Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Judgment Day: May 21, 2011?
According to a small Christian movement, yes, it will.
The movement, led by Harold Camping who runs the evangelical station Family Radio, is predicting that mid-May of this year will bring about Judgment Day--the time when, according to some, the earth will be destroyed due to mankind's sins and all Christian believers will ascend to heaven.
Apparently Camping believes this will occur on May 21st because of a mathematical system he created to interpret prophecies hidden in the Bible.
While this prediction is pretty eerie in light of the mysterious animal deaths in Arkansas, it's worth noting that this isn't the first time that Camping has predicted the end of the world.
He originally used his mathematical system to predict Sept. 6, 1994 as Judgement Day. (via NPR)
The movement, led by Harold Camping who runs the evangelical station Family Radio, is predicting that mid-May of this year will bring about Judgment Day--the time when, according to some, the earth will be destroyed due to mankind's sins and all Christian believers will ascend to heaven.
Apparently Camping believes this will occur on May 21st because of a mathematical system he created to interpret prophecies hidden in the Bible.
While this prediction is pretty eerie in light of the mysterious animal deaths in Arkansas, it's worth noting that this isn't the first time that Camping has predicted the end of the world.
He originally used his mathematical system to predict Sept. 6, 1994 as Judgement Day. (via NPR)
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
A Message from God......................
"...believing in something because you're afraid of the consequences, is no reason to believe in anything at all..." - Fear based religions are not the product of an all loving God.
Creator of the universe and blah, blah, blah...you know the story.
What I do want to state about who I am is the fact that none of you are special to me. I feel the same for one of you that I do for the rest of you. There is no holy land also. The entire planet is the holy land.
What else do you want to know? I don't condemn. I don't judge. I offer love and to Me, you are my ultimate creations!
I only want you to stop hurting each other and judging so superficially. I want you to love and not live in fear. I gave you free will though. I gave you free will to experience the world and become who you really are.
Many of you believe I wrote the bible. That I dictated absolute truth to Moses and the prophets. Yes, I did inspire these individuals. Inspiration is much different than dictation though. I no more inspired them to the creation of this book, than I inspire you to create in your own life. My inspiration alone is not enough to lay a foundation for absolute truth. Free will is a gift to every man and woman on this planet and it is not my place to dictate this gift. The bible was written by men with free will who were inspired by Me.
Did you know that many books were left out of the Holy Bible when it was created? Did you know there are many other ancient scriptures speaking of Christ and events during his life. The Nag Hammadi Library are thought to be primarily Gnostic in origin, while the Apocrypha are the books that did not make the Council of Nicea's cut for the final edit of the Bible when Rome adopted Christianity for it's own faith.
All I ask is that before you decide that one book is My absolute truth, please read all the other holy books and scriptures. Then decide on your truth. Knowledge is power.
I want you to have a better understanding of who I am. I want you to know that what you have learned should be questioned. You have that right. I think no less of you no matter what you believe.
If truth is what you seek, then truth is what you shall find.
God
Creator of the universe and blah, blah, blah...you know the story.
What I do want to state about who I am is the fact that none of you are special to me. I feel the same for one of you that I do for the rest of you. There is no holy land also. The entire planet is the holy land.
What else do you want to know? I don't condemn. I don't judge. I offer love and to Me, you are my ultimate creations!
I only want you to stop hurting each other and judging so superficially. I want you to love and not live in fear. I gave you free will though. I gave you free will to experience the world and become who you really are.
Many of you believe I wrote the bible. That I dictated absolute truth to Moses and the prophets. Yes, I did inspire these individuals. Inspiration is much different than dictation though. I no more inspired them to the creation of this book, than I inspire you to create in your own life. My inspiration alone is not enough to lay a foundation for absolute truth. Free will is a gift to every man and woman on this planet and it is not my place to dictate this gift. The bible was written by men with free will who were inspired by Me.
Did you know that many books were left out of the Holy Bible when it was created? Did you know there are many other ancient scriptures speaking of Christ and events during his life. The Nag Hammadi Library are thought to be primarily Gnostic in origin, while the Apocrypha are the books that did not make the Council of Nicea's cut for the final edit of the Bible when Rome adopted Christianity for it's own faith.
All I ask is that before you decide that one book is My absolute truth, please read all the other holy books and scriptures. Then decide on your truth. Knowledge is power.
I want you to have a better understanding of who I am. I want you to know that what you have learned should be questioned. You have that right. I think no less of you no matter what you believe.
If truth is what you seek, then truth is what you shall find.
God
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Pope Says Condoms Make the Aids Epidemic Worse
AMAZING!
The Pope courted further controversy on his first trip to Africa today by declaring that condoms were not a solution to the Aids epidemic – but were instead part of the problem.
In his first public comments on condom use, the pontiff told reporters en route to Cameroon that Aids "is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems".
Pope Benedict has previously stressed that the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against Aids. The Vatican encourages sexual abstinence to fight the spread of the disease.
After his election as Pope, Benedict described Aids as a "a cruel epidemic which not only kills but seriously threatens the economic and social stability of the continent", but reiterated the Vatican ban on the use of condoms.
He said the "traditional teaching of the Church" on chastity outside marriage and fidelity within it had proved to be "the only sure way of preventing the spread of HIV and Aids".
The Pope, who will also visit Angola, is making his first trip as pontiff to Africa, the continent where the Roman Catholic Church is growing fastest.
Two years ago there was speculation that the Vatican might amend its ban on condoms after Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the former Archbishop of Milan, said that in couples where one partner had HIV/Aids, the use of condoms was "a lesser evil".
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan of Mexico, the Vatican Health Minister, also said condoms could sometimes be exceptionally condoned, for example when a married woman was unable to refuse her HIV-positive husband's sexual advances.
"You can defend yourself with any means," he said. A subsequent Vatican study of the issue reiterated the blanket ban on condoms, however.
In 2003 a senior Vatican official claimed condoms had tiny holes in them through which HIV can pass, exposing thousands of people to risk.
The then head of the Vatican Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, said: "The Aids virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom."
He added "These margins of uncertainty... should represent an obligation on the part of the health ministries and all these campaigns to act in the same way as they do with regard to cigarettes, which they state to be a danger."
The World Health Organisation responded at the time by saying that "These incorrect statements about condoms and HIV are dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people, and currently affects at least 42 million."
The WHO said that "consistent and correct" condom use reduces the risk of HIV infection by 90 per cent.
The Pope courted further controversy on his first trip to Africa today by declaring that condoms were not a solution to the Aids epidemic – but were instead part of the problem.
In his first public comments on condom use, the pontiff told reporters en route to Cameroon that Aids "is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems".
Pope Benedict has previously stressed that the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against Aids. The Vatican encourages sexual abstinence to fight the spread of the disease.
After his election as Pope, Benedict described Aids as a "a cruel epidemic which not only kills but seriously threatens the economic and social stability of the continent", but reiterated the Vatican ban on the use of condoms.
He said the "traditional teaching of the Church" on chastity outside marriage and fidelity within it had proved to be "the only sure way of preventing the spread of HIV and Aids".
The Pope, who will also visit Angola, is making his first trip as pontiff to Africa, the continent where the Roman Catholic Church is growing fastest.
Two years ago there was speculation that the Vatican might amend its ban on condoms after Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the former Archbishop of Milan, said that in couples where one partner had HIV/Aids, the use of condoms was "a lesser evil".
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan of Mexico, the Vatican Health Minister, also said condoms could sometimes be exceptionally condoned, for example when a married woman was unable to refuse her HIV-positive husband's sexual advances.
"You can defend yourself with any means," he said. A subsequent Vatican study of the issue reiterated the blanket ban on condoms, however.
In 2003 a senior Vatican official claimed condoms had tiny holes in them through which HIV can pass, exposing thousands of people to risk.
The then head of the Vatican Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, said: "The Aids virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom."
He added "These margins of uncertainty... should represent an obligation on the part of the health ministries and all these campaigns to act in the same way as they do with regard to cigarettes, which they state to be a danger."
The World Health Organisation responded at the time by saying that "These incorrect statements about condoms and HIV are dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people, and currently affects at least 42 million."
The WHO said that "consistent and correct" condom use reduces the risk of HIV infection by 90 per cent.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Porn in the USA: Conservatives are Biggest Consumers
Americans may paint themselves in increasingly bright shades of red and blue, but new research finds one thing that varies little across the nation: the liking for online pornography.
A new nationwide study (pdf) of anonymised credit-card receipts from a major online adult entertainment provider finds little variation in consumption between states.
"When it comes to adult entertainment, it seems people are more the same than different," says Benjamin Edelman at Harvard Business School.
However, there are some trends to be seen in the data. Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.
"Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by," Edelman says.
Political divide
Edelman spends part of his time helping companies such as Microsoft and AOL detect advertising fraud. Another consulting client runs dozens of adult websites, though he says he is not at liberty to identify the firm.
That company did, however, provide Edelman with roughly two years of credit card data from 2006 to 2008 that included a purchase date and each customer's postal code.
After controlling for differences in broadband internet access between states – online porn tends to be a bandwidth hog – and adjusting for population, he found a relatively small difference between states with the most adult purchases and those with the fewest.
The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana bought the least with 1.92 per 1000. "The differences here are not so stark," Edelman says.
Number 10 on the list was West Virginia at 2.94 subscriptions per 1000, while number 41, Michigan, averaged 2.32.
Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.
Old-fashioned values
Church-goers bought less online porn on Sundays – a 1% increase in a postal code's religious attendance was associated with a 0.1% drop in subscriptions that day. However, expenditures on other days of the week brought them in line with the rest of the country, Edelman finds.
Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don't explicitly restrict gay marriage.
To get a better handle on other associations between social attitudes and pornography consumption, Edelman melded his data with a previous study on public attitudes toward religion.
States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage," bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed. A similar difference emerged for the statement "AIDS might be God's punishment for immoral sexual behaviour."
"One natural hypothesis is something like repression: if you're told you can't have this, then you want it more," Edelman says.
A new nationwide study (pdf) of anonymised credit-card receipts from a major online adult entertainment provider finds little variation in consumption between states.
"When it comes to adult entertainment, it seems people are more the same than different," says Benjamin Edelman at Harvard Business School.
However, there are some trends to be seen in the data. Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.
"Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by," Edelman says.
Political divide
Edelman spends part of his time helping companies such as Microsoft and AOL detect advertising fraud. Another consulting client runs dozens of adult websites, though he says he is not at liberty to identify the firm.
That company did, however, provide Edelman with roughly two years of credit card data from 2006 to 2008 that included a purchase date and each customer's postal code.
After controlling for differences in broadband internet access between states – online porn tends to be a bandwidth hog – and adjusting for population, he found a relatively small difference between states with the most adult purchases and those with the fewest.
The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana bought the least with 1.92 per 1000. "The differences here are not so stark," Edelman says.
Number 10 on the list was West Virginia at 2.94 subscriptions per 1000, while number 41, Michigan, averaged 2.32.
Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.
Old-fashioned values
Church-goers bought less online porn on Sundays – a 1% increase in a postal code's religious attendance was associated with a 0.1% drop in subscriptions that day. However, expenditures on other days of the week brought them in line with the rest of the country, Edelman finds.
Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don't explicitly restrict gay marriage.
To get a better handle on other associations between social attitudes and pornography consumption, Edelman melded his data with a previous study on public attitudes toward religion.
States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage," bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed. A similar difference emerged for the statement "AIDS might be God's punishment for immoral sexual behaviour."
"One natural hypothesis is something like repression: if you're told you can't have this, then you want it more," Edelman says.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Judgement Day
I have a new theory I would like to share with you. I have done much reading on subjects such as religion and history of mankind. I have seen numerous documentaries on the subjects as well.
Recently I rented the new documentary from Bill Maher, Religulous. It is an excellent film on religion and it's destructive force in the world. It is really a great movie. Many things Bill covers about religion make you think. Especially the end of the movie. That is the best part and strongest message of the film.
I have come to the conclusion that this "Judgement Day" that is in all of our religious scriptures is nothing more than the final clash of cultures. Our inability to let others live will be our final demise.
No God will seek revenge. No Divine Being will rise from the dead. Simply put, we will do it to ourselves.
Hopefully this time, the lessons of what happens is not buried along with history of what happens.
Recently I rented the new documentary from Bill Maher, Religulous. It is an excellent film on religion and it's destructive force in the world. It is really a great movie. Many things Bill covers about religion make you think. Especially the end of the movie. That is the best part and strongest message of the film.
I have come to the conclusion that this "Judgement Day" that is in all of our religious scriptures is nothing more than the final clash of cultures. Our inability to let others live will be our final demise.
No God will seek revenge. No Divine Being will rise from the dead. Simply put, we will do it to ourselves.
Hopefully this time, the lessons of what happens is not buried along with history of what happens.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Be Rational!
Bronze Age Beliefs:
The Earth Was Flat
Constellations Were Celestial Beings
Spitting on a Wound Cured It
Sea Monsters Were Considered a Legitimate Hazard
If you would not believe any of these things that at once were considered 'facts' about the world we live in, why would you believe in a book from the same time period?
Be rational with yourself! Grow up or we all die.....
Bill Maher - Religulous
The Earth Was Flat
Constellations Were Celestial Beings
Spitting on a Wound Cured It
Sea Monsters Were Considered a Legitimate Hazard
If you would not believe any of these things that at once were considered 'facts' about the world we live in, why would you believe in a book from the same time period?
Be rational with yourself! Grow up or we all die.....
Meet the Second Christ
The minister has the number 666 tattooed on his arm.
But Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is not your typical minister. De Jesus, or "Daddy" as his thousands of followers call him, does not merely pray to God: He says he is God.
"The spirit that is in me is the same spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth," de Jesus says.
De Jesus' claims of divinity have angered Christian leaders, who say he is a fake. Religious experts say he may be something much more dangerous, a cult leader who really believes he is God. (Watch followers get 666 tattoos for their leader )
"He's in their heads, he's inside the heads of those people," says Prof. Daniel Alvarez, a religion expert at Florida International University who has debated some of de Jesus' followers.
"De Jesus speaks with a kind of conviction that makes me consider him more like David Koresh or Jim Jones."
Is de Jesus really a cult leader like David Koresh, who died with more than 70 of his Branch Davidian followers in a fiery end to a standoff with federal authorities, or Jim Jones, the founder of the Peoples Temple who committed mass suicide with 900 followers in 1978?
Prophets 'spoke to me' - De Jesus and his believers say their church -- "Creciendo en Gracia," Spanish for "Growing in grace" -- is misunderstood. Followers of the movement say they have proof that their minister is divine and that their church will one day soon be a major faith in the world.
But even de Jesus concedes that he is an unlikely leader of a church that claims thousands of members in more than 30 countries.
De Jesus, 61, grew up poor in Puerto Rico. He says he served stints in prison there for petty theft and says he was a heroin addict.
De Jesus says he learned he was Jesus reincarnate when he was visited in a dream by angels.
"The prophets, they spoke about me. It took me time to learn that, but I am what they were expecting, what they have been expecting for 2,000 years," de Jesus says.
The church that he began building 20 years ago in Miami resembles no other:
Followers have protested Christian churches in Miami and Latin America, disrupting services and smashing crosses and statues of Jesus.
De Jesus preaches there is no devil and no sin. His followers, he says, literally can do no wrong in God's eyes.
The church calls itself the "Government of God on Earth" and uses a seal similar to the United States.
Doing God's work with a Lexus and Rolex
If Creciendo en Gracia is an atypical religious group, de Jesus also does not fit the mold of the average church leader. De Jesus flouts traditional vows of poverty.
He says he has a church-paid salary of $136,000 but lives more lavishly than that. During an interview, he showed off a diamond-encrusted Rolex to a CNN crew and said he has three just like them. He travels in armored Lexuses and BMWs, he says, for his safety. All are gifts from his devoted followers.
And what about the tattoo of 666 on his arm?
Although it's a number usually associated with Satan, not the son of God, de Jesus says that 666 and the Antichrist are, like him, misunderstood.
The Antichrist is not the devil, de Jesus tells his congregation; he's the being who replaces Jesus on Earth.
"Antichrist is the best person in the world," he says. "Antichrist means don't put your eyes on Jesus because Jesus of Nazareth wasn't a Christian. Antichrist means do not put your eyes on Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Put it on Jesus after the cross."
And de Jesus says that means him.
So far, de Jesus says that his flock hasn't been scared off by his claims of being the Antichrist. In a show of the sway he holds over the group, 30 members of his congregation Tuesday went to a tattoo parlor to have 666 also permanently etched onto their skin.
He may wield influence over them, but his followers say don't expect them to go the way of people who believed in David Koresh and Jim Jones. Just by finding de Jesus, they say, they have achieved their purpose.
"If somebody tells us drink some Kool-Aid and we'll go to heaven, that's not true. We are already in heavenly places," follower Martita Roca told CNN after having 666 tattooed onto her ankle.
But Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is not your typical minister. De Jesus, or "Daddy" as his thousands of followers call him, does not merely pray to God: He says he is God.
"The spirit that is in me is the same spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth," de Jesus says.
De Jesus' claims of divinity have angered Christian leaders, who say he is a fake. Religious experts say he may be something much more dangerous, a cult leader who really believes he is God. (Watch followers get 666 tattoos for their leader )
"He's in their heads, he's inside the heads of those people," says Prof. Daniel Alvarez, a religion expert at Florida International University who has debated some of de Jesus' followers.
"De Jesus speaks with a kind of conviction that makes me consider him more like David Koresh or Jim Jones."
Is de Jesus really a cult leader like David Koresh, who died with more than 70 of his Branch Davidian followers in a fiery end to a standoff with federal authorities, or Jim Jones, the founder of the Peoples Temple who committed mass suicide with 900 followers in 1978?
Prophets 'spoke to me' - De Jesus and his believers say their church -- "Creciendo en Gracia," Spanish for "Growing in grace" -- is misunderstood. Followers of the movement say they have proof that their minister is divine and that their church will one day soon be a major faith in the world.
But even de Jesus concedes that he is an unlikely leader of a church that claims thousands of members in more than 30 countries.
De Jesus, 61, grew up poor in Puerto Rico. He says he served stints in prison there for petty theft and says he was a heroin addict.
De Jesus says he learned he was Jesus reincarnate when he was visited in a dream by angels.
"The prophets, they spoke about me. It took me time to learn that, but I am what they were expecting, what they have been expecting for 2,000 years," de Jesus says.
The church that he began building 20 years ago in Miami resembles no other:
Followers have protested Christian churches in Miami and Latin America, disrupting services and smashing crosses and statues of Jesus.
De Jesus preaches there is no devil and no sin. His followers, he says, literally can do no wrong in God's eyes.
The church calls itself the "Government of God on Earth" and uses a seal similar to the United States.
Doing God's work with a Lexus and Rolex
If Creciendo en Gracia is an atypical religious group, de Jesus also does not fit the mold of the average church leader. De Jesus flouts traditional vows of poverty.
He says he has a church-paid salary of $136,000 but lives more lavishly than that. During an interview, he showed off a diamond-encrusted Rolex to a CNN crew and said he has three just like them. He travels in armored Lexuses and BMWs, he says, for his safety. All are gifts from his devoted followers.
And what about the tattoo of 666 on his arm?
Although it's a number usually associated with Satan, not the son of God, de Jesus says that 666 and the Antichrist are, like him, misunderstood.
The Antichrist is not the devil, de Jesus tells his congregation; he's the being who replaces Jesus on Earth.
"Antichrist is the best person in the world," he says. "Antichrist means don't put your eyes on Jesus because Jesus of Nazareth wasn't a Christian. Antichrist means do not put your eyes on Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Put it on Jesus after the cross."
And de Jesus says that means him.
So far, de Jesus says that his flock hasn't been scared off by his claims of being the Antichrist. In a show of the sway he holds over the group, 30 members of his congregation Tuesday went to a tattoo parlor to have 666 also permanently etched onto their skin.
He may wield influence over them, but his followers say don't expect them to go the way of people who believed in David Koresh and Jim Jones. Just by finding de Jesus, they say, they have achieved their purpose.
"If somebody tells us drink some Kool-Aid and we'll go to heaven, that's not true. We are already in heavenly places," follower Martita Roca told CNN after having 666 tattooed onto her ankle.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Kentucky Law Requires Homeland Security Credit God
Like God has done so well with protecting the rest of the world...
Kentucky’s Homeland Security office must publicize God’s benevolent protection of the state in its reports under the 2006 law that organized the department.
Under the law, Homeland Security’s religious duties come before anything else the department does, including distribution of millions of dollars in federal grants and analyzing possible threats.
The law lists the office’s initial duty as “stressing the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth.”
State Rep. Tom Riner of Louisville, who pushed for the religious requirement, told The Lexington Herald-Leader it was appropriate because government alone cannot protect the state.
State Sen. Kathy Stein of Lexington said the religious requirement takes away from the department’s mission.
Kentucky’s Homeland Security office must publicize God’s benevolent protection of the state in its reports under the 2006 law that organized the department.
Under the law, Homeland Security’s religious duties come before anything else the department does, including distribution of millions of dollars in federal grants and analyzing possible threats.
The law lists the office’s initial duty as “stressing the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth.”
State Rep. Tom Riner of Louisville, who pushed for the religious requirement, told The Lexington Herald-Leader it was appropriate because government alone cannot protect the state.
State Sen. Kathy Stein of Lexington said the religious requirement takes away from the department’s mission.
Friday, November 14, 2008
More Proof Your Religions Are Flawed
A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him "constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil."
The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.
"Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president," Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein.
"Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ's Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation."
During the 2008 presidential campaign, many bishops spoke out on abortion more boldly than four years earlier, telling Catholic politicians and voters that the issue should be the most important consideration in setting policy and deciding which candidate to back. A few church leaders said parishioners risked their immortal soul by voting for candidates who support abortion rights.
But bishops differ on whether Catholic lawmakers — and voters — should refrain from receiving Communion if they diverge from church teaching on abortion. Each bishop sets policy in his own diocese. In their annual fall meeting, the nation's Catholic bishops vowed Tuesday to forcefully confront the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights.
According to national exit polls, 54 percent of Catholics chose Obama, who is Protestant. In South Carolina, which McCain carried, voters in Greenville County — traditionally seen as among the state's most conservative areas — went 61 percent for the Republican, and 37 percent for Obama.
"It was not an attempt to make a partisan point," Newman said in a telephone interview Thursday. "In fact, in this election, for the sake of argument, if the Republican candidate had been pro-abortion, and the Democratic candidate had been pro-life, everything that I wrote would have been exactly the same."
Conservative Catholics criticized Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004 for supporting abortion rights, with a few Catholic bishops saying Kerry should refrain from receiving Holy Communion because his views were contrary to church teachings.
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said she had not heard of other churches taking this position in reaction to Obama's win. A Boston-based group that supports Catholic Democrats questioned the move, saying it was too extreme.
"Father Newman is off base," said Steve Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats. "He is acting beyond the authority of a parish priest to say what he did. ... Unfortunately, he is doing so in a manner that will be of great cost to those parishioners who did vote for Sens. Obama and Biden. There will be a spiritual cost to them for his words."
A man who has attended St. Mary's for 18 years said he welcomed Newman's message and anticipated it would inspire further discussion at the church.
"I don't understand anyone who would call themselves a Christian, let alone a Catholic, and could vote for someone who's a pro-abortion candidate," said Ted Kelly, 64, who volunteers his time as lector for the church. "You're talking about the murder of innocent beings."
The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.
"Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president," Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein.
"Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ's Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation."
During the 2008 presidential campaign, many bishops spoke out on abortion more boldly than four years earlier, telling Catholic politicians and voters that the issue should be the most important consideration in setting policy and deciding which candidate to back. A few church leaders said parishioners risked their immortal soul by voting for candidates who support abortion rights.
But bishops differ on whether Catholic lawmakers — and voters — should refrain from receiving Communion if they diverge from church teaching on abortion. Each bishop sets policy in his own diocese. In their annual fall meeting, the nation's Catholic bishops vowed Tuesday to forcefully confront the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights.
According to national exit polls, 54 percent of Catholics chose Obama, who is Protestant. In South Carolina, which McCain carried, voters in Greenville County — traditionally seen as among the state's most conservative areas — went 61 percent for the Republican, and 37 percent for Obama.
"It was not an attempt to make a partisan point," Newman said in a telephone interview Thursday. "In fact, in this election, for the sake of argument, if the Republican candidate had been pro-abortion, and the Democratic candidate had been pro-life, everything that I wrote would have been exactly the same."
Conservative Catholics criticized Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004 for supporting abortion rights, with a few Catholic bishops saying Kerry should refrain from receiving Holy Communion because his views were contrary to church teachings.
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said she had not heard of other churches taking this position in reaction to Obama's win. A Boston-based group that supports Catholic Democrats questioned the move, saying it was too extreme.
"Father Newman is off base," said Steve Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats. "He is acting beyond the authority of a parish priest to say what he did. ... Unfortunately, he is doing so in a manner that will be of great cost to those parishioners who did vote for Sens. Obama and Biden. There will be a spiritual cost to them for his words."
A man who has attended St. Mary's for 18 years said he welcomed Newman's message and anticipated it would inspire further discussion at the church.
"I don't understand anyone who would call themselves a Christian, let alone a Catholic, and could vote for someone who's a pro-abortion candidate," said Ted Kelly, 64, who volunteers his time as lector for the church. "You're talking about the murder of innocent beings."
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Is Obama the Anti Christ?
Below you will find an email that was circulating around about this hideous claim. I wanted to clear this up and use the bible to prove this claim is just bullshit.
The item quoted above, linking presidential candidate Barack Obama with the figure of the anti-Christ, is more of the same type of denigrative fiction. Contrary to popular belief, the New Testament book of Revelation (not "Revelations," as it is commonly rendered) does not provide a laundry list of signs for identifying the appearance of an anti-Christ. In fact, it neither uses the term "anti-Christ" nor describes such a figure — Chapter 13 of that book merely recounts the appearance of "beasts," who are depicted in animalistic terms (as rendered in the King James version of the Bible):
Nothing in the Bible — in Revelation or elsewhere — describes the anti-Christ as being "a man, in his 40s, of Muslim descent." In fact, since the book of Revelation was complete by the end of the second century, but the religion of Islam wasn't founded until about four hundred years later, the notion that Revelation would have mentioned a "Muslim" at all is rather far-fetched. (And even if it did, it couldn't be construed as a reference to Barack Obama, since Senator Obama isn't a Muslim.)
The Biblical citation most relevant to this issue might not be one from Revelation, but rather this passage from the Gospel of Matthew:
And even this is such a broad statement. My mother is a christian and told me, if Obama is the anti Christ, there is nothing anyone can do about it. According to the teachings in the religion, he will come and no one, repeat key words, no one will know who it is because he will be so convincing other wise. Everyone will fall for it. There will be no one claiming they know who this person is.
To just show you how crazy this is, in my research I found an article about how the president of France, Sarkozy is the anti Christ. This proves that it is just rumors from paranoid people who think they know it all.
What I find amazing is how actual self proclaimed Christians do not know their bible. Even though they cling to it, they misquote it constantly. How is that even possible? It is because most religious people are sheep and follow. They do not research the information for themselves. They accept it from their pastor as truth.
I hope this opened someones eyes. Read your bible if you really believe that book was written by God. Study it and stop misquoting it!
Revelation (the final book of the New Testament) and Nostradamus' Prophecies are two all-purpose befuddling works. If you want to sow fear, uncertainty, and doubt (or simply yank people's chains), simply claim that some prominent person or recent event corresponds to descriptions that presage the end of the world, as elaborated by Revelation or Nostradamus. After all, comparatively few people have read either of those works; most people just have some vague idea that they describe, in detail, a coming apocalypse and the signs that will herald its imminent arrival. So pick your target, make up a list of reasons to explain how it supposedly matches up with end-of-the-world predictions, and watch the process of bewilderment begin. (We saw this happen in spades with bogus Nostradamus prophecies immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.)According to the Book of Revelations the anti-christ is: The anti-christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal.... the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything. Is it OBAMA??
The item quoted above, linking presidential candidate Barack Obama with the figure of the anti-Christ, is more of the same type of denigrative fiction. Contrary to popular belief, the New Testament book of Revelation (not "Revelations," as it is commonly rendered) does not provide a laundry list of signs for identifying the appearance of an anti-Christ. In fact, it neither uses the term "anti-Christ" nor describes such a figure — Chapter 13 of that book merely recounts the appearance of "beasts," who are depicted in animalistic terms (as rendered in the King James version of the Bible):
The term "anti-Christ" is mentioned several times in the first and second letters of John, but none of those passages specifically describes or identifies the anti-Christ figure (other than as a denier of the divinity of Jesus):And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?
And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
If any man have an ear, let him hear.
He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
Nothing in the Bible — in Revelation or elsewhere — describes the anti-Christ as being "a man, in his 40s, of Muslim descent." In fact, since the book of Revelation was complete by the end of the second century, but the religion of Islam wasn't founded until about four hundred years later, the notion that Revelation would have mentioned a "Muslim" at all is rather far-fetched. (And even if it did, it couldn't be construed as a reference to Barack Obama, since Senator Obama isn't a Muslim.)
The Biblical citation most relevant to this issue might not be one from Revelation, but rather this passage from the Gospel of Matthew:
Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
And even this is such a broad statement. My mother is a christian and told me, if Obama is the anti Christ, there is nothing anyone can do about it. According to the teachings in the religion, he will come and no one, repeat key words, no one will know who it is because he will be so convincing other wise. Everyone will fall for it. There will be no one claiming they know who this person is.
To just show you how crazy this is, in my research I found an article about how the president of France, Sarkozy is the anti Christ. This proves that it is just rumors from paranoid people who think they know it all.
What I find amazing is how actual self proclaimed Christians do not know their bible. Even though they cling to it, they misquote it constantly. How is that even possible? It is because most religious people are sheep and follow. They do not research the information for themselves. They accept it from their pastor as truth.
I hope this opened someones eyes. Read your bible if you really believe that book was written by God. Study it and stop misquoting it!
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