See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs1bw
Obama to be tried by Muslims 'when they take over U.S.?'
President Obama must embrace Islam as a way of life or face the consequences of a trial under the Shariah Islamic court system, declared British extremist cleric Anjem Choudary.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs1am
Pennsylvania Catholic college fires gay part-time professor
Amplify’d from www.ydr.com
Pennsylvania Catholic college fires gay part-time professor
Chestnut Hill College, a private Catholic school, said the Rev. James St. George was terminated after he made "public statements of his involvement in a gay relationship with another man for the past 15 years."
St. George. 45, of Lansdale, was hired by the private Catholic school in 2009 to teach Bible studies and other subjects. He was to teach courses in theology and justice as well as world religions beginning Tuesday.
St. George confirmed to The Philadelphia Inquirer on Saturday that he is gay and recently celebrated the 15th anniversary of his relationship with his partner. He said he was shocked by the termination, which he learned about Feb. 18.
College officials appeared surprised that St. George belonged to a branch of Catholicism not associated with the Vatican that has different views on gay issues. St. George leads St. Miriam Church in Blue Bell, which is affiliated with the Old Catholic Apostolic Church of America, which vows no discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and performs commitment ceremonies for gays and lesbians.
Carol Jean Vale, president of Chestnut Hill College, said in a statement Friday night to several news organizations, including the Philadelphia Daily News, that when St. George joined the faculty "he presented himself as Father St. George and openly wore a traditional Catholic priest's collar."
Vale said that while St. George "appears to be an ordained pastor ... his church allows priests the option to engage in same-sex partnerships."
St. George denied that he had withheld anything from the college.
"What am I supposed to do?" he asked. "Say, 'Before we go any further, I'm gay?' Who says that?"
The college said officials only learned about the matter "after St. George chose to make his private life public information on his blog."
"While we welcome diversity, it is expected that all members of our college community, regardless of their personal beliefs, respect and uphold our Roman Catholic mission, character and values both in the classroom and in public statements that identify them with our school," Vale's statement said. "For this reason, we chose not to offer an additional teaching contract to St. George."
Jessica Murray, 23, who was one of St. George's students, told the Inquirer that she was appalled by the firing.
"All you have to do is Google him, you can see that he's openly gay," she said. "They can't claim they didn't know."
———
Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.philly.com
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs19o
Pa. man riding in car killed by gun in back seat
Amplify’d from www.ydr.com
Pa. man riding in car killed by gun in back seat
Pittsburgh police say 29-year-old Brian Natali of Crafton was in the front passenger seat as his wife was driving in East Carnegie. They say the shot discharged at 2:15 a.m. Sunday from the back seat went through the front seat and struck Natali in the back. He was taken to UPMC Mercy, Uptown, where he was pronounced dead about 40 minutes later.
The man riding in the back seat and other witnesses were questioned and released, and police say no charges have been filed. The shooting remains under investigation.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs19e
Two Milwaukee priests removed from ministry for credible reports of child sex abuse
Amplify’d from reform-network.net
Received by email from Peter Isely, SNAP’s Midwest director.
Thank you, Peter and John for keeping on and informing us.
Yet no postings, announcements or information from Listecki or the archdiocese
Statement by John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin Director
CONTACT: 414.336.8575
Today it has been confirmed by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee that two priests have been removed from ministry for credible reports of child sexual assault (.http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/116994328.html).
The first priest is Fr. Laurin Wenig, pastor of St. Mary’s Visitation in Elm Grove. The second has not been named by the archbishop, but he is a priest that was in ministry somewhere in the archdiocese, but officially listed as “retired.” By not releasing his name and the details of his offense or offenses, the archdiocese puts every “retired” priest under unwarranted suspicion.
Astonishingly, not only was Archbishop Jerome Listecki not in attendance at St. Mary’s today to make the devastating announcement himself to parishioners, he allowed Wenig to distribute a letter denying the allegations. Listecki gave no explanation to baffled parishioners of the policies and procedures of an investigation, and personally explain and take full responsibility for the drastic step of officially and publically removing Wenig from ministry.
So much for the newly humbled archbishop, who has come to the federal court asking for bankruptcy protection, saying that the archdiocese deserves such protection because of his commitment to transparency and accountability.
Listecki commands a vast and expensive communications network, consisting of several hired spokespersons, a newspaper, a local television and radio show, websites, hundreds of parishes with weekly bulletins and pulpits. If Listecki were truly committed to openness and transparency concerning reports of child sexual abuse he has more than enough communication outlets at his disposal to make that happen. Instead Listecki has decided to maintain the system of secrecy or confusion, which has become a permanent intractable fixture of this archdiocese, whenever reports of sexual abuse by priests arise.
Instead, Listecki allowed Wenig to misleadingly suggest in his letter that any priest with an allegation of abuse is automatically removed from ministry under archdiocesan procedures. That is false. There are many diocesan and religious order priests who have allegations of child sex abuse who are most certainly not removed from ministry or publically identified. For example, in a Fall 2003 report, the archdiocese confirmed that at least 10 diocesan priests had “unsubstantiated” allegations in their files and were not named and had been left in ministry (http://www.archmil.org/ArchMil/Resources/2003CSAAccountability.pdf). There has been no update to this report since, although the number of victims that have reported to the archdiocese since then has soared.
Because the criminal statute of limitations on child sex crimes in Wisconsin have been so predator friendly, it is not likely that either priest can be charged by the District Attorney. For many of these crimes, the reporting statute has been a laughable six years. In other words, if you were raped or sexually assaulted as a five year old child, you have until you are 11 years old to “report” the crime to the police. Fortunately, the statutes have been extended over the past several years, largely due to the growing public awareness and alarm over child predators, but most predators have been able to use the arbitrary time limits to escape imprisonment. Just to show the extent of the problem, according to a recent investigation by Human Rights Watch, almost 90 percent of all sex offenders in the United States have not been reported to law enforcement or identified to the public.
Regardless of the criminal statute, removing a teacher or a therapist or a priest from his job and taking away his license to practice does not and never should depend upon when the offense occurred, as long as it can be proven to a licensing board that the crime did occur. All credentialed occupations operate this way in civil society. It remains an utter mystery why the priesthood does not regulate itself the same way.
With today’s news, the number of priests likely to have assaulted children over the past decades in the Milwaukee archdiocese—including religious order clergy such as Jesuits and Franciscans assigned by the archbishop to parishes and schools—to nearly 80. The number of priests with allegations that have not been confirmed officially by the archdiocese or religious order superiors is considerably higher.
It is likely that new victims are now coming forward to report, in part, because the archdiocese is seeking federal bankruptcy protection for covering up for abusive priests. Now that the federal court, and the current Milwaukee DA, have clearly shown a willingness to aggressively scrutinize archdiocesan behavior concerning child molesters, victims may be encouraged that finally authorities outside the church hierarchy and secret bureaucracy are going to investigate their claims fairly and impartially.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs196
Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia fired Fr. Jim St. George when it learned he was gay
Amplify’d from reform-network.net
COMMENT: Let me see if I have this straight (pun intended). This openly gay priest who taught at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia got fired because he was gay. Yet there are tens, hundreds(?), thousands(?) of Catholic priests who have credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors lodged against them and who are free to commit mathem on kids throughout the world and the Sisters of St. Joseph who run Chestnut Hill fire a faculty member because he’s openly gay. Wait until Bill Maher or Kathy Griffin or Jay Leno or David Letterman get wind of this. Who the hell is calling plays from the sidelines in the Vatican?
Posted on 26 February 2011
http://chestnuthilllocal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/jim_stgeorge12.jpeghttp://chestnuthilllocal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/jim_stgeorge12.jpeg
Father Jim St. Georgeby Pete Mazzaccaro
by Pete Mazzaccaro
Late Friday night, Chestnut Hill College President Carol Jean Vale released a statement explaining the college’s decision to fire Father Jim St. George. The openly gay priest who has taught theology courses at the school since January 2010 learned he was fired late last week. See our story here.
In her statement, Vale confirms that the St. George’s sexual orientation was the reason he was terminated. It was, she writes, incompatible with the college’s Roman Catholic principles. She also states that the decision to fire St. George was not the result of pressure from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia or a letter from attorney James Pepper, but rather revelatory statements made by St. George on his personal blog.
According to Vale, the college did not know when it hired St. George anything about his sexual orientation or that he belonged to St. Miriam Church in Blue Bell, a church affiliated with the Old Catholic Apostolic Church of America, which allows its priests to be gay, straight, celibate or married.
Vale’s complete statement:
“As president of Chestnut Hill College, a private Catholic institution, it is imperative that I clarify the conditions of our College’s decision not to issue a new part-time teaching contract to Jim St. George. St. George served as adjunct instructor in our School of Continuing and Professional Studies from January 2010 to February of this year teaching a variety of courses in religion and scripture.
“At the time St. George joined our faculty, he presented himself as Father St. George and openly wore a traditional Catholic priest’s collar. While St. George appears to be an ordained pastor-he leads St. Miriam, an independent and self-described reformed Antioch-rite Catholic house of worship located in Blue Bell, Pa.–his church allows priests the option to engage in same-sex partnerships. This is contrary to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.
“It was with great disappointment when we learned through St. George’s public statements of his involvement in a gay relationship with another man for the past 15 years. It is important to note that this information came to our attention only after St. George chose to make his private life public information on his blog.
“While we welcome diversity, it is expected that all members of our College community, regardless of their personal beliefs, respect and uphold our Roman Catholic mission, character and values both in the classroom and in public statements that identify them with our school. For this reason, we chose not to offer an additional teaching contract to St. George.”
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs18v
I was raised a Catholic and served as an altar boy at a parochial school in Indiana…
Amplify’d from reform-network.net
Received by e-mail by Mark Gehring, 2.27.2011..
Published here with his permission.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs186
Organization Looking For People Sexually Abused By Clergy
Amplify’d from reform-network.net
Organization Looking For People Sexually Abused By Clergy
Members of the “survivors network of those abused by priests” stood outside the catholic diocese in Springfield this weekend with a call for help. A predator priest, Father Thomas J. O’Brien, worked at a Springfield church in the 1950s and could have abused some people. A spokesman hopes the area catholic bishop will aggressively look for victims that were hurt. More than 2 dozen lawsuits have been filed against the priest and another was added recently.
You can contact SNAP at SnapNetwork.org or by calling 888-Snap Hea
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs17t
Why I Left the Catholic Church
Amplify’d from reform-network.net
The man who wrote this statement lives in Tucson and is a great guy. Lorraine and I are fortunate to have him as a friend. I’m happy to publish this for him.
Frank Douglas | Tucson, AZ | February 27, 2011
Why I Left the Catholic Church
I grew up in a Catholic family. I went to a Catholic school. I married a Catholic girl in the Catholic Church. I sent my son to Catholic schools. I attended mass regularly.
I was a member of the local diocese Catholic Social Service Board of Directors for four years and then served as President for two more years. I worked on the building Fund Committee of two churches; I also contributed to the building fund of a local seminary no longer in use. Then at 80 plus years, I stopped going to church. My decision to leave the Catholic Church wasn’t made overnight. The change in me gradually began to enter my mind as I slowly was losing respect for the church leaders that I had been taught all my life to trust.
Priests raping, sodomizing and molesting God’s children. Bishops secretly moving these sexual abusers from parish to parish without making it known to anyone, thereby placing more unsuspecting children in harms way. These actions by the bishops had to be made with the knowledge that other children would be molested, yet their choice was made to protect the abusers and the reputation of the Catholic church. Unforgivable. There is no possible justification for bishops to even have considered such a criminal action.
Rape, sodomy and molestation of children are crimes punishable by law. Anyone complicit in the protection of a sexual abuser is also committing a crime punishable by law.
More than fifty percent of the bishops in the United States were involved in the movement of pedophiles. Bishops were involved in making large financial settlements in order to keep known sexual abusers from being prosecuted. Then, they removed these priests from the ministry but allowed them to enter the general population without having to register as sex offenders. Again, knowing full well that these pedophiles could possibly molest other children. Unforgivable.
It also was learned that a large number of these sex abusers were secretly placed in other jobs within the Catholic organization. All this has been made public knowledge. Priests sexually abusing children, bishops moving them from parish to parish, billions of dollars of church funds used to make large financial settlements including the payment of high-priced law firms advising the bishops.
Almost ten years has gone by since the sex scandal within the Catholic Church received national attention. No bishop has been removed or reprimanded by the pope. The sex scandal has surfaced in a number of other countries. Still the pope has not held anyone accountable.
Not only have none of the hierarchy been held accountable for their actions but they are still in complete control of everything Catholic.
These criminals continue to run every parish and every diocese in this country as though they believe all is forgiven. They continue to apologize for the harm that has been done to the Catholic Church without any indication what-so-ever as to having been the persons responsible. Without ever admitting that their actions have been criminal. Sins maybe but nothing criminal.
There is also another problem within the Catholic Church that the bishops have failed to resolve. Millions of dollars are being stolen from Sunday collections and the procedures they installed in most parishes were not made mandatory.
I am not the only Catholic leaving the Catholic Church. Millions have left. More will continue to leave if and when it dawns on parishioners that by remaining they are condoning failed leadership and leadership that is never going to be held accountable.
The only other possibility for change is if the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is taken to the highest court in the land and charged for their crimes. At the present time, it appears that the USCCB is above the law.
Tomasso Tucson
Advocate for Bishops Accountability
Read more at reform-network.net
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs17d
Priests in Sweden join the ranks of paedophiles
Amplify’d from reform-network.net
Priests in Sweden join the ranks of paedophiles
Published: 27 Feb 11 09:10 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
The Catholic Church of Sweden confirms three priests are believed to have sexually abused children over the span of 30 years.
- Swede charged for sex crimes against 13 girls (7 Feb 11)
- Paedophile boasts of bribing himself free (11 Aug 10)
- Sweden probes webcam paedophile suspect (17 Jan 10)
It is reported that the paedophile priests, one of whom is dead, sexually abused a collective of five children between 1940 and 1970, thus falling under that statute of limitation.
Stockholm Bishop Anders Arborelius said Saturday there could “be no redemption” for the three.
One priest molested two boys, another abused a girl for four years before she complained.
The third priest molested two girls, who were sisters, while in a relationship with their mother.
The information was gathered and confirmed during an internal investigation, according to a press release from the Catholic Church.
One of the three priests has died, another is no longer a priest and the third could not be identified, the Church said.
The former priest, who is alive, denies “in essence” what’s written in the investigative report.
The church dismissed a fourth accusation of rape during ritual practices with multiple offenders, claiming the complaint was unreasonable.
”For the fourth priest, the accusations could not be corroborated by the investigation,” said the report, adding that investigators had been unable to speak to the alleged victim.
Sweden’s small Catholic Church opened a probe in April last year into allegations that four priests had committed paedophile acts.
A Church report dated February 25 and put online on Saturday said that the responsibility of the three had been confirmed.
”To molest a minor is a heinous crime which causes a lifetime of suffering. For me there is no statute of limitations for child abuse,” said Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm Catholic Diocese, in a statement.
”The Catholic Church can never make amends to the victims, but we want this investigation to give the victims the restitution they deserve,” he added.
As the crimes took place between 1940 and 1970 they can no longer be prosecuted and the Church was not planning to take any further legal action.
The Roman Catholic Church numbers about 100,000 members in a population of more than nine million who are predominantly Lutheran.
TT/AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs174
Dogmas
Amplify’d from reform-network.net
This quote by Eckhart Tolle is from Stillness Speaks:
Dogmas—religious, political, scientific—arise out of the erroneous belief that thought can encapsulate reality or the truth. Dogmas are collective conceptual prisons. And the strange thing is that people love their prison cells because they give them a sense of security and a false sense of “I know.”
Nothing has inflicted more suffering on humanity than its dogmas. It is true that every dogma crumbles sooner or later, because reality will eventually disclose its falseness; however, unless the basic delusion of it is seen for what it is, it will be replaced by others.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs16m
Time to Drag Sextortion into the Light
Amplify’d from reform-network.net
Time to Drag Sextortion into the Light
By Cléo Fatoorehchi
The authors note that “half of Tanzanian women, and nearly half of Ugandan women, say they were abused by male teachers.”
There’s a word for this – “sextortion”.
“There is (also) an element of quid pro quo, where, if you agree to have sex, then I will be able to give you a promotion, or a raise, or your visa, or I will not give you a traffic ticket. So there is an element of exchange there, which can be either explicit or implicit,” she explained.
These elements of exchange and power imply consent from the victim, and “that makes it a challenge (to prosecute),” said Winship. “It’s part of the problem why it hasn’t been defined, and this is what we’re trying to do.”
With the annual meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women taking place this week in New York, the IAWJ is using the opportunity to shed light on sextortion.
Sextortion is a widespread phenomenon found in all countries of the world. But since it is mostly unreported, impunity is common for perpetrators.
It is with the goal of ending this impunity that IAWJ launched a programme entitled “Stopping the Abuse of Power for Purposes of Sexual Exploitation: Naming, Shaming, and Ending Sextortion” in March 2009 in The Hague.
Aided by the government of the Netherlands through its MDG3 Fund, the programme pulls together three of IAWJ’s partners from Tanzania, the Philippines, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The concrete outcome of this initiative will be the creation of a toolkit by June 2011, which will provide judges with a range of current laws that can be applied to cases of sextortion.
As Hon. Teresita de Castro, from the Supreme Court of the Philippines, highlighted during a panel on the issue this week, when people understand that sextortion is a crime, then justice can be done.
Victims of sextortion also need to see it as a crime and overcome their fear of speaking out, even though “when they do come forward, there are other obstacles (for prosecution),” said Nancy Hendry, IAWJ senior legal advisor.
”She or he stands alone not only against the individual defendant, but also against the entire institution that the defendant represents – and historically, the community that has invested its trust in the defendant,” Anne Goldstein, IAWJ human rights education director, told IPS.
IAWJ is not advocating for a new legal framework on this issue, either at the country or international level. “The problem is not an absence of law, the problem is the absence of will to enforce [existing] laws,” Goldstein said.
IAWJ considers sextortion “a form of corruption”, where it is not money but sex that is at stake. But while reparations can be made for financial corruption, sextortion brings psychological and physical damage, and overall is much more dangerous, Hon. de Castro underlined.
IAWJ is lobbying to have existing anti-corruption laws used to prosecute sextortion perpetrators. Goldstein told IPS their purpose is to “draw together in one place both the anti-Gender Based Violence laws and the anti-corruption laws that are generally looked at separately but – IAWJ believes – need to be integrated.”
”A successful strategy against sextortion would mainstream anti-corruption efforts into gender – and vice versa,” she said. And for Winship to conclude: “we want to change the thinking, that the currency does not have to be only money; the currency can be asking for sex.”
Using the Internet to fight back
The Internet is viewed as increasing the potential for various forms of sexual abuse, such as by the hacking of webcams or computers in search of compromising photos. Teenagers are the most affected by this new trend, since they are easily intimidated.
However, IAWJ considers the Internet a useful tool “for victims (of sextortion) to find each other, share stories and offer support,” Goldstein told IPS. “Thus, you have groups springing up such as SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests”) and STAMP (Survivors Take Action against Military Personnel).”
She also pointed out that if “it’s easy to brush aside a single allegation of sexual abuse/sexual harassment/sextortion, it’s much harder to ignore thousands.”
She cited the examples of the 2004 John Jay College of Criminal Justice report, “The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States,” (which) brought together 10,667 complaints against 4,392 individual priests.”
In addition, “sexual harassment – the quid pro quo form of which is a canonical example of sextortion – went from being something that “just happened” to women, to “a violation of the law.”
Finally, new technologies represent a tremendous tool for proving allegations of sexual extortion.
”It is no coincidence that many of the sextortion cases that have led to actual court convictions involved compromising e- mails, texts, audio or video recordings,” said Goldstein.
Thanks to these new tools, “at least we have been able to move from denial or blaming a few rotten apples to the acknowledgment that sexual abuse/harassment/sextorti on are serious problems embedded in institutional cultures – and they need to be addressed,” she concluded.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs16g
Christian Broadcasters Urged to Fight 'Gay is the New Black' Agenda
Amplify’d from www.christianpost.com
Christian Broadcasters Urged to Fight 'Gay is the New Black' Agenda
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Pastor and cultural apologist Voddie Baucham challenged Christian broadcasters at their annual convention on Saturday to not buy into the "gay is the new black" propaganda, but instead to remain committed to defending biblical marriage on the airwaves.
Baucham, who preaches at Grace Family Baptist Church in Spring, Texas, knew that he would make a lot of people uncomfortable or squirm in their seats by raising the issue of homosexuality at the opening session of the 2011 National Religious Broadcasters.
"When it comes to Christian broadcasters, we are nervous, even afraid to deal with this subject matter," he told NRB attendees at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.
The African-American minister pointed out that Christian broadcasters feel the need to apologize several times to the public before speaking about homosexuality on their shows. They will try to prove they don't hate gay people by saying they have many gay friends or gay family members, he said.
"The reason is the homosexuals have effectively co-opted blackness…to where now, we actually believe gay is the new black and we actually believe homosexual marriage is a civil rights issue,” he explained.
He stressed, however, that being gay is not the same as being black.
"I'm insulted that people equate not just a sinful behavior but a behavior that's a special category of sin called abomination with the level of melanin in my skin," he said.
That discomfort, according to Baucham, is an intentional result of an aggressive homosexual agenda that started over 2 decades ago.
Back in 1989, a meeting took place among 144 of the nation's leading homosexual activists to figure out how to leverage the AIDS crisis to their advantage and to outline a strategy for advancing the LGBT movement.
One of the end products of that meeting was "After the Ball," a propaganda campaign based on principles of psychology and advertising to get America to accept homosexuality, said Baucham.
The campaign was a three-prong approach involving "desensitizing," "jamming," and "conversion," he explained.
Desensitizing meant getting homosexuality in front of the culture in attractive forms such as portraying a gay character in a movie to be the smartest and best-dressed character. Jamming is about equating the idea of being against homosexuality with the idea of being a Nazi or a member of the KKK in order to breed discomfort among people who don't accept homosexuality. Conversion is getting people to advance their cause.
Baucham provided several examples of how this strategy is carried out by not just homosexual activists but by black leaders, judges, business leaders, and religious leaders.
He lamented that black leaders were providing "cover" for homosexual activists to play the "race card" instead of giving a legitimate reason for their demands.
To religious leaders, he cautioned them against falling victim to three common attacks in the homosexual agenda: the ad hominem attack, the question-begging logic and genetic fallacy.
With the ad hominem attack, homosexual activists attack the man and label them a "homophobe" or "bad person" and with the question-begging logic tactic they only assume gay marriage is a fundamental right without ever proving it. Genetic fallacy is used when homosexual activists say, "you are using your religion to impose your morality on me," thereby rejecting the argument simply based on where it comes from, not based on the logic of that argument.
Reading from several Bible verses, Baucham contended that Christians should respond to homosexuality with biblical truth. Some Christians may point to the verse that says not to judge others to justify their silence, he acknowledged, but they should also read the part where Jesus tells us to judge ourselves so that we can judge others.
"Take the log out of your own eye so that you can see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. We're commanded to judge," said Baucham.
Referring to Ezekiel 33, the pastor reminded the Christian media professionals that the blood will be required on their hands if they don't tell the wicked man to turn from his ways.
Showing true love, argued Baucham, is not to just allow homosexuals to live in sin but to call them to repent and speak of what Christ has done on the cross.
"There is nothing more loving than calling a person to repent of their sins."
During the evening session on Saturday, Frank Wright, president and CEO of National Religious Broadcasters, also addressed the crowd to give the status of the association report. He outlined the three main challenges facing Christian broadcasters today: media access, viewpoint discrimination and biblical fidelity.
Music artist Nicole C. Mullen also delivered a performance during the session.
National Religious Broadcasters is the nation’s largest association of Christian media professionals. Its annual convention draws thousands of professionals from Christian radio, television, films and other communication companies for training workshops and networking. The NRB Convention and Exposition this year will conclude on March 1.
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs15r
The Exhaustless Word of God
Amplify’d from sabbathsermons.com
The Exhaustless Word of God
Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
What is our mind meant to be on? The facts and events of God. Our mind has to be on God, the person. That person is exhaustless. Can you work out God? Do you think you’ve worked him out? Then we’ve got more to learn. If we stay our mind on him, then he will teach us things that we thought we knew but didn’t realise how much there was in it.
Few realize that it is a duty to exercise control over their thoughts and imaginations. It is difficult to keep the undisciplined mind fixed upon profitable subjects. But if the thoughts are not properly employed, religion cannot flourish in the soul. The mind must be preoccupied with sacred and eternal things, or it will cherish trifling and superficial thoughts. Both the intellectual and the moral powers must be disciplined, and they will strengthen and improve by exercise. {OHC 111.3}
In Bible studies you can go three ways. You can read it and consider it old and leave it or you can read it, dissect it and start to say what you think about the text. That’s philosophy, higher criticism. Dissecting it according to your own head. To put a construction on the text, that the text isn’t saying. That is very close to proper Bible study but there is a big difference in results.
As Satan has mastered this you can see why the Lord had to give a prophet in these last days otherwise we would go off on such a wrong track.
2 Corinthians 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
What are some good subjects that we need to pursue. What do you Bible study?
Faith in Christ is not the work of nature, but the work of God on human minds, wrought in the very soul by the Holy Spirit, who reveals Christ, as Christ revealed the Father. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. With its justifying, sanctifying power, it is above what men call science. {OHC 117.2}
There’s more to faith than what the scientists have to study.
Why study it? If it’s so simple yet no one can explain it, why study it? You can experience it. When you experience it and come back to the science plan you can identify where you are, where others are and where God is in relation to you.
The acceptance of Christ’s atonement is the groundwork of true faith. . . . Those who will look long enough into the divine mirror to see and despise their sins, their unlikeness to the meek and lowly Jesus, will have strength to overcome. {OHC 117.3}
Looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith, they will be changed into His likeness. They will grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. . . . Those who truly believe, who confess and forsake their sins, will grow more and more like Christ, until of them it can in heaven be said, “Ye are complete in him.” Colossians 2:10. {OHC 117.3}
Amen.
About Sabbath Sermons
Australasia is a divinely appointed center, from which the light of present truth is to radiate to many lands. {AU Gleaner, June 17, 1903 par. 8}
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bs13v
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)