Saturday

The Religion WAR (12-20)


    [WAR: This is an experiment I'm doing. This could be the 1st of many, or just the only one. I've long thought about having a different newsblog from The Daily WAR to focus on religious issues. Instead of having religious stories in The Daily WAR, I'd just do a weekly (or every so often) Religion WAR.
    But because a lot of geopolitical issues have religion behind them, it's hard to separate them. So I'll just play this by ear. And I'm not sure if I'll send it out like The Daily WAR, or just have a link in it when a new issue is ready. Let me know what you think...]
 
 
 
    There are many paradoxes about Benedict XVI, but this may be the biggest: For a generation, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he was one of the most prominent and controversial men in Roman Catholicism.
    And now he is the Supreme Pontiff, arguably the most visible and influential religious leader in the world. Yet on the eve of his first visit to the US as pope, American Catholics—and everyone else—know little about him. Here are 6 keys to reading between the many lines that Benedict will deliver.
 
    The Pope, who arrived at the Vatican by helicopter from his Castelgandolfo residence, dedicated his catechesis to the period of Easter. "The entire liturgy of the Easter period proclaims the certainty and joy of Christ's resurrection." This is "the central truth of Christian faith in all its doctrinal richness and its inexhaustible vitality".
 
    Leaders of various religious communities are planning to gather during the 2nd week of April for a conference on how authority is exercised in their different orders. The event has been organized to mark the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the Code of Canon Law.
 
    Pope Benedict XVI's outreach to traditionalist Catholics by liberalizing the use of the Tridentine Mass already is bearing fruit, said Cardinal Hoyos, the president of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei," which coordinates care for traditionalist Catholics. He said that thanks to the pope's action "not a few have asked to return to full communion, and some already have returned."
 
    The Diocese of San Bernardino and the Diocese of Oakland will host two separate conferences this year marking the fortieth anniversary of Humanae Vitae. They will examine the encyclical of Pope Paul VI that discussed contraception and marital love.
    "Many people know Humanae Vitae came out sometime in the past and prohibited artificial contraception. What they haven't known, because it hasn't been taught, is the actual teaching of Paul VI. Any consistent discourse about the culture of life has to take into account his teaching on contraception."
    [WAR: The Catholic Church's teaching on contraception was seen in certain circles as a direct national security threat to the US, and is one of the main agenda's of the AIDS hoax -- to frighten people (especially in the 3rd-world) into wearing condoms. The result would be less babies (population control), as well as forcing the Church into a corner over the "condoms helps prevent AIDS" and be given the false choice of "condoms or death."]
 
 
 
    The Union of Muslim Communities in Spain claims that 1.13 million Spaniards, or 2.5% of the country's residents, are Muslim, Vatican Radio reports.
 
 
 
    King Abdullah has made an impassioned plea for dialogue among Muslims, Christians and Jews — the first such proposal from ultraconservative Saudi Arabia, which has no ties to Israel and bans public non-Muslim religious services.
    The message from the Saudi monarch, who met with Pope Benedict XVI in November, comes at a time of tensions between followers of the three religions. "The idea is to ask representatives of all monotheistic religions to sit together with their brothers in faith and sincerity to all religions as we all believe in the same God," the king told delegates Monday night at a seminar.
    Abdullah's call is significant and could add weight to sporadic efforts at dialogue among religious leaders in recent years.He said Saudi Arabia's top clerics have given him the green light to the idea — crucial backing in a society which expects decisions taken by its rulers to adhere to Islam's tenets.
    For some, it also raised the possibility that a religious dialogue could have a political impact in the Middle East, easing tensions between Arabs and Israelis in a way that years of off-and-on negotiations and political conferences have failed to do.
    (And: A proposal for religious dialogue presented by King Abdullah has prompted warm reactions from several Jewish, Christian, and Muslim leaders in what could be a major development in inter-religious relations, the AP reports.)
 
    President Museveni of Uganda spoke about Christianity to Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in response to the latter's claim that the Bible had been doctored. Last week Colonel Gaddafi claimed that the original Bible had mentioned Muhammed, but had been doctored to exclude references to the founder of Islam.
    The president said he also told Gaddafi that the fundamental laws of Christianity are contained in the 2 laws found in Mark 12: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and all your strength," and "Love your neighbor as yourself."
    According to Museveni, Gaddafi seemed convinced that if one fulfilled both laws, one would have fulfilled most of the laws of God. The president said it did not matter which religion one belongs to as long as one fulfills both laws.
 
    As the world's most famous Buddhist, the Dalai Lama is a monk juggling two jobs. One is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, and the other is the political head of his government in exile.
    He was chosen to serve these dual callings through an arcane process based on signs that he was reincarnated from a long line of Dalai Lamas who were considered embodiments of the Buddha of Compassion, the holder of the White Lotus.
    So when the 14th Dalai Lama threatened last week to resign in response to the violence in Tibet, he seemed to throw into question the ancient process that gave him power. Whether he can quit and what that would mean remain unclear.
 
 
 
    The birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammad is one of the most important religious celebrations on the Islamic calendar.
    He was born on the 3rd month of the lunar calendar, in the Year of the Elephant. There is no consensus on the exact date; many sources state the date to be the 17th and others the 12th of Rabiul Awal. The week between these two dates is known as the 'Solidarity Week' in Iran to encourage Muslims to celebrate the life of the last prophet of God for 7 days.
    Mohammad taught the importance of education: "The ink of the scholar is more precious than the blood of the martyr."
 
 
 
    The United States has failed to understand the global resurgence of religiosity. Washington should put the promotion of religious freedom at the center of US foreign policy -- recognizing that it is vital not only to liberty and stability abroad but also to US national security.
 
Paranoid Protestant 'Pologizing...
    An influential Texas pastor who endorsed John McCain has denied allegations he is anti-Catholic. John Hagee, pastor of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, has been accused of anti-Catholicism by Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
    Donohue argued that Hagee "clearly distorts" Catholic teaching and misrepresents Church history, especially concerning the actions of Pope Pius XII during WW2. In his recent book, Hagee wrote that "most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews." [WAR: Sounds just like Gerald Flurry, Norber Link, and other COG "prophets".]
    Hagee released an extended self-defense in a March 13 statement that said the accusations of religious bigotry made against him were "slanderous." "I am not now, nor have I ever been anti-Catholic," he said in the press release.
    Hagee said his statements about the Catholic Church had been "grossly mischaracterized." His words about the anti-Christ and a "false cult system," he said, were references to "those Christians who ignore the Gospels."
 
    The legacy of dissimulation about his long-concealed identity is about to come crashing down around the ears of Barack Hussein Obama, courtesy of the assembled testimony of his family, friends, classmates and teachers.
    He has never disavowed his Muslim faith that he was born into, raised with, celebrated and never abandoned. He just covered it over with a thin veneer of his own self-styled "Christianity."
 
    A new book ought to have a profound and transforming influence on Americans' view of their government's confrontation with Islam. The book, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think, presents the results of 6 years of Gallup polling in the Muslim world between 2001 and 2007.
    Over and over again, the book shows the nearly complete absence among Muslims of a desire to destroy America's equality of opportunity, liberties, or democracy. Indeed, the Gallup data show that these are the aspects of US society that Muslims most admire.
    But, of equal importance, Muslims do not believe that greater democracy and self-determination in the Muslim world require a Western-like separation of church and state.
    The book establishes a solid empirical base for refuting the contentions of US political leaders in both parties that "Muslims hate us for who we are not for what we do."
    On no other foreign policy issue since the Cold War's end has the truth been so easy to establish on the basis of hard facts but so hard for Americans to see – primarily because their leaders eagerly distort or ignore the truth.
    Ultimately, our bipartisan political elite will turn the US into one enormous Israel, lethally deaf to the realities of our struggle with Islamists; arrogantly confidant of its pure intent and sure knowledge of God's will; and utterly dependent on inadequate military and intelligence options to fight a rising tide of hatred among 1.3 billion Muslims.
 
    Muslims may outnumber practicing Catholics in England and Wales by the year 2020, according to a forthcoming study. Catholics already outnumber Anglicans attending Sunday services in England.
 
 
 
    The top UN rights body on Thursday passed a resolution proposed by Islamic countries saying it is deeply concerned about the defamation of religions and urging governments to prohibit it. The EU said the text was one-sided because it primarily focused on Islam.
    The UN Human Rights Council, which is dominated by Arab and other Muslim countries, adopted the resolution on a 21-10 vote over the opposition of Europe and Canada. EU countries, including France, Germany and Britain, voted against.
    Although the text refers frequently to protecting all religions, the only religion specified as being attacked is Islam, to which 8 paragraphs refer.
 
    Goliath is a celebrity binge drinker, Eve is a sex-obsessed man-eater and Noah's wife wants to kill him . . . welcome to the updated Bible. An Anglican vicar has rewritten the most famous biblical tales because he wants to make them more "accessible" to modern readers.
 
The science of religion
    Science and religion have often been at loggerheads. Now the former has decided to resolve the problem by trying to explain the existence of the latter.
 
Sabbath vs Sunday
    Two thousand years after Christ walked the Earth, Christians are at war with each other concerning – as strange as it may sound – a day of the week mentioned in the Ten Commandments. The issue boils down to: "When is God's Sabbath?" In other words, what is His holy day of rest?
    Most Christians today think it's Sunday, when the majority of churches hold services. But others confidently say it's Saturday, calling Sunday worship "the most flagrant error of mainstream Christianity," believing Sunday-keepers are victims of clever deception.
    There are 7 days in a week, but historians have no consensus about the cycle's origin, since it has no basis in astronomy. In many languages, the word used for the 7th day of the week – what we call Saturday – is actually the same word used for "Sabbath."
    In Greek, it is sabbaton; Italian, sabato; Spanish, sábado; Russian, subbota; Polish, sobota; and Hungarian, szómbat. Even the French "samedi" is from the Latin "Sambata dies," for "day of the Sabbath."
    [WAR: Yes, Christianity has been deceived on the Sabbath Day issue (as well as a host of other doctrines). But the bigger "clever deception" is the belief that the Jewish Sabbath is the same as YAHWEH's Sabbath.
    "Oh, but the Jews have been given the oracles of God and cannot be wrong about something so important as when the Sabbath Day is." But: "'How can you say, 'We are wise, for we have the law of YAHWEH,' when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely?" (Jer 8:8). Even the Encyclopedia Brittanica (1911) refers to the "Sabbath of the Scribes" and the "Rabbinical Sabbath."
    The Sabbath Day is from dawn-to-dark on "SaturDAY." It's quite simple: We are to work for 6 days, and not work on the 7th day -- with every night designated for rest/sleep. So the 7th night of the week is not any more holy than the other 6 nights. Satan cannot get rid of the Sabbath Day, but he can sure twist and manipulate as to when it actually is!
    "'In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.' ... Then YAHWEH said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?'" (Exo 16:4,28)
    "You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am YAHWEH, who makes you holy. Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. ... For 6 days, work is to be done, but the 7th day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to YAHWEH. ... The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in 6 days YAHWEH made the heavens and the Earth, and on the 7th day he abstained from work and rested." (Exo 31:13-17)
    "Blessed is the man who ... keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it ... If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and YAHWEH's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in YAHWEH..." (Isa 56:2 / 58:13-14)]
 
 
 
 

posted by The Daily Warrior | 4:31 PM