For the first time in U.S. history, the leader of a major religion was invited to speak before a joint session of Congress. (No. Queen Elizabeth II doesn’t count.) Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals--along with the national news media--are all praising the pontiff’s congressional appearance.
But wait just a doggone minute! How is the pope’s speech before Congress NOT a violation of the separation of church and state? Everything he talked about was both political and religious based. His left-wing theology permeated what can only be regarded as a blatantly political sermon. Where are all of the folks who demand that Christian pastors not get involved in politics? Furthermore, why is no one threatening the Catholic Church with the loss of its 501c3 tax exempt nonprofit organization status? The Internal Revenue Code is pretty plain about pastors of 501c3 churches (of which, the Catholic Church is the largest) being forbidden from engaging in political activity during their official duties. And when Pope Francis spoke before Congress, did he appear in the attire of a private person? No! He spoke in full papal regalia--meaning, he appeared before Congress in the official capacity as a religious head.
“The Vatican is a state,” you say. In that case, the hypocrisy of Pope Francis to lecture the United States about tearing down our borders and allowing illegal aliens to pour in at will is as obvious and odious as it can possibly be. Before he lectures us about how we should accept any and all illegals into our country, he should set the example and tear down the forty-foot wall surrounding the Vatican City State.
Then there is his pet socialist (yes, Pope Francis is a longtime socialist and Marxist) talking point regarding how rotten America is because of our material success. BARF! Why is no one willing to point out to the pontiff that the Roman Catholic Church is the richest corporation in the entire world? As if he needs any reminder. No corporation is even a close second. Without a doubt, the Catholic Church is the biggest hoarder of wealth on the planet.
But not only is Pope Francis a Marxist/socialist, he is also a globalist. His remarks regarding globalism could have been written by Henry Kissinger. Who knows? Maybe they were.
The history of this pope is one of a lifetime of involvement in Marxist, globalist activities. I strongly recommend readers to take a look at this report:
When I watch--and listen to--Pope Francis, it reminds of Piers Morgan.
With all due respect to my British friends, when I watch--and listen to--Piers Morgan, I want to fight the War for Independence all over again. And with all due respect to my Catholic friends, when I watch--and listen to--Pope Francis, I want to fight the Reformation wars all over again.
Thankfully, not all Roman Catholics are enamored with this pope. No more than I am enamored with many of our evangelical “popes” such as Joel Osteen and John Hagee.
It constantly amazes me how so many people are so willing to live their entire lives, and predicate the principles of their lives, with ideological, sociological, and theological biases--biases that have nothing to do with truth and everything to do with the advancement of private parochial agendas. And liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats, Christians and secularists are equally culpable.
When President Bill Clinton lied to the American people, liberals and Democrats looked the other way and defended him in every way possible. And when President G.W. Bush lied to the American people, conservatives and Republicans looked the other way and defended him in every way possible.
Too many Catholics defend the pope regardless of his Marxist, socialist ideals. Too many evangelicals defend their denominational leaders regardless of their Marxist, socialist ideals. Even though they claim to reject globalism, too many secular libertarians refuse to deal with the way Bernie Sanders sidesteps the perpetual exploration into global hegemony by Democrat leaders in Washington, D.C. And even though they claim to detest and oppose terrorism, too many religious conservatives refuse to deal with the way that Benjamin Netanyahu and the State of Israel are up to their eyeballs in the sponsorship of all kinds of terrorism--including giving assistance to ISIS and terrorizing the Palestinian people.
Too many people are in a “protected” class, while those sharing alternative ideologies are marked for isolation, persecution, incarceration, or annihilation.
Public schools around the country are making prayer rooms available for Muslim students to pray in during school hours. Colleges and university campuses across the country provide prayer rooms, foot baths in bathrooms, and holy days for Muslim students. And no federal judge suggests that such conduct violates the SCOTUS rulings banning prayer in public schools. No school principal or college president or dean is put in jail. No mayor or city councilman of a “sanctuary” city that openly defies federal immigration laws is thrown in jail. But a Christian clerk in a Kentucky county is sent to jail by a federal judge for refusing to sign her name on a same-sex “marriage” license.
Liberals ignore the injustices and crimes against humanity by Sunni Muslims in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, while conservatives ignore the injustices and crimes against humanity by Talmudic Jews in Israel. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson ignore black-on-black crime, while Franklin Graham ignores police abuse. Conservatives ignore Ben Carson’s biggest big-government scheme of all the presidential candidates so far: government-mandated vaccinations, while liberals ignore the crimes of the biggest criminal in the field: Hillary Clinton.
But, inviting the pope to speak before a joint session of Congress has to take the all-time prize for hypocrisy and for the most glaring double standard of the entire media and political worlds.
Our founding documents (Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights) were written to protect us all from despots from both the left and the right, from both secular and religious zealots. As human beings created in the likeness of our Creator, we all have the same intrinsic, Natural rights. The purpose of government is to protect those Natural rights.
Now, all rules are off. There are no safeguards and no protections. Nothing is secure and nothing is sacred. The rule of law has been replaced with the rule of whatever one can get by with. Nothing is wrong, only politically incorrect. The Rights of Man have been replaced with the rule of government.
This isn’t America anymore.
For the first time in U.S. history, congressional leaders from both parties invited the head of a major religious institution (Pope Francis) to use the U.S. Capitol building to promote a blatantly leftist, globalist agenda IN THE NAME OF RELIGION. This one cannot be blamed on Barack Obama. He has no control of Capitol Hill. This was the collaboration of John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and Harry Reid.
So, pardon me while I laugh the next time someone accuses the pastor of a small church on Main Street, USA of violating the separation of church and state when he delivers a message supporting the right to life of unborn babies or traditional marriage or the lawful right of self-defense.
Pastors who relate Biblical principles to our country’s political affairs have NEVER violated the “separation of church and state.” Had Colonial preachers adhered to the modern interpretation of Thomas Jefferson’s personal letter to the Danbury, Connecticut, Baptists (from whence the phrase “wall of separation between church and state” has been taken--but which appears in NO official U.S. document), we would still be a Crown colony of England.
But after this week, we can all say, “Separation of church and state? What separation of church and state?”
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FROM DAVID CLOUD'S WAY OF LIFE:
THE PAPACY’S FEARFUL LIES(Friday Church News Notes, October 2, 2015, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Pope Francis heads up an institution founded on lies, so it is little surprise that his messages during the recent trip to America were filled with the same. Rome’s lies include the papacy itself, the priesthood, the sacraments, Mariolatry, purgatory, and “holy relics.” There is not a hint in Scripture that Peter had “supremacy” over the apostles or that he was otherwise any kind of “pope.” It was a wretched lie from its inception. For hundreds of years, the popes used forgeries such as the Donation of Constantine, a shameless lie claiming that Constantine gave the bishop of Rome supremacy “over all the churches of God in the whole earth,” granting him a crown, and donating to him “the city of Rome, and all the provinces, places and cities of Italy and the western regions.” Pope Hadrian I (778) used this lie in his dealings with Charlemagne. It was used by other popes until it was publicly exposed as a lie during the Reformation. Then there were the Decretals of Isidore, used by Pope Francis’ brother in scarlet, Nicholas I, to claim that popes “hold the place of God on earth.” These ancient lies have never been renounced by the papacy. By holding the office, regardless of how “humbly,” Francis agrees with its foundational lies, so it is no surprise that his messages are filled with more lies. Consider his message at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, September 25. First, there was his whitewash of the Catholic Church’s “clergy sex abuse scandal.” Addressing his fellow priests, he said: “[Y]ou suffered greatly ... by having to bear the shame of some of your brothers who harmed and scandalized the Church in the most vulnerable of her members.” The “some” actually amounts to thousands of priests who used their positions of trust to commit filthy acts with children, mostly boys. A 2004 study by John Jay College found 11,757 allegations of sexual abuse involving 5,148 priests, and the report only pertained to about half of the priests in the U.S. By then, the Catholic Church had already spent $1 billion settling lawsuits and providing “treatment” for its filthy priests, and the report observed that “the end is nowhere in sight.” The pope also lied in his address at St. Patrick’s by addressing Muslims as “brothers and sisters.” Muhammad blasphemously denied that Jesus is the Son of God who died for man’s sins. The Quran says, “Warn those who say, ‘Allah has fathered a son.’ They do not have any proof about that and neither did their fathers. It is a terrible thing that comes from their mouths. They say nothing but lies” (Surah 18:4). Instead of calling Muhammad and his people brothers and sisters, the pope should rather state that the “proof” Muhammad demanded is the virgin birth, sinless and unique life, vicarious atonement, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, all based on amazing prophecies written down before He was born. If Jesus Christ is not the Son of God, there is no such thing as evidence. But then, the pope doesn’t believe the gospel of salvation by the free grace of Christ without works, so he has no truth with which to confront any false religion. Another lie that the pope spoke at St. Patrick’s was the lie that Mary hears and answers prayer. He said, “Let us commend to our Lady the work we have been entrusted to do.” Its vain protestations aside, Rome’s doctrine of Mary is a blasphemous usurpation of Christ as sole Saviour and Mediator, and this fact alone should impel every Bible-believing Christian to renounce the papacy in no uncertain terms. The very fact that plain speaking about the Roman Catholic Church is so rare among “evangelical” Protestants and Baptists is irrefutable proof of end-time apostasy and of the rapid building of the one-world “church.”
IS ROME THE HARLOT OF REVELATION 17? (Friday Church News Notes, October 2, 2015, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - For a thousand years and more, Baptists, Protestants, and fundamentalists identified Rome with the Harlot of Revelation 17. At the end of the NINTH CENTURY, “Tergandus, Bishop of Treves, called the Pope antichrist, yea, a wolf, and Rome, Babylon” (Martyrs Mirror, 5th English edition, p. 240). In THE ELEVENTH CENTURY, Berenger of Tours denounced Rome’s dogmas and maintained that the Roman Church was the See of Satan (George Faber, The History of the Ancient Vallenses and Albigenses, 1838, p. 159). THE WALDENSIANS, throughout most of their long history, identified the pope as the Antichrist. The Waldensian treatise titled the Noble Lesson, dated 1100 AD, stated: “Antichrist, the predicted murderer of the Saints, hath already appeared in his true character, seated monarchally in the seven-hilled city.” In the 13th CENTURY, the BOHEMIAN BRETHREN held that “the Church of Rome is not the Church of Jesus Christ, but an assembly of wicked men, and the whore that sits upon the beast in the Revelation. ... They declare the pope to be the head and ringleader of all errors” (Peter Allix, Ancient Churches of Piedmont, pp. 242-259). English Bible translator WILLIAM TYNDALE identified the pope as the Antichrist in his treatise The Practice of Prelates and in the preface to the 1534 edition of his New Testament. All of theREFORMATION leaders considered the pope the antichrist, including John Huss, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and and their successors. The religious harlot of Revelation 17 is aligned with the antichrist (compare Rev. 17:3 - Rev. 13:1), and like the antichrist it has two aspects: historic and prophetic. In 1 John 2:18, the apostle said, “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” Though she does not fulfill this prophecy in its finality, every feature of the religious Harlot of Revelation 17 is found in the Roman Catholic Church. She has ridden through history upon the back of kings, is clothed in gorgeous robes of scarlet and purple and decked in expensive attire. She sits on seven hills, is full of abominations, and has a golden cup. She is drunk with the blood of the martyrs, and the inhabitants of the world are indeed drunk with the wine of her fornication, referring to the multitudes that blindly follow Rome’s doctrines of devils.
Almost two-thirds of evangelical pastors view Pope Francis as a genuine Christian and their brother in Christ. More than one-third say they value the pope's view on theology. Those are among the findings of a study of 1,000 Protestant pastors, released by LifeWay Research.