He has the title of “Pastor,” but apparently not everything Jerry Falwell Jr. does or endorse is commissioned by God.
Falwell just announced his support for Donald Trump in the Republican race for president. God cannot be happy with this decision.
Category: Religion
They are Satan worshippers, so in a sense that have already signed away their soul to the devil. But what happened in Detroit over the weekend required members to put it on paper.
The organizers of a ceremony to unveil a statue to Satan asked everyone attending the ceremony to sign the contract giving the devil their soul. According to the organizers, the contract was to make sure that secret Christian protesters wouldn’t attend.
“I agree that by signing this document under any name, given or adopted, actual or pseudonymous, I am hereby avowing my soul to Satan (aka Abbadon, aka Lucifer, aka Beelzebub, aka The Antichrist),” the contract read.
“I do so knowing that He (aka The Fallen One, aka The Father of Lies) or any of His representatives may choose to collect my eternal soul at any time, with or without notice. I understand that my signature or mark representing any name, real or made up, upon these papers constitutes a lasting and eternal contract, and that there will be no further negotiations on the matter of my eternal soul.”
What is this world coming to?
As her nephew started turning blue, Pamela Rauseo panicked.
She didn’t want anything bad to happen to 5-month-old Sebastian de la Cruz, who was born premature and with respiratory issues. So Rauseo stopped her SUV along Miami’s Dolphin Expressway Thursday and screamed for help.
She started giving the baby CPR.
Rauseo hadn’t performed CPR in years.
“I don’t know how I remembered what to do … I just knew I couldn’t let him die,” she told ABC News.
With traffic at a standstill, fellow drivers began to help. Lucila Godoy left her own son in the car to assist in CPR and comfort Rauseo. Miami Herald photographer Al Diaz ran through lanes of traffic to alert police officers before capturing the tense scene.
Officer Amauris Bastidas arrived, helping as Rauseo twice got the baby breathing again.
Rescue crews took Sebastian to the hospital. He was photographed later that day in his mother Paola’s arms, smiling, the color returned to his face.
Rauseo, 37, works in interior design. She runs Round321, a company dedicated to designing innovative and unique pieces for parents and children. One of her room designs is called “Sebastian’s Circus” and features stylized elephants and a play tent.
As the Vatican was being blistered by a U.N. committee this week for its decades-long mishandling and cover up of a global sex abuse scandal involving priests and children, new disclosures show the extraordinary steps that Pope Benedict XVI took to get rid of problem priests.
In just two years, Benedict defrocked nearly 400 priests, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press, which first reported the story on Friday. The number of priests defrocked by Benedict in 2011 and 2012 reflected a dramatic spike over the 171 priests removed in 2008 and 2009, according to the AP.
The newly uncovered statistics come from data from annual reports compiled by the Vatican to help the Holy See defend itself before a U.N. committee this week in Geneva.
While Benedict has been seen as remote, dogmatic, and lacking the charisma of both his predecessor, John Paul II, and his successor, Pope Francis, he was aggressive in pushing the Holy See to address the scourge of child molestation within the Church.
This will make Republicans head explode!
Pope Francis urged anti-austerity protesters who attended his weekly blessing to use dialogue and not violence to press their demands.
Addressing a group of protesters among the pilgrims gathered Sunday in St. Peter’s Square, the pope appealed for “a constructive contribution, rejecting the temptation for conflict and violence and following always the path of dialogue.”
The pope read aloud one of their banners: “The poor cannot wait.” He urged everyone from charities to Italian authorities “to do everything possible so that every family can have a house” this holiday season.
Protests aimed at impressing upon Italian leaders the pain inflicted on ordinary people by the country’s economic crisis have been under way across the country for two weeks. Some of them have erupted into violence.
What started out as the so-called “pitchforks protest” by Sicilian farmers nearly two years ago has grown nationwide expression of citizen impatience over rising unemployment, stubborn recession and unproductive lawmakers.
Last week, one protester’s placard read: “too much bureaucracy, skyrocketing taxes, useless politicians. Go home.”
I’m at a loss of words on this one, so I’ll let the so-called “pastor” explain.
His rant on the roles of men and women really got interesting somewhere around the 51 minute mark in his sermon, where he went out of his way to explain that men are not better than women. But after making that point, Pastor Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona explained that he is a dictator in his home and that his wife is happy to play the submissive role. She “was born to be submissive and subject to me,” he said.
Here’s the transcript and the video is below.
When it comes to authority, there is no equality. You say, “How does your home run?” A dictatorship. Any questions? It’s a monarchy, okay? Mono. One boss. Okay? That’s how my home is run. That’s how every biblical home is run, by the way, okay? And you say, “Oh, your wife must hate you!” No, women love that. Because they were born to fill that role. Just like I was born to be the husband and the leader, my wife was born to be the wife and to be submissive and subject to me. And she’s gonna be most happier doing what God created her to do, just like I’m going to be most happy doing what God created me to do!
And, you know, you say, “Well, that’s not true, because I talk to all these women that are just, you know, they just want to be a feminist and stuff…” You know what? Here’s what I’ve found over the years: The women who are screaming the loudest that they want to be a feminist and that they don’t want a man telling them what to do, on the inside, are really screaming the loudest, please tell me what to do. Please put me in my place. And, you know what? If you don’t believe that? You’re just ignorant. It’s that simple.
And, yeah, I’m sure that there are some reprobate lesbians out there that have a different view. But let me tell you something: A normal woman, on the inside, wants to follow a leader. She wants to follow a husband. She wants a man there that she can look up to, not look down on…
Pope Francis washed the feet of a dozen inmates at a juvenile detention center in a Holy Thursday ritual that he celebrated for years as archbishop and is continuing now that he is pope. Two of the 12 were young women, a remarkable choice given that the rite re-enacts Jesus’ washing of the feet of his male disciples.
The Mass was held in the Casal del Marmo facility in Rome, where 46 young men and women currently are detained. Many of them are Gypsies or North African migrants, and the Vatican said the 12 selected for the rite weren’t necessarily Catholic.
Because the inmates were mostly minors — the facility houses inmates aged 14-21 — the Vatican and Italian Justice Ministry limited media access inside. But Vatican Radio carried the Mass live, and Francis told the detainees that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion in a gesture of love and service.
“This is a symbol, it is a sign —washing your feet means I am at your service,” Francis told the youngsters. “Help one another. This is what Jesus teaches us. This is what I do. And I do it with my heart. I do this with my heart because it is my duty, as a priest and bishop I must be at your service.”
h/t TPM
Happy Easter! But what does Easter mean to you? There are so many that believe Easter has something to do with a Bunny Rabbit that lay eggs for us to hide and hunt for; or jelly beans and chocolate bunnies that are crème filled and full of calories and the fulfillment of a sweet tooth craving. Easter has turned into a commercially charged money-maker. With candy companies loading stores with their sweets and clothing stores laying out their racks with new suits and dresses, Easter has become a multi-billion dollar sales bonanza for major corporations.
According to the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) Easter spending survey, conducted by BIGinsight in March of 2012, Americans shelled out an average of $145.28 on everything from apparel and candy to food and decorations that year, up 11 percent from $131.04 the previous year. Total spending was expected to reach $16.8 billion.
“Though the price of gas is on everyone’s mind, Easter is one of the few holidays some consumers are willing to stretch their budgets, especially because many children look forward to treats and new outfits on Easter morning,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “Retailers will make sure to offer plenty of promotions on candy, apparel, food and decorations in the coming weeks for eager holiday shoppers.”
Due to consumer demand, the sales breakdown is expected to look like this:
- 48.5% will head to retailers for spring sales on fashions and accessories for kids, men, and women while spending approximately $3.0 billion on these items.
- 89.3% will purchase more than $2 billion on traditional favorites such as chocolate eggs and jelly beans.
- Easter meals with the average person expected to spend around $44.34 for a total $5.1 billion.
- 53.6% will buy greeting cards, spending an average of $7.04.
My, how the most sacred of holidays has eclipsed the true meaning of what this week is supposed to represent. According to the Holy Bible, this week was the time in which Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem, promoting the “Kingdom of God” was at hand. The Passover and the Last Supper had taken place and Jesus was betrayed into the hands of the Chief Priest by Judas Iscariot and on Friday, he would be Crucified by the Roman soldiers. As He died on the cross, Jesus, in His last breathes asked GOD to forgive them for, “They no not what they do”. That still rings True on today. We, as a nation – even this whole world –, ‘know not what we’re doing’. The Good News is God Still Forgives! All we have to do is ask, which is why Jesus came into this world.
So, what is the true meaning of Easter? Is it the things that money can buy or is it the one thing that money could never buy?
A tiny hint, money can’t buy your Salvation. And Salvation is Sweeter than candy. Smile.
I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to be a saint or a nun. I had great romantic ideas about nuns. On the other hand, saints appealed to my imagination. The Christian martyrs were killed by the Romans because they wouldn’t renounce their faith. Some of them were eaten by lions and some of them were roasted alive and some were crucified. Except for the pain part, this also appealed to me mightily. Once you were a saint, you sat at the right hand of God and people prayed to you and you could perform miracles. I thought that it would probably hurt to be roasted alive or eaten by lions. I wasn’t sure it was a good trade off. I wanted to be able to perform miracles, but how much would it hurt to be eaten by a lion? I wasn’t sure. There was always being a nun. No horrific death required. I would be cloistered (shut away from the world) and I would pray all the time and I would be very holy.
I practiced being holy. I went to church and prayed for long stretches of time. The longer you prayed, the better. I asked God for silly 
You were supposed to contemplate the stations of the cross in those days and I spent a lot of time doing that. The stations of the cross, for the uninitiated, are depictions of Christ’s journey up the hill as he carried the cross on his way to be crucified. They are especially gory and sadomasochistic. The blood running down his face from the crown of thorns and his bloody back from the lashes. The nails pounded through his hands and feet. How does a five year old meditate on torture? Well I felt very very sorry for him. Poor Jesus, I thought. We must have done something very bad if he had to do all that to make up for it. I wanted to be the lady who gave him a drink of water. I wanted to be the lady who wiped his brow or the lady who cried at his feet.
One day I was praying all by myself in the church and I looked at that little gold container on the altar where we were told Christ was. It seemed to me Jesus must be very lonely in that little gold box, even if it was very pretty. I climbed over the railing (which you weren’t supposed to do) and I climbed up on the altar (which you weren’t supposed to do) and I sat next to the little gold box and I swung my legs and talked to Jesus. I told him everything that was on my five year old mind. I told him I loved him and I would always be his friend. I told him I wanted to be holy. I told him I was either going to be a nun or a saint and either way I’d be a virgin because nuns and saints are always virgins. I wasn’t sure what a virgin was but if that’s what Jesus wanted me to be, then I was going to be it.
My homeroom teacher Miss Staid came in and saw me and she nearly had a heart attack.
Categories
Redefining Equality
The Supreme Court will finally hear arguments in the Marriage Equality cases this week, and it’s about time. If justice delayed is justice denied, than we’ve had denial of justice for a good part of our population for far too long.
The opponents of marriage equality do not want to talk about civil rights. They don’t want to talk about equality. They don’t want to talk about gays sharing in society and being fully accepted in American culture. What they want to talk about is redefining marriage, which they say is what these cases are all about. They also want to point to the Bible for their definition, and cite its prohibitions against any homosexual activity. You’ll excuse me, but I am tired of having to worry about what a book that also mandates stoning, banishment and ritual murder has to say about people who live in a manner that is really not your business. If religious opponents of marriage equality can pick and choose which parts of the Bible they want to apply here, then I will feel free to ignore the Bible altogether as a remnant of tales, stories and oral histories that provide a fascinating narrative, but are not relevant to the modern world.
But in the end, they are simply redefining equality. And that’s wrong.
The main argument against marriage equality is that it would redefine the institution that opponents believe to be the bedrock of any civilization. Once you allow anybody who loves another person to marry them, then you’re opening the door to polygamy, incest and child marriage. Here’s Brian S. Brown, one of the most active opponents of marriage equality:
“When you knock over a core pillar of society like marriage, and then try to redefine biblical views of marriage as bigotry, there will be consequences,” Mr. Brown warned last August in a fund-raising letter. “Will one of the consequences be a serious push to normalize pedophilia?”
Then there’s this audio from the NPR program The Takeaway, where Joseph Backholm, executive director of Family Policy Institute, an anti-marriage equality group, says that not only should gays not be allowed to marry, they shouldn’t be able to adopt and raise children, since that right is traditionally reserved for those who can create children. I guess childless heterosexual couples need not apply either.
This is what the right wing does best: They scare and twist facts so that there’s no other choice but to oppose the same things they oppose. But Mr. Brown did more than that. He enlisted African-American clergymen and women to oppose marriage equality because, he said, it was less a civil rights issue than one of religious doctrine. Wasn’t this the same argument that segregationists used to fight integration?
Yes it was.
Denying people rights is the same no matter what their station is. Laws that forbid intermarriage were overturned. Laws that forbid certain sexual practices were overturned. Public places were integrated. The long history of our country generally moves in one direction; towards more freedom and more access for all groups. I can’t imagine the Supreme Court saying that marriage equality is against the Constitution. It’s just a matter of how far they’ll go.
The problem, though, is that even if the Court overturns the Defense of Marriage Act, it doesn’t mean that gay couples will have an unfettered right to marry or enjoy the same rights and privileges as heterosexual couples. Unless the Court mandates marriage equality throughout the nation, states that don’t recognize it can continue to not do so. That will continue to complicate the lives of those couples who are legally married in the eight states that do recognize marriages if they even visit states that do not. That’s not equality. More delays. More denials.
Here is a graphic that explains how the court might rule.
I expect that the Court will open the gates to marriage equality in some way, but won’t make a sweeping judgement that covers the whole country. I also believe that this will be another John Roberts decision and that he will provide the fifth vote in favor. If Anthony Kennedy comes along, then the tally will be 6-3. I just can’t see Scalia, Alito or Thomas signing on to this.
Opponents of marriage equality say that an expansion of marriage rights is not a done deal. I disagree. Many people already have these marriage rights in the states that recognize gay marriage. I cannot imagine that the court would take those rights away. And once they are affirmed, they will become part of the American way of life. Gay couples will be more visible and will ultimately become more accepted. It will take some time and there will be bumps along the way, but it will happen.
Because this is a civil rights issue. Plain and simple.
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Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio Of Buenos Aires, has been elected to be the 266th pope of the Catholic Church, taking the name Pope Francis.
Francisco appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at Wednesday more than an hour after white smoke was released from the Sistine Chapel chimney at 2:05 EDT (7:05 p.m. CET) to signal that a new pope had been selected. Speaking from the balcony, he gave his first address as pope, the traditional Urbi et Orbi (to the “City and the World”), as crowds waved, cried and cheered for the new leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics.
He prayed for the church, the papacy and for his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
Francis, a Jesuit priest, was elected to the papacy after two days of conclave meetings with a total of five ballots cast. Voting in the conclave, which began Tuesday afternoon, is confidential and cardinals were sworn to secrecy, but Francis received at least 77 votes, which is the minimum two-thirds required to become pope. There were 115 cardinals eligible to vote in the conclave. All were under 80 before Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s retirement, as required by Vatican rules. In 2005, when Benedict was elected, it took two days and four votes to elect him.
r/t Huffington Post
And twitter goes wild as white smoke is seen coming from the chimney on the Sistine Chapel. The 1.2 billion Catholics are rejoicing.
There’s a new Catholic pope, signals the white smoke coming from the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.
The 266th pope of the worldwide Catholic Church will be revealed shortly when he takes to the balcony in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican Square.
Thousands, including seminarians studying in Rome from Michigan and other clerics with Michigan-based roots, have crowded Vatican square.
In February, Pope Benedict XVI stunned Catholics all over the world by announcing plans to resign his post as leader of the Roman Catholic Church. The historic resignation, which officially took place on Feb. 28, made Benedict the first living pope to vacate his office in 600 years.
Update: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires will be next pope