William Kilpatrick – July 20, 2022

In a recent article I made the case that the main thrust of the Francis papacy is to deemphasize sin.  Whatever he might say about a moral issue such as abortion, same-sex marriage, or adultery, Francis has consistently given his support and praise to those on the permissive side of the issue.

By contrast, his harshest criticisms have always been reserved for traditional Catholics who worry about moral decay in the Church and society.  Francis frequently attacks these “rigid fundamentalists” as the modern-day counterparts of the pharisees.

Judging by Francis’s actions, one might think that the Church was just emerging from a long dark night of narrow-minded puritanism—a real life Handmaid’s Tale.  But the opposite is true.

Starting in the early sixties, Church leaders increasingly took their moral cues from secular sources—particularly from psychologists. Middle-school religious studies texts were peppered with the theories of humanistic psychologists. In California, an entire order of 600 nuns left the Church in search of self-fulfillment. With the coming of the self-esteem movement, feelings of guilt were replaced with feelings of OK-ness.  Almost overnight the long lines outside the confessional booths disappeared.  Newly enlightened Catholics couldn’t think of any sins to confess.  The new gospel was all about self-acceptance and self-love.

Many couldn’t think of any reason to attend Mass, either.  The Son of Man came to save sinners; but since the label “sinner” no longer applied to those who had learned to esteem themselves, thousands upon thousands simply stopped going to church.

This doesn’t mean that they lost their faith entirely.  Many simply re-adjusted their faith to bring it into conformity with the changing times.  One Catholic writer recounts that until her mid-twenties, “I saw God as a permissive parent who was too ‘loving’ to enforce His own boundaries.”

This slide into permissiveness was slowed during the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI; however, the Church, at least in the West, continued to lose members.

https://www.frontpagemag.com

Bob Unruh – July 6, 2022

Mainline American churches long have been in decline. And there have been a number of actual civil wars among congregations and divisions that have resulted – often over social issues facing the nation such as the LGBT agenda.

Now the reasons, or results as you choose, are being seen: Only 20% of Americans see the Bible as the actual Word of God. A full 29% call it “fables” and “legends.”

The biggest portion, 49%, say it is “inspired” by God but it is NOT to be taken literally.

The results of the Gallup polling say the 20% who believe the Bible actually is God’s Word is at a record low.

That’s down from 24% the last time the question was asked, in 2017, and about half what it was in 1980 and 1984.

This year marks when those claiming it’s “fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man,” at 29%, is the “first time significantly more Americans have viewed the Bible as not divinely inspired than as the literal word of God.”

“Interpretation of the Bible, the holy Scripture of the Christian religion, has varied widely across time and across religious traditions. Gallup has been asking Americans specifically about their views on a literal interpretation of the Bible since 1976, with the latest update coming in Gallup’s May Values and Beliefs survey,” the pollster reported.

https://www.wnd.com

A June 2022 WND commentary argued that changing U.S. policies and public debates over gender, education, and religious beliefs were placing Christians at odds with influential institutions. The writer criticized the Biden administration and characterized several cultural developments as hostile to traditional Christian values. These were the author’s political and religious judgments, not independently established findings that government or society had identified Christians as a collective enemy. The article reflects concerns expressed by some religious conservatives during the period.

Read more at www.wnd.com

Joel C. Rosenberg – May 25, 2022

JERUSALEM—Beginning the evening of Saturday, May 28, and running through Sunday, May 29, Israelis will celebrate “Jerusalem Day.”

This is the day on the Hebrew calendar (28 Iyar) that marks Israel’s reunification of the Holy City under its sovereign control during the Six-Day War of 1967, after the IDF defeated Jordanian forces that had previously controlled the city.

On the Western calendar, the “liberation of Jerusalem” occurred on June 7, 1967.

TEMPLE MOUNT TENSIONS RUNNING HIGH

With tensions already running high on what Jews and Christians call the Temple Mount and what Muslims call Haram al Sharif, Israeli security forces are bracing for trouble.

Just yesterday, ALL ISRAEL NEWS reported that Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ruled in favor of three Jewish teenagers whom the police temporarily banned from going to the Temple Mount after they had prayed at the site on May 15 saying that it constituted “a disproportionate infringement on their freedom of movement.”

However, the court also made it clear that “this [decision] does not intervene with the police’s job in enforcing public order at the Temple Mount, nor does it determine anything regarding freedom of worship at the Temple Mount.”

Judge Zion Saharay criticized police for barring the teenagers from the Temple Mount and said that a public statement made by the police chief “clearly suggests that all residents of the country are allowed to enter the Temple Mount and pray.”

https://www.allisrael.com

Michael Foust – May 5, 2022

Noting that certain tenets of the Christian faith are growing more unpopular each year, two prominent attorneys on Thursday called on believers to pray for the Supreme Court and the rest of the judicial system, saying it’s essential that judges follow the Constitution and not the whims of the culture.

David Nammo, CEO of the Christian Legal Society, and Gregory S. Baylor, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, made the comments on the National Day of Prayer, emphasizing that Justices need prayer just as politicians do. They spoke during a virtual event sponsored by MyFaithVotes.org.

“I think one of the specific ways we can pray for judges is that they don’t get kind of sucked into the deep polarization and tribalism that’s plaguing our culture right now,” Baylor said. “We don’t want judges to become part of that – to think of themselves in one tribe or the other.”

Baylor urged Christians to pray that judges “do the job that God has called them to do.”

“Even at the recent Supreme Court confirmation hearings … there was a consensus that judges ought not to be legislators [and] ought not to be the primary resolvers of the big disputes and debates in our country,” Baylor said.

It’s especially critical to pray for judges as the culture becomes more hostile to the gospel, Nammo said.

“I think it’s important that [pastors] understand that preaching the gospel may one day become hate speech in this country,” Nammo said, noting that in many countries, “that’s already the case.”

https://www.christianheadlines.com

Robert Spencer – April 17, 2022

Passover started Friday and Sunday is Easter for most Christians (Orthodox Christian Easter, or Pascha, is next Sunday). In keeping with the season, The New York Times thought Thursday was the perfect day to publish a rancorous anti-God screed written by an angry former believer. The Times is now openly proselytizing for atheism, and while that’s certainly its prerogative, it also must be asked: why now, in the lead-in to two of the holiest of times for both Jews and Christians? And also, cui bono — who benefits?

The Times op-ed was the work of Shalom Auslander, the author of a book called Foreskin’s Lament: A Memoir, in which he bitterly recounts his Orthodox Jewish upbringing and how he has said goodbye to all that. He does essentially the same thing in the Times piece, presenting some acid recollections of being an eight-year-old learning about Passover, and adding, “In this time of war and violence, of oppression and suffering, I propose we pass over something else: God.”

This is because God’s judgment on the Egyptians in the Exodus story seems to Auslander to be excessive. “God, it seems, paints with a wide brush. He paints with a roller. In Egypt, said our rabbi, he even killed first-born cattle. He killed cows. If he were mortal, the God of Jews, Christians and Muslims would be dragged to The Hague. And yet we praise him. We emulate him. We implore our children to be like him.” Auslander adds, “Perhaps now, as missiles rain down and the dead are discovered in mass graves, is a good time to stop emulating this hateful God. Perhaps we can stop extolling his brutality. Perhaps now is a good time to teach our children to pass over God — to be as unlike him as possible.” That’s the Times’ message for Passover and Easter.

Auslander doesn’t explain, of course, where he thinks he got the moral sense that he used to judge God’s actions in the Exodus account as he understands them. The Times, of course, has no space to consider answers to Auslander’s theological questions, which have been considered by Jews and Christians throughout the ages who were far more thoughtful than Auslander himself is. It does, however, have plenty of space for Auslander’s practical conclusion: “Killing gods is an idea I can get behind.”

https://pjmedia.com

Ryan Foley – April 7, 2022

There has been an “unprecedented drop” in the number of Bible users in the United States since last year, according to a report released by the American Bible Society.

The 2022 State of the Bible report, released Wednesday, based its findings on responses collected from a survey of 2,598 U.S. adults conducted in January. The 12th annual report asked Americans a variety of questions about their Bible use and their thoughts on its role in society.

A preface to the report also highlights changes in the percentage of Bible users in the U.S. over time. The American Bible Society defines Bible users as “those who use the Bible at least 3-4 times each year on their own, outside of a church setting.”

After reaching a high of 53% in 2014, the share of Bible users among the U.S. adult population consistently remained between 48% and 51%. Just last year, 50% of Americans were Bible users. However, in 2022, Bible users in the U.S. accounted for just 39% of the adult population, the lowest in more than a decade.

The State of the Bible report described the 11% decrease as an “unprecedented drop in the percentage of Bible users in the United States.” When applied to the U.S. population as a whole, the figure suggests that the number of Bible users in the U.S. dropped from 128 million in 2021 to 103 million in 2022.

https://www.christianpost.com

Robert Spencer – March 8, 2022

Is the pope Catholic?

It used to be the epitome of a question for which the answer was obvious, but in the days of Pope Francis, it’s hard to tell anymore. The present occupant of the Chair of St. Peter has given many people cause to wonder if a more revealing question would be, “Is the Pope Marxist?” Recently, Pope Francis issued a curious warning against the dangers of hybrid Marxist Catholic theology. The Spanish-language Argentine edition of Aleteia reported that, in a letter to the Santa Maria Spirituality Center in Buenos Aires, the Pontiff warned against “the ideologizing of a Marxist tint of some Latin American centers in the ‘70s.” The pope’s rejection of Marxism, however, is nominal and inconsistent.

Pope Francis stunned opponents of the idea of an economy controlled by government fiat when he wrote in his 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti: “The marketplace, by itself, cannot resolve every problem, however much we are asked to believe this dogma of neoliberal faith. Whatever the challenge, this impoverished and repetitive school of thought always offers the same recipes. Neoliberalism simply reproduces itself by resorting to the magic theories of ‘spillover’ or ‘trickle’ – without using the name – as the only solution to societal problems.”

Actually, the name “trickle-down economics” is indeed used by critics of the view that those who innovate, create, and provide employment opportunities for others should be penalized for doing so.

The pope went even farther in the same encyclical, giving justification to state confiscation of the bank accounts and possessions of dissidents by stating that “the Christian tradition has never recognized the right to private property as absolute or inviolable, and has stressed the social purpose of all forms of private property.”

Instead, he continued, “the principle of the common use of created goods is the ‘first principle of the whole ethical and social order’; it is a natural and inherent right that takes priority over others,” which certainly sounds a great deal like Marxism.

https://www.frontpagemag.com

Ricky Scaparo – February 10, 2022

In 2016, The Satanic Temple wanted to deliver an invocation before a Scottsdale city council meeting. Every other religious organization that had applied was permitted the opportunity to share a brief statement that was inspired by their faith.

However, Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane celebrated that he successfully blocked The Satanic Temple from delivering their requested invocation. The Satanic Temple sued the city for religious discrimination but lost in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for failing to show that the discrimination was a matter of official policy, as opposed to being a public position of key city officials involved in the decision making.

The Satanic Temple disputes the integrity of this ruling, but did not appeal to The Supreme Court. Because The Satanic Temple could not utter a brief statement at the City Hall Kiva, they are hosting SatanCon. The three-day convention devoted to Satanists will take place in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The Satanic Temple believes this event will be the world’s largest Satanic conference and has reached out to the Guinness Book of World Records for confirmation. “Regardless of whether Guinness opts to include this among the records they document, Scottsdale, AZ will have the honor of being bestowed with this legacy.

As the city is recognized for its contribution to the Satanic community and becomes a spiritual hub for those who venerate a literary interpretation of Satan, residents will have Mayor Jim Lane to thank. “Regardless of whether Guinness opts to include this among the records they document, Scottsdale, AZ will have the honor of being bestowed with this legacy.

As the city is recognized for its contribution to the Satanic community and becomes a spiritual hub for those who venerate a literary interpretation of Satan, residents will have Mayor Jim Lane to thank. As hundreds of Satanists descend on Scottdale, residents will be able to learn more about our faith than they would have if the city had just accepted our petition to deliver an invocation,” noted The SatanCon organizer Harry Hoofcloppen.

“From this day on, when people hear of Scottsdale, they will immediately think of Satan.” The record-breaking event runs from the 11th to the 13th of February in celebration of the Satanic holiday of Lupercalia and features a variety of presentations on TST’s ongoing projects, from their efforts at protecting abortion rights in Texas to a new Satanic streaming service.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

William Kilpatrick – January 25, 2022

“A non-Catholic Pope”?  It sounds like a contradiction in terms.  But those are the words used to describe Pope Francis by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.  In fact, he rarely uses the term “Pope Francis.”  He refers to him instead as “Bergoglio” and to his pontificate as the “Bergoglian papacy.”

Vigano has a following in some Catholic circles but it’s likely that the vast majority of Catholics have never heard of him.  Yet the questions he raises about Pope Francis are of great consequence, not just for Catholics but for non-Catholics as well.

Since there are about 1.3 billion Catholics in the world, whoever leads them can have a significant effect on a large segment of the global population.  It’s widely thought, for instance, that Pope John Paul II did more to put an end to communism in Eastern Europe than any other individual with the exception of Ronald Reagan.  For evidence of the close collaboration between the two men, read historian Paul Kengor’s revealing book, A Pope and a President.

Now we have a new pope and a new president and neither of them seem terribly concerned about the revival of communist power throughout the world.  In fact, both men have surrounded themselves with left-leaning advisors and appointees.

In addition, both Francis and Biden have effectively rolled back the agendas of their immediate predecessors.  This is obvious in the case of Biden because the reversal has been swift and abrupt.  The reversal that Francis has engineered is less noticeable since it has been more gradual, but the resulting change in the Catholic Church has been every bit as radical as the one now taking place in American government and society.

Archbishop Vigano links the two together.  He talks of a coup in America and other Western nations led by secular leftist ideologues, and a coup in the Catholic Church led by Bergoglio and the progressive Catholics who surround him.

https://www.frontpagemag.com