Clipmarks | Orthodox christians Clips

An Old Myth

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:46:42 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: A favorite red herring of Christian fundamentalists. It pops up quite frequently.

Clip Source: suburbanjournals.stltoday.com

Dispelling the myth of Christian America

When people say things such as "America is a Christian nation" or "We need to take America back for God," one needs to define what exactly is meant by such claims.

If it means the majority of people in America historically have identified themselves as Christians, then there's no argument.

But usually those who evoke the "Christian America" slogan have something more than counting heads in mind. They frequently espouse a view that claims America was founded as a Christian nation and that somewhere along the way we've lost that heritage and need to "take it back."

Is this view of American history correct? Were we founded as a "Christian nation?" Sadly, this myth is demonstratively false.

While some of our Founding Fathers were orthodox Christians, many others were Masons and Deists. They used similar language to refer to God, but had radically different understandings of what God was like, denying fundamental Christian doctrines

Brawl Amongst Monks Breaks Out At Jerusalem's Church Of The Holy Sepulchre

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:43:21 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Police were called in to restore order in the Holy Sepulchre, where rivalries between the various denominations is such that the keys to the church have been entrusted for centuries to two Palestinian Muslim families.

Clip Source: www.straitstimes.com

JERUSALEM - GREEK and Armenian Orthodox faithful kicked, punched and hit each other with candles on Sunday in Jerusalem's Holy Sepulchre, the church built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was buried and resurrected.

Israeli police were called as the free-for-all left several people with black eyes, bruises and bloody cuts.

A number of the faithful hit out with religious artifacts as priests tried to tear each others' robes off in the brawl.

Custody of the church itself is shared by the Greeks, Armenians and Roman Catholics, all of whom jealously guard their responsibilities under a fragile network of agreements hammered out over the centuries.

The church is built on the site most Christians revere as the place where Jesus was crucified, and also where he was buried and rose again. -- AFP

Tags: greek and armenian orthodox, church of the holy sepulchre, rival denominations, israeli police called

Church of the Holy Sepulchre Endangered by Battling Factions &Time

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:09:37 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Ah, Christian brotherhood and love at it's very best. "Rival denominations often battle for access or space and the congregation at the annual Easter service sometimes resembles the terraces of a boisterous football match. The keys to the main entrance of the church have been held by a Muslim family since the 12th century because the Christians do not trust one another."

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

A long-running row over the rights to a rooftop section of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre could bring the entire structure tumbling down, destroying Christendom’s holiest site.

While renovations are needed across the church, the small Deir al-Sultan monastery on its roof has reached an “emergency state”, according to engineers who completed an evaluation this month.

The Times has learnt that in 2004 the two chapels and twenty-six tiny rooms that comprise the monastery were pronounced in dire need of reinforcement. They have since deteriorated to the point where engineers now fear that they will crash through the roof and into the church, venerated by millions of Christians as the site of the Crucifixion and burial of Jesus.

The church has been vigilantly managed by six competing and often fractious Christian denominations — Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Coptic, Syrian Orthodox and Ethiopian — since an agreement reached under Ottoman law in 1757.

Oy vey

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:27:50 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: Intolerance is catching on across religious lines. I say burqas for all!

Clip Source: atheism.about.com

Jewish Taliban: Ultra-Orthodox Vigilantes in Jerusalem

Modesty squads are roaming the streets, attacking and brutally beating people who fail to live up to a narrow religious code defining moral purity. People are afraid, and women are being victimized most of all. Is the Taliban resurgent? Well, yes, but that's not what this story is about; instead, this story is about Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem taking the "law" into their own hands and punishing people for failing to adhere to strict religious standards.

Traditionalist Muslims tend to take first place in the Oppression Olympics, getting high marks for their efforts to stifle free speech and prevent women from achieving real equality in society with conservative Christians working hard to challenge them. Jews, though, tend to be quieter — but maybe some have decided that they can give the other a real run for their money? Even conservative, evangelical Christians haven't thought to create their own Taliban-inspired morality police.

Tags: intolerance, religion

ON LIBERTY a must read for voters

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:08:39 GMT

clipped by: swampfoxz
clipper's remarks: That simple minds, having been taught the obvious grounds of the truths inculcated on them, may trust to authority for the rest, and being aware that they have neither knowledge nor talent to resolve every difficulty which can be raised, may repose in the assurance that all those which have been raised have been or can be answered, by those who are specially trained to the task.

Clip Source: www.constitution.org

No society in which these liberties are not, on the whole, respected, is free, whatever may be its form of government; and none is completely free in which they do not exist absolute and unqualified. The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental or spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.

ON LIBERTY

JOHN STUART MILL

Orthodox Christians who are tempted to think that those who stoned to death the first martyrs must have been worse men than they themselves are, ought to remember that one of those persecutors was Saint Paul.

A theory which maintains that truth may justifiably be persecuted because

Tags: john stuart mill

Birds Flocking Together

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:20:45 GMT

clipped by: bmeuppls
clipper's remarks: The head of an unindicted co-conspirator organization and Jeremiah Wright in a skirt...

The next to go under the bus???

Clip Source: jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com

Radical Islamist to Appear at Democrat Convention 'Interfaith Service'

Included in the service: Bishop Charles Blake, presiding prelate of the Church of God in Christ, Inc., and pastor of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ; Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America; social activity Sister Helen Prejean and Rabbi Tzvi Weinreb, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union.

"Right-wing Christians are very risky allies for American Jews," Mattson said, "because they [the Christians] are really anti-Semitic.

Though Dr. Ingrid Mattson appears moderate, she is insidious precisely because she maintains that facade while steadfastly refusing to criticize radical Islamists, claiming that there is no such thing as Wahhabism and that the term "Islamic terrorism" should not be used in the media. Most shocking of all, though, is how little concern she expressed about suicide bombings in an essay she wrote shortly after 9/11.

Doonesbury "reports" on Iraqi Christians

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 06:35:07 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: A genocide?

Clip Source: blog.christianitytoday.com

Doonesbury 'reports' on Iraqi Christians

Gary B. Trudeau’s Doonesbury, which newspapers publish either with the comics or the editorial cartoons, just wrapped up a series about Iraqi Christian refugees. Roland (in this series a Fox News correspondent) is trying to cover the story of an Assyrian family in a way that is flattering for the Surge. Doonesbury treats the imaginary Iraqis with a great deal of dignity. Fox News doesn’t fare so well.

some churches in Iraq have no members left. Christians can be identified by their names and ID cards, and they are often targeted for violence. The Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) is calling it genocide.

AINA divides Assyrians up into five groups: Chaldeans (of the Chaldean Catholic Church) at 45 percent, Syriac Orthodox at 26 percent, Church of the East at 19 percent, Syriac Catholic at 4 percent, and other groups at 6 percent. In 2005, 2 percent of Iraq's population was Christian, according to the World Christian Database.

Tags: iraq

Pope Reasserts Catholic Supremacy Over Protestants

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:37:04 GMT

clipped by: blueridge
clipper's remarks: His Unholiness reasserts the pre-Reformation, tyrannical and usurping tradition of Papal authority and Roman Catholic supremacy as if Jesus Christ himself taught or authorized his ceremonial priest-craft and Latin Mass (which is idolatry), where his Blasphemy, through waving his magic wand and reciting Latin formula ( hocus pocus) is able to (if you believe this) transform (transubstantiation) mere wafers of bread ("heil presto"--poof!) into the "body of Christ"!

Jesus and the apostles never taught such superstition (which hails from Roman paganism, mixed well in its holidays and ecclesiastical hierarchy). The Pope is following the false teaching of Simon Magus, the sorcerer, instead of Simon Peter the apostle. Ritual, ceremony, miters, crosses, candles, pilgrimages, liturgies, and shepherd staffs all make a show of religion (tracing back to Babylonian religions) contrary to the writings of the new testament.

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Pope: Other denominations not true churches

Benedict issues statement asserting that Jesus established ‘only one church’

LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI has reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations were not true churches.

Benedict approved a document from his old offices at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that restates church teaching on relations with other Christians. It was the second time in a week the pope has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that modernized the church.

On Saturday, Benedict revisited another key aspect of Vatican II by reviving the old Latin Mass. Traditional Catholics cheered the move, but more liberal ones called it a step back from Vatican II.

saying it was not a break from the past but rather a renewal of church tradition.

Tags: pope, roman catholicism, christianity, antichristianity, mass, reformation, priest-craft

Small Steps Are a Start

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:49:49 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: No one has ever suggested that I am a friend of religion. Yet, for positive progress in the Middle East it apparently needs people that share that mindset to take a positive approach to deal with this issue.

Clip Source: www.jpost.com

Is religion good for peace?

If everything goes well and there are no surprises, as of next week the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ) will for the first time be headed by a woman.

Dr. Devorah Weissman, a former professor of Jewish education at the Hebrew University, has since the Eighties been a member of the ICCJ. A modern Orthodox feminist, Weissman is a member of the dovish religious group Netivot Shalom, and for years headed the Kerem Institute for Teacher Training for Humanistic-Jewish Education.

Interestingly enough, Weissman believes her election to the position is not the most important issue at stake. Instead, she highlights the question of whether religion has a largely radicalizing influence or a positive impact on the relations between people. In other words, is religion good or bad for peace?

Tags: religion, middle east, war

Christians Persecuted In Israel

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:52:29 GMT

clipped by: orgone_bosco

Clip Source: rense.com

Israeli Christians Worship
Under Armed Guard
By Rev. Ted Pike

6-24-8

Israeli free-speaking newspaper <http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/994682.html>Ha'aretz reports that anti-Christianity toward messianic Christians in Israel is now so intense they can't worship safely without armed protection. Militant ultra-orthodox Jewish settlers dominate most local government and police in central Israel and the West Bank. Police do nothing as Christians are harassed and threatened with violence.

In October, a Jerusalem church used by messianic believers was mysteriously torched. A messianic teen was critically injured by explosion of a package bomb in his face; police believe ultra-Orthodox terrorists were responsible. Angry orthodox Jews publicly burned hundreds of New Testaments.

close down houses of worship, revoke the citizenship of believers or refuse to register their children as Israelis In incidents of violence [against Christians], police are reluctant to press charges."

History of Religionat - Maps of the World’s Religious and Imperial History

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:21:15 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "5,000 years of religion in 90 seconds -Here are two flash video maps from the Maps of War website. The first map shows how the geography of religion has evolved over the centuries a brief history of the world's most well-known religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism."

Clip Source: www.rayfowler.org

Map of the World’s Religions

Here is an interesting map of the world’s religions. You can click on the map to get a larger view. (There is also a flash video map available at Maps of the World’s Religious and Imperial History.)

Each colored section on the map corresponds to the majority religion by population for that region. Here are some of the colors and the religions they represent:

Blue = Muslims

Yellow = Roman Catholics

Orange = Protestants

Red = Christians from various churches

Purple = Indigenous religions

Dark red = Orthodox Christians

Light blue = Mormons

After Murder Attempt, New Testaments Burnt

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:42:15 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: So it's not just Christians and Muslims that the Zionists hate. Jew baiting takes on a whole different meaning with these extreme fascist youths more reminiscent of Nazis that peaceful religious Jews. How unsure they must be of their position and faith that they behave like TERRORISTS.

These terrorists demonstrate very little respect for the Christian Bible. What do the Christian Zionists have to say? Is anyone persecuting them?

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Clip Source: www.israelenews.com

As many as 200 Hebrew versions of the New Testament were burned in a bonfire here last month, according to police, allegedly by a group of ultra-Orthodox Jewish students.

It was the latest in a string of incidents targeting Messianic Jews in Israel, a trend that has alarmed Christian Zionist organizations.

Clip Source: upload.wikimedia.org

Clip Source: www.israelenews.com

Christian Zionism is a Protestant movement that supports the right of the Jewish people to settle in the biblical land of Israel on scriptural grounds and lends political and financial support to the Jewish state. The movement has millions of adherents in the United States and holds an annual convention in Jerusalem, usually attended by Israel's top political leaders.

Clip Source: www.messianicblog.com

Clip Source: www.israelenews.com

"There's a growing intolerance," said Calev Myers, a lawyer who represents Messianic Jews.

Clip Source: clipmarks.com

Religious persecution in Israel: Assassination Attempt

Clip Source: content3.clipmarks.com

An explosive device blew up and gravely wounded him

tied the assassination attempt to the religious beliefs of family members

Clip Source: www.israelenews.com

No one has been arrested in any of the cases.

Clip Source: images.google.ie

Tags: messianic, jews, book, fire, killer, terrorists

Christian Zionists who seek to de-Judaize Israel

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:00:14 GMT

clipped by: righthand

Clip Source: www.israelenews.com

Christian Zionists who seek to de-Judaize Israel

Ex-missionary, Gavriel Sanders explains the hidden agenda on the part of SOME Christians' apparent support for Israel. He claims that while some Christian activists may donate to Israel-supporting causes, they may simultaneously be donating 4-5 fold more to efforts to convert Jewish souls (particularly Israeli Jews) away to Christianity.

[Video]

Gavriel Aryeh Sanders is a former missionary, and Evangelical Minister who converted to Orthodox Judaism.
Whilst learning Hebrew, he began questioning the narrative of the Christian Bible. His studies of Tanakh persuaded him to convert to Judaism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NUylyDsE-c

Tags: religion, christian, jews, zionism, orthodox

With Friends like these, who needs Enemies?

Sun, 25 May 2008 16:54:01 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: There's a logic that bin Laden needed Bush like Bush needed bin Laden. One would expire without the other.

Could the same be true for this gang. Do the Zionists need the zealot Christian fundamentalist Christian evangelists like Hagee in the same way? Certainly "Jews defend Hagee's words" would seem to prove it.

"Viewing Hitler as acting completely outside of God's plan is to suggest that God was powerless to stop the Holocaust, a position quite unacceptable to any religious Jew or Christian," said Orthodox Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg raises a few questions for me also. Anyone with any thoughts that would be more understanding than mine?

Clip Source: www.washingtontimes.com

Jews defend Hagee's words

Clip Source: blog.washingtonpost.com

Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks at a press conference with Rev. John Hagee, a televangelist from Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, Wednesday, Feb. 27

Clip Source: www.washingtontimes.com

Jewish allies of the Rev. John Hagee rushed to his defense yesterday to say the Texas evangelist is not anti-Semitic despite Sen. John McCain campaign's repudiation Thursday of the evangelist's endorsement

"John Hagee is one of the Jewish people's best friends,"

Orthodox Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg

Hagee's "words were twisted and used to attack him for being anti-Semitic."

Hagee "interpreted a biblical verse in a way not very different from several legitimate Jewish authorities," the rabbi said

Evangelist Rev. John Hagee leads a march of Christians in support of Israel in Jerusalem

"Viewing Hitler as acting completely outside of God's plan is to suggest that God was powerless to stop the Holocaust, a position quite unacceptable to any religious Jew or Christian,"

Clip Source: blog.washingtonpost.com

McCain

Tags: zionists, isreal, religion

Orthodox Jewish youths burn New Testaments. What next?

Sat, 24 May 2008 03:31:42 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: Wonder how this went down with the Christian Zionist fundamentalists? Are they in rapture over the burning of the new testaments? So your welcome to boast the Zionist economy but don't bring your bible. So now we have the torture, the concentration camps, the assassinations, the ethnic cleansing, the Gaza prison, the slow starvation, the economic strangulation, the racism, the Arab holocaust to match the Nakba of 60 years ago, and on and on. And all with America's blessing. What next? Burning the Christians?

Clip Source: www.historyplace.com

May 10, 1933

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Book burning in Berlin

Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the authorities of Nazi Germany to ceremonially burn all books in Germany which did not correspond with Nazi ideology

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

Orthodox Jews set fire to hundreds of copies of the New Testament in the latest act of violence against Christian missionaries in the Holy Land

Deputy Mayor Uzi Aharon said missionaries recently entered a
neighborhood in the predominantly religious town of 34,000 in central Israel, distributing hundreds of New Testaments and missionary material

he got into a loudspeaker car last Thursday and drove through the neighborhood, urging people to turn over the material to Jewish religious students who went door to door to collect it

"The books were dumped into a pile and set afire in a lot near a synagogue,"

"Not all of the New Testaments that were collected were burned, but hundreds were,"

"I certainly don't denounce the burning of the booklets, he said. I denounce those who distributed the booklets."

Tags: nazis, books, fire, religion, jews, orthodox, violence