One Man, One Woman – Period!
Let’s dispense of this liberal-concocted nonsense about two people of the same gender joining in marriage; there is no such thing. No power in the universe could equate homosexuals joining in some-sort-of-union with heterosexual marriage socially or religiously. We’ll start with the Ordination of marriage by God Himself (Genesis 1 27:28);
“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it’.”.
I ask every Christian this - especially Catholics, who have acquiesced to the gay marriage canard. If you believe in the omniscience of God, how can you dispute the biblical definition of marriage? Scripture are the divinely inspired words of God. If you have half a (Catholic) brain in your head, you should be able to read and understand the simplicity of this excerpt from the above; “God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’.”. I got news for you; men cannot be fruitful with each other and nor can women.
As Catholics, we don’t get to pick and choose what Scripture says. We don’t get to sort through Church Doctrine like a pile of on-sale CDs and choose what dogma we can live with and can’t live with. If you’ve convinced yourself of that, then you’re a catholic, you are not Catholic.
Marriage – The Sacrament
Let’s take a look at the Ecclesiastical facts. I’ll start with the definition of Sacrament; “A visible sign of an inward grace instituted by Jesus Christ to symbolize or confer grace”. Marriage is Sacramental; a visible sign of God’s grace instituted by Christ. So we have God the Father ordaining marriage and His Son instituting the Sacrament. Now, back to common sense as a Catholic, let’s look at the New Testament (Mark 10:6-8).
“But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one flesh”.
Becoming “one flesh” is an indirect reference to sexual intercourse between one man and one woman for procreation AND pleasure within the Sacrament of marriage. Homosexuals will never become one flesh. The biblical metaphor does not mean procreation OR pleasure. Operative word here is AND.
Marriage – In Society
Marriage is the very foundation of society. It is the institution that provides for procreation, a mother and a father and a stable family structure, which are so important to the development of children. The family with a mother and father is where the next generation is nurtured and formed. Without these conditions it simply cannot be marriage. A legal relationship that is not life giving and excludes the possibility of a mother or a father can never be marriage.
History has shown that there cannot be a strong nation without marriage and strong families. This is a significant reason that societies have laws to encourage and protect marriage.
It is difficult for people to see the direct effect that legalizing same-sex marriage will have on them and their children. Many are complacent and think, “let people do what they want”. No matter what their choices, no group or individual has the right to attempt to reorder the basic and natural foundation of society in order to conform to their narrow special interests.
Marriage – A Contract
A same sex union will only ever be a “legal contract” promulgated by liberal activist judges and politicians trying to socially engineer what’s right and wrong. Liberal ideologues have been remarkably successful in slowly destroying what is the foundation of American Exceptionalism and greatness. That is the Christian framers “intentions” of framing our country’s moral character through discussion, documentation, and example, not a state mandated religion. The left spews all this bilge about the First Amendment. But like everything else they distort for their own ideological purposes, they don’t represent the truth in that Amendment; it establishes freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.
Since the early 1960s, liberal’s have fought against the facts on the ground regarding the framers intentions. They like to use this thing called revisionist history, to dismantle our (Christian based) societal norms. They’ve won the battle of God in schools, the premeditated killing of babies within the womb, and now trying to redefine an institution created by God from the moment of Eve’s creation and the foundation of all successful societies.
They may win the battle, but they will not win the war. Because no matter what lies and distortions liberals spew through their greatest advocates; the media, academia, and the courts, marriage is only one thing. It is the union of one man and one woman for the sake of being co-creators of life with God and the leaders of the most important unit we have – the family.
It First Happened a Long Time Ago
I wonder, when Christ uttered these words establishing the foundation of his Church; “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hell will not overpower it”, if the remaining Apostles announced, “Habemus Papam!”. Probably not and certainly not in Latin.
Around 33 A.D., following Christ’s ascension into Heaven, Peter took his rightful place as the first among the Apostles and the de facto leader of Christ’s Bride; the Catholic Church. It wasn’t until years later, when Peter’s evangelising took him west, that he became the first Bishop of Rome. Although there were, and are, other popes (word translates as Papa) recognized by other Catholic rites such as the Church of Alexandria (Eastern Rite), the Bishop of Rome’s primacy is recognized by all Catholic rites east and west.
In 2007, representatives of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church jointly stated that both East and West accept the fact of the Bishop of Rome’s primacy at the universal level, but that differences of understanding exist about how the primacy is to be exercised and about its scriptural and theological foundations.
The Successor of Peter
Habemus Papam! is the announcement given in Latin by the Cardinal Protodeacon, the senior Cardinal Deacon, upon the election of a new Pope. The announcement is given from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. There have been 265 Popes; Successors of Peter. Every Bishop of Rome is the successor of Peter, not the successor of the previous Pope. Francis I is the 265th Successor of Peter.
As Catholics, we believe that the absolute authority given to St. Peter did not end with his life but was handed on to his successors. Make no mistake about it, there is only one Peter, the rock that Christ built his Church upon, to whom he gave the keys to the kingdom. All the men that followed have simply kept his Chair warm.
What’s in a Name?
Popes in the first centuries retained their birth names after their accession to the papacy. Beginning in the the sixth century and becoming customary by the 10th century, new Popes began to adopt a new name upon their accession to the Chair of Peter. Since 1555, every pope has taken a papal name.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis is the first new Papal name since John Paul I, the 263rd Pontiff. Prior to John Paul I, it was the 121st successor of Peter, Lando, who chose a new name as Pope in the 10th century. So why would Cardinal Bergoglio break this centuries old tradition? Well maybe because he’s the first Jesuit Pope, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and first outside of Europe in over a thousand years. No, none of those. In his own words….
“Some people didn’t know why the Bishop of Rome wanted to call himself ‘Francis’. I will tell you the story. At the election I had the archbishop emeritus of Sao Paulo next to me. He is also prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes [O.F.M.]: a dear, dear friend. When things were getting a little ‘dangerous’, he comforted me. And then, when the votes reached the two-thirds, there was the usual applause because the Pope had been elected. He hugged me and said: ‘Do not forget the poor.’ And that word stuck here [tapping his forehead]; the poor, the poor. Then, immediately in relation to the poor I thought of Francis of Assisi. Then I thought of war, while the voting continued, until all the votes [were counted]. And so the name came to my heart:: Francis of Assisi. For me he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and safeguards Creation. In this moment when our relationship with Creation is not so good—right?—He is the man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man … Oh, how I wish for a Church that is poor and for the poor!”
No matter what name he chooses, what country he is from, whether he is a diocesan or order priest, one thing is for sure. The Pope is the successor of Peter, the rock, upon whom Christ has built His Church. And as our Lord promised, the gate of hell shall not overpower it.
What is the Meaning of Life?
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” On these two commandments depend the whole law…….. How many times have we all struggled to understand the immense amount of messaging, commandments, rules, etc., contained in Scripture? Not only is there a huge volume, but it seems that the messages can be contradictory and/or really hard to comprehend. That’s why I love this passage from Matthew (22:36-40). It takes all the complexity found in the Bible - the entire content - and boils it down to two foundational elements. Love God and all people. These are the sole reasons we are here.
Loving Isn’t Always Easy
Love hurts, love scars, love wounds and mars, any heart not tough or strong enough to take a lot of pain…….. A line in a pretty famous song from the 1970′s, and ain’t it the truth. All of us have scars and wounds from those we love hurting us or even from unrequited love. But love we must, no matter what. And loving as Christ commands means serving, serving others. Being completely selfless, not self serving. So only seek to serve. This is what we’re called to do – serve. Don’t be afraid to be subordinate to those you come in contact with, serve them. Wow, this is hard because when you do nothing but serve, you’re going to get your feelings hurt by other’s who aren’t mindful of your love and unselfishness. This is the only way out of the incredibly self serving culture we live in. “For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.”
The Ultimate Example
We are all naturally attracted to leaders, and what makes a person an effective leader? They lead by example, not with their mouths. Christ faced his own children everyday, represented in the form of the ultra-hypocritical Jewish leadership, only to see them give lip-service. Walking around espousing their piety, but not serving the Jewish people one iota. They did not love, so they could not serve. Want to talk about the ultimate example of selflessness and love? GOD, in the form of Christ, was born in a cave in the least of cities in Judah, laid in a trough out of which animals ate.
In his public life, he never asked for anything from anyone but food and shelter. He spent three years teaching about the Kingdom, healing people of all sorts of afflictions, being rejected by his own and with a bounty on his head from the Pharisees. All the time just serving, serving his children, and loving them And in the ultimate example of love, he allows those he loves like no other – his children - to betray him, spit on him, pluck his beard, beat him, laugh at him, then murder him. All for us, all so that we can be with him in Heaven.
But wait a second, should it not be us to go through the hammers of hell just for the chance to be in Paradise with Christ? Doesn’t the rationale for his passion and death seem completely backwards? HE died for US???????? Yes, he died for us, in the ultimate example of love. “For no greater love exists then when one lay down his life for his friends”. Now, what’s the punchline? After all this, after everything he did for us in his public ministry and after the utter pain and humiliation of being crucified, what are some of Christ’s last words? “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Unreal.
Don’t You Know Christ is Risen?
A majority of separated Christians, especially Evangelicals, take exception to Catholics keeping Jesus on the Cross. I would point my Protestant friends to 1st Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 23. Paul says, “…but we preach Christ crucified…” Why does Paul preach Christ crucified? Doesn’t he know Jesus has been raised from the dead? Of course he does! But, he knows that it is through the power of the crucified Christ on the cross that the bonds of sin and death are broken. As Paul says in verse 24, Christ crucified is the “power of God”. 1 Cor 2:2, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Again, didn’t Paul know that Jesus had risen from the dead? Of course, he did.
Paul preaches Christ crucified because an empty cross has no power. The cross that bears the beaten, battered, and bloodied body of Jesus Christ, however, that cross is the power of God. This is why, the Church keeps Jesus on the cross, because we, too, preach Christ crucified. The Crucifix reminds us not only of God’s power, but also His love for us – giving His only begotten Son up for suffering and death.
Also, here in this life we do not share so much in the glory of the Resurrection, as we do in the suffering of Jesus on the cross; after all, we must take up our cross daily if we are to follow Jesus, as it says in Lk 9:23. And, we must die with Christ in order to live with Him as Romans 6:8 tells us. Where did Christ die? On the cross. The Crucifix serves to remind us of these things.
An Empty Cross Means Nothing
Christ’s supreme act was to die on the cross as atonement for our sins. His resurrection was proof that what he did on the cross worked — he conquered death — and it demonstrated beyond any doubt that he was who he claimed to be: God. The crucifixion was the act that changed history. The resurrection demonstrated of the efficacy of that act.
By his death on the cross, Christ conquered sin and death, redeemed the world, opened the way of salvation for all who would receive it, and reconciled his people with the Father (cf. Eph 2:13-18; Col 1:19-20). That is why the crucifix is such a potent reminder for us of what he did on our behalf that dark afternoon on Calvary.“ Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’” (Mt 16:24; cf. Mt 10:38). True, resurrection and glory await all those who follow Christ faithfully, but we will only arrive there by traveling the way of the cross.
An Example of Love Beyond Any Other
In my journey as a Catholic, I have always looked to the Cross as a reminder of just how much Christ loved me. “No greater love has man than to lay down his life for his friends”. Whenever I question whether Christ is there for me, if he cares, if I am being a good example as a Catholic, I look to the Crucified Christ. I know He’s risen, the Church understands this. But unlike our separated Christian brothers and sisters, we do not subscribe to the notion that once you’re born again, all is good, let’s just celebrate! No, we must be reminded of the ultimate sacrifice, not just by a man, but by God Himself! Jesus the Son did not have to die to prove anything. By dieing the most humiliating, excruciatingly painful, embarrassing death possible, Christ demonstrated not only His love for us, but that love is ultimately demonstrated by service to our fellow man, being selfless, not selfish. Let the Crucified Christ being the supreme example of Christ’s love for us and his command to pick up our cross and follow Him.
Move to the Right Unimaginable in 2008
When you think about it, it’s nothing short of surreal that the Republican Party has been in control of the issues at the local, state and Federal levels of politics since 2009. Why? Because beginning in 2006 and culminating in a volcano of momentum in 2008, all indicators pointed toward the beginning of a generational shift in power to the Democrats. Oh what can happen in a year under Obama and when raw liberalism is exposed to this nation.
By the fall of 2009 Chris Christie became Governor of one of the most liberal of liberal states – New Jersey. Bob McDonnell took the gubernatorial race in Virginia, a state that went blue just a “year” earlier. Then a Republican wins Ted Kennedy’s seat in the Senate! The latter is most shocking, not only because Scott Brown was the GOP candidate, not because the state is dark blue, but because history shows that the candidate running in the seat of the deceased wins from the ”sympathy vote”. Not any or all three of these realities could save Obama and the Democrats from their complete incompetence and liberal overreach. In addition, the country had moved passed Bush hatred, war fatigue, and the lie that the deep recession was all the GOP’s fault.
This is Not Your Father’s GOP
Since I’ve been following politics, Republican political candidates and Republican office holders were old, white and male. Incredible what happens when Conservatism embeds in the American psyche and the canard of liberalism runs out of steam. First, the GOP had Sarah Palin who set us on fire, although the unprecedented onslaught of media scrutiny denigrated and soiled this incredibly refreshing politician’s character. The attacks of course came from women on the left; those who sung “I am woman, watch me roar”, complained about a glass ceiling in corporate America, screamed sexual discrimination at every turn, et al. What a bunch of hypocrites! Oh yeah, they’re liberals. You know what really got under their (short) finger nails? These women hated the fact that this “woman” was Conservative, long-haired, an unapologetic mom, and hot, over and above being aggressive and not toeing the liberal line.
Now we have another woman, Michelle Bachman, who is waging a serious run at the Chief Executive position. She’s also super Conservative, outspoken, long-haired, etc. Then there is a “black American” candidate who is Conservative, a businessman and unafraid to challenge his community’s self-imposed ills, victimhood attitude and attachment to the Democratic party who has completely failed them. Rather than go on, here is some information on the serious GOP candidates for the Office of the President of the United States. An incredibly strong and “diverse” group. Wait, didn’t the left invent the word diversity?
Michele Bachmann
Michele Bachmann, the three terms Minnesota Congresswoman, is the current chair of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus. The attractive Iowan has seen her fortune plummet in recent weeks following the entry of Texas Governor, Rick Perry, into the race. The resignation of deputy campaign manager, David Polyansky, and the redeployment of campaign manager Ed Rollins into a consulting role tell us that all is not well in the Bachmann camp. Her September poll numbers, hovering between 6-8%, is just a third of her post-Ames Straw Poll victory figures barely a month ago. Pundits have long cited the risks of Bachmann’s increasing tendency to move to the right, and it now appears that she may be holding her two top strategists responsible for the shift in her campaign’s fortunes.
Bachmann’s profile and positions on the issues.
Herman Cain
Cancer survivor, YouTube sensation and former mathematician with the US Navy, Herman Cain has a résumé that demands your attention. His experience on all three major fronts of American politics – corporate, legislative and media – through his stellar career at Pillsbury, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (as chairman) and as the host of WSB’s “The Herman Cain Show” in Atlanta, guarantees that the articulate Republican will never face a question of credibility.
Cain’s profile and positions on the issues
Newt Gingrich
After a 13-year absence from mainstream politics, Newton Leroy Gingrich has announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. His campaign, which kicks off with 17-city swing, has unfortunately begun under a torrent of criticisms following his controversial statements on Medicare and a perceived attack of fellow Republican Paul Ryan. Nevertheless, Gingrich, a fighter and above all, a consummate politician, is expected to make a swift recovery and stamp his mark on the race
Gingrich’s profile and positions on the issues
Ron Paul
The former medical doctor officially announced his candidacy for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination on May 13, 2011. The 75-year old Texas Congressman will once again center his campaign on the theme of liberty, human rights and financial market reforms. With his small but vocal pockets of supporters spread all over the country, the Libertarian leaning Republican is set to be one of the most controversial characters on the campaign trail.
Paul’s profile and positions on the issues
Rick Perry
After almost two years of uncertainty, Texas Governor Rick Perry’s wall of resistance has crumbled. Perry took advantage of the publicity generated by the Ames Straw Poll and announced his entry into the Republican nomination race in Charleston, South Carolina, with a confident declaration, “I full well believe I’m going to win”. His candidacy is expected to reinvigorate the hitherto subdued Republican evangelical grassroots, and inject some excitement into the contest.
Perry’s profile and positions on the issues
Mitt Romney
The Harvard man has been comfortably leading almost every poll since then. He was knocked off his perch for about two months by Texas Governor, Rick Perry, during the summer of 2011. However, he has since recovered and has once again returned to his seat at the top of the leader board. And unless Perry, Cain, Huntsman, Bachmann and company can pull something out of their collective hats, the liberal turned conservative turned moderate former venture capitalist may just walk through the primaries. While his ideology and personal beliefs may be subject to debate, his knack for business is beyond question – and his across the board appeal makes him a dangerous opponent for President Obama.
Christ is the Ultimate Example of Love
When I sit back and think about how I’ve acted or treated people in certain situations, I often ask myself WWCD (what would Christ do?) or more accurately WWCHD (what would Christ have done?). Most of the time the answer is “not what you did Tom!”. The reason is simple; I don’t know how to approach everyone and everything with love and with patience. After all, I am only human and patience is not my virtue. There is one person, who just happens to be God – Christ Jesus – who never once was unloving, impatient or judgemental with anyone he came in contact with. Not once. Imagine that. Even the Pharisees, who were hellbent on convicting him of blasphemy so they could have him put to death, were not subject to His scorn or intolerance. And they were Jews, His chosen people and His children! You’d think He would have been so hurt, so disappointed and so angry that he would have lashed out, lost his cool, hated them. Never.
Often, when I sit at Mass and stare at the Crucifix, I am overwhelmed with emotion. Here is this man, my Lord and my God, who not only subjected Himself to being human, but willfully endured the most painful and humiliating execution known at the time; death on a cross. And He did this out of love for me, because He wanted to spend eternity in Heaven with me! He didn’t even know me? But then I remember; “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Luke 12 7. After the Jews had succeeded in convicting Him (falsely) and convinced the Romans to crucify Him, he was nailed to a tree. As He hung there in excruciating pain, tired, thirsty, separated from His Father, all alone, the first words He uttered were these; “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” Until the bitter end, he would not hate, he would not hold a grudge, His fidelity to us remained. WWCHD????? He would have Loved!
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus Christ.
We are Born from Love and Must Live to Love
“He who has seen Me has seen the Father” John 14:9. This references to God the Father from his Son, the human Jesus Christ, tells us everything about the Father. First, that God the Father is not a big, muscle-bound, white-bearded man sitting on a marble throne ready to crush us when we sin. But second, and most importantly, is that God the Father is “revealed” in and by the Son. By saying revealed by the Son means that Christ and the Father are in total union with each other (the mystery of the Trinity along with the Holy Spirit). So Christ’s message, the way He treated people, the way He acted, His lack of anger, His humility, His patience, His mercy, and ultimately His love, demonstrates what the Father is like.
God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.1 John 4 8
God is love. It’s is never referenced in Scripture or Sacred Tradition that God the Father is a “person in the flesh”. Only religious paintings depict that. I believe that God the Father is the Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshipped as creator and ruler of the universe. As hard as it is to fathom, God is just love, a Being of perfect love; nothing more, nothing less – Love. When it is written, “let us make man in our image”, it can’t mean human likeness, because only Christ (God) was human which happened through His biological conception via the Holy Spirit. I believe “our image” means a physical being with the capacity to love, love deeply, love fully. Unfortunately, that damn apple took that away. Although our capacity to love remains, it is in no way the same as before we were cast out of paradise. Why? Sin.
God the Father is an entity of some sort, not the personification of love, but the essence of love. Here are some synonyms of essence for clarification purposes; heart, spirit, alpha and omega, center, core, embodiment, epitome, incarnation, manifestation. Since God ordains our life and creates our soul and God is love, then we are born from love, then we must live to love. To love completely, to love openly, to love deeply, to love patiently, to love without the fear that it may be unrequited. This is what it means to love, just as Christ loves us, just as the Father loves us. And given God will endure forever, so will love.
“A friend loves at all times.” Proverbs 17 17
“Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves………has fulfilled the law.” Paul to the Romans.
“Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4 8
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is [a]born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4 16
“Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” Colassions 3 14
More of the Same and More to Come
It began just one year after King Obama assumed his throne with the notion that there would be a generational shift to the left in America’s political power. Last night’s crushing defeats in New York and Nevada are further proof that the whole thing in 2008 was an anomaly and a charade based on war fatigue, Bush hatred and that Obama was a Black American. In NY 9, a Republican has not held that seat in over ninety years! However its a heavily Jewish electorate who obviously are unhappy with Obama’s cold shouldering Israel.
In November of 2009, two Republicans; Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell trounced Democrats in gubernatorial races. Christie beat a liberal in one of the most liberal states – New Jersey, and McDonnell beat Tim Kaine in Virginia which had gone to Obama in 2008. Then the shocker of all. Scott Brown, a Republican, took over Ted Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts – of all places. Just incredible and a foreshadowing of things to come and dismissing the insane notion that the country was shifting to the left.
We all know what happened in November 2010. The Democrats were destroyed in a wave election, something no one could believe after the 2008 results. All thanks to President Obama, his progressive policies that America did not want, and a hallmark of liberal politicians - overreaching. In addition, over six hundred seats at the state and local levels switched to the GOP nationally. America had spoken. Amazingly enough even to those of us who know how lacking in common sense liberals are, Democrats are forging ahead with their agenda, undeterred. This includes President Obama. Do they want to lose another sixty seats in the House, lose the Senate and the Executive branch, over and above Governor’s Mansions and more state/local seats – we can only dream!! But it’s going to happen.
It’s the Tea Party, Those Blood Hungry Racists!
The Tea Party, not really a party but purely an American movement, is greatly responsible for telling Obama to “speak to the hand”. These are mostly blue collar Americans who just would not take anymore, and especially from a bunch of liberals. I am not a member, but a fan. And the fact is that they will all vote Republican. The Democrats have been and are foaming at the mouth, trying everything to denigrate the movement. It’s only made it stronger and made Democrats look like the intellectually dishonest adolescents that they are. Even the Democrat in last night’s New York City District 9 race was trying to win on stamping his opponent as a Tea Partier – it’s just hysterical. There is going to be an earthquake in 14 months that will move this country, politically, farther to the right. Something completely unimaginable in the fall of 2008. But like Jimmy Carter who lives vicariously through President Obama, a progressive Chief Executive that disdains our military and is a Muslim sympathizer at a time when that is off limits, has handed the mantle back to the GOP. The question is, what will Republicans do with the baton?
G.O.P. Gains House Seat Vacated by Weiner
GOP maintains stranglehold on 2nd Congressional District
GOP Wins in NY Race, Seen as Obama Rebuke
Huberis Continues for Obama
In his political game of Risk, President Obama uses the Office of the Presidency not to lead, but to attempt to further his political ideology. We’ve seen it time and time and time again, yet he continues undeterred. Has anybody out there experienced anything like this? Any (successful) leader adjusts his or her strategic and tactical plans according to the facts on the ground, as it were, and most of all does what he or she has to do to get “buy in” from the team. This President has done neither. He doesn’t care; he and his progressive entourage are omniscient as far as they’re concerned.
Not one of his 57 speeches touting his unabashed political liberalism has done anything to move the American people, that is other than to placate his liberal base for election purposes – shameful. But then again it’s a cult of personality for those folks. They are as out-of-touch as he is. In addition, zero of his policies have been supported by a majority of this country’s electorate; not Obamacare, not the Stimulus, not rescinding the Bush Tax Cuts, not the Debt Battle and not his latest attempt to bilk the country of more taxes. And why is it always “we gotta do it now!!!!” Why, Mr. President? Why can’t our elected representatives and the American people digest your proposals before stuffing them down our throats? Because you know we would repudiate them.
Keep it coming Mr. President, you’re paving the way for another wave election for the GOP. A supermajority willl cement a hard move to the right, which is what this country desperately needs.
Obama Wants to Spend More and Tax More
Obama proposes tax hikes on wealthy to pay for $447B jobs bill
Obama Pushes Jobs Plan: “Pass It Immediately”
Obama’s Plan Is Lousy Economics
Obama, the Veg-O-Matic President. Act Now!
From the Beginning there was Love
One of the best things about being an author, in this case a blogger, is having artistic or poetic license. That is, the ability to alter text or grammar, to reword something to fit a situation or improve on it to meet your particular purpose. Poetic license really shouldn’t alter the facts, though sometimes it does. I’ll use some artistic license here to show how central love is to our lives, our sheer existence from beginning to end. As Christians we know that God is love and love is God. We also believe that the Father and Son are one. So from John 1:
“In the beginning was Love, and Love was with God, and Love was God. Love was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Love, and apart from Love nothing came into being that has come into being. In Love was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
You know, all of us Catholics were taught that God the Father was this big man sitting on a throne above us with a white beard and nary a smile on his face. We were told how much He loves us, that His love is so all encompassing that its depth is incomprehensible. The problem is that the Old Testament God was depicted so negatively. A big part of the blame goes to the High Priests who illustrated the image of God in such a manner to serve their own purposes (the same ultra-dogmatic hypocrites that Jesus dealt with in His public life). Also, it was humans interpreting God’s words and actions in the context of their time, their ability to discern and their true understanding of his intentions. Fact is “God’s ways are not our ways, they are as far above us as Heaven”, so we will never truly understand His motives.
In any event, God the Father was, and still is, very misunderstood. One of Christ’s many challenges was to clear up misinterpretations of His Father and present Him differently. If we build our vision of God the Father on His Son’s portrayal, we’ll realize who the Father really is. Remember what Christ said, “He who has seen me, has seen the Father”. The reality is that God the Father is not an old mean man sitting on a marble throne. God is perfected love encompassed in a being, and His Son is perfected love incarnate in human flesh.
I’ve spent a bunch of time over the last year trying to become closer to the Father, through prayer, asking God to help me reconcile His Old Testament wrath with the reality of His love within Christ. Here’s the passage that I keep coming back to; “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3-16. In giving His only Son, He was giving Him up to suffer a horrendous death so those He created could be with Him, for those He loved; his children – us.
God Is Love and Allows Us to Make Love
As I’ve become more mature emotionally and in my faith journey, so many incredible thoughts have manifested themselves in my mind and heart. This is completely due to my beloved Catholic Church and what she has taught me over the years. One of the most astounding realizations when at Mass one Sunday with my wife and kids was this Gospel reading from Mark, 10:6; “At the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
As only he can, based on Apostolic Succession, our Priest interpreted the Gospel reading. He said something that just blew my mind. He mentioned that the “two becoming one flesh” was a direct reference to intercourse between a husband and wife wh0, at that time, are participating with God in the co-creation of life. Why do you think they call it “making love”? It was this epiphany that took me down a path towards orthodox Catholicism regarding the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. It also solidified in my mind what I knew all along about premarital sex – it’s always wrong. Not because I believe a man and woman cannot be in love outside of marriage. But because the physical union between them is not blessed by God. The Father did not say “a man will leave his father and mother and be united to a woman“, He said to his wife. The two can only become one flesh in marriage – period.
Another realization about the dangers of premarital and extramarital sex came to me through a very close Evangelical buddy of mine. Although we are not of the same denomination, we are brothers in Christ. I was preparing with him for a presentation I was to give students at St. Leo University in San Antonio, Florida. I was talking to them about my journey through life and wanted the emphasis of my talk to be the toll premarital and extramarital sex has on one’s emotional health. My buddy Ed said to me, “when you make love outside of marriage, not only is the union illicit in the eyes of God, but if that person should exit your life, a part of your soul goes with them. Because the two become one flesh. It’s impossible to separate that. Wow! As St. Paul corroborates and clarifies; “Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.”
A Heart and Soul Scared and Never to be the Same
That discussion with my friend was a final piece of the puzzle for me in a journey that began long ago. From a young child I was close to Christ and he wrote right and wrong on my heart. I always knew that I should not be intimate with a woman until I was married. Unfortunately, I gave into the sin of lust as a willing, but adolescent decision, treating sex as many, many people do; as a recreational activity – as fun. As I think of it now, I shutter. Who was I to participate in the co-creation of life with women outside of marriage – for fun, because it felt good? How could I spit on God like that? Because “life” is what he gave me through two married people. What transpired in my life after that first fateful decision has been only confusion and hurt with regard to relationships and intimacy, a just punishment from our Lord who blessed me with knowing the true meaning of love between a man and woman.
When I was in graduate school and after the break-up of a long standing relationship, I began to dedicate myself to the Church and Mass again after an off and on period. I would go to a small university church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It was there that I met a young lady who I would eventually fall madly in love with. This time it was different for me, I can’t explain it, but I had never felt like that before, it was so genuine, so intense, so pure that I was washed away by the whole experience. Here I was, 25 years old, living a dream I had always wanted; I had accepted my first professional position with Arthur Andersen, I knew the best years were in front of me, so much promise and now I meet this incredible girl “at Mass”. For me, a story right out of a romance novel.
Unfortunately, and in direct disobedience to Christ, I seduced this girl and early on. Little did I know that I had already destroyed any possibility of continuing to live this dream, because God brought me an amazing gift in this girl and I proceeded to kick Him right in the teeth. Needless to say, it ended and I was hurt in the process. The experience was so devastating that I have never truly recovered, but the encounter was the seminal event of my life; it led to the beginning of my love affair with Christ and His bride – the Catholic Church. Shortly after being left at the altar ( figuratively, not literally) I began to lay in bed each night and speak to Christ out loud, something I had never done before, but I knew he was the only friend I had who understood what I was going through. I was begging him to bring this girl back to me. Then it happened, I can’t explain it. Christ spoke to my mind and said, “Tom, I took my gift away from you because you disrespected that gift by having sex out of wedlock – My precious Sacrement; disobeying me and causing her to sin”. I wept bitterly at the Truth of it. I was never to be the same again. The happy ending is that the girl and I eventually crossed paths and reconciled, and I found my wife.
Love Defined
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails………. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians.
This post dedicated to my brother Bobby who helped me deepen my Catholic Faith; love ya dude.
The Mass is to be Completely Respected by All Participants
I’ve been attending Mass, well, since almost the day I was born. Growing up in Brooklyn and attending a Gothic style church just after Vatican II, I remember the palpable feeling of holiness within St. Marks. At Mass; before, during, and after, there was almost complete silence (except for the occasional cry of a child) because this was a Catholic church, a place of prayer, reflection and reverence, with God in the Tabernacle. Parishioners dressed with reverence, entered the Narthex with reverence, entered the Nave with reverence, spoke with reverence, prayed with reverence, approached the altar with reverence, received Communion with reverence, and left the church with reverence. We were to venerate the Holy Eucharist and completely respect the Sanctuary. The real presence of Christ in the Tabernacle, as unbelievable as it may sound to atheists, agnostics, separated Christians and some Catholics, is a fact to the Church. This grand mystery is hard to fathom, but through Apostolic Succession, Sacred Tradition and Scripture, we know this to be true.
When we moved to Florida (early ’70s), even though our church was not as grand as St. Marks, its holiness was protected by the examples of the priests and the edict of the Pastor. But as the years have gone by, with Vatican II implemented in a liberal fashion and with Americans becoming increasingly liberal – more or less, including Catholics, irreverence at Mass is rampant and alarming. A Catholic church is simply not a place where you act any way you want. You carry yourself with absolute reverence “in God’s actual presence”.
Reverence of God’s Presence Well Documented
An example of the tradition of unconditional adoration of God can be found in Exodus when Moses approached the Burning Bush. God was actually present and told Moses to take off his sandals and not come any closer because “he was standing on holy ground”. Another example is the Temple in Jerusalem. The most sacred part of the Temple was the Sanctuary. The first hall was called the Holy Place. No one was allowed to enter it, except priests twice a day. Beyond the Holy Place was a smaller room called the Holy of Holies. This room originally contained the Ark of the Covenant: a large box covered in gold that held the bones of Joseph (Jacob’s son) and the tablets of the Ten Commandments. God was believed to be invisibly present in the Ark, as if it were “sitting on his throne”. The Holy of Holies could only be entered once a year by the High Priest, on Yom Kippur.
The Jews venerated something, the Temple, with incredible humility and respect. Jesus called it “His Father’s House”. Jews could not imagine defiling the Sanctuary in any way, shape or form, because it was God’s place. So why do Catholics so easily disrespect the Sanctuary, where God is present in the consecrated hosts, during the Sacrifice of the Mass? The answer is obvious; the lack of reverence at Mass is emblematic of liberalism’s effect on our society, including Catholics and the Clergy. The sad fact is that most Catholic Pastors are more interested in “shepherding the flock” no matter how wild the flock is, as long as the flock fill the baskets, instead of protecting the sanctity of the church and the Tabernacle.
Reestablishing the Veneration of the Mass
The Catholic Church must reestablish the absolute expectation that those who enter the Nave and participate in Mass do so with complete reverence. Sadly, what we get now in most churches is noise, distractions, insipid preaching, and maybe even “entertainment.” But we don’t get the Mass as the Church wants us to get it. Instead, we get:
- Popular music rather than sacred music—syrupy folk songs or even drums and electric guitars instead of chant and hymns that normal people can actually sing.
- Adult women and young girls who look like they are preparing for a night of club hopping, openly displaying the “junk in their trunks”, cleavage, tramp-stamps and t-backs versus covering up as a sign of humility and virtue.
- An atmosphere so lacking in reverence that private prayer before or after Mass is difficult because of all the chattering (by people who enter movie theaters in perfect silence).
- Extraordinary ministers who are so numerous that one begins to wonder if the word extraordinary has had its meaning reversed by some governmental commission.
- Priests who bow at the altar of political correctness by substituting “people”, ”persons” “brothers and sisters” in place of the written Word in Scripture that refers to the masculine “man”, “brothers”, etc.
- Catholics so devoid of doctrinal knowledge that they don’t touch the Holy Water font on entering the Nave, don’t know how to genuflect – or don’t at all – don’t know how to properly recieve our Lord in the Eucharist and don’t even make the sign of the cross when called to do so.
Sadly, the list of liturgical and sacramental abuses goes on and on. The “sense of sacred” and the mystery of the Mass have been tragically lost in many Catholic parishes these days—precisely because the liturgy isn’t being celebrated correctly. As a result, millions of Catholics—and especially our Catholic children—are growing up without a proper understanding of the holy sacrifice and what it could and should mean in their daily lives.
There’s an old Latin saying—“Lex orandi, lex credendi”—which, loosely translated, means “the way you pray affects the way you believe.” So if the Mass is celebrated in a casual, lackadaisical, worldly, “people-pleasing” way, it stands to reason that there will be a weaker understanding of what the Mass really is—and thus a weakening of people’s faith, particularly their belief in the Real Presence.
Thank God for Pope Benedict VXI
The Man!
Pope Benedict is on a mission to restore the “sacred” to the sacred liturgy—and thus restore the faith of the people. In his brand-new apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (“The Sacrament of Love”), the Pope lays out his plan to revive the proper celebration of the Eucharist, which, as he points out, is “at the root of every form of holiness” and “the source and summit of the Church’s life.”
Along those lines, the Pope lists everything he wants to see fixed, changed, and improved upon in how the Mass is celebrated in parishes around the world. Specifically, he deals with:
- Why Catholic politicians and leaders must publicly express their faith—especially those beliefs that are not negotiable, including defense of life from conception to natural death, family built around one man and one woman, freedom to educate one’s children, and the promotion of the common good. Moreover, why bishops must strongly reaffirm these values!
- Why Catholics should more frequently go to confession in order to receive Holy Communion worthily.
- Why priestly celibacy is so important as a pure imitation of Christ.
- Why divorced and remarried Catholics are not allowed to partake of the Eucharist (that is unless the marriage is properly annulled by the Church), but how they can participate in other ways at Mas.
- The proper way to bring the faithful to participate in the liturgy.
- Why vestments, furnishings, art, and liturgical texts—even church architecture—are so important to a proper celebration of the Eucharist.
- Why the music at Mass should never undermine the meaning of the liturgy—and why Gregorian chant should be preferred.
- Why homilies need to be improved and made more catechetical—avoiding the generic and abstract homilies that seem to be so popular today.
- Why the presentation of the gifts and the sign of peace need to be done reverently.
- Why non-Catholics cannot receive the Eucharist.
- Why Latin should be used more frequently in the Mass—especially in the music.
- Why outward signs of reverence for the Eucharist are so important—particularly the gestures of genuflecting and kneeling.
- Why the location of the tabernacle is so important—and where it really should be.
- Why the Sunday obligation must be reaffirmed.
- How the Eucharist can combat today’s secularization and the marginalization of the Christian faith.
- Why priests should celebrate Mass regularly—even if the faithful aren’t present.
All this—and much more—is coming to a church near you! Its “Sacramentum Caritatis” starring Pope Benedict XVI and all Catholics in tow. Nuns, dust off your habits, Priests grow a spine, Catholic men “man up” and lead, and Catholic women leave the Jersylicious wardrobe at home. The Church is turning to the right and Thank God.
Responding to the Debt Ceiling Debate
The following is a response by a reader “Freeman” regarding the debt ceiling debate and its false foundational elements in his view. Although my readers can review his reply in the comment section of my post; “President and Democrats Demagogue, GOP Stays Focused on November 2010 Mandate”, the response deserves it’s own place in this blog whether believed or not. Anyone who is this passionate about their beliefs about what is ailing this great Republic deserves to be heard. Check it out.
Federal Reserve and Big Banks Play Games with America’s Future
The entire debt ceiling debate that is being covered religiously by the corporate controlled media and is nothing more than a fraud surrounded by false ideologies on both sides of this phony political spectrum. This problem is very simple to solve and it defies logic that not one single person in the corporate controlled media or in government appears willing to discuss a legitimate solution. The Debt Ceiling is a hoax, a political scam according to some. Instead, the politicians and the corporate controlled media propagandists prefer to offer fake solutions that keep the current debt based monetary system in place.
The argument is primarily focused around Democrats demanding so-called revenue increases with spending cuts, where as the Republicans are demanding no tax increases combined with slightly more aggressive spending cuts. Although it is true that government spending is wildly out of control and should be drastically cut, neither of these proposals come anywhere close to offering real reform. They are merely proposals designed to keep the current system in place when the system itself is the real problem. Currently, there are many sovereign countries that find themselves in an enormous amount of debt. The reason for this is because of the myriad of central banking systems that operate in conjunction with these nations. These systems operate off of the concept that all money is debt.
Deficit Spending is a Game that Feeds the Animal
In the case of the United States whenever the government needs to deficit spend they borrow it from the Federal Reserve at interest. The Federal Reserve provides the United States Treasury Federal Reserve Notes that they create out of nothing in exchange for bonds or debt. As these Federal Reserve Notes circulate in the economy and get stored in banks, these banks can loan out many times the amount of money that they have on hand.
For many years banks could loan out ten times the amount of cash on hand. In other words, these banks could simply create additional Federal Reserve Notes out of nothing and force the borrower to pay interest on it based off of the amount of reserves at their disposal. In this system, all money is debt and the people are taxed so that the government can pay back interest on the debt that originated from the funds that the Federal Reserve simply created out of nothing. It is nothing more than a scam designed to ensure that the people are enslaved to a system of debt that the government can never pay back.
As a result, the debate surrounding the debt ceiling, spending cuts and the like is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. There is no real debate going on as it is just staged theatre between two factions of a one party system. There is zero difference between both the Republican and Democrat parties as for decades they have continued supporting this phony monetary system that has bankrupted the nation and made the American people debt slaves.
U.S. Should Issue its Own Currency
As a sovereign entity the United States Treasury could simply issue its own currency free from the burden of debt or interest payments and use that to pay off its debts. Abraham Lincoln did this by financing the Civil War through the issuance of Greenbacks.
To reiterate, a sovereign entity does not need to borrow from the Federal Reserve or any other lending institution when it can issue its own currency. The fact that not one politician or one media pundit has brought up this fact shows that nobody is interested in truly resolving this crisis and are only interested in continuing the status quo.
The only way this debt problem will ever be truly resolved is if the debt based monetary system that is facilitated through the Federal Reserve is phased out and replaced with a non-debt based monetary system. Additionally, gold and silver coins should be brought back into active circulation with the U.S. Mint stamping out silver coins with a $50 face value and gold coins with a $2,000 face value. The reason why they do not circulate now is because the face value of the coins is far less than the actual melt value of the coins. If a piece of paper can be worth $100 just by the fact that it says $100 on it, there is no reason why the U.S. Mint can’t do the same thing with the coins. If these two ideas were implemented, the debt crisis would soon no longer exist, there would be no reason for excessive taxation and the U.S. government would be able to finance a myriad of programs for the benefit of the American people.
It is hard to say how this manufactured crisis is going to end but with nobody offering any real solutions, it is quite possible this is just another way for the establishment to further weaken the U.S. economy and make the prospect of global government all the more possible.
Either way, it should be very interesting to watch this disgusting circus unfold over the next few days as the politicians and talking heads continue to argue over their fake solutions.
President and Democrats Continue to Fail, Yet They Remain Obstinate
President Barack Obama is still taking his victory lap from 2008, even though he’s run into a tree on the way. Since March of 2009, the American’s support of his agenda and leadership have steadily declined. Why? Because as if he were a monarch, he stares down his nose at the American people, arrogantly pressing forward with ideological policy decisions that America does not support and quite honestly lying to us. You can take the Stimulus Package – passed in record time along party lines without giving Congress two seconds to read it. The verdict; a waste of $1 trillion ($1,000,000,000,000) that we borrowed. No material effect on the economy or jobs. Proof Keynesian economics is a canard.
President Obama claimed there were “shovel ready” projects all over the country that would create jobs and keep unemployment from skyrocketing, going no higher than 8.8%. The outcome? Unemployment going into the 10%s, dropping no lower than the higher 8%s before moving back up. Regarding shovel ready projects? They either didn’t exist in substance, maybe form, or they were already work in process. The President in his all-too-familiar arrogance stated in a public forum, with a smile on his face no less, “We’ll I guess there weren’t as many shovel ready projects as we thought!” Intellectually dishonest and patronizing to his core.
Next is Obamacare, something Obama and his cronies in Congress thought they could pass as quickly as the Stimulus, with plenty of support. One year later, with back room deals and political extortion (Sen. Ben Nelson and the “Cornhusker Kickback”), they passed the bill. Here’s the kicker; Obamacare is the only piece of major US legislation in our country’s history that did not receive one vote from the opposing party. As a matter of fact, about 40 Democrats voted against it. Worse yet, this socialistic piece of garbage was so voluminous and convoluted, most of Congress did not read the final bill, because they didn’t have time after the Democrats brought it out of the cellar; sound familiar? The economic outcome of Obamacare is all negative. In the face of its unknown costs to business, companies are simply not hiring at the pace we need to grow the economy, thus no increased revenues to the federal and state governments. In addition, huge corporations are threatening to drop their plans all together. Lastly, premiums are actually increasing, not decreasing. Utter failure.
In the lame duck session of 2010, snakes Obama and Democrats pushed through many pieces of legislation, an unprecedented move when the House was changing parties after a general election. What was one of their attempted policy moves? Allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire. Thank God the GOP put a stop to that, but the damage was done. Small businesses, already dealing with Obamacare are now holding back on hiring because of tax policy uncertainty.
As Debt Crisis Portends Global Economic Calamity, President and Democrats Remain in Perpetual Campaign Mode
Now there’s the Debt Ceiling issue. If you’ve followed the news around this battle of ideologies, you’d be completely astounded at the President and liberal Democrat’s arrogance. These out-of-touch panderers to the left are actually fighting tooth and nail to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion ($4,000,000,000,000) to accomodate their senseless spending habits and impenetrable embrace of big government. The GOP, on the other hand, are pushing forward with policy that is whole-heartedly supported by the American people (see Democrat ass kicking in November 2010); check the polls.
In the aftermath of Obamacare and the failed Stimulus, voters summarily threw the Democrats out the door, and at all levels of federal and state government. How do President Obama and the Democrats react? They lead the charge to kill the Ryan budget that would trim $6 trillion from the Federal budget over 10 years even after Obama and the Democrats fail to pass a budget in the fall of 2010 - can you believe it? Now, he is fighting tooth and nail to push the nation towards a government shut-down and possible default on our debt. All because he and his liberal cohorts in Congress demand tax increases on the wealthy. How do they define wealthy? No one knows.
Here’s the problem other than the President’s ideology; liberalism – a baseless, formless, irrational, morally bankrupt fabrication of reality, Barack Obama has never left the campaign stump. Everything, I mean “all” of his decisions, is intended to placate his voting base; liberals. Remember all the promises about bringing civility to Washington? His pledge to bring the country together? To work with Republicans? Bipartisanship? All deceptions that suckered voters who wanted to move on from the Bush years. This President, and liberal Democrats may I add, are scrambling to keep their voting base because everyone else have left them. They remain in nonstop campaign mode, spending more time raising money and working the main-stream press for leverage than they do leading.
That’s the main issue with this President; he’s never led, he’s never transformed himself from a candidate to being Presidential. He can’t lead, he doesn’t know how. It’s impossible to lead when you’re beholden to outside influences and your decision making comes from management by committee, especially when that committee will help you keep your job; liberals and Democrat voters.
America is Finally Fed Up. Who Would Have Ever Known that King Obama Would be Responsible?
No matter what happens with the Debt Limit zero hour, a few things are set in stone. First, this President has over and over shown that he cannot lead and he cannot be Presidential. Two, Democrats believe that government should take care of its constituency and that more government solves everything. Thus, they continue to push for more government, and in order to finance that growth, demand higher taxes that (they think) will provide the revenues to grow the government that in turn will take care of us. Third, the majority of Americans do not subscribe to number two, that’s why every time Democrats overreach on these issue they are shown the doors of the halls of Congress. Lastly, America is “finally” tired of the government spending, spending, spending money we don’t have. Although we always talked about our aversion to deficits and climbing national debt, we were all too busy riding the crest of the past two decades to really pay attention. Then thanks to idiotic spending by a so-called Conservative; George Bush, and the completely mindless economic policies of this administration, our national debt has skyrocketed to $14 trillion ($14,000,000,000,000), approaching a one-to-one ratio with America’s GDP. Unthinkable to Americans just a decade ago.
America has had it. All the rhetoric that we heard from politicians; “we can’t keep spending our children’s and grandchildren’s future”, “Social Security is going broke”, “we should welcome with open arms – and open pockets – our undocumented immigrant brothers and sisters (aka, illegals - future Democrat voters of course)”, just to name a few, is no longer being tolerated. Why are U.S. citizens fed up? Because for the first time in our lives, the real possibility exists that America will not be the preeminent economic powerhouse it once was. With that comes the real fear that America will no longer be a place of total security along with the pride that comes from being a country that “earned” its way to the top via the blood, sweat and treasure of those who came before us. After all, we are the United States, the leaders of the free world, a shining city on top of a hill that the rest of the world envied. Is that light about to go out?
“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America ’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government can not pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America ’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”
Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006
Please Read What Others are Saying
Debt Limit Battle Clarifies Choice for Voters
An Ideologue in the Oval Office
Wynn Slams Obama On Business: “Responsible For Fear In America”
This White House Not Serious About Cutting Spending
Why we’ll have 10% unemployment soon
Unsustainable Spending Threatens America’s Future
Out of the Way, Please, Mr. President
Real Change Possible When Obama Is Gone
Obama ‘Unpresidential,’ ‘Petulant’ ‘Dividing Us’
Obama’s in Trouble as America Doesn’t Like Losers
Job Growth 10-Fold Higher Before ObamaCare
Obama’s scare tactics reek of falsiness
Obama Refuses to Take Any Responsibility
Four Marks of the Church
The Four Marks of the Church: “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic” is of course derived from the Catholic Profession of Faith, also called the Nicene Creed. The Creed was adopted at the First Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., with the Four Marks added in 381 A.D. at the First Council of Constantinople. The ideas behind the Four Marks have been in the Church since early times (pre 325 A.D.). Allusions to the Marks can be found in the writings of 2nd century early Church Father and bishop, Ignatius of Antioch who coined the term “Catholic” Church – meaning Universal – early in that century. The very earliest stage of Christianity is called the Apostolic Age whereby the Apostles of Christ were physically spreading the Gospel and converting Jews and Gentiles to the Church. Thus, the connection of Christ’s works and Word from the Apostles to the early Church Fathers, like Ignatius, to the time when the Church codified its beliefs (the Nicene Creed) in response to certain heresies and misconceptions, is direct and unquestionable historically. This is why it is so perplexing to so many Catholics that our separated Christian brothers and sisters don’t recognize the preeminence of the Church.
Coming Home
I was born Catholic, raised by two devoted Catholics, my grandparents went to Mass everyday, I have several clergy in my extended family and went to Catholic school through 12th grade. What’s the point? Well, by the time I began to think for myself in college, I knew nothing else but Catholic Christianity. While in college, as most kids at that time do, I started to challenge my beliefs, my Christianity, Catholic doctrine and ”what it was all about”. I questioned whether I learned my faith via upbringing versus obtaining faith through prayer and a genuine understanding of Catholicism. I started to think more rationally and logically about everything, again, I was in college. It was an extremely frightening period because up to that point, in my mind, the Christian God and Jesus always existed. I had always felt like I had Jesus there as the ultimate comfort when I was troubled. However, now, for the first time, I doubted whether all I had learned to believe was true.
Sometime in late 1985 or early 1986, I was home from college and of course I went to Church not wanting to upset my parents. While sitting at Mass and listening to the priest’s homily, I gazed at the mosaic of the risen Christ on the wall. All of a sudden I thought to myself; “I really don’t genuinely believe all this”. I left Mass and ran home to my parents for help. I was freaking out. I confided in them about what just happened and all I was pondering in my mind at school. That not only was I doubting the supremacy of the Catholic Church, but the relevance of Christianity in total. As always, they calmed my fears with confident and reassuring words about Christ and the Catholic faith. What did they say? “Tom, Christ was a real person, a human being who was also God and actually walked the earth! He left us a Church and the Sacraments, and those continue unbroken until today. There’s only one God and one Church”. An immediate calmness came over me and I knew I had come back home to the Church. It made sense to me now, but not as a child needing comfort or a crutch, but as a thoughtful adult who had really all along had Christ in my heart and believed in the supremacy of the Church.
One
What my parents did was speak to history, to the facts about Christianity and the Catholic Church. They spoke to my growing want and need to believe in absolute truths versus blind faith and revisionist history that came from separated Christians who either opposed the Church or were simply ignorant of Her. Little did I realize it was Christ speaking through them, appealing to my mind, connecting it to what was already written on my heart all along; that He was real and that the Church He established was where the absolute and fullness of the Truth was found; the Catholic Church. I thought about what I had learned about my faith over all those years and realized I was learning the Truth, the historical facts, which made believing much easier (I am named after St. Thomas, after all). The fact is that Christ provided an enormous amount of evidence that He was God, from His innumerable miracles to the ultimate evidence; His resurrection from the dead. And history shows without a shadow of a doubt, even if you don’t believe Christ was divine, that Jesus established one Church.
There is but one God, one Adam, one father-in-faith; Abraham, one chosen people; the Israelites, one Savior; Jesus - the one Son of God, one Vicar of Christ; Peter (the Papacy) and one Church; the Catholic Church. As God the Father is the one and only God, the one and only ultimate authority, and His Son the one and only incarnation of the Father’s Word, the Catholic Church is the one and only fiduciary of that Word. There has to be an ultimate authority on earth to protect the Word. This is why the Protestant Reformation has grown into over 30,000 denominations. Because every person that calls themselves a pastor believes their version or interpretation of Scripture is the “right and accurate one”. Really, for all Christians, it should be intuitively obvious that this makes no sense and thus understand the preeminence of the Catholic Church. “There is one body and one spirit,” Paul wrote, “just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all” (Eph. 4:4-5). Paul linked this primitive unity to the Church’s common Eucharistic bread: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17). Jesus had promised at the outset that “there would be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10:16).
Holy
The Catholic Church is Holy. The word holy means set apart for a special purpose by and for God and that it had the all-holy God Himself as author. The term does not infer that all Catholics have ceased to be sinners and have themselves become all-holy. Nor does it mean that the “institution of the Church” cannot sin. We’ve seen all too often throughout history the institutional Church’s imperfection. The priest homosexual scandal of the past couple decades being the most recent example. The Church from the beginning, on Her human side, has been composed of sinners: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15)”. The Church was founded for no other reason than to continue Christ’s redemptive and sanctifying work with sinners in the world.
One of the things implicit in the appellation “holy” as applied to the Church, then, is that the Church from the beginning has been endowed with the sacramental means to help make holy the sinners who are found in Her ranks. The Church has been given the Sacraments along with the absolute and complete responsibility to protect and interpret the Word (the Magisterium) precisely in order to be able to help make sinners holy. It was in this sense that Paul was able to write, “Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for Her, that He might sanctify Her, having cleansed Her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present the Church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that She might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25-27).
Catholic
The term Catholic, derived from the Greek word katholikos, which means “universal” or “general”, was first used to describe the Church in the early 2nd century by St. Ignatius of Antioch. The term katholikos is equivalent to katholou means ”according to the whole.” Thus the full name Catholic Church means “universal” or “whole” church. Based on the promises of Christ in the Gospels, the Church believes that it is continually guided by the Holy Spirit and so protected infallibly from falling into doctrinal error. The Catholic Church teaches that the Holy Spirit reveals God’s truth through Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium.
Sacred Scripture, codified by the Catholic Church at the Synod of Hippo in 393 A.D. consists of 73 books; 46 found in the ancient Greek version of the Old Testament — known as the Septuagint and 27 New Testament writings first found in the Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209, the oldest extant manuscripts of the Greek Bible (Old and New Testament, named for the residence in the Vatican Library where it has been stored since at least the 15th century. It is written on 759 leaves of vellum in uncial letters, and has been dated palaeographically to the 4th century). Sacred Tradition consists of those teachings handed down since the time of the Apostles. After all, Christ Himself did not have a scribe – almost unheard of for a prophet of His time, and given the Canon was not officially created until 393 A.D., it’s intuitively obvious that all the teachings that existed “officially” before the Bible were Sacred Tradition. Scripture and Sacred Tradition are collectively known as the “deposit of faith” (depositum fidei). These are in turn interpreted by the Magisterium, the Church’s supreme teaching authority, which is exercised by the Pope and the College of Bishops in union with the Pope who is the bishop of Rome.
Apostolic
Finally, the Church that was created by Christ on Peter – the Rock, was necessarily apostolic. Christ founded the Church upon the apostles and in no other way: “Did I not choose you, the twelve?” he asked them (John 6:70). The apostles, of all people, understood perfectly well that they did not set themselves up in their own little community, as we sometimes today see gospel churches set up in store fronts or in the suburbs. The New Testament teaches, “One does not take the honor upon himself” (Heb. 5:4).
Nothing is clearer, then, that the Catholic Church started out as “apostolic.” The question is whether the apostles had the power and authority to pass on to others what they had received from Christ. They very definitely did have this power and authority; the New Testament evidence is clear about that. The subsequent historical evidence is equally clear that they did pass it on to successors – the bishops. There are many references in the New Testament itself to the appointment of bishops by the Apostles, as well as to the appointment of further bishops by them (Titus 1:5-9). When we ask where this apostolic Church which the New Testament tells us Christ founded is to be found, we have to reformulate the question to ask: What Church, if any, descends in an unbroken line from Jesus to the apostles to the bishop through to this very moment? The Catholic Church.
Christ said nothing more solemnly and categorically than the words He speaks in the New Testament in which he declares that the Apostles and their successors would speak for Him in the serious business of gathering in and sanctifying His people and leading them toward the salvation he offers. Mark 3:13-15, “And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. And He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons.” and Matthew 28:16-20,“ But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”
Jesus intended that the fullness of his grace should come to his people in a Church that, from the beginning, was what the Creed still calls it today: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.
A Shining City Upon a Hill
I am the last of five children born to parents who are first generation Americans and who are part of the Greatest Generation, as Tom Brokaw wrote. To my grandparents America was much more than just another country or merely an opportunity to better themselves. They believed that the United States was an extraordinary place - a fantastical destination - that held the promise of liberty for all and whose physical and spiritual substance could allow people to become “the best version of themselves”. This dreamland could not be found anywhere else on earth. They were right. America was an extraordinary place mainly due to the Founders framework, our Judeo-Christian ethic, and the American people who embraced and embodied that foundation and built the American culture. That culture – the traditions and philosophies of the United States – eventually made us exceptional, and thus the birth of American Exceptionalism. To quote the great Ronald Reagan, “America is a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere.”
In recent weeks there have been a host of media types who have pontificated on American Exceptionalism. Most of what I read was focused on disputing American Exceptionalism as either never having existed, ill defined, or inconsistent with the New World Order that liberals/progressives so ardently support and dream of. But then again, these folks don’t get the concept in the first place because what made America exceptional is diametrically opposed to the core of their being; pathological individualism. Of course my initial reaction to these articles, interviews, etc. calling into question America’s Greatness was a fierce defense of it. However, as I pondered the reality of American Exceptionalism, I took pause and asked myself; “Is the United States still Exceptional?” I didn’t like the answers I heard in my head and now faced a painful and sad truth about the greatest civilization ever to exist. I have written about and defended this concept many times and now wonder if I was speaking the Truth?
Being Exceptional Begins with Being Selfless and Morally Superior
American Exceptionalism refers to the idea that the United States occupies a special niche among the nations of the world in terms of its national credo, historical evolution, political and religious institutions, selfless defense of liberty, and its culture and history of spending blood, sweat and treasure to stamp out tyranny and serve the less fortunate around the world. We were the chosen and de facto leaders of the world because of our moral superiority in total not necessarily in every individual situation (case in point is the treatment of Black Americans in the south).
The underlying foundation that “allowed” America to be exceptional is that our nation was founded and grounded in Christianity and the moral compass that Christ and Scripture provided us. We were, at one time, a nation completely unafraid to wear our Christianity on our sleeves, and demonstrate our allegiance to Christ in the public square. But then came the poison of liberalism, working through the judicial system to effectively strip America of its public demonstrations of our Christian roots and beliefs. Pop culture, the media, Democrats and academia – all bastions of liberalism – finished off the job by working together to ensure that America was seen as agnostic and progressive. Now we even have a President who openly equates Islam with Christianity. What more can I say?
The tie between being exceptional and morally superior can be seen throughout history in those individuals that have left the most lasting impressions on the world. Of course the first that comes to mind is Jesus Christ, the most morally superior person to ever live. Then there’s people like Abraham Lincoln, Joan of Arc, Billy Graham, Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, just to name a few. All these people were leaders, some of them given the mantle of leadership, but all earning the right to lead because of the exceptional ethical and virtuous way they lived their lives. It is part of human nature to be attracted to and revere people with a higher moral standard. The United States was (or is based on your opinion) a macrocosm of these leader’s example.
Modern Liberalism and the Entitlement Culture has Damaged America’s Exceptional Leadership
I’ve said it many times before. The infamous effects of the 1960′s liberal and liberation agendas are primarily responsible for the lion’s share of the dramatic cultural, political and economic problems we face today, and really have faced for since the 1970s. It’s just become progressively worse. Ultimately, liberal economic and political policies and most of all the immoral social changes that they have proudly championed has led to American Exceptionalism being now seriously in question. Liberals like to toil in detail so they can confuse people and muddy the substance of an argument or issue. However, in this case let me give their “intentions” some credence because I can hear them saying; “Tom is oversimplifying the issues related to America’s problems and their genesis; typical of a dumb Conservative”.
The issues liberals claim to have championed; civil rights, entitlements for the elderly and less fortunate, women’s rights, environmental protection to name a few were and are substantive problems. However, two huge problems exist with what liberals did with their intentions when it came time to implement change, and this is why their good intentions failed miserably. First, they did not use as the foundation of their progressive agenda, discernment of Christ’s Word and subordination to His supremacy. Thus, they did not utilize the architect of American Exceptionalism to light the way to the improvement of the American culture. Second, they overreached. By definition, liberalism has no bounds because it has no real foundation. Thus, the implementation of change can never be efficiently or effectively managed. The change just feeds on itself, aimlessly wandering forward, left, right, backwards, upside down, etc. until it fails to resemble it’s initial intention or meaning. In every single case, good liberal intentions went way beyond the point where they remained valuable and an improvement to American society.
The Progressive Deterioration of American Exceptionalism
One of worst parts of having to listen to liberal bilge is seeing how deceitful they are at their core and watching them reinvent history. Liberals are the authors of revisionist history. The one area that particularly burns my rump is when they attempt to claim the founders were not Christian and that the founders did not intend to build the future of America upon the Judeo-Christian ethic. Not only were the founders Christians, they were orthodox Christians. Liberals – as Jeff Spicoli would say – “are stoned”. The reason the founders predicated the country’s framework on Christianity is because they knew this was the only way America could become exceptional. Here are a few quotes by some of the founders. Make your own mind up.
“The great pillars of all government and of social life [are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible.” Patrick Henry
“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.” John Adams
“In the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior. The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.” John Quincy Adams
“The great, vital, and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and the divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Congress
“While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.” George Washington
Liberalism is the Cancer that is Killing America and its Chance to be Exceptional Once Again
And so why do I call America’s moniker of Exceptionalism into question? Well, let’s start from the beginning and look at what liberalism has done to this once “moral leader of world”.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote birth control. God commands that we “openly accept children (life) into our marriages and we don’t encumber that process artificially”.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote sexual relationships outside of marriage (living together as “partners”). Marriage is a Sacrament blessed by God Himself and the only union where a man and a woman can express their love sexually.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote having children outside of marriage. The family unit is built with the bonds of marriage, not outside it.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less protect a woman’s choice to abort an unborn child. Abortions kill the most defenseless among us. It is the single most egregious and abominable act and sin a man and/or woman can be party to.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote sexual promiscuity. Sexual relationships are a gift from God whereby a man and woman, within the bonds of marriage, express their love for one another and openly accept the responsibility as co creators of life with God. Men are not to drop their seed with just anyone, at anytime and for purely selfish reasons – for amusement. Women are not to open their wombs to any man and any time for purely self reasons – for recreational purposes.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote homosexuality as normal and morally equivalent to heterosexuality. Homosexuality is an abomination before God. However, homosexuals are not.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote homosexual marriage as normal and morally equivalent to heterosexual marriage.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote homosexuals, engaged in homosexual behavior, adopting children. The ordained, by God, family unit is a man – the father, and a woman – the mother.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote overindulgence of drugs and alcohol.
- An exceptional society does not openly accept divorce as such a simple means to end marriage. “What God has brought together, man cannot separate”.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote individualism.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote materialism.
- An exceptional society does not legislate against a parent’s divine right to discipline their children.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote their children living the lives of adults. Kids are promiscuous, overindulgent of alcohol, disrespectful of authority, tatooed, etc.
- An exceptional society does not throw God out of the public square. “If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you to my Father”.
- An exceptional society does not remove Christianity from public education.
- An exceptional society does not endorse, much less promote the government creating a nanny state. Social programs are now greater than 50% of the federal budget.
- An exceptional society does not bankrupt itself by recklessly expanding government programs that destroy self reliance.
- An exceptional society is not lead (voted into office) by a President who seeks to make America agnostic as to religion.
And an exceptional society does not separate itself from Christ and its Christian roots. If it does, it ceases to be Exceptional. Are we there?
America Prevails as it Always Has
The events of September 11, 2001 were so shocking, so surreal, and so anger provoking that to this day I still can’t watch footage of what happened. All the more awful was it for me because I’m from New York City and because the deep feelings I had for revenge, the latter obviously not part of living an authentically Catholic life. And so as the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death is announced, I really do not want to spend my time and energy reading and watching the inordinate amount of news coverage that will surely ensue. As far as I’m concerned, Bin Laden was made irrelevant shortly after his murder of 3,000 people by the United States Military lead by George W. Bush. That same President Bush said many times, “we’ll find you, it may take time, but we’ll find you.” Well, Bush was right, America prevails as she always does. I, for one, don’t want to make that big a deal of it. Bin Laden was just a bug that we stepped on; it’s over.
An Anti-War Liberal President with a One-Letter-Different-Name Orders the Kill Shot – Remarkable
There are too many ironies here to list, but the most satisfying one for me is that this cockroach Osama Bin Laden had his head blown off – literally – through an order by an American President with almost exactly the same name and an absolute soft spot for Muslims and Islam. Further, this President’s party, who are unashamedly anti-war and with vigor and pride barbequed the then President Bush for his ardent focus on the War on Terror, now are saddled with the fact that they planned and executed the kill shot. What in God’s green earth will people like Nancy Pelosi and Bernie Sanders say now? Will they protest their party’s leader’s actions? Hell no. Because liberal Democrats are disingenuous, intellectually dishonest and confused political opportunists. Like my old man says; “they won’t know whether to crap or wind their wrist watches”. But never-the-less, could anybody have imagined that an American President named “Obama would kill Osama?”
Let the People Speak
Here’s my tribute to all those Americans who have been affected by a lunatic Muslim through zero fault of their own. Many, many people have been waiting for this day and so let them speak.
Obama owes thanks, and an apology, to CIA interrogators
Rumsfeld: Those Who Deny Waterboarding Helped Aren’t “Facing The Truth
Hersh, Olbermann Called Bin Laden SEAL Team “Assassination Ring” In 2009
Rep. Peter King: Waterboarding Led Us To Bin Laden
Bin Laden Death Marks Turn in U.S. History
US official: Bin Laden skull blown apart
Osama bin Laden killed after tip-offs from Guantanamo
Veterans say elite military force works with lethal precision
The Ultimate Sacrifice was the Ultimate Demonstration of Love
When I was a young child in Brooklyn, my parents and I watched the movie The Greatest Story Ever Told. The affect the Passion and Crucifixion scenes had on me, as I understand now, was life changing. I remember weeping, sobbing to my parents; “Why did they do this to Jesus?” I was devastated that the world had treated this wonderful person; my God, so savagely. The visual of Him dragging the Cross and then hanging there – bloody and in so much physical and emotional pain – just crushed me. I knew right then and there two things; how much I loved Him and how much He loved me.
Christ made the ultimate sacrifice when He endured the most humiliating and painful death possible at the time. Crucifixion was reserved for the worst criminals, the dregs of society. Roman citizens could not be sentenced to this type of execution. Christ chose Crucifixion to document for the ages His fidelity to His Father’s will and the lengths He would go to prove His for love of us. Jesus’ self-imposed execution was a fundamental demonstration of love for His children. Not simply because he suffered an agonizing and shameful death, but because he willingly did so AND because he didn’t have to – He was God!
“For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” John 10: 17-18
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
It is this incredible display of love, willed and ordained by the Father and carried out by the Son, that freed mankind from sin and opened the gates of Heaven again. Christ’s death allowed for His Resurrection, the victory over death once and for all. This is why the crucified Jesus is so central to the Catholic Church; Christ’s legacy on earth. This is why Christ hangs on the Cross in our churches, around our necks and in our homes. Because we want this reminder of Christ’s love for us, we want to understand why we’re called to suffer with Christ; to “carry our Cross”. Because we want to have the greatest example possible of what someone will do for love, for love of his neighbor. It is not that we want to subordinate Easter Sunday to Good Friday; the Resurrection to the Crucifixion. Catholics want to live both the suffering and victory of Christ, simply because we have been called to do so by Him in Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Let us never forget, and be constantly mindful of, our Lord’s completely unselfish giving of Himself on the Cross for us; his friends.
“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 1 John 3:16
Christ Had to Die for Us to be Saved
Many of my separated Christian brothers and sisters do not pay enough attention to the event of Christ’s death; the Crucifixion. Of course they recognize it, understand what Jesus went through, and are grateful for it. But in their absolute focus on the Resurrection as the central event in Christian history, they really don’t live a complete Christian life, at least in my opinion. First, they believe that if we are “reborn” that we are “once saved always saved”. And so second, that living a Christian life that entails too much focus on suffering and the Crucified Christ is unnecessary. Why, because Christ already suffered for us all; that event is over. He is risen and once reborn we are to live in complete confidence of our salvation. What room does this leave for suffering?
This is a big difference between living a genuine Catholic life or not. Many separated Christians do not want to live the suffering piece. This is why they seem much more joyous in their prayers and in speaking of their Christianity. Why their services are more gregarious, louder and more expressive and the Catholic Mass and Sacraments are more subdued and reverent. Because we are showing proper respect for the living Christ in the Tabernacle, while always being mindful of the price he paid for our sins and access once again to Paradise.
Christ’s Resurrection is Proof of His Divinity and Solidifies His Faithfulness to His Children
Could you imagine what Jesus’ disciples felt like, especially the Apostles, when this man who they believed was God meekly – and without much self-defense, allowed Himself to be murdered? Again, by way of crucifixion. Can you imagine their disappointment and sorrow? What was He doing? He was God, wasn’t He? Can you fathom their let down when most thought that Christ was about to lead them in battle against the Roman occupiers? That He was to be King of the Jews? Jews must have been extremely confident they could liberate themselves with Jesus in the lead. After all, He made the blind see, the lame walk and the dead live. But it was not to be. It seems that most of Christ’s disciples let His talk of being raised on the third day go in one ear and out the other.
Jesus promised His disciples, and most certainly spoke to His Apostles in detail, that He was going to die and rise from the dead in glory. Christ has never not kept a promise to His children, and His promise to return to His disciples was no different. Jesus said He would and He did. Christ’s fidelity to His Word and His Children demonstrates something really incredible. That although we may lose faith in Him at times, He never loses faith in us – never has and never will. The Apostles, these men who were with Jesus every step of the way for three years, who witnessed all His miracles, His Transfiguration, etc. and were made aware that He had to die in order to rise in glory, even they lost faith in Jesus Word. When Christ appeared in the room where the Apostles were in fear of the Jews and said “Peace be with you”, His divinity was never to be in doubt again and He proved once and for all that He keeps His promises to us.
”For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16.
Ardent and Ongoing Defense of Islam by Americans is Mind-Boggling and Dangerous
The response by some high profile government officials and the liberal media to the slaughter of innocent people in Afghanistan by Muslims is astonishing, but not surprising. As has been the case for too long now, the reaction by the U.S. government and liberal elites to Muslims’ continued killing in the name of Islam is unAmerican, lacks leadership, and is completely slanted toward placating the Muslim community. The rationale for the slaughter? Terry Jones’ burning of a single Koran; the Islamic Bible. One idiot’s stunt, someone who holds zero influence in America with a following of twenty-odd pseudo Christians, and the reaction by Muslims in Afghanistan is to kill thirty innocent people?
The reaction by the press and the “blame America first crowd”? America (a Christian nation keep in mind) who is the primary target of radical Islamic aggression, should know better. After all, we are to be hypersensitive to all things Muslim, including showing complete and total respect to the Koran. We must understand Muslim’s reaction to the Koran burning. We are obligated to Muslims to equate Islam with Christianity in the (liberal) spirit of relativism. That basically we shouldn’t be surprised if Muslims kill people because one moron burned one Koran. We ought to be absolutely culturally relative and understand – to the point of rationalizing murder – that Muslims are going to do what it is they need to do to protect their religiosity when such crimes are perpetrated upon them.
The “blame America first” doctrine associated with the Muslim community and borne of political correctness is nothing short of surreal, and dangerous to the national security of our country. Moreover, it is an affront to “our” religious foundation, our religious belief system; Christianity! In light of all that the United States has dealt with over the past thirty years relating to Islam and the Mid East, how can this anti-American dogma stand? After 9/11? After all the attacks on the West by Muslims for two decades prior? It defies logic that this liberal doctrine remains even as radical Muslims continue to murder in the name of Allah, their extremist Islamic supporters continue pumping their fists in the air calling for “death to the U.S.”, and Americans are still dieing in the sands of Arabia.
More Appeasement and No Genuine Anger Over Muslims’ Continued Actions and Inaction
Here are examples of some high profile Americans’ responses to these completely indefensible murders.
Noted in the Wall Street Journal, Gen. David Petraeus, who heads the U.S.-led international forces in Afghanistan said,“Burning the Muslim holy book “was hateful, it was intolerant and it was extremely disrespectful and again, we condemn it in the strongest manner possible”. U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry said in a statement that, “Americans respect the Quran and all religious texts and deplore any action that shows disrespect to any religious faith.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says congressional lawmakers are discussing taking some action in response to the Koran burnings that led to killings at the U.N. facility in Afghanistan and sparked protests across the Middle East, Politico reports. “Ten to 20 people have been killed,” Reid said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation, “We’ll take a look at this of course. As to whether we need hearings or not, I don’t know.”
Not one word about the horrific nature of the slaughter, not one word about the fact that these acts are a continuation of years of Muslim hatred of the west. Not one word that these events are not isolated; Muslims all over the world, including in the United States (e.g., Ft. Hood), have been killing Americans, Jews and anyone else who isn’t faithful to Islam, in the name of Allah for decades now. Not one word that Americans are sick and tired of the non radical Muslim community remaining silent and not overtly, and with vigor, standing up against their own and demanding they stop. Where is the balance? When will America assert its right to articulate loudly and clearly FIRST that Muslim aggression and murder will not be tolerated, THEN communicate to the world that we are sensitive to Muslims, Islam, the Koran, etc, etc. This is the proper order, this is the “official” attitude we should have in this country.
When is the United States, who has spent countless treasure and blood defending itself against the hyper theological – and sometimes extreme – elements of Islam (see attacks beginning in the early 1980s and culminating on 9/11) going to realize that radical Muslims will use “any” excuse to harm the west; we are the great Satan. Thus, it’s impossible for America to develop a formal and effective communication protocol, or do’s and don’ts of Islam, or an American guide to political correctness as it relates to Muslims, or whatever, that will stop their aggression and killing. Muslims are called to Jihad in the Koran. There is literally nothing we can do to stop their overt and covert theologically driven appetite for world domination; it’s part and parcel to their religious identity which totally defines who and what they are. Please get the facts on Islam, the Koran, Jihad, etc. (Islam and Muslims), educate yourself to the realities we’re facing and the ever increasing danger we – as a Christian nation – are facing.
Official Communication is Important, But Our Attitude is Paramount
Look, I’m not stupid, I understand General Petraeus has to say these things because he’s dealing with a very delicate situation and a culture whose every decision is driven by its religious ideology. For all I know, when he wakes up in the morning he says to himself, “Man, I’d love to turn this entire region into a plate of glass.” But what is so irritating to a lot of Americans is that we have to continually placate Muslims – who again obviously cannot police themselves – so that we don’t piss them off and risk their extremist factions going ballistic and killing people. I for one am sick of it. I understand that our diplomats in D.C. have to be very careful in how they communicate the country’s official response to the ongoing events like this one in Afghanistan. However, I do not understand why we haven’t developed a communication strategy over time in reaction to Muslim’s continued aggression that is based on “supporting America first and placating Muslims second”. After all this time, the United States is completely within its right to say “enough is enough”. But as long as we’ve got a liberal dominated press, liberals in Congress, and certainly a Muslim sensitive President, fat chance this is going to happen.
The fact is that the authentically American reaction to September 11, 2001, where we – as a nation – did not categorically condemn all Muslims for the murder of nearly three thousand people has since been hijacked by liberals and the mainstream media to further their infatuation with the blame American first doctrine. Liberals now refuse to condemn Muslims for anything. Americans are made to some how feeling guilty as if Muslims are the victims here. As if somehow America brought upon itself all that we’ve endured over the past thirty years concerning Muslim aggression, culminating in 9/11. That is utter nonsense and completely disrespectful to the great and benevolent nation. This is certainly what the world used to expect of us. Let’s hope and pray that in November 2012 we elect a President that is unafraid – and less thin-skinned to Islam (for whatever reason) - to discontinue the blame America first doctrine. For this ill advised dogma does nothing less than disrespect over two hundreds years of American history, blood, sweat and treasure built on the backs of those who came before us and who would never never support a weak-willed defense of our great Republic against anyone who would seek to hurt her.
The Koran is a Just a Book. Christ Said “Love Thy Neighbor” not “Love Thy Neighbor’s Religious Texts”
Terry Jones burning of a Koran is the stuff of a completely radical, unChristian, disrespectful lamebrain. Even if you believe that the Koran is just a book – like I do, as a Catholic Christian I cannot support such actions which deeply offend my neighbor; Muslims. It does not matter to me that Muslims mistakenly believe that every Koran is the verbatim word of God, as if God Himself reached down out of Heaven and physically penned each one, and because of that, the desecration of the Koran is met with death to the perpetrator. What matters is that I know Christ would not want me to – with premeditation and hatred – hurt my brothers and sisters feelings. This is the sin of Terry Jones, not burning a book. Christians, on the other hand, believe that the Bible “contains” the inspired Word of God; every syllable. But the Words contained in Holy Scripture are Living in the form of the Catholic Church which has been entrusted to work with God throughout Earth’s history, now, and in the future, to continually reveal the full meaning of the Word whom, as St. John says, is Christ. Of course Christians respect the physical Scripture; the Bible. But the book does not supplant the Word that pours forth from it and lives among us.
As a Christian I have been directed by Christ himself to first “love God with everything I have – mind, heart, soul and strength”, and “love my neighbor as myself” – in this order. I am to simply love without reservation. Needless to say this includes my Muslim brothers and sisters. However, I am first to love God with an all encompassing passion. This includes a love of the Truth, and the fact is that Truth dictates that I do not equate Allah, Islam and the Koran with God the Father, my Catholic Christianity, Holy Scripture and Sacred Tradition. This would be to minimize the Truth, putting it kindly, and I will not do it. What I must do is bring the Gospel to Muslims, bring them the Truth and work tirelessly to help them see the Light.
Be Proud to Be Catholic, to Be Christian, to be An American
Too often, and keeping in line with political correctness, the media and liberal politician’s line is that “Islam is one of the world’s great religions”. I will not provide Islam equivalence to Catholicism. It is one of the world’s religions; that where it ends. I will only say that one thing we have in common is that we “may” worship the same God; God the Father. However, Catholic’s revelation of the Father’s will, thoughts, directives, laws, etc, is perfect because it was delivered by He Himself through the incarnation of his Son Jesus and has been stainlessly guarded by His Church; the Catholic Church. The supposed revelation of the Father’s mind to prophet Mohammad as represented in the Koran is seriously flawed. The Koran denies that Christ is God’s son, denies the Trinity, and denies Christ’s divine nature for starters and advocates many things that are completely incongruent with the Truth.
The time is long past for America to push aside political correctness, the liberal utopia of a one world order, and our ongoing attempt to placate Muslims. If not for our sake and for our children, out of respect for all those Americans who came before us who would be abhorred by our sheepish attitude towards an entire section of the globe that seek to do us harm. However, the time is even longer past that so called “moderate Muslims” stand up and lead the attempt to wipe out the extreme factions of Islam so that Conservative Americans can begin to believe that all Muslims are not extreme; overtly and covertly. This is the doctrine we should adopt. Leaders don’t stand on the fence.
The Nucleus of the Mass; the Eucharist, was Born on Holy Thursday
The Mass, like all Catholic Liturgies, was instituted by Christ Himself at the Last Supper. What Christ said and did on Holy Thursday, changing bread and wine into the real presence of His Body and Blood (transubstantiation), has been repeated for two thousand years and is the nucleus of the Catholic Mass. Literally, the Mass has been celebrated without any material gaps in time – if any – since the night Jesus Christ ate with his Apostles just hours before His death. At the Last Supper, Christ commanded that the Apostles “do this in memory of me”.
With Clarity and Certainty, Christ Told the Apostles; “This IS my body”
We Catholics are not Bible literalist, per se. Yes, we believe Scripture to be the actual word of God written by men inspired by the Holy Spirit. We believe in its absolute Truth in detail and in the whole, but do not subscribe to the practice of reading one sentence or section “out of the context” of Scripture in its entirety, along with Sacred Tradition, both guarded by the Magisterium (the teaching authority of the Catholic Church given to it by Christ Himself). However, there are many doctrines of the Church promulgated by Jesus Himself noted in Scripture that clearly and unequivocally speak of certain Church practices to be followed. One of these is unmistakably the celebration of the Eucharist; the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.
Let’s explore these:
Matthew 26:26-28. “While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”
And in John 6:53. “So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.”
Again in John 6:27. “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.”
The Entire Mass Can Be Traced to Holy Scripture
Needless to say, the entire Mass – which has been called the “Perfect Prayer” – is completely Biblically based. It has to be; it’s a celebration within Christ’s Church, the Catholic Church. Catholics penned the New Testament inspired by the Holy Spirit (first called Christians, then the Catholic [Universal] Church) and then codified Holy Scripture in A.D. 393 at the Synod of Hippo. What we tend to forget sometimes is that ALL Christians were Catholic (whether Orthodox, Roman, etc.) for nearly 1,500 years, and certainly all the Apostles and all the greatest minds and (early) Church fathers were Catholic. Every single man and woman that materially affected Christian doctrine in its very initial development and maturation for “hundreds of years” were Catholic; devout Catholics, many of them martyrs, many of them having personal and visual relationships with Jesus. How then could these Christians celebrate the Mass – daily - without this Perfect Prayer being absolutely and unmistakably supported by Holy Scripture? A book they helped write, interpret, guard the validity of, preach from, and eventually certify the contents of – all under the guide of the Holy Spirit? It is not possible. Or better said, it defies logical and rational thought.
The following delineates the Order of the Mass by reference to how each section or rite is directly tied to the Bible. I hope this helps the readers of this blog better understand that the Mass is a Christian celebration, completely supported by Scripture. The Mass in the Bible.
Here are just a few examples from the linked text above of the Biblical support of the Mass.
The Greeting
Priest: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. [baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19)] People: Amen. [Let all the people say, Amen! (1 Chronicles 16:36)]
Priest: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. [The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. (2 Corinthians 13:13)]
People: And also with you. [The Lord be with your spirit (2 Timothy 4:22)]
Penitential Rite
Priest and People: I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault…….. [Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. (James 5:16)]……… In my thoughts and in my words,…….. [do not be haughty..wise in your own estimation. (Romans 12:16)] and [The tongue... exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body (James 3:6)]…….in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do;…..[So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, it is a sin. (James 4:17)]……and I ask Blessed Mary…….. [Yes, from this day forward all generations shall call me blessed (Luke 1:48)]……ever virgin……… [Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14)]…….all the angels and saints…….. [And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God (Revelation 8:3-4)]…… and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God……[Brothers, pray for us [too]. (1 Thessalonians 5:25)]
Liturgy of the Eucharist
Priest: Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made…….[For everyman, moreover, to eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of all his labor is a gift of God.(Ecclesiastes 3:13)] and [Blessed may you be, O LORD, God of Israel our Father, for all in heaven and on earth is yours (1 Chronicles 29:10-11)]……….It will become for us the bread of life……..[I am the bread of life (John 6:35)]
People: Blessed be God for ever. [Blessed be God! (Psalm 68:36)]
The Communion Rite
Priest: Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles; I leave you peace, my peace I give to you…….. [Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. (John 14:27)]……Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and grant us the peace and unity of your kingdom where you live forever and ever………….[May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13)]
People: Amen. [Let all the people say, Amen! (1 Chronicles 16:36)]
Priest: May the peace of the Lord be with you always. [Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you". (John 20:19)]
People: And also with you. [The Lord be with your spirit (2 Timothy 4:22)]
“A Woman’s Right to Choose”……to Kill Her Baby
A Description of the Act of Abortion
Heinous, monstrous, atrocious, odious, terrible, dreadful, shocking, scandalous, wicked, outrageous, horrific, immoral, lurid, grisly, brutal, appalling, vicious, cruel, vile, frightful, horrendous, hideous, ghastly, horrifying, sickening, gruesome, disturbing, macabre, repugnant, offensive, obscene, unacceptable, disgusting, revolting, nauseating, intolerable, deplorable, insupportable, EVIL……..Killing!
Pennsylvania Abortion Doctor A Mass Murderer
Have you heard about the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell? This deplorable monster ran a clinic where babies were butchered inside and outside the womb. A veritable killing machine aimed at the most innocent of us; completely defenseless children living within the comfort of its mother. Here’s an excerpt about this modern day Vlad the Impaler.
…….Infant be-headings, severed baby feet in jars, a child screaming after it was delivered alive during an abortion procedure. Haven’t heard about these sickening accusations? NBC-10 Philadelphia reported that, Stephen Massof, a former Gosnell worker, “described how he snipped the spinal cords of babies, calling it, ‘literally a beheading. It is separating the brain from the body.” One former worker, Adrienne Moton, testified that Gosnell taught her his “snipping” technique to use on infants born alive.
Killing Defined
To deprive of life: cause the death of. The only reason abortion cannot be defined as murder in the legal sense is because murder is unlawful premeditated killing. Abortion is the premeditated lawful snuffing out of a human life. Just imagine that now my friends. In America, we allow for the lawful killing of babies! Believe it or not, that is what pro-abortion advocates stand behind to justify a woman’s right to choose. That it’s lawful (Roe v. Wade).
If you do support a woman’s right, you are supporting a woman’s right to kill her child. You are causing someone else to sin, committing a sin of omission. And by the way, you’re endorsement of abortion is allowing the mother, the doctor, the nurse, the receptionist, et al, to commit a mortal sin. All are complicit in the killing. If you think this is my opinion, I refer you first to Scripture and ultimately the protector of the full deposit of Faith – the Catholic Church.
America’s Foundational View on Killing
“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Of course, this is the beginning of the Declaraion of Independence, crafted by the Founding Fathers who were orthodox Christians. Liberals can dispute that fact, but like so much else, they operate on revisionist history, lies, distortions and plain old delusion. The Founders were ardent Christians who sought to promulgate the protection of life. Why the hell else would they have said that “life” in an inalienable right? What would they think of abortion? What would they think of the fact that a judge was responsible for establishing the right for a woman to kill her child? That the people did not have the chance to protect a child’s inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Worse yet, that the people haven’t risen up to overturn this evil.
Church Teaching
The Catholic Church has always condemned abortion as a grave evil. Christian writers from the first-century author of the Didache to Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”) have maintained that the Bible forbids abortion, just as it forbids murder. This tract will provide some examples of this consistent witness from the writings of the Fathers of the Church.
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Church specifically addresses what it calls a gravely evil sin.
So, in the end, the protection of human life was absolutely supported by the Founders of our country and our political system, and the practice of abortion strictly forbidden by the Church. The latter is simple, the sixth Commandment. Thou shall not kill.
Now look at yourself in the mirror and ask, “Can I sit back knowing that there are doctors in this country performing botched abortions and then allowing those innocent children to die on the delivery table? Not me.
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