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One of the countless attractions of Catholicism is the fact that it is the only religion to provide a truly satisfactory and lasting answer to the universal problem of human suffering. Whilst philosophies like Buddhism or post-modern Mindfulness techniques seem to be preferred by many today, these really only offer self-preserving - and ultimately selfish - attempts to avoid, offset or effectively deny the full brutal reality, and yet potential value, of suffering. In Catholicism, we are given the gift of God Who suffers with and suffers for us. Before each of us ever were, He had taken on all...

- While Geert Wilders was being prosecuted in the Netherlands for talking about "fewer Moroccans" during an election campaign, a state-funded watchdog group says that threatening homosexuals with burning, decapitation and slaughter is just fine, so long as it is Muslims who are making those threats, as the Quran tells them that such behavior is mandated. - "I am still of the view that declaring statistical facts or even sharing an opinion is not a crime if someone doesn't like it." - Finns Party politician, Terhi Kiemunki, fined 450 euros for writing of a "culture and law based on a...

What is happening? Jakarta’s governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, better known by his nickname Ahok, will face the first day of his trial on charges of blasphemy on Tuesday. Ahok, a Christian of Chinese descent, angered religious conservatives after he referenced a verse from the Islamic holy book, Al-Maidah 51 of the Qur’an, on the campaign trail in September. Ahok rather boldly told voters they should not be duped by religious leaders using the verse to justify the claim that Muslims should not be led by non-Muslims.An edited version of that speech was later posted online with several words omitted, making...

The Pope has offered a new list of Beatitudes at a Catholic Mass in Malmo, Sweden. At the Mass, which took place at the conclusion of his ecumenical trip to the country, Pope Francis highlighted the lives of the Swedish saints Elizabeth Hesselblad and Bridget of Vadstena. The best description of the saints, their “identity card”, the Pope said, is found in the Beatitudes from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, which begins, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” New situations require new energy and a new commitment, he said, and then offered a new list of Beatitudes for modern...

Europe is currently seeing the reintroduction of blasphemy laws through both the front and back doors. In Britain, the gymnast Louis Smith has just been suspended for two months by British Gymnastics. This 27-year old sportsman's career has been put on hold, and potentially ruined, not because of anything to do with athletics but because of something to do with Islam. Last month a video emerged online of the four-time Olympic medal-winner and a friend getting up to drunken antics after a wedding. The video -- taken on Smith's phone in the early hours of the morning -- showed a...

When Gov. Jerry Brown and his allies urged voters to adopt a temporary income tax on the wealthiest Californians and a statewide sales tax on everyone four years ago, the deal was billed as a short-term salve for a state mired in debt and on the verge of insolvency. The taxes were needed to stave off $6 billion in so-called “trigger cuts” to schools and social programs baked into the state budget by Democrats as a threat to voters. Lawmakers also threatened to cut three weeks off the school year if Proposition 30 didn’t pass. […] Now, with the sales...

A 16-YEAR-OLD Christian boy faces the death penalty after he was accused of insulting Islam in a Facebook post. The boy has been arrested and charged with blasphemy after a photo of the Kaaba in Mecca, one of the holiest sites in Islam, appeared on his profile. A Muslim man told police the image, which was part of an alleged derogatory post against Islam on the boy’s profile, was insulting and sacrilegious. The black cube-shape is built around an ancient stone at the centre of Islam’s most sacred mosque Al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Locals reportedly claimed the image...

Pastor Andy Stanley says the Bible is too hard to defend Evangelical pastor preaches that the Bible isn’t the foundation for the Christian faith by Lita Cosner and Scott Gillis Published: 22 September 2016 (GMT+10) Andy Stanley has a church network of over 30,000 people in the Atlanta area, and his church was rated the fastest-growing in America in 2014 and 2015.1 Recently, he has been criticized by many evangelicals for saying that we need to take the focus off the Bible and put it on the Resurrection, because he claims that gives us a firmer foundation for our faith....

Trump is jihad group’s worst nightmare. The fact is Trump’s comparison to the Cold War is spot on. Islam, like Communism, is a political ideology a with religious component. Groups like CAIR aid and abet terrorism and should be prosecuted. The Department of Justice is sitting on a “mountain of evidence” against CAIR and other Muslim Brotherhood groups. Obama scuttled those prosecutions. Trump will right that wrong.

Today the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) under the First Amendment. Section 230 provides immunity from lawsuits to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, thereby permitting these social media giants to engage in government-sanctioned censorship and discriminatory business practices free from legal challenge. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, and Jihad Watch. As alleged in the lawsuit, Geller and Spencer, along with the organizations they run, are often...

It is earth-shattering for a pope to mix-up a two-faced devil with Jesus. It happened last Thursday when Bergoglio mistakenly referred to a column capital on Vézelay Cathedral: a “case of mistaken identity” emblematic of this pontificate, even if a somewhat superficial ghost-writer was probably to blame. It is, on the other hand, in his own style to mix them up (Jesus and the devil) by proposing that Judas had been saved (without repenting) thus giving the impression he hadn’t ended up in hell... It’s difficult to know whether this Pope believes in hell or not – but listening to...

Piss Christ? Piss Koran! — Part 3: Crisis (This is the third installment of a story by Matthew Bracken, which is being serialized here in four parts.) As the two SWAT commandos slid down their ropes, the chopper lifted for a moment, and one of them was dragged against the crane’s guy wire. He was flicked from his descent line, but he managed to grab hold of the thick steel cable. The helicopter dropped again, its rotors nearly intersecting the cable, but it banked away, dipped its nose, shot forward and corkscrewed downward, the other commando swinging out below its...

Second, sadly it is religion, including our own, that targets, mostly verbally, and often breeds contempt for gays, lesbians and transgender people. Attacks today on LGBT men and women often plant the seed of contempt, then hatred, which can ultimately lead to violence. *** Even before I knew who perpetrated the mass murders at Pulse, I knew that somewhere in the story there would be a search for religion as motivation. While deranged people do senseless things, all of us observe and judge and act from some kind of religious background. Singling out people for victimization because of their religion,...

Toronto Black Lives Matter co-founder Yusra Khogali is under fire over a Tweet she posted and deleted asking “Allah” to stop her from having to kill white people. “Plz Allah give me strength to not cuss/kill these men and white folks out here today. Plz plz plz,” Khogali tweeted on Feb. 9. News of the controversial Tweet went international earlier in the week after @Newstalk1010 host Jerry Agar began Tweeting about the racist cyber screed....

In the video, the Egyptian Christian teens laugh playfully as a couple of them kneel down, imitating Muslim prayers, then another slides his hand under one boy’s neck, imitating the trademark beheadings of the Islamic State group. The boys were playing around, satirizing the extremist group, and their school supervisor just happened to be videoing them, their defenders say. The result has been catastrophic: they were sentenced to prison under Egypt’s blasphemy laws — they were mocking Muslim prayers, prosecutors said — and have fled into hiding, leaving behind shattered families. […] … Two years ago, the military ousted the...

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made an appearance on Saturday at the Stellar Awards in Las Vegas, calling herself "a person of faith," adding "what's better than raising your voices to God." [...] "There's a lot of really difficult things on there in the world today," she said. "I've been in Flint, Michigan, recently. It's just heartbreaking to see a community being poisoned because of the indifference, neglect of their governor. "And yet, I went to a house of prayer and the resilience, the love, and so much of it was communicated in the Gospel singing that was going on,...

Heidi Cruz said Wednesday that her husband, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), was showing America "the face of the God that we serve" through his faith-based Republican presidential campaign.

US Congressional House Resolution 569 - Condemning violence, bigotry, and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims in the United StatesThis bill was introduced (12/17/2015) Sponsored by Rep. Beyer, Donald S., Jr. [D-VA-8] Beyer is on the House - Judiciary Committee. Adding insult to injury....There are 123 traitorous cosponsors of this grossly offensively unconstitutional assault against the freedom of expression ! Latest Action: 01/15/2016 Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice.

John Kasich, to Hugh Hewitt, yesterday: “Look, we have a lot of candidates who like the ‘Prince of Darkness,’ I consider myself the ‘Prince of Light and Hope’ and I don’t spend all my time getting people riled up about how bad everything is.”

Ohio Gov. John Kasich wants to be known in the GOP presidential race as the "prince of light and hope." Kasich is stressing his experience in Congress and painting himself as an optimistic alternative to those campaigning on the woes facing the country as he looks to shore up support in New Hampshire. "Look, we have a lot of candidates who like the prince of darkness. I consider myself the prince of light and hope," Kasich said during an interview Tuesday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.