One or two rules, on which their conclusions depend, in most men have governed all their thoughts; take these from them and they are at a loss, and their understanding is perfectly at a non-plus.
An NBC News exit poll
shows that Catholics preferred Trump-Vance over Harris-Walz by a
whopping 58%-40% (with Catholics representing 22% of all voters). Among
white Catholics, the margin was 61%-35%. The Washington Post exit poll shows a 56%-41% margin.
The state-by-state margins in pivotal swing states are likewise extraordinary.
According to data collected and posted by the organization Catholic Vote,
Catholics in Michigan voted Trump-Vance over Harris-Walz by an
astounding 20%. In Pennsylvania, Catholics were likewise decisive for
Trump, by 14%. In Wisconsin, it was 16%. In North Carolina, 17%. In
Florida, the margin was astounding: 29%.
The New York Times religion columnist Ross Douthat accurately predicted the outcome of the 2024 US presidential election.
The commenters on election day, for the most part, weren't having it, notably the ones who thought it was invalid simply because it hadn't changed over time even though the Democrat candidate did.
Some people just don't get it that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Wise judges have prescribed, that men may not rashly believe the confessions of witches, nor the evidence against them. For the witches themselves are imaginative; and people are credulous, and ready to impute accidents to witchcraft.
Rick is a board member on the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
NORML, get it?
He identifies with liberalism and progressivism.
His Wikipedia entry says he divorced his wife in 2010 and is a fan of liberation theology lol, a 1971 invention of the recently deceased Gustavo Gutiérrez, a Peruvian Catholic Theologian.
It is no great matter to live lovingly with good-natured and meek persons; but he that can do so with the froward and perverse, he only hath true charity.
And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat.
But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth. But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
The number of ex-Christians continues to grow, especially among the
young, but there has been a significant and unexpected change. Atheism
is mostly dead among the young — but they aren’t coming back to
Christianity. They are going to various forms of the occult, as well as
taking up using psychedelic drugs.
Why?
Because they are desperate to have an experience of transcendence, of
mysticism. They need to have an experience that tells them that there is
more to life than mere materialism. As concerned as we should be about
this development, it also offers us Christians an opportunity. It will
continue to be hard — harder than ever, maybe — to convert people by
using reason. But [we can make inroads] if we talk about the miracles of
Padre Pio and others, if we talk about approved Marian apparitions, if
we talk about the reality of spiritual warfare in the stories of people
like the late exorcist Gabriele Amorth, and Father Carlos Martins, the
popular American exorcist whose podcast TheExorcistFiles is not only entertaining, but has lots of strong practical advice.
And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation
seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given
unto this generation. ... Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this
adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be
ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
-- Mark 8:11-12, 38
An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it ...
-- Matthew 12:39
A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall
no sign be given unto it ...
-- Matthew 16:4
This
is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be
given it ...
No wonder to us, who have conversed with too many strange actions, now to wonder at any thing: wonder is from surprise, and surprise ceases upon experience.
“Overall, pastors’ perceptions of the economy’s impact on their churches are statistically related to the pastor’s own politics. Since both politics and economics are external factors to a local church, it is not surprising that the influences become combined for some,” said McConnell. “More surprising is that pastors report actual offerings which fit these differences in political leanings.”
In 2018, under Donald Trump, an astounding 45% (green), a record high in the data going back to The Great Recession, said the economy was having a positive impact on church budgets, and an equally astounding 14% (blue), a record low in the data, said the economy was having a negative impact.
It's right there in the graph, but it goes completely unremarked.
Political differences in any other year notwithstanding, 2018 looks like an amazing year of consensus among US Protestant church pastors from both sides of the political aisle, agreeing that things were pretty damn good.
2018 had marked a notable shift for the Trump presidency, which wasted its first year in office trying to repeal Obamacare and quickly pivoted to the economy, which Larry Kudlow famously wanted front-loaded in 2017 instead of the healthcare issue. Almost immediately in 2018 the Trump administration began talking about an economic boom in the wake of the passage of its tax cut package late in 2017. And if you paid attention to the conservative media, the narrative built into a crescendo in 2018 so that by September of that year even Noah Smith, no right winger, for Bloomberg was talking about it as an actual fact.
Was it?
If you and your kin had suffered under the effects of the 2009 crisis, which just went on and on and on under Barack Obama, it sure seemed like it. The end of the drought for these people, who were dying of thirst, was deeply felt, and explains why the memory of what happened to them continues to exert such a powerful influence on support for Donald Trump in 2024. Barack Obama and the Democrats did little for them. That is how we got here.
In relative terms in comparison with past booms, however, there were many indicators which were improving but were not really stellar, and some not really improving at all, including on both fronts full time jobs, wage growth, GDP growth, new home sales, housing starts, average age of vehicles on the road, road travel, growth of not in labor force, inventories, and industrial production. To critical thinkers, the economic boom narrative seemed exaggerated.
But perception is everything, and it's NOT surprising that the story missed that. Elites specialize in overlooking the little people.
No one understands the appeal of Donald Trump except all the millions he has helped, clinging to their guns and their religion.
The chain of custody of the body is hopelessly broken. We know nothing about its integrity over almost 400 years before the 20th century.
"there are traits compatible with Jewish origin" ... The DNA-driven results are “almost absolutely reliable" ... Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain, in 1506 but had wished to be buried on the island of Hispaniola ... His remains were taken there in 1542, then at least some of them moved to Cuba in 1795 and then to Seville in 1898."
Either she really, really, really does not want to go back to DC, hoping conservatives will abandon Trump over this and cause him to lose.
Or her husband thinks this will help him with pro-abortion women, who are 64% of all women, many of whom believe, incorrectly, that Trump would sign a national abortion ban.
Donald Trump officially supports the status quo ante to which the overturning of Roe v Wade has returned the nation, in which the individual states decide whether and to what extent abortion should be allowed.
His position is incompatible with Melania's uncompromising views, suggesting her timing of her announcement is designed to sabotage his campaign.
A Brookings analysis earlier this year by University of Pennsylvania professor John DiLulio noted that Hillary Clinton lost theoverall white Catholic voteby 33 points in 2016, but four years later, Biden cut that deficit in half, losing by only 15 points.
The story never once mentions that J. D. Vance, Trump's running mate, is a 2019 convert to the Catholic faith and might represent as big a challenge for Harris as her abortion advocacy and her grilling of "a Catholic judicial nominee about whether he could remain impartial due to his membership in the Knights of Columbus, a respected Catholic fraternal organization".
Since your most serene majesty and your highnesses require of me a
simple, clear, and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: I
cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it
is clear that they have fallen into error and even into inconsistency
with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy
Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I
have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into
subjection to God's word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for
it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his
conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.
This guy's problem isn't that he doesn't know what barbarianism is, it's that he doesn't know what civilization is, which was born in a tiny country in the Mediterranean with a small population of just a few million.
“This is not a clash of civilizations,” the prime minister continued.
“It’s a clash between barbarism and civilization. It’s a clash between
those who glorify death and those who sanctify life. For the forces of
civilization to triumph, America and Israel must stand together.”
The speech went on for almost an hour, conveying a clear picture of
the high-stakes war to which the US is unwittingly a party. By the end,
however, I was still reeling from the analytical flaw embedded in the
first few lines.
On one hand, Netanyahu is right. The actions of Hamas on Oct. 7 were
barbaric, at least in a colloquial sense. The Iranian regime and its
proxies threaten the US-led order. Israel needs all the help it can
get.
Yet he’s also wrong. Our enemies are not barbarians. They are
highly-intelligent defenders of a rival civilization who want to destroy
our way of life for reasons we don’t care to understand. Moreimportantly, they are supported by hundreds of millions of Muslims—the
majority, not just the mullahs in Tehran—who, inspired by a shared
understanding of the Islamic tradition, deem the killing of non-Muslim
civilians as legitimate for the same reasons the ancient Israelites
killed the Canaanites: because God said so.
Yeah, if hundreds of millions applaud crashing planes into the Twin Towers on 9/11 and the rape, torture, and murder of 1,000+ Israelis on 10/7, they must have a point.
Can you tell I'm disgusted?
And the assertion of immoral equivalence between Islam and Judaism is breathtaking, which isn't designed to do anything but undercut the moral superiority of Christianity and the West in the fight against Islam and other evils, like The Empire of Japan, whose holocaust in Asia is on the lips of no one like Nazi Germany's is and shouldn't have been ended by dropping the atomic bombs, according to this lunatic.
That Christians like this aren't laughed off their own stage isn't a sign that they are correct. It's a sign that Christianity has become wholly empty-headed and incapable of defending itself. London has become Londonistan in our lifetime, now infamous for knife and acid attacks by Islamists. Enoch Powell predicted it in the 1960s, but the prophet is without honor in his own country.
Barbarism isn't the "extreme outlier". It's in every man. Christianity used to teach this, as did Aristotle, and the prophet Jeremiah, but not Nicholson, nor George W. Bush for that matter, whom Nicholson resembles perfectly:
True barbarians . . . are rare in our world. ... To pretend as if hundreds of millions of Muslims who see the Hamas
massacre as morally justified—and who condemn the US preoccupation with
Israel’s security—are depraved savages is to insult both them and ourselves. They are merely drawing on a tradition different than ours.
If I had a subscription to this rag I would end it.
And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. -- Genesis 22:10
Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after
that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after
their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so
will I do likewise.
Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the
LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their
sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
-- Deuteronomy 12:30f.
When
thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee,
thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his
daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an
observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a
necromancer.
For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and
because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from
before thee.
-- Deuteronomy 18: 9ff.
And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
-- Matthew 20:27f.
And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.
For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
-- Mark 10:44f.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
-- John 3:16
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
-- Galatians 2:20
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself
for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
-- Ephesians 5:2
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
-- Hebrews 10:12
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that
believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
When
Deese invited a member of the Muslim faith to address the congregation
about Islamophobia, people walked out. Others did the same when he
brought in a blacksmith to make art from melted-down reclaimed firearms
acquired from the local sheriff’s office.
But the real exodus, Deese said, took place when he attempted to address the topic of Christian nationalism.
“Bottom line is, if you need to know how to shrink a church, I’m your guy,” Deese said wryly.
A congregation of 800 plummeted to 100. The budget shrunk by $1 million. Some staff members had to be released.
Awakenings – Houston:
The community has about 40 core members, and while
the Bible is the text most often referenced, Awakenings attracts people
of all faith traditions, Norman said.
Aldea Spiritual Community – Tucson, Arizona:
A typical Sunday gathering features talk, music and meditation and draws
half of the community’s membership of about 150, nearly all of whom are
people who have left traditional organized religion, Haber said. [150/2 = 75 lol]
Heartway Church – Davie, Florida:
“We lost a lot of people in the process,” Prada said, blaming much of
that on his own zeal, immaturity and antagonistic approach to the faith
he was shedding. “I felt like it was my duty to prove that way of
Christianity was wrong and this one was right. Even now, a lot of people
can’t go where we continue to go, and they fall by the wayside.” ...
Attendance averages between 120 and 140 on any
given Sunday, he said – a showing he considers respectable given the
church’s location in conservative South Florida. It includes individuals
who consider themselves spiritual but not religious as well as nones,
those who don’t affiliate with any particular religion.
C3 Spiritual Community – Grand Haven, Michigan:
Sunday gatherings average around 90 attendees and
are built around a topic presented by a group or guest teacher bookended
by community discussions.
The community began as a Reformed Church in
America, part of a network of mainline Reformed Protestant churches. Its
separation from the RCA began in the 1990s after the church let a gay
organization conduct meetings in a church office.
As
the community went through its theological transformation – the name C3
refers to its former identity as Christ Community Church – many members
fell by the wayside; it now meets at a community center but has seen
recent growth among younger generations, executive director Shannon
McMaster said.
First, Jesus must not be turned into a contemporary. He is rightly
viewed within the historical framework of the first century. To describe
Him as a revolutionary leader, a truly secular man or the first hippie
may be emotionally satisfying, but for the most part these stereotypes
are intellectually worthless. Albert Schweitzer’s warnings against
creating Jesus in accordance with one’s own character still stand. ...
We meet God in the cosmic Christ who encounters us now, as well as in
the strangeness of a first-century Galilean whose preaching resulted in
His crucifixion.
Gerald O'Collins was a systematic theologian, not a philologist, who passed away August 22, 2024 after a long and distinguished Catholic academic career at Pontifical Gregorian University, 1973-2006.
Perhaps the most famous proponent of the cosmic Christ was the fellow Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, whose offenses against Catholic doctrine were repeatedly warned against but never proscribed. Several Catholic intellectuals sought to rehabilitate his reputation after his death in 1955, not the least of whom was Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI.
O'Collins was a child of this time.
The theological idea of the cosmic Christ certainly has its germ in the Pauline Colossian epistle and later in Irenaeus, but can hardly be said to be a Synoptic idea. O'Collins wanted these to have equal weight:
Both the Synoptic account of the preacher from Nazareth and Paul’s
reflections on his Lord’s death and resurrection belong within the canon
of scripture.
Yet it was Paul himself who eschewed the historical Jesus:
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a humanpointofview; even though we once regarded Christ from a humanpointofview, we regard him thus no longer.
The authors said the results of their analysis were "fully
compatible" with analogous measurements obtained from a linen sample
whose dating, according to historical records, is A.D. 55-74, and
consistent with the hypothesis that the Shroud is a 2,000-year-old
relic.
The authors note that the results are only compatible with
this hypothesis under the condition that the artifact was kept at
suitable levels of average temperature (around 20-22.5 degree Celsius,
or 68-72.5 degrees Fahrenheit) and a relative humidity of 55-75 percent
for 13 centuries of unknown history, in addition to seven centuries of
known history in Europe.
Many of the monastery’s visitors said they believed Sr. Wilhelmina’s body to be miraculously incorrupt. ...
“Sister
Wilhelmina's body was not embalmed, nor was there anything to preserve
her in the state in which we buried her,” [the abbey’s superior, Mother Abbess Cecilia Snell] explained. “There were
bugs eating at the foam under her, but none had touched her body or her
habit - the latter’s failure to deteriorate being a phenomenon just as
miraculous as her intact body!” ...
Many visitors to the abbey since the
discovery of her intact remains have voiced belief that their
preservation is “miraculous,” and noted incorruption after death is a
sign often associated with saints. ...
In DeCadaverumIncorruptione,
written in the mid-1800s, Pope Benedict XIV stated that an incorruptible
body should only be considered miraculous when its lifelike condition
is maintained for a great period of time.
My heart is drowned with grief,
Whose flood begins to flow within mine eyes,
My body round engirt with misery;
For what’s more miserable than discontent?
-- William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act 3, Scene 1
Mark Tooley says United Methodist conservatives underwrote the denomination's theological and sexual liberalization decade upon decade with hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars in donations:
It’s more satisfying to blame outside forces. But United Methodist
conservatives, loyal to financially supporting the institution across
generations, underwrote the denomination’s liberalization. I think the
same is largely true for other liberal Mainline Protestant
denominations.
When we reflect on what is wrong with the church, we should always begin with ourselves.
But in 2006, his campaign repeatedly told the press that he
had not been drinking that night, claiming that his failed field
sobriety test was due to a misunderstanding related to hearing loss from
his time in the National Guard. The campaign also claimed that Walz was
allowed to drive himself to jail that night.
Walz repeatedly saying that he retired with a rank he achieved but did not retire with ...
Walz nodded in agreement at that statement -- despite the fact that, according to military records and his own admission, he had never served in Afghanistan. ...
Walz appears to have been aware prior to his retirement that his unit was under consideration for deployment. ...
However Walz did not remain in the role long enough to keep the title in retirement. Still, Walz repeatedly referred to himself as a "retired command sergeant major" for years.
Walz
won the governor’s mansion in 2018. But rather than sticking to the
moderate “One Minnesota” approach that he promised on the campaign trail
and that characterized his time in the House of Representatives, Walz’s priority has been “more of a war on our culture,” Johnson said.
Johnson, an advocate for a Christian nonprofit, pointed to a host of progressive policies his administration enacted: signing a law
that makes abortion a right in the state at any point in a pregnancy,
legalizing marijuana, giving driver’s licenses to undocumented
immigrants, and making the state a “refuge” for those seeking gender transitions.
His
COVID-19 era policies also earned chagrin from conservatives as he
restricted church gatherings and set up a hotline for people to report
those who breached social distancing policies. ...
While
the denomination is progressive, the politics in the pews of ECLA
churches present a more mixed picture. In 2020, a slight majority of ECLA Lutherans voted for Trump, noted researcher Ryan Burge.
Among
the ECLA, around 43 percent identified as or leaned Republican, and 47
percent identified as or leaned Democrat, Pew found. Around 24 percent
identified as liberal, 41 percent as moderate, and 32 percent as
conservative.
The
LCMS, meanwhile, identified as or leaned Republican by nearly 60
percent, with 27 percent identifying as or leaning Democrat. A much
higher percentage (52%) identified as conservative, compared to only 33
percent as moderate and 10 percent as liberal. ...
“The
whole way he’s being presented to us is that he’s just a moderate
country boy from Minnesota,” Seltz said. “He’s a very, very progressive,
very, very left-wing governor.”
-- From ChristianityToday, "Walz’s Brand Is More Left than Lutheran Among Minnesota Evangelicals"
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