLux Vacuum Cleaner of the Total Surveillance Society. Using the infamous PATRIOT Act, some ridiculously permissive rulings by secret courts, cosmic leaps in surveillance technology, and meek political oversight, NSA has rapidly expanded its power over us since 2001. So, now it routinely and massively violates the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments, and maybe even the Sixth.

The most telling thing to know about this elephantine spy outfit is that we have known nothing about it! Until June of this year, you and I, the incurious media, and probably 99 percent of Congress had no clue that such a rampaging monster had so stealthily arisen in our midst.

Just as alarming, those who did know (Presidents Bush and Obama and a few top congressional leaders) felt no duty to inform us. In fact, we still wouldn't know about it--except that several whistleblowers came forward, including one uncommonly bold commoner: Edward Snowden. A 30-year-old computer whiz who worked for an NSA contractor as a systems administrator, he was appalled by what he found the agency doing--and in June he began blowing one of the loudest whistles ever. Snowden pulled a treasure trove of information from NSA's computers and began releasing those dark secrets to Greenwald and other journalists. Stunning revelations continue to pour out of Snowden's laptop, literally blowing the cover off a security state run amok.

Of course, the security establishment has cravenly tried to deflect attention from his releases by making him the villain. "Traitor!" barked boneheaded House Speaker John Boehner, and Obama piled on as well. But the actual betrayers of our people and values are the Boehners and Obamas of both parties, who secretly created, funded, and continuously expanded this illegal spy machine. Whatever you think of Snowden's tactics, he has performed a profound public service by revealing, as one scribe called it, "an intelligence underworld" that threatens our core liberties.
The whole elephant

Do the three hop

To see how easy it is for millions of innocent citizens to get caught up in NSA's vast electronic web, consider the "Three HOP Analysis." ... [read more]

Embarrassed and irritated by Snowden's leaks, Obama charged at an Aug. 9 press conference that Snowden was presenting a false picture of NSA by releasing sensational parts of its work piecemeal: "Rather than have a trunk come out here and a leg a come out there," he said, "let's just put the whole elephant out there so people know exactly what they're looking at."

Full disclosure--terrific! "America is not interested in spying on ordinary people," he assured us. The government, he went on, is not "listening in on people's phone calls or inappropriately reading people's emails."

Six days later, a Washington Post headline blared: "NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times per year." In an internal audit last year of just its DC-area spy centers, the agency itself found 2,776 "incidences" of NSA overstepping its legal authority. As the American Civil Liberties Union noted, surveillance laws themselves "are extraordinarily permissive," so it's doubly troubling that the agency is surging way past what it is already allowed to do. The ACLU adds that these reported incidents are not simply cases of one person's rights being violated--but thousands of Americans being snared, totally without cause, in NSA's indiscriminate, computer-driven dragnet.

The agency's surveillance net stretches so wide that it is inherently abusive, even though its legal authority to spy on Americans is quite limited. US Rep. James Sensenbrenner, the GOP sponsor of the PATRIOT Act (which NSA cites as its super-vac authority), said in July that Congress intended that it should apply only to cases directly tied to national security investigations. No lawmaker, he said, meant that government snoops should be able to conduct a wholesale grab of Americans' phone, email, and other personal records and then store them in huge databases to be searched at will.

Yet look at what NSA has become:
The three billion phone calls made in the US each day are snatched up by the agency, which stores each call's metadata (phone numbers of the parties, date and time, length of call, etc.) for five years.
Each day, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and other telecom giants turn over to NSA the metadata on every call they have processed. Each corporation has its own secret NSA code name, including such monikers as Blarney, Lithium, and Stormbrew.
Every out-of-country call and email from (or to) a US citizen is grabbed by NSA computers, and agents are authorized to listen to or read any of them. Among the abuses of this power are incidents of agents capturing love notes and sex talk between our troops in Iraq and their spouses back home, and then passing around the juiciest communiques for the amusement of other agency staffers.
The agency searches for and seizes nearly everything we do on the internet. Without bothering with the constitutional nicety of obtaining a warrant, its XKeyscore program scoops up some 40 billion internet records every month and adds them to its digital storehouse, including our emails, Google searches, websites visited, Microsoft Word documents sent, etc. NSA's annual budget includes a quarter-billion dollars for "corporate-partner access" --i.e., payments to obtain this mass of material from corporate computers.
Snowden says that in his days as an analyst, he could sit at his computer and tap into any American's internet activity--even the President's. A blowhard congress critter called that a ridiculous lie, but with the outing of the XKeyscore program, Snowden was proven right. Indeed, it's now come out that in 2005 another analyst did tap into ex-President Bill Clinton's personal email account.
Asked at a March senate hearing whether his agency collects data "on millions or [even] hundreds of millions of Americans," NSA director James Clapper said: "No." He later apologized, claiming he was confused by US Sen. Ron Wyden's question. But, when asked by Wyden to correct his erroneous answer in the hearing record, Clapper refused.
The sheer volume of information sucked up by the agency is so large that as of 2008, it maintained 150 data processing sites around the world.
NSA's budget is an official secret, but a Snowden document shows that it gets about $11 billion a year in direct appropriations, with more support funneled through the Pentagon and other agencies. Included in its direct appropriation last year: $48 million for a study entitled "Coping with information overload."

Apparently, though, too much is not enough for this insatiable agency. A Snowden release early last month revealed NSA's most closely guarded secret, a program code-named "Bullrun." By spending billions of dollars in the past decade on supercomputer trickery, lawyers, lobbyists, and expert safecrackers from unnamed high-tech corporations, NSA found its way around the encryption codes (i.e., locks) that protect the data in our bank accounts, medical records, email accounts, smartphones, and other deeply personal places we've been told are safe from prying eyes. These digitally scrambled codes are what secure the public trust in internet privacy. Yet NSA, using our own tax dollars, has imperiously busted the locks... and found its way around the encryption.

Clapper hails the new "cryptanalytic capabilities" of his agency, saying it can now "exploit internet traffic" by entering at will into everyone's online communications and transactions. One leading cryptographer says the breakthrough gives to NSA (and spy agencies of other countries) the ability to conduct "instant, total invasion of privacy with limited effort." He adds that, "This is the golden age of spying."
Four frauds

NSA's unbridled spying is exacerbated by official lying. Here are four big ones presently being tossed at us:

1. It's just metadata. This line is meant to soothe those of us concerned about Big Brother by asserting that the content of calls we make within the US is not listened to or recorded--just phone numbers, date and time, and duration. "Telephony metadata," they call it--no privacy worries about it.

Wrong, says the ACLU, which has sued to stop NSA from sucking every American's call into its bottomless computers. The spies have neither cause nor a warrant to seize the records of innocent people, and the "innocuous" info being stored chills our rights to privacy, speech, and association. Why should NSA know that we've called a pastor, an ex-lover, a political group, a fortune teller, a bar, etc.? Call patterns reveal our habits and associations.That's not just metadata. Those are profiles. Pieces of ourselves. Hands off!

2. Lawmakers keep NSA honest. "Every member of Congress has been briefed on this program," Obama fibbed after the agency's bulk collection of US phone calls was exposed in June. Actually, just a handful (sometimes only two) get substantive briefings, while the rest get NSA talking points. When members of intelligence oversight committees do learn about agency horrors, they are not allowed to discuss them with anyone, even other lawmakers.

Besides, most members are unwilling to challenge the security state for fear of looking soft on terrorists, or of losing campaign donations from NSA's corporate partners. Last December, the Senate defeated a measure requiring NSA to disclose its domestic spying, and the House killed a July effort to stop the mass collection of our people's private data.

3. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court keeps NSA legal. First, this thing is a secret court, so who would know? Its 11 members are lifetime federal judges who are handpicked by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for this special surveillance "oversight" duty, and they are not accountable to any elected officials (short of being impeached), much less to the public. The court's hearings are closed, but its pro-spying decisions are not subject to judicial review, and no one but officials pushing for more spying are allowed to participate, so the privacy view is not even heard.

Thus, of 1,789 requests for electronic snooping submitted to FISC last year, not a single one was rejected. Also, even some of the court's judges have complained that NSA regularly misrepresents what it is doing -- and some have complained in their secret rulings (leaked by Snowden) that NSA is systematically violating the Fourth Amendment. Finally, a common complaint of judges is that, with no investigative power, they have no way to make an independent evaluation of NSA's requests.

4. Reform is coming! Obama has announced not one or two, but three investigative panels to review NSA's spy work and make sure it's on the up-and-up. Panel One is the Privacy and Civil Liberties Review Board, but's it's an empty vessel--until January of this year, it had no chairperson, no staff, and has done no work. PCLRB has no authority to compel testimony or subpoena documents, so it's essentially at the mercy of NSA officials to confess.

Panel Two is the US Senate's intelligence committee, which says it will do a "sweeping review of surveillance." But, its two leaders, Dianne Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss, are NSA sycophants who've heretofore failed completely to provide any rigorous oversight of its work. And since Snowden's stuff hit the fan in June, both have rushed to assail him and rejected suggestions that the agency might be a tiny bit off the constitutional path.

But Panel Three is the President's main play. He announced the creation of this special "independent group" of "outside experts" in August, tasking it to "tighten a few bolts" so NSA can "maintain the trust of the people." And who better to foster trust than the outside expert chosen by Obama to oversee this group: James Clapper! Yes, the guy who lied to Congress! Yes, this external review group starts out as thoroughly compromised, since it's organized by Clapper's office and will function under his purview.
An un-American America

Like the steady slippage of our democracy into plutocracy, this clandestine slide toward autocracy raises THE BIG QUESTION: What kind of country is America going to be?

The very fine public servant, Russ Feingold, addressed this in October 2001, when he stood tall as the only US Senator to vote against the PATRIOT Act. Warning that its anti-democratic provisions would create a nation "where the government is entitled to open your mail, eavesdrop on your phone conversations, or intercept your email communications," Feingold rightly concluded: "That country wouldn't be America."

So here we are, having devolved from the founders' principled insistence on erecting the strongest palisades for the defense of the people's personal liberties--to now having a secret government inside our borders and inside our lives. Even the code-names of NSA's array of electronic eyes are almost comically Orwellian: PRISM, Tempora, XKeyscore, and--my favorite--Boundless Informant.

Boundless indeed. But all this, for what? To make you and me safe from terrorists, the hierarchy chants in unison. Constantly pointing to 9/11, the spies and their political henchmen solemnly assert that, hypothetically, bulk surveillance of every American might have, possibly could have, maybe would have stopped that horrific plot. But the phone conversations that mattered in that case were those that did NOT happen--the breakdown in communication between the CIA and the FBI, and between FBI headquarters and its local agents.

When the top brass of US SpyWorld did a dog and pony show for the House intelligence committee on June 18, they claimed that "dozens" of terrorist attacks had been prevented since 9/11 by NSA's SuperVac programs. Dozens? "More than 50," clarified NSA's director. But wait, how many of those were plots for terrorist attacks on our soil? "A little over 10," he mumbled. That's it? Years of scooping up ALL metadata on EVERY American to find only 10 plots?

Moreover, he was able to name only four of those 10, and none were serious threats to do major harm to Americans. In fact, one involved a bombing in India, one is a questionable case of $8,500 ostensibly sent to terrorists in Somalia, one was actually uncovered by regular police work, and the fourth was not a plot to attack the US, but to send funds abroad to Al Qaeda. For this we should shred our Bill of Rights?

We can heap plenty of blame for this on Bush-Cheney, but it has been brought to full force by Obama--a constitutional lawyer who pledged in 2008 to reverse the PATRIOT Act's assault on our civil liberties. Yet he's doing the opposite, and incredibly, he's insisting that "the program currently is not being abused." Worse, he's become testy about all the questioning of him and NSA. "We've got congressional oversight and judicial oversight," he said to a reporter on Sept. 13, then expressed exasperation that people don't have faith in the system: "And if people can't trust not only the executive branch, but also don't trust Congress and don't trust federal judges to make sure that we're abiding by the Constitution, due process, and rule of law, then we're going to have some problems here."

Well, yes sir, you do have some problems, BIG ones. Obama and the surveillance establishment are proposing a bit more "disclosure" to fix the agency's PR problem. But that's just warmed over B.S. We can't give him--or Congress--a pass on this. It's too big, too destructive of our values and self respect. NSA's domestic spy matrix and the PATRIOT Act itself confront us as a multi-eyed, hydra-headed, democracy-devouring monster. Forget disclosure--the monster must be dismantled.


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Francis I in the Light of Prophecy - Bill Hughes



Pope Francis I: In Light of Bible Prophecy By Bill Hughes



MrPioneerlight2011


Published on Sep 14, 2013


POPE FRANCIS I: IN LIGHT OF PROPHECY BY BILL HUGHES
Author of the Secret Terrorists & The Enemy Unmasked
Please write to him:
Box 1417
Eustis, FL 32727

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE SEE:

WWW.EXPOSINGDECEPTIONS.ORG

FOR FREE BOOKS AND DVD'S
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The History of the Jesuits



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James Arrabito: The History of The Jesuits (198x)

disinpho


Uploaded on Nov 3, 2011

Documentary on the fascinating history of the Jesuit Order. Launched by Ignatius Loyola in the 16th century to wage war against the Reformation, the Society of Jesus rapidly spread to every corner of the globe. The Jesuits insinuated themselves into the affairs of governments and churches, eventually earning expulsion from almost every nation in this world, including the Vatican itself!
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Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed



24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:

31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.


John 20: 24-31.
King James Version (KJV)
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Monday, October 07, 2013

Anniversary of anniversaries


There are anniversaries, then, there are anniversaries.  Does that make any sense to you?  Well, let me explain...

This year there are several momentous anniversaries, ho-hum; and then there are earth shattering anniversaries...

Here are just a few off the top of my head:


  • Income Tax: Oct. 4, 2013  -  100 years
  • IRS:  February 3, 1913  - 100 years
  • Federal Reserve: December 23, 1913 - 100 years
  • President Kennedy AssassinationNovember 22, 1963 - 50 years
  • Martin Luther King's Washington Monument SpeechAug. 28, 1963 - 50 years
  • Rowe vs Wade (decision that legalized Abortions):  January 22, 1973 -  40 years
On a religious note:

The Seventh-day Adventist Church:  May 21, 1863  - 150 years

On a related counter-point:
coming real soon...

The Restoration of the Jesuits (The Society of Jesus) August 7, 1814 - 200 years




Poland's Church Will Not Pay Child Sex Victims


WARSAW, Poland October 4, 2013 (AP)


A spokesman for Poland's Catholic Church says it will not pay compensation to victims of priests who sexually abused children.

The Rev. Jozef  Kloch said in comments aired by Polish Radio 1 on Friday that the responsibility for compensation lies with the perpetrator.

Kloch was reacting to a 200,000 zlotys ($64,000) claim made by a 25-year-old victim against his parish and local church authorities after they failed to reach a settlement.

Kloch says "the Church will not pay compensation to victims of pedophile priests. The wrongdoer should do it."

Some 27 priests have been convicted in Poland of abusing children. Authorities in the Dominican Republic are investigating allegations that two Polish priests there, including a Vatican envoy, abused boys.


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Babylon Is Fallen!


And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth he
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Revelation 18:1-8
King James Version (KJV)

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In divided D.C. for Red Mass, Dallas bishop Kevin Farrell urges respect amid differences




By Michael Lindenberger
mlindenberger@dallasnews.com
4:19 pm on October 6, 2013 | Permalink



U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, center right, talks with clergy (including Dallas Bishop Kevin Farrell, left) after the Red Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington Sunday. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

WASHINGTON — The catholic bishop of Dallas stepped into the very divided political atmosphere in this city Sunday morning, giving the homily at the annual Red Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral. (Read the homily here.)

Bishop Kevin Farrell‘s sermon focused on the power of the Holy Spirit to bring divided peoples together, using wisdom as a bring to overcome divides.

“Petty partisanship and ever-politicizing rhetoric should have no place at all when men and women of goodwill come together to serve the common good,” he said at the annual mass, where traditionally the Church prays for the Supreme Court, whose new term starts next week. A majority of the sitting justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts, attended the mass.

Farrell stressed that debate requires respect for the other side in every argument, but does not require agreement. Echoing comments made by Pope Francis in Rome recently, Farrell also said his church must be careful not to heap scorn on those who do not accept its teachings — a lesson that appeared to apply to political figures in Washington as well.

We believe in the dignity of each and every human being made in the image and likeness of God. We may disagree. But there can be no place for derision or smugness. Especially at this time of particular polarizations, we need to be reminded that we Catholics have every right to register what we believe in the public square and do it with pride and conviction. However, in a pluralistic society, we also need to be respectful of those who do not agree with or follow our teachings.

If dialogue means anything, it means not only that we take another seriously but it means that we revere the other as a fellow human being with gifts and talents from God. If honest and respectful dialogue means anything, it means that we need to strike a balance in our words and rhetoric so that conviction should never become stridency and saying things with commitment should never become caricaturing anyone else’s positions or beliefs.

He spoke with pride of the church’s commitment to the poor and to immigrants. Without explicitly referencing immigration reform, now stalled due to the government shut down and before that the debate over Syria, Farrell spoke out for embracing newcomers to this country. He cited the example of church of the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in D.C.

“The parish also does what so many parishes do today. They welcome the stranger in our midst in new and ever-changing circumstances. The immigrants who built the church building and the immigrants who populate the church today had and have different needs. The languages spoken are many, and it is from the many languages that we and they offer praise and thanks to God for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness on these shores. There may be many languages spoken on the Fourteenth Street corridor but there is among so very many a common purpose; many languages yet a common purpose to better themselves and the lives of their families and the nation where they have made their home. The history of our nation is a living proof of this common goal.”

The history of the Red Mass dates to 13th Century France, Farrell said, and takes its name from the red vestments the priests wear in recollection of the Holy Spirit, who is said to have descended upon believers with tongues of fire.

Farrell has been bishop of Dallas since March, 2007, when he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI.


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Related
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I At cathedral's Red Mass, bishop warns against 'petty partisanship'
Washington Times-10 hours ago
A Catholic bishop warned against the divisive arguing and selfish behavior that's grown prevalent on Capitol Hill, during Sunday's annual Red ...

II A Plea for Civility at Annual Red Mass in DC
The BLT: Blog of Legal Times (blog)-21 hours ago

III Supreme Court could unleash new flood of money in politics
MSNBC-50 minutes ago
... Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan depart following the annual Red Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew in Washington, October 6, 2013.

IV Supreme Court term begins with contentious topics
Concord Monitor-9 hours ago
... the Red Mass at Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington on Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013. The Supreme Court's new term starts tomorrow ...
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Saturday, October 05, 2013

Air Force cracking down on Christians



By Todd Starnes

Todd's American DispatchPublished September 06, 2013
FoxNews.com


AP


A 19-year Air Force veteran who was relieved of his duties because he disagreed with his openly gay commander over gay marriage is now facing a formal investigation after he told me his story.

Senior Master Sgt. Phillip Monk found himself at odds with his Lackland Air Force Base commander after he objected to her plans to severely punish an instructor who had expressed religious objections to homosexuality. During the conversation, his commander ordered him to share his personal views on homosexuality.

“I was relieved of my position because I don’t agree with my commander’s position on gay marriage,” he told me. “We’ve been told that if you publicly say that homosexuality is wrong, you are in violation of Air Force policy.”

In one of her first meetings with Monk, the commander expressed concern about the chaplain who would deliver the benediction at her promotion ceremony.

Steve Branson, pastor of Village Parkway Baptist Church, tells me that as many as a half dozen of his church members are currently facing persecution on the base for their religious beliefs.

“She said she wanted a chaplain but objected to one particular chaplain that she called a bigot because he preached that homosexuality is a sin,” Monk said.

After he was relieved of his duties, the Liberty Institute filed a religious discrimination complaint on his behalf.

Last week, Monk was supposed to meet with an Air Force investigator tasked with gathering facts about the complaint. But when he arrived, Monk was immediately read his Miranda Rights and accused of providing false statements in a conversation Monk had with me.

“I immediately got the sense that this was retaliation against me for coming forward with my religious discrimination complaint,” he said.

The accusations against Monk are a court-martial offense in the Air Force – and it’s quite possible that the 19-year veteran with a spotless record could be booted out of the military because of his Christian beliefs.

And he’s not the only Christian at Lackland Air Force Base facing persecution for opposing gay marriage, according to Monk’s pastor.

Steve Branson is the pastor of Village Parkway Baptist Church, about five miles from the Air Force base. He tells me that as many as a half dozen of his church members are currently facing persecution on the base for their religious beliefs.

“Sgt. Monk is just the tip of the iceberg,” the pastor tells me. “Anyone who doesn’t hold to the right view on homosexuality is having a very difficult time.”

Branson said one colonel is not even allowed to voice an opinion on the matter over fears it might cost him his job. Another airman has been brought up on charges eight times.

Christians are under attack, the pastor warned – and Lackland Air Force Base seems to be ground zero.

“I’m raising the warning,” the pastor said. “It’s not a good situation out here. The military’s job is not to fight these kinds of battles. Christians are having to walk so carefully. I hear it every Sunday at church.”

Hiram Sasser, of the Liberty Institute, is representing Monk in his battle with the Air Force. He said he’s very disturbed at what’s happening at Lackland.

“Lackland has been having some extensive problems,” Sasser told me. “It tells me there must be some sort of systemic problem in the Air Force. It’s leading to Christians not feeling welcome.”
Sasser said he was repulsed by the way the military has treated Monk.

“I can’t imagine someone having their Miranda Rights read to them like they did to Sgt. Monk simply because he is complaining about being mistreated and being discriminated against,” he said. “This kind of retaliation needs to come to a stop.”

Sasser said someone with such a clean military record deserves better treatment.

“We want to make sure we right all the wrongs and keep anyone from retaliating against Sgt. Monk,” he said.

Pastor Branson told me Monk is an outstanding member of the congregation.

“One of the finest men I’ve ever met in my life,” he said. “He lost his job because of what he thought. He’s paying the price.”

Monk tells me Christians are trading places with homosexuals.

“Christians have to go into the closet,” he said. “We are being robbed of our dignity and respect. We can’t be who we are.”



I asked Sgt. Monk why he just couldn’t keep quiet knowing that the Obama administration has staffed the Pentagon with anti-Christian civilians. Why risk getting booted out of the military?

Sgt. Monk told me he decided to take a stand for his three teenage sons.

“Every night after dinner we read the Bible together,” he said. “I tell the boys we’ve got a lot of stuff going on in this world and we need people to stand up. My boys know what I’m going through. They are looking at me – wanting to know how I’m going to handle this.”

He said the Monk family has a “family ethos.”

“The Monk family will be strong in mind, strong in soul, they will have strong character and strong work ethic,” he said. “That is the ethos of our family. That’s what I hope they see in me.”
He hopes his boys will see “a man who stands upright and stands for integrity.”

Sadly, those values are no longer seen as virtuous in a military that’s been turned into a social-engineering petri dish.

Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary heard on hundreds of radio stations and in his weekly podcast. Sign up for his American Dispatch newsletter and be sure to join his Facebook page.


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World churches' leader raises Syria interfaith summit at Pope's meeting


Peter Kenny

Saturday, October 05 2013


World Council of Churches general secretary, Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, with Pope Francis in an audience at the Vatican on October 3, 2013.Photo: Osservatore Romano


The leaders of the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches represent a majority of the world's Christians so their meeting in Rome this week was important for global peace.

Related



World church group aims to bring all faiths to Syria peace meeting
World churches leader urges US and Russia to talk on Syria
Pope asks other faiths to join day of prayer for peace in Syria



They met during discussions on an important doctrinal letter on peace from a man who is now on the verge of becoming a saint.

Pope John XXIII's Cold War era Encyclical Pacem in Terris or "Peace on Earth," remains "extremely contemporary. It can act as a guide to peace-building in today's world said Pope Francis at the meeting.

Pope Francis met participants and spoke on October 3 at the three day Vatican conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the John XXIII's 1963 Encyclical Letter.

As well as the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Olav Fyske Tveit, experts from the United Nations, Catholic universities and institutions, the Council of Europe, the African Union, and the Organization of American States were invited to Rome by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace to discuss the relevance of Pacem in Terris today.

Francis noted the document was written in the most critical period of the Cold War, when humanity feared it was on the brink of a worldwide atomic conflict due to the lingering confrontation between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.

John XXIII, who will be elevated to sainthood in 2104, launched his dramatic appeal for peace to world leaders.

"It was a cry to mankind, but also a plea to Heaven.

"The dialogue that opened, with some difficulty, between the two great opposing blocs led them to overcome this phase during the pontificate of the other blessed pope, John Paul II, and to open up space for freedom and dialogue," said Francis.

SEEDS OF PEACE

"The seeds of peace sown by blessed John XXIII bore fruit but, despite the fall of walls and barriers, the world continues to hunger for peace and the appeal made in 'Pacem in terris' retains a powerful current relevance."

When he addressed the discussions Tveit noted that much had been written about the context of the encyclical in the 1960s when the world was on the brink of a nuclear war, peoples were overcoming colonial rule and joining the United Nations, and the civil rights movement was changing the United States.

"Surely," he said,"the encyclical responds to the contemporary context and is, indeed, reading the signs of the times.

"We can discern the consequences of Pacem in Terris today when His Holiness Pope Francis calls for a peaceful solution in Syria and condemns the proliferation of wars and conflicts.

This was where Francis' words mesh with what the WCC sought at a September 18 meeting held on Syria in Geneva with church leaders from Syria, Russia, United States, Britain, France, Germany and Turkey.

At that meeting they issued a call for an inter-faith peace meeting on Syria after talks with Kofi Annan, former United Nations general secretary, and Lakhdar Brahimi, UN-Arab League joint representative for Syria.

"We discussed with one another and with Mr. Annan and Mr. Brahimi from the U.N., listening to their advice on what we could do to contribute to peace and reconciliation in Syria.

"Our joint communiqué said, 'Churches worldwide have spoken out against the war in Syria [and] must continue to raise their voices in their congregations and with their governments.

"We must strengthen the public outcry so that those in power will protect the common interest of humanity."

In Rome, Tveit called on the churches to be congregations of peacemakers.

He invited the Roman Catholic Church and the Pontifical Council to join in the "ecumenical pilgrimage for justice and peace," saying that "churches are included in God's work for peace."


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Who is C. S. Lewis and why is he quoted so often?

Last night, I tuned in to a 'christian' radio station and a program called Grace To You, came on as soon as I turned the dial ;  Well, the program began by referring to a C. S. Lewis quote.   
I immediately turned the radio off.  

I wonder: Why is he so popular?
It seems as if just about every time I listen to the radio they mention C. S. Lewis. ...

Why is C. S. Lewis the darling of the World Council of Churches/National Council of Churches promoting, 501C3 tax shelter, go-along to get-along, ecumenical christian-lite folks?  

I ask you friend - Do you know?

I looked around the net and found this possible explanation:



How “Christian” was C.S. Lewis… and Why is He an Evangelical Hero?

by Mike Duran ·


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His books have influenced more Christians than possibly any other author; his stories are classics, beloved by children and adults alike. There are foundations to his legacy, a movie about him, bumper stickers that quote him and his caricature can be found on t-shirts and coffee mugs. C.S. Lewis is the poster boy for “Christian thinkers,” inspiration for vast numbers of Christian authors, an icon in the already crowded pantheon of religious heroes.

But does he deserve the acclaim? Not only do some question the uncritical embrace of Lewis by American evangelicals, they question his Christian faith.

Christianity Today columnist Bob Smietana, in an article entitled, C.S. Lewis Superstar, sums up the essence of the “Lewis resistance” :

Clive Staples Lewis was anything but a classic evangelical, socially or theologically. He smoked cigarettes and a pipe, and he regularly visited pubs to drink beer with friends. Though he shared basic Christian beliefs with evangelicals, he didn’t subscribe to biblical inerrancy or penal substitution. He believed in purgatory and baptismal regeneration. How did someone with such a checkered pedigree come to be a theological Elvis Presley, adored by evangelicals?

Somehow, Lewis’ “checkered pedigree” has become of little concern to the average evangelical admirer. Nevertheless, some have described his Christianity as a “myth” and John Robbins goes so far as to ask, Did C.S. Lewis Go to Heaven? In his essay, Robbins concludes, “So we ask again: Did C. S. Lewis go to Heaven? And our answer must be: Not if he believed what he wrote in his books and letters.”

For instance:
He believed in purgatory. In Letters to Malcolm, he wrote “I believe in Purgatory. The right view returns magnificently in Newman’s Dream. There if I remember rightly, the saved soul, at the very foot of the throne, begs to be taken away and cleansed. It cannot bear for a moment longer with its darkness to affront that light. Our souls demand Purgatory, don’t they?” (pp. 110-111)
He believed in evolution.
He was unusually tolerant of mythology and paganism. On a visit to Greece with his wife in 1960, Lewis made the following unusual statement: “I had some ado to prevent Joy (and myself) from lapsing into paganism in Attica! AT DAPHNI IT WAS HARD NOT TO PRAY TO APOLLO THE HEALER. BUT SOMEHOW ONE DIDN’T FEEL IT WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY WRONG–WOULD HAVE ONLY BEEN ADDRESSING CHRIST SUB SPECIE APOLLONIUS” (C.S. Lewis to Chad Walsh, May 23, 1960, cited from George Sayer, Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis, 1994, p. 378).
He believed in prayers for the dead. In Letters to Malcolm, he wrote, “Of course I pray for the dead. The action is so spontaneous, so all but inevitable, that only the most compulsive theological case against it would deter men. And I hardly know how the rest of my prayers would survive if those for the dead were forbidden” (p. 109).
He believed in a type of “soft universalism.” “[H]ere are people who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted by Him that they are His in a much deeper sense than they themselves understand. There are people in other religions who are being led by God’s secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity, and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it. For example, a Buddhist of good will may be led to concentrate more and more on the Buddhist teaching about mercy and to leave in the background (though he might still say he believed) the Buddhist teaching on certain other points. Many of the good Pagans long before Christ’s birth may have been in this position” (Mere Christianity pp 176-177).

Perhaps these are why renowned Welsh preacher D. Martin Lloyd-Jones warned that C.S. Lewis had a defective view of salvation and was an opponent of the substitutionary and penal view of the atonement (Christianity Today, Dec. 20, 1963). And in a letter to the editor of Christianity Today, Feb. 28, 1964, Dr. W. Wesley Shrader, First Baptist Church, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, warned that “C.S. Lewis … would never embrace the (literal-infallible) view of the Bible” (F.B.F. News Bulletin, Fundamental Baptist Fellowship, March 4, 1984).






Andrew Greeley in an article entitled, Narnia: Not Just for Evangelicals writes,


C.S. Lewis was not a Christian in the sense of the word that “evangelicals” insist upon. He was an Anglican who sometimes skirted, in his writings at any rate, dangerously close to the thin ice of Catholicism. Indeed, many in my generation of Catholics simply assumed he was one of us. But even as an Anglican he would certainly fall out of the realm of the “saved” when the Rapture blasts all of us who do not believe in word-for-word inerrancy into oblivion.

Despite all this, C.S. Lewis is still considered one of the greatest Christian theologians, thinkers and authors of all time. But why? Of course, disbelieving in the innerancy of Scripture is far more serious than smoking tobacco and swilling suds. But nowadays a Christian author / thinker who smoked cigarettes, drank beer, believed in evolution, felt compelled to pray to Apollo, and rejected biblical innerancy would have about as much chance of becoming an evangelical hero as Paris Hilton does of becoming relevant.

So, given the facts, how “Christian” was C.S. Lewis. . . and why is he an evangelical hero?


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Oh I Want To Know You More - Cadet Sisters




Cadet Sisters - Oh I Want To Know You More



 SafeTV


Uploaded on Aug 29, 2007


The Cadet Sisters - Nathalie, Tatiana, Nadege, Michaelle and Melissa (with young Gianna, in training) graced our Purely Music program with song and testimony. This clip features their performance of "Oh I Want To Know You More"

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French Laborers: ‘We Want to Work Sundays!’









French demonstrators hold posters in support of working and opening shops on Sundays during a protest in Paris.   (Thomas Samson/AFP/Getty Images)

October 3, 2013 • From theTrumpet.com

Will the ancient force behind Europe’s restrictions on Sunday commerce give in to the pleas?

By Jeremiah Jacques


Related articles
The Pope Trumpets Sunday

Related literature
Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath?

Related subjects
Religion
Roman Catholicism
Europe
Vatican



French citizens held demonstrations at locations around Paris over the weekend to protest a court ruling that forced two retailers to close 15 locations every Sunday. The ruling has reignited a longstanding debate about a century-old French law that enforces Sunday rest for many businesses.

On one side of the argument are entrepreneurs like Claude Bourrelier, ceo of home improvement chain Bricorama, who argue that France’s stagnant consumer spending makes the law increasingly ridiculous. “I am a retailer. If my clients want to come on Sundays I have a duty to open,” he said, adding that the law costs his company as much as 20 percent of annual profits.

Alongside the entrepreneurs are a growing number of France’s workers, as well as the unemployed. The workers, struggling with rising taxes and pinched pocketbooks, are increasingly eager to work on Sundays in order to make ends meet. The unemployed—now 10.9 percent, or 3 million people—argue that the laws prevent thousands of sorely needed jobs from being created.

Protests like the ones staged over the weekend are not uncommon in Paris and other parts of France, and a recent survey showed that an unprecedented 63 percent of French people are now in favor of allowing shops to operate Sundays.

But on the other side of the debate is an ancient force unlikely to be swayed by public opinion and protests: the Roman Catholic Church.

Sunday is the day of the Lord, but also a day for family time,” Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois said in chastisement of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2008 move to loosen the laws restricting Sunday commerce. “Is earning more money the main purpose of human existence?” the cardinal asked.

Despite a shift toward secularism and an influx of Muslim immigrants, the influence of the Catholic Church remains vigorous, not just in France, but all of Europe. And mandating Sunday rest throughout Europe is among the Church’s primary goals.

The broad scope of this goal is perhaps most evident in the Brussels-based European Sunday Alliance, a network of dozens of religious and nonreligious organizations from 27 European nations whose purpose, according to its website, is to “raise awareness of the unique value of synchronized free time for our European societies.” Of course, at the helm of these crusaders for Sunday rest is the Roman Catholic Church.

Coming up this January, the European Sunday Alliance will meet with politicians from all around the EU for the 2nd European Conference on the Protection of a Work-Free Sunday. According to the conference’s published agenda, its purpose is to “highlight that a work-free Sunday and a better synchronization of social rhythm with working hours, with less irregular and unsocial working hours, are of paramount importance for citizens throughout Europe.”

Why does this Sunday alliance exist and work so arduously to influence Europe’s labor laws? Why is the Catholic Church so adamant about instituting a continent-wide day of rest? And why must it be Sunday instead of another day of the week?

It is because it was the Catholic Church—in intentional violation of biblical teachings—that appointed Sunday as a day of worship. The Vatican is proud of the success it had in this colossal feat, and Sunday rest has become a mark of the Catholic Church’s authority.

This truth is best explained by the Vatican’s own:
“Sunday is a Catholic institution and its claim to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles. … From beginning to end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first” (Catholic Press, August 1900).
“Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act. … And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical authority in religious things” (Letter from the office of Cardinal Gibbons, Nov. 11, 1895).
The Church is above the Bible; and this transference of Sabbath observance from Saturday to Sunday is proof positive of that fact. Deny the authority of the Church and you have no adequate or reasonable explanation or justification for the substitution of Sunday for Saturday in the Third—Protestant Fourth—Commandment of God” (The Catholic Record, Sept. 1, 1923).
“Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the Church ever did, happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday. ‘The Day of the Lord’ [dies domini (or “Sunday”)] was chosen, not from any direction noted in the Scriptures, but from the Church’s sense of its own power. … People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically … keep Saturday holy” (Saint Catherine Catholic Church Sentinel, May 21, 1995).

January’s conference could bring the Vatican-influenced EU closer to declaring Sunday as the official continent-wide day of rest. Any steps in that direction should alarm religious liberty watchers, those concerned about a failure to separate church and state, and anyone familiar with Europe’s violent history.

Back in 2005, when Pope Benedict xvi stressed the importance of Sunday worship for Europe and beyond, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote:

Pope Benedict perceives the secularist moral vacuum that has plagued Europe since the time of the Enlightenment. … But it seems Benedict wants to fill that vacuum—the old Roman way. That way was never sympathetic to the idea of the public voluntarily accepting its tenets. Rather, as even a cursory study of history will reveal, it was imposed by force. … Pope Benedict is committed to reinstating the active observance of the Roman Catholic Church’s chief icon: Sunday. He knows that to popularize religion in Europe, he has to reintroduce a means of promoting what marketers call brand loyalty. The most historic brand the pope can offer to bond the people together is the ancient day of worship, fashionable since Babylon, the old day of the sun—Sunday. Hence his promotion of that old Roman brand in his recent addresses. … If we understand how the church has enforced this day in its past history, we should be very alarmed.

Benedict is no longer the Church’s frontrunner, but his successor and other Catholic officials remain committed to the same ambitions that drove him. To learn the details of how the Catholic Church has enforced Sunday at different epochs over the centuries, and what to expect regarding Sunday rest in Europe’s future, read Mr. Flurry’s article “The Pope Trumpets Sunday,” and our booklet Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath?


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