Wednesday, December 19, 2007
A little mormonism
This is a good post on some information concerning Mormonism. It responds to a Fox News 21 question interview with someone from the Mormon church and the answers given there. If you want to see the interview itself, you can find it on Justin Taylor's blog. While I was reading this, I thought about Catholocism and the comfort that comes from having a set doctrine from the church that is set down and historically proven and Catholics hold to it. You can easily point to the areas of disagreement and continue from there. The Mormon church is really slippery. Part of this, I think, is because they don't base all of their belief on head knowledge. They don't go around spouting off doctrine. They promote and "evangelize" by talking about their experience, or the "burning in the bosom," or by talking up how great the family life is in Mormonism. If you've ever seen commercials for the Mormon church, the family is the center of everything they believe in. They don't go into anything about their beliefs. In fact, the only reason you know it comes from a religious group is that it's from the LDS church. What this means for witnessing is that when we try to address the doctrine of the church and hold it next to the Bible, they turn quickly to their personal testimony and how awesome their culture is to defend their beliefs and will cease to engage with you. This isn't always the case, but it can often be. My fear and concern is that the Mormon church is starting to look more and more mainstream and Christian. Mitt Romney can give a speech about how he believes Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world and all of a sudden, his beliefs are looking more and more Christian to the outside world. Perhaps this isn't entirely due to the Mormon church covering up their "strange" doctrines and obvious inconsistencies, although I believe much of it is. I think some of the problem is that the Christian church is no longer looking as Christian as it should. We don't stand for doctrine. We begin to spout our own personal testimonies and family life and traditions. We shouldn't neglect to talk about how Biblical Christianity does impact our lives, but those must be evidences for the truth, not the foundation for it. We have reverted to experience instead of truth and doctrine in our witnessing and apologetics. We must return to our historical roots and fight for the doctrines and truths that separate us from the rest of the world. If Christians would stand up for the sovereignty of God and his all-suffeciency, the doctrine of justification by faith alone, salvation through grace alone, the inerrance of the Bible alone, the divinity of Christ, the Trinity, etc. then perhaps the world wouldn't confuse Christianity with Mormonism and Catholocism and Mormonism and Catholocism would stop wanting to be associated with us. We need to take a stand on the firm foundation of Scripture alone and seek to show God as glorious and not our mega churches and our institutions (marriage, family, life). If we boast in our mega churches it should be because of the change produced by God through that instrument in the lives of people and the community. If we boast in our institutions like marriage and family and our pro-life causes, then it should be because they flow from a God-centered theology. We have to stop leaving God out of the center (and often the entirety) of our witness. We must boast in him and nothing else. The souls of the people of this nation depend on it.
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They say we are not ready for a black, woman or Mormon, but theirs is the foreign power. Bush talks of Islamo Fascists but we have a domestic fifth column that are
Papo Fascists, who seek to expand police and labor union powers at every excuse, despise education, oppose democracy abroad as in Israel and Iraq, want the USA to fight only for Papal interests as in Vietnam, Yugoslavia,
Philipines and Timor, but oppose USA exertions in places like Iraq. They wanted embargoes against Serbia but not Cuba. They don't want us concerned with the genocide they propogated in Rwanda while building their largest
cathedral in the world. Papo Fascists want us to expand corrupt cluttered bureaucracies to employ their families in the fight against terror but they do not actually want us to challenge terror because they are activiely supporting it. They hide behind the Evangelicals in the Religious Right, whose goals they subvert. Evangelicals always opposed slavery, labor unions and segregation and consistently supported Israel. JFK's father was recalled from Britain for nazi sympathies and was involved with mob bootlegging, which is why JFK was playing with the Cuban mobsters. Emulating Queen Victoria, Rose Kennedy married her grandchilren to all the Catholic powers of America,
including the Cuomos. The incompetence in Katrina and Manhattan rehabilitationare entirely due to the cluttered corrupt bureaucratic nature of Catholic politicians. During the two world wars Irish Catholics sided with the enemy and that enemy blew up New York Harbor (Black Tom) in 1916 and injected anthrax into Washinton DC animals. The Islamo Fascists learned their terror tactics by being on the side of our enemies in those same world wars. Furthermore, Irish Catholics lynched New York blacks during the Civil War. Make no mistake about it, Islamo Fascism and Papo Fascism are ONE. The Papo Fascists in America sided with the enemy in the first two world wars, and
are with it in this third one. America must kick the Papo Fascists from office, regardless of which party they claim to represent.
Court Could Tip to Catholic Majority, Alan Cooperman Washington Post, November 7, 2005; Page A03 If Samuel A. Alito Jr. is confirmed to the Supreme Court, a majority of its nine justices for the first time will be Roman Catholics -- a fact that, depending on whom you ask, marks the acceptance of a once-persecuted minority, reflects the importance of conservative Catholics to the Republican Party or means practically nothing. Four Catholics currently serve on the court: Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and the new chief justice, John G. Roberts Jr. From the moment that President Bush announced Alito's nomination, there has been an undercurrent of debate about the prospect of a five-member Catholic majority.
20% Dropout Rate Found For Italian-Americans May 1, 1990 B4 New York Times
FELICIA R. LEE In movies, newspapers and best-selling novels, Italian-Americans say, they often find themselves depicted as killing, cooking or singing. That biased view, experts said yesterday, has filtered
through to classrooms in New York, where many Italian-American students suffer low self-esteem because of the stereotypes. A study released yesterday showed that 20.65 percent, or 1 in 5, will not finish high school . . . The dropout study, by City University researchers, showed that Italians, the
largest white ethnic group in the city, have the third-highest dropout rate.Hispanic students have the highest rate, with 31.78 percent. Blacks are second, at 24.54. The rate for other whites is 18.55. Italians are one-third of the white students in the schools . . . The profile of Italian-American
Educational Attainment, prepared by the John D. Calandra Italian-American Institute, showed Italian-American students in New York lagging behind those elsewhere in the country. Nationally, 15.5 percent of Italian-Americans have less than an eighth-grade education. In New York, the figure is 24.9
percent. Nationally, 18.7 percent have some college work, compared with 12.5 in New York.
Study Sees Illegal Aliens In New Light New York Times September 2, 1993 B1 DEBORAH SONTAG Contrary to the images of Chinese boat people and Central American day laborers that dominate the public perception of New York State's illegal immigrants, the three major groups are from Ecuador, Italy and Poland. The first complete analysis of undocumented immigrants, released yesterday by the City Planning Department, estimates that the illegal population in New York State is the second largest in the country, after California's. . . The illegal Ecuadorean, Italian and Polish populations are followed closely, and less surprisingly, by Dominicans, Colombians, Haitians and Jamaicans, the analysis found. But illegal Chinese immigrants do not even make the top 10, and illegal Mexicans are not even in the top 20. In fact, contrary even to the expectations of immigration experts, the typical illegal immigrant in New York is twice as likely to be an Italian who overstayed a travel
visa as a Chinese migrant smuggled in by gangsters, the analysis concluded. The state is even home to slightly more illegal Israelis, 13,492, than to illegal Chinese -- 12,655, according to the report. "The data show that much of the current debate over immigration is based on myths and stereotypes rather than facts and figures," an immigration expert at the American Civil Liberties Union, Lucas Guttentag, said. "I have to say -- Italy! -- now that's news to me." . . "It's hardly a shock that New York draws Italians, given the fact that Italians are the largest ethnic group in the state," a city demographer, Joseph J. Salvo, said. "And in retrospect it's not that surprising that they are coming illegally, since the legal pathways for them have pretty much dried up." Most legal immigrants are sponsored by their immediate family members. But most Italians immigrated a few generations ago, and their family ties are too distant for sponsorship. . . The illegal Poles seem
to have melted into the established Polish communities in Brooklyn, especially Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Borough Park. Polish immigrants were the seventh largest legal immigrant
group to the city last year.
Catholic bishops adopt policy on Mexican migration By Brian Tumulty, Press-Gazette WASHINGTON U.S. Catholic bishops voted Wednesday to endorse an unprecedented joint statement with their Mexican counterparts that highlights support for a freer cross-border flow of immigrants. . . The document, "Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope," also affirms the human rights of undocumented immigrants. The U.S. bishops adopted the document by a 243-1 vote. . . Family remittances sent from the United States to Mexico by Mexican-born workers constitute Mexicos third largest source of income after petroleum and tourism. . . Wenski said the Catholic bishops have not entered into a formal alliance with the AFL-CIO and U.S. chamber on immigration, but the general agreement among the three groups should be noticed. . . The bishops attribute 71 percent of the churchs growth since 1960 to Hispanic immigration.
Unpatriotic Conservatives David Frum, April 7, 2003, National Review. . . . On September 30, 2002, Pat Buchanan offered this explanation of 9/11 during a debate on Chris Matthews's Hardball: "9/11 was a direct consequence of the United States meddling in an area of the world where we do not belong and where we are not wanted. We were attacked because we were on Saudi sacred soil and we are so-called repressing the Iraqis and we're supporting Israel and all the rest of it." . . . In August 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded and annexed Kuwait. . . Three weeks after the invasion, Pat Buchanan declared his opposition to war in one of his regular appearances on The McLaughlin Group: "There are only two groups that are beating the drums for war in the Middle East ?the Israeli defense ministry and its amen corner in the United States." . . . The Yugoslav civil wars divided conservatives. Some ? William F. Buckley Jr., Richard Perle, John O'Sullivan, and Republican political
leaders like Bob Dole ?advocated an early and decisive intervention against Slobodan Milosevic. Others ?Charles Krauthammer, Henry Kissinger, and (to drop a few rungs down the ladder) I ?argued against. Pat Buchanan, one can say, permitted a dual loyalty to influence him. Although he had denied any vital American interest in either Kuwait's oilfields or Iraq's oilfields or its aggression, in l991 he urged that the Sixth Fleet be sent to Dubrovnik to shield the Catholics of Croatia from Serbian attack. "Croatia is not some faraway desert emirate," he explained. "It is a 'piece of the continent, a part of the main,' a Western republic that belonged to the Habsburg empire and was for centuries the first line of defense of Christian Europe. For their ceaseless resistance to the Ottoman Turks, Croatia was proclaimed by Pope Leo X to be the 'Antemurale Christianitatis,' the bulwark of Christianity." . . . After the defeat of his friend Buchanan's second presidential campaign, Sobran wrote: "The full story is impossible to tell as long as it's taboo to discuss Jewish interests as freely as we discuss those of the Christian Right. Talking about American politics without mentioning the Jews is a little like talking about the NBA without mentioning the Chicago Bulls." . . . The accusations culminated in a March 2003 article by Buchanan in The American Conservative that fixed responsibility for the entire Iraq war on a "cabal" of neoconservative office-holders and writers: "We charge that a cabal of polemicists and public officials seeks to ensnare our country in a series of wars that are not in America's interests. We charge them with colluding with Israel to ignite those wars and destroy the Oslo Accords. We charge them with deliberately damaging U.S. relations with every state in the Arab world that defies Israel or supports the Palestinian people's right to a homeland of their own. We charge that they have alienated friends and allies all over the Islamic and Western world through their arrogance, hubris, and bellicosity." . . . The 9/11 attacks sent Patrick Buchanan plunging into handwringing and pessimism. He wrote on September 28, 2001: "We are told the first target of America's wrath will be the Taliban. But if we rain fire and death on the Afghan nation, a proud, brave people we helped liberate from Soviet bondage, we too will slaughter hundreds of innocents. And as they count their dead, the Afghans too will unite in moral outrage; and, as they cannot fight cruise missiles or Stealth bombers, they will attack our diplomats, businessmen, tourists."
Fjordman's Eurabia Code 2006-10-01 brusselsjournal.com/node/1401 Islamicization of Europe didn’t happen merely by accident but with the active participation of European political leaders. . . de Gaulle, disappointed by the loss of the French colonies in Africa and the Middle East as well as with France’s waning influence in the international arena, decided in the 1960’s to create a strategic alliance with the Arab and Muslim world to compete with the dominance of the United States and the Soviet Union. . . term “Eurabia” was first introduced in the mid-1970s, as the title of a journal edited by the President of the Association for Franco-Arab Solidarity, Lucien Bitterlein, and published collaboratively by the Groupe d'Etudes sur le Moyen-Orient (Geneva), France-Pays Arabes (Paris), and the Middle East International (London). . . concrete policy decisions conceived in conjunction with, and actualized by, European state leaders and European Parliamentarians.
. . November 27, 1967 press conference, Charles de Gaulle stated openly that French cooperation with the Arab world had become “the fundamental basis of our foreign policy.” . . . reinforced by the deliberate cultural transformation of Europe. Euro-Arab Dialogue Symposia conducted in Venice (1977) and Hamburg (1983) included recommendations that have been successfully implemented. . .1. Coordination of the efforts made by the Arab countries to spread the Arabic language and culture in Europe, 2. Creation of joint Euro-Arab Cultural Centers in European capitals, 3. The necessity of supplying European institutions and universities with Arab teachers specialized in teaching Arabic to Europeans, 4. The necessity of cooperation between European and Arab specialists in order to present a positive picture of Arab-Islamic civilization and contemporary Arab issues to the educated public in Europe
alt.religion.christian.roman-catholic
Subject: The Blessed Mother and Islam - Fatima
OadSg.38293$vX5.19...@bignews8.bellsouth.net
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 13:11:26 -0400
The Moors once occupied Portugal. The village of Fatima was given the Islamic name of the well-loved Princess of the nearby Castle of Ourem. She died at an early age after marrying the Count of Ourem and converting to Catholicism. Baptized with the Christian name of Oureana, she was named at birth "Fatima," like many other Moslem girls, in honor of the daughter of Mohammed. Of his daughter, Fatima, the founder of Islam, Mohammed, said: "She has the highest place in heaven after the Virgin Mary." It is a fact that Moslems from various nations, especially from the Middle East, make so many pilgrimages to Our Lady of Fatima's Shrine in Portugal that Portuguese officials have expressed concern. The combination of an Islamic name and Islamic devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is a great attraction to Moslems. God is writing straight with crooked lines, as we will see. Fatima is a part of Heaven's Peace Plan. It is hope for the world.
The Portugal News MAIN - 01/11/2003 F¨¢tima to become interfaith shrine Delegates attending the Vatican and United Nations (UN) inspired annual interfaith congress "The Future of God", held during October in F¨¢tima, heard how the Shrine is to be developed into a centre where all the religions of the world will gather to pay homage to their various gods. The Congress was held in the Paul VI Pastoral Centre and presided over by the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon Jos?de Cruz Policarpo... Monsignor Guerra pointed out that the very fact that F¨¢tima is the name of a Muslim and Mohammed's daughter, is indicative that the Shrine must be open to the co-existence of various faiths and beliefs. According to the
Monsignor: "Therefore we must assume that it was the will of the Blessed Virgin Mary that this comes about this way."....
In 1969 the Irish-Palestine Society was formed and in 1971 the Irish-Arab Society opened an office in Dublin. Separate sources reported that during this period Khalifa Ahmad BAZELYA had links with Sinn Fein in the Republic of Ireland. In January 1992 the FBI reported it had reliable source information linking BAZELYA with PIRA, although we have no further details or the date of the information. BAZELYA certainly visited Dublin on a number of occasions and was in contact with a number of Irish nationals.
He was also in regular contact with the Irish-Arab Society in Dublin, then suspected of having close links to PIRA. An SIS source whose reliability is currently being reassessed, also reported BAZELYA's numerous Irish contacts and said BAZELYA had a bank account at Dublin airport. On one occasion the source was given a checque drawn on this account.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004 Taoiseach Bertie Ahern today opened the University of Bahrain ?a unique joint venture between the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the Bahrain government.
Gulf Air Irish Week Celebrations in Bahrain Friday 25th November 2005 The Gulf Air Charity Irish Ball will be held at the Diplomat Radisson SAS Hotel and will be the gala event of the Irish Week celebrations. All profits from the event will be donated to the *"Presidents Relief Fund for Earthquake Victims 2005." *(Further details at http://www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk/)
Saturday 26th November 2005 This event hosted by the Bahrain Irish Association will be held at the Bahrain Rugby Football Club. The afternoon of family events will commence from 4.00pm and include a Kid's Gaelic Football Tournament open to all children registered for the Gaelic football training and an Irish "Grand National " which will feature various races including water jumps and other novelty events; open to children of all ages.
Anglo Irish Bank was awarded a United Arab Emirates Central Bank Representative Office Licence in March 2005 and officially opened its Dubai office in September 2005 angloirishbank.ae
Belfast Telegraph Congress probes IRA link to Iraq By Greg Harkin 20 March 2006 It was just another St Patrick's weekend in Washington. The Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern presented shamrock to President George Bush, the Northern Ireland political parties continued to bicker over who is responsible for the latest impasse, and green beer was drunk by the gallon. However, a new cloud hangs over the legacy of the Troubles and the alleged role played in a number of deaths by both American and British security agencies. The claim - if true - threatens a new political storm over how and why FBI officials and MI5 operatives conspired to supply deadly bomb-making equipment to the Provisional IRA in the early 1990s, mechanisms the paramilitary organisation later shared with Palestinian fighters. . . the technology, far from being new, had in fact first been used in Newry, Co Down, in 1992 to murder a policewoman and maim her male colleague. Kevin Fulton, a former soldier
who infiltrated the IRA on behalf of the security services, made an astonishing claim: that he had flown to New York, met FBI and MI5 agents and was given money to buy an infra-red device to be used to set off IRA bombs. The security services - already successful in preventing radio-signal bombs - believed that by supplying the equipment they could then introduce counter-measures. "They knew the IRA was looking at the technology. By supplying the equipment, they thought they could stay one step ahead of the IRA," Mr Fulton told the IoS yesterday.
What the crap, man? That's it, I'm switching to moderated comments.
lol that's why i did... except mine was WAY worse than that...
thanks for this post. very insightful and helpful. :) i totally agree.
That's the longest comment I've ever seen! Someday when I have a few hours to kill I'll come back and read it.
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