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The Pope: “Corruption Is a Greater Evil than Sin”
Modern interpretation of Christ driving the money changers from the temple by Anthony Freda/Daniel Zollinger
Preface: If you are an atheist (or adherent of another faith) and believe that the Catholic faith is crazy, you are obviously entitled to your belief. But please remember that very few Americans are atheists … and the majority don’t trust atheists. More importantly, it's wise to work with allies on core issues, such as fighting corruption ... even if you would normally disagree with them.
In this case, the Pope just may speak for a lot of allies. After all, there are more than a billion Catholics worldwide. Some 85% of the American population identifies itself as Christian, and 78 million Americans have been baptized into the Catholic Church. The U.S. has the world's fourth largest Catholic population.
Legal authorities have done nothing to crack down on Wall Street corruption. The U.S. government admits that it refuses to prosecute fraud … pretty much as an official policy.
Sure, a few "small fish" are indicted ... but the big boys go free. Indeed, there are two systems of justice in America … one for the Wall Street fatcats, and one for everyone else.
In reality, the government helped cover up the crimes of the big banks, used claims of national security to keep everything in the dark, and changed basic rules and definitions to allow the game to continue. See this, this, this and this. Because fraudsters weren’t prosecuted and the banks weren’t broken up, the fraudsters are now committing bigger and bigger crimes, and banks are now bigger than ever … leaving the economy open to an even bigger crash than occurred in 2008.
Even the President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank has repeatedly said that bankers have to improve their ethics ... but to no avail.
Why isn't the government cracking down on corruption and fraud? Because most government workers are themselves corrupt. As is the government procurement process.
Yesterday, Pope Francis gave a powerful speech, directly addressing these problems (Google translate):
The scandalous concentration of global wealth is possible due to the connivance of public leaders with the powers that be. The corruption is itself a process of death ... when life dies, there is corruption.There are few things more difficult than opening a breach in a corrupt heart: "So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich with God" (Luke 12:21). When the personal situation of the corrupt becomes complicated, he knows all the loopholes to escape as did the dishonest steward of the Gospel (cf. Lk 16.1 to 8).
The corrupt through life with shortcuts opportunism, with the air of one who says, "It was not me", coming to internalize his mask as an honest man. It's a process of internalization. The corrupt can not accept criticism, dismisses anyone who provides criticizes, tries to belittle any moral authority to question him, does not value the other and insults anyone who thinks differently. If the balance of power permits, he prosecutes anyone who contradicts him.
Corruption is expressed in an atmosphere of triumphalism because the corrupt fancies himself a winner. In that he struts to belittle others. The corrupt knows no fraternity or friendship, but complicity and enmity.
The corrupt does not perceive his corruption. It's a little like what happens with bad breath ... it's hard for those who have it to know, unless someone else tells them.
For this reason, the corrupt can hardly get out of their internal state by way of remorse of conscience. Corruption is a greater evil than sin. More than forgiven, this evil must be cured.
Corruption has become "natural" to the point of getting to statehood linked to personal and social custom, a common practice in commercial and financial transactions, in public procurement, in any negotiation involving State agents. It is the victory of appearances over reality ...
***
There are now many international conventions and treaties on the matter ... not so much geared to protect the citizens, who ultimately are the latest victims - particularly the most vulnerable - but how to protect the interests of operators of economic markets and financial companies.
The penalty is selective. It is like a net that captures only the small fish, while leaving the big [fish] free in the sea.
(Note: I tried to improve Google translate's rough translation. My Italian is rusty, and I would welcome a better translation from a fluent Italian speaker.)
What Does it Mean to Do God's Work?
The head of Goldman Sachs said he’s doing “God’s work” with his banking activities.
The head of Barclays also told his congregation that banking as practiced by his company was not antithetical to Christian principles.
Are they right? Is big banking as practiced by the giant banks in harmony with Christian principles?
Do Justice
Initially, the Bible does not counsel us to ignore the breaking of laws by the the powerful.
In fact, the Bible mentions justice over 200 times — more than just about any other topic. The Bible asks us to do justice and to stand up to ANYONE — including the rich or powerful — who do injustice or oppress the people.
Indeed, one of the first things God asks of us is to do justice:
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
While many churches and synagogues have become obsessed with other issues, many have arguably ignored this most important of God’s demands of us. As pointed out by a leading Christian ministry, which rescues underage girls trapped as sex slaves in third world countries:
In Scripture there is a constant call to seek justice. Jesus got upset at the Pharisees because they neglected the weightier matters of the law, which He defined as justice and the love of God . . . Isaiah 58 complains about the fact that while the people of God are praying and praying and praying, they are not doing anything about the injustice.
Should Christians just pray for justice and leave the rest to God?
That’s not what the Bible asks us to do. Instead, Hebrews 11:33 tells us that we are God’s hands for dispensing justice, and God uses us to “administer justice.”
We have to “walk our talk” and put our prayers into action.
God demands that we do everything in our power to act as “God’s hands” in bringing justice. And as Saint Augustine reminds us, “Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.”
Indeed:
The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, He was appalled that there was no one to intervene. (Isaiah 59:15-16)
This is the only place in the Bible where the word “appalled” is used for the way God feels — in other words, the only thing which we know God is appalled by is if people are not doing justice.
There are hundreds of other references to justice in the Bible, including:
- Blessed are they who maintain justice . . . . (Psalm 106:3)
- This is what the LORD says: Maintain justice and do what is right . . . . (Isiah 56:1)
- This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. (Jeremiah 22:3,13-17)
- Follow justice and justice alone. (Deuteronomy 16:19, 20)
- For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice . . . . (Job 11:5,7)
- Learn to do right! Seek justice . . . . (Isaiah 1:17)
So if the powerful players in the giant banks broke the laws, they must be held to account.
Fraud and Manipulation of Money
The big banks have engaged in systemic, continuous ongoing criminal fraud.
Allowing the banks to commit crime with impunity is not what Jesus would do. What would Jesus do? Turn over the tables of the money-changers. (economists agree.)
Moreover, the giant banks manipulate currency through the use of schemes such as manipulating interest rates (gaming interest rates in different regions – Libor, Eurobor, etc. – can in turn drive their currencies up or down), high frequency trading and artificially suppressing gold prices (which artificially inflates the value of fiat money) .
As Ron Paul notes, the Bible forbids altering the quality of money (which, at the time and place, was entirely in the form of coins):
Even the Bible is clear that altering the quality of money is an immoral act. We are instructed to follow the rules of “just weights and measures.” “You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin” (Leviticus 19:35-36). “Diverse weights are an abomination to the LORD, and a false balance is not good” (Proverbs 20:23). The general principle can be summed as “You shall not steal.”
Proverbs 11:1 also provides:
Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is His delight.
So to the extent that the giant banks have engaged in any dishonest acts or the manipulation of currencies, they are violating scripture.
Oppression of the Poor
The Bible condemns oppression of the poor for the benefit of the affluent:
He that oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he that gives to the rich, shall surely come to want. (Proverbs 22:16)
To the extent that the giant banks have oppressed the poor to increase their riches, they are violating scripture.
Due to their looting, inequality is now worse in American than in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, most Latin American banana republics … and ancient Rome.
Waging War
Bankers are often the driving force behind war. "Blessed are the peacemakers" (Matthew 5:9), and Jesus would not have taken kindly to waging wars for profit based upon false pretenses.
Jesus Was Killed for Standing Up to Corruption
Reverend Howard Bess notes:
Jesus did not go to the temple to cleanse. He came to the temple to announce the destruction of a whole way of life. Those who operated the temple had no power to silence Jesus and put him to death. Those powers were held by the Roman retainers.
The charges that were leveled against him can be summed up as insurrection. There were three specific charges: encouraging non-payment of taxes, threatening to destroy property (the temple), and claiming to be a king. It was the temple incident that took Jesus from being an irritating, but harmless country rebel from the rural north to a nuisance in a city that controlled the great tradition. Rome’s retainers killed him on a cross.
In other words, Jesus wasn't sentenced to death until he challenged the money changers. Jesus didn't die for a sin like lust or slothfulness. He died for our corruption.
Resurrection: Christ's Ministry
Christ - and his ministry - lives to the extent that we act as God's hands to confront the big banks which are warping our economy and our world.
But Isn't the Economy Still Too Fragile?
Shouldn't we wait until the economy is stronger before prosecuting fraud?
Nope ...
Ecclesiastes 8:11 notes:
When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong.
Nobel prize winning economists agree.
Postscript: Not all bankers are bad people. For example, many bankers at smaller banks and credit unions are good people who are trying to help their communities. Each must be judged by his or her own acts.
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Weed in a Caddy?
No problem.
Line up on Shaky Jake, jump the curb, park on his knees and grab the weed before the blood hits it.
Shopping has never been easier.
Almost got an internet confession with that remark.
Market share is maintained through the school system. People would rather have their kids in a school based on right and wrong than a system based on it doesn't matter.
Original corruption comes directly from 'the Church', and without the crimes of the church, governments would have had no teacher. Jesus Christ was the first Ponzi scheme to gain worldwide acceptance through the Bible and 'the Church'. Throwing over the tables of the 'money changers'
was pure propaganda on the part of 'theology'. Jesus Christ was a false prophet in so far as the Bible instructs that he threw over the tables of the money changers when in fact we all know that Jesus Christ should have known to destroy the 'money changers' outright so they could not set up their tables once again. Where was Jesus Christ when they set their tables up again? Where was his only begotten father 'God' when the money changers set their tables up against all of us in the world today? As an Anglican, and an indoctrinated Christian, let me be the first to state that I will be first in line to hoof God in the shins and punch him square in the nose as soon as I see him in the 'afterlife'.
Lucifer, God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost are all in for a rude awakening when I finally rest my boots on their collective necks for an eternity.
God forgives, and I get even, motherfuckers!
“It is nothing of the sort, because the Sistine Chapel is a sacred place: it's certainly not able to be rented on request, nor will it ever become a venue for private parties!”
Rumors surrounding the Sistine Chapel began following the Oct. 18 launch of the museum’s “The Art of Charity” initiative, which consists of a series of exclusive events that include a guided tour of the museums with a private concert inside the Sistine Chapel, as well as a dinner inside the museums.
The Rome-based Orchestra of the Academy of Santa Cecilia, was the group selected to play during the launch event. They performed Rossini’s “Petite Messe Solennelle.”
The Porsche Travel Club was the first to take advantage of the new project, with members paying up to $6,000 per person for the concert-tour combo, which would yield a ballpark total of $200,000, a Vatican source confirmed. Up to 70 people are expected to participate in such events.
In his statement, Paolucci lamented the confusion that has arisen out of the event, explaining that the Vatican Museums have always accepted groups for private tours after hours, during which a visit to the Sistine Chapel is customary.
Great article GW. Way to push the limits.
Seems like a better way to keep the lights on than telling people that they are going to hell and then passing the collection basket.
You have no idea what you're talking about.
The epitome of hypocrisy. The catholic church preaching morals. The day they put an end to their abuse of young boys and properly accept and owe up to the damage they have done is the day they may qualify to preach to others. I'd sooner defend myself as an adult against unscrupulous financiers than being forced into despicable sexual acts with sick pedophiles at an age of innocence. Chief hypocrite can keep his advice.
Hey, there were mostly homosexual molesters. A sanctuary I think it's called.
What I find interesting is barely a day goes by without a story about some public school teacher being arrested or accused for molesting his/her
students and the media totally ignores this. That problem is way larger than the gay issue in the vatican.
Grady,
You have made no effort to understand what you're talking about. You're repeating MSM embellishments regarding the proliferation of child sex abuse among Catholic priests. It's disappointing to see someone on THIS website so eager to swallow the coolaid without reflection. The truth - and most normal people understand this - is that your child is safer in a room full of priests than he/she is in a room full of any other group of people. The "sick pedophiles" are the roundoff error of a sum of overwhelmingly good men who know what Godly behavior is.
What concerns me is the hate-filled assault against Western Christendom by liberal and neocon leftists, who know that to destroy our culture, you first attack our religion and education. The fixation on "pedophile priests" and characterizing these as if they were "normal," is a classic example of "divide and conquer" being executed against us Westerners.
I was a bigger fan of Benedict than I am of Francis; but your invective against what you call church "hypocrisy" regarding child sex abuse is absurd on its own terms, as there is no debate as to whether it's right or wrong. If even convicted felons in prison can get this one right, you may be pretty sure that the Pope can too.
What you miss "thatthingcanfly" is that my point is not so much about the "few" pedophiles in the catholic church but the fact that they are shielded from justice by your lovely institution by the highest level, always at the expense of not just the past innocent victims but also future victims. It would serve you well to do your research on ratzinger before you display your ignorance here. This injustice has been going on since the earliest days of the catholic church and will continue until the institution ends.
This is one of the most common lies told about the "child priest scandal." The church hierarchy is "covering it up because they want more victims!" Whooo-oooh-ooh! Boogeyboogeyboogey! I done did heard they's eats them childurn's brains too!
The simple response: "Give one example, please." usually shuts down this argument.
The church hierarchy is covering it up because it is oficial church policy as written by Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benidict in 2001.
"Very much more serious is the role of Joseph Ratzinger, before the church decided to make him supreme leader, in obstructing justice on a global scale. After his promotion to cardinal, he was put in charge of the so-called "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" (formerly known as the Inquisition). In 2001, Pope John Paul II placed this department in charge of the investigation of child rape and torture by Catholic priests. In May of that year, Ratzinger issued a confidential letter to every bishop. In it, he reminded them of the extreme gravity of a certain crime. But that crime was the reporting of the rape and torture. The accusations, intoned Ratzinger, were only treatable within the church's own exclusive jurisdiction. Any sharing of the evidence with legal authorities or the press was utterly forbidden. Charges were to be investigated "in the most secretive way ... restrained by a perpetual silence ... and everyone ... is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office … under the penalty of excommunication." (My italics). Nobody has yet been excommunicated for the rape and torture of children, but exposing the offense could get you into serious trouble. And this is the church that warns us against moral relativism!"
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2010/03/t...
But its not just the church.
David Icke on pedos in high places
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sEW6yDv96ng
Jimmy Savile and the 9th Circle [of Hell]
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XuVMU3b-tH4
I don't find the Slate article to be an attempt at honest journalism. It's full of hateful invective, and seems to be a slander piece against Benedictus. The sources it lists offer a marginally better picture of what Ratzinger's "secret letter" actually tried to achieve - privacy for the underage victims of sex abuse cases. But even there, no effort was made to get the Vatican to render an opinion on the subject for the article.
I can only conclude this is sham journalism. You should be ashamed of yourself for 1) not reading critically and 2) copying and pasting from what is clearly a disingenuous slander piece.
@thatthingcanfly:
As a product of all-boys Catholic high school in Los Angeles, I've got personal experience with your "MSM Embellishments" regarding child sex abuse. From my school, 3 of these dirty cunts hiding behind priests robes hung themselves rather than finally suffer the consequences of their actions.
Even my uncle, a rising star in the LA archdiocese, quit rather than submit to a life of homosexuality that was being imposed on him.
The fact is the Catholic church has a storied history as a corrupt organization.
One of many reads on the subject:
http://www.citypages.com/2014-03-19/news/how-patrick-wall-became-the-cat...
Best lesson I took away from the experience was "Question Everything". I suggest you pull your head out & do the same.
Sorry Stanley, your personal story told above is simply not believable. Too many outrageous twists. In fact, reading that was like watching the movie 'Twister."
"The fact is the Catholic church has a storied history as a corrupt organization."
Bullshit.
Whenever someone begins a sentence with the phrase, "The fact is..." it's a sure sign that what follows is definitely NOT fact, but uninformed opinion and/or conjecture based on unconfirmed hearsay.
You must think that the men and women who go into the church rather than remain in society and raise a family are no different from the general population. This is just not so. Misfits do go into the church and child predators/homosexuals (when gayness was aberrant) do go to where the children are.
Mother was an orphan in St. Patrick's Catholic orphanage in Prince Albert, Canada. When asked, She could not remember. But I have never met a more damaged person. She never set foot in a church, never said a prayer and never talked about God until she was near death. For all the years i Knew her, she slept on her stomach with her arms flexed up against her sides and stayed in that position like she was frozen. I have never seen her sleep in another position. I heard her tell a friend, when asked why she did not remarry that she did not want to bring a man into the house who was not the biological father of her children, because she knew what the possiibilities were when no one was watching.
Men get erections. Every morning. And if you think there are men in the catholic church who have gone a lifetime without jacking off you are naive. Nuns as well.
It happens during bathroom time, taking the child to the toilet up to ages of 7 or 8 to wipe their rear ends, or during bathtime or when the lights are out and no one can see exactly what is happening.
It was not to be discussed. Theory is the child will forget about it. Will not be damaged irreparably and the couple of minutes it takes to fulfull sexually a man is a drop in the ocean...but they do not target all children, just the eager-to-please, those with no friends or the less then attractive, insecure, needy.
Come and sit on my lap.
bunny,
I don't doubt that there are isolated instances where these things do happen. Neither do I doubt that the legitimizing of homosexuality over the past 40 years has contributed to an increase of this kind of thing in the general population from which, as you correctly pointed out, these celibate men and women emerge. It is a well established statistical fact that homosexuals commit a disproportionate amount of child sexual abuse. All Christian denominations should have stood their ground more when confronted with the homosexual lobby's demand to allow them into the clergy.
But I refuse to believe that this is as ubiquitous a problem as you suggest. I also do not believe that potty-time and bath-time are particularly dangerous affairs for children at orphanages. I can't speak for all of them, but if I were working at an orphanage in today's hypersensitive climate, NO WAY would I put myself alone in a bathroom with a child. The door would be open and there would be another adult around for witness purposes. If I encountered any adult who seemed to "enjoy" giving a child a bath a little too much, I'd personally put an end to that faster than you can say assault consummated by battery. Yes, I myself am a father of a child in the 7-8 year old age-group; but I don't think there's anything really special about my feelings on the subject. There are some offenses that are SO FAR across the line delineating acceptable conduct from deviant that even convicted murderers in prison would rise up to put a stop to it if put in that situation. It is absurd to say that an abnormally large number of Clergymen are exempt from this instinct.
The other thing that troubles me is the drumbeat of stories about 40-year-old men who suddenly "remember" that Father Joe molested them when they were five. I ask, is is not far more reasonable to assume that these people are greedy opportunitists trying to exploit a situation and get a little bit of money from the church years after there would be any witnesses to call to testify in the Clergyman's defense, than to assume that all of these allegations are truthful? The latter assumption seems to inform the "bishopaccountability" website another commenter has posted elsewhere in this thread. Do these people seriously believe that "accused" is the same as "convicted?"
So, where does that leave us? I believe the MSM, in their efforts to destroy Western Civilization, will exaggerate any and every problem with our religious institutions. Eroding the faithful's confidence in church traditions is the best way to demoralizae and weaken the majority population with which liberalism has been at war for 300 years. And that's what this Priest sex abuse scancal is all about, methinks.
Personal Jesus - Depeche Mode
I'll make you a believer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26DD0JwAbAc
Spare us your indignation. I went to a school where 3 teachers out of 20 got charged with abuse, and it was a public school.
"The life off homosexuality that was bring imposed on him". Your uncle seems to have trouble with truthiness and you seem to have difficulty perceiving it.
Maybe first take your head out of your own prejudiced ass as the BS you smell is probably what's already lodged in your nostrils.
Heh heh heh.....the flies flock to a pile of shit, don't they?
I saw the abuse firsthand, and didn't report it - there wasn't anyone that had the sack to pursue it back them. I fought back with my fists, they didn't fuck with me after that.
Why don't you stop jerking yourself of long enough to investigate how many thousands of kids have been ass-raped by these pedophiles? And then re-circulated to another diocese, so they can continue? And the world's longest running con game in the morality business continues .......
Btw, aren't you the asshole that cuts everyone off on the freeway, only to melt into a slobbering bitch once you're pulled out of the car by the scruff of your neck?
Thought so.
"I fought back with my fists, they didn't fuck with me after that."
Sure you did. You were a little boy, being assaulted by grown men, and you kicked their asses and took names. Because you were a bad muthafucka, right?
You are a pathological liar.
No, I'm not a pathological liar.....but I sure struck a nerve, didn't I?
I was a 6'4" 235 lb freshman....and I kncoked poor Fr. Chis out afer he grabbed my balls in the gym.
Why, you want a piece, punk?
Thought so.
Btw, here's how they dealt with good old Fr. Chris.....just packed him up, swept it under the rug, and relocated him to the next church a couple of hundred miles away.
They only reluctantly addressed it after much pressure, many years later:
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/apr/09/local/me-priest9
Don't worry, Fr. Chris took himself outta this world by his own hand.....
What, no clever response to the truth, BITCH?
No please continue writing yourself into the fabricated leading role of googled newspaper articles.
You really are a chickenshit, aren't you?
Don't worry.....I know where to find you.....
Your fiction is much less compelling than Stanley Kubricks
Here's more fiction, BITCH:
http://bishop-accountability.org/member/psearch.jsp
Yep, read it - that's 266 of your Catcholic best & brightest 'thought leaders' from the Los Angeles archdiocese ALONE.
Just a fad, eh faggot?
Cunt.
Grady, don't forget to extend your criticism of this abuse to schools, families, state orphanages and institutions, etc etc etc bla bla bla
The author of this post made a lot of effort demonstrating why the Pope's statement has meaning and relevance even for the haters. I thought the author did this very effectively.
Preacher man talking on TV, puttin' down the rock and roll
Wants me to send a donation, 'cause he's worried about my soul
He said, "Jesus walked on the water.", and I know that it's true
But sometimes I think that preacher man, would like to do a little walkin' too
Charlie Daniels
"...now hurry up and pass the Collection Plate"
Corruption can lead to greater evils .
See
http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2007/02/napoleon-emperor-of.html
"Ten ditches leading down the final circle. Each filled with its own crimes, its own forms of punishment." -Thais
Fraud is the eighth Circle of Hell.
"I live in shame, a whore awash in sewage. I confess I teased and seduced hundreds, led them to sin for my own gains. But I am just one of many who suffer here in the Malebolge." -Thais
Fraud is an extremely dark place that holds those guilty of deliberate, knowing evil, who used lies and deception for personal gain.
They are waiting for you Loyd, Jamie and Yellen bitchez.
It wasn't just for corruption that Jesus died. He died for all our sins - and for all the sins of all men if they repent.
I like the Pope, but the nature of sin is that it cannot be cured. Sin (including corruption) will only end at the close of the age when Christ returns. The just can stand against the unjust as I think Pope Francis is trying to do, but we must never, ever underestimate the power of evil. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." EPH 6:12.
The story of Jesus and the moneychangers is interesting. According to the rules of the Pharisees the Israelites had to pay the Temple Tax in the offical coin which was called the Shekel. They would bring sheep, goats and other property and exchange them for Shekels to pay the Temple Tax. The moneychangers were basically officially sanctioned "bankers" of the day and they would typically cheat the Israelites (sound familiar) and overcharge them. (Floating exchange rate) That's the corruption that outraged Jesus. The parallel is remarkable.
"The scandalous concentration of global wealth is possible due to the connivance of public leaders with the powers that be."
Perhaps the "Church" should practice what it preaches 1st. When leaders are corrupt the people will behave likewise.
As one of the most powerful States in the world the "Church" has appointed itself caretakers of the earth and everything on it. The first step should be to come clean and expose its hidden origins and beastly torture of human beings throughout the centuries. All this while enjoying luxury by taxing the sheep.
Corruption! Look at the instructive histories that are kept UNSEEN:
http://patrick.net/forum/?p=1223928
You cannot have Justice without Truth and you cannot Truth and Justice unless you ar capable of Impartiality.
If you cannot be Impartial you cannot possibly be Just or Truthful.
Can Jews be Impartial???
Obviously not!
This GUY makes public statements, then retracts them, saying...'You didn't understand, what I said..." WHAT A WAFFLER !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wNyDP5N1HU
It may seem a little off topid, but not really. In any case it is VERY interesting.
Just so that you can find out that whateeer th eBible said, it had very little to do with any Jews or Hebrews1
Neither was there a man, let along a Jewish man called Jesuis Christ.
"IUSA the KRST was born in a stable on the 25th. December, the Wintr Solstice, of a Virgin called IsisMery.
He taught in th eTemple at age 12 and he was baptised at age 30 by Anup the Baptiser. Anup the Baptiser was beheaded.
He had 12 companions, walked on water and healed the sick and raised the dead.
He was crucified, died and was buried in a tomb of rock.
He was resurrected - naturally."
That isout of the Egyptian Book of the Dead and Pyramid Texts. Christianity was tahe religion of the Egyptians. The teachings wre usurped by sects such as the Essenes and the Gnostics.
The video posted above was made by John McCarthy some time after he was released from confinement by Muslims in Beirut. He was - is - a British journalist. He went to the "Holy Land" and spent many months at digs and talking to many different archaologists. It is a very interestin video.
Also, reead the fascinating book The Bible Unearthed. by Israel Finkelstein.
Don't try and sell me a 2 Hour YouTube video with the premise that Jesus Christ was born on December 25th.
Why not? It is a fascinating video about the archaeology of the ME. And, theewas ni manever called Jesus Chrisy.
Because the Winter Solstice is a pagan holiday and has nothing to with the purported actual birth date of Jesus Christ (either in the Biblical texts, the historical timeline, or in earth/astronomical sciences).
Why should I invest time in those who are tripped up by the basics?
Urban,
It always "was" of "Pagan" Origin.
Jesus Christ is an amalgamtion of Myths - Mithra, Dionysus, Zeus, other Myths in the Region, mixed with the Chestus Movement and given a fraudulent connection to Judaism to give it some sort of falsified regional history.
Go to Truthbeknown.org, jesusneverexisted.com, or to the Jesus Birther Movement's websites.
It is intellectually sloppy not to distinguish between the the Man, the Myth, and the Institution. Doing so prevents serious debate as to the existence of the former. Catholics who take 1st Vatican too seriously (petrine supremacy) are just as guilty, but seem to derive a perverse joy from bearing that cross.
I picked your second site because of the name and made it through the first 2 paragraphs of links. Several things jump out- the author relies on the readers' ignorance both of early Christian history (especially prior to St Jerome translating the Vulgate during the papacy of Damasus I) as well as the readers' ignorance of 2000 years of scholarly debate. But for converting cafeteria catholics and the like it does make for good reading.
The simple fact is that there was no one "Christian Church" or even a "Bible" during the first several centuries. There were competing churches and even within the single church that is now the Apostolic Sea of the Bishop of Rome, there were significant schisms within the early centuries. What Nicaea achieved during the papacy of Sylvester I was consensus (i.e. compromise) between the Pentarchy - Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, Jerusalem and Rome. Every religion borrows elements from those religions they supplant, just as political movements do. If they didn't, they wouldn't attract new membership and grow. After the Edict of Thessalonica, matters of purse, politics, and the primacy of Rome became that much more important, at the expense of historical accuracy and philosophical purity, and the major schisms resumed less than a century thereafter.
600 years of Christian history in 6 sentences. There are limits, I'm not God after all.
Jesus is buried in Srinigar, Kashmir, where he walked with his mother Mary after he survived his unusual crucifixion.
BBC 4 Documentary http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=acqgY04hhzM
The Catholic Church maintains a deafening silence about all the US expeditionary wars. All the plunder and murder that the US continues on a daily basis.
Dear Atticus,
Pope John Paul II codemned the Iraq war in no uncertain terms. He also denounced NATO's air campaign against Serbia while also condemning Milosevic's alleged ethnic cleasing of Albanians (wrongly in my view, but a matter too complex to address here) and reminded the world that while the Serbs might have their shortcomings, the (Catholic) Croats were no saints. To this day, the Holy See does not recognize the still-born statelet of Kosovo.
Our efforts to subvert Ukraine, Libya and Syria, and our droning and tomahawking of Pakistan, Somalia and other random places are certainly bellicose (and misguided) actions on our part, but do not constitute "expeditionary wars."
The Afghan war was seen as an exercize in self-defense as the atrocities that took place on Sept 11, 2001 were believed to have been organized from there.