Tag: Catholicism

Pope Visits White Obama. White House Compares Obama to Pope. “Social Justice” Abounds.

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics1 Comment

th (28)Today’s top news story reminds me of a joke…

These two socialists walk into the White House…

Just kidding….or, am I?

The Washington Examiner reports that

Pope Francis and President Obama have both dedicated their lives to helping the less fortunate, and that commonality will be central to their meeting Wednesday during the pope’s first visit to the United States, a White House spokesman said hours before Obama left to greet the pontiff as he landed at Andrews Air Force Base Tuesday afternoon.

“[B]oth men have talked, quite publicly, about their commitment to social justice,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in previewing their Oval Office meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning. “And both men have dedicated their, not just their careers, but their lives, to that effort.”

“Certainly the kind of commitment that we’ve seen from Pope Francis is unique and singular,” Earnest allowed “but I think the values that both men live out have some common ground.”

Earnest talked about how Obama turned down high-paying jobs upon graduating law school to instead work in Chicago’s poor South Side, and how Francis is known for advocating on behalf of impoverished communities in his home country of Argentina before ascending through the Roman Catholic Church’s ranks.

When it comes to internet history, Faulkner said it best: ‘The past isn’t over. It isn’t even past.’

“And you know, the president actually worked quite closely with other Catholics in that community, and the president has talked about that quite a bit … this has been a value that has animated the president’s career choices since he was a young man.”

Earnest said Francis’s story is similar.

“[P]rior to rising through the leadership ranks of the Catholic Church … Pope Francis earned a reputation in Latin America [as being someone] willing to roll up his sleeves” to help the less fortunate, “particularly those who were economically destitute,” Earnest said.

Earnest said many in the administration are looking forward to greeting Francis because they feel they are working toward the same goals.

They’re “animated by the same kinds of values that animate the pope,” Earnest said about White House staffers. “And I think that’s why the opportunity to have Pope Francis, somebody who shares those values, here in this building tomorrow, makes for a really special day.”

A crowd of 15,000 is expected to welcome Francis at a ceremony on the White House lawn Wednesday morning.

According to press reports, several hundred people were on hand at Maryland’s Andrews Air Force Base to watch “Shepherd One” land and cheer the pope as he deplaned.

“We love Francis, yes we do,” people reportedly chanted. “We love Francis, how about you?”

In addition to Obama, First Lady Michelle, Vice President Joe Biden his wife Jill, and their extended families, nearly 20 other dignitaries were on hand at Andrews, including all of the Washington and Baltimore areas’ Catholic bishops.

“Ho, ho, hey, hey, welcome to the USA,” the larger crowd chanted, welcoming Francis on his first trip ever to the United States.

Interesting. Why are Obama and his Liberal Minions embracing “Il Papa”, when they have done everything in their power to minimalize the role of our Christian Faith in the day-to-day lives of Americans?

Rush Limbaugh explained why, on his radio program yesterday…

It’s a political thing.  It’s rooted in political power. It’s rooted in money.  They have this utter contempt, the American left.  What do you think the reasons they object to Southern culture really is about?  It’s those pro-lifers and gun nuts and those Bible thumpers, people that drive old pickups.  They get to the church parking lot Saturday night to get a good spot for the sermon the next day.  They speak with utter contempt of all this.  And who are they embracing? 

So why are they embracing a man more powerful than they are who stands for everything they supposedly oppose.  They must think something is different about this guy.  We’ve already read that Obama plans to hide the advancement of his agenda behind the pope.  We know that’s gonna happen.  That’s why what Josh Earnest just said insults my intelligence. 

You know, I don’t have any patience for that.  Just lie to me, just tell me, look at my face and tell me you’re gonna lie to me instead of trying to get me to believe your lie, because it just insults my intelligence. (imitating Earnest) “Oh, no, these are not two political figures meeting.  No, no, no.  These are two men who hold similar views about life and are simply meeting to try to find common ground.”  Right.  That’s why Obama is making sure that we’ve got a nun that’s pro-abortion, that we’ve got lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered Catholics showing up. 

By the way, apparently the Vatican let it be known that they were not happy with this guest lest.  I don’t know what’s become of it.  My guess is Obama doesn’t give a rear end what the Vatican thinks.  You talk about hypocrites or irony.  But what it shows is they’ll sidle up to anybody if it’ll help ’em disguise their agenda in order to advance it. I mean, what could be better for them?  Here you have these anti-religion zealots known as your modern-day Democrats, and here comes Pope Francis, first ever trip to America, and because he has said a couple of things that arouses them — and make no mistake, when the pope starts talking about anti-capitalism, they get all hot and bothered, excited. 

So they’ll sacrifice what they really believe, these phony baloney, plastic banana, good-time rock ‘n’ rollers to hide behind this guy and make it look like his agenda is theirs.  And in the process, if anything, make it look like this pope is abandoning his own church in favor of the liberal church.  If not abandoning, then what would be the word?  Drastically restructuring his own organization to fit with theirs.  That’s a definite narrative that they’re going to try to promulgate out there. 

But I just think it’s phony as it can be.  I mean, this is a party that raises money and gets elected on their outright utter contempt for religious people, now welcoming the man who represents an organization they despise and are trying to undermine.  And make no mistake, any time you hear some Democrat or member of the media or some liberal activist just anywhere demand that the church moderate its tone or demand that the church modernize and realize that women today have many more needs than the church is meeting.  Women today want abortions, and they want to be able to have access to church sponsored and paid-for contraception, and it’s up to the church to moderate and modernize and modify its beliefs in order to be more in touch and have more in common with average, normal people.

If they think a religious leader is doing that, then of course they will embrace.  They’ll embrace anybody they think is willfully, willingly doing damage to an organization they despise.  I’m not exaggerating this.  They hold the Catholic Church in contempt.  Why do you think Catholic charities and so forth are spelled out in Obamacare? The Democrat Party and Obama would love to nullify the Catholic Church and its opposition to things that are doctrinal.  Oh, man, if they can get the church to change its doctrine, oh, man, if they could pull that off, that’d be even better to ’em than subverting the Constitution.  That would be a bigger success story to them than subverting the Constitution. 

Per usual, the Godfather of Political Talk Radio is spot on.

According to the website, churchauthority.org, the Pope has three main duties:

He is the Supreme Pastor.

That means that he represents Christ’s love and concern for every single individual. That is why the Pope’s priority lies in getting to know people, understanding how they live, listening to their interests and sharing their sufferings and their joys. On no account should the Pope allow his contact with ordinary people to be obstructed by a multitude of administrative duties.

He is the Unifier of the People of God.

Because of the international character of the Church, this will create many demands. The good of the world-wide Church and the autonomy of local Churches need to be balanced. That is why the Pope should guide and inspire the Central Synod of Bishops so that it can efficiently work out agreements and general Church policies.

He is the Prime Witness to Faith.

This includes both preaching [= announcing the message to non-Christians] and teaching [= explaining an element of Christ’s message in today’s context]. On very rare occasions the Pope is the main exponent of the infallible understanding of faith [=inerrancy] that is carried by the whole people of God. The Pope can only do so after listening to the People of God and discerning the faith they carry in their hearts.

Pope Francis is the first Pope who represents the Far Left Political Viewpoint.

Pope Francis seems more comfortable reaching out to Communist and Socialist countries, then he does to the Vatican’s Traditional Allies, those countries who enjoy strong economies, built upon freedom and a competitive marketplace.

I know that I may sound like an old cracker, but my generation was blessed with three very remarkable leaders: United States President Ronald Reagan, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II.

These three stood for everything that was good about freedom.

All three knew the dangers and corruption of the implementation of Marxist Theory through the governments of man.

Here is what the wonderful and gracious Pope John Paul II said about an out-of-control Nanny-State (Socialist) Government:

By intervening directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the Social Assistance State leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending, In fact, it would appear that needs are best understood and satisfied by people who are closest to them who act as neighbors to those in need. It should be added that certain kinds of demands often call for a response which is not simply material but which is capable of perceiving the deeper human need.

And, while this present Pontiff is romancing the Palestinians, Pope John Paul II reached out to God’s Chosen People.

In 1994, John Paul II established full diplomatic ties between the Vatican and Israel. He said,

For the Jewish people who live in the State of Israel and who preserve in that land such precious testimonies to their history and their faith, we must ask for the desired security and the due tranquillity that are the prerogative of every nation . . .

Pope John Paul II also said…

The historical experience of socialist countries has sadly demonstrated that collectivism does not do away with alienation but rather increases it, adding to it a lack of basic necessities and economic inefficiency.

I do not believe that Jesus would be a part of the Social Justice Movement, which is so popular among Liberal Churches, today. His was and is a soul-saving movement. One that still brings hundreds of thousand of people to individual salvation on this terrestrial ball every day. A movement that, in fact, was embraced by the founders of this cherished land.

Dr. Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, once said:

Regrettably, there is no shortage of preachers who have traded the Gospel for a platform of political and economic change, most often packaged as a call for social justice…

The church is not to adopt a social reform platform as its message, but the faithful church, wherever it is found, is itself a social reform movement precisely because it is populated by redeemed sinners who are called to faithfulness in following Christ. The Gospel is not a message of social (collective) salvation, but it does have social implications.

Pope Francis is presently doing the World’s Catholics a great disservice.

The current Pope’s embracing of certain aspects of Socialism, “Climate Change”, and the other erroneous, secular philosophies of the Far Left, dilutes his effectiveness as an Emmissary of God and the Head of the Catholic Church.

The world hungers for the Word of God.

Mankind needs to hear of God’s Love for them as individuals, not the machinations and limitations of man, as detailed in Marxist Theory.

 Until He Comes,

KJ

 

The Shutdown: The Tyranny of a Presidential Temper Tantrum

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics5 Comments

obamabillofrightsNarcissism – A psychological condition characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem.

This past week, Americans have witnessed something that we never thought that we would see: The President of the United States, who swore an oath to protect us, punishing us, because he is not getting his way is a battle with Congress.

His punitive measures against us have bordered on the insane, as this past week he not only threw barricades and barbed wire in front of our national parks and monuments, Obama even put safety cones out on the highway below Mount Rushmore, forbidding Americans from pulling their cars to the side of the road, to view this wonderful monument which honors past American Presidents.

Heck, this weekend he even tried to close the ocean down at Florida Bay.

These measures were bad enough. However, now the President of the United States is, literally, attacking our children.

President Pantywaist has shut down America’s Amber Alert System.

WashingtonExaminer.com has the story…

The Amber alert system, the national missing-child warning program, has been shut off due to the government shutdown, according to the Department of Justice.

“Due to the lapse in federal funding, this Office of Justice Programs website is unavailable,” it says on amberalert.gov.

Just 17 percent of the government is shut down, and Friday the Obama administration allowed union representatives to return to work.

So, union members could return to work, but the website to alert Americans to missing children had to be taken down?

The AMBER Alert Program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry, to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. The goal of an AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and the safe recovery of the child.

AMBER Alerts are broadcast through radio, television, road signs and all available technology referred to as the AMBER Alert Secondary Distribution Program. These broadcasts let law enforcement use the eyes and ears of the public to help quickly locate an abducted child. The U.S. Department of Justice coordinates the AMBER Alert program on a national basis.

The AMBER Alert Program was named in honor of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman who was abducted while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, and was later found murdered. The program is used in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

As of January 1, 2013, the Amber alert system had saved over 600 children.

What is Obama’s purpose in shutting this program down?

What sort of man, much less an American President, would do something this petty and callous?

Fighting with Congress is one thing, but, don’t take your vindictiveness out on America’s children, Obama.

And, while I’m at it, are you aware that Obama and his Administration threatened furloughed Catholic Priests, telling them that if they performed their duties, i.e., Sunday Mass and Baptisms, that they would be fired?

What sort of American President interferes with our Military personnel’s Freedom of Religion?

Answer to both of the above questions: a tyrannical one.

Jonathan Mayhew (October 8, 1720 – July 9, 1766) was a noted American minister at Old West Church, Boston, Massachusetts.

Mayhew graduated from Harvard College in 1744 and in 1749 received the degree of D.D. from the University of Aberdeen. The following is an excerpt from “A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to Higher Powers”.

. . . Those nations who are now groaning under the iron scepter of tyranny were once free. So they might probably have remained by a seasonable caution against despotic measures. Civil tyranny is usually small in its beginning, like “the drop of a bucket” till at length, like a mighty torrent or the raging waves of the sea, it bears down all before it and deluges whole countries and empires. . . .

. . . Tyranny brings ignorance and brutality along with it. It degrades men from their just rank into the class of brutes. It damps their spirits. It suppresses arts. It extinguishes every spark of noble ardor and

generosity in the breasts of those who are enslaved by it. It makes naturally-strong and great minds, feeble and little; and triumphs over the ruins of virtue and humanity. This is true of tyranny in every shape.

There can be nothing great and good where its influence reaches. For which reason it becomes every friend to truth and human kind, every lover of God and the christian religion, to bear a part in opposing

this hateful monster. It was desire to contribute a mite towards carrying on a war against this common enemy, that produced the following discourse. And if it serve in any measure to keep up a spirit of civil

and religious liberty amongst us, my end is answered. There are virtuous and candid men in all sects; all such are to be esteemed. There are also vicious men and bigots in all sects, and all such ought to be

despised.

I realize what I am saying. by using the word “tyranny” and I stand by its use. Obama has exceeded his Constitutional Authority and completely forsworn his Presidential duties as protector of America’s Citizenry, tossing both aside to embrace an ego-driven role of didactic dictator, determined to teach his “subjects” a lesson for trifling with him.

The fact that Obama even thought that Americans would side with him in his battle with Congress, knowing that it would mean the full implementation of Obamacare, the socialist healthcare System, which no one wants in the first place, was a prime example of narcissistic behavior. And, as his Gallup Poll Approval Rating of 41% shows us,

Pride goeth before the fall.

Until He Comes,

KJ

KJ UPDATE: The Amber alert system has been restored. It appears that President Pantywaist, AG Holder, and the rest of the Administration caught some heat for taking it down…and, rightfully so.

Obamacare and the FFRF: Intolerance in Action

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

Those oh-so-tolerant individuals of the Freedom From Religion Foundation are at it again.  This time they’re down in Dallas:

A new billboard along Interstate 30 is upsetting some Catholics. It urges members to quit the church.

The billboard is part of a national atheist campaign by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. It also says the Roman Catholic Church should put women’s rights over bishops’ wrongs.

It’s a dig at dozens of federal lawsuits by Catholic dioceses including those in Dallas and Fort Worth. They want to do away with an Obama Administration mandate that requires employers, including church-owned institutions like hospitals, to provide employees insurance coverage for birth control, something the church doesn’t believe in.

“I don’t like them imposing their religious beliefs on other people who don’t have those beliefs,” said Terry McDonald with the DFW Coalition of Reason, a local atheist group.

The Dallas Diocese said it has been getting phone calls about the sign located along westbound I-30 near Highway 360.

“It’s all been women who’ve called in to say they were offended and upset by the billboard,” said Annette Gonzales Taylor with the Catholic Diocese of Dallas.

The diocese believes the Freedom from Religion Foundation is in the wrong lane.

“We’re very offended that an entity that has no knowledge or understanding of the church would erect a billboard of this nature,” Gonzales Taylor said. “The issue is truly about religious liberty and protecting the church’s right to adhere to our faith principals.”

McDonald questioned that response.

“When you read that there’s a high percentage of Catholic women who use birth control, I wonder who’s complaining,” he said.

Last week, the FFRF released a 30 second spot  featuring Julia Sweeney.  A humanist named Mriana wrote the following for GodDiscussion.com:

This week the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) released an ad featuring Julia Sweeney, which they call “great experiment to storm the “Bishops’ Bastille”” countering the Catholic bishops’ war on contraception. This ad is part of their “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” and “Quit the Catholic Church” campaigns.

The 30-second spot, according to the FFRF, received various responses thus far and it will run 1200 times during a two-week period.

We’re getting a lot of phone calls at the FFRF office in response. Some callers are giving our female receptionists a hard time, making unprintable comments. But others are our kind of folks, such as a grandmother in Pennsylvania who said she was raised Catholic but is “98 percent atheist,” and is disgusted by the Catholic Church’s attempt, as she put it, to “put canon law over civil law.”

A kind man living in a remote area of North Carolina caught us on MSNBC’s Hardball With Chris Matthews. Another North Carolinian called after seeing Julia’s spot on a rerun of the The Daily Show and said people have forgotten the need for a strict separation between state and church. I couldn’t help replying: “It might sound strange for an atheist to say this, but hallelujah, brother.” He laughed and said, “Amen, sister.”

FFRF’s Facebook page received 500 new likes over the weekend, but request that people join them if they really like them.

The FFRF lists the various shows that will feature the ad through July 4, and updates the page frequently. The FFRF listed the times the ad will air as expected times for when the ad will air and listed as Eastern Time on a 24-hour clock and they are guaranteed over 42 million viewers.

In the ad, Julia says:

“Hi, I’m Julia Sweeney, and I’m a cultural Catholic. I am no longer a believer and I even wrote a play about it called “Letting Go of God.” But I wanted to let you know that right now Catholic Bishops are framing their opposition to contraceptive coverage as a religious freedom issue. But the real threat to freedom is the Bishops, who want to be free to force their dogma on people who don’t want it. Please join the Freedom From Religion Foundation and help keep church and state separate. [FFRF’s name, toll-free number and website are displayed throughout the ad.]

Actually the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Obama Administration have a lot in common.  The Administration doesn’t seem to care for Christians, in general, and Catholicism, in particular, much either.

Catholic.org reports that

Obamacare compels Catholics to participate in anti-life activities, no matter how much they are opposed to it. Not only is this evil, but it is coercive and tramples upon our God-given, First Amendment protected, right to freedom of religion and conscience.

How does this happen?

Obamacare considers contraceptives, sterilizations, abortifacients, and abortion as “preventative services” under its definition of “health care”. The underlying presumption is that pregnancy is a disease. When people pay into the Obamcare scheme, whether as taxpayers or through their insurance, their dollars will be used to finance these procedures, some of which must be provided for free to all women. The people have no choice – the individual mandate means everyone pays.

It is ironic that a national federalized healthcare plan would make anti-life procedures absolutely free while still requiring people to pay out-of-pocket for lifesaving procedures and medications.

Worse, there is no means to allow supposedly free people to opt out of paying into such plans. Now, even your parish priest must pay for insurance or pay a penalty that will one way or another go into a system that uses his money to fund anti-life procedures.

Of course the Bishops of the Catholic church have raised this point on behalf of all Catholics, other Christians and people of good will, but the Obama administration has ignored their pleas.

Per Gallup, 78% of Americans proclaim their Christianity, 92% believe in God, and Liberals are the smallest political ideology in the nation, consisting of only 21%, compared to 40% for Conservatives and 35% for Moderates.

So, once again, what we are experiencing is the “Tyranny of the Minority”.

I thought Liberals were supposed to be the tolerant ones?