Yes, God bless with abundant grace the Grahams who stand tall and unashamed of the Gospel of Christ. They were standing tall before we entered the period of "down and dirty".
In fairness, CrewDog, I think he was talking about the peaceful meaning of jihad which is to evangelise. I'm not being sarcastic, it really can mean evangelise by peaceful means. Evangelising by peaceful means is the goal of most religions, Muslims included. The trouble with Islam is that too many of their tiny minority prefer the other kind of jihad but you can't blame the Pope for trying to be diplomatic. I have a feeling that the Pope's remarks will drop to the bottom of the face palm list soon enough. These reports are something that could soon give us all more than a few grey hairs: The world powers have agreed to arm yet another unstable Muslim country: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/35c334b6-1b82-11e6-b286-cddde55ca122.html#axzz49FY0v3rf And Montenegro has been invited to join NATO: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/world/europe/nato-montenegro.html The PM of Montenegro said last year that he expected them to be members of NATO by mid-2017. The Russians are furious. Euronews are reporting that a NATO spokesman has said that even though they will be deploying troops to Eastern Europe (could be as many as 3,500) they don't want confrontation with Russia and of course NATO doesn't want another Cold War. Time to don the tin hat.
I think it depends on the company producing the paper. Inkjet inks are not toxic, just sharing what I heard about the lead in newsprint. It was my understanding that the roots of the plants could absorb it. My cousin uses old carpet as a mulch and it works pretty good. I just do a lot of weeding!
"Evangelising by peaceful means is the goal of most religions, Muslims included...": History, nor Islamic scripture, doesn't support your statement. Have you ever come across a Muslim missionary? Ever heard of one martyred (in the true sense of martyrdom)?
I'm not disagreeing with you about the history or the scripture, but very many and some would say the vast majority of Muslims have a peaceful interpretation of jihad. Yes, I have come across Muslim missionaries, although not the Jehovah's witness or Mormon types who go from house to house knocking on doors. I have seen them outside the GPO in Dublin, where they had a table set up and signs inviting people to ask questions about Islam. I have had them approach me while travelling in Muslim countries and have seen them approach other (mostly young) foreigners. I'm talking years ago before all this terrorism and before the rise of the visa geezers. Evangelise by example isn't an exclusively Christian approach. Setting up youth clubs and other social groups can be a means of evangelisation. Muslims genuinely believe that Islam is the religion of peace and not all their preachers are hate mongers. An awful lot of them associate Christianity with imperialism and don't distinguish between denominations......the lens of history can vary depending on where you're at. Their understanding of Christianity and Christian denominations is as limited as our understanding of Islam. A comment I read from a priest in the Middle East best illustrates the main problem with Islam (other than the theological differences). I wish I could explain it like he did, but it boiled down to vengeance which is absolutely forbidden in Christianity but is a grey area in Islam. I suppose that honour killings could be an example - tolerated and practiced in some Muslim countries while being condemned by many Muslims as unIslamic. Mix in a slanted version of the Crusades having been taught for centuries, the history of imperialism and exploitation by Western oil and mining companies in countries where there's little distinction between the exploiters and the majority religion of the West, and we're left with today's powder keg. Needless to say, the anti-Christian, politically motivated, revisionist historians and educators in the West have also played their part. While I wish that the Pope had a better turn of phrase, I can't blame him for trying to counteract the popular narrative that religion is the cause of all wars, especially in a country like France. The Pope needs to tread carefully as the divide and conquer method is a stick often used to beat people of faith. We Christians, especially Catholics, should be wary of this new movement being promoted by some of the rich and powerful to reinvent Islam. There has even been talk of revising the Koran to remove any passages that can be interpreted to support terrorism. If they are successful with the koran the bible will be next and before we know it there will be a push to edit out any references to sins that are deemed hate speech. Sorry for the convoluted post. I just can't find the right words to explain why I think the Pope deserves more understanding from us on all this reaching out to different faith communities, but I think there's more to it than we give him credit for. The Pope could be looking down the line to a time when Catholics will likely be a very small minority in a Muslim majority Europe.
"...the vast majority of Muslims have a peaceful interpretation of jihad": Is it possible that they are peaceful in proportion to the degree that they don't believe? Could there ultimately be a challenge for their fealty between Christianity, most particularly Marian Catholicism and Orthodoxy, and secular liberalism as they become increasingly alienated from an ever more violent Islamism? I doubt that the elites will have much success trying to engineer the Koran. The push-back could overwhelm them. You are right about the Pope. The last thing he needs is to be perceived as the launcher of a Crusade.
I would say more to the degree of their understanding of the controversial passages based on how those passages were taught to them. I'm saying this as someone with very little knowledge of the Koran. My opinion is based more on observation and limited interaction with Muslims. The Muslims I knew might not be representative of the vast majority but it is hard to believe that the average Muslim doesn't have the same aspirations as the average Christian - a quiet life, freedom to practice their faith, a means of providing for family, and eternal life with God. Just like in Western countries, teachers have a huge influence. They get to mould young minds for hours every day. Education matters to them, particularly university education, and teachers are treated with far more respect than teachers in the West. I suppose it's a bit like the way things were here years ago when only the wealthy or the few bright scholarship winners made it to university, and a third level education meant being set up for life. A young Muslim lad once told me that Catholics can commit murder, tell the priest he's sorry and walk away scot free. That's what he learned from his teacher, probably after he had talked in school about his foreign friends who weren't all that different from him except that they went to Mass on Sundays whereas his father went to Mosque on Fridays. I don't know whether their honour for Our Lady could make the difference. The manipulators are very powerful. The terrorism could be the death knell for Saudi method but as that wanes the Brotherhood/Qatari mix of jihad by emigration mixed with investment in education and gaining control of influential social organisations, political parties and banking/business is harder to counteract. The first time I came across reference to an Islamic reformation was in the report of a speech by the former general who is now President of Egypt. That was soon after he gained power but he is unlikely to push it now that the Saudis are pumping money into Egypt. I have seen variations of it being touted by secularist Muslims and their journalist friends in the West who view "reformation" and "enlightenment" as having civilised Christianity. Time will tell how much success their money and influence can buy them.
Dolours sez: "In fairness, CrewDog, I think he was talking about the peaceful meaning of jihad which is to evangelise." Oh! No Doubt Dolours that that was what PF was referring to but it just shows that History was not one of Papa's favorite subjects! Islam has NEVER BEEN a "Religion of Peace"! That's modern revisionist PC-BS!! The only time Muslims are "Peaceful" is when Crusaders, British/French Armies or the US Navy, Marines, Army & AF Shows-Up and kicks their asses!! The Pope is obviously ignorant of History-n-Current Events and/or is on the receving end of lousy advice! GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!
Can't argue with that CrewDog. The trouble now is that the Pope can't call for an army to march on the Middle East. Even if he did, his army would be facing NATO and their allies as well as Islam. He has to deal with the situation facing him, keeping an eye on Catholics in Muslim majority countries now and in the future. The low birth rate in post-Christian countries compared to non-Christian countries, especially Muslim countries, has led us here. Politicians and businessmen who rode the anti-life bandwagon for years are finally talking about demographics and, rather than admit their own errors, they talk up immigration telling us it is vital to our survival. Oddly enough, using the UN and non-profit agencies, they still push the anti-life lie in under developed Christian countries but rarely or never in Muslim countries. That might have something to do with their financiers. The bottom line is that the world has changed in our lifetime and our selfish generation is handing on a mess. The deepest pockets control the world, and we can have the jobs with the immigrants or watch the jobs move to where the future labour force and wealth generators are. The Pope can tell the truth that it is rooted in our turning our backs on God, but who would listen to him? We all recognise the evil of godless Communism. The other side of that coin is the evil of unbridled godless Capitalism which has been getting the sacred cow treatment for years. It isn't Communists who export jobs to low wage economies, especially to Communist China, but anyone pointing that out is labelled as reactionary, communist, anarchist, populist or whatever adjective marginalises them. I'm not the Pope's biggest fan but I feel for him having to tread on eggshells in these troubled times. I feel for you too, CrewDog, having to listen to the backlash to the Pope's statements. How far do you think you would get if you pointed out to those bible thumping Protestants that the infection set in when divorce led the way to the destruction of the family? Catholic teaching didn't destroy the West. Neither did Communism. "Except for adultery" were the three words from the bible that Protestants used to compromise Christ's teaching on marriage. For some of them the penny finally dropped on abortion, but it will take a few more generations before they wake up to the role they played in the West's moral decline by compromising on divorce and contraception. The Pope has been an easy target for Protestants ever since the Reformation. Some things never change.
Not necessarily. Here in America most (if not all) major newspapers, in an attempt to go "green", have switched to a soy-based ink. There was some pushback at the beginning because the new ink seemed more likely to smear than the older inks; but now there have been advances and with the growth in recycling initiatives, the newspapers are eager to become a part of that movement. After all, none of them want to have any community say, "Recycle all your paper except for newspapers; we won't accept them because the ink is dangerous." You'll have to check with your local newspaper publisher as to the type of ink they use. If you live near a forest where there are fallen trees you can use, you might want to consider hugelkultur. (Here's more info.) The chief advantages are that you don't need to water it after the first year (probably not an issue in Ireland); and you don't need to bend over as much to plant and harvest.
Counter-intuitively, the Muslim birthrate has been declining drastically in the last few decades, most particularly in Iran and in those countries nearest to Europe, while Christian decline has stabilised and begun to rise. Additionally, Christianity attracts far more converts. David Warren has knowledgeably touched on this topic in his 'Essays in Idleness' blog and speculates that secularism is going to socially devastate Islam far more drastically than Christianity. Islamic extremism may represent a futile, but ultimately counterproductive, attempt to repel these corrupting forces. Our hope must be that extremist Islam and secularism damage one another sufficiently for the slowly resurgent Christianity to fill the vacuum, so to speak. This scenario seems to exclude Europe, but a future in which Islam is enjoying its only growth area (with emigration further depleting the countries of origin) and secularism is failing everyone else might see, please God, a reversion to more reliable traditions by the put-upon natives.
Maybe all the traditional ink is being used up printing money. Sad to see all the ink sink in the national debt.
Mount Etna Sicily: Europe's highest active volcano erupts http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36351921 Wasn't there a recent 'message' that Italy was going to suffer?
Yesterday I attended Michael Brown's Retreat in Cherry Hill NJ. I would say there were at least 400 people in attendance. Every person there was fully aware we are in dire times....It was wonderful to be with like minded devout Catholics who understand the signs of the times and prophecy. Michael did an excellent job steering the faithful....At the end of the retreat, we had our items blessed (water, salt, oil, sacramentals)...We are all in "gird your loins mode"...the end of the Year of Mercy coincides with the US National Elections and the anniversary of the 100th year of Fatima is less than a year away.... We discussed how America was founded as a CATHOLIC nation, not just Christian.....Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Menendez.....all devout Catholics and Our Lady was at the helm of their ships.... Today we are fighting to keep strange men out of girl's bathrooms in public places in the name of human rights....the sacrifice of abortion rivals the Aztec human sacrifice in the times of Our Lady of Tepeyac.....in the words of one of the Grahams "If God does not bring down his sword of justice on the US, he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology"......
@ Dolours. Here is a video which says it all from a Christian religeous man who has a $60,000,000 bounty on his head from the religion of peace. Some points for your information are stated which I have heard elsewhere.
Yes, Julia, Muslims are obliged to live by Sharia Law and they make it the law of the land whenever they can. When there are enough of them, the power brokers will stir them up to demand Sharia Law. That's what we're facing whether we like it or not and it will be better for some future generation of Catholics if nobody can point fingers at the Catholic Church for saying that Muslims fleeing war shouldn't be given refuge or that Muslims are launching a takeover bid of Europe. Completely irrelevant to this topic, but is that Michael Coren the Jewish guy who became Catholic and then left the Church over gay marriage or some other sensitive issue? I've been paying attention to the Brexit debate and the latest fuss about the 13 million Turks who will move to Britain if (when) Turkey gets full EU membership. NATO have been urging the EU to admit Turkey for years, with Britain their biggest champion while Germany and France held out against it. Obama banged on about it until Erdogan started leaning on anyone associated with his former friend in Pennsylvania. Then we had the Jihadi Highway and the migrants boats with Turkey saying they were powerless to stop it. The EU relented on visa free travel for the Turks and all of a sudden the migrant deluge slowed to a trickle. Somebody from MI 5 (or is it 6?) said that giving them visa free travel while there's a threat of terrorism is like storing inflammables next to a fire. Now, the British Defence Minister is saying that it won't be possible to stop Turkey's full accession. Cameron is saying that Britain can use its veto. Cameron is right that they can use their veto, but why would they when they have always supported Turkey's membership? Wasn't there an article in The Times last week week suggesting that the Greek debt problems are being played down until after the Brexit vote? Have you noticed, too, that the French cleared the Jungle camp in Calais? Their promise to arm the Libyans may be an effort to slow the numbers coming to Italy via that route. They're trying to keep a lid on the bad news until after the Brexit vote. All the big guns are issuing dire warnings if there's a Brexit, yet only a few months ago Cameron said he would have no problem pulling out if he didn't get what he wanted in his renegotiation. He got precious little from the renegotiation and now says that Brexit would be disastrous. Do you think that the polls showing it's neck and neck are accurate or could that be scare tactics to make sure the Vote-in crowd turn out on polling day?
Just to clarify: the $60,000,000 is $60,000,000 Canadian, which is only about $46,000,000 American, and the bounty was issued by Al Qaeda, not by any government. Egypt simply wants to arrest him and put him on trial for treason (a capital crime). Saudi Arabia has banned his programs (making it illegal to watch them) and while the civil authorities basically ignore him and pretend he doesn't exist, the religious police have noted that he has incurred the death penalty for insulting Islam.
This post seems to be basically promoting smoking pot. I think the most honest post was from Dean. Pot is a gateway to very dangerous behaviour in the mentality that abuses medication to get a short term fix or thrill when people think they can solve their problems or depressions in the short term. Pot kills brain cells. Need I say more.
Our Lord changed water into wine. Wine was drunk at the Last Supper. Beer was invented by monks. These endorsements are good enough for me. Saying alcohol usage is evil is like claiming that sex is evil. It is in the abuse of the good thing that is alcohol that the evil lies, just as it is with the abuse of sex. If done as intended, alcohol consumption is an irrefutable good.
