THE CHURCH MILITANT
Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
As the owner and president of Pulpit & Pen, I feel that I need to
issue a public apology to the Eastern Orthodox community in regards to
my managing editor’s recent words. In a series of posts, Pulpit & Pen
editor, Jeff Maples, took it upon himself to essentially anathematize
the Bible Answer Man, Hank Hanegraaff, and in the process said some
hurtful things about an old and revered religious tradition. I would be
remiss not to clarify Jeff’s remarks and in the process, make some
apologies. I pray that it is received well by all of our friends in the
Eastern Orthodox community. Firstly, we would like to apologize on behalf of
Protestants everywhere for overlooking the grave and damning heresies of
the Eastern Orthodox tradition, compared to our stalwart protest of
Rome. This has been an oversight of Protestants, due mostly to the
revival of actual Biblical orthodoxy (you might call it Protestantism)
developing primarily in the West, and under the wicked authority of
Rome, and not under the Eastern schismatics known by the misleading name
of “Orthodox.” While we have rightly called the Bishop of Rome the
“antichrist” in our Confessions of Faith, we have overlooked the many antichrists that have gone out into the world
and settled in their positions as leaders in the Eastern Orthodox
tradition. It was not right of us to prejudicially focus on the Western
anti-christ church just because they happened to be the ones murdering
us for several centuries. In the future, we will strive to explain that
anyone who seeks the title of ‘priest,’ (a blasphemous title if ever
there were one), lead people into idolatry, claim the sole mediary
position between God and man, practice necromantic prayers to the dead,
engage in corpse worship, and promote meritorious salvation is an
antichrist, every bit as much as the Roman Catholic abomination. We are
sorry for leaving out specific condemnations of your religion in our
Confessions, as it wasn’t very inclusive of us. Secondly, we are sorry that many Protestants have
stopped protesting, sending the impression that our confessional
doctrinal beliefs don’t anathematize you as not only being
sub-Christian, but being anti-Christian. We are sorry that men like Albert Mohler, Paige Patterson, Russell Moore and Carl Trueman,
all who should certainly know better, seem to have affirmed you in your
superstitious and pagan religion. While the Intelligentsia class of
evangelicalism are happy to learn about how Rod Dreher’s monasticism
fetish might be a valuable tool for fleeing the culture wars, the rest
of us failed to speak up loudly enough to challenge them on this,
partially because the idol-factory of our hearts are quick to make our
own popes out of mere men, and we don’t like to challenge our popes. The
fact is, Greek Orthodox men like Rod Dreher have no part in the Kingdom
of God on Earth, because they have no part of the Kingdom of God in
Heaven, unless they were to recant their idolatry and believe the one,
true, catholic doctrine of Sola Fide. There’s no such thing as being
“kind of Christian,” and the Trinitarian ontology of the Eastern
Orthodox Church doesn’t undo the fact that trusting in your merit for
salvation is just as damning as being a Modalist like TD Jakes or
believing in 9 divine persons like Benny Hinn. So, therefore, we
apologize for our evangelical leaders who have stopped protesting, even
though they call themselves Protestants. Much of your outrage
(the thousands of angry, F-bomb dropping emails we have received) is due
to the fact you’ve never heard a Protestant say you’re not a Christian.
It’s not because Protestant doctrine doesn’t say you’re lost (it
certainly does), but because we’ve become a bunch of limp-wristed
milksops. Forgive our cowardice. Thirdly, we apologize for making it seem, should you
have perceived it that way, that you’re unchristian because your
priests wear dresses and you burn incense. While true religion has
little patience for pretentious pageantry, the issue for us concerning
your doctrinal apostasy is your denial of Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura, and
Penal Substitution. The fact that you adorn your buildings in gaudy and
sacrilegious, bedazzled idols is second to the more blatant
soteriological heresies that damn your soul (although idolatry is
damning enough). The fact that you believe that superstitious voodoo oil
poured over someone’s head fills them with the holy spirit and brings
them back from apostasy is secondary to your hope in your own
righteousness for salvation. We (still-protesting Protestants) shouldn’t
have focused upon your bizarre, extra-biblical rituals that resemble
more seance than Biblical service of worship; we should have focused far
more upon your doctrinal beliefs that oppose Jesus and the very Gospel
itself.
A
Greek Orthodox believer sent this to our email, which was going around
to great applause in Greek Orthodox social media forums. This is Jeff
Maples and his daughter, in hell with the Reformers.
Fourthly, we apologize for letting you get away with
asserting your religious superiority by the age of your church. While
it is true that you happen to live in a part of the world that was first
affected by the Gospel, your geographical proximity to the early church
does not mean that you hold to the doctrines or practices of that New
Testament Church. The fact is, the heresies of Gnosticism,
Antinomianism, and the Judaizers all predate the Greek Orthodox Church.
In fact, the sect of the Nicolatians (founded by an Acts 6 deacon)
predates your church considerably. Logic, of course, would not deduce
that these groups, because they are older, are right. We apologize for
not being more forward in pointing out that Jesus specifically wrote
to the Ephesians Church (where there is now the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate) that he would remove the lamp stand (IE the Holy Spirit)
from their church for forsaking their first love, the Gospel of Jesus.
The Scripture contains a very explicit warning, directly from the
dictation of Jesus, that the church that would become Eastern Orthodox
would have the Holy Spirit depart it should they continue on their path
of abandoning true religion. While the Eastern Orthodox church is older
than, for example, churches in other parts of the world, that doesn’t
make it better. It just means that the Eastern Orthodox Church has been
apostate longer than most churches have existed. Big. Stinking. Deal.
You don’t get brownie points for the number of centuries since the Holy
Spirit left your building. Fifthly, we apologize for not pointing out, as you
rage in anger that we anathematize you, that you anathematized us first.
Like the Roman Catholic apostate church, Eastern Orthodoxy has also
declared Protestants to be hopelessly damned for trusting in Christ’s
accomplished work alone for our salvation. While the Eastern Orthodox
community has ranted and railed with lamenting and gnashing of teeth
toward Pulpit & Pen in recent weeks, they seem blissfully unaware that, like many cults, official Eastern Orthodox teaching declares that only they are the one true church and more specifically, they teach that actual Christians like ourselves are damned for trusting only in Jesus.
We apologize for not pointing out that your man-made tradition
similarly anathematizes, only it does it wrongly. There is no moral high
ground of tolerance and open-mindedness that you can confess toward
outsiders without denying the official teachings of your church, a
church you believe infallible based upon nothing but the amount of time
it’s held to its heresies.
I pray that you, as the Eastern Orthodox Community, will receive our
apologies charitably. There has been much confusion because of the
inability or unwillingness to articulate what Protestants actually
believe about those who deny Sola Fide and Penal Substitution. We aim to
fix all that, and do better in the future.
There is no justification outside faith alone in his accomplished
work. Christ’s accomplished work includes his substitionary and
vicarious death in our place, being for us our propitiation.
No amount of smells and bells, chanting absurdities, or calling out
the gods of Ba’al and Asherah with much incense-burning, bell-ringing
pomp and circumstance will change that.
Cordially,
JD Hall
_________________________________________________________
JUST DOING A JOB FOR CHRIST??? JEFF MAPLES WEARS BANGS:
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
One of the biggest complaints against Pulpit & Pen we get
consistently is that we somehow don’t “have all our facts,” or are
“misrepresenting” someone or something. I received countless emails
claiming that I “misrepresented” Greek Orthodoxy in my recent posts
regarding Hank Hanegraaff and that I should do more research. Well,
what better way to research than to go straight to the source in person?
Saturday, April 15, known as Holy Saturday in the Orthodox tradition, I
along with a couple of friends went to visit St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church in Charlotte, NC–the church that Hanegraaff was recently chrismated in.
The service began at 11:30 pm, and was still going strong showing no
signs of slowing down when we decided to leave at around 2:00 am. While
we hoped to have the opportunity to confront Hanegraaff in person, being
that we all had to get up early the next morning to worship the living
God on Easter morning, we decided to call it a night early. However,
there are quite a few things that we can take away from this experience
in this church.
1.) I have sat through many Catholic
masses. I was married in a Catholic church, and I can definitely say
I’ve “been there done that.” But I’ve never sat through anything so long
and tedious as the Greek Orthodox mass. Perhaps being a special
Saturday night “resurrection service,” this wasn’t the norm, but it was
excruciatingly long. 2 1/2 hours in and no sign of slowing down.
2.) The cliche, “bells and smells” is
actually a true reality. The burning of incense and ringing of bells was
a noxious combination. It reminded me of being in a college dorm
smoking weed and blowing the smoke through toilet paper rolls stuffed
with dryer sheets.
3.) The liturgy was vain and repetitious.
Literally, the same ritualistic prayers and chanting were sung over and
over. Every prayer included an invocation of Mary and the Saints.
4.) While there was actually quite a bit
of Scripture reading, there was absolutely no teaching. In fact, the
vast majority of Scripture reading was sung in the eerie Byzantine
chant. You’d really have to pay attention and try to listen really hard
to even understand what they were reading or reciting.
5.) The facility was adorned, literally,
wall to wall, floor to ceiling in graven images of the saints. The
images were painted in such a way that the expressions on their faces
were devoid of any emotion. They looked like lifeless figures just
floating around in space.
6.) The enthusiasm of the clergy and
participants in the service was extremely low. Those participating in
the rituals walked around with lifeless expressions on their faces. The
entire ritual was empty and dead.
7.) There is obviously little to no
pursuit of holiness in this church. Several times during the service,
the ushers and deacons could be seen stepping out to take smoke breaks.
Many of the women and even some of the younger girls were dressed less
than modestly.
8.) Repeatedly, the chanting and liturgy
included a summons to God to perform certain acts. It was clear that
they believe that God works through and is dependent upon these rituals
to activate the work of the Holy Spirit.
9.) The Greek and Eastern Orthodox church
is clearly a lifeless church. There was absolutely no gospel in this
service. A lost person could not walk into this church and walk out a
changed man. It was literally a Pagan practice. Like a seance. Pure
witchcraft was going on in this place. In this religion, salvation
doesn’t come through Christ’s imputed righteousness and substitutionary
atonement on the cross, it comes through these dead rituals that they
believe ontologically changes them into divine beings. It was truly one
of the most wicked experiences I’ve ever seen.
This is what Hank Hanegraaff has apostatized to. He knows the Bible,
he has taught it his entire life. He now rejects it. The bible clearly
teaches against the wickedness and error found within the manmade
traditions and doctrines of demons in the Orthodox church. It would have
been easy for one to let their guard down and become entranced by the
production. While in the West it is likely less common for practitioners
of the religion to take it that seriously, it’s easy to see how those
who do take it seriously could achieve an altered state of mind which
would in effect by a spiritual experience for those truly seeking it.
After my experience at this church, not only do I fully stand by what I
have written, but it is even more clear now that this religion is not of
God and should be avoided. [Contributed by Jeff Maples] ___________________________________________________
GOSPEL AS LAW??? TREATING OTHERS AS YOU WOULD WANT TO BE TREATED
LUKE 6:
27But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, 28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. 29 And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also. 30 Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. 31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. 32 For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. 33 And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. 34 And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. 36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. 37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: 38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
QUOTE FROM MAPLES BELOW: "While we are glad to see her go, we also want to show the love and grace
of Jesus Christ."
BUT THEN THIS BLOG HAD ISSUES WITH MAPLES TOO!:
(Email chain below is word for word unedited, except for the email addresses being removed):
"Let's Extend Grace to Those Who Least Deserve It"
Meet Haley Nicole.
This
is a girl that moved to the Charlotte area a few years ago and started a
major "pro-choice" movement at the abortion mill that I minister at.
After months and months of relentless attack on us, she is obviously
getting burned out with her efforts. She has verbally attacked our
children and our families. She has campaigned against our local churches
in the area who have tried to offer help. She banged pots and pans in
our faces while we try to preach. As a matter of fact, she has even been
asked by the abortion clinic itself to stop coming due to her erratic
and disruptive behavior.
This poor woman is so lost. If anyone deserves the wrath of God more than her, I would be surprised. "...but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." --Romans 5:8
We are certainly under no obligation to help her after all she's done to
us. But we believe that if the grace of God in His Son Jesus Christ was
sufficient to save wretched sinners such as ourselves, then we should
extend that grace to others. Christ was certainly under no obligation to
take the punishment on the cross for our sins, yet he did so because he
loved us. While we are glad to see her go, we also want to show the love and grace
of Jesus Christ. If anyone wants to help this woman and her young son
move back to her home state, she has a GoFundMe
page here. If you decide to help her, please leave a comment in your
donation about the grace of God found in Jesus Christ. She has heard the
gospel preached for months, now it's time for her to see it in action.
She
may ultimately end up spending the money elsewhere. We have no control
over that. The Lord will deal with her if she does. But one of the most
humbling things a Christian can do is set aside
our pride and extend grace where it is least deserved. I hope that you will prayerfully consider helping her.
Jeff
_________________________________________________________
Mr. Maples,
I read and appreciate the articles on Pulpit & Pen very much. Of
all the authors, how is it that you are the only one who has had, and
still has, a problem with Donald Trump, expressing your distaste for the
man at every opportunity, it seems? Granted, the man is a
self-described "professing" Christian, but has shown his worldliness.
But why criticize him, when the other choices for President were far
worse? In your case, "let's extend grace to those who least deserve it",
meaning Trump as well, to avoid appearing hypocritical.
I would also like to know why the authors, yourself, and the
organization have not published any email addresses or phone numbers
prior to this missive?
John
________________________________________________________
Not sure why you are lumping me in as the only one who
"has had a problem with" Donald Trump. But to answer your question as
best as possible, my main point of contention against Trump has always
been against those Christian leaders who have held him up on a pedestal
as though he is some kind of messianic savior. If you read my articles, I
have defended Trump on issues that I believe are defensible and
criticized him where appropriate. Further, I would treat Trump the same.
First, I would never allow him to think that I believe he is a true
Christian... that would be the most unloving and ungraceful thing I
could do.
Yes, the alternatives are worse. I've always said that.
And I have no problem with those who in good faith voted for Trump from
that perspective. Where I have the problem is with men like Robert
Jeffress and Dobson who go around proclaiming this man a born again
believer, and trying to get people to vote for him because of that. It's
a lie, and I'm more concerned with people's eternal state than the
state of this nation.
Donald Trump is our president, and to the
best of my ability, I will support him in his efforts to do his duty to
this nation. I will continue to criticize him where it's due, and I will
continue to defend him where it's due.
As far as email
addresses, I'm not going to publish my personal email address online for
the world and spammers to see. We have always had a contact form on our
website that comes directly to the inboxes of all the contributors of
the site. Further, every author has a link to their Facebook profile to
which many people have reached out to us before. And you could always
reply to the weekly emails that go out... the replies come directly to
me. We are not hard to contact.
My name is John, and you omitted same in your response. Likewise, your
tone is blunt, defensive and dismissive. Why? Not very courteous, I have
to say!
I don't think I've either missed or misread your
articles, so I have a hard time seeing exactly where your self
justifications are actually in print. Can you send them to me?
Especially the ones where you say you have defended Trump where
defensible? I maintain that peoples' "eternal state" directly affects
the "state of this nation". For me, it's not an "either/or" as you
imply. I have to say also that the "semper reformanda" of the reformed
crowd is typically apostate and corrupt, and in practice is a reproach
on Christianity. You should change your logo for those reasons.
I am well educated, yet I have never been able to decipher how to
respond to any one author. But that is not my fault. It's purposely that
way, isn't it? I hate using impersonal contact forms. Why are you
screening for the other authors? I'm not suggesting that personal email
addresses be published; you assumed that in error. Do the other authors
have email addresses ending in @pulpitandpen.org, like yours? Why can't they be published? Or must you exercise total control?
Considering we get hundreds of emails every day, I'm not so sure why you
have such a problem with it. I don't screen anyone else's email, sir.
And you're the one contacting me making assumptions.
Yes, every contributor has a .pulpitandpen.org
email address. The only emails that come directly to me are the
responses to the newsletter. Why? Because I'm the one that sends them.
Simple as that. Other than that, like I've said, every contributor has a
link to their profile at the bottom of every single article. It's not
my problem that you don't want to use an "impersonal contact form." We
respond to every inquiry that isn't spam, and every time we respond,
it's with our own individual .pulpitandpen.org email address.
Below
is the author box that you will find at the bottom of every article.
Feel free to add me on Facebook or message me if you like.
There
is also a link to our facebook group on our website in which all of the
contributors are active and participating members. We post all of our
articles in there and interact with people on everything. That's under
the resources menu. Here is the direct link to it.
We
also have a Facebook page which is open to the public. We do the same
there. There is a slide up that advertises this resource on every page
on our website. Here is the direct link to it. We respond to ALL
messages that aren't spam on that page.
So
with all the ways you could have tried to reach out to us, it doesn't
appear you put in too much effort. If anything else, you could have used
one of the methods to ask for a specific contributor's email address.
Have you tried? Apparently not. So how about less griping about what we
should be doing when you're the only one that seems to be walking around
aimlessly trying to contact us.
Looks like you've been triggered like an anti-Trump rioter? So you
degenerate into disrespect, rudeness, further assumptions, ridicule, and
demeaning sarcasm? How "reformed"! How "Christian"!
I
don't use Facebook because of its tracking and censorship of late. If
you don't know about that, look that up! Other than that, no reader
should have to put a lot of effort into contacting authors, unless it is
designed that way. Which it is, because of your paranoia about
constructive criticism which hurts your narcissistic ego. Links to
author profiles do not contain email addresses, do they? NO.
You need to repent about your poor way of relating to subscribers. Such
behavior is juvenile and un-Christian to say the least. And you have
the hypocritical gall to sign in "Grace & Peace". No wonder you got
hit with abuse from Haley Nicole!
The
brutal abuse of airline passengers isn't limited to United Airlines
apparently, American Airlines now has had a video surface of them
abusing a woman and a child.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
“Flanigan, the associate superintendent of Orlando Diocese schools,
said ‘the information provided in the sixth grade class is not
consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church.’” But the author of this material is a saint in the Catholic Church,
St. John Bosco. So did a saint spread ideas that were “not consistent
with the teachings of the Catholic Church”? How, then, did he become a
saint? Why didn’t his apparently heterodox, disrespectful, hateful
teaching on Islam prevent his canonization? Or is it the “teachings of the Catholic Church” that changed? Since
it is Catholic teaching that only divinely revealed dogmas are
immutable, if the Church’s teaching on Islam has changed, it must not be
divinely revealed dogma, but mere human opinion, from which there can
be respectful disagreement, no?
“She pointed to Nostra Aetate,
an official Vatican document Pope Paul VI released on Oct. 28, 1965. It
stated that the Catholic Church regards Muslims ‘with esteem’ and urged
Catholics to work with Muslims for peace and social justice.”
Does the necessity to regard Muslims with esteem require that
Catholics must not speak about the elements of Islam that jihadis use to
justify violence, including the rampant global persecution of
Christians? About John Bosco’s document, we’re told: “Elsewhere in the text,
Muhammad is described as a ‘charlatan,’ ‘villain,’ ‘ignoramus,’
‘imposter’ and ‘false prophet’ who ‘couldn’t even write’ and ‘propagated
his religion, not through miracles or persuasive words, but by military
force.’ The Quran, the holy book of Islam, is also called ‘a series of
errors, the most enormous ones being against morality and the worship of
the true God.’”
This is strong and pejorative language. Where did he get these ideas,
that are inconsistent with Catholic teaching in the minds of the
leaders of the diocese of Orlando that the teacher who spread this
material deserved a reprimand? The Huffington Post, of course, takes it
for granted that it is false to claim these things, but there is
actually a case to be made that Islam spread through force and that
Islamic morality is decisively different from Christian morality. Can
there be any discussion of this at all? Or is all dissent from the
charge that John Bosco’s claims are false to be punished and silenced? “Jordan Denari Duffner, a Catholic research fellow at Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative
who studies Islamophobia, said it’s not uncommon for people on some
conservative websites to selectively cite centuries-old anti-Muslim
texts written by Catholic scholars and saints.”
The Huffington Post doesn’t bother to tell you that the Bridge
Initiative is a Saudi-funded endeavor to stigmatize and thereby shut
down all critical speech about Islam, which would have the effect of
enabling the global jihad to advance without a murmur of protest or
resistance. The very word “Islamophobia” is a propaganda term designed
to intimidate people into thinking it wrong to oppose jihad terror.
“In the imagined dialogue between a father and his sons, the father
explains how Jesus Christ is superior to the Prophet Muhammad…”
Note how the Huffington Post favors Islam. If he were a neutral and
evenhanded journalist, Christopher Mathias would write either “Jesus
Christ and Muhammad” or “the Lord Jesus Christ and the Prophet
Muhammad.” Giving the honorific only to Muhammad is yet another
manifestation of the establishment media’s indefatigable imperative to
push Islam on the populace and shame people into thinking that they’re
bigots and racists for objecting to jihad terror and Sharia oppression.
As for the diocese of Orlando: “Leave them; they are blind guides.
And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
(Matthew 15:14)
“Teacher Gave 6th-Grade Students Reading That Called Islam ‘Immoral And Corrupting,’” by Christopher Mathias, Huffington Post, April 19, 2017 (thanks to William):
The Catholic diocese of Orlando, Florida, says it has
reprimanded a teacher at a Catholic school in the state for giving his
sixth-grade religion class an anti-Muslim reading assignment. Mark Smythe, a religion and social studies teacher at Blessed Trinity Catholic School
in Ocala, gave students printouts of a 19th-century Catholic text that
refers to Islam as a “monstrous mixture” of faiths. It also calls the
doctrines of the Prophet Muhammad “ridiculous, immoral and corrupting.” “We have spoken to the principal of Blessed Trinity Catholic School,
Ocala and to the teacher in question and have reprimanded the teacher
for this unfortunate exhibit of disrespect,” Jacquelyn Flanigan, an
associate superintendent at the Diocese of Orlando’s Catholic school
system, said in a statement.
Flanigan didn’t elaborate on what she meant by “reprimanded.” Smythe did not respond to a request for comment.
A concerned mother with a child in Smythe’s class gave copies of the
reading assignment to a friend, who then sent the copies to The
Huffington Post through the Documenting Hate project.
“[The mother] shared this with me while she could not stop crying,” the friend wrote.
The reading assignment appears to be an excerpt from an 1853 text about Islam by priest Giovanni Bosco, who later became a saint.
In the imagined dialogue between a father and his sons, the father
explains how Jesus Christ is superior to the Prophet Muhammad, who
“degrades and dishonors human nature and by placing all happiness in
sensual pleasures, reduces man to the level of filthy animals.”
Elsewhere in the text, Muhammad is described as a “charlatan,”
“villain,” “ignoramus,” “imposter” and “false prophet” who “couldn’t
even write” and “propagated his religion, not through miracles or
persuasive words, but by military force.”
The Quran, the holy book of Islam, is also called “a series of
errors, the most enormous ones being against morality and the worship of
the true God.”
An internet search for Bosco’s take on Islam shows it is primarily
referenced on fringe conservative Catholic sites and in the comment
sections of anti-Muslim hate sites.
Humeraa and Asad Qamar
Humeraa and Asad Qamar
Leaders within Ocala’s interfaith community said they were shocked and upset to see the reading assignment.
Humeraa Qamar, who is Muslim and whose Muslim daughter once attended
Blessed Trinity, emailed the school to say the assignment “caused a lot
of distress to the students in [the] class and also understandingly to
the Muslim Americans living in Ocala, Fl including our family.”
Rabbi David Kaiman of the Congregation B’nai Israel in Gainesville
also emailed the school, writing that the reading was “dangerous and
destructive and feeds those who seek to hate vilify,” and that it
“expresses a hate language that is disturbing.”
He added that the “tone and factual content is outdated and not
reflective of Catholic doctrine,” and pointed to statements from a long
succession of popes expressing love and respect for Muslims and the
Islamic faith.
“I take pride to quote the words of John Paul II in speaking of Islam
in 1985,” Kaiman wrote. “’[There] are the important differences which
we can accept with the humility and respect, in mutual tolerance; this
is a mystery about which, I am certain, God will one day enlighten us.’”
Flanigan, the associate superintendent of Orlando Diocese schools,
said “the information provided in the sixth grade class is not
consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church.”
She pointed to Nostra Aetate,
an official Vatican document Pope Paul VI released on Oct. 28, 1965. It
stated that the Catholic Church regards Muslims “with esteem” and urged
Catholics to work with Muslims for peace and social justice.
Jordan Denari Duffner, a Catholic research fellow at Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative
who studies Islamophobia, said it’s not uncommon for people on some
conservative websites to selectively cite centuries-old anti-Muslim
texts written by Catholic scholars and saints.
“It’s a general trend that I’ve noticed,” she said of people
preferring “the particular saints from earlier in church history over
the Vatican II’s take on Islam.”
The Vatican II, or The Second Vatican Council, was a meeting of all
Catholic bishops in the early 1960s. It ushered in a series of reforms
to liberalize and modernize the Church, including a move to more warmly
embrace Muslims and Islam.
But a September 2016 survey
from the Bridge Initiative found that 30 percent of Catholics in
America have unfavorable views of Muslims, with only 14 percent saying
they had favorable views. It also found that people “who consume content
from Catholic media outlets have more unfavorable views” of Muslims
than those who don’t.
Smythe is among a handful of teachers across the country who have
been reprimanded over the last year for distributing racist or
anti-Muslim reading material to students….
"INCENDIARY SPEECH" TOO OFFENSIVE FOR CANADA'S LIBERAL SOCIAL JUSTICE
MILKTOAST PREACHERS
"Our concern is that the contentious and
confrontational political and social rhetoric that Mr. Graham has used
has the potential to overshadow the message of Jesus and incite
hostility in our highly charged social climate."
"we do not believe that Rev.
Graham … should be the exemplar that impresses itself on these new
believers,”
CANADIAN ECUMENICAL PREACHERS TELL GRAHAM – SCRAM!~
THEY THINK HIS STATEMENTS & POLITICAL VIEWS ARE HARMFUL TO THE PRESENTATION OF THE "GOSPEL" TO PROGRESSIVES
CITE HIS ANTI-MUSLIM & ANTI-LGBT POSITIONS AS NOT CONDUCIVE TO "UNITY" &
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Evangelical Critics: Franklin Graham’s Evangelism Won’t Work in Vancouver
Canadian pastors debate whether Trump baggage will hurt local outreach efforts. KATE SHELLNUTT| FEBRUARY 25, 2017
Compared to Franklin Graham’s evangelistic rallies in far-off countries,
his upcoming event in Vancouver is relatively close to home. But the
diverse, mostly secular Canadian city is culturally a world away from
the Bible Belt.
That’s partly why a group of fellow evangelicals has joined local
Christian leaders asking him not to speak at the Festival of Hope, a
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association event scheduled to take place next week in the Vancouver Canucks’ arena. For months, a group of Vancouver pastors have raised concerns about
Graham’s “contentious and confrontational political and social
rhetoric,” particularly his characterizations of the LGBT community,
Muslims, and immigrants. Context matters for evangelism, and they worry that a figure who has
made such controversial remarks won’t be a good fit to share the Good
News with the more progressive people of Vancouver. Especially not right
now.
“Given that the express goal of this event is evangelism, with the
commitment of new believers to Christ, we do not believe that Rev.
Graham … should be the exemplar that impresses itself on these new
believers,”wrote four
evangelical pastors and a Catholic leader who were invited to endorse
the March 3–5 event, but opposed Graham’s place as keynote speaker.
The latest statement against
Graham’s appearance was released Friday afternoon and signed by leaders
representing 60 percent of Vancouver’s Christians. Pastors from
Baptist, Reformed, Foursquare, Vineyard, and nondenominational churches
signed the letter, along with representatives from Catholic and mainline
churches.
“Hopefully it will differentiate the mainstream Christian vision from
what Franklin Graham has said,” Tim Dickau, senior pastor at Grandview
Calvary Baptist Church, told CT. “We’re not opposed to the festival. But
it’s important to distinguish that, ‘No, we disagree with these aspects
of his statements.’”
President Donald Trump’s election in the United States has put
Canadian evangelicals in a sensitive spot. Evangelicals make up only
about 10 percent of Canada’s population, compared to 25 percent in the
US, and number even fewer in Vancouver. Trump’s perceived association
with evangelicals has only made their reputation worse among the people
they seek to reach.
“There’s a real sense of conflating Trump with evangelicals,” which
doesn’t go over well in liberal Vancouver, said Ken Shigematsu, pastor
of Tenth Church, one of the largest and most diverse congregations in
Canada.
And while Graham did not endorse Trump, he prayed at his inauguration, appeared alongside the president during his victory tour, and has championed his recent policies.
Shigematsu was a sponsor of the Festival of Hope, and knows its
organizers through his mentor Leighton Ford, Billy Graham’s
brother-in-law and a Toronto-born evangelist. But the Christian and
Missionary Alliance pastor ultimately decided to withdraw his
involvement from the event. Shigematsu said Franklin Graham’s political
positions, particularly on refugees and immigrants, were “at odds with
our church’s vision and ethos.”
About 1 in 4 evangelicals in Canada today are immigrants, a demographic credited with recent church growth in the country, according to the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC). The Vancouver Sun reported that
“Graham’s crusade runs the danger of dividing the city’s ethnically
diverse Christian population of roughly 850,000, since it continues to
be actively promoted, including on bus ads, by dozens of prominent
evangelical clergy.”
_______________________________________________________
DISREGARDING MATTHEW 10:34-
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword."
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Cover Note
We, the undersigned, represent a broad diversity of
Christian churches, including evangelical congregations, and over 60% of
the Christians in the metro area.
We are releasing the attached letter regarding
Franklin Graham being the speaker for the Festival of Hope, after nine
months of dialogue with the Festival of Hope committee.
Diversity of opinion is not a sign of disunity. It is a
sign of health. We have learned from each other that unity is best
achieved at the start of a journey together, before an irrevocable
decision like the selection of a speaker has been made. Despite this
diversity of opinion about Mr. Graham, we trust that many will find new
life in Christ at the Festival of Hope over these next few days and
that, irrespective of anything else, this city will experience the love
of God in new and profound ways. We pray to that end.
We had planned to release the letter on February 21st,
but agreed to hold it until today to give Mr. Graham time to reply in
writing. We received Mr. Graham's reply last night (the 23rd). We are
encouraged that he gave us a gracious response and has publicly pledged
to avoid controversial topics while in Vancouver and to focus on the
"simple Gospel."
However, Mr. Graham has neither retracted nor
sufficiently addressed the harmful statements to which we drew his
attention, and which can be found here. Therefore, we are releasing our letter. We urge Mr. Graham to release the reply he sent us.
We want to make clear that our letter was not written at the request of the
City of Vancouver. It was already in draft form when a
few of us met with the Mayor earlier this month. The Mayor called that
meeting because he wanted to share his concerns and to ask what the
Christian community could do to diminish the potential risk of inciting
violence that he and the Vancouver Police Department perceived.
We love and respect our sisters and brothers on the
Festival of Hope Committee. We have worked together for many years and
hope to do so for many years to come. Nonetheless, we feel compelled to
clarify our concerns to the wider community, regarding our perspective
on what brings honour to Jesus and on the Good News he asks us to share
in word and deed.
We are eager to dialogue further with our sisters and
brothers about their concerns and ours - and with Mr. Graham if he is so
inclined.
Letter
February 24th, 2017
To our Christian colleagues and our fellow Vancouverites,
As pastors and Christian leaders in greater Vancouver,
we deeply believe in a Jesus who is "for" all human beings. He is so
“for" us that he willingly died to teach us how we can have life to the
fullest with him. We desire that all people hear his message of hope.
We are concerned that Franklin Graham, who is our
brother in Christ, will be the keynote speaker at the Festival of Hope
conference to be held here in March.
Our concern is that the contentious and
confrontational political and social rhetoric that Mr. Graham has used
has the potential to overshadow the message of Jesus and incite
hostility in our highly charged social climate.
We wish to make clear that we value the work our
sisters and brothers in Christ have done in organizing the Festival,
which intends to celebrate and share the true message of Christianity:
the Good News about Jesus of Nazareth. We pray that the Festival of Hope
will be all that God wants it to be.
Jesus's life, sacrificial death, and resurrection
ensure that justice will ultimately prevail in the world, that the
universe will be restored to its full goodness and wellbeing, and that
everyone may find in Jesus forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with the Creator who knows and loves each of us in our unique particularity.
Jesus inaugurated his ministry in and for the world by
announcing, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed
me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom
for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the
oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour" (Luke
4:18-19).
Regrettably, Franklin Graham's public comments appear
to compromise Jesus's mission of love and justice for all. He has made
disparaging and uncharitable remarks about Muslims and the LGBTQ+
community, while portraying the election, administration and policies of
U.S. President Donald Trump as intrinsically aligned with the Christian
Church.
For instance, Franklin Graham has said that:
All Muslims should be banned from the United States
because Islam is a "very evil and wicked religion" at war with the
Christian West;[1]
LGBTQ+ persons should not be allowed to enter
churches or even enter as guests into Christian homes, because "the
Enemy [Satan] wants to devour our homes";[2]
The outcome of the recent U.S. presidential election
was due to "the hand of God," giving the impression that the Christian
church as an institution is partisanly aligned with an administration
and its policies.[3]
Such blending of politics and religion is dangerous.
First, it comes close to aligning the power of the church with the power
of the state. Second, it does so by seeming to develop a false
religious narrative to support an exalted and troubling American
nationalism. Third, it can divide Christians who do not view things the
same way as Mr. Graham. Fourth, we are concerned that some of the
policies of the Trump administration have introduced unprecedented
structural shifts that put the most vulnerable in our world at risk of
greater harm. These policies may jeopardize refugees and reinforce
prejudice.
Some examples of the incendiary speech Mr. Graham often employs can be found at whatfrankgrahamsaid.wixsite.com/whatfrankgrahamsaid. Statements
like these do not convey the spirit of Christ that we would hope to see
preached by an ambassador of the Gospel to Canada.
Offering a Christian presence and witness in Vancouver
is a lifelong task that belongs to all of us. Unfortunately it’s one we
may find more difficult if our fellow citizens are given the impression
that such remarks are representative of Christianity.
Christians can legitimately disagree with one another
on many issues of political and religious policy, and we do engage in
ongoing conversation about these issues. Biblical ethics do not sort
neatly into "conservative" and "progressive" circles, even less so among
Canadian Christians than our American counterparts.
We have attempted to resolve this matter through
dialogue with Festival organizers, who we had hoped would be open to
inviting a speaker with a message that more clearly aligns with the Good
News of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, our efforts have been
unsuccessful. So with heavy hearts we have taken this unusual, painful
step to speak publicly about our differences.
We continue to respect Franklin's father, the
prominent evangelist Billy Graham, and we appreciate the life-saving
work that Franklin's international relief agency, Samaritan's Purse,
does in some of the world's most challenged regions. It is not our
intention to vilify the Festival's organizing committee. We simply
believe it is a mistake to think Franklin Graham's political stances are
immaterial to his presenting the Gospel. We want to continue to work
with all our sisters and brothers in the faith, even in the wake of this
controversy. We do not want disagreement on this one initiative to
reverse the tide of cooperation that has been building for years now.
As followers of Jesus, then, we commit to:
Joyfully sharing Jesus's Gospel that calls us to serve and love our neighbours of differing ethnic or religious commitments;
Creating a society that includes people from every nation, in line with God's abiding passion for reconciliation;
Encouraging our elected leaders when they work for a
just and peace-filled society that comes closer to God's vision of
flourishing life, while challenging them when they enact policies that
oppress others.
Sincerely in Christ,
The Most Reverend J. Michael Miller, CSB, Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver
The Rev. Cari Copeman-Haynes, President-Elect, BC Conference of the United Church of Canada
The Rev. Garry Janzen, Executive Minister, Mennonite Church British Columbia
The Rev. Dr. Laura Nelson, President of the Board of Canadian Baptists of Western Canada and Pastor of Olivet Baptist Church
The Right Reverend Melissa Skelton, Bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster
Pastor Randy Barnetson, Vancouver Foursquare Church
The Rev. Dr. Jeremy Bell, Executive Minister, Canadian Baptists of Western Canada
The Rev. Geoff Chapman, University Chapel
The Rev. David Chow, Killarney Park Mennonite Brethren Church
The Rev. Albert YS Chu, The Tapestry
The Rev. Lydia Cruttwell, First United Mennonite Church
The Rev. Geoffrey DeJager, Vancouver First Church of the Nazarene
The Rev. Dr. Darrell Johnson, Pastor and Professor
The Rev. Dr. Tim Dickau, Grandview Calvary Baptist Church
The Very Reverend Peter G. Elliott, Rector of Christ Church Cathedral and Dean, Diocese of New Westminster
The Rev. Mike Hsu and The Rev. Mark Swanson, Grace Vancouver Church
The Rev. Heather Joy James, Cambie Village Church
The Rev. Matt Kitchener, Pastor, Canadian Baptists of Western Canada
Silas Krabbe, Community Theologian and Coordinator, Mosaic Church
The Rev. Tim Kuepfer, Mennonite Church of BC
The Rev. Gordie Lagore, Vancouver East Vineyard Church
The Rev. Daniel Louie, Urban Village Church
The Rev. Janina Mobach and The Rev. Mary-Lee Bouma, Downtown Friends Christian Reformed Church
The Rev. Dr. Ted Ng and Diana Gee, Pastors, Faith Community Christian Church
The Rev. Jesse Pals, The Tapestry Marpole
The Very Reverend Dr. Gary Paterson, St Andrew's Wesley United Church
Dr. Cam Roxburgh, Pastor of Southside Community Church
The Rev. Dr. Ken Shigematsu, Tenth Church
The Rev. Trevor Vanderveen, First Christian Reformed Church of Vancouver
Jonathan Bird, Executive Director, CityGate Leadership Forum
The Rev. Dr. Tom Cooper, President, City In Focus
Prof. Ron Dart, Dept. of Political Science/Philosophy/Religious Studies, University of the Fraser Valley
Dena Nicolai, Chaplain and Refugee Support Mobilizer, Christian Reformed Churches of Metro Vancouver and the Lower Mainland
The Rev. Dr. Richard R. Topping, Principal, Vancouver School of Theology
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Part of a letter sent to top members of Congress
earlier this month and signed onto by 99 churches says: “The charitable
sector, particularly houses of worship, should not become another cog
in a political machine or another loophole in campaign finance laws.”
Pushback to President Donald Trump’s promises to repeal the Johnson
Amendment was expected from the American Humanist Association and
American Atheists, and he got it. But from Baptists?
Trump said at a campaign event in Virginia in October, “I think [the
Johnson Amendment is] very unfair, and one of the things I will do very
early in my administration is to get rid of [it] so that our great
pastors and ministers, rabbis … and priests and everybody can go and
tell and participate in the [political] process.”
This became part of the Republican Party’s platform:
Republicans believe that the federal
government, specifically the IRS, is constitutionally prohibited from
policing or censoring speech based on religious convictions or beliefs,
and therefore urge the repeal of the Johnson Amendment.
Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in February President Trump said:
It was the great Thomas Jefferson who
said, “The God Who gave us life gave us liberty.” Jefferson asked, “Can
the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction
that these liberties are the gift of God?” Among those freedoms is the
right to worship according to our own beliefs.
That is why I will get rid of and totally
destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to
speak freely and without fear of retribution.
The offending language appears on the website of the Internal Revenue Service:
All Section 501(c)(3) organizations are
absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or
intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition
to) any candidate for elective office.
Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.
The signatories from the 99 churches who oppose Trump’s promise to repeal explained their reasoning:
Current law serves as a valuable
safeguard for the integrity of our charitable sector and campaign
finance system. People of faith do not want partisan political fights
infiltrating their houses of worship. Current law simply limits groups
from being [both] a tax-exempt ministry and a partisan political entity.
The letter went on to say that repeal would be “highly divisive” and have a “detrimental impact” on community life:
Houses of worship are spaces for members
of religious communities to come together [and] not be divided along
political lines; faith ought to be a source of connection and community,
not division and discord.
It added:
If houses of worship endorse candidates,
their prophetic voice, their ability to speak truth to power as
political outsiders, is threatened.
The credibility and integrity of
congregations would suffer with bad decisions of candidates they
endorsed. Tying America’s houses of worship to partisan activity demeans
the institutions from which so many believers expect unimpeachable
decency.
All of which is complete and unadulterated applesauce, according to Pastor Chuck Baldwin, writing in his weekly newsletter:
Liberal pastors from a variety of
Christian denominations promote their socialist agenda from the pulpits
of their churches all of the time. Are we really expected to believe
that Jewish synagogues, Muslim mosques, and Hindu temples do not promote
their particular agendas contained in their sacred texts that affect
their political, social and cultural lives?
[These groups] … are neck-deep in politics.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has been salivating over the
opportunity to take the IRS to court over the issue, certain that courts
would rule the Johnson Amendment unconstitutional. The ADF holds that
the Johnson Amendment 1) violates the "establishment clause" by
requiring the IRS to monitor sermons to make sure that they are not
transgressing its restrictions; 2) violates the "free speech clause"
because it requires the IRS to discriminate against speech based solely
on the content of the speech; 3) violates the "free speech clause" by
“conditioning the receipt of a tax exemption on refraining from certain
speech”; and 4) violates the "free exercise clause" because it burdens
the free exercise of religion without a compelling reason.
That may explain why the IRS has been extremely reluctant to enforce
its mandate. Instead, it has been happy just to let the threat do its
work for itself, emasculating pastors and limiting political speech from
the pulpit for more than 60 years.
Baldwin said that if pastors were really free to speak out on the
political issues that are vital to maintaining and strengthening the
Republic, it not only would inform the culture but would represent
Christ:
Virtually everything Jesus did was a
direct challenge to both the political system of Rome and the religious
system of Jewry.… That’s why His death was a collaboration of both the
Roman political system and the Jewish religious system.
Similarly, virtually everything the early
church did was a direct challenge to those same systems. True men of
God and Christians throughout two thousand years of church history
constantly challenged both the political and religious systems of their
day.
Simply put, the Johnson Amendment has successfully kept the church
from performing one of its primary duties and responsibilities:
informing believers about how the Good News should impact the culture in
which they live. That may also explain why the National Council of Churches and the Islamic Society of North America also signed the letter.
A
townhall was held by the offices of United States Senator Tom Cotton
and United States Congressman French Hill in Little Rock on Monday,
April 17th, 2017. Like other townhall, several leftist activist
screamed, held signs, & interrupted during the event. Questions
regarding taxes, foreign policy, Trump, war, military, & other
issues are asked by audience members. Both Congressman French Hill and
Senator Tom Cotton are up for election in the 2018 session.
Some
of the organized protest groups at this event include the taxpayer
funded pro abortion group Planned ParentHood, the Soros funded group
Moveon.org, supporters of Bernie Sanders, Medical Marijuana groups,
& probably 1/2 a dozen other groups. Despite the hype at these
townhalls, it is unlikely that the democrat party or any other group
will be able to unseat Senator Tom Cotton or French Hill in the 2018
election.
TRUMP SWORE TO DESTROY THE JOHNSON AMENDMENT,
501C3 TAX EXEMPTION, & IRS RESTRAINTS ON FREE SPEECH INCLUDING
Humeraa and Asad Qamar
Humeraa and Asad Qamar
