Religion

The Bible remains a ‘powerful, transformative tool’ in American culture

The Bible remains a fixture in American culture and lifestyle according to the “State of the Bible” report, an annual poll conducted by the Barna Group, a California-based research organization, and the American Bible Society. “The results show that, despite shifting cultural trends, Americans still read the Word, and it remains a powerful, transformative tool in their life. These and other snapshots are included in our list of top seven findings from this year’s State of the Bible report,” the survey said. Overall, half of Americans are “Bible users” — they read it, pray with it or consider biblical content through online or recorded forms. The survey found that Bible use has remained relatively consistent since 2011. “Two-thirds of Americans express at least some curiosity to know more about what the Bible says. A similar number of adults (63 percent) are interested in knowing more about who Jesus Christ is,” the survey said. “Just over half of adults who used the Bible in the past week (53 percent) say they give a lot of thought to how it might apply to their lives.” Similar numbers say that reading the Bible boosts their own spiritual growth, as well as their inclination to “show more loving behaviors to others.’ Overall, six in 10 U.S. adults (58 percent) believe that the message of the Bible has “transformed their life,” with majorities of Bible users saying their time with the holy texts increases their sense of connection with God and their curiosity about God. City dwellers (53 percent) and small town or rural (49 percent) residents report higher use of the Bible than suburbanites. In the South, 55 percent report regular use; the numbers are 42 percent in the Northeast and 44 percent in the West. Baby Boomers (51 percent) are most likely to consult the Bible, followed by senior citizens (48 percent) and Millennials (47 percent). The traditional printed word of the Bible remains the favorite, the survey found. “The appeal of a print version of the Bible remains high at almost nine in 10 who prefer it (89 percent). Little has changed in the preference for a physical copy of the scriptures in the last eight years since tracking began,” the research said. Technology is a factor, however. “More than half of users now search for Bible content on the internet (57 percent) or a smartphone , and another 42 percent use a Bible app on their phones. More than one-third listen via podcast or audio version of the Bible,” the survey said. The Barna/American Bible Society poll of 2,040 U.S. adults was conducted Jan. 4-18, and released Wednesday.

Vermont Church Slams America, Desecrates “God Bless The USA”

There is outrage from the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee after a Methodist church in Vermont rewrote the lyrics to Lee Greenwood’s beloved song, “God Bless the USA,” and turned it into a “bash America” anthem. “I look around this America but not everybody’s free. And I won’t forget all those who died beneath our fear and greed,” a singer crooned during Sunday “worship” at the First United Methodist Church in Burlington. “God forgive the USA.” The singer went on to ask forgiveness for ripping families apart at the border and taking land from the Native Americans and the way we treat LGBT citizens. “For the native tribes we conquered – Sioux, Lakota, Cherokee – for the slaves we beat and tortured for the interned Japanese,” the singer warbled. “For the women and the children for the lesbian, gay.” The confession of America’s alleged sins went on and on and on and on. “Mr. Greenwood’s song is emblematic of pride in and prayer for blessing of our country,” Pastor Mark Demers told me. “Changing the words to make it also a prayer for forgiveness and healing served to expand the meaning, thus reflecting with the anthem the theme of our worship service.” He did not seem at all bothered that the church had desecrated a beloved patriotic anthem. “Confession is a central part of Christian worship, as is prayer for healing. The lectionary text and sermon for the day told of two healings requested of Jesus – one a person of power in the community and the other a person impoverished by her illness,” the pastor told me. “The text lends itself to the idea that all, of every station in life, individuals and communities alike – including churches – stand in need of forgiveness and healing.” I reached out to Mr. Greenwood’s publicist who told me the church did not seek permission to alter the copyrighted song. Nor did the church let Mr. Greenwood know in advance they would be taking great liberties with the lyrics. “It’s illegal to do that,” Greenwood told One America News. However, the United Methodist Church pastor defended the atrocities they committed against Mr. Greenwood’s song. “A change of lyrics such as was done does not violate copyright law, falling under the category of parody,” he said.

Perhaps..   Perhaps not.  Mr. Greenwood should seek the advice of counsel, and if they think a copyright law was infringed upon, then he should sue this UMC in court.  Either way, what this idiot pastor did was at best hugely offensive.  Shame on him.  Thanks to veteran culture warrior Todd Starnes for sharing this head-shaking story with us.

Louisiana televangelist seeks donations for $54M private jet: report

A Louisiana-based televangelist is asking his followers to donate money for a $54 million jet that can “go anywhere in the world in one stop,” The Times-Picayune reported. Jesse Duplantis, 68, a Christian minister based in Destrehan, about 25 miles east of New Orleans, says his ministry has paid cash for three private jets. “You know I’ve owned three different jets in my life and used them and used them and just burning them up for the Lord,” Duplantis says in a video posted to his ministries’ website. Duplantis is now reportedly seeking the funds for a Dassault Falcon 7X, worth $54 million. The problem with the previous jets, he says, is that they require multiple stops to refuel. But flying the Falcon 7X, Duplantis says, will allow him to save money and not pay “those exorbitant prices with jet fuel all over the world.” “I really believe that if Jesus was physically on the earth today, he wouldn’t be riding a donkey,” Duplantis says in the video, “He’d be in an airplane preaching the gospel all over the world.” Duplantis’ video comes after another televangelist, Kenneth Copeland in Texas, purchased the Gulfstream V jet for $36 million. Both televangelists defended their use of private jets during a joint appearance on Copeland’s program, saying that commercial airlines are filled with “a bunch of demons” that get in the way of their busy schedules.

Yeah…lowly “demon” peasants like you and me who can’t afford a personal jet and have to actually travel commercial.  He Jesse..  Here’s a thought..  If Jesus were alive today, he’d probably whip your self-righteous, arrogant, entitlement-minded, elitist butt like he did the “money changers”…and tell you to go were the “sinners” are in coach on a commercial airline.  What a tool..  The idiots who actually follow guys like this, and worse..who give him money for his gluttony, deserve to be conned.

University event aims to combat ‘Christian Privilege’

Just four days after Easter, George Washington University will host a training session for students and faculty that teaches that Christians — especially white ones — “receive unmerited perks from institutions and systems all across our country.” The April 5 diversity workshop is titled “Christian Privilege: But Our Founding Fathers Were All Christian, Right?!” Hosted by the university’s Multicultural Student Services Center, the event will teach that Christians enjoy a privileged, easier life than their non-Christian counterparts, and that Christians possess “built-in advantages” today, according to its online description. The workshop will also discuss how Christians receive “unmerited perks from institutions and systems all across our country.” The “Christian Privilege” workshop is one of 15 “free training opportunities” offered through the center to “equip students and staff with the necessary skills to promote diversity and inclusion in the different environments,” according to its website. Other workshops offered through the center focus on “heteroesexual privilege,” “cisgender privilege,” “abled-bodied privilege,” “socio-economic privilege,” “unconscious bias,” and more. Efforts by The College Fix to reach a campus spokesperson, the multicultural center and the host of the Christian privilege workshop were to no avail Monday afternoon. The Christian privilege event aims to make people aware of the privileges that Christians have and “what is meant by privilege overall and white privilege specifically,” the event description states. Furthermore, the event will try to educate those of the “role of denial when it comes to white privilege” and the difference between “equality and equity.” By the end of the training, the organizers want participants to be able to name “at least three examples of Christian privilege” and “at least three ways to be an ally with a non-Christian person,” the website states. Organizers also want the participants to be able to describe words like: “privilege, Christian privilege, denial, quality, equity, Christianity, bias, unconscious bias, micro-aggression, ally,” the website states. The workshop will last 90 minutes and will feature a PowerPoint presentation and Q&A. It will be hosted by Timothy Kane, the interim associate director for inclusion initiatives at George Washington University, according to his biography page. As interim associate director, Kane works to expand the diversity and inclusion efforts at GWU, specifically the LGBT community. He did not respond Monday to a request for comment. Kane, who has a master’s degree in divinity and theology, is “dedicated to ensuring that all types of diversity at GW are celebrated and meant to feel included in campus culture and student life.” Being a “proud gay member of the LGBT community” at the university, he hopes to “promote this kind of solidarity amongst the LGBT community, and work towards celebrating the richness of diversity here at GW,” his online bio states. Kane also hosts the “heterosexual privilege,” “cisgender privilege,” “abled-body privilege,” and “socioeconomic privilege” workshops. White privilege is a specific focus in each of these training sessions, according to the multicultural center’s website.

Wow..  You really can’t make this stuff up, folks..  Be afraid.  This is the kind of crap that is taking over our so-called institutions of higher learning….and is the kind of politically correct psychobabble that is destroying the soul of our country.  I’m embarrassed to admit that I have a niece who barks out phrases like “microaggression” at me and others when she hears things that don’t comport to this liberal indoctrination she’s been fed.

6 Christian Communities that Can’t Practice Their Religion Freely This Easter

As Christians around the world prepare to observe the holy weekend of Easter, many will be asked at their services to pray for the persecuted around the world. After years of advocacy groups raising awareness, the plight of the Christians of the Middle East, particularly in the former Islamic State territories, has become common knowledge among American Christians. Yet they are far from the only group that will celebrate Easter this year in defiance of state persecution, mob violence, and repressive cultural norms imposed by groups threatened by the spread of the Christian faith. Click here for a list of six countries where Christians struggle to practice their faith freely against systematic institutional and cultural pressure.

And this is nowhere near the full list.  It doesn’t even mention N. Korea, where the practice of Christianity is punishable by death.

Pope Francis: ‘There Is No Hell’

In another interview with his longtime atheist friend, Eugenio Scalfari, Pope Francis claims that Hell does not exist and that condemned souls just “disappear.” This is a denial of the 2,000-year-old teaching of the Catholic Church about the reality of Hell and the eternal existence of the soul. The interview between Scalfari and the Pope was published March 28, 2018 in La Repubblica. The relevant section on Hell was translated by the highly respected web log, Rorate Caeli. The interview is headlined, “The Pope: It is an honor to be called revolutionary.” (Il Papa: “È un onore essere chiamato rivoluzionario.”) Scalfari says to the Pope, “Your Holiness, in our previous meeting you told me that our species will disappear in a certain moment and that God, still out of his creative force, will create new species. You have never spoken to me about the souls who died in sin and will go to hell to suffer it for eternity. You have however spoken to me of good souls, admitted to the contemplation of God. But what about bad souls? Where are they punished?” Pope Francis says, “They are not punished, those who repent obtain the forgiveness of God and enter the rank of souls who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear. There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, ‘eternal fire.’ The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.” (1035) The Catechism further states, “The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: ‘Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.’ “Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where ‘men will weep and gnash their teeth.'” Pope Benedict XVI said in a 2007 sermon, “Jesus came to tell us that he wants us all in Heaven and that Hell, of which so little is said in our time, exists and is eternal for those who close their hearts to his love.” As for the human soul, the Catholic Church teaches that it is eternal, immortal in countless places throughout the Catechism. One instance, “Endowed with ‘a spiritual and immortal’ soul, the human person is ‘the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake.’ From his conception, he is destined for eternal beatitude.” (1703) * In a statement released on Mar. 29, after Scalfari’s report garnered worldwide attention, the Vatican said: “The Holy Father Francis recently received the founder of the newspaper La Repubblica in a private meeting on the occasion of Easter, without however giving him any interviews. What is reported by the author in today’s article [in La Repubblica] is the result of his reconstruction, in which the textual words pronounced by the Pope are not quoted. No quotation of the aforementioned article must therefore be considered as a faithful transcription of the words of the Holy Father.”

Fascinating!  I’m not Catholic.   But, I’m sure there are many out there wondering…  “Sooo..  Did the Pope say there is no hell, or didn’t he?”

Analysis: Pelosi Invokes Catholic Faith to Defend Illegals, But Not to Protect Unborn, Nuns

Wednesday, during her House filibuster in support of protecting people illegally in the U.S., particular minors (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or “DACA”), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) invoked her Catholic faith: “Maybe I should bring my rosary blessed by the pope… his holiness, Pope Francis, or the one before that, Benedict,” she added. “I have the honor and privilege of receiving rosaries blessed by several popes in my lifetime.” She goes on to quote Pope Benedict and Saint Augustine on just government and the dangers of power. But, Pelosi has a long history of rejecting Catholic Church doctrine when it comes to issues like abortion and protection of the unborn. Pelosi has been repeatedly rebuked by bishops, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Catholic groups like the Catholic League for her pro-abortion stance. She has returned fire, calling bishops “lobbyists” – because they opposed an Obamacare mandate that violates Catholic teaching – and she has taken on nuns (The Little Sisters of the Poor) who sued to protect their religious freedom. Pelosi isn’t the only professed Catholic member of Congress to be publicly rebuked by Catholic clergy for supporting abortion. After 14 senators claiming to be Catholic voted against a bill to ban late-term abortion, Father Dwight Longnecker called on bishops across the nation to publicly inform those senators that they have excommunicated themselves.Wednesday, during her House filibuster in support of protecting people illegally in the U.S., particular minors (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or “DACA”), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) invoked her Catholic faith: “Maybe I should bring my rosary blessed by the pope… his holiness, Pope Francis, or the one before that, Benedict,” she added. “I have the honor and privilege of receiving rosaries blessed by several popes in my lifetime.” She goes on to quote Pope Benedict and Saint Augustine on just government and the dangers of power. But, Pelosi has a long history of rejecting Catholic Church doctrine when it comes to issues like abortion and protection of the unborn. Pelosi has been repeatedly rebuked by bishops, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Catholic groups like the Catholic League for her pro-abortion stance. She has returned fire, calling bishops “lobbyists” – because they opposed an Obamacare mandate that violates Catholic teaching – and she has taken on nuns (The Little Sisters of the Poor) who sued to protect their religious freedom. Pelosi isn’t the only professed Catholic member of Congress to be publicly rebuked by Catholic clergy for supporting abortion. After 14 senators claiming to be Catholic voted against a bill to ban late-term abortion, Father Dwight Longnecker called on bishops across the nation to publicly inform those senators that they have excommunicated themselves.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is a nauseating, self-righteous, self-serving hypocrite cherry picks where her alleged faith serves her political needs, and when it doesn’t.  Kudos to author Craig Bannister for correctly calling her out.  And hey..  if only she stood in heels for 8 hours in defense of actual U.S. citizens, instead of illegal aliens, we might be inclined to overlook her brazen hypocrisy.  For more, click on the text above.  Excellent!   🙂