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I just finished listening to an interview with a convert from Shia Muslim. Islamic law says that anyone converting from Islam should be killed. This man not only defied his family to follow Christ ,but at great risk to his life; he continued ministering to the Muslim community. It is really an amazing story. Follow this link and click on to My Conversion from Islam to Orthodox Christianity +All Glory to God+ ancientfaith.com/podcasts/illuminedheart
I am sure tired of hearing about gay marriages and so are a lot of people. When the issue comes up it is sure to bring the fringe elements out; all parroting the same tired and ridicules arguments. You know the ones! Like its only about freedom, or we are fighting for civil rights, or kids picked on me in high school, or my life is a mess and it can only get better if I continue to avoid dealing with life on life terms! This only serves to distract from real arguments by appealing to emotional reactions. Let us not forget that Proposition 8 was not only about the right of people to have unnatural relations with each other. It was also about how a marginalized subculture tried to manipulate us all and illegally influence our government. It is about preventing the government from violating the separation of church and state and our guarantee of religious freedom by pandering to the anti-religious. It is about upholding the role of the family and the future of every ones children. Remember what the real issues are! Excuse my poor writing and read this much more articulate article instead;p www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/whats_the_diffe rence/
I stopped by Jack in the Box for lunch. Love those Caibetta Burgers. I noticed that they have installed a new electronic ordering system similar to the automatic check outs in Albertsons. I don't know if they are just testing the idea of replacing the cashiers with an automated ordering systems in the local market or they already plan to do so in all their stores. But I have to say booo! F or one I think our modern society is too dehumanizing. Much of the secular, materialistic philosophy that we inherited from outmoded 19Th century science [ modern science is beginning to paint a a different picture that all creation is interdependent and what effects one also has a ripple effect on the whole ] give us the mind set that people are just cogs in a machine and it is the end goal that counts. That end goal might be raising the economic output and maximizing the capital income or inhuman measures to limit the human population or simply passing our transient earthly lives in a much comfort as possible. Which means doing everything possible to avoid the pain that comes with growth. Christianity teaches that no one is saved alone. That we encounter and relate to God in our encounters and relations with our fellow human beings. One practice for helping this is to make eye contact and friendly conversation with the employees of the businesses we encounter. Secondly with the current economy, jobs are becoming scarce enough. So cutting any job is a bad thing. On top of that; when we instituted welfare reform to cut the welfare roles were did you think most of those people went to work. That's right, low pay, minimum skills jobs like fast food. So cutting those positions denies a job for someone trying to pay their own way. Dr. Erik Fromm who was a gifted a psychologist/sociologist/philo sopher/humanist traced the evolution of human values from the Western European, agriculture based medieval societies - the arts and business guilds - capitalism of the industrial societies - to the present consumer/credit based society and all of our present economic woes. He noted that in early societies the employer was a father figure that was obligated to look after the personal welfare of his employees and their families. All this change during the industrial revolution when the employee just became another capital producing resource and every effort was made to drain every penny out of them. Now a days, instead of people looking after people we expect a faceless government to take over the role of protecting people from themselves. So are present historical development has given us genocides in the name of materialistic ideologies, destruction of the environment and the creation of dysfunctional human beings. We may not be able to pragmatically change for the overall better on our own [ But with God, nothing is impossible ] ,but what we can do is try to relate to other human beings as fellow human beings and spend that extra couple of cents, so that someone else has a job.
You have got to see this!!! This incredible dance team unites the best of both Greek and Celtic cultures into one stunning performance. I came across the article. It seems that there are three Japanese gentlemen who survived not one ,but two atomic bomb attacks on Japan. All three are now in the 80's. +Glory to God+ http://timesonline.typepad....
Here is an interesting perspective of the Pope's visit to the Holy Land and his perhaps making of new allies in the struggle for human dignity and worth;)
Two years ago Muslims erupted when the Pope quoted a thoroughly obscure Byzantine prince's assessment of Islam in a speech at Regensburg, in Germany. A leader of the Muslim Brotherhood said at the time that the remarks "pour oil on the fire and ignite the wrath of the whole Islamic world to prove the claims of enmity of politicians and religious men in the West to whatever is Islamic." But on this trip Benedict has given a speech in a mosque, addressed Muslim leaders and taken off his shoes to piously visit the Dome of the Rock mosque, the third holiest in the Islamic world. After a few tutorials in tact, he seems to have watered down his message to Muslims to make it soothing and inoffensive. Well, actually he hasn't. Not a bit of it. In fact, he has almost photocopied his Regensburg speech after swabbing the inflammatory bits with liquid paper. Benedict XVI is proving to be a master of long-term public relations for the Catholic Church. Despite all the protest from Muslims (most of whom never read the Regensburg speech anyway), he hasn't budged one inch. No one has noticed this because journalists think in sound-bites and Benedict thinks in paragraphs. But he is bearing a powerful message: that Christianity and Islam face a common enemy in secularism. As he told Muslim leaders in Jordan, "Indeed some assert that religion is necessarily a cause of division in our world; and so they argue that the less attention given to religion in the public sphere the better." Dialoguing with Muslims is a delicate balancing act. There are plenty of mullahs who preach that Christians are idolaters because they worship a Trinity. Benedict subtly emphasised that Christians are monotheists. They believe in one God, whom he described as "merciful and compassionate", a characteristically Muslim phrase. "We can begin with the belief that the One God is the infinite source of justice and mercy, since in him the two exist in perfect unity," he told Muslim leaders in Jerusalem. After allaying Muslim suspicions that Christians are really Bible-toting polytheists, Benedict then argued that the oneness of mankind flows from the oneness of God. In other words, peace amongst nations, mutual respect, and even religious freedom has a theological basis, not merely one of political convenience: "fidelity to the One God, the Creator, the Most High, leads to the recognition that human beings are fundamentally interrelated, since all owe their very existence to a single source and are pointed towards a common goal. Imprinted with the indelible image of the divine, they are called to play an active role in mending divisions and promoting human solidarity." For all but the most fanatical of Muslim clerics, this must seem unobjectionable. But then Benedict explains what is distinctive about the Christian notion of God -- that man participates in the nature of God. "Christians in fact describe God, among other ways, as creative Reason, which orders and guides the world. And God endows us with the capacity to participate in his reason and thus to act in accordance with what is good. Muslims worship God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, who has spoken to humanity. And as believers in the one God we know that human reason is itself God's gift and that it soars to its highest plane when suffused with the light of God's truth." This was precisely the point of the Regensburg address. Then, however, the Pope was addressing a Christian audience and he tackled difficult question of theologically-sanctioned violence. Using the long-forgotten words of Manuel II Paleologus, he pointed out that "God is not pleased by blood -- and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature." But when speaking to Muslims, he describes reason as the ultimate basis for human dignity -- and both religions esteem human dignity. Furthermore, he says, faith and reason support each other. Religion purifies reason of the temptation to presumption (was he thinking of Christopher Hitchens?). It protects society from "the excesses of the unbridled ego which tend to absolutise the finite and eclipse the infinite" (a dig at Richard Dawkins perhaps?). It helps us to appreciate "all that is true, good and beautiful". It was a remarkable performance -- to explain the deepest notions of Christian theology to a potentially hostile audience and leave without a murmur of criticism. It seems clear that the Pope is seeking outcomes from this dialogue with Muslim leaders -- more respect for Christianity, more religious tolerance, more common action against secularism, more common action in support of human dignity. How long it will take for the message to sink in is a different matter. But the very positive reaction from Muslim leaders gives ground for hope. What a contrast with the ham-fisted attempt of another head of state to dialogue with the Muslim world. President Obama's address to the Turkish parliament earlier this year was the religious equivalent of speed dating. He told Muslims: "We will listen carefully, we will bridge misunderstandings, and we will seek common ground." Back on his home turf, Obama's rhetoric about "common ground" is already tarnished after his whole-hearted endorsement of abortion in the teeth of religious opposition. What chance has he of convincing Muslims that they share common ground with a nation that tolerates same-sex marriage? The president's strategy for dialogue boils down to "Hi, my name's Hussein, too. Let's be buddies." This approach might turn Turkish parliamentarians into cheering schoolgirls, but it won't cut the mustard in the madrassahs. If we're talking "common ground", the Vatican's is the only game in town at the moment. Michael Cook is editor of MercatorNet.
Somebody just passed me this article about David Denby a critic for the New York Times and his book Snark. Which discusses the Internet and how snarky behavior degrades real constructive dialog. It is worth the read and discussion.latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/01/qa-da vid-denby.html
THE BUZZARD: If you put a buzzard in a pen that is 6 feet by 8 feet and is entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top. THE BAT: The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkable nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash. THE BUMBLEBEE: A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself. PEOPLE: In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat, and the bumblebee. We struggle about with all our problems and frustrations, never realizing that all we have to do is look up! That's the answer, the escape route and the solution to any problem! Just look up. Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, But faith looks up! |
Every day there's a different spin on Pope Benedict XVI's trip to the Middle East: Pope Not Sorry Enough for Holocaust, Pope Not Angry Enough Over Gaza, Pope's Past Becomes PR Blunder, Pope Supports Palestinian State... But the media has overlooked one of the most significant achievements of his trip -- détente with the Islamic world. 
