TURIN, Italy (Reuters) - People who manufacture weapons or invest in weapons industries are hypocrites if they call themselves Christian, Pope Francis said on Sunday.In the same speech, Pope Francis appears to call for acts of terrorism:
Francis issued his toughest condemnation to date of the weapons industry at a rally of thousands of young people at the end of the first day of his trip to the Italian city of Turin.
Francis also built on comments he has made in the past about events during the first and second world wars.
He spoke of the "tragedy of the Shoah," using the Hebrew term for the Holocaust.
"The great powers had the pictures of the railway lines that brought the trains to the concentration camps like Auschwitz to kill Jews, Christians, homosexuals, everybody. Why didn't they bomb (the railway lines)?"
“I believe in God the Father, Almighty Maker of Heaven and Maker of earth. And in Jesus Christ, His only Begotten Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, he was crucified, and dead and buried. And I believe what I believe, is what makes me what I am. I did not make it; no it is making me. It is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man. I believe that He who suffered was crucified, buried and dead. He descended into hell and rose on the third day, rose again. He ascended into Heaven where he sits at God’s mighty right hand. I believe that He’s returning to judge the quick and the dead of the sons of men.”Read the rest HERE, in the Daily Times Pakistan.
Enter lyrics to Creed, a Christian declaration of faith, by musical artist Rich Mullins.
N. Just simply call me “N”. Nazarene. Follower of Jesus Christ. “N”. It is imprinted on my heart, my forehead and on my right hand. “N” is the pupil of my eye. It is also embedded in my spirit. “N”. I am marked for life, marked by His love for all mankind.
N. We are everywhere. We are along the banks of a river in Mongolia and in the heat of Africa dispensing free medical care. We are in Pakistan, sending our funds to assist widows and orphans, or to lighten the burden of an aspiring lawyer who comes from a family of 10 children. We are in the supermarkets performing random acts of kindness. We are everywhere. Quiet, gentle and almost invisible. But our works precede us and do not follow us. They run ahead and give testament of our lives on the Day of Requital. Holiness is a place of abiding with an understanding of God’s love. Faith is an action that moves forward with an understanding that we should be the most grateful people on the planet. And so we move through life both resting and acting, in the name of Jesus.
N. This mark means quite another thing for IS (Islamic State). It is the letter marked in Arabic on the doors of Christian homes in Mosul. This letter stands for one thing: annihilation of the disciples of Jesus Christ. Actually, annihilation is probably too soft a word. The word means complete obliteration or destruction. What IS is doing falls in the category of extermination. This word means “killing, especially of a whole group of people or animals” (Oxford dictionary).
[...]
N. We are bugs and our children are bugs. IS is beheading little children. One of the images shows a headless little girl in a simple little dress, stockings and shoes. What is the sin she has committed? What is her crime?
N. We are being hunted by sub-humans. The latest killing field is in Iraq and the cry reaches the heavens but it does not reach the White House....
N. The most vicious image thus far is that of a Christian woman with a large hole in her anterior neck. Her hair is being held back and her blood drained into a bowl. Are IS members drinking the blood of Christians? Now that, my friend, is Satanic ritual.
I am N. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Training Pastors, Rabbis, and Imams TogetherCan you imagine any such syncretism going on in religious-training institutions in Islamic countries, particularly in Saudi, the land of Allah?
When Jerry Campbell became president of California's renowned Claremont School of Theology four years ago, low enrollment and in-the-red books threatened to close the 125-year-old institution. But since Claremont is the only United Methodist seminary west of Denver, Campbell resolved to find a way to stay open.
Drawing from classic American entrepreneurial wisdom — when faced with extinction, innovate — and a commitment to engage today's multi-faith culture, this fall Claremont will commence a first on U.S. soil: a "theological university" to train future pastors, imams, and rabbis under one roof. The experiment to end isolated clerical training brings together Claremont, the Islamic Center of Southern California (ICSC) and the Academy for Jewish Religion California. The hope of officials at all three organizations is that when leaders study their own religious traditions together alongside friends of other faiths, they will develop the respect and wisdom necessary to transform America's fractured religious outlook.
[...]
Only recently has the American Muslim population had the finances and the student pipeline to try to launch its own higher education institution; today's imams have trained either overseas or in community-based but unaccredited mosque programs. In addition to Claremont's efforts, Connecticut's Hartford Seminary is seeking accreditation for a new imam-training program, and Zaytuna College, a new, unaccredited Islamic liberal arts school in Berkeley, Calif., hopes to eventually include clerical classes.
[...]
The Association of Theological Schools (ATS) begins formal discussions this fall to explore how pluralism might change pastoral education. "I think that we are on the cusp of a lot of change, but we are at the front end of it, so it's not clear which of these are going to be the survivors, what new models might in fact emerge," says Daniel Aleshire, executive director of ATS. "In 20 years, the whole theological training landscape could be quite different." Already two other theological schools — Boston's Andover Newton and Chicago's Meadville Lombard — have followed Claremont's lead and in June announced plans to form similar interfaith consortiums....
I was raised more by my mother and my mother was Christian.But over at WikiAnswers, we read the following:
According to the Audacity of Hope Barack Obama's mother was an atheist.And over at this site, we read the following excerpt from The Audacity of Hope:
I was not raised in a religious household. For my mother, organized religion too often dressed up closed-mindedness in the garb of piety, cruelty and oppression in the cloak of righteousness. However, in her mind, a working knowledge of the world's great religions was a necessary part of any well-rounded education. In our household the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology.One more excerpt from the interview at Beliefnet, when Obama was asked "What is sin?":
On Easter or Christmas Day my mother might drag me to church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites. In sum, my mother viewed religion through the eyes of the anthropologist; it was a phenomenon to be treated with a suitable respect, but with a suitable detachment as well.
Being out of alignment with my values.Please read the entire 2004 interview at Beliefnet. There is much more to the interview.
