The Religion WAR

Saturday

The Religion WAR (02-18)

Reading between the lines, thinking outside the box, and seeing the forest...
 
 
 
 
    The "dark page" of history written by Napoleon Bonaparte when he exiled Pope Pius VII from Rome is a lesson for today's Church as it teaches courage to face the challenges of the world.
    That dark page of European history has, by the power of the Holy Spirit, become a rich source of grace and education, even for our own time. It teaches us the courage to face the challenges of the world -- materialism, relativism, laicism -- never giving way to compromise but ready to pay in person in order to remain faithful to the Lord and his Church."
    He also recalled how "Sunday needs to be rediscovered in its Christian roots, beginning with the celebration of the risen Lord," and how "the sacrament of penance" represents a "fundamental means of spiritual development."
 
    Pope Benedict led a traditional religious procession through the streets of Rome on Thursday and called on Catholics to look beyond differences like nationality and social class to the common faith that unites them.
 
    One of the Catholic Church's most senior theologians, and former mentor to Pope Benedict XVI, has launched a stinging attack on the Vatican. Hans Küng, 80, a Swiss priest and professor at Tübingen University [Bavaria] said it was a "tragedy" for the Catholic Church that Rome had failed to follow the path of liberalisation set out by the Vatican II council in 1965.
    "Rome continues to block every sort of renewal, and is blocking any ecumenical unification with the protestant and orthodox churches. This pope has made serious mistakes."
 
    If you want to understand Joseph Ratzinger, the man and the Pope, the starting point is the love of God, affirmed a cardinal who has worked closely with him. He added that without leaving aside his intellectual depth, Benedict is "becoming the Pope of the people, because the people clearly perceive his message, even when it is full of uncomfortable truths, that is, demanding [truths] that call for a commitment."
 
 
    When Pope Paul VI spoke about the "smoke of Satan" entering the Catholic Church, he was referring to liturgical abuses, according to the prelate who served as his master of ceremonies.
    The Pope "meant to include all those priests or bishops and cardinals who didn't render worship to the Lord by celebrating badly Holy Mass because of an errant interpretation of the implementation of the Second Vatican Council.
    "He spoke of the smoke of Satan because he maintained that those priests who turned Holy Mass into dross in the name of creativity, in reality were possessed of the vainglory and the pride of the Evil One. So, the smoke of Satan was nothing other than the mentality which wanted to distort the traditional and liturgical canons of the Eucharistic ceremony."
 
    About 150 bishops gathered near Rome last week for the second conference on the role of ecclesial movements.
 
    The Russian Orthodox Church has officially rejected a doctrinal statement approved by a joint Catholic-Orthodox theological commission. While Vatican officials hailed the agreement as an important ecumenical landmark, they cautioned that the Catholic and Orthodox churches have a different understanding of primacy.
 
    An antidote to the challenges facing the Church and society today is the glorification of Mary through the proclamation of a 5th Marian dogma, says Cardinal Vithayathil of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.
    The text includes the petition that asks the Pope to proclaim Mary as "the Spiritual Mother of All Humanity, the co-redemptrix with Jesus the redeemer, mediatrix of all graces with Jesus the one mediator, and advocate with Jesus Christ on behalf of the human race."
 
 
 
    A growing demand for exorcisms by Germans who believe they are suffering demonic possession has sparked controversy in a country where the practice has been outlawed by the Roman Catholic Church.
 
 
 
    A new report urges the European Union to support pro-natalist policies, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute reports. Last week, the Spain-based Institute for Family Policy issued its second annual report at the European Parliament in Brussels, warning of the catastrophic consequences of demographic decline.
 
 
 
    Confirmation of the actual Exodus route has come from divers finding coral-encrusted bones and chariot remains in the Gulf of Aqaba.
 
    Advertisers of Sex and the City: The Movie, have decided to refrain from marketing the film in Jerusalem or Petah Tikva, even though they weren't requested to do so by municipal officials in either city.
    The billboard company that is advertising the film decided not to hang posters or billboards in the 2 cities due to potential objections by the cities' large religious populations over the use of the word "sex" in the posters along with the photos of the film's stars.
 
    Orthodox Jews set fire to hundreds of copies of the New Testament in the latest act of violence against Christian missionaries in the Holy Land. The books were dumped into a pile and set afire in a lot near a synagogue.
 
 
    The Dalai Lama told a sold-out crowd of 7,000 in Nuremberg, Bavaria that religious tolerance is an imperative and said it was tragic that religious differences often lead to bloodshed. "We need all the different religions to serve the people, because the people are different and have different goals." He arrived in Germany for a 5-day visit of speaking engagements and has met with leaders from some of Germany's 16 states.
 
 
 
    In his 3 years as president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been harshly criticized in the West. But he is increasingly drawing fire from Shiite clerics here, who accuse him of using religion to distract attention from his government's failure to deliver on promises of prosperity and political freedoms.
    In a news conference last week, the he lashed out at those who were "insulting and mocking" him about a Shiite belief that he said was based on Islamic teachings. Ahmadinejad, who took office in 2005 declaring his intention to "hasten the emergence" of Mahdi, said in a speech broadcast nationally this month that Mahdi supported the day-to-day workings of his government and was helping him in the face of international pressure.
    That was too much for senior clerics, who contend they alone are qualified to speak on the topic.
 
 
 
    Christianity is the cornerstone of Western Civilization. Since the fall of Rome to our own time, nations have believed and acted on the belief that marriage and traditional families are the cinderblocks on which a society must be built. When these cinderblocks crumble, the society collapses.
 
The biblical origins of America's official religion
    In Israel, at the time of Ezekiel, many were "weeping for Tammuz." God does not countenance when His people embrace the ways of pagans and sun worshippers and idolaters.
    I have news for you: There are lots of Americans practicing similar forms of pagan rituals today. They are still weeping for Tammuz. Make no mistake about it; neo-paganism is the official religion of the USA in 2008.
    [WAR: When I first saw this article, I thought: "Great! He's going to expose and trash Xianity for the pagan religion that it is!" But no, he ended up castigating humanism and how it's "overshadowing America's Judeo-Christian heritage." I should have expected as much from a professing Xian who celebrates Easter (the culmination of the 40 days of "weeping for Tammuz"/Lent). Oh well...]
 
"George Bush, unwitting prophets of Baal distort true practice of Gospel of Jesus"
    White Christians are "make pretend" believers and conservative Christians emulate the people who killed Jesus, according to articles in a controversial magazine run by Sen. Barack Obama's longtime pastor that paint traditional Christianity as false and racist.
 
Pot calling kettle black...
    Despite his call for the US to win the "hearts and minds of the Islamic world," John McCain recruited the support of an evangelical minister who describes Islam as "anti-Christ" and Mohammed as "the mouthpiece of a conspiracy of spiritual evil."
 
    Of course not. But this is the kind of garbage being passed around.
    [WAR: Obama is not "the" Antichrist, but he does have the spirit of it -- just like the other 6+ billion people. It's quite simple actually. A person has the spirit of Antichrist if they do not believe that Yahshua:
    * had pre-existed as YAHWEH ELOHIM;
    * emptied Himself completely and became lower than the angels as a 100% mortal human being (just like you and me);
    * died, and was dead for 3 days/3 nights;
    * was resurrected (on the 3rd day) and born again (on the 4th day) -- His glory and immortality restored as before.
    So yes, ALL of Christianity (even most COGs and other Sabbath-keeping groups!) has the spirit of Antichrist!! What an amazing deception that Satan has pulled off -- deceiving the whole world with the false/anti-messiah called "Jesus Christ"!]
 
    Here's the church. Here's the steeple. Open the doors and — hey, where did all the evangelicals go?
 
    I signed a paper promising no sex until marriage. The prize for my upstanding moral rectitude? A free chicken sandwich.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    The older Christian wedding vows contained these amazing words: "With my body, I thee worship." Maybe our forefathers weren't so prudish after all; maybe they understood sex far better than we do.
    To give yourself over to another, passionately and nakedly, to adore that person body, soul, and spirit—we know there is something special, even sacramental about sex. It requires trust and abandonment, guided by a wholehearted devotion. What else can this be but worship?
    After all, God employs explicitly sexual language to describe faithfulness (and unfaithfulness) to him. For us creatures of the flesh, sexual intimacy is the closest parallel we have to real worship.
    Even the world knows this. Why else would sexual ecstasy become the number one rival to communion with God? The best impostors succeed because they are nearly indistinguishable from what they are trying to imitate. We worship sex because we don't know how to worship God. But we will.
    We have grown cynical, as a society, about whether intimacy is really possible. To the degree that we have abandoned soul-one-ness, we have sought out merely sex, physical sex, to ease the pain. But the full union is no longer there; the orgasm comes incomplete; its heart has been taken away.
    Many have been deeply hurt. Sometimes, we must learn from what we have not known, let it teach us what ought to be. God's design was that the 2 shall become 1 flesh. The physical oneness was meant to be the expression of a total interweaving of being. (The Journey of Desire , p.134–35)
 
    God wanted to show the world something of his strength. Is he not a great warrior? Has he not performed the daring rescue of his beloved? And this is why he gave us the sculpture that is man. Men bear the image of God in their dangerous, yet inviting strength.
    Women, too, bear the image of God, but in a much different way. Is not God a being of great mystery and beauty? Is there not something tender and alluring about the essence of the Divine? And this is why he gave us the sculpture that is woman. (The Journey of Desire , p.136)
 
Today in Scripture
    "Each morning everyone gathered as much [manna] as he needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away." (Exo 16:21)
 
 

posted by The Daily Warrior | 8:53 AM