Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Grassy Knolls - Conspiracy Thinking in American History

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President John F. Kennedy greets the crowd in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963, shortly before his assassination (Library of Congress).




Published: November 22, 2013

On November 22nd, 1963, 50 years ago, President John F. Kennedy was killed while riding in a motorcade in Dallas – a tragedy that inspired conspiracy theories that persist to this day. Why have alternative assassination theories proven so resilient over the years? And why do other conspiracy theories persist in public memory? This episode takes a look at conspiracy thinking throughout American history, and finds a long tradition stretching all the way back to the Founding.

From a political party formed to combat the secretive power of Freemasons, to whispers of a “slave power” conspiracy in the 19th Century, to an outcry over a criminal network fostering “white slavery” in the early 20th Century, and, of course, an abundance of Communist conspiracies during the Cold War – the Guys and their guests discover that while conspiracy theorists might sometimes be on the fringes of American society, conspiracy thinking has always been mainstream.


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A Foray Into The Blood-Soaked 'Cultura' Of Mexico's Cartels




by
November 21, 2013 5:00 PM




In Narco Cultura, director and photojournalist Shaul Schwarz interrogates the collision of pop culture and Mexico's drug cartels — as personified by bands like Los Bukanas de Culiacan (above), who perform narcocorridos, or songs glorifying the drug trade. Shaul Schwarz/Cinedigm




Narco Cultura

Director: Shaul Schwarz
Genre: Documentary
Running Time: 103 minutes

Rated R for grisly graphic images of disturbing violent content, drug material, language and brief nudity.

In Spanish and English.


Following police through Mexico's Ciudad Juárez — reputedly the world's homicide capital — the Israeli filmmaker Shaul Schwarz finds mutilated corpses and gutters running with blood. But the resulting documentary, Narco Cultura, is not nearly so vivid as its most gruesome footage.

One reason for this is Schwarz's attempt at ironic juxtaposition: His principal characters are Richi Soto, a Juarez crime-scene investigator; and Edgar Quintero, an LA singer-songwriter. The latter performs narcocorridos, or ballads that extol drug lords and their murderous thugs as heroic outlaws. The idea may be shocking, but the songs are pretty dull.

As stage props, Quintero and other narcocorrido singers employ bazookas and machine guns — but their music is traditional norteño, a blend of Mexican folk and Germanic polka performed with guitar, accordion and the occasional tuba. It sounds about as ominous as something from a Lawrence Welk Show rerun, even if the lyrics do celebrate sociopaths.

"I think we can be the next hip-hop," boasts a narcocorrido impresario, who's surely kidding himself.

Schwarz talks briefly with journalist Sandra Rodriguez and includes clips from Anderson Cooper's 60 Minutes coverage of Mexico's killing fields. A few statistics encapsulate the horror: In just six years, Juárez's annual murders rose more than tenfold, from 320 in 2006 to 3,622 in 2012.

To flesh out these grim numbers, the director relies heavily on Soto and Quintero. Neither of them proves especially thoughtful.

The cop can't really explain why he stays at his job as his colleagues are picked off by the drug cartel that's invaded Juárez. (Like many lawmen in Mexico, he routinely wears masks in public, so he won't be identified and targeted.)

Even in a conversation with his mother, who wants him to relocate to the safety of nearby El Paso, Soto can't rationalize the risks he's taking.

The singer shows even less self-awareness. From the relative safety of Los Angeles, he fantasizes about traveling to the cartel's hometown, where he'd meet some of the killers he glorifies. The father of two young children, Quintero eventually makes his pilgrimage, over his wife's perfectly sensible objections.

The movie shows narcocorrido concerts that attract fervent singalong crowds, and not just in cities along the border. (Seattle and Atlanta are also on the circuit.) It also introduces promoters and producers who brag about such successes as getting their product into Wal-Mart, whose executives reportedly resisted carrying narcocorrido CDs — until they discovered just how well they'd move.

Mostly, however, the narrative circles back to Soto and Quintero, even though the recurring visits never further illuminate their characters or circumstances. Set to Jeremy Turner's spare and mournful score, Narco Cultura is ultimately more pensive than lurid.

A veteran war photographer, the director shot the movie himself, and he doesn't flinch from the carnage. He depicts singed and dismembered bodies and vehicles laced with bullet holes, often emphasizing the crispness of the highlighted subject with an exceedingly narrow focal plane.

The two most powerful images, however, are landscapes. In the movie's opening scene, a camera positioned on the border shows a verdant USA and a desiccated Mexico. Later, Schwarz turns his camera to plots full of baroque structures, each one testifying to narco riches. They're not McMansions, though — they're mausoleums.

As a picture of a culture besotted with gold and death, that vignette is more chilling than a hundred bloody cadavers.


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The country where exorcisms are on the rise


25 November 2013 Last updated at 19:10 ET

By Vladimir Hernandez BBC Mundo



Does God exist? Does the Devil exist? The Catholic church believes they both do - and some priests say they are currently having an immense battle in Mexico.



In today's Magazine
The story behind The Tiger Who Came To Tea
Why is the Bay Psalm Book valued at £18m?
The village where time has stood still
Rebuilding after 9/11



To some it may seem extraordinary, but priests say the country is under attack by Satan, and that more exorcists are needed to fight him.

This attack, they say, is showing itself in the gruesome drug-related violence, including human sacrifice, that has engulfed the country since 2006.

According to the latest official figures available, at least 70,000 people have died in this period, including gunmen, members of the security forces, and many innocent civilians.

But, the priests say, it's not just the numbers. The savagery also stands out.

In recent years it has not been uncommon in many parts of Mexico for children to find dismembered bodies on the streets on their way to school. Or for commuters on busy roads to drive past bridges with severely tortured corpses hanging from them. Scenes from hell.



A mass exorcism at a church in Veracruz in Mexico



"We believe that behind all these big and structural evils there is a dark agent and his name is The Demon. That is why the Lord wants to have here a ministry of exorcism and liberation, for the fight against the Devil," says Father Carlos Triana, a priest, and an exorcist, in Mexico City.

"As much as we believe that the Devil was behind Adolf Hitler, possessing and directing him, we also believe that he (the Devil) is here behind the drug cartels."

Mexico's exorcists say there is unprecedented demand for their services.

Some are even not taking new cases, as they are having to exorcise demons almost every day.


Vatican view on Saint Death
Earlier this year, a senior Vatican official condemned the cult of Santa Muerte
"It's not religion just because it's dressed up like religion; it's a blasphemy against religion," said Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture

Vatican denounces Mexico 'saint'

"This didn't happen before", says Father Francisco Bautista, another exorcist in Mexico City.

Most of the cases, he explains, require a lesser form of exorcism, called liberation prayers - effective when a person still controls part of his or her mind and body.

Only rarely does the Devil possess someone completely, he says, but when that happens, the bishop of the diocese must intervene.

In Bautista's view, the rising demand for exorcism is partly explained by the large numbers of Mexicans joining the cult of Saint Death, or Santa Muerte.

It is estimated that the cult, whose followers worship a skull in a wedding dress carrying a scythe, has some eight million followers in Mexico - and more among Mexican migrants in Central America, the US and Canada.

"It has also been adopted by the drug traffickers who ask her for help to avoid arrest and to make money," Bautista says. "In exchange they offer human sacrifices. And this has increased the violence in Mexico."

Another reason for the surge in exorcisms, he argues, is the decriminalisation of abortions in Mexico City, in 2007. Both the cult and abortion have given evil spirits a foothold in the country, he insists.

"Both things are closely related. There is an infestation of demons in Mexico because we have opened our doors to Death."




If it is surprising how many Mexicans believe in Saint Death, it may also be surprising how many believe, like Father Triana and Father Bautista, that the Devil and demons are at work in the country.




Mexico's war on drugs 

Drug traffic from Mexico to US worth estimated $13bn annually
Two main players in recent years have been Sinaloa (or Pacific) cartel and Zetas
Estimated 60,000 people killed in drug-related violence since late 2006
Q&A: Mexico's drug-related violence
 

Exorcism is an ancient practice and one that appears in many different religions, but many believers doubt the existence of demons.

A frontline of sorts for Mexico's exorcists is the northern region of the country where, for the last seven years, the Mexican military has been waging war against the heavily armed and cash-rich drug cartels.

In parallel with the soldiers, priests have been waging a spiritual conflict. One is Father Ernesto Caro, based in Monterrey, a city blighted by frequent shootouts and kidnappings.

He has exorcised several members of the drug cartels - and there is one case he cannot forget. It was a gang hitman, who confessed to horrific crimes. Father Caro said the man had been in charge of cutting the bodies into pieces and he said he enjoyed hearing them cry as he did so. Others he burned alive.

The priest says the man had committed his life to the service of Saint Death.

"The cult is the first step into Satanism and then into this band of people [the drug traffickers], that's why he was chosen for that job."



"Santa Muerte is being used by all our drug dealers and those linked to these brutal murders. We've found that most of them, if not all, follow Santa Muerte," he adds.

The cult is also followed by criminals, policemen, politicians and artists.

"The biggest presence is in the poorest sectors of Mexican society," says journalist Jose Gil Olmos, who has published two books on Saint Death.

The first references to Saint Death occur in the 18th Century, he says, not in Aztec times, as many believe.

"In modern times the numbers of followers exploded, especially after the early 1990s economic meltdown."

Many middle-class Mexicans found themselves in misery. In despair they searched for hope, and some turned to Saint Death, Olmos says.

"From approximately eight years ago we have seen Santa Muerte having a big presence with drug cartel members, from the bosses all the way down. Why? Because these people say that Jesus or the Virgin Mary can't provide what they ask for, which is to be protected from soldiers, police and their enemies."



I went to see what this cult was all about at its biggest annual ceremony in the neighbourhood of Tepito, in Mexico City, a place riddled with drug trafficking and crime.

It's here that one of the biggest sanctuaries of Saint Death in Mexico is located. It's kept tidy by Enriqueta Romero, a woman in her sixties, whose life changed dramatically 12 years ago when she shocked her neighbours by putting a Saint Death figure in her window.

Over the years, more and more people started arriving to pay tribute to the skull figure in a dress. And now thousands gather for the cult's most important ceremony on 31 October, the eve of Mexico's Day of the Dead festival.

"She loves us and heals us. People come here to ask her for help - a son in prison or with Aids, or something to eat," says Romero.

During my visit, some people reach the shrine walking on their knees. One of them is a man who carries a 20-day-old baby in his arms. He's come to present his daughter to the skull.




I also see ordinary working-class families, pregnant women asking Death to protect the life of their unborn child, and plenty of people heavily tattooed with the female skull.

Are these people possessed, as the church says?

"No, I also believe in God, in the Virgin, and all the saints, but I am more devout to [Saint] Death. She is the one that helps me the most," says Jose Roberto Jaimes, a man in his 20s who's come on his knees to thank the skull after surviving three years in jail.

I get similar answers from all of the cult followers I talk to.



More from the Magazine




A film of a woman being beheaded in Mexico caused an international outcry in October when Facebook refused to remove it from its site. There have been hundreds of reports about the video - but why has no-one identified the victim in it? 



Facebook beheading video: Who was Mexico's Jane Doe? (4 November)

Romero says the church itself bears responsibility for the rise of the cult, having shot itself in the foot with the worldwide child abuse scandal.

"They finished off our faith with the things that the priests did. What can they criticise? That we believe in Death? That is not bad. What's bad is what they did," says Romero.

But does she feel comfortable knowing that people behind horrific crimes also follow this cult?

"We are in a free country and everyone can do what they want. We all will have to answer to God at some point," she says.

It was former President Felipe Calderon who launched the offensive against drug cartels in Mexico in 2006, by deploying troops to the worst-hit areas.

Over the years the military has discovered numerous shrines, temples and even churches of Saint Death across the region, and plenty of evidence of human sacrifice.

"He [Calderon] started a war against them and he started a war as well against the cult of Saint Death, and he asked the church to help him," says Father Ernesto Caro.

"The Church is not going to go on TV and say: 'Look, we think that Mexico is going to get better and be saved if we do exorcisms because the Devil is behind all of this.' We have to be discreet [with exorcisms] or else we may be ridiculed, even by our own followers," adds Father Carlos Triana.

Whether exorcisms can help reduce the drug-related violence in Mexico - especially the sadistic killings - is debatable. Although at this point, many in Mexico would probably welcome any help if it brings them some peace.

You can hear and see more about this topic in Crossing Continents, BBC Radio 4 on 28 November 2013 at 11:00 GMT, and Our World, on BBC News Channel or BBC World on the weekend 30 November/1 December 2013, or catch up later on BBC iPlayer.


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Newman's Own Foundation Mission




Our Mission

“I want to acknowledge luck. The benevolence of it in my life and the brutality of it in the lives of others.”
- Paul Newman

Newman’s Own Foundation uses the power of giving to help transform lives and nourish the common good.

Our Values
Common Purpose We treasure the virtuous circle of Newman’s Own.
Freedom to Dream We are a creative and inclusive idea factory that can respond and adapt quickly.
Trust & Respect We trust and respect our colleagues.
Quality We execute with excellence and the highest level of transparency, ethics, and integrity.
Serious Fun We take our work seriously but not ourselves.


What We Support

 

Newman's Own Foundation supports a wide variety of organizations across the world.


Learn more

 
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From Discrimination to Dignity: Standing with Women, Girls and LGBT People Worldwide




Please join American Jewish World Service President
Ruth Messinger

For a lecture, brunch and dialogue:
From Discrimination to Dignity
Standing with women, girls and LGBT people worldwide

In many societies, women, girls and LGBT people are second-class citizens, facing rampant violence and violations of their human rights. Join us for this special event to learn how people of all faiths can stand together with women, girls and LGBT people worldwide. Hear Ruth Messinger speak at the Rector’s Forum at All Saints Church, followed by a unique opportunity to talk with Claudia Samayoa, a Guatemalan human rights activist and AJWS grantee.

$18 per person for brunch. Space is limited, so make your reservation today!

Immediately followed by:
Private Brunch and activist discussion with Ruth Messinger and Claudia Samayoa at McCormick & Schmick’s next door

December 8, 2013
10:15 a.m.
Rector’s Forum, All Saints Episcopal Church
132 N. Euclid Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91101

Map this location

For more information, please contact LAevents@ajws.org or 310.843.9588.



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Monday, November 25, 2013

The Nuclear Paradox (Update)

The Nuclear Paradox 
Synchronicity?

Iran's Nuclear Agreement

Under the guidance of Secretary of State (Globalism) John Kerry (previous U.S. Presidential Candidate, also cousin of Pres. George W. Bush and fellow Skull and Bones member). ..

Over the weekend we have found out that the U.S. has reached an agreement with Iran over its Nuclear ambitions;  The U.S. and the P5 +1 (6 world powers) aka the U.N. Security Council plus Germany, have reached a temporary 6 months agreement with Iran.  Iran agrees to halt or suspend its Nuclear enrichment program as it ultimate leads to Nuclear Weapons proliferation which the aforementioned nations do not want...

The United States and the P5 +1 will temporarily relax the sanctions that have been imposed on Iran beginning in 1979...


The Nuclear Option (at the American Loya Jirga)

Just a few days before this Nuclear phenomenon, last week the U. S. Senate under the leadership of Senator (D) Harry Reid of Nevada, gutted the procedure called a Filibuster, under which the minority party can stall judicial and cabinet nominations by the sitting president.   They call it the Nuclear Option...



'Nuclear option' in Senate makes president more powerful

Washington Post-by Chris Cillizza-19 hours ago
When Senate Democrats invoked the “nuclear option” last week, they immediately did one thing: made this president — and future ones ...

Wow, two Nuclear Events in one week?  
You know... They are really playing when they run out of names to call things...

Regarding the second issueWhat an amazing choice of words?


Arsenio.


(Update) 11/26/13;  Minimal changes to better convey the point. 

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What China Is LearNing From the U.S. Military



Defense

They're realizing that disaster relief and humanitarian aid are among of the most effective tools in the national security toolbox.



(Elizabeth Dalziel - Pool/Getty Images)


By Stephanie Gaskell, Defense One
November 20, 2013


As Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines on Nov. 2, about 60 soldiers from the Chinese military were in Hawaii taking part in a joint military exercise with the United States and several other nations to better coordinate relief efforts in the event of a typhoon in the region.

The military exercise was timely, if not ironic
, but it also underscores China's growing willingness to work with its neighbors, even if they're not allies.

After first offering just $100,000 in aid, China has now pledged $1.4 million after a recent editorial in China's Global Times criticized the government for not doing more for the Philippines, which lies right across the contested South China Sea. "China, as a responsible power, should participate in relief operations to assist a disaster-stricken neighboring country, no matter whether it's friendly or not. China's international image is of vital importance to its interests. If it snubs Manila this time, China will suffer great losses," the editorial said.

China is learning what U.S. military leaders have known for some time, which is that disaster relief and humanitarian aid are among of the most effective tools in the national security toolbox. It's also central to the Pentagon's post-war rebalance to the Asia-Pacific.

"The key pillars of our defense strategic guidance is to -- not just in the Asia Pacific region, but elsewhere -- build partner capacity. One of the linchpins of that guidance is to continue to invest in our allies and partnerships, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, where we have had bases open and closed over the years," said Pentagon Press Secretary George Little last week. "The goal is not to have new permanent bases for the U.S. military, but it's to enable rotational presences so that we can work together with allies and partners in the region to address problems like humanitarian assistance and disaster relief."

During a speech this weekend in California, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said disaster relief helps build these partnerships -- but it also provides priceless PR for the U.S. military. "When America responds to these kinds of human tragedies the way we are, the world sees the best of who we are," he said.

The joint exercise in Hawaii wasn't the first the Chinese participated in, but it was the first coordinated field exercise and is part of China's growing participation in maritime exercises in the region, including anti-piracy operations. It's exactly the kind of openness senior U.S. leaders have hoped for from the People's Liberation Army. As the U.S. looks for ways to connect with the PLA, some planners have suggested the Pentagon -- the Army in particular -- should do whatever it can to get China to participate in humanitarian exercises like disaster relief operations and civilian evacuations. The thinking goes that those types of operations are far more likely to occur in the years to come than any American land invasion of the Chinese mainland, and therefore that's what the U.S. Army should be training to do.

"What the American and Chinese militaries have tried to do, and we've been making more headway over this over the last year or two is to define domains in which both countries see an opportunity to cooperate without infringing on either country's perceptions of their sovereignty," said Jonathan Pollack, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings Institute.

The United States responded significantly after the 2004 tsunami, and even offered aid to Burma, which refused to let U.S. Navy ships dock there to deliver medicine and supplies. "We recognize obviously that it's a huge benefit [to] perceptions of the United States, so you could say we're doing well by doing good, in some sense," Pollack said.

As China steps up its aid to the Philippines, it seems its government is mindful of perceptions as well.


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The sins of Babylon will be laid open.



In every generation God has sent His servants to rebuke sin, both in the world and in the church. But the people desire smooth things spoken to them, and the pure, unvarnished truth is not acceptable. Many reformers, in entering upon their work, determined to exercise great prudence in attacking the sins of the church and the nation. They hoped, by the example of a pure Christian life, to lead the people back to the doctrines of the Bible. But the Spirit of God came upon them as it came upon Elijah, moving him to rebuke the sins of a wicked king and an apostate people; they could not refrain from preaching the plain utterances of the Bible-- doctrines which they had been reluctant to present. They were impelled to zealously declare the truth and the danger which threatened souls. The words which the Lord gave them they uttered, fearless of consequences, and the people were compelled to hear the warning.

Thus the message of the third angel will be proclaimed. As the time comes for it to be given with greatest power, the Lord will work through humble instruments, leading the minds of those who consecrate themselves to His service. The laborers will be qualified rather by the unction of His Spirit than by the training of literary institutions. Men of faith and prayer will be constrained to go forth with holy zeal, declaring the words which God gives them. The sins of Babylon will be laid open. The fearful results of enforcing the observances of the church by civil authority, the inroads of spiritualism, the stealthy but rapid progress of the papal power--all will be unmasked. By these solemn warnings the people will be stirred. Thousands upon thousands will listen who have never heard words like these. In amazement they hear the testimony that Babylon is the church, fallen because of her errors and sins, because of her rejection of the truth sent to her from heaven. As the people go to their former teachers with the eager inquiry, Are these things so? the ministers present fables, prophesy smooth things, to soothe their fears and quiet the awakened conscience. But since many refuse to be satisfied with the mere authority of men and demand a plain "Thus saith the Lord," the popular ministry, like the Pharisees of old, filled with anger as their authority is questioned, will denounce the message as of Satan and stir up the sin-loving multitudes to revile and persecute those who proclaim it.


The Great Controversy (Between Christ and Satan), pp.606,607.
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To Beast or Not to Beast


Photo (Courtesy)
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THAT IS A FASCINATING QUESTION 




BY SHANE ANDERSON

Recently, while traveling on business, I had occasion to meet with a group of about 50 Adventists. Those gathered were well educated, with many of them coming from families of long experience in the church. As our discussion progressed, someone raised the topic of how the church publicly presents Bible prophecy.

Some in the group knew that I had recently finished preaching a three-part sermon series (back in my home church) on portions of the book of Revelation. And while few had heard the series themselves, some who had were clearly agitated about it. “I noticed that you mentioned Catholicism by name in one of your sermons,” one man said. “That really made me uncomfortable!” His discomfort, he explained, came in large part from the extreme contrast between how he was raised to view Catholicism and his subsequent experience with Catholics as an adult. With obvious passion and genuine concern, he detailed how he had been taught as a child that Catholics hated Protestants like him; that Catholic churches had (and I’m not making this up) jail cells in their basements in which to hold captured Protestants; and yes, that the Catholic Church was “the beast” of Bible prophecy.

But later in life it came as a great surprise to this man (and undoubtedly to many other Adventists before and since) to discover that many Catholics are genuinely nice people. In fact, he currently employed a number of them in his privately owned business precisely because he found them to be such kind people. Catholics, he said, are courteous, hardworking, and honest—in short, completely different from the stereotype he’d been taught as a child. “So why,” he said, concluding his argument, “would we squander that kind of goodwill with Catholics by preaching against them and calling them ‘the beast’?”



My guess is that this man’s experience is not unique, or even rare. There are probably many others who have similarly squeamish feelings regarding the traditional Adventist understanding of prophecy in general, and Roman Catholicism in particular. And for this sincere group there are dozens of topics they’d rather have their church declare publicly than Bible prophecy! Wisdom—and perhaps just sheer good taste—would seem to dictate that we stick with seemingly less-controversial topics (Christ’s death and resurrection, heaven, etc.), while steering clear of things that might cause unnecessary divisions among those we live, work, and play with.

I can certainly relate to such sentiment. I too have been uncomfortable with the abrasive and ham-fisted prophecy presentations I’ve sometimes sat through, ones in which the presenter seemed to care more about causing shock and awe than they did about reaching people for Christ. And consequently, I firmly believe that in some contexts, prophecy is not the all-purpose “entering wedge” we’ve sometimes made it out to be, and instead proves simply to offend people, not save them.

But all that said, is it possible that seeing this issue as a question only of community relations might be oversimplifying what is really a significantly more complex problem?

What Adventism has to say to the world (or, as the case may be, what it doesn’t have to say to it) is more than a question of whether people like us—as important as that is. It also involves the deeper question of identity: Who are we as a church? What is our message and our mission? What is it that God has asked us to be and to do and to say to those in our sphere of influence? Questions like these must always precede (though not preempt) questions of social propriety— and therein lies a fascinating discussion.

Still a Place for Prophecy?

Let me be quick to state what I hope is obvious: It is hardly the primary mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to identify the Catholic Church as the antichrist/beast power of Daniel and Revelation (our billboard-posting friends past and present notwithstanding). Our primary mission is, instead, to proclaim the same good news about Jesus that the apostles did, although now in the additional context of the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14.
Our goal in doing so is to make fully devoted followers of Christ (think Matthew 28:18-20) who help others Biblically withstand the final deception (that’s where the three angels of Revelation 14 come in, showing God’s truth and exposing Satan’s counterfeit gospel). And in accomplishing that mission, it may indeed be necessary at times to share some startling and uncomfortable truths with either friends or strangers who have a desire to know more about God’s will for their lives.

“But won’t that just needlessly chase them off?” some will ask. “Can’t we just skip those uncomfortable things until later, or perhaps completely?” To answer these questions, let’s do a little case study on the idea of Catholicism having a major role at the end of time being part of (not all, but part of) the Adventist witness. Yes, there are other “uncomfortable” things that we have taught—the perpetuity of the Ten Commandments, what happens after you die, the health message, etc. But the topic of Catholicism at the end of time might just provide us with a good vantage point from which to view the rest of our witness.

So here goes: Why do it? Why is it necessary to publicly proclaim something so potentially uncomfortable as Catholicism and its role in Bible prophecy? I believe there are at least three reasons:

1 It is truth.


In my experience it is exceedingly rare for Adventists opposed to discussing Catholicism’s end-time role to oppose it on the grounds that it’s untrue. In other words, it’s not that they necessarily believe Catholicism has no role to play at the end of time, but rather that they see it as uncomfortable and awkward to talk about.

But to state the obvious, this does not mean that Catholicism does not play a significant role at the end of time. Traditionally, Adventists have given a prominent role to the Papacy in discussions of Christian history (that is easily justifiable by generally accepted historical fact), as well as a prominent role at the end of time (this is based on proven principles of Biblical interpretation). In other words, discomfort does not equal discredit. Simply because something makes us uncomfortable does not make it untrue—which brings up an important point.

In John 8:32 Jesus makes a profound statement regarding truth. He said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The primary definition of the “truth” in this context is the person of Jesus. But the statement has implications beyond His personhood, at least as personhood is commonly defined. Surely what Jesus is really saying here is that if anything is true, it is true because He is who He is. Christ is thus the foundation of all truth: the truth that water quenches thirst; that E = mc2; that murder is wrong; that Jesus’ death can pay the price for our sins; etc. All these things are true in a very real sense because Jesus is who He is: Creator, sustainer, sovereign king of all! And furthermore, because all truth is rooted in Christ, all truth seen through the person of Christ is liberating—even (and at times, especially) uncomfortable truth. Thus Christ’s statement in John 8 means that knowing and appropriately sharing the truth about Catholicism’s end-time role (or, for that matter, any truth), when done in the love of Christ, is, on some level, a liberating and freeing experience. This brings us to the next point.

2 Knowing the truth about Catholicism’s end-time role


—as well as other prophetic truths—can bring tremendous freedom. A few years ago I was in Rome, Italy. As part of my travels I visited the scala santa, or holy stairs. I will never forget the sight that greeted our tour group that day.

The stairs are reportedly the same ones that Christ walked up as He went to His trial before Pilate, painstakingly transported from Jerusalem hundreds of years ago to their current site in Rome. As we entered the building containing the stairs, about 15 people were silently ascending them on their knees, saying the Our Father (Lord’s Prayer) and confessing their sins on each stair before moving to the next. A plaque on the wall with text in several languages explained these pilgrims’ behavior. It read in part as follows:


“The following indulgences may be received [that is, for ascending the stairs], in accord with the usual conditions: PLENARY INDULGENCE—on all Fridays of Lent, and once more each year on an occasion of one’s choice. PARTIAL INDULGENCE—on all other days of the year, as long as one is sincerely repentant of one’s sins.”

My Protestant bones couldn’t believe it! What year is this, anyway? I thought. How can such a pitiful scene persist in our day? Isn’t this the very thing that Martin Luther and dozens of other Protestant Reformers fought so hard to overthrow 500 years ago, the same righteousness-by-works slavery they risked (and at times, lost) their lives to remove? Moreover, what kind of monstrous picture of “God” is it that requires sinners to evaluate their salvation by the depth of the calluses on their knees? And how outrageous is it that an organization that commands the devotion of more than 1 billion people reduces the gift of God’s Son to a veritable trinket that must be bought by the actions of one’s body (and on occasion, one’s wallet), rather than “mere” repentance and faith in God?1

Upon further reflection, I had to confess there was little reason for my surprise. You see, as the businessman I mentioned earlier alluded to, the world is filled with compassionate and gracious Catholics (some of whom I was undoubtedly watching that day on those stairs). But the core teachings of the church they reside in are, sadly, a different matter. For while Catholicism’s public face has softened since the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965, it has never changed its fundamental teachings on salvation—not for Luther, nor for anyone else before or since. The Catholic Catechism and the councils of the church throughout history are instead unanimous in teaching that salvation comes only through the Catholic Church; that believers can receive that salvation only by participating in the sacraments of the church (the Eucharist,2 in particular); and that those believers who refuse this “grace” via these sacraments will suffer eternal damnation—no exceptions.3

Is it any wonder that Jesus’ words “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32) have utterly transformed the lives of thousands of Catholics who are now hearty and happy Seventh-day Adventists?

Let it be crystal clear: It is true that some people—be they nonbelievers, Protestants, or, of course, Catholics—are offended by what the Bible teaches about the end-time papal role.4 But that offense pales in comparison to the extreme relief that comes to so many Catholics when they realize for the first time that Jesus died for them personally; that they can go directly to Him without a human intermediary; that they don’t have to earn the love of the Father! And seeing the joy on the face of a prisoner set free ought to give pause to the critic who declares Bible prophecy to be too offensive and embarrassing for public consumption.

3 Jesus is coming.

September 2011 marked the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks. Few Americans will ever forget that day—where they were when they first heard the news, the images of the planes striking the towers, the mounting sense of horror and uncertainty. The unthinkable had become reality, and whatever sense of immunity we may have felt to terrorism unraveled into a billion pieces as the World Trade Center cascaded into the streets of lower Manhattan.

But as tragic as the events of that day were, my sense is that something that may prove even more deadly has come about in the 10 years since: Many Adventists have lost their sense of the nearness of Christ’s coming—and with it, their appetite for Bible prophecy.

That sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it—losing confidence in prophecy even as end-time-like events are happening? But nonetheless, as I travel in North America in ministry-related settings, it seems that an increasing swath of Adventism since September 11 is losing its prophetic focus rather than sharpening it. More and more Adventists see prophecy as antagonistic rather than liberating. And yes, some have suppressed public prophecy presentations in part on the grounds that people have enough fear in their post-September 11 lives already. Why burden them with more by studying scary prophetic beasts?

There are many answers that could be given to that question. But for our purposes here, one final response stands out: Being prepared for the end of time and Jesus’ return is far better than not being prepared.

Jesus is still coming back whether we are calm or September 11-nervous! And the only way to be ready for Jesus to come—and to thus delete that nervousness—is to know Jesus, personally and daily. He is our salvation, not Bible prophecy or anything else. And Jesus went through a great deal of effort to provide reams of prophetic insight (e.g., the books of Daniel and Revelation, the writings of Ellen White, etc.) precisely so that people might make that decision to choose Him as their Lord and Savior. In other words, prophecy matters! It matters greatly to God, and it therefore ought to be of everlasting importance to all Christians everywhere! Jesus inspired prophecy to be written, knowing that that prophetic message would provide a quantum leap in helping people be ready for His return.

Furthermore, in the heart of that message—that is, the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14, the very message that God has tasked Adventism with sharing with the world—is a warning against counterfeits. So strong is the warning that nothing else in Scripture exceeds its intensity. And in spite of what conservative talk radio may have us believe, the warning is not against making bad financial investments or high unemployment rates or having a weak national defense. It is, instead, a warning against worshipping an end-time beast and receiving his mark—a discussion that is extremely difficult to have without mention of Catholicism and its role at the end of time.

When preparing people for the end of time, Adventists must present Jesus clearly. That is the heart of our mission. And many, many people won’t see Jesus clearly or be ready for His soon return unless the truth about counterfeit forms of salvation and other real issues of the end-time are presented in detail—including, when necessary, details about Catholicism.

A Gift Like No Other

I can readily sympathize with that Adventist businessman and others who get nervous about our prophetic message. At times I still get nervous when I present it, for it remains a difficult topic to convey appropriately. I know that some people, no matter how much I love them and treat them with respect, may be offended by that message. But I keep doing it—carefully, tactfully, yes, but still doing it—because Christ has asked us to, and it has proved so liberating to so many people.

We do live in a post-September 11 world that is more tenuous than ever. But that also means that Jesus is more relevant than ever. “To beast or not to beast?” should thus no longer be a question we approach with irritation or distrust. Instead, let us be tactful, let us be kind, let us be loving—and let us faithfully present Christ with all the prophetic clarity we can muster.

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1 Some may point out that the phrase “as long as one is truly repentant of one’s sins” shows that the Catholic Church believes in biblical grace. This would be true but for one stubborn fact: God’s grace in the Catholic understanding is given only after you’ve walked the stairs (or performed some other meritorious action)—not before. This is consistent with the Catholic definition of grace: the unmerited favor of God mediated to the believer through the sacraments of the church. No sacraments, therefore, equals no saving grace—regardless of the sincerity of one’s repentance.

2 The Eucharist is vaguely similar to what Adventists call Communion, or the Lord’s Supper.

3 Some commentators insist that Vatican II fundamentally changed the “exclusivist” view of salvation that Catholicism had held for centuries before. But there are some very well respected theologians who emphatically disagree that any such change occurred—among them Pope Benedict XVI, the current pope. Benedict has made it abundantly clear that Vatican II did not make any changes to the historic Catholic doctrine concerning salvation. See William Cardinal Levada’s “Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church,” Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Vatican, June 29, 2007, at: www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070629_responsa-quaestiones_en.html#_ftnref3. Pope Benedict fully ratified Levada’s document (see the closing paragraphs of the above link), and made very similar statements himself in the document Dominus Iesus (www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000806_dominus-iesus_en.html), when he previously held Cardinal Levada’s post in the year 2000.

4 However, though it is by no means official dogma of the church, a sizable and growing segment of Catholicism now believes that the end-time antichrist will arise from within the Catholic Church (they say it will be a pope, while Adventism would say it is not a person, but a system of religious belief coupled with political power). Without going into their rationale for this conclusion, suffice it to say that for many Catholics today, Adventist prophetic interpretation is a very welcome elucidating force.

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Shane Anderson is senior pastor of the New Market Seventh-day Adventist Church in Virginia. This article was published July 19, 2012.
 

Source: Copyright © 2013, Adventist Review. All rights reserved worldwide.


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With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible



17 And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?

18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
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 19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. 

20 And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.

21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

23 And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!

24 And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!

25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

26 And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?

27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. 

28 Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.

29 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,

30 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.

31 But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.

Mark 10:17-31
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Friday, November 22, 2013

Reid, Democrats trigger ‘nuclear’ option; eliminate most filibusters on nominees




Video: It's more than just a rule change: The so-called "nuclear option" will fundamentally alter the way the Senate operates - for good.




By Paul Kane, Published: November 21

Senate Democrats took the dramatic step Thursday of eliminating filibusters for most nominations by presidents, a power play they said was necessary to fix a broken system but one that Republicans said will only rupture it further.

Democrats used a rare parliamentary move to change the rules so that federal judicial nominees and executive-office appointments can advance to confirmation votes by a simple majority of senators, rather than the 60-vote supermajority that has been the standard for nearly four decades.




The immediate rationale for the move was to allow the confirmation of three picks by President Obama to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — the most recent examples of what Democrats have long considered unreasonably partisan obstruction by Republicans.

In the long term, the rule change represents a substantial power shift in a chamber that for more than two centuries has prided itself on affording more rights to the minority party than any other legislative body in the world. Now, a president whose party holds the majority in the Senate is virtually assured of having his nominees approved, with far less opportunity for political obstruction.

The main combatants Thursday were the chamber’s two chiefs, Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who have clashed for several years over Republican filibusters of Obama’s agenda and nominees.

Reid said the chamber “must evolve” beyond parliamentary roadblocks. “The American people believe the Senate is broken, and I believe the American people are right,” he said, adding: “It’s time to get the Senate working again.”

McConnell linked the rule change to the methods used to approve Obama’s health-care law solely with Democratic votes. The normally reserved GOP leader paced at his desk during his speech, often turning his back to Democrats to address only his fellow Republicans.

“It’s a sad day in the history of the Senate,” McConnell told reporters, calling the move a Democratic “power grab.”

The clash ended with a vote nearly as partisan as the times — 52 to 48, with all but three Democrats backing the move and every Republican opposing it.

The vote was the culmination of more than 25 years of feuding over nominations, beginning with President Ronald Reagan’s choices for the Supreme Court and including Obama’s picks for obscure federal regulatory agencies. Each side in Thursday’s debate cited its own statistics to state its case.


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Who killed JFK?





daweil

Uploaded on Apr 6, 2007

Ex-Jesuit priest Alberto Rivera revealed that JFK assassination was planned by the Jesuits of Rome who are beyond the Freemasons, CFR, TLC, knights of Malta, CIA...
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John F. Kennedy and the Vatican


President John F. Kennedy Departs the Vatican After Meeting with Pope Paul VI
Photo (Courtesy) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHP-ST-C231-23-63.aspx

"In 1960, John Kennedy went from Washington to Texas to assure Protestant preachers he would not obey the pope. In 2001, George Bush came from Texas up to Washington to assure a group of Catholic Bishops he would obey the pope." Washington Times, April 16, 2001.
 
Shortly after being inaugurated as the new President in 1961, Kennedy reluctantly went along with a plan of the previous Eisenhower Administration to attempt to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. In so doing, Kennedy, having described himself to the Protestant preachers as being nominally a Catholic, violated Vatican Canon Law in that as a Catholic and head of a nation, he sought to invade Cuba, still even under Fidel Castro, as a Catholic nation. To do so, Kennedy put himself under a Canon Law death warrant. Further, the leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro, described by some as a supposed "Communist", was a Jesuit.
 
Some set all the books of esoteric conspiracies on the side, and consider that the Jesuits were behind the plot to assassinate John F. Kennedy which was blamed onto others. Moreover, some consider the 1913 creation of the conspiratorial private Central Bank, masquerading as a supposed U.S. government entity, namely the Federal Reserve, as being at least in part, instigated by the Jesuits. Shortly before being murdered, JFK, in defiance of the Federal Reserve, authorized an issue of genuine U.S. paper money, two dollar bills.
 
From the beginning of the United States of America, the Vatican has condemned this nation's founding documents.  
 
"The Vatican condemned the Declaration of Independence as wickedness and called the Constitution of the United States a Satanic Document." Avro Manhattan, "The Dollar and the Vatican", Ozark Book Publishers, 1988, page 26. 
 
  
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The Assasination of John F. Kennedy


(Excerpt from Rise of the New World Order The Culling of Man)

Since November 22, 1963 when JFK was assassinated, many different theories as to why and by whom he was murdered have been bandied about.

I’m going to give you the real reason as to why he was murdered now, and after taking in what I’ve given you so far, you will know this is the truth.

President Kennedy was originally installed as a typical puppet President, just like we have today and have had since the days of Lincoln. The Illuminati, knowing that Kennedy was from an elitist family and “one of them”, thought that he would toe the line of the Establishment and not deviate from their plans to destroy America and usher in a one world government.

Well, that all went out the window after he was elected President, and if they would have known that at the beginning he would never have made it to the Presidency.

Although he did many things to buck the Great Plan, including trying to end the war in Vietnam, on June 4th, 1963, President Kennedy signed Executive Order 11110, which further amended Executive Order 10289 of September 19th, 1951. This gave Kennedy, as President of the United States, legal clearance to authorize creation of money outside the Federal Reserve. This money was to belong to the people of the United States, an interest and debt-free money as mandated by the Constitution. He ordered the printing of “United States Notes” as opposed to “Federal Reserve Notes”, circumventing the Federal Reserve’s “authority”.
Kennedy issued $4,292,893,825 of Treasury-issued, not Fed issued, cash money in $5 bills. It was patently obvious that Kennedy was out to scale back and then eliminate the Federal Reserve System. You can get one of these $5 bills from a rare coin dealer and view for yourself that across the top it does not say “Federal Reserve Note”; it says “United States Note”, as all of them should and would if we were following the Constitution, which we’re not.

Only a few months later, In November of 1963, Kennedy was assassinated. You can view the videos on YouTube of the moments immediately before he was shot, of the Secret Servicemen being CALLED OFF from his motorcade so the gunman, or gunmen possibly, would have a clear shot. I don’t know who shot him for sure, or if there was more than one gunman, but it is a moot point. I do know who was behind it, and now you do too: the Illuminati.

No reason was given, of course, to the American Public for anyone wanting to commit such an atrocious crime. But for those who knew anything about money and banking, it made perfect sense, especially if you knew the history of patriotic Presidents being killed by the Illuminati banksters.

It is interesting to note that only one day after Kennedy's assassination, all the United States notes which Kennedy had issued, were called back out of circulation. All of the money President Kennedy had created was then destroyed.

Alleged 33rd degree Freemason Lyndon Baines Johnson was immediately sworn in as the new President, and the Great Plan was back on track in the New Babylon.

 Rise of the New World Order
The Culling of Man

by J. Micha-el Thomas Hays
pp.221,222.


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It's been 50 years since President Kennedy was assasinated in broad daylight

 
Today, 2/3 (0.666) of Americans still believe that there was a conspiracy behind the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy;  There was a plot to shoot the president, then a scheme to conceal the real culprits...
The crime remains till  this day a classic WHO DONE IT case.

Who killed JFK?
  • Did the Mafia do it?
  • The Cubans?
  • Or, was it the CIA?

I believe that several interests were involved in the assassination, and these men conspired to carry out their execution of the president.  The Mafia, the Cubans and the CIA all have a link that binds them to the crime:

THE JESUIT ORDER of the Roman  Catholic Church


The following is a chapter from The Secret Terrorists by Bill Hughes  


CHAPTER 8 PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY

New evidence has recently been discovered relevant to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that will show who actually planned and carried out his murder. This new evidence will show that the Warren Commission report, which is the government’s final word on the assassination, is a complete cover-up of what actually took place. The following analysis of the assassination will include several events and situations that might not appear to be related to this murder, but will show the extensive intrigue behind it.

While riding in an open motorcade, President Kennedy was shot in Dealy Plaza on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963 at 12:30 p.m. The crowds were cheering. There was a great scene of rejoicing as the president of the United States made his way through downtown Dallas. It seemed as if everyone was smiling in those waving thousands. But presently, shots rang out, and President Kennedy, a short while later, lay dead at the Parkland Memorial Hospital.

This case has baffled people for the last four decades, and is one of the ten most unsolved mysteries of the last one hundred years. The Warren Commission was set up to investigate the assassination, and they concluded that a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, did it. They claimed that Oswald shot President Kennedy from the Dallas Book Depository building behind his car. But there is rather overwhelming evidence now that disproves the Warren Commission report and points to a massive cover-up and conspiracy behind the assassination. Two days after President Kennedy’s death Jack Ruby murdered Oswald. Why? Was it to keep him from talking?

There were basically two main reasons why Kennedy was assassinated. These reasons are involved with the Vietnam War, and the Federal Reserve Bank.

President Kennedy sent two aides to Vietnam, McNamara and Taylor, who gathered intelligence that convinced him that the United States needed to withdraw from Vietnam. Their memo to the president was entitled, Report of McNamara-Taylor Mission to South Vietnam.

With this report in hand, President Kennedy had what he wanted. It contained the essence of decisions he had to make. He had to get re-elected to finish programs set in motion during his first term; he had to get Americans out of Vietnam. — Col. L. Fletcher Prouty, JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and The Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, Carol Publishing Group, p. 264.

Fletcher Prouty tells us that,

On Nov. 22, 1963, the government of the United States was taken over by the superpower group that wanted an escalation of the warfare in Indochina, and a continuing military buildup for generations to come. — Ibid. p. 264.

As President Kennedy began to de-escalate American involvement in Southeast Asia, this superpower group was planning his murder. Following Kennedy’s assassination, they made sure that America would remain in Vietnam for a long time.

Who was this group? Who wanted us in South Vietnam and why? When we answer these questions, the people behind the assassination of JFK will be known.

Avro Manhattan was a British journalist who worked for many years for the British Broadcasting Company. He has written at least 15 books on the role of the Roman Catholic Church in world affairs. In his book, Vietnam: Why Did We Go?, he tells us,
The political and military origin of the war of Vietnam has been described with millions of written and spoken words. Yet, nothing has been said about one of the most significant forces which contributed to its promotion, namely, the role played by religion, which in this case, means the part played by the Catholic Church, and by her diplomatic counterpart, the Vatican. Their active participation is not mere speculation. It is an historical fact as concrete as the presence of the U.S., or the massive guerilla resistance of Asian communism. The activities of the last two have been scrutinized by thousands of books, but the former has never been assessed, not even in a summarized form. The Catholic Church must be considered as a main promoter in the origin, escalation and prosecution of the Vietnamese conflict. From the very beginning this religious motivation helped set in motion the avalanche that was to cause endless agonies in the Asiatic and American continents.

The price paid was immense: thousands of billions of dollars; the mass dislocation of entire populations; political anarchy; military devastation on an unprecedented scale; the disgrace upon the civilized world; the loss of thousands upon thousands of young Asian and American lives. Last but not least, the wounding, mutilation, and death of hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children. The tragedy of Vietnam will go down in history as one of the most pernicious deeds of the contemporary alliance between politics and organized religion.

Factors of a political, ideological, economic, and military nature played no mean role in the unfolding of the war, but the religion of the Catholic Church was one of its main instigators. From the beginning her role has been minimized when not obliterated altogether. Concrete facts however, cannot be wiped away so easily, and it is these which we shall now scrutinize, even if briefly. — Avro Manhattan, Vietnam: Why Did We Go?, Chick Publications, 1984, p. 13, emphasis added.

The publisher’s foreword to this book, page 3, states:

Avro Manhattan, world authority on Vatican politics, has blown the cover on the real reason our boys suffered and died in Vietnam. He traces their death to the Vatican’s passionate desire to make Asia Roman Catholic. Vatican agents hatched and plotted the Vietnam War. American soldiers were serving the Vatican in their desperate struggle to survive the jungles, the hell of warfare, pain, death and destruction. It was all engineered by…her Jesuits. — Ibid. p. 3, emphasis added.

Many, especially Catholics, may take exception to the facts stated in the previous quotes, but we must present the facts as they are and as they happened. When this book talks about the Catholic Church, it is not speaking of the faithful church members who know nothing about things like this. It is speaking of the rulers of the Vatican and their Order of the Jesuits.

According to Avro Manhattan, the war in Vietnam was fought because the Vatican wanted to create a power base in Southeast Asia from which to take over all of Southeast Asia and then all of Asia. The following quotes are from this same book.

Ho Chi Minh began before World War Two to maneuver for a communist Vietnam. He received help from the U.S. against the Japanese but used that aid to consolidate his hold on the highlands of Tonkin. In August, 1945 he marched into Hanoi and set up the provisional government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. A master strategist, he cooperated in the transplanting of nearly a million Catholic North Vietnamese into the South…After the election of Pope John the 23rd in 1958 and the turn of the Vatican from the Cold War toward cooperation with Marxism, Ho Chi Minh made a secret deal with Pope John which eventually led to full control of the country by the North. — Ibid. p. 177.

President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam was a practicing Catholic who ruled South Vietnam with an iron fist. He was a genuine believer in the evil of Communism and the uniqueness of the Catholic Church. He had originally been planted in the presidency by Cardinal Spellman and Pope Pius the 12th. He transformed the presidency into a virtual Catholic dictatorship, ruthlessly crushing his religious and political opponents. Many Buddhist monks committed suicide by fire, burning themselves alive in protest against his religious persecutions. His discriminatory persecution of non-Catholics, particularly Buddhists, caused the disruption of the government and mass desertions in the army. This eventually led to U.S. military intervention in South Vietnam.
In this terrorization he was aided by his two Catholic brothers, the Chief of the Secret Police and the Archbishop of Hue. — Ibid. p. 56, (emphasis added).

Cardinal Francis Spellman, the archbishop of New York, was the key man that brought America into the conflict.
He was active in persuading the U.S. to select Diem and support him as president of South Vietnam. He was made Vicar General of the U.S. Armed Forces and called the GIs the ‘Soldiers of Christ’ [meaning soldiers for the Catholic Church] in his frequent visits to the Vietnam war front. — Ibid. p. 71.

The Vatican played both sides against each other in this Vietnamese Civil War. They controlled Diem in the South while advising and making secret deals with Ho Chi Minh in the North. Thus, however the war turned out, the Vatican would triumph and have control in Vietnam. President Kennedy’s attempt to halt the bloodbath incurred the undying wrath of the instigators of the war — the Jesuits of the papacy.

President Kennedy began to de-escalate America’s involvement in Vietnam shortly before his death. The day after his brutal murder, the following occurred:

At 8:30 a.m., Saturday, the 23rd of November, 1963, the limousine carrying CIA director John McCone pulled into the White House grounds…. He was also there to transact one piece of business prior to becoming involved in all the details entailed in a presidential transition — the signing of National Security Memorandum 278, a classified document which immediately reversed John Kennedy’s decision to de-escalate the war in Vietnam. The effect of Memorandum 278 would give the Central Intelligence Agency carte blanche to proceed with a full-scale war in the Far East…. In effect, as of November 23, 1963, the Far East would replace Cuba as the thorn in America’s side. It would also create a whole new source of narcotics for the Mafia’s worldwide markets. — Robert Morrow, First Hand Knowledge, Shapolsky Publishers, p. 249.

The day after Kennedy was killed, the decision to stop America’s involvement in Vietnam was reversed and the Vatican’s program continued.

Morrow’s statement also revealed another reason for the Jesuits wanting to continue the war; they would make billions of dollars in the international drug trade. For the last four centuries, the Jesuits had been involved in the Far East drug trade and they certainly did not want to lose this opportunity, even if it meant the lives of millions of people!

Since the original Jesuit mission had established itself in Beijing in 1601, the Society of Jesus [the Jesuits] had held the key to the Far East Trade — including the drug trade. — assorted authors, Dope, Inc.: The Book that Drove Kissenger Crazy, Executive Intelligence Review, p. 117, (emphasis added).
The Jesuit controlled politicians in Washington wanted to continue the war in Vietnam. They wanted to create a Catholic power in Southeast Asia. They wanted to maintain their control of the international drug market that they had held for 400 years in the Far East. When President Kennedy stood in their way, he had to be removed. The Jesuits had John Kennedy assassinated.

The second reason for Kennedy’s assassination was his intention to eliminate the Federal Reserve. Colonel James Gritz explains,
When Kennedy called for a return of America’s currency to the gold standard, and the dismantling of the Federal Reserve System — he actually minted non-debt money that does not bear the mark of the Federal Reserve; when he dared to actually exercise the leadership authority granted to him by the U.S. Constitution…Kennedy prepared his own death warrant. It was time for him to go. — Colonel James Gritz, Called to Serve: Profiles in Conspiracy from John F. Kennedy to George Bush, Lazarus Publishing, pp 511, 512.
President Kennedy was attempting to dismantle the Federal Reserve System, which is the central bank of the United States, a creation of the Jesuits.

The Constitution of the United States gives to Congress the power to coin money. If the U. S. Congress coined its own money as the Constitution directs, it would not have to pay the hundreds of billions of dollars of interest that it now pays each year to the bankers for the national debt, for money that came out of nothing This is why Kennedy began to issue U.S. government money that was free of debt to replace the Federal Reserve dollars we have been using.

We have seen in previous chapters who was responsible for the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank, and the unconstitutional operation of this bank that steals money from U.S. citizens. The Jesuits, if you will remember from chapter two, tried to assassinate President Andrew Jackson for discontinuing the central bank. They unfortunately succeeded in assassinating Kennedy for trying to do the same thing. The Jesuits uses the wealth created by the Federal Reserve to finance their murderous deeds.

John Kennedy incurred the deadly wrath of the Jesuits for daring to act as the President and not as their puppet.

But you say, “Wait a minute. Kennedy was a Roman Catholic. He was the only Catholic president we ever had.” That is exactly right. Even though Kennedy was Catholic, he put the welfare of the United States before the desires of the papacy. He was not a Jesuit.

Here is a very interesting section from the secret instructions of the Jesuit Order, written by their founder, Ignatius Loyola.
Finally, let all with such artfulness gain the ascendance over princes, noblemen and the magistrates of every place that they may be ready at our beck and call, even to sacrifice their nearest relatives and most intimate friends when we say it is for our interest and our advantage. — W. C. Brownlee, Secret Instructions of the Jesuits, American and Foreign Christian Union, p. 47.
We see here that if the Jesuit Order says that a person is to die, it doesn’t matter if it is your best friend, if it is your father or your brother; they are to be killed. What a dastardly, evil, and wicked system the Jesuit Order of the Roman Catholic Church is.

Do you think that the Catholic Church isn’t that powerful? Do you think this makes them out to be too strong? Avro Manhattan tells us:

Cardinal Francis Spellman, of New York , was the military vicar of the American Armed Forces in Vietnam. He was also the unofficial link between the pope and John Foster Dulles, the U.S. Secretary of State and therefore the Secretary’s brother, Alan, who was the head of the CIA. — Avro Manhattan, Murder in the Vatican, Ozark Books, pp. 35, 36.

Thus, through Cardinal Francis Spellman, the Roman Catholic Church and the Jesuits had access to and control over John Foster Dulles, the Secretary of State, and John Foster Dulles’ brother, Alan, who was the head of the Central Intelligence Agency. Those two departments, along with the FBI, were in the hands of Cardinal Francis Spellman, the head Cardinal of the Catholic Church in New York.
The Catholic Church in the USA, financially can stand up to all the giant trusts of America. Politically, she looms ever larger in the White House, in the Senate and in the Congress. She is a force in the Pentagon, a secret agent in the FBI and the most subtly intangible prime mover of the S.S. wheel within a wheel; the Central Intelligence Agency. — Ibid. p. 271.
Jean Hill was also a witness to the Kennedy murder. In her book, entitled JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness, she states that during a conversation her friend, J.B., who was one of the policeman in the motorcade that was with Kennedy, told her,
“Well, while Kennedy was busy shaking hands with all the well wishers at the airport, Johnson’s Secret Service people came over to the motorcycle cops and gave us a bunch of instructions. The darnedest thing was they told us the parade route through Dealy Plaza was being changed.” “Changed? How,” Jean Hill asks. “It was originally supposed to go straight down Main Street.” J.B. said, “but they said for us to disregard that. Instead we were told to make the little jog on Houston and cut over to Elm.” Jean felt her mouth drop open. “If you’d stayed on Main Street, Kennedy might’ve been completely out of range of whoever was shooting at him. My ‘shooter’ behind the wooden fence definitely wouldn’t have had much chance to hit him from there.” J.B. stared at her with a straight face. “Maybe that’s why they changed the route,” he said bluntly. “But that’s not all. They also ordered us into the craziest escort formation I’ve ever seen. Ordinarily, you bracket the car with four motorcycles, one on each fender. But this time they told the four of us assigned to the president’s car there’d be no forward escorts. We were to stay well to the back and not let ourselves get ahead of the car’s rear wheels under any circumstances. I’d never heard of a formation like that much less ridden in one, but they said they wanted to let the crowds have an ‘unrestricted view’ of the president. Well, I guess somebody got an unrestricted view of him all right.” — Jean Hill, JFK: The Last Dissenting Witness, Pelican Publishing, p. 113.
So, the motorcade route through Dallas was changed, and the reason given was so that the people would have an excellent view of the president of the United States. The Jesuit assassins sure did!

Other peculiar things happened too. Lyndon Johnson, the vice president of the United States, was apparently having a real problem. Continuing with Jean Hill’s conversation with her friend in the motorcade,
“What are you talking about?” Jean asked innocently. “I don’t understand.” “My friends in the motorcade say he started ducking down in the car a good 30 or 40 seconds before the first shots were fired. I’d say that’s just a little peculiar wouldn’t you?” “Oh, come on, J.B,” Jean Hill said, thinking he had to be joking. “They obviously weren’t serious, were they?” “As far as I know they were dead serious.” J.B. said. “One of them told Maguire that he saw Johnson duck down even before the car turned onto Houston Street, and he sure as ____ wasn’t laughing when he said it.” “Well, maybe Johnson just dropped something on the floor and bent over to pick it up. I mean there can be a simple explanation.” “Maybe so.” J.B. said. “I don’t claim to know what his reasons were but this guy said it sure looked like he was expecting bullets to be flying. When I heard it, it made me start wondering about a whole lot of other stuff too.” — Ibid. pp. 114-116.

Lyndon Johnson was acting as if he knew bullets would soon be flying, ducking down repeatedly before the shots went off.

Texas law prohibits people that die in the state of Texas from being removed without an autopsy. Leading doctors at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas were held at gunpoint as the body of John F. Kennedy was removed from that hospital without an autopsy. Why? There was overwhelming evidence that there was more than one bullet that killed JFK. There was overwhelming evidence that the Warren Commission report was nothing but lies. There were many bullets that the doctors would have found that would have shattered the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald was the loan gunman. That is why an autopsy was not allowed in Texas. That is why Kennedy’s body was shipped to Washington D.C. where a federal autopsy could be made, where they could fabricate the evidence to support the lies of the Warren commission. There was a Jesuit led conspiracy to kill JFK and they didn’t want the evidence to get out, no matter how many people had to be killed in the process.

If there really were several bullets fired that day in Dealy Plaza, then certainly the car would have contained evidence of this. And so it did.
Three days after the assassination, Carl Renas, head of security at the Dearborn Division of the Ford Motor Company, drives the limousine, helicopters hovering over head, from Washington to Cincinnati. In doing so, he noticed several bullet holes, the most notable being the one in the windshield’s chrome molding strip, which he said was clearly ‘a primary strike’ and ‘not a fragment,’ The limousine was taken by Renas to Hess and Eisenhart of Cincinnati where the chrome molding was replaced. The Secret Service told Renas to “keep your mouth shut.” — Charles Crenshaw, JFK: Conspiracy of Silence, Penguin Books USA, p. 106.

Renas was the head of security for the Dearborn Division of Ford Motor Co. Who was the head of that division in 1963 that dispatched Renas for the task of his life?
Henry Ford II says today that the first time he can remember meeting Lee Iacocca was in November 1960 when he summoned the young salesman to his office to tell them he was giving him command of the Ford division [at Dearborn]. — Robert Lacey, Ford, the Men and the Machine, Ballantine Books, p. 531.
Lee Iacocca was the man in charge of the Dearborn Division of the Ford Motor Company, who dispatched Carl Renas to go to Washington D.C. to get the car that JFK was in when he was assassinated. Iacocca was the head of the Dearborn Division until he became President of Ford Motor Company in 1970. Iacocca was part of the cover-up because he suppressed evidence concerning JFK’s assassination.

What connection does he have with the Catholic Church? In Iacocca’s autobiography he says,

It took me a number of years to fully understand why I had to make a good confession to a priest before I went to Holy Communion, but in my teens I began to appreciate the importance of this most misunderstood right of the Catholic Church. In later years, I found myself completely refreshed after confession. I even began to attend weekend retreats where the Jesuits in face-to-face examinations of conscience made me come to grips with how I was conducting my life. — Iacocca: An Autobiography, Bantam Books, p. 8.
Roman Catholic Lee Iacocca, head of the Dearborn division of the Ford Motor Co. was the one who dispatched Carl Renas to get the limousine that had the evidence of multiple bullets that were shot from multiple guns that killed John F. Kennedy. Isn’t it amazing that many years later as President of Chrysler, Lee Iacocca went to Congress and asked for financial help? Since Catholic Iacocca had been such an obedient servant to his Jesuit masters, another obedient Catholic by the name of Thomas ‘Tip’ O’Neill used his power as Speaker of the House to get Lee Iacocca all the money he needed.

There were many people who knew a great deal about the Kennedy assassination. Unfortunately, almost all of them died under mysterious circumstances. There was a concerted effort to be sure that no secrets were ever told. Even Jean Hill stated that several attempts were made to kill her and her children.
Jim Marrs, author of Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy, wrote: “In the three-year period which followed the murder of President Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald, 18 material witnesses died — six by gunfire, three in motor accidents, two by suicide, one from a cut throat, one from a karate chop to the neck, five from natural causes.” ...A mathematician hired by the London Sunday Times in February of 1967 concluded that the odds of the number of witnesses involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy dying between November 22, 1963 and that date were 100,000 trillion to one.... In the time period ranging from November 22, 1963 to August 1993 over 115 ‘witnesses’ have died or fallen victim to death by strange circumstances, suicides or murder. — Craig Roberts and John Armstrong, JFK: The Dead Witnesses, Consolidated Press, p. 3.
Kennedy was one of many Presidents, kings, Czars, and emperors who refused to obey the Jesuits and was killed for it. The role of the papacy in the heinous murder and cover-up of this crime cannot be denied. We have seen that the Vatican had a motive, the people in key positions to carry it out, and the people in key positions to cover it up.
There was one group, one organization, whose historical background was characterized by the planning and execution of such deeds; that had a lasting consistent motive, before, during and after the crime; that had the necessary international connections; that had the money; that could elicit suicidal self-sacrifice in its members; and that continued to exist through all phases of the assassination conspiracy. This is the Roman Catholic Church. — Emmett McLoughlin, An Inquiry into the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Lyle Stuart, Inc.1963, p. 161.

Winston Churchill, the famous English Prime Minister during World War Two, once said,
Most men occasionally stumble over the truth, but they pick themselves up and continue on as if nothing had happened. We now understand the facts concerning one of the most controversial events in American history. Will you stumble over the truth here and go on as if nothing has happened or will you begin to analyze history and current events in a new light?

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