Tag Archives: Religion
Don’t put ‘God’ in public school banners
Multiple choice question:
Which banners do you think the public schools had a problem with?
A – a 35 to 40 foot string of Tibetan prayer flags with images of Buddha
B – a poster with the lyrics from John Lennon’s song “Imagine” (which starts off, Imagine there’s no Heaven)
C – a poster with Hindu leader Mahatma Gandhi’s “7 Social Sins”
D – a poster of Muslim leader Malcolm X
E – a poster of Buddhist leader Dali Lama
F – a banner with red, white, and blue stripes hung on the wall for twenty-five years and displayed the famous patriotic phrases: “In God We Trust,” “One Nation Under God,” “God Bless America,” and “God Shed His Grace on Thee.”
G – a banner, which had been displayed for seventeen years, contained an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence: “All Men Are Created Equal, They Are Endowed By Their Creator.”
If you chose F & G you would be right. A judge told off the school telling them that all religions must be tolerated and not just the ones they want to pick and choose. Can you believe that had to go all the way to the court system?
Don’t tell the liberals – Christianity is growing
Shhhhh….don’t tell them. I know it will be another blow to their psyche. First they find out that they are actually a political minority, then the Tea Party movement comes along and blows them away to the point of going into hysterics, and now I’m worried that they will just totally freak when they find this out. If it wasn’t bad enough – it is the traditional faiths that are growing!
The National Council of Churches’ 2010 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches reports membership gains in the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Assemblies of God, among others.
The 78th annual edition of the Yearbook also reports a continuing decline in membership of virtually all mainline denominations. And the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s second largest denomination and long a reliable generator of church growth, reported a decline in membership for the second year in a row, down 0.24 percent to 16,266,920.
The Catholic Church, the nation’s largest at more than 68 million members, also reported a slight membership loss in 2009 but rebounded this year with a robust growth of 1.49 percent.
Will the real Racist please stand up
We hear it all the time, don’t we. We preach morality and are vocal about our belief’s; basically, we do the same thing the secularists do but we don’t agree that all lifestyles are okay so this means we are the one’s that are wrong. Therefore we are the racists and they are the “tolerant” ones. But I digress…..
This weekend one of the Catholic schools around here hosted a Christian retreat called “Destination Jesus” or “DJ” as it is known to the teens. I had the opportunity to be a part of DJ for a couple hours by helping out Indianapolis Right to Life with their educational booth. I had a blast. The teens were great and it gave me some renewed hope for the future.
What surprised me is that the teens wanted to talk about abstinence and they wanted information on STD’s. They also wanted information on teenage pregnancy but that was more of an afterthought. Well, you all know me – I was prepared with my knowledge from the Center for Disease Control and the Guttmacher Institute. Most of them were in shock, especially the kids from the public schools. (Yes, I asked) They never thought about the difference in the words ‘protect’ and ‘prevent’. ‘Protecting’ means you reduce the risk of something, it does not mean you ‘prevent’ the risk. None of them seemed to know that condoms don’t really protect you against STD’s. None of them had ever heard the phrase “reduce the risk” in correlation with condom use.
Closed On Sunday ~ ~ ~ January 17th, 2010
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Reading I
Is 62:1-5
For Zion’s sake I will not be silent,
for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet,
until her vindication shines forth like the dawn
and her victory like a burning torch.
Nations shall behold your vindication,
and all the kings your glory;
you shall be called by a new name
pronounced by the mouth of the LORD.
You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the LORD,
a royal diadem held by your God.
No more shall people call you “Forsaken, “
or your land “Desolate, “
but you shall be called “My Delight, “
and your land “Espoused.”
For the LORD delights in you
and makes your land his spouse.
As a young man marries a virgin,
your Builder shall marry you;
and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride
so shall your God rejoice in you.
Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, Christianity and Secularism
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Helmuth James Graf von Moltke was hanged in Plotzensee prison in 1945. His crime? Not thinking as he was told to. Basically his way of thinking was a violation of Hitler’s agenda so he was jailed and put to death.
There was a resistance to Hitler’s plan for Germany and the majority of these resisters were not only politically opposed to his agenda they were morally opposed. It is when people believe that morality is in question is when we fight with passion and from our hearts. Hitler knew this which is why he tried to squash anything religious.
I found out today that Von Malke’s wife, Freya, died last week. She spent a good portion of her life putting her husband’s letters together and getting them published in 1995. We find in those letters that Von Malke felt religion would defeat Hitler:
The Problem with Liberalism
MK and I have tried our very best to try to put into words why the “give give give” ideology of liberalism is wrong. I was very pleased to read an article by “Robin of Berkeley” on the American Thinker website that explained it well.
Robin is a recent conservative convert living in Berkeley and a psychotherapist. She talks about early experiences working with poor black foster mom’s in “dicey” area’s of Oakland:
Not a day went by that I didn’t cry — and not just because of the sorrowful plight of the kids…..
These families were not raising your average kids. There were crack babies screaming in agony 24/7; molested kids who compulsively masturbated; children beaten and burned and now acting like hellions.
And yet these families just kept on going because, as they would tell me, they prayed, and Jesus wanted them to take care of the kids….
She goes on to tell stories of people taking these children into their hearts without even thinking about how it would affect their own lives. These people didn’t scream “why me?” while looking at an abused, neglected and abandoned child; they opened their arms and their front doors to offer help.
Secular Government at war with Religion
Many people always bring up England as good examples of how America should be. Case in point is healthcare. We are always directed towards how Europe handles healthcare and compares that to us. And look what is happening now. It looks like the so called “universal” healthcare will become an American Problem soon.
Europe began the elimination of religion before America did. And now America is beginning to follow that ideology. So, it isn’t a far stretch to say what happens in Europe will soon be happening here:
The Jewish Free School (JFS), a very successful secondary school in Brent, is run along Orthodox Jewish lines. A dispute arose about the admission of a boy known as M. M’s mother became Jewish by conversion, but only after giving birth to M. According to Orthodox rules (see that chapter of Deuteronomy), Jewishness passes through the female line. M, therefore, was not Jewish, and so did not have the right of admission to the JFS.
The Supreme Court, however, decided by a majority of five to four that the decision to exclude M was in contravention of section one of the Race Relations Act. He was excluded on racial grounds, it held.
CLOSED ON SUNDAY ~ ~ ~ December 20th, 2009
FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Reading 1
Mi 5:1-4a
Thus says the LORD:
You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah
too small to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel;
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient times.
Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time
when she who is to give birth has borne,
and the rest of his kindred shall return
to the children of Israel.
He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock
by the strength of the LORD,
in the majestic name of the LORD, his God;
and they shall remain, for now his greatness
shall reach to the ends of the earth; he shall be peace. 
Brothers and sisters:
When Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight.
Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll,
behold, I come to do your will, O God.’“
Religious Inclusion Works – Imagine That
Around this time of the year I start to complain that the “everyone must tolerate only me and my belief’s” crowd take over the holiday’s by forced exclusion of anything they don’t agree with. I have said many times over that inclusion is the answer and exclusion is not the right way to go. Some agreed and some scoffed.
Here is more proof that inclusion works and is has a very positive result for the people involved:
The Air Force Academy says religious tolerance has improved dramatically…..
The academy superintendent, Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Gould, says the improvements are the result of a topdown campaign to foster respect and a commitment to accommodate all cadets, even nonbelievers and an "Earth-centered" religious group that needed a place for a stone circle so it could worship outdoors…
Academy commanders say the school has started to seek out the religious needs of its cadets and accommodate them, instead of waiting for cadets to ask. For example, a Cadet Interfaith Council with about 20 members helps identify upcoming religious holidays so schedules can be adjusted around them, when possible…..
Our Lady Of Guadalupe
Before we even begin to talk about Our Lady, we need to have some background on the Aztec Indians.
In 1520, the aztecs were a pagan people, worshipping many gods. The most important of these gods was Huitzilopochtli. Appeasing this god, entailed human sacrifice, and a lot of it. It was believed that a human heart had to be offered up to Huitzilopochtli on a daily basis, or the sun would not come up.
From Minnesota State University Museum’s website:
In Mesoamerica, the most obvious practice of human sacrifice was found in the Aztec Culture. Under the leadership of Montezuma and others before him, sacrifice became a key element in their ritual and worship to many gods. The Aztecs were constantly at “war” with neighboring tribes and groups. The goal of this constant warfare was to collect live prisoners for sacrifice. The Flowery Wars began with a mutual agreement between the Aztecs and the Tlaxcalans to capture live men for future sacrifice (Meyers & Sherman:65).
The Aztecs worshipped a war god called Huitzilopochtli, who took on the likeness of the sun over time. It was thought that in order to insure the sun’s arrival each day, a steady supply of human hearts had to be offered in holy sacrifice (Hogg:43). They believed that the sun and earth had already been destroyed four times, and in their time of the 5th sun, final destruction would soon be upon them. In order to delay this dreadful fate, the practice of human sacrifice became a major element in Aztec society and livelihood (Meyer & Sherman:67).
The most common form of sacrifice was performed outside, on the top of a great pyramid. The victim was spread-eagled on a round stone, with his back arched. His limbs were held, while a priest used an obsidian knife to cut under the rib cage and remove his heart. This method was used when honoring the sun god, Huitzilopochtli. Each god apparently preferred a different form of sacrifice. For the fertility
god Xipe Totec, the person was tied to a post and shot full of arrows. His blood flowing out represented the cool spring rains (Meyer & Sherman:69). The fire god required a newly wed couple. They were thrown into the god’s altars and allowed to burn and at the last minute they were taken out and had their hearts removed as a second offering (Hogg :48). The earth mother goddess, Teteoinnan, was extremely important. At harvest time, a female victim was flayed and her skin was carried ceremoniously to one of the temples. Her skin was worn by an officiating priest who then symbolized the goddess herself (Meyer & Sherman:44 Human sacrifices were seen in many different cultures in Latin American, such as Olmecs, Mayans and the Moche.
And from another site:
Festivals and sacrifice are almost continuous in the Aztec ceremonial year. Many other gods, in addition to Huitzilopochtli, have their share of the victims.
Each February children are sacrificed to maize gods on the mountain tops. In March prisoners fight to the death in gladiatorial contests, after which priests dress up in their skins. In April a maize goddess receives her share of children. In June there are sacrifices to the salt goddess. And so it goes on. It has been calculated that the annual harvest of victims, mainly to Huitzilopochtli, rises from about 10,000 a year to a figure closer to 50,000 shortly before the arrival of the Spaniards.
These human sacrifices, (I apologize for the graphic descriptions) play a large role in the appearance of Our Lady.
Enter Juan Diego.
Most historians agree that Juan Diego was born in 1474 in the calpulli or ward of Tlayacac in Cuauhtitlan, which was established in 1168 by Nahua tribesmen and conquered by the Aztec lord Axayacatl in 1467; and was located 20 kilometers (14 miles) north of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City).
His native name was Cuauhtlatoatzin, which could be translated as “One who talks like an eagle” or “eagle that talks”.
It is interesting to note the meaning of Juan Diegos name. One who talks like an eagle. The Aztec Coat of Arms was an eagle devouring a snake. Does that image remind you of anything?
Then the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you
shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures; On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.”
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