tagged w/ Religon
-
It's odd to hear people use the term "gateway Bible," as if scripture is an addictive drug that can be pushed on an unsuspecting dupe. However, that is exactly the term that is being used to describe Bible Illuminated, a glossy, coffee-table style version of the New Testament that is coming to the United States, courtesy of Swedish publisher Ab Forlaget. This new edition is chock full of beautiful art photographs and images of celebrities, including Martin Luther King and Angelina Jolie.
The word "Illuminated" is not good.... it's EVIL!! We don't need another bible... we don't need anyone telling us our faith....Especially with celebraties... Trying to brain wash our children with stars they love to watch on TV... we just need to care about how we are going to make humanity better with food, jobs, love and happiness... with that we are good enough! this is bullsh*t!!It's odd to hear people use the term "gateway Bible," as if scripture... more
-
-
An Alaskan "Strategic Prayer Network" leader, who claims to be a "witch-hunter," says Palin is part of her "prayer group."
The video posted with this article is silent for the first 45 seconds. Please watch it in its entirety if you are interested in hearing Mary Glazier's claims.
"I believe in warfare. We were given an assignment in Alaska ... we had the very liberal candidates running for governor, and we began to pray for God to give us a Christian," declared Mary Glazier. At a three day religious conference held in Everett, Washington last summer, on June 13, 2008, Glazier described how, nearly two decades ago, her movement helped propel Alaska Independence Party candidate Walter J. Hickel, in an upset write-in campaign, into the Alaska governor's office: Glazier's new prayer group member, a 24 year old woman named Sarah Palin, would later follow.
Like Thomas Muthee, Mary Glazier describes waging personal battles against witches and witchcraft and, also like Muthee, Mary Glazier appears to have a special religious connection to Sarah Palin. Bishop Thomas Muthee, in an October 2005 ceremony at the Wasilla Assembly of God, anointed and blessed Sarah Palin as a political leader.
On June 13, 2008 Mary Glazier told attendees at the "Opening the Gate of Heaven on Earth" conference, who represented many of the New Apostolic Reformation's top leaders, that she had been present at the inception of Sarah Palin's political career and that Palin was in her personal prayer group :
There was a twenty-four year old woman that God began to speak to about entering into politics. She became a part of our prayer group out in Wasilla. Years later, became the mayor of Wasilla. And last year was elected Governor of the state of Alaska. Yes! Hallelujah! At her inauguration she dedicated the state to Jesus Christ. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
The good news spread through New Apostolic Reformation networks:
"Sarah Palin er bønnegriger og pinsevenn!" wrote Pastor Jan-Aage Torp excitedly in a September 6, 2008 post on his blog: "Palin is a Prayer Warrior and Pentecostal!"
Pastor Torp of Oslo, Norway, is an Apostle in C. Peter Wagner's International Coalition of Apostles, a network of about 500 apostles in the United States and 42 other nations. Torp reported in Norwegian that he had been visiting C. Peter Wagner and Wagner's wife Doris during the previous week, at the time when Palin was named as a vice-presidential candidate. Torp noted the excitement about *************CONTINUES**************
An Alaskan "Strategic Prayer Network" leader, who claims to be a... more
-
-
People should think through if she has been acting in Alaska the way they would expect of an authentic Christian act.
People should think through if she has been acting in Alaska the way they would expect... more
-
-
It is not an exaggeration to say that nearly half the American population is eagerly anticipating the end of the world.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maybe this is why so few seem to care......It is not an exaggeration to say that nearly half the American population is eagerly... more
-
-
Americans are divided over whether humans and other living things evolved over time or have existed in their present form since the beginning of time, according to a new poll.
People on both sides of that argument think students should hear about various theories, however. Nearly two-thirds of those in a Pew Research Center poll, 64 percent, say they believe "creationism'' should be taught alongside "evolution'' -- a finding likely to spark more controversy about what is taught in the schools.
In the poll by the Pew Research Center, 42 percent of those surveyed held strict "creationist'' views that "living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.'' Creationism generally refers to a literal reading of the Bible's story of the creation of man.
Almost half, 48 percent, said they believed humans have evolved over time. Some of those people, 26 percent of all those polled, said they believe evolution occurred through natural selection, and another 18 percent of all those polled, said evolution was guided by a supreme being.
To summarize, 42% of those polled believed only in strict creationism. 48% of our country believes in evolution, but only 26% believe that it was caused by natural selection. 18% believe that evolution is guided by a "supreme being."
Also, 64% of people believe in teaching both creationism and evolution in schools. Americans are divided over whether humans and other living things evolved over time or... more
-
-
Imam W.D. Mohammed passed Tuesday Sept 9, 2008 at the age of 74. He created much change for American Muslim community. He will be missed by millions.Imam W.D. Mohammed passed Tuesday Sept 9, 2008 at the age of 74. He created much... more
-
-
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has dismissed a complaint by a polygamist couple who alleged that the teachers union discriminated against them and their religious group by calling on the provincial government to investigate allegations of sexual exploitation in Bountiful.
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has dismissed a complaint by a polygamist couple who... more
-
-
The long-running battle between gay rights activists and the Vatican has moved into the realm of the dead.
19th century Anglican convert Cardinal John Henry Newman, arguably the greatest Catholic thinker from the English-speaking world, moving ever closer to sainthood, trouble is brewing over where his final resting place should be.
The London-born historian and theologian died in 1890 and, following the instructions in his will, was buried beside his lifelong friend and fellow convert Ambrose St. John, who had died 15 years earlier. Newman's deep expressions of grief after St. John's death, along with other writings, have led some historians to ask whether the two men, who lived together for many years, lived much like common-law spouses.
Newman, whose ideas on conscience and faith have influenced Christian theology ever since, is expected to be beatified next year following the Vatican's recent certification of a Newman miracle — when a Boston man's cure from a crippling spinal disease could not be explained medically. The final step of canonization — full Sainthood — will require proof of an additional miracle achieved through the intercession of Newman's spirit.
The Vatican announced plans this month to move Newman's remains from a small gravesite in the central English town of Rednal to a specially built sarcophagus in the Oratory Church of Birmingham, where, officials say, they will be more accessible for venerating faithful.
British gay rights activist Peter Tatchell sees ulterior motives in exhuming the Cardinal: "embarrassment" because of his relationship with St. John. "They were inseparable, they lived together for half a century, effectively like husband and wife," says Tatchell. "There were repeated allegations during [Newman's] lifetime about his circle of homosexual friends.
It is uncertain whether their relationship involved sex. It is quite likely that both men had a gay orientation but chose to abstain from sexual relations. But abstinence does not alter a person's sexual orientation." Tatchell says that the two men's bond, and Newman's abiding wish to have his final resting place next to St. John's, make separating their remains "an act of dishonesty and betrayal by the homophobes in the Vatican."
The brouhaha over Newman's burial place can also be seen as fallout from an increasingly hard line against homosexuality taken by traditionalist Catholic Church leaders. Before rising to the papacy, the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger signed a Vatican document that said gay people have a "disordered sexual inclination which is essentially self-indulgent." Since his election, Pope Benedict XVI has repeatedly condemned gay marriage and said that no one should be admitted to the seminary who has deep-rooted homosexual tendencies.
Benedict, himself one of the top theologians of the modern era, was a student of Newman's writings.The long-running battle between gay rights activists and the Vatican has moved into... more
-
-
Police believe a body found in a small-time evangelist's home freezer is his wife and a mother of eight, and arrested him on a murder charge as he preached at a south Alabama church.
Anthony Hopkins, 37, was being held in the Mobile County jail Wednesday awaiting a bond hearing and appointment of an attorney.
Police said no one reported 36-year-old Arletha Hopkins missing, even though she hadn't been heard from in three years. The body was discovered covered in a freezer in a utility room during a police search of the home in Mobile after a relative of the preacher contacted police.
In three years, no relatives reported her missing...very suspicious. We trust religious leaders simply because they preach about morality even though their lives may not reflect that.Police believe a body found in a small-time evangelist's home freezer is his wife... more
-
-
A news article from the Texas-Mexico border outlines problems in the peyote market. Peyote is used both legally (through the Native American Church) and illegally (as a recreational drug — it was a favorite in colleges in the early 1960’s, pre-LSD).
Demand seems to be constant or even growing, but supply is dwindling: there are now only three certified peyoteros; and the stuff only grows in a few counties in South Texas, where increasingly the wild land near cities where most peyote has been harvested is being privatized and used for hunting reserves or oil drilling. The rising price of oil has increased this trend.
Worse still, the harvesters have been driven to overgraze the commons — to harvest more than is consistent with a steady crop — and this early harvesting reduces the drug’s potency.
Not surprisingly, prices are skyrocketing. Proposals to grow the stuff in greenhouses (to create substitutes) are unacceptable to church members, who believe only naturally-grown peyote has spiritual properties. Says one member, “How can you have a peyote-based religion without peyote? It’s kind of like substituting Kool-Aid for wine in a Christian church.”
A news article from the Texas-Mexico border outlines problems in the peyote... more
-
-
Progress in the Church of England? Women are now viable as Clergy, Bishops and laity. the Church will face a rising group of Anglicans who disagree with the inclusion of females and homosexuals.
LONDON — The governing body of the Anglican Church in Britain voted on Monday to approve the appointment of women as bishops, a step that appeared to risk a schism in the church in its historic homeland as the Anglican church worldwide faces one of the most serious threats to its unity in its history, over the ordination of gay clergy members.
After a debate late into the night in the city of York, the General Synod of the Church of England, an assembly that holds ultimate authority on church doctrine in Britain, voted by comfortable margins within each of the synod’s three houses — bishops, clergy and laity — to approve the consecration of women as bishops in the face of bitter opposition from traditionalists.
The vote came 16 years after the synod voted, after similarly fractious debate, to approve the ordination of women as ministers within the British church. But traditionalists unreconciled to the end of the male monopoly within the clergy revived the battle over the issue of approving women as bishops, warning that it could lead to a breakup of the church in Britain.
End of Excerpt
Credit: New York Times Online, John F. BurnsProgress in the Church of England? Women are now viable as Clergy, Bishops and laity.... more
-
-
Sam Harris comments on a recent poll of American "Atheists" and how the term Atheist has become muddled. Harris has argued before that the term Atheist shouldn't even exist. He is the Award winning author of the books Letter to a Cristian Nation and The End of Faith.
Excerpt
According to a recent Pew survey, 21 percent of atheists in the United States believe in “God or a universal spirit,” and 8 percent are “absolutely certain” that such a Being exists. One wonders if they were also “absolutely certain” they understood the meaning of the term “atheist.” Claiming to be an atheist who believes in God is like claiming to be a happily married bachelor. Rarely does one discover nonsense in such a pristine state. Still this hasn’t stopped many people from concluding that there is a schism in the atheist community.
The inclusion of a “universal spirit” might have muddied things for some of these putative atheists, but this would not account for the 6 percent of them who rejected such a spirit in favor of a “personal God.” Granted, it is not clear what the phrase “personal God” might mean to men and women who have wandered so far from the plain meaning of words, but we can only assume that they believe in a God of the sort that 71% of Americans worship: a deity who can hear earnest and blameless prayers—as for the remission of childhood cancer—and fail to answer them, while granting those of far lesser gravity nearly every day (I rely upon the reader to insert here the most mortifying expression of religious awe ever uttered at the Grammy Awards).
Open the newspaper tomorrow morning, or any morning thereafter, and reflect upon the fact that half of your neighbors (51%) are “absolutely certain” that a “personal God” presides over all this casual destruction. The incongruity and moral carelessness of such certainty is reason enough to keep atheists (the real ones) awake at the ramparts until a proper war of ideas can be finally waged and won.
The Pew survey produced a few more anomalies: 3 percent of “atheists” are “absolutely certain” that a personal God exists and believe that the Bible is His “literal” Word; 4 percent attend religious services weekly; 5 percent pray daily; 2 percent receive answers to their prayers “at least once a week,” have witnessed “a divine healing,” and draw their morality straight from scripture. It may well be that some atheists, lacking the requisite fear of hell, find it amusing to maliciously waste a pollster’s time. I think, rather, that these figures are simply what it sounds like to ram against the error bars in this particular survey.
End of Excerpt
Credit: Washington Post, Sam HarrisSam Harris comments on a recent poll of American "Atheists" and how the term... more
-
