LGBT Catholics got VIP seats at Pope Francis Address on Ash Wednesdy

CM Editor
-
0
LGBT Catholics got VIP seats at Pope Francis Address on Ash Wednesdy

Christian Today report–  An American advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Catholics were given front row seats at Pope Francis’ address on Ash Wednesday.

The 50 members of the Maryland-based New Ways Ministry were seated in the same area as the Pope at the address in St Peter’s square yesterday. This is the third pilgrimage they have made, but the first time they have been given this distinction.

When the Pope passed their group they sang ‘All Are Welcome’, a popular hymn among those calling for an inclusive Church.

“It’s really an incredible honour and an incredible step forward for the LGBT community to be recognized,” the group’s executive director Francis DeBernardo told CNN.

DeBernardo said the group were “basically ignored” on its previous visits under Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II. “So not just to be acknowledged, but to be acknowledged in such an honourable way is [good]”, he said.

However, the group were not given the private audience with the Pope that they had requested. They were identified on the guest list as a group of lay Catholics, not as pilgrims representing Catholic LGBT community and so were not mentioned when a monsignor listed the various groups of pilgrims present at the service.

Even so, Sister Jeannine Gramick, the group’s co-founder told Reuters it was a “sign of movement that’s due to the Francis effect.”

“What this says is that there is movement in our Church, movement to welcome people from the outside closer to the inside,” Gramick said

According to the Religion News Service, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Britain’s most senior Catholic bishop, sent an encouraging message to a similar group of LGBT Catholics from the UK, who joined New Ways Ministry in Rome. “Be assured of my prayers for each and every one of you,” Nichols wrote. “Have a wonderful pilgrimage. God bless you all.”

The Catholic Church’s official position on homosexual relationships has not changed under Francis, but there have been signs of a more welcoming approach to the LGBT community. The Pope has also urged the Church not to marginalise the gay community. In 2013 he said “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge them?”

In keeping with tradition, Pope Francis marked the start of Lent with a procession from Rome’s Sant’Anselmo church to the church of Santa Sabina on Aventine Hill, where he led a Mass.

In his homily the pontiff encouraged Catholics to ask God for the “gift of tears” in prayer, the Catholic News Agency reports.

Speaking from the Joel, where he said the prayer of the priests should be accompanied by tears, Francis called Catholics to approach Lent with the same attitude “so as to make our prayer and journey of conversion ever more authentic and without hypocrisy.”

Turning also to the Gospel of Matthew, he referred to Jesus’ words to his disciples about fasting: he warns them not to “look gloomy” when they fast so that they avoid being like the hypocrites. The Pope said that hypocrites “don’t know how to cry. They have forgotten how to cry. They don’t ask for the gift of tears.”

Source: Christian Today

 

Middle East Suffering, the Greatest Tragedy Since World War II

CM Editor
-
0
Middle East Suffering, the Greatest Tragedy Since World War II

Catholic Herald report– The Middle East is suffering a “Way of the Cross” that is the greatest tragedy since World War Two, Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregoire III Laham said in his Lenten message.

He said the Church, despite its efforts, is having difficulty meeting the growing needs it faces in the region.

“We fail in front of the suffering of our people in all walks of life, Christians and Muslims. It’s a universal suffering,” he said.

“We as pastors are with our people, at their side, in front of them, behind them,” Patriarch Laham said, adding that it is “as if we wash the feet of those who are suffering as Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.”

“We are in the fifth year of the Way of the Cross,” especially in Syria, Iraq and the Palestinian territories and also in Lebanon, “which is affected in a tragic way by war, which rages around it,” Patriarch Laham said.

He continued: “This is a tragedy of the greatest tragedies of history — not just in the region, but in the world — since World War Two.

“We call on all citizens and our children (to work together and with Pope Francis) to not let the flame of hope be extinguished in your hearts.”

The Syrian-born prelate pointed out that Lebanon has accepted waves of displaced people and refugees: from Palestine since 1949, from Syria since 2011 and, currently and in stages, from Iraq.

Lebanon is now hosting more than 1.5 million refugees — mostly Syrians and an increasing flow of Iraqi Christians — putting a strain on the country’s infrastructure and resources for its existing population of around four million people.

“How many have heard about all the stories of suffering,” he said. He noted that although the Church encourages the faithful in the region to remain and hold on “with ropes of hope and faith and surrender to the will of God,” at the same time, the decision whether to stay or to leave one’s country “is a personal decision and responsibility of every individual and every family.”

“But we as pastors, we will remain with all who remain, and serve them … with all our strength,” Patriarch Laham added.

He thanked Muslims who urged Christians to remain in the Middle East. They have included leaders of Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam’s leading institution of higher learning, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

In a separate Lenten message, Cardinal Bechara Rai, Maronite Catholic patriarch, called for greater efforts to preserve the Christian presence in the Middle East.

“You know, my brothers and sisters, loved ones, how the needs of our people in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and the Holy Land are growing, because of the wars and destruction and displacement, as well as displacement and impoverishment due to the economic crisis and rising costs of living, unemployment and limited job opportunities,” the Lebanese cardinal said.

He urged people to participate in Caritas Lebanon’s annual fundraising campaign “geared to meet these needs,” which he said must be addressed in charity and love. He also assured people that “Christ is capable of renewing everything around us.”

The patriarchs called for fasting and prayer for peace. They also thanked Pope Francis for his appeals for Christians in the Middle East.

In the Eastern Catholic churches, Lent begins two days earlier than in the Latin rite. Ashes were distributed on February 16 this year in Eastern churches.

Source: Catholic Herald

 

ISIS Burned to Death 45 People in Western Iraq

CM Editor
-
0
ISIS Burned to Death 45 People in Western Iraq

Christian post report– Jihadists from terror group ISIS have reportedly burned to death 45 people in the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi, though local police forces have been unable to identify yet who the victims are.

Police chief Col. Qasim al-Obeidi said that he believes some of the victims are members of Iraqi security forces who could have been captured when ISIS took a large part of al-Baghdadi last week, BBC News reported on Tuesday.

Obeidi asked the Iraqi government and the international community for help, noting that a compound that houses the families of security personnel and local officials is under attack.

Earlier in February, ISIS militants released a video where they showed Jordanian fighter pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned alive inside a cage.

Kasasbeh’s death sparked outrage around the world, with Jordan’s King Abdullah II vowing “relentless war” on ISIS for its actions.

“We are waging this war to protect our faith, our values and human principles and our war for their sake will be relentless and will hit them in their own ground,” the Jordanian leader said.

American President Barack Obama called the video “just one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity of this organization.” He added about the terror group: “Whatever ideology they’re operating off of, it’s bankrupt.”

ISIS has captured a number of towns across Iraq and Syria, and there have been numerous reports of the jihadists carrying out mass executions of captured Iraqi or Syrian soldiers. The terror group has also released a number of videos showing the beheadings of western citizens.

A U.S.-led coalition has struck back with airstrikes against its targets in the region, and a number of other neighboring countries have also carried out military operations against ISIS.

The beheading of 21 Coptic Christians earlier this week prompted Egypt to bomb ISIS camps in Libya, where the murdered Egyptians were initially kidnapped from.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called the militants “inhuman criminal killers,” and said that Egypt has the “right to respond” to such killings.

“Egypt and the whole world are in a fierce battle with extremist groups carrying extremist ideology and sharing the same goals,” al-Sisi said.

Al-Baghdadi was one of the only towns to still be under government control in the Anbar province, but has been besieged since January 2014.

Source: Christian Post

 

Faith Crashers: A Revolutionary or a Misogynist, Which was Apostle Paul?

CM Editor
-
0
Faith Crashers: A Revolutionary or a Misogynist, Which was Apostle Paul?

Christian Post report– By today’s standards it may appear that the Apostle Paul was prejudiced against women when he wrote in Ephesians for wives to submit themselves to their husbands. However Southern Evangelical Seminary President Richard Land said Paul was actually ahead of his time, establishing equality between the sexes in marriage.

“In the modern world many people rather casually assume that the Apostle Paul was a misogynist based upon his teachings concerning the differing roles of men and women in the church and in marriage,” Land said.

“What such critics fail to realize is that they are reading the Apostle Paul through the lens of a 21st century perspective, rather than the 1st century world to which Paul wrote originally.”

Land, who is also the executive editor of The Christian Post, explained that in the 1st century women were considered property with few rights or protections. In his writings, Paul describes husbands and wives as equals even in the most intimate parts of their relationships.

Quoting 1 Corinthians 7:3-5, Land says of Paul, “He instructs the Corinthians that in marriage the husband and the wife have equal right to conjugal relations.”

Men are also called to love, nourish and cherish their wives sacrificially with the measure being Jesus.

“One can only imagine the shock and consternation among many of the husbands in Corinth and Ephesus upon hearing the Apostle’s commands and admonitions,” said Land. “Can you not hear them exclaiming, ‘My body belongs to my wife sexually, you say? Has Paul taken leave of his senses?’ Or alternatively, their exclamations echo across the room, ‘I’m to love my wife sacrificially, with an agape love which always puts her needs before my own? I never heard of such a thing!'”

Paul’s admonitions marked the first time that sexual equality was asserted in any civilization thus making him more of a revolutionary than a misogynist, summed Land.

Source: Christian Post

 

Book Lovers Are Really Preoccupied With This Website

CM Editor
-
0
Book Lovers Are Really Preoccupied With This Website

Bookinsider report– Last year, Random House quietly gave away Dan Brown’s bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code, for free for one week. Millions of readers were unaware of the week-long giveaway.

A select group of readers did take advantage of the promotion, though. They were using BookBub, a daily email that alerts readers to free and deeply discounted ebooks that are available for a limited time. BookBub notified nearly 1 million readers of the free Da Vinci Code deal last spring.

“It’s the Groupon of books,” Dominique Raccah, the publisher of Sourcebooks, told The New York Times about deal sites like BookBub. “For the consumer, it’s new, it’s interesting. It’s a deal and there isn’t much risk. And it works.”

Why did Random House give away a bestselling ebook that usually retails for $9.99? The company’s goal was to hook new readers on Brown’s thrillers and drum up interest in his new book, Inferno. The free ebook even included the prologue and first chapter of Inferno.

“It makes it almost irresistible,” Liz Perl, Simon & Schuster’s senior vice president explained to the The New York Times. “We’re lowering the bar for you to sample somebody new.”

Book lovers have now become practically obsessed with BookBub. In many cases, they’ve downloaded hundreds of books that publishers and authors have promoted on the site.

“I now have more books than I can read in a lifetime,” said Suzie Miller of Auburn, Wash. She said she has downloaded more than 350 free books using the service.

For readers, part of the appeal of BookBub is that it does not list every single free ebook on the market. Instead, BookBub’s expert editorial team selectively curates only the highest-quality ebooks to feature in their email and on their website. In most cases, the deals can be purchased for any ereading device, including Kindle, iPad, Nook, and Android.

Readers can select which genres they would like to receive, so each email is matched to their preferences. BookBub features more than two dozen genres of books, including mystery, romance, literary, historical fiction, nonfiction and more.

With millions of readers using BookBub’s service, this type of promotional concept seems to be resonating with both publishers and readers alike.

To see today’s ebook deals, go to www.bookbub.com.

Source: Bookinsider

Benham Brothers: Satan Is Behind Attacks Against Traditional Marriage

CM Editor
-
0
Benham Brothers: Satan Is Behind Attacks Against Traditional Marriage

Christian Post report– David and Jason Benham, the twin brothers who were fired from an HGTV reality show because of their vocal opposition to gay marriage, have said that Satan is behind the attacks against traditional marriage.

Speaking to the socially conservative group American Family Association last week, the Benham brothers talked about the attacks Satan is inflicting on American institutions.

“America has systemically removed God from society, starting in the public schools. He’s been removed from business; he’s been removed from every vestige of society,” said David Benham.

“Do we have any inclination that he’s not going to be removed from one of the three institutions that was in working order before sin entered the world — work, Sabbath and marriage? Those three things God set in place before sin entered the world; Satan is coming after all of them.”

Later in the program, Jason Benham explained that God made man and woman “a perfect physical picture of what happens in the spirit.”

“It’s the same thing that happens in physical intimacy between a man and a woman, and Satan is a big phony, he’s a big counterfeit,” Jason continued.

“He’s always going to attack sex because the goal of sex is life — it’s life in your marriage, it’s physical life with children, it’s offspring. And the devil is making war against the offspring of the woman, which means that the devil hates life.”

Last year, the Benham brothers garnered national attention when their planned HGTV reality television series was canceled before the first episode ever aired after LGBT activists protested against the network for allowing anyone who opposes same-sex marriage to be featured on TV.

Not long after the HGTV cancellation, SunTrust Bank also attempted to sever business ties with the Benham family; however, the bank backtracked in response to conservative outcry.

In a statement, SunTrust spokeswoman Beth McKenna said: “We clarified our policies with our vendor and they have reinstated the listings with Benham Real Estate.”

“While we do not publicly comment on specific vendor relationships, we don’t make choices on suppliers nor base business decisions on political factors, nor do we direct our third party vendors to do so.”

Since the controversy, the Benham brothers have made the rounds in conservative circles and released a book earlier this month titled Whatever the Cost.

“This book follows the story of highly motivated and entrepreneurial twin brothers, David and Jason Benham, from their formative years and ventures into professional baseball to their rise as owners of a multi-million dollar business empire and securing an HGTV reality series,” reads the book’s description on Amazon.

“It’s a journey where the brothers learned how they must die to their dreams not just once, but twice as they walked away from baseball before being called up to the Big Show and later as their TV series was stripped away from them just before airing when the network succumbed to media pressures surrounding their faith.”

Source: Christian Post

 

Obama Needs to Acknowledge Radical Islam and Act Fast, Says Robert Jeffress

CM Editor
-
0
Obama Needs to Acknowledge Radical Islam and Act Fast, Says Robert Jeffress

Christian Post report– Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, joined Father Gerald Murray of New York on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” Tuesday night to encourage Americans of all faiths to contact the White House and demand that the Obama administration call out radical Islam and take action to defeat the Islamic State terrorist organization.

“This is a part of a disturbing pattern,” Jeffress said when asked by Bill O’Reilly what he made of Obama’s initial refusal to call the ISIS beheading victims Coptic Christians [until he publically acknowledged that the 21 Egyptian men were Christians and not just “citizens” in a Wednesday LA Times op-ed].

Jeffress continued, “This president is continually lecturing us that we’re not in a religious war against Islam, and while that’s true, it’s time for the president to get off of his high horse and acknowledge that radical Islam is in a religious war against us. Until we understand that, we won’t understand where this is headed.”

“These Islamists will not rest until they’ve exterminated every Jew and every Christian from the face of the earth,” he asserted. “And if you think that is hyperbole, listen to what they said on that Libyan beach after they butchered those 21 Christians. They said, ‘We are headed to Rome next,’ and while Rome may be their next stop, I guarantee you it won’t be their final stop. They are coming after every one of us as well if we don’t stop them now.”

After O’Reilly reviewed many of the president’s previous comments about ISIS, the host noted that Obama has been “downplaying” the threat, and asked Jeffress why he would do such a thing.

“Well, I think part of it is the influence of Islam on his own life. He sees radical Islam as a tiny minority, and while that’s true, a powerful minority is much more potent than a passive majority, and I just don’t think he can acknowledge this branch of Islam, and I think he’s taking the Neville Chamberlain approach — if we can contain or ignore this threat, it will go away. This is not going away,” Jeffress responded.

Jeffress is not the only one comparing Obama to Chamberlain. U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.), made the assessment after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he called “the Winston Churchill of our day.”

“Benjamin Netanyahu is the Winston Churchill of our day, warning the world about Iran,” Pittenger told reporters. “President Obama is the Neville Chamberlain of our day, in seemingly total denial of the enormous risk and … (how vulnerable) we are to their nuclear capabilities.”

Jeffress also noted that he believes in the prophecies of the Bible and that things will indeed get worse before they get better and before the Lord returns but issued a dire warning.

“That is no excuse for fatalism,” the pastor said. “And I believe that Christians ought to be on the forefront of fighting this evil, and this is unmitigated evil … burning people alive … and that is why tonight, I am calling on Christians everywhere, Catholics and Protestants together, to join with our Jewish friends and demand that this president do whatever is necessary, including boots on the ground, to eradicate this cancer of ISIS and radical Islam before it destroys us.”

O’Reilly adamantly agreed and urged viewers to call and contact the White House to make moves against ISIS. He said he would make a call for every cleric next weekend to address this in their congregations and to say “enough” and to tell Obama to “get in gear.”

“We’re with you, Bill,” Jeffress said.

Source: Christian Post

Faith in Politics: Why the Bishops Have got it Right

CM Editor
-
0
Faith in Politics: Why the Bishops Have got it Right

Christian Today report– The Times newspaper has called for the Church of England to stay out of politics after the publication of the bishops’ letter urging involvement in this May’s General Election, saying that’s not what bishops are for.

While at 52 pages I’m not sure I’d describe it as a letter, this is just the sort of thing church leaders should be doing.

I don’t agree with everything the bishops have to say, but then I don’t necessarily agree with everything those in my own church or even my family think about politics. Where I am passionately in tune with my Anglican brothers, and now sister, is that politics is too important to be left to the politicians. It is something where we all have to get involved. And we need to lift our eyes and recapture a vision for what our communities and our country can become.

Too often talk of how evangelical Christians engage in politics suffers from importing assumptions from the United States. It conjures up images of everyone voting for the same party based on a small number of issues of key concern. A couple of years ago the Theos theological think-tank looked into this and found that the prospect of a religious right emerging in the UK was pretty slim, despite what the media might sometimes want to suggest. In fact, it concluded: “While it is not impossible that a co-ordinated religious right evolves in Britain, it hasn’t done so to date and would, if it did materialise, look rather different from the US version.”

The response to the bishops’ letter is certainly not suggesting that the Church of England is turning into some sort of religious right. In fact, it’s been accused of being too left wing and has promptly been slammed by various Conservative politicians (some of whom confessed to not having read it).

Church services in the UK and the US might look similar, we might sing the same worship songs and read the same authors, but when it comes to politics we’re really very different. New research out from the Evangelical Alliance this week shows that UK Christians don’t just vote for one party, and the issues they care about are very distinctive to the general population.

The Faith in politics? report shows that evangelical Christians are doing exactly what the bishops are calling for: they are engaging in politics. Four out of five are certain to vote in May and many, many more than the national average have contacted their MPs, joined a campaign or got involved in a political party. It’s clear we’re taking up the call to show up and engage in politics, and that’s a good thing because politics is in need of all the help it can get. Half of evangelicals are less likely to believe what politicians say than five years ago and even more have less trust in the government. It might be surprising given these findings that interest in politics and an awareness of how to get involved has increased.

The hot-button issues for evangelicals in this country cover some ground that would be familiar in the States, and some that would probably be alien. When it comes to deciding how to vote, protecting religious liberty comes at the top but next up is tackling poverty in the UK, and then come human trafficking, same-sex marriage and euthanasia rounding off the top five. Even when evangelicals agree on the issues that matter – and well over two thirds say protecting religious liberty would affect how they vote – they don’t back the same party, with evangelicals more or less reflecting the voting intention of the national population.

How politics and church mix is also different from across the Atlantic. Only two per cent had been explicitly encouraged to vote a certain way by their church leadership, and fewer than a third had heard direction from the pulpit on a particular policy issue. I don’t think it’s the place of pastors to give political backing to parties or candidates, but avoiding this shouldn’t mean silence in the sanctuary. The Christian faith is not restricted to the private ordering of beliefs or behaviours: it’s about the world we live in and the society we want our children and grandchildren to inherit. And that means politics is unavoidable.

I’m looking forward to more church leaders wading into politics over the coming months. There are issues Christians care about that need to be heard and congregations are determined to turn their disillusionment into political action. Instead of trying to dismiss their concerns, politicians have a chance to win their votes.

Source: Christian Today

 

Evangelical Pastor lost Denomination Support After Accepting LGBT members

CM Editor
-
0
Evangelical Pastor lost Denomination Support After Accepting LGBT members

Christian Today report– A pastor in Oregon has lost the support and funding of the Evangelical Covenant Church because of his acceptance of LGBT persons as church members and leaders.

Rev. Adam Phillips founded Christ Church in Portland in 2013, and believed his acceptance of the LGBT community was allowed by the denomination. He found out earlier this month that it was not, The Huffington Post reports.

“There was a clear red line … in terms of performing gay marriages, and I was more than ready to uphold that,” he said in an interview.

But he also believed in “the invitation and welcome of gays and lesbians into full inclusion of the church, and that includes the invitation to marriage, or the invitation to celibacy.”

Phillips claimed that before and after he became ordained in 2007, he made the Church aware of his beliefs on the matter, and insisted that he was told “that the Covenant was a safe place for me to hold these personal convictions.”

“The Covenant assured me everything was OK, until it wasn’t,” he said in a video posted to the church’s website.

The 35-year-old received notice on February 4 that his church would no longer be supported by the Evangelical Covenant Church because of his “personal convictions and advocacy for the full inclusion and participation of LGBT Christians in the church at all levels of membership and leadership.”

Phillips said he was “heartbroken” that he and his church were no longer “Covenant-compatible.”

“I’ve been on a journey,” he explained. “I once believed that fully welcoming and including the LGBT community into our churches could not be reconciled with Christian teaching.

“These beliefs began to change, however, once I encountered good faithful Jesus followers who happened to be gay.”

The Evangelical Covenant Church is an evangelical Christian denomination with over 800 congregations across the US and Canada.

The Covenant Church maintains that a pastor’s personal beliefs “must never overshadow” the denomination’s policies.

An official Church resolution on human sexuality states: “A publicly declared, legally binding marriage between one woman and one man is the one appropriate place for sexual intercourse. Heterosexual marriage, faithfulness within marriage, abstinence outside of marriage—these constitute the Christian standard.”

The Church has not commented on Phillips’ case.

Source: Christian Today

Ukraine President Calls for UN Peacekeepers as Peace Deal Collapse

CM Editor
-
0
Ukraine President Calls for UN Peacekeepers as Peace Deal Collapse

Christian Today report– Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has called for UN peacekeepers to be deployed to monitor a ceasefire in east Ukraine, a proposal that pro-Russian rebels swiftly said would be in breach of a peace deal.

At an emergency meeting late on Wednesday, Ukraine’s national security and defense council approved Poroshenko’s request, a clear sign of Ukraine’s concerns after pro-Russian rebels seized a town after a ceasefire took effect on Sunday.

“The best format for us is a police mission of the EU,” Poroshenko said according to a statement on his website.

“It will be the most efficient guarantor of security in the situation when the word of peace is not observed either by Russia or by those who are supported by it.”

Ukraine pulled thousands of troops out of the east Ukrainian town of Debaltseve on Wednesday after failing to stop an offensive by Moscow-backed rebels who said the railway hub was not part of last week’s ceasefire.

The rebels denounced Poroshenko’s call for peacekeepers, saying their presence would “violate” the ceasefire, negotiated in marathon talks by France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine in the Belarussian capital Minsk late last week.

“This is an actual violation of the package of measures to implement the Minsk agreement,” Denis Pushilin, a senior separatist figure, was quoted as saying by Russia’s RIA news agency.

“And so we have a very negative attitude to this. Moreover we are ready to address the heads of state who were guarantors that Ukraine would meet its commitments.”

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations was also quoted as saying that Poroshenko’s proposal put into doubt Ukraine’s resolve to fulfill the Minsk agreements.

Source: Christian Today

 

1...3,6833,6843,685...3,894Page 3,684 of 3,894