ARE YOU INCITING MUSLIMS BY EXPOSING THEIR VIOLENT MANDATES?: CONGRESS MOVES TO CRIMINALIZE SPEAKING AGAINST MUSLIMS~FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH VIOLATED

AMERICANS INCITING MUSLIMS???
THE CITIZENS BE DAMNED???
TIME TO SPEAK OUT MORE FORCEFULLY, SINCE WE ARE "DISPROPORTIONATELY TARGETED"



PROVIDING COVER FOR OBAMA & MUSLIM ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
CRIMINALIZING SPEECH:
HOUSE RESOLUTION #569
"CONDEMNING VIOLENCE, BIGOTRY & HATEFUL RHETORIC TOWARDS MUSLIMS IN THE UNITED STATES" 

EXCERPT: "Whereas the rise of hateful and anti-Muslim speech, violence, and cultural ignorance plays into the false narrative spread by terrorist groups of Western hatred of Islam, and can encourage certain individuals to react in extreme and violent ways:"
____________________________________________________

ROBERT SPENCER EXPOSES THE INTENT BEHIND RESOLUTION 569:

____________________________________________________

GOOD CATHOLIC GRADUATE OF GONZAGA HIGH SCHOOL
SEE: http://www.gonzaga.org/
SEE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzaga_College_High_School
EXCERPTS: Gonzaga College High School is a Jesuit high school for boys located in Washington, D.C.. It is named in honor of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, an Italian saint from the 16th century. The curriculum of Gonzaga from its founding until the late 20th century was at once rigorously classical and emphatically Catholic. Mastery of Latin and deep involvement in the Catholic religion were at its core. 

• Don Beyer, former Lieutenant Governor of Virginia U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein (Class of 1968, and Congressman-elect for Virginia's 10th congressional district

ANOTHER CATHOLIC JOINS OTHER CATHOLICS-PELOSI, BOEHNER, RYAN IN ATTEMPTS TO SHRED CONSTITUTION

DON BEYER, VIRGINIA REPRESENTATIVE INTRODUCES RESOLUTION ALONG WITH 70 OTHER DEMOCRATS
https://beyer.house.gov/
Washington, DC Office
431 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4376
Fax: (202) 225-0017
Chief of Staff: Ann O'Hanlon
Scheduler: Ambar Canales
Legislative Director: Zach Cafritz
Press Secretary: Tia Shuyler

District Office
5285 Shawnee Road
Suite 250
Alexandria, VA 22312
Phone: (703) 658-5403
Fax: (703) 658-5408

CONGRESS MOVES TO CRIMINALIZE SPEAKING AGAINST MUSLIMS

By Lisa Haven

 In a shocking turn of events more than 70 Democrats just moved to condemn saying anything against Muslims here in America. According to House Resolution 569 introduced by Donald Beyer from District 8 in Virginia, they intend to remove all “violence, bigotry, and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims.” 

While violence against Muslims should be condemned, it should not be forced under the banner of creating a law forbidding anyone to say against them and removing our Freedom of Speech. This goes against our First Amendment Right: 

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Here is more on the breaking report… 

EXCERPTS BELOW FROM http://friendsofdonbeyer.com/

"An active leader in Democratic politics, Don served as: the Virginia Chair of both the Clinton-Gore and Kerry-Edwards campaigns, the Treasurer and Virginia Chair for Howard Dean, Finance Chairman with Mark Warner’s Forward Together campaign, and Mid-Atlantic Finance Chair for President Obama."

FRIDAY, JULY 24TH, 2015

BEYER NOTED AS “A SINCERELY ENLIGHTENED 

CIVIL SERVANT”

"Most refreshing about Northern Virginia’s freshman congressman, Democrat Donald S. Beyer, Jr., is how brainy, eloquent and cheerful a warrior for progressive causes that he is. Beyer, a former Virginia lieutenant governor and U.S. ambassador, stands in such stark contrast to the bloviating horse’s ass Donald Trump, not because he represents an opposite political point of view, but because one, Beyer, is a sincerely enlightened civil servant dedicated to raising the level of the political discourse in America, and the other is a crude, foul mouthed bully and nothing more."

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2ND, 2015

DON BEYER CALLS ON JOHN BOEHNER TO ALLOW A VOTE ON GUN VIOLENCE CONTROL

In the wake of yesterday’s shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, Congressman Beyer re-states his commitment to the passage of a common-sense bill on gun violence prevention. Specifically, Congressman Beyer has offered legislation that would expand background checks to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill and criminals. 

__________________________________________________________________

TEXT OF HOUSE RESOLUTION 569:

SEE: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-resolution/569/text%E2%80%9D

Introduced in House (12/17/2015)

114th CONGRESS 1st Session

H. RES. 569

Condemning violence, bigotry, and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims in the United States.

---

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

December 17, 2015

Mr. Beyer (for himself, Mr. Honda, Mr. Ellison, Mr. Crowley, Mr. Carson of Indiana, Ms. Norton, Ms. McCollum, Ms. Kaptur, Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney of New York, Mr. Kildee, Ms. Loretta Sanchez of California, Mr. Rangel, Mr. Peters, Mr. Ashford, Mr. Grayson, Mr. Takai, Mr. Higgins, Mr. Keating, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Butterfield, Mr. Connolly, Mr. Gallego, Mrs. Bustos, Mr.Delaney, Ms. Castor of Florida, Mr. Gutiérrez, Mr. Quigley, Ms. Esty, Mr. Kennedy, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, Mr. Meeks, Ms. Meng, Mr. Al Green of Texas, Ms. Clark of Massachusetts, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Hastings, Mr. Farr, Mr. Pallone, Mr.McDermott, Ms. Lee, Ms. Edwards, Mr. Brady of Pennsylvania, Ms. Wilson of Florida, Mr. Michael F. Doyle of Pennsylvania, Mr. Sires, Ms. DelBene, Ms. Judy Chu of California, Mr. Polis, Mr. Loebsack, Mr. Pascrell, Mrs. Dingell, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Hinojosa, Mr. Yarmuth, Ms. Tsongas, Mr. Langevin, Mr. Pocan, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Takano, Mr. Ryan of Ohio, Mr. Serrano, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Tonko, Ms. Lofgren, Mr. Van Hollen, Mrs. Capps, Mr. Price of North Carolina, Ms. Matsui, Ms. Moore, and Mr. Heck of Washington) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

---

RESOLUTION

Condemning violence, bigotry, and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims in the United States.

Whereas the victims of anti-Muslim hate crimes and rhetoric have faced physical, verbal, and emotional abuse because they were Muslim or believed to be Muslim;

Whereas the constitutional right to freedom of religious practice is a cherished United States value and violence or hate speech towards any United States community based on faith is in contravention of the Nation’s founding principles;

Whereas there are millions of Muslims in the United States, a community made up of many diverse beliefs and cultures, and both immigrants and native-born citizens;

Whereas this Muslim community is recognized as having made innumerable contributions to the cultural and economic fabric and well-being of United States society;

Whereas hateful and intolerant acts against Muslims are contrary to the United States values of acceptance, welcoming, and fellowship with those of all faiths, beliefs, and cultures;

Whereas these acts affect not only the individual victims but also their families, communities, and the entire group whose faith or beliefs were the motivation for the act;

Whereas Muslim women who wear hijabs, headscarves, or other religious articles of clothing have been disproportionately targeted because of their religious clothing, articles, or observances; and

Whereas the rise of hateful and anti-Muslim speech, violence, and cultural ignorance plays into the false narrative spread by terrorist groups of Western hatred of Islam, and can encourage certain individuals to react in extreme and violent ways: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(1) expresses its condolences for the victims of anti-Muslim hate crimes;

(2) steadfastly confirms its dedication to the rights and dignity of all its citizens of all faiths, beliefs, and cultures;

(3) denounces in the strongest terms the increase of hate speech, intimidation, violence, vandalism, arson, and other hate crimes targeted against mosques, Muslims, or those perceived to be Muslim;

(4) recognizes that the United States Muslim community has made countless positive contributions to United States society;

(5) declares that the civil rights and civil liberties of all United States citizens, including Muslims in the United States, should be protected and preserved;

(6) urges local and Federal law enforcement authorities to work to prevent hate crimes; and to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law those perpetrators of hate crimes; and

(7) reaffirms the inalienable right of every citizen to live without fear and intimidation, and to practice their freedom of faith.

MINDFULNESS: THE SINGLE MOST IMPACTFUL ASPECT OF BUDDHISM IN AMERICA~STILL LEADS TO PANENTHEISM & UNIVERSALISM & AWAY FROM CHRIST

THOUGHT ISLAMIC JIHAD & TERRORISM 

WAS BAD?

SO IS BUDDHIST MINDFULNESS 

AS AN OPENING TO THE 

OCCULT DEMONIC REALM

DEVOID OF JESUS CHRIST

MINDFULNESS: THE SINGLE MOST IMPACTFUL ASPECT OF BUDDHISM IN AMERICA

WARNING:

(Caution: This author is sympathetic to mindfulness and believes it can be separated from Buddhism per se, which it cannot. Another example is the belief that Yoga can be separated from Hinduism, which is 

wrong also. See this blog's posts under Mindfulness, Yoga, YMCA, Pantheism, Universalism)

BY JUSTIN WHITAKER

SEE: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/americanbuddhist/2016/01/mindfulness-the-single-most-impactful-aspect-of-buddhism-in-america.html?ref_widget=gr_trending&ref_blog=grails&ref_post=buddhist;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes

In an intriguing recent lecture, scholar of Western Buddhism Jeff Wilson makes the claim that mindfulness is, in fact, Buddhism’s largest single impact on North America. The evidence is more than compelling: from books by Congressman Tim Ryan (A Mindful Nation) and Google’s “Jolly Good Fellow” Chade-Meng Tan (Search Inside Yourself) – shown meeting President Obama – to news reports in nearly every major media outlet and new movements to get mindfulness practice into schools, medicine, police stations, and the military.

Historically, Wilson points out, “mindfulness” comes from the Pali term sati, which can certainly mean mindfulness, awareness, etc, but also means to remember (a connotation of the English term that has largely dropped out of its contemporary “present focused” usage). For instance,  a common practice in Buddhism is “mindfulness of the Buddha” wherein one calls to mind a memory of the Buddha and/or his qualities in meditation. And perhaps most importantly, in the Buddhist context, mindfulness is part of the path to awakening, of overcoming the cycle of suffering we are in as ignorant sentient beings. This, Wilson states, is in nice contrast to the “American approach” where Mindfulness = enhancement of life’s joys.

So instead of undertaking mindfulness practice along with a lifestyle that distances one from the activities that perpetuate suffering, an American mindfulness practitioner keeps doing those things, but simply enjoys them more.

Wilson goes on to give a great example of an earlier way that Buddhism adapted itself to a new (for it) society: Japan. Buddhism, as he notes, and researchers know well, has been and still is ever-changing within certain constraints. This is why many statements that begin, “Traditional Buddhism is…” are false or at best misleading. Too often Western practitioners have either an idealized/romanticized or demonized version of some Asian society and the Buddhism practiced there. They then insist that today’s Buddhism is either better than that or fails to live up to it in whatever ways reflect their personal preferences or hobby-horse.

Seeing Buddhism as this flowing stream, we can ask better questions about it. Rather than asking if this or that is true or fake (which may be fun for riling up forces on both sides, generally different factions of practicing Buddhists), we can ask questions like “why is this change occurring?” or “How does this new stream provide benefit in the new society?”

Wilson suggests that the Mindfulness focused form of Buddhism entering into North America emphasizes Mindfulness, Suffering, and Compassion while minimizing previous important teachings such as No-self, Impermanence and Nirvana. And this is just part of the story, the part where Mindfulness is claimed to be a facet of Buddhism. On the other hand, Wilson quotes Jon Kabat-Zinn as writing that:


Mindfulness, the heart of Buddhist meditation, is at the core of being able to live life as if it really matters. It has nothing to do with Buddhism. It has to do with freedom. Mindfulness is so powerful that the fact that it comes out of Buddhism is irrelevant.


With this accepted, mindfulness can be placed in any of a variety of frameworks, from Kabat-Zinn’s medical/therapeutic framework to a more pleasure-oriented and individualistic framework typical of much of American culture. Wilson brilliantly demonstrates this with slide after slide of mindful eating, mindful sex, mindful work, and mindful parenting books, asking the audience if there is anything more American than obsessing over our eating, sex lives, work, and parenting.

Wilson follows with an equally brilliant breakdown of the marketing angle behind Mindful Magazine and the many mindfulness products sold there, focusing on one by a company called BUDHAGIRL: MINDFUL GLAMOUR (that starts at around 1-hour in and I highly recommend it):






In summary, Wilson describes mindfulness as:

The most popular aspect of Buddhism in America
Practically oriented, focused on worldly benefits (not transcendence or liberation)
Focusing on Middle class concerns, affirming the world, body, work, health, and certain desires
Ever-more disconnected from Buddhism’s past, obscuring certain parts or cutting off historical ties completely
Commodified into a product in itself or as an add-on benefit to set one product apart from otherwise identical competitors


This is all an amazing amount of food for thought. I think it is certainly true and perceptive to say that mindfulness is the biggest thing Buddhism has brought to N. America and I know that Buddhists are grappling with this (what about ethics? what about wisdom? – the other two parts of the basic 3-fold path). And it’s also important to point out that mindfulness is being used on this spectrum, ranging from very overtly Buddhist-connected to the “Mindful Glamour” label being used to sell jewelry and mindful sex books.

Oh, and there’s an excellent question/point brought up by Jon Kabat-Zinn himself at the end of the talk, don’t miss that.

______________________________________________________

TURNING STUDENTS INTO 

NON-JUDGEMENTAL ZOMBIES



JUST GIDDY ABOUT THE KIDS 

GOING TO A MONASTERY


A GLOBAL PROGRAM BRINGING 

MINDFULNESS TO STUDENTS

Published on Oct 15, 2015


With mindfulness resources and programs readily available to students at the University of Virginia's Contemplative Sciences Center, it's easy to say they have an advantage over the rest. But what about other students—and people in general—across the country and around the globe who don't have access to UVA's unique facility? In this video interview with Sonima's founder, Sonia Jones, and David Germano, the director of the Contemplative Sciences Center, discuss a global solution to expanding these special programs beyond the campus.

“We're starting a program called the Contemplative University,” says Germano. The web-based school, supported by UVA, will be free and available to anyone seeking instruction and learning tools on contemplative practices. It will function like any university offering content-specific classes and lectures with a contemplatively-based approach to education across several subjects—including humanities, health sciences, business, education, architecture, law, engineering, and much more—plus social networking within the contemplative community. Watch this short clip to learn more about this exciting new platform designed to help people integrate contemplative practice into their lives regardless of their zip code or economic status.




Mindfulness Students Talk 



YOUNG STUDENTS AT OXFORD, ENGLAND 

ALREADY BRAINWASHED


VERY YOUNG CHILDREN ARE TAUGHT


WARPING THE MINDS OF THE YOUNG &

IMPRESSIONABLE WITH ANOTHER RELIGION, 

ALTHOUGH NOT IDENTIFIED AS SUCH




SEE OUR OLDER POSTS ABOUT THE INFLUENCE OF 

MINDFULNESS IN THE WORKPLACE AND IN HEALTHCARE

SEE ALSO: http://freebeacon.com/issues/feds-spend-2-5-million-on-mindfulness-intervention-for-kindergarteners/



The New Age, Occultism, and Our Children in Public Schools

SEE: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=17735

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes



By Berit Kjos
Kjos Ministries

“Softening Up” For Occult Revival—Hermetic Magic & Hegel’s Dialectic Process

Why would our country, so richly blessed by God, embrace the occult? What caused this drastic change in values? How could it have happened so seemingly fast?!

Actually, the entire Western world had already been “softened up” by the 1960s when the rising rebellion against God erupted into public view. The century-old pursuit of social solidarity based on Georg Hegel’s occult philosophy and consensus process had been an effective tool for change.

Hegel’s 19th century pattern for “group thinking” denied God’s absolute truths and trained people to adapt to “continual change” and group consensus. By the year 2000, it had been embraced by schools, corporations, community organizations, mainline churches, and political structures throughout America. Through the global media, people around the world have caught Hegel’s vision of spiritual synthesis—an enticing blend of spiritual illusions and practices that appeal to our capricious human nature.

Hegel studied alchemy, Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), and theosophy, which were all influenced by the heretical teachings of Gnosticism. He “read widely on Mesmerism, psychic phenomena, dowsing, precognition, and sorcery. He publicly associated himself with known occultists . . . and aligned himself, informally, with ‘Hermetic’ societies such as the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians” and embraced their symbolic systems of sacred circles, mystical triangles and astrological signs.1

Considering Hegel’s occult connections, it’s not surprising that his teachings would undermine biblical faith and all opposing facts. Nor is it strange that the postmodern (or some now say pseudo-modern) generation has been, by and large, inoculated and indoctrinated against genuine Christianity. After all, Hegel’s revolutionary dialectic process was the center-piece and hallmark of Soviet brainwashing. It effectively purged God’s unchanging truths and filled the vacuum with evolving “truths” and enticing dreams.

While Communist leaders embraced Hegel’s process, they ignored his occult beliefs. In contrast, the Western world began to restore those pagan roots long before revolutionary baby-boomers began proclaiming and shouting out their demands for sensual freedom and earth-centered spirituality. In other words, the ’60s didn’t initiate this radical change; the turmoil of the ’60s was the result of the psycho-social program of “re-learning” which had begun to transform America decades earlier.

As the old moral and spiritual boundaries were torn down, the mainstream media preached tolerance and acceptance of all kinds of forbidden thrills. Before long, occult secrets emerged from their centuries-old closets and claimed their place in mainstream entertainment.

We who trust God need to recognize our enemy, resist his tempting strategies, and know the truths that counter these deadly deceptions. The very safety of our children depends on it.

Yoga in Schools

There’s no arguing it, children in public schools are learning Yoga. According to Yoga instructor, Mark Blanchard, of Progressive Power Yoga, he taught children at Colfax Elementary School in California. On his blog, he wrote: “I will be introducing Yoga to all of the kids at the school as I donate a full Yoga program.”2 Blanchard has been featured in many magazines such as Family Circle and Seventeen and has trained many actors and actresses (like Jennifer Lopez and Drew Barrymore).3 Blanchard plans to “bring Progressive Power Yoga to as many places as [he] can around the states (as well as the globe).”4

Part of Blanchard’s plans include working with Mini Yogis Yoga for Kids. On the Mini Yogis website, they list not only Blanchard’s company but many other organizations as well, many of which are schools like Happy Land Preschool in Culver City and St. Monica’s Elementary School in Santa Monica 5 (both in California).

Yoga for kids is on the rise, and if your child attends public school, you may want to check to see if teachers there are teaching him or her Yoga. A program called YogaEd provides Yoga classes under the heading of “health/wellness” programs for schools. These programs take place in several states including California, Colorado, New York, Washington and Washington, D.C.6

In an article titled “Yoga Causes Controversy in Public Schools,” veteran apologist Dave Hunt is referenced and quoted:


Dave Hunt, who has traveled to India to study yoga’s roots and interview gurus, called the practice “a vital part of the largest missionary program in the world” for Hinduism. The Bend, [Oregon] author of Yoga and the Body of Christ: What Position Should Christians Hold? said that, like other religions, the practice has no place in public schools.

“It’s pretty simple: Yoga is a religious practice in Hinduism. It’s the way to reach enlightenment. To bring it to the west and bill it as a scientific practice for fitness is dishonest,” said Hunt.7


Parents whose children are in Christian schools may need to be concerned too. More and more churches and Christian organizations are opening their doors to the practice of Yoga. And the biggest Christian publisher, Thomas Nelson, published a book titled Yoga for Christians in 2006. It’s just a matter of time before kids in Christian schools will be learning Yoga and the “art” of meditation.

It is tragic to know that countless public school children are being taught practices that are rooted in Eastern mysticism and will learn how to say “Namaste” (the god in me greets the god in you) before they learn they can have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ without going into altered states of consciousness through meditation. And it is equally tragic that many Christians will not even be able to help them because they are learning similar practices through their own “Spiritual Formation” (i.e, contemplative spirituality) programs in their churches.

Meditation in the Classroom

An article in The Capitol Times titled “Kid Contemplatives: UW Neuroscientist’s Project Aims to Give Middle-Schoolers Tools of ‘Mindfulness’ and Meditation” tells about a pilot project done with middle school students that studied the effects of “contemplation in the classroom.”8 The article states:


Middle school students are being targeted because early adolescence is a time of heightened vulnerability due to body and brain changes. . . .

Centering prayer, meditation, breath work, chanting, sitting in silence, extended concentration on an object and focusing on positive thoughts and images are examples of contemplative exercises that can be taught.9


Neuroscientist Richard Davidson, who was the chair for the project, wants to use his research in meditative practices by studying the brains of Buddhist monks, in the classroom. Davidson, named by Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2006, and others like him are making inroads into meditation becoming the norm in schoolroom settings.

In The Capitol Times article, contemplative activist and Catholic priest Thomas Keating is quoted as saying that meditation in the classroom is “not a religious issue” and that “sitting in silence for twenty minutes, twice a day, ‘gradually introduces us to our deeper self.’”10 But the article contradicts Keating’s view that meditation is not religious:


Like Buddhist meditation, centering prayer for Christians is an age-old religious practice that has experienced a revival in contemporary times.11


And as this article reveals, children are being targeted with meditation:


“Most people without a special (contemplative) practice tend to be pushed around by external events,” Keating contends. In classrooms, “the younger the child, the easier it is” to teach contemplation because young participants typically aren’t impeded by as much emotional baggage.12


As one researcher of the New Age explains:


The field of education presents an ideal setting for transformation. In virtually every area of education and instruction, from kindergarten to universities, from weekend workshops to family counseling sessions, the Ancient Wisdom is being taught either up front or covertly. This is largely happening because teachers, principals, and other administrators in particular have become involved in metaphysics.13


While not every public school has introduced meditation in their classrooms yet, more and more schools are implementing Yoga and other forms of Eastern-style meditation practices into students’ lives.

(Berit Kjos is the author of How to Protect Your Child From the New Age and Spiritual Deception, a must-read book for every Christian parent. In the chapter this article was extracted from, there are also sections on Sesame Street, the Girl Scouts, Halloween, and more.)

Endnotes:

1. Glenn Alexander Magee, Hegel, and the Hermetic Tradition (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2001), pp. 1-3. This Hermetic Tradition originated in Egypt. According to the Gnostic Society, “The Hermetic tradition is usually understood as a form of ‘pagan Gnosticism,’ developing in Egypt during the same historical period that saw the flowering of the Christian Gnostic tradition.” (From: http://www.faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Courses/Phil%20281b/Philosophy%20of%20Magic/Arcana/Gnostic%20Texts/lectures.html).
2. Mark Blanchard, “Family Yoga Practice” (November 4, 2006, http://web.archive.org/web/20090620224738/http://www.progressivepoweryoga.com/blog/2006/11/family-yoga-practice.html).
3. http://www.markblanchardsyoga.com/about-mark-blanchard.html.
4. Mark Blanchard, “Family Yoga Practice,” op. cit.
5. Mini Yogis: Yoga for Kids: http://www.miniyogis.com/clients.htm.
6. Yoga Ed. in Action: http://www.yogaed.com/action.html.
7. “Yoga Causes Controversy in Public Schools” (Associated Press, January 28, 2007, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16859368/ns/health-childrens_health/t/yoga-causes-controversy-public-schools/).
8. “Kid Contemplatives: UW Neuroscientist’s Project Aims to Give Middle-Schoolers Tools of ‘Mindfulness’ and Meditation” (The Capital Times, November 9, 2007, http://psyphz.psych.wisc.edu/web/News/captimes_11-8-07.html).
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ray Yungen, For Many Shall Come in My Name (Eureka, MT: Lighthouse Trails, 2nd ed., 2007), p. 66.

APOSTATE HYPOCRITICAL RELIGIOUS LEADERS BEMOANING THE SCOURGE OF JIHADISTS & THE INACTION OF CHRISTIANS UNAFFECTED

CARDINAL ANGELO BAGNASCO

PATRIARCH SAKO

The Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory III 

Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem Joseph III Younan 

 Robert McManus, Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester, Massachusetts

RELIGIOUS LEADERS BEMOANING THE SCOURGE OF JIHADISTS & THE INACTION OF CHRISTIANS UNAFFECTED

"Iraqi Christian leader on Muslim persecution of Christians: “Is this not a crime against humanity?”"

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/01/iraqi-christian-leader-on-muslim-persecution-of-christians-is-this-not-a-crime-against-humanity;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes

Of course it is. And others have asked similar questions before: “Why, we ask the western world, why not raise one’s voice over so much ferocity and injustice?” asked Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI). The Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregory III has also said: “I do not understand why the world does not raise its voice against such acts of brutality.” Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem Joseph III Younan appealed to the West “not to forget the Christians in the Middle East.”

But why are they forgotten? Why does Sako have to ask his question? Why does Bagnasco have to ask his? Here is why: “Talk about extreme, militant Islamists and the atrocities that they have perpetrated globally might undercut the positive achievements that we Catholics have attained in our inter-religious dialogue with devout Muslims.” — Robert McManus, Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester, Massachusetts, February 8, 2013

That’s right, it’s all for the sake of the spurious and self-defeating “dialogue.” For all too many of Patriarch Sako’s colleagues, especially those in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, to speak out about this persecution renders one outside the realm of acceptable discourse. Sako should ask his colleagues in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He should ask bishops like McManus, Kevin Farrell, Jaime Soto and others why they move actively to silence and demonize voices that tell the truth about this persecution. He should ask them why they are so convinced that Islam, at its core, teaches peace, despite the superabundance of evidence to the contrary in Islamic texts and the actions of Muslims who read them. He should ask why the U.S. Catholic bishops tolerated dissent from so many core Catholic dogmas for decades, but move as ruthlessly as any Grand Inquisitor to suppress dissent from the idea that Islam is a Religion of Peace, which isn’t even a dogma of the Church. He should ask them why they are abandoning their Middle Eastern brethren and keeping their own people ignorant and complacent about the jihad threat. He should ask himself why he speaks of this persecution as a problem involving the Islamic State alone, when he must know from his personal experience that it is a much larger issue than that.

Cowards, time-servers, trimmers and self-deluded wishful thinkers dominate the Church hierarchy today, and all too many Catholics believe that to say so makes one disloyal to the Church. Nonsense. Calling these people to account for the damage they have done and are doing is the highest form of loyalty to the Church.



“Patriarch Sako on Christian Persecution: ‘Is This Not a Crime Against Humanity?,’” by Edward Pentin, National Catholic Register, December 30, 2015:


ROME — “In one night, 120,000 Christians left their homes just with their clothes and have been living in camps for one and a half years. Is this not a crime against humanity?”

His Beatitude, Louis Raphael I Sako, Patriarch of Baghdad of the Chaldeans, spoke of this and other serious hardships and persecutions against Christians, at a recent Rome conference on religious freedom….

So extensive and brutal has the persecution become that calls have been increasing in the U.S., the European Union and the U.K. to classify the atrocities taking place there as genocide.

As well as the humanitarian emergency and forced displacement caused primarily by the brutality of the jihadist group Islamic State (ISIS), Patriarch Sako also mentioned other facts regarding persecution in Iraq not widely known.

These included the approval in October of a law in the Iraqi parliament to forcibly convert to Islam children who are Christian, Yazidi and Sabean if one of the parents proclaims to be Muslim, and the advance of political Islam in which sharia (Islamic law) doesn’t allow non-Muslims to participate in politics and have equal constitutional rights as Muslims in administration.

ISIS leaders, he said, have established three “rules of trade” with non-Muslims: “forcing people to convert to Islam, to pay a tax (jizya) or leave their house, or be beheaded.”


“Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the last day, nor forbid what has been forbidden by Allah and his Apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of truth, of the People of the Book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” — Qur’an 9:29


He further pointed out that the numbers of Christians in Iraq has collapsed, falling from 1.4 million before the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime to currently 500,000.

“Today, everything in Iraq has become sectarian,” said Archbishop Sako. “Daesh/ISIS and extremists attack Christians, Yazidis and Sabeans because of their belief. They destroy anything that does not fit into their vision of Islam.”

Moral Responsibility

At the same Dec. 10-12 conference, called “Under Caesar’s Sword” and hosted by the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Civil and Human Rights, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s secretary for relations with states (commonly referred to as the Vatican’s “foreign minister”), said a number of studies have suggested that Christians are the victims of 80% of all acts of religious discrimination in the world. “What’s more, for various reasons, it seems to go largely unreported.”


Why does it go largely unreported, even in the Church? Because of the prevailing attitude that McManus enunciated, quoted above. Gallagher and his colleagues should have addressed that.


But the archbishop noted “a much more important reason” why the Church should focus on Christian persecution: As Christians, he said, “we have a special duty in charity to our fellow Christians” to show them “solidarity” and come to their aid.

It’s true, said Bishop Anba Angaelos, general bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and head of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the U.K., that as Christians we are called to “embrace and accept out persecution thankfully,” but all Christians also have a “moral responsibility to be advocates, speaking for those who cannot speak, to be a voice in the wilderness.”

Noting a gradual “pushing of boundaries” leading to what now amounts ethnic cleansing of Christians in the region, he warned that “our silence is a contributing factor” that “must be changed.”

“There is a growing disregard for the sanctity of life, and that must be what offends us,” he told the conference. “It is not about Christians or Muslims being killed, but about life and humanity as God’s creation, and that disregard is a violation that we cannot be silent about. In response we must realize that we have to respond together, collaboratively.”

Bishop Angaelos warned against Christians becoming “desensitized” to the suffering. “It’s not enough to empathize with them,” he said. “We must act. [We] should never let our conscience say: ‘It’s okay, they’re not dying.’ The sanctity of life is not a statistic but reality for each and every person.”

Remembering the ransacking of dozens of churches in Egypt in August 2013, which he believes was a coordinated attack, he resented the fact that in response Christians around the world “did absolutely nothing.” He recalled someone commenting at the time: “There was no memo from head office to say ‘don’t react.’”


Really? Are you sure there wasn’t?


What to Do?

So what should be done? Patriarch Sako listed several concrete proposals which included first of all destroying ISIS militarily with “troops on the ground.” ISIS must also be destroyed ideologically, he said, “drying up the funding, weaponry” of the jihadists and “condemning and eliminating” sectarianism and “all other forms of hatred and violence.”

He also advocated political reform underpinned by the principle of “citizenship and equality” that allows Christians and other religious minorities to be full citizens rather than “protected minority status”. He called for a separation of religion from the state, and the criminalizing and punishing contempt for religion and the spread “hatred and division.” Islamic religious authorities, he said, must dismantle jihadist ideology and replace it with promoting “a culture of harmonious social existence,” and the international community should “issue decrees” through the U.N. against those committing injustices against religious minorities….


Who and what is going to compel Islamic religious authorities to “dismantle jihadist ideology”?